Just because it's a sequel doesn't mean it's derivative. All 5 movies are directed by the same guy. I can't speak for the first 3, but if you saw the 2015 movie and couldn't tell that it was a passion project, then I don't know what to tell you. We don't call Sherlock Holmes soulless even though Doyle wrote over 50 short stories starring Holmes.

It's entirely possible for someone to be creatively invested in a world they've built and want to keep exploring it in future works.

I agree to a point, but Mad Max is an example of something original that seems to have come from a place of creativity instead of a committee and yet is still doing poorly.

So I don't think it's just that Hollywood has a tendency to do remakes instead of original stuff.

Expect to see memes about it too in other communities. This'll be the front page of most fediverse instances in some fashion for the rest of the day I imagine

From what I've seen/heard, I'd say so. I think there's one part that might be kind of challenging, but it seems pretty accessible.

Yeah, that one has been on my radar as well! I definitely plan to check it out when it releases. Fingers crossed it actually comes out this year!

I haven't tried Warmane myself, but I definitely sympathize with wanting to just jump in every now and again. Compared to the mega servers of current wow, private servers can seem small, but I find they their player base is usually more active / engaged

If you wish to enter Hades, you know the price that must be paid.

Bacon, fresh.

Honestly, I'd be down for that. I love dogs

He was Paul Allen in American Psycho, though I don't know how successful that was at release.

To be more specific, kbin doesn't federate downvotes, or at least doesn't import downvotes from outside an instance. Not sure if it sends any downvotes generated here back out, but any downvotes you see here are from other kbin.social users

Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller would fit the hard mode here, for those interested.

Won't fit the hard mode, but Charles Sheffield's Tomorrow and Tomorrow was an interesting read. The first third wasn't really my thing, but after that the book goes way far into the future.

This seems really fun, thanks for organizing this! I don't know if I read fast enough to fill in more than a few squares, but should be a fun challenge all the same.

Ah, perfect. I would agree with those rankings. I always wonder what the world would look like if Julian had ruled longer. Would he have been able to return Rome to a pre-Christian era? Or would all of his changes be undone anyway after his death regardless of how long he could stay in power.

And apologies for missing them, the image was hard to read on my phone.

Is Julian the Apostate on here? I have a soft spot for him, though he definitely wouldn't go in the top tiers. Also, did Philip the Arab make it on your list? My memory would place him as above average, though it's been awhile and I could be misremembering what all he did

I appreciate seeing Claudius pretty high up. It's been awhile since I dived into Roman history, but I remember Claudius leaving a strong impression on me. Definitely felt like he was expected to fail but then defied expectations.

A sad day for both England, and the world.

I'm still slowly making my way through the second Gears of War book. They aren't exactly the pinnacle of literature, but I'm finding them better written than I was expecting. Karen Travis does a good job at fleshing out characters the games kind of sideline.

After I finish this one (whenever that will be) I'll likely try and start Hyperion again. For some reason I just haven't stuck with it

In Lord Bucket Head we trust

Fair enough! I still prefer the implied version, but it's definitely nice to have alternatives.

Also, I haven't kept up with SF6. I was surprised Akuma wasn't a launch character.

I'm seeing a lot of his moves from 3rd Strike, which is nice. Not a fan of that raging demon though. I still think it's better the less of it you see and the more of it that's implied.

In my city, it looks like the showings for the first film are at 3:30/4 pm on a Friday. I wish they had been able to get a later start time for at least the Friday movie...

Is the 35th anniversary the release of 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy on the Switch? I'd say the artificial scarcity aspect to induce fomo wasn't any better. It might have even been worse.

I would suggest looking at other Kbin instances outside of kbin.social. or look to mbin, which is a fork that in told is more stable. I also haven't made the jump from Kbin, but have been having similar issues with usability with it for awhile.

I'm pretty sure it shows up in Kbin 's search, which is how I found it.

They were being sarcastic, by the way.

Earthican.

Kind of sad they didn't just go with the original cast. I know Toph's voice actor still acts, but I guess it's possible the rest don't. I get why you can't do it if they are still children (Aang's voice actor obviously grew up and can't do child Aang's voice anymore), but they should be fine to perform the adult versions of the characters.

As a bisexual man, the 90s were much different for LGBT folks than today. But yes, for most people, the 90s wouldn't be too much worse than today, aside from economics.

Was better in some regards. I think most minorities in the US would agree that they at least feel safe and more free to exist in 2024 than they would in the 1980s or earlier.

Have you tried the Mass Effect trilogy? Generally considered to have a pretty good story, and it has choices so there's some replay value too.

I'm curious, where's "over here" for you? I'm not super involved in politics here in the US, but I don't think surrogacy is really talked about much here? There's the people who vehemently oppose it (from my experience that's mostly the religious right), but almost any interaction I've had discussing it just lists it as an option people can consider.

I should mention that I'm Bi and don't have a kid, so I mostly hear about it from the context of same sex couples.

That's not-

Wait a minute. Ha, you almost had me, you sly dog.

Typical puppy couldn't sit still. Some things never change.

I'm surprised no one has said the obvious yet: Morbius

There's a lot of people who just refuse to leave. They'll complain and make fun of Musk, but they just can't pull the trigger and leave. It's the and for reddit and a lot of other sites as well.

Your first clue that you were old is that you were still listening to FM radio.

John Jacob Astor IV (July 13, 1864 – April 15, 1912) was an American business magnate, real estate developer, investor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish–American War, and a prominent member of the Astor family.

Probably explains why the description of the book sounds like American power fantasy. Interesting to hear of sci-fi from so long ago though.

He's talking about Zaheer and the Red Lotus. They were extremely well intentioned, but set about their goals with violence.

I'll never stop complaining that in the second movie Dooku tells Obi-Wan that the Separatists are the good guys and that there's a sith influencing the Senate. Which would have been a cool reveal for the audience, that we're rooting for the bad guys.

But then Dooku is also a sith anyway. What a wasted opportunity.