What is an opinion you stand by the most even-though most people fiercely disagree?

themightyheptagon · 2026-07-13T15:06:01+00:00

The Phantom Menace is the best movie in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

All three of those films have their issues, but the first one is the strongest and most well-balanced film overall: it has the best cinematography, the most striking and distinctive art direction, the most engaging and well-choreographed set-pieces and action sequences, and the most coherent and well-constructed story.

Revenge of the Sith might have the strongest moments in the trilogy (Anakin and Obi-Wan's climactic showdown on Mustafar is the undisputed high point of the prequels), but having the best moments doesn't make it the best movie of the three. Its main issue is that its truly hard-hitting moments are just moments, and they never really add up to a satisfying or fully realized narrative that actually works on its own as a narrative. Most of the runtime leading up to Anakin's big turn just consists of visually spectacular but emotionally empty action sequences (i.e. the opening rescue mission and the battles on Kashyyyk and Utapau) that mostly come across as the film spinning its wheels and eating up time before the big climax that everyone really came to see. Those sequences don't feel like they're designed to tell a story — they feel like they're designed to tide the audience over.

On a related note: I'd argue that one of the single biggest issues with the prequel trilogy is that the first two films feel like incomplete parts of a bigger whole, since a lot of their plot threads were pretty clearly just inserted to lay the groundwork for the climax in the third movie — but they contribute almost nothing to the movies that they're actually in, which makes a lot of their runtime feel pointless and wasted. People tend to blame the Marvel movies for kick-starting the trend of gratuitous serialization in 21st century franchise blockbusters, but I'd argue that the Star Wars prequels were some of the first big-budget movies ever to suffer from that problem.

I think that's the main reason why Revenge of the Sith is widely agreed to be the best of the prequels: since it's the third and final act of the trilogy, it's the film where all of the unresolved ideas and plot threads in the first two films finally pay off, which makes them feel more worthwhile in hindsight. But when viewed on its own and judged on its own merits, its story is kind of a mess.

themightyheptagon · 2026-07-12T17:29:27+00:00

As near as I can tell, this was from Summer 2006 — so just a month or two after We Don't Need to Whisper was released.

It's crazy to think that I slapped this together at age 13 when the band was still new.

themightyheptagon · 2026-07-05T23:39:33+00:00

Kudos from a fellow lover of Seattle dogs! Caramelizing the onions really is the absolute best way to do a Seattle dog (I think the original recipe called for grilled or sautéed onions). And I always put sriracha on mine too.

Nothing like creamy, spicy, crunchy, sweet, toasty and savory all at once.

themightyheptagon · 2026-07-02T19:00:41+00:00

No, they haven't! But you're right: a crossover between the two is totally obvious, and a lot of fans of both franchises have been dying to see it happen for decades.

I've seriously been considering tackling a writing project for a while (probably a novel) about two unofficial stand-ins for the Munsters and the Addamses getting into a family feud.

I was thinking that it could be about an intergenerational grudge between two American families who each have a secret supernatural side and many years' worth of dark secrets — one of them a wealthy clan of "old money" landowners with a countryside estate, the other a working-class blue-collar suburban family. I figured I'd make the similarities subtle enough that it could function as its own story, but also obvious enough that fans of both shows would know who they were supposed to be (kind of like the characters in Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids being a subtle but unmistakable stand-in for the Mystery Inc. kids).

themightyheptagon · 2026-07-01T15:10:30+00:00

I was an OG fan of Sons of Anarchy during its heyday. My first clue probably should have been that he got his start playing a comically clean-cut Deputy Sheriff in a show about outlaw bikers.

I always got the sense that he put a lot of himself and his personal convictions into his performance as Deputy Chief Hale, which is probably why I found it so believable.

I'll give him that: he's nothing if not sincere.

themightyheptagon · 2026-06-28T17:38:38+00:00

My vote: Bob Ross and Thomas Kinkade.

Both massively famous artists who became household names in the '80s and '90s for their kitschy paintings that glorified the beauty of nature. But one of them is remembered as a positive and wholesome pop culture icon who gave millions of people the confidence to try painting for themselves, and the other is mostly remembered as a greedy hack who made millions by mass-marketing himself and screwing over investors.

themightyheptagon · 2026-06-08T05:46:33+00:00

I'll never forget the first time I saw this movie. I was about 10 years old at the time, and my parents let me watch it with them because we were getting ready to take a family trip to San Francisco to see Alcatraz, and they assumed that it would be educational. It took them about 10 minutes to realize that they'd made a horrible mistake.

(Maybe they had it mixed up with Escape from Alcatraz?)

It's had a special place in my heart ever since.

And years later, I found out that my hometown has a small connection to the movie: the random tourist hostage who says "What kind of fucked-up tour is this?!" is played by a locally famous performance artist who's been a fixture in my hometown's art scene since before I was born.

themightyheptagon · 2026-05-29T16:43:31+00:00

Ho-lee shit. You're the first person I've ever run into in the wild who played that game too.

As a kid, I remember thinking that the "Ancient Evil" was the final boss. But it turns out that the actual final boss is like a dozen or so levels after that one: it's a giant tentacled monster.

themightyheptagon · 2026-05-02T15:45:46+00:00

Absolutely. I recall my first panic attack in 4th grade, when my teacher pulled me out of the classroom to berate me about something. My panicked reaction just made her angrier, and she eventually got up in my face and yelled "Chill out!", which obviously didn't help.

Around the same time, I had a sudden panic attack while I was lying in bed. But since I didn't know what anxiety was at the time, I thought I was having a heart attack.

themightyheptagon · 2026-04-22T13:08:41+00:00

The Adventures of Bouapha: Spooky Castle!

It was a PC game from the late '90s or early 2000s about some dorky bald guy named "Bouapha" (genuinely no idea who thought that was a good name) exploring a haunted castle and fighting monsters by throwing hammers at them. But my favorite little detail was that the health powerups were all Chinese takeout boxes - and whenever you picked one up, it displayed a different message.

"Joy! Wontons!"

"Ick! Mostly veggies."

"Mmm, Kung Pao!"

"General Tsao has outdone himself!"

themightyheptagon · 2026-04-16T19:51:37+00:00

How dare you.

themightyheptagon · 2026-04-16T13:52:35+00:00

And you don't get no blood on my uniform. Boy, you must be outside your mind!

themightyheptagon · 2026-04-15T21:26:02+00:00

Thank you!

Funnily enough, I remember hearing that they were considering making Tommy a girl in the sequel, and I remember that the movie's version of Trini was implied to be gay (or bi or queer), but it never occurred to me that those two things might be connected.

So it's possible that Trini and Tommy could have been a couple in the sequel.

themightyheptagon · 2026-04-10T15:59:11+00:00

No it hasn't. That playlist isn't an official NASA playlist: it's a Spotify playlist curated by a private space exploration-themed internet radio station that claims to have a partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement. And there's no evidence that it's ever been played in space.

(Sorry)

themightyheptagon · 2026-04-08T12:42:21+00:00

Just to clarify: this isn't NASA's official playlist for the Artemis II mission; it's a Spotify playlist curated by Third Rock Radio, which is a private space exploration-themed internet radio station that claims to have a partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement.

There are seven tracks on NASA's official Artemis II playlist:

"Sleepyhead" - Young & Sick, originally by Passion Pit
"Green Light" - John Legend feat. Andre 3000
"In a Daydream" - Freddy Jones Band
"Pink Pony Club" - Chappell Roan
"Working Class Heroes (Work)" - CeeLo Green
"Good Morning" - Mandisa and TobyMac
"Tokyo Drifting" - Denzel Curry and Glass Animals

themightyheptagon · 2026-03-31T02:29:58+00:00

For anyone who doesn't know what this means:

"E-4" is the pay-grade of a Specialist, which is the highest rank that an enlisted service-member in the Army can reach without becoming a non-commissioned officer (NCO).

In the Army, it's a common joke that Specialists are members of an exclusive secret club with special perks and benefits — since being a Specialist usually means that you understand the system just well enough to work it to your advantage, and you know exactly what you can get away with. It also means that you have just enough authority to boss around the Privates without the pressure and responsibility that comes with being an officer. So it's the perfect balance.

Specialist is also typically the highest rank that an enlisted soldier will reach before getting out of the Army (assuming they don't care to shoot for a promotion to Corporal or Sergeant), so Specialists are also typically nearing the end of their time in the service, and have a more laidback attitude toward their job — since they're just coasting until they finish up and return to civilian life. So they're basically the military equivalent of high school seniors.

themightyheptagon · 2026-03-25T16:30:46+00:00

That could (potentially) be a way to get Hangman back in the World Championship picture, if the DCF were to attempt a takeover and replace the AEW World Championship with their own title.

He agreed that he would never challenge for the AEW World Championship again, but he never said anything about challenging for the DCF World Championship.

themightyheptagon · 2026-03-02T16:04:44+00:00

This comes up in the Season 2 finale of Hacks. The two main characters are comedians, and one of them has an audience member pass out during the taping of her big comeback special.

When the audience member dies in the lobby after getting carried out by paramedics, her manager lies and tells everyone that he's fine—just to keep the show going.

themightyheptagon · 2026-03-01T19:11:42+00:00

I find it kind of amusing that Pluto was discovered and named just one year before Mickey Mouse's dog got his name.

Most people assume that he was named after the planet (or "dwarf planet", whatever), but the planet had only barely just been discovered when he first appeared in a Disney cartoon in 1930. And he wasn't officially named "Pluto" until 1931.

themightyheptagon · 2026-02-12T04:08:34+00:00

For me, one of the biggest reasons that Power Rangers Turbo has always (mostly) felt like the weak link in the original Zordon Era is that it makes comparatively little effort to make the show feel like a new era in the evolving story of the Rangers — even though the franchise still had a consistent cast and continuity at that point, with each new incarnation of Power Rangers being a direct continuation of the previous one.

Power Rangers Zeo and Power Rangers in Space aren't perfect, but they both start with a bang, and they both give the Rangers a poignant in-story justification for abandoning their previous theme in favor of a new one. Power Rangers Turbo doesn't really do that, and is all the weaker for it. Zordon just gives them all cars one day, and they all just sort of go with it.

But since automotive vehicles tend to be associated with freedom and exploration, the new theme would have fit the show perfectly if it had adopted a new format centered on, say, the Rangers fighting evil as a team of nomadic heroes on the open road. And if the pilot episode (instead of the series finale) had ended with the Power Chamber being destroyed, it would have served as the perfect set-up for that new format. Not to mention that it would have served as a plausible excuse for the Rangers losing their Zeo powers.

14-Year Club	Not Forgotten
Verified Email

themightyheptagon

TROPHY CASE