Man, I should really submit this idea to one of the gaming websites out there, I just love the notion and it's not really done properly by anyone else right now.

Women in video games are cursed to a similar fate as those of their older sisters in action movies;. for being either eye candy with no personality, cold hard bitches in need of a man to wake up them from frigid lesbionic despair, or squealing plot devices to be protected, kidnapped or shot at for the length of a film.

Once in a while though, be it through creative insight or sheer luck a game developer crafts a woman who evinces more realistic motivations then pleasing her man or fainting on cue.

In this case Bandai is the developer and the woman is Super Robot Taisen's ace sniper, Excellen Browning!

Yes, she's a pouting blonde, with blue eyes, full lips, big breasts and a fondness for tight clothes, but she's also an ace sniper, a mathematical wunderkind capable of plotting trajectories of shots in any field of gravity with any weapon. Despite this skill and career path she's extremely hyperactive and bubbly, fond of quoting old cartoons and movies that she's fond of, whilst making it her goal to tease and crack on to just about every man she meets.

It's all in jest though, as she's a devoted and monogamous lover, in an odd relationship with her partner Kyosuke, a sullen military hero who along with her was the only survivor of a space shuttle test gone wrong. The two are perfect complements to each other, his knowledge of tactics and mid to close range combat augmenting her targetting and long-range combat abilities. Whilst they constantly fight it's always established that they enjoy it and that part of their prodigious skills come from their ability to fully know what the other's going to do and how.

Whilst the Super Robot Taisen does some wacky things to Excellen's background, involving everything from siblings from other dimensions to alien parents, ultimately she boils down to a self knowing parody of the fan service heroine of most anime. She dresses and acts provocatively, adores geek culture whilst maintaining herself as a strong and independent woman, whilst still being capable of normal social interaction and romance.

So for somehow making double-D's and a fondness for latex work in a feminist context, I salute Excellen Browning!

MIDFUR!

Midfur was new to me, as was being on a plane, as well as going to Melbourne. All were somewhat scary at first but became experiences with their own unique charms.

The first I'll discuss is Midfur itself, I lack the energy or drive to do a day by bay, blow by blow account of the event, but suffice to say I was impressed by the ability of those behind it to merge a whole lot of odd elements (read: furs) into a workable event.

It was good to note that my teenage fascination with 2 the Ranting Gryphon is dead and buried, and that Uncle Kage's eerie voice seems to maintain that level of creepiness all the time.

I met quite a few interesting people, most of which were the nice kind of interesting, as opposed to the fat lady in spandex asking you how she looks version of the word.

Fursuiters were as fun as ever, props to Taubu, BC and Spence for being their lovely selves as is usual. Props to Dustan, Carnival, Ray Liehm and god knows how many other creative people were around to make things amusing and whimsical.

There was way too much drinking on Friday, but I'm alive and that's all that matters, anyway, Aussie was naughtier than I by far ;)

My verdict? Fun, but suffering from what Enigma refers to as the teenage phase of the event, too small to be a convention, too big to be a meet.

Planes were a new and frightening thing to me at first, my fear of heights being the reason, but after take off I could deal with it. Not a favourite experience but all the drama regarding airports didn't really seem to affect me. I like Virgin, fun company, I like the flying lady logos too.

And how was Melbourne? And the rivalry between it and Sydney?

As a Sydneysider I feel I can say it with all assurance.

Melbourne is better by far. Better looking, friendlier, more colourful, cooler in all ways as well as being better thought out by the people behind it. If it weren't for Federation Square I'd say it was an entirely beautiful place ;)

So fuck Sydney, it's an ugly, soulless mess of crass status symbols and wastage. I plan to be studying Professional Writing at RMIT before the year's out, or my name isn't... whatever the hell it is at the moment.

There's tons more to be said about restaurants and events and such, but that might come later, til now, peace out!