Frequently Stupid Questions: What's so wrong with changing Amanda Waller? at 10:51 PM

Q: Why are people making a big deal over Amanda Waller's new, sexy body?

Aww, you little dumb ass! There are multiple layers as to why making Amanda Waller no longer fat is idiotic. I'll try not to run through the ones that aren't immediately obvious.

Nice figure!

First off, the character benefits more from being fat than from being thin. No, really. Comics are a visual medium.  From a visual perspective, having the character be physically unfit is a great way to say "this character is not  from the part of the DC universe that punches Metallo. She's from he part of the world where there's meetings in the Pentagon." She doesn't have the strength of  a human who engages in regular exercise. She's not that kind of character.

Making her more like Rosario Dawson serves no visual purpose. She's just some hot woman. It takes away a little of the element of gritty non-fantasy.

Second: It takes away the character's uniqueness. Those of you complaining that the character was a cliche must know even less about her than I do. I never even read her comics in Borders and even I know she's not just a woman with a stick up her fat ass. Here's the thing, though, even if she's a cliche, now she's all wrong because ANGRY AUTHORITATIVE FIGURES ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE SEXY.

Mutation-gate!

Seriously, find me one, ONE angry police Captain, one school principal, one  ANGRY boss who happens to be sexy. You can't. That's not part of that particular cliche. It's just trading the Cliche of  "Angry Black Woman"(which by the way, barely surmises the character at all) for the even bigger cliche of "And she's also sexy". She doesn't have to be sexy. Does Nick Fury have to be sexy? Does Prof X need to be sexy?  Do we need sexy Splinter? Some characters don't need to be sexy. Amanda Waller is among them.

And yes, she was made sexy in the Green Lantern movie. You see, many people didn't complain about it there(I sort of did), but honestly that just unmasks this for what it is: a shallow Hollywood move. See, we expect this sort of thing from Hollywood because we've come to be used to this bullshit being used in adaptations all the time. But here's the thing:  The DC universe, even the newly reinvented one, is bigger than any movie universe. See, Green Lantern was just that: a movie, limited by what went in the frame. The DC universe is united: It's a universe that has Supergirl, Wonder Woman and Black Canary. It has filled it's hot girl quota. You don't really have need to change Waller.

Also, no one fucking saw Green Lantern. Regardless of fat.

Again, as with those Star Wars changes, you gotta wonder who they're for. Amanda Waller has had a pretty good run as a black, fat female. She even has a couple "other media" appearances. And the book she's in has Corset Harley Queen getting arrested by Black Canary's rump, apparently. Was there ever a feeling this character would bring in more people  if she were sexier? Even Michael Bay movies have non-pretty folk in them.

It's true, just ask Steve Buscemi!

It's just a head-scratching choice. It's fantasy, yes, but even fantasy has niches that can't be fulfilled by idealized people. You'd think DC, of all people, would understand this. The DC of Etta Candy and Jimmy Olsen. The DC of Alfred, James Gordon, and  Harvey Bullock. The DC of Prof Hamilton. You'd think they'd understand how in a world of fantasy, not everything can be THE SAME.

Frequently Stupid Questions: What's so wrong with changing Amanda Waller? at 10:51 PM

Q: Why are people making a big deal over Amanda Waller's new, sexy body?

Aww, you little dumb ass! There are multiple layers as to why making Amanda Waller no longer fat is idiotic. I'll try not to run through the ones that aren't immediately obvious.

Nice figure!

First off, the character benefits more from being fat than from being thin. No, really. Comics are a visual medium.  From a visual perspective, having the character be physically unfit is a great way to say "this character is not  from the part of the DC universe that punches Metallo. She's from he part of the world where there's meetings in the Pentagon." She doesn't have the strength of  a human who engages in regular exercise. She's not that kind of character.

Making her more like Rosario Dawson serves no visual purpose. She's just some hot woman. It takes away a little of the element of gritty non-fantasy.

Second: It takes away the character's uniqueness. Those of you complaining that the character was a cliche must know even less about her than I do. I never even read her comics in Borders and even I know she's not just a woman with a stick up her fat ass. Here's the thing, though, even if she's a cliche, now she's all wrong because ANGRY AUTHORITATIVE FIGURES ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE SEXY.

Mutation-gate!

Seriously, find me one, ONE angry police Captain, one school principal, one  ANGRY boss who happens to be sexy. You can't. That's not part of that particular cliche. It's just trading the Cliche of  "Angry Black Woman"(which by the way, barely surmises the character at all) for the even bigger cliche of "And she's also sexy". She doesn't have to be sexy. Does Nick Fury have to be sexy? Does Prof X need to be sexy?  Do we need sexy Splinter? Some characters don't need to be sexy. Amanda Waller is among them.

And yes, she was made sexy in the Green Lantern movie. You see, many people didn't complain about it there(I sort of did), but honestly that just unmasks this for what it is: a shallow Hollywood move. See, we expect this sort of thing from Hollywood because we've come to be used to this bullshit being used in adaptations all the time. But here's the thing:  The DC universe, even the newly reinvented one, is bigger than any movie universe. See, Green Lantern was just that: a movie, limited by what went in the frame. The DC universe is united: It's a universe that has Supergirl, Wonder Woman and Black Canary. It has filled it's hot girl quota. You don't really have need to change Waller.

Also, no one fucking saw Green Lantern. Regardless of fat.

Again, as with those Star Wars changes, you gotta wonder who they're for. Amanda Waller has had a pretty good run as a black, fat female. She even has a couple "other media" appearances. And the book she's in has Corset Harley Queen getting arrested by Black Canary's rump, apparently. Was there ever a feeling this character would bring in more people  if she were sexier? Even Michael Bay movies have non-pretty folk in them.

It's true, just ask Steve Buscemi!

It's just a head-scratching choice. It's fantasy, yes, but even fantasy has niches that can't be fulfilled by idealized people. You'd think DC, of all people, would understand this. The DC of Etta Candy and Jimmy Olsen. The DC of Alfred, James Gordon, and  Harvey Bullock. The DC of Prof Hamilton. You'd think they'd understand how in a world of fantasy, not everything can be THE SAME.

Race to the Finish at 7:55 PM

 Here's my N-Word license. I believe everything is in order...

Long time no see.  Now, friends, I want to talk about something, and it's a bit of a touchy issue. I want to talk about race.

There are certainly some default reactions I expect some of  you will have regarding this topic. And it's about those reactions I want to talk about.

See, in a recent event a chat was had regarding racial equality, and representation and all that...on video games. It was a long Video, but I had the sense a lot of you just didn't watch it. Which is fine. It's a bit of an abstract thing, not in any way related to the veracity of cake or other Lulz inducing affairs. Still, the reactions I saw where disapointing, to say the least. Many of you felt that race just doesn't matter at all. After all, we're living in a "post-racial" world, where the President is black and Limp Bizkit is allowed to walk the streets.

But I think a lot of you missed the whole damn point.

You see, it's not just about how many black people star in videogames and how much you can totally identify with the character, even though he's skin color isn't yours. It's about having a wider range of experiences in videogames.


I mean, I think we all want newer experiences in videogames, correct? Sure, we can still sweat the Tolkien Ripoffs and JRPGs, the WW2 Shooters and Fighting games, the Kart Racing Games, but whenever something different is announced, something that hasn't been done, you feel that hype. "Hey, it's that new detective game that's all down to earth and junk. Never seen that before" or " Hey, it's the Space/Norway mythology game, that's different" or "Hey, Steampunk, cool".


Well, there are a wide array of cultures from which to derive stories and concepts for games, and it IS a loss for us, as gamers, and for the industry in general, to not draw from them. What could anyone have to say against that? "No, too much difference! Take it away, it burns!"

I don't think industry types wake up in the morning hoping no Hispanic leads a game. But they are sticklers for what works, or seems to work. The world doesn't start at "Greek Myth" and end  at "Apocalyptic Future". And even though you "don't care about that stuff", tell me if you'd rather Assassins Creed be a WW2 shooter, and Heavy Rain be fantasy hack and slash.  Diversity in characters and settings hurts no one at least, and makes something fairly straightforward and generic into something special.

Race to the Finish at 7:55 PM

 Here's my N-Word license. I believe everything is in order...

Long time no see.  Now, friends, I want to talk about something, and it's a bit of a touchy issue. I want to talk about race.

There are certainly some default reactions I expect some of  you will have regarding this topic. And it's about those reactions I want to talk about.

See, in a recent event a chat was had regarding racial equality, and representation and all that...on video games. It was a long Video, but I had the sense a lot of you just didn't watch it. Which is fine. It's a bit of an abstract thing, not in any way related to the veracity of cake or other Lulz inducing affairs. Still, the reactions I saw where disapointing, to say the least. Many of you felt that race just doesn't matter at all. After all, we're living in a "post-racial" world, where the President is black and Limp Bizkit is allowed to walk the streets.

But I think a lot of you missed the whole damn point.

You see, it's not just about how many black people star in videogames and how much you can totally identify with the character, even though he's skin color isn't yours. It's about having a wider range of experiences in videogames.


I mean, I think we all want newer experiences in videogames, correct? Sure, we can still sweat the Tolkien Ripoffs and JRPGs, the WW2 Shooters and Fighting games, the Kart Racing Games, but whenever something different is announced, something that hasn't been done, you feel that hype. "Hey, it's that new detective game that's all down to earth and junk. Never seen that before" or " Hey, it's the Space/Norway mythology game, that's different" or "Hey, Steampunk, cool".


Well, there are a wide array of cultures from which to derive stories and concepts for games, and it IS a loss for us, as gamers, and for the industry in general, to not draw from them. What could anyone have to say against that? "No, too much difference! Take it away, it burns!"

I don't think industry types wake up in the morning hoping no Hispanic leads a game. But they are sticklers for what works, or seems to work. The world doesn't start at "Greek Myth" and end  at "Apocalyptic Future". And even though you "don't care about that stuff", tell me if you'd rather Assassins Creed be a WW2 shooter, and Heavy Rain be fantasy hack and slash.  Diversity in characters and settings hurts no one at least, and makes something fairly straightforward and generic into something special.