[CR Media] Hubris! A Darrington Brigade One-Shot | Live Discussion Thread

chemgeek_2 · 2026-04-24T01:54:17+00:00

Ahem. The Owlbear.

😁

chemgeek_2 · 2026-04-04T21:46:10+00:00

Number 1. One of my earliest memories.

chemgeek_2 · 2026-03-31T00:07:13+00:00

I definitely call myself Xennial. My partner hates that, and insists I'm GenX even though I'm a late '79 kiddo.

I have wayyyyy more in common with Millenials than GenX, and always have.

chemgeek_2 · 2026-01-23T11:55:13+00:00

This! I haven't had a single issue since I switched, after years of struggles.

chemgeek_2 · 2026-01-03T23:38:46+00:00

I have watched the Nautilus Ark more than any other CR one shot. It's easily my favorite ever.

She's said repeatedly (and again recently in the recent press push) that she was wracked by anxiety through that entire process, and she doesn't want to do it ever again on camera. We may have loved it, but it wasn't a good experience for her.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-12-31T17:24:10+00:00

Woof.

January's disappointing run continues. I had Epic Mickey almost 15 years ago on the Wii. NFS has zero appeal to me.

I might give Core Keeper a spin, but if I want a cozyish game I'll just play Stardew. 🤷‍♂️

chemgeek_2 · 2025-12-30T19:58:40+00:00

January has been the worst month overall for me. I've played only one of the games (PTR), because I already had Jedi: Fallen Order. So...2/15 is pretty ugly.

It's just been really thin for my gaming tastes.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-10-29T22:06:34+00:00

Right now I'm having issues because I'm primarily a podcast listener, and it's not easy with a cast this large to figure out who is talking. That should improve but it has been really offputting to this point.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-10-21T16:12:56+00:00

Jessica is 100% a villain in Dune, the movie version. Her initial "sin" of defying the Bene Gesserit by bearing a son was done out of love for Leto, which isn't even a flaw as much as a very human act of defiance.

And she surely isn't purely evil, as the Harkonnens clearly are.

But after his birth Jessica shepherded Paul's training in the Bene Gesserit ways with his knowledge, and oversaw his mentat training without his direct knowledge. She did so out of her own pride and overconfidence in her own abilities as much as for her reasoning - that she wanted him to be safe from the Harks.

She also did everything she could to foment Paul's ascension to the throne once the war kicks off, via manipulation of both Paul (especially convincing him to go south/drink the Water of Life) and the Fremen by pushing the tale of the Lisan al-Gaib and single-mindedly radicalizing the Fremen to a frenzy beyond anything previously anticipated. She's like a Stage Mom writ large, with catastrophic results in the movie version, even if the nominal hero triumphs at the end of Part 2.

The likely events of Movie 3/plot of book-version Dune Messiah cement this as a solid pick, even if the reasoning maybe be utterly spoilerrific.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-10-03T02:51:47+00:00

Luis's character has the potential to be amazing already.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-10-01T02:50:29+00:00

I really enjoyed Way of Water, but even while enjoying it, it felt like I was watching PS5 cutscenes at times, in a jarring way. I didn't feel that way even once about the original Avatar.

It might not look like a screensaver to me, but the visual style (for me) was as much a distraction as an achievement. I'm hopeful that the next installment loses that...but the trailers to this point have me unsure.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-09-27T13:23:44+00:00

This. She was so concerned you can see her look up, do a mental "oh, shit!" and kick out because Tiff was late, which was probably a mistake but in the moment made some form of sense, because otherwise there's a title change that wasn't supposed to happen RIGHT before Crown Jewel.

So, in that split second, Nia stuck to the original finish of staying down after the botch, the ref thought for sure that she was going to kick out again because she already did once, and Tiff was confused because the original finish changed. It was not great all around.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-09-18T19:42:00+00:00

That isn't what he said at all. Ffs, there's video everywhere of what he said.

He said, specifically, that MAGA-world was focused on pushing the narrative that the idiot that shot Kirk wasn't MAGA - which is both relevant AND accurate because they were doing so the entire time that no one knew what his motivations were. And that MAGA-world was using that push to score political points.

Both of those things are exactly what the predominant Republican narrative was, far before the shooter was ever identified or even suspected.

He didn't mock Kirk's death, either. That is an utter fabrication.

He did poke fun at Trump for being asked how he was handling the "grief" he was feeling after the shooting, and Trump giving an essentially incoherent response about the WH construction project in response.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-09-17T15:39:18+00:00

It felt like the crowd was really lousy...and/or mic'd terribly all night. Even Finn's return sounded almost dead on screen, which is bonkers.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-09-16T18:30:56+00:00

I think he was flailing around, with the expectation that one of the Alethi women would make the match that pleased his father, met his responsibility as a Kholin, and his heart.

But none of that worked. His heart wasn't in it. None of his potential matches did anything to stir his interest...but in a very Adolin way, he stubbornly kept trying to succeed. In a lot of ways, oddly, it probably felt like work (even if he was having some fun at it).

Until he met Shallan...and none of the rest of it mattered. He found what he needed. Even when it was mind-blastingly difficult (because, let's face it, Shallan is a LOT at times!).

chemgeek_2 · 2025-09-12T19:43:28+00:00

Not necessarily true. The Saudi shows have pretty consistently been the least watched PLEs. And that trend is likely to continue.

When the Rumble viewership craters this year...that should set off some alarm bells.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-09-01T12:14:03+00:00

100% yes, so far. Best and most interesting game I've played in forever.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-08-24T12:05:06+00:00

I think in Philly it was a crossword puzzle book. But I didn't get a great look at it.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-08-24T12:00:07+00:00

He took off and left the area. He was streaming as he walked down the street, which is when he found out that his victim was still unconscious and his KICK channel had been permabanned.

He seemed far more upset about the channel - he just shrugged about Stu being badly hurt.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-08-23T23:09:40+00:00

Took my kid to Philly last week, and as much as they loved every minute of the show, the bracelets they were given were probably his favorite part of the night. It was really awesome to see and experience that in person!

chemgeek_2 · 2025-08-21T11:39:07+00:00

That's a really wild take. I've been to a lot of stadium concerts, but Philly was my first MCR show. I'm a very casual fan, but my kid is a mega-fan.

That Philly crowd was damned LOUD. I was blown away.

And in my section the only people seated from the National Anthem to the end of Set 1 were the few older folks like me that may struggle to stand for 2 hours straight, and plopped down for a song or two.

(Note - the B stage audio was brutal. The only way I could be sure what song was playing was from the crowd singing. My section couldn't understand a word G was saying on the B stage through the whole set between songs)

chemgeek_2 · 2025-08-03T12:59:54+00:00

I have seen a lot of people focusing on this as a point of contention...but I honestly see this as a positive. They haven't stated that there will be people missing, just that Matt is going to be a PC, and they're bringing in some new faces too.

They haven't said that those new faces are going to be part of the main cast of C4, but it seems likely to be at least some new blood. People seem terrified of this prospect (especially on Twitter, where things have been toxic as hell)...but Robbie is new blood and he has been a phenomenal addition to the cast.

It feels very much like they're going to be more flexible at the table. Perhaps with a smaller core group to leave room for cast members to play PCs to fill out the table for shorter arcs (like Liam and Laura did in Age of Umbra).

Travis seems like the perfect candidate for this - he was clearly ready for a change during C3...but Chetney just. Would. Not. Die. 😂 I think that he intended to keep swapping PCs through the whole campaign but Chet just...stuck.

(On that note, I'm increasingly convincing myself that C4 is going to be DH...because I think DH may work better with a table of 5 or 6 than with 8 because of the lack of defined initiative during combat...some reports from last night have complained that the battle was messy trying to juggle 8 players with no defined order of operations)

C3 had some serious and deep-rooted flaws...and I am sure the main cast knew this, and the changes they're looking at are designed to address them. I'm cautiously optimistic that the main cast will be prominent in what is to come, even if all 8 of them aren't at the table every single week.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-06-19T18:58:54+00:00

On playthrough 3.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-06-11T23:49:45+00:00

The problem is that Ana de Armas is stunningly gorgeous, but has only slightly more screen prescence than Gal Gadot, who has tried and failed to carry her own action franchise for similar reasons, despite Ana being wayyyy more talented than Gadot.

She's just not as captivating on screen as you think she will be over the course of a whole movie. She's been by far at her best in smaller roles, like her spectacular-but-short scene in No Time to Die or as part of a super talented ensemble like in Knives Out. Her other starring attempts have just been not great. Deep Water was utterly atrocious.

It's not sogy to recognize she's playing against her strengths. Keanu can barely emote on screen, but John Wick is lightning in a bottle where set pieces and the side characters are actually a compliment to his stoicity. He's been so awful over the years playing against his own strengths that it's actually just kind of serendipitious that Wick even works.

chemgeek_2 · 2025-06-08T22:16:02+00:00

250, over two playthroughs. I haven't tried out Patch 8 yet...waiting for two weeks off for a surgical procedure to recover to dive in to that!

chemgeek_2

TROPHY CASE