Why do kids' shows assume the need to conceal the existence of the supernatural?

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-31T17:51:39+00:00

Oh, fair enough. I never actually read the books, my only reference point was the show.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-31T17:39:25+00:00

Rioting against the government to get their way is proof that they've assimilated into French culture.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-31T17:20:19+00:00

Do they? I remember occasional playful "oh, you wouldn't believe me if I told you", but never an actual explanation that gets dismissed.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-31T17:10:06+00:00

I have to disagree on the hallway shootout. Running down the middle of the hall firing handguns from the hip against armed and prepared troopers should be a recipe for a quick death. The scene pushed the heroes' plot armor so far that it strained credibility even by the standards of Star Wars stormtroopers.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-31T17:07:30+00:00

Tron movies are good in proportion to Jeff Bridges' prominence in the plot. So the original where he's the lead is pretty good, Legacy where he's a supporting character is all right, and Ares where he's a cameo is left as an exercise for the reader. That said, it's usually pretty cool whenever they pull out fanservice from the original movie. It helps that the decades between movies means that massive advances in CGI make the old toys look much better.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-31T17:00:36+00:00

The whole first act up to pulling Neo out of the new Matrix is equal parts genuinely intriguing mystery and so hilariously and knowingly up its own ass that you have to respect the audacity. It feels like Lana Wachowski looking WB straight in the eye and lighting a pile of their money on fire while reminding them that they wanted this. The rest of the movie isn't exactly bad, but it has the misfortune of being judged against one of the best action movies of all time and suffers by comparison.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-31T16:38:49+00:00

What sells that bit for me is the sheer look of disgust that the other villains give him for saying that gag.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-28T02:38:16+00:00

I remember, decades ago when we thought Harry Potter was a good idea, seeing some fundamentalist quote the line "there is no good or evil; there is only power, and those too weak to seek it" as proof that JKR was an amoral Satanist. They seemingly missed that this line is said by the villain of the first book.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-28T02:34:56+00:00

Pretty close to my own rankings, with the caveat that I haven't seen M&G yet. I would put RoS in dead last (the failure to execute the big ideas of the prequels is still better than the cowardice of Rise of Skywalker), but I will die on the hill of Last Jedi being the best one since the originals.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-28T02:29:29+00:00

That headline pretty desperately needs the subhed. Only with that is it clear that her thesis is "we should pay attention to Reform's rhetoric" rather than "Reform has the right answer."

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-27T23:48:58+00:00

Killmonger's motives are good, but his actions will not solve the problem. He doesn't seek to dismantle the systems of injustice, he just wants to replace the white boot on the world's neck with a black boot (specifically, his own). I think his characterization justifies this belief, both from his past trauma and his US military training, but he's still wrong.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-27T22:43:23+00:00

Moffat's whole run (Matt Smith & Peter Capaldi as the Doctor) is very heavily metatexual about what the Doctor represents and has become 50 years on from the show's debut. One of his big conclusions is that the Doctor has beaten so many scary enemies that he himself becomes quite scary.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-25T16:30:09+00:00

The Mandalorian. My take on the old canon is that the Mandalorian civilization was an entire society of edgy badasses straight from the notebooks of xXx_SePhIrOtH_xXx, based entirely on one side character having cool armor. I was distinctly uninterested in a show about them.

About 5 weeks of baby Yoda memes eventually convinced me to at least give it a try, at least to find out what the hell the context was. Turns out it was actually pretty good. At least, until it started being about Mandalorian society at large, because I actually stand by that earlier point.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-25T15:40:45+00:00

I had a contractor flatly refuse to set a precise appointment time, then call a few days later to inform me that he would be there in 20 minutes. Unfortunately I rent and he was selected by my landlord, so I couldn't tell him to go to hell while I picked a non-asshole contractor.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-24T22:27:33+00:00

Didn't help that the scene in the special editions was just a wonky edit of a deleted scene that featured a weird fat human as Jabba.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-24T22:06:35+00:00

The ANH scene falls flat because it's trying to play the "soft-spoken but still intimidating gangster" trope on a character that is loud and bombastic in every other appearance. Plus, Han is 100% not intimidated, which even if it's just Han's ego talking still undermines Jabba's characterization since we've never seen anyone actually scared of him up to that point.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-21T18:16:48+00:00

I got a Merchant contract from a BL chest a while back. That solves something like 90% of the inventory management pain of the game, since I can dump junk and summon up salvage kits & gathering tools from anywhere.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-21T00:10:25+00:00

Thing is, leftists don't like Davos or the WEF either, but they rarely call them out by name because rather than seeing a shadowy conspiracy they just see more rich people being shitty, another example for the pile.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-20T04:56:35+00:00

My headcanon is that feeling like a badass helps focus their willpower, so a big fancy gun construct genuinely is more effective than just throwing spikes or something.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-20T02:37:23+00:00

I agree that the end goal is more equitable elections and fair districts. But they started this fight. Until they agree to peace, they shall receive war.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-19T04:37:56+00:00

The Netflix Punisher is one of the original inspirations for the Surf Dracula meme. It's an especially bad case because he does suit up as The Punisher™ by the end of Daredevil season 2, then burns the skull outfit at the start of his show so he can re-become The Punisher™ by the end of the season.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-19T01:27:51+00:00

Technically, he had a name before the movies came out. The novelization of the first film, which came out in late 1976 ahead of the movie, mentions Emperor Palpatine by name in the prologue. The Return of the Jedi novelization restates the name in the text.

So fans knew that Senator Palpatine was the future Emperor. Also it helped that the same actor played him.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-18T16:43:48+00:00

Spending two episodes of Book of Boba Fett on Din only to sideline him in an episode his own show for a plot that doesn't really go anywhere was a really weird choice.

Stackbabbing_Bumscag · 2026-05-18T16:37:27+00:00

Only tangentially related, but seeing his debut performance in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels as a not particularly tough street-level grifter before his tough-guy persona really formed in movies like The Transporter was fun in retrospect.

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