technoblue
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Posts posted by technoblue
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I caught the first episode last night. So far, my only criticism is with how they rushed a certain character reveal. The rest seems ok. I’m enjoying it.
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A certain group of incredibly vocal people have been on a hate parade against Disney and its leadership for years now, including calling out Kennedy. Whether she is retiring on her own terms or being ‘forced out’ when Iger comes back to focus Disney on other projects is anyone’s guess at this point. Whatever the result, I’ll believe it when I see it.
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Hi-Metal R
in Toys
41 minutes ago, Ignacio Ocamica said:Yes to all of them!!!
Yes x 2
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Nice. HMR Orguss is promising, especially if we get more vehicles from the show this time out.
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1 hour ago, Big s said:
That’s one of the reasons I have an interest, besides the nostalgia. I’d like to have a better reason to keep D+ than just relying on Marvel and Starwars. And if they do a good job on the show it could prove that maybe they can do something that isn’t attached to an existing franchise.
I don’t think that this show could be any worse than recent shows like Rings of power or She hulk, but I don’t think anyone expects it to be the greatest show to hit streaming either. I’ll definitely watch and hope I enjoy.
HaHa! I guess we'll have to agree to disagree about Rings of Power. For all it's faults, I am enjoyed the romp through a young Middle Earth and I'm looking forward to the second season. As for She Hulk, I think the series accomplished what it wanted to do, which was to give us a fourth-wall breaking, awkwardly silly super-hero lawyer show. It wasn't quite Ally McBeal, but there were times when I was reminded of that old show when watching Tatiana do her thing. Anyway, She Hulk was ok IMO. But I also don't think that Marvel needs to make every character a movie-style blockbuster entry into their cinematic universe. If She Hulk is a one-time thing that works for me. If she ends up as a side character in a larger film, then that works too. If she gets her own film like her cousin the Hulk, well...bonus.
As an aside. I've never been able to understand the backlash against Solo. I mean, it's obvious it was there looking at the box office numbers, but I gave it a chance and thought it was a fun story. Personally, I think it just suffered bad timing. There was a concerted, albeit very strange, effort to make a scene after Rian Johnson's entry to the third trilogy films--any Star Wars movie that Disney released after The Last Jedi was probably an automatic target.
Anyway, it's another thing that I don't understand...
With Willow, I am very much looking forward to visiting another cool fantasy world. I'm avoiding as much of the scuttlebutt as I can because I want to go into the series with only my knowledge of the movie.
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3 hours ago, Duke Togo said:
Disappointed you, or lost money? You said “box-office losses.” Which Disney films have lost money?
Not a sacred cow by any means, but you’re painting a picture of systematic failure which is just not backed up by anything.
As for the topic at hand, we’ll see about Willow when it comes out. Clickbait YouTube videos and articles from non-reputable sites aren’t actual sources of any real information regarding the series.
What's more is that the aim of the particular argument has changed to conflate Disney films with Disney streaming series. With movies, we can review box office numbers and have an analytical discussion about how many people watched the movie, how much it cost to bring the idea to the big screen, and the resulting profits. With streaming, we only get to see how popular a show is on the Disney+ streaming site. This leaves out a lot of that analytical data.
For influencers, I'm sure this makes their jobs golden though, because in the absence of data and numbers one can stir up shenanigans to create entertainment.
Willow will be an interesting test. To date, the Star Wars and Marvel streaming series have brought in the most viewers on Disney+. If this new Willow series can match their blockbuster properties, then I can see Disney opting to add more fantasy to its line-up...and that isn't a bad thing IMO. It's good to have variety.
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Seeing Jodie Whittaker take her final bow as the Doctor did tug at my heart strings. I've enjoyed her style. This was a fun regeneration episode and it felt like the series ended on a high note. All the surprises they managed to fit in---fantastic.
Having to wait another year for the 60th anniversary specials...oof!
Edit: It looks like BBC America lost the streaming rights to nuWho. The show’s new international streaming home is Disney+.
https://www.indiewire.com/2022/10/doctor-who-disney-plus-1234775786/amp/
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So the previous episode had me thinking that the pacing and the timeline were starting to feel muddled. This week was completely different. What an enjoyable episode that was.
Even with Amazon's creative liberties, I'm looking forward to where the show takes us next season.
SpoilerSauron and the Watcher are finally revealed. I had a hunch we were in for another fake out before seeing who was who and this episode didn't disappoint there. The moments leading up to the Watcher's reveal had me second guessing myself once or twice. As for the rumors of his actual name, I hope the rumors of him being a well-known third-age Istari prove false.
Amazon has an opportunity to build up one or both of the blue wizards (Alatar and Pallando) since there isn't much written about them in the lore.
As an aside, I really enjoyed all the non-canon hobbit stuff this episode. And the scene where they go up against the 3 witches was well done IMO.
Sauron's reveal was more of a give away (as azreal notes) but over the entire season I enjoyed seeing how much went into establishing Halbrand as a non-canon persona. Now that the secret is out, I am excited to see how the rest of Sauron's story is developed in season 2. The confrontation with Galadriel I think gives us a glimpse of Sauron using his power of disguise---when he abruptly has her seeing her brother again in Valinor and then tempts her to be Queen of Middle Earth. I expect we will see more of Sauron's many disguises in season 2 as he regains his strength and will.
I am also thinking the big catastrophic event next season might be the destruction of Numenor. After this, the 'faithful' survivors will flee back to Middle Earth and maybe at some point reunite with Isildur? I'm also curious to see what he has been up to. How did he get out of that house?
And then there is the matter of the Balrog in the dwarven mines.
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On 10/11/2022 at 2:31 PM, mikeszekely said:
Scuttlebutt around the industry is that the lower-spec 4080 was supposed to be the 4070, but when they realized how expensive it would be they decided to save the 4070 badge for something they could market closer to the 3070's MSRP.
Yeah. I heard that, but I guess it remains to be seen how nVidia will fill out the mid and low range. Curiously, benchmarks for the 4060 and 4060ti are starting to leak already and those leaked numbers are making me wonder all the more how a 4070 might fit in.
On 10/11/2022 at 3:01 PM, azrael said:Keep in mind, that’s just the spikes. Average power use on-load was in the 400-500W range. So a 850W PSU can still handle it, but barely. And no breakers tripping, for now. AIB card reviews go up tomorrow so we’ll see what the silicon lottery and what different cooling designs gives us.
Fair point. I watched a couple of the Asus Strix reviews yesterday. That is one monster card! I fear that I'm really not committed to the high end for this generation at all. I will be waiting for more information on the 4070 and 4060 parts. I'm also hoping we get to see 4000 series GPUs that can still fit in small form factor systems.
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600w is still demanding and the price stinks, IMO. The 4090 is nVidia serving up a titan-class GPU without the Ti branding. Good on them for pushing the envelop on those high-end performance raster numbers, though.
Making two 4080 skus instead of one 4080 and one 4070 is curious. I may wait for nVidia to announce the actual 4070 before taking a closer look at the rest of the line-up.
I’m also keen on what RDNA 3 is all about and those GPUs release right around the corner in November.
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Ben Dixon, as interpreted by Trey Parker and Matt Stone?
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I caught this last episode early--on Friday last week--and I have a number of thoughts about it but I'm going to set most of them aside until after the season finale this week.
...okay, I will say this...
SpoilerYou guys were right about the sword/key subplot. It was all about waking Mount Doom and creating Mordor. I'm still a bit conflicted about the timing of it, although I have to admit the visuals were cool to watch, even the post-eruption chaos. It also appears that the Queen Regent's fate will sync with canon soon. Things for her, politically, are now uncertain after these events and that will create a power vacuum in Numenor.
Galadriel finally mentions Celeborn too but it feels like a potential plot device, so I'm going to hold my tongue about what she said.
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TCP is nice, especially if you have some points stored up to turn into a coupon.
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4 hours ago, Thom said:
Well, not to beat around the bush, but...
SpoilerThis has already been covered by those of us in the thread who are book nerds.
The elves from Valinor and the humans from Numenor do have traits that help them. Trying to apply real-world logic to these two groups is only going to get one frustrated. I mean, they just about flew on horseback from the coastal bays to the inland mountain ranges to rescue the embattled Southlanders, so there are fantasy rules at play already. If any of the people are fragile and delicate like those of us in the real-world, I would expect them to be born and raised in Middle Earth itself. Besides, Middle Earth was supposed to be an analogue for our world.
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4 hours ago, Dobber said:
To answer a couple of you questions. Adar gave the hilt to the Grumpy Tavern guy right when the Numenorians show up. He walked outside and summoned him and told him he had a task for him.
Like you said, Amazon is playing fast and lose with Middle Earth History so I look at Mt Doom being formed now as a sort of Echo of Calabrimbor making his forge with the Dwarves so Sauron is making his own with the Volcano. Setting up the infrastructure to creat the Rings of Power if you will.
Chris
Right. I was unsure of the order of events by the end of the episode. I thought Adar had the conversation when his army first arrived at the watchtower and he noticed the inscription on the wall. I then thought the scene where Arondir was trying to damage/destroy the sword in town came after that moment and so things got muddled.
A mix-up on my part, most assuredly.
32 minutes ago, azrael said:Indeed. I’m okay with it being there but I find it curious, if it is that volcano, why the creative team decided to use it as an offensive strike this early. I’m not against the creative license, but I like seeing how this show gives context for its non-canon events, especially if that context can pull me deeper into the show’s current events.
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I got caught up with episode 6 today. Very cool, although I do have questions/nitpicks...
SpoilerSo Arondir hides the magic sword/key in the tavern under a loose brick. How did Theo know it was there? More importantly, did the Grumpy Tavern Guy know too? When was the switcheroo made with the hatchet? Was it after 'Lord Father' the fallen elf got the broken sword back? That timeline of events was confusing to me and, since it results in a big bang at the end of the episode, I wish it all gelled some more.
The Numenor cavalry gives a good nod to the Riders of Rohan (from the third age) I think and I am enjoying all the character moments, even with the faults that are built up for dramatic effect. The pacing is still something of a roller coaster for me, though. Earlier, we got to see things trundled out in a casual manner over five episodes. Now we have what seems like a time jump with the Numenor cavalry teleporting from their landing site into the valley. Man, I can feel the whiplash.
Yeah, Halbrand is looking more sus this episode.
I'm hesitating to say with certainty that big bang is Mount Doom, but I guess it could be.
In the canon mythology, Mount Doom has been around since the first age. Melkor/Morgoth created the volcano. If this is that volcano, Amazon could be adding to their alternate timeline again. In Tolkien's written work, Sauron's one ring was forged earlier in the second age before he used Mount Doom to signal his attack on Gondor. This happens thousands of years later in the second age. In the show, even with some of the non-canon happenings, it still feels early for these events. I mean, we haven't even seen Isildur's brother on screen, Numenor is still above sea level, and Gondor isn't a place on the map. If it is another volcano, I guess this could have been a test Sauron put in place to see if he could still tempt men to his side. In that case, it looks like the test was a complete success.
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13 hours ago, jvmacross said:
Is the whole story about the elves needing mithril to survive part of Tolkien's original writings? Aren't they immortal or at minimum, able to travel to the undying lands?
Also, where is Galadriel's husband? Are they not married during the time depicted in this show?
Here are the facts that Amazon left intact concerning mithril:
* There is a large source of it in the Dwarven mines of Khazad-Dum.
* The Elves value it as a precious metal and they end up trading with the Dwarves and using the metal to accessorize.
In the books, Mithril does not contain the essence of the two trees or any other Silmaril-like power. It is simply another fancy metal like gold and silver, but much rarer than these and with its own Tolkien-esque qualities to make it sought after. The Elves use it most often for clothing, utensils, and jewelry.
For instance, the Mithril chain that Bilbo finds and gives to Frodo is thought to have been a shirt originally worn by an Elven prince. It had no special magical power but the shirt protected the wearer from all slashing, slicing, and piercing damage. In that respect then, it eventually became a highly valued shirt of armour.
You also ask a good question about Celeborn. He and Galadriel do end up leading the Elves in Lothlorien, and he shoukdn’t be an unknown Elf during this period, so I am hoping that Amazon is saving their own creative take on how things happen for later. I’m curious to see how they get all the canon and non-canon plots to synchronize and work together.
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5 minutes ago, Dobber said:
Well I stand corrected then. 🙂
Chris
HaHa. Same.
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1 hour ago, Duke Togo said:
They can pull from The Hobbit, The LotR, and all of the included appendices. Which, is actually a good amount of information. But if it’s only in The Simarillion, it’s off limits.59 minutes ago, azrael said:IIRC, there's a bit more to the Elves coming from Valinor to Middle-Earth that was not covered/glossed over in the show. That would be an example of where the licensing restrictions come in.
Okay. Tricksy it is, then.
This explains the creative license given to things in the Elvish history that have been referenced so far in the show. That bit about the one Silmaril being a stand out --Huh?-- moment for me. But now I get it.
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On 9/25/2022 at 11:45 AM, Seto Kaiba said:
But not one Cassian is relevant to... this is his story, after all. His definining moment is the Battle of Scarif.
Prior to that battle, Cassian Andor is just some terrorist.
I would say it's simply a fixed point placing where this part of his story fits within the larger SW universe. I don't know that it needs to be any more relevant than that. The date itself doesn't need to be a double entendre. But maybe I misunderstood. Given the fiction we know about, I don't see the time reference taking away from Rogue One events or the sacrifice he made with Jyn Erso and their team on Scarif.
On 9/25/2022 at 11:45 AM, Seto Kaiba said:Understood, but for the plurality if not majority of the intended audience who do not partake of the Expanded Universe to any significant degree it's a meaningless string of letters and doesn't really connect to Cassian's story regardless.
It's a good demonstration of the way having Star Wars fans making Star Wars material can lock new or casual viewers out of the loop. Unpoliced, it's a self-defeating spiral that can kill entire franchises as we're seeing with the slow-motion collapse of the American comics industry.
That's fair. I do agree that Disney has been inconsistent with how they have been using all the SW extended universe information. At first, all of it was off the table. Then, they were picking and choosing among the choice bits. Now, it seems they've employed a random number generator to pick which EU plots to reuse. It can get exhausting. All I'm going to say is that I'm glad I don't write SW fiction. I wouldn't want to walk that minefield.
On 9/25/2022 at 11:45 AM, Seto Kaiba said:Hence my question... Rogue One presents the state of the rebellion up to the Battle of Scarif as a loose collection of anti-government militant groups with differing ideologies that were largely unwilling to agree on anything. From A New Hope, there's the suggestion of capital emphasis on "Rebel Alliance", and they're presented as a unified force without any demonstrable infighting in the movies. My read of it, as a casual enjoyer of the films with almost no exposure to the EU, is that that was the moment that made the Alliance gel to become the unified fighting force in the original trilogy.
I agree. As for Cassian's personal relevancy, I think this show may be trying to fill that in. I'm waiting on some depth--maybe in the present day plot or maybe in the flashback scenes. Unfortunately, the all too important context connections have yet to be realised. With the first three episodes, I can infer two things, 1) he appears to have traced his sister even after being taken from Kenari and 2) he maybe had a thing for the leader of his tribe--what happened to her? Did she actually die? Bonus thought: If his sister is bouncing around off of Kenari in the show's present day timeline, does that mean the rest of his Lord of the Flies tribe were rescued? Did all of them find their way off planet?
Oh, and clearly finding his sister is important enough that he risks everything, including the well-being of his friends, to sell that imperial tech he stole to get off planet. There's still a ways to go, though, to see the Cassian Andor from Rogue One who was a respected rebel asset: assassin, spy, and saboteur.
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6 hours ago, Dobber said:
Here’s my gripes and theories:
So this episode just really didn’t go anywhere and I agree about Isildur…maybe he just needs to find himself. Last episode had us believe Numenor was ready to go to war, now this episode “let’s discuss this further” arrrrg! Also how did Galadriel get HER armor back? You know the Armor she had taken off on the ship to Valanor before she…..eh hem, jumped into the ocean to swim back to land 🤦♂️ It was clearly Elvin armor soooo…
I agree about the Harfoot story….just taking waaay too long and is far too drawn out. The watchtower story isn’t bad but also getting kind of drawn out. The only story I consistently like is the Elrond/Durin story.
My theories are that Mithril will be used to create the Elvin rings
I believe Halbrand is Sauron, he is using the Numenorians to either motivate the Southlanders to his cause by being attacked by the Numenorians and Elves….or just using the Numenorians to clean out the southlands so he can then take them with Orcs maybe both.
Ooo. I like your theory about Halbrand. I could see the creative team making that work.
And the goof with Galadriel's armour was unfortunate.
2 hours ago, Duke Togo said:I think this show is fine, though I’m not sure I’d be watching if it wasn’t LotR related.
I wonder how much Amazon is handicapped by not having the rights to The Simarillion?
That's a good question. If the license restrictions are limited to words like Hobbits and such, I don't see that holding the series back too much. If it includes characters and places on Tolkien's map of Arda (his fantasy world), then that could get sticky. So far, the first age references have been solid, even though Amazon's creative team has added their own non-canon flourishes here and there.
I'll put my detailed thoughts in a spoiler since it mixes content from the latest episode with some book-based knowledge.
SpoilerFor instance, Melkor/Morgoth has come up a number of times, as has the Valar.
As an aside, Melkor was a corrupted Valar. He was named Morgoth by ancient elves.
In the latest episode, Gilgalad gives a short talk about one of the Silmarils and how it contains the remaining essence of the two trees of Valinor. These trees were shown in the first episode of the show when we saw a young Galadriel with her elven friends and her brother.
By the time of the second age, the two trees are gone. Morgoth and his minions destroyed them in the first age. The canon fate of the Silmarils is that one was recovered by Earendil and returned to the Valar--turned into a star in the sky. Earendil is Elrond's father and his fate has been referenced a couple of times already. Celebrimbor brings up Earendil again in the latest episode. That aside, the two other stones were retaken from Morgoth by Feanor's sons. Feanor was the one who created the three Silmarils; however, the stones rejected both of his sons. Per the books, the stones burned the hands of those they rejected. Because Feanor's sons couldn't take advantage of the stones, one was thrown into the sea and the other into a fiery pit to rest within the earth.
So I think the story that Gilgalad shares about the earth-bound Silmaril is another non-canon creative retelling. It combines a lot of things that did happen like the war with Morgoth and his enlisted Balrogs, but then adds the bit about how Mithril came to be.
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On 9/24/2022 at 8:13 PM, Dobber said:
While I have been liking this series in spite of its flaws or my personal preferences and have found each episode was better then the last, that streak ended with this episode. What a nothing episode and a step backward overall. Hoping for better next week.
Chris
I thought the episode was okay, but I came away with more nitpicks than usual. There was a definite drop in consistency this week. Click the spoiler for my main beefs.
SpoilerIsildur’s developing story…what? Seriously… what? This guy is the one who becomes the first King of Gondor (ruler of all the Dunedain) and he also cuts the one ring from Sauron’s hand. However, Amazon is characterizing him like some directionless young fool in Numenor. I’m not feeling his future destiny. Not yet, anyway.
Then there’s Galadriel’s part in the story. This episode feels mighty strained again because there is so much focus on her relationship with the non-canon made-up-by-Amazon Southern King. I question why Celeborn was written out of this part of her timeline completely in this series. I’m pretty sure he was already with her in the second age. Oh well, I’ll have to check that out in the books.
Moving on to plot lines that had me scratching my head at first, I was unsure of the Mithril subplot going on between Gilgalad, Elrond, and Durin. I had a doubt early on that the creative team was going to add unnecessary drama here—and there is a bit of that—but it seems they aren’t drawing it out (thank goodness). I did enjoy how they resolved things between Elrond and Durin. The table joke was obvious, but it also fit.
The story with the wandering Hobbits was nice in that it confirmed a lot of what I had assumed with the map showing their path. Sadly the whole thing with the stranger is moving as slow as the snails they like to snack on. I thought they were going to give us answers about him, especially given the conversation early in the episode when the stranger realises he is ‘big folk’ and one of the dangers the halflings try to avoid at all costs.
Nope.
What’s worse, we get a mysterious armored contingent checking out the stranger’s landing site. And that’s it, no more context the entire episode.
The Southlanders in the tower splitting up was expected. I was a bit surprised to see that Theo found his conscience again and didn’t leave with the group that went with the gnarly old tavern guy. I really thought he had been written in as one of the anti-elf Southlanders…but maybe this is a misdirection.
I guess we shall see, eh?
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9 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:
Isn't Andor kind of before the rebellion proper?
IIRC, the Battle of Scarif in Rogue One was presented as kind of the moment the rebellion became an organized thing instead of just a bunch of disparate militant dissident groups with their own separate agendas.
I agree with @Bolt on this one for a few of reasons. First, the Battle of Yavin is a known inflection point. Second, it has been used as the date system in canon Disney-created SW fiction for a number of years now. I think the first instance in canon fiction was 2016? Third, for more invested fans, the date system harkens back to a non-canon tabletop RPG from the 1990s. So fans who played that would be familiar with it too.
All that said, the title card wasn’t a big deal for me. It took only a moment to figure out what BBY stood for when it was used in the first episode. I didn’t have to look it up.
IMO, the Battle of Scariff (aka the Action/Raid on Scariff) is one of a number of missions that show the fledgling rebels gaining ground and increasing their morale. I guess I would ground it in the real world to the US War for Independence. In both cases, a number of missions led to the formation of a new government but both the real-world and fictional world events have their high and low points. For the high points, there are key moments where the revolutionaries turn the tide if you will. At Scariff, a high-speed team secures the Death Star plans and passes them on to the Princess. The destruction of the first Death Star wasn’t the end, of course, but it was the first major victory and a serious morale boost at that given moment. To me, I guess it makes sense that this moment is framed—like Washington crossing the Delaware.
To ground it further in what we know from the original trilogy, itself, that dystopian landscape already exists. The Galactic Senate (by the time of the first movie, known as the Imperial Senate) had been dissolved by Palpatine. He was the authoritative ruler of the Empire and he was the one who let Grand Moff Tarkin build a planet killing weapon of this type. It wasn’t just a symbol. It was a tool. We got to see it used for crushing political opponents and dissidents. I’m sure if the Battle of Yavin had ended in failure, its use would have been expanded. Imagine the Emperor using it to blink out suspected Jedi sanctuary planets?
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I’m enjoying it too. There are some unanswered questions about Cassian’s past—thing’s that don’t quite add up given how much information we’ve been allowed to see in the flashbacks. Then there’s Cassian’s own willingness to go wherever the winds of fate take him. That appears to be a character quirk at the moment. But I’m not an impatient viewer. I can wait for the story to fill in those missing pieces and give us more perspective as the plot unravels.
HMR Macross Zero VF-0D Shin
in Toys
Posted
Careful. In the pantheon of idealized aesthetics, this could be how the Macross toon versus toy versus line art civil wars begin. Other franchises are still embroiled in their own similar civil wars… *cough* debates… to this day.
I’m in the both look nice group, btw. If the HMR 0D has a weathered or clean look at retail, I’ll definitely pick it up either way.