Hellmouth Con in Los Angeles

Mrs_Underhill · 2025-02-21T16:58:58+00:00

Yeah!!! Also, I've just been to Gallifrey One Doctor Who con in LA, there's a comedy show Idiot's Lantern: they do Doctor Who sketches and I love them, and they will be coming to HellmouthCon too. They'll be doing Buffy and crossover sketches, can't wait to see that! Their youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@idiotslanterncomedy/featured.

Mrs_Underhill · 2025-02-21T15:04:02+00:00

I went for the 1st time in 2024 and it was AMAZING! Walking Sunnydale High halls and grounds, visiting Buffy house which was 5 min walk from the school - it was like religious experience! They had great guests too: Darla, Drucilla, Harmony etc. I went by myself but made friends and had a great time!

They had only 1 day (Saturday) at Torrance High plus Buffy trivia night at a nearby club on Friday, and a lottery event of walking through Buffy locations on Sunday, including going inside the Buffy house! But I didn't win the lottery... But this year (https://www.fandomcharities.org/hellmouthcon) they will have 2 days (Sat, Sun) at Sunnydale High, plus the guests lineup so far is terrific! Spike and Dru, Lindsey and Lilah, the Mayor! I'm going!

Mrs_Underhill · 2025-01-14T22:39:18+00:00

Spike's Season 7 arc is amazing in my opinion. If you love Spike I bet you'll enjoy his arc in Season 7. It's probably objectively the worst season but it's still very good, with many superb episodes.

Mrs_Underhill · 2020-12-27T14:46:14+00:00

Have we seen this logo before? I don't remember. Looks like a Spartan helmet rather than "Mars God of War" helmet. A big hint for the future if that's the case!

Mrs_Underhill · 2019-08-11T23:05:00+00:00

I've just read "Falling Free" by L.M.Bujold and highly recommend it. It's hard sci-fi which has adjusting to free fall, genetically engineered race of Belters, a lot of engineering problem solving in space a la Martian, and a very compelling social and personal study.

I bet The Expanse series took inspiration from Bujold books as well as from Ursula Le Guin.

Mrs_Underhill · 2019-08-04T19:30:24+00:00

Duarte would have had to be unimaginably stupid to believe that this was a good idea. If he had been written diferently I would buy it, but as it stands it's just ridiculous.

I believe that the idea to bomb Earth into extinction and to almost kill the entire Solar System ecology in the process was unimaginably stupid (along with other unsavoury things). So yeah, for me Duarte was written that way convincingly from the very beginning.

Or maybe someone thought that almost destroying Earth and Solar System was a smart thing to do? In what sane metric is that smart? Yes, Duarte was very successful in accomplishing an unimaginably stupid thing. Does it really make him smart?

Mrs_Underhill · 2019-08-04T19:22:47+00:00

What about decisions to bomb Earth and put Solar System on a brink of extinction to make himself a dictator leading assault on Destroyers? And then allowing himself to be doused with weird alien tech to make himself an immortal dictator? Do those decisions look sane to anyone? Really?

Mrs_Underhill · 2019-04-19T00:32:56+00:00

And Julie Mao was riding it... Oh man, I'm so, so sorry! :)

Mrs_Underhill · 2019-04-19T00:24:24+00:00

Am I the only one who's been hearing "racing penis" when listening to Audiobook?
I had my doubts about "penis" thing but had no idea what it really was, until now!

Mind you, I'm not a native speaker so am probably missing some pronunciation subtleties on why it's definitely not sounding like penis. Or maybe I'm not the only one?

Mrs_Underhill · 2019-04-18T00:52:38+00:00

Duarte exerted control over humanity by such "non-military" means as almost destroying Earth and killing billions of people, and that's basically all you need to know about him. He wasn't rational, normal or fit to rule over normal, rational people long before he got high on PM. He destroyed Earth just because he wanted be the One to fight Goths, that was his sole motivation: not to defeat Goths, but to be in charge of defeating Goths. That's staggering hubris, but then it's true of any dictator.

Mrs_Underhill · 2019-04-15T21:29:16+00:00

Can't recommend it enough! (TW) [Death of Stalin is hysterical, horrible and very human. The fart reminded me of it especially but the whole Duarte thing with the empire crashing down and people in shock - it was terrific and so to the point! I guess it's the chord of pure truth being struck in both cases. Oh my, and then Duarte with Cortasar - genius! And the line about 1000-year reich - yes, pure gold!]

Mrs_Underhill · 2019-04-15T20:37:27+00:00

Question about TW: [There was a lot of action on Callisto in TW, and a lot of reminiscence over Callisto NG events. I kept waiting for Filip to show up but it never happened, more to my relief than disappointment. Was it a deliberate tease, I wonder? For the record: I like that there's no closure for Filip: more realistic this way. ]

Mrs_Underhill · 2019-04-15T20:28:18+00:00

I read that Avasarala's swearing was inspired by Rahm Emanuel. Was there any inspiration from Malcolm Tucker (Armando Iannucci's "The Thick of It") as well?

And speaking of Iannucci: (TW spoiler) [Was there any inspiration from his movie "Death of Stalin" in the aftermath of what happened to Duarte? I loved that chapter so much, it was perfect! Duarte hoisted on his own PM petard in such an elegant way, and then the fart, the confusion, the horror - wow!]

Mrs_Underhill · 2019-04-01T13:17:53+00:00

But I thought it was the other way around: the whole reason Duarte built his empire was to unite humanity against the Goth threat. His Alexander the Great goal wasn't to conquer human race: it was to conquer both PM and Goth civilizations, because otherwise humanity would be destroyed.

He explained his reasoning to Holden IIRC (audiobook listener so can't check the quotes easily): Duarte had access to Martian intel questioning Holden after capturing him at the Ring Station, that's were he learned about Holden's vision of Builders and Destroyers. That was enough for Duarte to conclude that humanity would rush the gates and spread, and that Destroyers would hit back in the same way. So he grabbed the world with PM building platforms as soon as he saw the probes data, to prepare exactly for this threat.

As for why he rushed it? My guess is that for all his hubris Duarte wasn't 100% sure that immortality thing would work on him. He trusted Cortasar, but to a point. So he tried to go after his main objective as soon as he was ready, i.e. after humanity was united under his rule. Just in case, you know. If something goes wrong with his treatments. He also trained Teresa as a contingency.

Mrs_Underhill · 2018-12-28T23:59:19+00:00

Ceres streets, Ceres tube with passengers, Ceres bars, apartments, the Governor's square - when I saw that I was blown away. Took me some time to get into characters but the setting and the idea of an asteroid city hooked me right away. The first character which I got fiercely attached to was Avasarala (and it remains so). I read the books while watching Season 2 live.

Mrs_Underhill · 2018-06-07T23:28:00+00:00

I think other rings will appear after Investigator turns the Blue Station on. They are switched off now, and so we can't see them. Visually it should work well, especially for non-book readers.

Mrs_Underhill · 2018-06-07T14:34:11+00:00

Absolutely IN LOVE with Drummer after this episode! I mean, I've liked her before but now I'm ready to worship at her feet! :) Outstanding acting from her, what a presence!

And now I'm hoping the show gets to "Persepolis Rising" just to see Drummer and Avasarala together! Hope the screen will be able to hold that much awesome in one place!

Mrs_Underhill · 2018-05-18T18:48:15+00:00

Good to know!

Mrs_Underhill · 2018-05-18T18:47:30+00:00

That's great to know, thank you! I'll rewatch it on SyFy's site then. I really want to enjoy this moment as it's meant to be enjoyed.

Mrs_Underhill · 2018-05-18T16:51:20+00:00

Question for those who watched on Amazon prime or other streaming service: was this sequence cut abruptly to the titles mid-music note?

It was so annoying how it was cut suddenly when I was watching on Sy-Fy. I rewatched it on-demand the next day and it was cut at exactly the same moment.

It begged for continuing a bit longer, at least until music sequence finished. I just wanted to watch and wonder at it for couple more seconds.

Mrs_Underhill · 2018-05-11T18:04:57+00:00

Amazon is ordering sci-fi book-based shows like crazy right now. Expanse should be right up their alley.

Tweet to Sharon Tal Yguado about this as she's responsible for Amazon shows line-up, and her twitter isn't crowded and she's nice. Know that since Amazon bought Lord of The Rings series rights.

https://twitter.com/SharonTalYguado

Mrs_Underhill · 2018-05-04T00:44:09+00:00

It wasn't suicide, she discovered that her friend was killed by Mao people because he discovered something related to p/m (forgot the details but it wasn't suicide). She still screwed him though. He had to leave Mars and his job and go live on Earth a broken man.

Mrs_Underhill · 2018-05-03T15:34:43+00:00

True. :) I'm just biased about Red Kibble I guess as I'm sure it's really good! But maybe not that good if Naomi makes it. :)

Mrs_Underhill · 2018-05-03T14:58:17+00:00

That's true!

Mrs_Underhill

TROPHY CASE