majestic

I just noticed I spent the better part of two hours typing up posts. I seriously need to re-evaluate my priorities here. I think I'm out for now. Especially since this is the third time since TLJ came out that we're having the exact same debate, and I'm pretty sure it will have the exact same outcome as the last two times. Seems pretty close doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. Erm...

It isn't entire objective, of course. The movies so far have all looked good. The prequel trilogy's CGI looks terribly dated by now but that's normal. It's not entirely what I was talking about, but I would also say that it is a bold claim to state the prequel trilogy was competently acted. I'm sure everyone did their best given the material the got, but some party are really, really, REALLY awful. Take any random scene with both Anakin and Padme in it. I've seen better acted porn. Better written porn too, for that matter. There are things we can look at when it comes to screenwriting and characterization. How much a given story element makes sense in its universe, for instance, or how understandable character motivations are, whether the characters drive the plot or vice versa, if the movie runs into pacing problems or feels messy or disorganized. The points at which issues with these become a problem for the watcher are subjective, of course, but in general the prequel trilogy in particular did a spectacular job of failing there. The Last Jedi's structure resembles a comedy more than a sci-fi adventure film (i.e. things happen because everyone who isn't Kylo or Rey is an incompetent schmuck, including ALL the leaders on BOTH sides of the conflict). The new Disney era films also have a huge problem with working inside established rules for Star Wars - and it's not like there are many. For me that is a huge issue with my suspension of disbelief, but where that beings to break is subjective. Objectively these are issues that could easily have been avoided so they don't - subjectively - become an issue. Also, you don't ever. Ever. EVER allow FTL bombing like the one shown in TLJ in a sci-fi setting. A few years ago I would have said that being fair to Lucas isn't, well, necessary. These days though, yeah. Although I've seen and read interviews that clearly said that Lucas' first rough cut of the original Star Wars movie was horribly boring and that a collective effort salvaged it. Especially when it comes to pacing, strange cross cuts and destroying the Death Star without the Empire knowing where the rebel base actually is (which is apparently why all dialogue in the rebel HQ comes from off-camera - these scenes were slapped together after prinicpal shooting had long ended).

I don't think that wanting films - even the fun adventure romps - to be competently made is taking space fantasy too serious. The original trilogy was competently made and well crafted (in spite of Lucas, the original was saved by editing after all), and two of them were actually really good movies as well, in addition to being fun space fantasy (although I'm not entirely sure how the presence of somewhat low magic wizards invalidates Star Wars as a sci-fi setting so much it becomes fantasy, but that's another discussion entirely). Well... yes. You're right, of course (and a Calmar is a squid, in the end). No, that's just wrong. I mean, sure, there is the part of the fanbase that deifies the old trilogy, but that has nothing to do with understanding why Tim Rose felt awful after what happened on The Last Jedi set or how large a part Ackbar's character has become in the franchise - and let's not forget that while Ackbar was created by Lucas for Return he was actually introduced in a 1982 comic so we don't go down the "only the movies count" road nedlessly (and even then, prominent haters of the Expanded Universe like Mike Stoklasa think that an iconic character like Ackbar deserved a better send-off). It's okay to not feel as passionately about the topic as Tim Rose. I also don't. I've posted before that I found "It's a wrap!" hilarious, but it's also easy to see how and why Tim Rose felt it was disrespectful to him to ask him to reprise the role for apparently nothing but a cheap death and a joke. It also fits rather well with the impression that large parts of The Last Jedi were made to troll the more passionate Star Wars fan base, i.e. the people doing a lot of free advertising. I mean look at The Mandalorian. Do you really believe that Favreau and Filoni didn't have enough costumes and extras to film the show, or rather, wouldn't have had the budget for them? That's just the flimsy excuse they used to get the 501st on screen. Which means you suddenly have tens of thousands of fanboys telling everyone they know to watch The Mandalorian because they played a part (plus it probably saved a good deal of production cost, those fan made costumes are often way better than the real deal). I'm also not entirely sure why we're debating how much of an effect minor characters can have on pop-culture or how popular and beloved they can become with minor roles. Movie history is full of them. Inigo Montoya, Gunnery Sargeant Hartman, heck even Wedge Antilles and Boba Fett.

Yeah, but that's probably only because his marital status transferred with him to DS9. There are some other happy couples but none started out a new show as married.

He is, in fact, playing one of the most beloved characters in the franchise, and while Ackbar memes are all good fun reducing the character and the actor(s) behind them to nothing but a meme - on set in front of everyone else - when you're the people in charge of Star Wars is completely tone deaf, and the argument that the guy should thoughen up and just because he played a ridiculous alien he's not allowed to be offended (or have any pride in his work for a job well done) is a bit strange coming from you of all people. I'm not saying that "It's a wrap!" wasn't hilarious. It was. The way it was handled was not (much like Ackbar's death in the film was handled terribly) and I understand Tim Rose being offended. Oh, and Mon Calamari are not squids. The squids are called Quarren (both races are native to Mon Cala). Racist.

WotC changed a lot of things with 4E, and yes, the Blood War was axed in the process. Fun fact, The Abyss was listed as Elemental Plane in 4E even though it's still home to creatures regarded demons instead of elementals, how that was supposed to make sense is anyone's guess. I might have misspoken about 5E having a Manual of the Planes already. Looks like it doesn't. That information appears to be baked into one of the expanded Player Handbooks.

Is that because she doesn't like the character or simply because the episodes featuring him prominently are somewhat annoying on DS9? Although I'd say the outstanding O'Brien episode is Hard Time, not Visionary.

Read a few of the comments on the tweet. I agree that it was most likely not intended as an insult or humiliation but it is a perfect example of being completely tone deaf. Not much of a surprise given how The Last Jedi turned out to be (as part of the Star Wars franchise and as a movie, if such things can be seen separately).

You're right, it didn't really take off or go anywhere. At first she rejected him on the Holodeck, then he got more confidence in Transfigurations, then there was a turbolift conversation about how things with Christy are going really well (and Worf was commenting on how he taught Geordi about women) and then the show just dropped the entire thing. It's been a while but his grin when talking about how things were going with Christy pretty much implies getting laid, or at least that is what I imagined it was about. But yeah. He certainly got the butt-end of action. Dunno, maybe it has something to do with the supposed plans to make him gay. He sure liked Q's hunky Wesley version. Heh.

The 4th and 5th Edition does have a Manual of the Planes and Sigil comes up in them but the Planescape campaign setting as such is gone. Without details it's hard to tell of course but I seem to recall BioWare no longer licensing D&D due to cost issues and story/edition control on behalf of WotC. That's not to say that WotC didn't relent at some point. I always found it curious that 4E played so much like it was designed with a much easier adaptation to computer games in mind but there never were any major game releases. Unlike a whole slew of AD&D 2nd and D&D 3d edition games back in the heyday of (A)D&D adaptations.

As far as I know it's WotC policy to license out only the latest edition. But who knows, maybe we'll get AD&D back. Bring on the THAC0s baby, screw BABs.

Watched What/If on Netflix. I suppose the show is really as bad as its review scores, still I found myself entertained by the sheer absurdity of the plot and the actor's "performances". Bridget Jones hamming it up like Shatner crossed well and truly into the "so bad it's good" territory for me. Plus I really like watching the Doci (aka Warlock) regardless of how ridiculous or small his role is.

I'm pretty sure he got it on with Christy Henshaw after (and/or during) Transfigurations, and he marries Leah Brahms in the end, after a storyline that would probably get him fired for stalking or misconduct in this day and age. But if you mean on screen, then yeah, probably. Wesley might not have gotten some on screen action either, apart from a kiss or two (I'm pretty sure he boffed Robin Lefler every chance he got though).

I just love Albrecht's Aether Ray, warts and all. It's fun to play even when you know it's not ideal and that you'll have to work that much harder to progress. Caveat: Haven't played in a long while, so no idea how viable AAR builds are after the expansion.

Caught up on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 6. I thought that the show would suffer from continuing on after what was most likely meant as series finale last season. Looks like the showrunners thought that as well, so they're not even trying. I mean sure, the story picks up where it left off (with what little there was as a "sequel" hook) but it's pure balls to the walls whimsy by now. Oh yeah, and Enoch's back and still killing it. Imagine the difference in tone to the rest of the season - with the possible exception of the first episode of season 6 until the very end of it - like the difference between a regular and a Darin Morgan X-Files episode. Well, possibly not as extreme considering the inherent silliness of superhero shows.

My parents bought a new TV, I helped them set it up. Netflix, Prime Video, the works. When did setting up a new TV (and monitors, for that matter) become it's own science, and why in the everflazing buck do all companies do their damndest to make the default settings a terrible mess you have to sort through for half an eternity to get the best image quality out of your hardware? I mean, what's the point of being able to stream 4k content when its reduced to looking like a daytime soap opera due to motion smoothing(tm)? Honestly companies, I know we're being inclusive in this day and age and I fully support that, but maybe don't hire blind people to QA your screens? Please?

It's not humor, but Larian's brand of humor in particular I'd venture.

That looks... familiar. Thanks TN.

As luck would have it, Scientist Man explained the current Terminator canon a while back:

I have hit a bit of a snag in Druidstone. I'm at what could be considered the first real boss battle of the game. I've done only two attempts so far (on normal difficulty) and I almost downed the boss the second time around. I now know how to approach the mission to win: Reskill to add some piercing and daze (50% chance to miss for enemies) to my group's attacks, add dodge to my tank skills and grab some resistance gear to help with the environmental effect and the attacks. This is necessary because the boss has massive health, high armor and devastating single melee attack per round (and one ranged, but that can miss through daze, be outranged and resisted). Par for the course for a boss, obviously. Here's the rub: I don't want to. It's not even much effort. A few clicks to shuffle stuff around. What bothers me is that the game so far played by completely different rules. So far there's been two types of enemies, those that came in hordes that deal really low damage and a few large ones with a medium amount of hitpoints that were impossible to tank due to their insane damage output over several melee attacks per round or debilitating status effects. They had to be kited and whittled down, or burst down as quickly as possible. Two things that aren't viable for the boss fight. The present environmental hazard (not to mention unkillable but slow horde enemies) makes it impossible to kite him long enough to wear him down and the fact that he spends half the mission time invulnerable until you've traversed most of the map and the insane amount of hit points makes it impossible to burst him down. What he does have though, is only a single melee attack per round. Highly damaging, but the Warden conveniently has a skill that allows him to dodge a single melee attack per round, and you can skill him to have some extra charges. In normal play that skill so far was interesting to have, but by no means something to gear or skill for. TL;DR: Would have to shuffle around equipment and reskill my entire party for one fight, then turn everything else back for normale gameplay. Can't really be arsed to.

Thanks, but I watched The Recall trailer and I'm pretty sure I have never seen that film. Hmmm. Now that I think on it a little, it's not necessarily an alien invasion. Just people in the woods witnessing something strange, jets flying through the air and a catastrophe happening. Could also be one of them end of the world films. Bah, this will probably bother me a bit until I forget about it. Much like that film or TV show episode that begins with a scientist hanging himself (I think, at least, the scientist commits suicide. it also invovles a clock tower) after having invented somthing that literally eats the planet. Possibly bacteria, maybe nano-machines. From the 80ies or earlier (possibly early 90ies, but only very early). I also seem to recall a city collapsing.

Netflix keeps recommending The Rim of the World to me. Watched the trailer and I have a question. I'm pretty positive I saw a similar concept in a film already. A group of people missing an alien invasion by being in the woods or some other remote location. Also with fighter jets flying through the air. Did my brain make that up? I can't recall much else about the film to it didn't make a lasting impression. It's just a vague feeling of familiarty.

Well, maybe this election wasn't as terrible as it looked a couple of hours ago. Projections and trends show a major loss for the EPP and the ENF not ganing as much as initially believed, unless Fidesz is really going to change from the EPP to the ENF (in which case the loss of the EPP becomes exacerbated, which is always a win in my book). Hell, maybe we won't end up having to deal with that piece of manure Weber as president of the commission.

Just in case anyone ever wondered whether BruceVC is a cryptofascist or not. There's nothing crypto, really.