Indeed, I fear this might have been a bit of an over-reach by Bob to play the, "See, a woman invented stuff you like!", card. That's not to take any credit from Orczy or The Scarlet Pimpernel, it is undoubtedly one of history's most influential work when it comes to hero tropes of that particular stripe, but way over playing it to suggest that Orczy totally invented super heroes is a disservice to all those who wrote those types of stories and came before her.Rabidkitten said:I don't think I would call the Scarlet Pimpernel, "the first super hero". As Mythology is absolutely packed to the brim with super heroes. Every myth has some super human feat be it Thor, Hercules, or who ever. Gods and heroes are constantly changing shape and putting on disguises. Almost all of comics draws from ancient mythological characters in some fashion or another. I mean there is an Avenger who IS Thor. I'm sure if dug deep enough you would find Batman like Vigilantes all through out fictions vast history.
While Bob might not have done a great job of explaining the kind of hero he meant, mythological entities are of a different stripe all together. Yeah, comics have co-opted mythology, often treating it poorly, but a myth about a god is not the same as a member of society who steps out of his persona to counter wrongs and save people. I'm pretty sure Blakeney didn't create the concept of hero, but she was the first I'm aware of to build up a "normal person" creates an alternate identity to do heroic deeds.Rabidkitten said:I don't think I would call the Scarlet Pimpernel, "the first super hero". As Mythology is absolutely packed to the brim with super heroes. Every myth has some super human feat be it Thor, Hercules, or who ever. Gods and heroes are constantly changing shape and putting on disguises. Almost all of comics draws from ancient mythological characters in some fashion or another. I mean there is an Avenger who IS Thor. I'm sure if dug deep enough you would find Batman like Vigilantes all through out fictions vast history.
Fantastic points. I agree.Rabidkitten said:I don't think I would call the Scarlet Pimpernel, "the first super hero". As Mythology is absolutely packed to the brim with super heroes. Every myth has some super human feat be it Thor, Hercules, or who ever. Gods and heroes are constantly changing shape and putting on disguises. Almost all of comics draws from ancient mythological characters in some fashion or another. I mean there is an Avenger who IS Thor. I'm sure if dug deep enough you would find Batman like Vigilantes all through out fictions vast history.
I don't know. Before I could afford comic books, I'd spend my time reading stories of the G-ds. Mostly Hercules. I liked the idea of a super powered do-gooder killing monsters and cleaning giant stables. One of my favorite early films was "Jason and the Argonauts".walsfeo said:While Bob might not have done a great job of explaining the kind of hero he meant, mythological entities are of a different stripe all together. Yeah, comics have co-opted mythology, often treating it poorly, but a myth about a god is not the same as a member of society who steps out of his persona to counter wrongs and save people. I'm pretty sure Blakeney didn't create the concept of hero, but she was the first I'm aware of to build up a "normal person" creates an alternate identity to do heroic deeds.
So yeah, not all heroes trace their parentage back to the Scarlet Pimpernel, but within our genre of geeky heroism he is the earliest I can find that fits the mold.
That would be so cool... 1848 saw revolution all over Europe. You wouldn't be confined to Paris because there was shit going down from Paris to Prague, from Italy to Prussia. You think climbing Notre Dame would be fun? The High Dome Church of St. Peter to Cologne (also just called "The Dome") is twice that. Prague would be awesome, too. Historicistic Berlin.Hutzpah Chicken said:It would be humorous if Ubisoft made every trailer look like the first French revolution, but the actual game is the third French revolution.
Yup, I can see that 100%, but there are significant differences. Old Heroes were about fighting monsters sent by the gods, or brainless forces of evil and nature. I'm not saying they weren't heroic, but they were different tropes altogether.Gorfias said:I don't know. Before I could afford comic books, I'd spend my time reading stories of the G-ds. Mostly Hercules. I liked the idea of a super powered do-gooder killing monsters and cleaning giant stables. One of my favorite early films was "Jason and the Argonauts".
Or that short, sucky one from Les Mis.Hutzpah Chicken said:It would be humorous if Ubisoft made every trailer look like the first French revolution, but the actual game is the third French revolution.
I think he went over some of that in his Big Picture on comic books in the '90's, but I'd like a little more depth to it as well.Abyss said:I would like to see Bob explain what it is about Spawn that drives him crazy, that he occasionally uses him as an example for approaches to superheroes he just doesn't like. Granted, I wasn't really impressed by the writing of the collection of the first issues of the comics when I first read them, and it had that irritating style that reminded me of some of Frank Miller's one-dimensional rant about the state of the world comics (and Miller did write the stories for some of the comics). Still, I liked the mythology McFarlane (and Neil Gaiman) created with Spawn, and the villains were varied and inventive. The animated series certainly improved upon the faults of comics, even though it was short-lived. I'd still like to see Bob do a video about his thoughts about Spawn someday.
My guess is if he did, he didn't enjoy it, judging by how snide he sounded describing the series in the first two minutes of this video.themilo504 said:Very interesting stuff.
I wonder what yathzee thinks of unity since he liked the idea of a assassins creed game set during the French revolution, Personally I really like the idea since it?s a great setting with lots of potential for interesting game mechanics.
Also I?m curious if bob actually played assassins creed.
This, basically. Yes, there have always been heroes in the myths of the world. But the point Bob was making - you know, through that list of comparisons to Batman - was that many of the specific tropes we nowadays associate with superheroes, as a specific subset of heroes, can be traced back to the Scartle Pimpernel.walsfeo said:While Bob might not have done a great job of explaining the kind of hero he meant, mythological entities are of a different stripe all together. Yeah, comics have co-opted mythology, often treating it poorly, but a myth about a god is not the same as a member of society who steps out of his persona to counter wrongs and save people. I'm pretty sure Blakeney didn't create the concept of hero, but she was the first I'm aware of to build up a "normal person" creates an alternate identity to do heroic deeds.Rabidkitten said:I don't think I would call the Scarlet Pimpernel, "the first super hero". As Mythology is absolutely packed to the brim with super heroes. Every myth has some super human feat be it Thor, Hercules, or who ever. Gods and heroes are constantly changing shape and putting on disguises. Almost all of comics draws from ancient mythological characters in some fashion or another. I mean there is an Avenger who IS Thor. I'm sure if dug deep enough you would find Batman like Vigilantes all through out fictions vast history.
So yeah, not all heroes trace their parentage back to the Scarlet Pimpernel, but within our genre of geeky heroism he is the earliest I can find that fits the mold.
None of the AC games have been set in the open plains of America. AC3 was in the New England woodlands and mountains, AC: Liberation is in the Louisiana bayous, AC4 is in the Caribbean archipelagos.Rblade said:no exactly on topic, but Paris is so unbelievably more suited for AC then the open plains of America. Should be a blast, jumping of the sacre coeur and all that.