Techwright

1. What an intriguing idea! I went back and viewed the lighting ceremony repeatedly. While the handle does look similar, and I cannot swear that it is not the Dark Saber handle, some close-up shots seem to show it as a different design that has similar shapes. I'm perfectly fine with it being the Dark Saber handle, though, if it is formally revealed as such. 2. Agreed. Though considering the merchandizing possibilities, I suspect the toys will come out of the box within 2 years for another adventure. 3. Just don't take a full 2 episodes to focus on the Din family to the exclusion of the titled character. As to Bo, I think it would be a natural that it should be arranged for her and Ahsoka to meet again, this time on the live screen. It makes sense, too. As Thrawn will be revealed as a huge threat, it would be natural for Ahsoka to notify her friends, especially the ruler of a planet. Incidentally, it just hit me today: Bo-Katan is leader of the Nite Owls, and Ahsoka is deeply tied to the owls, one in particular. Friendship coincidence? or is the Filoniforce at work here?

Hmm...visually, it's stunning. I think I can accept the look of the command deck. Roddenberry and Matt Jeffries went for the best they could pull off with the technology and the budget for the time, both in the TV series and for the refit in The Motion Picture. I can only speculate, but I think they'd be pleased with the look. I do find the amount of space in the ship to be very surprising. The OG ship was built for a compliment of 200 or so, and was deliberately kept to relatively tight spaces, both to reflect the tight spaces of a naval ship of the 20th century and to show the "cost"/effort needed to create a starship (there were only 12). ("Cost" as Roddenberry had ideas about a currency-free society, but there's still ways to cost.) Just looking at Spock's cabin, there appears to be loads of space, something akin to executive cabins on board Picard's Enterprise-D. The shuttlecraft interiors look significantly expanded too. Even DS-9's runabouts were not so roomy. (Oh, and did you notice the shuttles chairs are not bolted down?) I do hope that's not a 10-Forward at 0:16, but a bar on a space station. If a 10-Forward, that again would violate the limitations of the OG Enterprise, and fall in line with the comfort-stylings of the Enterprise-D, or the alt-universe Enterprise, which looks different due to radical design contamination from studying scans of the future Romulan craft. It's going to take a bit of getting used to...

As one who doesn't really know how these things work (not my "techwright" wheelhouse), is it just a matter of modding something back to an "on" position, or were things removed and are not there to mod?

Thanks! I've not heard of it before. I shall investigate.

Season 3, final episode, or as I'll probably call it: "We all were so wrong. So very, very wrong." (Did I mention "very"?)

The question is a good one, but it needs to go further: it has to be clear if all of Section 31, for all time is truly evil, or if portions or all of it corrupted over time to truly evil, and if portional, is there a self-righting faction? One of the finest Star Fleet officers, but ultimately of a heart of Bajor and the Prophets. I agree, one of the best speeches in all of Star Trek. Sort of the dark side counterpart to Doctor Who's Twelfth Doctor's anti-war speech.

Full disclosure: I do like Section 31, or I should say, I like the Deep Space Nine version. I've no idea what the current version is like. That said, I understand what you're saying. Section 31 first appeared after Gene Roddenberry's death, though the broad universe had been building that way for longer, revealing secret organizations within multiple major powers. Largely, the people that inherited Star Trek felt the need to re-establish, what they and many fans perceived to be, some balance to the franchise. Gene had been pushing his utopia ideas to such a point that by time of The Undiscovered Country, even late into the process, he was submitting proposed changes to the script that his heirs felt would render the result unappealing to the public. Or at least, that's how I heard it. Deep Space Nine was a decision to test the mettle of the Federation utopia ideals by placing the story on the edge of the Federation, but in the center of both a strategic hot spot and vastly different ideological empires. Section 31 was born, story-wise, into this. DS9 has often been called "gray Trek", but it's not, on the grayscale, "black Trek". The producers were trying to show that, yes, the Federation is a utopia, but unlike it's widely-held belief, namely that it had achieved everything, it actually still had a ways to go. It's ideals needed to be propped up for a time. Time as in centuries. Within the scripts themselves it was revealed that Section 31 members themselves understood that what they did wasn't ideal, but they saw it as necessary, as did the writers of the Federation constitution, until as such time as those utopian ideals had found a way to defensively coexist without violence in the face of the aggressive behavior of all who bordered them, tried to invade them, or tried to undermine them. Not trying to change your mind or combat you on it. Just putting it out there why there will always be at least two different factions of viewpoints on what Trek should be about. I say "at least" because other challenges have arisen over the years. The 2009 movie Star Trek highlighted discussion on another such dichotomy: exploration vs. "pew pew". Personally, I've always felt that good Trek is a balance between those, but there is polarization in the fandom.

Thanks for pointing this out. I'd forgotten to consider this, and yes, I use this often.

We're sorry. The idea of forming a central committee for the determination of approved thoughts was not approved prior to publication. One must first have the idea written out for approval on an official, officious, office form, signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters. Then we'll consider it. Eventually.

Adding my affirmative to forgetting to use temp powers. I think this is because I usually perceive them as too weak to begin with. If I had a temporary baseball bat of 10 uses with extreme conical damage, I'd certainly be putting that in a position to use in a tough scrape. Sort of a poor man's "I Win" button. I do use jetpacks often. I keep jetpacks on every character that does not take flight. It is unfortunately necessary due to things like the Shadow Shard. I do keep certain reward temp powers handy, usually those that will drop a temporary fighter into the match (For the reason, see the "I Win" comment above). In fact I was eyeing that control for the temp power rewarded from the Katie Hannon TF just the other night during a tough fight. I did use one charge of it due to getting jumped by a gang.

A one-act version, for a limited time. I guess the actors get to...do this all day. https://www.superherohype.com/geek-culture/531606-rogers-the-musical-sets-a-june-premiere-date-at-disneys-california-adventure

Minor news: Lars Mikkelson commented on his character, Thrawn, stating that viewers might not understand the big picture of his plan until the last. I'll link the source with the more-exact quote below. I only point it out because in recent years viewers of Star Wars and other franchises have a nasty habit of writing off anything that they see as trivial or do not understand at first, missing concepts like foreshadowing and plot building. Dave Filoni, the one behind this project, has a habit of creating episodes in TV that seem like "filler" but turn out to be crucial to the story. The end of Star Wars: Rebels, the predecessor to the upcoming Ahsoka, was a prime example of this. https://www.superherohype.com/tv/532149-lars-mikkelsen-teases-thrawns-agenda-in-ahsoka

Can anyone make a recommendation as to what programs out there can provide a superior game of player vs. AI chess? Standard chess only, please. If the game comes with unusual variations, that's fine, but I just want to dust off my old chess skills from my high school club days.

It's not unlike the who's who in the modern Ocean's 11 movie franchise, just a lot campier. As to why "top-name actors" were on a waiting list to play roles or have window cameos during the wall crawls, Burgess Meredith himself says: "It was a riotous experience. Everyone had a good time working together. We got to do an awful lot of ad-libbing. Mine usually came when the Penguin would insult Batman by calling him 'Batboob' or Bat-this' or 'Bat-that,' which made acting in the show additionally enjoyable. " Even top-billing loves to have a good laugh. For me, it was weird seeing American 1920s radio and music star Rudy Vallee acting on camera and as a Brit (Lord Phogg). Well, that, or narcissistic bully Otto Preminger as Mr. Freeze. Yikes! Trivia note: The "top-name actors" element continued literally right to the end. They made 2 animations canonical to the TV show. The last thing Adam West worked on was Batman vs. Two-Face, something they'd always wanted to do for the 60's show, but left out, feeling that badly-scarred Two-Face was a bit too scary for the show's target audience. When it finally was made, they brought in another 1960's top actor, William Shatner, to play Two-Face, and even drew the character to resemble Shatner of the late 1960s. Really great touch.

This may just be the best Luminara sass ever.

Still have to see The Batman before I go this route. I will say, ever since the trailer for that movie I've been astonished at the transformation of Colin Farrell into the role. Oh, and hey! IMDB reports that Clancy Brown is playing Sal Maroni, one of the other big boss names in the non-powered Gotham underworld. Release the Kurgan! It's iconic, isn't it? Meredith says he came up with it as a cover for his irritated throat due to smoking.

I choose to see it as a Freudian slip. Garlic would indeed be insanely hard for you.

The Kheldian would still be able to take Horus' form in the same way they take tank and squid forms, right?

You're saying they were already vamp'ed? 🤔 Well, I guess you would know.

I've wondered if a game like this could benefit from "seasons" like I've heard Fortnight does (I don't play it). In context here, the curtain closes on one season, like the "Who Will Die?" story, then reopens on a point a short time later with advancements, such as Penny Yin replacing Sister Psyche. That way, we don't have residuals conflicting with progressive points. For the duration of the "season" the situation remains static.

I was a bit surprised when you used the plural, but went and looked at Sasha Banks' outfit, and yeah, no forward thigh armor. Din, on the other hand, has no shin armor. As a former soccer player, I can tell you the shin is incredibly vulnerable to a good kick. I once witnessed a star player taken out of the season when an opponent tried to kick the ball only to hit shin. The resounding *crack* could be heard on the other side of the field. Looking over the pictures, I'm suddenly wondering: are there leather workers and tailors in their ranks?

Wow, a Rob Leifeld pouch defense argument. Never thought I'd see that. It's probably best that Rob never drew Paz Vizsla. He'd have a chest and feet that defy anatomical explanation (probably physics, too), and his mini-gun would have pouches on the barrel.

Exactly on both counts. If a Child of the Watch has full beskar armor, it is because they earned it. Otherwise it is an amalgam of armor types. I'm not certain whether the Nite Owls all had complete beskar armor, but if they're like Sabine Wren of Rebels, the beskar is passed down for generations within the family and can be reforged to the current owners' needs. This is probably the case with Paz Viszla, who descended from a noble house, but as many of the CotW were foundlings, they have to earn their beskar. Din got a lucky break when he turned Grogu in for a beskar reward that pretty much completed his armor.