Saturday, July 18, 2015

Final Fantasy Tonight: Moonraker


You know, it's been awhile since I've actually sat down to watch a Bond film. Enough of awhile that I've forgotten which ones are good and which ones aren't so much. The last, and most recent, one I've seen was the Daniel Craig version of Casino Royale, when it was in the second-run theater where I live. That's been quite a few years ago, now, and I'd intended to go see Skyfall as well, but missed it for a few reasons.

But for as little time I've had for Bond movies the last few years, they've actually had something of an impact on my life. When I was a kid, I spent perhaps too much time watching them on television in the summer and other times when school was out. There were several times a year when at least one network would run them marathon style over a few days. I think my favorites were always the Sean Connery ones, but there are a few exceptions out there.

One of those is Moonraker, one of the Roger Moore entries. It's basically set in the space age of the late 1970s, 1979 specifically, I believe, as a wealthy and more than a little crazy scientist with a plan to remake the world to his idea by having the best and the brightest hide out on a secret space station while he set a plan to destroy the rest of humanity in motion. Part of that plan involved stealing a fictional prototype of the space shuttle, then yet to make their first official launch. The title comes from what the shuttles were called in the movie, Project Moonraker.

I bring this one up specifically because there are times when the theme makes something of an ear worm of itself. The last time I can easily recall is when I was going to finish off my Text Play of Final Fantasy 4, the end of which had a similar theme to the Bond movie. In this case, it's because there are a few Internet personalities that I've not heard from in awhile.

One is a Let's Player I follow on YouTube, HCBailly. I bring him up first because when he was last active, he was in the middle of another LP of Final Fantasy 4. Sure, he's done one for just about every version of the game out there, but I daresay the man's a bigger fan of the game than I am, which is saying something. But it's been a good month now without so much as a word. I can accept that it's probably none of my business. It's just that it is kind of odd when someone with as big a following as Mr. Bailly seems to just drop off the Web.

Another Let's Player I follow and am a little worried about is County Line Gaming's GalufBlackMage. The good news is that I at least have some idea where Galuf is. The bad news is that he's been in the hospital with some rather serious health issues since about Thanksgiving, which is enough for me to know. I have some idea of what that's like, as I've had some that could have killed me when I was much younger, had they not been caught and dealt with in time. Some more good news is that he's at least doing well enough to be on Twitter a little bit. That's a positive sign, anyway.

So, anyway, if the two gamers in question happen to read this, here are my messages:

  1. I'm glad to see your health seems to be improving, Galuf. I'm sure I'm not your only fan who's worried.
  2. Gotta say, HCBailly, I'm kinda worried about you. It's always a little weird to see somebody just vanish like this, ya know?

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