RvB Season 10 Teaser

Remember my post about Season 10 of Red vs Blue? Well, Rooster Teeth released a teaser for it. Here it is, if you’re interested:

Basically it just shows clips and quotes from all of the previous seasons and ends with what I’m guessing is supposed to be Sigma saying something creepy. It didn’t do much to get me more excited about Season 10. However, it did get me thinking about how much the series has changed.

Anyone who has watched RvB has noticed how much the show changed from Season 5 to Season 6. I know a few people were bothered by the change, but sometimes change can be for the better, and I think that was the case with Red vs Blue.

The first five seasons (also known as The Blood Gulch Chronicles) were about a bunch of incompetent soldiers who didn’t have a clue what they were doing (with the exception of Tex, of course). All of the characters were either assholes or idiots. If they weren’t assholes, they were idiots. If they were assholes… well, they were still idiots (again, Tex was an exception, since she was an asshole but also smart). None of them really understood what their war was about and why they were involved in it, and nobody wanted to fight it. Well, Sarge wanted to fight, but he’s nuts. And Simmons acted like he wanted to fight, but that’s only because he’s a kiss-ass.

Point is, the show didn’t have much going on. It was just… humor. And I loved it. It was funny and the characters were lovable in their own weird ways.

Season 6 brought a change to the show, however. It introduced a plot (gasp!). Season 8 took it a step further by having a couple of scenes in CGI rather than using Halo to animate it. A couple of people complained about the show becoming too serious and too dramatic, and that it was no longer funny.

I didn’t understand that complaint. Yes, the show was more serious, but I don’t think it was less funny, and I don’t think it was too serious. There was an episode in Season 8 where Tex hit Grif in the crotch nine times. In what universe is that “too serious”?

The Recollection Trilogy (which is Seasons 6, 7, and 8) had the same bunch of lovable losers from The Blood Gulch Chronicles and the same style of humor, it just had more serious story to go with it. And it was a good story, it didn’t take anything away from the show, it made it better.

I still love The Blood Gulch Chronicles and I always will, but I appreciated the change that Season 6 brought. I have a feeling that if RvB had continued on in the same style as the first five seasons, it would have gotten stale.

RuPaul’s Drag Race

In class today, we were shown an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. It’s a reality show where drag queens (some of them were actually really pretty) compete to be “America’s Next Drag Superstar”. It was actually a pretty entertaining show, I may have to start watching it.

A lot of people think of drag queens as weirdos and freaks, but as weird as this may sound to those people, I respect them. Maybe even admire them.

Drag queens must have a lot of guts to do what they do. They must know that they’re going to to be ridiculed and shunned, yet they do it anyway. Some probably see this is stupidity. I see it as courage.

Besides, it’s not like they’re hurting anyone, so I don’t think it’s a problem.

Pokédex Quest

I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

I never completed the Pokédex in any of the Pokémon games I’ve played. I’ve gotten close a couple of times, but I’d always end up getting bored with catching Pokémon and restarting my game. Thing is, after I defeat the Elite Four and the Champion, I tend to lose interest in the game, even with all the post-game stuff. Plus, I love the feeling of starting a new Pokémon adventure, even if it’s on a game I’ve already finished, so I usually won’t keep my save files for very long after becoming Champion, hence why I never completed a Pokédex.

However, I’ve always thought that completing the Pokédex is something I should do at least once in my life, so I’ve decided to try and complete the Pokédex in my Soul Silver. This time, I’m determined to see it through, however long it may take.

So far, I’ve caught around 114 Pokémon. I have a long way to go.

Why, oh why did I use my Master Ball on Lugia?

Enough With The Gen Wars!

Okay, Pokémon fans, I’m going to talk about gen wars.

For those who don’t know, the “gen wars” is an ongoing argument centered around the generations of Pokémon. There are two teams: Genwunners and All-geners. Genwunners are the people who like the first generation the best, and basically hate all other generations, even going so far as to pretend they don’t exist. Some of them like Generation 2 as well, but they mostly like Gen 1. All-geners like and accept all generations. They may have a favorite, but they like all of them.

Both sides are extremely annoying, and I will tell you why.

Genwunners don’t seem to be content with just saying they prefer the first generation. They have to tear apart the other generations and constantly remind other Pokémon fans that the only generation worth playing is Gen 1. They’ll usually take the best looking Pokémon from Gen 1 and then compare them to the worst looking Pokémon in later generations as if that proves their point.

Look, I love Generation 1 as much as the next person, and there are plenty of cool-looking Pokémon in it. However, there are some stupid-looking ones too. Think about it. A floating magnet that evolved into three floating magnets stuck together. A Pokéball that evolved into a bigger, upside down Pokéball. A pile of sludge that evolved into a bigger pile of sludge. A… whatever the Hell Diglett is that evolved into three Digletts. And let’s not forget about Mr. Mime and Jynx. Those things are just plain creepy.

So who cares if Gen 5 has Pokémon that look like ice cream, gears and lamps? It also has a lot of awesome ones. Personally, I’m a big fan of Snivy and it’s evolution line. And if I’m being honest, I actually think that Chandelure looks pretty cool… even if the idea of a chandelier Pokémon sounds dumb.

My point is, if you’re going to compare Gen 1 to other generations, you should at least do it fairly. Don’t take the best from Gen 1 and judge them against the worst from Gen 5. Of course Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise (these three are most commonly used in comparisons) look a lot more bad ass than Vanillite, Klink and Litwick. But can you honestly say that Magnemite, Voltorb and Grimer look much better than any of the Gen 5 Pokémon? I don’t think so.

With about a hundred or more Pokémon introduced in each new generation, there are bound to be a few you don’t like. But I’d find it hard to believe if you told me you can’t find at least a couple that you do like. And it’s not like anyone is forcing you to use the one’s you don’t like, anyway. You don’t even have to use any of the new ones! The old ones are still around, so you can use them if you want to.

I think the main reason why people prefer Gen 1 is nostalgia. It’s the generation most of us grew up with, so it’s the one we feel more attached to. I bet if things were reversed and we had grown up with Gen 5, we would be praising it the same way we praise Gen 1. Maybe people don’t like newer generations because they’re afraid the new Pokémon will replace the old ones, leaving their childhood favorites forgotten. But like I said, the old Pokémon aren’t going away. I doubt they ever will. They’ll always be around no matter how many new Pokémon are added.

All-geners are equally annoying, though they don’t realize it.

All-geners insist that if you don’t love every generation of Pokémon, you’re not a true fan. I find that unfair. This might sound odd considering how much I just complained about Genwunners, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with liking only Gen 1 and none of the others. I only get annoyed when people only focus on the flaws of new gens and act like Gen 1 was absolutely perfect. If the person simply doesn’t care for other generations and prefers Gen 1, I’m fine with that, as long as they don’t feel the need to complain about new gens as soon as the subject comes up. I say anyone who likes any gen is a Pokémon fan, regardless of whether or not they like the others.

Unfortunately, All-geners seem to want to jump on anyone who says Gen 1 is their favorite, even if they happen to like all gens. Take me for example. Gen 1 is my favorite, but I’ve learned that saying this on the internet will only cause a bunch of people to attack me. They’ll tell me that I should take off my nostalgia-goggles and realize that Gen 1 isn’t as perfect as I think it is and I should love all gens otherwise I’m not a real fan blah blah blah.

Me liking Gen 1 doesn’t mean I hate all gens. All-geners are simply biased because they’re so used to dealing with Genwunners, so anyone who says they prefer Gen 1 is automatically in their bad books.

I may prefer Gen 1, mostly because, as the All-geners say, I tend to look at it through nostalgia-goggles, but I know it’s far from perfect. For the record, I love all generations. I thought Gen 2 was great. I felt iffy about Gen 3 at first, but I got used to it and started to like it almost as much as I liked Gen 1. Gen 4 and 5 were iffy as well, but I managed to find Pokémon that I like from both.

Every generation of Pokémon is awesome in my books, so why attack me just because I said my favorite is the first one?

Really, I think both sides of the gen wars need to shut up and accept the other side’s opinion. We’re all fans regardless of our preferences, so let’s leave the battling to our Pokémon.