deerstalker
https://www.thenerdelement.com/2023/09/15/some-disney-d23-updates/
Good evening, folks, Today I want to talk about some of the things that I think really stood out to me prior to D23! So, let’s get started, shall we?!
So, at Walt Disney World, they have announced that a new Pirates of the Caribbean tavern is being developed which features a return of Peg-Leg Pete also known as the Barker Bird.
The Journey of Water, inspired by Moana walkthrough attraction at EPCOT will have its grand open on October 16, 2023. This is a part when Moana will meet guests and interact with them. I bet that she is really excited to meet guests.
Test Track is set to be reimagined at EPCOT, and will take inspiration from World of Motion, which it replaced back in the ’90s. The ride Test Track is a ride like Radiator Springs Racers and it is the fastest ride at Disney World. I think this is actually really good. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in the future when I see it in person.
Soarin’ Over California will return temporarily to EPCOT this month. It will return on September 22nd for the 100th celebration that Epcot is having. You know, I really miss this kind of version in Disney’s California Adventure Park. I hope that it will come back for a long time in the future.
A “Zootopia” 3D show is in the works for the Tree of Life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney announced at Destination D23 on Saturday. The show will replace “It’s Tough to Be a Bug.”
Disney has a “blue sky” project to reimagine Dinoland, U.S.A. into a Tropical American-themed land. This land will feature stories from the “Encanto” and “Indiana Jones” franchises. They also announced plans to retheme DINOSAUR to an Indiana Jones-inspired attraction as part of this shift.
Over at the Disneyland Resort…. They have announced a new look of a new e-ticket ride at DCA’s Avengers Campus called world-jumping vehicle. It’s the design that combines elements of Tony Stark’s time suits with Xandarian. I have heard that the attraction would have the villain King Thanos taking on the Avengers and the attraction itself could be like Rise of the Resistance. I am really interested of what the attraction will look like when its all set and done. I would love to see 3 rides all in Avengers Campus!!!
Also, a character name Ahsoka Tano will be coming to Star Tours at Disneyland, Anaheim, Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Disney World, and Disneyland Paris. I can’t wait to see the one in Anaheim in Spring 2024.
Overall, I think Disney wants people to get more excited and come to the parks all the time and make all the Disney parks busier. That is why Disney made some exciting announcements. This is to get more people to like Disney better than Universal which is building Epic Universe. I think that they want to make sure that Epic Universe does not take away all the guests from Disney.
So, what are your guys think about the announcements that I imagined?! I would love to hear your thoughts and comments down below!
Stay tuned for Disney updates.
The post Some Disney D23 Updates appeared first on The Nerd Element.
The Wheel of Time season two put to rest the notion that Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, fought the Dark One at the Eye of the World. Under the surface, Rand and Moiraine seemed to suspect it couldn’t have been that easy. Indeed, it was not. Moiraine used the poem she obtained from Bayle Domon to determine that the broken cuendillar was part of the seal imprisoning Ishamael. Ishamael is a Forsaken—the most powerful one—and the Dark One’s lieutenant. This isn’t the first time the TV series has mentioned the Forsaken, but who are the Forsaken and why are they bad news? Here’s context with minimal spoilers from the books.
What Are the Forsaken in The Wheel of Time?
The Forsaken were channelers—most of them Aes Sedai—once. They sold their souls to the Dark One for eternal life, swearing allegiance to him. Also known as the Chosen, this group of 13 channelers served the Shadow in the War of the Shadow. That war was the beginning of the Age of Legends’ downhill slide into its end. Though many Forsaken led the Shadow’s armies, these 13 carry the title because they were the ones imprisoned with the Dark One. The last Dragon, Lews Therin Telamon, was responsible for trapping them. The Forsaken’s deeds during the war were so evil that they are remembered for them thousands of years later in the Third Age when The Wheel of Time takes place. Moiraine says the Forsaken are so dangerous, that if all of them escape their prisons, the side of Light has no hope of winning the Last Battle.
In The Wheel of Time, some don’t even think the Forsaken existed. They think of them only as bedtime stories meant to frighten children. Those who know the Forsaken are real believe they are safely sealed in their prisons, unable to inflict harm. Ishamael’s appearance in the world and the broken cuendillar prove those seals are no longer reliable barriers.
Who Are the Forsaken?
The 13 Forsaken are: Demandred, Ishamael, Lanfear, Mesaana, Semirhage, Balthamel, Aginor, Asmodean, Rahvin, Sammael, Be’lal, Graendal, and Moghedien.
As you can imagine, a group of ultra-powerful and ultra-ambitious evil-doers do a lot of jockeying for rank. They ultimately serve the Dark One and do whatever they can to accomplish the most in his name. Selfish and focused, they regularly betray and outmaneuver each other. They form precarious, untrustworthy alliances with each other and whoever they think will help them.
Which Forsaken Have We Met in The Wheel of Time TV Series?
We have met two Forsaken so far in The Wheel of Time TV series.
Ishamael
Rand believed him to be the Dark One, but now we know that is not true. Ishamael mentioned it at the beginning of the first episode when he told the little girl who he was. And now we know Ishamael is working with the Seanchan, one of whom was at his earlier Darkfriend meet-up, which cannot lead to good things. As we mentioned, Ishamael is the most powerful of the Forsaken. He broke Moiraine’s connection with the One Power with a flick of his wrist.
Lanfear
Surprise, Selene is actually Lanfear. The broken cuendillar Master Domon brought Moiraine was from outside Cairhien, where Selene has been running an inn and hooking up with Rand. Ishamael uttered a dark poem and broke the seal on Lanfear’s prison. In the Old Tongue, her name means “daughter of the night.” Lanfear goes by that name. She is stronger than almost all other female channelers, though not as powerful as Ishamael. Moiraine calls Lanfear the most dangerous of the Forsaken. She’s known for her casual cruelty and her mastery of the World of Dreams, or Tel’Aran’Rhiod. That connects to her Daughter of the Night nickname.
Can You Kill a Forsaken?
As we learned in The Wheel of Time‘s fourth episode, killing a Forsaken by traditional means does not necessarily stop them. Lanfear is far from gone. She healed her sliced neck within minutes, or the Dark One resurrected her. It seems the TV series may be handling Forsaken deaths differently than the books, but in those stories, one can kill a Forsaken. It is not easy and usually requires a dangerous weave of the One Power, but it can be done.
We may not see all 13 Forsaken from the books. The Wheel of Time TV series is an adaptation of many thousands of pages, first of all. Also, some of the Forsaken are more interesting (more terrible?) than others. Plus, we saw in season one that the Warder Stepin had statues of the Forsaken. The idea is you make offerings to them to ward off the Forsaken. Stepin had eight statues displayed, which may mean that’s all the Forsaken we’ll see in the TV series.
However, Lanfear mentioned some of other Forsaken while talking to Ishamael, so they seem like safe bets. She named Moghedien, Graendal, and “the boys.”
Originally published on September 1, 2023.
The post Who Are THE WHEEL OF TIME’s the Forsaken? appeared first on Nerdist.
Transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold.
Look, I’m at that point in my early 30’s where I start looking up what came out during my life in half decade increments. It’s mostly to marvel at the fact how old some of my favorite media has become: whether it’s the two decade old League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie that somehow found its way into existence or the fifteen year old Soul Eater anime that I still want a manga faithful reboot for. As it turns out though, there is another entry in a franchise of souls and swords (and other armaments) that recently turned twenty which is continually baffling to me.
But come with me on this journey recollecting the weird early 2000’s time capsule of a game that is SOUL CALIBUR II.
Soul Calibur II holds the distinction of being my first ever true fighting game that I ever played. I, of course, played Super Smash Bros on the N64 and Melee on the GameCube, but the platform fighter franchise operates on a slightly different rule set than the conventional fighting game genre. Multiple competitors on the stage, a percentage-based damage bar, a primary goal of knocking characters off the stage, we could go on, but you get the idea. Soul Calibur II was my first game with health bars, stock arena stages, complicated joystick inputs, the whole kit and kaboodle. And I got this game not because I was a fan of the franchise that started when I was about four years old, but I wanted this game because the Hyrulian Hero himself, Link, was on the cover. And as any youth whose primary console was from the Nintendo, I loved the Legend of Zelda franchise dearly.
Soul Calibur II released during the peak of the XBox, PlayStation 2, GameCube console wars, an era wrought with a variety of version exclusives and none quite as noticeable as the different unique fighters. To further cement the early 2000’s energy of this title, note that Todd McFarlane also had a hand in the franchise, lending Spawn as the XBox exclusive fighter and creating the character of Necrid, who admittedly has never seen the light of day in the franchise since. However, Necrid was still there and very much emblematic of McFarlane’s visual aesthetic to a staggering degree. I don’t think I’ll ever be entirely sure why Microsoft opted to adopt the anti-hero, but he definitely looked cool on the cover and in that illustration style.
PlayStation definitely lost out as they ultimately ended up getting Heihachi from the Tekken series instead of the planned Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII, although if we’re being honest, GameCube owners were very much the winners of this particular skirmish.
I remember playing with my younger brother and friends for hours in the versus mode of the game. While Link was my favorite, I also had a penchant for Talim’s rapid mutli-hit tonfa-esque blades (and perhaps subconsciously recognized my affinity for the fellow Filipinos), Cervantes’s long sword and pistol, and Cassandra’s curt sword and shield combo. I was fascinated by Ivy’s weird chain-sword and never learned how to use it, perplexed by the constant stance changes of Voldo, and constantly frustrated by the button mashing nunchucks of Maxi wailing on my character if I made a mistake. I also very much enjoyed the visual design of Charade, this entry’s echo fighter. I remember the slow axe hits from Astaroth and learning how to pronounce Zweihander (although never quite learning how to spell the giant sword’s name) noting the iconic blade of Nightmare. Each character felt like they had their own unique approach to dueling, and even the characters that did have similar movesets have enough special signatures to differentiate them.
The gameplay mechanics were fairly accessible even to a newcomer to the genre as a whole, and the different fighters with unique weapon sets led to a lot of quirky variety and fun match ups. My personal favorite thing to do would be to wring out fighters with Link’s obvious strong throws, but there was a good interplay of clashes and distances for any given matchup. Nothing quite as satisfying as being on the ropes the entire match before securing a vital ring out at a pivotal moment.
The stage variety with destructible environments was fun, the Destined arcade mode gave me just enough lore about the world to seed an interest with the franchise for the many years to come. This was the first game set in the 1590AD era of the franchise, the year which the next two games would cover before Soul Calibur V picked up in 1607. And while I only played those games from borrowed copies, I definitely found myself reading the wikis to keep up to date with the various shenanigans of the ensemble cast.
The part I remember most fondly from Soul Calibur II though was the weapon customization options. Each character featured twelve different weapons, including a joke weapon. My personal favorites included Link’s Megaton Hammer and Great Fairy Sword, as well as Talim’s ultimate Soul Calibur Elbow Blades, although the coolest version had to be the Soul Edge variants with the giant creepy eye in the most unsettling of places. It gave just a hint of an RPG element to the game that combined with the different costuming lent itself to just the right level of personalization.
The Soul Edge/Soul Calibur franchise remains one near and dear to my heart. The iconic narration of “A TALE OF SWORDS AND SOULS” remains just as memorable as Mortal Kombat’s “FINISH THEM.” in my ears and my heart. And I owe a lot of that to the GameCube version of the game. So, Soul Calibur II enjoy this slightly belated birthday ode for your twentieth year of existence. You were a modern reincarnation of a classic franchise, and your willingness to cross collaborate across the board opened your doors to many new fans, myself very much included.
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The post ‘SOUL CALIBUR II’ – Two Decades Later appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.