My Thoughts on Steve Lichman - Volume 1 (Spoiler free)

I recently got a book I pledged for on Kickstarter called Steve Lichman - Volume 1. For those of you who don't have a clue on what I'm talking about, Steve Lichman is a comic about a group of role playing game fantasy based monsters who struggle more with their self confidence than the occasional dungeon crawling adventurers. The first 15 chapters of the comics can be found here, and Dave Rapoza's site.

Ecstatic to see other plights Steve and the gang were going to deal with, I blasted through the book the same night I received it. The first thing I want to say about this book is that I loved it. I enjoyed the artwork, the characters, and the foreshadowing of what's to come in future volumes. With that being said, I feel a sense of obligation to bring to light something that irked me in the book.

Although minuscule, my feeling lingered on every page like an itch I couldn't scratch. The comic is called "Steve Lichman" with his face glistening in gold on the front cover. If you read through the 15 chapters I linked earlier, he makes enough appearances and interactions with the characters enough to make me think, yeah it totally makes sense why the comic is named after him. However in the book, there is a slight alteration to the chapters around chapter 15. Instead of being about the monster that looks like a treasure chest, it is about Dracula dealing with his breakup with Britney. The chapter after that (16) is about Steve accompanying Dracula to Britney's trailer in an attempt to win her back. It was at this rearrangement of chapters where the book started to draw its focus less on Steve and more on Dracula.

It wasn't until around halfway through the book that I started to realize this transition. By then, the times Steve is actually in a panel, he is mostly just standing around while acting more as a background character. The book no longer felt like a compilation of comics about Steve and his friends dealing with D&D related situations, but Dracula's delusions of granduer. To further my point on this in a numerical way, I went back and counted the number of panels Steve and Dracula appeared. Steve appeared a total of 284 times where as Dracula appeared 374.

Taking a few steps back, it doesn't bother me so much on the amount of times Steve appeared compared to Dracula as to how inconsequential Steve started to feel in the end of his own comic. Some of his dialogue even felt like it could have been said by anyone else but it was given to him because he hasn't said anything in the last 5 panels. I could go into a lot more detail to elaborate my point, but that would mean crossing spoiler territory in the book.

Now that I'm done scratching this little itch, I once again want to clarify that I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading Volume 2. I just hope they return to the formula they had in the beginning for the characters, especially Steve in their next volume. It does look like it's going to still be mostly about Dracula since it's going to be called "Steve Lichman, Volume 2 - Dracula Gaiden: Sekushina Monsuta Ben." But you know what, if it is, that's okay since this time Dracula's name is at least in the title. Then again, it would also be hilarious if they make the next volume about someone else like Flay one of the other characters. So to the people that have read this and are just a publish button away from flooding me with hate comments, I am NOT implying that the creators, Dave Rapoza and Dan Warren, intentionally pulled a switcheroo to trick people into buying this book. I can admit that it can be my own expectations (that gestated for almost a year) are at fault for this little outburst. I give many thanks to them (all the people that pledged to make their Kickstarter a success) for providing me with a book that I know I will be re-reading time and time again.

If there is anything you are going to bother to retain in this blog it's this:

"Just so you know, this book eventually focuses more on Dracula instead of Steve. It could really use more Steve. But that's okay because it's still a great read"

What Rick and Morty's Auto Erotic Assimilation Episode Reveals About Rick

I am a huge fan of the animated series, Rick and Morty. As I binge watched season 1, I considered Rick Sanchez to be a simple character. A badass grandfather with superior intelligence and a "do whatever the hell I want" attitude. However, I just finished the episode, Auto Erotic Assimilation from season 2, and I can't help but feel like I just got slapped into the z axis of Rick's psyche. As I watched and re-watched the final scene of that episode, I slowly came to the realization that I completely misinterpreted Rick's recklessness that he's exhibited since the beginning of the series. 

For courtesy purposes I'm going to warn you that this article contains spoilers.

Here is what I took from this episode regarding Rick:

The episode starts with Rick and his grandkids, Summer and Morty, in space singing about love, connection, and experience. Suddenly, their ship notifies them of a distress beacon from another ship, exciting Rick to the prospects of "free shit". While scouring the ship, they run into a group of alien survivors who warns them of an entity that absorbs the minds of others, who shortly become absorbed as well. As Rick brings out his gun to shoot them, the newly possessed aliens greet him a alluring "hello" in unison. To his surprise, he recognizes the entity as Unity, someone he used to date. Although I would expect an entity to not be identified as male or female, I will be referring to Unity as a woman since she primarily talks to Rick with female host bodies.

"World peace achieved. Nice!"

Rick and his grandkids follow Unity to her assimilated planet. While Summer and Morty are sent off to hang out with Unity, Rick catches up with...Unity. As Rick walks around the city, Unity explains her plans of becoming accepted into the Galactic Federation in order to have access to countless planets and species. Once accepted, she will gradually assimilate everyone in the universe to in a sense become a god. Normally, universal assimilation would be quite a concern for most people. Rick, on the other hand, found it to be sexy. She also points out to Rick that her removal of recreational substances is evidence of how she has changed. After using his reconnection to his family as evidence of his own change, he then proceeds to being intimate with her in an outlandishly specific way. 

Now let's stop and look at what this scene says about Rick. 

Unity's name is already a big indicator on what she represents, a community. Get it? Because Dan Harmon? NBC? Sorry, moving on. When Rick and Unity previously dated, she was only the population of a small town. This shows that Rick has always had an attraction towards her. One that was obviously rekindled upon seeing how much she has grown (in population). I believe this attraction is stemmed by his desire to be a part of an ideal community. One where the aggravation of individuality is removed for the greater good. No more conflicts due to opposing opinions. No more suffering from inequality. No more race wars.

In a community, every one has their own roles to contribute to the whole. So what role would Rick play in this community? Some time in the episode, Rick got his hands on some kind of substance that he used to make some type of hard drug. At first, Unity was hesitant but was easily coaxed by Rick "for old times sakes". Trying to relive their past relationship through drugs and other forms of debauchery results in her temporarily losing control of some of her people. For a prospering collective society, it only takes a frivolous difference like nipple growth to throw it into chaos. 

Rick was the intoxicated monkey wrench in Unity's well oiled machine. The episode shows a good visual "before and after" show of what I'm assuming is Unity's city hall:

Unity's home when Rick first showed up

Unity's home at the end of the same day

Seeing how Unity was catering to Rick's wants and needs since running into him is a pretty obvious sign that she wanted to win Rick back. Like the victim of an abusive relationship, she even defended and justified the negative affects Rick was having on her. It wasn't until after Rick vented his distaste for his family, the very evidence he used to explain how he changed, that she realized that Rick lacks any sense of community.

It is after this realization that Unity displayed the best stealth skills I have ever seen....off screen. While Rick went to the bathroom, she had the entire population abandon the planet after making every person individually write a letter to Rick. Here is what the letter(s) said:

Rick, forgive me for doing this in notes. I'm not strong enough to do it in persons. I realize now that I’m attracted with you for the same reason I can’t be with you. You can’t change. And I have no problem with that but it clearly means I have a problem with myself. I’m sure there’s no perfect version of me. I’m sure I’ll just unify species after species and never really be complete. But I know how it goes with us. I lose who I am and become a part of you. Because in a strange way, you’re better at what I do without even trying. 

Yours, and nobody else’s,

Unity

In the beginning of the episode, Rick claimed to have changed via his reconnection with his family. However, he was quick to ditch his grandkids for his own selfish purposes. Since Rick lacked any sense of community or any real connection with others, I interpret Unity leaving Rick on a planetary scale as him not belonging in a community. I'm not saying just her own community but the very concept itself. If he can't play a positive role in a community, then there is no point in him being a part of one. At this point in the series, this has been the closest I've seen Rick be emotionally injured. 

Where this episode starts with Rick enjoying his family time with his grandkids, it ends with him returning to his family. This time, having a more disconnected attitude towards them. The final scene starts with Rick entering his garage, discarding a flask that has emptied too soon to his liking while the song, "Do you Feel It?" by Chaos Chaos plays throughout the entire scene. For atmosphere purposes, I'm going to just put this here:

Dejected and alone, he pulls out 2 glass tubes with crystals in them and adds a few final touches on a machine on his table in a cold methodical manner. He then pulls out a frozen figurine and pours a solution on it to reveal it to be some kind of alien creature. A creature writhing and yelping that matches the look of torment on its face. Staring at the abomination, Rick makes a surprisingly compassionate gesture of petting it a few times. 

This action speaks volumes to me. Rick, the same self centered man who has trouble remembering the word "human", physically consoling this creature. There is no real explanation for this creature either. The only other reference of it is when Jerry, Rick's son-in-law, sees it while sifting through Rick's cabinets. Some speculate that this is one of the aliens stricken with the space AIDS that was mentioned in the episode. But I believe that this alien doesn't have any backstory and its sole purpose is to reflect Rick's current state of mind. Everything about it from its looks, sounds, and movements screams "suffering". Him petting it is a way to show that he relates to how it's feeling. He even holds it close to himself and pats it while what appears to be "cooing" right before he ends its suffering by puts it under the machine to literally reduce it to ash. Without batting an eye, he then re-primes the machine with the last available glass tube and prepares himself for the same fate as the creature. Still intoxicated, he struggles to keep his eyes open as he stares off in the distance while the machine charges up. Right when the machine is about to go off, Rick's loses consciousness causing his head to drop onto the desk. 

There's no doubt about it, Rick was ready to go. The scary thing is that it wasn't some whimsical thought of his family or a sudden sense of self preservation that saved him but physically being unable to keep his head up long enough. So what's going to stop him when he hits a low point like this? Before this scene, I took Rick as this eccentric genius grandfather that had a thirst for a crazy good time. But now, I see a man trying to douse his suffering and pain in self indulging revelries. 

But why would someone as brilliant and self-aware as Rick make such a cold casual choice in ending his life in such a situation? 

This is what I think:

Rick is a genius in all sense of the word. His travels to different worlds, dimensions, and alternate realities allows him a perspective that goes beyond the primitive comprehension of everyone he's around. Unity even commented on his impressive sense of awareness:

Unity: You know what I love about you Rick? You're the only single mind I've met that really sees the big picture.

Rick: You got that right.

Being the only single mind that can see something like this must be pretty lonely. He is surrounded by beings with a very primitive mindset. All that stress of being around ignorant people that he constantly has to hand hold to understand “the big picture” can be tiring and frustrating. Unity was the only person (entity) that understood this as well as Rick. Which makes her leaving him that much worse. Like a water bursting from a dam, his feeling of loneliness might have been too much for him to handle.

So far, I am really liking the direction the 2nd season is going. The 1st one felt more like how Rick's family is being introduced to Rick's world of infinite possibilities. It is very interesting how one single act of attempted suicide can redefine a character. Rather than a reckless grandfather who is just trying to have a good time, I now see a damaged man who carries a heavy weight on his shoulders. I hope that this drastic action being shown near the beginning of the 2nd season foreshadows an exploration in Rick's psyche in later episodes. Knowing the pace of the show, I assume they will only reveal this in small hints here and there for us to piece together. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

How I Feel about the podcast, Serial

For one year, Sarah Koenig spent every working day trying to figure out where a high school kid was for 21 minutes after school one day in 1999. For most people, any activity in such a short amount of time would be inconsequential. But for Adnan Syed, having irrefutable proof of his whereabouts within these specific 21 minutes can prove whether he is guilty or innocent of murder.

Although the narrator, Sarah Koenig, couldn't help but show a little bias on this case, I was very impressed with how she presented it as a whodunnit. I learned that Adnan's guilty verdict was far from undisputed, based on character witnesses and a conflicting testimony from a boy that Adnan claims he barely even knew. It's human nature to make assumptions. I know I did after just listening to the first episode, formulating my own theory of what “really” happened. But to see a boy sentenced to life in prison based probably's and maybe's, whether truly guilty or not, gave me an uneasy feeling on how flawed the justice system can be at times.

Listening to the whole season, I came to understand why this was such a hot topic to discuss during its initial broadcast. The whole appeal of a murder mystery is being able to correctly guess who the killer is with the clues provided. This one having real people makes it that much more appealing. Since the verdict of the case was based on so much “should have/would have/could have”, it felt more like the legal system just wanted someone to blame and Adnan seemed the most probable. Everyone could happily debate about whether or not Adnan was actually guilty based on the same information they all heard in the podcasts. During the season, the debate didn't stagnant since the next episode would reveal information that could potentially tip the scale of innocence and guilt.

When I eventually came up with my own hypothesis, I found that I ended up being biased, gladly accepting evidence that supported my hypothesis without any question while dismissing or demanding the credibility of evidence that worked against it. Admittedly, I did not come to this realization until the narrator started to challenge the validity of the evidence I blindly accepted. My glimmering tower of supporting data was at risk of collapsing like a stack of Jenga blocks as it was picked apart by the same hands that helped me build it. 

 In the end, Sarah Koenig is left with more questions than answers for the whereabouts of Adnan. This leaves us as the audience to resume with out speculations. With a verdict based on such disputable evidence, it is no surprise that we are prone to draw up a variety of possible conclusions. However, the narrator's exposure to this case has sparked enough interest to allow Adnan an appeal. Is it due to mere media exposure or has them been some new evidence brought to light that could make a difference? Whether or not this can potentially change the verdict or his sentence, hopefully it can at least reveal the truth.