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Crissa
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Post by Crissa »

It sounds better than the stuff I watch on telly. But we watched Despicable Me instead; it was pretty good, not at all like the two completely incompatible movies they were advertising.

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Prak
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Post by Prak »

Yeah, after seeing Predators today, I was very glad I saw the midnight opening of Despicable Me instead. Predators wasn't terrible, but Despicable Me was more enjoyable.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
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Post by TOZ »

We pulled up to the theatre and Predators was playing in ten minutes. Otherwise it would have been Despicable Me. We'll catch that one this weekend probably.
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Post by Username17 »

I liked Predators, but like Cube I was disappointed that they went for the painfully predictable route of having the straight laced guy turn on the heroes at the last moment for no reason and then die. It's really very cliché and was telegraphed so far in advance that when the big reveal came I was just "Really? That's it? Dumb."

If I had written the end, I would have nixed the formula as follows:
No face-heel turn or big reveal. The guy is actually a doctor. He's there because doctors make so many life-and-death decisions every day that he has seriously killed more humans than any of the warriors. Ultimately he uses the poison blade he gets at the beginning of the movie on the last predator while being severely wounded, an the IDF chick takes it out.
While we're at it, we defy convention by having the hard ass character not have a change of heart at the end. When the ship blows up, he is actually on it and dies.
Because seriously, that kind of horror movie is so formulaic that not having the last minute personality transplants would actually be a surprise.

But other than that, I really did enjoy the movie.

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Post by Prak »

well, I liked the idea of Topher Grace playing the psychopathic doctor, but think it could have been better executed (no pun intended.) But, yeah, the hard ass antisocial dick should have died on the ship.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
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Post by Lago PARANOIA »

FrankTrollman wrote:I liked Predators, but like Cube I was disappointed that they went for the painfully predictable route of having the straight laced guy turn on the heroes at the last moment for no reason and then die.
You know, that shit totally ruined Titan AE for me. Like that movie was straddling the fence between 'good' and 'watchable' but you-know-who having a sudden reversal of personality unfortunately put it into the column of 'worth watching, but nothing special'.
Josh Kablack wrote:Your freedom to make rulings up on the fly is in direct conflict with my freedom to interact with an internally consistent narrative. Your freedom to run/play a game without needing to understand a complex rule system is in direct conflict with my freedom to play a character whose abilities and flaws function as I intended within that ruleset. Your freedom to add and change rules in the middle of the game is in direct conflict with my ability to understand that rules system before I decided whether or not to join your game.

In short, your entire post is dismissive of not merely my intelligence, but my agency. And I don't mean agency as a player within one of your games, I mean my agency as a person. You do not want me to be informed when I make the fundamental decisions of deciding whether to join your game or buying your rules system.
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Post by Parthenon »

Yeah, Predators was dumb but fun. I kept wanting to shout at them to fucking shoot the predators, especially just after the spetsnaz guy dies where the predator very slowly decloaks and aims while everyone stands there without reacting.

Which reminds me... wasn't the doctor's leg badly maimed? And then he can walk again suddenly? What was up with that? I definitely agree that the doctor should have used the paralysing scalpel on a predator.

In fact, that could have been really interesting- a more psychological slant to the film, where you look at what people are willing to do when hunted, and how the average person (e.g. the doctor) can become a predator and kill when needed.
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Post by Prak »

actually, hell, it might have been interesting if instead of turning on the people that had helped him survive, he'd gone all psychopath on the predators...
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
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Post by Username17 »

Prak_Anima wrote:actually, hell, it might have been interesting if instead of turning on the people that had helped him survive, he'd gone all psychopath on the predators...
Really, anything at all other than using one of the five horror movie twists would have been interesting and good. I don't know why people think they have to use horror movie stock twists at all any more, they've pretty much been done to death at this point. Starting from the point where Edwin steps in the ankle trap, I would totally have sent the script back for a more innovative ending if it did any of the following:
  • Edwin reacts badly to the final battle and tries to clambor away, getting killed by a Predator/ a Trap/ a Dog/ a Stray Bullet/ Whatever for his troubles. Royce's self serving attempt to fly away is punished with extreme explosion, and Isabelle wins the final confrontation with the final Predator and is the Last Girl™.
  • Edwin betrays the group, Royce has a dramatic change of heart. Edwin dies. Isabelle and Royce beat the last Predator and then hug. The end.
  • Having defeated the last of the Predators, it is revealed that there is actually a fourth predator. All main characters die.
  • The characters make it to the ship and begin their escape, only to realize that they were actually hit with one of the hallucinogens hinted at earlier in the movie, or the ship autopilots itself right back to the waiting arms of the Predators. Everyone is really trapped and doomed to die. Fade to black.
  • The last characters get hacked down one by one. Then Isabelle wakes up. It was all a dream. Or a simulation. Or something.
If you can't come up with an ending that is more interesting or satisfying than the generic ones, you shouldn't be allowed to do a screen play.

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Post by K »

CBS's website has Enterprise on it for a limited time. I can see why the show had to be canceled, but the episodes with Andorians are still awesome.
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Post by Lago PARANOIA »

I tried watching Broken Bow and the Andorian Incident awhile back on Enterprise and I just couldn't stomach it.

Maybe I just have bad luck, but I had to endure three episodes where the 'heroes' are stupid, xenophobic pricks and that the authors thought that the height of comedy was Vulcans saying that humans smell bad.

Maybe I was just spoiled by TOS and VOY, but I could just not imagine Savik, Spock, or Tuvok acting anything like the Vulcans on ENT. Spock is pretty sassy at times, but I've usually taken it as in just him ribbing the crew, rather than an actual superiority complex. I mean, really, what the fuck?
Last edited by Lago PARANOIA on Fri Jul 16, 2010 7:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
Josh Kablack wrote:Your freedom to make rulings up on the fly is in direct conflict with my freedom to interact with an internally consistent narrative. Your freedom to run/play a game without needing to understand a complex rule system is in direct conflict with my freedom to play a character whose abilities and flaws function as I intended within that ruleset. Your freedom to add and change rules in the middle of the game is in direct conflict with my ability to understand that rules system before I decided whether or not to join your game.

In short, your entire post is dismissive of not merely my intelligence, but my agency. And I don't mean agency as a player within one of your games, I mean my agency as a person. You do not want me to be informed when I make the fundamental decisions of deciding whether to join your game or buying your rules system.
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Post by K »

Lago PARANOIA wrote:I tried watching Broken Bow and the Andorian Incident awhile back on Enterprise and I just couldn't stomach it.

Maybe I just have bad luck, but I had to endure three episodes where the 'heroes' are stupid, xenophobic pricks and that the authors thought that the height of comedy was Vulcans saying that humans smell bad.

Maybe I was just spoiled by TOS and VOY, but I could just not imagine Savik, Spock, or Tuvok acting anything like the Vulcans on ENT. Spock is pretty sassy at times, but I've usually taken it as in just him ribbing the crew, rather than an actual superiority complex. I mean, really, what the fuck?
Oh, everyone in Enterprise is a xenophobic prick, and most are outright morons.

The Andorians are the most fun because they are the only ones that don't pretend that they aren't xenophobic pricks.
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Post by Lago PARANOIA »

Speaking of Star Trek, I would like to state a second time that Chain of Command is one of the best 45 minutes I have ever experienced watching a television show.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the best Star Trek episodes are the ones that are done on a minimal budget that mostly involve talking?
Josh Kablack wrote:Your freedom to make rulings up on the fly is in direct conflict with my freedom to interact with an internally consistent narrative. Your freedom to run/play a game without needing to understand a complex rule system is in direct conflict with my freedom to play a character whose abilities and flaws function as I intended within that ruleset. Your freedom to add and change rules in the middle of the game is in direct conflict with my ability to understand that rules system before I decided whether or not to join your game.

In short, your entire post is dismissive of not merely my intelligence, but my agency. And I don't mean agency as a player within one of your games, I mean my agency as a person. You do not want me to be informed when I make the fundamental decisions of deciding whether to join your game or buying your rules system.
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Post by TOZ »

Lago PARANOIA wrote:Is it just me, or does it seem like the best Star Trek episodes are the ones that are done on a minimal budget that mostly involve talking?
What, the ones that actually have to stand on the quality of the writing? Get out of town.
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Post by Maxus »

I didn't know Gygax wrote some books, until I saw a Greyhawk book from 1982

I might buy it (it's about 50 cents) just for the laughs. Maybe even snark it on here.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

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Post by Prak »

yeah, I knew about him as an author of novels. He wrote something called "The Anubis Prophecies" or something, and I'm curious, but afraid he pulled that "dark god of the dead" shit, so I haven't checked it out yet.

It's more recent than the one you found though, came out within the, like, ten years before his death.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
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Post by RandomCasualty2 »

Lago PARANOIA wrote: Maybe I just have bad luck, but I had to endure three episodes where the 'heroes' are stupid, xenophobic pricks and that the authors thought that the height of comedy was Vulcans saying that humans smell bad.

Maybe I was just spoiled by TOS and VOY, but I could just not imagine Savik, Spock, or Tuvok acting anything like the Vulcans on ENT. Spock is pretty sassy at times, but I've usually taken it as in just him ribbing the crew, rather than an actual superiority complex. I mean, really, what the fuck?
Actually I could totally see the Vulcans as having a superiority complex. They probably saw humanity as pretty undisciplined and reckless before humanity really proved itself.

Though you'd think they'd be better diplomats.
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Post by Prak »

Just got back from Sorcerer's Apprentice.

It was good, nothing particularly special, all fairly predictable but it was entertaining. The really cool thing was that the magic was some magic, some science and some art. Granted, it was a bit of hollywood science, talking about conducting the neural electricity of the sorcerer, and setting stuff on fire by convincing the molecules to be a bit more excited, etc, but it was still pretty cool.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
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Post by Lago PARANOIA »

Someone pointed out that Neelix was dating Kes before she entered puberty because of the episode Elogium.

You know what that means. :awesome:
Josh Kablack wrote:Your freedom to make rulings up on the fly is in direct conflict with my freedom to interact with an internally consistent narrative. Your freedom to run/play a game without needing to understand a complex rule system is in direct conflict with my freedom to play a character whose abilities and flaws function as I intended within that ruleset. Your freedom to add and change rules in the middle of the game is in direct conflict with my ability to understand that rules system before I decided whether or not to join your game.

In short, your entire post is dismissive of not merely my intelligence, but my agency. And I don't mean agency as a player within one of your games, I mean my agency as a person. You do not want me to be informed when I make the fundamental decisions of deciding whether to join your game or buying your rules system.
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Post by Ganbare Gincun »

Lago PARANOIA wrote:Someone pointed out that Neelix was dating Kes before she entered puberty because of the episode Elogium.

You know what that means. :awesome:
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Post by Maxus »

He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Post by Red_Rob »

Is it bad that the first thing I did was check the revision history for signs of vandalism?

In other news, I just watched episode 4 of FullMetal Alchemist and the twist nearly made me feel physically ill.
Simplified Tome Armor.

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Post by TOZ »

First series or Brotherhood?
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Post by Lago PARANOIA »

As much as I hate to admit it...

The Dragonlance Chronicles comic, circa 2006, is... well...

It's kinda fucking cool. Not fucking awesome, just fucking cool. Sure, there is the share of stupid plot points in it like gully dwarves and that dragon statue, but for the most part this comic actually feels like the world is slowly collapsing and there's nothing the protagonists can do about it without getting into blatant Grimdark territory.

If I wasn't aware of how stupid the campaign setting was I would actually look pretty forward to running/playing in a game based off of the Dragonlance comic. Hell, I'd even be willing to join up with the party. I would be the min-maxxed monk 1/cleric who abused the hell out of spikes, a three-section staff, and Item Familiar. Because you know I love my martial artists and beating up the apocalypse with your kung fu kicks is the kind of thing that makes Lago's boner grow three sizes that day. :awesome: to a grand total of two inches, but it still tripled in size. Don't judge me. :cry:
Josh Kablack wrote:Your freedom to make rulings up on the fly is in direct conflict with my freedom to interact with an internally consistent narrative. Your freedom to run/play a game without needing to understand a complex rule system is in direct conflict with my freedom to play a character whose abilities and flaws function as I intended within that ruleset. Your freedom to add and change rules in the middle of the game is in direct conflict with my ability to understand that rules system before I decided whether or not to join your game.

In short, your entire post is dismissive of not merely my intelligence, but my agency. And I don't mean agency as a player within one of your games, I mean my agency as a person. You do not want me to be informed when I make the fundamental decisions of deciding whether to join your game or buying your rules system.
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Post by Maj »

T0Z wrote:First series or Brotherhood?
I'm guessing it's the episode about the Chimera (Brotherhood). Yeah, FMA deals with some pretty heavy topics.
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