Smersh

You didn't read the thread, did you?

Very true.

My major quibble with Hollywood is that, when it comes to actors, the people who do the hiring are able to discriminate freely based on race, gender, age, height, weight, and a variety of other factors. In any other industry, this would be a cause for an outcry, but we seem to accept it in our entertainment.

My basic premise is that, when looking for an actor or actress, the major determining factor should be ability - how well they are able to pull off the role. If a role requires gravitas, you look to Anthony Hopkins or Laurence Fishburne, because they do gravitas well. If a role requires significant physicality/stunt work/martial arts, there are any number of actors you could look to, from Wesley Snipes (when he gets out of jail) to Jet Li to Jason Statham. Race shouldn't be a consideration.

My rule about whether a fictional property should worry about changes to the race of any of the actors is this: If it is *about* race and racism, you may want to look carefully at the casting. If it is about historical figures, you want to find someone who can act the part and look it with minimal prosthetic alteration. If it's based on a novel, comic book or television series, why the heck not? Wild Wild West had its issues, but they weren't predicated around Will Smith's race; it just wasn't that good a movie and didn't really capture the feel of the show. Why would a black or hispanic actor playing Conan be bad? If Conan does the requisite smiting of bad guys and gets the girl, who cares?

The problem, and Lastjustice said this first, is that for too long the default setting for characters was white. The problem with switching Luke Cage to a white actor is that the character is, at least in part, about race - that's how he was conceived and portrayed in comics for years. He's from Harlem, was in a street gang, et cetera. He was deliberately conceived to be a black character, and his race is an important facet of who Luke Cage is.

But, let's take Angel for example. His story is that he's from a wealthy family and was disowned for growing wings. Nothing in that story cares whether his wealthy family is white, black, Asian, or purple. Race just isn't important to Angel's story - he's about class and being rejected for being a mutant. It wouldn't make any difference if he was cast in a race-blind manner.

For some characters and some stories, race does matter. For some, it doesn't - and if it isn't important, why not cast whoever fills the role best, regardless of race?

There is no other species on this planet that acts. There is unlikely to be one in the next 50 years. You are making an argument that is deliberately obtuse and outrageous, and is logically indefensible.

Talking animals are fictional. They don't exist. Your argument is flawed.

...seriously?

Fictional characters do exist. We read about them and see them in the movies every day. In that sense, they are much more real than talking animals, which do not exist outside of fictional sources. Which is why we use real people who exist (actors) to portray fictional characters. It's quite hard to use people who do not exist (talking animals) to portray fictional characters. Talking animals, here, are a subset of fictional characters. But actors and actresses portray fictional characters all the time on film - you don't see fictional people playing fictional people in film yet.

And, before you go there, I'm not going into animation, I'm only discussing live film at this juncture. That likewise covers CGI creations in their entirety for the purpose of this discussion. (Though to date, all CGI creations that function as fictional people are based, at some point, on real people.)

Real person portraying fictional person - possible.
Real person portraying talking animal - possible.
Fictional person portraying fictional person - impossible.

It is absolutely not.

Animals are not people. Talking animals do not exist. You're positing a hypothetical with a negligible chance of occurring within our lifetimes as an argument.

Actors of every race and background do exist, and even work for a living in Hollywood in the real world.

Also, acting is not purely voice - there is a physical presence that has to be considered unless you go to voice acting, which is outside the discussion here.

Try again.

That's ridiculous and you know it is.

Are you done?

Conversely, is there any overarching reason why Lois Lane has to be caucasian? Is it a key, defining part of her character? Is it integral to understanding who she is?

I think not.

I don't think anyone is saying that, in terms of movie casting, that it should be changed for the sake of change. What I would like to see is the casting director having truly open auditions, and casting the person who best encapsulates that director's vision of Lois Lane, regardless of the actress's race. If an actress can nail the personality and presence of Lois Lane, shouldn't we be more concerned with ability than looks?

Did you count in Rage downtime?

It just means it's more impressive that you soloed her at all, even if you were 51 to her 50. She was ignoring a whole lot of your DPS.

I know my AV soloist will never take out, say, Infernal...

Rage and Fiery Embrace.

Well, it might also have to do with Nightstar having both 50% smashing resistance and 30% negative. She's not going to be the easiest Praetorian for a DM to solo.

Because Wicked had no redeeming features whatsoever?

Mod5 nuked a thread about My Little Pony, which was nominally allowed by the forum rules. This thread is specifically disallowed by the forum rules...

...yeah. I'm done here. Never mind me.

The use of -range is to immunize the tanker from return fire. Without the -range, Recluse can use his ranged attack chain with impunity. A taunt moderately slotted for range, in combination with the -range, allows a hovering tanker to negate all of Recluse's attacks. If Recluse was made immune to -range, the tanker would still be able to hover and taunt, but would be subjected to return fire. (This relative impunity to Recluse's damage is likely not intended, and why I suspect the -range portion of taunt may be nerfed. It only applies to the hover-tanking tactic.)

That particular tactic has nothing to do with exploiting Recluse's tether, it's all about avoiding damage.

Use of a toggle debuff is outside my experience and expertise - I can only speculate.

Well...

If you like film noir, Century Rain's a nice one-off. Otherwise, I'd probably start with Revelation Space and follow it up with Chasm City.

I've re-read Chasm City a couple of times, but I haven't been able to reread the main series (Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap) because my copy of Revelation Space went missing somewhere. Chasm City is a self-contained story in the same universe, and I do like it quite a bit.

Reynold's science is very good, as far as I can tell, though he does take an extreme hard line on the Fermi Paradox.

You forgot Alastair Reynolds' "series which I don't think has a snappy name but starts with Revelation Space."

Under the same principle, I'd switch the slotting for Frozen Fists and Freezing Touch.

Minimal FX are not an option for elec, dark or fire.

It's not a bad concept. In fact, I wish knockback was more prevalent in the game. Even Superman gets knocked around sometimes.

Seriously, Electric Armor is the way to go, if your concept allows for it. Skip Grounded and go.

I play a /fire armor scrapper with 4 points of KB protection; that really does protect against the vast majority of knockback effects. I only really get knocked around by Fake Nemmies and occasionally when two KB effects hit me at the same time.

Go for nothing. Flop around like a fish. I'd think it would be highly entertaining for a concept.

To make an Invuln without knockback protection, you would have to skip Unyielding and Unstoppable. Unyielding, of course, also contains hold, stun, immobilize and sleep protections.

If you're serious about the concept... delving into the leaping pool gets you combat jumping for immobilize protection. I'd suggest acrobatics for a little hold protection, but it takes out knockback as well. Aid Self gives a short-duration stun resistance effect.

It's a really bad idea, honestly. If you wanted to make a tank without knockback protection, it's a lot easier with Fire Armor, Electric Armor, or Dark Armor, each of which has a full-strength mez protection without any knockback protection.

Basically, you'll be relying on defense to keep the mezzes missing you, because we can't get you any hold protection. I'm not sure how fun it would be to play, but if you want to try it, go for it.