We Need To Talk To Mike
This scene, in an earlier draft, happened through a translator – I was not, originally, going to let the Kill-Bots speak English. But it became to obtrusive and complicated for no real gain in the story that I added rudimentary English language to their software, for the sake of making the story go forward at a more reasonable pace. Hopefully it’s not too contrived; it was the best thing I could manage to do with it. Somehow, I doubt I’ll get any major objections.
Anyway, this was another “how the hell did I get this done” kind of page. Oddly enough, I owe it all to taking a nap this afternoon. Only about half an hour – but I was totally back on top of the task afterwards. Who knew? Strange things, these weird sleep habits I have. In any case, I haven’t really anything substantive to add this week other than to say that I’m still truckin’, here. Have a good one, everybody!
Does santelli think they’re powered armor suits rather than autonomous machines? The way De Veer said “people” and santelli’s request for them to “dismount” seems like they haven’t yet realized they aren’t dealing with squishy humans. I still can’t get over how adorable the kill bots are. Especially when he stutters. He’s like a big red machine Fluttershy.
given that i didn’t realize they weren’t battlearmor until just now, i could understand the characters not realizing.
Indeed! I actually realized myself that and did a little scene revision that ended up working out well – filling in for the previous extended and really complicated talking through translators scene. It played out much better.
–M
Dont you even fucking THINK about ponifying this.
Don’t look at this, then: http://www.viciousprint.com/6commando/artifacts/sketchbook/The-Geekiest-Thing-Ever.jpg
I did it late at night. Now let us never speak of it again.
Truth be told I have no idea about any of this My Little Pony stuff. It makes quite literally NO sense to me whatsoever. I just got on board with a meme some other artists were playing with. But seriously, can someone ‘splain me this? What is it about? Is it hipsters? Is that it?
–M
Ahhhh yes that’s awesome. Personally, I like the show for a number of reasons. As a 90’s child, I grew up with a lot of Lauren Faust’s other cartoons like Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and Kids Next Door. I started watching MLP after seeing some cool fan made videos and stuck with it for the great character development, excellent animation, hilarious background references, and general awesomeness. I know it’s not a show for everyone, but I definitely think everyone should give it a try.
See, I’m afraid I still don’t get it. I fail to see its general awesomeness. But I’m of a different generation, one much more taken with the fatalism and obsession with failure that came out of the 1980s. Which is why I gravitate towards shows like The Venture Brothers, I guess.
–M
Maybe the reason I like it is because it’s so opposed to what people of my demographic “should” like. It’s happy, upbeat, and colorful. I personally have never been a huge fan of bleak depressing movies or shows, and find extremely high action shows to be repetitive and boring (ironically). But a show that focuses on the development of a core group of characters and also being funny and upbeat makes the rarer action bits seem more impressive and carry more impact. Again, it’s a personal preference, but I really like it.
Well, that I do understand, even though I don’t see the appeal within the My Little Pony context. But that’s a matter of my personal taste. Growing up in the 1980s didn’t leave me with a taste for general upbeatness, but I do get it. Most people who have tried to explain this to me previously have left it at “because it rules!” Which I failed to get. So thanks for giving me little context!
–M
I wouldn’t mind the the MLP franchise honestly, but it was when every fan of the show I meet started forcing it on to me and other people and basically being a giant dick about it, then I started hating it, and when they started to ponify everything is when I really started to hate it, and when they started shouting at me for not liking it is when I wanted a localized holocaust to happen on them all.
I admit I’m the same way. My college roommate basically forced me to listen to this band called Sleater-Kinney in college, and to this day the very thought of the group’s music turns my stomach, not as such, but because it was essentially thrust upon me. I appreciate, therefore, killercow’s ability to explain his (her?) interest and attraction to the franchise instead of simply being inexplicably devoted to it, which can be a major turn-off to a pop culture thing like that. It goes a long way towards helping me understand something that I have, I admit, found utterly baffling.
–M
Localized holocaust is pretty harsh to wish on people who just like something you don’t. As for ponifying things, I do enjoy crossovers a lot, and so do most people who belong to more than one fandom. If you don’t like it, just ignore it. As for people trying to force the fandom on others, that’s a trait of later bronies who came in on the hype for many of the wrong reasons. Granted, there’s always a few whack jobs in every large group who are just outliers, I think bronies as a whole are pretty low on the scale of having really awful jerks, and the ones we have are mostly because of the massive amount of targeting we get from trolls, and the paranoia that comes from it. I wouldn’t want to force it on you, but I would encourage you to try it 😀 Also, I am male, to answer Mr. Average’s doubt.
Cute robots are becoming a kind of a thing for me, actually. Not a bad thing to be known for: drawing robots.
–M
after musing on the commentary.. a basic language program for each of the major factions involved in that region would make sense. it would let the killbots understand stuff they overhear, much of which in combat is going to be related to what actions the otherside are planning/doing. presumably though the program is limited in how much context it includes.. dictionary definitions for a lot of stuff, probably not slang or colloquial speech. probably will include a lot of military terminology and jargon, but there may be concepts that don’t have equivalents or which mean something different in each service.
Indeed so. And in terms of programming space, it would be a pretty easy thing to make standard. The problem would be teaching them things like idioms and contextual meanings, which are rife in English, one of the reasons I’m told its so hard to learn.
–M
But also making it more rich of nuances.
It’s good to see the pilot still alive in his hole riddled armor suit. Wish I had something that tough to wear.
Actually, they’re kill-bots, so there’s no pilot, but it seems everybody just assumes (including Santelli and his team, mind you) there must be people in there somewhere…
😀
Even Kill-Bots have a creamy middle. Mike has one.
–M
So that settles it. Santelli is certainly NOT on board with killing unarmed people (now, about killing unarmed AIs, we don’t know yet) so his earlier “shoot first and ask questions later” reaction from earlier is all down to twitchy nerves…
Well, he’s lucky that he has a clear-headed platoon sergeant. But the Kill-Bots should have known better than to sneak up on him, frankly.
–M
Seems like the term kill-bots I brought into play stuck with everyone. ^^
And “we can’t just gun down unarmed people”?
Who says we can’t?
Indeed so! The rig word for the right thing, I should think.
And, well, we CAN do a lot of things, but probably shouldn’t.
–M
I can only speak for myself, but those “Wet paint!”-signs look like “Please touch me!” for crying out loud.
Maybe I’m just a child at heart, but when I hijacked that ridable floor-polisher-thing last week and crashed it into a reception desk I just couldn’t help myself… I always wanted to drive one of these.
It’s not my fault! The janitor left it unguarded with key in the ignition…
>:/
At least that was a reprimand I truly deserved…
Easier with automatic translations or simply a given that they are foreign but they are speaking the same language. Some people don’t understand what a pain it would be and drain on the story to go through laborious translations of characters.
–
I wonder how they broke the Artificial Intelligence barrier? Are they weak A.I.’s? (The human brain with the speed of a computer.)
Having the Russians speak Russian to each other makes sense to me, and has an important part in the story. Having an encounter happen through a translator, though possibly realistic, is needlessly cumbersome in a visual medium. It was just not worth the trouble and the tedium.
–M
Just because they are speaking the same language doesn’t mean there is an equal amount of understanding.
This should freak Santilli out. Mike con/sub-verted enemy AI’s. Of course I don’t see anything good happening to these guys, and yes I’m anthropomorphizing.
It’s gunna be an awkward call to Haulley.
Santelli- “Yeah… we’ve got kill bots who want to get into the base”
Haulley- “Well kill them!”
Santelli- “They… ah… asked to talk to Mike.”
Haulley- “They WHAT”
Oh, I anthropomorphize them, too – things made by people tend to take on human aspects in the way we perceive them – there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, unless it leads to an inappropriate or misleading perception on the part of the person. But eh seem reasonably anthropomorphic at this point, don’t they? At this point…
–M
“Colonel, the world is going totally crazy.”
Colonel Haulley declines the charges.
–M
I really hope this doesn’t end badly…
Same here! I love the Kill-Bots.
I like it even if it is a bit GITS