Ep. 36 — Favorite Sci-Fi Characters

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4 responses to “Ep. 36 — Favorite Sci-Fi Characters”

1. 

   Ryan

   December 6, 2012

   Hi guys,

   this was a great episode. i always halfway smirk when someone is compared to the stereotypical boyscout. having actually been a boyscout, i find it amusing. at least most of the kids in my troop didn’t really live up to those expectations.

   As for my favorite characters, i’d have to go with Luke Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine, Lisa Hayes from robotech’s macross saga, and Prince Lotor/Sincline from Voltron/Golion.

   In terms of small talk, that’s really my only criticism about the show. the episodes get pretty long, an hour and a half in this case, and i think it would be better to stay on topic and cut the time down, or at least focus the full time on the topic at hand.

   Reply
   1. 

      Ben

      December 6, 2012

      That’s the trick . . . do we include the stuff about our “lives” or do we just stick with the material at hand. We’ve been keeping things to just about an hour lately, and this episode just kept creeping up there. I could have easily deleted the small talk at the beginning and it wouldn’t have taken away from the topic. But some people like that stuff, some people don’t.

      The other trick — spending time talking about advertising. I ended up cutting a minute or so talking about our Audible affiliate. Why’d I cut that and keep the small talk? I don’t know. There’s a fine line between what people want, what people tolerate, and what people can’t stand . . . made finer by those people all being completely different!

      I hope we haven’t erred to far on the side of small talk.

      As for boy scouts . . . I was a Beaver and a Wolf Cub in Canada and agree. Boy scouts aren’t really “boy scouts” . . . they’re boys. But, cliches are cliches for a reason . . . to use a cliche about cliches.

      I’m most curious, though, about why Emperor Palpatine makes your list of favorite characters. That’s an interesting choice, and would make for some interesting conversation.

      The more I have thought about this episode, the more I think we need to do a “Women in Sci-Fi” episode. Ellen Ripley could get the airtime she deserves. Lisa Hayes would get spotlighted for sure. So would Leia.

      Reply
2. 

   RC

   December 11, 2012

   Personally I enjoy the beginning banter. For myself, It brings me into the circle and helps me feel closer to the hosts. I also have a long commute, so I don’t mind long episodes for podcasts… though the Sci-fi Christian did have one whopper of an episode that took a couple days to get through 🙂
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   5 favorite sci-fi (not fantasy) characters? I took a while to think on this. I based this list on characters that are all based in my youth, but that still give me pause to this day should I see anything relating to them. While I have many “cool” characters from obscure sources that might give some geek cred, these are the truthful characters that always grab my attention.
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   Ace (Space Ace): Ok, you can roll up a dozen sci-fi stereotypes in this character. I don’t refute that. There is nothing deep behind this liking. He was fun to watch/play. I knew what his character was doing and I enjoyed the universe and characters. To this day, my head will snap to anything with Space Ace or Dragon’s Lair and the Don Bluth animation that I love. (Love Titan AE because it almost has that Space Ace feel to it)
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   Roy Focker (Macross/Robotech): Again, nothing surprising here. He was cool. I like his girlfriend (being a multiethnic person myself, I could sympathize). He was a heroic character and dies a heroic death. Nothing weird or unexpected from him, but he will always be connected to my childhood memories.
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   Nightcrawler: I liked his backstory and his continuing faith (at least in his old backstory… no idea what travesties that might or might not have been inflicted since). His appearance left many to distrust him if not detest him. My own experiences as a child in a community that had very little ethnic diversity found me sympathizing with Kurt Wagner.
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   Lisa Hayes/Misa Hayase (Robotech/Macross): She is a tough woman, who has a tender side. The choice we all knew Rick/Hikaru shouldn’t have had so much trouble with.  Capable, intelligent but not emotionless (though we think so to begin with). Even as a child I really felt for the character as Rick/Hikaru flip-flopped between her and Minmei. I think her injured past also made her enduring to me.
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   Man-E-Faces: He was just an odd character with a lot of mystery. Now of course the mystery is really from a lack of development because it was just for marketing a toy. That however doesn’t take away from my interest in him, instead actually creating interest. Of course there is the mixture of man, monster and machine. There’s a lot that’s really interesting there, that to my knowledge, hasn’t been really explored. Regardless I still really enjoy the character.
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   Honorable Mentions
   Leeloo (5th Element)
   Ellen Ripley
   Rom
   Luke Skywalker
   Silver Surfer
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   My most disliked sci-fi character
   This is difficult, as I am trying to refrain from making a critique until I put my own work out for criticism. So I’ll say the character that arouses almost little interest from me that many really enjoy is Spiderman. Now, I’ll say I enjoyed him in many cartoons and some comic series. I think what I haven’t enjoyed are many of the stories. With him being so popular I think many of the stories were slaved to trends. But who knows. Sadly Spiderman just doesn’t move me. I never collected any of his comics when I was young. I didn’t hate him, just didn’t have an interest. Now, I love the origin story. In fact, I really liked the story up to Gwen Stacy. After she died I had trouble getting into many of the stories on a personal level.

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3. 

   Drew Rub

   December 17, 2012

   I haven’t had a chance to finish listening to ep 36, (ep 37 downloaded to my phone and removed ep 36), but I wanted to add a quick feedback to the episode.

   I wanted to give my top 5 list, but I also wanted to avoid the usual ones (like Star Wars, Star Trek, etc). I could list a bunch of ST and SW characters that are my favs,

   My top 5 fav Sci Fi characters would be; (yes, a few entries have multiple characters from the same universe).

   1) Commodore Ross and Col. T.C. McQueen (Space Above and Beyond). These are two commanding officers I could have happily served under and would have begged for a posting to the U.S.S. Saratoga if I’d been in that universe.
   2) Master Chief (Halo). Come on, who can’t take inspiration from the uber-soldier?
   3) Captain William Eisen and Christopher Blair (Wing Commander 4). If you never played this, you don’t know one of the greatest starship captains ever, and the coolest CAG in the universe.
   4) Remy Lebeau (aka, Gambit, Marvel Universe X-Men). No, not the Taylor Kitsch portrayal in XMen Origins, but the classic Remy LeBeau from the comic books. I loved his mutant power, his attitude, his costume, and his accent.
   5) Heero Yuy and Duo Maxwell (Gundam Wing). Heero was the ultimate pilot, but a broken person. Duo was the human grounding in the Gundam Wing story. If anyone hasn’t watched this animated series, I highly recommend it.

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