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Can We Be Unspoiled in 2018? Apparently.

By Kara Dennison October 8, 2018

A little bit of Kara History: I was a young teen just as Geocities was getting underway. You know, the version with “neighborhoods” and 4-digit addresses? I had three of those. One was dedicated to a fan site for Robin Williams, who was — and remains — my absolute fave. At the time there was no such thing as “official sites” for celebrities, so I did my best to create a repository of knowledge for fans until such time as this happened.

This ended up including whatever news I could find on upcoming film and TV projects, and boy was that rough. There was no such thing as social media, and the concept of an “online marketing campaign” was still to come, so early entertainment news was a lot of dead ends and guessing. The number of “Development Hell” entries there were on my page was staggering, likely because we hadn’t learned yet that “I’d like to do this someday” doesn’t count as a business deal. And on top of that, the concept of an official website for a film was downright novel.

The Storytelling Gold of One-Sheet RPGs

By Kara Dennison September 24, 2018

If you’re into tabletop RPGs, you have probably encountered the work of Grant Howitt — whether you know it or not. He’s the creator of the one-page wonder Honey Heist, which has been taking the gaming world by storm from Critical Role to your buddy’s after-work hangout. He’s got plenty of others up his sleeve: Pride and Extreme Prejudice, Big Gay Orcs, and the recent street racing raccoon epic Crash Pandas.

I’ll admit that when Honey Heist first landed, I considered it cute as a Twitter post but unfeasible beyond that. I was wrong. And I was happy to be wrong.

Why My Standards for Interactive Horror Are Now Impossibly High

By Kara Dennison August 27, 2018

I love. Love love. Love love love. Interactive entertainment. I love escape rooms, I love ARGs, I love crazy theatre experiments. It’s the closest you can get to safely living all your weird daydreams, and the more I see, the more I want.

That’s how I fell into following YouTuber Nick Nocturne. His Night Mind channel pieces apart everything from Wham City’s experimental Adult Swim vids to indie-created horror series — but his focus is absolutely on the latter.

Every Writer Needs to Play (or Watch) “Five Nights at Freddy’s”

By Kara Dennison August 13, 2018

So, confession time: I’ve never in my life played more than five minutes of any Five Nights at Freddy’s game.

I can’t. I have epilepsy and anxiety, so it’s a no-go despite my love of nightmare fuel and the “ruined childhood” aesthetic. I’m fine watching theory videos and Let’s Plays, so I can at least get my fix that way. I was never big on that particular brand of survival horror, so I wasn’t missing much. But the slowly unwinding lore when it first came out had me fascinated. (Anyone who’s read my previous articles will understand this — I love taking stories apart and looking at all their individual pieces.)

Future Vision: What’s Next for Steven Universe? (Spoilers)

By Kara Dennison July 30, 2018

NOTE: This post has big, big spoilers for every episode of Steven Universe all the way up to the most recent episode, “Legs from Here to Homeworld.” If you haven’t caught up to your space rock soap opera, I highly encourage you to do so before proceeding with this post.

Unpacking Our Emotional Baggage with “Psychonauts”

By Kara Dennison July 16, 2018

*Arrives 12 years late with Starbucks* Hey, have you guys heard about Psychonauts? It’s pretty awesome.

So yeah, I’m extremely late to the game (in more ways than one) when it comes to playing this piece of work from Double Fine. If you’re as behind as I was, I’ll just say you have no idea what you’re missing.

“Solo” Is a Lot More Than a Name

By Kara Dennison June 18, 2018

Note: This article contains spoilers for Solo: A Star Wars Story. If you haven’t seen it yet and want to come in fresh, come back after you’ve seen it.

Takes on Solo: A Star Wars Story are as broad as the galaxy it takes place in. Sadly, a variety of factors means it’s the poorest-performing Star Wars movie ever. Which is a shame, as it’s a fun film that explores some interesting times in the series canon.

On the surface (and, well, in general), Solo is the origin story for Han Solo and his whole deal. We don’t see every single caper that made him the lovable jerk he is by Episode IV, but we get the high points. We even see how he got his name. And that moment — a throwaway, almost corny move — is our cipher for the movie.

The “Historical Arthur”: The Truth of Monty Python and the Holy Grail

By Kara Dennison June 4, 2018

Arthurian legend is one of my favorite subjects. It’s full of magic and romance and absolutely ludicrous action. It’s a giant patchwork of characters from all across the centuries. Essentially, it’s its own fanfic, albeit with a few true-to-life elements here and there.

Every few years, someone comes along wanting to tell the “real” story of King Arthur Or at least a new spin on one of the potential realities. At this point, we have just as much proof that he was real as we do that he wasn’t. Perhaps he was a Roman soldier who defected, perhaps he was a real king. Perhaps, like King Lear, he was a minor deity incarnated into human form through storytelling.

Whose Movie Is This? Director’s Cut and the “Strong Female Character”

By Kara Dennison May 21, 2018

When I love a piece of entertainment, I love that piece of entertainment. I will probably ride alongside it through the gates of hell. And for the first few weeks after I’ve first encountered it, my friends and readers and coworkers will hear a lot about said piece of entertainment.

My latest obsession is Director’s Cut. Not sci-fi, but cult-y and off-the-beaten-path enough that it may well appeal to the geek set.

It’s also written and headlined by stage magician and social mythbuster Penn Jillette as part of a passion project. He fell in love with the “found footage” works of Adam Rifkin (the director of Look). Jillette wanted to team up with Rifkin to make his own work in that vein. He – Penn, that is – also wanted to play the villain.

Welcome to the House of Freaks: Count Olaf and False “Acceptance”

By Kara Dennison May 7, 2018

Note: spoilers for the second season of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, and for book nine of the original series, The Carnivorous Carnival, ahead.

Fandom, as a rule, attracts people who are playing life on Hard Mode. Be they physical ailments, mental illness, or regular encounters with prejudice, many of us come to the things we love as a means of escaping the inescapable. And it’s a wonderful thing. We meet more people like ourselves through our hobby. We’re able to empathize. And we get that escapism we desire.

But just as there are those in the world who would like to ridicule and denigrate us for what is different about us, there are those who go the other direction entirely.

And in an age in which we fight actively to be seen for our passions and talents, it’s sickeningly easy for an unscrupulous person to offer us what we want… with a catch.