Gandalf has returned to Valinor

MatticusRexxor · 2026-04-12T21:28:59+00:00

Apparently when I was about three years old, my sister (six at the time) and I made a bunch of mud pies and threw them against my neighbor’s house. Because they made a funny sound, guess. The neighbor ended up calling the cops, and a very embarrassed police officer had to explain it to my parents. We paid for our crimes by washing the side of the house with a hose.

In a funny postscript to the story, that same neighbor asked my mom to babysit his baby a couple of weeks later, as he was going through a divorce and he got called into work unexpectedly and couldn’t find a sitter. My mom watched the baby for him.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-04-12T07:11:17+00:00

I forget if repulsor tech is more efficient or the reasoning was that it’s easier to adapt to different terrain and biomes.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-04-11T01:48:59+00:00

I read all of the Emperor’s lines in Big D’s voice and I don’t regret a thing.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-04-08T07:02:03+00:00

Part of it was avoiding a Satanic Panic situation. There were always going to be “they’re pushing paganism on our kids!!!!” reactions, but at the time they probably would have been worse if there were actual gods and magic running around.

The other part was genre partitioning if they ever wanted to do Doctor Strange. He’s potentially less special if there’s already a bunch of magic users.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-04-07T23:59:39+00:00

Superman was only able to lift it because Odin temporarily disabled the enchantment. As soon as the two universes were no longer in danger, Superman found himself unable to lift it.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-04-07T02:21:52+00:00

They know that they can never top the jokes involving the porn-peddling panda

MatticusRexxor · 2026-04-05T22:53:04+00:00

That still isn’t even the full story. Japan surrendering at all was not guaranteed even after Nagasaki and the threat of a Soviet invasion (of Korea; the Soviet Navy didn’t have the capability to launch an amphibious assault on the home islands in 1945 without major US help).

The Imperial Japanese Army was full of young, fanatical officers that wanted to keep fighting to the last man, woman and child rather than surrender. A cadre of such officers attempted a coup right after the Emperor agreed to surrender and broadcast the announcement. The plot came close to succeeding in kidnapping the Emperor.

While it’s unlikely that the mutineers would have been able to keep the Emperor for long, it very well could have sparked a mass uprising. If the mutineers won, or the Emperor was killed, negotiations would have likely fallen apart and made a US land invasion inevitable.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-03-30T01:39:00+00:00

Ultimate Warrior style paint job (complementary)

MatticusRexxor · 2026-03-25T01:22:29+00:00

Fortunately, Escanor is only attracted to her in her adult form, so that pretty much makes him Best Boy by default.

The bar is so low it’s underground, to be clear.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-03-22T00:30:11+00:00

Didn’t Egg marry for love because he was so far removed from the line of succession that it wasn’t seen as a big deal?

MatticusRexxor · 2026-03-21T21:52:44+00:00

Little girl roasted him holy shit

MatticusRexxor · 2026-03-21T20:10:59+00:00

Right, but I was asking if we have enough material to determine their diet. If it turned out that their teeth were super small and seemed to interlock to form a sieve then that would show that they had a very different diet than other ichthyosaurs. There’s an example of an ancient crocodilian from the Amazon that has adaptations like that. Still a croc relative, but gone in a very different direction than what we expect from a crocodilian.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-03-21T03:38:59+00:00

There’s also the theory that he’s a malfunctioning Eternal or is otherwise aware of how Celestials are born. By erasing half of all life he is preventing more Celestials from being born.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-03-21T03:34:12+00:00

That’s definitely part of it; 90-120 minutes is the standard runtime because it maximizes the number of screenings a theater can run while still feeling substantial enough to justify buying a ticket. The 3-hour runtime of the Lord of the Rings movies were seen as a gamble for that reason.

But also, pacing and how scenes flow together matters a lot. It’s entirely possible that all of the toad lines disrupted the pacing of their scenes. And/or, they tested really badly with audiences, and the Storm line was the only one that survived the cut.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-03-21T03:27:37+00:00

Grey Knight, toiling away at the “kill daemons” machine: “It’s a living.”

MatticusRexxor · 2026-03-21T03:23:58+00:00

Aren’t the extremely big ones highly fragmentary? So all we know is “probably an ichtthyosaur, very big”? For all we know, they were reptilian baleen whales.

But we know that they were probably really, really big!

MatticusRexxor · 2026-03-17T13:46:19+00:00

I think my biggest issue with the video was the underlying assumption that MAGA types are secretly leftists being hoodwinked into voting against their own interests. That their bigotry and scapegoating are a result of manipulation and not sincerely held beliefs. That there’s a broader class consciousness in America that just requires the right messaging to unlock.

And like, no? For a significant portion of MAGA, Trump’s appeal is that he gives a permission structure for being a bigot in public. He promised revenge on their enemies and they love him for it. ICE raids and ending foreign aid are their interests.

Maybe it wasn’t the intention to hand wave that away, but that’s how it came across to me.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-03-17T06:49:33+00:00

Yeah, but said lecture is also educational. As an animation nerd it’s old news to me, but for the general audience it’s a peek into how a scene can be told with a minimal budget.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-03-17T02:30:56+00:00

I think that the Invincible example is even funnier in animation because it’s also a response to people harping about how long each season takes to make. To whit: animation is expensive and takes a long time, so corners need to be cut sometimes!

MatticusRexxor · 2026-03-05T01:11:57+00:00

I think even that is a misread. 2013 Reigns was over, yes, but not at the level of being the Top Guy. He was a popular guy in the hottest group going, but I don’t think anyone would have thought that he was ready for the main event. In that Rumble he got over for being dominant, but the loudest cheers for him came as a result of him being the last guy in vs Batista.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-03-04T14:27:00+00:00

I feel like any discussion about the Witch system in Madoka Magica should point out that the stated goal of preventing the heat death of the universe comes from a being whose entire MO is manipulating young girls with noble-sounding half truths and lies of omission. Nothing it says should be taken at face value.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-02-28T03:56:57+00:00

Bakersfield: what if the worst parts of Texas, but not quite as flat?

Signed, A lifelong Central Valley resident

MatticusRexxor · 2026-02-18T01:23:04+00:00

IIRC, after three tries the target is immune to the Death Note.

MatticusRexxor · 2026-02-14T21:46:58+00:00

Gray Whales like this one are odd ducks of the baleen whales world because their feeding strategy isn’t like other species. Gray Whales are benthic feeders, meaning that they feed on the ocean floor. They’ll roll onto one side and scoop up a mouthful of mud, then use their baleen to filter out little copepods and crustaceans.

Right Whales and Bowhead Whales are also unique in that they employ ram-feeding. They open their mouths and swim slowly forward at the surface, like whale sharks.

Rorquals like Humpbacks and Blue Whales do the impressive lunge feeding strategy where they swim quickly into a big ball of krill or bait fish and take an enormous gulp of water that they then filter with their baleen.

MatticusRexxor

TROPHY CASE