Gwardinen

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Posts posted by Gwardinen

  5. Posted

    I think you're talking about episode 4, because actually episode 3 was heavily about boring Klingon crap. I too enjoyed episode 4 more than I've enjoyed Disco generally. The universal translator shenanigans were fun, and I only wish they'd been dived into more. As I said in Slack, it's an episode that actually fits with the title of the show for once. Captain Pike continues to be a really solid addition, and as someone else said in Slack, he seems to be one of the few people who can really pull off the sometimes dodgy dialogue.

     

    I still wish the show were ever about anything that doesn't involve everyone on screen being under threat of death, though. I also wish we ever saw them take any time off or engage in any leisure activities or hobbies. Part of the reason the scene in Saru's quarters this episode was so striking is because we almost never see anyone's quarters or anything about them that isn't being in uniform, about to be blown up, and we almost never see them be friends or lovers unless it's a doomed romance a la last season. The only realistic relationship in season one was

    Stamits and the Doctor, who promptly got fridged.

  6. Posted

    On 29/01/2019 at 12:36 PM, SecretAsianMan said:

    The main reason I'm still watching The Orville is because I'm trying to figure out why other people seem to like it.  It's one of those low critic, high public score shows.  I've seen several pieces talking about how people think The Orville is better Trek than Discovery.  Having not seen Discovery yet I can't make the comparison myself but it makes me wonder if either I'm missing something about The Orville or if Discovery is really that bad.

     

    As someone who probably prefers the Orville to Discovery, I can give my two cents. While I totally agree that the Orville misses at least as often as it hits, and there are whole parts of the show I just don't like (such as most of the storylines centred on the Captain), I appreciate that it's trying to be about ethics and exploration and diplomacy. I like that most of the people involved are inherently good and trying to make the best of things. I don't always want to watch something basically optimistic and utopian, but sometimes I do and Star Trek was that for me a lot of the time. The most recent episode basically could have been a TOS episode - down to the slightly hamfisted "oh shit this civilisation is secretly a cipher for an issue in the real world" twist. The way the crew acts is pretty TNG. They're super excited about first contact with a new species, because that's why they're in the fleet in the first place. And that's why I'm into Star Trek in the first place!

     

    By contrast, Discovery doesn't feel like Star Trek at all. I didn't mind the first season, because it had decent performances (split personality scenes notwithstanding) and incredible production values, but it's not about anything that I care about. It's not even really trying to be Star Trek in any way other than terminology. It's not even borrowing the aesthetic to any great extent. Again, not everything I watch has to be sunshine and daisies (in fact most of what I watch isn't), but I certainly don't award any extra points for dark "grittiness" either, and one of the main ways Discovery appears to be trying to impress us is by simultaneously having Star Trek in the title and swearing in the script.

     

    So I guess to sum up; I think the Orville and Discovery both regularly fail at what they set out to do, but I at least prefer the Orville's aspirations.

  11. Posted

    The actual expansion looks kinda neat (and the new puzzle mode might be fun), but the fact that they're offering two pre-purchase packs this time, and one is crazy expensive, has oddly turned me off. Usually I actually will get one of the big packs before an expansion because 1) they're better value than any of the other purchases, 2) opening a ton of packs on release day is fun and 3) I don't spend any money on Hearthstone the rest of the year, despite playing at least a game or two most days. However, the prospect of potentially spending £115 (~$150) on both packs does not appeal, and somehow the fact that it's possible to get both makes me less inclined to just get one. I'm not sure whether this is odd psychology at work or whether I'm just starting to drift away from being willing to spend money on Hearthstone.

  12. Posted

    It seems like generating invite links has been switched off somewhere along the way - I am not a Slack expert and don't know whether that was deliberate or who can turn it back on or how. For now new people will need to give their email address to someone already in the Slack again - posting in this thread is probably a decent way to show interest.

  13. Posted

    Speaking of Thor's eyepatch,  that was a strange and slightly disappointing moment for me during the film. Why did he need a cyborg replacement eye?  The eyepatch looked cool and was symbolic of the wisdom he'd gained and responsibility he'd taken during Ragnarok. Rocket even had a weirdly ableist line about how he couldn't do this with only one eye. Why not?

     

    The only reason I could think of that I'd be ok with is if it was just very uncomfortable for Chris Hemsworth to wear all the time. 

  14. Posted

    He was not, that was Jordan Prentice. 


    I saw Infinity War on Monday. It was fine. I imagine by the standards of such a monolithic entertainment franchise this was internally considered a very risky, even avant-garde, direction.

     

    Spoiler

     

    An unhappy ending? No first post-credits scene? I bet there were some worried people at Disney. 

     

    The huge ensemble definitely felt like it watered down everyone, though. The Guardians weren't as funny or interesting as they are in their own film, and the same goes for Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and Thor. Loki barely got a scene and the entire cast of Black Panther existed only to perform a delaying action, both diegetically and not. Come to think of it, that's all the whole Captain America side of Civil War was used for as well. I almost cared about Vision and Scarlet Witch's relationship, but due to the fact that neither of them have really been characterised to any significant degree in the films to this point, let alone in this film, I didn't quite get there.

     

    As has been said by others, the surprising twist is that the only person you end up even a little intrigued by is Thanos himself. That's somewhat of an achievement, but it only ends up highlighting the weakness of all the other characters you're supposed to be more invested in. I don't have a strong conclusion to this post because the film didn't leave me with any strong conclusions.

     

     

  15. Posted

    There are some very good strength weapons in DS3 if you're interested in going that route again. I particularly like the Black Knight Glaive, and kind of fell in love with the Dragonslayer Swordspear once I got it (fairly endgame though). That provoked me to go a split Strength/Faith build, which is in some ways more interesting in DS3 due to the change to a refillable mana format.

     

    If you want to try something different, you haven't mentioned doing a Dex build yet. You could do something around the curved swords, or even the ranged weapons.

  19. Posted

    Regarding Parks & Rec; I've obviously heard tons of great stuff about it, but when I actually tried to watch it I bounced off immediately. This isn't the first time someone has mentioned that it gets better - is there a better jumping on point than the very beginning? Will I miss anything important?