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 Ahtman wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:
I was going to bring up Uzamaki but LunarSol beat me to it so I will say Gotham City. Even in the bright colored goofiness of the Silver Age it seems like it would be an insufferable place to live.

Especially when you realize it is within walking distance to Metropolis to the North.

Hmm... I can live over here where Superman is or I can live over there in crazy town.

Even with alien invasions being common in Metropolis it still is a brighter and more hopeful hopeful place to live. Sure there is a lot of property damage but the community comes together and rebuilds whereas in Gotham you have clowns feeding poison cotton candy to Boy Scouts every weekend.

And enough crazy people for Joker to get mooks.
Like, the first time Joker pops up, sure. People sign on, he's smart, he's charismatic.

But once people know he shoots his own men for laughs, how the hell does he keep getting full teams?

If you get caught working for that guy, you don't go to prison but on a brief vacation in a cushy loony bin and escape again during the breakout that happens every other week?

 JNAProductions wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:
I was going to bring up Uzamaki but LunarSol beat me to it so I will say Gotham City. Even in the bright colored goofiness of the Silver Age it seems like it would be an insufferable place to live.

Especially when you realize it is within walking distance to Metropolis to the North.

Hmm... I can live over here where Superman is or I can live over there in crazy town.

Even with alien invasions being common in Metropolis it still is a brighter and more hopeful hopeful place to live. Sure there is a lot of property damage but the community comes together and rebuilds whereas in Gotham you have clowns feeding poison cotton candy to Boy Scouts every weekend.

And enough crazy people for Joker to get mooks.
Like, the first time Joker pops up, sure. People sign on, he's smart, he's charismatic.

But once people know he shoots his own men for laughs, how the hell does he keep getting full teams?

One reason is lack of continuity - a lot of the time his most outrageous behaviour and most violent happens once in a "version" of Batman and then they re-set to a new timeline/universe/author/whatever. So it happens over and over again but its just the natural repetition in superhero storytelling

Another is that many characters in-world don't know what Joker does or what he's like. It's a bit like "why would anyone fall for Chaos". We, as the audience, have a far greater understanding than the average person in a setting. So many of the people Joker hires likely have no clue what he's really like. They might have heard a few rumours and stories, but heck the other big wigs also kill staff who do badly and you're not going to do badly right - you just have to do a few simple tasks for the boss.



Personally I think the issue is less that he's like that and more that he's heavily over-used compared to a lot of other enemies for Batman - esp in recent years. So you get the same Joker doing the same Joker things over and over and over and "why the heck is anyone working for this guy we know what he's going to do*"



*which I'd argue is a failing with Joker. He's supposed to be highly unpredictable, yet as an audience we basically can predict the kind of thing he's going to do. He will kill people randomly; he will cast Harley away without a thought; he will obsess over Batman. You go from a "What will he do" to a "when will he do it"

I still want a variant Batman where it turns out Alfred, in order to give the Young Master a healthy outlet for his rage, has been funding the super criminals, and their legal defence, using the Wayne fortune.

How did Bruce not notice? Maybe he did. But his fractured psyche placed a mental block.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I still want a variant Batman where it turns out Alfred, in order to give the Young Master a healthy outlet for his rage, has been funding the super criminals, and their legal defence, using the Wayne fortune.

How did Bruce not notice? Maybe he did. But his fractured psyche placed a mental block.

There is actually a short story where Alfred, releasing the whole crime-fighting vigilante thing is going to get Bruce killed, hires actors to pretend to be super villains (With himself playing the Joker) and comes up with wacky schemes to keep Batman from actually trying to take on real criminals.

Can't remember what it's called though, it's a weird one about Batman's funeral.

I am not 100% but I think there was a story about one of Joker's henchman who retired after a stint with Mr. J very rich and happy.

That is why.

How about Detroit, from RoboCop?

You have a collapsed economy, everything is going to gak, there are entire neighborhoods that are abandoned crack houses, the poor are too poor to move on to greener fields, gangs run rampant, a huge portion of the population is hopelessly addicted to narcotics, the elected officials are inept, corrupt, and take bribes. The police are woefully ineffective. Corporations are trying land grabs. Being in the wrong place is likely a death sentence. Oh, and the City Government defaulted on all it's loans in 2013.


Wait, that all happened in the real Detroit too

If you watch Star Trek Enterprise, Orlando, Florida is a pretty bad spot to be.

Especially when you realize that the I-4 corridor is vaporized by the Xindi.

Derry, hands down

 RaptorusRex wrote:
Derry, hands down

It can't be all bad, look how many people call Derry, home.

Sure they have some issues with aliens, monsters, and ancient curses. But all towns have a couple issues.

Now, really bad is R'yleh.

Sure it's hard to get to, under water for most of the time, has that whole non-euclidian geometry architecture issue and your only neighbor is C'thulhu.

I'm pretty sure that's gotta be the worst place to live.

Sunnydale's not so bad. Property prices are cheap and there's an active nightlife.

But I would not want to live in Hollywood version of New York. The city gets wiped out about 3 times a year.

Backfire wrote:
Sunnydale's not so bad. Property prices are cheap and there's an active nightlife.

But I would not want to live in Hollywood version of New York. The city gets wiped out about 3 times a year.

Doesn't Sunnydale have a giant gate with a direct route to hell?

It seems like any of the D&D towns would be horrible to live in. Icewind Dale, Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, etc. Too much trouble if you ask me.

 Quixote wrote:

It seems like any of the D&D towns would be horrible to live in. Icewind Dale, Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, etc. Too much trouble if you ask me.

Yeah, how many trips to the town market an average towsperson would survive with those random encounter tables? I would say three or four. "Oh no, you rolled 98. It seems a Green Dragon is attacking the town.How's your Saving Throws?"

Forget that - most basements have rats that will kill most people! The whole village will be dead as soon as they get a single rat-nest if there isn't some wandering adventurer to save them.



And that's assuming they don't have Fireball spells...

Backfire wrote:

 Quixote wrote:

It seems like any of the D&D towns would be horrible to live in. Icewind Dale, Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, etc. Too much trouble if you ask me.

Yeah, how many trips to the town market an average towsperson would survive with those random encounter tables? I would say three or four. "Oh no, you rolled 98. It seems a Green Dragon is attacking the town.How's your Saving Throws?"

I've always wondered how people go from town to town, seeing as how the world has the danger level set to "kill the feth out of people."

A traveling salesman must be a level 17 Ranger.

Haven....That place is CRAZY

I hate the town in Gremlins. I would never want to live there.

Springfield, North Tacoma. It’s an entire town/city build to satirize the worst aspects of human life, an existential nightmare in which (permanent) death is an escape offered to few.

 warhead01 wrote:
I hate the town in Gremlins. I would never want to live there.

Kingston Falls. Home of Rockin’ Ricky. Not to be confused with the Kingston Trio.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Springfield, North Tacoma. It’s an entire town/city build to satirize the worst aspects of human life, an existential nightmare in which (permanent) death is an escape offered to few.

 warhead01 wrote:
I hate the town in Gremlins. I would never want to live there.

Kingston Falls. Home of Rockin’ Ricky. Not to be confused with the Kingston Trio.

That's the place.

Don't get me wrong I love that some studio tried to build a sort of home town they thought people might identify with. And maybe some people did. Wouldn't know I never grew up in a home town.
Every time we watch that movie all I can think of is how to go about bankrupting that old lady who basically owns everything or how easy it would be to kill her in her sleep with a car, some duct tape and some water hose. I really hate how everyone there is afraid of her. And how she hates the kids dog. "your dog bla bla bla. " to which I would say, Prove it. I would not be nice about it at all either. which brings me back to how to bankrupt her. That town needed an ambulance chasing lawyer who only got paid if they won.
My wife loves that movie but I can't stand it.

It reminds me of the Michigan town my dad grew up in, and also of Arcata, CA (which apparently inspired The Simpson’s town square)…but schmaltzier.

I just take it that Mrs Deagle is such a monster so the crowd will laugh at her death instead of feeling bad. It’s the Amblin Entertainment gloss on the film.

Personally, while I like Gremlins I love Gremlins 2.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
It reminds me of the Michigan town my dad grew up in, and also of Arcata, CA (which apparently inspired The Simpson’s town square)…but schmaltzier.

I just take it that Mrs Deagle is such a monster so the crowd will laugh at her death instead of feeling bad. It’s the Amblin Entertainment gloss on the film.

Personally, while I like Gremlins I love Gremlins 2.

We watched that not too long ago. It took a while for me to realize it was making fun of it self. My wife knew of course. I still just don't enjoy those movies and I'm not really sure why. Gremlins 2 is certainly better than the first Gremlins.