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[Zaratustra]

I was talking about the bechdel test this morning and I realized that most anime, even the trashiest half naked ones, pass the shit out of it.

the anime bechdel test is when two people of any gender talk about something that is not bra sizes or power levels

[Disposable Ninja]

And yet Queen's Blade still passes it with flying colors

[Classic]

Of course, this is why the Bechdel Test is known as a "depressingly low bar".

[A²]

[22:25] OHakubi: Oh, speaking of bullshit decisions... Infamous.
[22:25] OHakubi: There's one point in the game where the villain has half a dozen doctors hanging off of one roof and your girlfriend hanging off the other and you only have time to save one group.
[22:26] MetalSlime: Fuck'em both
[22:26] MetalSlime: They all die
[22:26] OHakubi: Same as Spider-Man, right?  Well, here's the thing: If you save the doctors... your girlfriend dies.  The winch thing breaks, she falls.
[22:27] OHakubi: Thereby showing that your girlfriend is the one up on that roof.  BUT!  If you go to save your girlfriend, it's not actually her, and she's revealed to be with the doctors.
[22:27] Aesir: ... wat.
[22:27] Aesir: What.
[22:28] Aesir: WHAT.
[22:28] MetalSlime: TROLLIN'
[22:28] OHakubi: So no matter which you choose, your girlfriend will always be the in the group you didn't choose!
[22:28] Aesir: Are you fucking kidding me?!
[22:28] Aesir: You can't do that!
[22:28] OHakubi: It's Schrodinger Girlfriend!
[22:28] MetalSlime: Dohohoho
[22:28] MetalSlime: Genius!
[22:28] Aesir: YOU CAN'T DO THAT.
[22:28] Aesir: IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY.
[22:28] Aesir: GODDAMNIT
[22:29] * Aesir froths
[22:29] OHakubi: I know!  I saw the hero version of it, then went to watch the villain version and immediately went "OH THIS IS BULLSHIIIIIIIIIT"

This actually makes completely perfect sense
Warning: Spoilers for a 4 year old game:

See, the villian who's setting this up is a time-traveling you. He's gone into the past. He knows ahead of time, which one you'll pick canonically, and then puts your girlfriend in the other one.

[Royal☭]

“Anybody who wanders around the world saying, “Hell yes, I’m from Texas,” deserves whatever happens to him."

[Mongrel]

I am not here today as a writer-director, or as a producer, or as the chairman of a corporation. I've come as a citizen of what I believe to be a great society that is in need of a moral anchor to help define and protect its intellectual and cultural heritage. It is not being protected.

The destruction of our film heritage, which is the focus of concern today, is only the tip of the iceberg. American law does not protect our painters, sculptors, recording artists, authors, or filmmakers from having their lifework distorted, and their reputation ruined. If something is not done now to clearly state the moral rights of artists, current and future technologies will alter, mutilate, and destroy for future generations the subtle human truths and highest human feeling that talented individuals within our society have created.

A copyright is held in trust by its owner until it ultimately reverts to public domain. American works of art belong to the American public; they are part of our cultural history.
People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians, and if the laws of the United States continue to condone this behavior, history will surely classify us as a barbaric society. The preservation of our cultural heritage may not seem to be as politically sensitive an issue as "when life begins" or "when it should be appropriately terminated," but it is important because it goes to the heart of what sets mankind apart. Creative expression is at the core of our humanness. Art is a distinctly human endeavor. We must have respect for it if we are to have any respect for the human race.

These current defacements are just the beginning. Today, engineers with their computers can add color to black-and-white movies, change the soundtrack, speed up the pace, and add or subtract material to the philosophical tastes of the copyright holder. Tommorrow, more advanced technology will be able to replace actors with "fresher faces," or alter dialogue and change the movement of the actor's lips to match. It will soon be possible to create a new "original" negative with whatever changes or alterations the copyright holder of the moment desires. The copyright holders, so far, have not been completely diligent in preserving the original negatives of films they control. In order to reconstruct old negatives, many archivists have had to go to Eastern bloc countries where American films have been better preserved.

In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be "replaced" by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.

[spoiler]—George Lucas, 1988[/spoiler]

[Brentai]

Called it the moment I hit the third paragraph, though I suppose I should have sooner.

[Joxam]

I hate to be THAT GUY (who am I kidding no I don't) but every time I see this posted on Facebook I feel I should bring up that he is specifically arguing against someone else or something else changing an artist's work into something that doesn't convey the original meaning or message. As a matter of fact if I were in an arguing mood I might accuse you of cutting off one of the most important statements of that quote, one that gives context, simply by stopping a paragraph short.

There is nothing to stop American films, records, books, and paintings from being sold to a foreign entity or egotistical gangsters and having them change our cultural heritage to suit their personal taste.

He's not talking about an artist, having realized the special effects potential of the day, going back and trying to more directly convey his original message. We can try to rationalize it all we want, pretend he's a hypocrite or an asshole, but the fact is, he's just a perfect example of when limitations, either in budget, technology, or control, have made artists better.

Off the top of my head Kurt Wimmer had the same problem in transitioning from Equilibrium to the bigger budget of Ultraviolet and don't even get me started on The Wachowskis.

[A²]

I'm actually pretty sure we've had this argument in this very thread already - if not here, then the Star Wars thread - where Lucas has said the same thing on another occasion, and then people point out that, yes, he's talking explicitly about fucking with other people's things. Not his own thing.

[Royal☭]

There is nothing to stop American films, records, books, and paintings from being sold to a foreign entity or egotistical gangsters and having them change our cultural heritage to suit their personal taste.

Can we at least make fun of this quote for his lack of self-awareness of how his films are big Kurasawa rips?

[Mongrel]

his films are big Kurasawa rips?

Among other things (That joke about how "I liked Star Wars better when it was called 'The Dam Busters'").

In all honesty, recreation like that is actually just fine. The existence of Star Wars or spaghetti westerns do not retroactively change Kurosawa's films.

[Royal☭]

I know. It's just hilarious to see a white dude going all "They're going to change our cultural heritage to suit their ends!"

[Sharkey]

White Kaneda Saves Neo New York.

[Thad]

his films are big Kurasawa rips?

Among other things (That joke about how "I liked Star Wars better when it was called 'The Dam Busters'").

And let's not forget the works of Jack Kirby.  Darth Vader bears a more-than-passing resemblance to Dr. Doom, and the "I am your father" twist is straight out of The New Gods.

(Kirby played it differently, of course; it was a slow burn rather than a big climactic shock.  He foreshadowed the hell out of it, and the readers knew who Orion's father was before Orion did.  For my money, he did a much better job playing up Orion's inner conflict and potential to do great evil than Jedi ever did with Luke's, and The Pact remains one of the greatest single issues of any comic ever.  None of which is to detract from Empire, which is probably the single greatest space opera film ever made.)

[Zaratustra]

we stole star wars they stole final fantasy

fair trade

[Mongrel]

I told someone that jj abrams apologized for lens flares, and that literally now means figuratively, and they didn't believe me and checked both times and were stunned to find I was telling the truth.

So then I told them they also removed gullible from the dictionary and they just accepted it as fact.

[Esperath]

23:19   <ElfinZero>: patito, I'd like to be in Brentai's anus the moment it gets one of the sphincter 'clenches', if you know what I mean.
23:19   <ElfinZero>: ...
23:19   <Brentai>: I... what the fuck do you mean?
23:19   <ElfinZero>: I uh.
23:19   Brentai stares.
23:19   <Esperath>: :|
23:19   *** ElfinZero quit (Quit: ElfinZero)

[R^2]

Did that quote have any context? Would it have helped?

[Mongrel]

[Esperath]

Did that quote have any context? Would it have helped?

the context was basically more of the same.