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Seto Kaiba

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  1. Seto Kaiba
    As you can see from StarTrek.com, the overwhelming majority of Star Trek: Discovery's merchandising is dirt-cheap apparel and drinkware rather than collectibles. Seriously, of the 150 items currently offered by the StarTrek.com store for Star Trek: Discovery 121 are apparel and drinkware. That's 69 different t-shirts, 23 sweatshirts and hoodies, 6 hats, 4 jackets, 16 mugs, 2 wine glasses, and 1 thermal flask. Of the 29 remaining items, 11 are posters or prints, 7 are badges, 4 are standees, 2 are books, 2 are home video releases, and there's the soundtrack, a dogtag, and a sticker sheet. There's been no sign of the more traditional Star Trek merchandise like prop replicas (phasers, communicators, tricorders, etc.), the large "electronic" model starships, action figures, and model kits. For a Star Trek series that is allegedly wildly popular, the absence of this kind of merchandise is rather surprising. Even Star Trek: Enterprise got that much... and Star Trek: Enterprise was the target of the same kind of "ruined forever" hyperbolic criticism that Discovery currently is. (I guess that's one benefit to Star Trek: Discovery... people are suddenly looking back at Star Trek: Enterprise much more favorably.) We're a few days out from the Star Trek: Discovery season two finale - which might shape up to be the series finale if the issues with Netflix and the merchandising partners aren't sorted out - and I'm still left to wonder one thing: Star Trek: Discovery's entire season two plot revolves around Section 31 creating an unlawful time travel device and has been using it in a highly irresponsible manner. The Federation's Department of Temporal Investigations doesn't exist yet in 2257, but one of its uptime successor organizations that was tasked with taking more proactive measures against accidental or intentional alteration of the timeline like the 29th century Temporal Integrity Commission or 31st century Federation Temporal Agency should have intervened to put a stop to all of this ridiculous Red Angel nonsense and formally charge the Burnhams. If Janeway's handful of incidents was enough to drive a Starfleet captain attached to the TIC to murder, Michael and Gabrielle Burnham's nonsense with the Red Angel suit should have had legions of agents descending on them to arrest them and retroactively remove the Red Angel suit from the timeline. EDIT: Yikes... the dispute between CBS and the licensees has reportedly resulted in CBS having to call a halt to production of the Picard series, which was set to begin shooting yesterday.
  2. Seto Kaiba
    Well, remember this Spock is basically at the height of his Vulcan "all of the other reindeer" phase, when he was actively rejected (and overcompensating for) being half-human. That was part of his character well before Star Trek: Discovery. He's especially bad about it because he's around Burnham, which would be enough to make anyone wish to be a different species even if she weren't a major factor in his abandonment of his human side.
  3. Seto Kaiba
    Shame... you're missing out on some truly wonderful good-bad dialog like Emiya's frequent insistence that "people die when they are killed". Fate/stay night was a so-so series that tried to bundle a LOT of lore into not a lot of runtime. Unlimited Blade Works was better, IMO, if only for being slightly more action-focused and dramatic. Hard pass on everything the franchise has put out since, which seems to be mainly for the waifu crowd or that one knockoff of Shokugeki no Soma they had. Looking at this season's offerings, it feels a tad underwhelming to me. Apart from One Punch Man's second season and the Gundam: the Origin series, nothing's really catching my eye except Nobunaga Teacher's Young Bride. The Rising of the Shield Hero is the most interesting of the lot right now. I'm currently stuck playing catch-up on shows I didn't get the chance to finish yet like Lupin III Part V, The Morose Mononokean, and Domestic Girlfriend.
  4. Seto Kaiba
    ... we must have read two very different Star Wars expanded universes, because my first blush reaction to that was "very funny sir, now tell the one about the airline food". The old Star Wars EU was so divisive that there was no way that would please the fans any more than what they actually got, and it certainly wouldn't have pleased general audiences... except maybe the Thrawn trilogy. They were two people from radically different walks of life. IMO the new trilogy version is a lot more believable an outcome for the two. Han was always a bit of a coward and after a life of crime followed by a brief paramilitary career he definitely wasn't the kind of guy who could adapt to being chained down as a politician's house-husband. For her part, it never made sense that Leia would end up in power when she's politically tainted by her association with Darth Vader. "... are literally the same damn thing but with slightly non-indicative names". "... does the exact same thing the previous generation of Jedi Masters did when they screwed up royally and ended up handing the dark side-users near-total power over the galaxy. F*cked off to a remote planet and lived as a hermet with every expectation that he'd never be called back into service." Yet they're oddly similar, aren't they? Jacen is pretty much a proto-Kylo Ren. He even showed up to Mara's funeral cosplaying as Darth Vader. This is kinda my point. What we're getting is so very similar to the old EU stuff they threw out, yet nobody's happy with it... so it's unlikely they'd have been happy with adaptations of the old EU stuff either.
  5. Seto Kaiba
    They may, at least, be dimly aware of what fans consider "real Star Trek" to be based on what the fans are crucifying Star Trek: Discovery for.
  6. Seto Kaiba
    It's not hard to imagine why... the backlash against The Last Jedi and Solo: a Star Wars Story was so severe that it not only put an enormous dent in Star Wars's box office draw, it led to a Star Wars film ending as a box office flop. Disney was having that exact same realization the Empire and First Order had when they discovered their invincible macguffin was a good deal less invinicible than previously advertised. Any business would be playing it safe after an unexpected one-two punch like that. Star Wars fans might not really know what they want in a sequel, but they're demonstrably happier with films and shows that take no risks and push no envelopes than they are with anything that changes the dynamic of the Star Wars setting. I see...
  7. Seto Kaiba
    I find this argument by proxy vague and unconvincing. Why would logic need to help? Its own writers are doing a fantastic job with that already.
  8. Seto Kaiba
    At the very least, it suggests that Netflix is paying sufficient attention to its substantial investment in Star Trek: Discovery and CBS's other Star Trek projects under development to feel that they're not getting value for money. Netflix being dissatisfied with Star Trek: Discovery's showrunners for their casual attitude towards overspending on production is a piece of news that goes all the way back to season one. Their reluctance to finance season two was allegedly the genesis of a lot of the changes intended to take Discovery back towards traditional Star Trek territory. The series still runs over budget with frankly monotonous regularity, so it's not all that surprising Netflix is reportedly upset again given that CBS has had to stretch the truth in their status reports on CBS All Access to make it sound like it's a hit... and got in trouble for doing so. Star Trek's merchandising partners seem to have hit the same brick wall with Star Trek: Discovery that they did years ago with Star Trek's reboot films. Reboot Trek and Discovery seem to test well with casual viewers but were not well-received by the fans... and fans are the ones who buy the merchandise. So most of what's getting made is inexpensive apparel, rather than more profitable collectibles. Either or both may have noticed that most of the actual praise for Star Trek: Discovery seems to be coming from "news" sites like ComicBook.com that are owned by CBS or one of its partners or subsidiaries. Fan reviewers responses to the series seem to be overwhelmingly negative, varying from reasonable-sounding disappointment to hyperbolic outrage. I don't normally make much use of YouTube, but when I went looking for Star Trek: Discovery reviews there I was floored to find that practically every channel reviewing the series on a regular basis was flaying the series alive. I'd figured Doomcock was a hyperbolic outlier, but his views seem to be pretty widely shared along with the various ways the show is mocked. Several of them have reported CBS launching copyright takedowns on their channels in recent months too, at least two of which ended in actual suspensions. Yeah, I gotta admit that definitely would be out of character for Jean-Luc Picard. Picard was hands down the most consistently moral, highly principled, honorable captain on Star Trek. He would've been disgusted to the depths of his soul to learn an organization like Section 31 existed at all, never mind taking the reins. Even in the Star Trek: the Next Generation relaunch novels, Picard was absolutely disguisted to learn that Section 31 existed at all and was beyond horrified to learn that...
  9. Seto Kaiba
    ... but he's the one who said it. That was his whole "you don't get to judge me" speech in Rogue One.
  10. Seto Kaiba
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Cassian Andor's whole schtick having spent his life as an amoral, largely unprincipled space terrorist for the Rebellion? Seems like kind of an awkward choice for a series... what with the whole glorifying terrorism and all.
  11. Seto Kaiba
    ... that'd be a downright plain name in several of the Gundam settings. But no, the Nightmare Plus EX "Thrones" type is totally a legit Macross design from the gaiden manga Macross E. Mercifully a limited custom job Xaos Pipure produced for their experimental Tactical Sound Unit. Elma Hoyly from Macross Dynamite 7 was involved in their development... she's gone and got a doctorate in something or other involved in biology or higher dimensional physics.
  12. Seto Kaiba
    Or would Dance Band on the Titanic be more appropriate?
  13. Seto Kaiba
    What's the over-under on the closing credit song being Komm, süsser Tod?
  14. Seto Kaiba
    Not gonna lie, I would be very entertained to watch Rey subvert expectations, throw away that goofy glowstick she barely knows how to use, and beat the stupid out of Kylo Ren with that big metal stick of hers. "So uncivilized."
  15. Seto Kaiba
    Then I can hardly wait to see what you think of the latest episode, where any pretense that Michael Burnham is not a Mary Sue is flushed out the nearest airlock and subjected to a sustained photon torpedo barrage. I remember watching the episode, mildly horrified, thinking "dear lord, someone was paid to write this". "Yes", "Yes", and "Yes", respectively. She's a Black Hole Sue whose personal gravity is so intense plot cannot escape her surface. We may not have to wait very long for that. Rumors continue to circulate that CBS is now facing serious pressure from their distribution partners (e.g. Netflix) as well as their merchandising partners over Kurtzman's handling of Star Trek: Discovery and the greater Star Trek franchise. CBS and Discovery's showrunners still have a bit of a black eye over the network having overreported the CBS All Access new subscriber counts by 2x thanks to having counted free subscriptions given away to certain cable subscribers on top of actual paid subscribers. Star Trek: Discovery's sponsor, Netflix, is reportedly once again unhappy with the show's performance on their service and its near-constant budget overruns in production. The show's merchandising partners have been vocally unhappy with it for a while now since that promised demand for Discovery merch largely never materialized. Most of what the official store offers is CafePress apparel and Starfleet badges. Word on the street is that Netflix and the licensees want Kurtzman gone, and are blaming the aesthetic and creative choices that took Discovery away from the prime universe aesthetic for the brand's underperforming. Reportedly they're also unsatisfied with the plans for the Picard series, which leaks suggest is to feature an aged Jean-Luc Picard as the new head of Section 31 and are threatening to withdraw support for that and other proposed Star Trek titles on the grounds that this bleak and dark Star Trek isn't actually selling all that well among non-casual viewers. Man, what did the 32nd century do to deserve that?
  16. Seto Kaiba
    To borrow a turn of phrase from Star Trek: "He is the AMBASSADOR of Unhappy." I don't think I've ever seen that man pleased with something.
  17. Seto Kaiba
    Hulu Plus is supposed to be carrying it, IIRC. Edit: yep, Hulu Plus.
  18. Seto Kaiba
    No one's ever really gone... so maybe we'll be treated to Kylo Ren being nagged and nitpicked to death by Han, Leia, Luke, Luke's apprentices, and all the others with grievances against him. Maybe that's why he's going to Palpatine, to ask him to make Anakin and Luke STFU so he can have a moment's peace.
  19. Seto Kaiba
    One has to wonder what exactly the poachers thought that reaction warhead was going to accomplish. They were trying to kill a creature whose entire metabolism is built on absorbing enormous amounts of stellar radiation by firing a warhead that emits a short, sharp pulse of powerful thermal radiation at it. That's like trying to kill a potted plant by watering it slightly faster than usual. If they'd had a dimensional resonance speaker, harsh language might actually be more effective.
  20. Seto Kaiba
    Macross Chronicle is surprisingly insistent that it is, in fact, pollen.
  21. Seto Kaiba
    The past moves more merchandise. There are a lot of other potential explanations besides "Rey is a secret Skywalker". My money's on The Rise of Skywalker being about subverting and deconstructing the whole "chosen one" schtick that was the driving force of the original and prequel trilogies, as this is supposed to be the conclusion of the whole Skywalker storyline. Rey's going to delve into the history of the cursed Skywalker bloodline before she ends it forever when she chops Ben Skywalker into toppings for an Ewok house salad. (Or maybe this new Jedi order will turn "Skywalker" into a title...) Can you rewrite cancer to be more appealing? No offense to Ms. Tran, but the character Rose Tico was the story cancer that caused the whole Canto Bight plot tumor in The Last Jedi and dispensed many of its worst moments and lines of dialog. The character is tainted, even if the writing is competent this time around. It's like bringing back Jar-Jar. You could have fantastic writing for him, but because everyone's seen The Phantom Menace nobody will like him no matter how well-written he is the second time around. Well, we don't know if he's alive or a ghost and what his actual relevance is... though Ian has mentioned he isn't there simply as a callback.
  22. Seto Kaiba
    IMDB's full cast and crew listing shows Ian McDiarmid is set to reprise his role as Palpatine. (Sadly, it also indicates that Kelly Tran is set to return as Rose Tico.)
  23. Seto Kaiba
    So... The Force Awakens The Last Jedi From His Nap?
  24. Seto Kaiba
    Well, not quite... the VF-19P that Basara "borrows" (read: "steals") from the Zola Patrol to go chasing whales has a standard VF-19P-type monitor turret the entire time. After it gets bukkake'd1 by galactic whale pollen2, he tries to clear the polarized cover over the monitor turret optics with one of the hands and what he manages to wipe away makes it look like the VF-19P has a face similar to what Basara's VF-19 Custom had thanks to the light from the sensors causing the polarized cover to glow green. I'd imagine anyone from Death Note save perhaps for Misa would find the entire cast of Delta appallingly clueless... 1. ... no, I honestly can't think of another word for it. Galactic whales got so fired up by Basara's singing that he got blasted with massive quantities of reproductive material. 2. Yes, pollen. Turns out galactic whales are much closer to being plants than animals... which makes a certain amount of sense given that they're space-dwelling lifeforms that are sustained by the stellar radiation they absorb while passing through the star systems on their migration routes.
  25. Seto Kaiba
    Yeah, what finally got me to break down and read it was the repeated references to it in a Dan Abnett novel I'd been reading.
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