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Yeah, I absolutely include the original trilogy in my critique of overuse of deus ex machina. I don't think tradition is a good enough excuse for continuing to overuse the same tired plot device. Just because your weird uncle has a tradition of getting blackout drunk at family get togethers and passing out in a puddle of his own puke doesn't make it alraght that he keeps passing out in a puddle of his own puke. The new series has it's own faults, namely giving us one of the worst protagonists ever. I probably don't need to go over how Rey is a Mary Sue, and Luke was kind of a Mary Sue also, but at least he had to struggle. He sucked with the light saber at first. He got his ass handed to him by his pops the first time the fought, etc Rey is instantly the best at everything. Never held a light saber before... 5 minutes later she's the greatest swordswoman on the battlefield. She thwarts off the powers of a sith who has been training his whole life with zero force training. She hops into the Millennium Falcon turret, having never fired one before and is instantly the best gunner in the galaxy. The goal of having a strong female protagonist for girls to look up to is an admirable one, but in the process the writers went waaaaaaaaaaaaaay overboard and robbed Rey of the very thing that makes us cheer for the protagonist, them being the underdog, failing, getting defeated, then dusting themselves off and finally triumphing. Rey can never be the underdog because she is perfect and the best at everything from the start. Where's the struggle?

Oh man, the Eagle rescues always bothered me on LotR. I don't remember it being well explained in the books, either. Why didn't they just jump on an eagle at the beginning of the journey? Also Frodo is an unreliable narrator who passes out at the most important parts.

The one adaptation that I would actually get a subscription for, but I would expect more screaming, angst and Dragonmountexplodeying in a full production. ****. I'm going to have to get my friends to start a new tabletop WoT campaign now, and read the books again - the cravings came back with a vengeance!

is so difficult to decipher gifted posts 'cause he so rare knows what he is spouting off 'bout when he goes on one o' his anger benders. affirmative action? how on earth would affirmative action relate to school fees? either he is using the wrong term, or... regardless, many states ask for parents to pay mandatory fees for s'posed free education. is a growing trend as schools is increasing making laptops/chromebooks part o' ordinary student supplies and as so many angry and childless homeowners grumbled 'bout school taxes being levied on their property yearly. have seen high school student fees running +$700 per year in a few states, and such were a few years past. much o' the optional fees isn't particular optional for the ordinary student. bus pass fee. lab fees. activity and field-trip fees. etc. charge for such minutiae as locker maintenance is understandable eye-roll worthy. gonna dismiss gifted affirmative action comments as simple ignorance, however, there is a considerable number o' states which has chosen to avoid more generalized tax schemes in favor o' more targeted taxes. 'course there is always income-based waivers available. legal there needs be such waivers. 'cause gifted is unaware, ca Constitution specific makes education free. any essential school activity cannot result in a fee charge in ca. however, every year more than a few ca school districts attempt circumvent law. in spite o' the state Constitution clearness, an additional law were passed 'cause far too many school districts were attempting to squeeze fees from folks. https://www.cde.ca.gov/re/cp/uc/ab1575letter20121116.asp college is a different matter. even so, 1-2 years o' community college is now free in ca albeit with somewhat limiting provisos. keep in mind ca community colleges were already 'mongst the cheapest community college systems in the nation with full-time tuition running less than $1500 per year if the per unit cost were applied to a standard 15 unit per semester student schedule. make 2 years o' tuition functional free will help but is hardly the reason so many people fail to complete their college career nowadays. @Agiel americans voluntarily adopting mechanisms o' a police state. a brave new world indeed. the part o' fahrenheit 451 most folks forget or gloss over is how bradbury's dystopian nightmare were the alchemy o' burgeoning technology and a populist movement. is not a book 'bout government censorship. weren't some institutional monolith taking away liberties. were americans voluntarily surrendering freedom. desire to not be offended and feel more secure led to a police state. am gonna blame on hurl. teachers clear ain't teaching the important stuff if this kinda thing is resulting in indifference and even applause. HA! Good Fun! ps am not genuine blaming hurl, but am nevertheless disappointed that so many has read 1984, brave new world and fahrenheit 451 in schools and clear not learned.

I don't see how skill with a physical staff transfers over to a light saber, which has zero weight to it, outside of the handle. That's like saying skill with a halberd gives you proficiency with a dagger. They're both melee weapons, but that's where the similarities end. As for traditions, bad traditions are bad traditions. We shouldn't continue them just for the sake of continuing them. I don't see tradition as an excuse for piss poor writing. At one time, the vast majority of women in cinema were damsels in distress and jealous love interests, but we evolved past that. At one time we had comedies with black face, but we evolved past that. I have a dream that one day we can make hero stories with nuanced characters, a plot that makes sense, and heroes that can overcome obstacles using clever thinking and resourcefulness, rather than blind luck.

Dave Chappelle Sticks and Stones on Netflix. He slays me every time.

What really killed my interest in the Star Wars movies is how much the series leans on deus ex machina. It's a useful plot device, but only if used sparingly. The amount of times the heroes in Star Wars are put into an unwinnable situation and I guess it's all over now... BUT WAIT! Incredible coincidence and luck happens! (which, of course, can be hand waived away as the will of the force, or whatever) It's a get out of jail free card the series' writers use way too often to get out of corners they've written themselves into, which leads to lazy and, quite frankly, terrible writing.

Any excuse is a good excuse to watch T2. That movie absolutely still holds up today. It's the quintessential 90s action flick.

Just expanding what Keyrock said above: in the book Unfinished Tales, Saruman, Gandalf the other wizards were ordered to go to Middle Earth and help/guide the people in their conflict with Sauron. Iirc, they were expressly forbidden to solve the problem on their own, because the people of Middle Earth had to fight for what was theirs or something like that. I guess that includes calling the Eagles. For me the funniest thing though is that all the problems Sauron caused after his boss (Melkor) was defeated could have been easily prevented. Again, I don't know if I remember this well, but in the Silmarillion when they capture Melkor they order Suaron to cross the ocean to face judgement. Sauron initially regreted his crimes, for real, but then he realized that if he went there he would be severely punished and then he decided to stay. And this was stupid, because the guy who arrested Melkor (with the help of an army) didn't consider himself with the authority to arrest Sauron, although Sauron was of a lesser status than Melkor.

I concur that the Eagle rescue was bollocks. I mean, I guess the reason Radagast never just had the Fellowship hop on the backs of the eagles and fly to Mt Doom is that the Istari were in Middle Earth to guide the mortals via subtle ways, I guess by saying "good job" and giving them a star sticker every time they did something good and saying "no no no, bad mortals" *finger shake* when they did something bad. They really weren't supposed to get directly involved, not that that ever stopped Gandalf or Sauraman.

^ Here are a few from the new trilogy: * Our heroes are being chased by tie fighters with seemingly no escape on Jakku. OH NOES! But wait, the Millenium Falcon just happens to be sitting right there in a junk heap AND it's open AND fully operational. What luck! * Our heroes have been captured by Nu Empire and are presumably about to be executed. OH NOES! But Nu Rebel Alliance happens to show up in X-Wings st that exact moment with no foreshadowing or explanation whatsoever and shoot down the stormtroopers with bizzarro stormtrooper accuracy. * Ship gets blasted apart and Leia is sucked out into the vacuum of space. Guess she's dead (pun intended) OH NOES! We already knew Leia was force sensitive, but she has never once been shown to use force powers... Until it's revealed she's Space Mary Poppins. Also, somehow she didn't instantly explode as the air in her lungs escaped into the emptiness of space. Must be another force power she was never shown to have. * Finn and Rose get cornered by Nu Empire troopers and are hopelessly overwhelmed. Guess they're done for. OH NOES! But wait, best selling action figure BB8 somehow took over a AT-ST... at some point... off-screen. Also, this particular AT-ST is a fan of the Fast n Furious franchise and comes equipped with a nitrous boost to help them escape. * Rose is about to get blown to smithereens by 3 tie fighters. OH NOES! Suddenly, literally from out of nowhere, the Millenium Falcon appears with Rey - Galaxy's Greatest Gunner manning the turret. TRIPLE KILL! * Nu Rebel Alliance is trapped in a cave behind a giant door with no escape until the door is blasted open by Nu Empire. OH NOES! But wait, there was an escape tunnel at the back of the cave all along. * Finn and Rose went off on their side quest and failed and got captured because they are bumbling idiots. OH NOES! But wait, they have a cell mate and he just happens to have the exact set of exceedingly rare skills necessary to complete the side quest.

It's pretty substantial though (-15).

Nuke that hurricane! There's no way that could possibly be a terrible idea, nope.

Luck and coincidence was a significant part of the old serials (particularly cliffhanger resolution) that Star Wars hearkens back to. The first Flash Gordon serial resolved several cliff-hangers by having Flash be rescued (usually by Princess Aurora) rather than getting himself out of the predicament. Other serials are worse with deus ex machina and luck (Batman caught in a mine explosion in a cliffhanger sees the cliffhanger resolved by...Batman standing up, unharmed. Green Hornet gets shot at point blank range falling out of a window is resolved by...revealing that Green Hornet fell before the shot was fired, and was on the first floor so just rolled to safety). So to me I see it part of the tradition that Star Wars continues.

Thanks. I did manage to reach Gran Soren and I changed my main from Strider (Hiryu) to Assassin and my pawn from Mage to Sorceress. I may ultimately go Ranger with my main for maximum ranged damage, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

His own wife's message was "your candidate might be better, but my husband is the one that will actually win". A whole lot of shades of "It's Her Turn" going on there.

An Unbroken/Trickster with a Large Shield, Llengrath's, and Adept Evasion is virtually impervious to AoE attacks: especially great if you have a damage-oriented caster in your team.

Nevermind, hype is back.

Not really fitting, but it fits worse on other threads

I did exclude here from that criticism, as I'm 100% certain we're all real and genuine people united only by our wholly amateur interest in great RPGs whose superb quality is only bettered by their tremendous value for money, fantastic production values, deep and involving storylines, easy to learn yet hard to master game systems and long term replayability.. ..but overall while I'm sure there are many many people who are genuinely excited I've seen an awful lot of "wow as I real and genuine person I find the low low subscription price of Disney+ coupled to exceptional and varied offerings from Marvel(TM), Star Wars(TM) and the core Disney(TM) business and back catalogue to be exceptional value and as a real and genuine person I shall certainly be giving Disney my business. And as a real and genuine person who cares deeply about everyone experiencing such great content at a bargain price I urge all fellow real and genuine people to subscribe to Disney+(TM) as well. I shall also be cancelling my Netflix subscription post haste as they have poor content and are too expensive!" type stuff as well. (to be fair the latter is pretty accurate, there's literally nothing on NZ Netflix that I would classify as must watch and they've just upped prices. OTOH Marvel TV and recent Star Wars doesn't give me much confidence in the key adultish Disney+ offerings either)

*runs away after signing Hulrshot up for a year-long subscription*

00:00-1:07: Yeah, this looks very good, somewhat western-y, a bit of a Rogue One meets Deadwood feel to it. 1:07-1:35:

I'm looking forward to playing my pally, can alt-tab and play Football Manager. Launch day for Classic is going to be a mess, heh. Wonder how many people will tough it out past 6 months, though.

Can't say I care either so long as it's consistent. I imagined them being a bit more 'Meditteranean' than the castings but so long as Rand looks noticeably different from the rest of the Two Rivers folks- which the guy does- I don't see any reason for complaint. I have to admit than I am kind of hoping Billy Zane gets to be Ishamael again, he was certainly good for a giggle in the pilot.

Thanks for the link, Raithe. I watched the whole thing, and it was bad, but it reminded me of a lot that Ive forgotten since I read the books. Its also funny to me to compare how Ive been saying some of the words in my head (ie: Aes Sedai) vs how its supposed to be pronounced.

As in that mini pilot episode that was shot purely to keep the licence? In part, it was terrible, but actually, I really liked Billy Zane's role in it. It was basically that opening prologue of Eye of the World with Ishamael's almost monologue to the newly insane Lews Therin. But Zane manages to inhabit that role with that..slightly over the top zest that you expect from Ishamael.

I've got a spare key for Lucah: Born of a Dream for Steam. It's a really good hack&slash action-RPG (by default it's reasonably challenging, but there are difficulty options).

It's that time of the month again!

I hope, one day, Obsidian will take a look in this patch... ...And integrate most of the changes in a true official update ! (I dream)

Sith Army Knife.. SithArmyKnife.mp4

algroth is a disney plant! How much are they paying you, corporate shill?

The Matrix 4 is happening Look, I like Keanu as much as the next guy but...