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Other things I've watched: Confess, Fletch, Jon Hamm's take on the character Chevy Chase first brought to the screen in the 80s, based on Gregory McDonald's mystery novels series known for their dry humor and wit. I think Hamm does a fine job playing Fletch in a lower register than Chase did, there's something quite off-beat about him. Kyle MacLachlan guests as an EDM-loving germaphobic art broker and Harvard lecturer -- yes, it's as crazy as it sounds. It's a solid film, a bit saggy here and there, but Hamm's charming throughout. Then finally saw Dune: Part 2, and I thought the Gedis Prime stuff and the introduction of Feyd-Rautha was excellent, the end was spectacular, the beginning good... and the middle was kind of just there for the most part? I really should love these movies, but there's something about Villeneuve's approach to the material that just makes it feel so heavy and portentous and, ultimately, plodding. Getting away from Paul was often the right answer. It's not Chalamet's fault, I think, as he's really compelling after he drinks the Water of Life and publicly accepts his place as Lisan al Ghalib, and on through that, but I put it down to direction and choices made in adapting. Beautiful visuals of deserts and massive spacecraft and worms aside -- he's great at scale and grandeur -- this movie largely makes the characters and their conflicts seem relatively tiny and uninteresting. Nice cameo during his Water of Life vision, though; great choice of actress. Hacks had a bit of a bottle episode that I didn't love too much, but the follow-up episode was good fun, with a Christina Hendricks guest starring role that was pretty hilarious. I enjoy the way the show is able to play with modern culture and politics, using Deborah and Ava as foils.

Today's SMBC is relevant to this thread: https://www.smbc-comics.com/

Ah great that there are at least two of us here watching it. I hope people pick up on it in the near future, because it's such an ambitious piece of storytelling and I feel like the writers have been able to retain control over it. About Downey Jr.'s characters I was shocked about how old Duchovny seems to have become. Probably honest use of make-up and everything, but I almost did not recognize him.

Had it only been a stylistic choice and not explicitly called the “Black sun” during the film and in pre-release interviews… I would have less of a problem with it.

Yes, I do not deny that this stuff is interesting and seems to relate to the Dance. It is just less convincing when applied to predicting the main series. Either the Others already HAVE ice dragons, in which case.... why aren't they using them already? Or they do not and they need to make one. A dragon is the embodiment of fire, so the whole notion that the Others can take a dead fire beast and simply turn it into something that is the opposite of itself is.... I don't know. It falls flat. I prefer ice monsters to be ice monsters, not fiery in origin. Something is off. According to the legends, ice dragons are MADE of ice. How can something made of fire then be made of ice? I guess I just really am not seeing any way that an actual ice dragon would make this series better, rather than worse, and GRRM usually has good instincts. The events surrounding Aemond and Dameon at the God's Eye were a good story; but ramping it up to something more literal would be worse, not better. Now... as a prediction for Euron fighting Aegon, both of them on some kind of bastardized version of a dragon - well that would be better would it not?

It’s okay,you guys are readers of Patrick Rothfuss, GRRM and Scott lynch. Y’all should be used to re reading series every 2-3 years.

I won't count it as a question; my 'although' was referring to whether we are thinking in terms of modern science or medieval fantasyworld science. I'm going with the latter.

Both Joel and Thiago leaving confirmed. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cjjewq88dl1o

Norwich sacking their manager the morning after the playoff defeat is a bit harsh.

Guess the refs gave the Wolves that game.

Lol, stop it. Also, team USA is going to dominate.

Yes it is speculative and I am not of a mind to try and convince any one person on specific foreshadowing. I have always been hopeful though that there will be people who will see design rather than coincidences, because this stuff is really not random, and if more people get it more insights will be provided. The Ice Dragon is a constellation with a blue star for its eye, ice dragons are described as having pale crystal eyes. Aemond is the chief baddy of the Dance and puts a blue sapphire in his lost eye. Daemon uses the sun to defeat Aemond, and thrusts his Valyrian steel sword through the sapphire eye. The dragons fall into a body of water with a massive splash, an ice dragon is said to turn to water when it dies. This is basically the culmination of the Dance.

Aye, I suppose I should have truncated the quote I was responding to. I meant saying Trump turns on everyone was an untrue generalization. There are, of course, many examples from his administration and in Congress that demonstrate this.

I posted about it earlier after it started. Very interesting narrative and I've enjoyed it, though Downey Jr. playing so many roles feels like an unnecessary gimmick, even though there's a thematic point to it (i.e. he's a representative of various corrupt aspects of American attitudes towards Vietnam -- the government, the intelligence community, academia, the arts) David Duchovny's cameo was fun.

Speaking of HBO, isn't anyone here watching The Sympathizer? It's a story about a Vietnamese spy during the last day of the Vietnam War and follows him through the aftermath. Some of its episodes are directed by Park-Chan Wook, Robert Downey Jr. plays several characters in it and it's based on a prizewinning novel. I have recently caught up with it and it's excellent in my book. I'm now impatiently waiting for the next episode to be released

yes but I can't bear to slog through a jungle of questions trying to clarify the 'athough' - I dream there may be a simpler route... ...but no, there isn't, because I complicate everything! By 'non-living thing' did you mean 'non-living object'? (it occurred to me you may mean 'the thing I am thinking of' which could be a song, a dream etc' You can count this silly thought as a question!

I think the biggest worry would be Argentina, their claim is basically the same as the UK and I can see their Anarcho capitalist president seeing this as an answer to their financial woes. It's not like there isn't a president for Argentina militarily enforcing their claims.

Thank you Joel.

It is all a bit speculative. It makes assumptions about what will happen then says the dragons predict it. Which is logic I find a bit problematic because it can't be proven or disproven until the books are finished. I do tend to agree these creatures are foreshadowing for future mind you, it is just that without an actual future to connect it to, we are all grasping and should not feel too certain in our predictions. I personally am not all that convinced by the ice dragon theories for one: Yes, there was an ice dragon in the show, but that felt to me like a simplification of events that are actually happening much further South in the books (related to Euron and Aegon). Also, if people want to connect Jaime to Sunfyre, as in the post above, they had better well give me very clear and worked out logic for why Sunfyre has anything at all to do with a Lannister born more than 150 years after Sunfyre died. Because I don't see it. The colour gold is SOOOOO far from being enough and every single Targaryen ever was handsome (in their youth) so Jaime is hardly the only good looking man to ever live in Westeros.

Put me in the column of not caring about the black and white Giedi Prime. It looked cool, and makes about as much sense as a spice from giant worms that live in a desert giving you genetic memories, foresight into possible futures, tripling lifespan AND allowing you to go through folded space. Oh, and it turns your eyes blue, too. In a desert planet, because who needs melanin to protect from UV damage in a desert world?

We have a new system at work, it highlights spelling mistakes in red, but doesn't allow you to right click to correct them. I can't be fucking arsed looking up how to spell shit after no sleep, so i just leave them in. Fucking stupid system, I wonder how much we paid for this piece of shit.

I was actually excited by TFA. It wasn't perfect, and on rewatch it's actually very infuriating. I did however get a mild boner seeing storm troopers depicted like actual soldiers and a more semi realistic aesthetic. TFA is more of a promise for future movies, it felt like it was Disney saying 'yeah don't worry, we know the prequels were a mess and we have learnt our lesson' But then I guess all the warning signs were there, and they didn't really deliver on those promises at all.

Pleased Leeds won, i like the playoffs, exciting as shit and keep interest going much longer into the season, but some shitty team that finishes 6th about 20 points behind 3rd getting promoted always pisses me off. Though they are normally a guarantee to go straight back down.

You can't stab someone in the back again without getting them to turn around for a second time

It's one of those where you'll get to #9 and rage at the idiot who doesn't know what he's thinking, and then for #10 the light bulb comes on