Malazan Empire: QuickTidal - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

Thought we should make a dedicated thread to discuss this show, and the show that spawned it so as not to clutter up the TV thread with it.

For now let's keep spoiler tags on both VM TV spoilers, and especially any of the other campaigns by Critical Role, so as not to spoil those that have not seen/heard it all yet.

Short forms for the shows/campaigns:

VM = Legend of Vox Machina
M9 = The Mighty Nein
BH = Bells Hells
EXU = Exandria Unlimited
EXU: C = Exandria Unlimited Calamity

I tried to find a relevant thread to post these thoughts in, but could not find one.

As a consumer of art (books, movies, tv ect.) I find myself seeing/reading "news" items of the entertainment industry, and 90% or more of it is now Influencer type rich people (Kardashians, ect.) or other celebrity rich people whose lives have become news. Like I came across a supposed news item that was pop artist Charlie XCX taking a pot shot at Hailey Beiber for wearing a t-shirt with the words "Nepo Baby" scrawled across it (unironic acknowledgement of who her family is I guess?)...how in the sweet living fuck is this news of any import to anyone? The next article? North West ripping on her mom on TikTok for likes...some rich assholes birthday party and who attended...the list goes on.

Can I ignore these articles? Yes. Do I? Yes. But it's the volume of them, and the sheer disconnect between us and these rich assholes who got rich off us being humans who instinctively like drama like they can provide by behaving like rich assholes...we are literally a fucking commodity...this sells and influencers are popular and followed because of this fact.

Add in social media and they've got a one-on-one line to everyone every minute of the day from their altar, and things go viral for this reason.

I keep thinking about us (as in the masses) coming to our senses ab out this state of being, where rich capitalists can even exploit our free time by digging in the salacious muck to get ad dollars to their sponsors, and swindle people not making their "BRAND" as people still relevant.

I want to open the news one day and learn that the Kardashians (I'm using them as an example, because holy fuck not a day goes by that I don't hear SOMETHING related to them) are no longer relevant, that in a hopeful and perhaps post-scarcity world they have become dinosaurs and reminders of one of the most selfish times in our history as humans.

Of course this means climate awareness, anti-capitalist points taking hold, politics leaning much more left, and a world in which we MAKE them irrelevant by dint of their utter and complete uselessness to us in what they do or provide society.

There's a character in Kim Stanley Robinson's Cli-Fi (more Financial-Fi; FiFi? really) who is technically an influencer as we would view one...BUT....she hosts an internet show where she rescues endangered species and moves them to more hospitable environments as the climate continues to make ecosystems shapeshift...this is the thing that makes her popular and worth watching. So it approaches the idea that we will never rid ourselves of celebrity as a whole, but we can change what it is they promote, produce, and what it provides society by being critical of anything that doesn't.

I'm just tired. And cranky. And old. I want a world for my kids that doesn't include the vapid level of influencers/celebrity who provide nothing to society but exist as rich soap opera fodder for people to consume.

I realize that this is all in the clouds, and we will likely drive down further into such things....but I kind of wish that GenZ and Gen Alpha eventually band together to reject this shit and surprise me. I've seen inklings of it in Gen Z being MUCH more aware of progressive topics...but we need it to happen in larger numbers to make a dent.

Figured we ought to have a dedicated thread for people to throw links up to kickstarters that might be SFF or such themes we are all into.

In that vein,

Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon have launched a Valdemar merch kickstarter that’s got maps, pins, bookmarks, tshirts, and other stuff. Really cool stuff.

https://www.kickstar...rld-of-valdemar

So last night, only a few days after the news dropped that Henry Cavill was going to be back as Superman in the DCEU (beyond his cameo in _______), it was announced that James Gunn & Peter Safran would be taking over the roles as Co-CEO's of the newly minted DC Studios.

Article: https://variety.com/...ery-1235414228/

This is great for a few reasons. I expect that Gunn will manage and oversee the creative side (Ala Kevin Feige), and Safran the business side.

We all know Gunn's pedigree is about creator-driven stories (he was the first to make Disney/Marvel allow a writer/director to go off the formula and do his own thing (GOTG) to much success), and he's done low budget stuff and high budget stuff and knows how to work within such confines (something I expect Zaslav will want full ROI on).

Then you have Safran, who has overseen the only other really viable and successful "shared universe" out there, the Conjuring Universe, and his DC involvement was with SHAZAM!, AQUAMAN, THE SUICIDE SQUAD, and SHAZAM: FURY OF THE GODS, three of which were successes so far, and FotG looks to be more good stuff and drops in just over a month.

I would also expect that Zaslav wants a plan going forward and the movies will now be tiered for budgets and ROI as well.

I saw someone lay it out like this:

Tier 1 movies $80-120m budget for Titles like Blue Beetle, Green Arrow and Black Canary and they will expected to do $425-550m
Tier 2 movies $125-160m budget for Titles like ; Shazam 2, Constantine 2, Secret Six, Joker 2 , JSA and they will expect $550-700m
Tier 3 Movies $165m-200m budget for top tier brands like ; Wonder Woman 3, Man of Tomorrow, Batman vs Deathstroke, Black Adam 2, Aquaman 2, The Batman 2, The Batman 3 And they will expect $750-875m
Tier 4 Movies $200m-300m budget for Event Movies like ; The Flash, JL vs Legion of Doom, JL2, JL3, crisis on infinite earth, Green Lantern Corps blackest night, The Flash 2, Trinity And they will expect box office of $875m-1.2bn

I expect in the next few days or weeks to see a Marvel-like presentation with a schedule of films lined up.

this is good news. DC has never really had someone to do these things. They had Johns and Jim Lee in these roles at various points, but both men (while good in their written milieu of comics) are simply not film-oriented like Feige was....James Gunn very much is that guy. This also means that he will make no more Marvel stuff. GOTG Holiday Special and GOTG3 will be his final works for that banner and everything he does from here on out will be DC/WBD.

I'm sure some people know about this already, but felt it's worth noting that Brandon (in conjunction with Brotherwise Games) is doing sets of Minifigs (unpainted), and larger Figurines for the Stormlight Archive...and they...are...gorgeous.

Now initially I balked because at launch there was no easy way to get them painted and I didn't want to paint them...BUT since then they added a new tier, and it's $70 USD (plus shipping) for 6 painted Figurines (the Figurines are also a bit larger than the unpainted minifigs; about 3.15" high it seems like?) which I backed....and I THINK you can BackerKit some add ons once the capping is finished...I'll add Venli, Lift, and probably Shadesmar Adolin if that's the case.

And these are CANON representations that Brandon worked with them on, so that makes them cooler to me.

Anyways, go check out the campaign to see pics.

https://www.kickstar...mium-miniatures