Ok Lego, so I have a question: How is this set appropriate for children? You have now turned down three projects on Lego Cuusoo deeming the content “inappropriate for their target audience”. To illustrate this, they’ve made a few blog posts now explaining what criteriathey consider in the Lego review. They’ve actually stated that they won’t except “Death, killing, blood, terrorism, or torture”. Now I understand how Shaun of the Dead, Firefly, and Ghost in the Shell aren’t right for Lego. What I don’t understand is how the heck this is?
This set includes everything you need to recreate one of the most gruesome, terrifying scenes from Revenge of the Sith (below the child slaughter, but above Anakin being mutilated). You have a little catapult to throw Palpatine at the four Jedi he kills and a window (and force lightning) to push out of and kill Mace Windu with.
So Lego, how can you refuse sets based off of other violent content and deem this bit of man slaughter appropriate for a Lego set?
So, I finished reading Lord of the Flies the other day. A few days before that I finished Othello. Like many other students, I’ve been required to read these and many other books and short stories as part of my schooling. Lately though, I’ve been pondering why anyone would what to read these sad, depressing books.
Now hear me out. I’m not saying they aren’t “good”, I’m just saying that they are sad and depressing – and don’t humans have to deal with enough depressing things in their own lives? They get you to care deeply about certain characters only for them to be gruesomely killed off. We all go through deaths of family, friends, mentors, and public figures throughout our lives. Why would one want to go through the deaths of characters in movies, books, and other forms of fiction? How does that make something worth reading/watching?
I get that they make you feel intense “emotions” and all that, but why would you want to feel “emotions” that cause you stress, sadness, depression, etc.? Shouldn’t books be used as an escape to a reality where your dreams come true instead of a reality that you wish never to be part of?
I read a lot of books. Some of my favorite books include The Kingdom Keepers, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and The Twenty-One Balloons (of course, a lot of my other favorite books (the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, etc) have freakier elements, but I’m making a point, so just keep reading and bear with me). Now, these books are branded *kids books* because they don’t feature any extreme violence. The same with music, film, or any media. If it is appropriate for all ages, it is marked as *kids* and avoided by a lot of older readers. Why must writers incorporate extreme violence or inappropriate content if they wish there works to be noticed by older audiences?
Is it just because that when we get older we are expected to partake and enjoy darker activities? Are we supposed to suddenly want to watch horror films and read books where death is the main plot point? Is this really what we want to read or are we just taught that this is what we are supposed to want?
Now I could just be seeing everything from my vantage point in a rainbow-filled world of joy and happiness, but I want to hear what you think. Why read depressing books?
Dan Harmon: the guru behind Community, the showrunner, the creator, the one who INVENTED Troy and Abed, the one who has made it all happen, has been kicked out of his own show thanks to some big heartless, mindless, corporate idiots at Sony and NBC.
Dan Harmon was removed from his position without the decency of even a phone call. In fact, Dan Harmon wasn’t contacted by anyone. But, hey, don’t believe me…Dan Harmon says it best, “The important one is this quote from Bob Greenblatt in which he says he’s sure I’m going to be involved somehow, something like that. That’s a misquote. I think he meant to say he’s sure cookies are yummy, because he’s never called me once in the entire duration of his employment at NBC. He didn’t call me to say he was starting to work there, he didn’t call me to say I was no longer working there…” Nice, real classy Sony/NBC.
Should we expect the show to be as good without him? Most certainly not. He was the one who made who made it happen. As he said in his tumblr…”I was what you might call a….hands on producer…I’m not saying you can’t make a good version of Community without me, but I am definitely saying that you can’t make my version of it unless I have the option of saying “it has to be like this or I quit” roughly 8 times a day.” Will the same kind of stuff happen under the rule of other people? I highly, highly doubt it.
And to Sony and NBC, the guy with the focus, passion, vision, and dream SHOULD NEVER BE THE ONE THAT GETS FIRED. So what if he’s not that easy to work with. I bet you can say that about any artistic genius throughout time. Dumb asses.
A TT Games employee just sent this image out on Twitter. Looks like we’ll be losing the circle pads and gaining some actual analog sticks! Compare it to the controller shown at E3 below.
Thursday’s Community season finale opened with one of their most creative episodes ever. In Digital Estate Planning, the study group helps Pierce win his father’s inheritance by completing an epic 8-bit video game. Between the constant flow of gaming shout-outs, the art style for the entire episode, and Abed finding his virtual soulmate, it was an episode that, while seeming out of place in the current story arc, us Human Beings will never forget.
In The First Chang Dynasty, we jump back into the current story arc. The Dean has been imprisoned by Chang. With the help of his deanelchanger and army of children, Chang is running Greendale with an iron fist and a prescription throne. To save the Dean, the study group plans an elaborate heist which ends in the end of the reign of Chang and Troy selling his soul to the Air Conditioning Repair school.
In this beautiful season finale, you can tell that Dan Harmon was preparing for cancelation (which it sort of was for him. More on that soon). Shirley is fighting with Pierce over the rights to her sandwich shop, Troy is living and working at the air conditioning repair school, and Abed is going insane. Evil Abed appears to Abed and convinces him to let him takeover for awhile. Needless to say, things got bad, but then they got better. By the ending of the episode, the study group and Greendale were prepared for the end of the series. The ending montage wrapped everything up. Lose ends were tied, happiness was spread, Star Burns returned from the dead, and I was close to tears. The episode ended with one final word that no doubt brought a smile to the face of every devout Human Being.
Grab some POP POP corn and prepare yourself for the life CHANG-ing brilliance of tonight’s 3 part Community season finale! The first episode (an 8-Bit epic!) will air at 8:00 PT, then will be followed by 30 Rock. Then 30 Rock will be followed by two back-to-back Community episodes at 9:00 and 9:30!
They are finally here (and by finally I mean a half a month early. My wallet is not prepared)! The first 7 sets in the Lego Lord of the Rings line are now available on Lego.com (and at Target and, if you are silly enough to pay mark up prices, at Toy’s R Us)! I put them in my cart for fun and they total at a wonderfully whopping $400. I have no idea how I will come by that kinda cash, let alone survive the following geek out of playing with a little Lego version of Legolas… Anyways, here are links to the sets on Lego’s site.
9469 Gandalf Arrives: 83 pieces and $13. Includes Gandalf (exclusive to the set), Frodo Baggins (in exclusive clothes), and one of the new, special, posable horsies.
9470 Shelob Attacks: 227 pieces and $20. Includes Frodo, Samwise Gamgee (exclusive to the set), the One Ring, and Gollum (exclusive to the set).
9471 Uruk-hai Army: 257 pieces and $30. Includes Eomer (exclusive to the set), Rohirrim archer (exclusive to the set), four Uruk-hai, and a new horse.
9476 The Orc Forge: 363 and $40. This set is a Target/Lego exclusive and includes Lurtz (exclusive to this set), two Mordor orcs, and a Uruk-hai.
9472 Attack on Weathertop: 430 pieces and $60. Includes Aragorn, Frodo, Meriadoc Brandybuck (exclusive to this set), two Ringwraiths (exclusive to this set), the One Ring, and one of the new horses in black.
9473 The Mines of Moria: 776 pieces and $80. Includes Legolas (exclusive to this set), Gimli, Boromir (exclusive to this set), Peregrin Took (exclusive to this set), two Mordor orcs, and a cave troll (exclusive to this set).
9474 The Battle of Helm’s Deep: 1,368 pieces and $130. Includes Aragorn, Gimli, Haldir (exclusive to this set), King Théoden (exclusive to this set), and four Uruk-hai.
Also, if you plan on buying any of these before the end of the month, Lego will include the above Frodo poster. AND, if your total is over $50, you will also enjoy the exclusive wonder of this Hulk minifigure!
What are you waiting for? A birthday or holiday or something? Go breakout your piggy banks and shop till you drop!
I’ve written a Super Mario fan fiction… a playable one!
Yep, I’ve written it is as an interactive fiction on Playfic. I’m pretty proud of it. I created most of it a month or so ago, but had got distracted by…Oooooh shiny…
In any case, it’s now finished and out to the universe. Go play Fungus and tell me what you think!
rumphy 