Born the seventh son of a seventh son. Last of his kind. Marked at birth to be evil’s bane. Fulfiller of prophecy. Touched by the Gods. Filled to the brim with midi-chlorians. He (or she) alone can halt the darkness and bring peace to the land. It is THE CHOSEN ONE. Folks there are tropes and then there are Tropes and The Chosen One is right up there with the greats. It’s also the subject of today’s Troping the Riff. So what do I mean by The Chosen One? Well this is any character in a story that has been…
Category: Geekdom Come
The Franchise- The Fantastic Four
It is not in my nature to pile on. When something or someone has failed so cataclysmically that people start breaking out puns I try to stay above the fray and let the pour souls involved limp off with whatever is left of their dignity. So I will just say this about the new Fantastic Four movie: it was not good, not good at all. But it did inspire me to write this guide for all future handlers of the Fantastic Four legacy so hopefully one good thing can emerge from the ruined husk of Josh Trank’s career. So this…
World Building 101: Religion
Hey there! Welcome back to World Building 101 where I take a look at the steps and layers needed to create a successful fantasy or science fiction universe. Previously I talked about Mythology and the importance it plays in laying out the groundwork for your society. Today I’d like to take a look at an element that is tightly connected to mythology and is just if not more important to the shaping of your fledgling world: Religion. As I stated last time it’s easy for many people to get these two things confused. Some people think that mythologies are just…
Troping the Riff- Mistaken Identity
Hello there it’s time for Troping the Riff with me The Eclectic Eccentric. Or is it. After all you’ve never met The Eclectic Eccentric and you have no idea if he’s the one typing these words or not. I could just be pretending to be him. I’ll tell you what I’ll be on the corner of Frenchmen and Esplanade in New Orleans on May 15th at 5:00 pm and you can find out for sure. How will you know it’s me? I’ll be wearing a black polo. Hopefully I’m the only one otherwise you might mistake me for someone else…
The Franchise- Star Wars
May the Fourth be with you. How many articles have you read that started off that way today? Remember when being a nerd wasn’t cool? No neither do I. In honor of International Star Wars Day and the fast approaching start of a new trilogy I thought it was time to break down the most famous trilogy of all time in this month’s edition of The Franchise. Core Concept: People tend to think that Star Wars is about the Jedi. It’s not. It’s about the Skywalkers. That is to say that it’s a space opera that draws its inspiration from…
World Building 101- Mythology
I apologize for the long break between posts folks but I’m afraid my attention has been on other projects of late including my just released poetry collection Musings of the Mystic and Mundane (available in print and on Kindle from Amazon.com) and the completion of the first draft of my sci-fi/fantasy epic The Seeker. The latter accomplishment making this particular blog post rather timely. Now as this is the first in my series of posts dealing with world building I suppose I should elucidate my intentions. Basically in this series I will take you through the step by step process…
The Franchise- Spider-Man
Welcome the the first in my monthly series entitled “The Franchise” where I break down one of the major movie/comic/book/television franchises in Geekdom and examine what makes it tick. And with all the noise lately concerning the Sony-Disney deal to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the talk of multiple spider-spinoffs, and the Spider-Verse event going on right now in the comics how could I resist starting this column off with everyone’s favorite web-head. Core Concept: “With great power comes great responsibility.” This is the crux of Spider-man. Every great story that can be told about him must start…
Troping the Riff-The Ghost Ship
Look at it floating out there in the dead of space; no power, no life signs, no sign of how it came to be there. The crew of any respectable spacefaring vessel can have only one response to stumbling across such a find in the cold dark void of infinity: “OMG!!!!! CAPTAIN!!!! CAPTAIN LOOK!!! ITS A SHIP!!! BUT NO ONES ON IT!!! CAN WE GO ABOARD!?!?!! PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE CAN WE GO ABOARD!?!?!! WE HAVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!!! PRETTY PLEASE CAPTAIN??!!! WE HAVE TO KNOW!!!” and the brave Captain musters all his commander’s charisma, puts asides his reservations and…