DaveSumm

I did google ‘culturally appropriating words’ and sadly came across enough to convince me it was serious (like this nonsense), but fair cop.

Generally agree with Mormont that we should get back to UK politics cos we’re talking past one another, but I can’t help but ask; is this serious? We’re not using foreign words now, when they’re perfectly suitable? And there are people wondering “gosh what could possibly be wrong with being woke? Guess they must just be openly against social equality” *shrug* If you’re joking, apologies. But it says a lot about the left today that I have no fucking clue, it’s just gone full parody. (Hey, remember when someone mentioned “seeing everything through the lens of race…?”) Mormont, I really did mean ‘on mass’, I just didn’t want to upset the French I guess.

DISHBOVERY

Brian Cox is phenomenal. Now that we know episode 2 was his last full episode, he gave it the full range there; angrily barking out a pep talk that morphed into a manifesto speech on the floor of ATN, manipulating people to do his bidding, then playing placid and calm with the kids at karaoke because the situation called for it. Up there with the great television performances, the Gandolfinis, the Cranstons.

On mass, they absolutely do. In fact it’s the only way words ever get definitions at all, we collectively decide upon them. The dictionary doesn’t come up with definitions, they just document them as and when they change. I don’t ever use the word for precisely this reason; there is no agreed upon definition. So in as much as words are intended to communicate effectively, it’s a bad one to use. But there absolutely is a significant amount of people (though I wouldn’t say a majority) who would agree with HoI’s definition, so it can’t be wrong per se. If it reads like gobbledegook to anyone, I would encourage them to evaluate their social media diet because outside of left-leaning circles, that’s exactly how it’s used in its negative connotation.

Fuck.

For those who have enjoyed this season; is there any possible outcome of the Jack mystery that would be satisfying? That would merit this much build up and teasing? It feels like that element has Kurtzman all over it. Well, full nostalgia points, they’ve even remembered to make Troi a dreadful counsellor. Remove the grieving process from your husband, yep, not a great shout. And this all-encompassing darkness door, with the ominous voices and the sense of dread? Yea let’s kick that door right in Jack!

I think they’re having their cake and eating it; Flashpoint is rebooting some stuff, but other stuff (coincidentally the stuff they already had on the slate) carries on. But I had to google that, so the average cinema goer will probably assume as you did, as they appear to have done for Shazam 2 and stay at home. I imagine Gunn’s Superman will be the first to get me to the cinema (not including Flashpoint).

Considering all the horrendous things he’s said to his kids, that was one of the coldest lines he’s delivered. Because he didn’t even care enough to be angry about, he wasn’t lashing out. It was just a blunt measure of their acumen; they aren’t serious figures.

You’d think I’d have learnt to temper my expectations, but nope, here I am, fully assuming that Secret Invasion will be awesome.

Bearing in mind I’m only half way though it, the connections between them are just Easter eggs and the series (the individual series, not the Cosmere) are all entirely readable without knowing the bigger picture. I believe some of the later books lean more into that side of things, but I’d be surprised if there’s any genuinely necessary reading outside of each series. Maybe someone who’s read the later books (Rhythm of War and The Lost Metal, so I hear) can weigh in.

So wait, who are the cronies that are working with Vadic? One of them called Jack a ‘solid’ … are they changelings too? Why do they wear masks and speak a completely different language? My detachment from the fandom continues. I was mostly just bored here. All of these plots are very familiar, just dragged out much more slowly across the season. We’ve seen Changelings infiltrate Starfleet before, we’ve seen someone clone Picard before, we’ve seen split-personality “I know you’re in there, you have to fight it!” a LOT before, we’ve seen ‘savvy detainee preempts good cop / bad cop’ before. The plot is pretty wafer thin when you look at it, just a nostalgia sandwich. I really couldn’t give a shit what’s up with Jack. Did we find out what the deal is with her hand? Is it a separate changeling? If so why do they need to talk, they’d be bonded and experience everything together? Or is it some weird means of communicating where someone far away takes control of part of your goo?

Oh man I forgot how funny this show is. If only it were some niche show that nobody else watched so you could mine it for insults to use … “You look tired, and your face is giving me a headache”. I was in stitches the second Greg hesitantly approached Logan, on the brink of losing a $10 billion deal and he feels he needs to let him know he fingered his girlfriend.

It feels like this has been talked about for 20 years, and I still remain a bit confused as to why … what’s actually gonna happen week to week?

The common opinion is that Elantris is his weakest book, and that Mistborn Era 1 should be the starting point for most people. I don’t actually agree with that, I was surprised how much I enjoyed Elantris - if I were to have guessed, I would’ve assumed Elantris was written after Mistborn as the character work in Mistborn feels far less accomplished to me. He repeatedly spells out precisely what everyone’s feeling and doesn’t leave any space for the reader to fill in the gaps, and I did initially worry that I wouldn’t get along with Sanderson because of that. But it happens much less in Elantris, though I should add, it has occurred to me that I’ve just gotten used to his style of writing and so everything feels less egregious to me now. The world building in Elantris is nowhere near his best. It almost reminds me of those Star Trek episodes where they only have the budget for a few rooms and 2-3 actors, and they have to convey that some seismic cultural change is happening to a whole planet … through some dialogue in these few rooms. It feels under-populated. Stormlight Archive is leagues ahead of that. So if you enjoyed Elantris, I’d say there’s definitely good reason to try either Final Empire (Mistborn Book 1) or Way of Kings (Stormlight Book 1) if you wanted to jump straight to Sanderson’s A game.

I really thought I’d have the same opinion from reading so many posts here and on Reddit saying his books weren’t well written. I had The Final Empire sat on my shelf for years and never bothered to read it. I finally got round to it, and I’m now 8-9 books deep into the Cosmere. I think it’s fantastic, and the comparisons to the MCU really don’t do it justice. Yes, the prose is fairly basic and exists mainly to convey the story. It doesn’t hang around to win any poetry contests. But there are just so many things that Sanderson does better than anyone I’ve read; for starters, it’s so refreshing to have a fantasy author who can plan a book. After largely accepting that meandering travelogues were just part and parcel of fantasy, I loved reading a well paced book where there’s interesting twists at regular intervals, exciting events, and just a general sense of purpose and forethought throughout. His execution is excellent considering how quickly he writes. Speaking of twists; his information control is superb. Keeping the reader at juuuust the right distance from the critical info so that you always feel like you’re circling a realisation, and to then feel like a revelation was surprising but also, obvious in hindsight. The way he breaks up the overarching mystery of who the Emperor is (in Mistborn Era 1) and what the circumstances were around him becoming Emperor and why, and how he so cleanly distributes that over a trilogy is wonderful. Stormlight in particular is fiercely imaginative. There’s as many great ideas packed into a one off interlude chapter as there are in many other whole sequences of books. From the ground up, Roshar is utterly different from any other world I’ve read about - the flora and fauna, the customs, the history, the magic, the religions. He never rests on his laurels when there’s a chance to add some new element to the world. If prose is a deal breaker for some people, I get that. But it’s a shame to dismiss the whole thing as I nearly did, when I’ve now realised that prose is one element that isn’t a hurdle to the rest - I can still enjoy all these other parts very happily, and get my fill of beautiful and luscious writing elsewhere.

To be clear, I didn’t mean this forum; r/startrek is fawning over this season. Nothing wrong with nostalgia, but this episode was 12 tablespoons of nostalgia in a cup of tea. Leaving barely any room for plot (or sense for that matter; how come they detected the ship immediately but didn’t pick up on the three people that beamed over? How come the most top secret technology is so easy to break into, you just bring a USB stick with you? Why is Data’s subconscious guarding this stuff?) I’ll grant that this season is the least shit so far, but I still fundamentally have the same problem that I’ve had for all of Discovery and all of Picard: you can’t jam an episode full of Easter eggs to prove your credentials if at the same time, the actual plot of the episodes give off the impression that you’ve never seen it… …and this nails it for me. I believed in it too. It wasn’t a show, it was a roadmap to what humanity could become. It was intended to be taken seriously as a possible outcome, and the producers and actors knew this - they knew Starfleet had to be a serious organisation, had to be played straight. Competence porn. You have a problem in the galaxy? Then you simply can’t do any better than the D showing up; jam packed with scientists, doctors, engineers, diplomats, the best on offer. They help because it’s the right thing to do, and they believe in it. Shaw? Better hope it’s not the Titan that’s closest, will he show up at all? Not if he’s got anything to say about it. Maybe if he’s asleep and someone who gives a shit is on duty. I don’t believe in that Starfleet, I don’t believe a man like that gets admitted, let alone makes it to Captain. Raffi doesn’t have anything close to the temperament needed for command. And it just feels off to have the characters from the old Starfleet rubbing up against this strange new one.

I’m still just baffled at all the praise this season is getting. This was an entire episode of nostalgia, I completely lost count of how many times the composer had to drop a theme tune just to really force the point. I mean they literally dropped some characters off at the Nostalgia Museum (Things Wing), then immediately headed for the Nostalgia Museum (Ship Wing). And how the fuck anyone swallowed that Data shit … why on earth would they jam all those personalities in one body? How did Moriaty make any sense at all? Has a show ever disowned it’s first two seasons so spectacularly? The culmination of the first season was the Death of Data. He was switched off. He was at peace. And that’s what he wanted! He was happy! But no, we’ve only heard the Next Gen theme 26 times already so we’re gonna need some more member berries.

I would assume Mistborn would be the first on the list for any adaption. It’s finished, it’s only three books long, it’d be easier to film, and it has cool super powered people doing cool shit. It’s widely agreed to be the best starting place for the Cosmere and I think the same logic would apply to adapting it. Stormlight is only 4/10ths finished, the books are enormous, far more wide reaching and epic. But IF (big if) someone were to make a Mistborn series (and maybe some movies / animated films of the other works, Elantris, Warbreaker) that approached GoT level success, then Stormlight is the best series in the Cosmere and I suspect it’d be too tempting to pass up a fully fledged live action adaption. Maybe the technology improves enough in that time scale to make it feasible, I’m not sure. I’d love to see an animated version, I’m just not sure someone would buy the rights to adapt the Cosmere and then not attempt a rival for GoT / Rings of Power etc.

@SpaceChampion Despite addressing it specifically in that quote, I’m not at all convinced Stormlight is filmable as it is. The amount of constant CG work, even with a volume and a huge budget, would be mental. Pretty much every scene would need a backdrop of bizarre plant life adapting to the weather, spren popping in and out of existence, etc. In fact Mistborn wouldn’t be much better, with the ash and gloomy skies. But I can definitely see why the Cosmere would be a very attractive property. The current issue HBO have of mining aSoIaF for spin-offs would be gone; if you had a successful Mistborn series to kick things off then you’ve basically got like 20 years of material to rake in money off of. And an author who can provide more material as quickly as you could adapt it. If Sanderson had the humility to recognise that his dialogue would need to change a lot for TV, and you got some good actors involved? Could be a gold mine for someone.

It’s a sequel to a film that came out 4 years ago, just before Endgame and so nobody watched it … it’s set in a universe that they just very publicly canned, and haven’t been entirely clear on whether Shazam will survive the transition to the Gunniverse. And there’s no indication that it’s required viewing for any other DC films. So I really don’t see the incentive to see this at the cinema, and I say that as someone who quite enjoyed the first one. Can’t wait for this continuity to be put out of its misery.

It wasn’t Cardiacs was it? Not really ska, but they had a sax player back then so could see why one might think that. Their album Sing to God is one of my favourites albums ever.

On possibly the same tour cos I think it was 98, I saw Kiss at Finsbury Park in London. I’m not sure if it counts as ‘supports’ (it was an all day thing) but Rage Against The Machine, Skunk Anansie, 3 Colours Red, L7 and Thunder all played. Great day that was. EDIT: It was 1997.

Soundgarden, Brixton Academy in 1996. I then saw them at Brixton again in 2016, only a day off 20 years exactly, with the same guys. The 1996 one, I was 14 and didn’t know them that well, couldn’t see shit, was basically a slog to get the train in just to stare at some guys back for a couple hours.

Massively looking forward to this, love Planet X. I good deduction game seems hard to come by. Only other news is that Frosthaven continues to be spread across my entire table, and therefore the only game we’ve played since we got it (except Blood on the Clocktower which is elsewhere). I forgot how daft these Haven games are, I have a chair next to my chair that’s just for books / paperwork, and even then you’ll find mid-scenario you’ll need the rule book, so it’s just there on the chair right? Except wait, that’s the section book … no, that’s the scenario book … those are the stickers … puzzle book, board, campaign sheet, scenario flowcharts (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) … alchemy chart … AH HERE IT IS. Oh we did buy a board game table. Obviously YMMV on how you feel about kickstarters, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a table that looks this good for this price (3 days to go…) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonsandgeeks/the-monarch-a-stylish-board-game-table-to-last-generations?ref=ksr_email_user_watched_project_launched