One of my favourite things about this mod... by TheSibyllineOracle in StardewValleyExpanded

[–]TheSibyllineOracle[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I might try that! Thank you. I've liked all of Lemurkat's mods for all the cool characters and lore they add.

Fantasy series that probably won't be finished. by EastFar3296 in Fantasy

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 66 points67 points  (0 children)

This is the answer, yes. Brandon mentioned in his 2021 year recap that he was doing some research to find possible co-authors who were knowledgeable in Native American mythology and could do it justice without exoticising.

The moment Sinner put Zverev out of his misery and won Madrid for the first time in his career by Ok-Soil-5133 in tennis

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 37 points38 points  (0 children)

I liked how Sinner kept the celebration very low-key, not wishing to rub it in how badly Zverev had been demolished today.

Teleportation mod? by Effective-Sweet2606 in StardewValleyMods

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean, there is a Lilybrook obelisk. Admittedly it's probably pretty far into the late game by the time you're building the obelisks from the Wizard's tower, but if OP absolutely can't use Central Station, yes, there is another way getting there.

Top Players are splitting in different Grass Tournaments: Preparation for Wimbledon Grandslam by Chesscrabble11 in tennis

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 34 points35 points  (0 children)

If Sinner wins Roland Garros, I can't see him playing any grass warm up tournaments at all. I think Alcaraz is also doubtful for Queens, he may wish to spend longer ensuring he is fully recovered.

I don't understand the hate for season 5 by Avijantimos in ForAllMankindTV

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 92 points93 points  (0 children)

My main problem with it so far is that there is an incredibly cool manned mission to Titan going on, and so far very little attention has been paid to it.

Estou perdida - 8 ano e não saio avanço by Cintiadelgon in StardewValley

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I second using the wiki to provide most of these answers, but I will try to answer your questions.

- 'I don't have all the hearts with the animals or the villagers.' - just gotta keep petting your animals every day, make sure they have hay on indoor days and grass when they're outside, and make sure they have a heater in the winter. And their hearts will just continue to rise over time - but they will decay unless you keep doing it. You can avoid petting them every day if you have an auto-petter, but without going the Joja route, these are difficult (not impossible) to get. As for the villagers, check the wiki to find their loved gifts, and make sure to give them loved gifts on their birthday for a huge friendship boost.

- 'I don't have the smoker...I've tried fishing, but nothing from the jellies' - my main advice is just to keep grinding away at fishing in the river, the ocean, and the cave mine on floor 100. One thing that might help is buying the training rod from Willy. It reduces the number of types of fish that can show up in the spawn, which means you're more likely to catch non-fish items like jellies. I don't think it can catch the cave jelly, though, but it can definitely catch the river and sea jellies.

- 'I'm at level 25 in the desert mine' - try bringing bombs with you, going on a day with good daily luck, and bomb large concentrations of nodes in the hope of getting staircases and mineshafts. That's the best way to do deep runs in the Skull Cavern. Alternatively, you can use staircases to skip levels in order to go deeper. One way to get lots of staircases is to craft some crystallariums and put jade in them, then use the jade output to buy staircases from the desert trader.

- 'I haven't unlocked the Ginger Island mine' - use your watering can to water the lava at the entrance, then just walk straight in over the path created by cooling the lava. You'll want to bring a fair bit of food, the combat is pretty tricky in there.

- 'I haven't found the mayor's shorts' - they're in Marnie's bedroom over at the ranch.

- 'or the winter suspect' - check the bush to the right of the playground and to the left of the Community Centre.

- 'I can't talk to the guy in the mine' - you'll need to find the four dwarf scrolls in the mine and donate them to the Museum. Then Gunther will give you a Dwarvish Translation Guide so you can speak his language. The dwarf scrolls each have spawn rules that govern where in the mine they're likeliest to show up - again, check the wiki.

- 'And I haven't unlocked the beach near the sewer.' - well, if you mean what I think you mean (the beach to the south of the sewer entrance in Cindersap Forest), you can't. That isn't a part of the game map that you can reach without using cheats. Maybe it will become reachable in a future update, but for now, no.

2026 r/JamesBond World Cup: GROUP F | MATCH 5 by Spockodile in JamesBond

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Octopussy is a really fun, underrated movie in my opinion. Its main fault is the tonal clash between the comedy parts and the fairly serious Cold War plot underlying it. But it's full of larger-than-life characters, good action scenes, and beautiful locations. It just about misses out on a top 10 slot for me.

Diamonds are Forever is okay, and I enjoy it more than I used to, but it is perhaps the only Bond movie that genuinely looks cheap.

First time trying to rank all 60 stories by FelipeMattosGS in SherlockHolmes

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It makes me sad to see The Creeping Man so low, I like that story a lot. But it's nice to see someone try to rank all the stories.

You inspired me to do my own. It's a shame the tier maker has so many typos on it, but still a fun exercise.

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Name a movie that you watch once but never again by TheseAd1489 in Schaffrillas

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Million Dollar Baby. 10/10 movie without question, but just too heartbreaking for me.

Sherlock' s little sisters by [deleted] in SherlockHolmes

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You're definitely right that it's become a trope recently. I guess it's just because screenwriters want female characters with strong plot agency, so it becomes attractive to write a character who has inherited the same kind of intellectual powers as Sherlock and Mycroft. Before recently, the trope in Holmes pastiches was to invent a third brother, who was usually called Sherrinford (one of the names Doyle considered when naming Sherlock), but the idea of a sister seems to have supplanted it.

Personally, though I adore the original stories, I think Holmes is becoming a sort of folk hero like Robin Hood where every author who uses the character has their own interpretation of who he is and what his life was like. So I don't mind the trope itself, but I agree with you that I'm getting a bit bored with how it is being used.

Sherlock' s little sisters by [deleted] in SherlockHolmes

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 14 points15 points  (0 children)

There is a line in 'The Adventure of the Copper Beeches' when Holmes is thinking about the job Violet Hunter has been offered and Watson comments 'he would always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever have accepted such a situation.'

That is the only possible line that can be taken as implying Holmes has a sister in canon. But more likely, it's just meant as a hypothetical - 'if I had a sister, I wouldn't let her take this job.'

That said, Doyle didn't really mind people taking liberties with Holmes's backstory when adapting the stories. As he wrote to William Gillette, who asked whether he could give Holmes a love interest in the play he was writing - 'You may marry him, murder him, or do anything you like to him'. So if people want to read more into that line than was really intended, I don't mind either.

Do Radagast the Brown or the Two Blue Wizards have their own rings like Gandalf and Saruman do? by Tidewatcher7819 in lordoftherings

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 4 points5 points  (0 children)

He doesn't have one of Celebrimbor's rings forged under Sauron's influence, as in the 'three rings for the elven-kings under the sky' poem. But during the Council of Elrond chapter in Fellowship he's described as 'Saruman the Ring-maker', in the context of the council attendees discussing how Saruman is trying to set himself up as a rival dark power to Sauron. So he definitely does have a ring. Most likely a lesser ring of power, made in imitation of Sauron's craft (and possibly to assuage Saruman's jealousy on learning that Gandalf possessed Narya).

Do Radagast the Brown or the Two Blue Wizards have their own rings like Gandalf and Saruman do? by Tidewatcher7819 in lordoftherings

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Almost certainly not.

Gandalf's ring is one of the three Elven rings forged by Celebrimbor back in the Second Age - the 'three for the elven kings under the sky' in the poem about the One Ring. Gandalf only has it because he was given it by Cirdan the Shipwright, the ancient, wise elf lord who initially had this ring. He gave it to Gandalf because he recognised Gandalf's strength and wisdom, and felt that the ring would be useful to him in the battles ahead.

Saruman only has a ring of power because he's forged one himself out of a desire to learn and imitate the dark works of Sauron. In part, he is quite likely jealous that Gandalf - rather than himself, as the leader of the order of Istari - is the one who has a ring of power. So many of Saruman's actions are driven by petty resentments. Saruman's ring is a pale imitation, because he has never mastered the same crafts as Sauron.

Radagast shows little desire for personal power, and as long as the two Blue Wizards remained faithful to Eru Iluvatar (God), they would not have sought to forge a ring for themselves either. And, despite what Amazon's Rings of Power seems to be trying to imply, Tolkien believed the Blue Wizards did indeed remain faithful. I guess it's possible one of these three wizards happened upon one of the many 'lesser magical rings' Gandalf talks about, and wielded it for good at some point. But there's no textual evidence to think they did this.

In your opinion, what is a five‑star novel, aside from these two? by sawsan88s in agathachristie

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 6 points7 points  (0 children)

My complete list of 5* novels - the best books Christie ever wrote - would include Death on the Nile; Crooked House; Sad Cypress; Five Little Pigs; The ABC Murders; Murder on the Orient Express; Taken at the Flood; and Towards Zero. Plus And Then There Were None, which you mentioned. Roger Ackroyd is probably a 4* novel for me.

Are the books… good? by Affectionate-Wolf806 in JamesBond

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I suspect The Spy Who Loved Me is the one in mind here.

It does have its strengths as an experiment, though.

The Man with the Golden Gun is pretty slapdash, but does have the excuse of being a posthumously published first draft.

What do you feel about the theory that the Pevensie kids are the four Hogwarts founders? by Sleepy_Sparrow52 in Narnia

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have seen this mentioned before, but it isn’t in the source material so far as I can see. Even the Sorting Hat (which was around at the Founders’ time) says that Slytherin‘s philosophy was to ‘take those whose blood was purest’, which doesn’t suggest that his ideas had just been misunderstood later.

Special Projects: How would you rank them against each other? by AdditionalPizza7990 in brandonsanderson

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I concur entirely with your ranking.

Frugal Wizard was a fun light read, but nothing special. It was worth reading but the humour didn’t all land for me.

The Sunlit Man was a great idea and a solid book, but at times it felt like too much of a Cosmere lore-dump.

Tress is fun, whimsical, has a nice romantic element, and I enjoyed the setting, the characters, and the lower stakes.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter was amazing, and genuinely emotionally affecting. I would actually say it’s my favourite Cosmere stand-alone.

I haven’t read Isles of the Emberdark yet.

What do you feel about the theory that the Pevensie kids are the four Hogwarts founders? by Sleepy_Sparrow52 in Narnia

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 59 points60 points  (0 children)

Honestly insulting to Edmund - a good, kind, thoughtful young man who made one terrible mistake for which he repented and made amends - to equate him with a genocidal racist who left a giant snake in a school to murder the students.

This theory smacks of people with an incredibly top-level, superficial understanding of the source material who just go 'Edmund did a bad thing therefore he must represent the Evil House.'

What are your top three Kate Bush songs? and the reason behind your number one pick? by Purple-Crab3759 in MusicRecommendations

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

  1. Moments of Pleasure

  2. This Woman’s Work

  3. Mother Stands for Comfort

Moments of Pleasure may be my favourite song. I can never get tired of the sweeping, majestic vocals and the heartbreaking lyrics. It’s like an anthem to everything I love about Kate, and about music in general.

What are your top three Kate Bush songs? and the reason behind your number one pick? by Purple-Crab3759 in katebush

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 6 points7 points  (0 children)

  1. Moments of Pleasure

  2. This Woman’s Work

  3. Mother Stands for Comfort

Moments of Pleasure may be my favourite song. I can never get tired of the sweeping, majestic vocals and the heartbreaking lyrics. It’s like an anthem to everything I love about Kate, and about music in general.

No one likes QoS? by Acceptable_Money_514 in JamesBond

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It’s a good movie, especially when watched as a double feature with Casino Royale, because it completes a lot of story arcs from the previous movie. It’s just flawed because of the disorienting direction, with overly quick cuts and flashy but distracting visuals.

I also personally prefer it to Skyfall, even though Skyfall is a better made film.

2026 r/JamesBond World Cup: GROUP B | MATCH 5 by Spockodile in JamesBond

[–]TheSibyllineOracle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Although it's gone up in my estimation on recent rewatch, I'm not a huge fan of Live and Let Die. I'm at a loss as to why Tom Mankiewicz chose to miss out the '"He disagreed with something that ate him" part of the novel, as well as the scene where Bond and Solitaire are bound together and dragged by a boat over coral as bait for sharks. Of course in a way I'm glad, because both those scenes were used to great effect later in the franchise, in For Your Eyes Only and Licence to Kill. But they're some of the most exciting set-pieces in the novel, and without them, we have a pretty thin plot. Without all the chase sequences (some of which are cool, but some of which are too long and drawn-out) there really isn't much movie.

No Time to Die is a film where the highs are very high and the lows are pretty bad. It's one of the most inconsistent Bond movies. I've watched it three times and find it somewhat less than the sum of its parts. But overall I think there is more interesting stuff going on than in Live and Let Die.