Posts made by Ganymede

@ZombieGenesis said in Good or New Movies Review:

Take the Man of Steel; Superman kills Zod after a fight that nearly levels Metropolis to the ground. What did we get to show either of these events impacted Superman on any level? He screamed. That's it. It's never touched on again, it did not further his character at all, it provided no sort of story-based development.

But it does. It's just buried under everything because Snyder doesn't know what the fuck he is doing.

Goyer is setting Zod up as a tragic figure. Zod was tasked to protect and preserve Kryptonian life. Jor-El found a way to do it, but Zod disagreed and opposed him. In the end, Jor-El was right, and Zod realized his error. Zod thereafter has another chance to preserve Kryptonian life on Earth; unfortunately, it requires the alteration of the biosphere, which would kill all other life on Earth. Zod makes the choice he was tasked to make.

Contrast Zod with Mr. Freeze. Mr. Freeze tried to save his wife. Ferris Boyle interrupted him, and nearly killed him. Mr. Freeze lives in a literal Hell, and he believes that his wife is dead. So, he sets about getting revenge by killing Boyle. Batman intervenes; yet, after seeing what happened to Mr. Freeze, he sympathizes:

Mr. Freeze: Snow is beautiful, don't you think? Clean, uncompromising...
Batman: And cold.
Mr. Freeze: Like the swift hand of vengeance.
Batman: I saw what happened to your wife. I'm sorry.
Mr. Freeze: I am beyond emotions. They've been frozen dead in me.
Batman: That suit you wear... a result of the coolant?
Mr. Freeze: Very good. A detective to the last. I can no longer survive out of a sub-zero environment. Tonight I mean to pay back the man who ruined my life. Our lives.
Batman: Even if you have to kill everyone in the building to it?
Mr. Freeze: Think of it, Batman. To never again walk upon a summer's day with a hot wind in your face, and a warm hand to hold. Oh, yes. I'd kill for that.

(Entire script of the best 22 minutes in television right here) At that point, Batman realizes that Mr. Freeze's motivations are the same as his, but the lengths to which Mr. Freeze would go exceed his own. That's why, in the final scene of Heart of Ice, Batman tries to get justice for Mr. Freeze by revealing Boyle's actions to the public.

Kal-El sympathizes with Zod. He wants to learn more about Krypton and what it means to be Kryptonian, but he realizes that the extent to which Zod would go to protect Kryptonian life is "inhuman" and immoral to him. To Zod, the death of humanity is a necessary sacrifice for the preservation of Krypton, and there is nothing he would not do to meet that objective.

General Zod: Look at this. We could have rebuilt Krypton on this planet, but you chose the humans over us. I exist only to protect Krypton. That is the soul purpose for which I was born. And every action I take, no matter how violent or how cruel, is for the greater good of my people. And now, I have no people. My soul, that is what you have taken from me!

But, step into Zod's shoes, just like Batman stepped into Mr. Freeze's, for a moment. Kal-El knew that what he was doing -- killing all of the Kryptonians -- was exactly what Zod would have done. But he did it anyway. Which makes Kal-El as much a villain to Krypton as Zod was to humanity. Which explains his final, primal scream.

That's what I saw and heard.

Something you probably missed because omfg zack snyder sucks as a director.

@ZombieGenesis said in Good or New Movies Review:

DC did none of these things.

Because DC doesn't know where to start, or what threat to focus on, or what tone it wants to set, or --

-- look, it begins and ends with the idiotic choice of Zack Snyder to manage the project. I said it once, and I'll say it again. Zack Snyder is, and was, incapable of appreciating the nature of DC Comics, and how they differ from Marvel Comics.

This was readily apparent in Man of Steel, which Snyder somehow managed to bungle horribly, despite a stellar story written by David S. Goyer. Goyer, who helped the Nolan Brothers, knows as well as any writer the importance of sympathy for the villain. And the screenplay is clearly geared to have you sympathize with General Zod, not Kal-El.

I'd forgive anyone for overlooking this. I won't forgive Snyder for wasting the nuanced performance of Michael Shannon, who, at all times, is working with an excellent script that had him wrestling with the problem of Kal-El, who he sees as a brain-washed ex-pat. The moral play of Kal-El v. Krypton's entire remaining population is ruined, to the point where Kal-El's primal scream after killing Zod is absent of all meaning.

Fuck. That. Guy.

@surreality said in Dead Celebrities 2019:

I don't think shaming people for caring about Notre Dame is in any way helpful to anyone. FFS. Why even.

That wasn't the point of my post, which was a critique of American culture and religion.

@Arkandel

Not to unnecessarily politicize, but the fact that a few French oligarchs came out to fund the project but no American capitalists came out to donate to fix these relatively small churches is telling about the state of culture and religion in the United States.

Arise, chicken.

@Alamias

Maybe. He better not do that if I’m playing Marvel vs. Capcom.

Garrus is cool.

I'm gonna wait for Liara, thank you.

Nearly fucking cried my eyes out before the final battle, when Shepard parted from her.

@buttercup said in The Basketball Thread:

It's another Golden State year though.

I wouldn't be too sure of that, judging by what's going on in the NHL playoffs.

@Pandora said in MU Things I Love:

I need you to tell someone that attended that service how much it helped you

It did, actually.

It reminded me that people will fight over the scraps at a table, rather than for the person serving the food.

It reminded me that one of your closest acquaintances will sell you out for money, and another will disavow knowing you to save his hide.

It reminded me that neither the people nor the government care about innocence, and that peace is often the motivation of injustice.

It reminded me that one will be saved and another will be condemned.

When people start accepting the capriciousness of people, the world will be a better place.

@Tinuviel said in MU Things I Love:

She's a lawyer. She could earnestly say the sky is green.

To some people, it is, if they have a sensory dysfunction.

@Aria said in RL Anger:

Notre Dame de Paris is burning.

I am literally in tears.

This is why it is unwise to have hot cauldrons of molten metal in the top balconies to rain upon invading guardsmen.

(Humor aside, really, this is awful.)

When you can take the Palm Sunday mass you suffered through and turn it into parts of an IC sermon for a Sanctified Midnight Mass.

Totally makes being Catholic work to your advantage in setting the mood for a Vampire game.

@Ghost said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

I have chosen to take this as a good thing

As you should.

I finally saw Us.

It's a good movie, but it's not as good as Get Out.

Plus, I figured the "twist" out about 10 minutes in.

@Ghost said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

The more you all talk the more it's becoming apparent to me that my SO is the dude in this relationship.

Oh, honey, I could have told you that long ago.

@Auspice said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

Just say no to shelf bras.

I like 'em.

@Wretched

She should have flipped you a few, and see if you could catch them on porpoise.

@Ghost said in Pro Wrasslin':

Like the well is running dry so the return to the gimmick will either revitalize his career or be the last attempt to maintain relevance when there are so many other good stories going on.

The Rock hasn't changed a bit. His schtick works just fine. Same with Sting, when he came back. The Hardy Boys. And so on.

When veterans return, it isn't to start something new: it's to promote by bringing up the past. The gimmicks are part of who they are, so they have to go back to the gimmicks, especially if they are part-timing it, like Cena is.

@Ghost said in Pro Wrasslin':

Now, all of the sudden, he's back as sucka white boy MC slow-jam rap battle heel John Cena, which is pretty much a muscular millionaire wearing a chain around his neck and snapback hats.

So...sign of the end for Cena's relevancy? Not so relevant anymore that he had to dig into a shtick that's over 10 years old?

Well, I hear that white people love Post Malone, so --

For what it's worth, I'd probably still hit that.