Amentep

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Straws really only make sense to me for thick drinks (like milkshakes) that you'd otherwise have to eat with a spoon. Or if you're Archie. But...they don't really make a lot of sense otherwise, IMO.

C'mon, cult leader is the place to go for attention. Sure its hard to start up, but face it - your word will be theophilosophical law if it works. RE: Trump's weather map: IMO while silly of Trump there are 1,000s of projections run about hurricane's paths, and given its trajectory to FL I'm sure some of them had paths to Alabama on them. Probably not in magic marker, though. Personally I'd class The Last Word as a talking head op-ed, not a news show. YMMV (and I confess to only a passing familiarity with the show as I've never watched MSNBC). But to the larger point, press - even the old established press - have printed stories they've had to retract because they didn't hold up under scrutiny. I suppose you could argue how involved the institution was in the publication with respect to culpability, but retractions aren't just for mis-identifying the third person on the left in a photo, or misspelling people's names. No system or institution is infallible.

To me, I think the point Gromnir is raising is this: If the National Enquirer (Daily Mail, Weekly World News, or other local variants of tabloid sensationalism) reports that [Big Name Celebrity] is on their death bed, it doesn't mean that [Big Name Celebrity] isn't on their death bed. The problem is that people are taking the idea of media bias and using it as an excuse to reject facts because of the source (particularly egregious when the facts are reported on by multiple outlets) Theoretically, as I understand it, lawsuits would be the remedy to media violations of the law. Journalistic ethics would also require certain steps to be taken to ensure that all sides of the story are accounted for. The problem (IMO) is that people have equated talking-head opinion shows with news. Opinion shows are not news, will never be news and freedom of speech means that someone is allowed to hold and express their opinion provided it doesn't go into slander or making statements that incite crimes or otherwise do harm (like the proverbial shouting fire in a theater when there is no fire). But because of the need for news networks to provide content, the easiest way to fill hours is with talking head op-ed shows.

Junji Ito has been resistant to an animated series (there was a live action movie in that adapts part of the story, but ends different as it was produced before the end of the manga had been made). Ito is apparently a fan of director Hiroshi Nagahama if the articles I read are accurate, which is why he agreed to it. While I've liked most of Ito's work Uzumaki is a particular masterwork.

Marvel has seven Captain Marvels(!) so its understandable as to why they discussion of them can be confusing (and that's without even bringing in the two non-Marvel Captain Marvels). I do think that there is sometimes a pull in media to try and present female characters as less flawed than similar male characters for fear that they aren't representing women well by creating a flawed character. That said I think with Wonder Woman there's only so much room to maneuver in terms of the character and flaws. Carol Danvers has a hugely messed up backstory that in the comics has allowed her to be a flawed character when they transitioned her into the Captain Marvel role, but in the movie she mostly comes off as stubborn (but right to be stubborn) a trait she shares with Rey so far in the Star Wars films.

Don't make any sudden moves, I think Mr. Mind has been found...

Ren defeated Snoke. Ren and Rey beat the Red Guards though, so she wasn't completely worthless in that sequence, but she picked a fight with Snoke and lost and would have been dead or turned if not for Ren. IMO that's a defeat for her even if she ultimately escaped with her life. Based on your argument, you could argue that Luke defeated Palptine because he walked away from it (carrying Vader, who did all the heavy lifting in the defeat of Palptine). Or that Anakin defeated Dooku because he walked away from it (despite his major contribution to the fight being loosing a limb). Although I'm sure we can all agree Anakin clearly lost against Obi-Wan because he wasn't walking away from that de-feet. I took the training to be less about Rey not needing training and more about Luke having come to the conclusion that he wasn't a teacher (and indeed doubting that teaching the Jedi ways was the right thing to do anymore). If she knows good from evil, what more can books tell her about the light or dark side?

Del Toro's Pinnoccio is for Netflix, not Disney. It'll be animated via stop motion.

So far Rey has lost the fight she tried to pick with Snoke, didn't get the training she was looking for from Luke, and got saddled with Kylo Ren and Finn. So I'd argue she's on trajectory to be just as much a loser as Anakin (lost the fight he tried to pick with Dooku and Obi-Wan, didn't get the relationship he wanted with Padme, was saddled with Jar Jar Binks) and Luke (lost the fight he tried to pick with Vader and Palpatine, didn't get the training he wanted from Yoda and didn't get the relationship he wanted with the Princess because she turned out to be his sister, and was saddled with C-3P0, the biggest buzzkill droid in the galaxy). All she needs really at this point is to pick another losing fight and to make a bad relationship choice, and they've given her three good candidates for the later, if not the former (Finn, Po, Ren). 😛

Not really what I'm talking about regarding traditional story telling with respect to serials and heroic adventure, but since you've went with comparing my statements to portrayals of character with respect to race and gender and poor/disrespectful portrayals of same, I'm done trying. With respect I never said that anyone couldn't dislike those elements in Star Wars, I was trying to state why they didn't bother me. The stories are pure pulp. Expecting Shakespeare is folly. IMO.

The tradition argument is about traditional storytelling rather than traditional family entanglements, I don't see them comparable at all. Hero stories are what they are. I have some theories about Rey that might make sense of her character, but I'm not really all that bugged by her being competent at stuff. Unlike Luke, Rey had been doing hand to hand combat with her staff (as demonstrated by her use of it) whereas Luke had primarily used blasters from what we're told/shown in the first film (and we don't see Anakin getting a sabre so have no clue how he took to one). Like Anakin and Luke both she's able to hop into unfamiliar machines and use them to shoot down enemies as each did (exactly how many hours had Luke logged in an x-wing while working as a moisture farmer?). The one example you give that doesn't have a precedent in Anakin or Luke (that I can think of) is being able to hold off Kylo Ren, who hasn't exactly covered himself with glory to that point in the series, lacking the emotional control of a Jedi or the 'at all costs' focus of the Sith. She's unable to do anything against Snoke until Ren intervenes despite the fact that she had nominal training at that point, indicating that had she encountered a more competent or better trained Sith the outcome would have been different.

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.

I've never really thought the Force was the most interesting thing about Star Wars. There were a lot of questions about it after the first film, but there were always other things that was interesting as well. But I also didn't lose my mind when the prequels were aimed at family audiences, nor did I lose my mind because THE LAST JEDI wasn't the greatest thing since sliced bread like so many people did.

Its a way of screening bot posts out from ever being seen by users. Occasionally one will get through and we'll have to handle on the backend. After enough posts on the non-Off Topic forums, you'll get out of the moderator queue.

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I loved Westworlds first two seasons. Much better than the previous Westworld tv series. But I imagine the way it tells its stories isn't for everyone. I've got to watch new LiS.

NC-17 just existed because the X rating had been rendered meaningless. The big problem with the R rating is that studios don't tend to make as much profit on R film hits as PG 13 hits, and the studios don't want to spend 10 million to make 20 million, they want to spend 150 million to make 300 million.

I've sent the link to this thread to Fionavar, you may want to reach out to him via PM as well.