Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Sharpandpointies]

[Scientist] *leaves me and a Junior Technologist big bags of samples to deal with*

[Me] *emailing* Are there any dangerous things in these samples? Like, I don't know, heavy metals?

[Scientist] *emailing back* Oh, yeah, they have heavy metals in them. I was told I didn't have to label them, though.

.....

*teeth grinding*

FFS. I don't care who said you didn't have to label them, you always inform your technologists if there's something dangerous in a sample. Like, is this not basic safety and courtesy?

Would not be commenting, but this sort of thing is not an isolated incident when dealing with scientists and (especially) engineers. Gah.

[Nik Hasta]

This passion for remakes is getting painful, I agree.

But, here's the thing. I've seen Barbarella, because I have a shonky film podcast and me and my housemate decided to watch it. I have met precisely... zero other people in my age group who have seen it and most people I have spoken to about it have only heard the name and know nothing about the film.

It's like, who is this remake for?

No subscription.

I've heard some explanations before (including from Jackson), and while certain points made sense, others simply did not and came off as attempts at rationalization and excusing after-the-fact. I would be curious to hear these ones; pity.

Ellis is pretty very film literate and knows the books well. She points out some very telling bits to help explain why some things might have happened and how the knock on effect of those decisions were added later. For example, in an earlier draft, Arwen was meant to be at Helm's Deep in Two Towers. You can actually see her briefly in some tracking crowd shots if you look carefully.

One of the other things that I hadn't considered was that while the bulk of all three films were filmed concurrently, they had the release schedule after the first one to react to criticisms, do re-edits and re-shoots in places. She suggests that Two Towers is kind of the messiest of the trilogy because they production team were reacting to Fellowship being out which was their first criticism and so they were heavier handed in their choices than they should have been, which I can kind of see in that film.

And because no decisions are made in a vacuum, they had knock on effects elsewhere. It's a good assessment and quite interesting.

[Sharpandpointies]

But, here's the thing. I've seen Barbarella, because I have a shonky film podcast and me and my housemate decided to watch it. I have met precisely... zero other people in my age group who have seen it and most people I have spoken to about it have only heard the name and know nothing about the film.

It's like, who is this remake for?

Also a valid point.

Ellis is pretty very film literate and knows the books well. She points out some very telling bits to help explain why some things might have happened and how the knock on effect of those decisions were added later. For example, in an earlier draft, Arwen was meant to be at Helm's Deep in Two Towers. You can actually see her briefly in some tracking crowd shots if you look carefully.

Absolutely.

I've heard multiple reasons why Arwen was cut from Helm's Deep edit: removing this reason because it sounds like I'm criticizing the actress (I'm not) - and one of the most convincing ones (and the official one) is that 'it got leaked, there was backlash, so they pulled it'. Really, in the end it doesn't matter the exact reason - the point is that they intended to have Arwen in there, shot the shots, then pulled her scenes after.

Honestly, having Arwen do more in the movies (as long as it didn't further stress the 'love triangle' between her, Aragorn and Éowyn that Jackson shoehorned into the movies, ugh) would have been one of my positive changes. I was 100% fine with her taking the place of Glorfindel in the first movie during the trek to Rivendell (as much as I love Glorfindel). Gave the character more screen time and more oomph.

One of the other things that I hadn't considered was that while the bulk of all three films were filmed concurrently, they had the release schedule after the first one to react to criticisms, do re-edits and re-shoots in places. She suggests that Two Towers is kind of the messiest of the trilogy because they production team were reacting to Fellowship being out which was their first criticism and so they were heavier handed in their choices than they should have been, which I can kind of see in that film.

And because no decisions are made in a vacuum, they had knock on effects elsewhere. It's a good assessment and quite interesting.

Sure. And I'd be interested in hearing the commentary - would be nice to see it all laid out, and might also explain why Fellowship is the only movie of the three I actually enjoyed. I admit to curiosity.

However, there's stuff in there having to do with big changes to characters, themes, and storyline even that simply cannot be explained away by editing. Just as a single example, Gimli is basically comic relief through the entire series of movies, and barely resembles his actual character in the books. Edit: this is...not an improvement in the way that 'More Arwen' might have been, if done correctly (Tolkien's books do suffer from a lack of strong women who actually do stuff, though Tolkien's writing in general has less of a problem with 'having strong women in it').

[Sharpandpointies]

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

The battle with Macht and Solitäar has FINALLY concluded, a great win thanks to some inspired strategizing on the part of the good guys (rather than just beating the enemy with raw power). I likely have enough to do my 'Who can beat Freiren?' thread (there will be a lot, she's not Classic Strange or anything, but she's not a weak fictional mage, either and it would be fun to see the answers and get an idea where to put her).

Will wait to see the epilogue of the battle; something interesting might turn up.

[Nik Hasta]

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

The battle with Macht and Solitäar has FINALLY concluded, a great win thanks to some inspired strategizing on the part of the good guys (rather than just beating the enemy with raw power). I likely have enough to do my 'Who can beat Freiren?' thread (there will be a lot, she's not Classic Strange or anything, but she's not a weak fictional mage, either and it would be fun to see the answers and get an idea where to put her).

Will wait to see the epilogue of the battle; something interesting might turn up.

Been a good fight this. Real teamwork days.

[Sharpandpointies]

Been a good fight this. Real teamwork days.

Normally multi-issue fights feel draggy for me, but this one was back-and-forth between the two battles, and showcased a whole lot of different attempts to deal with the Demon Lords' greater power (a rarity when Frieren is around). Plus a lot of character...pretty much for everyone, even exploring Solitär.

And a satisfying conclusion with both of the winners employing solid tactics (nothing ground-breaking, no complex plans or anything, just good tactics) to barely eke out wins/tie-games.

[Sharpandpointies]

Amusingly, I could answer my own thread right off the bat. Who can beat Frieren? Macht or Solitär would take majorities, I figure. ^_^

Maybe not if Frieren had the ability to actually fight ten battles in sequence and learn from each one. She's not THAT far behind them, and she's pretty darned good at learning on the fly.

[Nik Hasta]

Oh no... oohh nooo...

Not a patch on the original.

[Sharpandpointies]

Alberta's new premier is very special. -_-

“[The unvaccinated] have been the most discriminated-against group that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime.”
- Danielle Smith

Urrrgh.

[Froggy]

Alberta's new premier is very special. -_-

“[The unvaccinated] have been the most discriminated-against group that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime.”
- Danielle Smith

Urrrgh.

in your life maam?

Ma’am
MAAM!

[Sharpandpointies]

in your life maam?

Ma’am
MAAM!

She's a United Conservative Party radical who somehow (huge surprise) got elected by the party to be the interim Premier while Jason Kenney stepped down (due to being about as popular as a feces explosion at a wedding). The UCP is right-wing even by Conservative standards, and these days the Canadian Cons as a whole are basically migrating farther and farther right while following Trumpist-style politics (see: Pierre Polievre).

Radical-Right-Wing political person leading a party that has had connections to all kinds of unsavory organizations (and regularly is caught being racist/fascistic) makes comments about how the unvaccinated are the most discriminated-against group they've supposedly ever seen (in Canada, when...I don't know, setting aside all of the other groups, we have the whole Indigenous people/residential schools and 'starlight tours' in her own province?)?

Checks out.

[Froggy]

She's a United Conservative Party radical who somehow (huge surprise) got elected by the party to be the interim Premier while Jason Kenney stepped down (due to being about as popular as a feces explosion at a wedding). The UCP is right-wing even by Conservative standards, and these days the Canadian Cons as a whole are basically migrating farther and farther right while following Trumpist-style politics (see: Pierre Polievre).

Radical-Right-Wing political person leading a party that has had connections to all kinds of unsavory organizations (and regularly is caught being racist/fascistic) makes comments about how the unvaccinated are the most discriminated-against group they've supposedly ever seen (in Canada, when...I don't know, setting aside all of the other groups, we have the whole Indigenous people/residential schools and 'starlight tours' in her own province?)?

Checks out.

yea sounds about right, folks like that talk about others/minorities having a victim mentality then prove it was them projecting. Crazy enough

[bruceleegreyhulk]

[Sharkerbob]

God, do you ever just, like, be watchin' a YouTube video, and they say something that makes you realize, "Oh, wow, that's right, COVID hadn't happened yet."

[Sharpandpointies]

God, do you ever just, like, be watchin' a YouTube video, and they say something that makes you realize, "Oh, wow, that's right, COVID hadn't happened yet."

….yeah, it HAS made its mark.

And continues to do so.