Episode 42

[GoFlash]

Just a couple of thoughts -

As far as Vance's plan, Mike and James were discussing his plan - be Brainiac Lite, take over grandson? How about this - all of the above.

He's a computer program. He can make multiple copies. He doesn't have to decide to stay in the computer or take over his grandson - he can do both. One copy gets to live again, and all of the experiences that go with life. The other stays in the mainframe, and has access to all of the data that a computer can find - and then communicates this with the copy in Bobby Vance, who uses it to run his company and amass more power and wealth. The beauty of this plan is that it will even account for a complaint that I believe Mike brought up - Bobby brought Vance 1.0 online because he wasn't sure what to do and wasn't comfortable running the company. If Vance 1.0 is online, and Vance 1.2 is in Bobby, he's got any easy explanation for why his management style has changed - he's taking the advice of his grandfather's program (which you would expect would lead to his running the company much like his grandfather would have).

And if the moron had actually DONE THAT, and not all of the extraneous crap ("Hmm. Let's make sure we involve Batman in this.") it would have worked. There would have been no episode because Batman would have never known what was going on under his nose. Stupid villains always complicate things. Whatever happened to KISS "Keep It Simple Stupid"?

Speaking of villain plans, I have to compliment Spellbinder. His motivation originally was money. What did he do in "Hooked Up"? He came up with a practical plan to make money. Think about it - this has got to be one of the most practical supervillain ploys out there. He's not trying for form an army from these kids - he's offering a service, and expecting payment. Sure, it's a metaphor for drugs. Why do people sell drugs, despite all of the penalties? Because you can make a ton of money doing it. Given the typical supervillain "let's spend 10 million dollars (20 mill if you're Harvey Dent) on equipment to knock off a jewelry store", Spellbinder needs to be recognized for actually being about to figure out which columns the costs and profits should be going in. (Although, there was a story this weekend about thieves in drag hitting a jewelry store and making off with $108 million. That pays for a lot of rocket packs; still, Harry Winston isn't exactly your typical jewelry store.)

The really interesting thing is, if he plays it right - would he go to jail for this? There are already VR parlors. His is better - what, you're going to throw him in jail for making a better product? It costs more - hey, you get what you pay for, right? Certainly, your Honor, my client had no way of knowing that his customers were stealing to pay for the services he provides - creds are creds, after all. Some of the incident violence may be prosecutable, but some kid who graduated from law school 5 minutes ago could probably keep him out of jail for the core issue of his plot. This may explain why we see him back so quickly - with, I might add, another not altogether unintelligent plan.

Chris