Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

[icon_uk]

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.

Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.

Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.

It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.

The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than me. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.

The UK Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of "woman" is defined solely by biological sex (Whilst also mentioning the protections are still in palce for trans people), crowed over as vindication by those who you never want to see crowing, and leaving trans people in vague limbo whilst Government bodies look to rework their policies.

Pope Francis died at 88, the day after Easter and the day after meeting US VP Vance... coincidence? A Pope who, more than any before, shifted the boundaries in terms of seeking out the excluded and the marginalised and caused uproar when he said things like "If someone who is gay is seeking God, who am I to judge?" and permitted priests to give a blessing to same-sex couples. Not a perfect man by any means, nor as radical as some had hoped, but in terms of the inertia he was working against, probably more progressive than any would have dared hope for ten years ago.

Star Wars Celebration happened in Japan this past weekend, with many new projects announced

A live colossal squid was caught on camera for the first time and is as beautiful as you'd have hoped

And Doctor Who gave us "Lux", which I won't spoil further but was certainly different, in a good way.

Comments

[iamrman]

I have started to re-read Knightfall, so I thought I had better post tje Sword of Azrael series to give better context.

Other new titles on my list include Fury of Firestorm and Roger Stern's Starman.

Did I mention before that I am giving New Guardians a go? I only know SNOWFLAME and I wanted to check out the rest of the series.

Anybody else watch WrestleMania? Let’s just say it was a mixed bag and leave it at that.

[tripodeca113]

Apparently live action Toph will be 'slightly more feminine'. This has inspired a lot of speculation over what that means, none of it encouraging.
Like if they said 'more mature' or 'more scenes of emotional vulnerability' it wouldn't be great but I could at least understand what they were trying to do.
My theory is that they'll try to add depth to Toph, but just undermine what makes her interesting.

Continued watching twenty year old Doctor Who episodes: Aliens of London!
wow Boris Johnson really does look like the fake prime minster in a Doctor Who episode.
I get that the Slitheen are meant to be deliberately comedic, but their not very funny and they seem kind of out place compared to the rest of the story.....truly the Sarah Jane Adventures were their crowing glory
Hmmm probably satire about the aftermath of 9/11 and political fearmongering. With a mix of Not Your Father's Doctor Who...

Oh hey UNIT. The first direct reference to the original series (depending on how you count it).
Oh look the Doctor called them the United Nation Intelligence Taskforce. The United Nations complained and now their the UNited Intelligence Taskforce

Oh a Darth Maul TV show. I enjoyed his other animated appearances, but this doesn't seem like a very interesting premise since he can't win and must inevitably fail and die. I don't think he can really support his own show either. He's pretty evil and he's not going to change, both due to pre-established continuity and his nature.
It looks like he's getting a new apprentice but since she wasn't in Rebels we can guess how that turns out.....

So their going to make a Star Wars movie set after Rise of Skywalker. Why would you choose to do that? Any idea you have for a Sequel trilogy story can be slotted into the timeframe of the Original films, work just as well and not have to engage with the events of Rise of Skywalker in anyway.
I don't have high hopes for the Rey movie but there's some logic behind it....

well we have the cast of the Australian version of Ghosts:
"McElhinney will play Irish potato famine survivor, mother of 13 and publican Eileen; Hill will be stoic naval officer Gideon; Ines English plays 1900s socialite and bride-to-be Miranda; Michelle Brasier plays vibrant 1980s aerobics instructor Lindy; George Zhao is young Gold Rush-era Chinese miner Joon; and Jackson Tozer is Satan, a misunderstood 1990s motorbike gang member with a heart of gold."
hmmm....oh good the woman who can see Ghosts is Indigenous

[icon_uk]

"Aliens of London" was a direct parody of Tony Blair's reasoning in joining the US invasion of Iraq, with their direct mention of the "massive weapons of destruction" which could be deployed in forty-five seconds (based on the infamous "dodgy dossier" which claimed, incorrectly, that Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction it could deploy in 45 minutes")

The farting was definitely there to amuse small children, and divert slightly from the macabre nature of the "skins".

By removing the farting, the Sarah Jane Adventures certainly made them the monsters they truly were (especially since that included a child's skin)

[thezmage]

My understanding is that Australian Aboriginal culture prohibits depictions of the dead, and as such making any Aboriginal ghost characters would be offensive. I have heard that the head writer is Aboriginal so I think that they probably are approaching it as respectfully as possible. I do think it's interesting that this is the first version to not have an apparent analogue of Pat/Pete/Svenni/Dani, as well as that their pantsless ghost is from a completely different socio-economic class.

Was a little surprised to see that the French version had a nazi collaborator ghost as a major(-ish) character.

[tripodeca113]

Perhaps they had to make up for the German versions lack of Nazi Ghosts

[thezmage]

Well there is at least one nazi ghost in the second episode of every European version of the show. Just a cameo when they go looking for another place to live, I mean

[iormungand]

From the NITV Cultural Protocols:

"...in the case of the deceased members in the Indigenous community protocols for mourning may vary for different clan groups and different individuals.

However, it’s common practice that when there is a member of the community that has deceased, the person’s name is changed due to cultural beliefs and the images of that person are suppressed. This maybe just for a period of time, some cases could vary between six-to-12 months..."

So it is not universally prohibited, but there should be a warning such as: "WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following program may contain images and voices of deceased persons."

I've not heard that depicting ghosts of fictional Aboriginal people would be offensive. I know of one TV series, Grace Beside Me, which is about an Aboriginal girl who sees spirits, including that of her grandmother

[scorntx]

Yeah, that Toph comment was weird.
(Do they mean she won't pick her toes?)

[tripodeca113]

No one knows what it means
(Oddly in the casting announcement they say they realized that Miya Chech had the perfect mix of "the sarcastic sense of humor, stubbornness, and vulnerability that is Toph Beifong" but then they went and did this...)

[super_fly]

What they should have done is gone meta with it and cast a big buff dude who sees by screaming at you like in the Ember Island Players

[scorntx]

I was enjoying that Doctor Who, up until the thirty minute mark.
Then it got self-indulgent. Massively, massively self-indulgent.
Apart from that, though, it was good.


The local has a whole bunch of Avengers back-issues.
Tempted mainly because it'd fill a hole in the collection. It's just they're from Dark Reign, so there's Bendis-speak and Murder-Hawkeye abounding...
And the Hood... brr...

(Looking through their Epic Collections is also frustrating. Some that look intriguing, but their storage methods seem to often leave them with massive dents, like someone tried to fold the damn things in half.)

Decided to give Justice League: Gods and Monsters a watch.
Actually quite interesting. Shame they didn't get to make any more.
(I mean, not absolutely wild about the blood-bath of named characters; always seems like a misstep when you're making a continuing universe.)

Ultimate Wolverine is... hmm.
On the one hand, it is ridiculously oppressively grim-dark.
But on the other, it's actually doing some world-building for what it's like being a Mutant in the setting. (I have long since abandoned any notion Ultimate X-Men will answer anything about anything. If it does so, it will only be by coincidence. ... same with Ultimate Black Panther.)
Though in-between the grim-dark there's also the notion that despite all the alterations to history, apparently everything happened pretty much the same for the X-Men, just that A: They don't call themselves the X-Men, and B: No Storm, Colossus or Cyclops.

Meanwhile, solicits for upcoming Ultimates seem to be promising a Clash of the Kooky Quartet.
And Ultimate Incursion's suggesting a crossover between Ultimates and BP.
And over in Ultimate Black Panther, that spooky priestess who looks and acts totally shifty? She's evil. What a tweeest.

Star Wars Celebrations confirmed that The Ninth Jedi is getting a follow-up and a whole sequel series.
Awesome.

[iamrman]

What Epic Collections, may I ask?

[scorntx]

You certainly may.
One of the Iron Mans - either War Machine or The Return of Tony Stark, I can't recall which, and a Sgt. Fury one that's been knocking around that shop for a while.
Which I'm guessing the big dent probably explains.
Not normally one for war comics (or just any depiction of WW2 stuff in general), but the NUU got me intrigued.
... ... plus, it's that or give into madness and buy the Stan and Jack X-Men one.
(Since there's still no sign of The Gift, or that they'll ever stock it, and just ordering off t'internet takes the thrill of the hunt out of it.)

[iamrman]

I haven't read Sgt. Fury, but I have read the Iron Man Epics you mentioned. Pretty standard 90’s stuff, if I remember correctly.

[skjam]

Went to MInicon over the weekend. Had bad luck with busses as two drivers in a row missed hearing the "stop" bell. I hadn't signed up in time to be on any panels, so had a lot of free time, and having a room at the hotel meant I could take naps as needed. We were back at the Radishtree, which has substantially remodeled and gotten better management.

I did have one person who asked "why aren't you on *this* panel?" as I am known for my expertise in the subject matter. Maybe next year!

I had conversations with guest of Honor Wesley Chu a couple of times. He didn't remember me from previous encounters, but did recognize my screen name.

Exhausted and spent most of Monday recovering, back to work today.

Marvel Puzzlequest: Current chase character is Hellcow.

Over at my blog, I look at an older pirate novel: https://www.skjam.com/2025/04/22/book-review-way-of-a-buccaneer/

[cygnia]

Re: Doctor Who

Now, "Lux" I liked MUCH better. On par with "Midnight" & "Wild Blue Yonder" for RTD. And I'm wondering if a theory posted by some random now has merit...

...gung Zef. Sybbq vf yvaxrq gb gur Ynaq bs Svpgvba sebz "Gur Zvaq Eboore"

[werehawk]

I knew nothing about the game except the general premise. But that last episode of the last of us! Wow.

[deh_tommy]

Wow in a good way or wow in a bad way? It never bothered me too much, but I’m really curious to see what viewers of the show would think of the Joel-in-One given the gap between Seasons 1 and 2 was much shorter than that of the games and the marketing isn’t anywhere near as deceptive.

[werehawk]

Wow in a very good way from my pov. Again, I knew nothing about the game, and I also avoid all trailers and articles, so went in cold and did not expect anything like what happened in an episode 2. Really, the whole episode was like a season finale in terms of action and plot and intensity.

There was a lot (A LOT) more going on than the scenes with Joel (but that was intense too). Probably the most intense episode of anything I've watched since Battlestar Galactica episode 2 (the one where the Cylons find them every 33 minutes). Hmm, maybe there is an episode 2 thing...

[leahandillyana]

Hello I am alive.
A few days ago on my other personal blog I wrote about what was happening to me and what was I doing: https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/6146801
Today I wrote a follow up summarizing what happened last week: https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/6166521
Not much more to say. Please take a look at the fern I've been obsessing over recently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athyrium_niponicum

[bolindbergh]

Conspiracy nuts must be blessing Vance's name right now. The parallel with Elizabeth II and Liz Truss is so very obvious.

[full_metal_ox]

An old-school online tool that still sees a lot of use around here is gone: https://rot13.com went abracapoof at some point between 28 March and 1 April. The encryption functions still work at a number of the more recent Wayback Machine links, including this one:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250328032326/https://rot13.com/

There’s also https://www.rot13.app/.

[kamino_neko]

Oh, good...I'm not the only one it's stopped working for. I've tried to use it in another com a couple times recently...the one I've been using has been less good, so thank you for the better link.

[full_metal_ox]

Happy to be of service.