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23 minutes ago, Delightfully Smoak said:

It helps if you listen to us  

Aaaand if you've trained your ear to the unsaid, the subtext, the implied, and the different tones that change the meanings of Fine, great, fun, etc  

Definitely not saying that there aren't women that are far more straight forward, but they're rarer. Similarly with males. 

5 hours ago, Dragon314 said:

Wow! Wiggs has learned how to not double post, quote, and just generally make newbie mistakes. Just saw six posts in a row smh

Having an experienced sibling helps 

JK, she's been on other forums before so she's got some experience with posting etiquette. I've only helped a little.

Guess who has a younger sister on the shard I'd like to introduce @Wiggs to ya'll, she joined this afternoon. She's been a sanderfan for a long time and we decided it was time to get her introduced to the shard She's got her intro thread and will probably be popping up in other places when she has time. 

Welcome to the shard sis Would you like a complimentary welcome cookie? 

23 minutes ago, maxal said:

I do agree. Arabic does open more possibilities and it eases the casting while retaining the ethnic feel of SA. And I so love Naveen Andrews , so we definitely would need to find a role for him. How about Sadeas? I mean, sure he isn't portly but that's not overly significant and/or he could gain some weight for the role.

Roshone, Amaram, Sadeas, Gaz, or Taln. He's unfortunately definitely the wrong age for the main protagonists, but he could do the villains excellently. I love him too, so I wouldn't want to relegate him to a smaller roll as one of the bridgeman. 

Oh and I forgot to mention, I definitely approve of arabic actors, there's SO many really good looking ones and highly skilled ones. Maxal and I would probably even be able to find a few we agreed on for Adolin. Kaladin would definitely be easier to cast as arabic than as Han chinese or a similar ethnic group. I guess I also think that there would be more mainstream appeal for an Arabic lead than say a Korean one, since middle eastern actors bring Saiid from Lost to mind for me, while Korean ones bring to mind.....kpop drama. I'm thinking that Korean drama hasn't quite gotten a hold of the average American psyche yet

11 hours ago, A Budgie said:

And what's the bet they're all in Britain/America.

As StrikerEZ said, Ivy League universities are only American. They're just a club of very old prestigious schools in the states. Every country has universities with more prestige and academic standards. America, due to its larger population than the countries of Europe+Australia+Japan, and older modern education system than India or China, just has a LOT of very good universities. There are many excellent universities in other countries that will give you just as good of an education as Ivy League and Ivy League level universities in America will. 

I do want to point out to the original poster that while Ivy League schools are Super hyped up and prestigious, they may not be the best target to aim your heart at right now. In some cases, like if you qualify for need based scholarships, than they will be one of your most affordable options. If not, trying to go Ivy League for four straight years without any gaps for jobs to help pay will probably put you into a LOT of debt that probably isn't worth it. There are Tons of schools out there that can give you the education you need at a much lower price tag. For instance, New York State is supposed to start having all of its state colleges be tuition free to New York residents. There's a few other states that do the same. If you live in one of those, I would strongly suggest thinking about going to one of the state schools. As hard as it can be for college grads to get on their feet after college now, you have to be really strategic about what you study and where. Going Ivy League for the sake of Ivy League isn't a great idea unless you've got some seriously loaded parents. 

I hope I don't sound like I'm fussing at you or anything, but I think a lot of people aren't being very smart when they approach higher education and it annoys me. I mean, there are a lot of people who aren't getting good jobs after accumulating massive student debt, and they could be making 80K a year as a plumber easily. 

My plan is to finally finish the Old Testament Apocrypha this morning, I only have about a hundred pages left. It'll probably take me almost two hours to read since it's old material though. 

I requested fifteen books from the library yesterday, and hopefully I'll have most of them by the end of the week. I haven't decided what I'll start with, but I can't wait to dig into several of them. I'll probably be making a lot of posts in this thread this month if all goes well

10 hours ago, maxal said:

I have no idea, I am basing myself purely on physical look  He however isn't too young. He is in fact a bit too old. Adolin is 23, not 28. 23 is pretty young so yeah Adolin looks young.

I say Mathew McConaughey's attractiveness is purely based onto his 6 packs and him being always pictured as a the "surf guy" who's 6 pack is put pretty much into evidence. Trust me, most women who love him are only looking at this 6 packs and almost nothing else (and as a woman I did look appreciatively at Mcgaugheys abdomen on more than one occasion , but he just isn't Adolin). Adolin cannot flaunt himself in such fashion, he thus needs to have a pretty face. McCnaughey, apart from being 2 decades too old, doesn't have the right physical look to pull off Adolin.

As for Dalinar, Ben Kingsley also is two decades too old for Dalinar. While I agree we do not need to be accurate for his character as give or take 5 years, few people would see the difference, he remains in his 70s, so yeah too old.

Joe Dinicol also is at least on decade too old for Kaladin. He doesn't look nearly young enough, so I say he is a no, but younger him, say a decade earlier might have worked. I mean, we could try to work with actors whom are currently too old, but might have looked right a few years ago. It would make it easier to say a given actor whenever this actor happened to be within the right age frame.

Rose Leslie also is at least one decade too old for 17 years old Shallan, but I love Paul Bettany for Axies. 

Sorry  I feel I am always disagreeing  I am very picky on this.

So I do disagree with you on McConaughey. Mostly because I myself find him very attractive, and abs are nice but not my thing. The women in my family haven't seen any of the films where McConaughey is shirtless, and still have roaring crushes on him. 

As for age, you're obviously going very strictly by the book and trying to match actor and character age very tightly. I don't desperately care about matching them that tightly. I really care more about actor experience, charisma, and skills than about matching the descriptions perfectly. I want the movies to be very strong on their own feet, which in the case of Stormlight will guarantee some cuts and changes in the adaptation process. I'm hoping for actors that can own the movie and bring it to life than ones that Look like they've sprung off the page. 

My point being, I think we're hoping for very different things, which is totally fine. As long as it's done well, I think either method of our casting could result in fantastic choices and a great movie

1 hour ago, Mestiv said:

What's so special about them? Maybe that's a silly question, but I really don't know. 

They're an elite group of universities in the states that are very old, very very good, and very hard to get into. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. They're kinda set on an academic thrown here. You have to score very well on your college admittance exams, the ACT or SAT, have had excellent grades through most of highschool, been active in school groups, clubs, government, and or athletics.
If you get into one of the schools and you're below a certain income level, they'll basically pay your tuition, which is awesome. If you're above that income level....lookout, it's expensive. I think they may be some of the most expensive schools in the states if they don't give you a need-based scholarship.

The education they'll give you will be really good, if you're able to keep up with the coursework. The programs are very competitive. I don't know that they're necessarily worse than in other universities, but they have a reputation for being challenging.

In snob circles, if you went to an ivy league school or your kids are going than you get major snob points. Which is pretty ridiculous since people can get just as good an education at other private or state schools.

22 hours ago, Dragon314 said:

Did anybody on the shard attend or is attending an ivy league college? If so, what did you do in High School to get there?

I'm going to be attending BYU, so not an ivy league school. I've talked to plenty of recruiters from Ivy League schools though, and basically they say- Get really good grades in your classes, score really well on your ACT SAT (and take them multiple times, I improved a Ton by taking my SAT several times. You learn how to take the test and it becomes much more comfortable), take AP Classes get good grades and pass the exams, become a leader in your school club, sport, gov, and try to fulfill requirements to get awarded and recognized for your work, find volunteer positions, work during the summer.

Basically, the schools want very balanced, smart students who have shown leadership and hard work. They want you to have an impressive academic record, but to also have not sacrificed everything else to have gotten that. So if all you have going for you is a 36 on the ACT, you're probably not gonna get in. You don't have to be the best at everything, but you need to be active in things other than school and take your school seriously.

He's pretty enough, but does he have the acting skills to manage Adolin's character? I've never seen him before and he looks almost too young. Anyone who's seen him on screen have some feedback? 

I wouldn't mind someone who looked to be in their late twenties/early thirties for Adolin. Someone like Mathew McConaughey back during Contact. There may be ethnicity matching problems depending on who Dalinar is cast as, but since Adolin isn't full Alethi there is significant wiggle room. 

Jonah Hill attractive? Ummmm................Not even fully groomed and in a suit should he be making it on any list of attractive young actors. 

I don't think Charlie Heaton would quite be a good fit for Adolin....but what about Renarin? 
 

Again, being half althei gives them some wiggle room, throw some glasses on him and he's perfect. 

Dalinar....whew, he's gonna be hard due to my limited knowledge of asian actors. Daniel Wu would be AWESOME, but he's too young. He's also too old to play Adolin. If they really wanted to play with Kaladin's age he could be Kaladin. I know he could pull of Kaladin's leadership ness, but I don't know if he could portray his depression. I've only seen him in Into the Badlands where he hasn't had to express a huge spectrum of emotion. Perhaps Ben Kingsley? He's got Indian heritage, so if the Alethi were made more Indian and less Chinese/Korean/Japanese, that'd work. I don't know, I love Ben Kingsley, and I think he could be an Amazing Dalinar, but if matching the ethnic descriptions of the characters is really important than there are probably other good options that I just don't know about. 

What about Joe Dinicol as Kaladin? 

He hasn't hit it big yet, he's a cute young guy, and I don't know what his heritage is, but he could certainly pass off as asian with proper makeup. 

I'm not even going to try casting the women of SA, as badly as I know male asian actors, I know female ones worse. Plus what Shallan should look like is a mess, and..yeah. 

I think I prefer casting Mistborn where the only real problem is finding a talented enough young actress to play Vin. 

Are we allowed to nominate more than one person? If so I nominate @Chaos and @RippleGylf one for being an amazing admin and working so hard for this site and us, and the other for her work in SE, RP threads, and for being a sanderfan I know in real life

If I can only vote for one this round it will be for Chaos, he's just done so much for the community

2 hours ago, Delightfully Smoak said:

@Pinnacle-Ferring AND I ARE ENGAGED!!!!!!!

Basically we've known for a while that we wanted to do this. We went a couple days ago and picked out a ring (with a sapphire because Ravenclaw colours. Its really pretty!). 

So we met up in the morning and bought the ring. Then we went to see Wonder Woman (it was amazing too). So we were having a discussion about proposing over post-movie  lunch but I wanted to wear the ring already and we decided ok, lunch. So while we're walking to the cinema I get an important phone call. I put the phone down and realised he looked really nervous, so I was like, ok, he's decided to propose now.

So he says "Wasing the you in the giving of the me all of the happies and fuzzies. Ising the wanting of spending the life of the me with the you. Willing of the you of the marrying of the me?" and pulled out a white handkerchief. (Took me a minute to get the Spook reference. I have failed you all :P)

And then I said to him "Will you be my Right Hand Man?"

And he gave me the ring.

And we walked off grinning to go see Wonder Woman because #nerdlove. 

Congrats!

Well I got my wisdom teeth out this morning. Mouth is still swollen, most of my head hurts still, I've slept a lot, and the drugs aren't as good as I'd hoped. Like, I thought I was supposed to be getting the good stuff. Whatever I'm taking is not lasting as long as it's supposed to and not numbing nearly as much as I'd thought it would. 

Finally got bored of sleeping so I figured I'd log on for a while. I'm either feeling dizzy or sleepy from sitting up though, so it's probably already time to log off

6 minutes ago, The Flash said:

Yeah. The only one I highly reccomend is Enders game. It's a classic. Most of the time he had great ideas, but ended up taking them too far... 

Enders Game is fantastic, and the first few of the parallel Shadow series are also fantastic. The rest of the Ender saga is pretty much as you describe....as are the Shadow books. 
Alvin Maker follows a similar quality curve to the Shadow series, although the last book he wrote was actually pretty good. It's been over a decade I think and he still hasn't written the last book though so....

I liked his two Empire books, political thrillers. They aren't perfect, but there's a lot of good ideas that I found worthwhile. Card can be a Really weird writer. 

5 hours ago, Who Sharded? said:

Maybe more instances, but I think the sexual violence in Dust of Dreams and Forge of Darkness is more horrifying than the stuff in Second Apocalypse.  I don't know, they're both pretty dark.

I've only read the first two Malazaan books and I've only heard things about Second Apocalypse, which is why I guessed Bakker's stuff was worse. I guess now I'm questioning if I really Do want to start up Malazaan again

Iron Gold

The Witchwood Crown

Nothing Left to Lose

19 minutes ago, Briar King said:

So Outbound Flight and Jorus Caboth are still included?

It wasn't very specific, and there definitely is a change in canon. Basically it references two or three times that Thrawn had previously met General Skywalker during the build up to the clone wars, and that Thrawn returned to the Chiss after meeting him before eventually returning and joining the Empire. So since they crossed paths in Outbound Flight, that at least seems to be the same. But if Anakin was a general, then Obi-wan and Jorus Caboth wouldn't neccesarily have had to be involved. I'm starting to figure out why people freaked out so badly that the EU was scrapped. I thought the interactions between Anakin and Jorus Caboth were better than all of his character building in the prequel trilogy put together. So if that didn't happen....It'd make me kinda frustrated. 

I finished Thrawn. It was good, maybe not as good as I'd hoped. Pryce really bored me, and while she could be important in later books, she contributed very little to the main plot. I think having PoV's from other members of the imperial navy, the Emperor, Vader, or a few of the insurgents like Nightswan would have been much more interesting. 
There was so pretty good worldbuilding, and it seems as though the cannon on Thrawn has changed. It isn't really a spoiler, but apparently in the Disney EU, Thrawn wasn't actually exiled from the Chiss. He was sent out to investigate and gather intel on the empire to see if the empire could be a worthwhile ally or if it was dangerous. It sounds like they also changed it so that when he met Anakin in Outbound Flight, Anakin was fullgrown and a general, instead of a still learning padawan. 
I'm not fond of the second change, but there's some interesting potential in the first, so I'm hoping for some more Thrawn books in the future. Hopefully around the episode 6/7 time so we can see him reacting to the end of the empire and the establishment of the first order. 

On 5/8/2017 at 9:17 AM, Who Sharded? said:

If you like Black Company and Malazan, Bakker is a must.  It's the only thing I've read that compares to Malazan.  Don't get me wrong I love Stormlight Archive just as much, but Malazan and the Second Apocalypse leave me in awe of the authors' abilities.

I'd say Malazan is just slightly more graphic than Second Apocalypse.  Second  Apocalypse is more pessimistic though.

Doesn't Second Apocalypse have WAY more sexual violence though? 

Shoulding the needing to text homies the slang.....

Alright, season finale reviews are here: 

Flash: 

Arrow: 

With all three shows having their seasons done I'm going to rank them by best current season and by best series over all. 

This year's shows go as follows: 
Legends for it's huge comeback, great villains, pacing, adventure, and more likeable heroes. 

Arrow in second for it's huge comeback as well but poorer pacing and a re emphasis on felicity that no one wants. 

Flash in third for a better season, but one that was still filled with flaws and had a weak beginning. 

Over all: 
Arrow for two fantastic seasons, one very good one, and two poor ones. It's hard to be a long running CW show and not have rough spots, but Arrow has done pretty well for itself and shown that it can still shoot true. 

Legends for a pretty mediocre first season with nice highlights, and an absolutely Rocking second season that had very few flaws. 

Flash comes in third because the second season and beginning of the third season were just SO bad, and it hasn't improved enough yet to redeem itself. 

I finished Sins of Empire yesterday! Dang, Brian McClellan has gotten even better. The worldbuilding is strong with this one. The magic played second fiddle to characters in this latest book, and honestly that's probably a good thing for the series.  The multiple factions and characters were juggled better than I've seen in most books...maybe better than Brandon can do. It was really quite a delight to read. 

Currently I'm working on Thrawn, and it's been pretty good so far. Sandman is coming along too. 

Mate, we've got an arrowverse thread for this kind of discussion. We'll probably all start talking about it as soon as we've caught up with the Arrow finale. There's not need to make a new topic. 

When you post selfies with windswept hair and a sweaty complexion after a 5k run on the beach, but don't mention the huge amount of food you had for lunch or the third of a pack of oreos devoured