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Imagine if scientists perfected the process of making Spiderman and sent a hundred modified humans to Mars to do battle against hordes of mutated and evolved humanoid cockroaches. Except the group doesn’t just get modified with spider powers; some get spider powers, but each individual is given a different animal’s genes depending upon compatibility with the host’s genes. On top of that, there’s a political plot unfolding due to the mission being a joint operation that spreads across several countries. I know, sounds awesome, right?Honestly, it’s the kind of science fiction that’s right up my alley. I love the concept of terra-forming planets so that future humans can expand our scope across the galaxy. And I know that makes me sound like I’m pro-colonialism, but I’m not. I like the concept of a planet that didn’t hold life being modified in order to produce and sustain life. And that’s what Terra Formars is all about. The humanoid cockroaches that inhabit Mars were actually a part of the process of terra-forming. Unexpectedly, the roaches rapidly evolved to be akin to proto-humans, but they started as regular run-of-the-mill cockroaches; and now there’s a stage for a very intriguing story to unfold.
I love characters dying in fiction. I hate it too though. I love the realism that in a dangerous situation, you don’t know who’s going to make it and who’s going to bite it. You hope it’s not your favourite characters, but if they weren’t a possible target then the drama wouldn’t be nearly as compelling. Although after catching up on both the comics and the TV show The Walking Dead, I started to notice something with Robert Kirkman’s decisions to kill certain characters. There were patterns in his kills. Of course, sometimes it was the stereotypical pattern. You know, the rookies claiming their desire to be the best or vets talking about how they want to spend their future once this is all over. Those characters are just begging to be the victim of some terrible fortune. And for the most part, Kirkman doesn’t rely on those tropes. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a pattern for when he’s going to kill one or many of his characters. That’s when it hit me. Writers who kill their characters are serial killers.
If we’ve ever had a conversation about a TV show or anime, you’ll know that I hate waiting week-to-week to watch a show. I don’t need the show to be entirely done when I start watching, but I need to have an arch complete before committing. I mean, sure, I’ve fallen for the trap of a friend saying that I “just have to watch it now. It’s so good.” Recently I fell for it when Is it Wrong to Pick Up a Girl in a Dungeon? and I refused to do it again, despite that show being spectacular…for this season at least. So when Billy started raving about this show Rokka: Brave of the Six Flowers, I asked one question “is the first season done?” He said “no” disappointedly and we went about our business, but the minute Billy finished the last episode, he texted me that I should watch it immediately.Now I trust Billy’s opinion. He gets a bit more emotional towards shows than I do, but just by a bit; and he does have different taste than mine, but when he adamantly recommends something to me, I trust the man.
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