Well, I just watched the sub of the first ep of Splash Star, and two thoughts are foremost in my mind:
1) This is really pathetic comparred to the original continuity, both in the grab of the first episode plot and enemy, and the character deisgns
2) "If you lack earth, run in the fields and become strong - if you lack heaven, study and gain wisdom - this is the meaning of chuunin." Being empowered by the spirits of flowers and birds, Cure Blossom and Cure Egret defend the ancient forest and seek to regenerate some kind of mystical fountain-thingies. Right off the bat, this looks like The Secret adventures of Ino and Sakura, pre-graduation... and then we learn the fiull names of the girls, and the one I had pegged as Ino is a Hyuuga, which is SO not right. The whole energy barier and wind blast thing would fit with Hyuugas, though.
Also, the theme song is generic craptastic J-rock, another big letdown from the original version - granted, it was also relatively generic J-rock, but at least it was CATCHY J-rock. And I miss the chrome-plated henshin sequence, and the Marvelous Screw being the finishing blow energy attack used by Cure Black and Cure White.
- CDSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
Dr. Akagi will recover. Observe, Rei smiled. Shinji-kun, are these your clothes?
Ritsuko shot up like a spring loaded meerkat. What? Shinji-kun is naked?
See, Anata? Dr. Hentai is alive and well. - Innortal's _I Do_
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

For those who want to browse or contribute, the wiki set up to catalogue Doug's power songs is at dwsongs.wikispaces.com/

-- Bob
---------
For Jor-El so loved the Earth, he sent his only begotten son...

Just an idle question or three.
I don't know if this has ever come up - but what if Doug's Helmet gets broken? Or even destroyed? What then?
How tough is that helmet, anyway? I'm figuring that there aren't too many situations where it could be significantly harmed without outright killing Doug. At least as long as he's _wearing_ it.
But what if he's not wearing it? Has it ever happened in the game that a villain has had Doug in his clutches and deliberately destroyed the helmet? (Seems like that's really what Quincy _should_ have done. Except by then, he was too much into his Super-Villain idiom. )
Could Doug use a song from an outside source to repair it? Say - grab a recording on a stereo system of "I'm Alive" and repair/regenerate the thing?
-Logan
-----------------
You know Arthur, when you spend two months living on a really big man, you learn a few things about yourself. You learn how nice it is to stay on Earth, and live someplace with no arms or legs of its own. And you learn how important it is to close your eyes and say "This just isn't happening to me."
-The Tick
-----------------

I was just coming out of the local gathering when the treasurer noted that the club funds (kept as coins) were beginning to reach the point of generating their own gravitational field due to the weight. (this happens occasionally but is inevitably resolved when we lose access to free venues and have to pay)
With my 'razor wit', I asked to be informed if a dimensional vortex opened, as I would like Undocumented Features on DVD please. Not an uncommon request.
Unfortunately, as I wrestled with the door, a plot bunny leapt out and lynched me.
A group of geeks, using accidental transfictional dimensional travel not to meet their favorite characters, but to find the series that they really want to see but that don't exist in their own world. Like Undocumented Features, the anime. Magical Princess Evangelia. The original episodes 7-13 of Bubblegum Crisis. You get the idea.
And, being me, I had to get the idea off my chest.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

Well...maybe not. Doug was having a hard enough time creating the copies of the Warriors. On the other hand...the simulacrums created by this song are simple humans and, theoretically, SHOULD be easier to create/maintain than metahuman versions. So you might not get an army...but a squad or two, capable of creating a diversion? Possibly.
Nahr Al-Kalb
Words by L. Sprague de Camp
Music by Juanita Coulson
Performed by Andrea Dale on her CD Zen Cappuccino (4:35)
I stopped beside Dog River, and I watched the water pour
From Lebanon's gray, craggy height to wash the Punic strand,
And scanned the old inscriptions, and recalled the men of yore.
I tarried at Dog River, and I saw a warlike band
Of swarthy archers and of wicker-shielded spearman slow,
With Ramses in his golden car, the lord of all the land.
I stood beside Dog River, and I saw an army go
Of curly-bearded, hook-nosed men, in crested copper helm
Sennacherib's grim horde, who made such seas of blood to flow.
I waited by Dog River, in the days of Persia's realm,
And Alexander's kilted Greeks went by with measured stride,
Their red-haired godlet on his way the King of Kings to whelm.
I lingered near Dog River, in the days of Roman pride;
With iron helms, and hobnailed boots, and eagles borne before,
March Antoninus' legions with the Spanish sword at side.
I sat beside Dog River, when a swarm of camels bore
The Prophet's sheeted Bedouin, inflamed with holy zest
To wreak upon the unbeliever, Allah's righteous war.
I lay beside Dog River, as with crosses on their breast,
The mailed crusaders jingled past, to keep the oath they swore
To see the Holy Sepulcher, from turbaned Turk to wrest.
I dozed beside Dog River, when during the Kaiser's war,
A British army plodded through, with Anzac hats awry,
And Highland kilts and armored cars, and cannons by the score.
I dreamt beside Dog River as the Free French rumbled by
In jeeps and tanks and cannons, with eager, martial glee
They yelled and waved their jugs of wine, as airplanes stitched the sky.
I woke beside Dog River, and the thought occurred to me:
These gallant fighters all are dust, as those to come will be;
But Nahr al-Kalb flows ever from the mountain to the sea.

Doug can chose whatever types of fighters he wants - anything from ancient Egypt all the way up to WWII...possibly even further. Any type of troop indicated in the inscriptions along Nahr al-Kalb is fair game.
--Feinan

Bob,
I recently (~2 minutes ago) went searching for the 'Doug's Song List' wiki, and was unable to find it. Is it possible that a post with a link to this helpful piece of information could be made and stickied in the 'Game everyone loves to play' forum?

-KWire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

***teaser***
To a veteran combatant, there is a number of clues and hints about a person that can be read from the way they stand, the way they move, even the way they look at things.
To someone who'd also been trained in the intricacies of etiquette and had done more than enough work in politics to last other people several terms in office, reading body language was something of a second nature.
She was both.
And the only thing she could actually tell about the person standing in her office, before her desk, and casually looking around, was that she couldn't tell anything about him.
No changes in posture, no fidgeting. If she didn't know better, she'd think he was some sort of cyborg or lifelike manequinn.
And the fact that two of his characteristics reminded her of another person, whom she neither trusted nor liked, didn't help much.
"You'll have to be brief, I'm afraid," she said. "There are matters that need to be seen to, and it's one of the burdens of mine to see to them as soon as possible."
"Ah. No worries, Miss Kruger, I shan't take up much of your time," the man replied. "This is more of a 'how do you do' visit than anything else."
"I was led to believe something different," Natsuki Kruger, Garderobe Principal and one of its Pillars replied.
"Oh, that. Yes," he drew a small document tube from with the jacket of his suit. "Pardon the absent-mindedness. I'm afraid I pulled rank on one of the usual middle-men we use so that I could look into this contract myself and get bearings for the company. We've never had the chance to pursue a communications exchange with Garderobe, you see."
"Is that so? I was aware the border nations usually send middlemen, rather than attend themselves, if only because of the travel times involved. I was not, however, aware, that the party in question had subcontracted," she admitted.
Red eyes blinked at her in what seemed like a well studied show of surprise.
"I'm sorry for my rudeness, in that case, and for being remiss in my introduction," he withdrew a small card from within another of his pockets, and laid it on the desk. "My name is Katz Schrdinger, of the freelance information gathering company 'Black'."
***
The Empress' new Robes.
an Incarna sidetrip
***
******
While I'm not going to actually start doing any work on this until Otome is out in its entirety, the scene has been running through my head for the past few days.
I've also been considering asking Nathan if his avatar's White Guardian Airlines flight schedule eventually deposits him there, since Nagi is arguably more hateable here than he was in HiME.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm

Here's another favorite of mine. Can't remember if I'd posted it or not, but I tried searching and didn't see it, so...
Devil Went To Jamaica
Artist(Band)avid Allan Coe
The Devil went to Jamaica.
He was looking to sell some weed.
He was doin' fine,
They were standin' in line,
It was excellent weed indeed.
When he came across a young man
Who was likewise peddling pot,
And the Devil slid down the beach to the kid
And said, "Boy let me tell you what.
I guess you kind of figured
I'm a reefer head of course,
And after all this time
I guess that I'm a conniseur of sorts.
Now your stuff smells okay
But this could tranquilize a horse.
I'll bet a million in cash against your stash
Cause I think mine's better than yours."
The boy said, "My name's Johnny,
And you ain't smoked nothing yet.
One hit of this grass will kick your ass.
You got yourself a bet."
Johnny, roll a ball of hash
And make sure it's the bomb.
Cause the Devil's got the kind of stuff they smoked in Vietnam.
You'll get a million smack-a-roo's in cash if you can cope,
But if you can't the Devil gets your dope.
The Devil packed a bong
With a little Acapulco Gold,
And resin flew from his finger tips
As he fired up his bowl.
He filled that chamber all the way
And he took a mighty hit,
And as they passed it back and forth
It gave them both a coughing fit.
(coughing)
When the bowl was finished, Johnny said,
"Hey man, that stuff was great,
But fill your lungs with some of this
And prepare to vegetate."
Cannibis sativa, Sweet Maryjane,
The Devil's in the backyard frying his brain.
Zig-Zag filled with the diggity-dank,
Hold on tight, it will hit you like a tank
The Devil nodded off
Because he knew that he was stoned,
And he asked if he could buy an ounce
Of the stuff that Johnny owned.
Johnny said, "Devil just come on back
If you ever wanna catch a buzz.
I done told you once,
You son of a bitch,
Mine's the best there ever was."
And they fired up doobies one by one.
Ain't gonna stop until the bag is done.
Green as a bullfrog,
Sticky as glue.
Granny, do you get high? Yes I do.

The obvious power effect is, of course, an extreme case of being stoned. However, given the subject matter, a fun twist might be to make it affect beings of demonic origins or with demonic ties. This would be a LOT of fun to watch around Mara, for instance. It would also be amusing in the Buffy-verse, given the large number of demons and that vampires are of demonic origin there. Of course, if I'm remembering things correctly, the Slayer line was formed by infusing a girl with some demonic essence (at least according to the fanon I've read - can someone confirm this for me?), so you also have the possibility of friendly fire if Doug tries playing this around a Slayer...
There could also be other drawbacks, of course. If the song doesn't knock the targets totally into a stupor...what do you do with a demon or a vampire with a BAD case of the munchies?

This one has been bugging for a while. I could see it as a banish evil or as world saving song carried to an extreme.

Eurythmics:
I Saved The World Today
Monday finds you like a bomb
That's been left ticking there too long,
You're Bleeding.
Some days, there's nothing left to learn
From the point of no return,
You're leaving.
Hey, Hey, I saved the world today...
Everybody's happy now,
The bad thing's gone away.
And everybody's happy now
The good thing's here to stay
Please let it stay.
There's a million mouths to feed
I got everything I need,
I'm breezing.
There's a hurting thing inside
And I've got everything to hide.
You're breathing.
Hey, Hey, I saved the world today...
And everybody's happy now,
The bad thing's gone away.
And everybody's happy now
The good thing's here to stay
Please let it stay.
Doo dee dooo dooo doooooo
The good thing...
Hey, Hey, I saved the world today...
Everybody's happy now,
The bad thing's gone away.
And everybody's happy now
The good thing's here to stay
Please let it stay.
Hey, Hey, I saved the world today...
(Everybody's happy now)
Everybody's happy now,
The bad thing's gone away.
(So happy now)
And everybody's happy now
The good thing's here to stay
Please let it stay.

--Werehawk--
My mom's brief take on upcoming Guatemalan Elections "In last throes of preelection activities. Much loudspeaker vote pleading."

Either we're generating a lot more traffic than we used to, or ezBoard's prices went up in the last six months. I renewed the board subscription today, and paid $110 for half a year. I seem to recall that last time it was only seventy-something bucks.
Yuck.

-- Bob
---------
For Jor-El so loved the Earth, he sent his only begotten son...