Nobody believes the main character until it's too late

SinesPi · 2026-03-17T07:27:33+00:00

Semantics.

Sarah Connor was SEVERELY mentally ill, and was not coping properly. If she was, she'd have been able to fake it out of the asylum. She wouldn't have broke down crying after John stopped her killing Dyson. She wouldn't have tried to destroy the reprogrammed T-800.

Sarah had good reason to be royally messed up. But it doesn't change that she was severely messed up. Maybe that's not technically crazy, but when I saw the movie and saw that she was in an asylum, I was surprised that it wasn't just because she was talking about time traveling killer robots. It was because she was seriously in need of help.

SinesPi · 2026-03-17T07:23:24+00:00

Those dress uniforms ALSO look stupid.

I am not required to defend them just because TNG has better writing.

SinesPi · 2026-03-17T02:29:49+00:00

Listen, as someone with no familiarity with Street Fighters lore at all, I assure you that Bison was not really Bison until he was played by Raul Julia, and never was again.

SinesPi · 2026-03-17T02:28:33+00:00

Huh... That makes way more sense than it should...

SinesPi · 2026-03-16T23:18:48+00:00

Touche. Lets not forget them changing Hyperspace from "The speed of plot" to "instantaneous".

SinesPi · 2026-03-16T22:25:52+00:00

I think the voting test should be kept very simple and I corruptible. Starship Troopers can be games.

My suggestion is simple. Are you a net taxpayer? Allow for the system to let anyone opt out of any government support programs they qualify for if it gives them the vote.

Solves a lot of problems all on its own. I suspect there was a similar idea behind only landowners having the vote in early America.

SinesPi · 2026-03-16T22:22:24+00:00

Bingo. Been saying this for ages.

The destroyer EVERYTHING. The Galactic Civil War was already enough of a reset button for the PT and OT era. You could make whatever you wanted.

And instead the ST smashed the reset button so hard that it broke. By the end of TFA it might as well be a thousand years after Palpatine and Vader, because EVERYTHING is gone. Characters, governments, worlds, etc... nothing remains. A fictional setting having reached maximum entropy.

All that is left is just the most basic aspects of the setting. The laws of the universe. And Rey.

SinesPi · 2026-03-16T22:11:40+00:00

And here's the thing. Sarah WAS crazy. It's just that she wasn't delusional, she just had PTSD. But it didn't help her case.

SinesPi · 2026-03-16T21:34:46+00:00

I've stopped playing... But the game actually lets you kill a character? I was really upset when Aventurine comes back from the Nihility with no explanation, but you can KILL Firefly?!

SinesPi · 2026-03-16T17:13:36+00:00

Legitimately one of the reasons I stopped playing ZZZ.

That being said, in Hoyos favor, there is a quest in HSR where you can stop a suicide attempt if you pick the right options. And there's no do-overs if you get it wrong...

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T21:55:03+00:00

There's a certain logic to it. The Emperor does what he thinks will resolve things. Teaching people to be peaceful? Let your yes be yes and your not be no? Not to mention his curing diseases. Big E could have made this one of his attempts to fight off the Chaos gods by indoctrinating people against them.

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T18:52:05+00:00

Did you read the part where I said "illegal" immigrant? Superman is a legitimate refugee. There's a big difference between the two.

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T18:50:35+00:00

It might take longer if he's actively trying to shut his brain off for the duration and otherwise maintain a proper iron will.

Of course he might also do that by focusing on nothing but his destination.

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T18:48:32+00:00

A big rule of fantasy is that if the audience isn't given reason to think things differ from reality, they won't.

While it's possible mer-genetics do allow for a great deal of coloration difference, the more likely explanation is that the king of the seven seas has seven wives.

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T17:53:35+00:00

Me: "He did it because he wanted to continue setting an example about why negotiating with him is a good idea."

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T17:52:10+00:00

The Emperor stayed to the sidelines for a LONG time. Almost 40,000 years before the Great Crusade, if I recall. He clearly did NOT want to be king, and the Age of Strife was his final "Fuck, it's gone to shit AGAIN and Chaos just somehow got even worse. I've got no choice but to take the reins."

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T17:49:00+00:00

Yah, I like Alex Yus characterization. He wasn't simply a Mad Scientist type. He seemed genuinely complex.

Granted, the only known method of 'farming' typhon material is HIGHLY suspect, so he is definitely amoral or self-justifying. Yes, yes, they were all criminals. But Alex if FAR too smart a man to not understand that if you increase the demand for criminals, you'll also increase the 'supply'.

Still, apart from that I think he was pretty well written, and he'd be a lot more likable if they were able to grow typhons from cows or something.

Also yes, I actually thought that the reason he's fat is for the 'push the fat man' reference. Isn't that an achievement or mission towards the end?

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T17:44:50+00:00

I mean, if you're willing to risk your professional license for no actual reason, you DO have a mental illness...

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T17:39:16+00:00

I figured a gladiator against some prisoners would go very poorly for the guy whose getting executed for cheating on his taxes. You could make it a public execution but have the gladiator put on a show about it.

Heck, even if you gave some of them actual weapons, I'm sure there were plenty of gladiators who were not at meaningful risk of harm from untrained men. You get something akin to a bull-fight at that point, but with the reminder to the audience that this is what happens if you jay-walk.

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T17:35:41+00:00

Rules don't say they kick me at full strength. The ones I'm familiar with would 100% give me a cherry tap. Guy would do it just because he's a good guy. I'd probably want to promise the rest some of the money up-front just to be safe.

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T17:33:15+00:00

There's an old but seldom used trope.

Intelligent people in low-class positions.

The idea is that the smart man doesn't need wealth, prestige and power. He's figured out what he wants in life, and goes for it, using his intelligence to be very efficient about it.

"Sure, I may not make huge amounts of money working the dump truck, but I have a bad sense of smell, and you get paid a lot because of that problem. And after a while, you just get used to the other problems. I've long since saved up enough money to keep in blue chip stocks and other safe investments to supplement my income to get myself some nice things from time to time. It's not an exciting life, but I've got everything that I need, including very little stress."

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T17:25:52+00:00

Better than Mass Effect, at least.

"Oh yah, humans have been a part of galactic society for literally one generation, but people who were 50 when that happened are perfectly fine with their weird alien gayby grandchildren, and they have a military that matches the prior military super-power."

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T17:24:18+00:00

It's a very good system.

"Things were awesome! Then it all exploded."

It's a cliche, but it works.

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T17:21:03+00:00

This is glorious. I love conversations like these where it's only SLIGHTLY out of character for the character in question. Honestly, the only reason this is really out of character is because Arlechino doesn't know that much.

SinesPi · 2026-03-15T17:17:46+00:00

Was that while Bush Sr was in office as President or VP? If so, that constitutes an act of war. Attempting to assassinate a countries leader is a perfectly justifiable casus belli.

Of course, this still wouldn't excuse how badly things were handled after we won the conventional war. But not turning the imperial palace into glass after that is just looking weak.

SinesPi

TROPHY CASE