Favorite Fictional Characters and Batman Casting

Hello and welcome to Altered Geek! I'm your host,

Steve Megatron Phillips. Joining me in this endeavor

into geekdom is... Mike the Birdman Dodd from

ThisWeekendGeek .net And Alex also from This

Week in Geek. Awesome, awesome. Welcome back.

This is actually the first episode since mid

-January that we've recorded. Wow, it feels like

we just did a bunch of these, but recording times

tend to get away from us and life also tends

to get in the way. So it's nice to be back here

on the show. Yeah, we did a few in a row as we

were leading into the Christmas break and I think

we did one when we came back and it doesn't...

problem is end of January and beginning of February

basically went like in the snap of a finger super

fast yeah plus I was non -existent because I

moved during the last week of January and then

I was in production of season 14 of the audio

program I work on uh for the next two weeks after

that and then I've been drained heavily since

production. So I just haven't had the energy

to sit here and do this. I do not blame you because

me and Alex have been working very hard at This

Week in Geek. We've been doing a lot of reviews,

which normally this time of year is dead. This

year's been unusually busy. Yeah, we have multiple

fronts. Two to two and a half weeks where we

had almost nothing come in. And then I said,

Hey, we're completely caught up. The day after

I said that I was sent 12 items. And I went,

Oh, no, they all come out around the same time

too. So we, I've still working the chip away

at that. I should have a, uh, you know, an episode

or two, or at least a whole bunch of reviews

recorded, uh, and ready to wrap up with the rest

of the shows. But, uh, I've, you know, been going

out to see whatever new movies I could. Uh, I

saw Sonic, uh, I saw, uh, 1917. You saw birds

of prey. And I saw birds of prey loved all of

them. And that was all within a week. So I was

like, yes, finally catching up on stuff. But

now it's like, oh, no, now I got to do reviews.

I myself, I did. I did get around the scene.

Nineteen seventeen really enjoyed that. What

else did I see? That's pretty much the biggest.

Oh, I also saw Ford versus Ferrari, which was

really cool. I'm watching a movie today. Don't

know when this is coming out. I'm watching the

movie Midway. It's entertaining, but I'm certainly

glad that I didn't put through the effort to

go to the theater for this. Yeah, it's kind of

goofy, but it's entertaining. Could you imagine

if you had done a double feature back to back

watch 1917 first than that? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry.

Roland Emmerich, you. No, you do not stand in

the same category as Sam Mendes has made two

good movies in his entire career. He made Universal

Soldier and he made the first Independence Day.

No, no, I don't really even like that one. He

made Stargate. Everything else has been garbage.

I like 2012. Well, but I've got a soft spot for

John Cusack. Oh, yeah, it's by no means cinema

after tomorrow. I like that one too. I really

do. But I really like Jake, um, Jill and all

in that plus crazy Dennis quid. Um, I gotta get

to my son. Um, and then I think it's Jonathan

price plays the president and he's, I think it's

him. I don't know. It's some guy who looks like

Donald Rumsfeld or something and it's fucking

terrible. Um, but anyway, but yes. What would

you been up to Steve? Oh, that's right. You were

basically working. Yeah. So maybe you can underground

bunker. I was going to say maybe maybe now you

can finally relax and get back to having fun.

Steve dead, Steve died. So a microphone. OK,

there we go. OK, yeah. So anyways, yeah, it helps

if your microphone actually shows you that it's

not. Blinking anymore, you know But anyways,

yeah, we're going into another mini production

in March and then we're doing another major one

again in the end of April beginning of May So

yeah, I'll be busy with those again but Yeah,

I do intend on returning back to the podcast

fold Good. I mean, it's always good to get out

there, express yourself, kind of keep the content

flowing as we're going to have no lack of content

because we have a lot of stuff happening in the

next few months. We're ramping into con season

in the next little bit. The news cycle is going

to crank up, especially as we enter summer blockbuster.

And now that is beginning earlier and earlier

each year. Big gaming releases are coming out

in the next few months. I mean, we've got Persona

5 Royal, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Resident Evil

3. the last of us part two e3 happens in june

so it basically it was just christmas yeah if

podcasts are late assume it's because we haven't

slept in like 104 hours yeah pretty freaking

much It's going to be a hectic, if productive

little while. And of course, we're going to be

doing more Future Imperfects with Picard coming

out. I actually have scheduled one of an interview

or not really an interview. We're going to talk

about Picard with a friend of mine who is a writer

of Star Trek related materials for a pretty big

publisher. And he's going to join us in a couple

of weeks. So I'm really looking forward to that.

Nice. Yeah, I've been talking with him after

each episode airs, we go into mini rants with

each other. And he wrote something today to me

that was really, really fascinating. Like he

wrote a better episode in five minutes than what

I saw today. And I was thinking, wow, why didn't

they do that? But yeah, sometimes they don't

do it because budget constraints. So that's one

thing I was going to say. Or sometimes they don't

do it because corporate overreach. True, for

Kurtzman. You know what, isn't he gone? The one

responsible for the Kelvin films. Didn't they

just fire him? I have discovery. Wasn't he just

fired? No. They're looking for a new showrunner,

maybe, I think? No. They announced he's gone.

Like they don't want him back. No. I'm going

to look this up now. There's a rumor from last

year that Kurtzman was fired from CBS. Yeah,

I don't see anything. Yeah, these are all from

last year or the year before where they're saying

that they're they're going to tank it. But yeah,

the the guy that is the showrunner for season

one of Picard is not sticking around. He's voluntarily

leaving and going to a producer role and they're

going to bump somebody for season two. I just

hope they get someone who's a little bit more

involved with the previous histories, who's still

willing to blaze a brave new path. I'm going

to say 90 % of those people can't because they're

locked into contracts with the Orville. Half

of the script writers, the writers' room, show

producers, our previous Next Gen, Deep Space

Nine, Voyager writers. And do you really want,

you know, Brandon Raga and those people that

screwed up Enterprise to show up? Maybe Manny

Cotto would be good. Well, see, a lot of them

worked on the other three series, too, though.

Yeah, that's true. So it's the problem with Enterprise

was with Rick Berman. Well, it wasn't just. Well,

it wasn't just that it was this CBS paramount

starting their. their splinter there. And then

also they severely cut the budget on Enterprise.

It looked like garbage compared to Voyager. To

give you an idea, Voyager, not shot digitally,

but shot on film and edited in tape and everything,

was costing a little over $2 million per episode.

Which was a decent budget for a show at the time.

Pretty high, actually. Because remember, not

everybody was Kelsey Grammer getting a million

an episode for a show. But then they went to

Enterprise and it was like one, one and a half

million. So they lowered the budget. And then

I think it was season three and four, at least

season four, when they shrunk the amount of episodes,

it dropped to 750 ,000 or something per episode

budget. And they had to figure out ways to make

it work. Which is kind of really low when you

consider that that was when Battlestar Galactica

was on on Not on broadcast networks like they

were on the sci -fi network and they were spending

two to three million per episode So it's like

oh How is like how would they pull it out when

that's the biggest sci -fi franchise of all time

and they're basically paying a third of what

the competition is paying even Stargate at the

time was two or three million an episode so Now

you jump forward to today and you got these new

shows Discovery and Picard and they're giving

them hundred million dollar budgets for ten episodes

So you're looking at ten million per episode,

which is why they look like movies Yeah, I can

I can see that in and while I enjoy it I almost

prefer the little bit clunkered down to get more

out of it Yeah For that, don't forget, we just

have to wait until the summer and we can watch

the Orville again. That is true. I'm dying to

wait for that. And the talk is that they didn't

slash the budget, they increased the budget for

when they moved it to Hulu. So who knows? But

yeah, so enough of that. Yeah, I mean that's

more a future imperfect topic, but yeah, so we

obviously have a jam -packed show for you here

this week here on alter geek with me Alex and

Steve Coming up coming up this week on the show

I think we're gonna be talking about our five

favorite fictional characters coming across books

television film and Perhaps video games basically

anybody you can think of who's made an impact

on your life through any various form We're also

gonna talk a little bit about a Disney Plus series,

which is going to be going into production rather

soon up here in our homeland of Canada shooting

rather rather soon and with some returning faces

I'm not surprised this person came back but good

good good for them and maybe we'll touch on a

little bit of news that broke a little bit earlier

in the month involving a certain caped crusader

in a screen test so I guess let's kind of start

things off at the meat of the show which I think

is the most interesting part of it Top five favorite

fictional characters because we're all gonna

have different answers here and different reasons

So Steve since this is your website and we syndicate

it. We're gonna start with you. Oh My top five

favorite characters I would In no particular

order. Yeah, I'm not going any particular order,

but two of them are going to be Star Trek captains

Captain Kirk had a lot of impact on my childhood

just in the sense that that's what got me into

reading. I used to read all the William Shatner

Captain Kirk books because I kind of grew up

with TNG and with TOS. And so Captain Picard

was the other one. Just because they had different

sides of their morality scale, like Kirk was

kind of, you know, I'm gonna do it because it

needs to be done and and I really don't care

what command has to say And he was pretty bold

and Picard was bold in a different way in that

he was diplomatic And kind of heard both sides

before taking any action and didn't necessarily

have to be violent about it Although this series

is kind of changing Yeah, so I like old Picard

This one's not that bad either because he's still

trying to ride that line and everybody else around

him isn't But So those would be two of them I

would say Beast Wars Megatron because that's

what ultimately started my bout into doing impressions

of not only actors but animated characters Which

ultimately started me into the voice acting amateur

realm and later podcasting and then actually

getting paid to do voiceovers. So that one's

a pretty prominent one. And I'm trying to rack

my brain for a few others at the moment, but

I would say like Batman was kind of my intro

to superheroes and to comic books. Um, so that

one was, was a very important, uh, character,

uh, in, in face it too, like some of the games

have been pretty good about it. Uh, at least

the Arkham stuff and, uh, uh, seems to be the

character that gets the most reinvention every

time it comes out, um, over any other character,

honestly, like the suits, the, the gear, the,

the Batmobiles, which to me, the Batmobiles is

like the most awesome part. Um, aside from the

different costumes. For a fifth one, for a fifth

one. I don't even really know for a fifth one

at the moment. It's kind of tough to... We'll

think about it for a minute and then we'll come

back to you. So for myself, and then I'll throw

to Alex here. When I think of the top five fictional

characters, I want to think more than just I

like you in X movie. I want to think more you've

made an impact to me or the movie or something

the property you're in has spoken to me on a...

different level than just shiny things. For me,

Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect series

really, really stands out to me as I like how

the character is defined enough to give you a

history of their background, where they've come

from, but it's still customizable enough that

you put yourself into the avatar. You feel the

relationships, you feel the experiences Shepard

goes through over the course of the trilogy.

I really like the strength of having the paragon

role as I've played through. That's considered

to be my head cannon for this. Like I always

play Fem Shep, traditionally voiced by Jennifer

Hale. And my romance is Garrus. Although in the

first game when you couldn't romance Garrus,

I believe I romance Kayden. I'm pretty sure.

But I let him die on Vermeer because I'm an asshole

like that. Because, and there's a reason for

this, I wanted her to know heartbreak. So Garrus,

when they meet up in the second game and their

old friends come together, I wanted two wounded

soldiers to fall in love. And that was my headcanon.

There's just something in my mind that to be

remarkably beautiful and well put together. And

then when the extended cut of Mass Effect 3 came

out, when you get the goodbye before you go up

to the Citadel and fight the elusive man and

meet the star child, it just hits you a little

bit harder. than it did originally. Another fictional

character that I really connect with, this one

probably comes as no surprise, Robocop. And Robocop,

you can just look at Paul Verhoeven's movie with,

you know, Ed Minor as the writer and be like,

OK, well, it's American Jesus. Now, to me, that

that meant a little bit more because looking

at the fact that he did come back from the dead

and he had to rediscover his humanity, not just

that sense of duty, but the sense of love for

his family. And then as the series of movies

went on. knowing he can never have that back,

but he always has the love for his family. And

he has the friendship with Ann Lewis, which is

never shown to be romantic. Just these people

are buddies. They are partners and they're in

the thick of it. Then when they kill off Ann

Lewis, her last words to Murphy are, Get them

for me and he goes on this course of revenge

and it's great. I mean Robocop 3 fucking sucks

I love Fred Decker as a director, but I don't

know man. You weren't working with a fucking

great fucking script here, man. Um, and I've

just always really connected with that sense

of duty, that sense of right and wrong. And obviously

the Robocop movies have a big sense of corporate

satire and you know, the future's weird and the

6 ,000 SUX and I buy that for a dollar and all

that ridiculous parts that come with that. Um,

another one. And this one is a more recent. I've

actually come to this one in the past couple

of days, even before you posted the question

in our little group chat that we have for the

show. And this is Doctor Who. And this one comes

more recently from a doctor I don't have a lot

of experience with, but I was reading a book

I reviewed on our show this past week, and it's

the Peter Capaldi Doctor. And I'm not picking

his incarnation. but more or less since the show

has been rebooted from the 2005 to now, I got

to thinking about the morality of Doctor Who.

In the earlier series from 1963 to... 80s when

it ended then rebooted 94 for like the TV movie

or whatever it was um I got to thinking about

morality and choice and I like how the doctor

straddles the line where like he like the 12th

doctor says this great line when he fights missy

and the cyber men are about to take over the

earth and he says I'm an idiot with a box and

a screwdriver just trying to help people or something

along those lines. And he says to Missy, I don't

need an army after she presents them with this

bracelet that can control an army of cyber men.

And he's like, I have my friends, I have my love.

And there's just something about the loss and

the morality about the doctor that I've always

really, really liked. And yes, they did, they

did kind of ham it up in the years with like

Russell T. Davis and Steven Moffat with the 10th

doctor and the 11th doctor and to various degrees.

And there's been some really, really good speeches

in there, but I've always liked how when he struggles

with the really tough choices with the Peter

Capaldi doctors, not everybody makes it out alive.

In fact, a lot of companions die. Um, And I kind

of like that how he is this tragic figure because

he wants to help everybody. He generally wants

to save the universe. He is a Time Lord tasked

with literally keeping the timelines intact.

And that's an incredible weight and he has to

do it alone. His best friend, the master turned

against him. Gallifrey is now in complete disarray,

just being taken out of time and put back into

it now. And the Time Lord Council went and fucked

off sorry Steve you're not that at that one um

and it's there's something about that that really

really just kind of resonates me that personality

that that depth um for my fourth character um

i'm really trying to think of something really

deep and profound oh okay i got one Ripley from

aliens in the alien franchise but only specifically

alien one and two um took the idea of a protagonist

as a woman and put it right on its head because

Ripley arguably isn't the first, isn't the main

character in Alien, like really at all till like

halfway through it. And then she is smart, capable,

and isn't treated as a sex object, which in those

early days of like the horror genre, it was slashers,

killers. It was not a good time. But she defied

that and became powerful in her own right. Then

in Aliens, she becomes just competent to fight

along with the Space Marines, but doesn't become

a walking action hero trope. She wants to protect

Newt. She connects with Hicks. Yes, there's chemistry

there, but it isn't necessarily romantic. Maybe.

but it's not overly sexualized. And I've just

always really connected with Ripley as a powerful

woman character over the years. And I guess for

my fifth one, Sarah Connor from the Terminator

franchise. And that's because looking at her

as the character has evolved and most recently

with Terminator Dark Fate, which came out back

in November, being the mother of humanity. or

the savior humanity with John Connor, her son

comes with a hell of a lot of responsibility.

And she became capable after the first Terminator

tried to kill her thanks to Kyle Reese. She had

to grow up real fast. She had to think her way

out of things. She had to become capable and

she even got locked up in a mental asylum. And

then I became more of a fan of the character

when Lena Headley played her in Terminator the

Sarah Connor Chronicles, which ran for two seasons

on Fox. Just seeing the weight of that responsibility

weighed down on her because Lena Headley did

that role, tremendous justice. And I don't think

enough people appreciate what she accomplished

with it. And bonus character, take me two seconds,

Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones. Smartest

guy in the room, not always the right guy in

the room, but... He spoke his mind knew how to

play politics and I've always really loved that

Machiavellian style how he always tried to outwit

outplay Outlast everybody. Yes, I just realized

I quoted fucking survivor But that's how he played

it and admittedly he was a terrible advisor to

Daenerys Targaryen in the last season of Game

of Thrones because every move he suggested to

her wasn't exactly listened to and a lot of people

died. So those are my six picks for fictional

characters. So Alex, take it away. I've been

having scratching my head because I like a lot

of different characters. within a single property,

but something that sort of lasted with me either

from childhood or for a longer period of time.

The first two I can skip over because Steve talked

about them, it's Batman and Captain Kirk. You

could also sub in Spider -Man in there because

it's what got me interested in fictional media

in the first place. I could say Optimus Prime

or Megatron and that, but reality is I think

I saw Star Trek before I saw Transformers, I

would watch it at my grandparents house. So that's

what got me interested in the whole science fiction

or fantasy genres were the Batman, Spider -Man,

Star Trek. As far as the three that I think,

at least for archetypes go, have had the most

impact would be Sherlock Holmes. Really good

choice. Because... There's the archetype of that

investigator. I love me some really good mystery

shows, but not just that. The character can be

taken and put into so many different aspects.

You can release a modern day show like there's

been elementary, the TV show. There's the Sherlock

that was a modern day one in the UK. You got

the cartoons where he's sent into the future.

But the idea of You know, the somewhat emotionally

flawed but, you know, ultimately great detective

is, you know, probably ties into my like a Batman

as well. The idea of like this is the first,

the best, you know, every single detective show,

book, property, basically copies that. Then a

little out of left field, Ash from Evil Dead.

Okay, because I had never seen Before Evil Dead

2 there really hadn't been the the horror hero

Somebody there'd be somebody who like, you know

was the person who won But there was not somebody

who you went to see a horror movie to root for

the hero You could argue Tommy Jarvis and maybe

Nancy from Nightmare on Elm Street, but not really

but they they didn't get two movies, multiple

comics, video games, three season TV series,

20 years later. You know what I mean? Standing

the test of time. And you could say, you know,

pretty much Bruce Campbell, it's just his personality.

But the idea that something could be so over

the top, violent, scary, but then also be funny,

endearing, and like the leading man. So there's

been a lot of properties that have tried to copy

that style since. But I felt that that's probably

the best one there and yet as a kid I didn't

I knew Evil Dead not from the movies because

I didn't seem but from comics and from video

games I don't think I saw Evil Dead till I was

like 14 or 15. Yeah, I didn't see it till I was

in college and then for my last one if my main

list here is Sam Beckett the the character from

quantum leap Wow, that's a deep pole. I like

this. That's actually the first one that came

into my head I've always loved the shows and

media where it's the person, the way we're person

going and helping people, like the littlest hobo.

And this is basically littlest hobo stuck in

time. Got to figure out what's wrong, help the

person, move on to the next person. Oh my God,

Sam Beckett and Doctor Who should team up. Yeah,

he's still technically leaping. And I watch Enterprise

and I'm like, wow, this is a very long episode

of... of quantum leap because you know when's

he gonna leap out and turns out he leaps out

once they sign the the papers to start the federation

uh because like a lot of people our age probably

only know uh scott bacula from enterprise but

when i was little like that was he was quantum

leap quantum leap that was our thing and now

i guess he's also on ncis new orleans but to

me he's always going to be sam beckett you know

the the um thoughtful always optimistic scientist

who just wants to do good who can never seem

to catch a break and he never get back to his

own time but secretly he might not even want

to because he's doing more good correcting the

timeline as he goes and that brought in like

that was brought in my love of time travel there

was always i'd like back to the future but back

to the future didn't really get to go as deep

into all the different issues this was a show

running for five years that basically asked two

questions. One, you know, what does it mean to

be human? And, you know, what's right and wrong

when it comes to correcting social issues? And

two, what if, you know, what if, you know, in

a two or three parter, you leap into a new body,

and you find out you're Lee Harvey Oswald? And

you're like, am I supposed to kill the president?

Or is that really what happens? And you had to

wrestle with that moral ambiguity. Like, well,

if the proper timeline is I have to kill the

president, but I'm not a violent person, what

do I do? So that was something that even as a

little kid, I was like, wow, every week somebody's

traveling through time and also secretly teaching

me a history. They snuck it in there somehow.

As far as I would say a honorable mention would

be probably Doc Brown from Back to the Future.

OK. I like Doc Brown. That's a cool choice. I

would say for my fifth, I would probably go with

Doc Brown as well, just because it gave me that

love of the time travel scenarios. The well -meaning

mad scientist. Not all mad scientists have to

be evil. Yeah, and he realizes that, yeah, I

should have never invented this infernal machine

because everything goes wrong. um so yeah in

in that sense like i'm uh i i like him a lot

for that for that purpose and um and it gave

us a cool delorean even though i didn't sell

very well um i want that train dude the train

is pretty cool too but i still like the car but

it was great too but yes it was for for an honorable

mention i would say uh This one's going to be

funny and not a left field, but Jay Sherman from

The Critic. OK, deep cut, but I like it. Yeah,

I'm only saying that because. It gave me the

love of critiquing everything I watch. And enjoying

some of it, but some of it I'm like looking at

it and going, yeah, this is hot garbage or it's

hot garbage that yet it stinks. Yeah, I didn't

actually ask for my song. Yeah, that's hilarious.

But yes, I mean, in that regard, like I I relate

to that because I do find a lot of movies to

be really bad and and programming and things

that should never be made. And so it's it's.

Fun to relate to that. So and I like doing John

Lovett's voice. How did none of us pick Homer

Simpson? Like the South Park like you figure

somebody like Randy Marsh who like as a kid you

every kid loved Cartman because it was how evil

and crass he was but now that we're all adults

most people Like to Randy. Well, yeah exactly

relate to Randy look South Park might be a little

out of left field, but like Simpsons, Homer Simpson,

or somebody from there. Because Simpsons has

been on, like, came on the air when I was one.

I have not known a single year or time where

there hasn't been a new Simpsons episode. Yep.

I remember watching the first Simpsons episode

when it premiered on Fox. I actually have a very

clear memory of that. Or if we, OK, if we want

to go with one more, if I could pick one more

person where it's like, you can see them sort

of almost as a role model or as, you know, relating

to them, I'd go with Dan Conner from Roseanne.

He was like basically TV dad. Okay. Oh, I'm thinking

here. I'm trying to think of something, somebody.

Okay. If I had to pick someone else and it's

going to be a more traditional choice simply

because it is Spider -Man and more specifically

the Peter Parker of Earth 616 because obviously

there's that great quote with great power comes

great responsibility. And I learned that really

early in my life. Like that's always a moral

that has stuck with me. And I read Spider -Man

comics through the 90s. Yeah, I lived through

the fucking clone saga. I'm sorry, Steve. I'm

swearing a lot. Oh, no, it's fine. I'm not editing

this one. OK, so I lived through that, but I

also saw. I also read some of the classic stories.

I remember him fighting against Kraven the Hunter,

the Punisher, the death of Gwen Stacy, that infamous

issue of Spider -Man No More. The Sam Raimi movies

really connected with me in the early 2000s because

I was still very much growing up. I had my first

serious girlfriend at the time, Ashley, and that

was one of the big date movies we went to. And

I just remember... Did you dye your hair and

then do an emo dance with Fedora? No, although

I was dying my hair at the time, but I was not

emo dancing. Um, but yeah, it was just something

about that moral responsibility to be a good

person. And if you have the power to do right,

do it not because you have to. Well, actually,

Yes. Yes. Because you, because you have this

great power. That's a great responsibility. You're

supposed to do the right thing. You're not supposed

to be evil. You're not supposed to be a bad guy.

You're not supposed to be selfish. And there's

nobody picks Superman. Everybody picks Spiderman

or Batman because there are flaws. Problem with

Superman is perfect and nobody can aspire to

be perfect. Well, I can counter that. And I would

argue Superman, you can relate to him if you

relate to his humanity. You can't relate to his

physicality. But the fact that he's alone, the

fact that he is an alien, he's the ultimate immigrant.

Well, he's he's basically like he's basically

like Jesus's second coming in superhero form.

Well, yeah, because he's so untouchable, untouchable,

the morals like it's so perfect. It's the ideal

of everyone that they should be. And the problem

with that is, as cool as that is, you run out

of stories to tell, because it can always be

explained away with, well, he did something super

to save everybody. So I think all of us like

Batman and Spider -Man more, because Spider -Man

is like, Spider -Man is who we see ourselves

as when we're little kids and teenagers. And

Batman is who we end up seeing ourselves as adults,

where it's like, you could see Spider -Man turning

into Batman. I think. A lot of the characters

that I like, and you could probably draw a lot

of this, is I like characters who have responsibility

in that moral tragedy. And I guess that's just

how I've defined myself as a person. Because

I think who you like as a person reflects a lot

of your personality. I mean, notice here, we're

all Transformers fans. Nobody mentioned Optimus

Prime. I mentioned that he could have been one,

but the problem is he's basically... Robot Superman.

He's, he's robot Superman. He's robot Jesus.

He's robot Messiah. He's, you know, he dies for

everybody and then he comes back and he's, it's

too, he's too perfect. There's, there's literally

zero flaws. He doesn't even have pride or hubris.

He is just literally the perfect leader. And

as cool as that is for a little, little kids

show, when you get to a certain age where you

understand that nobody's perfect, it doesn't

work for you the same way. Uh, I think more people.

as they grow up would probably connect to Hot

Rod more. You know, in that he makes mistakes.

He questions his own leadership. Yeah. I mean,

I'm more of a fan of Ultra Magnus because he

didn't want that responsibility. It was thrust

on him. Has all the talent, but doesn't have

the experience. Or confidence to pull it off.

Whereas you got Hot Rod, same deal. It has tons

of confidence at first. Doubts himself when he

makes mistakes. Yeah. I mean, now I'm sure some

of the comics explain this a lot better, but

from our experiences with these properties, yeah.

I mean, I'm in complete agreement with you, Alex.

I mean, I think you've hit it right on the head.

Some of these characters are a little too perfect

and people might've expected from me, you don't

have a Ghostbuster on your list. I would have

went with Ray Stantz if I had to pick any of

the four Ghostbusters. because of the interest

in the occult interest in science. There is my

happy mad scientist pick because he uses his

interest in curiosity to explore the strange,

the unknown, the paranormal for the greater good

of humanity. Also satisfying an inner curiosity.

And for me, like there's lots of characters I

like in video games, but the problem is for the

most part, they don't span multiple games or

like I like tons of different characters and

you know, final fantasy games or. you know something

but a lot of times they're two one -dimensional

if they're earlier ones there maybe attributes

you've put into them yourself with your imagination

i'm willing to bet that that when like the final

fantasy 7 remake comes out that's going to be

more in depth and you might find characters that

you associate with better in that but you know

as far as ones that if i had to pick a video

game one i would probably go with somebody from

chrono trigger but i wouldn't know who because

it's all about the ensemble I almost think it's

easier to pick writers and authors than it is

to pick the characters themselves. I'm trying

to think of a video game one. I mean, obviously

I did Commander Shepard. If I had another pick,

um, oh man. Shepard, you put yourself into. Yeah.

If I had to pick a purely written character,

I like the Master Chief, but I don't love. the

Master Chief. I would say this one's going to

sound a little bit weird, but hear me out. It

comes from Persona 5, which is a game that came

out back in 2017 for the PlayStation 4. It's

JRPG. In short, you play a kid who gets accused

of an assault by somebody really powerful. You're

sent to live with a guardian for the school year

to prove you can shape up and then you can go

home again over the course of the school year,

some weird shit happens and you eventually end

up saving the world of those characters. I was

most fond of a character named Futaba and Futaba

was a little girl who's probably about 14. She's

a little younger than the protagonist joker.

And the reason I like her is the emotional vulnerability

because she's become agoraphobic. She's a shut

in. um since her i think her mother died if i

remember right um but somebody somebody has hurt

her and she hires the phantom thieves or challenges

them to steal her heart so she can become a full

person um to change her cognition of the world

and it's just there's something tragic yet heartwarming

about that that she wants to change for the better

but doesn't know how And I love the art design

of the character. I think the romance is really

cute. I've watched the scenes on YouTube because

the first time I played persona five, I went

with on and I like her story too, but there's

something about Futaba that I connect with, um,

on a deeper level. JRPGs and anime, uh, tend

to have the ability to go a little deeper with

some of their characters than Western ones. A

lot of times are about putting yourself into

it. Um, there's not a whole lot. Like when you

think of. protagonist, even like Geralt from

The Witcher, there is a lot of choices to be

made. There's not a whole lot of really good

games that span multiple games where the main

character is personified and written very well.

Yeah. A lot of supporting characters that are

usually really done well, even some villains.

But it's very rare that the main character has

a lot of clout. You might have to go back to

something like a wing commander. Where you could

I think you could put an argument for the Batman

games because he's really well written That's

not something create or you know fair enough.

I'm thinking Wing Commander You've got you know

multiple characters, but it's from a time where

you can only script so much You may have to go

back to some of the Sierra online games that

would have multiple games that spanned you know

characters across but I I think that's the biggest

challenge is video games they try to make the

main character somebody you know, but not one

-dimensional like You know God of War It's just

a whole lot of boy get over here boy. There's

not a whole lot of actual dialogue or time in

between God I don't know whether I agree with

that that series did get progressively better

as The series went on especially the last one

It wasn't my cup of tea. Yeah, but the relationship

got solid in the fourth which is good I would

say as far as characterizations, people that

are growing that wait and see what happens. I

think if we had done this recording, maybe six

months down the line, you might have said something

differently because last of us part two is coming

out. Oh my God. I forgot about Ellie. This is

the thing. I have not played it because it's

too scary for me, but I will watch somebody else

play. Everybody has said that that game has some

of the best characterizations and most realistic

portrayals of people ever put to a game. Yeah,

like Ellie and Joel are some of the best video

game protagonists I have ever had the honor of

stepping foot into. And there are parts in that

game that will emotionally break you. There are

parts in that game where I did genuinely cry

because it was sad. It was tragic, but there's

a happiness at the end, but at what cost? Check

out some of, not the Telltale, but those episodic

games from Don't Nod, The Life is Strange. That

is probably the best I've seen a protagonist

and characters fleshed out. So, you know, it's

five chapters. I haven't played the sequel yet,

but I think to get some of that characterization,

you almost have to go into the point and click

adventure genre. Yeah, I mean, if we went with

the episodic stuff for me, I would say Walking

Dead. Pretty much any with the Lee and Clementine

story is fantastic. There's so much emotional

depth there and tragedy because I love me tragedy.

And the end of the first game, I had to wake

my wife up because I was bawling at three o 'clock

in the morning. See, and that's the thing. I

think we're missing that from a lot of games.

And that's why, you know, I know we went off

on a tangent, but that's why we haven't gone,

why our first choices weren't video game characters,

because traditionally they haven't been as fleshed

out. Now we're starting to get that. So, I mean,

you know, if you look at our collective history,

it's usually like a Star Trek or a comic book

character that we liked as kids. And then it

grew into something different. We all had pretty

different, uh, you know, maybe half of them were

similar, but we had some pretty different picks

for, you know, at least three of them. Yeah.

Like it's, it's interesting to look at, see where

our fandoms come from. Like I said, I think with

myself, a lot of my fandom is born out of tragedy

and responsibility. And mine is, uh, actually,

if I look at mine, it's generally, uh, mystery

and altruism. What about you, Steve? Where do

you think your fandom comes from? I would say

my fandom comes from majority of my just things

I watched from childhood. I've always been very

introverted. And so I associated with some characters

that are introverted and some that are extroverted.

And so it's kind of the nice balance. Because

I'm the extrovert when I'm with people I know

I'm the introvert when I'm around complete strangers

and so it's But I also get drained really easy.

So in that sense, I'm like an introvert but But

yeah, I mean, I don't know the Each one of these

these types of characters are these facets of

them have have drawn on different aspects of

what grew into my geeky fandoms and so No matter

how I may feel about some of them now or even

back then, they've each played a different part.

Transformers has played a part, Star Trek has

played a major part, Batman's played a part,

Ninja Turtles has played a part, the voice actors,

the toys, the comics, the movies, the animated

series, literally everything. I've got splinters

from every little fandom that kind of play a

part in my persona and the things that I've looked

at over the years. I guess as we kind of close

this out, what is a character that we've all

talked about or one that's completely new? What's

a character you wish someone would explore a

little bit more? from your fandoms if you could

give someone I want you to read up on this character

hopefully see what I see or maybe recommend a

piece of media to help them understand you hmm

Think about it for a minute. Alex, same thing.

I'll start to kind of give you a bit of an idea.

So last summer I had a really bad bout of depression

and I've made no secret that I struggle with

bipolar too. I'm severely depressed and these

are issues that I take medication for. I see

a therapist and I see a psychiatrist for it.

So I'm obviously taking care of it. But last

summer something broke and I wasn't the same.

Al said to take the show over for a few weeks.

Well, I kind of got my head in order. And during

that time I played a game called persona five,

as I just explained a few minutes ago. And that's

something that really, I would argue profoundly

changed me. And I haven't had an experience like

that happen since the last of us. And prior to

that, Mass effect to an extent and maybe chrono

trick So those like there's a a through line

there But the reason I say persona five is because

the way it explains relationships emotions And

how you form bonds, because that's a very big

part of Persona 5, is how you form bonds with

your confidants, with your friends, knowing them

as relationships and not romantic, but being

friends. Like one of your best friends in the

game is a school punk named... Ryuji who just

is into girls and wants to go running all the

time because he's on the track team but he's

been in exile for a while. But you become best

friends with him over the course of the game.

And the main reason I want people to check out

this piece of art is because I think through

the lens of Persona 5 you'll look at your relationships

a little bit closer. You'll look at the people

in your life. and you'll discover things about

them. Sometimes some ugly truths, but sometimes

some wonderful, wonderful bits as well. And hopefully

you'll find your persona. And what that is in

the context of the game, your persona is when

you take off the mask, you show to the world

and that's expressing yourself freely. That's

being whatever you it's being comfortable with

who you are and accepting that and That's what

I would recommend people if you want to understand

me play persona 5 and while it may seem like

a slog I assure you it will change you by the

time you're done So somebody pick up the ball

from here, okay, I was thinking about it's out

of the care not out of the characters we were

talking about But something that did the same

for me and got me sort of back into science fiction

got me into basically deep thought on metaphysics,

the world, how we all tie into things. I started

reading Ender's Game and all the sequels that

came after, at least the first four. And the

idea of how it introduces quantum physics, quantum

mechanics. I think... A lot of people like things

that are very straightforward and here's the

beginning, here's the good guy, here's the middle,

here's the end. And I like when things are thought

provoking and make you wonder, make you want

to learn more about things. So that's probably

why I jump into sci -fi is I like. you know,

you read, you know, spoiler for anybody who hasn't

seen the movie, which came out, you know, 30

years after the book came out. But basically

these kids are considered smart or brilliant

or advanced, blah, blah, blah. They get recruited

into a program where they're training to be soldiers

and they're running simulations on, you know,

how, you know, learning how to fly their ships,

learning how to do battles, how to plan. Basically

they're in they're in officers training school

and you get to the end of the book and you think

okay now they're going to graduate and go into

uh you know the next book's going to be the war

well the book ends and your and how they finish

it is oh you've won you actually weren't in training

we told you that so that you wouldn't have to

deal with the weight of your what you were doing

you were actually controlling all of our ships

and drones and you've just committed genocide

and killed the enemy everybody Jesus you've basically

wiped out an entire alien race Ender's game Yeah,

and they these kids are like 12 Mm -hmm. It's

a hell of a responsibility to throw on some because

it doesn't there's nothing up to that point that

even foreshadows it happening and But then after

reading it if you look back on it, you go I can

see how they were how they were doing it how

it was insulated and Then the next book is twice

the length, basically half of the time is dealt

with, dealing with the psychological trauma of

what they've done. And then bringing into it

like there's possibilities of perhaps restarting

the race. Like basically they were fighting,

I guess the sort of like the bugs. from starship

troopers but if the bugs could have consciousness

and be able to communicate telepathically with

you through basically through quantum physics

and they entangle and then the book series will

jump forward multiple hundred years because the

idea of long -term space travel is you have to

freeze your body to travel so you freeze yourself

you go to you know how many light years away

unfreeze yourself you have an age but maybe everybody

you've known is now dead oh because it's now

been 50 years so they deal with that and i've

read i think four of them four or five of them

and then i haven't read the offshoots and all

but the first four books specifically won a ton

of awards because they were you know they were

written initially for like grade six and seven

kids But they're like they dealt with stuff that

was pretty deep and then and I won't get into

like the writer himself has gone is a little

kooky sometimes he also Scott card. Yeah, he

writes a lot of Like Latter -day Saints fiction

and stuff as well, but like he separates the

he has religious writings and then he has stuff

that's like deeply philosophical like this sci

-fi stuff is like Really against what his religion

is but he writes it anyway because it's like

his outlet for his own thoughts So take that

with a grain of salt, the writer. But the actual

books, fantastic, and got me into reading more

difficult sci -fi. That switched me over to reading

Isaac Asimov. And even though you've got science

fiction that is 60 years old, that it turns out

to be more relevant today and better written

than half the stuff that's written now. So that's

sort of where, you know, If I could ask somebody

to do something, it's step out of their wheelhouse,

find something that's different. It doesn't have

to be a difficult book to read or a difficult

property to get into. But I like something that

is multi -layered. And that's why I like time

travel and space -based stuff. Things that are

outside of the realm of the norm of what we're

used to. Expand your mind a little bit. Read

about a black hole. Do something like that. Yeah.

See, for me, it's pretty much Star Trek. It encompasses

a lot of just exploring the unknown and not only

of space and science fiction and time travel

and parallel universes and everything else, but

it also has different character personas that

are portrayed throughout it and different psychological

things that that come up with the characters

and different aspects as far as their growth

as individuals or struggles thereof so it's all

pretty universal yeah that's true cool all right

so kind of shifting topics away from this because

this has been pretty friggin weighty. Let's talk

about something really quick and then we'll get

into another kind of fun topic. So recently,

the director of the new Batman project, Matt

Reeves, finally posted the screen test for Robert

Pattinson, who just recently did The Lighthouse

with Willem Dafoe, which is weird. Deliciously

weird 1920s inspired Swedish. a German expressionist

horror with a little bit of Cthulhu in it. Yeah,

so go see it. It's fucking strange. But yeah,

so they showed the screen test and they show

him stepping out of the shadows. It's all lit

in red and it's black. You see the armor come

out and it's very year one esque. If you've ever

read the Batman year one comics and they take

a little bit of inspiration from what I understand

is Kevin Smith, where the bat symbol is made

out of the gun that killed Batman's parents.

I kind of saw that. and i'm thinking all right

that's interesting and then it pans up and we

see patinson in the suit you don't see it fully

lit but you see the silhouette of it and a lot

of people online are saying this and i don't

disagree with this it's very netflix daredevil

and i'm okay because the suit is less um aesthetic

it's more protective it looks like functional

armor like ericum games i saw a comment that

looks like I think the third, the Saint Batman

triple X is looking a little different. Does

the costume look like something out of a porno?

And I'm like, hey, kind of. Although out of all

the Batman pornos, the second one didn't have

a terrible costume actually. Are you talking

the one that was made to look like the 1960s

one? No, that's the first one. That's the one

done by Axel Braun. That's the good one. He actually

hired people to do that costume to look exactly

like the sixties. They even made this. I watched

a video that was all the actual porn cut out,

like all the sex, and it was just the acting.

It was surprisingly good for, for, for porno

people. Uh, what's his name was playing Joker.

Uh, Randy Spears. Yeah, that was just before

he retired too. And wasn't Evan Stone, wasn't

he? The Riddler. Yeah, he played a wicked Frank

Gorshin. Ridiculous. And I'm like, why didn't

they just make it not a porno and just make it

like an actual, oh yeah, cause porno. That's

why they have to make it up. But yeah, like some

of those reproduction suits can be pretty good.

Yeah. I mean, I think Because Pattinson has done

a lot of indie cinema in the last couple years

to kind of shed the image of the teen heartthrob,

and rightly so, because he can act. Now he gives

a shit. His first two projects after doing the

stupid Twilight movies was he deliberately begged,

pleaded, and sent in a whole bunch of footage

of him doing test footage to Cronenberg so he

could do the next two Cronenberg movies because

he thought that would be the polar opposite of

doing those teenage girl movies. Also, he'd get

to work with one of the most famous directors

in Canada and does those movies. The first one

makes a whole bunch of money at first because

they thought, oh, I remember seeing YouTube videos

of girls being like, oh, we're going to go see

this movie, Cosmopolis. He's Roberts in it. And

then I remember seeing the responses after. They're

like, I don't understand that movie. Why is it

so weird? It was so disturbing. Yes. because

you went and saw a David Cronenberg movie who

just happened to have the Twilight guy in it

and it was a brilliant lateral move for him to

like slide out because it was immediately like

hey look at what look at I'm not just a you know

a tonka meat. Yeah, I mean that really made me

respect him more as an artist and I'm happy when

people can do that because I don't think Some

of his Twilight co -stars have necessarily done

that I mean Taylor Lautner has tried hasn't worked

out great for him. I'll make him like hey Look,

we have a native guy who's an action star and

then it didn't work Yeah Ashley green. I think

that's her name. I can't remember. She, she played

one of the sisters. She did okay for herself.

Dakota fan has had a surprisingly good career

afterwards. I think, um, cause she gets pretty

good roles whenever she wants to. She doesn't

need to, but she does. Um, but yeah, this, and

this is Pattinson coming back into a fandom that

will mercilessly. I think I said that right.

We'll tear you apart if you screw it up. You

know what though? This is if girls already like

Batman and they had a pretty good like Spread

as far as the audience goes you might find more

women see this Batman movie the men at least

at first And what was the last time you could

say that that's that's like the whole reason

they cast Clooney back in the day And it didn't

work I'm not I'm not particularly a fan, but

I don't know how it's great See the lighthouse

then make an opinion. Yeah. Well, it has nothing

to do with the images I yeah, I just not optimistic

in general until I see something that's concrete

Because I will probably see something by comic

-con, you know what? I almost would have liked

more than anything if it if it were to turn out

that this isn't the Batman like if this was Batman

Beyond with him in the suit and then you had

Michael Keaton as old man Batman See that I would

get behind because I'm just tired of seeing the

same old same old kind of I mean I know they

keep using comic storylines but honestly like

it's I'm ready for something new and honestly

with Keaton being as old as he is and still claiming

he's the Batman it would make perfect sense for

him to play the old man and have have somebody

else play Terry McGinnis. See I'm okay with this

one because they say they want it to be more

of a detective story. I'm totally on board with

that. I'm a little, I'm a little bit done with

the overly bombastic superheroes fighting in

the street. There's explosions. There's the Batmobile

chase. Give me a little bit of that. But if you

told me it's going to be them on the ground,

investigate, like taking like, like carbon fibers

from something, investigating in a lab, tracking

a person down interrogation. I'm okay for that.

You just wait, there'll be somebody on YouTube

and I will laugh and love it. that will take

whatever movie trailer they make, or whatever

this test footage is, and make it so that as

it pans up and shows his face, that he sparkles

in the sunlight. Yeah, like, I'm so sick of hearing

that joke. Like, it's so 2017. But somebody will

do it. Yeah, someone will do it. Like, oh, look,

he sparkles. People do grow like let's not forget

Batman was mr. Mom at one point. Well, let's

not forget that that that Blanchard still refers

to Ryan Reynolds is Van Wilder Yeah, despite

him do any calls in the green lantern, which

you know what? I called him Van Wilder for the

longest time because most people didn't know

him from anything else and Even when the Green

Laner came out, they still didn't really know

him from anything else other than Van Wilder

But he's Deadpool to everybody now. Literally,

everybody. There's almost nobody that remembers

him as Van Wilder now. It's all Deadpool. And

when he does Hitman's Bodyguard, or does any

other movie, they're like, oh, he's doing his

Deadpool. But no, that's just his personality.

It always was. Yeah. It's just the difference

now is he got in superhero shape, and he magically

is now wanted by everybody because he made ridiculous

money for an R -rated movie franchise. Yeah.

I mean, I'm looking forward to it, so we'll see

what Matt Reeves cooks up in, I think, 2021.

So next little bit of news we have here on the

show as we begin to slow things down and ease

out the show. Disney Plus has announced that

The Mighty Ducks is coming back as a series.

I think it's going to be six or 10 episodes.

I'm not 100 % sure on that, but they have announced

that Emilio Estevez is coming back as Coach Bombay.

The plot of the show from what they've released,

if I remember correctly, so don't take this verbatim,

is that the Ducks have become a highly competitive

organization and they're all about winning now.

So it's up to a new group of underdogs to beat

the mighty Ducks. and to become the new winners

of presumably the next rep league or whatever

it is. They're filming the series in Vancouver.

Presumably there'll be other cameos from other

MyUdex alumni, although not Sean Weiss, who played

Goldberg because he recently just got busted

for meth possession and burglary. So hopefully

he gets the help he needs because he did not

look good in his mugshot. This was back in January,

I believe. So rather unfortunate timing for him.

Um, so I'm looking forward to this. I think the

idea for a premise is really, really, really

smart, but it kind of goes against what Gordon

Bombay's character had learned over three movies.

Well, it says with it. This is the premise. The

movie is set in prison. present day, Minnesota

and the mighty ducks have evolved from scrappy

underdogs to an ultra competitive powerhouse

youth hockey team. After a 12 year old Evan is

unceremoniously cut from the ducks. He and his

mom, Alex, uh, set out to build their own ragtag

team of misfits to challenge the cut through

it. When it all costs culture of competitive

youth sports with the help of Gordon Bombay,

they discovered the joys of playing just for

the love of the game. It's literally he it's

cyclical. He's repeating what happened to him

as a kid. Like he was on a terrible team that

was competitive and horrible and all that and

now he's starting a new team And it's the same

thing. Yeah, which fine. I think it'll be good

It'll be interesting to see if Emilio directs

most of the episodes because that's what he's

basically known for now. So who knows? Yeah,

we'll see but it'll probably be I'm guessing

like a about a 10 episode. Yep. This is consist

of a 10 episodes season And it will be later

this year in Disney Plus. When they have a 10

episode series of heavyweights. I'm trying to

think what I'd like to see. I like because they're

they're talking about doing a lot of live action

remakes for the service. I think someone had

mentioned they were doing Rapunzel. I'd rather

see just if you're going to do a remake, do Tangled.

Tangled is friggin awesome. And even the television

series was surprisingly good. Hercules could

be a lot of fun. Although please bring back gay

DeVito, um, as the, uh, Centaur guy. Um, if they're

going to do one, you know, to combat, like just,

you know, as we close up, I just had this thought,

uh, they've got the Mandalorian, so they've got

their sci -fi. Why not? You know, if they still

have the rights or re contract, do the black

cauldron, do the whole book series, make that

your game of Thrones, make that your. Your fantasy

series. Your Lord of the Rings. And do it as

a series of 10 episode things on there. It's

how they can compete with The Witcher and everything.

That was an adaptive property, so they'd have

to double check if they can do it, but they spent

the time remastering it, putting it out in 4K

HDR. Yeah, that's not a bad idea at all. Or you

know what might be kind of fun, depending on

how you approach it, because Disney owns Herbie,

right? Yeah. I'd like to see a Herbie series.

That could be a lot of fun if you did it like

as a teen adventure. I know during the summer

last year they did a Kim Possible movie and it

was okay. It wasn't anything special, but it

was all right. If you gave me a 10 episode Kim

Possible series as like a teen spy adventure,

that could be a lot of fun. I could see that.

Yeah, I think that's probably it though. I think

this episode has gone on long enough. Otherwise

we can keep rambling. But yeah, definitely, there's

some cool stuff going on there. So, what's next?

A lot of things to look forward to. What are

we doing here now? We're closing up, right? Yep,

we're closing up. Yeah, so anyways, let us know

what you think about this episode. Let us know

what your top five favorite fictional characters

are and why. You can let us know on the social

media either that or on the website post or you

can email us feedback at alter geek Comm or feedback

at this week in geek net So how can the good

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Well, right now, if you want to primarily find

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across our platform. But primarily right now...

I'm taking some personal time away from Twitter,

so I'm not posting as often, but I do answer

emails. So mike at thisweekengeek .net. I always

answer. I do love hearing from people. In fact,

I got some really nice fan mail a couple weeks

back and I posted some pictures. And a fan asked

me to sign an old piece of media that I had,

and it was my Geek Fight card from when I was

part of a collectible card game back in 2008.

So I'll be signing that and sending that out

to a fan. So, yeah, just look for me. I'm always

available in some way or form, but I will always

answer you and I always appreciate you. Ditto

for me. But you can contact me, Alex, this week

in geek .net. Basically, Mike and I are always

running the socials. So, you know, you'll catch

one of us on there for sure. Nice, nice. So you

can find me on the Twitter's at SCP 21. And until

next time, get altered, get geeky with the Altered

Geeks.