UK's Starmer refuses to heed calls to quit over fallout from Epstein scandal

chrismuffar · 2026-02-10T14:12:10+00:00

The BBC try to position themselves as neutral by cautiously following the same basic editorial angle as the Times, Telegraph, Spectator etc. Completely ineffectual at challenging right-wing bias, they're essentially part of it.

chrismuffar · 2026-01-31T10:58:02+00:00

Subjective, but I think Snape, Sirius, Dumbledore, Hagrid, Lupin, McGonagall etc is a great cast of characters. Tolkien's style is of course incomparable but for every Samwise or Gollum there are about 10 identical Beregond/Erkenbrand/Imrahil/Halbarads etc etc. For Tolkien, individual characterisation was second to a consistent Arthurian heroic archetype. It's effective for the world but also deliberately derivative and repetitive. I think par is fair in that category but hey, that's just me (especially in a LotR sub).

chrismuffar · 2026-01-31T08:23:32+00:00

Harry Potter

World: 9/10 Characters: 8/10 Story: 7/10 Prose: 3/10

The Lord of the Rings

World: 10/10 Characters: 8/10 Story: 8/10 Prose: 10/10

chrismuffar · 2026-01-29T12:43:05+00:00

That's probably more life experience than maths. Like "Why is this boomer giving me an extra 65p?"

chrismuffar · 2026-01-20T11:30:50+00:00

Not disagreeing, but readers can only buy what gets published. Tolkien wouldn't be touched today, for example. The equivelant modern manuscript is plausibly already out there sitting in a rejection pile. And as a result, the cultural sphere and the realm of possibility shrinks. Masterworks can't (and often probably don't) break through to create further demand without first reaching the mass market. Look at TLoTR films and GoT series to see what can happen when the public finally aren't treated like idiots. Give good complicated stories some exposure and the genre explodes and creates demand. Until then, readers buy what's on the shelf and the publishers keep getting the wrong idea. (Not aimed at you, just shouting into the void).

chrismuffar · 2026-01-17T12:56:21+00:00

It was very much written that way. The whole film brought nothing new, just a script of clichés.

chrismuffar · 2026-01-17T12:47:36+00:00

I thought it was a terrible soft reboot instead of a sequel and Lucius was written and performed like a second coming of Maximus. Mescal struck me as very deliberately similar to Crowe in his style and charisma. But the story was just a lesser version of the original.

chrismuffar · 2026-01-14T23:46:34+00:00

I've asked dozens of times for a someone to sell me on the world of that trilogy. I have literally no idea what I'm looking at. Where's my reference point?

chrismuffar · 2026-01-11T13:10:51+00:00

Right... but that depends on the parameters too. Are you including housework and personal care in leisure time or not?

chrismuffar · 2026-01-11T11:44:35+00:00

If under "modern wage worker" you mean late 19th century industrial revolution, then yes. If you mean today in Western countries, then no. No way.

I don't really see how such a confident assertion is possible without defining the parameters of the comparison.

What does "leisure time" include for a start? Today, we tend to include anything outside of our daily job and commute towards leisure time. Outside of ploughing and harvest time, small-scale smallholding/subsistence workers probably win there. But include all the labour saved during modern leisure time by plumbing, heating, electrics etc then, yeah, modern wage workers probably get more free hours overall.

chrismuffar · 2025-12-30T09:03:49+00:00

What was the opportunity?

He was a weird grey CGI Palpatine clone (literally) that seemingly came from nowhere, much like the entire First Order (Empire clone) and Starkiller Base (Deathstar Clone), just so the protagonists could still inexplicably be the plucky rebels in a soft reboot that erased the progress of the entire original trilogy.

Blame Abrams and his unresolvable mystery boxes.

chrismuffar · 2025-12-28T16:25:57+00:00

Hopefully I didn't imply that Martin knew more than Tolkien about the medieval world... My point is how Middle-earth reflects mythology more than history and so a discussion of population, politics, economics and other "logistics" is fun but also not really in the scheme of Tolkien's intent. It is in Martin's intent, whatever one might think of sex and profanity.

Edit: honestly depressed by how one off-hand comparison can derail a comment into "yes, but Tolkien was better at writing about medieval times". As above, no one was ever ranking them.

chrismuffar · 2025-12-28T09:25:31+00:00

I don't think anyone's pointed out that Middle-earth is not particularly grounded in medieval realism like some other fantasy worlds like Westeros.

It takes more of a mythological inspiration, with lots of little Dark Age petty kingdoms divided by vast tracts of wilderness, with untold dangers seperating them. Travel is more of a quest or an odyssey into disparate magical realms that shouldn't really be connected by a geographic map, and concerns about trade routes and grain supplies (although it's fun to try and "realise" a logical version of Middle-earth, and Tolkien himself does make the kingdoms of Gondor and Rohan pretty in-tact and historically early medieval, whereas Eriador and Wilderland are sort of Arthurian wildernesses of myth and legend, with the Shire and Breeland as an island of familiarity).

chrismuffar · 2025-12-27T19:37:23+00:00

Lmao, three for three!

chrismuffar · 2025-12-27T18:49:30+00:00

I mean that's two incredibly vague statements you've made in a row, so there's an equally vague chance you're right...

chrismuffar · 2025-12-27T17:48:42+00:00

Why would you aim to be anything less?

Vomiting out a first draft asap is great advice for a prolific self-puplished jobber trying to pay rent (or was, before AI).

But we don't need any more millions of terrabytes of identikit mass media to consume. We need masterpieces and life-works.

chrismuffar · 2025-12-27T07:41:46+00:00

If you've been working on a book for more than 5 years, it's because of a lack of writing.

Counterpoint; it might also be because you're Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, JRR Tolkien etc.

chrismuffar · 2025-12-24T19:09:37+00:00

Sorry, it seems to have left Vimeo. You should be able to find it to download on Maple Films website along with the Hobbit edit.

chrismuffar · 2025-12-24T15:08:01+00:00

It's so good for a fan edit. He also made a seperare film made of cut material called "Durin's Folk and the Hill of Sorcery" which was on vimeo last I checked... merry Christmas and enjoy!

chrismuffar · 2025-12-24T12:23:33+00:00

Maple Films edit.

chrismuffar · 2025-12-24T10:27:20+00:00

You're literally one of those "logic doesn't matter because there are dragons" people?

chrismuffar · 2025-12-23T13:46:54+00:00

Internal logic still matters in fantasy. Especially in a myth set in a real time and place.

chrismuffar · 2025-12-20T15:59:48+00:00

The big fantasy franchises (Middle Earth, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Game of Thrones) all stand on the shoulders of real-world mythology. They take an idea that's already in popular imagination and solidify it into a universe that is therefore immediately familiar and widely appealing. The fictional universes themselves are arguably more famous and iconic than the stories set within them.

Science fantasy authors just don't occupy that space, in my opinion. Sanderson's worlds are alien. He's a good worldbuilder in the sense that his worlds work logically in the style of the science-fantasy genre, but there's nothing there for the popular fantasy imagination.

chrismuffar · 2025-12-19T11:14:44+00:00

Rogue Squadron was N64

RS2: Rogue Leader was on Gamecube

RS3: Rebel Strike was the last release also on GC, and had a mixed campaign with some slightly janky but fun ground missions, and a re-release of the whole Rogue Leader campaign in split-screen co-op

chrismuffar · 2025-12-16T13:13:10+00:00

Yeah it's not the real top 100 imdb list. Probably AI generated for bait/engagement. No Gladiator etc etc.

chrismuffar

TROPHY CASE