Brickmuppet Blog 2.0

April 11, 2015

Log Horizon Ends

The last two episodes revolve around Shiroe gathering together a scratch force of people who are not comatose, several of whom we have not met before ('cause they are all that's left).

It seems that the communications tower in "Shibuya" is now the source of the narcolepsy-itis that is plaguing everybody. Specifically, it has been taken over by a swarm of sleep moths which take flight every night and spread moth dust, which is the source of the proble. Shiro notes ruefully that as soon as they had determined that the tower might be a key to returning everybody home, this situation pops up, which might well, necessitate them destroying the tower.

It also hints that fate...or someone, is just screwing with them.

Not to fear, Shiroe has a particularly cunning plan...

And so it ends...

The ending was as satisfying as possible given that they have apparently caught up to the source material, at least to the point that there is not enough for another season right now. The show left off at a perfectly good break point and the end certainly did not smack of Gainax.

As for the series overall, the production values on this show were quite cheap, occasionally to the point of distraction, but the story for the 50 episode run was astoundingly good throughout. The characterizations were excellent and the general tone and direction of the story were uncommonly upbeat despite a grim premise. This is a show about civics; people working together to improve their community and banding together in the face of danger.

One of the more enjoyable aspects of the show was that, in stark contrast to most others in the genre, it truly has an ensemble cast. Shiroe is generally held to be the lead, but the focus frequently cuts to the rest of the cast, whose adventures and quirks are vital to the story. Shiro can't do it by himself, and in fact is not even a major player in nearly half of the episodes. Even when it is clear that he is above average at certain aspects of video gaming he does't come off as a Gary Stu. Indeed, it is in the other characters that some of the best characterizations take place, e.g.Crusty and Lenessia are one of the better anime couples of recent years.

Another amusing bit was that there was actually some borderline "sci-fi" involved in this parade of whimsy..... If one has people that can do fireballs via sorcery, and one has the ability to make an iron pressure vessel and fill it with wate....BOILERS!

OK, so it's actually Spelljammer, but its nice to see that the characters are smart enough to figure this out. I don't think they are going to have too much of a problem getting to the moon.

Given the premise and "setting" the potential for this being a gratuitous fan service fest was quite high. That they refrained from that almost entirely was actually refreshing.

This show has a fractally silly premise that they went a long way towards justifying and despite a visibly low budget, its strengths were such that I enjoyed Log Horizon tremendously, beginning to end.

It is certainly to be hoped that they do another season eventually. With that in mind, we'll give Best Kunoichi the last word.

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April 05, 2015

Hiatus

Posting has been and will continue to be light due to holiday and family obligations, 2 research papers and a report.

Here is a 9 tailed fox to tide you over.

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Well This is Still One to Watch (UPDATED)

The Fate Stay Night remake returns following a three month hiatus. After the unexpected turn the show took in episode 12 and three months of anticipation it was, of course, unlikely that number 13 could live up to....

"Oh. Wow..."

I confess I did not see that coming.

13 was a thoroughly entertaining episode which had a couple of unexpected twists including more character development in 23 minutes than many shows have altogether.

I am enjoying this immensely...

...certainly more than these two are here.

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April 04, 2015

While We All Wait

.... with baited breath, to discover who amongst us will make the next misstep on the constantly shifting tightrope of acceptable discourse and get inducted into the Emmanuelle Goldstein society, we should not ignore the wackiness transpiring elsewhere.

Norway has...well...mislaid something....

Only six years ago, Norwegian politicians decided that Russia no longer posed a significant threat and that it was time to sell its top secret base called Olavsvern, which was hewn into a mountain and equipped with the most sophisticated electronics available. Itâ€™s located near the small town of Ramfjord near Norwayâ€™s border with Russia.

That's certainly...awkward.

**********

In other news the negotiations with Iran regarding its nuclear program has produced some tentative results.

None of Iranâ€™s nuclear facilities â€” including the Fordow center buried under a mountain â€” will be closed. Not one of the countryâ€™s 19,000 centrifuges will be dismantled. Tehranâ€™s existing stockpile of enriched uranium will be "reducedâ€ but not necessarily shipped out of the country. In effect, Iranâ€™s nuclear infrastructure will remain intact, though some of it will be mothballed for 10 years. When the accord lapses, the Islamic republic will instantly become a threshold nuclear state.

That from the bastion of reactionary rightwingery that is the Washington Post.

Actual footage of our crackerjack negotiating team negotiating.

Next Big Future looks at the numbers and notes that alarmist claims that Iran will be able to make 32 bombs a year are overblown. In fact the worlds largest state sponsor of terrorism will only be able to make 25 nuclear bombs a year.

So relax.

**********

China seems to be building a naval base in Namibia.

**********

The Middle East continues to deteriorate.

The US is asking all Americans to leave Yemen...but won't provide an evacuation.

**********

Al Shabab has killed nearly 150 people at a university in Kenya. Neo has thoughts and links here.

**********

My State's bar association turns out to be a little bit evil.

**********

Finally, on a arguably less serious note, the President of Russia's Academy of Geopolitical Problems demonstrates why he does not run the Academy of Geological Problems...

"Geologists believe that the Yellowstone supervolcano could explode at any moment. There are signs of growing activity there. Therefore it suffices to push the relatively small, for example the impact of the munition megaton class to initiate an eruption. The consequences will be catastrophic for the United States - a country just disappears," he said.

Even multi-megaton nukes pale in sheer scale to geological processes. Besides, while the Yellowstone magma chamber is huge, it is currently about 85% solid. Now a 20 megaton nuke ( the largest the Russians have) would leave 800 foot deep crater, so there might be a tiny chance that several of them going off simultaneously might suddenly excavate enough material to relieve enough pressure to cause something to happen (besides a Russia ending retaliatory strike), but it would probably not be a VE-8 eruption. They'd likely be infinitesimally better off targeting Clear Lake, Newberry, Medicine Lakes or Long Valley and would be better served still by not being so silly.

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1 "in hindsight itâ€™s clear that selling [Olavsvern] was not a good decision."
Hm. Sounds like some Europeans, at least, are starting to wake up. Good news, hopefully.

Posted by: RickC at Sat Apr 4 13:25:24 2015 (0a7VZ)

2 One thing Obama has done which has a good side: he's finally made clear to the Europeans that they ultimately can't depend on the US to defend them. Since the founding of NATO the Europeans have been free-riding on American defense spending (while sanctimoniously criticizing it, since the fall of the USSR) but now they can't any more.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Sat Apr 4 20:22:30 2015 (+rSRq)

3 You know... might it not be time to wind up NATO?

It's clearly warping Russia's perceptions - they see this big, expanding military alliance against them and think "man, if we let down our guard it's gonna be 1941 all over again!" (not that we need any lebensraum, thanks, we already got plenty...) And it's causing them to do stuff that we interpret as needlessly hostile and paranoid, which causes us to respond and have them react similarly, etc.

Ultimately Europe's security is going to rest on the same thing that kept the US and the Soviet Union from going at it hammer and tongs - nuclear arsenals that make direct invasion an invitation to mutual annihilation.

Is there really a reason for us to stay in, as it were? Yes, it imposes a peace between the European nations - Germany and Greece aren't going to go at it with anything more than hot rhetoric - but the days where Germany can seriously be a threat against the world are over. It's just too -little-.

And if we can ratchet Russia's tension down, a lot of our other problems get easier to handle too.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Sat Apr 4 23:35:25 2015 (zTHWs)

4 Re: Namibia, it would seem that my Nicaragua paranoia wasn't paranoid enough.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sun Apr 5 02:13:55 2015 (ZJVQ5)

5 Yes, and if we can only make Hitler less paranoid, he won't invade any more countries! Honest!

Putin doesn't want the Crimea as a buffer state against NATO or anyone else. He wants Ukraine, and he wants everything that used to be in the USSR, and he wants all the landmass that the USSR never quite managed to grab, like Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. (Although I suspect that would be "without the current inhabitants.")

Truly, this isn't difficult to figure out. It's pretty standard for Russian imperial ambitions. Third Rome, blah blah blah.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Mon Apr 6 16:11:01 2015 (ZJVQ5)

6 Sure. But if we're going to commit to anti-Russian expansion - if they are, once again, The Enemy - then let us not pussyfoot around.

Are we better off where the list of rogue nuclear nations corresponds more or less to the list of Russian client states? If the Russians are happy for us to deal with a nuclear North Korea or a nuclear Iran, then why shouldn't we give them a pack and a half of headaches, nuclear Poland, nuclear South Korea, nuclear Taiwan? Nuclear Latvia and Finland. And that gives us an answer to Russian aggression short of "end the world", no?

The alternative is what? Draw a line in the sand and abandon anything beyond it? Draw an endless succession of red lines which Russia can skip over until they finally find the one that makes us drop the bomb? Or just Cold War II, Internet Boogaloo edition?

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Mon Apr 6 22:15:01 2015 (zJsIy)

7 Right now, nobody in the world believes that we will do anything, or at least, not anything useful or sustained. We have refused to give our allies defensive weapons that we had previously promised to them, and we have reneged on a bunch of other stuff.

Meanwhile, Russia and China have plans which they are carrying out.

We aren't doing anything much, except helping Iran's government. The more we let the situation go on, the more likely that we will have do something aggressive back. The sooner we start helping with mutual defense and providing what we've promised our allies, the more likely that Russia and China will slow down or back off.

(Or there's always the option of letting everybody else get conquered, and then being conquered or becoming a client state. But I don't like that option.)

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Fri Apr 10 15:40:10 2015 (ZJVQ5)

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April 03, 2015

14 Hours to Go!

Saturday mornings are saved!

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April 01, 2015

Strange Things Happening Today for Some Reason

Unexpected things...

Fishy even...

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March 28, 2015

This is Interesting

This fan film is making the rounds and deservedly so.

Its animation appears to be largely the work of one guy who has published a short exposition on his techniques here.

The process looks to be very similar to what the late Monty Oum described as his team's method of producing RWBY. That show had a cast and crew of 10 for the first season and 15 for the second.

That's impressive, but remember that Oum reportedly did the first and second RWBY trailers by himself and this fellow Paul Johnson did the Tie Fighter short himself over a period of about two years.

The gatekeepers continue to stand guard unflinchingly, but their walls are now full of holes.

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What is This?

I can't even....

That didn't help at all.

Allow me to explain...

The issue is not that the fellow defected, it's the buried lede in the last sentence.

The US negotiating team are mainly there to speak on Iranâ€™s behalf with other members of the 5+1 countries and convince them of a deal

The most disturbing thing is that I'm not even

...shocked.

via

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Rocinante: 1981-2015

Full disclosure: Strictly speaking, nobody actually died as such. For the vast majority of folks who are uninterested in the first world problems below the fold, here are 3 views of Sakurajima.

(I did not know that Volcanoes sounded like synthesizers!)

Note that pressing "MORE" will result in banality and not more 'splodies.

more...

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March 25, 2015

And Now, Some Words From Our Sponsors

I'm being distracted by three papers, a broken tooth, an oral presentation, a kidney stone, a blown head gasket and tests tomorrow and Friday which have combined to distract me from producing content and contributed to my decision to sell out and monetize the blog.

So here are some ads...

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March 18, 2015

Nothing to See Here

It seems that while we weren't looking, the Chinese agreed to provide Argentina with 5 offshore patrol vessels (actually in this case, small corvettes). The Argentines, for no reason whatsoever, we are sure, have decided to name them the Malvinas class.

This is part of a larger deal where the Argentines got debt forgiven, infrastructure and "stuff" in exchange for mineral wealth, corn and beef. The "stuff" includes several nuclear reactors in exchange for a Chinese spacecraft tracking station in Patagonia and other, undisclosed concessions.

Terra Del Fuego, Sri Lanka, Dominica, all those atolls in the South China Sea, the new Nicaraguan canal, and feelers along the Cape of Good Hope.

China has issues to be sure, but the Middle Kingdom also has the choke points covered.

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March 17, 2015

That Awkward Moment When....

Inquisitive Naga by Bubuzuke

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1 Wasn't he some kind of herpetology expert? Convinced all the local snakes to visit sunny Mediterranean countries instead of dreary Ireland?

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Mar 17 20:31:47 2015 (zJsIy)

2 Well, It may be prudent to just go with that.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Mar 17 20:34:01 2015 (ohzj1)

3 Is that one of the official "Monster Musume" girls? They're getting an anime in July.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Wed Mar 18 11:48:43 2015 (+rSRq)

4 She's not, though there is a lamia in Monster Musume.

Posted by: Wonderduck at Wed Mar 18 12:00:59 2015 (jGQR+)

5 The artist is Bubazuke and the character's name seems to be Hygia.
She's cute as a button and I looked her up. Initially all I found were some character sprites from at least two VNs of her making various expressions which I nicked for possible reaction shots. Further digging revealed that one of the visual novels is classed as "adventure" and seems to have as a possible outcome a particularly charming good end... Regrettably, I ceased researching the matter further shortly thereafter when further inquiry uncovered what I strongly suspect was rather more detail into the precise processes of how that ending came about than was strictly necessary for plot advancement as well as considerably more comprehensive speculation into the biomechanics of snake girl anatomy than I cared to ponder. I think the VN is called Mamono Musume tono Seikatsu ~Lamia no Baai if you feel the need to look into such matters.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Mar 18 20:47:46 2015 (ohzj1)

6 DId our host just delete his informative comment or did Meenuvia just suffered a data loss?

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Thu Mar 19 00:38:16 2015 (RqRa5)

7 Mauser's comment is gone too ("if you found her, it would be your lucky day"). I think we ought to poke Pixy.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Thu Mar 19 00:49:00 2015 (RqRa5)

8 Hrm. Not sure what's missing, but Mauser's comments seem otherwise intact.

I'll run the comment fixer upper script anyway.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thu Mar 19 03:43:47 2015 (PiXy!)

9 It's all back now. I thought I did the shift-reload thing. Oh, well, sorry for the false alarm.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Thu Mar 19 11:41:06 2015 (RqRa5)

10 BTW, the nickname at Pixiv reads "bubunosuke", which obviously is a portmaneu of "bubu(no)" and the usual suffix of Keisuke, Ryousuke, Shinnosuke, etc. Kinda wondering if he meant "boobies".

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Thu Mar 19 11:44:03 2015 (RqRa5)

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I Am Unsure

...if this is a Leprechaun or just a really big clover....

...but it was done by Silverbin and seemed topical.

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March 15, 2015

New Zealand

...has volcanoes, giant squid, tsunamis, colossal squid, earthquakes, sharks, mud pots and kiwi birds. So it makes sense that one needs good insurance there.

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March 14, 2015

A Question For My Readers

"And now, the REAL battle begins!"

I'm wondering if I was having problems with Crunchyroll's stream or if this episode of Log Horizon was really animated at about 4 fps?

more...

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1 I'm a bit behind on my Log Horizon viewing, but as to Rudy

Posted by: Siergen at Sun Mar 15 13:54:02 2015 (Cvfrl)

2 A little OT for this episode, but something rather interesting has occurred to me while watching anime:

It seems to me like the Japanese have a better understanding of their nerds. They seem like they understand much better what makes them tick psychologically. Shiroe is pretty much an archetypical nerdy introvert: He prefers to work with the abstract, he prefers to stay in the background of a situation and get at an understanding of the problems he faces before moving. He's happy when his friends are having fun, but he's usually watching the fun from the background. etc.

I wonder why anime writers are better at this, and why in just about every bit of western pop culture I can think of, nerds are misunderstood at best, and usually dehumanized?

Posted by: MadRocketSci at Sun Mar 22 12:29:52 2015 (GtPd7)

3 PS - I have too many aliases going on the internet. I've posted here before as ams. MadRocketSci is another one I go on at my blog.

Posted by: MadRocketSci at Sun Mar 22 12:38:46 2015 (GtPd7)

4 PPS - I'm not intending nerd or introvert in the perjorative sense. It's probably symptomatic of our popular culture that there's no way to refer to this type of personality *but* in a perjorative sense. (Seriously, where does this come from anyway? It's all pervasive. Japan could make Log Horizon or Mouretsu Pirates, but the US is stuck with the Big Bang Theory. And where has our sci-fi gone?)

I really like the characters in this series. Nyanta is pretty much chivalry personified. (Can't be easy for him, and yet he's always keeping his comrades' spirits up.) Shiroe is awesome. Even the shopping street 8 guy is awesome (Seriously? A capitalist as a protagonist, doing what merchants actually do? Pinch me!)

Posted by: MadRocketSci at Sun Mar 22 13:21:57 2015 (GtPd7)

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The Day Was Saved

Astonishingly, the Village Inn was almost out of pies, but at 9:26 PM, we did our bit to save the world.

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March 13, 2015

An Argument Against Friggatriskaidekaphobia

18 minutes left to go and as of yet no disasters have yet befallen any of the staff here at Brickmuppet Blog since midnight.

So close...so close...18 minutes to safety....

Lest people grow complacent, it should be remembered that in a few minutes it will be International Pi day.

If one does not consume pie at exactly 3-14-15 9:26:54 then no one knows WHAT might happen!

UPDATE: John C. Wright speculates

more...

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March 12, 2015

Terry Pratchett 1948-2015

Sir Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series quietly passed away this morning, having fought a battle with early onset Alzheimers, which, in a manner of speaking, he won. You see, he succeeded in completing his last novel The Sheppherds Crown shortly before his passing. It will be published posthumously.

Pratchett leaves behind a vast body of work that has brought and will continue to bring joy to millions. He also had a fossil sea turtle named in his honor and a greenhouse full of carnivorous plants, because he was just that awesome a person.

A great man has passed, but in both his work and his life, he inspired many of the great people to come.

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March 11, 2015

In Orbit: 5x5

One of the Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes reacts to the successful insertion of the Dawn Probe into orbit around Ceres, the Solar System's innermost Dwarf Planet.

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March 09, 2015

Log Horizon: 47 Episodes

...and it's STILL full of win.

Best Kunoichi

more...

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1 Yes!!! Finally somebody I can talk about the show and not spoil!!!

Everything we've seen about the empathions seems to indicate that they are some kind of mental energy, possibly produced by emotions or having feelings for others (the marriage Genius) and possibly produced by adventurer memories (the Moon thing).

OTOH, in a universe where physical laws are different, it may be something that's only tangentially related. That might explain why it's supposed to be okay to harvest in areas where the intelligences are not particularly high level, but harvesting from high level intelligences (like adventurers) is forbidden by the aliens' law.

I want Akiba to build a magic spaceship! If there's anything that would stir up the adventurers with acedia, spaceship building should be it! Of course, getting it done while still protecting the city and keeping an eye on Plant Hwyaden won't be easy. But it would be pretty darned amusing if an adventurer space race ensued.

The more we see of Nyanta, the more admirable he becomes. And for being such a showy character, he's always a model of both Japanese reserve and Western chivalrous behavior. His discussion with Serara was remarkably well done, as he managed to be encouraging for her future in general without raising any false hopes in particular. But we have seen some new hints that he's missing people back home and just not advertising it. What a guy!

I am really glad that the Minori love interest plot has been toned down so much this half of the season, and that the writers have made it fairly clear that Minori has adjusted her expectations somewhat.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Mar 10 09:25:02 2015 (ZJVQ5)

2 So that's 42 songs, plus the pop songs introduced by Isuzu, plus the one she wrote?

A lot of people online seem to have disliked that plot. I disagreed, and thought it was moving and interesting. Possibly there are nuances I wasn't getting, but I thought it was an interesting exploration of being a bard, as well as the way our society tends to denigrate people doing music even at home if they aren't instant virtuosi.

(Witness the nasty remarks about Isuzu's voice actress, who was plainly someone who knew how to sing but was deliberately singing in a breathy, unsupported way to simulate inexperience. I don't even know how she managed to sing ever so slightly off key - not even flat or sharp enough to count, something like a quartertone off in just a few places. Maybe the voice actress sings traditional Japanese tonal music, or maybe she's just a good mimic, but it was a really good simulation of someone with solid instrumentals and not-so-solid vocal skills. Which is a fairly common situation in amateur music.)

There were also some who thought Isuzu was upset out of nowhere, but I think that was just a function of how disturbing it is to have Isuzu go off the rails. She's such a supportive and cheerful girl most of the time that people forgot she might have her own concealed issues. Apparently a passion for music without the skill level she expects of herself is her biggest issue, and now she has had to confront it head on.

The thing is, self-criticism is important, but music is also one of those gifts which are not given primarily for one's own enjoyment and use. Music exists primarily to be heard and enjoyed by other people, and it is more important that they get something out of it than that you feel satisfied with yourself. So sometimes, it's more important to do your best right now than to wait for perfection that may never happen. In a world where people have been deprived of more than just a little slice of music, even a half-baked amateur has an obligation to spread beauty.

I am a bit surprised that we haven't explicitly heard of Isuzu spreading this info to every bard in the city, and everybody who can whistle. The game-style physical laws probably make her kind of stuff difficult to do, but it would be worth some effort.

I also liked the way Rudy got some new respect from Isuzu. You can only do retriever jokes so long, and he's a great guy with hidden depths.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Mar 10 09:46:26 2015 (ZJVQ5)

3 The town may have been larger because of the large number of low-level players who had to pass that way, back in the game days, and the large amount of money they would spend. It sounds like the magic bag quest was usually something you went after at a very low level, because everybody needed to have the expansion slots for equipment. The town may also have featured a lot of side areas for minor quests.

I do think the pacing was off in the town wyvern attack episodes. But they had a lot to put in. I do kinda wish they'd let Tohya just come out and say, "You are freaking amateurs at suffering, and I'll tell you my story straight out, and then I'll tell you when you have a right to despair." I honestly don't think the Odyssey Knights were in any condition to understand his Japanese-style implication speech, or they were deliberately trying not to hear.

The discussion between Minori and Roe-2: Yeah, that could have been better staged, but convincing a high level experienced player to help was a perfectly good use of Minori's support role, at least at the beginning of the battle. I did see some commentary about the questions Roe-2 asked being references to some kind of known philosophical theory about the common good, but I didn't really get it. Obviously something more popular in Japan than here.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Mar 10 10:04:57 2015 (ZJVQ5)

4 I was totally wrong about the intelligences. I was so sure they were just fragments of AI for the game that had come alive, because of the farmbot that had come alive.

Even assuming that the aliens have the power to go from universe to universe, ripping open space/time and possibly causing havoc, I don't see how they inadvertently dragged in the adventurers. I guess we need to stay tuned for that.

Of course, it would be pretty funny if it turns out that going from world to world across universes is just traveling from computer game to computer game, a la Reboot.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Mar 10 10:12:14 2015 (ZJVQ5)

5 The revelation that there have only been 40-odd songs was a pretty startling one. I don't get the rage at Isuzu's reaction, which was completely appropriate, especially given her love of music. I thought it was really neat (and kind of creepy). I suspect that part of that reaction had to do with the realization that the amazing response they were getting was not necessarily a reflection of the band's skill, as it was joy to hear something new("in the kingdom of the blind and all that") which probably stung her pride a bit...in addition to the gut punch which that whole revelation entailed. There is just so much in that little side plot...it's really just a few lines of flavor text that she sulks over for a bit while the main story is happening,but it adds a ton of depth.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Mar 10 11:12:53 2015 (ohzj1)

6 That's a good point about the gut punch about her performance skill... although really, the band was pretty good, and fresh entertainment is always welcome in a medieval-level economy. But OTOH, there's no sweeter sound to a songwriter than other people singing your stuff! So it evened out in the end.

I actually thought they were going to have Isuzu creating a bardic teaching/overskill, because logically a brand new song in that milieu might have serious god-level power. But if that's where they're going, they're not there yet.

In the light novel, I think they mentioned that most people who play bard characters just let the computer play for them, and so Isuzu is still one of the few bard adventurers who actually plays her instrument, instead of using bardic powers to do it. I suspect this would change big-time once people knew more.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Mar 10 11:52:12 2015 (ZJVQ5)

7 RE: the marriage genius-it's strongly implied that the women who vanished before Harem Fantasy Inc, West Wind took the beast out are....gone. Where is unclear, were they married off, rendered for their 'empathions'...what? The side story with Kanami's group being referenced in flashback (where the monsters that were eating people were revealed to be djin) indicates that this is a serious threat.
RE: Empathions-I think you're right that this has something to do with the memory fragments lost during the 'resurrection' process. Roe-2 mentioning that she's decided they are all class 3 and therefore 'entitled to their world's resources' would seem to solve the problem...but it seems that the harvesters did not get the memo. Does this mean that Roe-2 is not being listened to? Is rogue?
RE: Unfortunate Implications- yeah I'm glad they backed off of that. I agree completely that the conversation with Nyanta really hit it out of the park.
With regard to Tohya's speech, his personal backstory wouldn't have moved the Odyssey Knights...the thing is that he is freed here, he has regained what he lost in the 'real world'. The guy who is trying to return to his fiance' has received no corresponding perk...just loss. I suspect that many of the less well adjusted were casual gamers who were conventionally successful in Japan. The only appeal to them is one of responsibility, and they were simply too far gone to be moved by that.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Mar 10 11:54:53 2015 (ohzj1)

8 Well, I dunno. I think I'd be shamed to know that a little kid was able to stick out bad stuff for years, with no end in sight, whereas someone who was practically a grown man couldn't stand being a little bit lonesome and got suicidal.

But of course, refusing to feel appropriate shame is a pretty standard way to portray villainy in Japanese shows, and here in the US, it happens in real life a lot these days.

Of course, I think the show would have been a little bit easier on the selfish suicidal mode, if the Odyssey Knights hadn't also decided that even if the People of the Land were real, it was okay to get them killed and destroy their town as part of the suicide quest.

OTOH, I think it's also fair to say that the Knights got so crazy (in part) because they didn't go for any feedback from the larger adventurer community in the cities, or accept/seek any feedback from the People of the Land. I don't blame them for not wanting to do Plant Hwyaden, but they easily could have gone to Akiba for help, recruited more knights, etc.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Mar 10 12:58:44 2015 (ZJVQ5)

9 Man, do I feel sorry for that guy's fiancee. If he gets back, he'll probably have lost himself all memory of her and his family, as well as having transformed himself into a really nasty piece of work with a giant sense of entitlement.

Sorry for the wall o' text. I'm getting my friend to catch up on Log Horizon this week, but she is still more than half a season behind.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Mar 10 13:30:41 2015 (ZJVQ5)

10 In context, Roe2's comment about how the Odyssey Knights "were generously donating empathions" makes quite a bit of sense...

So, question... given the opportunity, which of the main cast would go home? I'd say "Nyanta" but, well... he's kind of a hard-core role-player and he's in his role, so maybe not? The only other main cast member that I think would have any chance of going would be Minori.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Mar 10 13:47:17 2015 (a38fD)

11 If you hold the shift key down and hit "enter" twice inside a spoiler tag, that gives you a new paragraph. (In HTML terms it gives you two "breaks" instead of closing a paragraph and starting another, and breaks don't... break the spoiler mechanism.)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tue Mar 10 14:30:43 2015 (+rSRq)

12 Let's try that out with some off topic, but useful information.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Mar 10 15:03:14 2015 (ohzj1)

13
W0ot! Thanks Steven!
/images/KanamiBeatsFistaLH.gif

"Got any fixes for "being stuck in China?"

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Mar 10 15:13:47 2015 (ohzj1)

14 Sure, you just swim across the Sea of Japan, like Ranma did.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tue Mar 10 17:57:17 2015 (+rSRq)

15 (Of course, you have to be a girl or a panda to do that, like Ranma and her father would have been. After all, the Sea of Japan is cold water.)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tue Mar 10 17:59:40 2015 (+rSRq)

16 To take a stab at Avatar's question...I think the obvious one would be

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Mar 10 20:11:33 2015 (ohzj1)

17 Re: the spoilerific:

All things considered, you could argue that spoilerperson is the most well-balanced adventurer whom we have met, given the exceptional challenge being faced with great cheerfulness.

Naotsugu probably does well wherever he is, although apparently he doesn't get quite as much salary back home as his talents would seem to warrant.

OTOH, people like Shiroe and Akatsuki, or Marie and Henrietta, or the West Wind crew, seem to having much more fun and doing much more good in Akiba. They get to make full use of their talents. Of course, returning to the real world would now mean having a much larger pool of friends and acquaintances and allies. (Henrietta would probably want to get a bunch of people hired, and might start her own business now that she's done it once already.)

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Wed Mar 11 12:25:04 2015 (ZJVQ5)

18 The real question is, how does this work out with respect to the Plant folks?

Obviously if you open the door home you'd have to be careful not to have the Odyssey gang trample each other going through it. On top of that, how does that affect people like Londark? It neatly eliminates his moral justification - if you want to get home, then you go home, but if you don't want to, you can't blame the world for subjecting you to it any longer; in essence you have to take responsibility for your morals from the perspective of the world as a real world. (Well, to the extent that you did in the first place; plenty of people go through real life with the thought that they don't owe the world anything to begin with, so it's not beyond the pale that some of them would take the same outlook into the game...)

It's not likely to sap Akihabara's strength much because that moral issue doesn't really exist - the people who are the base of Akihabara's strength are there because they're fully engaging the world on its own terms already.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Wed Mar 11 17:59:06 2015 (zJsIy)

19 A lot of the Plant people are apparently out for power, so they probably wouldn't mind much if a large proportion of Adventurer good guys went home without them. OTOH, they might oppose being made to go home and let the People of the Land work things out. Also, it's pretty clear that some of the new magic is pretty bad, yet many of the People of the Land are totally okay with oppressing their fellows with it.

Still, the siren song of the Internet would incessantly haunt even some of the worst villains. Facebook and cat videos are a drug that you can only access on one planet.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Thu Mar 12 15:27:01 2015 (ZJVQ5)

20 I'm just frustrated that they haven't done anything with Crusty this season. Every now and again, someone says, "Oh yeah, Crusty's still gone isn't he? What's up with that?"

And that's it.

I feel like I'm watching Homer Simpson pitch the character of Poochie: "When Crusty's off the screen, someone should ask, 'Where's Crusty?'"

Though he'll probably be on the moon, along with So-And-So's arm.

Posted by: wahsatchmo at Thu Mar 19 11:32:18 2015 (r4uXE)

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