My main problem with Love and Thunder is that they revealed the main plot point with Jane WAY too early. It would have been far more dramatically effective to reveal that sometime after Thor and her meet again. That and the silliness carried over from Ragnarok. Bale feels like he should be in a different movie. This just doesn't deliver on any level. It's a shame.

13 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

 

Would you rather have Powell in jail...or Trump?  

It shouldn't be an either or situation. And I'm not at all convinced Trump is going to get anything more meaningful for all this dealing. I guess we'll see, but so far I'm just feeling our two tier system at work again and it's both tiresome and frustrating.

9 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Georgia.  6 year probation, minor fines...and agrees to testify against the rest of the defendants.

 

Cannon's had some of her rulings in the documents cases blown out of the water on appeal.  Yeah, I'm not surprised her grasp of procedure is.......less than complete.

 

EDIT:  Jim Jordan's now endorsing the move to give the Speaker Pro Tem the formal power to conduct normal House business through early January, which reads to me as a clear realization of the backlash risk next year.  NYT is saying some moderate Dems may be on board with it...and some Republicans feel like it's forfeiting power to the Dems.  There are various proposals out there, too, so who knows how this will pan out....

The punishment was insultingly light. No time behind bars and fines so small she could pay them with her "fun money". 

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

I wonder to what degree Giulianni was always what he's been shown to be now? Perhaps he just conned a lot of people for a long time into believing he was something else. Like Donald Trump -- maybe that's why they become such close confederates.

Rudy has always been....questionable. Like Reagan, he had the benefit of good PR to cover up his many deficiencies.

48 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

CW: child murder/hate crime

https://www.nydailynews.com/2023/10/15/illinois-landlord-kills-muslim-6-year-old-wounds-mother-in-hate-crime/

I have no words really. Absolutely disgusting. America creates this. Sigh....

I'm going as an alien. Better half is going to be Superman. Pups are going as Loki and Man Bat respectively.

On 10/8/2023 at 8:34 PM, Lord Liaden said:

 

With or without Dr. Destroyer in his history? And what is it about Muerte that makes him more appealing to you than Destroyer?

I guess I just like villain masterminds leading a group...like Magneto and his Brotherhood or the various Brotherhoods from DC's Doom Patrol. Muerte's considerably less overpowered, but still fills the same role. He also feels a lot more like Doom to me (if you remove his hero worship complication) than Destroyer ever will. Destroyer also has zero personality beyond "being evil".  He's so over the top asshat that ANYONE working for him seems beyond belief. Muerte is basically a toned down version that I feel is more in line with Silver and Bronze age comic eras.

11 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

Book Of The Destroyer provides full stats for several "generations" of Destroyer's armor over his long history, as well as a "low powered" version of his current armor. You can choose the one which best suits the power level of your game.

 

BOTD has everything needed to make DD and his vast organization a major feature of a campaign, even the main focus. Plenty to use even without involving the Doctor directly. If that would be an interesting prospect to someone, it would be a very worthwhile investment, particularly given its current price in the Hero store ($10.00 US for PDF, $15.00 book plus PDF). Of course it is for Fifth Edition HERO.

If I decide to bring a "Doom" type mastermind into my game, I'd probably just rather use Professor Muerte. "Shrugs"

10 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

The most frequent complaint I hear is about heavy-handed humor forced onto characters at inappropriate times. The She-Hulk series, and Thor: Love and Thunder are the outstanding recent examples, but I've seen the same trend with Shang-Chi, Multiverse of Madness, Quantumania, and the Moon Knight series. I happen to also find that trend distasteful, as I feel it disrespects the characters and what the fans have invested in them.

That's totally fair. I did find good things in most of those projects minus Love and Thunder...which was just a huge miss. (I wasn't fond of the overly silly Ragnarök either so no surprise that leaning into the humor even more was...bad.) I actually liked the first episode of She-Hulk, but then it went almost completely off the rails in terms of narrative.

I'll never use Doctor Destroyer as written. He's written as cosmically powerful with a concept that isn't.... UGH!

21 hours ago, Iuz the Evil said:

We need to do better, and that begins at the local level. Give me someone who wants to serve. Came up through public office, but isn’t a raging narcissist in the pocket of corporate interests (thank you Citizens United). Someone who can compromise, and who sees all Americans as their constituents. Not just those who voted for them.

 

I can appreciate that, but when one side wants to legislate minorities out of existence...I'm not seeing much room for compromise. I'll reference the  "Paradox of Tolerance" for my general views on that. The simple fact of the matter is that nothing will fundamentally change until we substantially reduce money in politics....and that's not going to happen in our existing system. You do the math. The change that is needed is not going to organically happen without strong outside influence.

20 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

The misguided Marvel movie and television projects in recent years have squandered a lot of the public confidence and goodwill toward their brand that they built over a decade. The studio really needs to get its act together and start putting out less quantity and more quality, if they want to recapture their loyal audience.

I'm curious as to what you consider to be big misses. Not saying it isn't true...just curious. Lately, it seems like every Marvel project is bashed to hell before it even comes out. In that environment, nothing is going to be satisfactory. I thought Age of Ultron was garbage, but I didn't assume everything was going to be crap going forward...which is what people seem to be doing now. Not everything is going to be Avengers (2012) or Thor: Dark World. Most things are going to be somewhere in between. Secret Invasion was definitely a miss, but I thought Wandavision was pretty good. I guess as a fan of monster films, I'm just used to quality being up and down and I don't dismiss the genre based on any one film or even a group of them. "shrugs"

Definitely used the earlier versions. I mostly used the Devil's Advocates, but the other characters got used on occasion either directly or as background setting. I won't lie though. I never used Lady Twilight. To me, she was the least interesting character in the book. The Mind Master Complex, Dr. Black, and Hell Rider all got major stories in our campaign. I also plan to use The Totems, but haven't introduced them yet.

I've used them before and never had an issue....possibly because I use them mostly as comic relief. 

The 2024 election is going to be a complete crapfest. Nuff said.

2 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Well, this could be considered comical, in a pathetic way: Donald Trump is selling merchandise with his mug shot on it.

The grift has worked fine. Why stop now? 

I ran Shadows of the City in its entirety with my group and we had a great deal of fun. 

Lost Boys for me.

SPFX pioneer Eiji Tsuburaya was born on this date in 1901.

4 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

Florida bill allowing radioactive roads made of potentially cancer-causing mining waste signed by DeSantis

This seems low...even for Desantis. I'm already boycotting Florida, but I feel bad for the citizens.

5 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Well, can't say we didn't expect it, but still...

 

SCOTUS backs a business saying "go somewhere else" rather than back a message they disagree with, meaning laws barring discrimination against gay people are nullified.

 

It's nuanced...from NYT:

 

 

Even if it's narrowly applicable now, tho, we know the religious right will make every effort to expand it.  

Great way to end Pride month. I'm just....disgusted.

Since when does what the majority wants ever matter in this country when it comes to legislation...?

When one side essentially wants to wipe out marginalized people in the country either figuratively or literally....I'm done "finding ways to manage despite disagreements".

4 hours ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

 

Banned in Florida. 

Okay...what kind of country bans Julie Andrews?  Just....no.

My last option pick....The Cosmic Cube!