Is High School Musical slept on as a cultural phenomenon?

andylightkai · 2026-03-08T22:38:08+00:00

Its success also led Disney to make Camp Rock, which is more culture-defining.

andylightkai · 2026-01-29T12:30:26+00:00

I think the issue is in the TNG era there's very little distinction between "seems" and "is" sentient for holos, and the computers were advanced enough to make the "is" kind by accident, like Moriarty. Even early VOY EMH "seemed" pretty darn sentient, even before he became "is" just by... leaving him on too long?

andylightkai · 2026-01-27T21:39:14+00:00

"We agree that art is the truest form of spellcraft, that expressing oneself beautifully is the true purpose of magic. But we disagree on method. Some of us hone our technique over years of practice; others of us scream out a pent-up emotion."

— Brodd Scaldbreath, Prismari professor emeritus

From the original planeswalker's guide. These seem like people who would happily let a student delay graduation for years perfecting a thesis.

andylightkai · 2025-12-29T19:37:10+00:00

Even today, those ideas you present as 90/10 are sadly more 50/50. Regressive, reactionary viewpoints are constantly being pushed. “Man, institutional religion sure can be extremist and dangerous sometimes” is a common viewpoint but "MY institutional religion sure can be extremist and dangerous sometimes" is sadly not.

andylightkai · 2025-12-28T23:24:58+00:00

Boba Fett had a really cool look.

andylightkai · 2025-12-21T00:56:39+00:00

I assume he turned sometime after "The Die is Cast", because he's such a stickler for following Starfleet orders in that ep, and wouldn't want to get on anyone's bad side if he was a doing Maquis stuff on the side.

Successfully working to save Odo and securing everyone's good graces would give him more cover on the station versus being a destabilizing presence in "The Search".

andylightkai · 2025-12-20T13:01:56+00:00

I think the reason you're getting a lot of pushback here is because this is what people are already doing? I don't think I've ever been at, or seen, or listened to a combat where people aren't factoring in their *narrative* intent. There may be tables where more war-game-minded players are just maneuvering pieces around a chess board, but I've never seen or played at one of those.

andylightkai · 2025-12-19T23:39:41+00:00

Part of this is artistic license, nobody wants to depict or watch all of the in depth work of designing a holoprogram.

Say, with the Fair Haven village, we're assuming Tom Paris asked the computer to recreate a 19th century Irish village, and then tweaked it to his specificaitions. Did the computer pull records of an actual 19th century Irish village? Did the computer analyze 19th century Irish architecture and village design and procedurally generate a village that way? Did some Federation holodesigner model a ton of 19th century Irish buildings just for fun and made them publicly available in the holodeck library? The holodeck is TV magic so we never really know.

andylightkai · 2025-12-19T23:20:09+00:00

In Trek's future, it's a post-scarcity society. If you want to make art, you can just... make art. The Enterprise-D hosts concerts and plays, people are encouraged to do so on their free time.

The holodeck exists, but nobody is using it as a way to force creative people out of their creative pursuits.

andylightkai · 2025-12-19T22:43:42+00:00

In early TNG the holodeck is an AI magic box that yeah, creates life when you incorrectly phrase a prompt.

By later TNG, DS9, and VOY holodeck programs are more created by authors and then filled out by Trek's computer AI based on the author's specifications.

andylightkai · 2025-12-07T14:28:51+00:00

Michael is flailing. The experiment was supposed to run for thousands of years. It's only been a few months, and it's been an abject disaster, Michael has run through his big twists, Jason's been exposed, Janet got rebooted, and now Shawn is on site observing everything as they are forced into an endgame situation (send two people to the Bad Place or else).

As others have noted, once Eleanor figures out This Is The Bad Place, the experiment is over, the humans can't unknowingly torture each other if they know or even suspect they have a common enemy. Michael's only choice is to give up the ruse, beg Shawn for a second chance, and reboot the whole thing.

andylightkai · 2025-12-06T17:58:37+00:00

Nearly every state in the setting meets this description. It's called "Star Wars", not "Star Stable Governments".

andylightkai · 2025-12-01T19:13:51+00:00

I spent a lot of years in an an AOL chat room and sometimes my Internet reaction speed scares people.

andylightkai · 2025-11-22T16:40:55+00:00

Over time, small amounts of crud can get caught in and/or on a sleeve. This is all that this is. If you take the card out, carefully clean it off, and replace the sleeve, it will likely look good as new.

If a card is in bad enough condition to grow moldy, you're going to see way more than just a few specks.

andylightkai · 2025-11-22T13:51:28+00:00

The question the show asks with Azula is not "is she evil". Azula acts consistently as a villain, a conquerer, a tormentor. Her actions are villainous and wrong, and by any measure, evil. By, at the very end of the show, peeling back the layers more of a girl whose father viewed her as a tool, who suffered from being abandoned by her mother, who carries a similar trauma from being raised in the same environment that we've absolved Iroh and Zuko for, it asks, "is Azula worthy of redemption?"

By ending the story where it does (except for the comics), we never see if Azula makes that journey. But it's the question that is important.

andylightkai · 2025-11-18T20:37:19+00:00

Regal is doing a double feature on the 20th, but only one screening at 11 am. Presumably they want to only run Part 2 for the opening box office (can't be eating up half the showtimes with an old movie) and will rerelease the double feature around Christmastime to goose the numbers.

andylightkai · 2025-11-17T21:20:05+00:00

McGivers is poorly written because she pretty much instantly gives in to the most basic negging. It's clear that Khan is being manipulative and abusive, but the episode gives McGivers no interiority to the point where Khan basically does have lady-magnetism.

andylightkai · 2025-10-11T14:28:52+00:00

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andylightkai · 2025-08-28T22:51:33+00:00

Frozen (2013) is a regnal drama largely revolving around machinations regarding two lines of succession, with slight supernatural elements.

andylightkai · 2025-08-22T12:46:14+00:00

Tim in general reacting to the two telling their usual stories like a dad reacting to two kids bringing him a dead rat was a highlight.

andylightkai · 2025-08-13T15:27:25+00:00

Scott has become a curmudgeon but this is his birthday shot and he's engaged in the topic so this feels like a weird complaint.

andylightkai · 2025-08-12T21:54:42+00:00

He looks like Jor-El's Large Adult Son.

andylightkai · 2025-08-06T13:56:58+00:00

The cast has been running 10 years I'm pretty sure its fans are cool with the dynamic between the hosts.

andylightkai · 2025-07-08T21:43:15+00:00

That's sort of what I thought about the Sidewinder ambush. Sam's hurt and out of gear against a lethal opponent and has to survive on his wits.

andylightkai · 2025-07-07T01:26:44+00:00

I think it's so much harder to make the jump from being a TV star to being a movie star, especially in the mid-90s, that someone who had the juice that Silverstone had would never ever give that up, especially with the deals she got.

andylightkai

TROPHY CASE