I'm not going to lie, I'm going through a Disney phase. As it turns out, a lot of things have been going on in Disney that I never caught as a kid. Does Disney have a thing against parents? Let's face it, only a handful of our beloved characters have both parents, which means there are a few single dads in the mix. What's going on with that?

Belle was our first Disney Princess with just one biological parent raising her, well that I can remember. The Internet told me I was right....it does that often. We never see Belle's mother, and there's little to no mention of her. Maurice may be unconventional, but he does everything he can to raise Belle right. Her sacrifice to take her father's place speaks volumes about the relationship the two have. In fact, the entire events of Beauty and the Beast after Maurice stumbles into the castle are all because Belle wanted to save her father from a horrible fate. Had Maurice stayed he likely would have died...
 
Ariel is our next princess with a single dad. Only she's a legit princess and daddy Triton is a King. We get the typical fit throwing of a young girl, whom even declares she doesn't need rules because she is 16. The only difference? Ariel isn't an only child. She's got 6 other sisters. Triton isn't just ruling the seas, he's taking care of multiple children. Ariel seems to be the most rebellious at the moment, and that is hard. Watching this as an adult you realize how utterly childish Ariel really is. She even gets married at the end of the film, at 16! Still, Triton's attempts to raise a teenage angsty, lovesick, girl are certainly wearing on one's self. Triton manages to make it all good in the end, and by all good, I mean he loosens the rules to let her go off, but for dealing with the youngest and most bullheaded of his daughters...Triton deserves some mad props.
 
Jasmine was just as stubborn. The only child to our Sultan, she wanted more freedom and less to do with her duties as the only princess. The Sultan is certainly protective, but he also cares about making his daughter happy. Jafar seems more interested in ultimate power, but you know, he's the antagonist, so of course he is. Raising a kid isn't easy, but Jasmine seems to be having none of it. She's daddy's little girl, except when it comes to rules. Of course, by the end of the movie she gets what she wants, but only because she finally opened up and talked to her dad. Had she told him about Aladdin in the first place, he probably would have done the same exact thing and let her be with him. Street Rat or not, Aladdin made the Sultan's daughter happy, and in the end that's all that mattered to him.

It seems these single dads have their hands full with trying to raise their daughters, but these are just a few of the Disney Dads that don't get enough credit...

I'm on a sidekick thing lately, I don't know why, but as I sit and type this, Avenger is shoving his head into my hands in order to get my attention. Which got me thinking about sidekicks of the not-so-human kind. I suppose Chewie would have fit in better here, but he is a little too bad ass for that. From Lassie to BB-8, not all sidekicks are able to talk. That's not a bad thing, we just can't always understand them, but we know they're cute.

Take Toothless for instance. A fierce dragon who happens to be one of a kind! Toothless is biologically designed to be the ultimate killing machine, yet he's still dependent upon Hiccup a bit. Due to their first meeting and Hiccup's attempt to kill the dragon, Toothless can't fly without his trusty human companion. With matched missing limbs, the two are quite the pair. But Toothless is far from helpless. While he and Hiccup are a dream team, this dragon is also the new Alpha to all the dragons of Berk. That's a pretty tall order for the beast that melted our hearts with his catlike behavior.
 
Speaking of cats and dogs, did anyone notice how BB-8 is basically a droid puppy? Center to the conflict, this little droid rolled into our lives and made us ask 'R2 who??' Yes, the new droid in town totally surpasses R2 in cuteness by far. The older droid was far more communicative and feisty, BB seems to be more dog than anything. Loyal, dedicated, and following all the orders; this little guy puts R2 and C3PO to shame. That and he literally shoves past Finn to get back to Poe. I didn't see R2 running anyone over to get to Luke...

Olaf is in a special category. I admittedly didn't want to like the little snowman at first, but those quipped one liners and brazen sense of humor shoved me over the edge. Olaf stole my heart when he declared he'd been impaled and laughed like it was nothing. In fairness, being a snow man and getting impaled, totally is funny when you can't feel it. With Olaf not fully grasping how he was able to come to life, twisted with his overall joy at everything, I was surprised to like him. He's a perfect companion in how utterly laid back, expressive, and unconditional he loves.
 
And I can't do a blog on sidekicks without mentioning the best of them all, well second best, Ant-thony. Scott Lang stumbling along to be the new Ant-Man was fun to watch but having Ant-thony there was somehow better. Scott's apprehension of the ants matched our own, except when it came to Ant-thony. With literally thousands of other ants, Ant-thony stood out among them and crawled his creepy ant-self into our hearts. Not only did Ant-thony make us love him, he made us cry when he was killed by Yellow Jacket. Whatever it was about the flying ant that made us melt it made us melt bad. Ant-thony was the best little bug out there, and you can't really argue with me on that one. Maybe it was the fact that Scott named him personally, or the cute weird noises he made. Either way, Ant-thony will live on as the best ant sidekick of all times.

Let's talk more about movie villains today. Throughout the history of cinema there have been so many villains and lore, it's almost hard to keep up. As film continues to grow and bring us new and exciting stories, it gives us tons of villains to choose from. Well, I have quite a few favorite bad guys and gals myself and today I'm sharing with you my top picks from science fiction and fantasy and since I am a self-proclaimed expert, I feel pretty qualified to make these assessments, so, I'm going to.

Smaug takes the first pick of today's movie villains because he's a dragon. Have there been other films with dragons as the bad guys? Yes, yes there have. But have they had the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch? No, no they have not. Smaug takes the cake for having the biggest collection of gold, jewels, and shiny things. Not only that, Smaug took on an entire army of Dwarves and drove them from their home, all so he could have pieces of shiny metal and rocks. Granted, he's also a lot cooler in the books and we could sit and argue over which version is better, but the film adaptation of Smaug is pretty epic. From the littlest details to the biggest ones, this dragon beats all the others to become one of the best movie villains out there. Subsequently, that voice alone makes him the scariest of them all.
 
I bet you are expecting me to pick Khan next. I almost want to, but instead I'm going to pick all the Klingons. Old school Trekkies know the fear a Klingon can instill into the hearts of any Federation member, and also ourselves. Klingons in the old series and even the new film verse have kindled that old basic fear within us all. Klingons aren't meant to be warm, cuddly, and friendly. That's Next Gen's thing. No, they're fierce, horrifying, and will stop at nothing to get what they want. They want that planet? That's theirs now. They want that slice of cake you just cut? Kiss it goodbye because they're going to take it. Klingons are intimidating and frankly a scary militant race of people who pretty much survive off of war. Yes, both old and new Klingons have their charms, and well, their psychotic nature. But there's something about fighting an enemy that's sole purpose is to fight that's just downright scary.
 
And lastly for today's pick I have to go with the daddy of all baddies, Darth Vader. Is he our father? No, he's Luke's. And if you were like me and watched these as a kid, you didn't see that plot twist coming a mile away. It has since been used in a multitude of films, books, and comics, and by no means was this the original villain related to hero reveal. Still, it shocked us to our cores and made us second guess a lot. Darth Vader was a great bad guy, especially since his first introduction to us has him literally storming a ship to kidnap a princess! Plus, later on, he outright tortures his own daughter for information. Granted, he doesn't know it's his daughter, but that's not the point. This Sith Lord stops at nothing to see to his evil end goals achieved. Except when it comes to saving his son, because even bad guys can redeem themselves. The only downside is that he did kill a lot of people...and clearly, he loves Luke more than Leia. Which, I guess helps to enhance his villainy?

It's been a long time since I've done a blog about villains. Which means it's time to talk about them again, because we all know we love them so. Why? Probably because we have some unresolved issues from our childhoods. Or as any well-adjusted adult can argue, we simply like bad guys. Even when they're super bad they always have a side to them we adore and end up falling for.

Ask anyone who their favorite villain is, and they'll give you a legit answer. Some of us prefer the villain to the hero. Often the Villain is a complex character that's convinced what they're doing is the right thing. Granted, that's not always the case, and we actually see that idea switched in the movie Megamind, where our villain becomes the hero, gets the girl, and all that jazz. But sometimes, bad just feels good! Either way, let's take a journey and talk about my favorite TV Baddies!

I have to say, Lucifer from Supernatural stole my heart. On this show you often have a set of characters you can trust to stay true to their values. With Crowley, we know he's self-serving. But with Lucifer? He's just bad. There is no way around it, Luci will do everything in his power to get what he wants, and nobody says no. If they do, well...murder. It's hard to beat the Devil himself, and this version of Lucifer is the definition of pure evil and everything that comes with the legend of this creature. Talk about embodying that charming nature, Lucifer does that and so much more on the show. Tormenting little Sammy is only part of the fun, after all.
 
Cruella DeVil from Once Upon a Time is my next pick when it comes to awesome TV baddies. I always was afraid of Cruella as a kid; thanks to 101 Dalmatians and the song about her, so I was never a big fan of hers. When OUAT introduced Cruella, I was worried. Her character seemed very static...until we got her back story. Cruella wasn't a shut in like we were led to believe. The psychotic girl had a taste for murder, and it wasn't long before we saw why she had a hateful side toward the Author. Cruella fed her own mother to dogs and then made a coat out of them. If that's not messed up, I don't know what is! She spends her time on the show trying to get the Author to reverse what he did to her; she wants to keep killing, and that's pretty dark for a Disney based family show....
 
The Governor from The Walking Dead strolled onto the small screen and made us Doctor Who fans wary. David Morrissey is utterly amazing in all the roles he does, but the Governor takes it to a whole new level. Yes, I know what Negan is all about and what he did to my sweet baby Glenn and because of that, the show is now dead to me, so this villain will remain as my favorite. Because he's smart, calculated, cunning, and a total sociopath. From sleeping with Andrea while torturing her friends, to taunting Rick, and then the second most awful thing ever, killing Hershel. The Governor had no problems about killing anyone. The psychotic man he was kept his Zombie daughter locked up, until Michonne killed her. And let's not forget the Zombie heads in fish tanks. That's pretty messed up. And I know, how can I be good with the Governor doing what he did and not be good with what Negan did, and that's easy. He killed Glenn, and he was my favorite character on the show ever, and because I'm Shae, and Shae's are mysterious creatures.

One of the beautiful aspects about writing for Nerds That Geek is the freedom to write about the things we enjoy. As nerds, geeks, or fans, we all have stuff we’re passionate about. Books, movies, sports, shows, whatever. Some of those things we stumbled upon ourselves, but many of them were ‘gifted’ to us, and that makes them even more important. The bonds and stories that go with them give us shared experiences that make them even more meaningful, all thanks to the people we share them with.
 
I wanted to do something special to commemorate the holidays that celebrate those people in our lives by writing pieces about them on Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Grandparent’s Day. To kick things off in honor of my mom Christine, here is the first of those articles!

My mom bestowed upon me a love for the 80’s starting at a young age. I remember spending a lot of time on Saturdays and Sundays just relaxing and watching great movies from the decade. If you know me, you know that Back to the Future is my all-time favorite. That came from my mom. I was blown away by the movie the first time she showed it to me, and my love for the movie grew even more later in life. We shared countless laughs watching Weekend at Bernie’s and The Jerk, and we delved into the movies that epitomize the 80s with The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
 
As a 90s baby, we spent a lot of time with great 90’s TV shows, too. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Dinosaurs, and Saved by the Bell were some of our favorites. Of course, we did the typical ‘Saturday morning cartoons’ thing, complete with cereal (Lucky Charms!) and Bobby’s World, Looney Tunes, and Garfield.
 
My mom could definitely get down on some arcade games and video games! During trips to the laundromat when I was a kid, my mom would give me a few quarters and show me the ropes on games like Galaga, Pac-Man, and pinball. When I got my Nintendo 64, she was right there to join in on some games. We had some good Mario Kart 64 races and a very memorable and high-scoring baseball game on Ken Griffey Jr’s Slugfest.
 
More of her 80’s influence came my way through music. Prince was her favorite artist and that’s something I’m absolutely on board with. Purple Rain is a perfect album (and song (and movie)). Culture Club, Styx, Wham!, and The Eagles all make me think of my mom as well. Her and I have a mother-son concert date this June to see Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers. I’m very much looking forward to it.
 
There are a few things I wish I got from my mom. She’s exceptionally talented and creative. When it comes to arts and crafts, drawing, gardening, or anything in between, she is always making magic. Easily the best Christmas gift I’ve ever gotten was a quilt she hand-stitched for me, made from Denver Broncos rally towels that my family had collected from various games we had been to over the years. That’s just one example of the things she has made, and I use and cherish that blanket regularly. I did not get any of her artistic abilities, unfortunately.
 
While I didn’t get the artistic gene, I think of the many other things that my mom has given me. She’s given me all sorts of movies, music, and pop culture, for sure. But she’s given me so much more. She’s someone I can turn to whenever I’m trying to figure out anything in life. She’s taught me how to be loving, compassionate, and hopeful. She supports me in everything and is always there for me. Thanks for all that you do and for all that you have done for me, mom. I love you and Happy Mother’s Day!

Yesterday, I did a blog about creatures we wouldn't want to be real, and I've done a series about world we wouldn't want to live in, but what about places we would actually want to live in? There's a ton of worlds out there thanks to the brilliant minds of creative writers, directors, illustrators, and so on, so let's take just a minute and revel in the places we totally want to live in. And no, no matter how you spin it, nobody wants to live in Panem. Sorry Hunger Games fans, that place is terrible, and so is the Supernatural Verse. Also, keep in mind I'm totally going to put my own little Shae spin on these. Because I'm Shae.

First, let's take a moment and appreciate everything that is Hobbit culture. The Shire, after the events of the Trilogy seems like the perfect place to be. Before you go all 'but Elves are where it's at.' You're right, except for their lack of dedication to food. Hobbits literally eat. All the time. They make every food ever and they appreciate food. Which I appreciate. Their pantries are epic, and they also seem to not be all 'let's hang out.' No. Let's not hang out. Let's eat food and nap and just text each other.
 
The world of Pokémon also seems pretty spectacular. You have animals that can do amazing things, that you totally make fight each other for tournaments and stuff. That being said, there are other professions that don't involve a dogfighting society analogy. Imagine working alongside Pokémon, how cool would that be? Me and Mew, we is tight! But really, just being able to study these creatures would be utterly fantastic. Who wouldn't want to learn about Pikachu first hand? Or help a Charmander? You know you really want one. We all want one. The world of Pokémon would be a pretty exciting world to live in.
 
I bet you are expecting something Batman related here. You're half right, just this time. The magical world of Batman doesn't sound fun to live in no matter how you spin it. But the world of Lego? Who watched The Lego Movie and thought 'yes!' Because I did. It's like all your childhood dreams come true! It's a fantastic place to be and I, for one, am all down to chill with Lego Batman and Gandalf. The whole Lego world in The Lego Movie is so fantastical! Okay, maybe post President Business. Nobody needs to live through that reign of horror!

So, a week or so ago I had a nightmare, which I don't have often, but when I do they're pretty freaky. In my dream I was being chased by zombies, because zombie dreams happen frequently, and then I turned around. And it wasn't just a regular zombie chasing me, no, it was a clown zombie. Out of the list of things that scare me the most, clowns are at the very top. They're they ultimate scary thing. In my dream I had a panic attack, and in real life I woke up, having a panic attack. I freaked out so bad, Avenger (my Maine Coon) came, laid atop me, and nuzzled my face until I calmed down. 1. The power this tiny (well....) creature has is amazing because I calmed down pretty quick with kitty cuddles and purrs. And 2. Who in their right mind dreams of zombie clowns? I'm sure you're going to bring up Zombieland. I'll have you know that the second the girls get to the carnival/theme park I skip ahead. Still, to this day, I have not seen that movie all the way through. If it's got a clown anything in it, I'm out. I've never even been to a circus in my entire life. But, I was thinking about this dream today and I got the idea for this blog. I've done a few 'World's Nobody Wants to Live In' blogs, and I guess this falls kind of into that category, but not? More like Creatures I'm Glad Don't Exist.

Zombies are number one on this list. Let's face it, for all that secret planning we have, a world filled with the living dead would be awful. It would smell so bad, not to mention no power, or running water, or Internet....mostly heat/cooling. Look, I'm a modern girl. I have needs. Mostly ice cream needs. I don't see any Baskin Robins or Cold Stone in the zombie apocalypse. And I sure as hell don't see Pizza Delivery places. How's a girl supposed to get her pizza on? I'm still sticking with the smell though. As fun as not going to work, ever, would be. The stench of walking cannibal corpses is not a price I am not willing to pay. Plus, if someone you love turns into a zombie? I could kill a loved one if they were trying to gnaw me to death, but psychologically that would suck. Especially if they got bit doing something stupid. Zombies are also a breeding ground for bugs, bacteria, and all kinds of gross things....so I'm okay with them staying fiction.
 
Dragons are utterly cool to look at. Every culture has their dragon lore, and let's face it, who wouldn't want one? Me. Granted, I have a pretty epic collection of Dragon Statues, that's as far as it goes. The real deal dragon would be an utterly horrifying creature. There are a ton of stories where dragons are the heroes, sure, but even in films like How to Train Your Dragon, the dragons are a huge problem. Sure, at the end everyone gets their own 'pet' dragon. But up until then, dragons are stealing livestock, burning down buildings, and causing utter mayhem. Dragons are kind of like big cats; they're selfish, they don't share food, they hoard all the cool stuff, and they sleep a lot. The only difference is they breath fire. There isn't a single dragon legend where they don't cough up some flames. Sure, maybe they can be friendly and domesticated, until Drago gets a cold and one sneeze burns down the entire house! Let's not even get into their size.
 
Androids, or Robots, or Cyborgs, no matter how you slice it, and yes, I know there's a huge difference between the three, these are terrifying concepts. Has everyone seen I, Robot? Or maybe The Matrix? How about Terminator​? Okay, so then why do we keep trying to invent these things. Robots and Artificial Intelligence sound like a great idea...until we are dicks to them (because humans can be dicks) and they turn on us. AI's have the potential to be smarter than us. My phone, for example, is smarter than me. It has the ability to remember far more things than I do, and it also knows my weaknesses. As cool as a personal Robot Butler would be, let's be honest, that is a horrifying concept. It's all fun and games until Jeeves 2.0 gets fed up with your human shenanigans and strangles the life out of you without a single thought. Hasn't anyone else played The Sims? The Sims know what you did to exert your power over them. Now, imagine if you gave them the same exact power.....not so comforting now, is it? And Terminator? That one guy could melt into goop, be anyone he wanted, and, oh right, murder all the people! RoboCop freaked me out too much to put anymore thought into this part of my tangent.

Point is, some things are better left in the world of fantasy.

I've done a lot of these in the past, because my brain goes to some really weird places, guys. Like seriously. My brain is like 'Hey! What if??? Nah. That's a bad idea!' Because while we all want to live in fictional worlds, they're bad ideas, always. I swear I will find a downside and ruin these things for you. Not because I want to. But because my brain demands I share.

The world of Inside Out looks really cool, doesn't it? Who wouldn't want to live inside the head of a kid, or anyone for that matter? Me. You know why? I saw that movie, that's why. If you happen to work in the brain in any part of it, your job is going to suck and be awful. If you're an imaginary friend? Chances are you're probably going to get forgotten at some point. And that's a fate worse than death. To be one of the leading emotions means you have to deal with a lot of things, minute by minute, and that gets hard. You're working with four other 'people' who are constantly there with you at all times and that's also really hard. Five different people with five distinct major personality traits can lead to a lot of fighting, and while Joy can be kind of overly happy all the time, even she gets frustrated...which, yeah, that says a lot, working on the dream side of things seems like an easy job, but things get really weird there really quick. All the other jobs, like say, being a cloud, well they seem dangerous. There's far better worlds to be than living inside the head of anyone.
 
Similarly, the world of Brave sounds utterly terrible. I mean, yes, it's technically Scotland, which is a genuinely gorgeous place to be, but at the same time, is the trouble worth the view? This world has magical spirits that can lead you to what you really want, but at what cost? The witch does whatever she wants. Like quite literally the witch just packs up and leaves seconds after meeting with Merida. She doesn't explain the rules of her magic either. She basically throws it all out there like 'Oh yeah, here, it's magic. Good luck.' Without explaining what the magic does. So, you have a land filled with legit bears and now magic psycho bears, that seems totally safe. What about the smell? I didn't see any indoor plumbing, or deodorant in that movie. With a ton of men running around in kilts, no toilets or showers, yeah...people probably smell pretty bad.

Paris, France, the city of Love. Also, the city where rats can totally cook and eat your food. Sure, they show Remy in Ratatouille being very clean, as rats actually are, but there's no way that this would be a world to live in. Imagine being a rat that knows Remy, since at the end of the film he has his rat clan come help in the kitchen. So, you're a friend of his now roped into helping with something you probably didn't want to do. And to make matters worse, humans hate you. Like, try to kill you whenever they see you. Humans haven't been fond of anything rodent since, ever, which makes being a rat chef pretty hard. Even if you're not part of Remy's crew this doesn't seem like a good world to live in. If you're a human and you're eating there, well, that's...your food was cooked by rats. It does not get weirder or grosser than that. Okay, no it does, but that's not the point.

If there's one thing I love to rant about it, it's sidekicks, and today Imma do it again. This time I want to share with you the list of Sidekicks who have earned their own movie. I'm not talking about any of those straight to DVD releases, no, these sidekicks grew up and they need their own movie. I'm a side character and sidekick person. I always love them more than most main characters...because reasons.

You had to know this was coming, but Nightwing has warranted a movie by now. Dick Grayson went from the lovable Robin to his very own superhero. Granted he's not super well known, but any true Batman fan knows who he is. The original Robin not only deserves his own movie, but he deserves it without the Batman. Grayson has his own set of villains and has a pretty interesting backstory himself. Plus, who doesn't want to see the Boy Wonder on the big screen leaving big daddy Bat to be his own superhero? Having run with several other sidekicks, I think it's time Dick gets the credit he so rightfully deserves.
 
Similarly, Jason Todd needs a movie. Why? Why not! The second Robin had some pretty big shoes to fill. To top that off Jason legit gets murdered by the Joker. Sure, Batgirl gets messed up by the Clown too, but never quite like Jason does. From Robin to Red Hood, and even Arkham Knight, Jason has a lot of issues. Dying isn't easy, but being brought back to life by the Lazarus Pit? That definitely messed him up, a lot. Running alongside with the Outlaws makes Jason a complex character. Not to mention, I adore his whole killing thing. Sure, it's wrong, but Jason embodies the darker Batman I seem to adore so much. His attitude and overall badassness makes Jason worthy of his own film.
 
Did anyone here watch Young Justice? If you haven't I need you to go do that right now. Okay, I am not an Aquaman fan, at all. It's never going to happen. However, Aqualad? Yeah, he's actually a pretty epic little hero. I'm not talking about the Teen Titans version we got, no. Young Justice had a fantastic Aqualad, and he deserves his own movie. The whole affiliation with Aquaman isn't that great, but Aqualad not only holds his own, but he takes command of an entire team of young heroes. He's an excellent strategist, and more importantly, cooler than Aquaman and that naturally makes him a great candidate for his own movie. He's got a bad guy for a dad, and that can easily leave a bad taste in anyone's past. Losing his girl to the original Aqualad, however? That's gotta be even worse. Still he's got a great command of magic, strength beyond human, and he's not Aquaman or lame....so, I think he's awesome.