Outcast, 2014 film

"Outcast" is a 2014 medieval action / fantasy film starring Nicholas Cage and Hayden Christensen (aka young Darth Vader). It did not receive a lot of press when it was released to theatres internationally in September 2014 - which usually indicates that the film isn't very good.

The release in North America was delayed until February 6th - the dead time of the year in North America - and likewise has received very little press. Judging by the lack of press coverage for the film and the February release this film is probably doomed to be a financial catastrophe.

Since his role as Darth Vader, Hayden Christensen has had a dismal career - appearing in a long list of B quality movies and even earning a Golden Raspberry for Worst Screen Combo in 2007.

The new film does however have a redeeming feature - the action sequences shown in the trailers suggest a film that has lots of good action, even if the plot looks horrible. The clip below shows a scene from the film in which the main actors are shown teaching archery. Likely this scene was added to the film due to all of the fuss about archery movies in recent years.

ARCHERY CLIP



TRAILER



For archery lessons in Toronto visit CardioTrek.ca.

Treating Medieval Wounds

I found this question and answer on Yahoo! Answers and thought it was quite interesting so I thought I would share it here. For anyone who is also into medieval history they may find this very interesting. [I also corrected the typos from the original text and added some images I felt were suitable.]

The Question

How were wounds treated during medieval times, especially sword wounds?

The Answer 

Depends on the era you are talking about. Early in medieval times and for the poor in later medieval times armor was light or non-existent. As such wounds were often to the head and torso. Limbs were amputated and swords were capable of slashing damage as well as blunt and piercing damage.

Against better armored opponents wounds were typically directed against the legs, face or crushing blows rather than piercing and slashing types of wounds. A common tactic was to bring your weapon in under the shield of an opponent against the lightly or unarmored legs. Once the opponent was down you could then deliver a killing blow.

Until the US Civil war casualties in battle were left where they lay unless they were high ranking or important people until after the battle was finished or unless they were mobile enough to retreat from the battlefield on their own power. Treating the wounded was considered a very minor consideration in a battle and also considered a waste of valuable manpower until the US Civil war when ambulance services first started. You see later in WW I that the same ambulance principles were adopted in Europe then late mostly post WW II in Asia. As such survival rates were low among the wounded until then. Medicine was very primitive early in the medieval times but later in the period surgeons became a common profession and proliferated among the armies.

Foreign matter was a big deal in those times as infections killed the majority of the wounded. Some ancient Celt and Greek units fought naked or mostly naked as it was felt that bits of cloth embedded in a wound were actually more dangerous than the enemies weapons themselves.

Animal urine was a common attempt to reduce infection rates at times and in some places. So too was sealing the wound with a brand thus cauterizing the wound and reducing external chances of infection.

Late in medieval times swords were in disfavor as battlefield weapons. They could not pierce the heavier armor of the day and were ineffective as slashing weapons again due to the better armor. They were favored primarily for symbolic use and against lightly armored opponents like peasants and non-European targets. In Japan and China due to the lack of metal armor Swords remained effective and favored weapons. They could do significant damage to the folded leather armor worn by enemies in the time period.

The weapons favored by soldiers late in medieval times were spears, pole axes, maces, flails, lances and especially the bow and arrow which has repeatedly been show the most lethal weapon on the battlefield all through the medieval times until being replaced by crossbows and firearms.

In the early days mostly there were attempts to staunch the wounds. If the injured took a crushing hit to the skull they might have drilled a hole in the skull to relieve pressure on the brain. Salves of various effectiveness would be applied to fight infections. Pain killers in the form of teas, booze and even opium in some areas would be given to the wounded to ease suffering. Then they waited. If an organ was pierced it was a slow agonizing death usually and invariably fatal. If too much blood was lost it was fatal. Infections were often fatal. Sometimes men would recover mostly from grievous wounds only to die of a hospital infection before they could get out away from the rest of the wounded. Bleeding was used at times and sometimes caused enough damage to kill a man who might otherwise have survived. Experimental medicine was common as most wounded were going to die anyway so any experimental chance was better than none.

Stitches were not common as there was little knowledge of antiseptics or the need for them. As such stitching a wound could in itself be more lethal than the wound was by causing an infection. Some sort of antiseptic had to be applied to even bother with attempts at stitches.

My Thoughts

I found the question and answer because I was looking for medieval treatments for tetanus - a common infection for sword, axe and arrow wounds - basically any kind of puncture wound is susceptible to getting infection. Often people died of tetanus after battles because there wasn't any quality treatments for the condition. The person who wrote the answer doesn't mention tetanus infections specifically, rather he just refers to infections - of which there many different kinds of infections people could die from after a battle.

I also wanted to note that sometimes warriors deliberately dipped arrowheads, swords, axes, etc in excrement in order to dramatically increase the likelihood of infection for their enemies. This was effectively a cheap kind of poison as anyone so wounded would likely die slowly (and very painfully) of infection even if they survived the battle.

The Robot of Sherwood

"The Robot of Sherwood" is the 3rd episode of season 8 of Doctor Who...

And I cannot help but think, how nerdy is that episode?

I haven't even seen it, but I know it combines Robin Hood, robots and Doctor Who - so it has to be pretty damn nerdy.

I mean, com'on, Doctor Who is so nerdy I decided to give it its own category. But tossing robots AND Robin Hood into the mix? Well that is just a trifecta right there (huzzah, horsebetting analogies!).

I think Netflix has Doctor Who on there so I should be able to watch the episode on there, except this particular episode came out in September 2014 so I might have to wait until Summer 2015 before the episode is finally is available on Netflix.

The trailer for "The Robot of Sherwood" on YouTube:



Update!

So I got to watch the episode finally, I won't spoil it for anyone but I definitely enjoyed it. :)

A Tribute to True Gamers

The following is a tribute to the sportsmanship of True Gamers.

#1. A true gamer lends you their dice when you forgot yours.

#2. A true gamer risks their character's life to save yours when yours is about to be eaten by a dragon.

#3. A true gamer takes the lead while exploring a dungeon after the thief gets incapacitated.

#4. A true gamer has their character climb into a pit to save your character from snakes after yours fell and was knocked unconscious.

#5. A true gamer volunteers to help new players make a character for the game (whether the game be Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars D20, Rifts or even Big Eyes Small Mouth).

#6. A true gamer has their character lend yours their +2 sword when your character breaks or loses their weapon.

#7. A true gamer plays along with your character's ridiculous backstory and social antics, even at the detriment to their own character, because it makes the game more fun than sulking in the corner.

#8. A true gamer has their character lend yours gold pieces in order to buy better armour, weapons or spells.

#9. A true gamer chips in cash for food for everyone or brings food for everyone with them.

#10. A true gamer aspires to do the things listed above and many more, even though they are sometimes held back by lack of cash, lack of gold, lack of hit points, poor Armour Class, and a character back story marked with cowardice, fear of heights, fear of dragons, etc.

Arrow to the Knee

4 Funny Gifs showing a man taking an Arrow to the Knee (if you don't get the reference, watch the TV show "Arrow").

The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Retrospective

November 28th 2014.

Less than 3 weeks from now the last of the 3 Hobbit films will be released, bringing to end an era of Tolkien-based films... and opening the door for other filmmakers to make their own Tolkien-esque films.

Warner Brothers knows this is the end of an era and thus have released the video below, a retrospective on all 6 films - and incidentally a promo for the last of the 6 films.



The good news however is that these films have made fans hungry for more.

But there are no more Tolkien books worth making. So out of necessity, we should turn to other books that are worthy of note. Here is a list of fantasy books that should be made into films:

The Icewind Dale Trilogy
The Crystal Shard (1988)
Streams of Silver (1989)
The Halfling's Gem (1990)

The Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy
Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984)
Dragons of Winter Night (1985)
Dragons of Spring Dawning (1985)

The Earthsea Cycle
A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
The Tombs of Atuan (1971)
The Farthest Shore (1972)
Tehanu (1990)
The Other Wind (2001)

The Wheel of Time
(Although to be fair, this would make a better TV series - similar to Game of Thrones. The Wheel of Time has 14+ books and it would make more sense if it was a TV series.)

The Dark Sun: Prism Pentad
The Verdant Passage (1991)
The Crimson Legion (1992)
The Amber Enchantress (1992)
The Obsidian Oracle (1993)
The Cerulean Storm (1993)

Now if you recognize the books from Icewind Dale, Dragonlance and Dark Sun as being books associated with Dungeons and Dragons and are thinking "Wait, don't D&D movies suck?!" then you are missing the point. Don't base the movies off the game. Base the movies off the books (which are awesome) and ignore the existence of the game entirely. The problem with movies based off video games or RPGs is that they are too closely based off the games when they should be based off the best-selling books. The books are ridiculously popular.

The problem with the D&D film series is that they based the films off the game, and developed pretty lame plots that had not been tested as a book series first. They ignored the first rule of movie making: Only make a movie that is based on a successful book series. If it doesn't have the books to back it up as being already successful, then it is not worth making.

Google the name Drizzt Do'Urden (one of the main characters from The Icewind Dale Trilogy) and Google spits out 370,000 results (that is just slightly less than "Conan the Barbarian", which has 398,000 results). That shows Drizzt Do'Urden has brand name appeal when it comes to marketing the films and has a measurement of pre-existing success. Conan already has 3 films out there, and yet Drizzt isn't that far behind in popularity and has zero films.

Lastly, there are also some sequels that should be made sometime. Namely:

Buttercup's Baby - the long awaited sequel to The Princess Bride - sadly, one of the actors is dead so this will probably never happen.

Conan the Conqueror - with Arnold Schwarzenegger as King Conan, based off the book "The Hour of the Dragon".

The Subtle Knife + The Amber Spyglass - The two remaining books after film The Golden Compass (the book is called The Northern Lights), a film that brought in $372 million at the box office and yet oddly enough the series was cancelled. Why? Because in the 3rd book "god" dies of old age. Apparently the idea of 'god dying due to old age' was too controversial for Christians and they boycotted the film. However the film still managed to bring in $372 million at the box office, meaning it was hugely profitable. So why not make the 2nd and 3rd films if it is profitable??? Finish the trilogy.

Avatar 2, 3 and 4 - They are coming. That much is certain. They are slated for release in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Filming begins just a few days from now in December 2014. (Update, the release dates have been delayed dramatically.)

George R. R. Martin delays Winds of Winter release date

George R. R. Martin has released a list of excuses for why he keeps delaying the release date of his upcoming book "The Winds of Winter"...

#1. My dog ate the manuscript.
#2. I am addicted to book signings and slutty fans.
#3. People keep offering me free trips to Dubai.
#4. Too busy LARPing.
#5. Triple bypass surgery.
#6. Fad dieting combined with binge eating.
#7. Too busy sending hatemail to J.K. Rowling.
#8. Too busy spending my oodles of money.
#9. I keep changing my mind about which characters to kill off.
#10. Ummm... I lost my notes and I don't remember how the ending goes so I keep procrastinating about it...

Seriously. George R. R. Martin will probably die of a heart attack and his books will be finished by a ghost writer... In which case, why doesn't he just give whatever notes he has to a ghost writer and let them finish it?

Female Gamers - How We View Them

Oh and if you want to read an interesting essay on the topic of female gamers read:

Gamers Vs GamerGirls

Season 5, Walking Dead Trailer

Ooooooh yeah baby, it is coming! The Walking Dead will soon be back amongst us.

Who will live? Who will die? I cannot wait to see the undead drama unfold!

Season Premier is Sunday October 12th at 9 PM EST.

Lord of the Rings, fly on the eagles fool!

Ever wondered why the members of the Fellowship of the Ring didn't just fly over Mt Doom on eagles and drop the ring into its fiery depths?

Well read the following and you will realize something very special. Share this page with others after you've read it all.