Question of the Day!

General GTG Off Topic
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I’m quite partial to ecology myself.

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QotD #117 Reply: Yep, I have to agree about Comics Science. If I’m limited to “real” sciences, though, I’d agree with WalkingTarget.

Question of the Day #118: You’re stranded on an uninhabited island. What five items do you want to have with you?

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A computer, an unlimited power supply, an unlimited food supply, an Internet connection, and a bunk bed big enough that it doubles as not only someplace to sit/lie but also as a sun-shade regardless of the time of day. Gimme all that and I think I’d be pretty okay.

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So, not a desert island at all then :joy:

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Desert was never specified, just “uninhabited” (apart from whoever is answering the question, natch). It could be an island north of the Arctic Circle for all you know (in which case I’d have to trade out the modem for an electric blanket, and content myself with rereading all my old chat logs instead of making new ones).

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QotD #118 Reply: An arbitrarily large supply of uncontaminated food, an arbitrarily large supply of fresh drinking water, an arbitrarily large supply of modern medical supplies, an authentic viking longship, and the best crew there ever was. : )

Question of the Day #119: What piece of media would you like adapted into a different medium?

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It’s been close to two decades since Lord of the Rings was made into three movies (and then Hobbit into three more somehow). Despite how long that trilogy is, it left out a lot of great stuff from the books, from the Barrow-Wights to the Scouring of the Shire. I’d like to see it made into a TV series, where each of the six “books” of the original novels (eg Fellowship of the Ring consists of Book 1, up until they reach Rivendell, and Book 2, where the Fellowship actually forms and travels as far as Moria) gets turned into a 10-episode television season.

I could come up with examples that are much more interesting to me personally, but I’m picking this one because it’s virtually guaranteed that this would please enough people to make money.

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QotD #119 Reply: Sentinels of the Multiverse adapted into comic book(s), television show(s), or movie(s). : )

Question of the Day #120: What are your thoughts on Anti-Heroes compared to traditional Heroes?

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Generally, I don’t enjoy anti-heroes. Just not my thing. I have no issues if someone else does, but I prefer people who are doing the right thing for the right reasons, someone who actually cares about people.

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QotD #120 Reply: My thoughts exactly, Rabit.

Question of the Day #121: What D&D alignment would you say you are?

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Addendum to my previous 119 answer: I’ve been re-reading book 5 of The Order of the Stick, and I’d be very interested in a somewhat loose interpretation of the story presented therein, along with pretty much the entire strip after book 1 or 2 (when its jokey tone started to shift to more serious stuff). A lot of the comicky aspects wouldn’t translate, so you’d need to edit liberally, particularly to create a new beginning more in line with the tone of the end, but the core of the story is really powerful, and feels kind of wasted in such a weird goofy niche medium.

Answer for 120: I’m very disturbed by the popularity of characters such as Venom and the Punisher, because I think a lot of people’s most “evil” impulses come from the self-righteousness of having what they view as an acceptable target. Witch-burnings and mob riots and so forth throughout history have shown how eager people are for any excuse to let their inner monster off a chain without having to feel bad. So in the vast majority of cases, I think that anti-hero stories are bad for people’s mental healthy, akin to a narcotic drug…they make you feel good in the moment, without worrying about the damage they’re doing to your systemic health.

(Meanwhile, though, I’m a big fan of “anti-villains”, people who pursue noble goals through morally questionable means; it’s basically the same general thing as anti-heroes are doing, but focused on a long-term approach rather than an immediate situation. The anti-hero sees a drug dealer and beats him up; the anti-villain figures out why a community has a drug problem, isolates the root cause, and then does whatever is necessary to fix the entire situation. I generally feel better about a long-term approach, since I think nearly every scenario is better served by taking the time to figure out a sustainable, holistic solution, rather than just putting out fires as they are sparked off.)

121 answer: Chaotic Neutral verging on Lawful Evil. It’s never easy with me.

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Yeah, a The Order of the Stick adaptation would be pretty cool.

Aye. This reminded me of this quote from Marvel Year-in-Review '93:

1993 was the year Superman died and Venom got his own series. Just keep that in mind.

QotD #121 Reply: Lawful Neutral or Lawful Good.

Question of the Day #122: Best Age of Comic Books: Golden, Silver, Bronze, Dark, or Modern?

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I’m not really a major comic book fan, I’ve only read a relative handful, but I would probably say Modern, then Bronze, then Silver and Dark in some order dependent mostly on mood. While I sometimes like Golden Age characters, the only actual books I can think of which are worth anything to me are the early Wonder Womans, when Marston was still running the show and Feminism was barely a concept in the real world, let alone in comic books - for all of the hinky writing, watching Diana get tied up a lot is still a treat.

I’m not really clear on what marks the distinction between Bronze Age and Dark Age, but I’m guessing it kinda hovers around the mid-90s. I feel like 80s comics (mostly I’m familiar with X-Men) have a pretty definitely stylistic difference from the decades before and after; I’m guessing around the time things like “Days of Future Past” and Lobo and “The Dark Knight Returns” is where the grim and gritty stuff started to be “in”. (Incidentally, while “Returns” is absolutely a masterwork even if you don’t care for the turn, its immediate sequel “The Dark Knight Strikes Back” is one of the worst things I’ve ever read; the two resemble each other about as much as a banana resembles a ghost pepper, and the effect upon expecting one and experiencing the other is pretty analogous. Up to you which of those comestibles is the good one, but it’s fairly unlikely you’re equally interested in biting into them both.)

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Geeze, did I kill this thread with my last post? Or is Fjur simply on summer vacation?

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Not sure what’s going on, but the forums have been fairly unpopulated for days, now… :confused:

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No, it wasn’t you. : ) I had something of a medical emergency,* which is why I was absent for the past several days. But I’m back now! : D I’ve mostly recovered, but I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to post a QotD every day, but at least now you know why, and anyone can feel free to post in my place.

Huh, that is quite odd. I haven’t the foggiest idea why. Curiouser and curiouser . . .

TV Tropes has a series of articles on the various Ages of Comic Books, which I found quite informative and entertaining:

QotD #122 Reply: Hmm, probably Golden, Silver, and Modern, then Bronze, then Dark.

Question of the Day #123: What is a sequel that you think is better than the original?

*Don’t worry, it wasn’t Coronavirus-19, thankfully.

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I’m glad you’re doing better, @fjur , and I hope you heal up well and quickly. Best wishes!

For the question, this’ll probably get me hung, but I greatly prefer Predator 2 over Predator. :blush: Predator was pure gun porn – the director even admitted openly that the studio told him to make it as gun porn. And that just infuriates me. In addition, I felt like the fundamental premise had some significant flaws which How It Should Have Ended did a good job of lampooning. :wink: I also had a military class that tried to pass it off as a good example of leadership in action, which was highly dubious…

The sequel had people that felt real, in an obviously alternate reality that was interesting and complex. It has its flaws, of course, but I really enjoyed it far more than the first. And the reveal of the wall of skulls was an awesome moment for a young sci-fi geek like myself. :smiley:

And now I want to go re-watch it to see how well it stands the test of time… :wink:

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I have several of these, actually. I could mention “Species 2”, where the original is okay but kinda tepid, and the sequel dials it up to 11 in a way that really scratches my itch, or “The Lost World”, which I found more entertaining than “Jurassic Park” even if it was probably nowhere near as mind-blowing. But for the answer that is definitely going to make this entire community pillory me, I’ll pick “Spider-Man 3”. I watched the entire Tobey Maguire trilogy recently, and I found episodes 1 and 2 to be incredibly ponderous and self-serious, in a way that really only made sense in a pre-Marvel Cinematic Universe world. Spidey 3 isn’t exactly good, and the emo-haircut scene makes me cringe just like everyone else, but otherwise I found it to be more entertaining, with two villains instead of one per other movie, and both of them quite effectively portrayed.

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Thanks, Rabit and Justifier!

QotD #123 Reply: Hmm, this is a hard one. I really didn’t like Frozen, but Frozen II remotely reminded me of Spirit Island. So, that, I guess?

Question of the Day #124: Podcasts are one of the newest forms of media. Do you listen to any (other than The Letters Page ; ))?

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Heh, that’s a long list… :smirk: Cutting it down a little: