Just saw Dune! I tweeted out that it was a snoozefest and I can’t really change that opinion – I literally nodded off for a good minute. I couldn’t connect to any of the characters – they all felt like robots. Robots that I didn’t care about or cared what was at stake for them.
But! The visuals, sounds, and music were incredible :D The universe is immersed in lore and showcased by amazing cinematography. Might be worth the price of admission on its own – I’ll leave that up to you :D
Also kinda sucked that it’s Part One of Two. It definitely sets up the sequel well but it does feel like you just went to see half a movie.
Enjoy Scene 62 – “Behind the Door”! Thank you always to our awesome Patreon Patrons! Special thanks goes out to Shalidar – find his sprite in the scene!
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This will definitely not “hurt” Harry as he likeky expected this result. Question is how will he react: like a preprogrammed machine and simply entering the room and picking him up like a buttler… or will be be angry due to the attack like the plants do? Guess this is the first point we can test how mixed the mechanical and botanical components have been mixed!
How unfortunate that this is how Hammerston and the machibe city (was it Eden?) will meet with one another.
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As mentioned last week, this week we have undead which only fit the category under certain definitions and criteria, to the point that they are treated either/or depending entirely on the subjectivity of the author. But let’s start a little small to ease you into those ones…
The following two categories of undead I’ll discuss together as well as broadly due to just how varied they can be. Both are spiritual-possession undead, but sometimes can be classified under Construct or Demonic depending on how the tale spins them.
Possessed Object: a soul or spirit taking possession of an object to manipulate it. There’s tons of examples ranging from European Possessed Armors, Asian Cursed Weapons, classic Possessed Dolls and the Yökai Oboruguruma (possessed carriage).
I will give a shout out to the Octonauts from “The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahk”. These are combination of diving suits and detritus from sunk ships and equipment that have been possessed by the souls that once manned the sunk ships, now navigating the spirit sea hidden on the reverse ocean. One of my imaginings is the souls of said octonauts also being detritus (or fractions) of multiple souls conglomerating to create a new unstable identity, similar to how their bodies are detritus themselves. Their existence is tied to their suit, so a tear will cause their soul(s) to scatter outside and dissipate.
Haunt: unlike possession which is usually limited to a single entity on a single object, haunts can include a number of entities over a location such as the common House, Mansion, Castle or Town, but can also include larger vehicles such as Ships and Trains. A common trope is that victims that perish within a Haunt become part of it, making it a type of expanding phenomenon.
Both of these have an issue because they do not have a body that used to be alive and is now reanimated. Instead they are inanimate objects/locations animated by the dead. We could say that them being susceptible to exorcism clarifies their undead status, but viral zombies are likely not gonna care about such rituals. If we go by defining that it must relate to death, decay or extension of life beyond biological death, then we cover a lot more ground, but you may still find some of the latter ones questionable even with this definition.
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The following 3 act as contagions, similar to Zombie viruses, though the concept of each is quite different from the usual:
Straight from DC comics, we have The Rot, a parliament of fungi with ties to death and in strict opposition to all life. If zombies are brought up by a virus and vampires by a demonic curse, then The Rot is brought up by the fungi directly causing hosts to rot and become colonies of fungi which take control of the host, effectively making it a zombie. This process actually exists in real life, as there’s a fungus which literally does this to ants in order to get it to spread its spores to other ants. Note: I don’t mean the fungi are zombie, but the host they create as a hive instead.
In D&D, a similar concept exists under the name of “Blight”, in effect they are undead or fallen plants creatures such as treants, dryads, etc. These spread like an infection to nearby plants and land, causing them to die and be converted, as well as completely killing all nutrients in the land leaving it infertile.
Following the previous two examples, there exists a little used version of it which specifically targets anything made of ferrous metals (aka Iron, not Gold), including machines. The closest example I’ve come across is one in Pokemon Rumble Blast of all places, called The Rust. The mechanics of this pseudo-undead is the iron-oxidizing bacteria in charge of causing rust and decay in ferrous metals. It not only targets metals, but also takes control of them to attack and corrode anything that has iron, such as blood… it is not beyond reason to consider a machine taken over by rust of this type to be a mechanical undead. If you can stomach the concept that something that is definitely not alive can become undead due to the concept of Decay.
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The next ones falls under Undead category only with this definition: “a state in which existence is extended beyond biological death”.
Cyborgs (wait, keep reading) whose life is extended with cybernetic implants. If the biological components are not properly preserved they might eventually enter a state of rot (and if they are removed they are no different from machines rather than cyborg). These variant is more common in games such as Call of Duty or Mortal Engines.
A different form of Cyborg-type undead might be Alchemical Cyborgs: basically they use chemical compounds to both preserve and keep important organs functioning, while getting rid of the rest of the body for mechanical parts. While mostly seem in anime, it is usually relegated to a single character, and usually either dying soon after or having no further appearances. Unlike the previous one, this one is more likely to be classified under construct rather than undead due to life itself being preserved. I only mention them because its hard to call a pile of sentient organs inside a mechanical body as a living creature.
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Oof this week we had quite some “questionable” undead, huh? Next week we’ll end this marathon with some more normal undead… in a way. First week they were just some undead to broaden horizons, then it was expanding vocabulary and types of zombies, this week it was about the ones you kinda don’t want to call undead, but also kinda admit have the undead quality of Decay. For the last week, we’ll go a bit back to what could be undead with biological origins, though you may wish to be bitten by a zombie after hearing about those.
I went into the new Dune not aware it was only the first part of the book, after about an hour and a half I realised there was no way they were far enough in the story to get through it. Had to check online that it was only the first half so I could stop the rising fear that the last 30 minutes would be a rushed mess.
The only things that really felt out of place to me were Momoa as Idaho and the distinct lack of Feyd-Rautha. I can get over Momoa, but I really hope they don’t scrap Feyd.
Just got caught up, and damn Cash is really turning into the a great villain. The one you just love to hate. Seems like the two gangs are finally going to run into each other again, can’t say it will end nicely.
Wow SNEAKY Shalidar. didnt expect that.