Philomath

Oh man. I just watched for this and you’re right. What a fun catch. Oh yeah. I forgot in my earlier post to mention how awesome I think Antonio and Mirabel’s relationship is. He’s the only one who really accepts her. And sees value and worth in her from the beginning. You go Antonio!

This movie is so good! I love it. Love the themes. Love that there wasn’t a real “villain” causing problems but that they needed to heal themselves to solve their problems. Mirabel may not have had a “gift” but she definitely had the skills to listen and be safe for her family members to open up to eventually. Which is huge. I talked about the movie with my oldest son (8) after we saw it and I was super impressed with how well he grasped it. He loves it. Also, yeah let’s break open that “perfect family” idea. And I just also love that we are telling diverse stories about diverse cultures. And letting the language be diverse too. I honestly think Bruno may be my favorite character because of what he was willing to sacrifice for his family. His story broke my heart. Love how they developed then revealed him. The songs are all great, but Dos Oruguitas playing during Abuela’s flashback is so sweet and sad. (Check out a translation of it if you haven’t already.)

Now I’m thinking how Toph and Spensa would probably get along really well. They’d be terrifying. Ha ha.

I am so glad we have the novellas. Evershore was incredible. I think I would place all three novellas nearly at the same level as Skyward. Skyward mostly gets the edge just because it is the start of it all. I love how much Jorgen, FM, and Rig have been developed in these books. I hope we do get more novellas so we can dive into Kimmalyn, Ned, and Arturo more. I also hope we learn more about the different Taynix abilities that were teased and see if those line up with other Cytonic abilities. I really felt for Jorgen this book. He has grown so much while still being true to himself. I was so close to tears during that last battle when he was just trying his best and realizing that it still might not be good enough. And learning to let go of the need to feel like he could control everything. He needs a good sit down with Captain Picard. “It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life.” (Actually I said that as a joke, but Picard actually seems like he would be a good mentor for Jorgen. They have similar personalities.)

Okay. So overall I enjoyed the show. However my one thing with the finale is

@Vapor So the thing I liked about the ending is

So now that the season ends tomorrow, anyone want to talk Hawkeye? I’ve actually loved it. I had no expectations good or bad for it before it started and I think that was good. It may be my favorite MCU Disney+ show now. I have really enjoyed the others too, but I think not knowing anything about this worked in its favor for me. It has been a fun more small scale stakes that clearly are leading into something bigger again. I really like Kate Bishop’s character. I like more development of Clint’s character. I just want him to get home from Christmas with his family though dang it! It’s his first chance in at least 5 years. Small Spider-Man No Way Home spoiler:

Wow. I love everything you just said. And this part is so true. I’m so glad they let Tobey and Andrew be grown up Spideys still. You know there is more to their stories than just their movies. They’ve indeed grown and learned through life. And now it can help another one of them. It really is quite similar to Spider Gwen and Peter B Parker in Into the Spiderverse. Which is something I loved about that version too. (I think if Mike’s Morales was in the poll I may have voted for him as best Spidey… or Spider-Gwen… ha ha.) Not gonna lie, I would love for all 3 live action Spideys to somehow get into Into the Spiderverse 2.

Okay. Not to necro a thread, but I only now just got around to seeing this. I’ll admit I was a little nervous about introducing new characters after Endgame. But if Marvel makes content like this forever I will be so happy. This movie was fantastic. It was stunningly beautiful. I loved the new characters. Loved the lore. Loved the relationships. It was just such a fun watch.

Ah. You guys are making me feel so old. The Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire trilogy came out when I was in Middle and High school. Ha ha. I actually even liked the third one. Though I now recognize the hot mess they can be, they were awesome for the time. I’m not sure we can hold them to the standard we now have thanks to the MCU. Anyway. My husband and I saw this movie Saturday night. We loved it. I agree with so much of what you have all said about it. Honestly after this movie I really do feel like poor Spidey just has such a rough go as a super hero. He’s just honestly trying to do his best for others and both sides of himself just get in the way of each other. I honestly think he might be one of the only ones in the MCU who tries/tried to have his secret identity. Maybe the truth of it is you really can’t play in both worlds, but it’s way harder since he is just a kid trying to figure it all out. I will say that I am glad there wasn’t so much directly related to Iron Man in this. It is the first MCU Spider-Man movie where he really just got to stand on his own. While Peter and Tony’s relationship was great, it is good to move on too. Edit: Also I’m not voting in the poll. They are all good for different reasons. I think I view them similarly to how I feel about all the versions and retellings of the Beauty and the Beast story. They can each be their own thing to enjoy.

I think I agree with this. Episode 6 was okay. I didn’t hate it. But didn’t love it either. Episode 7 was great though. I think it is my second favorite so far behind episode 4. The ending of this was fantastic though. Also I am just loving Nynaeve and Lan.

So Spensa did some weird teleporting at the end of Cytonic. I’m assuming she got better at it because of her time in the Nowhere. But something that stands out to me is she teleported to platform prime and then realized after that it seemed like it was in a different place. So it seems like whatever directions or coordinates you can cytonically send seem less connected to the exact geographic location and more along the lines of the thought or feel of the place.

I really enjoyed Cytonic. It was fun. But Brandon really did something incredible with the Skyward flight characters and they are missed. I’m glad the novellas are a thing now so we get more of them. To Eric’s point about the stakes being lower… Between this and the novellas already out, I am definitely excited to for Defiant.

I really enjoyed Cytonic. I thought it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed Spensa and M-bot’s character growth. I thought the belt in the Nowhere was a fun place to explore. I loved the interactions with Jorgen. I thought the new characters were fun. The ending was so good. And all that being said, I still think I like the novellas a little more. Brandon worked some serious magic with Skyward flight and those characters are so great. I really hope we get all of (or as many as we can of) Spensa’s “flights” together for book 4 because I will miss some of these new characters. And it seems important that Spensa be able to save people trapped in the Nowhere.

Okay. I know some people are really disappointed with this show. But I think they are doing a fantastic job developing the characters and really nailing the spirit of their full stories in such a small amount of time. The set-up is absolutely there for each of their future arcs. It is so good. Will someone help me see if there was a plot hole in this episode though. I want to talk about the one thing that has really bugged me so far and pulled me out of the story and that was back in episode 3.

Okay Episode 4 was absolutely the best so far. Basically I agree with others favorite parts of it. Looking forward to seeing what happens with Logain. Nynaeve is the best. That is all. You could feel it all episode building to her moment at the end and it was so good.

I already shared some of my thoughts about Perrin above, but you said it so much better than me. I love everything you said about him. And I actually love everything you said about Mat too. I really like how he’s been portrayed so far. Like I said above, I’ve only read the series once and it was a while ago, but I honestly forgot that Mat’s family wasn’t that way in the book. For me, the way it was made in the show just really fit his character. To your point about expectations and adaptations. There are some things for me where that is easier than others. Most of the Harry Potter movies were a huge disappointment for me. It was hard to separate them. But I love every and all adaptations of Beauty and the Beast. Disney cartoon, Disney musical, Disney live action, non-Disney folktale versions, I love them all. Also, one of the best adaptations Book to movie is Holes. That movie was spot on to the story. Anyway, I think your points about steps for good adaptations are true. Needs to be a good story, keep the spirit of it, then be as faithful as possible. I think the reason people are disappointed in this is they may feel like it isn’t actually meeting the first two steps for them. Which is okay.

@Use the Falchion I think I agree with you. I have read the series once and finished it 3-4 years ago. I liked it, but am not sure I plan on reading it all again. So I think the changes made so far don’t bother me too much. Yes, not a perfect show, but good enough for me so far. I expected the graphic imagery, but I have found myself sensitive to some stuff like that so if anything puts me off the show it will likely be that. I totally understand more diehard fans disliking the show more. It’s okay to be upset that it didn’t meet expectations or get created the way you wanted. I think the show was always going to have a hard time given how massive the source material is and how people were already going to have preconceived expectations. Like my husband pointed out last night kind of as a joke, but they already covered like 10 hours of audiobook in the show. Which they have to do.

So the official Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer dropped today. And I gotta say I am crazy excited for it.

I don’t care one way or the other. I listen to the audible books though because it’s the only way I have time for much reading any more and they use the hard J sound. That being said, it reminds me or a more German/Scandinavian name which would have the Y sound so…

I definitely got LoTR vibes from her comment. But for some reason I also pictured them as Moonshadow elves from the Dragon Prince series.

I definitely shared your thought too. Definitely got a “she’s not into guys” vibe.

I hadn’t actually seen the blurb from Evershore yet. That does make both of your thoughts more likely. Gran gran mentioning hearing voices calling for help made me think of people who has been exiled to the Nowhere. And how Jorgen says Spensa is trapped there.

Now that we’ve got 2/3 novellas and are a month out from Cytonic does anyone have any predictions? I predict we see Gran Gran and Cobb in Cytonic. I think she teleported into the Nowhere. Maybe once there she will be able to communicate better with Spensa and they will need to try and find each other to all get back. I wouldn’t be surprised if the exile device in Starsight was Taynix powered and that Gran Gran has a similar ability. I also predict Jorgen is going to have an interesting arc in his book. I think he might take a slightly vengeful turn. He hasn’t had the chance to really see the Superiority like Spensa did and realize that many of them are also just people doing their best to live life. With everything he saw Winzik’s faction do in ReDawn and the personal losses he faced, I think he is going to struggle. We might see him throw away the rule book. None of his main superiors are around to give him direction. He needs to move toward something and revenge seems possible. He also is bonding with Boomslug who can power cytonic weapons systems. I think he’ll develop mind blades too. If I’m right about his direction, I hope it doesn’t last long term though.

These novellas have been so fun. I really enjoyed both this and Sunreach. I really enjoyed UrDail culture. I really like that Brandon and Janci are getting into themes that groups of people aren’t monoliths. This started in Starsight, but Redawn brought this up too with different factions among the UrDail and Defiants. Both this and Sunreach also touched on a theme of what does it really mean to live. The difference between survive vs thrive. Not sure how I feel about the Arturo/Allanik set up. I don’t have a problem with it other than it is fairly obvious and I’m not convinced everyone needs to be obviously paired off with a known character by the end of the series. It just seems like a relationship for relationships sake instead of a natural character progression. Some questions I have after the first two novellas. Did the humans ever really even try to see if they had more cytonics than Jorgen, Spensa, and Gran Gran? I feel like that should be investigated. It is supposedly one thing that made them so powerful in the wars. That they had lots of cytonics. Also, I feel like them sitting on the Taynix as hyper drives information is a mistake. I get that they are still learning about them and it is a very new discovery, but getting that information out there would seriously undermine the Superiority. I hope the alliance with the UrDail will help them spread that info.