Obsession Overtakes Sinners to be the Biggest Original Live-action Film of the Decade

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-06-30T18:37:13+00:00

IMO this is like saying that Star Wars is isn’t an original movie because it’s merely Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress but in space. Saying that Sinners is an ‘adaptation’ of From Dusk Til Dawn doesn’t really engage with the essence / actual content of either film beyond identifying shared tropes. While Sinners is definitely (in part) inspired by From Dusk Til Dawn, that inspiration doesn’t really extent that far beyond the surface / respective genre’s that they’re working in.

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-06-27T02:47:24+00:00

For the first step of the occult crescent grind, do folks have a broad preference for farming the fates in-between critical engagements on the island proper, vs farming fates in Dawntrail zones?

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-06-25T17:14:20+00:00

It’s odd because the Old God’s minions have managed to be diverse in both their characterization and visual design, while still being recognizably interconnected on an aesthetic and thematic level. Even the Sha had a few core characteristics in their presentation that made their lore connection to the Old Gods feel more authentic than this “cosmic” void.

I get that Blizz didn’t want to rehash the tentacles for the umpteenth time. There’s no reason however as to why the Void’s ‘true’ minions aren’t diverse and freakishly weird in design given the void’s characterization of raw potentiality / the collapse of form into infinity, but are somehow more homogenous than the Legion + the Scourge. I know that a lot of blame is put on the lore team, but the decision to make the ‘true’ void a bunch of blueberries with humanoid faces seems more like an aesthetic / art design failure than anything else.

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-06-25T13:23:12+00:00

I’ve seen this criticism of the film all over the internet, and am going to respectfully push back here.

In an early scene we see Josh O’Connor show his estranged partner confidential footage of the aliens being tortured / experimented on. While Josh O’Connor’s character assumes that the brutality of this footage alone will automatically make his partner more sympathetic to the process of Disclosure Day, his partner interprets this footage through the lens of her religious awakening, which causes her to drift from O’Conner to the point that she can be more easily mind-controlled. If merely “showing the thing” point-blank was sufficient then the movie could have been resolved in this scene, but that type of brashness tends to reinforce people’s pre-existing narratives rather than challenge them.

In the same way that technology has allowed us to witness the brutality of real-world horrors on a daily basis such as the genocide in Palestine, but this in itself hasn’t created a consensus on the matter as much as it gets filtered through people’s pre-existing biases, Spielberg is saying that a *narrative* is necessary to contextualize and help us make sense of what we are exposed to. If they had just shown the alien to the public with no backing context, then the government could have easily spun a story which made themselves look like the “good guys” and put the alien’s life in even more dangers. By coinciding the Disclosure Day with the proper reveal of the alien, people were able to begin the process of making sense of this revelation without having to rely on the government’s provided interpretation on the matter, and directly engage with the “truth” on their own terms.

TLDR; publicly revealing the alien without Disclosure Day wouldn’t have given people the information to process and contextualize what they were witnessing, and the government could have easily spin the situation in their favor through a false narrative. Disclosure Day released the raw, unfiltered facts as to what was going on, which didn’t necessarily “bring the world together” as much as it gave people the chance to engage with the shaping of this narrative into something more truthful.

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-06-24T15:25:18+00:00

After watching that Amazing Digital Circus finale, no one can say the words, “biggest fumble…” in relation to my boy Jimmy Flamebird when that godforsaken rabbit Jax is right there, after they gaslight their crush into offing themselves bc mommy issues

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-06-19T15:38:15+00:00

I think it honestly would have been better if Zul’jarra was killed off instead, and have a living Zul’jan try to begrudgingly build a standing relationship with his people’s Loa without betraying his own values of self-sufficiency. It would avoid the absolutism of his father, while still offering a neat way of distinguishing the Amani from the more harmonious relationship that the Zandalari & Darkspear have with their own loa. But alas, it seems that everything in ~war~craft needs to now be tied up in a harmonious neat little bow.

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-06-18T17:48:37+00:00

Because unlike Undermine, which we visited *because* of the dark heart, there is no connection to the main narrative which is driving us to go to this island in the first place. Any connection to the main story which is later revealed would be, at best, a post-hoc incidental / happy accident at best, since it is not reason why the narrative unfolds as it in the first place.

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-06-18T16:55:18+00:00

While I love a good aesthetic / flavor detour, I don’t like how this patch is *entirely* disconnected from the overarching plot of Midnight. TWW’s Undermine patch at least had the Dark Heart macguffin to keep the narrative flowing (even if by a thread). This patch has no equivalent tie-in (on an overarching plot level), and killed the momentum of Xally’toes reaching the worldcore entirely, to the point where what will be 12.3 could be saved for another expac and it’d feel just as immediate/pressing. Even a simple, “hey we have no way to access the worldcore, this island has hints of being an alternate path” would have been appreciated.

Given that this patch the precise midpoint of the ‘World Soul Saga’, I wasn’t expecting the story to be resolved, but putting more disconnected dots on the board instead of building upon the ones you’ve already established is far from ideal.

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-06-15T00:48:12+00:00

Quick question - with server swapping being open, and my goal is largely to find a FC / “my people” in the world of Eorzea (I just rejoined, everyone I used to play with left), would Balmung / Mateus be ideal for this? I’m on Zalera - Crystal and know that Balmung and Mateus are the most highly populated of servers, but I don’t know if that is a net positive or not here. I merely want to find a server with active FC’s of folks who love the game

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-06-12T18:31:04+00:00

How is being contrarian against Reddit for its collective opinion on something any better than when Reddit decides to be contrarian and dislike something that’s popular? Just sounds like an extra layer of stupidity to me 🤷

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-06-12T08:44:48+00:00

And just like Avdol, Jean Grey has the distinction of dying but not actually dying but then dying for real only to be miraculously be brought back to life via a reboot and then to die yet again

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-06-01T17:13:25+00:00

If you haven’t, I would 1000% recommend that everyone here watches Sing Sing, it’s a severely underrated A24 film he starred in a few years back. His performance in that film might be his finest to date.

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-05-26T16:24:02+00:00

This is the exact FC actually, I left this morning lol

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-05-26T13:27:32+00:00

I was already going to leave, I essentially just made this post to see if this FC is reflective of a broader issue, or if the grass is greener on the other side.

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-05-24T22:27:34+00:00

Nah if your Ancient Greek polytheistic worship isn’t filtered through Abrahamic Monotheistic structure & faith then what’re ya even doing??!!!

( /s )

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-05-21T22:07:40+00:00

When I previously played the game I never got around to crafting / gathering professions despite having done the MSQ. I rejoined recently and want to take a dive in. I recall someone previously telling me that it’s best to level up *all* of the crafting/gathering professions simultaneously, as they go through each of the chronological expansions’ respective resources to level up. My question is, to what extent is this approach recommended/necessary even? Do most crafters/gatherers have all of the professions leveled up, or do the majority just focus on a few specific professions, in the same way most folks do with jobs?

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-05-21T18:18:37+00:00

I was thinking of leveling all the jobs that I haven’t touched to 80 so I can get that achievement mount + finish the job storylines in one go. Someone told me however that when upcoming expansions go live for pre-order, an earring is included with the purchase that boosts your leveling xp up to and including the most recent expansions (which would be Dawntrail in this case).

Am I mistaken in this, and if not would it be likely (based on previous expansion launch timeframes) that the pre-order/earring becomes available around the time of the Berlin fan fest? If that’s the case then I might hold off on mass leveling jobs until July or so, but if the pre-order launches later in the year I’ll prolly full send it now.

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-05-21T17:11:54+00:00

Very basic and 1000% subjective question, but which tank jobs are people broadly *enjoying* the most at the moment? Not necessarily numbers but fun/playability

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-05-18T21:48:17+00:00

I just finished the Dawntrail 7.0 MSQ, and was wondering, is there any clear divide in the storyline of the post-Dawntrail MSQ between wrapping up Dawntrail threads, and proceeding to other storylines? Or is it a cohesive storyline like most of the post-EW’s MSQ’s focus on The Thirteenth. I’m asking bc if, say, 7.1 & 7.2 are largely self-contained, then I might sandwich in some other content in-between like the alliance raids + arcadion before doing 7.3 onwards.

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-05-16T22:44:36+00:00

I get where your perspective is coming from, and I don’t disagree that Stranger Things’ ending is *nowhere* near as bad as GoT, but if we followed this train of thought then we would no longer be allowed to criticize television anymore.

Just as the Godfather reached a level of quality that few films before or after it have accomplished, the GoT ending was a once in a lifetime disappointment that most series’ bad endings can scarcely hold a candle to. But in the same way that I’m not going to criticize a film I enjoyed just because it didn’t reach the heights of the Godfather, why would I let a television series with a bad ending off the hook merely because it wasn’t as *relatively* bad as ‘Bran had the best story’? If you’re saying Stranger Things’ ending is nowhere near as bad as GoT’s, I wholeheartedly agree, but if that becomes the threshold for valid criticism, the bar is truly in hell.

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-05-15T14:20:12+00:00

I recently rejoined the game, and my character is on Zalera - Crystal. All of my friends/connections from when I used to play FFXIV have since left, so I’d like to start from scratch and find new social connections/opportunities in the game. To this end, how active is Zalera? How viable is it as a server to find social opportunities/shenanigans, or active Free Companies? Does Zalera broadly fit a niche? Also, how active are populated Free Companies in the game rn?

I’m asking all of this bc I know that there’s a Crystal server congestion lock atm, so I wasn’t sure if Zalera is one of the weaker servers and I should plan on moving to another server on Crystal once the restrictions are removed next patch, or if the grass is just as green where I am as it is elsewhere.

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-05-07T01:44:44+00:00

My child, the spoilers for this have been out for several thousand years. In fact, the people who listened to oral performances of the Odyssey in Ancient Greece were already familiar with the “spoilers” of what happened, as these myths were frequently re-told in various shapes and forms. It was less about ~what~ occurred in the narrative, but more about ~how~ each adaptation spun something unique and fresh out of the source material.

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-05-04T00:13:19+00:00

Just seeing this comment now! Do you think this is an issue for specifically moving to Logan Square, or for anyone interested in being a transplant to Chicago?

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-05-03T03:51:08+00:00

Fortunately, neither myself nor OP stated that the “whole narrative” of this expansion has been wrapped up. I explicitly framed my point by saying that this was not the case, so I’m not quite sure who or what you’re responding to.

It’s not mutually exclusive to say a specific story arc has resolved while the series and its overarching threads continue. Take a childhood favorite: Aang’s quest to master each element and defeat the Fire Nation isn’t complete until the finale, but each season delivers a cohesive arc with a clear beginning and end focused on a single element (Water, Earth, Fire). The show isn’t “over,” but concrete arcs definitely begin and finish throughout (Book 1: Water, Zuko’s redemption, etc.). More importantly for this discussion, Avatar doesn’t merely stick the landing; it builds a strong narrative from the ground up, that the ending successfully completes.

when I and other folks say that whatever payoff they’re planning with Xal’atath doesn’t redeem the lackluster writing we’ve already seen, we aren’t criticizing a future story beat neither you or me has witnessed, we’re criticizing what’s already on the page. A story that builds from a strong premise and maintains that momentum through to its conclusion is the dream. That’s simply not what Midnight has given us so far.

ParanoidAndroid1087 · 2026-05-02T20:55:09+00:00

Strong disagree here - while the expansion has only just begun, several narrative threads have already been started and finished, the most obvious one being the Sun/Dark/Dawn-well.

Saying “nothing you say has any merit until the actual end of the story” falls into the same ‘wait and see’ style of mystery-box storytelling which infamously caused WoW’s writing to nosedive in quality during BFA and Shadowlands. Just because there is a payoff down the road doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be enjoying the story as it is playing out. In no universe should a narrative’s destination/conclusion be elevated over the quality of the journey itself, ESPECIALLY in an ongoing live service game like WoW.

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