Link: Why It's Time to Retire the Manic Pixie Dream Girl

"As long as men have written female characters, entertainment has been packed with girls whose individuality is just a means for some tiresome hero to work out his own ennui. From William Shakespeare's Juliet Capulet to Truman Capote's Holly Golightly, the characters' uniqueness was like an ideological rib-eye that the down-on-his-luck hero could feast on to thrive and prosper in his own life. These idiosyncratic muses were finally given a common name in 2007: The "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" — and now, in 2013, it's time to put the term to rest." 

The Sage Dowager

 Lady Olenna and The Dowager Countess the Sage voices of reason in our favorite shows.

It's great to see some serious screentime given to women who fit into the sage archetype, like Yoda or Gandolf but in corsets (ok, maybe we could all do without corsets). But there's a whole chapter on that to write, oh wait! it IS a chapter I'm writing...

Context Artist: Createasphere's Transmedia Coalition

Remember my column over at Createasphere's Transmedia Coalition? Well, It exists!

Check out my new article:

The Producer as Serial Entrepreneur

An AI Feels More Human than I Do: Kotaku on Bioshock Infinite

Kotaku's Commentary on BioShock Infinite (which includes spoilers) talks about the dehumanization of players in games, and how play parameters reveal and reenforce inhumanity in the FPS world. 

"I'm supposed to run after her. That's not what I do. Instead, I look around me and loot what I can—Elizabeth will wait. What if I miss something by running after her right away? Sure enough, I would have...

The design, which rewards exploration, is at odds with the narrative, which makes you care about Elizabeth. Worse, the design makes me feel ashamed for being unable to resemble a normal human being in a game—because if it was real life, there's no way I'd stop and ransack everything before running after Elizabeth!"

Nostalgia Critic – What's With The Princess Hate?

This guy has some fairly interesting points.