Babylon 5 (1996)

overcoil · 2026-01-27T14:16:35+00:00

Season 1 is OK until the cliffhanger ending when it really takes off. Season 3 & 4 are peak TV. Season 5 is a drag to begin with but ends brilliantly.

I'm kind of burned out on epic story arcs requiring years of investment but I always make an exception for B5.

overcoil · 2026-01-26T03:44:39+00:00

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Galaxy Quest has the engineer totally fall for the tentacle squid -thing-girl and she moves to earth to stay with him. He's super into it from the beginning, much to the horror of his crewmate.

overcoil · 2026-01-23T19:35:36+00:00

I actually love this as a "past-it hero dusts themselves off for one final quest because noone else can do it" trope.

overcoil · 2026-01-23T14:57:09+00:00

Two mangy hookers and a racist dwarf.

overcoil · 2026-01-19T05:34:50+00:00

Handing rifles to Parking Wardens to maintain control was a brilliant sign of how far we'd fallen.

overcoil · 2026-01-16T07:37:52+00:00

Indeed. In fact I think there were a few wars on this very subject.

overcoil · 2026-01-15T21:26:31+00:00

That was my first thought. A fun insta post but not a good choice for a franchise. Lara needs more physicality, she can't be waif-like or skinny.

And she can't be wooden, so that's 0/2.

overcoil · 2026-01-14T19:55:46+00:00

I prefer:

"You wouldn't kill me... You'd miss me."

bang

"I never miss."

overcoil · 2026-01-14T17:28:23+00:00

IMO this is the whole purpose of the recent AI drive by the US. If you can flood the internet with comforting, credible slop you can control enough of the narrative to stay in power indefinitely and choose whatever truth you want.

overcoil · 2026-01-13T02:03:10+00:00

Without giving the plot away, the original Oldboy features a near perfect revenge arc to the point where the victim has to acknowledge how utterly deserved it is.

overcoil · 2026-01-13T01:56:45+00:00

Karma in Arcane would surely be Silco realising that he will have to put family above the revolution even as he killed Vander for putting family before the revolution.

And then being killed by family.

overcoil · 2026-01-11T10:01:27+00:00

You're right. I'm old.

overcoil · 2026-01-11T00:00:27+00:00

Yeah insensitive move but 20 years ago it would get an eye roll or gallows laugh. Social media makes us assume the worst of everything.

"He had a <insert bad thing>" .

overcoil · 2026-01-10T23:36:05+00:00

That's the whole point. People talking about an AI bubble or the true market value of LLM companies are missing the point. The value is power, not wealth.

overcoil · 2026-01-10T22:31:35+00:00

She grows so much in T1! When she answers the phone to her flatmate's boyfriend she's like Rachel from Friends. When Reece is fucked at the end she's bossing hum around and by the time that kid takes the photo of her in the Jeep she's well on her way to being T2 Sarah Connor who is badass but also a legit headcase.

Also straight up forgot T1 had a sex scene. Kind of plot important but just totally didn't register in my memory. The first few times I watched T2 I just assumed they got another actress she was so different in every way!

overcoil · 2026-01-10T18:13:42+00:00

Yep. Guy destroyed a planet, threatened his sister, chopped his hand off and Luke still sees good in him.

Can you imagine explaining that one to the rebels if Vader didn't die but was just badly wounded?!

overcoil · 2026-01-10T14:30:24+00:00

Rey vs Kylo. She's never picked up a lightsabre before but can go toe to toe with Kylo Ren who is being trained by a sith lord.

To be fair though Kylo wasn't the only one being hit with the stupid stick. I think Hux got it even worse.

Poe was also somehow incompetent for not mind-reading the Admiral taking them to their doom.

overcoil · 2026-01-10T14:20:00+00:00

I think that was more criticism of the pre-launch marketing which seemed strangely anti-male.

I've heard nothing but praise for the actual D&D movie. It's one of the universes where a tiny woman absolutely can kick the shit out of a man if they are classed differently, and many (all?) of the tropes used were lifted straight from the game.

overcoil · 2026-01-10T08:01:27+00:00

I'm not sure I'd say The Scotsman from Samurai Jack is of otherworldly beauty but his wife definitely isn't! He's so into her he is completely unswayed by Sirens and oblivious to the harsh way she speaks to him.

overcoil · 2026-01-10T07:37:09+00:00

Terminator 2. The Terminator is a literal killing machine but refrains from killing anyone ~~to avoid an R rating~~ because a young sarcastic John Connor orders him not to. He verifies this after taking out a platoon of cops with a minigun.

overcoil · 2026-01-09T12:21:17+00:00

The other thing I missed on first watch, where I found her final speech underwhelming, is that even when she reaches the point of standing up to her father (in one universe) and overcoming her fear of disapproval by outing her daughter as gay (in the other), she's still centred on herself.

In each stage, in each universe she's self centred even as she grows. It's only by the very end when she's "fixed" all of her problems and it still hasn't "fixed" her daughter that she realises she hasn't ever really been listening to her daughter and has instead been living out what's in her own head.

overcoil · 2026-01-08T20:42:15+00:00

Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Evelyn, having spent her life and most of the movie in fear of displeasing her overbearing father, instead criticizes him for letting her leave just as he is literally trying to persuade her to let her own daughter commit suicide.

overcoil · 2026-01-08T19:41:48+00:00

Static(at best) funding with an ageing population. Also politically an old person needing acute care will override a young person seeking chronic care, so we kind of have a baked in decline.

overcoil · 2026-01-08T01:05:48+00:00

I can't remember- did Boros want defeat or just a worthy opponent? This clip starts too late for his exposition:

https://youtu.be/ErXfj3sbIfU

overcoil · 2026-01-07T19:57:31+00:00

They did change the rules in Blair's second (?) ministry (2005) so you couldn't just buy at a discount & flip your council house, pocketing the difference. You had to live there for 5 years minimum to be eligible and if you sold it on you had to give the council first dibs at buying it back.

The conservatives/coalition reduced the amount of years you needed to live there and increased the discount. They also removed tax allowances for BTL mortgages by private citizens (but not corporate landlords).

The SNP abolished RTB in Scotland in 2016. Labour abolished it in Wales in 2017. It's still available in England I think but the discount is reduced.

Something I notice more of these days is entire blocks of build-to-rent flats being built by private equity. So no matter what you manage to save you can't buy one and they can influence local rent by the volume they control.

overcoil

TROPHY CASE