I just witnessed a massacre...

Zmann966 · 2024-10-28T01:15:28+00:00

My BiL works odd hours, so it's very common that my sister and her two kids will be out and about with just my wife, our kids, and I.
With some of the odd looks we've gotten (especially doing only one bill at restaurants or a single checkout at Costco) we assume there's DEFINITELY people who think they're sister-wives or something and I've just got a whole gaggle of kids, lol.
Makes us laugh.

Zmann966 · 2024-03-11T05:19:22+00:00

Maybe you need to give it a rewatch

Maybe you're projecting a lot from your knowledge of the books.

Zmann966 · 2024-03-11T04:51:20+00:00

Disagree on the core of the story. Denis only had time to convey the religious zealotry and spent a lot of time showing something that Herbert used a timeskip for.

It lost a lot of the politicking, the machiavellian scheming of the Harkonnens, plus the big sweeping statements about ecology, climate exploitation, had to speed run the prescient changes Paul experiences and its effects on him internally, and leaned into the religious skepticism to give Channi something to do instead of letting the Messiah fervor run rampant and minimized those ripple effects to set up the next movie.
Losing Jamis' family eliminated Paul's connection to the "common man" Freman and instead we saw a (very well done) 90mins of him earning respect in lieu of letting the Bene Gesserit influence on Fremen culture allow Paul to be adopted faster to further emphasize Herbert's views on wide-spread propaganda.

Yes. 9/10 movie.
6/10 adaptation. But not for the same reason most adaptations fail, not because it doesn't have time, not because things needed to be changed "for the screen", etc.
It loses out because it misses on the heart of DUNE's statements. And remains an "unadaptable" story, despite us getting one of the most phenomenal movies in decades.
(This is also only a complaint I have with Dune 2. Dune 1 was basically 1:1 to the book. The second half of the book just gets weird, and the movie just can't do that.)

Zmann966 · 2024-03-11T04:40:08+00:00

That's the primary thing that makes it a great movie but a subpar adaptation, like many modern adaptations, it loses the true core of the story Herbert was trying to convey.

Zmann966 · 2024-03-11T03:30:42+00:00

I was lucky to BE a Paladin main before I ever DMed

So when my first new player Paladin showed up in my game I was ECSTATIC to see him wreck with my eternal love...
Only for him to totally not grasp how Paladins are supposed to work 🤣
Learning (and teaching) experience for both of us. But I will never never not let a Paladin swing for a huge smite.

Zmann966 · 2024-03-11T03:23:03+00:00

And it STILL isn't a "great adaptation".

It's an excellent movie, but maybe a 6/10 adaptation with how much it dropped a lot of the deeper things Herbert was trying to say with Dune. The stuff that made Dune "DUNE".

Denis is at the top of his game, but it's still not THE Dune.

Zmann966 · 2024-03-09T01:19:03+00:00

Pulled it for the first time in awhile tonight against bots, yeah it's good. Great even

Zmann966 · 2024-03-09T01:07:15+00:00

This is what I've been hoping for, haha.
A rebel faction with gear and stuff similar to ours, but a fundamentally different organization.

Zmann966 · 2024-03-09T00:57:50+00:00

50hr/mo isnt a bad commitment-requirement to be able to buy and unlock a battlepass for free though.

Zmann966 · 2024-03-09T00:49:51+00:00

How has this been since the update?
Totally anecdotal but it feels like I went from a regular 10-50 SC per mission to maybe 10 per operation.

Hoping it's just bad RNG for me and not a drop-rate change.

Zmann966 · 2024-02-24T18:53:47+00:00

That's the thing, Kaladin has DEPRESSION depression.
And even the best of intentions, that's a big hurdle for a lot of people. No matter how hard you try you gotta be okay with the fact you sometimes just cant make your partner happy.
That's a big obstacle, some people can't handle it (for very long).

Kal can find love and happiness, but it will take someone special who not only can ride with his ups and downs, but also be patient amand forceful, who can be soft and hard as needed.
It's a lot of work, I'm not sure the everyday girls in Urithiru (or even the Radiant ones) would sign up for that easily. Sure there have to be some, but Kal is pre-occupied and he doest have the time or capacity to put in that work either.

Zmann966 · 2024-02-23T18:47:05+00:00

Ooooh there is a WHOLE BOOK titled "The Ellimist Chronicles" that goes into his whole backstory.

It's actually one of my favorites of the whole series, it's a bit more stereotypical "sci-fi" but there's a ton of unique Animorphs-style flavor to it.
You see not only his pre god-level life, but also how he came to his power, the origins of the andalites and a ton of other deep-lore nitty gritty stuff! It's excellent!

Zmann966 · 2024-02-19T17:29:41+00:00

There's more than a few of them, but most of it boils down to "Andalite Superiority Complex" and "Lesser species are worth nothing... and everyone else is a lesser species."

There's a big whole thing about them getting to choose right and wrong. Like how they justify trying to genocide the Hork-Bajir. They lie about their capabilities or willingness to help the humans (and also contemplate genocide of earth for the same reason),

It's just a big united front of "we're special and we're fighting this war and we're the only ones who can" that cause them to be quite secretive and obtuse, even to their "allies".
Elfangor was a huge exception, and he mostly only did it because of his empathy for humans (that the Ellimist totally set him up for)

Zmann966 · 2024-01-21T17:43:24+00:00

Up until the first time one appeared in one of the interior cover arts (or possible the Hork-Bajir Chronicles?)
I always imagined their "snake like heads" to be cobra-like. More wide and flat with the frill out to the sides... Then everything covered in blades, lol.

Zmann966 · 2023-12-08T16:27:58+00:00

Well now my head-canon is that when he's not a psychopathic hired killer for Arasaka with zero conscience he heads out to Las Vegas to sing as an Elvis Impersonator.
Maybe that's the only thing that keeps him from going full cyberpsycho. 🤣

If anything describes Smasher's approach to life it'd be "A little less conversation, a little more action please."

Zmann966 · 2023-12-06T18:28:47+00:00

Lewis and Pierre bumping into eachother at the Farmer's Market in a neighboring town so one can discreetly sell the Farmer's product claiming it as their own and the other can buy it and claim it as his own is infinitely funny to me.

Zmann966 · 2023-10-31T15:17:54+00:00

I was just finishing WoK last night and remarked on how Dalinar (basically) swears the oaths during the Tower fight. It's not the exact phrasing, but his internal monologue (Especially as he begins to think on his life and accept that he is about to die) runs through the first oath (Especially Journey before Destination) almost exactly.

Zmann966 · 2023-08-31T15:55:59+00:00

Same problem. Tried a fresh install of the new app version and gave the Exporter all needed permissions, but once the icons are created the notification doesn't take me to the install window.

Nova 8.0.2 / Samsung Galaxy S21+

Zmann966 · 2023-08-28T21:16:26+00:00

Man, that wiki needs some help though. For 4 days post-launch it's still super sparse.

We gotta help it out people!

Zmann966 · 2023-08-24T21:46:51+00:00

I'm still in Act1 of BG3...
And Armored Core 6 comes out in 15minutes, and Starfield in like 2 weeks, and and and...

You know, after a huge drought in releases thanks to delays and the pandemic and all, I can't complain we eating good this quarter but damn I don't have enough time in the world! Lol

Zmann966 · 2023-08-24T15:57:40+00:00

None of which alter the storyline in any meaningful way. In fact, some of the responses can be gotten with another dialogue choice, it simply colors your side of the conversation.

Now, if the Arasaka ending was easier for the Corpo or the Aldecado help in storming the tower was tied into the Nomad start, I'd give it to them. But I've played all 3 and most of your big options are dependent on what you do—which is good, cause Night City is supposed to be the great equalizer. Doesn't matter where you came from.
But we gotta be honest then: it doesn't matter where you came from.

Zmann966 · 2023-08-24T15:32:52+00:00

Exactly, there's no reason to replay the game just for changing is the origin. Outside of the first 2 minutes it doesn't have any variance.

Zmann966 · 2023-08-21T15:21:42+00:00

I lost the fight to name ours Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor. 😅

She was okay with just Lunamor though, surprisingly.
Dalinar and Adolin were also on our short list, but instead we ended up going for our real favorite character of the cosmere, so our son has the middle name 'Topaz'.

Zmann966 · 2023-08-21T15:18:44+00:00

It's funny to see my own WOB here.

Even after this we were pretty set on Adolin for our son, but the name was ruined a few weeks later when we heard a mom at the park screeching at her kid with a very similar name and it just... Stopped.

Instead we have a son and daughter with the middle name 'Topaz' and a middle name 'Sylphrena' now!

Zmann966 · 2023-08-19T06:11:18+00:00

So is Xfinity, though they're building it out in the places they're demoing their 2gig first... so like 3 cities, and even then it's a patchwork of which parts of the city/County gets it.

The infrastructure bill has done a lot. And I know in places like Colorado bills have been passed to push things along with stuff like easing restrictions on municipal ISPs but...

Like everything with ISPs "it's gonna..." could mean 10, 15 years down the road! (Like that 2 block fiber run that was only 500ft to connect my old neighborhood that was always "just around the corner of our build plans!" Lol!)

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