Category Archives: My writing

Review: Sanctuary, “Untouchable” + Writerly News

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Review: Sanctuary, “Untouchable”

Sanctuary logoI keep waiting for this season to show the series’ Hyde side and crash and burn. It will probably happen at some point, but it hasn’t happened yet.

“Untouchable” brings political strife to the Sanctuary as a UN inspector, played Brian Markinson of Caprica fame (Ha! Who am I kidding? No one watched Caprica.), comes to essentially act like a jerk and attempt to impose his will on the Sanctuary network, threatening to pull their international support if they do not comply.

This is further complicated when werewolf Henry’s equally lycanthropic girlfriend, Erica, makes a sudden return with some very shocking news for him.

Now, on paper, “Untouchable” doesn’t seem like it’d be a very good episode. The domestic shenanigans of Henry and the increasingly unstable Erica could have been quite cheesy, but somehow, it worked. And normally, I hate political episodes of shows like this — detracts from the adventure and monsters and craziness — but on Sanctuary, I find I rather enjoy the episodes that deal with the geopolitical repercussions of the Sanctuary network. I find it gives a much needed touch of realism to a show that is otherwise cartoonishly off the walls.

Furthermore, the interactions between the Sanctuary team and the inspector were quite interesting to watch. There’s a lot of intellectual cat and mouse in “Untouchable,” and it does keep you guessing. There’s a twist at the end that, while not one of the more shocking turnabouts I’ve seen in my time, was pleasantly unexpected.

Sanctuary is a show that tries to combine the humorous and the serious, but they usually don’t do a very good job of it. This episode is an exception, though, as I found myself cracking up numerous times during the episode (“Dude, you do not sniff another man’s girlfriend!”), yet it did not detract from the tension of the main plot.

Finally, “Untouchable” does advance the plot of the insurgent Abnormals left over from the Hollow Earth invasion, if only slightly. A ghost of hope for an epic, season-long arc remains.

Overall rating: 7.5/10 Not a masterpiece, but I have no complaints.

Remember, if you want to catch up on the past seasons of Sanctuary, the first three seasons are available to buy on my Amazon Affiliate.

Oh, by the way…

Massive Online Gamer has said they want me to spearhead their Mists of Pandaria coverage.

Transmog Addiction, the Dire State of Raiding, and Becoming a Real Writer

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Transmogrification Addiction:

My rogue in her first transmog setIt’s funny. When Blizzard announced transmogrification, I thought, “Well, that’s neat, but kind of pointless.” I figured I’d transmog my rogue and maybe my mage to their leftover Wrath of the Lich King gear and then forgot about it.

But then came the reaction from fans. People were more excited than I’d ever seen them about anything in the game. I saw people come up with dozens of clever, unique, and striking outfits, and then I got infected with the excitement.

Now, I’ve got more sets than I do characters. My paladin has one main set, with slight variations for tanking and healing.My paladin in her tanking transmog setThis is the tank version. The healing version is the same but with Lightbringer Greathelm and Lucky Old Sun.

I originally planned to mog my rogue into my beloved VanCleef’s Battlegear, as seen above, but then I got an idea for a lovely “ranger”-inspired look, focusing on green gear, and now I’m grinding Outland heroics for the pieces to it. I’ve already got Mantle of Autumn and the green weapons from Zul’Gurub, and now I just need some legs from Slave Pens and maybe a head piece (if you know of any rangery leather helms, let me know).

I’m torn for my mage, too. I made him a great vanity set back before transmog was even announced (he’s a Blood Elf; he needs to look good), but I also really love T11 and found that Keleseth’s Blade of Evocation matches it perfectly.My mage's transmog setMaybe I’ll just switch between sets, though that’d be a hassle and costly. Maybe I’ll have to pick and choose. On the plus side, it’s giving me something to do until 4.3 drops. I’m also working on sets for my warlock and shaman, which are still works in progress.

The Dire State of Raiding:

Calculatedly melodramatic title is calculated.

According to a new survey done by MMO-Champion of the number of characters clearing normal mode Firelands, very few people have beaten the Firelord, even weeks after the instance was given a brutal 25% across the board nerf.

You can click the link if you want the exact numbers, but to make a long story short, they estimate 5% of the game’s population has killed Ragnaros.

Now, take this with a grain of salt. They surveyed characters, not players, so the fact that many of the toons not completing it may have been glorified bank alts could mean more people have actually done Firelands, and the fact that many of those toons completing it could have been alts could mean that many fewer people have actually done Firelands.

That said, I think this is still strong — if not necessarily conclusive — evidence that Blizzard’s nerfs are not succeeding in getting people to see the content. Even if four times as many people have killed Ragnaros as this indicates, that would still leave a whopping 80% of players who haven’t.

These numbers don’t upset me, or even surprise me. It just proves what I already knew: the raiding system in this game is seriously screwed up. We can only hope the Raid Finder provides a lasting solution to the problem.

I’m a Real Writer Now:

I just got my first novel rejection letter from a major publisher. Yay me.