zslane

I’ve had this conversation in a couple of different places.   The main factor in all this is something we have no way of knowing.....How much fight does JMS have left in him?
    There are of course stories left to tell in the B5’verse.  The lost tales were kind of a bust. They seemed more like some of his old Twilight Zone scripts recycled for B5, but Crusade and Legend of the Rangers were very good.  Crusade especially had many potential seasons in it.  The Drak plague was only going to go one additional season before being cured and then the show was going to focus on the the darker forces still maneuvering about the galaxy.
    But the CW has never been very interested in shows with deep plot lines and mature casts. Whether it’s soap opera or flashy action-adventure their stars don’t tend to be older than their late 20’s.
   To keep Babylon 5 on course it’s going to take a show runner who can go toe to toe with the network on a weekly or even daily basis.  There have to be easier and probably more profitable things for JMS to do with his time.
   Seeing a hacked up version of this show would drive a stake thru my heart.  During a very bleak time in my life, looking forward to this show every week was all I had to keep me motivated. For the one hour of the show and for a few hours after I would be happy. I would rather have that memory than the same sick to my stomach anger I have towards Green Hornet. I’ll watch and wait, but I’m not hopeful.

Well, we know that Michael Keaton's Batman is training his replacement, Batgirl, in Flashpoint; sort of a riff on Batman Beyond. And we also know that a Latino Supergirl has been cast, though I'm not sure where she is supposed to first appear. After all, we're not going to see Cavill or Affleck in their roles ever again, so they have to fill the "Supes" and "Bats" roles with other actors in any event. Mat Reeve's Batman isn't part of any cinematic universe, and Gadot's Wonder Woman is on the verge of irrelevance. That leaves Aquaman and the Flash barely holding what remains of the so-called DCEU together, so I'm not even sure there is a cinematic universe left to decanonize.

I haven't seen a really good DC movie since Wonder Woman. The new Batman movie will do very well financially, that much I am sure, but I remain unconvinced that it will turn out to be a good movie on par with Wonder Woman. And by "good" I mean good story, good pacing, consistent tone, characters that make sense and have an arc, etc. The visuals look pretty amazing, but Zack Snyder has demonstrated repeatedly that stunning visuals alone do not make for a good movie.

What is the concept behind this defense? What are the sfx?
 
A proper power build can't exist without knowing the concept being modeled.

Would still love to see the 6e Vehicles core book that never got published.

What is the concept behind this defense? What are the sfx?
 
A proper power build can't exist without knowing the concept being modeled.

Well, we know that Michael Keaton's Batman is training his replacement, Batgirl, in Flashpoint; sort of a riff on Batman Beyond. And we also know that a Latino Supergirl has been cast, though I'm not sure where she is supposed to first appear. After all, we're not going to see Cavill or Affleck in their roles ever again, so they have to fill the "Supes" and "Bats" roles with other actors in any event. Mat Reeve's Batman isn't part of any cinematic universe, and Gadot's Wonder Woman is on the verge of irrelevance. That leaves Aquaman and the Flash barely holding what remains of the so-called DCEU together, so I'm not even sure there is a cinematic universe left to decanonize.

The recent Doctor Strange 2 teaser shows the MCU version of America Chavez. Unfortunately, she's not the America Chavez any comic book reader will recognize. The MCU version is too young, too fully clothed, and apparently in need of protecting. And given her age, it strikes me as highly unlikely that she will be portrayed as a lesbian, as in the comics. In my view, she is America Chavez in name--and possibly power set--only. Oh, they did get the denim jacket right at least.

I really enjoyed the Rocky cameo.
 
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/animal-news/rocky-tiny-owl-was-rescued-rockefeller-center-christmas-tree-takes-n1248948

I think my biggest issue with this Wheel of Time show is that they are in too much of a rush to get through the story, collapsing entire sections of the first book into "plot soup" that barely resembles the source material. Too much is cut out or drastically changed to call it a satisfying adaptation, in my view.

All interesting ideas. I suggest putting them into an entirely new game system rather than go the D&D route and redesign the Hero System in an attempt to stay ahead of some mythological design curve.

IMHO that's a bit of an overstatement. "Among all viewers, 41% said they enjoy them and would continue to go to theaters to see them, while another 23% said they enjoyed them but were “getting a little tired of so many of them,” and 26% said they don’t enjoy them at all." 64% of audiences still enjoy superhero movies, and one quarter of all audiences not enjoying them sounds like the number who would have said that ten years ago.

Yeah, I remember a standout DS9 episode (end of season 1, I think?) that turned out to be a total fake-out and completely discarded what I thought was a fantastic premise (the Federation turning heel and allying with the Dominion). That proved to me that Berman and Piller had no intention whatsoever of being innovative and ground-breaking with the franchise, and instead preferred to play it safe (and boring) as usual. Babylon 5, on the other hand, followed a far more ambitious creative vision and was superior for it, even if it stumbled here and there in the execution. If B5 had been a high-budget streaming series, I think it would have become more iconic and less of a niche cult classic. Interestingly, that is exactly what it sounds like is happening with it now.

Yeah, I remember a standout DS9 episode (end of season 1, I think?) that turned out to be a total fake-out and completely discarded what I thought was a fantastic premise (the Federation turning heel and allying with the Dominion). That proved to me that Berman and Piller had no intention whatsoever of being innovative and ground-breaking with the franchise, and instead preferred to play it safe (and boring) as usual. Babylon 5, on the other hand, followed a far more ambitious creative vision and was superior for it, even if it stumbled here and there in the execution. If B5 had been a high-budget streaming series, I think it would have become more iconic and less of a niche cult classic. Interestingly, that is exactly what it sounds like is happening with it now.

While I enjoy DS9, I would agree that Babylon 5 was the better show. I enjoyed B5 more than any of the Star Trek series (with the possible exception of the original), and it was one of my top two shows, along with Highlander: The Series, in the 1990s.

House-flipping sounds like more of a Hulk gig.

I've been very impressed with it. It borrows heavily from Fracton's (sp) run which was excellent. Hailee Steinfeld is an amazing Kate Bishop, and I don't even LIKE the character of Kate Bishop that much as a character so that should tell you something. Renner continues to give us the low key (Not Loki, that's another guy) slightly sardonic archer who is used to being over shadowed by his more spectacular peers, and is now retired. The first two episodes had a very good 'eager newbie' meets 'jaded but still good hearted pro' rapport. 
 
A good mix of humor, some cool action moments, and memorable background characters/scenes.
 
Rogers the Musical is just icing on the cake.
 

I finished watching Arcane: League of Legends yesterday. Now, I have never played the game, have never had any interest in the game (not a MOBA fan), and have no intentions of ever playing the game, but I must say that this series is phenomenal. The story is absolutely gripping, the characters are brilliantly realized and voice-acted, the soundtrack is stellar, and the animation is breathtaking. Everything about this series is of the highest caliber in my opinion. The events of the episodes stuck with me long after I watched it. Simply incredible. A second season has been ordered by Netflix, but since it took something like six years to get this first season completed (though at least one year of that was due to COVID-related delays, I believe), I expect to be waiting a good long while for the second season. But maybe that's okay: I wouldn't want them to cut any corners on this. It now has a reputation of the highest order to live up to, and I'd rather wait for as long as it takes for a second season that it just as good as the first, than get a rushed follow-up that is a pale shadow of its predecessor.

I finished watching Arcane: League of Legends yesterday. Now, I have never played the game, have never had any interest in the game (not a MOBA fan), and have no intentions of ever playing the game, but I must say that this series is phenomenal. The story is absolutely gripping, the characters are brilliantly realized and voice-acted, the soundtrack is stellar, and the animation is breathtaking. Everything about this series is of the highest caliber in my opinion. The events of the episodes stuck with me long after I watched it. Simply incredible. A second season has been ordered by Netflix, but since it took something like six years to get this first season completed (though at least one year of that was due to COVID-related delays, I believe), I expect to be waiting a good long while for the second season. But maybe that's okay: I wouldn't want them to cut any corners on this. It now has a reputation of the highest order to live up to, and I'd rather wait for as long as it takes for a second season that it just as good as the first, than get a rushed follow-up that is a pale shadow of its predecessor.

If I were ever to write a campaign setting for the Hero System, I'd use the Plot Point Campaign structure. I think this structure can be adopted for any system, and I'd like to see it become the preferred approach for all future Hero System campaign settings, regardless of who authors them.

That's a pretty fair point. Unfortunately during Infinity War, Quill didn't have his demi-Celestial powers anymore, and he wasn't in a movie directed by a guy who saw every dramatic scene as an opportunity for comedy, so maybe it wasn't such a great idea to bring Quill along on that particular mission.

The Mandarin's ten rings in the comics were probably deemed too similar to the Infinity Stones in that each one had a particular power and they were worn on the hand(s). I'm not surprised that Feige simplified them into artifacts that just let the user channel energy in arbitrary ways. This choice also makes them feel like artifacts from wuxia fantasy cinema, which fits parts of the movie's aesthetic. On the whole, I think they did a decent job of throwing Fu Manchu, Mandarin, Shang-Chi, Fin Fang Foom, and the ten rings from the comics into the adaptation blender and producing a tasty martial arts smoothie palatable to the general MCU fanbase.

The Mandarin's ten rings in the comics were probably deemed too similar to the Infinity Stones in that each one had a particular power and they were worn on the hand(s). I'm not surprised that Feige simplified them into artifacts that just let the user channel energy in arbitrary ways. This choice also makes them feel like artifacts from wuxia fantasy cinema, which fits parts of the movie's aesthetic. On the whole, I think they did a decent job of throwing Fu Manchu, Mandarin, Shang-Chi, Fin Fang Foom, and the ten rings from the comics into the adaptation blender and producing a tasty martial arts smoothie palatable to the general MCU fanbase.

The Mandarin's ten rings in the comics were probably deemed too similar to the Infinity Stones in that each one had a particular power and they were worn on the hand(s). I'm not surprised that Feige simplified them into artifacts that just let the user channel energy in arbitrary ways. This choice also makes them feel like artifacts from wuxia fantasy cinema, which fits parts of the movie's aesthetic. On the whole, I think they did a decent job of throwing Fu Manchu, Mandarin, Shang-Chi, Fin Fang Foom, and the ten rings from the comics into the adaptation blender and producing a tasty martial arts smoothie palatable to the general MCU fanbase.

The Mandarin's ten rings in the comics were probably deemed too similar to the Infinity Stones in that each one had a particular power and they were worn on the hand(s). I'm not surprised that Feige simplified them into artifacts that just let the user channel energy in arbitrary ways. This choice also makes them feel like artifacts from wuxia fantasy cinema, which fits parts of the movie's aesthetic. On the whole, I think they did a decent job of throwing Fu Manchu, Mandarin, Shang-Chi, Fin Fang Foom, and the ten rings from the comics into the adaptation blender and producing a tasty martial arts smoothie palatable to the general MCU fanbase.