Techwright

I'm not thrilled the TV show is ending, The Flash has always been one of my favorite comic characters, but considering how problematic the writing has been off and on for years, and that at 9 seasons in, actors are usually wanting to move on lest they be permanently typecast and out of work, I'd say it is time. It's too bad the Arrow-verse seems to have grown more juvenile over time (though it still had its moments). Another series or two with a harder edge to them, akin to the first seasons of The Flash and Arrow, might have been appreciated. I for one, forever hope someone would develop a gritty noir around The Question.

I thought they were trying to portray Atomic Skull at first, and finally realized it was meant to be Derek Powers. If they were going to do a Batman Beyond, Keaton is at the right age to play Bruce. Tom doesn't really strike me as Terry though. Terry's much edgier.

I'm most interested in this:

Season 2 Episode 9: "The Crossing" Mixed-bag episode. This started out poorly, but improved towards the end and appears to have some input into the major story arc.

To each his or her own, I guess.

I put my other gaming on pause to try out a host of demos during Steam's big demo event this month. Of the many I've tried so far, I keep coming back to Dreadful River. Just in the few days that I've played it the game's team have made a host of improvements, including increasing the number of opponents on the river. In talking with the devs, their goal is to unlock landing for fighting and exploration in the next few days. They seem to be very responsive to feedback right now, and one of the four suggests I made was responded to and in the patch the next day. I've never seen that kind of speed before. I've read some gamer comments referring to this as a "tower defense on a river" game. There is that, but when fully functioning, it will also act similar to classic hero questing games. Here's a link to one person's sampling of the demo. Keep in mind their version of the demo is 11 days old now (as of this writing) and many improvements have been rolled out in just that short time. I've found the tactic here is to not just float into a fight, but to keep the raft constantly rotating/revolving to spread out damage, and add it speeding up, slowing down, strategically dropping anchor or running aground, even tacking back upriver. At the first town you stop at for supplies, they will give you a sail to improve speed and maneuverability. They hope to roll the full game out before March 1.

Season 2, episode 8 - "Truth & Consequences" (mid-season episode) Wow. Major main storyline episode taking the Bad Batch storyline into several unexpected directions, and changing the Batch probably forever. Spoiler talk:

Season 2, episode 7 - "The Clone Conspiracy" Back on track with the main storyline (sort of). Disney+ dropped 2 episodes on us today, probably due to the 8th being the mid-season point. I'm watching the two separately and commenting on each separately as a result. Episode 7 marks a strong comeback to the main storyline, and it is notably more intense than the previous three episodes. It features the return of a fan-favorite character from The Clone Wars, more dialog from a certain villain character than I can ever remember them having, and short appearances by a couple of long-standing favorites. Oddly, they apparently decided to take a page from The Book of Boba Fett, and what the episode does not have are the title characters. It does appear to be telling a long set-up story for their next action, however. Spoiler talk:

Just started playing the free survival game Arid. Other than the fact that my character has the jumping/climbing ability of a legless horse and at times seems to have their eye level set to that of a hobbit's, I'm quite enjoying it so far.

The movie wasn't a total loss. Having Marian back was a blast, and having Cate Blanchett as the villain was great. The mini documentary on surviving an atomic blast with only temporary disorientation by hiding in refrigerators was quite useful as well. No more Burt the Turtle with "duck and cover", and no need for expensive survival rooms buried in the back yard.

Never heard of it, but looking it over, it seems very interesting.

It's Lucasfilms, so it's also Disney. Do you think they're going to let that cash cow go to pasture? I can see a few years off, but I can't see Disney letting go of Indiana Jones permanently. There's one possibility that might allow them to have cake and eat it too: introduce a new Indy actor, but also retain Ford. Kind of like Leonard Nimoy in 2009's Star Trek reboot. In the case of Indy, there's the major point in the TV show The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (which I'll call "soft canon" though it was originally intended as canon, I'm told), that the stories of his past are told by a 90-year-old Indy. Translated to the movies, that might allow Harrison Ford to take on the old storyteller mantel, while introducing his replacement. Depending on Ford's health and, well, continued existence, they might be able to squeeze out a couple of films with this motif. There is a theory out there that Indy's goddaughter in this film will be the focus of an Indy-like series of films going forward, though I'm not sure if the 1970s as a setting will hold the mystique and storytelling potential of the Nazi-era 1930s and 40s. I for one might be interested in early Cold War-era films surrounding Short Round, Indy's kid sidekick in Temple of Doom. It could bring an Asian lead to the larger Indy-verse and might focus on stories in Asia or the entire Pacific. I'm merely guessing where S.R. ended up, since he's not mentioned again. (I'd really like a cameo or some reference to him in this final film.)

Vidiotmaps and a few sound mods, mostly to temper or block annoying sounds thought a few I use to enhance or change a sound.

Wood you say you...staked...out a place? I say, is that the exit? *Heads stage left*

I'd have eliminated War Walls. I know the game necessity for having them but they make no lore sense. First they are walls on the scale of dams. Dams that take years and years to build properly. These supposedly went up in short order in the middle of a short but powerful war. Second, we're fighting an opponent that can fly. One that had an active mothership as well. And we build massive concrete walls. That's like creating the barrel to shoot fish in. Second, I'd do a better job writing the rest of the world into the story. I realize the game's name is defining, but that didn't have to be so in the beginning. No city is an island unto itself (Even Praetoria has several islands.). While we do have the Rogue Islands as "elsewhere" and we have stories that reference other places, I'd have like to have seen a better integration into the state, the region, the country, and the world at large. We could have had task forces that of necessity sent us to London , or Cairo, or Ayers Rock for that matter, to deal with something that would have grave consequences for Paragon City if left unchecked. for that matter the current lore states that the invasion was global in its scope. We should have seen more of the fallout from that. I'd also have written a clearer history of the heroes and villains. I've managed to piece together bits here and there, but even with the plaques and markers, I'm left feeling a bit disjointed. I pointed out in another thread some time ago there's some seemingly contradictory information on those plaques about the timeline of Mayor Spanky for example.

Enough to open a lunch counter Got an low sodiu...uuuh, wait a second...isn't SPAM supposed to be pink? That stuff looks like tofu.

While I could see it, and he'd be good, I think that would fall under @ThaOGDreamWeaver's comments about filling the role with one who always plays the same parts. Beside, I've hope against hope that someone will realize that Pratt could be the next Indiana Jones. I realize that hope hangs by a thread finer than spider silk, but maybe this is the world in the multiverse where it happens. 😉 Cena - I still am not past the images of him suiting up in a battleframe suit portraying one of the main characters of the failed game Firefall (which the game didn't fail, the owners did. The game was glorious until the new ownership gutted it). Cena had been hired to promote the game while it was still in early beta. If he's lucky, no pictures still exist, though I've not checked the Wayback machine. Blue Beetle - I'm open to the possibilities. But what I don't want to see is Jaime Reyes as some "Yakky Duck" character running a motor mouth of shock at the battlesuit's antics. Yes there will be discord between the two, but it can be handled with better writing choices. Aquaman 2 & Flash - I'm wondering how much the off-screen antics of stars in these two will hurt their performance. There's not been a lot of love for Amber Heard since the court case, and well, you already mentioned Ezra's ...um...situation. As to whether this new DCU will succeed or not, well, it has always been the same thing in every franchise: the script has got to be outstanding first and foremost. Star Trek: The Motion Picture, for example, had the right stars and the best special effects money could buy at the time. What success it had, though, came from fans desires to see anything Star Trek back on the screen. It was a tepid film otherwise. The real powerhouse was The Wrath of Khan, and it was so because it had a humdinger of a script as foundation. This is not a new concept, but Hollywood seems to keep forgetting how crucial it is. I could watch a movie with paper-mache monsters, cheezy spandex costumes, and good but unknown actors in the lead roles if the script were powerful. The rest is icing. Icing is important to the cake, but it is not foundational. DC will need to figure this out like Marvel did in phases 1 to 3. (Marvel might need to rediscover it in parts of their franchise as well.)

Actually, at 51 years of age, I think I'd rather see Nathan Fillion go live action as Hal Jordan, a character he's voiced repeatedly in the animated works. Don't do Hal's origin story except perhaps in a brief flashback. Make Hal the presiding Green Lantern for years now, and introduce Jon Stewart and any of the other Earth-born Lanterns as a second wave in the movie. Sort of like the MCU taking the Hank Pym character and making him older than the cast of characters he traditionally hangs with in the comics. This has the potential down the road of allowing Fillion to play both the hero and villain sides of the character with as much grit as he brought to Mal in the more intense moments of Serenity. Hal can be funny at times too, though I'd rather them not take that to the degree that was done in the 2011 movie. I do agree though that Nathan has the personality to play Booster Gold. So does frequent collaborator Alan Tudyk for that matter. But I feel like B.G. should be a younger character. His vanity and inexperience suggest it. I know Mark Strong always wanted to play Sinestro again, and if he's fit enough for the part at 59 years of age, I say give it to him. I very much would like to see a strong Jon Stewart. Michael B. Jordan springs to mind for the role, though maybe that's typecasting seeing his Marvel character was also special forces? Momoa feels almost right for Lobo. Maybe 80 to 85%. Lobo comes across much more brash and boisterous than I've ever seen Momoa, though I've not seen all his body of work. Perhaps I'm still thinking of him too much in terms of his Stargate: Atlantis character. But then, is that the type of challenge actors relish? Creating a character that is different than perhaps the stock characters they've been known for? I'm pleased that they've put Booster Gold up in the first wave of the reboot. I really wish they'd do The Question, too, though. I still have one burning question: When are they going to make an Ambush Bug film? DC needs an answer to Deadpool. 😛

Season 2, Episode 6 - "Tribe" Okay, after two mostly stand-alone episodes we're somewhat back on track, maybe not in the overall arc of Bad Batch, but in the greater arc of Star Wars in general.

I've been blessed to miss these little events...so far...*raps knuckles on antique desk*... I'm curious though. Some of the comments have me thinking some of you believe that a person is doing this. I've seen other forums invaded like this, years back admittedly, that were chalked up solely to bot action. The creators that set them loose were probably unaware of which forums they'd infected. Is that what's happening here or is there some giveaway that clearly suggests deliberate human targeting of these forums? If it's humans, they're a sorry lot. It's not like we have scads of people to manipulate into buying things. Targetting forums with a million members plus seems more advantageous to their goals.

Well, ya, if the critter ate 75 pounds of the stuff as @Luminara noted, I'm surprised it didn't OD long before that. 75 pounds is enough to sink a pod of blue whales, maybe a few pods.

You've an interesting take on COH. What would you say would be needed by any future MMO, regardless of the subject theme, to achieve such a connection with the player?

Possible address to the concerns:

No idea. Resistance was painfully slow to me, but it was mostly due to bad writing and highly annoying main characters. UPDATE: Okay, I went and watched reactions as they trickled in to YouTube (I've never seen such a slow crawl before), and I now understand that this episode may have had greater depth in the full context of Star Wars than I initially realized.

I excused last season's fluff as an unfortunate effect of the scramble in the film industry caused by COVID and the uncertainties it brought. I mean, even Rhea Perlman's voice acting sounded distinct and separate from the others, like she recorded it in the safety of her basement in a homemade sound cubical. That's not present this season, and the first 3 episodes were very strong. I'm puzzled therefore why they're sinking back towards their first season pattern. Especially as Dave Filoni is helming this. He had a few toss-away episodes in The Clone Wars, but not many. This one felt more like an episode of Star Wars: Resistance, an animation I've noticed people are reluctant to bring up again, and for good reason. I'm not tossing the season out for 2 lesser episodes, but they do need to get their drive in gear.