DaveSumm

What’s the collective term for the people of Mandalore? Is it just The Mandalorian? Could the title still be correct if it becomes about all of this group?

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.

@Kalnestk Oblast Fair enough. I only saw it once at the cinema and was never much inspired to see it again. Partly because Luke was riding high after Return of the Jedi, and given all the possible answers of what could’ve happened to him? We get: Eesh. I mean there’s ‘subverting expectations’ and then there’s whatever the fuck that is.

It was definitely the intent in A New Hope that Obi had given up, but then I don’t think the two situations are analogous. Obi Wan gave up because the Empire took over entirely, exterminated the Jedi (as far as he knew, all except Yoda) and were expressly murdering any who put their head above the parapet. It seems entirely logical to hide in this scenario. There was No Hope (until the New Hope). Luke went into hiding despite the government still being entirely amenable to Jedi and Jedi schools, and there being potentially plenty of Jedi looking to be taught, all because his first school didn’t go to plan. He just went and did a sulk despite the fact that his presence was very clearly needed. So there was no logic to his hiding, nor any audience demand for it.

God I hope Banner isn’t in it. It’d be so awkward seeing Ruffalo pretending to have a history with Liv Tyler when we’ve never even seen them meet. Even without the recasting, Norton and Tyler had zero chemistry. Actually Norton’s whole performance went beyond subtle to the point of just being a big nothing, the rest of the movie isn’t too bad but your two leads in a movie can’t be dull as fuck.

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.

@sifth Rise of Skywalker didn’t make anything close to what it could’ve done. It had half the box office of Force Awakens, when it should’ve been Endgame money. I mean it’s the finale of what was once the entirety of Star Wars, the Skywalker Saga.

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.

Let’s not forget, the time travel wasn’t a cop out in anything like the way it usually would be; they don’t undo anything, everything still happened and the world had to suffer with 50% population for five years. All they did was steal some stuff. I loved it. I can’t think of a more hyped film (OK maybe Phantom Menace) and for it to be widely accepted as fantastic is pretty astonishing considering.

My money would be on flashback.

Well good news, it’s 2023 and there’s barely any of those. Arcs are all the rage. I found the mission-of-the-week format of the first season quite refreshing.

I’m not sure I understand calling an episode ‘filler’. It’s just that kind of show, it’s mostly filler. I probably prefer the standalone episodes to ‘season arc’ episodes. It was a nice reminder that Mandalorians are pretty damn cool, grappling guns and jet packs and blasters? Pretty damn cool. Although it felt like the effects budget was stretched a little, the Coruscant scenes didn’t feel up to the usual standard, nor Grogu’s flip, and a few others.

The MCU owes a huge debt to the Russos. I’m trying to think how much heavy lifting Winter Soldier - Civil War - Infinity War - Endgame does for my love of the franchise. Even now, seeing Cap kick the car into a guy in Civil War and then Black Widow get body slammed down into a tank, it was so visceral, really made you wince as it happened.

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.

Although annoyingly they never mention this when reciting their pledge, they just say “have you removed your helmet?” I guess he must sleep in it too, otherwise what happens if someone walks in while you’re sleeping? Has he ever washed his hair?

The top pinned comment on this Reddit thread (and the Vulture article linked within) have a lot more info: It at least seems like Marvel is trying to fix their mistakes. After Chapek left we’ve had Feige saying the rate of content will slow (apparently all Disney+ shows have had their dates changed to ‘coming soon’) and now there’s rumours of all of Phase 5 and 6 dates slipping back. Hopefully this is also a step to improving their VFX and the way the handle it. I’ve never been one to over-analyse effects and can generally enjoy a film that’s pretty average in that department, but She-Hulk was comfortably the worst looking character they’ve ever had.

@Lord Varys

I feel like this episode massively overplayed Picard and Ro Laren’s relationship. You certainly don’t get the impression during those episodes of TNG that Picard would be stewing on this for 30 years. I didn’t hate the episode, but I’m still not invested really. ‘They might be a changeling’ has been done, two friends are forced to fight to the death has been done, and drawing out a mystery like whatever’s up with Jack has been done. Sorry NuTrek, you’ve burned me too many times, too many multi-episode drawn out mysteries that amount to nothing interesting. Hey remember that thing from the end of Season 2 that we all assumed would be the macguffin for this season? What was that then? Should we expect that to get referenced or have they just completely given up on making this a coherent show?

Yea it was an odd episode, it maybe could’ve used some kind of ‘hand over’ from one story to the other … it really did just stop being Mandalorian and then switch back equally abruptly. But it’s good they’re widening the scope of what the show can do.

I’m wondering if she thinks of it as her ‘Voyager’ name. She may have been designated ‘Seven of Nine Tertiary Adjunct…’ by the Borg, but they never need to actually say it out loud cos you know, Borg. Hearing the name ‘Seven’ she’d more likely associate with her rehabilitation aboard Voyager, and everything Janeway did for her. More likely, the writers just saw it as a convenient wedge to force between her and Shaw and didn’t think that much about it.

Reddit has the same opinion about a Shaw spin-off. I’m just gonna have to get off the Trek train if that happens, my opinions apparently don’t line up at all with the rest of the fandom. Hires a Borg (who was far more culpable in their misdeeds than Picard, and even voluntarily tried rejoining once) and then just dead names her and says how much he hates her. Rants at Picard (who was completely helpless in his role at 359 which would have gone down identically had another Captain been assimilated). Is constantly rude and unprofessional in front of his crew, whose morale he’s supposed to be in charge of. We’re putting this guy in the hall of fame alongside our Kirks, our Picards, our Siskos? Really? I’ve completely missed a meeting on this one.

I’m still really struggling with Picard. Yea, it’s better than the first two seasons so far. But I’m constantly distracted by things that are annoying me, I’m not immersed in this at all. I know the ‘I want my 90s Trek back’ debate has been done to death, but I still think there’s room to have a modern TV show that doesn’t complete upend Starfleet as a result. I mean who the fuck are these people? Not only do they just give up in the face of adversity, they’ve specifically wired the ship up to have a special ‘giving up’ room where they can all wallow in self pity. Hey Shaw, sorry to interrupt your wallowing, but we’ve booted up the wallowing room! You can come and wallow with us, maybe lower morale with a tale or two of other times things were really bad! Thank god he handed command over to Riker, I’m sure he’ll be… Oh, Riker’s given up too. Fuck it, don’t bother, go and tell Picard he’s gonna die. Say goodbye to your family. What’s that? An idea to get out? Nah, too risky. Don’t bother, let’s just all die here. At least Deanna will get a recorded message that way. Getting some real ‘Revenge of the Sith’ vibes from the reaction to this season. Last two entries were shit, but this is … OK? Isn’t it? Yea this one’s good! (It isn’t.)