Salt Lake FanX Comic Convention Fall 2023

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This was a very strange year for SL FanX Comic Convention. Despite it being the 10th anniversary of the event. Because of the writers’ and actors’ strikes nearly all of the celebrities were not permitted to discuss past, present, or future works. This made for some ridiculous and in some ways pointless panels. At the beginning of panels they announce you could not discuss specific works or franchises. In the main ballroom Chris Provost said “also this is kind of fun, you can’t ask them anything about their work.” It particularly seems bizarre that they can’t discuss previous roles, in some cases things that happened decades ago. 

The hours were also reduced this year, particularly on Saturday with the event ending at 7:00pm. The reduced hours meant a reduction in the number of panels. It showed as less rooms were dedicated for panels resulting in fewer options once you tired of the exhibit hall. 

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Jack’s Bad Movies: Snake (2018)

Snake 2018

IMDB’s description: 

A biology teacher [trying] to save his ill daughter with a natural cure goes into the jungle with experts and finds a horror that’s larger than life

This movie opens during World War 2. A platoon of Japanese soldiers are exploring a jungle. Suddenly one of them comes flying out of the tree line. A giant snake (like something out of Harry Potter) emerges and commences to kill the platoon. 

Where Steven Spielberg learned less is more in Jaws and Jurassic Park when it comes to revealing the monsters. This movie goes the other route, revealing the big monster less than 1 minute into the film (a film that is only 79 total minutes in length). 

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Favorite Question and Answers from Second Quarter 2023

Top Question

Question with the most votes was Who is Mario trying to rescue in Donkey Kong? asked by Nu’Daq and answered by Valorum. 

profile for nudaq at Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange, Q&A for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts profile for valorum at Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange, Q&A for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts

Top Answer 

The highest voted answer was to the question Why couldn’t the dwarves beat/kill the Balrog? asked by Gridlock and answered by Buzz.

profile for gridlock at Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange, Q&A for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts profile for buzz at Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange, Q&A for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts

Top Views

The question with the highest view was When Tom Bombadil made the One Ring disappear, did he put it into a place that only he had access to? asked by user57467 and answered by Mark Olson.

profile for user57467 at Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange, Q&A for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts profile for mark-olson at Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange, Q&A for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts

The most controversial question was Are joined Trill effectively pansexual and gender fluid?

There were only 8 bounties awarded for a total of 1050 rep. 

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User Submissions

profile for fuzzyboots at Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange, Q&A for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts

It was a weird one, but I really enjoyed that A film where a guy has to convince the robot she’s okay resulted in so many valid answers on what I thought was a fairly unique premise, counseling a dead wife in a non-humanoid robot body in a garden.

profile for valorum at Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange, Q&A for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts

I enjoyed answering this one;

I’ve never really dug into early Nintendo lore before and it was fun reading about all the characters that never made it to the big-time.

This First Officer : The Alpha Protocol Book 2

The First Officer

Forgotten treasures lie waiting in deep space. So too does the greatest threat humanity has ever encountered…

Assigned to a new warship with cutting-edge technology, Jack Samson returns to the Frontier, determined to cast off the question marks over his previous conduct.

This is the sequel to The Alpha Protocol. It immediately introduces a new character Hannah Wolff, a navy-reservist scientist assigned to help study the alien data discovered in the first book. While the first book only let us see the perspective of Jack Samson, the narrative now splits back and forth between Hannah and Jack. Only other characters in the first book are mentioned, and none of them turn up. Which seems strange from a storytelling perspective, but is probably more in line with a major military campaign where people aren’t likely to cross paths very often. 

Once again, while a lot of the ideas feel very familiar, the writing is engaging and story is quick paced and action packed. A good read. 

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