May the fourth be with you - My Star Wars nostalgia from my childhood

Today is Fourth of  May.  It is the day we celebrate the Star Wars franchise. For many it has been part of their childhood. Many cherish their first experience of watching this movie trilogy and wish to relive the same experience. You know, the usual stuff that is always been said.
But I have a different story to tell you. Until 2011, the year I actually got to see the movies, this is what constituted as Star Wars to me -

 

The 5 year me found it very dark and gloomy and used to get scared a lot whenever it aired. Re-watching it after 20 years, I found it goofy as hell. But hey, this is what nostalgia is all about. Really makes you wonder about the brand power of Star Wars, specially in those days.

My thoughts on Star Wars episode 8 : The Last Jedi(spoilers)

I enjoyed this movie. Sole reason I am even started watching the new trilogy in theater is for the spaceships and space fighters and to uplift my mood. I got that here too, so I am satisfied.

                 In my opinion, I think Luke got satisfying farewell. Personally I did not want him to die fighting and felt that this was an end befitting to a wise sage. The mysterious and mystical nature of  the Force was something I am not fond of because of its nature as a plot device, but at the end of the day, I am fine with it. There are few things that made the experience jarring for me since I am not aware of much of the world-building and tech of the Star Wars Universe, such as why the First Order did not flank the escaping Rebel fleet, why hyperspace projectile warfare not used widely with the help of remote controlled empty vessels, how come First Order managed to finance their forces, who was Snoke and how he manipulated Ben Solo, what is the size of  the first order's military arm, how much of the galaxy they have subjugated,  etc.

                 My intuition says that these questions will be answered and much of these will be expanded in their side materials. Near the end it seems that all has left of the resistance is few survivors they managed to pull in the Millennium Falcon. It also seems that the support they counted on from the periphery states does  not exists  anymore. So, the question is, what is going to happen next from this point on? It seems to  be a momentous task to build up a fighting force that could pose a serious challenge to the first order. Maybe the next movie will take place after a time skip.

                      Now some thoughts on Rey's backstory. If  Kylo Ren is saying the truth(which is very dubious), does it mean that Rey is being some sort of foil in their origins too? Ren comes from perhaps the most prestigious family in the galaxy and inherits immense ability to use the force for having the Skywalker bloodline. Rey, if true, has no decent heritage whatsoever. I think  the goal here is to establish that the force is the fundamental binding phenomenon which can be mastered by any sentient lifeform. Plus it also compares the attitude of these two opposing characters toward their past. Kylo Ren wants to erase it in order to move forward while Rey not only wants to preserve them but also sees them something worth learning in order to face the future (if I recall correctly).

                       In conclusion, I think my time was well spent watching this movie. Let see what they will do with this storyline in the next movie.

-All you Zombies- was not about zombie invasion

When I heard the title of this Heinlein short story, I initially thought it would be about some zombie invasion taking place with main character repeating "all you zombies" as that person makes way through a horde of the brain eating undead with the help of a shotgun. Later I heard that  it was about time travel with grandfather paradox when the movie Predestination (2014) was released.

What I wasn't expecting a story as strange as this, and without spoiling much I will say go read it as soon as possible. After my experience with Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a harsh mistress and Starship troopers, I can say for sure that Heinlein coming up with something like this didn't surprise me and found it very amusing.

An update- a status report and future prospect of this blog

When I began this blog, initially I planned to vent out all the things that came to my mind. After the last post, a lot of stuff happened and amidst all that I lost my drive to update or post about stuff I wanted to. During this period of one and a half year, a lot of surprising events took place , and as we are speaking, more are about to come. But I was busy on a personal front, and to a certain extent I was still trying to figure out all the perils that comes when one  transitions through various stages of life. This blog was born out of that struggle.
The struggle was always about figuring about all the tribulations and chains I find myself into for inexplicable reasons. This has left me an emotional wreak with a very delicate state of mind for a very long time . In this one and  a half year, a journey of gradual change occurred. To put it shortly - my mindset is now completely different than that of around the time I began blogging.
So, would I continue this blog, lashing out or simply writing random things?
Yes.
It might not be as regular as I intended it to be, but it will nevertheless active.
So hang on dear readers, I will post sooner or later.
And I apologize for this long silence.

Active Raid Episode 6 is a beautiful  love letter to the mecha genre

Active Raid has been quite underdog of this season.It has vibes of a Power Ranger-esque /Sentai show with touches of bureaucratic red tape comedy of Dai-Guard and wacky  police hijinks of Dominion Tank Police.ust like the  team itself has bad-publicity despite their efforts in the story,same thing is going on with the anime in the anime fandom/community.Talk about being meta.

While previous episodes have been okay so far,episode six was entirely on different level.

Episode begins with the reveal that Funasaka Yasuharu ,the senior member of the unit is a fan of mecha.Plot of the episode centered around two giant robots Drew and Morgan developed by passionate group of enginner and scientist under leadership of Prof.Kasumigaseki  ,which are now show pieces in a theme park.

Episode deals with  things fans of the genre usually discuss .Whether be dreams of piloting a giant robot or about challenges to make an actual one.These days one can feel that giant robot or mecha genre is losing the charm it had\back in the decade of 70s and 80s .Episode also  talks  about the declining appeal of the giant robots.In-universe back-story  is although mechs were considered to work in dangerous situation,the environmental degradation leading to quick sand phenomenon in Tokyo and later development of more modular power suits "the willwears" eventually made giant robots obsolete.Kinda like how Power armors are considered to be closest thing will be under common use since under broad spectrum of mecha genre,power armors are considered mech too.)
It reminds us that how reality could be cruel sometime,and in case of  mecha fans  time to time they  are bombarded with remarks that the whole thing is stupid and economically a waste of time if someone even thinks to make one,or troll threads telling them that whether they realize that the idea of giant robot is stupid or not.

Back in the story,it definitely feels like punch in the gut for the team behind Drew and Morgan who dedicated their  entire life to fulfill their passion to make giant robot a reality. Some move on,while other remain disgruntled with this.One of them is the pilot who was supposed to pilot Morgan,Shimura Makoto ,who later became pawn of LOGOS, the central villain group and foil of Active Unit 8 and with their usual modus operandi  equip him with will wear which releases waves that makes one fall asleep and assist him stealing Morgan ,leading to rampage in the city.As willwear operatives fail due to this gimmick, it is now upto a giant robot to save the day!

As a mecha fan ,one will easily feel it hitting home. One can easily feel to be in their shoe , where 15-20 years down the line fans will feel nostalgic of genre and their dream to see on getting realized and to pilot on.One cannot help but feel really emotional during the episode,especially when they talk about how mecah became a thing of past.

Interesting aspect of the show was how it the common trope of rival pilot is played here.Funasaka,pilot of Drew represents the good aspects of a passionate person who will not let his frustration  to cause harm and destruction,but also deals with the facts and realities. Shimura,pilot of Morgan represents the bad aspect of a passionate person who let his frustration got better him while not coming up with terms with reality.,which ultimately causes him to do evil with the very passion he had cherished,while Funasaka channels his passion to save innocent bystanders.  All of this shown through an exiting battle of Giant robot fight,which  after a bombastic punch suddenly turns from CGI to 2D,yet another homage to the hay days of the genre when animation was predominately 2D.

Feels like Obari style,right? ANN confirms that Masami Obari indeed did the key animation in this episode,and one can guess which one.

Overall,this episode was really the best in the series and the most memorable one in this season for me. It is is filled with moments which can make you laugh,melancholic or even make you cheer just like Asami (the MC)did despite not being a fan of giant robot. At the end,all I can say is to give this series a try,just for this episode.

Last episode of "Straight Title Robot Anime" is not what I expected

Disclaimer - Contains Spoilers.Proceed if you have completed it  

Straight Title Robot anime is a short title of 12 episodes ,each episode of duration of 13 minutes.

The basic format of almost every episodes - It opens with a very bombastic opening with various  mecha fighting each other with a hot blooded theme song.After the intro, the narrator tells us that it been years after humanity has gone extinct and robots created for combat have been fighting an endless war,while a text scroll informs the viewer that this anime is for those who enjoy seeing cute robots while they do some inoffensive investigation. In a barren landscape with a few ruins of damaged skyscrapers in background , we see three "female" robots  namely Katou - the librarian robot ,Fujii- the maid robot and Mori-the industrial Robot are pondering on ways to stop the war.

 They believe that solution lies in learning something humans used to do -  laughter. Usually various aspect and genre of comedy is touched here which is already  stored in their database along with reference to Japanese comedians( whom I don't know ) as they try to comprehend and re-enact it.Then they go to one of biggest simulation room and simulate various "comedic effects" on the world, which results in many odd things happening the opening intro. They they randomly choose shops or services of humans,and try to make sense out of various articles in their own way.At the end after the ending song follows next episode preview featuring parodies of various mecha anime next episode preview parody art  and catch phrase being cut short.

For 11 episodes it follows the same routine with variation here and there.The only interesting part  consistently throughout the series was the weird simulation they run.Otherwise most of the time it is these 3 robots just talking to each other and doing prop comedy. Sometime they are meh, sometime funny and sometime they are just  a chore to watch. As you progress though the episodes,you start to get the pattern and character quarks which  becomes quite enjoyable near the end. Time to time,narrator passes remarks on their activities,their conclusions to tough subject of comedy and their character.

And then came the last episode.Without the intro,they continue their daily routine as usual,until Kotou calls out the narrator this time. Later it is revealed that Narrator was a robot all along ,watching them from a distance. And he also laugh,which Fujii the maid robot notices soon.Then it was revealed the narrator robot was actually assistant to last Human researcher who was trying to program human emotion,specially laughing to robots. The big simulation room and database were actually his lab,where he was doing his research. He came there to help the trio after their appeal over a radio broadcast. Then the narrator robot proceeds to gives them a floopy disk that had laughter program. 

When asked what he defines laughter is, he answers, "Laughter is being able to have freedom from law and enjoying it at any moment" . They run the program in the simulator and what they witness is all robots just shut down. To the trio's astonishment Narrator robot knows the flaw in the program. Reminding them of his definition of laughter , he points out that robots who had been hardwired to follow orders programmed in them  shut down after conflicts and contradiction arises from the program that forces them to commit the act of laugh. He bids farewell and  shut downs ,leaving the fate of robots in the trio's hand.

After witnessing that they were right being laughter stopping the war but not in the way they intended,Kotou and Mori decide that Fujii should take the  decision whether  to upload the program to every robot or let the things be as usual,since she was created to be closer to humans.Fujii declares that she r actually never served any human,Kotou convinces her to think the program being work of his master. After a thought, Fujii who has been the "butt-monkey" for the sketch routine in previous episodes, says,

"God created Humans which were incomplete .Humans created Robots which are more incomplete.

Let a new life be born on earth,that is neither human,nor robot".

Thus,Fujii uploads the program.For a brief moment,Trio experience laughter and one by one shut down with Fujii being last.Ending sequence now shows us robots which are now turned off,lying among the ruins.

For a short series that remained pretty bland and lighthearted till penultimate episode,last episode was just punch in the guts. It was unexpected and very sad ending.Considering how silly it was most of the time ,last episode turned out to be very heavy in terms of themes and emotions. But then considering the subject,who knows it is what the creators were aiming for at the end.

Wish I had born in Space Age,so I could became an astroknight

Desiring to born during a time when space travel is new age of exploration where one goes to the final frontiers and conquering it as one sees,is a dream that majority of this world has.It has been inspiration of science fiction from days of pulp magazine to the modern fiction based on hard scientific understanding and realistic engineering. Of course there will be always talks and speculation for mining on space,given that as a biological machine ,mankind must feed itself in order to keep oneself going on till passing the torch to the next generation.

But why an  "asntroknight" ? What does it mean.

It is inevitable that future wars will be for space, and it's openness ripe for pirate raids(if they can afford to do it or just plant some bots). Greed will always undermine the hindsight and jeopardize everything for the future generations. Hence,here arrives the "Astroknights". These are the brave soldiers of mankind who will make sure that the sanctity of space travel shall not be violated , the journey to the final frontier would be open for all  and baby steps away from the cradle is not screwed up which may consequently  creates enmity for the generations to comeIt would be repeating the same mistakes that happened due to lack of global connectivity. This cannot excused in space age.

Now you might ask,What "sanctity of space " means? Well, mankind has struggled a lot and traveled a journey of billion years to reach this point.Space is an empty place with celestial bodies divided by huge distances.This is where humanity must recognize the fact that there is big mission lies ahead of it that rises above the trouble mankind suffers due to it's hubris,as history has shown. Hence ,in order to attain maturity as a species,it is necessary to set noble goals to guide it's way,and space should be the noble goal at the end of this era and beginning for the new.
 

We are already living in a cyberpunk with significant progress in prosthetic organs. Sooner or later other science fiction speculation may happen,as it had been in last 50-60 years. Who knows what crazy occurrence  we going to witness!

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This post is not only presents one of my most idealistic,childish of dreams but also the most immature of all.

Chivalrous knight in space? It is the most cliched thing I could ever come up."Sanctity of Space" is perhaps the most elaborate bullshit I have ever written on internet.

May be it spawned from my desires to go back and to prevent small things becoming huge problems later.May be it is just an escapist thought of mine who just wants a break from a reality where the author of these words you,my beloved reader is reading has never achieved anything of worth.May be it is my deepest desire to be revered in history as a great man.

The answer is, all of the above.Well, my dear reader,I have other dreams too that once came to my mind.Some remained in the records gathering  dust while others are  forgotten forever.This blog is just an attempt for those thoughts to see the light of the day,so that I have one regret less to ponder upon.