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Mulk

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  • Birthday July 11

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  1. I haven't watched the tenth episode yet, but everything through nine has been something else.
  2. theories and commentary, spoilers up to episode 7
  3. we'll all be playing the game of "Nazgul or dead" for each human we come across going forward, lol. Mostly I think people believe Theo's heading in a bad direction. He doesn't really seem like he'd be powerful, a good candidate for a ring. I am curious what happened with his father, he seems to have vanished. My hope is the Stranger is one of the Blue Wizards, but I'm half expecting it to wind up being Gandalf because he's someone the average person has heard of.
  4. Agreed - watch no reviews unless you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are level-headed and aren't knee-jerk this is all trash. The sheer number of ABOMINATION, should never have been made, etc style videos that popped up for me is just stupid. I'll say up front am a SERIOUS Tolkien nerd. I've read LOTR more than 50 times through, I've read the Silmarillion at least 20 times through, and so on. I have only one real lore problem with what we have so far: The changes to Finrod, and some of how that manifests with Galadriel. Because I'm uncertain how I should treat spoilers to this, I'll put the rest of my specific thoughts behind a tag. I am plenty intrigued enough to keep watching. My big thing in general about reactions to this (and this is kinda aimed at Brandon and Dan too even though they'll never read it) is that this show was confirmed for five seasons. The show is written with that arc in mind, sorta like Babylon 5 was. It will have more character moments, more asides, buildup, and less OMGACTION than most shows of this sort because it started as a five season show, not a single season hoping for more. It is also dealing with a time period about which very little aside from the high points have been established. They have to lay a ton of ground work for characters and places we don't know. It will take more time to know whether the show as a whole is 'good' by whatever measure you're using because it's a much slower burn. Patience everyone!
  5. Man this movie was good. And intense! My wife and I snuck out to see it Sunday night a few weeks back. Kinda blew me away, and I cried quite a bit toward the end. I'm on the fence between Tobey and Tom. Andrew Garfield is someone I love as an actor I just think Spider Man wasn't his best work, though he nailed his bits in this movie.
  6. I really enjoyed the whole thing. The reason you have the Tusken arc is to show why Boba is as he is right now, and not the same fairly heartless bounty hunter beforehand, nor the revenge obsessed kid of Clone Wars or something in between. If you have in your head a picture of who Boba should be and are upset that's not who he is...well, that's your right. I wasn't ever into him the way a lot of other people were so the fact that he turned into something different was an interesting development for me. Side point - this whole arc also explains why Boba didn't just try to kill Mando to get the armor back, and why he honored his word for a team up in Season 2 of Mando. So if you liked who Boba was in Mando Season 2...well, that's the guy you got in BoBF. He's not all sunshine and daisies. He's not above shows of force, intimidation, all that, and I think he'll still demand tribute and be pretty harsh on those who are not up to snuff, but he takes seriously his obligations as Daimyo, something that could not be said of Bib Fortuna, Mok Shaiz or anyone else who may bid for power there. He's pragmatic enough to let bygones be bygones, and to employ people with shady or terrible pasts. His time in community with the Tuskens gave him something I think he never had, and he wants that pretty badly, in addition to not having to work for someone who will risk his (boba's) life on a whim to make some money. I'm not gonna say it's as good as Mando, because I don't think it was. But it was just fine, it filled in a ton of gaps, we got to see at the end...I call that a win
  7. Dumai's Wells is an amazing scene. One of the best in the whole series.
  8. So, a few weeks back I kinda got this idea stuck in my head - how would it work, if an animal was truly self-aware enough both to understand exactly what happened when a human saved it and able to reciprocate, all while we still think they are dumb animals? I batted it around in my head a few times. And then late last week I just started writing and out popped this little bit of fiction. Hope you enjoy! ------------------------------------------------ ANIMALS FOR HUMANS AGENCY Name’s Ugly. It’s short for UglyDog, cause that seems to be all anyone ever calls me. And you know, I’m not much to look at, but I’m also not a cat, so hell no to all that contortionist self cleansing complete with vomitory practice. I bathe when it rains as a dog should. Anyway. I get called feral or wild and kids scream and run away from me. Dead useful that. See, I have a life calling. Ages ago, must have been a whole year, this human saw this massive huge coyote chasing me and drove it off. I promised whatever he needed…but being a big dumb human he didn’t understand a word of it, just kept trying to push me off. Maybe he thought I wanted his burger, I dunno… So what’s a dog supposed to do when you’ve promised service to a human and they don’t get it or don’t want it? Why, you go to the Animals for Humans Agency, that’s what you do. ---------------------------------------------------- I trotted through the archway to see an octopus octopiing several phones…and just in time to see it throw down all of them at once and yell at no one and everyone “WHY DOES EVERYONE THINK BECAUSE I’M AN OCTOPUS I HAVE 8 MOUTHS AND 8 BRAINS TO KEEP UP WITH 8 CONVERSATIONS?! WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME ON THE CALL LINES” and then storm out. There was a tortoise, three armadillos, two cats and a few others hanging around. My mouth was open but they all ignored it. No one apparently even noticed we had an octopus. This isn’t exactly an ocean habitat. The tortoise shrugged at me glacially and murmured “Happens every few days or so, you get used to it” before it went back to trimming the plans. Eating the plants I mean. Must be nice to have your whole job to be eating prettily. An overworked border collie came out and took my name and scent and I sat down in an unoccupied corner to scratch and wait. And scratch. And scratch. Seriously. What else am I gonna do? Cross species agencies are hell on dogs who want to chase a cat for fun. Or, dog forbid, you try to protect anyone from a squirrel. Evil, shifty, creepy little invasive ninja spies. I caught one once. Best day of my life. That bird pooped on me last week. I might follow it when it leaves… “Mr. Dog, sir?” “Yes?” “This way please.” The speaker was a cat. One of those cats who could eat a small dog. Probably could eat me if she wanted. I’d never seen paws that big before. Or a coat so shiny. I had to kinda shield my eyes. She had fangs I’d have admired on a dog, but I kept thinking how it would feel if she decided she was hungry. I followed of course. “You don’t need my scent too?” “Trust me, everyone had your scent already.” That was a little much from a jumped up prancing prim puss. I wanted to say something clever. For once, I kept my yap shut. Priorities, right? Like having an intact jugular. I like not bleeding out. “Wait here, your case worker will be with you shortly.” I shrugged and busied myself with sniffing all the corners, checking for scents, and for a moment I didn’t realize the door had shut. I turned around and saw no one. And then I saw a slug descending from the ceiling on a shimmering thread and that was so weird I kinda lost my head for a moment. Turns out it was in a custom spiderthread cradle, being lowered by on obsequious and servile orb spider. As the slug reached the table, the spider scuttled down, fussing over the slug. “Are you sure you’re okay sir, I don’t think I wobbled you much Mr. Worble but I’m trying…” and it all kinda faded into a muddle of run on sentences. The slug sighed and looked up at me in a way that I swore was a threat if I told anyone about this. “I’m Worble. Not Mr. Worble. Just Worble. Got it?” “Uh. Right you are Worble. Who are you?” “I’m sure they told you your case worker was coming?” “My case worker is a slug?” “Ah. One of those.” “Those what?” I was getting really confused. “I really didn’t know slugs could do this.” “Those that think because slugs are slow and ooze and all that, that we are useless. I’ll have you know that in this tiny body I have brain power that would fry your little peanut thinker. I have to. Do you know how hard it is to avoid certain death when you’re so slow turtles blow you off the road? Do you know how far in advance I have to plan for ANYTHING and how perfect I have to be at it?” It waved its hind end a little in a way that reminded me of an irate human gesticulating. “Ugh. I don’t have time for this. Why are you here?” “Well…this human saved me from a coyote. Big one. Thought I was a goner. He wouldn’t take help or attention or anything, just shoo’d me off. I want to help back!” “Standard human condescension then. He didn’t do it for you. He did it cause coyotes are bad news for house pets that go outdoors and you just happened to be in the area.” “Wait…really?” “Yes REALLY. You think humans are ambulatory sacks of goodness and food?” “Well, most of them smell okay. There are exceptions of course, including this one that made a skunk smell…” I tailed off at the -look- it gave me. Amazing how an animal with no perceptible eyes can do that. “Humans are self-centered and self-absorbed and self-involved and self…well you get the point. Some are altruistic. Some are evil. The rest are just a muddle of in between, sorta like day old slime trails.” I didn’t get that simile at all. I didn’t ask, either. “Your human isn’t worth the devotion. That said, are you still serious about wanting to give back?” I scratched and pondered this. I made sure I didn’t knock any fleas onto my case worker cause I’m a good dog. “Well, if he doesn’t want the service, I’m sure something needs to be done. Kinda feel it in my bones, you know?” Then I winced. Slugs don’t have bones after all. The slug seemed not to care. Probably gets that a lot. “You willing to clean up a little?” “What? This is who I am!” “I thought not. Well, there is one job. Kinda thankless, but you’ll be helping our kind as much as you are them if you accept.” A really, really long piece of paper dropped from the ceiling on a beautiful web. Like, work of art. Orb spiders, I’m telling you. “Is that sufficient, Mr. Worble sir?” I heard from the ceiling. “That’s fine, Opal. Thank you.” I really, really wanted to know how an orb spider wound up as the personal assistant of a slug. “Pay her no mind, Mr. Dog. Your contract” “Erm. What does it say?” “You mean you can’t read?!” “Why? I can understand and speak, that ought to be enough.” “DOGS.” When slugs sigh, it sounds kinda like microscopic slimy flatulence. I just waited for it all to make sense. Worble started reading the contract. But not like you’d think a slug would read. He read it like a hungry dog ravens over a bunch of ribs that weren’t picked clean. I’m pretty sure words aren’t supposed to hit a brain that quickly. So I asked him to do it again, but slower. Longer slug flatulence this time. But he did it. “You’re asking me to become a neighborhood stray that scares kids.” “Got it in one Mr. Dog.” “But I like kids.” “These kids are dumb and would pick up a snake.” “Humans aren’t THAT dumb.” “Really? You really think so? Opal?” “Already done Mr. Worble sir!” I looked up and there was a story in spider web form. Like…human books? Nothing on a spider with a story to tell. “Really?” “Really, Mr. Dog.” “They tried to pet a wild moose?” “Yes. They survived, mostly because mom only wanted to teach a lesson, not bathe in the blood of her enemies. Moose will do that if they get mad enough, you know.” Wow. Glad moose don’t live here. “And this one kissed a viper?” “Yep.” “Well…answer me this. Is there any hope of a friendly kid or human throwing me a spare bone or something in this job?” “Who knows, Mr. Dog. As you well know, being a good dog doesn’t always mean being a nice dog.” Slug speaking truth. I felt that one in my toes and tail. “How long is the contract for again?” “For life, unless or until you directly save the life of a human.” I sighed. And then put my paw on the page where he said. I offered my scent as well. He declined for some reason. It’s really weird not working with a dog. I sat there long enough to watch Opal bundle Worble up again and cart him away at much greater than the usual slug speed. I really want to hear that story some day. It was only after I left that I realized I’d forgotten to ask about food and sleep space. The octopus was back on the phones when I left, like nothing had happened. The tortoise had gotten to the second plant. One of the cats scared one of the armadillos so badly it played dead and wouldn’t get up. I left without saying anything and headed into another part of town. And that’s how I wound up scaring rich kids to keep them out of trouble. Saved the lives of other animals too, though it felt really wrong when I saved that squirrel. I wonder sometimes if that will come back to bite me. I live in the gutter between two of the bigger houses in the area. It's not all bad though. I have cats to chase, and there's plenty of tossed out food. One time this kid gave me a sandwich, when he realized I was between him and a hornet nest. I didn't even have to bark at him. I think of him often. Sometimes I follow him to school. From a distance. His parents threw rocks one time, but the kid seems to get it. I do wonder sometimes how long I’ll be at this. But that’s the price of being a good dog. Even when you’re an ugly bad dog.
  9. Basically it took Aes Sedai a while to come around to the idea that it was equivalent to rape, but even worse because of the control a channeler has over their Warder if they so desire.
  10. My wife and I saw this Sunday after opening night and man were we blown away. Shang-Chi wasn't someone I was familiar with in the marvelverse so I went in with really no idea what to expect. It's hard to pick any one thing, too, because what really made it work I think was the confluence of all of it. Soundtrack was eclectic and sticky. The sort of doubled five note phrase theme that played at certain points really stuck in my brain. Visuals were stunning, a sort of hyper-real fantasy look at points. I love Morris and Ben Kingsley. Really, just about all the acting was on point. Fights were breath taking. Kudos to Marvel for not giving anything away in the trailer. I read Shang-Chi and Katy to be best friends, not lovers. Maybe they'll eventually become that, but they aren't right now, and that was fine. This movie didn't need a romance thrown on top of everything else. It had a good amount of laughter thrown in, some incredible fight sequences, a couple of classic rock songs, and of course Michelle Yeoh. Any quibbles I may have are truly minor. I'm pondering going to see it again.
  11. I don't know that the books ever specify Aran'gar's former identity, been a while since I read the whole series, but you eventually get some sizable clues for it. Mesaana is in the White Tower, I remember all the discussions that particular piece of info set off as to who it could be. It eventually turned out someone had the right guess of course but it took a while for that to become evident. As with most of WoT, lol.
  12. well, I mentioned these both before and forgot it. dunno where my brain is. Watch Maverick for the first time in ages, only ever had it on VHS till recently
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