Now when do we get Star Gladiator 3?

The whole time I was watching “Rise of Skywalker,” one thought kept popping into my mind.  “Why has Capcom not released a 3rd Star Gladiator game to round out a trilogy?”
Star Gladiator and it’s sequel Plasma Sword are 3D fighters where different characters wield constructs composed of light to duke it out for supremacy.  Star Gladiator is an homage to Star Wars much like Capcom’sDarkstalkers is homages the Universal Movie Monsters.   The Star Gladiator series came around at the time of the special edition re-releases in the 90s. That means it has not been used to cash in on the releases the prequel trilogy, The Clone Wars series, and the Disney Trilogy or any of their tie in movies.

I know that around the year 2000, shortly after the second game’s release, the fighting game department at Capcom was shut down.  But if you’re influence is a Trilogy of Trilogies, which Star Wars was always supposed to be, it would behoove you to have at least one Trilogy of your own. So with the 3 year release of new versions of Marvel versus Capcom, Street Fighter, another Capcom versus games why not have that one last Star Gladiator game? And if you do not, it would be who you to have at least one trilogy have your own. So with the release of new version of Marvel VS Capcom, Street Fighter, and other Capcom versus games why not have yeah one last Star Gladiator game? And if you lack the option to make that in actual fighting game, why not something else why not a role playing game? Why not a visual novel? Why not another hybrid, if you don’t have a working fighting game department?

Plus you could use the marketing that this would be a more satisfying conclusion than episode 9 was ever going to be. Given how many kneecaps episode 8 cut the trilogy off at, they have been written into a corner and they knew it. That’s why they start this off with Palpatine’s back from out of nowhere. Now me personally, I don’t hold any grudge against the sequel Trilogy, because I lost so much investment after Episode 1.

I know I know, Star Gladiator III would be tricky even without all these complications.  So many characters from game #2 are re-skins of characters from game one.  If you die in the first game and you don’t come back or return only as a ghost in the second, then you still have very little to go off of as far as character progression goes. So many of the endings involve defeating Bilstern or his ghost. Bilstern is kind of like a cross between Darth Vader and the emperor if Palpatine was an upstart go-getter instead of a sleazy manipulator. Though he still has very little to go off of as far as character progression goes. So many of the endings involved feeding filter on or his ghost.  Which leaves the fallen Hayato from the first two games or his half-sister Rain as possible arch villains.

Rain posits that she’s too strong in her ending, but if she wasn’t given any a difference in play style that would be one more way for developers to coddle the players (assuming they were playing AS her). And storytelling only really happens in game 1 if you be at a certain set of requirements after beating the game. Game 2, it’s brief text base interactions before and after each fight and then ending Chappelle she likes that she’s too strong repeating in her ending you, but if she wasn’t given any a difference in place style that would be one more way for developers to cuddle up player. And storytelling only really happens in game 1 if you beat a certain set of requirements after beating the game. Game 2, it’s brief text base interactions before and after each fight and attending, but that’s pretty obsolete storytelling for this day and age.

So why not starts with doing a Darkstalkers Resurrection style re-release of both games in one online package to test demand or spread awareness. I know I don’t like the Darkstalkers Resurrection style.  It was not available for every system on the market so I couldn’t take part in it, the overall caution meant that people had to save their money in hopes of an actual next installment, and read release of both games and one online package.

That if there is who do we make a game 1 it, remake of game too, and then a third game all lot today. Or he just kept out the fuel G in the otherwise I mentioned. I know I don’t like the Darkstalkers Ressurection style, it was not available for every system on the market so I couldn’t take part in it, the overall caution meant that people had to withhold their money in hopes of an actual next installment, and the lacking tournament scene killed pretty much any form of growing demand before it could happen.  That if there is hoodoo remake of game 1, remake of game 2, and then a new third game to round it out. Or you just complete the trilogy with one last game.  Maybe make Ele the Heroine of a final installment set in the future she hails from.  If you give her the stances of her parents June, Hayato and their friends, she’d be potent enough to be a Rei Stand-In.

Well, this was just something that came to me while I was watching Rei sail through challenges without difficulty (and yes, that was literal, in the Endor scenes.)  And some other things that spun out of that.  I’m almost always looking for ways that older franchisescould come back.  (I still love you, Exosquad).  Anyway, I’ll leave you with my take on the Stormtrooper Frappe from the Starbucks Secret Menu.

As for the actual frappe, the flavor is about as creamy as you could guess, it’s pretty plain but that suits Stormtroopers pretty well. The instructions need to be followed while enough, the frapp loses its visual theme if you’re not careful. Make sure that the mocha drizzle is only on the top of the whipped cream. Otherwise they will put it on the sides. And that only really describes a special sort of Stormtrooper. Well that’s it for now, gonna be focusing more on photography and articles this year. Have a nice 2020, everyone.

And now onto Star Wars

So I waited to release this so I could see what was the most heavily discussed aspects of this movie.  Then I could narrow my field of discussion to notes and thoughts I had on subjects that seemed under-utilized.

Let’s start with the Spoilers.  1) The Emperor finally makes his grand appearance; 2) C-3PO encounters an abused droid; 3) the hero’s woodland trainer of the Force dies; 4) the heroes must pay a visit to an Imperial installation on Endor with the assistance of the locals; 5) the Jedi must contend with the Sith nature within; 6) Darth Vader turns on his Emperor to save a Jedi he loves; 7) The Emperor’s Lightning attack proves to be his undoing; 8) The Emperor unveils a replacement planet-Buster weapon; 9) Lando Calrissian leads a counter-attacking fleet to destroy it; 10) The Emperor uses a super weapon to strike down the fleet; 11) Darth Vader dies to save what’s left of the Jedi Order.  And those are just some of the plot points I noticed from Return of the Jedi while I was still watching.

People ask me if I like this movie. And to ask if I like Episode 7 or 9 is like asking if I like the Psycho remake of the 90’s. I keep seeing so many plot twists from Episodes 4 and 6 I keep “watching” another movie. It’s very rare that any motion picture has me keep thinking of another one while I’m still watching it the first time.  So I can’t really appraise if I like this for it’s own merits or as an individual work. With that in mind, let us begin…

“The dead speak!” That is the first sentence of the opening text crawl. The earliest sign we had that they would bring Palpatine back was the sound of his laughter in the trailer. Now maybe he had learned the art of glowing intangible immortality (unlikely for a Sith). Maybe he’d been cloned or something else he’d set up from his days as Chancellor. Now, this wouldn’t be the first time that Disney took falling into the abyss to mean the villain wasn’t really dead. Heck, they throw Kylo into a pit and promptly bring him back in the same scene. So make like Robot Chicken and show us the crash landing.

Wow, they really can’t do anything original can they? The opening text crawl starts with the dead speak and it’s pretty much nothing but Palpatine has announced that he’s still alive. Again no scope, no stakes, nothing that leads to the sociology built framework in the first six movies.

So in the 3rd sequel movie, the 3rd lead from the original trilogy dies. Except that her actress died years ago. And we see younger versions of her and Luke onscreen once or twice. The whole time Leia was onscreen I was either thinking of Deep Fakes, or Jet Li’s objections to having his moves captured for that Matrix Game. Your appearances or physical motions being easily replicated by computers would make frameups and fake news more efficient and prevalent. Were they really able to do this for the late Heith Ledger in Dark Night Rises? It is unsettling for the consensus of reality just how far this technology has come.

Rei’s Trailer Saber Saber represents the greatest missed opportunity (among many others in this movie alone).  They say the folding double saber was lacking in utility. One more way to incorporate Japanese cinema into this franchise, at least.  Have I made my point?

The Saber itself flips from a blade parallel formation into a Darth Maul style.   The potential for this as a blade catcher and counterattack in the hands of a capable (read: Mary Sue) Force User is considerable.

The sword’s flipped feature could harm her easily, but with Force sensitive controls could also add extra bite and mobility in striking.  Light Rei and Darth Rei didn’t even come to blows.  Darth just sprouts a second set of teeth before charging and vanishing.

They didn’t even have a duel, tearing through their surroundings only to reveal it was Rei grappling with her own Terror, there was no one there but the slash marks are everywhere.

New line and these movies can’t even decide where she came from. I remembered as I was watching a series that she was Ben Kenobi’s grandchild, which doesn’t work out because Ben Kenobi is the generation prior to Anakin Skywalker grandfather to an antagonist raise age. Another theory I found here or there was that she was Palpatine’s granddaughter, looks like they just Old Terror, there was no one there but the flesh marks are everywhere.

And these movies can’t even decide where Rei came from.  As I was washing I remembered theories that she was been Kenobi’s grandchild.   I didn’t see the math working out because Ben Kenobi is the generation prior to Anakin Skywalker, grandfather to an antagonist Rei’s age.  (Not to mention that the only candidate for Grandmother was Duchess of Mandalore.  Until we heard the voice of a dead Ahsoka Tano in this movie, I wondered if they threw all the Clone Wars out with the Extended Universe).

Another theory I found here or there was that she was Palpatine’s granddaughter, looks like they just went with that made it up. Because why did he plant nothing for his own grandchildren if he is revival and ascension depends on Rei? Couldn’t he have just grown her from two especially strong for sensitive individuals question mark ground heard of that like you do is Snoke? Except oh, Snoke already had a backstory didn’t he? Just like how the Skywalker family Lightsaber was somehow salvage after falling out of Cloud City. A story for another time indeed, but just like 3PO’s red arm, you’re supposed to buy extra material not to expand on the film Allure, what’s to explain it.  Couldn’t he have just grown her from two especially strong Force sensitive individuals? Grown her in a vat like he did with Snoke?  Soon as I thought of that in the theater, I picture Ben Skywalker stopping to look at all those suspended Rei Skywalkers.  (Yeah, even the Director of Episodes 7 & 9 seemed confused about their bond)

Lastly as I was coming out of the theater, I was wondering two things.  1) why Capcom hadn’t released a new Star Gladiator game in over 20 years, and 2) has anyone repeated the Stormtrooper frap yet?

But that’s for next time.

News In, Knives Out

News first.  I’ve decided to narrow my creative focus towards writing and photography.  So, I won’t be doing any videos not shot straight from a handheld for a while. I recently tried downloading a version of Adobe Premiere that it seemed could be used for free, but it was only free for 3 exports, counting the tutorial. So the search is back on for any decent software, but now I need to check the warranty on my primary computer… which stopped producing sound after I troubleshooted the microphone problems and generally not letting use a mouse/my log in on the regular. Even when I turn off and on again. And it also stopped interacting with the mouse. Happy New Year to me. This has tremendously slowed my down. So I’m going to focus on Photography and Writing for the foreseeable future. With a laptop I was supposed to have scrapped already. That doesn’t let me preview what I make on the videos I splice there. And doesn’t connect to the net anyway. I really need to put my energy away from YouTube for the foreseeable future. As I did with Dailymotion.  (Although that was because I could only make product that was too large a file for that site)  I’ll be putting out one last unedited video on both sites, to say my “goodbye for now.” But then I will need to focus on WordPress, Deviantart and social media until (and if) I can get my PC fixed. Thank you for your patience.

I like how certain things kept coming back up for the beginning to the end. Case in point, the circle of knives, and the game of Go. The circle of knives create an air of intensity and suspicion in anyone sitting in it and that’s how we’re introduced to detective Blanc.

First we have the game of Go. Created by Confucious and used as pieces to plan battle strategies in times gone by. And something I’ve been wanting more mainstream acknowledgement of. Ever since I first picked up Hikaru no Go manga in high school. I like how certain things kept coming back up for the beginning to the end. Then we have the game of go which I’ve been wanting more mainstream acknowledgement of far years. Since I first pic up shown and jump in high school. Hikaru no Go. Good read. Check it out. Although everything I’ve gleaned from it indicates that just putting a pretty pattern together like our heroine Marta does is hardly a winning strategy. But much like the chess in “The Seventh Seal,” the actual mechanics of the gameplay are not the point. More that it is a metaphor and foreshadowing whenever it comes up. When Hugh mentions that Harland said that only Marta played Go better than he did. When Harland never managed to win a single match against her, despite playing one game every night.

Case in point, the circle of knives, and the game of go. The circle of knives creates an air of intensity and suspicion in anyone’s sitting in it and that’s how were introduced to Detective Blanc. The term knives out is only used at the finale, in a fiery speech by Daniel Craig doing an impeccable job of maintaining a Southern accent. I’m so used to hearing him as James Bond, that this was very impressive to me as a performance. He’s not in control.  He starts off mysterious and imposing, but why he’s even there is a mystery to him for most of the movie.  Initially you think he’s going to find out what role the heroine had any inciting incident, but then you realize she’s being played by an outside party and that he has no idea that such a party is even involved.

I only stared watching Miami Vice and Nash Bridges in the mid-new 10’s, and I haven’t checked his IMDb or personal history, but it was nice to see Don Johnson in something current. It’s so telling though, that even his charm could not redeem his character. He plays one of the relatives, one of the entitled heirs. So yeah, it’s hard to make the trust fund crowd likable in this day and age. And make no mistake, in spite of quite a bit of the aesthetic, this is set very much in modern times. And did anyone else get a small chuckle seeing him try to bribe police at the end? What did you think of it?

Now let’s talk about Chris Evans in this movie.  I didn’t see a lot of his twists coming.  He’s leaving the inciting party in a huff.  And it takes awhile for him to reappear.  However you don’t cast Chris Evans to play man number two, and didn’t see as the audience his role in the thing until many flashbacks later. His completely dismissive attitude, improvised slurring, and other… divergences from his more typical roles.  Human Torch twice, Casey Jones once, and that other guy.

Now that Cap is dead(ish), what sort of characters will Chris Evans be playing?  This was a very refreshing change of pace.  He was also in the (snow train?)  I’ll have to keep an eye out for what he does next.

I was surprised to see that such a film was directed by this guy.

Can you guess what I’m doing next?  (Also we saw Luke drink blue milk in the first movie. Not sure how seeing where space milk comes from while a character roughs it is that strange, but okay.