So with a Blog named "Nerd Rage against the Machine." Pet Peeves are pretty much my specialty, I rant. That's what I do. And that being said, it's what I want to rant about but here is my pet peeves, so with that in mind I decided to shake this up a bit and come up with 5 major pet Peeves, make this kind of a potpourri of things that piss me off.
5-Celebrities who use Celebrity instead of acting- This happens more often than not, one young actor or actress gets that really meaty role that people love, and then BOOM! that's what he or she is known for. Look at Cillian Murphy, who played the Scarecrow in Batman Begins. Before this he played a sympathetic crossdressing protagonist in the film Breakfast on Pluto. Without a shred of malice or sadism, Murphy played the role with aplomb, but then he did a little movie called Batman Begins. Now? He is the perfect person to play sadists, sociopaths and psychos. Red Eye, his first film after Batman, he was the psycho in the film. He was also the villain in the films In Time, and set up to be the villain in the next Tron film. Why does this bother me? a few reasons, firstly we give these actors a by to play characters that are essentially their schtick rather than growing and cultivating other performances. And worse, films cater to them not the other way around. Take George Clooney, I won't deny the guy is talented, but at the same time rather than him trying to become this noted character, the character was twisted to fit Clooney's style. The importance of what makes Batman an interesting character were scrapped for "we want a George Clooney kind of Batman." The Same can be said for Shaquille O'neil in the film Steel. The character of Steel could have made a decent film but, WE GOT SHAQ!!! Let's make jokes about his inability to make free throws, and ignore the connections to superman that the character had, because IT'S SHAQ!!! Don't believe me? Look at Stalone's Judge Dredd film, which was a vehicle for Stalone, it was a disaster. Meanwhile Dredd, starring Karl Urban who was a hardcore fan of the comic did an amazing job as the megacity lawman, and doctor McCoy, two very different characters both played by the same ACTOR brilliantly. This often effects comic movies where since it's lot of effects it is a summer blockbuster, and we want some "star power" to draw people in. Why? is a comic that has become a huge phenomenon in one industry not enough reason to explore it in film? So yeah Pet Peeve.
4-Games Workshop- Just like Disney and Microsoft, Games Workshop started out from humble beginnings. A group of british gamers who wanted to import the dungeons and dragons phenomenon to the UK. Eventually branching into miniatures and their own games, such as Talisman, and Dungeonquest, but nothing turned them from a small company to a publicly traded corporation like Warhammer, and it's sister game Warhammer 40,000 rogue trader. Since about the 1990s GW has gone from the small group of dedicated gamers that ran their company in the 1980s to a company beholden to it's shareholders, who have at every turn dicked over fans and the industry at large. From near annual price hikes, to frivolous lawsuits that would make Apple blush with shame, GW has truly become the Microsoft of the industry. Not a trip to the game store goes by that I don't get to hear another grievance planted firmly on GW. They just axed their specialist games line leaving fans of any thing they make that isn't Warhammer, or Warhammer 40,000 or the Hobbit, out in the cold, sorry bloodbowl players. And yet they continue to play. I have heard gamers scream bloody murder, and yet with alternatives in the market what do they do? They continue to give money to and play the GW way. If we had this blind loyalty in the video game industry, Atari would still be the number one brand in video gaming followed closely by Mattel, and Coleco. Two game companies I have begun to really like Warlord, and Mantic are run by Ex GW developers and have made some amazing games and have customer service unparalleled customer friendly activities, and yet fans go GW, this would be like a Beatles fan refusing to listen to anything John Lennon, or Paul MacCartney do post Beatles, but they will slavisly buy polygram records because they distributed the Beatles records so they must be good. I just don't freaking get it!
3- People who cannot use their goddamn turn signals!- Nothing pisses me off more than some jackass who cuts me off from the left without bothering to use his turn signal, then jumps into the right turn lane and signals he is turning right. Not when it actually would have helped be a safe driver, but once you are in the goddamn THEN you let the world know that not only are you in a lane that only turns right, but you are signaling that you are turning right. There is a special place in hell for people like this. Stuck in a car with a repeating loop of Michael Bolton's greatest hits in a car with a top speed of 15 mph locked in for all eternity while other drivers cut you off every chance they get.
2- Gamers (as in I own an X-box, so I am such the gamer)- have been a "gamer" since 1984, with red box D&D, Traveller, Champions, etc, and when I caught 50 shades of crap (even being accused of Satan worship, by a classmate who had a hard time wrapping her head around the idea that if I am an atheist, I by definition cannot worship, Satan or otherwise! Now being a hardcore gamer type means you play call of duty, or Halo on your Xbox. wow you guys really paid your dues. I earned the title of gamer, in marathon sessions of Cyberpunk, and Warhammer building terrain, and writing adventures, now you just pick up a wireless controller and play an "RPG" (I am sorry Final Fantasy VII is NOT AN RPG GODDAMN IT! It's just an adventure game with a shitty combat engine!!) damn kids get off my lawn!
1- The Fact that this dung heap is worth millions- Yeah the continued existence of the Australian douchebag who's company killed Firefly, the Tick, The Lone Gunmen, and countless others, and who pumped so much poison into our political discourse in this country is not only still around but worth
millions. The fact that Birthers bitch about our president claiming he's a foreigner take their marching orders from an actual foreigner would be funny if it wasn't so goddamn tragic. between Fox News and Fox screwing around with anything they touch that has an ounce of talent or quality (but you damn well better believe if it's some trash TV that appeals to the lowest common denominator this man will promote the hell out of it!) Suck it Rupert!
Now that I got that of my chest, let's see what pisses off the rest of the league.
Nerd Cantina
Cavalcade of Awesome (So right about the shopping carts!)
GI Jigsaw
Di's treasures
Diary of a Dorkette ( I remember the same problem with the Teen Titans Line (only got half a titan tower DAMN THEM!!))
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