Herrenvolk

It’s hard to overcome the skepticism that should surround any expansion for an MMO. Presumably any additional content should be more of the same, aiming to prolong the experience. But Wrath of the Lich King is different. Wrath of the Lich King has a theme and it follows it to a point, and that theme seems to have inspired Blizzard to create something amazing.

The original WoW content was rather tame. You were finding your place in the world, and the world was stable. The Alliance and the Horde were not at war. The idea was just to provide some neat fantasy surroundings. With Burning Crusade came a bit more instability; the Dark Portal was open again and it was apparent that Outland and its inhabitants had been ravaged. The demon-controlled Orcs had left scars and infuriated Draenei, the Blood Elves were subverting the land’s magic for their own addictions, and the world was being openly assaulted by the forces of evil.

But in Wrath of the Lich King the situation has escalated. All throughout the continent of Northrend is a feeling of threat and immediacy. You’re coming across people who have lost their homes and families, entire races that have been displaced and are deciding how to save themselves — whether they should run or fight. The dragons, ancient protectors of the land, are embroiled in a war of attrition — the blue dragonflight feels the only way to stop the abuse of magic and save the world is to destroy all magic-possessing life, while the red dragonflight fights to preserve all life on Azeroth. Arthas and his undead armies are seeping into the world and disturbing the natural order.

This content — quests, dungeons, writing — is above and beyond any previous content available in WoW. Northrend is such a tragic and hopeful place that it makes the ordeals of Outland and the old world seem rather juvenile.

The dense and detailed environments come together with the quests to paint a picture of a doomed land that has chosen to stand and fight, because it has no other choice. And as evidenced in the new Death Knight quests, even the ‘bad guys’ have an understandable agenda. In several books that you have the option to read, the Lich Kel’Thuzad explains that the Scourge is not so much evil as it is the acknowledgment of sinful nature. The Scourge — at least the... upper management… are fighting for a different way of life, a life of inevitable death and undeath, and strength in the immoral. They allow the living to believe they are pure evil because they are sure that they cannot win against their sinful nature.

If you had asked me about three years ago if WoW had a story worth listening to I would have said no. But with the advent of Wrath of the Lich King the tattered and brave world that I had gotten to know as a kid playing Warcraft II has finally exposed itself, and this new direction is wonderful. Blizzard didn’t pay me to say this, but… cheques or cash are fine.

Milagro

Thirty-Five Things I've Learned From X-Files Fanfiction

1. There is no situation or episode after which it is too improbable or even impossible for Mulder and Scully to have sex. Cancer, for example, is a good aphrodisiac, as is the death of a family member.
   
   

2. Mulder and Scully often have long, in-depth, open conversations about their feelings, though these always happen off-screen. These also, invariably, lead to sex.
   
   

3. What we see on screen only scratches the surface of how crazy Mulder actually is. It is amazing he can function at all on a day-to-day basis, much less still be an FBI agent, with how much insanity is lurking in his head.
   
   

4. Much of this insanity is related to Mulder's profiling ability, which isn't just spooky, it's darn near supernatural. Mulder often loses himself in the mind of a killer, and Only Scully Can Save Him from the Abyss (And Then They Have Sex, aka ATTHS).
   
   

5. Mulder and Scully suffer almost constantly from nightmares. These always require comfort from the other, which means sex.
   
   

6. Mulder and Scully are magnets for car crashes. It is a rare car trip that does not result in an accident, a hospital stay, recuperating at home – ATTHS, of course.
   
   

7. In fact, Mulder and Scully are constantly being shot, stabbed, or otherwise critically injured, even beyond what we saw in the show. Again, this results in time spent being cared for by the other, ATTHS.
   
   

8. Both M&S have numerous past lovers waiting in the wings to come back at the most inopportune moments. This will lead to fights between the two, angst, ATTHS.
   
   

9. It is possible that even at the end of the series, when Mulder and Scully have kissed passionately, talked about the child they had together, and end up holding each other on the same bed, that they still never had sex. (Though this goes against all the fanfic evidence stating that they were having sex every time they were off-screen for nine seasons.)
   
   

10. Any character could be in a sexual relationship with any other character – again, there is no such thing as this being too improbable or even impossible. (True for any fandom!)
    
    

11. No character that we saw die is actually permanently dead. (True for any fandom, and Chris Carter actually pretty much said this.)
    
    

12. Mulder and Scully spend long hours listening to songs and thinking about the ways in which they are true for their lives. (Can also lead to declarations of love ATTHS.)
    
    

13. Mulder is constantly wildly jealous of any man who so much as speaks to Scully, though this also mostly happens off-screen. The same is true for Scully, about Mulder – for example, the experience of Dr. Bambi Berenbaum wounded her deeply.
    
    

14. Quite apart from “Never Again”, both Mulder and Scully are prone to having one-night stands with random people just to make the other jealous, especially after feeling particularly taken for granted. As is only natural, this leads to a huge fight, apologies, ATTHS – not necessarily in that order.
    
    

15. The FBI holds frequent balls which all agents are required to attend. Scully secretly yearns for them, though she would never tell Mulder how much she dreams of dressing up for him and being on his arm. Mulder cherishes similar dreams, although he knows he can never be worthy of Scully. These often lead to declarations of love ATTHS.
    
    

16. Using the elevator to reach the basement office (or any elevator, for that matter) is dangerous, as it often breaks down, leaving our intrepid agents trapped inside. They can make the best of it, however – ATTHS.
    
    

17. Bill Scully is one of the most evil, unreasonable people on the planet. He is extraordinarily sexist and does not accept that his sister can be a good FBI agent and enjoy her job. He will never, ever accept Scully's feelings for Mulder (or vice versa), and it is a wonder Scully ever speaks to him.
    
    

18. Mulder was definitely married to Diana Fowley back in the day – the infamous wedding ring was certainly not just David Duchovny playing a trick/being a jerk to viewers. This leads to much angst from Scully when she finds out, which means Mulder must convince her how much of a mistake it was, ATTHS.
    
    

19. Both Mulder and Scully used to smoke, and pick up the habit again whenever they are over-stressed or experiencing relationship angst.
    
    

20. Besides the unbelievably excruciating amount of trauma we saw Scully go through on the show, she has also been kidnapped, abducted, mugged, molested, and raped countless times. This almost always leads to Mulder-comfort ATTHS, naturally.
    
    

21. If Mulder and/or Scully don't feel up to actually having long, honest, moving conversations with each other in which they finally spill all their pent-up feelings, one or both of them will write it all down in a letter or email. This affords them the opportunity to try to formulate it so it can be as flowery and lyrical as a Chris Carter voiceover. Though neither M nor S actually wants the other to find said document, they will, ATTHS.
    
    

22. Mulder and Scully often are forced by circumstances beyond their control to share a bed at the end of the day, or, in the case of having been in a plane crash/being otherwise lost in the wilderness, having to huddle together for warmth at night. Far, far more often than not, ATTHS – especially if they have been having an increasingly hard time denying their primitive urges for each other throughout the day.
    
    

23. Once Scully finally began to remember what happened to her when she was abducted, the only possible outcome was to start constantly having paralyzing flashbacks and go catatonic. Of course this happened off-screen, and Mulder had to comfort her, ATTHS.
    
    

24. During the three months Scully believed Mulder was dead after “This Is Not Happening”, she was either hovering on the brink of insanity/suicide, or learning to love Doggett or Skinner (or both). Even if Scully did not fall for either of them, one or both had fallen head over heels for her by this time, but they both knew It Can Never Be because of her undying love for Mulder, and it was very angsty.
    
    

    
    

25. Everyone who sees Mulder and Scully together instantly notices that they are incredibly close – in fact, that they have a special bond never before seen and that could never be seen again. This will be so obvious to the random outside observer that the person cannot comprehend how Mulder and Scully themselves do not see it.
    
    
    

26. Scully is constantly thinking about how beautiful Mulder's expressive leaf/dark/forest/verdant/emerald green/hazel eyes are. She also often thinks about his attractiveness in terms of the appropriateness of his namesake animal. Mulder, on the other hand, fixates on Scully's beautiful fiery/titian/strawberry red hair (despite the fact that he is red/green colorblind), and her sapphire/deep/startlingly/piercing/summer-sky/ocean blue eyes. He also is haunted by the alluring floral/fruit scent of her shampoo.
    
    

27. Mulder and Scully must either have met before the show began, or been at the same place at the same time without knowing it but felt a strange connection, or at very least their families were connected. This must be, because Their Love Transcends Time And Space.
    
    

28. Mulder and Scully learned quickly to call each other Fox and Dana, though this really only happens off-screen. It often accompanies declarations of love (ATTHS).
    
    

29. Mulder continually thinks about how small/delicate/fragile/tiny/dwarfed Scully seems to him, especially in comparison to his clumsy/lumbering/hulking figure alongside her. Despite this, they both also always remark to themselves how well they fit together – particularly, of course, when they are having sex.
    
    

30. Mulder always refers to his sister as Sam, although this only happens off-screen.
    
    

31. If Mulder and Scully have a child other than William (which definitely happened or will happen later), he or she will be named Sam.
    
    

32. Emily is really Mulder's biological daughter as well, as are any similarly-created children.
    
    

33. Mulder and Scully never have a home-cooked meal together, only takeout or pizza. If one of them tries to cook for the other, especially Mulder, disaster will result and hijinks will ensue.
    
    

34. The Lone Gunmen can do absolutely anything Mulder or Scully need them to do in order to further the plot. Money is never an object.
    
    

35. Christmas almost always reminds Scully of Emily and makes her depressed. Mulder, on the other hand, always forgets and doesn't understand until something forcefully reminds him, and then he feels horrible guilty about it. He tries to cheer her up, ATTHS. This all happens off-screen.

fin

Post-Modern Prometheus

So, Hallowe’en, or Samhain, was just a few nights ago. I didn't hand out candy, I didn't go trick-or-treating, I didn't go get wasted.
I guess I'm weird like that.
Instead, I played Halo 3 at Christy's. There's something strangely soothing about blowing shit up. Anyways, after three continuous hours of that, she and I headed into town so I could drop some stuff off at Plato's Closet. Money is great. We then hit Hot Topic in Ridgedale... me, to find any leftover X-Files memorabilia, and she wanted to find some more awesome Twilight swag. She won, but I was determined to spend my new money on something. We hit Border's Bookstore next, hoping to find any of the X-Files books, but to no avail.
Then she suggested Barnes and Noble.
I immediatly was drawn to the SciFi/Fantasy section, persistant in my search for the holy grail. Up one side, down to the other. Next isle. Passed a bunch of unknown displays.
"JENNA!" She squeaked at me. Actually squeaked. And now she was laughing.
"What?"
"Git your ass over here!" She was looking at a display I had passed. I thought, I swear to god, if it's another Twilight display...
But it wasn't.
It was my holy grail. And I had walked right by it.
I the proceded to squee.
For those of you that don't know, a 'squee' is the sound of a rabid fangirl, the noise that is made between a squeak and a squeal.
It was a huge display of all of the X-Files stories. All in perfect condition. All there, waiting for me to pick them. Choose them. Love them.
About a half an hour and four strange looks later, I had chosen my book. We decided to hit the multimedia section before we left.
See, I was curious to see if they actually had any of the four soundtracks. You see, there's the score for the first X-Files movie, the score for the second X-Files movie, the score for the TV show, and then the Album for the First movie.
I found three of them.
"Oh my god, Christy look! Look look look!" I squeaked, holding the CD's out in front of me.
"I have these two, but I don't actually have this one! Oh my god yaaaaaaaay!"
Christy began to slowly back away from me. "Ok, that's great. Let's go."
No way. "Nuh-uh. Let's see if they have any DVDs!"
I think at that point I heard her mutter, "Oh please god, no."
I didn't have any luck. I decided before we left that I would double check the CD's one last time.
"OH MY GOD CHRISTY GIT OVER HERE!"
"Oh shit. What?"
I found the other CD that I didn't have. Christy saw this and swore, backing away slowly and trying to act like she didn't know me.
"Oh my god this is soooo awesome!" I was holding the CD's and the book close to my heart, bouncing up and down like a crazy person. But let's admit, when it comes to the X-Files, I am.
"Ommigod ommigod ommigod this is so awesome!" I was squeaking at this point. I couldn't contain my glee.
"Jenna? You're the reason I hit my head against walls."
Christy then proceded to drag me to the register to pay, while the nice older lady smiled kindly at my glee, in a very non-patronizing way.
I don't remember ever being drug out of a store that fast in my life.

We listened to one of the CD's on the way home, both of us loving almost all of the songs. We decided to end Hallow's Eve by watching the X-Files, with no lights on, in my basement. I decided to watch ones that neither of us had ever seen. The first one was awesome - perfect for Halloween. It was the first time the X-Files actually had me mildly scared. And that had images with the potential to give me nightmares. The second one we watched was much more light-hearted, but no less awesome. By the time that the second episode had finished, it was midnight. We both decided against a sleepover and so I dropped her off.

Nothing like a bit of X-Files to make the perfect Halloween .

Teliko

So, I’m not sure if the world caught on to this or not, but I’m a HUGE fan of the X-Files. I watch it religiously, regardless of the fact that it's now in reruns... at 2am on SciFi. Like I said previously, there's something to be said for a show about aliens that ran successfully on mainstream television for 9 years. Needless to say, seeing the era of Mulder and Scully come to an end was sad, and there have been several occasions when I wished I could turn on the television every week and see a new episode.

But that doesn’t mean that I want to replace it. Or that I even could replace it.

When a friend of mine started watching Fringe a few weeks ago, one of the first remarks she made was how similar the show was to the X-Files. In conjunction with that comment, she suggested that I might like it.

There are things I like about the show, and things I don’t like about the show.

The similarities to the X-Files are pretty obvious, even from the first episode. I mean, the premise of the show is an FBI agent investigating paranormal activity. So… yeah. As many 'Philes have noticed, the opening is very similar to the way each X-Files episode opens: something really weird happens, and then you get the title sequence, which is definitely reminiscent of the X-Files title sequence. They cut to a commercial break, and then the agent spends the rest of the episode figuring out WTF is going on.

The second Fringe episode, aptly named “Same Old Story,” even seemed to take the main points of its plot directly from a fourth-season X-Files episode called “Teliko.” Both involved a man committing a series of murders and removing the victims’ pituitary glands, using the hormones to survive. I know many shows draw inspiration from other shows, and crossovers are certainly not unheard of, but stealing an entire plotline and hoping the X-Philes won’t notice wasn’t very bright.

I’m also not a fan of the whole floaty 3D letter thing they do with the locations. I find it distracting, and I think it just looks stupid, to be honest. I like it better when there’s subtle text at the bottom so it doesn’t overpower the scene.

What I do like about the story is that the dynamic between the three main characters seems strong, and I especially like The Observer as a supporting character (whom I’ve seen compared to the Cigarette Smoking Man on some other blogs, which I think is an interesting comparison). I’m interested to see what else happens with him. (A lot of other people are noting the physical similarities between The Observer and the Watchers from Marvel comics, which I can see. And the eating habits of The Observer are apparently a lot like those of the kids on Roswell, although I can’t vouch for that one, since I’ve never seen the show.)

I’m not giving up on Fringe just yet, but I do definitely think they’re going to have to work harder in the future if they want to separate the series as a unique entity from the other sci-fi shows out there.

And nothing will ever replace my favorite agents and their quest to uncover the Truth.

Ever.

EVER.