Michael Offutt's Blog, page 33

There's a strange phenomenon of people with liberal values arguing for themselves and others to be okay with toxic abuse.

I've been noticing something lately on Facebook. Some of my liberal friends are putting up posts that say something similar to the following: "I care a lot that they (conservatives) get mad [at being targeted by business and people for their anti-vax stance]. I care about anger because mad customers who are directly adjacent to customer service workers quickly become threatening...Airline mask mandates while very sensible do mean stewardesses [they live in Idaho so forgive them if they don't know that this term is now outdated and should be replaced with 'flight attendant'] get assaulted. Healthcare workers routinely get assaulted...retail workers were literally shot and stabbed for informing customers that stores had mask mandates...." And the post goes on and on. The point is that this person (with liberal values) is arguing that others who are liberals should not do anything to antagonize angry conservatives and (for lack of better words) live with being abused.

Of course they use their education to draw upon words that sound specious in their goodness. They craft sentences like: "We have a growing cultural belief that it's okay to withdraw kindness or even start to be rude or threatening if you are the victim [the victim being the retail worker]." And then they go on to justify an argument that, "This is not okay because these angry people are human beings!"

Honestly...this argument that I see more and more from good-minded people is laughable nonsense. However, its a phenomenon that I'm seeing more and more as fear-driven liberals shaking in their boots are scared and traumatized by putting up what is (honestly) a healthy boundary. I have tons of boundaries, and I'm willing to defend all of them with extreme violence if necessary. Anyone that violates them beware. But as long as people respect those boundaries, I'm the recipient (literally) of "the kindness award."

At this point in my life (having just turned 50) I can honestly say that I'm as stress-free and filled with joy as I have ever been. It's a glorious time to be alive, and I appreciate every day I am given. But I didn't get here by just being lucky. I got here through years and years of efforts to decode the abuse I suffered from conservative bullies and living a lifetime in Idaho (the abuse did not come from family; it literally came from "friends"). Once I realized that I had been a victim of systemic gaslighting, bullying, dehumanizing, and narcissistic trauma at the hands of grotesque abusers that operated and played at game shops in Idaho (a place that should be a safe haven for nerds) and by employers who sailed upon the wings of LDS righteousness...I began to pity all of those people. I was able to let go of my hate and anger and see them for what they were. They are so systemically abused and filled with a lifetime of trauma from neighbors, friends, and employers who treated them like crap (little better than slaves in cotton fields), that their hearts are just filled with jealousy, hatred, and paranoia. Putting up boundaries against those people is the healthiest thing I ever did.

You might say, "Those people need help. They are mentally ill." Well...that's the rub now, isn't it? They do need help...but you cannot ever help the unwilling. They don't believe they are mentally ill. They continue to live within a web of complete delusion and they are so abused that they believe that their abuse actually counts as life experience, and that they are doing everyone a favor by abusing someone else so that they can walk the path that they had to walk to get to "Loserville." Idaho is some kinda mind trip I will tell ya. I lived there for 36 years, but I've only now come to know and see it for what it is. 

Anyway, it boggles my mind that people who may share my political values are so close to the fire that they don't see that boundaries are good. They are so afraid of losing whatever it is they have that they are literally begging people to not anger the conservatives anymore. "Get your vaccine if you have to...but please don't force others. They will get violent. You don't understand." It's like listening to an abused woman living in a house with a man that beats her every single night. "Please...I beg you...don't make my husband angry. He will beat me. He will beat our children. He's thrown my baby down the stairs. I beg you...you don't know what he's like!"

Is this what society is coming to? The liberal cowering on the ground and the conservative
holding the belt screaming, "Don't you dare force that vaccine on me! Do you hear me?! DO
I NEED TO SHOW YOU WHO HAS THE POWA?!!!"

And my answer: "Actually, I do know what that's like. There's only one language that this kind of person understands, and I speak it well. So do others. You will be way better off putting up healthy boundaries. We can show you how to do this. There are worse things in life than death. Repeatedly having your boundaries violated without your consent is wrong, and it is one of those things."

The Matrix Resurrections trailer is here to remind us all of how weird the original Matrix actually is.

The Matrix: Resurrections trailer dropped sometime this week. You may have seen it. If not, I'll link it below. It got me thinking about one thing regarding The Matrix: it's a really unusual film trilogy. I mean...it really is...it's anachronistic. It didn't fit well in its era. There's nothing else like it. If I had to sum it up in a sentence to show you how weird it (and the circumstances around it) are it would be this way: the original movie is by two filmmakers who later became transwomen (or just women), and it's about an Asian American, a woman, and a black guy who team up to fight an army of authority figures who are all portrayed by white men. In 2021, there's nothing unusual about it. But the modern times are (if anything) a constant shit show. So The Matrix seems like a mirror to how uncomfortable our reality has gotten.

It's also weird that the original was co-opted by terrible people as an allegory for their suffering at the hands of woke culture. If you are unfamiliar with "Red Pillers," they believe that the original is about "Chads" and "Stacy's" waking up to the real world which is awash with traditional gender roles. This "waking up" process is swallowing the "red pill." Once they "wake up," then they advocate for "Men's Rights." Considering that we live in a patriarchy...it's weird to hear men advocating for "men's rights." As a man I can say we have a lot of rights, not including recent legislation in Texas (which is another kind of shit show).

As for the story, I have no idea how they are going to continue this thing. At the end of the last movie, there was a truce between humanity and the machines and the Oracle said that, "Anyone can leave the Matrix if they want to." And then the movie ended. We don't know if humanity tried to retake the surface world, and we don't really know what the "status quo" is.

However, and because The Matrix is really super weird, it's not a stretch to think that this December movie could also be a prequel. The Architect once spoke about one of the prior Matrixes that was the best possible environment. But it was too perfect, and it was rejected. Maybe the reason why things became destabilized is due to the Neo we know making his way back into that version of the Matrix and acting like a wrecking ball.

Side note==> Once again I give a golf clap to Grace Slick who sang the vocals for "White Rabbit," which is the song used throughout this trailer. I had a roommate in college (1989 folks) who was from Marin County, and Grace's daughter, China Kantner, had attended his former high school. He was completely in love with this woman, and he listened to "White Rabbit" over and over and over. I got so sick of it. So hearing it again? Yeah...I'm still sick of it. But, it was a good choice to convey those Alice in Wonderland vibes.

I'm optimistic that the Wheel of Time series will be both entertaining and accepted by Jordan's rabid fanbase.

"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning." (I think that this little tidbit appears on the first page of every book in this gigantic series)

I do have an admission when it comes to The Wheel of Time. I am a second-generation geek of long standing when it comes to these books. I have never read them for various reasons. The first is because people who had read them warned me that they liked them until about the 6th book (or so) and then it was just a chore to go from there to about the 13th book. To be honest...that is not really selling this series. Then there are those who say that they are not fans of how Sanderson finished them off (after Robert Jordan died), and that Jordan is verbose in a terrible way. I guess he was an author (like George R.R. Martin) who wrote himself into the weeds and couldn't find his way back. Additionally the shortest book is 650 pages while the longest is over 1200. Most weigh-in at over 800 pages.

That being said, I was briefly excited when The Wheel of Time trailer from Amazon Prime dropped last week. However, after watching it a couple of times, I have thoughts about what I saw. My comments fly in the teeth (of course) of true fans of the series. I hope that I'm proved wrong. On second watch, the series looks like something from the CW with a slightly bigger effects budget for the landscape shots. The actors are attractive but expressionless and the trailer shows them on sets with CGI laser spells and sky-beams. Additionally, the indoor stuff looks like it was shot in a converted high school gym. I'm honestly getting a Shannara Chronicles vibe, but without a person wearing yoga pants.

However, I'm still going to watch it. Maybe it won't be just another derivative fantasy offering? It seems to me that it is super easy to make fantasy projects look cheesy. I'm not sure how Lord of the Rings avoided this trap, but they did. So did Game of Thrones. I hope that the people behind this project have studied the success of those two franchises for clues, because the fandom surrounding The Wheel of Time honestly is a bit toxic. It's almost like a religion, probably helped along this road by the fact that Sanderson is a Mormon and was a professor at BYU. And since a lot of people in Hollywood are artsy, and hence...liberal...I fear that people who have liberal views are probably going to try and change some of the subtext of Jordan's work to make it more woke. They need to not do this under any circumstances. We live in a time of severe polarization in politics, and I think that meddling with a story that is so gendered centric that there is gendered magic at its core...would be a huge mistake. It will anger the trolls, of which there are millions.

Amazon must be very excited to have two of the biggest fantasy franchises in that genre's history. As Spider-Man has often said, "Those with great power have great responsibility." I guess we are going to see soon how well Amazon handles that responsibility. Below is the trailer for the first season of The Wheel of Time in case you haven't seen it.

The September Insecure Writer wants to know how I define success when it comes to writing.

Yay, I made it through the summer. Well, it's almost over, but the summer of 2021 wasn't the kind of summer that I remembered in my youth. Summer used to be my favorite time of the year. But now, the temperatures are just blistering every day. Here in Utah, there has been no relief from drought and wildfire smoke that has put our AQI over 200 a couple of times. Seeing red skies and being able to just look at the sun with the naked eye because there's so much smoke in the air that it's just a dull orange spot is weird. At least I'm not having to deal with hurricanes or flash floods. Those appear to be things that people in other areas of the country are dealing with, and I think these changes are here to stay.
As I write this blog post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, I finished eating a perfectly ripe pear and a perfectly ripe avocado. I paused for a moment thinking about these two fruits. They really were the best that they could possibly be, and that's unusual enough for me to take note. So, I'm feeling lucky today.
If you have not heard of the Insecure Writer's Support Group, it rolls around every month on the first Wednesday, and it was started by author Alex Cavanaugh. It's also frequently abbreviated IWSG. Below are some more details lifted from the sign-up page, which you can find HERE.

What is the purpose of the IWSG: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

What do you post, when, and where?: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog! Otherwise, when you leave a comment, people can't find you to comment back.

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

The Twitter handle for the IWSG is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

Every month, the IWSG announces a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.

Remember, the question is optional!

September 1 question - How do you define success as a writer? Is it holding your book in your hand? Having a short story published? Making a certain amount of income from your writing?

My answer: Success as a writer is just finishing something. If you have the wherewithal to finish, congratulations, you are a writer in my opinion. Success as an author is a different story. Success as an author (to me) means that you can live comfortably on the income from your published works. There are a variety of ways one can accomplish this, including the traditional path and the self-publishing path. I suppose you could even accomplish it by only writing one book and then get the majority of your monies that you live on from public speaking (I've known a person or two who have managed to do this based on Olympic medals they have won). As a caveat, I do not consider myself a successful author by any means. I do consider myself to be a successful writer. So I'm full of all kinds of advice on the act of writing, including the number one thing that has been useful to me: **learn to type**
But "typing" isn't as important as it used to be, with speech-to-text options available. Additionally, editing isn't as important as it used to be either, as most people don't seem to care about grammar and spelling anymore. I regularly see misspelled words on news broadcasts, in official government correspondence, and in periodicals that shouldn't have misspellings in them. The only periodicals that don't have these anymore are the best in the industry...things like The New York Times or The New Yorker. But I see misspelled words practically everywhere else. My conclusion is that no one cares enough anymore about the written word. My own personal take on this has been to adapt. Rather than to tilt at windmills and try and correct all the spelling errors, I've just accepted them. I don't make a fuss and just read on, letting go of the things that used to irritate me. I think this is good, because I see mistakes everywhere, and I just don't want to be that unhappy all the time.
Thanks for visiting.

The awesome co-hosts for the September 1 posting of the IWSG are Rebecca Douglass, T. Powell Coltrin @Journaling Woman, Natalie Aguirre, Karen Lynn, and C. Lee McKenzie!

This last week's Lower Decks had Tom Paris and it featured him on a commemorative plate from the Voy days.

I got caught up on the Star Trek cartoon that is on Paramount+ called Lower Decks this weekend. It's always thoroughly entertaining, weird, and funny. I love the characters (and some of them remind me of real life people I know), and I'd have to say that the people working on Lower Decks definitely have a passion for the franchise that is quite different in flavor from Discovery and Picard (disclosure: Picard is my least favorite of the new Star Trek offerings).

If you haven't watched Lower Decks and you are a Trek fan, you might want to give it a try, especially if you are a Rick and Morty fan. Most of the "Nu Trek" shows really do take themselves very seriously. In the era of Next Generation Trek, I think DS9 was probably the most serious, but even DS9 lightened the load with episodes like Take Me Out to the Holosuite or any of the Ferengi episodes. That being said, there is nothing serious about Lower Decks. It is one big gag real LOL'ing all the way by screaming old jokes.

In last week's episode, we got a guest appearance from Tom Paris, who was the hot shot pilot on Voyager, and he got voiced by Robert Duncan McNeil (which I love). Tom was probably my second favorite cast member next to Seven in the Voyager show (although pretty much all of the characters were great). I also loved how Boimler referred to Voyager as just "Voy." Bless these nerds for canonizing the way fans refer to the Trek shows. The commemorative plate that Boimler carried with him to get signed was excellent too, as it reminds me of all the Trek memorabilia that's been put out by the Hamilton Collection over the years. Sometimes Trek is at its best when it takes the time to really poke fun at itself, and its fanbase. And this seems to be entirely the thought behind this refreshing Star Trek series.

If a foreign policy proposal is more difficult than asking people to wear a mask during a pandemic it should be dropped immediately.

This week, I randomly got asked by a friend, "What do you think of Afghanistan?" It's a huge question, and this friend that I talk with on a regular basis apparently likes my intelligent input (or different take) on things. She (of course) is familiar with the talking points. She's read many of the op-eds that have surfaced from people who were there...who fought on the ground...who were policy makers...and all the other myriad opinions that have hit the air waves. But she was interested in my take on it, so I obliged.

I said, "Going forward, United States foreign policy should add a person to the cabinet that advises the Commander in Chief using what I call 'The Mask Baseline Question.'"

Intrigued, she asked me, "And what praytell is 'The Mask Baseline Question?'"

"It's very simple," I said. "Someone needs to ask the President before an invasion of another country, before anything really that involves a commitment from the United States this one question: Is what you are proposing more difficult than getting the people in Florida and Texas to wear a mask during a pandemic? Is it more difficult than that? Keep in mind...these are your own people...your own citizens. If the change that you are asking is more difficult than wearing a mask to protect others...forget about it. It won't work. It will be a complete failure."

She was shocked, but intrigued by my premise at the same time. Anyway, I'm being perfectly honest about this proposal. The selfishness and hatred by anti-mask wearers has really opened my eyes. People who were assumed to "do the right thing" never actually did the right thing. And that is the truth, and it is universal across all cultures and all continents. If you are going to ask people in another country who worship a god that is foreign to everything you believe to suddenly respect women, gays, and other minorities...it isn't going to work. That is way more difficult than asking a fellow citizen who speaks the same language as you and who lives in the same country to mask up. That is the baseline. Is it more difficult than getting people in Texas to mask up? It is? Then you'd better drop that idea, because it is doomed to failure.

If people were smart about foreign policy, they would bring this question up often. I think it would save a lot of heartache, time, resources, and lives. I'm just glad that everyone is finally figuring out that we've been gaslighted our entire lives that Americans had any form of unity or did the right thing. We've always been divided. We've always had huge gulfs between what we believe. And we've always been extremely selfish. Knowing the truth about a reality allows you to confront and deal with the reality in ways you couldn't do before. I call this the Trump/Covid silver lining.

The Mysterious Benedict Society on Disney+ is a Wes Anderson-esque journey into a land of smart kids and mustache-twirling villainy.

Because I watched The Bad Batch I was on Disney+. My friend Meg was watching it with me, and as I was navigating the page on Disney+'s splash page, another series caught her eye: The Mysterious Benedict Society. She said, "Can we watch that?" So, I said sure.

Meg had read the book; I hadn't. As a matter of fact, I hadn't even heard of it. As we sat down to watch the story unfold, she was delighted to see characters that she remembered from the book being shown on the screen. Soon afterward, I too became a fan. Then, a few weeks later, I bought a thing on Facebook marketplace that was in Nampa, Idaho, and we went on a road trip of about ten hours to go and retrieve it. Meg asked if we could listen to the audiobook for The Mysterious Benedict Society, and I thought that was a wonderful idea. So that's what we did while we drove all those miles, and the story made the journey all the more enjoyable.

Now, having finished both the audiobook and the series (we watched the last episode this weekend), I can say that it is an engaging screen adaptation. Also (apparently), this show is a classic series of children's books. I seriously had no idea that they even existed...I suppose that is how clueless I am about young adult stuff. The author is named Trenton Lee Stewart, and the first book (which is the first season of the show) features remarkable children doing amazing things. The setting is a sinister academy. And each child has unique traits that makes them suitable to overcoming a task or challenge that even adults would find impossible. The show is clearly geared toward the younger audience, but there's a lot to appreciate as an adult. So, it's not like watching some clearly weird and alien thing like Teletubbies. In fact, it shares a lot of tone with mystery-themed predecessors like The Bloodhound Gang or The Hardy Boys.

Now, the world that the kids inhabit is eerily similar to our own. It is in an international crisis…think all the headlines that worry you every day…and this manufactured crisis talked about on the 24-hour news cycle is aptly named, “The Emergency.” Mr. Benedict, the man responsible for gathering the super talented kids together through extensive (and fun) test-taking, believes that the source of this global panic is subliminal messaging that gets sent out from an island academy of children. The head of the organization is his twin brother, and both of them suffer from narcolepsy.

The showrunner of The Mysterious Benedict Society clearly drew inspiration from Wes Anderson films. So, it’s a real treat to watch. One of the kids has an eidetic memory, which means that everything “sticks” to his mind. Thus, he’s called “Sticky” Washington (his real name is George Washington). However, my favorite character was Constance Contraire. She is a very stubborn, young, and super intelligent member of the Mysterious Benedict Society. In the audiobook, she talks (a lot) in rhymes. This didn’t translate well to the screen adaptation. But her ability to throw shade (and lots of it) absolutely did, as she lets no moment for insults slip by unnoticed.

Mr. Benedict also has three really interesting assistants. One wears yellow all the time, and in the audiobook she is described as resembling a yellow pencil. Her name is merely “Number Two.” The second assistance is Rhonda Kazembe, and the last is a gruff spy named Milligan who has the ability to almost magically disguise himself, and who comes up with some really wild things that actually work (like traveling to the island in a submarine held together by...essentially...duct tape) to rescue the kids. He suffers from amnesia, but even with this lack of memory, he has uncommon skills (as do all of the assistants).

For example, Number Two builds a cottage in the woods in a single night using just an axe. And it is complete with electricity, shingles, windows, and a peregrine falcon. The Mysterious Benedict Society would not be complete without its mustache-twirling villain. Called Mr. Curtain, he is the twin of Mr. Benedict, which makes the story all the more charming, because of the confusion that this creates. And naturally, there is a mad scientist who created the machine beaming subliminal messages around the world to create The Emergency in the first place. The villain, in predictable style, does get away at the end. However, it is clear that he has learned nothing, and the show's ending hints at more evilness that can be explored in the second season (and which will probably be thwarted by the combined talents of The Mysterious Benedict Society).

If you enjoy young adult fare and the Wes Anderson style of film making, I'd recommend this series. It's visuals are a delight to watch, and the story (once you set your adult mind on a shelf for a while) is actually pretty good. I also recommend the audio book, because the narrator does an incredible job reading it out loud and giving voice to all of the characters.

In future seasons I think that the Bad Batch is going to explore the Kaminoan connection to all of Emperor Palpatine's clones.

This weekend, I finally finished watching the first season of  The Bad Batch on Disney+. The series brought full circle the plotline that was started in the first episode when it introduced us to a group of clone soldiers who had various mutations making them a "bad batch" (honestly it is a clever name). We discovered that these "mutations"  had been introduced purposely into them by by the Kaminoan clone scientist by the name of Nala Se (who was a fascinating character by the way).

Nala Se (in case you haven't watched the show or aren't good with names) is the female doctor who served the Galactic Republic throughout the Clone Wars. She was the chief medical scientist on her homeworld of Kamino, and she played a key role in the engineering of the Grand Army of the Republic. She also assisted in the rehabilitation of battle-wounded clone troopers and displayed genuine empathy for the clones in the episodes I watched and remember.

Nala Se was also one of the few individuals who knew about Clone Protocol 66, a secret directive encoded into the behavioral modification biochip of every clone in the Republic military. Nala Se believed that the chips acted as a safeguard against renegade Jedi, so she went to great lengths to preserve the secrecy of Protocol 66 during the galaxy-wide Clone Wars.

One of the really neat things that The Bad Batch did was answer questions that I hadn't really bothered asking about Star Wars. But once those questions were answered, I realized that I really did want to know the answers, and so I was actually really pleased with it. One of these questions was: what happened to Kamino, and why was there no mention of it in the movies A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi? There also hasn't been any mention of Kamino in episodes 7, 8, and 9. Well, it turns out that the Empire destroyed Kamino, because it didn't want the Kaminoans to use their incredible cloning technology to build another army for someone else. The second question The Bad Batch answered was who was responsible for Emperor Palpatine's clones (of which Snoke ended up being one)?

Well, it turns out that it was probably Nala Se, whose life was spared by the Empire in the destruction of Kamino so that her skills could be harnessed for a "super secret" project on another world, working for the Empire. Geeezz, I wonder what that project could have been? Well, it's not hard to guess where this storyline is leading. And I'm sure that we have not seen the last of Nala Se. Additionally, I believe that Dave Filoni (the creator of The Bad Batch) is probably going to treat us in the upcoming seasons to all the things that Emperor Palpatine was up to with the lead scientist from Kamino (while the Rebellion was fighting its Civil War). If you are a fan of Star Wars, you really should watch these cartoons that are on Disney+. Their animation is absolutely top notch, and the storylines are more interesting than the movies by far.

Is Misinformation the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse? All signs point to yes.

The Book of Revelation in the New Testament speaks of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They are identified as Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death. Now, in this cartoon, we have a Fifth one. And it's hard not to agree with this given the shape of the world today. What do you think? Spot on? I look forward to reading your comments.

Star Wars: Visions poses the interesting idea that maybe Star Wars should have been anime all along.

Mark your calendars folk, because on September 22nd, Star Wars: Visions hits Disney+.  This show has style, and you can only see what I'm talking about by viewing the trailer. It looks like there will be nine episodes. The list, announced by Disney, is as follows:

“The Duel” — Animated by Kamikaze Douga, who also made the Batman Ninja movie. The voice cast includes: Brian Tee (Ronin), Lucy Liu (Bandit Leader), Jaden Waldman (Village Chief).“Lop and Ochō” — Animated by Twin Engine’s Geno Studio. Voice cast: Anna Cathcart (Lop), Hiromi Dames (Ocho), Paul Nakauchi (Yasaburo), Kyle McCarley (Imperial Officer).“Tatooine Rhapsody” — Animated by Twin Engine’s Studio Colorido, who also did the movie adaptation of Burn the Witch. Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Jay), Bobby Moynihan (Geezer), Temuera Morrison (Boba Fett), Shelby Young (K-344), Marc Thompson (Lan).“The Twins” — Animated by TRIGGER, known for Tenga Toppen Gurren Laggen, Kill la Kill, Promare, and many other anime. The voice cast includes: Neil Patrick Harris (Karre), Alison Brie (Am), Jonathan Lipow (B-20N)“The Elder” — Also by TRIGGER! The voice cast: David Harbour (Tajin), Jordan Fisher (Dan), James Hong (The Elder)“The Village Bride” — Kinema Citrus. The voice cast includes: Karen Fukuhara (F), Nichole Sakura (Haru), Christopher Sean (Asu), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Valco), Andrew Kishino (Izuma), Stephanie Sheh (Saku).“Akakiri” — Animated by Science Saru, who made the incredible Keep Your Hands of Eizouken! TV series. Voice cast: Henry Golding (Tsubaki), Jamie Chung (Misa), George Takei (Senshuu), Keone Young (Kamahachi), and Lorraine Toussaint (Masago).“T0-B1” — Also by Science Saru. The cast includes Jaden Waldman (T0-B1) and Kyle Chandler (Mitaka).“The Ninth Jedi” — By Production I.G, which has done Ghost in the Shell, Psycho Pass, Moriarty the Patriot, and so much more. The voice cast includes: Kimiko Glenn (Kara), Andrew Kishino (Juro), Simu Liu (Zhima), Masi Oka (Ethan), Greg Chun (Roden), Neil Kaplan (Narrator), Michael Sinterniklaas (Hen Jin).It looks like (from the trailer) that Kylo Ren stopping a blaster bolt midair has been decided upon by the world and judged as "badass," so we are going to see a lot of that kind of thing. Additionally, it looks like someone stops a lightsaber thrust during a duel with the Force. If this is true, I'm surprised it doesn't happen all the time.
I haven't been this excited about Star Wars in some time. I think just maybe it's because it is so different. Of course, Anime is always way over the top on stuff. But why should we continue to pretend that the Force and the Jedi are not "way over the top?" Those powers and what they do are being portrayed exactly as intended, and that's all I've gotta say about that.