Nolgroth

He needs to re-tire from the world and contemplate the car-ma he has to work out.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary suggests he can do that in custody

Elba can pull off an American accent. That said, why does Roland have to sound American or fully so? He does originate from another world where accents quite possibly evolved in a way distinctly different from ours.

I first learned of them in Edith Hamilton's Mythology. 
 
But, then, I was a weird ten year old.
 
Of course, the next "source" for Norse Myths that I read was Deities & Demigods. 
 
Which included bare-midriff snow-bunny Freya...

Sif, Frigga, Eir, Nanna, Hel, Hlin, Idunn, Lofn, Not, Ran, Skadi....what do you use to define "usable"?

Casting for Wonder Woman
 
1.  most beautiful face in world
2.  Dolly Parton's breasts
3.  MMA fighter Cris Cyborg's physique
4.  Great acting skills
 
Candidates?  Zero
 
Female Director:  Right, just like I thought.  So its back to tall girls who can act, please.  Fanboys will nitpick her appearance no matter what.

A video of a bull's reaction when set free. 
 
http://www.viralnova.com/chained-bull/?mb=aol

A video of a bull's reaction when set free. 
 
http://www.viralnova.com/chained-bull/?mb=aol

A video of a bull's reaction when set free. 
 
http://www.viralnova.com/chained-bull/?mb=aol

I corresponded with Killer Shrike a couple of months back over at rpg.net. I was inquisitive about FATE and he pointed me to his Pathfinder Fate Accelerated hack. As with all things Killer Shrike, he put a lot of creative energy and heart into fleshing out FAE into a really awesome resource. I got the impression that KS was a little burnt on Hero and was taking a break. He never explicitly stated as much, but context clues and all.

The rape reference was certainly gritty, which while it goes hand in hand with dark, is not necessarily the same thing.
 
 
 
 
Keep in mind that "dark" does not necessarily equal bad. It's just dark. That I prefer the Flash does not make the Daredevil and JJ stories any less compelling or "good." It just makes them, for my purposes, less fun (and thus a little less enjoyable) for me. And this is the me of late 2015. In another year, I might be seeing JJ and DD as moderately grim and Flash as too frivolous. My tastes change that way.

The rape reference was certainly gritty, which while it goes hand in hand with dark, is not necessarily the same thing.
 
 
 
 
Keep in mind that "dark" does not necessarily equal bad. It's just dark. That I prefer the Flash does not make the Daredevil and JJ stories any less compelling or "good." It just makes them, for my purposes, less fun (and thus a little less enjoyable) for me. And this is the me of late 2015. In another year, I might be seeing JJ and DD as moderately grim and Flash as too frivolous. My tastes change that way.

Color me among them who would have preferred seeing the Serpent Society over a movie version of one of Marvel's absolute worst "events'.

In the Turakian Age, everybody hates the Ulronai. It's a rule.
 
If you have a group of people everyone hates, there will surely be jokes about them.
 
I'd like to hear suggestions for Ulronai jokes. I'll start.
 
 
Q: How many Ulronai does it take to light a candle?
A: Why would they light a candle when they can sneak up on you in the dark?
 
 
Q: Why did the evil wizard hire a bunch of Ulronai mercenaries?
A: There are some things that Orcs just won't do.
 
 
Q: Why did the baron hire all the Ulronai males in his realm to tend his flock of sheep?
A; Hey, if they're flocking with the sheep they're not flocking their own women and making more Ulronai!
 
 
Q: Why should you never make fun of Ulronai to their faces?
A: I don't know about you but I don't want to be close enough to one to look them in the face.
 
 
Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: He saw an Ulronai coming.
 
 
Q: Why did the jester take off in such a hurry?
A: He saw the Ulronai coming too!
 
Lucius Alexander
 
Why are there Ulronai in the tagline? They're probably trying to steal the palindromedary.

At any rate, it was a fine episode and one that I enjoyed watching. Overall, the CW comic book tv series are better, IMO, than the Netflix ones. I enjoy both, but the CW ones seem more fun to me.

I have mixed feelings towards pilots.
 
On the one hand, I realize that they aren't always the best representation of what to expect from a new series because it is usually produced as a one-shot deal with a crew that isn't necessarily the one that will work on the series, with an FX house that is rarely the same FX house that will handle the series work (Zoic is famous for getting pilots but never getting the series, or at least not for long). The actors won't have the benefit of having settled into their characters and so on. I mean, I get why you can't really judge a series from its pilot.
 
However, the unfortunately reality is that both audiences and studio execs judge the future prospects of a new series on the basis of the pilot. If the pilot doesn't impress the execs (and test audiences) then the front 13 don't get greenlit. If the pilot doesn't grab a big audience right off the bat, then the back 9 won't get greenlit and you'll have yet another series that never made it past 13 episodes. The pressure to attract an audience is intense for a pilot, so it can't afford to suck.
 
And there are plenty of examples of pilots that were absolutely superb. Perhaps the finest example of the last decade is the (2-hr) pilot for Lost, which was better than a lot of big-budget feature films. The resources invested in that pilot paid big dividends and launched a cultural phenomenon. I firmly believe that it is the job of the pilot to convince me to tune in to the next episode. And it is the job of the next episode to convince me to tune in to the next, and so on. In a way, the entire process hinges on the pilot to get it all started on a positive, successful note.
 
Despite its impressive ratings, it remains to be seen how well the Supergirl pilot succeeded in capturing an audience that will stick around through at least the "mid-season finale".

Maybe so. I will say two things and then I am out. The first and most important one is that I should not have posted while being in a bad mood already. It never turns out how I want it to. The second thing is that I still stand by my statement above. All I see is outrage without action. To me that equates to nothing more than complaining. The difference between last night and now is that I am not emotionally compromised. If you want to complain or whatever catch phrase you want to use to describe it, I really don't have a right to intrude. I apologize for my presumption in that regard. I still disagree with the overwhelming sentiment in this thread, but then, I don't have to read it.
 
I wish you all a safe Halloween weekend.

Darren Wilson--One Year Later
 
Rather long, but well worth the read.

Hopeful news...
 
An Activist Reached Out to the Officer She Misidentified; His Response is the Best Ever

I'll give it my five or forget litmus. I was not overly impressed by any part. It seemed rushed and though I thought the character was cute (loved the 'celebratory pizza while watching the news' scene), there was way too much of the waterworks. The supporting cast seemed to be too cookie cutter. All of them. The nerd best friend. The controlling boss. The bigot anti-alien guy. The vengeance filled alien criminal. All of them could very well have been pulled from the Box of Stereotypical Characters and plopped into the plot. Those tropes and stereotypes can be effective if played right. I just didn't get that from the pilot. I enjoyed the fights, though the motion blur is going to become an annoying shortcut if it continues.
 
And was she really worried about bullets when she flew through a burning jet engine. Really?
 
All in all, it was neither good nor bad. A single pilot episode does not a series make, so that's why it gets my five show opportunity to prove itself. In a way, that is what's so disappointing. Considering how much I liked Arrow, Flash, Gotham, and Daredevil, I was really hoping that this would have the same "Wow" factor.

13 Creepy Photos of the Abandoned Athens Insane Asylum
 

Hello there!
How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)? It's the name of one of my characters on Champions Online - she's in my avatar as well.
What was the first tabletop RPG you played? Dungeons and Dragons... Probably 3.5? I'm relatively new to the tabletop scene (at least, compared to some of you who seem to have been at this much longer than me!)
What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed? None yet... But I'm in the process of setting up my first game - of Champions! I'm really looking forward to it.  I've never done this before, but it should be a lot of fun.
What are you currently playing/GMing? See above.
 
I'm totally here because of the Champions Online MMO - when I learned it was based off a tabletop RPG I took it upon myself to track down the books - ended up with a pile of 6E books and an urge to start a campaign. Still in the planning stages, but I hope to start by early November.

That child is quite sick and disturbed by the sounds of it. I am glad his friend reported him and that he seems to have been arrested and all is well (ish). 
 
But is this a story of Toxic Masculinity or of a crazy guy? Among the problems I have with the use of the term "Toxic Masculinity" is that it is super broad and suffers from a level of bias that is not really acceptable in supposible  academic work. 
 
We have a boy/guy who wants nude picks of young cheerleaders. He doesn't get them. This inspires him to plot violence. 
 
Certain groups look at this and jump the gun to assume that our culture and male culture in general is reinforcing these behaviors as acceptable. That somehow there is a strong current in our culture that promotes these actions - "The Rape Culture" or "Toxic Masculinity". But they only look at this singular series and ignore or discount all the context in which it occurred.
 
Looking at the context lets notch all of that info into a more complete story:
 
We have a boy/guy who wants nude picks of young cheerleaders. He doesn't get them. This inspires him to plot violence. Confessing to his MALE friend, he is told not to. The boy/guy continues to commit to the idea. The MALE friend then reports him. This report is taken and used to arrest the boy/guy. He is now in custody. 
 
Looking at the more complete story, we can see that the greater number of people are not endorsing or supporting his horrid views of life. His close MALE friend, a friend he felt close enough to to actually announce his murderous intentions instructs him to stop and even reports him to authority. His male friend doesn't seem to endorse violence against women. The authorities don't seem to endorse violence against women and arrest him.
 
Follow all that up with the posting of this story on the net: the extreme majority of people reading this story (male and female) don't endorse his switch to violence. So where exactly is this "culture" of violence. Why are we talking about toxic "masculinity" rather than addressing the specific issues of this boy/guy. While I think it is fair to draw conclusions about why he lusts after certain girls more than others from our culture, I think it takes a particularly strained leap of faith to go from that to 'rape culture'. 
 
All in all, I find this line of reasoning strained beyond acceptability. I find it to be distracting from the issues at hand. 
 
 
Foreign Orchid. 

Listened to this several times when I was working from home the other day.
 
South of Santa Fe, Brooks and Dunn
 

 
This one, too.
 
Big Iron Horses, Restless Heart
 

http://thedurrrrian.deviantart.com/art/Hawkeye-527221599

http://thedurrrrian.deviantart.com/art/Iron-Man-The-sorcerer-of-snark-528283845