Armory

Endgame was one of the in flight entertainment options on last night’s flight. I thought I’d watch the part that I missed the first time. Instead I watched the whole damn thing, and I teared up again.  Different part this time though. 

I fully expect, if it is stupid, Rob Manfred would do it.  I don't really see it as feasible for Major League baseball.  You need somewhere for players to be MLB-ready.  They'd have to at least, go back to the pre-farm system days of purchasing players from the minors, and what not.
 
Rob Manfred is to commissioners what The Last Jedi is to Star Wars.  The latter made me appreciate the prequels, whereas the former makes me miss Bud Selig.

Star Wars is a fairy tale.

Fair enough. I always thought of Space Opera and Space Fantasy as being synonymous. This probably started the first time I ever heard Star Wars described as modern Space Opera, and further reinforced when I heard Lensman described as OG Space Opera. To me Space Fantasy is stuff like Starfinder, which has actual magic co-existing with its handwavey technology and futuristic science. In other words, there is no attempt in Space Fantasy to dress up magic as advanced science/technology in all cases, but to sometimes refer to it as straight up "magic". But that's just how I think of it.

Space opera isn't expected to make sense from an engineering/ergonomic point of view. The science and technology of space opera is traditionally indistinguishable from magic and not meant to be scrutinized. You do so at the peril of your own enjoyment.
 
Star Wars used to be just good, plain old dumb-but-fun space opera. The new movies suffer from being made in an era where some degree of "gritty and grim realism" is expected by audiences and enthusiastically dished up with a cynical, detached smile by producers and directors. The heart and soul of Star Wars is essentially gone, IMO, and yet we're expected to celebrate this "new Star Wars, for a new generation," which has done little except make a lot of money and bitterly divide the fanbase along the way.
 
And before anyone points to Rogue One and The Mandalorian as being stand-out exceptions, I hasten to observe that a broken clock is still correct twice a day. I need a lot more "good Star Wars" (than we've been given) to convince me that the franchise isn't still completely broken.

There's a middle view, where it's okay to watch stuff you like, and ignore the rest. We do it all the time for old Star Trek series, and it's okay to do it for Star Wars as well.

I've noticed that for a lot of people, their sense of personal self-worth is closely tied to their beliefs and opinions. If they perceive those beliefs as being challenged or criticized, they react as though it was a personal attack against themselves, lashing out with disproportionate defensive anger. Disagreements between people who can't separate what they and others think from who they are often grow into resentment and bitterness. I make a conscious effort to keep that in mind, which may be one reason why this sort of spat bothers me less than it would other people.
 
It also helps that I'm not overly troubled by opinions of me and my views from random people on the Internet whom I don't know and will probably never meet.

Yeah, but 'lassoing lightning' brings to mind the trippy, awful parts of Superman 2 and the movies that followed.

https://mentertained.com/amazing-female-cosplays

In Blackadder Back and Forth he goes back in time and punches William Shakespeare in the face for Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet.  When Shakespeare asks "Who's Kenneth Branagh?", Blackadder replies "I'm going to tell him you said that.  It should make him very unhappy."

+1 for a remake of The Last Starfighter.  With video games having gotten even bigger--and still getting bigger--a story about a video gamer (gamers?) recruited to fight an interstellar war would seem entirely appropriate.
 
In another nod to the gone but never forgotten lapsedgamer, I propose a remake of Gypsy, with S. Epatha Merkerson as Mama Rose.  Beyoncé would play Louise, the tomboy who became Gypsy Rose Lee.  I'm thinking Willow Smith for Dainty June (at 19 she's a little too old for Baby June) and Craig Robinson (The Office) for Herbie.  Leslie David Baker (also from The Office) would be the manager of the burlesque theater, and Jennifer Hudson, Naturi Naughton and Gabrielle Union for the dancers in the "Ya Gotta Have A Gimmick" number.  (Hudson would be Tessie Tura, I think.)

Surely some mistake ?
 
There was a film called Highlander with Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert which had music by Queen but there was no sequel. I think that everyone else here would testify that there is no such thing as Highlander 2.

An ex-immortal gets involved in solving a planetary environmental crisis by creating an artificial ozone layer. Now an old man, he gets approached by an ex-employee of the company operating the artificial ozone layer suggesting that the ozone layer has  naturally healed itself and thus the artificial one isn’t needed anymore. So a bit like Wall-E. Ex-employee proposes a terrorism to remove it. There is a secondary plot where fellow immortals from another planet arrive on Earth trying to kill the ex-immortal.
 
Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)

Missed it by that much.

This reminded me of:
The Great Race, also 1965
 
A period comedy wherein a competition is announced to race autos from New York to Paris.  Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood (yum), Peter Falk, Ross Martin on loan from The Wild, Wild West, the longest and pie-iest pie fight on film (at the time, anyway), music by Henry Mancini, all directed by Blake Edwards.  One of my favorite movies of all time.

Always great advice on these boards.  And the best answers come with someone new to Hero asks a great question.
 
In my own case when I run Champions I treat it like episodic TV shows.  Think of it as bad-guy episode #52 "Mole men attack the university" and next week "Mind controlled senior citizens robbing grocery stores and banks."  The campaign always takes place in the city I live in and I insist that all the characters be themed around something connected with the current location. This gives the characters a nice common theme and background.  Usually they have a few adventures before the local or national authorities show up and let them know they need to either get registered or be prepared to pay for property damage.
 
I run my Champions games as something in between my Fantasy campaign sessions when we know someone isn't going to be available for a session or two.

I know this is going to sound odd, and I'll try to get something more explanatory up tomorrow night (too late tonight), but I would like to offer something that has served me _wonderfully_ over the years:
 
If the players, by accident or by intent, offer up a better plot, better twist, or better behind-the-scenes activities than you had planned-- and _especially_ of they are surprised (in a positive, excited sort of way) that either they have "figured it out" or that you "really managed to pull that off without us knowing!", then _by all means_ abandon what you had planned and run with it.  Even if you worked two weeks on your idea, and you actually like it a bit better, if the players are stoked by something they _think_ you're doing, then do that thing.  Always.  Excited players are happy players, and have solid, positive memories of their time at your table.  Plus, since they really think that they-- either as themselves of as their characters-- were invested enough and clever enough to figure it all out---  well that just increases their willingness to invest themselves in the game.
 
Steamroller them into what you had planned, and-- while it may be an even bigger success-- you are risking two things:  their disappointment at being wrong (and perhaps being wrong "yet again") and the possibility that what you had in mind ends up having less appeal to them.
 
 
Hell, I've built my entire setting that way, over the years.  I've got two players left from our original "'82 Crew" that have been adventuring in Campaign City (on the shores of Lake Campaign) since Day One, and while there are, _today_, maps, institutions, cultures, backstories, people and personalities and venerable old traditions-- even those two players from way back when have no idea just how much of this place they built themselves.  The best part of that is that they _like it_ here.  
 
The same can (just "can;" it's not a regular thing) happen with your plots and stories as well.

This reminded me of:
The Great Race, also 1965
 
A period comedy wherein a competition is announced to race autos from New York to Paris.  Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood (yum), Peter Falk, Ross Martin on loan from The Wild, Wild West, the longest and pie-iest pie fight on film (at the time, anyway), music by Henry Mancini, all directed by Blake Edwards.  One of my favorite movies of all time.

This reminded me of:
The Great Race, also 1965
 
A period comedy wherein a competition is announced to race autos from New York to Paris.  Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood (yum), Peter Falk, Ross Martin on loan from The Wild, Wild West, the longest and pie-iest pie fight on film (at the time, anyway), music by Henry Mancini, all directed by Blake Edwards.  One of my favorite movies of all time.

This reminded me of:
The Great Race, also 1965
 
A period comedy wherein a competition is announced to race autos from New York to Paris.  Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood (yum), Peter Falk, Ross Martin on loan from The Wild, Wild West, the longest and pie-iest pie fight on film (at the time, anyway), music by Henry Mancini, all directed by Blake Edwards.  One of my favorite movies of all time.

I get what you’re saying, It’s just that when Vampire first hit it seemed like a magnet for the most unpleasant people.  
    It was a way for the biggest a-holes to passive aggressively behave in the worst manner, and if I never have to see another teenage poser with an Anne Rice novel in his back pocket, face painted white and his hair moussed to look like the lead singer from the Cure wandering around Harvard Sq. With their arms folded muttering “I’m invisible” I’ll die a happy old fart.

Another new one!
 
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1186.html

Despite their base of operations, I was actually pulling for the Nationals for two reasons:
 
1. I'm a National League guy. I'll cheer for the NL in pretty much any circumstance, except when it involves the Dodgers or Giants; and
 
2. The Nationals used to be my team (sort of). Before the Rockies came to Colorado in 1993, Denver was home of the Denver Bears (later ignominiously changed to the Zephyrs), for many years the AAA affiliate of the Montreal Expos. We'd go to Bears games frequently when I was growing up. Among the players I got to see before they became famous were Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, and Tim Wallach. And the 4th of July fireworks games at Mile High Stadium were always amazing.

Killjoys is one of the series that I hope they can do a movie 5 years down the line to see where everyone is and where the system has evolved too.