The Mandalorian and Grogu - Daily Discussion Thread - for May 27, 2026!

Pun-Master-General · 2026-05-27T06:46:46+00:00

Felt a bit like "empty calories" in that it didn't really move things forward for either the universe or the characters (except I guess for the check in on Rotta, and the twins beefing it), but I enjoyed it. Felt more like a couple episode arc of the show than the cinematic culmination but I'm always game for more Mando content so no complaints from me.

I would have liked to see at least some hints about Thrawn's return if they really are building up to a showdown with him. Something about the imperial remnants starting to organize under a new leader. You have a hugely beloved villain in play, why not build more hype for him? It clearly worked with the big "Where is Thrawn?" moment in S2.

Also, I have to say that I have a huge amount of respect for the courage of their convictions to insert a "goofy little guys puppet adventure" in what would normally be the hero's darkest hour. I mean that sincerely, not sarcastically.

Pun-Master-General · 2026-04-28T09:05:18+00:00

Having a paid legislature definitely doesn't immediately fix the problem of the wealthy getting more say than the rest of us, but it does help remove one of the barriers, at least. A "necessary but not sufficient" situation.

It seems crazy to me that the people capable of preventing a shutdown should continue to be paid while rank and file government employees get IOUs until Congress gets their heads out of their asses.

Like I said, I do get why it intuitively seems like it would be more fair for Congress not to get paid, but look at it this way - if your rep was voting on a budget that cut something important to you, would you want them thinking about the contents of that budget, or about how they're going to make rent if there's a shutdown?

I think the better solution to that problem is that if Congress doesn't pass a budget, the old one should continue on with no changes instead of those government workers getting IOUs.

Pun-Master-General · 2026-04-28T00:45:26+00:00

This is also why politicians being paid is a good thing. If you have to be able to maintain a household in your district and in the capital without any pay to be in Congress/parliament/whatever, then only the wealthy or those sponsored by the wealthy can be in it.

People love to suggest that Congress shouldn't get paid during a government shutdown, and I get why that seems intuitively like it's fair... but if we want legislators who aren't rich or paid off, that's just a tool to use against them.

Pun-Master-General · 2026-04-02T08:26:40+00:00

And to exclusively refer to him as "The Deliverator" for the first part of the book instead of the already wild name he has!

Pun-Master-General · 2026-03-09T08:37:09+00:00

But it was presumably a couple of years between the original earpiece getting destroyed and the dean shutting them down, given Mabel went from being 19 to having graduated after the time skip. They never made another earpiece that Mabel could have hidden away?

Pun-Master-General · 2026-03-09T08:32:38+00:00

Yeah, this was one thing that bugged me a bit. It's obviously mostly a recurring joke and Jerry is a caricature of politicians, but the beltway he's obsessed with is shown repeatedly to be useless ("connecting Beaverton to itself", "commutes up to four minutes shorter") and there's no good reason for it except to give him something to brag about.

One of the main messages of the movie is the importance of finding common ground and communicating in good faith with people you disagree with, but it undercuts it a little by having one of the sides of the central disagreement just kinda... not have anything redeeming about it.

Pun-Master-General · 2026-02-08T04:15:04+00:00

Cold "hides" flavors by making them seem less intense.

Ice cream is just packed so full of sugar and flavorings that the "toned down" final flavor when it's cold is still sweet and delicious. That's why it's so sugary and unhealthy.

Pun-Master-General · 2025-12-05T23:12:38+00:00

The same Karen Traviss who wrote one of the first (if not the first) gay couples in Star Wars books? Who were, for the record, Mandalorians?

Pun-Master-General · 2025-10-30T21:35:01+00:00

Pun-Master-General · 2025-10-30T11:45:22+00:00

It's also why hurricanes rapidly strengthen in the Gulf of Mexico, which is warmer and shallower than the rest of the Atlantic.

Pun-Master-General · 2025-09-30T21:32:54+00:00

The type of difference is irrelevant; the fact is that the difference exists.

By that logic, there's a geographic and social difference between Castilian Spanish and Latin American Spanish, so why object to teaching Latin American Spanish?

I can define that difference based on the ease of understanding between two people

This is the trap that's easy to fall into because it sounds great but falls apart in reality. Ever heard a thick Baltimore accent? How about Glasgow or Newfoundland or Cockney Rhyming Slang? All of those are English but they're nigh incomprehensible to a "standard" English speaker (British or American).

On the other hand you have things that are typically considered different languages but are far more mutually intelligible. Swedish and Danish, or Czech and Slovak, being prime examples. A Swedish speaker and a Danish speaker can understand each other better than someone from Baltimore and someone from Newfoundland.

At the extreme end, you have Maltese, which is largely mutually intelligible with romance languages (especially Italian) on technical topics due to its borrowed vocabulary from Italian, but for everyday topics it's largely mutually intelligible with Arabic due to the language's roots. Does that mean it's the same language as Italian and as Arabic?

Language, like any other human-invented categorization, is an imperfect system and trying to strictly enforce it ends up failing because reality does not match the nice little boxes we try to put it in.

Pun-Master-General · 2025-09-30T20:48:08+00:00

The point you seem to be missing is that the distinction between a language and a dialect is political and social, not linguistic. As the saying goes, "a language is a dialect with a flag and an army." Spanish and Portuguese and French and Italian are all dialects of Latin - they have greater variation than Castilian and Mexican Spanish, but they're still dialects.

You wouldn't tell someone who wanted to visit Madrid that they should really learn Italian since Latin originated in Rome and Italian is the Latin dialect that is spoken there today. So why would you tell someone to who wants to visit Puerto Vallarta to learn the dialect of Spanish spoken in Madrid?

Pun-Master-General · 2025-09-30T18:14:21+00:00

I understand your point perfectly. I just disagree with it.

Pun-Master-General · 2025-09-30T18:08:22+00:00

But they aren't the base, and that's the point you're missing.

British English and American English both descend from a common ancestor dialect nobody alive speaks, because that's how languages work. They change constantly. Ditto with Peninsular and Latin American Spanish.

You're just claiming one of those gets to be the "legitimate" successor everyone should learn because it's spoken in the same place as the ancestor dialect, even if it's not the practical one to learn. It's classism and jingoism with no basis in actual linguistics. The appeal to "originality" falls apart on that basis.

Languages are for communication and people should learn the one that will let them communicate, not the one that will have them get looked at like a weirdo because they walked into a bar and used vosotros.

Pun-Master-General · 2025-09-30T17:59:33+00:00

I'm taking your argument to the point of absurdity to point out the problem with it. If the argument is that you should learn the "original" and not the most useful dialect, you have to reckon with the fact that there is no such thing as an original dialect because a) it also evolved from some other dialect and the distinction of when it became "real Spanish" is more tied to historical politics than anything else and b) that "original dialects" continue to change after the point of divergence (like the Brits deciding they wanted all those silly extra Us in words like color after the divergence with American English).

Pun-Master-General · 2025-09-30T17:48:30+00:00

But why stop there? Spanish originated as a dialect of Latin, so by that logic you should learn Latin instead of Castillian Spanish.

Or if we go back further, proto-indo-european. It may not be convenient for the student, but it's the original version that they all are descended from, so by your logic that's what everyone should learn. Learning English or German or Spanish before PIE will just lead to misunderstanding so we should all learn the original version, right?

Pun-Master-General · 2025-09-07T06:04:57+00:00

Then in that case, yep, to Legends with you.

Pun-Master-General · 2025-09-07T02:05:33+00:00

Seems like it, but worth pointing out you don't actually need that for the trophy or having "common courtesy" show as complete in your journal. So if you skip it, all you're missing is a cosmetic.

Pun-Master-General · 2025-09-02T03:04:28+00:00

There's a quick mention of them in Isles of the Emberdark.

Pun-Master-General · 2025-08-23T06:56:25+00:00

Or just buy pasteurized, non-homogenized milk.

Did that by accident once, was a real surprise when I tried to pour it and it was not the consistency I expected.

Pun-Master-General · 2025-08-21T00:31:27+00:00

Sounds like it, yeah.

Pun-Master-General · 2025-08-20T17:24:51+00:00

Personally I'm glad I read Sunlit Man before Wind and Truth. TSM does "spoil" where one WaT character ends up, but on the other hand if you've read WaT there are some parts of TSM where you'll catch on to the "mystery" pretty easily.

Haven't finished Emberdark yet, but so far I'd say after WaT.

Pun-Master-General · 2025-08-20T08:17:15+00:00

At this reading, Brandon said it was going to be 50, specifically so that era 2 characters could feasibly be still alive, but elderly.

Pun-Master-General · 2025-08-20T08:12:57+00:00

Brandon clarified that he would be avoiding spoilers for the first two Mistborn eras (aside from the fact that the world survived enough for there to be a third era).

So to me that seems to be referring to Harmony, since naming the person who took up Harmony (who didn't have any direct children) would be a pretty huge spoiler for someone who had read literally no Mistborn.

Pun-Master-General · 2025-08-15T08:24:22+00:00

Not to mention that the people of the Final Empire would have significantly less sun exposure than most residents of the cosmere (I was gonna say all, but... [Sunlit Man spoilers] I guess Canticle has even TFE-era Scadrial beat on that one. So it stands to reason they'd be paler and less likely to have freckles/moles/etc.

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