Orlion Blight

That is excellent news and justifies the double post!

I would argue (quite controversially) that Brandon's writing has never been bold! (le gasp!) I'll also follow that up with saying what is most bold about Brandon is the idea of a series of interconnected series, and pretty much starting out from that idea instead of stumbling into it. But to your point: Mistborn, being a trilogy for its first completed arch, is denser in impactful moments, and you see the results of those moments sooner. Stormlight is going to be 5 books for its first completed arch (not to mention the books are longer). Add to this other aspects of its structure, and instead of the straightforward storytelling of Mistborn, you get a more meandering one with Stormlight that involves art, notes, letters, side prose narratives along with the main storyline. There's also the complaint I've heard from others IRL that it seems you have to be Cosmere aware to enjoy Stormlight the further we get into it. Think of how bold that is: to appreciate Stormlight, you HAVE to understand the Cosmere wide frame of reference and its place in it. For Mistborn, you just read the three books and you will be content with the resolution even if you never pick up another Sanderson book again. And lest we forget, Elantris is also an early Brandon work and would not really be considered bold by your or mine definition of the word.

My grandmother famously advised me to read the first book and pretend the others never happened.

No, you shouldn't read Dune. You should let the old people talk amongst themselves of how good it is and surely THIS time there will be a good movie adaptation. The thing with most sci-fi fantasy classics, it's really not essential reading and more modern books are waaaay better. If you are enjoying it so far continue with it. Otherwise, pop culture references are easy to understand and deploy without reading it.

Ayn Rand is good if you like getting lectured for hundreds of pages on how being selfless is wrong and selfish is actually good (see her book, The Virtue of Selfishness, which a huge chunk of is her quoting another of her books Atlas Shrugged). So it's kinda like Robert Heinlein with less imagination. And like Heinlein, if you haven't read her before you left college, you've likely missed your window.

It's a crap shoot, but for me I was able to get away with just some advil the night of my operation and soft foods for a couple days. Hope your experience is similar!

@Hoiditthroughthegrapevine Procol Harum has one of my favorite live performances!

I get that, and your comments certainly were not out of line. They were actually much better than what we get from the meme culture surrounding Evangelion! As you mentioned, there's this persistent idea that Anno makes the characters in Evangelion in order to own the weeaboo nerds that could not accept his happy first ending to the series. And though that makes for fun jokes and memes, it also distorted his intentions to many and kinda assassinates his character. He seems like an anxiety-riddled sweetheart to me! And of course, the fandom is bizarre. It is both welcoming in the "shared trauma" kinda way but can be somewhat exclusionary over the silliest things.

Wooo! Finally had time to watch it! My main comment will be that rumors of Anno's hatred or contempt for the series and/or anime and its fans are and were overblown. You do not spend that much time and energy to craft such a good movie to say, "grow up, nerds". I feel what's closer to the truth is that Anno was frustrated that his message didn't come across clearly in previous iterations, due to budget constraints with the original TV series, people focusing on that one scene that got some choked up in End of Evangelion, or just its immense iconic and bankable status. Throughout the movies, you could see choices being made that made his message clearer than it ever has been, even though it hasn't changed much. I hope he's proud of what he did. And I look forward to the future meme wars of which ending is better

I accept your challenge!

Sounds to me like a popping party! And a popping party deserves a popping drink!

Honestly, the ideal situation would be to have the final tv episodes and End of Evangelion combined. I understand they probably couldn't do it at the time, but that's not going to stop me from wishing for it! Also, I feel the Third Impact was best made with a movie budget/screen in mind. Also, you can't have a party without Komm Süser Tod!

It's a reference to this scene from Family Guy

I think it's more sacrilegious to say the first one sucked. Like I do. I don't much care for it, it insists on itself.

Unfortunately (for me, anyway! ) it looks like Hawkeye will be the next TV show and my favorite Jersey hero won't get her premiere until next year! *sob!*

I feel that if they were just going to do a condensed version of the first Captain America movie but with Peggy Carter as the super soldier...maybe the shouldn't have bothered? I mean, I get it. The spirit of the What If...? comics were essentially a weird combination of fan service and fan fiction. The thing is, if you aren't attached to the character/ events, it's not that interesting. I'll certainly watch the others, it's quite possible those will interest me! This first episode though was just something of a "meh" to me.

It's a fun show. Like you, I'm not sure how "invested" I am, but it's been a highlight of Fridays for me.

Boy, I feel ya. But you're doing the right thing!

Ah, I see! I was thinking Monster Hunter Rise! If they ported Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, I would get a Switch! Generations was fun as well.

It's the Switch game, right?

And that's one of the smaller entries!

That's good to hear. I always suspected fans are harder on a series as it's going on then it may deserve.

I know! I'll finish Amphibia Season 2 in this public place! That's a great idea to pass the time!

Aside from that one episode that barely featured the Bad Batch, it's been very enjoyable! I don't know if they'll survive, though!