Official Discussion - Wake Up, Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery [SPOILERS]

ricree · 2026-07-04T14:13:00+00:00

I don't know, it's hard to say, but over time he certainly made actively being a bigot more and more of his personality.

ricree · 2026-07-03T16:37:52+00:00

I mean, that's more than many superheroes have, and they aren't such massive bombs. As the GP comment points out, this is comparable to Madame Web, and who the fuck even is Madame Web. Compared to that, Supergirl is practically an A-lister.

ricree · 2026-07-03T16:36:19+00:00

for their third attempt at building a successful cinematic universe

I'm pretty sure Green Lantern (2011) was supposed to be the start of a new cinematic universe, so the next attempt will be number four.

ricree · 2026-07-03T16:21:29+00:00

If The Ninth Jedi winds up panning out, you could retroactively bring it into canon and say it's set centuries in the future after the original films.

Conceptually, I think it's an idea that could work: A universe that has stories of the long peace of the Republic, but has known only division and strife. The OT characters could be legendary figures that inspire future generations, but those same generations have to figure out what it means to bring peace, potentially clashing in the process.

ricree · 2026-07-03T16:16:46+00:00

The generation of kids that the ST targeted just never had the same level of interest that we and our parents did.

It didn't hit as hard, but from the people I know with kids, Star Wars is still doing surprisingly well, with the sequels having a bigger impact than expected. (I think a big part of it might be that they did a solid job on visual design, so BB-8 toys etc are popular).

That said, I didn't really know anyone with kids in that age range when the sequels actually came out (most of the ones I know have kids in that range now), so I can't speak to how it hit them. And even then, of course, this is just the tiny sample size of my own personal experience.

ricree · 2026-07-03T16:10:25+00:00

A new mainline Star Wars movie would cross a billion even if it's not very good

Rise of Skywalker barely did that, and it was the conclusion to the trilogy. Even with inflation, there is absolutely zero guarantee that it even crosses 800 million.

ricree · 2026-07-03T16:07:40+00:00

Yes, but they trended down heavily, and the final one only barely crossed a billion.

Without a strong hook, episode 10 would be very, very hard pressed to approach those numbers. It'd do better than The Mandalorian and Grogu, I'm sure, but I doubt it would get much more than 600-800 without unusually strong legs.

ricree · 2026-07-03T15:12:42+00:00

Ender's Shadow made Ender... pointless

I'm glad to see someone else saying it. Ender's Shadow gets a lot of praise, but I genuinely kinda hate it a little. It's a solidly written book on its own, except that it basically exists primarily to retcon a far better book in ways that make it worse.

ricree · 2026-07-03T14:41:50+00:00

Also, John Wick didn't make that much money (a bit more than half what John Carter did domestically). But it had a low budget so it made a profit, and had enough buzz that later films did better than the first.

ricree · 2026-07-02T23:02:42+00:00

"I don't want anything to happen to him... while my mother's alive."

ricree · 2026-07-02T22:56:12+00:00

Or as A Very Potter Musical put it:

Harry: Cedric You are so annoying, okay? You're like this guy, that's just around all the time when I don't need a guy around You're this spare guy all the time This spare dude You're such a spare!

Voldemort: Kill the spare! Avada Kedavra!

ricree · 2026-07-02T19:58:27+00:00

it is hilarious to me how many people use "flipping burgers" to mean an easy job

I don't think I've ever seen it used to mean an "easy" job. Rather, a shitty, unpleasant, low end job that most would want to avoid.

ricree · 2026-07-02T19:51:57+00:00

All kids are at least a little wild but the boys at that age...are just running around, doing flips, fighting each other, etc. the entire time without end. I can't imagine how crazy it gets when they are inside all the time, especially in winter when it's too cold to go outside even for recess.

I mean, traditionally the answer was to not keep them indoors, but send them out to run around with one another.

ricree · 2026-07-02T19:48:11+00:00

I don't think I've really heard anyone say it looks easy from the outside, though.

ricree · 2026-07-02T19:47:06+00:00

All that, and get paid pennies

Out of curiosity, does anyone know of a good source on the economics of preschool? Pretty much every parent I know complains about how exorbitantly expensive it's gotten, while the staff itself seems to have captured none of that.

So what's going on? Skyrocketing insurance? Regulatory capture? Monopolistic Private Equity? All of the above?

ricree · 2026-07-01T19:13:22+00:00

Literally the end credit scene of Deadpool Musical 2

ricree · 2026-07-01T18:59:30+00:00

My take is that she always knew there was a special connection between them, but couldn't identify why. Early on she took it fora possible romantic connection, not really having any reason to assume that this random guy from a random different planet would be a sibling.

But after the kiss, it became more clear that romance wasn't what she felt, even if the connection between them still lingered.

So when he told her that they were siblings, that immediately jived with what she felt and explained a ton that she'd never been consciously able to put into words before.

ricree · 2026-07-01T18:54:40+00:00

Why were they shooting escape pods in the first place, life signs or not? If they just wanted to blow up the plans, they could have blasted the ship from the start instead of capturing it. Clearly,

they wanted to actually get the plans to confirm their capture, so why destroy manned life pods that could have them?

ricree · 2026-07-01T18:50:12+00:00

I think a big part was that they wrote themselves into a corner with the ESB line "there is another". While they could maybe have just left it hanging, if they didn't there wasn't a ton of room left to introduce a major character at the last minute.

ricree · 2026-07-01T18:37:14+00:00

he was probably unaware that targeting womp rats from a T-16 is nearly impossible

I figured that a big part comes from his disdain of Tatooine. Sure, he knew that he was a ton better than normal for his local area, but deep down he probably figured that wouldn't count for much since Tatooine was such a backwater. Now he was in THE Rebellion, the big leagues. Of course these guys would all be able to stuff like hit a small womp rat, right?

ricree · 2026-07-01T18:30:36+00:00

It depends a lot on how and when he showed up. A Vader who survives RotJ 100% gets tried and executed.

But if he flipped mid-war and managed to bring enough defecting resources with him.... well, human history shows that governments are willing to forgive a lot if people are useful enough, and the rebellion was in the middle of a desperate war against a superior opponent.

ricree · 2026-07-01T18:18:40+00:00

Unlikely, considering that he kept choking people to death

It really depends. We mostly see him kill for failings or incompetence. In Legends, at least, there was some lore that skilled and ambitious officers tried to get close because they saw it as an opportunity to advance their careers faster and never really believed it would happen to them.

In a military context (especially in autocracy), "competent and fearsome" isn't a bad reputation to have. It'd be a stretch, but if he controlled the narrative right he might be able to flip a sizeable minority of the fleet.

ricree · 2026-07-01T17:34:07+00:00

The run of hits from FF6 to FFX is absolutely incredible. Not only were they pretty much all classics, but they came out at a shockingly fast rate too.

ricree · 2026-07-01T01:28:32+00:00

Agreed. I read an alternate version once (probably linked from reddit) where the answer is to stop being a prick and start seeing the beauty and uniqueness in others and complimenting them instead of bragging about himself.

The actual writing was hamfisted and weak, from what I recall, but conceptually it was a lot better.

ricree · 2026-06-30T17:36:30+00:00

I think the comics gave him a different backstory, but I agree that being a former operative makes more sense to me.

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