bigdamnhero

Two weeks worth of quotes from my Fantasy Hero game:
 
Father Edmondo is introducing the party to Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard. But the Alchemist can’t live down a teensy fumble she made last week:
Edmondo: “…and this is Abida from the far-off city of Cordova.”
Thyri: “Aka Abida the Pyro.”
Abida: “Y’know, you build a dozen defensive walls and you’re not Abida the Builder. Heal a hundred wounds and no one calls you Abida the Healer. Spin lead into gold on a frickin’ weekly basis and you’re not Abida the Walking Wallet. But accidentally burn down one ship, and Hey it’s Abida the Pyro!”
Geralt: “We were on it at the time.”
Abida: “ONE TIME!”
 
Edmondo is thrilled to learn a well-known Icelandic bard has stolen copied one of his stories:
Edmondo: “That’s how you achieve immortality!”
Abida: (calmly) “No it’s not.”
A moment of I Don’t Get It-itis, followed by uproarious laughter as the players all remember that Abida the alchemist has created a potion that literally makes her immortal!
 
One of our players is moving away, so her PC Thyri got poisoned and is “mostly dead.” Edmondo, who had a will-they-won’t-they thing going with Thyri, is in mourning.
Thyri’s Player: “I picture Edmondo as ugly-crying through this whole episode.
Edmondo’s Player: “He’s not ugly-crying. Not in public.”
 
They arrive in Wales, Aeddan’s homeland:
Aeddan: “Welcome to Cymru, which outsiders call Wales! Everyone who has ever visited it, Bishop or Viking alike, has called it a Horse’s Ass. But we like to say, it is OUR Horses’s Ass!” [drops down and kisses the soil]
Edmondo: “Seriously, what is wrong with you people?!”
Thyri’s player: “Thyri’s actually glad she’s in a coma.”
 
Parenthetical:
GM: “By the way I will never complain about Irish history again, after spending the last two weeks cramming Welsh history, which is every bit as confusing except with no vowels.”
Aeddan’s Player: “Right?!”
 
Later:
Player 1: “Edmondo may need to bury his grief in some Welsh bosom.”
Edmondo’s Player: [shakes his head] “Too soon. Besides after being with a Viking, who here is going to satisfy him?”
GM: “Once you go Viking, you never go…hiking?”
Player 2: [ala Firefly] “Have you ever been with a warrior woman?”
Edmondo’s Player: “Once you go Norse, you never go worse?”
GM: “That…almost rhymes.”
Player 1: “Maybe it sounds better in Welsh?”
Edmondo’s Player: “Once you go Norse, you gwythdd iffn hwpthg ppppppppfffft!”
(No those aren’t actual Welsh words, but it feels that way a little.)
 
And finally, that moment when the GM's half asleep, everyone's getting punchy, and you should probably have called it ten minutes ago, but the GM's trying to get to the Big Cliffhanger:
GM: "You arrive at the King's Hall, which has been decorated for the wedding with, uh...boughs of...holly?"
Player 2: "So, they decked the hall with boughs of holly?"
GM: "...You might say that."
Player 2: "I didn't realize they celebrated Christmas in August here."
GM: "Y'know, I got halfway through that sentence and realized where is was going, but by that time it was too late. The road's only this wide; there's no turning around."

Yeah none of it really makes sense in the end, but it makes for an interesting place, and helps explain how he's got an even better Iron Man suit.

I think it's early to find issues with something before we learn how the movie is handling it.

Apparently there's a song about Yag-Kosha in Spanish.

Rag'n'Bine Man - Human 

James Lee Stanley. Most of you have probably never heard of him, but I've been a fan since I first saw him in 1986, and just got to see him live again last week. Dude has like 25 albums; seriously, you should check them out. (Simpatico is my personal favorite.)
 
Here's a funny song: Digitalis, preceded by his hysterical story of how he came to write a Carlos Santana-esque "Latin Boogie" despite speaking no Spanish:
 


 
Here's a serious number: 

In terms of films, it's the model they frickin' invented, which has made them boatloads of cash, and which everyone else is now desperate to emulate. So there's that.
 
Also remember that Bond only puts out one movie every 2-3 years, not every 6 months. And most of them have grossed around $400-$700M (in today's dollars), roughly on par with Ant-Man & Thor Dark World. The studio has openly talked about trying to make Bond more like Bourne - which notably had a meta-story across multiple films.
 
And as much as I loved the first Die Hard, you can't even compare that "franchise" to the MCU: Die Hard has made 5 films over 30 years, which collectively have made $1.4B, about the same as Age of Ultron alone.
 
I'm not unsympathetic to those of you who prefer more episodic storytelling, because that's clearly not the dominant trend now. But as someone who has always preferred more serial, ongoing storytelling and who spent decades stuck in episodic mediocrity* I say Huzzah!
 
* ST-TNG: don't even get me started...

I thought the season finale was decent. Until the last 5 minutes, which were just painful to watch. As much as I enjoyed this show when it first started, honestly I can't remember the last time I got excited looking forward to next week's episode. Ditto for Arrow. (Legends I never enjoyed in the first place...) Supergirl is the only CW show I'm really enjoying at this point, so I think I'm going to have a couple free hours a week next year.

Looking g at this I get a Ride of the Valkyries vibe. Anyone else?
 

 
Fan art attribution: BossLogic

It looks like I might be the only person watching all of the CW shows next season.
 
One of us needs to be there, just in case they improve.

Was I the only one wishing we could end the season on a high note, for once? I mean, Team Flash really earned a moment of peace and happiness.

Without giving too much away   .  .  .
 
"Hey, Fastest Man Alive, why don't you take him to the Hospital?!"

To think, getting rid of leaded gas made us vulnerable to Daxamites!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(It also raised average IQs, and lowered violent crime)

From the way it was depicted the fight between the two Supers looked extremely close -- like victory would go to whichever of them landed a critical hit first. That happened to be Kara.
 
On the relative experience of the two of them, I think it depends on their history in this world. If Superman is more along the lines of the classic version, he would have had little to no formal fight training, just picking things up as he goes along. Supergirl hasn't been at this game nearly as long, but she's had the benefit of intensive training by experienced professionals like Alex in hand-to-hand, and J'onn in the use of super powers.
 
But I have to say, it goes to the credit of this version of Superman that he acknowledged her beating him without rancor or ego. Just as he asserted that her giving up her love for the greater good was something he himself might not be capable of. That degree of both humility and security has been missing from most interpretations of Superman recently, and I find it refreshing.

As it's Supergirl's show, Supergirl beats Superman.

In terms of films, it's the model they frickin' invented, which has made them boatloads of cash, and which everyone else is now desperate to emulate. So there's that.
 
Also remember that Bond only puts out one movie every 2-3 years, not every 6 months. And most of them have grossed around $400-$700M (in today's dollars), roughly on par with Ant-Man & Thor Dark World. The studio has openly talked about trying to make Bond more like Bourne - which notably had a meta-story across multiple films.
 
And as much as I loved the first Die Hard, you can't even compare that "franchise" to the MCU: Die Hard has made 5 films over 30 years, which collectively have made $1.4B, about the same as Age of Ultron alone.
 
I'm not unsympathetic to those of you who prefer more episodic storytelling, because that's clearly not the dominant trend now. But as someone who has always preferred more serial, ongoing storytelling and who spent decades stuck in episodic mediocrity* I say Huzzah!
 
* ST-TNG: don't even get me started...

In terms of films, it's the model they frickin' invented, which has made them boatloads of cash, and which everyone else is now desperate to emulate. So there's that.
 
Also remember that Bond only puts out one movie every 2-3 years, not every 6 months. And most of them have grossed around $400-$700M (in today's dollars), roughly on par with Ant-Man & Thor Dark World. The studio has openly talked about trying to make Bond more like Bourne - which notably had a meta-story across multiple films.
 
And as much as I loved the first Die Hard, you can't even compare that "franchise" to the MCU: Die Hard has made 5 films over 30 years, which collectively have made $1.4B, about the same as Age of Ultron alone.
 
I'm not unsympathetic to those of you who prefer more episodic storytelling, because that's clearly not the dominant trend now. But as someone who has always preferred more serial, ongoing storytelling and who spent decades stuck in episodic mediocrity* I say Huzzah!
 
* ST-TNG: don't even get me started...

Two weeks worth of quotes from my Fantasy Hero game:
 
Father Edmondo is introducing the party to Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard. But the Alchemist can’t live down a teensy fumble she made last week:
Edmondo: “…and this is Abida from the far-off city of Cordova.”
Thyri: “Aka Abida the Pyro.”
Abida: “Y’know, you build a dozen defensive walls and you’re not Abida the Builder. Heal a hundred wounds and no one calls you Abida the Healer. Spin lead into gold on a frickin’ weekly basis and you’re not Abida the Walking Wallet. But accidentally burn down one ship, and Hey it’s Abida the Pyro!”
Geralt: “We were on it at the time.”
Abida: “ONE TIME!”
 
Edmondo is thrilled to learn a well-known Icelandic bard has stolen copied one of his stories:
Edmondo: “That’s how you achieve immortality!”
Abida: (calmly) “No it’s not.”
A moment of I Don’t Get It-itis, followed by uproarious laughter as the players all remember that Abida the alchemist has created a potion that literally makes her immortal!
 
One of our players is moving away, so her PC Thyri got poisoned and is “mostly dead.” Edmondo, who had a will-they-won’t-they thing going with Thyri, is in mourning.
Thyri’s Player: “I picture Edmondo as ugly-crying through this whole episode.
Edmondo’s Player: “He’s not ugly-crying. Not in public.”
 
They arrive in Wales, Aeddan’s homeland:
Aeddan: “Welcome to Cymru, which outsiders call Wales! Everyone who has ever visited it, Bishop or Viking alike, has called it a Horse’s Ass. But we like to say, it is OUR Horses’s Ass!” [drops down and kisses the soil]
Edmondo: “Seriously, what is wrong with you people?!”
Thyri’s player: “Thyri’s actually glad she’s in a coma.”
 
Parenthetical:
GM: “By the way I will never complain about Irish history again, after spending the last two weeks cramming Welsh history, which is every bit as confusing except with no vowels.”
Aeddan’s Player: “Right?!”
 
Later:
Player 1: “Edmondo may need to bury his grief in some Welsh bosom.”
Edmondo’s Player: [shakes his head] “Too soon. Besides after being with a Viking, who here is going to satisfy him?”
GM: “Once you go Viking, you never go…hiking?”
Player 2: [ala Firefly] “Have you ever been with a warrior woman?”
Edmondo’s Player: “Once you go Norse, you never go worse?”
GM: “That…almost rhymes.”
Player 1: “Maybe it sounds better in Welsh?”
Edmondo’s Player: “Once you go Norse, you gwythdd iffn hwpthg ppppppppfffft!”
(No those aren’t actual Welsh words, but it feels that way a little.)
 
And finally, that moment when the GM's half asleep, everyone's getting punchy, and you should probably have called it ten minutes ago, but the GM's trying to get to the Big Cliffhanger:
GM: "You arrive at the King's Hall, which has been decorated for the wedding with, uh...boughs of...holly?"
Player 2: "So, they decked the hall with boughs of holly?"
GM: "...You might say that."
Player 2: "I didn't realize they celebrated Christmas in August here."
GM: "Y'know, I got halfway through that sentence and realized where is was going, but by that time it was too late. The road's only this wide; there's no turning around."

I hope it's better than most Disney sequels. Statistically speaking, it would almost have to be.

I think the more long-form storytelling structure that overlays the MCU "phases" is one of the ways in which the movies get to feel a little bit like the comics. Sure, each issue (movie) is a standalone tale that is fun to experience on its own. But if you get onto the ride and stay on, you get further rewarded with a richer experience after seeing multiple threads woven together into a larger tapestry. The mere fact that Marvel has been able to pull that off successfully to the extent that they have is nothing short of astonishing. Nobody outside of Marvel thought it was remotely feasible given the conventional wisdom espoused by the traditional Hollywood braintrust. I see the MCU as a cinematic triumph, warts and all, especially given just how much worse it could have been (*cough* DCEU *cough*). I for one am not tired of any of it (yet). I still want more.

I think that what the Marvel films, and others, are doing is really pretty good in terms of developing an ongoing narrative.
 
Each movie manages to be its own thing. You get a complete story in each one. You don't need to watch other movies to get it.
 
BUT watching the other movies in the franchise certainly adds a great deal to the story of any one movie. And any one movie is adding something to the main arc. And the arc is building. In fact, in the next couple of years we should see the culmination of this first big arc as the  Avengers and Guardians go up against Thanos. So there is pay off for this commitment to the franchise. This is important.
 
It's classic dramatic build up. There are mini-arcs within the main arc. But the main arc keeps building. Mini-arcs are good. As my editing tutor liked to say: "It's all about squeeze and release. Squeeze and release." He was talking about dramatic tension. Build it up. Let it go. But don't let it all go. Each cycle should leave the audience a little more breathless.
 
What Marvel is doing that is different to the (old) Bond franchise is building. Building is the main difference between something like Game of Thrones and Gilligan's Island. In Game of Thrones each new episode adds something. Sometimes (about once per season in fact) it throws in a complete game changer. In Gilligan's Island nothing that happens in one episode has any effect on anything that happens in another.
 
Which is more dramatically satisfying? Clearly Game of Thrones. This is because the greater the commitment of the viewer, the greater the cathartic pay-off in the end. Each squeeze and release gets the viewer a little more committed to the narrative.
 
Important note: there needs to be an end. A non-ending arc leads to bored viewers. Look at X-Files. It built. And built. And built. And built. And about the middle of season 4  people switched off in droves. I know I did. Yes, eventually X-files closed its arc. But it was an afterthought. Done in a different medium. I never cared enough to go back and find out what happened.
 
Another great example of what not to do with an arc comes from Battlestar Galactica. I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this. The arc ended, yes. But the ending itself was a total ass-pull. Any promises from the show runner about "we know how this is going to end" were clearly bullshit. The ending needs to be known, if not from the very start (clearly that's the preference) then from pretty early in the piece. It needs to be known early because you need to start setting it up early in the piece. If you don't people will call "ass-pull" even if it's not.
 
The other thing (beside supporting story arcs) the connected narratives of the MCU (and others!) does: it allows for character development. Character development parallels narrative development. Arcs. Squeeze release. Ultimate pay-off. The difference is it's about the personal story of any one character. And it is this potential that allows the writers to give us flawed characters, or just deeper characters.
 
Luke Cage does feel shitty about the whole getting involved thing. That's because when he was involved (as a cop, in his back story) he got burned. Real bad. More involvement will bring notice. Notice will bring jail time. So he is reluctant to get involved again.  But he does. He undergoes a personal journey and comes out better for it. (Also, Bobby Fish has the documents that prove he was framed. He won't be away long.) The hero refusing the call to action is one of the classic building blocks of narrative, by the way.
 
Another example: Captain America gets to question his country. And he finds it lacking. That's why he shuts down SHIELD, thereby making America a better place than he found it. Yes, could have been done in one movie. But multiple movies helped that character arc build. We know the character better, we understand his motives better.
 
Dramatic tension. It's all about dramatic tension. Now I'm not saying you can't build dramatic tension in one movie. Of course you can. Casablanca About 80 minutes long. The "will they/won't they" is palpable throughout the movie. And one of the best endings in cinema history.
 
But if done well a shared narrative universe can add so much. So much richness. Just having deep back stories or in-universe events that can be alluded to gives the audience so much more.

I have to respectfully dispute some of those points. The difference in James Bond has already been noted. Quantum of Solace was a direct sequel to Casino Royale, while in Skyfall Bond is confronting getting older and rusty in his skills. Even in the first Die Hard John McClane was dealing with the emotional consequences of his failed marriage, which carried over into DH2; while in Die Hard with a Vengeance McClane was faced with the brother of his opponent from the first movie, ostensibly seeking revenge against him. Not an interconnected story arc, but not devoid of angst, or the necessity for history and context.

Two weeks worth of quotes from my Fantasy Hero game:
 
Father Edmondo is introducing the party to Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard. But the Alchemist can’t live down a teensy fumble she made last week:
Edmondo: “…and this is Abida from the far-off city of Cordova.”
Thyri: “Aka Abida the Pyro.”
Abida: “Y’know, you build a dozen defensive walls and you’re not Abida the Builder. Heal a hundred wounds and no one calls you Abida the Healer. Spin lead into gold on a frickin’ weekly basis and you’re not Abida the Walking Wallet. But accidentally burn down one ship, and Hey it’s Abida the Pyro!”
Geralt: “We were on it at the time.”
Abida: “ONE TIME!”
 
Edmondo is thrilled to learn a well-known Icelandic bard has stolen copied one of his stories:
Edmondo: “That’s how you achieve immortality!”
Abida: (calmly) “No it’s not.”
A moment of I Don’t Get It-itis, followed by uproarious laughter as the players all remember that Abida the alchemist has created a potion that literally makes her immortal!
 
One of our players is moving away, so her PC Thyri got poisoned and is “mostly dead.” Edmondo, who had a will-they-won’t-they thing going with Thyri, is in mourning.
Thyri’s Player: “I picture Edmondo as ugly-crying through this whole episode.
Edmondo’s Player: “He’s not ugly-crying. Not in public.”
 
They arrive in Wales, Aeddan’s homeland:
Aeddan: “Welcome to Cymru, which outsiders call Wales! Everyone who has ever visited it, Bishop or Viking alike, has called it a Horse’s Ass. But we like to say, it is OUR Horses’s Ass!” [drops down and kisses the soil]
Edmondo: “Seriously, what is wrong with you people?!”
Thyri’s player: “Thyri’s actually glad she’s in a coma.”
 
Parenthetical:
GM: “By the way I will never complain about Irish history again, after spending the last two weeks cramming Welsh history, which is every bit as confusing except with no vowels.”
Aeddan’s Player: “Right?!”
 
Later:
Player 1: “Edmondo may need to bury his grief in some Welsh bosom.”
Edmondo’s Player: [shakes his head] “Too soon. Besides after being with a Viking, who here is going to satisfy him?”
GM: “Once you go Viking, you never go…hiking?”
Player 2: [ala Firefly] “Have you ever been with a warrior woman?”
Edmondo’s Player: “Once you go Norse, you never go worse?”
GM: “That…almost rhymes.”
Player 1: “Maybe it sounds better in Welsh?”
Edmondo’s Player: “Once you go Norse, you gwythdd iffn hwpthg ppppppppfffft!”
(No those aren’t actual Welsh words, but it feels that way a little.)
 
And finally, that moment when the GM's half asleep, everyone's getting punchy, and you should probably have called it ten minutes ago, but the GM's trying to get to the Big Cliffhanger:
GM: "You arrive at the King's Hall, which has been decorated for the wedding with, uh...boughs of...holly?"
Player 2: "So, they decked the hall with boughs of holly?"
GM: "...You might say that."
Player 2: "I didn't realize they celebrated Christmas in August here."
GM: "Y'know, I got halfway through that sentence and realized where is was going, but by that time it was too late. The road's only this wide; there's no turning around."

Two weeks worth of quotes from my Fantasy Hero game:
 
Father Edmondo is introducing the party to Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard. But the Alchemist can’t live down a teensy fumble she made last week:
Edmondo: “…and this is Abida from the far-off city of Cordova.”
Thyri: “Aka Abida the Pyro.”
Abida: “Y’know, you build a dozen defensive walls and you’re not Abida the Builder. Heal a hundred wounds and no one calls you Abida the Healer. Spin lead into gold on a frickin’ weekly basis and you’re not Abida the Walking Wallet. But accidentally burn down one ship, and Hey it’s Abida the Pyro!”
Geralt: “We were on it at the time.”
Abida: “ONE TIME!”
 
Edmondo is thrilled to learn a well-known Icelandic bard has stolen copied one of his stories:
Edmondo: “That’s how you achieve immortality!”
Abida: (calmly) “No it’s not.”
A moment of I Don’t Get It-itis, followed by uproarious laughter as the players all remember that Abida the alchemist has created a potion that literally makes her immortal!
 
One of our players is moving away, so her PC Thyri got poisoned and is “mostly dead.” Edmondo, who had a will-they-won’t-they thing going with Thyri, is in mourning.
Thyri’s Player: “I picture Edmondo as ugly-crying through this whole episode.
Edmondo’s Player: “He’s not ugly-crying. Not in public.”
 
They arrive in Wales, Aeddan’s homeland:
Aeddan: “Welcome to Cymru, which outsiders call Wales! Everyone who has ever visited it, Bishop or Viking alike, has called it a Horse’s Ass. But we like to say, it is OUR Horses’s Ass!” [drops down and kisses the soil]
Edmondo: “Seriously, what is wrong with you people?!”
Thyri’s player: “Thyri’s actually glad she’s in a coma.”
 
Parenthetical:
GM: “By the way I will never complain about Irish history again, after spending the last two weeks cramming Welsh history, which is every bit as confusing except with no vowels.”
Aeddan’s Player: “Right?!”
 
Later:
Player 1: “Edmondo may need to bury his grief in some Welsh bosom.”
Edmondo’s Player: [shakes his head] “Too soon. Besides after being with a Viking, who here is going to satisfy him?”
GM: “Once you go Viking, you never go…hiking?”
Player 2: [ala Firefly] “Have you ever been with a warrior woman?”
Edmondo’s Player: “Once you go Norse, you never go worse?”
GM: “That…almost rhymes.”
Player 1: “Maybe it sounds better in Welsh?”
Edmondo’s Player: “Once you go Norse, you gwythdd iffn hwpthg ppppppppfffft!”
(No those aren’t actual Welsh words, but it feels that way a little.)
 
And finally, that moment when the GM's half asleep, everyone's getting punchy, and you should probably have called it ten minutes ago, but the GM's trying to get to the Big Cliffhanger:
GM: "You arrive at the King's Hall, which has been decorated for the wedding with, uh...boughs of...holly?"
Player 2: "So, they decked the hall with boughs of holly?"
GM: "...You might say that."
Player 2: "I didn't realize they celebrated Christmas in August here."
GM: "Y'know, I got halfway through that sentence and realized where is was going, but by that time it was too late. The road's only this wide; there's no turning around."