Posts made by Arkandel

@Admiral said in Good TV:

The real question is how the series will handle the strong D/s and BDSM undertones that Robert Jordan had in his books.

(Which they'll likely remove, because that stuff always just felt a little... sleazy to me.)

Adjustments will be made anyway, there always are. A lot of the excess stuff will be sanitized, too - there's a very slim chance those Seanchan collars are making it the script the same way they were used in the books for starters.

My main question would be what will get dropped since there is a lot of plot-fat to trim there.

For example are they really going to have three separate romantic arcs for Rand? And how much time are they going to spend on exposition about how the One Power works? We're talking literally hundreds of pages' worth of material.

Hell, the cast was just released - where's Lan? Elayne? Min? Those were all characters in book 1.

@Auspice said in Cyberrun:

(Also, @Arkandel this thread should prob be moved to constructive at the least...)

Sure thing.

@Rinel said in Good TV:

Trust me, you're both underestimating Dragonmount, especially since Wotmania shuttered a decade ago. It's not a particulalry small community.

Small or large compared to what?

The only difference any community's opinion will matter in any conceivable way to filmmakers is if it can influence a show's ratings (or movie's ticket sales). That's it.

I'm sure Dragonmount (whatever it is) is more populated than many others but I still doubt its collective opinion will make a dent in Amazon's metrics. Hell, I'll bet you they're more likely to watch it than everyone else, if only to grumble about it.

@Rinel said in Good TV:

angry white people

These days, do a thing and someone somewhere will scream about it.

Who cares. As long as characters are tugging on their braids or smoothing their skirts it should be about right.

@Auspice It's more like... I don't really suffer from imposter syndrome, that's simply not me. I don't feel out of place among managers or directors. I talk freely to our VPs.

But walking into a fancy place selling high end clothing does do... something to mess with my head. I don't know why - the guys working there are grunts like everyone else. But I while I don't feel judged I do feel self conscious and that's not something I'm used to.

I've been working with my current company for just over two years now and things seem to be going well. I got my responsibilities upgraded soon after joining then I was promoted and given my own team to manage. So this was good. The money is good. The title is nice.

On the other hand... it turns out I had completely underestimated how time-consuming this management thing takes. It is insane; all the meetings, writing of documents, keeping track of people's performance, doing one on ones.... shit, that's a lot of stuff. But it's fun and I still like it - perhaps because it's new and still a novelty, and even if it's taken my focus off of the purely technical stuff.

What truly caught me unaware though is all the... other requirements. For example now I have to dress the part - apparently it's a not-so unspoken rule that people will judge you based on that in ways keyboard jockeys (which I am, at least at heart) never have to worry about since the expectations are simply not there. No, I need better pants; yes, I need dressy shoes. And for sure I have to wear button-down shirts; gone are the days of sportsy, cool UA fun fabrics.

Those were not responsibilities I was prepared for. I'm not and have never been the guy who walks into fancy suit stores; I own suits but if I wear one more than once a year it'll be for a funeral or something. Now, it seems, that will have to change. I'm not so sure how I feel about all that yet.

@Coin said in Good TV:

Both are fun. If you liked Banshee (talkin' to you, @Arkandel), Warrior is by the same channel and production team.

My head canon for The Boys is Lucas walked into town and he's impersonating the leader of a superhero team.

@insomniac7809 Yes, that's the trolling part.

@Tyche said in RL Anger:

@Arkandel said in RL Anger:

Good news everyone!

This July was the hottest month in recorded history.

No wait, that's not good news.

I could have sworn it was July 1936. For the US that is. But they keep changing the data though.

1. Which part of "global data" are you pretending to be having issues with?
2. Come on man, you're trying to troll me?

Good news everyone!

This July was the hottest month in recorded history.

No wait, that's not good news.

@Wretched said in Good TV:

So i dont watch much of the Arrowverse stuff, but this is pretty cool. Mark Hamill to play live action Joker.

Is the show still shit though? After season 3 (or during it, whenever that R'as fight was that Oliver lost) it jumped the shark so fast.

***=I loved the whole series except for***

Put this thread in the Hogpit, g'dammit. I'm ready to draw a line on the ground and go to war.

You are all wrong.

Pineapple on pizza is where it's at. Especially with BBQ sauce. Fite me.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2399736/impossible-foods-beyond-meat-alt-meat

@Aria

@Ghost Where I think Millar fails - and Ennis succeeds - is in making me care about his characters. I don't think I've felt this way about a single Millar character - they are often involved in some really fun stories but that's where it ends.

He's also great about creating... gravity for his characters. His Punisher is the best ever written in my opinion; sure, there are some self-indulging plots where he just mows down hundreds of mobsters at a funeral but there are many personal, intimate tales in there as well - even romantic arcs, or what Frank can even have that resembles anything of the sort.

Yet in the entire saga the notion lingers that this is the most dangerous motherfucker on the planet and in itself it's almost a separate entity, a plot hook of its own, and Ennis can do that without having to explicitly tell the reader, yet he lets it be a contrast with the challenges his character faces - he makes Frank quite aware of the fact he resides in a cynical and violent world in which he can't really make anything better since he's part of the problem.

I quite loved his perspective. It's really easy to turn the man-and-a-gun vigilante into a simplistic glorification of machismo. Ennis can give it depth and nuance. The Boys is a work that embraces a similar concept, where otherwise it could have just been a far simplistic "evil JLA" story of which we've seen many.

@Wizz said in Good TV:

Garth Ennis is the comic-books equivalent of a shock-jock radio DJ. He's deliberately offensive and gross on the level of a maladjusted teenager, TBH. He and Mark Millar are two authors whose popularity I will never understand, and Amazon made the right choice in trimming down the content of the series. It's still very explicit and dark, but in a way that is mostly not completely cringey and awful.

It's funny that you mention that because I've been a fan of both writers - Ennis more than Millar - so perhaps I can share my perspective.

Both of these guys rely on shock value at times and they can go too far; in fact some of their finest moments are from when they skirt the line. As such they've both created some amazing comics in the past whose serious moments are right there at the top with any other authors; Ennis' Hellblazer run is downright iconic, his Hitman was so fucking good and in my opinion he created penned the definitive Punisher run as well. Millar I'm more torn on; the first year of Ultimates was pretty well done and then he just seemed to get lazy or too carried away - the second year wasn't nearly as good, and then the whole thing went to hell.

But Ennis has a trait I've seen only rarely - in that way I'd compare him with Terry Pratchett. He can write these weird-ass absurd situations and focus on humor then he can flip a fucking switch and blindside you completely, pivoting into really serious characterization and dramatic, intimate moments for his characters.

@tek said in Good TV:

I describe Katee's character as "Starbuck, if she had her shit together"

I know what all these words mean but what you are describing does not compute.

@Rinel The comic was over the top (and amazing) too. It's just how Garth Ennis writes.

@Auspice said in Adapting to New Ideas:

It taps into why people struggle to adopt new ideas and this is something we face on MUs quite often. Why don't people like original theme as much as established IPs? Why do people skip over these cool systems? Why do people flock to WoD despite even most of its players hating it?

Speaking for myself, it's simply a matter of time investment. Most games - MUSH and table-top - simply aren't known for their longevity; most die down relatively soon, or become inactive enough that they're effectively dead even if they are technically still going.

Due to that it's simply more efficient to play in settings and use mechanics you're already familiar with. My WoD MUSH might be the same as the last dozen others you've already tried but at least it's plug-and-play; you can roll a character within a few minutes, there is an expectation of how your PC fits into scenes and... that's it. If it all goes away in six weeks then you still got to play for that long.

Compare that to picking up something new that can still disappear just as fast. You might not want to spend a week figuring out the ins and outs of all those rules and social norms before you even hit the grid - and because others are just as reserved about it the initial population surge isn't the same.

Now obviously that's not going to be everyone's reasoning. It's just mine.