If Magneto Can Manipulate Electromagnetism, All the X-Men are Screwed

Please pardon my language, but I think I do have a point here.

Electromagnetism is defined as the ideas that

1. A changing electrical field creates a magnetic field, and
2. A changing magnetic field creates an electrical field

The logical conclusion, then, is that Magneto can control electromagnetism, and thus, electricity.

That may not sound like much, initially. But apparently, electromagnetism as a force is 10³⁶x stronger than Earth's gravitational pull. (That's 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times stronger, in case you were curious.)

Just sit back and think about that one for a minute. 

Being able to control metal and magnetism alone is pretty darn hard to stop. If someone, anyone, could control magnetism and electricity? And the force, as a whole, of electromagnetism?

I mean, that's Forge and Surge you've taken out right there, and there are probably even more X-Men dependent enough on electricity to be incapacitated. Not to mention all the power just there at his fingertips.  

So, yes. Stan Lee? Everybody else at Marvel responsible for Magneto?

Congratulations. You, my friends, have created a monster.

Warriors: Bramblestar's Storm

*Warning: The following post contains spoilers. You have been warned.*

So I recently (well, sort of recently) finished Bramblestar's Storm, the latest in the (long, long) line of Warriors books. While it certainly wasn't my favorite in the Warriors series, it was pretty good overall, though I had a few small problems and one major bone to pick with the ending.

So here we go with the review.

***

Bramblestar's Storm: The Good

• The plot was good. Warriors has always been a survival story--that's pretty much the baseline setting--but the titular storm in this book brought the 'survival' part to a whole new level. Much of the book dealt with the cats being forced to find a new (temporary) home, deal with loss of territory, etc. 
• I appreciated the new characters. For one thing, they were all well-defined, with personalities different enough that I could easily tell them apart. Frankie/Stormpaw, in particular, was a favorite of mine. 
• The aftermath of the battle in The Last Hope was shown and discussed. I was disappointed that Hazeltail got killed off (she was one of my favorite background characters), but I did appreciate the follow-up. 

Bramblestar's Storm: The Bad

• The 'prophecy' Cloudstar gave to Firestar (who then gave it to Bramblestar) was totally useless. Because there was a prophecy involved, I kept expecting a boss-level villain to pop out at the end to be fought. The actual answer to the prophecy--Bramblestar's bond with his sister remaining strong despite Clan differences--was an issue that had already been discussed. Frankly, it was anti-climactic and made the prophecy seem needlessly confusing, vague, and distinctly unhelpful. 
• I'm not sure what the writers intended for the Bramblestar/Squirrelflight/Jessy love-triangle, but whatever it was, they didn't do it right. I'm not a fan of love triangles in general, but there is a right way to do them. The triangle in this book seemed vague and oddly paced. The writers spent a lot of time setting up Jessy's involvement in the Clan. Then Bramblestar went on a few quasi-romantic dinner dates walks with Jessy... and then he decided that he wasn't in love with her after all; he wanted to be with Squirrelflight? Huh? When did you ever say you were in love with Jessy in the first place? And hadn't you made up with Squirrelflight already, when you made her your deputy at the end of The Last Hope?
  Like I said. Confusing. 
• This is probably the biggest spoiler of them all, so skip this whole point if you don't want to hear it.
  *
  *
  *
  Alright, so the reveal at the very end that Squirrelflight really can have kits?
  I hated that.
  If you want a happy couple with a romantic happy ending, there are plenty of those to go around in Warriors. In my opinion, it was interesting and different to have a character who was barren. I was perfectly ready and willing to see Squirrelflight as a happy grandmother with no kittens of her own, who helped raise her adopted grandkits and nieces and nephews and such. Why do we need to bend and rewrite things that have already happened, just so we can have another happy ending?
  And it goes beyond that.
  What are you trying to say here, author? That no matter how much you're in love, it's not a real marriage unless you have kids? I'm sure that's not what was intended, but it kind of came across that way. Because even though there are hundreds of mother characters in Warriors, we couldn't let Squirrelflight represent those who are barren.
  That disappoints me. 

***

Bramblestar's Storm: The Conclusion

Well, I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, It was pretty enjoyable in general. It was definitely better than Yellowfang's Secret, a previous Warriors Super Edition. I even enjoyed it more than Tallstar's Revenge, the Super Edition before this. But it wasn't the best Warriors book ever, and the aforementioned 'twist' at the end left a bad taste in my mouth. So I'm giving this one  three stars out of five:

***

And that concludes this review! 

My Halloween post is coming... soon... so stay tuned! Bye now!

The State of My Life [Or: Another mid-October Update]

I am busy.

As in, really busy.

As in, so-busy-pretty-much-everything-not-school-related-is-on-hold busy.

(But I had the time for this blog update. So that's good, right?)

***

I am currently working on two main projects: Quiet Storm, as per the usual, and Dragon Star, which is new (but so far, going great). 

Although, 'working' may be a necessary but inaccurate figure of speech. Like I said--most things are on hold until the weekend/the point where my schoolwork load starts to cool down. 

***

On the upside, I have basketball. I like basketball. It's fun. 

***

It recently occurred to me that Avengers: Age of Ultron is probably the closest thing to an Avengers/X-Men crossover movie that we're going to get anytime soon. Even though it's more about the Avengers, with a couple of mutants (Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver) mixed in.

Not that I'm complaining. I'm sure A:AU will be AWESOME and I can't wait.

But I still think it's dumb that the studios all can't just get along and give the fans a crossover.

***

I'm going to be ____ _____ _____ for Halloween. Expect pictures.

***

And that more or less concludes this short update about my life. 

Until next time!

How to Tell if Your Dog was Raised by Cats

This is my dog, Joe. Now, to the untutored eye of the ignorant layman (Calvin and Hobbes reference, yay!) Joe may look like an ordinary chocolate lab. But I'm here to let you in on the secret: he isn't. 

For one thing, Joe is the biggest wuss of a dog this side of the Mississipi, but that's (mostly) irrelevant. The BIG secret is that Joe was raised by cats. 

At least, that's my theory. It may sound crazy, but there's proof. Here's a handy questionaire/psuedo-advice-column to explain the proof and help you determine if YOUR dog was also raised by cats. 

***

Question #1: Help, my dog is purring!

Don't worry! This is a perfectly normal, if unorthodox, function of your dog's vocal chords. To most, this sound will appear to be a low growl. Your dog will probably make this sound over and over as he receives attention if he truly intends to purr. 

Clearly, this sound is/was meant as an imitation of a cat's purr, which is what your dog would have grown up hearing if he really was raised by cats. 

Question #2: My dog is afraid of cats and other dogs! Why?

If you've ever studied the behavior of a cat, you've seen that they tend to be aloof around other cats, and wary if not outright afraid of dogs. If your dog was raised by cats, he would naturally have picked up some of these behaviors. This is completely normal. 

Question #3: My dog keeps licking himself, all over his body. Why does he do this?

This, of course, is a behavior your dog would have learned from his foster mother, a cat. Cats are well-known for their ability to clean themselves; any dog raised as a cat would attempt to replicate this behavior. Unfortunately, most dogs don't really have the ability to clean themselves this way; but since most dogs also don't have the mental capacity to realize this fact, it's kind of a moot point. 

***

Of course, these are just a few of the many odd behaviors a dog raised by cats would express. These are the three cat-like traits that my dog Joe tends to exhibit; of course, your dog may be totally different. The point is, if your dog was an orphan raised by cats, you'll find out one way or the other. 

So what do your think? Was your dog raised by cats? Was your cat raised by dogs? Was your fish raised by hamsters? How can you tell? Any quirky pet stories are fine by me!

Until next time—ciao!