danalwyn

So I'm sort of in-hiding from the internet and I haven't been around much lately. Probably will be that way for a bit more.

But, from my corner of the electronic universe, here's something of interest (also about two weeks old). I'm not into it myself, but Game of Thrones seems to be the fandom of choice among many of my friends at the moment.

So Spencer Ackerman, who runs Wired's Danger Room military blog, posted a fairly detailed critique of Robb Stark's attempt to win his war, accusing Stark of a lack of strategic depth. Of course, such accusations do not necessarily hold water with fandom and there's already been one sophisticated counterargument.

This isn't Ackerman's first instance of poking an active fandom. His detailed critique of the Battle of Hoth was so hotly contested that Danger Room ended up hosting an entire symposium on the subject (and that doesn't cover nearly half the people who retaliated).

So I guess the lesson here is that if you poke a nerd you should be ready for a very detailed response on the subject. With footnotes.

This is old news, but I still find it amusing. My father pointed out to me that in the September 2nd edition, The Economist printed an article about how manga and anime has been picking up more and more marketing aimed at the female gender. Although I think that the article in question is not very good (and written by someone outside the relevant fandoms) I am endlessly amused that the image that they chose to represent the trend, and to accompany their leader about a game featuring a strong female lead, and their title of "Kick-ass maidens" is one of Himura Kenshin, indicating that a) he is meant to be a sex symbol that attracts female attention, or b) even highly acclaimed British editors cannot tell his gender at first sight. I tend to lean toward b), although a) is still a strong contender. Either way, I still think it's funny.

The article, for reference, is here