Well, it’s all over the internet, so you might as well hear it from us. Netflix’s changes in programming (is that the right word?) for December have been released, and we figured you’d want to know about it. Don’t lie we know this is the most important news you’ve heard all day.
What’s Disappearing?
We’ll start you off with the bad news: Here’s a list of titles that you can either watch today from the comfort of your bed, or you’ll have to actually go out and buy the DVDs. And that’s, like, a lot of effort. Watch ’em the lazy way while you still can, folks.
1941 (1979) The Apostle (1997)
Audrey Rose (1977) The Believers (1987)
Better than Chocolate (1999) Blood & Chocolate (2007)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)
Chaplin (1992) The Choirboys (1977)
The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County (1970)
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) The Cold Light of Day (1996)
The Constant Gardener (2005) Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)
Cry-Baby (1990) Dirty Dancing (1987)
Double Indemnity (1944) En la Cama (2005)
Event Horizon (1997) Eye for an Eye (1996)
Fairy Tale: A True Story (1997) First Knight (1995)
Five Easy Pieces (1970) Foreign Student (1994)
Free Men (2011) Funny Lady (1975)
The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947) The Girl from Petrovka (1974)
Going Berserk (1983) The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
House of Voices (2004) How to Frame a Figg (1971)
I’m Not Rappaport (1996) Imagining Argentina (2003)
Invaders from Mars (1986) Ishtar (1987)
Joe Gould’s Secret (2000) Joe Kidd (1972)
Johnny Mnemonic (1995) Killer at Large (2008)
King of the Hill (1993) Lonely Hearts (2006)
Magic Trip (2011) Magicians (2007)
Mission: Impossible III (2006) Minnie and Moskowitz (1971)
Monkey Shines (1988) Mr. Mom (1983)
‘night Mother (1986) Night of the Creeps (1986)
An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
Opal Dream (2006) The Other Side of the Mountain (1975)
The Other Side of the Mountain, Part 2 (1978)
Our City Dreams (2008) The Paper Chase (1973)
Paradise Alley (1978) The Parole Officer (2001)
The Pirates of Penzance (1983) Prairie Love (2011)
The Presidio (1988) The Promise (1979)
The Proposition (1998) Reds (1981)
The Return of Count Yorga (1971)
RoboCop 2 (1990) School Ties (1992)
The Sci-Fi Boys (2006) The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
Spice World (1998) Star Trek: Generations (1994)
Swashbuckler (1976) The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
They Might Be Giants (1971) The Untouchables (1987)
The Vampire Lovers (1970) Walker (1987)
Year of the Horse: Neil Young & Crazy Horse Live (1997)
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
What’s Getting Added
Alright, so that’s a lot of taketh-ing, but Netflix is a merciful god and it also giveth, though not all at once. Here’s the new titles popping up along with the dates when we’ll be able to find them.
Available 12/1
A Knight’s Tale (2001) Almost Famous (2000)
American Beauty (1999) Bewitched (2005)
Jewtopia (2012) Knights of Badassdom (2014)
Madison (2005) Out of the Clear Blue Sky (2012)
Out of Time (2003) The Out-of-Towners (1999)
Troop Beverly Hills (1989) Turbo FAST (New episodes)
Available 12/3
Oculus (2014)
Son of God (2014)
Available 12/5
Bill Burr: I’m Sorry You Feel That Way (2014)
Available 12/6
American Horror Story: Coven Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues Super-sized version (2013)
Ava & Lala (2014) Sharknado 2: The Second One (2014)
Available 12/8
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (Season 3)
Available 12/9
I Am Ali (2014)
Drive Hard (2014)
Available 12/10
A Haunted House 2 (2014)
Available 12/11
The Village (2004)
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Available 12/12
Broadchurch (Season 1)
Marco Polo (Season 1)
Nick Offerman: American Ham
Available 12/13
Don’t Blink (2014)
Available 12/15
Jake Squared (2014)
Available 12/18
Ragnarok (2014)
The Honourable Woman (Season 1)
Available 12/19
All Hail King Julien
Available 12/20
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones Extended Edition (2014)
Available 12/22
Dark Skies (2013)
Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997)
Available 12/23
The Trip to Italy (2014)
Available 12/24
Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return (2014)
Available 12/25
Good People (2014)
Available 12/27
Child of God (2014)
Labor Day (2013)
Available 12/28
Behaving Badly (2014) Comedy Bang! Bang! (Season 3)
I, Frankenstein (2014) Maron (Season 2)
Jessie (Season 3)
Available 12/30
Last Weekend (2014) (aptly titled.)
Let us know what you’re most disappointed to see leave, and what your new binging fave. will be! Personally, I’m still waiting to marathon Harry Potter without getting up from my couch…but I won’t hold my breath.
All lists Via Hollywood Reporter. Images from Once Upon A Time, which I (somewhat ironically?) watch on Hulu.
Jen Schiller-Staff Writer
jen@Sub-Cultured.com
twitter.com/jenisaur
I’m what most people would consider a “filthy casual” when it comes to games, and I’m totally cool with that. My favorite games can be dropped and picked back up with ease, have a short story line (or none at all), and are simple to learn. Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., Left 4 Dead, Nintendogs… the kinds of games I like to play are cemented in the “casual gamer” camp.
When Nintendo’s Tomodachi Life for the 3DS was released, I heard reviews that it was like a weirder version of Animal Crossing, and I was immediately intrigued. To me, it’s more like The Sims meets Animal Crossing — with a lot of Nintendo wackiness thrown in.
To call it a game is a stretch — it’s more like a visual novel in choose-your-own adventure format, with a few mini-games and customization options thrown in. Even after playing Tomodachi Life daily for several months, it’s still hard for me to categorize. Let’s delve into the weirdness.
Quirky, Open-Ended Gameplay
The quirkiness starts right away — the islanders refer to you as [your Mii’s name]’s look-alike. So you’re sort of the deity of the island as well as a friend to the islanders, and you interact with them directly by feeding, clothing, and playing games with your islanders. Are you a God? Can your islanders feed themselves or do they rely on you for everything? We just don’t know.
Because all the characters are Miis, you can import Miis that others have created or make anyone you want to be an islander. My island is populated with characters from Madoka Magica, Adventure Time, and Rupaul’s Drag Race, among others. While there are limited personality types for Miis, they are pretty spot-on, and some of the stuff your favorite characters do and say is hilarious. You can also give each Mii a unique voice and items to give them a little more personality.
The main gameplay in Tomodachi Life comes from either solving islander problems, playing mini games, or unlocking events. Islander problems are anything from “I’m hungry!” to “Do you think so-and-so wants to be my sweetheart?” Mini games in Tomodachi Life are simple, but enjoyable: matching games, questions about your islanders, and simple item quizzes. Events happen whenever your islanders reach a new life stage, like marriage or having a baby.
Ron Swanson marries Cooking Mama, and JonTron and Madoka had a baby!
Aside from that, there are lots of other ways to stay amused: collecting all the items in-game, which rotate daily and seasonally; watching Mii news; discovering your islanders’ favorite and least favorite foods; watching your Miis give a concert; sending travelers to other Tomodachi Life games; taking photographs of your Miis; or simply observing your islanders’ shenanigans. It sounds simple, but there’s so much to do and each gamer could have a totally different experience with their island.
Wackiness Ensues
A little nosy, but not rude!
My favorite part about Tomodachi Life is that you aren’t penalized for playing sporadically or in short bursts. If you take a break from Animal Crossing, suddenly your town is covered in weeds and your villagers are furious with you. In other games, it’s hard to remember what you were doing and how to progress. In Tomodachi Life, though, your islanders are totally cool with you leaving for a few days… or weeks… or months. Then, once you do have time to play, you can play as much or as little as you want. Only have 10 minutes? Cool! Feed your islanders, fix a few problems, then log off for the night. As far as games go, it couldn’t be more forgiving if you are an extremely casual gamer.
Some of my favorite moments so far: Threatening Stan Lee, flirty RuPaul with a crush on Kanye.
The downside for people like myself who enjoy games like The Sims is that you can’t really control the “story” of Tomodachi Life. For example, if someone has a crush on someone else, you can tell them it’s a terrible idea to pursue it, but you can’t manipulate the game much further than that. I’ve been trying to get my Mii to date my IRL-partner’s Mii for months, and they are still just best friends. For the control freaks among us, this game might not be what you are looking for. But if you’re a little more chill about the fate of your islanders, then it’s plenty of fun.
Marceline and PB marry (in my dreams), and Madoka and I have a makeup party.
Another weird thing is that Tomodachi Life doesn’t allow for same-sex relationships. Nintendo has announced that this will be rectified in a sequel, but there’s an okay work-around currently. A Mii can have any appearance and clothing, regardless of intended gender, so if you have an OTP you really want to recreate in Tomodachi Life, just make one of them the opposite gender. I hope in future games, there’s an option to have attraction to men, women, both, or neither, or maybe even some other gender identities, but I’m not too hopeful that it will go beyond gay and straight.
Perfect for the Casual Gamer in Your Life
Despite the relatively simple gameplay, Tomodachi Life has me hooked. From watching someone skyrocket to the moon when eating their all-time favorite food (an apple?!) to discovering that three different islanders have a crush on your least-favorite Mii, watching your Miis interact is highly amusing. If you like open-ended games like The Sims and Animal Crossing and adore weirdness, or you are looking for a game you can play in short bursts, then Tomodachi Life is the perfect game for you.
Love confessions and Wii U gaming.
More Tomodachi Life Resources:
- Vinnie from Vinesauce streams Tomodachi Life regularly, and the results are hilarious.
- Tomodachi Life QR Codes is a great source to share or import Miis.
- My personal Mii QR code, in case you want me in your game!
One of the highlights from New York Comic Con had to be the How To Train Your Dragon 2 demo at the Dreamworks booth. Equipped with an Oculus headset, and hunched over like you were riding a motorcycle, the demo gave those of us trying it out a perfect taste of what it would be like riding your very own dragon over Berk. With the wind blasting my face from the rig’s fans, and a sense of vertigo if I looked down, it was a moment that has stuck with me for over a month. How utterly wonderful to feel like you are completely immersed in a world, particularly one as beautiful as Berk, to the point where you can’t help but wonder what other games would work well with Oculus Rift. Let’s take a look at some of the franchises I think would work well:
1. Pokemon Snap
I will NEVER let this go, Nintendo. EVER. Those of you unfamiliar with this particular game should know that the basic premise has you traveling through various terrain in the hopes of capturing the perfect Pokemon photo with a small array of tools to help you accomplish this task set by Professor Oak. Originally out in 1999 for N64, fans have been clamoring for a new installment, as it’s practically begging for an update (Kotaku even posted a video from a Youtuber who played the original via Oculus Rift). While Nintendo keeps playing with our emotions, it’s definitely at the top of my list.
Those of you that have played, imagine trying to do that goddamn Mew stage with the mapping…it’d be INSANE trying to hit that little bastard with Pester Balls. I would love to have some sort of set up that blew hot air, sprayed a light mist, what have you, depending on the different terrain levels you played through. Hopefully, we will get more than 7 if we ever see a new, and improved version!
2. Fatal Frame
Think of this game like a fucking terrifying version of Pokemon Snap. Instead of the cute animals we know and love, you get to take photos of dismembered, angry, typically Japanese, spirits inside of a ramshackle, old mansion. I’d be particularly excited (?) to feel my rig slowly pulse along with my rising heartbeat as a ghost gets near, and I love the idea of being able to literally look over my shoulder with every step! It’s pretty simplistic in terms of gameplay, but like many survival horrors, having to look for film for your camera while shaking in fear, er, excitement, will probably be where most of the frustration will lie.
3. A semi-open world game like Batman (or Dragon Age, or a fully open one like Skyrim)
Look man, these are some beautiful games, and they deserve to be looked at! Their landscapes aside, there’s a ton of ways to properly utilize Oculus in them. For example, think about tackling the Riddler’s riddles riddled throughout Gotham, or think about having to make sure you have a bad guy in sight in order to counter his attack, or even blasting a dragon with magic as you feel the wind from it’s mighty wings during a fight. They’re all perfectly fine on their own, but enhanced with the capability to actually take a real look around you is almost enough to make a mouth water (okay, maybe that’s just me). If you’re still not convinced, imaging having to investigate a crime scene in Batman, and you have to make sure you LOOK at everything at that crime scene in order to solve the mystery, or else you peg the wrong person or are unable to snag that 100% completion! Sure it might get tedious, but that feeling of accomplishment…man, there’s nothing like it.
4. Monster Hunter
HEAR ME OUT! We all know I’m a giant fangirl of this series from Capcom. I can’t deny it, but the sheer thought of being able to look up at the monster I’m currently fighting is almost orgasmic. I WANT TO FEEL THE GROUND RUMBLE AS SOMETHING CHARGES, AND I WANT TO WATCH IT TRY TO CIRCLE AND KILL ME. Plus, with the added underwater fighting in Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate, it’d make use of yet more beautiful landscape, and I’m sure there’d be some sort of perk to foraging for supplies.
Okay, fine. I’ll admit that 99% of the reason it’s even on this list is due to my love for the series. Ya got me.
5. Animal Crossing
Some of us do not like to actually go outside, but want to feel the warmth and happiness of a place that is free of judgement (unless you are wearing the wrong t-shirt, and that douchey cat neighbor named Snake laughs at you), and that is where Animal Crossing comes in. Some people refer to it as “Sims Lite,” but you know…while they may be right, I prefer Animal Crossing just a little bit more. You’re basically given a town to do with what you please, and are the Mayor (but let’s be honest, the cute dog secretary,Isabel, runs everything). I’d expect most of the fun to come from catching butterflies or fish, but I’m also thinking of the horror of being chased by a legion of bees! On the plus side, the holiday celebrations would be top tier, particularly Fourth of July fireworks across the night sky.
As we get closer to Pax South, I’m hoping to see more opportunities for some of our favorite games to reach new audiences, even if some platforms wouldn’t transfer over too well, like fighting games or first person shooters, simply because I’m looking out for your health, fellow gaming citizens! Think of the whiplash!
Tweet me your ideas for games that would be kick ass on the Oculus Rift. If you’ve never tried it, are you open to?
Just a bit of early black Friday sale news on this, the gloomiest Wednesday the East Coast has ever seen: TeeTurtle has 25 select styles on sale today! $12 tees and tanks, $2 prints and $22 hoodies will only be on sale until Thanksgiving morning. Check out their sale, and, if you’re anything like me, you can get some of that pesky holiday shopping done nice and early. Regular priced tees are $20, which is still a pretty good value for these adorable freakin prints. They have tons of fandom stuff, but some shirts are just cute for the sake of cuteness, and for that we can not complain.
Other Stuff That Makes TeeTurtle Awesome
You can sign up for the TeeTurtle newsletter on their site, if you want to make sure you don’t miss any of their sales or new designs. I’ve been signed up for over a year and TeeTurtle is still one of my favorite newsletters to receive. I think my favorite is when they do crossover puns, like their teenage ninja turtle mutant shirt (yep go back and read that again carefully), or the 007 Squirtle tee–both of which happen to be on sale right now. Another great element of TeeTurtle is that their shirts LAST, and don’t shrink the second you look at them the wrong way. I’ve had a couple of mine for over a year and dozens of washes–no fading, no shrinking, and they are all just as soft as ever. Oh. And casual reminder that teeturtle plushies are a thing that exist and can be purchased. Plushies are $20 a piece, and 9″ tall. I kind of want to drown in a giant vat of them.
“When was the last time you heard an original idea?”
“ANOTHER sequel? Who hires these people?”
“Nintendo will never go out of business so long as they have their core characters. Not that that’s a good thing.”
You’ve probably heard statements like these many times, often from older gamers who are tired of monotony in the games they play. It’s easy to see their point — movies have also gotten to the point where we’re rebooting series that were just rebooted five years prior that were rebooted from a series not long before that, and that problem is starting to invade video games.
I don’t just mean the Call of Duties and Maddens of the world, I mean of cash grabs on the parts of companies like Square and Nintendo who release their old titles over and over again to generate more money with little work. The result of this ouroboros of IP is a jading of the gaming community and an increasing unwillingness to take chances on the parts of large developers, both problems for mature gamers and game-makers alike.
But despite all of that, I still think ports and remakes have their place and shouldn’t be vilified.
Remakes
A remake, by my definition, is remastering a game’s graphics or engine for another console, retranslating it, or adding to its content in a significant way. Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD is a remake because of the updated graphics, engine, and new features, whereas Final Fantasy VI for Android is a port because it’s nearly identical to its source game.
Remakes make a lot of financial sense to companies. Most of the hard artistic work has been done — nailing the concept, story, gameplay elements, and art aesthetics — so you can hire far fewer people at a lower skill level to get a “new” game out. The stigma associated with this is that it’s milking a series for more money because the company is desperate, but even putting aside that this sentiment is driven by entitlement, it also completely ignores the benefits of remakes.
Remember the first time you popped in Ocarina of Time and had Navi fly you through Kokiri forest? If you played the game when it first came out, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Now imagine a 12-year-old today. Why would they ever go back to an N64? Could they even experience the joy you did given the advancements in graphics, camera designs, and controllers? If you said yes, I encourage you to go back and play Goldeneye. As much as I love the game, it does NOT hold up.
Now imagine that same 12-year-old picking up their copy of Ocarina of Time 3D and taking the same flight in 3D. How cool is that? Nintendo made that happen for two generations of people. I know that’s not typical, but the point I’m driving at is: if the game is good, why not bring it up to today’s standards and expose it to the younger generation?
Ports
Ports tend to be far more unpopular than remakes. With remakes, a noticeable amount of work must be put in. On the other hand, with this classification of IP reuse, you’re getting almost the same content, just with on a different platform. So who cares?
What if I told you about a game where you play as a burly dude playing beach Frisbee Pong with special power-ups, different hit moves, really fast and intense gameplay, something I’ve screamed about as much as Smash Brothers or Counter Strike? That game came out already, and it was called Windjammers. Why didn’t everyone play this game, or at least hear about it? Because it came out on NeoGeo… and who the hell had a NeoGeo? If you’re interested in playing it, you could have picked it up for a short time for the Japanese Wii Virtual Console (it was eventually delisted because of IP disputes). You never would have had the opportunity to legally play it without digging out either an arcade box or a NeoGeo CD. And even then, good luck finding the game.
Porting allows little known titles to be given another shot at a wider audience. Imagine spending years of your life dedicated to a game you really believed in, something that you’re violently proud of. Now imagine that system was discontinued in 2.5 years. Welcome to the life of every developer who made a game for Dreamcast. Now imagine you’ve done some research and found out it’ll only take six months to put it out on Gamecube or Playstation 2. Not only can this potentially pull you out of a money pit you’ve likely dug yourself into, it gets your work in front of more eyeballs. If they genuinely don’t like it, that’s fine, but they need to at least be aware of it to form an opinion. Releasing a work that nobody engages with is like singing to an empty room — as frustrating as it is sad.
Where Things Go Awry
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not extolling the virtues of all remakes and ports. Some are just downright bad. For example, Deadly Premonition just recently came out for PC. Not only was it out on widely popular consoles recently, but the port had fixed resolutions and crashes constantly. The minimal amount of additional content can’t make up for the anxiety of saving every 15 minutes in case of a crash.
Other ports, I can’t see as being terribly necessary. As much as I loved The Last of Us and GTA V, they came out last year on current gen hardware, and the leap to next gen doesn’t make that much of a difference. So, why do it? Those consoles aren’t adopted by very many people at the moment anyway, so you’re not opening up to a new audience; you’re catering to the old one. People can buy whatever they want to buy, but I just don’t see the point in an HD remake that soon after the first one.
Best Practices
A good port must answer the question “Why should I buy this if I can play the original?” or “Why did the developer make this?” They’re not difficult questions, really, but they’re important.
- Does the port offer features you like that are better than the original?
- Can you really tell the difference between the two?
If it’s not easy to explain the difference between a game and its port to someone, it’s probably not a worthwhile port – unless there’s some sort of business or logistical reason behind the port beyond getting more money. Maybe the game was released on the wrong console at the wrong time. Perhaps it was released with a ton of bugs on a system that didn’t support patches and they want a second chance. Or maybe the company wants to expose their game to a new or expanded audience. Simply put, a good remake or port should be better than the original, either through the game’s contents or the available market.
Some games just don’t hit at the right time or aren’t full featured enough to catch the public’s eye. One perfect example of this is Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Not many know that it’s actually a port of the Gameboy Advance title by the same name (Japanese title Gyakuten Saiban). When it came out, it was well received, but didn’t do well enough to warrant an overseas release. Then the game was remade for DS with an additional case, longer than any of the cases in the original games, and with extra puzzle features. The game took off, leading to an overseas release in both US and Europe and the subsequent ports and new games that have come since. Whether or not the other ports were worthwhile is another story, but the success of the original shows exactly what putting hard work into a port can do.
Conclusion
Ports and remakes aren’t all bad. Do some of them dilute the pool of available games with their bugs and unnecessary rereleases? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean that the genre as a whole is worthless. Reusing IP opens up beloved games to new audiences, allowing them to find homes in the hearts of more gamers and give another chance to a piece of art a team of people created. If that means I have to see five Deadly Premonitions to get one Ocarina of Time 3D, I’ll take that deal every day.
While I was experiencing sensory overload at New York Comic Con, I had the luck of speaking with Gail Simone. We briefly discussed the Valkyries (“thanks for doing what you do, you guys are great!”), and what it’s like being a retailer (I love my job, and it is at times full of challenges), before our conversation turned to people new to comics.
LC: One of the first things I wanted to ask you is what you would recommend to new readers? Like, is there anything that you’re currently reading that you’d recommend?
GS: Well – laughs – for me, it is all about what people are interested in. You don’t want to recommend a horror comic book if someone doesn’t like that genre, but I think there’s some really great things that appeal to wide audiences like Saga, then we’ve got Lumberjanes, a good “entry-level/reading your first comic” type of story. There’s so much out there and there’s gonna be something they like based on what they’re watching on television or playing. With that, you’ll get the greatest success – someone else enjoying comics.
LC: That’s true! I love that feeling when you recommend something to someone, only for them to come back and ask for MORE. Speaking of fans, what’s your favorite fan response to something you’ve written?
GS: There’s been a couple of really cool things, and some of them center around cosplay. One of them is I was at FCBD in New Hampshire, and they had the Batcycle there, and we’re doing some photo ops and stuff, so I get on the bike, and all of a sudden I’m surrounded by all of these lovely, talented ladies dressed as female characters that I’ve written, so it was really amazing to feel and see that type of support and celebration. It was one of the happiest days and really stood out in my mind.
LC: What about on the negative side of things? I’m sure you’ve seen your share of criticism.
GS: You know, I had someone stand in line once and he comes up and says, “I don’t know you, I’ve never read any of your work, but I can tell from what my roommate says, that you hate men.” I was just kinda like, oh, okay, I didn’t know that, but thank you for telling me, so you know sometimes stuff like that happens, but it’s not very often anymore.
LC: That sounds….like a lot of energy to waste. – laughs-
GS: Yeah! -laughs- No kidding!
LC: Switching subjects here, I just read Red Sonja…at my store, we have Ladies Night, and it was one of our recommendation books with Black Widow, and I want to know if writing her affects your life for a little while, for example, after you get through writing an issue, are you in that warrior sort of mindset, with your voice raised, arms in the air, -barbaric yell- wielding pens/utensils as a sword?
GS: -laughs- When I’m sitting down to write Red Sonja, it goes kinda like this, because I love her character so much, and I love having the opportunity to bring new sensibility to her, so I’ll sit down and say, okay, I’m only going to have time to write a couple of pages in between doing these other projects, and I look up, and it’s twelve pages later! It’s that kind of thing. I get so lost in the story and what’s going on with her and how badass she is. I just completely lose track of time, which is unusual for me. I watch the clock a lot.
LC: I can only imagine. I’m sure it helps switching gears, especially since you have so many, varied projects going on.
GS: Yes! That’s why I like having so many different ones, in tone and style from each other, because if I was writing the same thing, it’d be so boring to me. Getting to exercise my horror side, or my funny side, or the more heroic side, it’s what I love about writing comics, to have that variety.
LC: Totally makes sense! Growing up, I read some of my dad’s Robert E. Howard books, and had my first brush with Red Sonja that way, and I just want to thank you for doing the reboot of her rape origins into something with more meaning. Strong characters do not have to stem from rape.
GS: Yeaaaah, that’s kind of a trope.
LC: An annoying one.
GS: It doesn’t really read very well in this day and age, and it was one of the conditions of me writing the character. We needed to lose that, and that she couldn’t sex with anyone unless she bested them in battle. That takes away a lot of choices, and to me, it’s not the way to prove her strength.
At this point, our time was running out, so I steered our conversation to the most important question of all.
LC: The fact that you’re a gamer is pretty widespread, is a Red Sonja game something you’d like to see come to fruition?
GS: Can you IMAGINE!? A game in that WORLD?
LC: YES. YOU COULD BE A TOTAL BADASS AND WORK YOUR WAY FROM THE BOTTOM AS THIS RAD WARRIOR.
GS: Especially if they had Smell-o-Rama, cause one thing I love about writing barbarian stuff is that it’s all in the dirt, and in the mud, and in all the elements, and it’s completely grounded, the opposite of superhero stuff. It’d be a blast, and I’d play the hell out of that!
Our time at an end, I bid goodbye to Gail, and made a beeline for the Dark Horse merch line as there was an Avatar: The Last Airbender item with my name on it. Many thanks to the great guys at Dark Horse and Gail herself for taking the time to speak with me!