Techwright

Trailer: Couple of things caught my eye:

My Big Fat Speed Wedding? Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Year One?

Episode 5 I get the impression from watching reviewers that a lot of people are wanting more "pew! pew!" and less development in Andor. I suppose this is a result of modern spy shows leaning more that way. Well, that and we're now in a binge-watching, slide-to-key-moments, instant gratification society. Me, I feel this is like the slow-burn setups common to the 1960s TV spy shows, which I loved. I am gratified to see that the action-only folk are not as prevalent as those saying they really love the writing: the dialog, character development, and the slow fuse burn to the big events. Now, spoilery talk on episode 5:

I swear it was an accident! 😂 Jackson is an interesting choice. I'd like to hear a calmer performance than Mojo, however. Doom always strikes me as calm and in control, at least until the surprise and "No! It cannot be!" moments.

Curiously, the work filters allow CoH Homecoming but ban the Quantic test, so I took it on my phone. Apparently, I'm Samwise Gamgee. "...there's some good in this world...and it's worth fighting for." Bard/Gardener Bard: "Playing a part in a Grand Story" Gardener: "Quiet, Relaxing Task Completion" Gamer Motivation Profile: Calm, Spontaneous, Grounded, Creative Highest marks, 89% in the Creativity Components. I'm actually not surprised. I was an art minor in college, and I'm always drawn to the parts of games where the most creativity can take place: costume design, base/housing design, etc. Action Components, 18%, I am surprised at. Once in the fray, I tend to fight very aggressively. It's especially true when pugging in CoH, though I tend to play more defensively and strategically when soloing, like taking on a nest of Sentinels in No Man's Sky. Perhaps that is what the test picked up on.

Anthony Daniels springs to mind. The droids are sort of the Star Wars equivalent of Hamlet's Horatio: they are both observers and surviving testifiers. Having the ability to provide C3PO's voice for the future allows the droids to continue that function. Admittedly R2D2 is the only one of the two with his memories fully intact (Senator Organa ordered C3PO's memories wiped, probably to remove his ability to speak about Anakin), but both still fill this role. In Star Wars lore, droids can exist indefinitely as long as there are parts, funding, and a lifeform's will to keep them running. As to the base performances for future Darth Vader works, I'd love to see either Scott Lawrence or Matt Lantern in the driver's seat. Matt, of course, was Anakin in the Clone Wars animation. Scott has voiced Vader in multiple animated and game projects including Jedi: Fallen Order. I find Respeecher full of potential. With it, we may get future Star Wars animated works filling in story bits of Leia, Luke, and Han. Leia's rise after Return of the Jedi as a different kind of Jedi, more of a Jedi consular, has always intrigued me, but we only have a thin skeleton of the story. Chances are they lost a lot of viewers to Hurricane Ian as well. I hope critics take that into account when examining the numbers. Episode 4 was indeed quite good. My comments in orange in the hidden parts below.

Just adding a comment on one of the actors. Rupert Vansittart, the actor who portrays Chief Inspector Hyne in Andor episode #1: despite the brevity of his appearance, I was struck by his appearance and acting skill. It has me thinking: I wonder if they'd consider casting him as Marvel's Secretary (& General) Thaddeus Ross to replace the late William Hurt? The character of Ross was rumored to have a lot more storyline in the near future with the upcoming Thunderbolts as well as the possibility of the Red Hulk storyline.

Late to the party, and I've an unusual angle. I've long taken tips from Peter's Evil Overlord List, like my favorite: Shooting is NOT too good for my ene....wait...that's not it, that's #4. Hmmm... Ah, #12! One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation. While I lack access to a five-year-old child (I keep telling my niece and nephew-in-law to hurry up), I do find the principle of taking a good hard look with a fresh perspective to be beneficial in both personal and professional life. There's actually some other nuggets of wisdom hidden in the whimsical guide: #17: When I employ people as advisors, I will occasionally listen to their advice. AND #61: If my advisors ask "Why are you risking everything on such a mad scheme?", I will not proceed until I have a response that satisfies them. (Be willing to take advice/counsel) #20: Despite its proven stress-relieving effect, I will not indulge in maniacal laughter. When so occupied, it's too easy to miss unexpected developments that a more attentive individual could adjust to accordingly. (Never let yourself get too distracted) #24: I will maintain a realistic assessment of my strengths and weaknesses. Even though this takes some of the fun out of the job, at least I will never utter the line "No, this cannot be! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!" (After that, death is usually instantaneous.) (A balanced self-assessment) #27: I will never build only one of anything important. All important systems will have redundant control panels and power supplies. For the same reason I will always carry at least two fully loaded weapons at all times. (Never put everything in one basket. Always plan to have a something to fall back on.) #32: I will not fly into a rage and kill a messenger who brings me bad news just to illustrate how evil I really am. Good messengers are hard to come by. (Think of the effects on the future before acting) And... #60: My five-year-old child advisor will also be asked to decipher any code I am thinking of using. If he breaks the code in under 30 seconds, it will not be used. Note: this also applies to passwords. (As a computer tech, I really wish people would implement this in their own lives and on their company laptops.)

I'd forgotten Martin Freeman played Arthur, but if I remember, this was before Sherlock when I really took notice of him. I do want one of those knives, though.

^ commenting above in orange - Techwright I said we might be able to infer some things regarding Thrawn. I hate tossing up a spoiler for this. as the info's been out for a while, but just in case...

I've just finished the 3rd episode. But I'll break it down by episode so as not to spoiler anything (I hope). Episode 1 On to episode 2: And episode 3: Okay my big thought so far... Critiques aside, I am enjoying the show and look forward to episode 4.

...and to be in the zone when asking. While it won't necessarily stop the petition to switch, it does set in mind that if they've got to move anyway, they might as well switch characters. Yes, but you can't use fingers, only mittens. 😜

I'm pretty sure it's either Easter meat when the oven buzzer goes off or... the clothing that big siblings pass on to younger siblings when they outgrow it. But don't quote me on that.

Fair enough, though I would point out that Saw has taken the lethal and dangerous route for some time before this, especially after his sister's death. Perhaps he's been worn out by this constant effort and Luther is the rejuvenating spark?

My guess is that the Thrawn role is Lars Mikkelsen's to lose. He was highly complimented for his voice performance and seemed to understand the character very well. There is a question that needs to be asked: will Disney hold to the lore that Chiss, a near-human species, have somewhat shorter lifespans than actual humans. The events of Rebels played out close to 15 years previous to The Mandalorian with a certain former Jedi's quest to find a certain Chiss Grand Admiral. Said Grand Admiral was supposedly born on or near 59 BBY, making him 58 at the end of Rebels. add 15 years and he's in his mid-70s. Chiss live "up to 80 years" per Wookiepedia, meaning Thrawn should be in the last years of his life at the time of Ahsoka. If Disney holds to that lore, the Thrawn actor would have to either be old or skilled at playing old age and tough. Think Clint Eastwood with the mind of Sherlock Holmes. While makeup and prosthetics can do much to aid that portrayal, I think suggested candidates like Matt Smith might be too young for the role. Even Benedict Cumberbatch, as awesome as he undoubtedly would be in the role, might be on the young side at age 46. Lars, though, at 58 might be right for portraying aged with physical discipline.

So much to unpack here and not enough time. I'll just say: 1. Secret Invasion really surprised me, and that's a good thing. I thought for sure there'd be a lot of corny jokes and stuff. Instead it looks very much in the vein of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and I'm down for that. I'll also say: notice the eye. Its a very different look from Captain America: the Winter Soldier. 2. Mando, as always looks amazing. Death Watch vs. Bo Katan's folk, I'm thinking. I rewound a few times just to watch that paratrooper-type drop. The effects guys really did a good job with making that believable. I'll also say: did you notice how solemn Grogu is in the trailer. Sure he's hanging upside down but he doesn't seem to be having fun this time (though he did have a look of wonder on his face once). I'm going to guess his time with Luke started sobering him and perhaps put him on the path to finally start growing up after 50+ years. 3. The choice for live-action Ezra Bridger visually looks very good, and I'm glad to hear the character is definitely in this. 4. Glad someone recognizes that Warwick Davis can act without significant costume or makeup over his face. I still say he'd be perfect as Miguelito Loveless for a proper moderns adaptation of The Wild, Wild West. (It's time to free the fantastic 1960s TV series from the wretched 1990's ...thing.)

I would classify Logan as a Claws/REGEN Scrapper. It's literally his superpower. Whatever he is, he's clearly the tech origin. I'm a fan of the old heroes, and identifying and tying them to game structure is a bit challenging. Green Hornet and Kato are easy: both are scrappers. Hornet is probably a street fighter/willpower and Kato a martial arts/willpower. Doc Savage is trickier though. Commanding his squad of five "brothers" and being a world-class genius and polymath, he fits the thugs mastermind profile, but he's also a solid fighter on his own, So possibly a thugs mastermind with a street fighter/willpower scrapper nature? Then there's the Shadow. Definitely got the thugs mastermind thing going on, with a legion of allies blended into the city just waiting for the sign of the girasol ring to go into action. But he's got those wicked oversized twin .45's which should classify him as a gun fu blaster. But then he's known for blending into the shadows, which might just be stalker, or it might be a dark stalker, depending on who is telling the story. The Phantom is somewhere between a gun blaster and a melee scrapper. Perhaps a gun blaster with an energy secondary for the melee.

Stellan Skarsgard's character sounds in dialog in this trailer like Saw Guerrera. I'm going to guess Saw doesn't actually just talk with him, but actually convinces him to act, and in a manner closer to Saw's ways, which probably leads to conflict between Skarsgard's character and Mon Mothma who canonically has clashed with Saw over idealogical differences in how to run the rebellion.

I was reading this thinking " Who is Liz Windsor?" I know most of the names of the Bond actors of an age to die but...oh, wait. 😶😳🤣 Yes, that was possibly the best pre-Olympics show in history, and poor Rowan Atkinson had to follow that. (He was amazing, too.) It was wonderful of her to play along with the gag. Mom had heard or read of the Queen's humor and relayed a tale where two Americans were hiking near Balmoral (I think it was) and actually had the great fortune of crossing paths with the Queen and a servant near the castle. (Why there wasn't a squad of the Coldstream Guard in sight, I've no idea.) As the tale goes these blokes were oblivious to the reality of whom they were addressing, just assuming they were speaking with friendly locals. The Queen decided to let it play out, and they ended up talking to the servant more than her, even going so far as to learn that he'd "been acquainted with the Queen for quite some time", and asking her if she'd take their picture with one who was acquainted with the Queen. Supposedly, she talked them into taking her picture as well, and confided to the servant later that she'd loved to be a fly on the wall when they showed that picture to friends. The tale may be true and it may be embellished in the retelling, but one things certain....I'm not claiming those idiots as fellow countrymen. 🙄

I've been doing some catch-up reading in the forums, and after seeing "Incarnate" umpteen times, an old question I've long held popped back to the forefront of my thinking: What was the OG developers mindset behind having both an Incarnate Shard path and an Incarnate Thread path for Alpha? For only Alpha? And why even have Shard when it is so ridiculously easy to build using Thread as opposed to Shard? I confess I don't really get the Shard Path concept. It takes far longer (for me anyway) to earn what is needed, and I can only use it on Alpha.

Yeah, another of my favorites, Tabula Rasa, was killed by them as well. True, there were some behind-the-scenes shenanigans that hastened its downfall, but I felt like the game was moving in the right direction, it just wasn't given the chance. What puzzles me is when NC closes a game rather than put it up for sale. It's not like it has never been done. Lord of the Rings Online changed hands twice, I believe, and is still going. There's companies that buy up aged games and run them. So why close?

They're too busy enjoying their 32 (known) flavors of ice cream.

Bump as a reminder that this comes out Friday which is 2 hours from now East Coast North America. Amazon Prime Video. I'm guessing you good folk on the east end of The Pond already have it?