Guest Post -James M's Review of Terminator Dark Fate

Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Natalia Reyes, and Mackenzie Davis in Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Hey movie viewers, CrazyGamerHistorian1999 here and today we're taking a look at the 6th Terminator film in the franchise, the action-packed, the epic, the not-so jarring Terminator Dark Fate.
For those of you who don't know, this movie is a reboot, a partial reboot, as it ignores the previous three movies except for the first and the second. So its basically another T3.

Either way, here's the Terminator Recap so far...

In 1984, Sarah Connor's life changed forever when the tyrannical supercomputer known as Skynet sent back a T-800 Terminator Cyberdine Systems Model 101 unit to bump her off before her son John Connor is born. However, the Resistance sent back Kyle Reese to protect her. In the end, the Terminator was destroyed and Sarah's life was saved, but all at the cost of Kyle's demise.
11 years later, things change again when Skynet deploys the T-1000 to attack a ten year old John.
   However, John Connor's future self sent back a reprogrammed T-800 to protect his younger self. Hoping to change the future and stop the rise of Skynet, Sarah and John launched a preemptive attack of Cyberdine and blew up its main building with help from Miles Dyson and the T-800.The battle with the T-1000 continued until it was destroyed via molten liquid. Near the end of the battle, the remnants of the previous T-800 was destroyed while the good T-800 sacrificed itself to ensure that Skynet never came to be.

Almost a decade later (in the now non-canon Rise of the Machines), Judgement Day has not come to pass (yet) but John fears the future. Things go south when the T-X arrives, programmed by Skynet to destroy John, and it is discovered that blowing up Cyberdine merely delayed the rise of Skynet, which has already activated and is about to attack humanity. With help from a T-850 (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger who played the last two T-800s), John and his future wife Kathrine Brewster defeat the T-X and escape to an underground shelter as Skynet launches a nuclear attack against humanity, thus setting up the war of the machines.

Nearly a decade and a half passes and by 2018 (where Terminator Salvation unfolds), Skynet rules the world with its army of T-600, HKs and other Terminators as the Resistance fights to survive and defeat the machines. John Connor is not yet the leader of the Resistance as it is under the command of General Ashdown, who believes they may have found the key to ending the war VIA a Skynet signal located in San Francisco. Things seemingly get complicated when Marcus Wright, a man turned into a Terminator-human hybrid appears and John has trouble trusting him. Nonetheless, in the end, the Resistance scores a victory against Skynet but at the cost of many casualties.

Jump forward to 2029 (with Terminator Genisys) and the war is nearing its end, Tech-Com (the resistance) led by John Connor launches its all-out final assault on the heart of Skynet and its facilities. In the end, the core of Skynet is destroyed and the war ends, but not before the supercomputer deploys the T-800 from the first movie to 1984 through the Time Displacement Machine to destroy Sarah Connor. Kyle Reese, who volunteers to protect Sarah, heads back to 1984 only to find that history has changed. Sarah has been under the care of a T-800 named Pops following an attempt to destroy her back in the 1970's and they've already taken out the T-800.

Journeying to the year 2017, Kyle, Sarah and Pops work together to destroy Genisys (aka the new version of Skynet) and survive against John, who was converted into a T-3000 Terminator by a T-5000 who happened to be the embodiment of Skynet itself. After a long tough battle, the T-3000 was defeated and the mission to destroy Cyberdine (and Genisys/Skynet) is a success...

Ok, caught up with the chronology? Lets jump timelines and talk Dark Fate...

Synopsis/Summary:

Image result for terminator dark fate beach"

The movie kicks off with a glimpse of the post-apocalyptic future, probably during the War Against The Machines, as we see T-800s rise out of the water and start opening fire as they walk across the beach. One Terminator finds a child cowering in fear and points its plasma rifle before the scene ends and we cut to the Bahamas. Its 1998 and a few years have passed following the events of Terminator 2, thanks to Sarah Connor and her son John's actions, Skynet never came to be and Judgement Day never happened. As Sarah in the alternate ending to T2 would say, basically, "August 29th, 1997 came and went, nothing much happened."

Image result for terminator dark fate beach"Image result for terminator dark fate john dead"

Yup, so they saved the future and saved billions of lives. Huzzah, that means John can live a good life without having to carry the burden of being a resistance leader fighting a war against the machines. However, things could take a drastic turn at any time. Sarah and John are in the Bahamas hanging out at the beach bar, John's 13 at this point and Sarah's relaxing. Things go south quickly when an Arnold Schwarzenegger T-800 (played by Bret Azar with CGI rendering to look like young Schwarzenegger) shows up, draws a gun and shoots John on the spot. Uh-oh, looks like Skynet managed to send back another Terminator from the Dark Future after all. How many more stragglers are out there?



Sarah, horrified to see this, tries to defend her wounded son as she draws a gun and shoots at the T-800. But her efforts are for naught as the Terminator shoots John a few more times, as he lies on the ground, before scanning him to confirm that the target has been terminated. The T-800 walks off, sparing Sarah as she cradles John in her arms, mourning the loss of her son while we hear her voice narrating everything. The narration ends with Sarah saying, "I am Terminated." Pretty dark! Now, for those of you who've watched all the movies before Dark Fate, this is not the first time John Connor was killed off. Back in 2003's Rise of the Machines, it was revealed that the T-850 (before being reprogrammed) actually assassinated Future John on the 4th of July in 2032.
Later, in Terminator Genisys (the previous movie) John Connor was converted into the T-3000 and, during the final battle, he ended up in a Time Displacement Machine prototype and was ripped apart by the magnetic field, totally destroying him. If you count those two movies, this is essentially the third time we've seen John kick the can.

Anyways, flash-forward to 2020 (this year) and its been a long time since the events of T2. Nothing much has happened between then and now, aside for the demise of John. But things are about to change again... In Mexico, a couple is in the midst of making out when a Time Displacement Field sphere appears close by and a blonde woman drops out, completely naked. This girl is Grace and she's a cyborg/Human-Terminator hybrid (kinda like Marcus from T4). The couple helps her get to her feet and the police show up. Grace fights and takes down the cops before stealing the Mexican girl's boyfriend's clothes and drives off in a car.

Not to far off, Dani, who lives with her papa and brother, is leaving the house with her brother to head to work. Not long after she leaves, another TDF sphere appears and out comes Diego Luna's character, the Rev-9, which is basically a combo of the the T-800 and T-1000 and is basically like the T-X from Terminator 3. The Rev-9 gets some clothes and meets up with Dani's papa, learning about Dani's whereabouts before taking out Mr. Ramos and assuming his form. The Rev-9 catches up with Grace and her brother at the motor factory they work at. But just as the machine is drawing a gun from the lunch bag it brought along to the factory, Grace arrives and attacks the Rev-9, trying to hold of the rogue robot while Dani and her brother flee the factory and take a pick-up truck.

Grace catches up with them and takes over driving duties before Rev-9 takes a bulldozer and pursues them, leading to a truck-car chase almost like the famous bike chase in T2 and the car-truck chase of T3. The chase soon ends with both vehicles decimated and Dani's brother impaled before he goes down with the pick-up truck. The Rev-9 has Dani and Grace cornered. It looks like the end before Sarah Connor arrives in a van and shoots the Rev-9 with a rocket launcher and a gun. As Sarah goes to see if she did the job of destroying the Rev-9, Grace (who's not looking well) and Dani steal Sarah's truck and drive off, much to the anger of Sarah. "Son of a b***h."

She soon catches up with Dani and a very tired Grace before taking them to her place, a house she's staying at, and helps Grace recover. Sarah thinks Grace is a Terminator before Grace says that she is human "just enhanced". Sarah talks about her Terminator Hunting, talking about Skynet and the original Judgement Day and brings up the demise of her son as well. When Grace later tells Sarah about the A.I Legion, Sarah is not happy. "Those a--holes never learn!" She exclaims.
The three of them hitch a train ride, eager to get to the Mexican-U.S border. During the train ride, Grace talks about Legion and the aftermath of Judgement Day, leading to Sarah assuming that Dani will be the mother of mankind's savior. Major spoiler warning, Dani is the future resistance leader.

Unbeknownst to them, they're being tracked by the Rev-9, who notifies the border patrol and tricks them into believing that Sarah, Dani and Grace are part of a terrorist group. When the trip arrive at the border and cross over into the states, they're captured and detained at the detention center. The Rev-9 arrives to take out Dani but she, Grace and Sarah escape as chaos ensues and many border patrol soldiers are taken out by the Rev-9 in the most intense scene ever. And yes, there is blood. The movie is super R-rated after all.

Team Connor-Ramos hijack a helicopter and escape further into Texas, eventually arriving at a house, which happens to be the location Sarah is receiving texts regarding Terminators from via an unknown contact. Approaching the front door, it is revealed that the one behind the messages the whole time (as well as the "For John" message) is none other than the T-800 (played by Schwarzenegger) who took John's life but has now become known as Carl. Sarah is enraged at the sight of Carl and wants to destroy him, Sarah's motivations and thought process regarding it all make sense after the first T-800 tried to get her way back in 1984 and after she just lost her son.

The trio learn that after what happened that day in the Bahamas, Carl became remorseful and later saved a woman and her son from a nutcase man, actually marrying the woman and becoming her son's father. Well, who could've thought about that, a T-800 becoming a family man. Sarah still doesn't trust Carl, well, duh. This guy's a murderer. If you met a still-alive Adolf Hitler a few years after WW2 and you learned that he was behind the holocaust, you'd probably wanna take him out too, regardless if he saw the error of his ways or not.

Anyway, the group starts devising a plan to destroy the Rev-9 and Dani will basically be the bait. Hey, wait, this feels like something out of Scooby Doo, except Dani's practically a combo of Shaggy and Scooby. A Scooby Doo-Terminator crossover? Hmmm... Back to the plot. After saying goodbye to Carl's family, the heroes head off to prepare for battle just before the Rev-9 arrives at the house. As Sarah, Carl, Dani and Grace prepare their secret weapon, which is basically an EMP field, they're joined by a friend of Sarah's from the millitary, who delivers the EMP devices, before they make a run for it as Rev-9 arrives, leading to another chase sequence that takes them to the airport.

Arriving at the airport, they quickly get on a plane and take off with it, the Rev-9 confronts them and during the fight, the plane receives extensive damage where its about to crash and explode. Carl fights the Rev-9 while Sarah, Grace and Dani make their way to safety at a nearby dam. Not long after they get there, Carl (who is mostly damaged) arrives and the Rev-9 comes soon after. The stage is pretty much set for the big battle. Inside the power planet, the Rev-9 tells the gang that they should surrender and hand over Dani with Sarah's response being, "I don't think so, you metal motherf--ker."

The group engage the machine in battle, Grace and Carl mostly receiving the worst damage despite being able to whale on the Rev-9 as they push it into one of the turbines that powers the dam, which causes a massive explosion that decimates most of the room, wrecking the Rev-9 beyond repair to a point where it can't shape shift, thus completely exposing its robotic endoskeleton, and badly injuring/damaging Grace. As for Carl, he's received a bit of extensive damage. The Rev-9 continues its attack on Dani, who (tearfully and reluctantly) removes the resistance warrior's thorium reactor and uses it to attack the Rev-9.

Carl wakes up (after Sarah shouts at him) and joins in the final attack on the Rev-9, using most of his strength to drag the murderous machine towards a nearby pit, which they fall into as Sarah and Dani watch. Grace's reactor starts to overload the Rev-9 as Carl holds it in place at the bottom, the energy emitting from the reactor is so intense, it causes the old T-800's organic tissue to burn away, revealing his endoskeleton as he looks up at Sarah and his final words are, "For John." The reactor detonates and both terminators are decimated beyond repair, the Rev-9 is destroyed but the T-800 survives long enough to take one last look at Sarah and Dani before he shuts down.
With the destruction of Rev-9 and the sacrifice of Carl, amends for John's demise have been made and Carl's end has marked the final end of Skynet and its legacy. Thats right, Carl was the last of Skynet's evil legacy. With Carl basically destroyed, that means no Skynet for good, right? Well, there is Legion that has now taken Skynet's place.

After mourning the loss of Grace, Sarah and Dani head off on their own. Dani later observe's Grace's younger self playing at a playground and leaving with her parents, knowing full well the burden upon her. The movie ends with Sarah and Dani getting in the car and driving off to who knows where...

Final Thoughts/Conclusion:
Terminator Dark Fate, despite being a box office failure, a few mixed reviews and the backlash regarding John Connor's fate, is a really good movie. The best up there with Terminator 2 and Terminator Genisys. If I were to rank the movies so far (again), here's how I'd rank em...
1. Terminator 2 Judgement Day -epic, just fantastic
2. Terminator Genisys -both awesome
3. Terminator Dark Fate -Incredible
4. The Terminator -Really good
5. Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines -not bad
6. Terminator Salvation -alright
I enjoyed this movie as much as I enjoyed the previous five movies, it was a fun ride and it was amazing to see Linda Hamilton reprise her role as Sarah Connor. Of course Terminator wouldn't be the same without Arnold in it, he's practically in all the movies and I'm not discounting his "unofficial" appearance in Salvation, that would be disrespectful if I did. I give Dark Fate a 9/10 for being awesome and for all the hard work James Cameron and Tim Miller put into making this possible. I'm willing to ignore the flaws and just roll with it.

Anyways, until next time, hasta la vista baby.
-James M.

Guest Post -James M's Review of Sonic Legacy

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Saluations Sonic fans, James M here and today, we're diving back into the Sonic universe to look at Sonic Paradox's epic Sonic comic in fandom history -SONIC LEGACY!

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No, not that Sonic Legacy, get that outta here (even though it was pretty good)...

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Ah there we are. So what's the story of Sonic Legacy?
Well, its made by fans for the fans. The fans making it, the folks at Sonic Paradox who make all those crazy cool animations that are either hilarious or are just stupid. The goal of this comic, to rejoice Sonic's long history and honor everything from the blue hedgehog's past, present and future, the good and the bad, adapt most of Sonic's games, tell original stories, etc.

So how do you kick off the most incredible fan-made comic in Sonic fan history?
By adapting the events of Sonic 1 for the SEGA Genesis of course...

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Issue 1 (also the series as a whole) begins with a nice day at the beach on South Island, everything fine and dandy. Well, a chili dog vendor almost has an accident with his cart and batch of chili dogs until Sonic comes in and saves the day as well as the chili dogs too, much to the delight of the vendor. Things change when Tempest the Dolphin, an OC for the comic, appears and swipes Sonic's wallet. The two banter for a while before they decide to have a race, simple as that, right?

Well, almost. When the race begins, the two reach Green Hill Zone where things really dive into Sonic 1 territory as they encounter Eggman's robot minions and start freeing the animals inside them. But when Sonic and Tempest get to the area where Sonic is supposed to have his encounter with Eggman with his ball and chain, they encounter Eggette in the Egg Mobile. "Whoa." I hear you say, "Who's Eggette?" Long story.

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The two heroes fight Eggman's lackey/daughter and they defeat her, forcing her to retreat as they free the animals trapped inside the Egg Capsule before moving on to Marble Zone in issue two which shows them escaping the lava-filled doom trap before having a bit of a campfire night while Eggman and Eggette observe them from afar.
In the next issue, things really get a bit wet as Sonic and Tempest trek through the infamous Labyrinth Zone, which is where Sonic's fear of water comes in, despite Tempest offering to give the blue hedgehog swimming lessons. Sonic taking swimming lessons with a gorgeous girl? Hmmm... Anyway, despite the dangers ahead and so many hardships, they manage to get through the water-filled labyrinth and, instead of going to Star Light Zone, its straight to Scrap Brain. After all, the arc can be so long, not to mention the comics.

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Issues 4 and 5 serve as the finale for the Sonic 1 adaptation, but not Sonic Legacy. Sonic and Tempest trek through Scrap Brain Zone, which like in the games, is Eggman's city of doom and filled to the brim with death traps such as buzz saws and flame throwers not to mention the mad doctor's robots. Along the way, Tempest gets captured and Sonic ends up in the infamous Labyrinth Zone-like area of Scrap Brain Zone Act 3 which is before Final Zone.
After navigating his way safely through it, Sonic reaches Eggman and confronts him as well as Eggette before defeating the two villains and saving Tempest. The two heroes head back to the beach and hang out for a while before Sonic goes after Eggman, who got away after the battle, in the Tornado, setting up the Sonic 2 arc and ending the Sonic 1 adaptation...

Thoughts:
Sonic Legacy is... really, really good, super creative, the best Sonic comic up there with the Archie Sonic comics and all other works be it official or fan made. I am enjoying this series and I like Tempest, she's a cool character and has a sweet design. If any of you have time, go ahead and read the comic, its fun and has great charm to it.
Anyways, its time for me to go now.
Bye!

-James M

What procrastination looks like



Binge watching Agent Carter, reading all my old posts and fixing all the labels on my blog, watching you tube videos with James. Then the universe kicks me in the butt:

#38 in A Year of Writing Dangerously by Barbara Abercrombie:  Ideal Conditions.  The jist is you may only have thirty minutes in your very full and busy day in which to write or the converse, too much time, too much quiet and you still only fit in thirty minutes of writing in your day.  Doesn't matter which, you're output will still be the same.  So "Either way -- with no time or too much time -- decide how long you'll write. Decide and then do it."

#46 Frou Frou: "It's all frou frou - the dreams, the fantasies of writing, of publishing poems or books or essays; it's all just a lot of wishing--unless you write something down.  Remember this: There is nothing until there is something on the page."

This week's writing prompt:  Write about the time you were in a jam.  Could be me or could be my main character in my latest WIP.   Hmm!  Being stuck on a bridge comes to mind. Symbolically or physical?  Off I go to see what I'm going to do with it.  




Guest Post -James M's Thoughts on the Freedom Fighters & Sticks the Badger in IDW Sonic

Image result for archie sonic freedom fightersImage result for archie sonic freedom fighters

Hey there Sonic fans, CrazyGamerHistorian1999 here and after countless months following the end of Archie Sonic and the beginning of the IDW Sonic era, I have decided to give my overall thoughts about the inclusion of Sally Acorn, the Freedom Fighters and familiar Archie-SatAM elements/characters into the world of IDW Sonic. So lets get right to it....

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First of all, for those who are new to Sonic and are wondering who the Freedom Fighters are, allow me to explain: Back in the early 1990s, with the success of Sonic the Hedgehog for the SEGA Genesis, merchandise followed which included comic books and cartoons, many of which included Sonic SatAM and the Archie Sonic comics. Sonic SatAM was different compared to the goofy cartoon known as Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, how different, well, Doctor Robotnik had taken over the world and it was up to Sonic and his friends to take it back from him.
SatAM is where the fans were introduced to the iconic Freedom Fighters, consisting of Sally Acorn (who'd go on to be a popular character and a love interest for Sonic), Rotor the Walrus, Nicole (Sally's Computer), Antoine D' Coolette and Bunnie Rabbot. However, if you want to be technical, you could say that the Archie Sonic miniseries of 1992-1993 was where the Freedom Fighters were introduced.

Either way, just like the cartoon, the Freedom Fighters gained enough popularity to be fan favorites over the years. Long after SatAM went off the air, the stories of Sally Acorn, Bunnie, Antoine and Rotor and many of the other SatAM characters continued in the pages of Archie Sonic, which was basically similar to the cartoon and practically seen as a continuation of SatAM in the later years. Throughout the Archie series' run, specifically in the pre-reboot era, the Freedom Fighters (along with Sonic and the SEGA cast) would have many adventures and misadventures, face hardships and continue their battles against villains like Doctor Eggman, alternate reality doppelgangers and a lot more bad guys along the way including the likes of Mammoth Mogul and Ixis Naugus.

Image result for Archie sonallyRelated imageImage result for Archie sonic and sally slap

Lets not forget the ever-popular and well-known relationship between Sonic and Sally that fans have grown to appreciate over the years to a point where we have the not-so infamous SonSal shippers. At first Sonic and Sally were friends, then their relationship blossomed into romance and their bond strengthened. However, due to their status as heroes and the fact there would always be challenges for them, Sonic and Sally's relationship was tested many times, be it through love triangles, a harsh break up, a threat from somebody like Eggman. But in the end, after so much had happened with them, specifically following Sonic's return from space, their relationship was stronger than ever...

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...Until the Mecha Sally arc happened, eventually leading to the reboot era.
As the Archie Sonic comic changed, so to did the Freedom Fighters. Following some behind the scenes issues, mostly involving a legal battle and increasing SEGA mandates, the world of Archie Sonic rebooted following the events of the fan-favorite 2013 Sonic & Mega Man Worlds Collide crossover and, with it, the Freedom Fighters got a brand new look and almost a new lease on life where they looked as though they could fit right on in with the Modern Sonic games.
However, while some things remained the same with them (i.e their fight for freedom and the relationship between Antoine and Bunnie), some things changed with Sonic and Sally mostly no longer being in a romantic relationship (due to mandates and the staff's dislike of shipping wars).
The Archie Sonic comics and the adventures of Sonic and the Freedom Fighters continued well past the reboot of 2013 until the series came to an end in 2017, paving the way for IDW to take the Sonic licence, bring in familiar talent and tell new stories.

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This now brings us to the topic we will be discussing: The inclusion of the Freedom Fighters and Sally Acorn in IDW Sonic, which has yet to happen as of this post. Ever since the announcement of IDW gaining the Sonic license from SEGA following the end of Archie, and ever since the IDW Sonic era began, many fans (including a friend of mine named Darryl Heines) have wanted to see the likes of Sally, Bunnie, Rotor, Antoine, Nicole and many familiar faces from Archie to pop up in the comic and have been demanding their inclusion for almost three years.
Heck, my pal Darryl talks about it constantly on Twitter, saying, "I wanna see the Freedom Fighters in the comic, when are they gonna show up, will they finally appear?" I know thats not what he's saying, but either way, I want to give my overall thoughts on the matter...

Would I love to see the Freedom Fighters show up in IDW Sonic? My answer is yes.
However, when it comes to the Freedom Fighters inclusion and debut in the comic, I want it to be done in away that is satisfying and doesn't look as if they're being shoehorned in. I also hope they are not underused or overused and are utilized correctly. I want many fans to be happy with the return of the Freedom Fighters. But its gonna be a while before it kinda happens. Remember, IDW Sonic is new and just got started, in fact, its almost been two years since the comic's first issue started, not to mention that 3-4 years have nearly passed since the end of Archie Sonic.

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However, despite the fact the inclusion of the Freedom Fighters is very unlikely, there is a bit of hope: According to Ian Flynn, he is pushing very hard to include them into the comic but here's a catch, if and when they do show up, the characters are gonna have to be redesigned again as their post-reboot Archie designs are basically off limits. I'm not worried in the slightest and will be excited if and when I do hear the news that the characters we've pushed to hard to see again will be showing up in the world of IDW Sonic.
But when that happens, how will things play out and will we get a bit of Sonic & Sally romance? In fact, my big concern with the Freedom Fighters showing up and the possibility of IDW SonSal is that it will mean there won't be much IDW SonAmy moments and you know how much I love SonAmy. Some of my favorite moments in the comic besides the action scenes happen to be the interactions between Sonic and Amy, including their scenes in Issue Two.

If SEGA's little mandate about Sonic being single still stands and there aren't any Sonic X Sally moments, I'll just shrug it off and act as though its probably nothing. Either way, I'd still be happy to see IDW Sonic acknowledge, reference and bring in some elements from past Sonic media. The comic has started to do that within the past year, for example, Badniks resembling Scratch and Grounder from AoSTH and Archie were seen in a warehouse on a shelf in issue two of the Whisper and Tangle miniseries. Lets not forget that we did see a few characters who almost looked like Antoine and Bunnie.

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Before we wrap this up, I want to move away from the Freedom Fighters and bring up another famous character who's gained popularity in the Sonic community: Sticks the Badger. For those of you who do not recall clearly, Sticks the Badger is a character from Sonic Boom, a sub-franchise part of the Sonic franchise that had a different take on Sonic and his friends, which had a TV show, three games and, yes, a comic done by Archie for a time. Sticks is a member of Team Sonic in the Sonic Boom TV show and is good friends with Amy Rose, what makes her unique and stand out from the other characters is that she's wacky, uses a boomerang and is downright crazy.

"CrazyGamerHistorian1999," I hear you say, "Whats she got to do with IDW Sonic?" Allow me to explain, I actually would love to see her show up in IDW Sonic as one of the many elements from certain other Sonic media like Sonic Boom to appear. In fact, given Sticks' popularity and Sonic Boom having tons of fans, so many people would love to see her show up. I actually asked Ian Flynn on his personal podcast BumbleKast if she would show up and his response was more along the lines of wait and see. In a later episode of the show, during a Q&A, someone with the name Sticks the Badger, asked if she would appear and it turns out, Ian has pitched the idea of Sticks' inclusion many  times only for the higher-ups (i.e SEGA) to say no.

While the inclusion of Sticks is unlikely, there is still a chance, but again, like with the Freedom Fighters, its gonna be a bit before Sticks shows up.
Anyways, this is where I sign off. Keep enjoying the comic and don't get your hopes up too high, fellow readers.

-James M





Book Talk: Knife of Dreams - Robert Jordan



This is my year for epic fantasy series with Tolkien's Lord of the Ring, Stewart's Merlin Trilogy as well as The Wheel of Time.  I read the first book, The Eye of the World, as part of a Dare Challenge,  back in 2010 and didn't expect I'd end up reading only one book a year in the 14 book saga.  I love stories with ensemble casts and is probably why I prefer to read series books over stand alone stories.  But it's oh so hard to leave that imaginary world once it's over which is probably why I reread these books over and over again.  

I'm currently on book# 11 in the Wheel of Time -- Knife of Dreams and I'm assuming if you haven't read the books by now, you won't mind spoilers.  

"The dead are walking, men die impossible deaths, and it seems as though reality itself has become unstable: All are signs of the imminence of Tarmon Gai'don, the Last Battle, when Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, must confront the Dark One as humanity's only hope. But Rand dares not fight until he possesses all the surviving seals on the Dark One's prison and has dealt with the Seanchan, who threaten to overrun all nations this side of the Aryth Ocean and increasingly seem too entrenched to be fought off. But his attempt to make a truce with the Seanchan is shadowed by treachery that may cost him everything. Whatever the price, though, he must have that truce. And he faces other dangers.    The winds of time have become a storm, and things that everyone believes are fixed in place forever are changing before their eyes. Even the White Tower itself is no longer a place of safety. Now Rand, Perrin and Mat, Egwene and Elayne, Nynaeve and Lan, and even Loial, must ride those storm winds, or the Dark One will triumph."


Multiple story lines are coming together, reaching a fevered pitch and the characters are finally making progress, which makes me want to dive into the next book, but I'll hold off for a while. Although  Rand is still battling for control with Lews, he's defeated the fake daughter of the nine moons.  Perrin finally rescued Faile, and Matt, bless him, has gotten the girl.  Tuon saw the man through the eyes of his faithful warriors, and pledged herself to him. He's not sure if it was a good idea or not, but the dice quite tumbling in his head for a while. We still have a lot of braid pulling with Nynaeve and she left Lan at the farthest edges of the Borderland in hopes of helping him survive.  Elayne is doing the best she can to win over the 10 houses and the aes sedai are plotting against each other and with each other.  Loial's mother finally caught up with him and Egwene is trapped in the White Tower.    There is quite a bit of gate time traveling and  I still don't see how they managed to move thousands of men so fast even with the gate.  

I'm looking forward to diving back into the Wheel of Time with all my favorite characters!

Artful Wednesday: Wolf



I've joined the adult coloring craze. James loves to watch all kinds of you tube theory and review videos with me about assorted comic books, video games and movies including Star Wars, Breath of the Wild and Sonic.  Surprisingly I have a hard time listening without keeping my hands busy so the coloring books have been a life saver. Over the past couple years I've collected a few, so have a variety to choose from. You can only color so many butterflies.  *grin*    I'm rather proud of this one, 


Adult Coloring book:  Stress Relieving Designs


Essays: Life - Past and Present




When you have a child with Asperger's, your life is really not your own. It becomes an open book. Therapist and doctors, even family members who think they know better than you, tell you  how to raise your child. You’ve always been a private person. An introvert. Along comes this little baby who from the very moment of his birth, goes from zero to sixty in a heartbeat. Your life is no longer private but open for all. He’s grown to be a quite gregarious, lively, young man with no censor button. He remembers everything you say and you never know what inadvertent comment said in the heat of the moment may come back to haunt you.

The house is finally quiet and your boy is in his room writing. Your ginger tabby is curled up next to you. sleeping. Hubby’s out doing his ten thousand steps. The clock ticks the minutes off as the washing machine hums in the background. You recall a conversation with a woman who overheard your son reading somewhere. “Wow, your son reads so well. Did you teach him?” It was one of those how are you, I’m fine questions and expecting a simple answer, she got the history of golf. You watch her eyes start to glaze as you explain teaching him to write the alphabet, all about phonics, and watching Leap Frog videos.  You take pity on her and smile, let her off the hook and cut it short and say “Thank you for asking. Yes I did. He’s doing great, isn’t he?”

You hate labels. Some people define their lives by them. You fought ‘labeling’ your boy as autistic for a very long time. You didn’t want him to define his actions, his life by a label. You read all the books and, in the process, learned quite a bit, not only about your son, but yourself and your husband. Dreamers and dynamos, spatial-visual learners, spirited kids, highly sensitive, introverted, extroverted, gifted, etc. Are we all autistic or just human with quirky traits? Smart quirky kids now have labels and people work to fix them, trying to make a square peg fit into the round hole. You decide you can’t change temperament. He can’t be defined because he is his own person.

Books, hard bound and soft bound, thick and thin, every color of the rainbow were arrayed on the shelves in an orderly fashion. The high school library, quiet except for the swish of pages being turned. Pre cell phone and pre computer era, the tables were always full with students reading and writing. You practically lived in the library, volunteering as an aid and hanging out when not in class. You had the dewey decimal numbers memorized and knew where to find almost any book.

Puberty proved to be beyond you and you gave in and surprisingly found out that the medical community had caught up, offering all kinds of services to help kids who are different. You finally accept the label, opening your life to criticism as well as support, some useless and some beneficial.

You now have two sets of world book encyclopedias. Hubby’s old set from the 60’s and a newer version bought in 2003. You have fun comparing the entries and what’s changed over the years. You and your son visit the library a couple times and come to the conclusion you like owning your books.  We both like to reread our books over and over again, so our shelves are overflowing with both fiction and nonfiction. Want to find something out, pick up a book. Although some days it’s easier to go online and look it up, you point your son in the direction of the encyclopedias and tell him to look it up.

One of your siblings, the one who always felt so misunderstood, decided to earn her master degree in psychology. You hope she recognized herself in some of the things she learned. She did her thesis on autism and couldn’t comprehend that you’d already read all the books, the studies and theories. She was only too happy to share everything she learned in hopes of making your life better. She went in wanting to help fix your son  and came out realizing he didn't need to be fixed, just loved. Your oldest sister, the one with six kids, didn’t understand why you didn’t go to her for advice on how to raise or discipline your son. She’s been there, done that and knew better.  Your boy rewrote the rule book and taught her a few new things.

Books shape your life and fill your world with information, hope, joy, and imagination. Anything we can think of, we can find it in a book. Don’t understand something, look it up. Love shapes our lives in much the same way. You accepted the label and  shared the books, and now your family understands how our son shaped and changed our life. Why we do things a bit differently.

You know the saying – it takes a village?

For us, it’s a village with a library and unconditional love.

Guest Post -Development History of the Sonic the Hedgehog Movie (by James M)

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Hey, people. CrazyGamerHistorian1999 here.

With the long-awaited Sonic the Hedgehog movie on the horizon, due to hit theaters real February 14th on Valentine's day, I thought it would be sweet to look back at the long process of development of the movie over the course of nearly three decades.

So lets begin...

Origins/Sonic: Wonders of the World

As you all know, back in the early 1990s, Sonic the Hedgehog came out for the SEGA Genesis and was a huge success, spawning more video games, a ton of comic books, lots of merchandise and nearly countless cartoons from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog to Sonic SatAM itself. But, what about the big screen?

This is where we get to the first subject of our story; Sonic the Hedgehog Wonders of the World.

Image result for sonic wonders of the world


In 1993, SEGA came up with the idea of a feature length Sonic the Hedgehog movie while work on SatAM and AoSTH was going on. Long story short, there was a lot of skepticism given what had happened in 1987 when the Masters of the Universe movie and the Mario Bros movie came out. However, in the end, SEGA formed a partnership with MGM and Richard Jefferies began writing the script for the movie.

So what was the movie going to be like and what was the plot?
Well, it was gonna be a live action-animation hybrid on the same level as films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Mary Poppins, even though the latter had one live action/cartoon segment.

The plot was simple: a 12 year old schoolboy named Josh teams up with Sonic, who came out of the game Sonic X-Treme, to stop Doctor Robotnik from achieving his ultimate goal of dominating the world. The movie was gonna have a happy ending too.

In 1995, Jefferies presented his script to SEGA and the others to positive reception among the executives only for things to eventually go south when MGM backed out of wanting to make the movie and, in the end, Sonic Wonders of the World was basically scrapped...

Sonic OVA:
In my opinion, the OVA doesn't really count as a movie as it was basically the pilot for an anime that never got made. The movie was still good which I saw with my pop back in 2015. So, uh, how about we move on to something else?

Sonic Armageddon



After Wonders of the World was scrapped, it would be a loooooooong time before another shot at trying to get the Sonic movie off the ground happened. In 2002, Ben Hurst contacted SEGA and attempted to pitch a movie idea that would revive the long gone Sonic SatAM and give it the proper conclusion it deserved. Side note: Ben Hurst was the head writer and director for the Sonic SatAM cartoon itself, he was really good but sadly he's no longer with us.



However, things changed when Ken Penders caught wind of the project. So who's Ken Penders you may ask, he was head writer of the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comics from issue 11 all the way to issue 159, he helped make the series very famous and a huge success after all, Ken was also the one who made so many fan favorite characters such as Julie Su, Evil Sonic (later known as Scourge the Hedgehog), Elias Acorn and so much more.
However, despite being an important part of the Sonic series' legacy, his reception is... a bit mixed nowadays with a couple people liking him and a ton of people hating him. 



Anyway, Mr. Penders caught wind of the project and contacted SEGA, objecting to Ben's pitch while offering his own pitch known as Sonic Armageddon, which would be based off the SatAM cartoon and the Archie Sonic comics. The movie was going to be more darker and more serious than SatAM. How? Mobius would have been destroyed and we were going to see a more scarier version of the process known as roboticization. What is roboticization? Its the full conversion of people into robots via a machine, Robotnik/Eggman is usually the one to roboticize people himself.

However, despite Ken and SEGA's efforts to get the movie off the ground, Sonic Armageddon was eventually scrapped. Afterwards, it would be a lot longer before another attempt to get the movie off the ground, bringing us all the way to Sony/Paramount's Sonic movie.

Sony Pictures and Paramount:
In 2013/2014, Sony Pictures secured the rights from SEGA to make a Sonic the Hedgehog movie.  Development soon began and with no word of the project being cancelled, fans would finally get the movie they'd been wanting to see ever since Sonic's heyday in the 1990s. The people brought on board to make the movie had many ideas for it. At one point, they wanted to give Sonic a Dark Knight treatment. By Dark Knight treatment, I mean darker and grittier. For a while, the developers wanted to actually have the movie be PG-13, kinda nuts.

A few years passed and eventually, the rights to the movie suddenly switched from Sony to Paramount, with production, casting and filming starting up in 2017/2018. The man chosen to direct the movie was Tim Miller, who'd directed the r-rated superhero Marvel movie known as Deadpool. Yup, the guy who would later direct Terminator Dark Fate. By August/October of 2018, the cast was ready and filming started in Vancouver Canada. The movie was given the release date of November 2019.




Filming finished in later 2018 and towards the end of the year, marketing for the Sonic movie started with a poster in December teasing Sonic's design.  Despite being in shadows, many fans were nervous by the design which  "hardly" resembled Sonic himself. It wasn't long before ANOTHER poster dropped, this one showing the Golden Gate Bridge and Sonic's legs. Fans freaked out even more, yet there was speculation about when the trailer would drop and we would get our first look at this new version of Sonic.

Finally, after months of waiting and hearing rumors, a trailer dropped on April 30th, 2019...



The trailer gave us a glimpse of Sonic's world, starting with the town of Green Hills and a blue blur passing by a cop car with the character of Tom Wachowski curious and confused at what was going on. As we eventually heard the song Gangsta's Paradise, we finally got our first real look at Sonic, who had tall legs, a different body, glove-less hands, new shoes, realistic furr and a bizzare face. "Gotta go fast." This Sonic is voiced by Ben Schwartz, not Roger Craig Smith or Jaleel White.

We also got our first look at the movie's version of Doctor Ivo Eggman Robotnik who is played by the incredible Jim Carrey. This version of Robotnik is a bit rude and interrupts a soldier named Bennington, his assistant is Agent Stone, whom some fans see as this film's version of Snively from SatAM and the Archie comics. Lets not forget the whole "uh meow" scene and the rest of the trailer with Sonic and Tom sharing the screen together and a bit more of Robotnik himself.

Image result for tyson hesseImage result for new sonic trailer

However, despite being really good, this did not stop the fan backlash regarding Sonic's design. So the movie was delayed to February 2020 until while the creators' worked to give Sonic a better design with the famous Tyson Hesse being brought on board to redesign the blue blur. Months later, in November/December of 2019, we got another trailer and saw the new look which the Sonic fans were familiar with. This was positively received by fans more so than the first trailer and the other design.

Then, days ago, towards the end of the year, we got this...

Image result for movie sonic baby sonic

Yup, we're gonna see Sonic as a baby in this movie.  Move aside Baby Yoda, we got Baby Sonic.

Conclusion:
At long last, after years of waiting, after so much development heck and so much trial and error, so many delays, the Sonic the Hedgehog movie is finally hitting theaters and will eventually hit DVDs. Fans have been so patient and so loyal to the blue mascott, years of waiting have paid off. Grab your tickets, people and find yourself a great theater, Sonic is finally coming.

Thank you people and have a great day!
-James M






A to Z Poetry: Absence


Absence


Absence

We'll never see eye to eye, 
If you don't let me grow,
if I don't let you fly.

No longer babies, no longer teens.
Perceiving things by different means
I see blues. You see greens.

I tell the truth. You tell me I lie. 
Not understanding as 
I walk away with a sigh. 


Middle age. Both busy, both immersed.
Crossing t's and dotting i's
Embroiled in our daily lives.

We'll never see eye to eye, 
If you don't let me grow,
if I don't let you fly.

Love laced with strings 
snap and sting,
When you run out of sight. 

You leave, I grieve. 
You return, I accept.
Never demanding the words one would expect.


We'll never see eye to eye, 
If you don't let me grow,
if I don't let you fly.

Some day when we are old and spry
There'll be no more eggshells, 
and no more why's.

Perhaps, then we'll see eye to eye.