Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

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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 scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.

In the search for non contentious news (because there's a lot of the alternative flying around) I did find this amazing story about a bucket. but not just ANY old bucket!

Sesame Street will be continuing on Netflix after PBS had it's funding cut

Despite being the nominally "silly" episode about a pastiche of the Eurovision Song Contest, Doctor Who had not one, but TWO major plot reveals, one of which was confirming a long-standing rumour about Mrs Flood, and the other was (for this spoiler-free viewer) breath-taking to see, and a pointed (and honestly rather disturbing) reminder that even this "Post-therapy" incarnation of the Doctor does not cope well with loss. A reminder of ROT13 for spoilers on this one please!

Comments

[tripodeca113]

Doctor Who twentieth anniversary rewatch:
"Doctor can we go back to the day my father died?"
"Sure. I don't see anyway this can go wrong...."

I kid but this was a very strong episode.
Next time my fair and unbiased look at Steven The False Prophet Moffat's first episode.

fhfna vf onpx
bu
V arire rkcrpgrq guvf gb unccra

Yay! It's the tenth anniversary of Mad Max Fury Road!
what a film
what an experience
truly Creed was the only 2015 Film Based On A Nostalgic Property that even came close to it

Yay! It's the tenth anniversary of The Witcher 3!
It's my second favourite Witcher game!

Looks like the Aang movie has been delayed again....

Have been watching more of The Wire but it's too late for me to write up all my thoughts.
"Can America afford a War on Drugs and a War on Terror" hahha

[numeronone]

After some intense contemplation,I have decided to portmanteau Aaron-Taylor Johnson's best known-roles to create the nickname "Kraven Ass" in perpetuity.

Between the UK's ruling party drifting ever towards the right and all large tech companies drifting ever towards "we fucked up everything we do, but what are you gonna do, not use us?" I'm wondering if someone might one day write one of those high-falutin' Malcolm Gladwell type books that posits that large organisations are, by default, always doomed to degrade and fail. For some reason.

(Heck, I can't help but see the parallel with certain big comics decisions: One More Day/One Moment In Time was essentially the same logic. "Yes, we fucked over Spider-Man as badly as we possibly could. What are you gonna do, stop buying the comic? And ruin your legacy collection? C'mooon.")

Did a bit of an infodump to my patient spouse the other day on the tangled history of "Miracleman". Can't help but feel bad for anyone who's been a core fan of the book, waiting upwards of two decades for it to be finally published again only to find that the current writer is a sex pest and that it'll probably never be revived from the considerable stank he's brought to it.

Oh yes, and gurl'er oevatvat onpx Fhfna Sberzna? Shpx lrf! Fznyy ubcr, ohg V pna'g uryc ohg jvfu EGQ jbhyq cvpx hc zl ergpba vqrn naq znxr vg gung *fur* jnf gur Gvzryrff Puvyq naq abg gur Qbpgbe. Vg znxrf fb zhpu zber frafr - gung'f jul gurl ena njnl gbtrgure, ur jnf gelvat gb fnir ure sebz gur Gvzr Ybeqf. Ohg ab, V xabj gung'f cebonoyl abg jung gurl'er qbvat. Fgvyy irel tynq gurer'f gur cbffvovyvgl gurl'yy svanyyl or erhavgrq (nsgre fvkgl ybat lrnef!!!)

Over the weekend I noticed a gosling stuck in a grate and picked them to rescue them. I'll never know the full impact of that action. Maybe they got eaten by a fox the next day. Maybe they'll have 50 goslings of their own over the course of their life. Sometimes all you can do is a little something, and see what happens.

I'm growing potatoes in a big pot again. Dig for Victory.

[deh_tommy]

Okay, so The Robot Revolution was a space romp with literal machines, Lux was a trip to the past where the Doctor square off against the Pantheon of Discord, The Well was a bottle episode set in the future where the military is stuck in this one quarry and his companion gets shot, Lucky Day was a Doctor-lite focusing on Ruby and everything going wrong for her at the pub, The Story And The Engine was about an ethnic community under siege by a rebellious servant who threatened to destroy the planet, and now The Interstellar Song Contest is about aliens living out Earth TV programmes and the Doctor loses his cool because he thinks his companion is dead. Naq tbvat bss gur ovt cbfg-perqvgf gjvfg, gur svanyr jvyy or nobhg fbzr zragvba bs Fhfna (cbffvoyl n snxr bhg, fvapr fur abgnoyl fnlf gur fnzr guvat Ze. Clr’f jvsr gbyq uvz) naq n ergheavat pynffvp frevrf ovt onq oevatvat nobhg gur raq bs gur jbeyq.

I’m not crazy, am I? This can’t all just be coincidence, can it? I know they were filmed back to back so that could explain the overlap between this and the last series and maybe I’m stretching with these, but they’ve also emphasised repeatedly how coincidence and chance feed chaotic beings like the goblins or the fairies or the Pantheon.

[skjam]

Work continues to be work. They're pushing "next best actions" which I feel very uncomfortable with, since it's basically upselling without the extra cost part.

Third Doctor re-watch: Just started The Ambassadors of Death, which is the first story to indicate we're actually in the near future rather than the 1970s, as there's a Mars mission. The Brigadier actually gets to be pretty badass in the first episode.

Got my panel assignments for ConVergence--all of them are on Thursday, so I am really hoping I'll get the day off.

As a bit of a surprise, instead of Movie Sentry, the latest Marvel Puzzle Quest chase character is Meteorite, Moonstone's "hero" identity from the early days of the Thunderbolts.

Over at my blog, this month's movies are all Best Pictures, and I look at a classic movie, the longest to win that Oscar: https://www.skjam.com/2025/05/18/movie-review-gone-with-the-wind/

[iamrman]

As much as I have enjoyed the discussion about how terrible Lyja is, I am afraid I am going to five up posting Fantastic Four. The subplots are piling up and now there is something going on with Celestials and rogue Watchers. I can't bring myself to care any more. How about I start posting the Heroes Return Fantastic Four instead?

I am nearing the end of my Justice League Detroit read through. Should I carry on with Justice League International or do Justice League Task Force instead?

I have a load more titles I am planning to post when the time comes (all-new and revisiting old favourites). You will have to wait and see what they are though.

[scorntx]

Oh, darn. Want to talk Who but don't want to give spoilers...
Every modern Doctor gets their scary moment.
Think this was 15's.
(Not sure what 11's was. Maybe turning mankind into a lynch mob against the Silents?)

Not having looked at internet speculation, didn't see that reveal coming.
Not sure why they put in in the middle of the credits when just having it be the end of the episode would've been the same, but... hey-o.
("No old villains in the series". Now there's a technicality for you...)

The true horror of the episode is that even with Earth annihilated, there's no escaping Eurovision.
Or Bucks Fizz.
(actually, do quite like that song. But it was making the rounds of TOTP years after it won...)


Disney+ managed to start working proper(ish) last week, so back on the Andor.
(But it's still refusing to play the Ironheart trailer. Hmm.)

... think I might've said it before, but when it gets to the point, it's fine. It's just often it takes for-bleeding-ever to get there.
(The dramatically shortened run is a bit of a double-edged sword here. Some of the stuff brought up or skipped over are things that maybe could've been dwelt on a bit more?)

All those poor Space French! All those poor spiders.
oh, and Syril.

Mon Mothma gets to show a bit of spine! Oh, wait, nope, next time she shows up she's back to being ineffectual. Ah, well. Nice while it lasted.

Gosh, all that stuff with Saw really came to nothing.

As predicted, K-2 only shows up in the last hurdle. But he does cover a lot of ground in that time.
(Also, trying hard to not think about the Shaggy Dog nature of the story. Pretty much nobody gets what they want and thanks to Rogue One their actions are either pointless or get them killed.
But it's all worth it to restore the Republic! ... which is so bungling, corrupt and inefficient thanks to Mothma's own actions it'll get blown up in the sequels.
Damn sequels.)


Managed to find a copy of the first series of Lower Decks comics. (Harder than it sounds. Can't even find it on Amazon for love nor money.)
Think the best part is either that one guy who's... way more interested in Dr. T'Ana than he should be, or Mariner yelling at Boimler over Dracula-related problems.
"He's going to bite everyone! Or seduce them! Then bite them anyway!"

This week in Ultimate X-Men, we were introduced to the NUU version of Rogue, adding an interesting complication for Rogy shippers.
"Ah can't touch you, Remy, 'cuz yer on another continent! ... an' if that Kate touches you, ah'mma rip her lungs out, intangibility or no!"


Scarlet With & The Vision starting this week. I'm intrigued, but at the same time... Orlando's Marvel stuff has left me kind of 'eh'.
So, the question is... how much do I ship it?

Finished pretty much everything in AC: Shadows.
Now to just find that one last stinkin' teapot...

[numeronone]

Oh, and: as much as I do give RTD grief for some of his worse decisions (still being very petty about that bullshit scene in "Now And Then" re: self-service checkouts)...I have to give him kudos for univat gur Enav cynlrq ol na Vaqvna npgerff, ng ybat ynfg.

It was a small thing to do, but well worth it.

[mister_terrific]

Doctor Who...I was impressed. I'll give Davies this, he knows how to ramp things up to 11 for the finale.

Time for an upbeat tale. My FIL had two cats. My MIL had them declawed (one more good reason why she deserves to burn in hell for all eternity...ahem). They were very shy around visitors, but they LOVED my FIL. Not surprising, the man had pure animal-lover energy. After MIL died (and went to hell), these cats kept him company and gave him great comfort.

When my BIL "Goofus" wormed his way back into FIL's life (and his condo), the cats stayed well away from him, sensing that he hated them. And when FIL ended up in a senior care facility in Indiana...things went south. The cats were neglected, and a few months later Goofus called us to say that one of them had died under really odd circumstances (and we will leave it at that). I told him to take the body to a nearby vet clinic, and we'd prepay for a cremation.

He never did it. We found out later he put the body in the freezer. Our suspicion is that he was hoping we'd give him cash for drugs/alcohol.

All during this, we had no idea about the status of the other cat, named "Bruce". Goofus was not forthcoming and we feared the worst. When we FINALLY got him evicted in late March (the wheels of justice grind very slowly), the agency my other BIL "Gallant" hired installed new locks and a motion detector system for security. There's another story about that, but I'll bypass it.

Turns out the detectors went off. Wasn't a human presence. Hmm. Fortunately, I have a very good friend back there (also named "Bruce", amusingly) whose hobby was trapping ferals, getting them checked out and neutered, and rehoming them when possible. I called him and explained the situation, and he immediately said "I'm on it" and worked with the agency to set up some indoor traps.

Caught Bruce the Cat in two days. Yay! Bruce the Human took him home and set him up in a nice big cage with lots of food, water, litter box and a big box he could hide in. We crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.

Boy, we got it and then some! Bruce the Cat started chowing down like there was no tomorrow, and believe it or not he fell in LOVE with Bruce the Human. Reached the point where he wouldn't eat dinner until he'd climbed into the Human's lap and gotten his allocation of pats. And apparently the purr could shake houses!

Bruce the Human took him to the vet yesterday. The cat is understandably underweight (that's not going to be a problem much longer!), has an oddly dislocated jaw (we have our suspicions but can't be sure), and otherwise is in surprisingly good health. Bruce the Human is going to start working his extensive network to see if anyone would like a very shy, loving boy who would probably do well as a solo cat. I have my fingers crossed!

[leahandillyana]

The cat who survived the initial bombing of her apartment died.
Russian scums bombed another animal shelter, Kot Begemot in Kherson. Several animals died, and most other escaped in panic. The ones who remained were too injured to run or didn't want to leave their injured friends behind.More on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJo_pgJtIAJ/
I am very weak but I have more mental energy than I've had for a long time. I worry more about my elderly parents' health. My boys seem to be doing fine. Mattie tried to cheer me up when I was feeling particularly bad Most of Poland is suffering from a draught, but I am having sufficient water supply thus far. Tulip season is ending, and poppy season has started. I plan on planting white and purple garlics, pink and white lilies of the valley, mixed irises and a white baby's breath.

[thezmage]

Because my dad wants to go to the new Mission Impossible movie this weekend, I've sat down and watched the first six. Truly, Tom Cruise at his most self-indulgent I'd only seen the first two before, and stopped because I remember the second one as being very bad. Upon a rewatch, it turns out that I had rose colored glasses and it was even worse than I remembered it. I rather liked #6 but ultimately I'd have stopped watching earlier had I not agreed to go to the new movie already. It feels like an oddly dumbed down version of the Fast and the Furious films (Yes, I'm aware at how that comment sounds, but the Fast and Furious films know that they're dumb while the MI films think they aren't))

[shakalooloo]

Andor... It'd probably like it at least twice as much if it had any other title. Andor is really tangential at best to the plot. Kleya was far more interesting all the way through!

Of course K2SO4 steals the show once he shows up, and it was a genuine relief to see that B2EMO made it at the end after Cassian dropped him harder than his sister.

What happened to the brick?!?!?

[full_metal_ox]

In U.S. news, Nottoway Plantation in White Castle, Louisiana, the largest surviving antebellum mansion, has burned down—to great African-American rejoicing. Apparently Nottoway’s owners have defended it as a historical monument but promoted it as a luxury destination vacation and wedding venue, with any mention of its origins in slave labor and all the attendant horrors thereof stuffed into the oubliette:

https://apnews.com/article/nottoway-plantation-fire-reactions-social-media-slavery-9432f5154dea4412eab124b085c077cd4

[cygnia]

So..."Who"

I'm a damn dirty 'Murican, so Eurovision doesn't speak to me as well versus those across the pond. I liked the concept of the theme -- but it felt clumsy in the delivery. Rfcrpvnyyl jvgu ubj dhvpx Oryvaqn frrzrq gb oehfu bss gur Qbpgbe pebffvat gung zbeny yvar. Vg sryg ynpxvat.

And it doesn't help that erny jbeyq cbyvgvpf haqrephgf gur rcvfbqr'f zrffntr nobhg trabpvqr/ivyynvavmvat na ragver cynarg'f crbcyr. :-/

As for the important bits... SHPX LRNU FHFNA~! SHPX LRNU GUR ENAV~! Thrff gung zrnaf OOP svanyyl pyrnerq hc yrtny znggref jvgu gur rfgngr bs Cvc & Wnar Onxre. Ubcvat gung Zef Sybbq vfa'g gbgnyyl n zvyxfbc abj gubhtu.