With the announcement of Disney buying out the Star Wars franchises, this leads to the possibilities of inspiration for new artworks. Therefore, I am issuing a challenge to you artists out there. Here's your mission:
I challenge you to draw artwork of one or more of the Disney princesses in the Slave Leia costume! I was searching for some images of cosplayers in the Slave Leia look, but they all had the wrong shoes! Dammit ladies, Slave Leia did not wear high heels! I decided to just go to the source and look up Carrie Fisher in that outfit, and voila, there is the outfit with the right boots! Use that link as your reference, artists!
If I get any responses, then I'll post them to my blog!
Go, artists, go! Make those nerds out there drool!
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
And now my "Marvel Universe" bio page! (text below)
This is going to be bookmarked on my sidebar for future reference. ----------------------->
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UPDATE: More than one person mentioned that they had trouble reading the text, so I've enclosed the text of the bio below:
--------------------------------------------------------
ANDROMEDA
Real Name: Unknown
Occupation: Publicly: Superhero. Officially: Agent for the Federal Department of Superhuman Affairs
Identity: Secret
Aliases: (Facebook): Andromeda Perseus
(blog): The Mighty Andromeda is: Busty Superhero Chick
( http://bustysuperherochick.blogspot.com/ )
Place of Birth: Unknown
Marital Status: Unknown
Known Relatives: Unnamed parents and grandparents
Group Affiliation: Federal Department of Superhuman Affairs
Base of Operations: Washington, D.C.
First Appearance: Busty Superhero Chick blog entry for November 18, 2008
History: Superhumans were rumored to exist since prehistoric times, but it wasn’t until 1947 that actual proof of their existence emerged. That first contact took place near the small town of Roswell, New Mexico. The rumors of an extraterrestrial spacecraft crashing near Roswell were not started by the government, but it was convenient, so they secretly encouraged the UFO crash rumors so as to distract from the truth: The first positive proof of the existence of superhumans.
The identity of that first known superhuman has been classified, along with his or her powers, but arising out of that first contact came the Federal Department of Superhuman Studies (now a part of Homeland Security since 2007). The DSS operated in secret for decades, studying every superhuman that they caught, and in the process, the scientists learned the nature of their powers and most importantly, how to counter nearly all of them. The DSS was forced out of hiding after an uprising of superhumans in 2005. This very public uprising was how the rest of the country became aware of the existence of superhumans.
After months of battling at a standstill with the leaders of the superhumans’ uprising (including the takeover of some towns and cities), control was finally being regained by the government; due mostly to the five decades of knowledge on superhuman powers that was acquired by the DSS, but also because some superhumans came to the aid of the authorities. One of those superhumans was a young woman later code-named Andromeda. Those superhumans who weren’t killed or captured went back into hiding. After control was re-established, the DSS decided to enlist superhumans into the department so as to give the DSS a public face by way of utilizing the “superhero” mythos that comes from comic books. Very few superhumans – even among those that aided in the quelling of the superhuman uprisings – took up the DSS’ offer. This was largely in response to the outcome of the court case, Burgenstein vs. United States, which gave official government acknowledgement to the existence of superhumans, but without extending any rights to them.
With the superhuman uprisings and takeovers and the chaos that arose from it still fresh in everyone’s minds, even the courts weren’t ready to immediately hand over to superhumans the rights enjoyed by regular citizens. However, to prevent a second uprising of the superhumans, the court did rule that when reliable methods were devised to help keep the order, then rights granted to superhumans would gradually “evolve”.
The young woman code-named Andromeda took up the DSS’ offer in order to serve as a go-between between the government and the superhuman community. As a major in American History with an eye to history, Andromeda felt that one of her kind needed to step into the role of being that first superhuman who reached out to the government to start the process of healing in the relations between humans and superhumans. It is her hope that this will lead to those first few critical steps in which superhumans are granted full citizenship rights, and that humans and superhumans will one day live together in peace.
Height: 6’ 1”
Weight: Unknown
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Light Brown
Strength Level: Andromeda possesses a strength level beyond normal human strength. She bench-pressed 20 tons during her last test.
Known Superhuman Powers: Andromeda possesses enhanced senses, about 3 times the normal human average. She is also capable of unaided flight and can fly at subsonic speeds. She has an enhanced level of healing; making her capable of healing from even severe injuries in a matter of hours.
Abilities: Andromeda is knowledgeable in several martial arts, but not a master of any of them. She possesses a near genuis level of intellect that, along with her years of experience in dealing with superhumans, makes her among the most knowledgeable tacticians on the planet in regards to battles with superhumans.
Andromeda created by John P. Araujo.
Artwork by Chris Butler - http://bigchrisgallery.tumblr.com/
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
New artwork of me, "Marvel" style!
Here is the latest stunning artwork by the very creative and talented Chris Butler! In this artwork, I am posing a la Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe style! Yeah, baby! I am so striking the pose!
This is going to be my official artwork for times in which I need a ready reference for my costume's appearance. Like I mentioned before, we've officially made the cleavage hole the flat oval that Power Girl used to have before DC Comics went all politically correct on her and covered it up. I would think that the real Power Girl would have kept it anyway despite any rule changes about the women's costumes, so thanks for taking PG out of character, DC! Pbbbbtthhh!!!!
So artists, pay attention. My costume consists of:
* 1 white hairband
* 1 long-sleeved white crop top with a flat oval cleavage hole
* 1 brown leather chest band at the base of the top, with a gold-toned buckle at the front that has the letters BSC on it.
* 1 yellow smiley face temporary tattoo on the right breast
* 1 white pleated skirt that reaches down to mid-thigh
* 1 pair white Spandex shorts worn under the skirt
* 1 brown leather belt with a gold-toned buckle shaped in a stylized letter "A"
* 1 pair brown leather gloves that reach over the elbow
* 1 pair brown leather upper arm bands that go over the biceps
* 1 pair brown leather boots that go over the knees, with padding over the knee
* 1 pair gold-toned earrings in a stylized letter "A"
Also to note: I'm 6 foot 1, my eyes are blue, and my hair is a light brown and is very long, reaching down to my butt. Since my costume doesn't have a cape, it's my hair that artists often draw in an artsy way as a kind of substitute cape.
Got all that? Good!
Oh, wait!
Wait!
What was that about this being my OHOTMU pose? Oh no, I'm not joining Marvel Comcis! LOL No, instead what this is indicating is that we are in the works of making a page of me with this pose (along with the previous artwork by Chris) and whip it all together with a bio so that I have my own OHOTMU-style page!
How cool is that??? ^.^
So stay tuned, true believers, because that will be coming your way very soon!
w00t!
Thanks Chris, on yet another awesome and excellent artwork! I love it! :-D
-----------------------------------------
UPDATE: Here is a link to the OHOTMU-style page.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Review of the graphic novel, Pearl of Pandaria
WoW week continues through this week, and today I review the latest graphic novel from Blizzard, Pearl of Pandaria (PoP). Before I continue however, time for the usual
PoP is about a young pandaren girl named Li Li, who by my best guess, is roughly the equivalent of 12 in human years. Pandaren are panda-like creatures who in WoW have a culture and architecture that is very much like the Oriental culture of our Earth. Pandaren originally came from a continent called Pandaria, but in PoP, the story actually takes place atop a very, very large turtle named Shen-zin Su, or The Wandering Isle. Yes, this turtle is so large that he is literally an island to himself! He's also immensely old, over 10,000 years. As you might imagine, a little back story is needed here.
Shen-zin Su started out as a regular-sized turtle and the beast of burden for Liu Lang, an ancient pandaren that left Pandaria for the lands across the ocean - namely, the rest of Azeroth. Over the years, Shen-zin Su grew and grew and grew. Liu Lang returned to Pandaria from time to time, but one day, he left with his wife Shinizi and assorted other pandaren and never came back. Over the centuries, Shen-zin Su grew to enormous size - so large that the descendents of Liu Lang and the others grew on his back, and have lived there for generations as he grew to island size. He had been gone from Pandaria for so long that the continent was little more than a myth to these pandaren inhabitants.
The Wandering Isle has a famous son named Chen Stormstout. He's so famous that he's even known in the rest of Azeorth (except in Pandaria, of course). Chen is known as an explorer and adventurer who left the Wandering Isle in search of adventure and new booze. Yeah, he's a bit of a lush.... While he wandered Azeroth, he wrote letters to his niece Li Li who read each letter as Chen described his adventures in the lands across the sea. These letters inspired Li Li to want to go out to explore the world as well, but her father forbade it, because the rest of the world is dangerous; especially to a young girl like her.
But her desire to explore the world and to find her famous uncle Chen is so strong that she sneaked away by flying on a large crane and trying to find her way around the rest of Azeroth by following the letters from her Uncle Chen. Her father finds out and asked Strongbo, one of the pandaren trainers, to go find her and bring her back. As it turns out, she's a sneaky and clever little creature, and she managed to talk her way into staying on the continent longer and longer.
Long story short, the unlikely pair wander to different parts of the Eastern Kingdoms; the whole time with Strongbo trying to get Li Li to return home. Unknown to them, they are followed by a naga, a goblin, an ogre, and a fel orc with a burning desire to defeat the one opponent who has managed to defeat him in combat. Yep, you guessed it - it was the famous Chen Stormstout! The fel orc is hoping that these pandaren will lead him to Chen, while the other three are out for a very large magic pearl, the Pearl of Pandaria. Li Li and Strongbo have no knowledge of this pearl, but the naga thinks otherwise, and they follow Li Li and Strongbo wherever they go.
After some adventuring in Stormwind and Ironforge, the tale ends in a final confrontation between Strongbo and the fel orc. The orc manages to fatally wound Strongbo by cheating, but Chen finally shows up to save the day. It is Strongbo, however, who deals the killing blow to the orc before he himself expires. Chen then takes his niece back to the Wandering Isle, and the book ends there, but is continued on WoW's website. Here is a link to the first part (of four) if you want to follow the continuation of the story.
Overall, I enjoyed the story, and the artwork is beautiful. This book is printed in a horizontal format instead of the usual vertical format, which is a nice little change to the standard comic book. If you are already into WoW lore as I am, then you'll really enjoy this book. My only complaint is that Li Li is a bit disrespectful and insensitive towards the feelings of others - but then she is about 12 years old, and who among us wasn't that way around that age? In this story, you have basically a rebel story in which one person wants to do things differently than what is usually done in X culture.
Like the citizens of Gilneas, the citizens of Shen-zin su (and later, the citizens of Pandaria) are very insular; that is, they very much keep to themselves. While the Gilneans built a wall around themselves, the citizens of Shen-zin su were isolated by the fact that the giant turtle they lived on basically just wandered the oceans of Azeroth - and apparently, never made landfall with any continents in that whole time! Pandaria was surrounded by an impenetrable mist for 10,000 years, which explains their insularity. The mist was broken up by the events of the Cataclysm, but I'll get more into that when I discuss my adventures in WoW (I'm waiting until my pandaren toon has to make the choice between Horde and Alliance before I discuss my adventures on my blog. She'll go Horde, of course!).
In summary, I enjoyed the story mainly for its depictions of some of the cities of Azeroth, and for showing the festival Brewfest while it was going on! Whoohoo!!! (Actually, Hallow's End is my favorite WoW holiday). It was nicely done, and I wish Blizz would get on the stick and put out more comics and graphic novels. On a scale of 1 to 10 in which 1 is a bomb and 10 is THE bomb, I give PoP an 8.5, but I fully admit that it's getting that score because I love WoW lore already.
Coming soon, as soon as I get my little pandaren to level 10 where she can decide which faction to join, I'll post about her adventures on the Wandering Isle. So far I'm enjoying it; especially the fact that it's free! LOL
*****WARNING!*****
Spoilers ahead! If you haven't read Pearl of Pandaria and don't want what's in it spoiled for you, then STOP READING NOW! You have been warned!
******************************************************
PoP is about a young pandaren girl named Li Li, who by my best guess, is roughly the equivalent of 12 in human years. Pandaren are panda-like creatures who in WoW have a culture and architecture that is very much like the Oriental culture of our Earth. Pandaren originally came from a continent called Pandaria, but in PoP, the story actually takes place atop a very, very large turtle named Shen-zin Su, or The Wandering Isle. Yes, this turtle is so large that he is literally an island to himself! He's also immensely old, over 10,000 years. As you might imagine, a little back story is needed here.
Shen-zin Su started out as a regular-sized turtle and the beast of burden for Liu Lang, an ancient pandaren that left Pandaria for the lands across the ocean - namely, the rest of Azeroth. Over the years, Shen-zin Su grew and grew and grew. Liu Lang returned to Pandaria from time to time, but one day, he left with his wife Shinizi and assorted other pandaren and never came back. Over the centuries, Shen-zin Su grew to enormous size - so large that the descendents of Liu Lang and the others grew on his back, and have lived there for generations as he grew to island size. He had been gone from Pandaria for so long that the continent was little more than a myth to these pandaren inhabitants.
The Wandering Isle has a famous son named Chen Stormstout. He's so famous that he's even known in the rest of Azeorth (except in Pandaria, of course). Chen is known as an explorer and adventurer who left the Wandering Isle in search of adventure and new booze. Yeah, he's a bit of a lush.... While he wandered Azeroth, he wrote letters to his niece Li Li who read each letter as Chen described his adventures in the lands across the sea. These letters inspired Li Li to want to go out to explore the world as well, but her father forbade it, because the rest of the world is dangerous; especially to a young girl like her.
But her desire to explore the world and to find her famous uncle Chen is so strong that she sneaked away by flying on a large crane and trying to find her way around the rest of Azeroth by following the letters from her Uncle Chen. Her father finds out and asked Strongbo, one of the pandaren trainers, to go find her and bring her back. As it turns out, she's a sneaky and clever little creature, and she managed to talk her way into staying on the continent longer and longer.
Long story short, the unlikely pair wander to different parts of the Eastern Kingdoms; the whole time with Strongbo trying to get Li Li to return home. Unknown to them, they are followed by a naga, a goblin, an ogre, and a fel orc with a burning desire to defeat the one opponent who has managed to defeat him in combat. Yep, you guessed it - it was the famous Chen Stormstout! The fel orc is hoping that these pandaren will lead him to Chen, while the other three are out for a very large magic pearl, the Pearl of Pandaria. Li Li and Strongbo have no knowledge of this pearl, but the naga thinks otherwise, and they follow Li Li and Strongbo wherever they go.
After some adventuring in Stormwind and Ironforge, the tale ends in a final confrontation between Strongbo and the fel orc. The orc manages to fatally wound Strongbo by cheating, but Chen finally shows up to save the day. It is Strongbo, however, who deals the killing blow to the orc before he himself expires. Chen then takes his niece back to the Wandering Isle, and the book ends there, but is continued on WoW's website. Here is a link to the first part (of four) if you want to follow the continuation of the story.
Overall, I enjoyed the story, and the artwork is beautiful. This book is printed in a horizontal format instead of the usual vertical format, which is a nice little change to the standard comic book. If you are already into WoW lore as I am, then you'll really enjoy this book. My only complaint is that Li Li is a bit disrespectful and insensitive towards the feelings of others - but then she is about 12 years old, and who among us wasn't that way around that age? In this story, you have basically a rebel story in which one person wants to do things differently than what is usually done in X culture.
Like the citizens of Gilneas, the citizens of Shen-zin su (and later, the citizens of Pandaria) are very insular; that is, they very much keep to themselves. While the Gilneans built a wall around themselves, the citizens of Shen-zin su were isolated by the fact that the giant turtle they lived on basically just wandered the oceans of Azeroth - and apparently, never made landfall with any continents in that whole time! Pandaria was surrounded by an impenetrable mist for 10,000 years, which explains their insularity. The mist was broken up by the events of the Cataclysm, but I'll get more into that when I discuss my adventures in WoW (I'm waiting until my pandaren toon has to make the choice between Horde and Alliance before I discuss my adventures on my blog. She'll go Horde, of course!).
In summary, I enjoyed the story mainly for its depictions of some of the cities of Azeroth, and for showing the festival Brewfest while it was going on! Whoohoo!!! (Actually, Hallow's End is my favorite WoW holiday). It was nicely done, and I wish Blizz would get on the stick and put out more comics and graphic novels. On a scale of 1 to 10 in which 1 is a bomb and 10 is THE bomb, I give PoP an 8.5, but I fully admit that it's getting that score because I love WoW lore already.
Coming soon, as soon as I get my little pandaren to level 10 where she can decide which faction to join, I'll post about her adventures on the Wandering Isle. So far I'm enjoying it; especially the fact that it's free! LOL
Friday, October 5, 2012
Warcraft Week continues next week
This week ended up being one of those weeks in which I got unexpectedly busy! Because of that, WoW week here on my blog will continue next week in which I review the graphic novel Pearl of Pandaria, followed by my experiences in the new expansion via the "free WoW" that you can get up to level 20.
For the Horde!
For the Horde!
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Review: Jaina Proudmoore Tides of War
WoW week continues on my blog with a review of Jaina Proudmoore Tides of War (JP ToW), a novel that came out about a month ago. Before I continue, time for my usual
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First, this novel will be more appreciated by those who are familiar with WoW lore, and the more familiar and appreciative you are of WoW lore, the more you'll like the novel. Basically, it's like the Harry Potter series. If you enjoyed one HP book, then you likely enjoyed them all.
Jaina Proudmoore is a human mage and the leader of the city of Theramore, the only human settlement in Azeroth's continent of Kalimdor. While Jaina and her city are officially part of the Alliance faction, she more prides herself on her neutrality. Jaina in our world would be known as a liberal peacenik, as she tends to favor peace and diplomacy over war. In fact, her preference for peace and neutrality are so well known that even members of the Horde (the opposing faction of the Alliance) know of her reputation for pacifism. The Horde's leaders have even gone to her first before approaching the Alliance's leader, King Varian Wrynn. Wrynn is a bit of a hothead and also has a major hatred for the Horde, so it is easier for them to go through Jaina first before approaching him.
Jaina's openness to relations to the Horde are largely because of her friendship with its former leader, Thrall (who is now going by his birth name, Go'el), Jaina's friendship with Thrall was very warm, and there had even been questions as to whether they were more than "just friends". That particular question was settled, however, with Thrall's marriage to Aggra. Jaina's friendship with the Horde, however, does not extend to its new warchief, Garrosh Hellscream. In truth, Garrosh pretty much hates everybody, so it's no surprise that he is not friends with Jaina. Garrosh actually looked upon Thrall's friendship with Jaina as a weakness, as he views all members of the Alliance as weaklings and cowards. While Garrosh does not like Jaina, Jaina did not in turn hate Garrosh. Not at that time, anyway.
This changes in the novel, JP ToW. Garrosh was always ambitious, and he also felt like the Horde should be conquerors rather than "the other faction" of Azeroth. When Thrall left the leadership of the Horde to him, it was to give him something to do. A little WoW lore is necessary here: Garrosh has always been a little too fond of warfare, and the Horde's battle with the Lich King gave Garrosh an outlet for his warring ways. After the Lich King was defeated, Thrall and other Horde leaders were concerned that Garrosh would chafe with no more war to be fought, and who knows what peacetime might push him into doing. Thrall felt that if Garrosh was made warchief, then the responsibilities of the position would keep him busy - and out of trouble.
Unfortunately, he couldn't have been more wrong. Instead of taking up leadership of the Horde as Thrall had made it, Garrosh used his new authority to become a dictator, and went about honing the Horde's armies into a war machine. Here now is where it affects Jaina. One of Garrosh's targets was Theramore, because he felt that a human settlement has no business being in Kalimdor - especially with a peacenik leader like Jaina Proudmoore. After arranging a feint attack, Garrosh's army retreated and seemingly handed a victory to the Alliance. However, this feint turned out to be a set-up to attract many of the Alliance's military leaders and persons of influence to be concentrated into one location - so that a massive bomb could be dropped on them.
Theramore was destroyed by a giant mana bomb, with very few survivors. Jaina, however, was one of the survivors. Now, I have to say here that this novel seems to have been written to answer a question: What would drive a long-time and well-known pacifist into a murderous rage? The nuking of Theramore, apparently, was it. Jaina was driven insane with anger over the destruction of her city. So insanely angry was she that she crafted a spell of a gigantic tidal wave with the intent to flood the capital city of the Horde: Orgrimmar. Because Thrall is a shaman, he is in contact with the elements, and the elements gave him a vision warning him of what Jaina was planning to do.
He rushed over to where Jaina was building up the tidal wave and tried to persuade her to stop, and used his shamanistic skills to keep the tidal wave in check while he talked to Jaina. However, she was beyond reasoning, even from someone she once considered a good friend. It took the persuasion of someone who now appears to be a love interest to talk her down, and that is the dragon aspect (in human form) Kalecgos.
Now here is where the book gets problematic for me. In order to create this tidal wave, Jaina made off with a magic artifact known as a focusing iris and a spellbook from the mage city of Dalaran. After Jaina came to her senses, she was invited to become the leader of Dalaran. Quite a bit of forgiveness for someone who stole these items with the intent to commit mass murder! Granted, she was driven by grief and rage over losing Theramore, but still....
It seems to me that the more logical course of action was for her to make amends in some form or fashion first before bestowing upon her this title. For all we know, she might try to use the many magical artifacts that she now has access to in order to try another attempt to destroy Orgrimmar. Other than this part of the book, I enjoyed the book; especially the exploration of Jaina's psyche as she confronts her beliefs in pacifism after her city is destroyed in a horrifying act of war. But again, I think forgiveness and such a large reward came too quickly, and I think further exploration of her psyche could have proven to be just as insightful and thought-provoking as she walks herself back to her pacifist belief system.
On a scale of 1 to 10 in which 1 is a bomb and 10 is THE bomb (gee, it seems highly inappropriate to be using a bomb metaphor, given this story!), I give JP ToW an 8 - mainly due to the exploration of her descent into madness, and because I love WoW lore that much. :-)
*****WARNING!*****
Spoilers ahead!
If you haven't read Jaina Proudmoore Tides of War
and don't want what's in it spoiled for you , then STOP READING NOW!
You have been warned!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
First, this novel will be more appreciated by those who are familiar with WoW lore, and the more familiar and appreciative you are of WoW lore, the more you'll like the novel. Basically, it's like the Harry Potter series. If you enjoyed one HP book, then you likely enjoyed them all.
Jaina Proudmoore is a human mage and the leader of the city of Theramore, the only human settlement in Azeroth's continent of Kalimdor. While Jaina and her city are officially part of the Alliance faction, she more prides herself on her neutrality. Jaina in our world would be known as a liberal peacenik, as she tends to favor peace and diplomacy over war. In fact, her preference for peace and neutrality are so well known that even members of the Horde (the opposing faction of the Alliance) know of her reputation for pacifism. The Horde's leaders have even gone to her first before approaching the Alliance's leader, King Varian Wrynn. Wrynn is a bit of a hothead and also has a major hatred for the Horde, so it is easier for them to go through Jaina first before approaching him.
Jaina's openness to relations to the Horde are largely because of her friendship with its former leader, Thrall (who is now going by his birth name, Go'el), Jaina's friendship with Thrall was very warm, and there had even been questions as to whether they were more than "just friends". That particular question was settled, however, with Thrall's marriage to Aggra. Jaina's friendship with the Horde, however, does not extend to its new warchief, Garrosh Hellscream. In truth, Garrosh pretty much hates everybody, so it's no surprise that he is not friends with Jaina. Garrosh actually looked upon Thrall's friendship with Jaina as a weakness, as he views all members of the Alliance as weaklings and cowards. While Garrosh does not like Jaina, Jaina did not in turn hate Garrosh. Not at that time, anyway.
This changes in the novel, JP ToW. Garrosh was always ambitious, and he also felt like the Horde should be conquerors rather than "the other faction" of Azeroth. When Thrall left the leadership of the Horde to him, it was to give him something to do. A little WoW lore is necessary here: Garrosh has always been a little too fond of warfare, and the Horde's battle with the Lich King gave Garrosh an outlet for his warring ways. After the Lich King was defeated, Thrall and other Horde leaders were concerned that Garrosh would chafe with no more war to be fought, and who knows what peacetime might push him into doing. Thrall felt that if Garrosh was made warchief, then the responsibilities of the position would keep him busy - and out of trouble.
Unfortunately, he couldn't have been more wrong. Instead of taking up leadership of the Horde as Thrall had made it, Garrosh used his new authority to become a dictator, and went about honing the Horde's armies into a war machine. Here now is where it affects Jaina. One of Garrosh's targets was Theramore, because he felt that a human settlement has no business being in Kalimdor - especially with a peacenik leader like Jaina Proudmoore. After arranging a feint attack, Garrosh's army retreated and seemingly handed a victory to the Alliance. However, this feint turned out to be a set-up to attract many of the Alliance's military leaders and persons of influence to be concentrated into one location - so that a massive bomb could be dropped on them.
Theramore was destroyed by a giant mana bomb, with very few survivors. Jaina, however, was one of the survivors. Now, I have to say here that this novel seems to have been written to answer a question: What would drive a long-time and well-known pacifist into a murderous rage? The nuking of Theramore, apparently, was it. Jaina was driven insane with anger over the destruction of her city. So insanely angry was she that she crafted a spell of a gigantic tidal wave with the intent to flood the capital city of the Horde: Orgrimmar. Because Thrall is a shaman, he is in contact with the elements, and the elements gave him a vision warning him of what Jaina was planning to do.
He rushed over to where Jaina was building up the tidal wave and tried to persuade her to stop, and used his shamanistic skills to keep the tidal wave in check while he talked to Jaina. However, she was beyond reasoning, even from someone she once considered a good friend. It took the persuasion of someone who now appears to be a love interest to talk her down, and that is the dragon aspect (in human form) Kalecgos.
Now here is where the book gets problematic for me. In order to create this tidal wave, Jaina made off with a magic artifact known as a focusing iris and a spellbook from the mage city of Dalaran. After Jaina came to her senses, she was invited to become the leader of Dalaran. Quite a bit of forgiveness for someone who stole these items with the intent to commit mass murder! Granted, she was driven by grief and rage over losing Theramore, but still....
It seems to me that the more logical course of action was for her to make amends in some form or fashion first before bestowing upon her this title. For all we know, she might try to use the many magical artifacts that she now has access to in order to try another attempt to destroy Orgrimmar. Other than this part of the book, I enjoyed the book; especially the exploration of Jaina's psyche as she confronts her beliefs in pacifism after her city is destroyed in a horrifying act of war. But again, I think forgiveness and such a large reward came too quickly, and I think further exploration of her psyche could have proven to be just as insightful and thought-provoking as she walks herself back to her pacifist belief system.
On a scale of 1 to 10 in which 1 is a bomb and 10 is THE bomb (gee, it seems highly inappropriate to be using a bomb metaphor, given this story!), I give JP ToW an 8 - mainly due to the exploration of her descent into madness, and because I love WoW lore that much. :-)
Monday, October 1, 2012
World of Warcraft Week on my blog!
Over the weekend, I got immersed into World of Warcraft in a way that I haven't been since I played the game regularly. I stopped a couple of years ago simply because I didn't have the time to play anymore (writing this blog and posting in Facebook are only two of the things that have taken up my time in the past couple of years), but if I had the time, I certainly would still be playing.
For those who haven't played WoW - gee, how to explain this? Basically, it's an interactive online game (technically called a MMORPG) set in an environment that will remind you of the Lord of the Rings movie. In fact, there are elves, dwarves, and orcs in WoW, but they're not like the ones in the LOTR movies. Very briefly, on WoW you play a character (also called an avatar, but usually called a toon) of a given race for one of two factions: The Alliance or the Horde. The game takes place on an Earth-like medieval world named Azeroth (one WoW expansion, called The Burning Crusade, takes place on another world named Draenor, but the original game plus three other expansions all take place on Azeroth).
I've said before here and on FB that those of my generation (those born in the 1980s) will need to have played this game sometime in their lives, because it is a cultural definer for my generation of nerds and geeks. I've made this point once before in a previous blog entry. WoW allowed us to interconnect socially in a way that was unprecedented in human history: A means of social interaction and communication that was exclusively through technology. Along with communicating through the game itself by way of real time texting, WoW users also sometimes used a vocal means of communication to better increase interaction with other players. Usually that was through software called Ventrilo or Skype, but there are others.
WoW then, basically created an interconnected nerd culture that had never existed before, because the technology wasn't available to this extent before. Like any culture, WoW culture developed its own slang, standards, and expectations. And like any culture, there were good guys and bad guys. However, this was the first time in human history that the majority of this culture was taking place in a real-time virtual environment rather than in person. In other words, we were all part of something that was uniquely ours!
You too, can play WoW, and for free for up to 20 levels if you want to try it out to discover a taste of this experience for yourself. I did that for old times' sake over the weekend just so that I can try out the new pandaran race. I'll be describing my experiences in the new expansion later in the week.
Before that, however, I'll be reviewing the novel Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War as well as the graphic novel Pearl of Pandaria. Along with all that came with WoW, the one thing that really appeals to me the most is the lore. I'll get more into that later as well. Quite a bit about the game has changed, but one thing that remained the same is the culture online. Different players to be sure, but still playing the same roles. I don't know how much longer WoW will go on, but I hope it holds out long enough to me to get back onto it when free time opens up for me again! LOL Ah, good times.
For those who haven't played WoW - gee, how to explain this? Basically, it's an interactive online game (technically called a MMORPG) set in an environment that will remind you of the Lord of the Rings movie. In fact, there are elves, dwarves, and orcs in WoW, but they're not like the ones in the LOTR movies. Very briefly, on WoW you play a character (also called an avatar, but usually called a toon) of a given race for one of two factions: The Alliance or the Horde. The game takes place on an Earth-like medieval world named Azeroth (one WoW expansion, called The Burning Crusade, takes place on another world named Draenor, but the original game plus three other expansions all take place on Azeroth).
I've said before here and on FB that those of my generation (those born in the 1980s) will need to have played this game sometime in their lives, because it is a cultural definer for my generation of nerds and geeks. I've made this point once before in a previous blog entry. WoW allowed us to interconnect socially in a way that was unprecedented in human history: A means of social interaction and communication that was exclusively through technology. Along with communicating through the game itself by way of real time texting, WoW users also sometimes used a vocal means of communication to better increase interaction with other players. Usually that was through software called Ventrilo or Skype, but there are others.
WoW then, basically created an interconnected nerd culture that had never existed before, because the technology wasn't available to this extent before. Like any culture, WoW culture developed its own slang, standards, and expectations. And like any culture, there were good guys and bad guys. However, this was the first time in human history that the majority of this culture was taking place in a real-time virtual environment rather than in person. In other words, we were all part of something that was uniquely ours!
You too, can play WoW, and for free for up to 20 levels if you want to try it out to discover a taste of this experience for yourself. I did that for old times' sake over the weekend just so that I can try out the new pandaran race. I'll be describing my experiences in the new expansion later in the week.
Before that, however, I'll be reviewing the novel Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War as well as the graphic novel Pearl of Pandaria. Along with all that came with WoW, the one thing that really appeals to me the most is the lore. I'll get more into that later as well. Quite a bit about the game has changed, but one thing that remained the same is the culture online. Different players to be sure, but still playing the same roles. I don't know how much longer WoW will go on, but I hope it holds out long enough to me to get back onto it when free time opens up for me again! LOL Ah, good times.
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