Raithe

"Mighty thews straining, Conan lifted the thrashing figure high above his head. "Now, loathsome dog!" he snarled, "Back to the nighted abyss from whence you crawled!" He hurled a screaming 2017 over the cliff's edge." - Conan the Salaryman

There's so much there that has potential that I can never actually wash my hands of the prequels.

Well, I think it was going back to the originals. Lucas put in R2 and Threepio in part as homage to the Hidden Fortress. That aspect of the heroic adventure being seen from the view of the two serf/peasants (low end of the blue collar scale) who get caught up tagging along with the "noble" heroes. They not only served as that figure for audiences to relate to and contrast with the heroes, but provided a certain comedy sidekick element to it all - however, in the original trilogy they generally weren't slapstick comedy. It seemed that Jar-Jar was meant fill that role in the prequels, but they pushed the abject slapstick dumb element more than anything else. Which turned him into a generally irritating character rather than an amusing one. Then tag on the over-the-top pseudo jamaican style accent and it made more people wince than anything else.

As we arrive here in 2018...

Lucas actually got together with Chris Claremont (of X-Men writer fame) and wrote a trilogy sequel to Willow. And yes, they even included a "Willow Ufgood? Now that is a name I haven't heard in a long time...." from a myserious old wise halfling...

#WhatTheForecast

Heh. BitterGertrude - This is not going to go the way you think: the last jedi is as subversive af

I did see a somewhat amusing SW anecdote. Apparently one of the lead set engineers was putting the finishing touches to the Millenium Falcon at Pinewood for Force Awakens and ran into Harrison Ford at some nearby shops. So, given the situation he went up and did a "Excuse me Mr Ford? I'm so and so and happen to be building the Millenium Falcon." Ford turned, looked at him.. then just said "Toggle Switches." The guy blinked and was all "uhh?" Ford nodded and did a "When they built it the first time, they did it cheap. None of the toggle switches had springs in. They didn't have the budget for new ones. You'd have a scene, toggle a switch, and as you said your lines, the toggle switches would drop back into the old position as you were stood in front of them." So the set engineer blinked again and just said "Well. I think we have the budget now."

I really should make another effort at replaying PoE and doing the White March.... but at the moment I've started up Divinity: Original Sin EE since I picked it up in the winter sales.

To stick with the philosophy...

It was fairly simple here, a novel (Magic Shifts), a Pathfinder sourcebook, the Art of Mass Effect Andromeda, a few bottles of port, some money, and a few other small things.

Enjoy the festivity, and Merry Christmas folks.