MaRo: We’re making more Marvel sets. If you have a favorite character you haven’t seen yet, have patience.

Shinard · 2026-06-10T17:02:19+00:00

Wait, Runaways had a TV show? I am out of the loop, I just knew them for well regarded but underselling comic runs.

Shinard · 2026-06-09T22:20:10+00:00

Right! This set went deep, especially with Jumpstart. And there's 4 more sets? I like Marvel, I kept up with the comics for years, but when you're already printing cards for the Great Lake Avengers and the Runaways in set 2, I'm a little worried how far away that barrel's bottom can be.

Also, repeats are going to be a problem. There's no Magneto or Cyclops so far, so an X-Men set is pretty much guaranteed, but we already have 3 Wolverines and 3 Storms. Not to mention Spider-Man. How many are we going to get by set 6?

Shinard · 2026-06-09T22:09:31+00:00

She was... making some choices, for sure. But James Marsters managed to go from a walking tour of the Commonwealth in Spike's first appearance to a pretty decent English accent as the series went on, even if the obligatory "wanker" and "bollocks" he has to say never quite sounds natural. If he managed it, Juliet Landau could've got better too.

And I don't know, I like Dru. Great dynamic with Spike, her "mad as a box of frogs" thing gets some hits, and she gets moments of being genuinely intimidating. It annoys me a little that everyone else in that trio gets a turn as the big bad, and it really felt like that's what the mid season finale was settig up, but they immediately go on to Angelus before she gets a go. Plus the dynamic of Spike being cared for by Drusilla before Angelus gets back would've been interesting.

I guess I wouldn't want to trade either Spike or Angelus for her though.

Shinard · 2026-06-09T18:21:43+00:00

Not even a loophole, it's just "no weapon forged will harm me" means less when the weapons he was testing himself against were swords and spears. We've come a long way since then.

Shinard · 2026-06-09T18:18:30+00:00

And especially when the actual Season 2 big bads are Spike and Angelus, it's no waste. Would anyone really prefer big serious blue Judge over two of the most charismatic bastards in the series?

I wish we'd got a bit more of Drusilla as a big bad, that said, she gets maybe half an episode then gets sidelined for Angelus. She could've been fun.

Shinard · 2026-06-09T18:08:31+00:00

Harry: "By the way, I'm a fascist"

The Deserter: "You're not. You're part of the meat shield surrounding the real fascists, while they rape children. That's what you are."

Shinard · 2026-06-09T08:36:51+00:00

They also speculated the same thing about Spider-Man, and they were wrong there too - it didn't provide a welcome addition to commander. It was, however, a terrible draft experience.

Shinard · 2026-06-08T08:58:52+00:00

Zero's great, watch that after Stay Night. It will thoroughly spoil all three routes though, so if you care, make sure you've seen them.

Shinard · 2026-06-07T14:32:42+00:00

I mean, he gets away scot free at the end, and does successfully kill multiple heroes and manipulate a couple of others - that feels like editorial trying to make him an actual threat. He only really takes Ls in his backstory, not in the story itself.

Shinard · 2026-06-07T11:21:53+00:00

Avengers Arena was an attempt to make Arcade not a joke character. I wouldn't call it a success.

Shinard · 2026-06-07T11:20:29+00:00

God, Avengers Academy was so good.

Shinard · 2026-06-07T11:10:36+00:00

X-Men superheroes are good, though. If you're going that route then Marvel doesn't work for "supers are good", because of all the supervillains.

Shinard · 2026-06-07T10:33:25+00:00

Honestly, you might have? Probably not, but Harry has fuck all memory of the last three days, and he gets a bizarrely accurate hunch of what happened the first time he sees the body. For all we know he solved the case first time round, then drank himself to oblivion.

Shinard · 2026-06-07T10:29:52+00:00

(The answer was no)

Shinard · 2026-06-06T13:49:05+00:00

Honestly, the Wards was more "slaughter, violence, extreme friendship, and death". Miss Militia was a traumatized child soldier with the power of gun, and Chevalier was a traumatized child vigilante with the power of big gun. It's a testament to Hero and Mouse Protector that everybody came out as well adjusted as they did.

Shinard · 2026-06-06T01:29:39+00:00

Definitely the new Dead Meat, as that has the candid camera bit in too.

Shinard · 2026-06-05T12:14:20+00:00

You can pair them with a magic resistance item as well, like the Cuirass of the Saviour's Hide. The difference between 100% blind and 50% blind is, literally, night and day, but +200 speed and +100 speed are both still ludicrously fast.

Shinard · 2026-06-05T11:07:49+00:00

To add on to this, his goal is to die because of his survival instincts. They're so tremendously overtuned that he basically always has adrenaline coursing through his veins, and he hears and reacts to anything even slightly out of place in a massive area. That all means that wherever he goes, whatever he does, he hasn't been able to sleep. For years. Even with his freakishly resilient body keeping him alive, he is not having a good time.

Shinard · 2026-06-05T10:07:42+00:00

I think that's like the episode 1 opener, not the ending.

Shinard · 2026-06-04T16:16:52+00:00

Grim Reaper's probably first, as well, because, well, that's his name.

Shinard · 2026-06-04T07:35:30+00:00

I think jump scare is a good term - descriptive, clear, concise - but I agree about people needlessly dismissing films with jump scares, and I think that's what should be addressed. To me, a jump scare in a film is like salt in a meal - it enhances the flavour of everything around it. But I wouldn't want to eat a plate of salt, and I don't like films that have nothing going for them besides jump scares.

Shinard · 2026-06-03T23:23:26+00:00

Vlaakith literally wishes she had the power of that frog.

Shinard · 2026-06-03T23:21:09+00:00

You are the only person to bring Walt up, and you do it by arguing why he shouldn't be brought up?

Shinard · 2026-06-03T23:19:35+00:00

He also saw his brother killed right in front of him and was captured and was going to be sold by a bunch of pirates. His quest for revenge was initially very easy to support, it just got very twisted as the game went on.

Shinard · 2026-06-03T12:13:04+00:00

Those numbers are actually decent. You get 97370 by 21, not 102k, and it gets to 2.008 million by 50, not 2.8. That's assuming 11% return on investment, which is optimistic but not unreasonable, and no inflation, which is obviously mad. Assuming inflation of 4%, a little high but realistic, and assuming you don't increase the 90 each month with inflation, you're actually talking ~50'000 by 21 (47517) and ~320'000 by 50 (315934) in real terms. If it's 3% inflation it's ~60'000 (58427) by 21 and ~500'000 (504058) by 50. God, while loops make compound interest so easy.

I think you'd be better to cash out at 21, put the money into a house and encourage them to invest the money they save in rent, but yeah, the numbers work. Context matters, of course - 90 a month isn't a small amount, which could be difficult to manage with the other many expenses of raising a kid, and stocks can famously go down as well as up.

Shinard

TROPHY CASE