#the lord of the rings: the two towers movie release

[theladystrikesagain]

just watched lord of the rings extended edition 13 hour marathon for the first time. i am emotional and i am sleepy but most of all. i strongly believe the person who forced peter jackson to edit down should be shot

[georgescitadel]

George R.R. Martin on the process of creating A Game Of Thrones

You hold in your hands the second volume of A Song of Ice and Fire… but not the second volume as originally intended. Although I wrote the opening of A Game of Thrones back in the summer of 1991, as related in my introduction to the Meisha Merlin edition of that volume, it was not until October of 1993 that I drew up a proposal for my agents to take to publishers. There is no mention of any book titled A Clash of Kings in that proposal. In 1993, I was under the impression that I was writing a trilogy.

Trilogies had been the dominant form in epic fantasy ever since J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings had been broken apart by publishers and released in three volumes. And the story that I wanted to tell divided quite naturally into three parts; much more so, in fact, than The Lord of the Rings, which is actually one fairly seamless narrative, and not a trilogy at all. I planned to title the books A Game of Thrones, A Dance with Dragons, and The Winds of Winter. I knew right from the start that they would all be large books. Huge books, even. But there were to be only three of them, and…and none were to be called A Clash of Kings. Sometimes the author is the last to know.

As I write this, I am halfway through the writing of A Feast for Crows, the fourth volume of my ‘trilogy.’ There is no mention of that title in my 1993 proposal either. These days, when pressed, I confidently assert that A Song of Ice and Fire will ultimately run to six books… but behind my back I know my lady Parris is smiling knowingly and holding up seven fingers. She may be right. Though I may dream of six books, plan for six books, work toward six books, the only thing that truly matters is the story. And the story needs to be as long as the story needs to be.

In Hollywood, the suits will tell you how long that is. A television show has to fit within its allotted time slot, of course, and you cannot beg, borrow, or steal an extra minute, no matter how much the story needs it. Running times are somewhat more flexible for films, though not as much as one might think. For the most part, the studios still want movies to run about two hours, so they look for screenplays of 120 pages or less, and demand cuts in any scripts that come in longer. My own screenplays and teleplays were almost always too long and too expensive in first draft, so in my later drafts, along with addressing the inevitable notes from studio, network, and producers, I was constantly trimming. In the end, I would deliver a shooting script that was the right length and under budget, but it was never a happy process… and I often went away feeling that the earlier drafts were the better ones.

The size of A Song of Ice and Fire was in no small part a reaction to ten years of trimming. I wanted to do something epic in scale, something at once grand and sprawling and complex and subtle, with a cast of thousands, huge battles, mighty castles, gorgeous costume, lavish feast, great rivers, towering mountains, vast fields… all the things I could not do in television. In short. I wanted to make a world. And for that you need a bit of room.

In my original proposal, I estimated that each volume of the trilogy might run as long as 800 pages in manuscript. The novels that I had written during the 70's and 80's, before Hollywood, had generally come in at 400 or 500 pages or thereabouts, so an 800 pages book seemed very lengthy indeed. The three books of the trilogy would be structured around the long, slow seasons of Westeros. A Game of Thrones would be summer’s book, A Dance with Dragons would take us through autumn, and The Winds of Winter… well, the title says it all. Even in the Seven Kingdoms, where a season can last for years, 800 pages ought to give me enough room to reach the end of summer and conclude the part of my tale, I reasoned.

‘Twas a lovely plan of battle… but no plan of battle ever survives contact with the enemy, it has been said. Writers know the truth of that as well as any general, though our wars are fought on blank white sheets of paper and empty computer screens. For the map is not the territory, the blueprint is not the house, the recipe is not the dinner… and the outline is never ever the book.

- George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings Limited Edition Introduction (2002)

[eeriefeelingsat3amuwu]

Whatever labels I use, However old I am, wherever I live, it doesn’t matter. Inside I will always be the eight year old girl who grabbed the Fellowship of the ring from the cabinet where my Dad kept all of his books and read the entire trilogy in two weeks.

I will always be the eleven year old girl who carried The two towers around so much and read is so frequently that despite it being a hardback, the back fell off and some of the pages fell out and I lost the cover somewhere.

Every now and again, I return to the time when I first read through the hobbit and cried my eyes out when Thorin died and every time since then that I read through the book and it never stopped the tears.

I bought the first edition re-release of the hobbit not too long ago, with ilustrations and such a lovely cover. I spent my food money for that week on it. It was worth it.

Whenever I listen to the Shire theme song from the movies that shaped my teens, I always cry so hard with the longing for home, despite the fact that I’m sitting on my own bed in the flat where I grew up in.

It’s so hard to put all my thoughts into words, honestly. I’ve never been able to do it justice, yet my Pure love for it seeped into my words enough so that I made four of my friends read it, just so they could go through that rolecoaster of emotions I described.

I rewatched the movies with my friend this summer. We just sat in her flat for the entire time, we talked and ate some food and we watched. We made fun of some of the parts and we both were at the Edge of our seats when the Battles were happening. Even if we had to split it into two days because I got a migraine, I still look at that experience and am so fucking happy about it.

This book series, these movies, they gave me something nothing since was able to replicate. And I’ve read a lot of books, watched hundreds of movies, series and played loads of games. Nothing comes close.

The people of that world are close to my heart. It was a huge part of my childhood, my teens, it shaped me as a person and I can never be thankful enough for it.

The love portrayed, whether I see it as platonic or romantic, is there and it’s real and it’s the reason why I want to support my friends and the people around me as much as I can, it’s the reason I want to be a therapist.

Fucking hell man. I love The Lord of the Rings.

*edited because the friend I watched the movies with is now trans ;)

[limayde]

77. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

I was expecting this movie to be easier to follow than Fellowship, I think I was very wrong lmao. There's so much going on that I forgot Gandalf came back to life earlier in the movie. I'm wondering if maybe I would enjoy the theatrical release more, being condensed down to half the time. Anyway, movie's still really cool, hope Sam and Frodo kiss in the next one (delusional)

[seerofmike]

Mike's Media Medley--June 2024

things i watched and played FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME this June 2024 (belated due both to hurricane beryl and also cuz im depressed <3)

2024 movie/show releases: Young Woman and the Sea, Inside Out 2, The Bikeriders

non-2024 movie/show releases: 10 Things I Hate About You (1999, recommended to me!), Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), La La Land (2016), One Piece (2023)

games: Chillquarium (2023)

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

this was recommended to me by a friend who swore up and down i would like this and tbh, i did! it was way funnier than i thought it would be, but kinda towards the middle (maybe more 2/3rds into the movie) it starts becoming more romance and drama heavy and kind of loses the comedic edge i was really liking about it. i also thought kat liking and disliking heath ledger was based more on whims sometimes. like i understood why she'd get pissed with him sometimes but i'd be confused other times, and also equally as confused as to why she decided she liked him again. idk maybe i just dont understand straight people

75/100

The Bikeriders

this movie meant nothing to me and i have already forgotten everything about it except for this thought which i was having the whole movie:

idk i feel bad rating it incredibly low since it didnt piss me off like Civil War did but also, is it worse to get pissed off by a film or is it worse to get so utterly bored by one that all of its details lapse from your mind as soon as you stop watching it?

idk. i guess it could've been worse. 20/100

Inside Out 2

okay so controversial opinion perhaps but i actually liked this one better than the first. HOWEVER, its not like i was necessarily the biggest fan of the first one. it's not like i hated it, i just never really clicked with it, i guess.

i think generally speaking the first one is more cohesive and more creative with its concepts, and has a bigger 'Pixar gutpunch' in the form of Bing Bong, but I thought Riley herself didn't really feel like a character and I found Sadness to be really annoying. so it was very appealing to Me, Specifically, that Sadness wasn't a main character and the other emotions got to play a bigger role (I am especially a fan of all the new emotions, even the ones that don't do shit like Ennui) and also that Riley feels like a PERSON

even if i think the first one had a bigger heartstrings-pulling moment this one overall made me feel way more. mostly cringe and secondhand embarrassment but it was out of recognition like "ohhh fuck ive been like that before". i saw this opening weekend amidst a sea of kids and there were some moments that i (and mostly other adults) were the only ones laughing.

ESPECIALLY a big fan of the vault with all of Riley's secrets. Pouchy was the best character actually. idk I just had fun with this one. I probaaaaaably wouldn't watch it again for a while but if my little brother put this on I would pay attention

70/100

La La Land (2016)

i did not like La La Land

i am not at all an expert on music nor musicals so i don't really feel like i can critique the musical aspect of it too deeply, but i CAN tell you that i didn't really vibe with any of the music and at times i found myself like. daydreaming instead of paying attention to what the characters were singing. i didn't really believe in her and ryan gosling's chemistry and i generally found his character to be irritating.

the most enjoyable parts of the movie to me were probably the musical sequences without any actual singing. i do like them tap dancing in the street and then their date where they start flying. i thought those were well-directed. in fact i thought there were a few well-directed and well-edited sequences in the movie. unfortunately i just never found the actual plot music or characters to be on par with the visuals.

i have not seen pretty much anything else that released that year re: Best Actress nominations (although Elle has been on my list) but i really find it hard to believe Emma won her first Oscar for this. idk i know a lot of people love this movie but it truly did nothing to me.

i guess i will say one of the things i DID like was the ending. how it didn't really work out, the silent musical scene at the end over a montage of what could've been. i like that there wasn't a happy ending just because generally i like when movies do that (if it feels believable anyways lol). but it didn't hit for me as hard as it should have because like i said it's not like i really cared for them to be together nor did i care for ryan gosling's jazz journey. i was a bit more invested in emma's acting journey but not enough to really say i truly cared about what happened to her.

idk. pretty visuals but weak everything else. 40/100 maybe

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

soooooo they put on the LOTR movies (the extended editions, specifically) which are the ones i watched. and i have something to admit. i have TRIED, several times, to get into the lord of the rings. i tried reading the hobbit. i ordered a fancy boxset of the LOTR trilogy and tried to read them. i watched the first movie but it took me 3 tries to complete it.

so i thought, okay. everyone raves about these movies. they HAVE to be good. maybe my attention span is fried. recently i've been getting tickets to movies that i could technically watch for free at home but buying tickets forces me to actually pay attention to them since i paid money and i won't be reaching for my phone or stopping to do something else. so i got myself 3 tickets to all 3 movies, back to back to back.

the first one was okay. i've seen it before. i found myself daydreaming midway through because i'd seen it already. i don't HATE it. i think a lot of the characters are generally very charming and likeable. i love samwise gamgee. i really liked borimir. frankly i could do without the elf lady because the way she speaks drove me insane and made me physically uncomfortable. the plot was a slow burn to build up the Fellowship, which I appreciated. surely the second movie would build upon this.

i do think, generally, that I liked the second movie better. i think Gollum is an interesting character and he was being performed and animated VERY well, especially considering the time when it comes to CGI effects. i liked merry and pippin's journey becoming more like heroes. the big battle at the end was done very well. and obviously i thought frodo and sam were a highlight.

that being said there were parts of the movie that i just did not care nor did i understand. im already hard of hearing and having to listen to british accents without any subtitles means that i legit didn't know what characters were saying maybe 1/3rd of the time. the new subplot of the. kingdom of guys. didnt work for me. i cant even remember what the hell the random kingdom of guys was about or named or anyone relevant because i didnt understand what was even going on. it was very fun seeing karl urban though

despite liking a lot of the movie, a lot of it just weighed down on me to the point that when i walked out i was like, "do i REALLY wanna sit through another 3 hours of this tomorrow?" and i decided i didn't and got a ticket refund.

at least the directing is fun. a lot of fantasy movies feel kinda boring and without personality but peter jackson really had a specific flair when it came to directing these.

60/100

One Piece (2023)

i didn't finish it so i wouldn't be rating it yet but i actually thought this was pretty fun! this could've been way messier but i think so far it looks like everyone is having fun and its juuuuust wacky enough. my only complaint is that zoro is waaaaaay too serious but idk maybe it gets better, i only watched maybe...4 episodes? i dont remember. i do look forward to finishing it. eventually

Young Woman and the Sea

well this was the sleeper hit i wasn't expecting to like as much as i did

i was bored one day and wanted to see a movie but nothing really jumped out at me that i hadn't seen yet. i ended up picking this one because I have seen Daisy Ridley in NOTHING. i will not watch Star Wars unless someone pays me actual money so I was curious to see her acting in something and picked this one. ive seen sports movies. i figured this one would be like a cheesy inspirational story but hey those arent necessarily bad

and yes, it IS cheesy and inspirational, but i liked it. a lot? it's 'based on a true story' which probably means that there are some embellishments but i found it genuinely compelling, between her childhood after surviving the measles to the way she and other young women were treated as swimmers, even during the olympics.

i thought the swimming seasons were decently thrilling. like, idk as someone who has attempted to watch competitive swimming it's just not really a glamorous sport to watch but the way this was shot and directed and the fact that they literally filmed it IN THE OCEAN, *in the English channel*, means that i was actually really invested in her managing this feat, both as a personal character motive and also for what it represented more widely when it came to women's physical accomplishments.

idk i guess im just kinda in shock i enjoyed it as much as i did. this was probably the movie i walked out of with the most positive outlook of all month. i'd watch it again.

80/100

games:

Chillquarium (2023)

i only played one new game this month, and that was Chillquarium, which is an idle/clicker kind of game where you manage fishtanks and grow fish by feeding them pellets.

fishe. what can i say

[superfan44]

The 100 Favorite Movies Challege

As a huge movie buff, I thought I'd try something fun on here. I have decided to launch a new internet challenge: "The 100 Favorite Movies Challenge". The rules are pretty simple and straight forward. You create a list of 100 of your personal favorite movies in alphabetical order, post the list on your home page, then nominate other people/users of your choosing to do the challenge.

There is no limit to what movies can be included on your list. Films within any medium (live action or animated), genre, and decade are more than welcome. Whether it's longtime favorites you were introduced to when you were younger, favorites that you've picked up over the years, or recent discoveries or releases that quickly became your favorites, anything and everything is on the table here.

I'll start off by sharing my list. To be clear, I have way more than 100 favorite movies, but to have the number be anything past that may be a bit much for some people. Please don't judge me if it seems like there might be a few noteworthy titles missing on here. I mainly put this list together just for fun. Alright, here we go!

9 (2009)

Airplane! (1980)

American Graffiti (1973)

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

The Avengers (2012)

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Baby Driver (2017)

Batman Begins (2005)

Beetlejuice (1988)

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

Big Hero 6 (2014)

Black Dynamite (2009)

The Blues Brothers (1980)

Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Castle in the Sky (1986)

Chicago (2002)

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (Knockin' on Heaven's Door) (2001)

Deadpool (2016)

Death Proof (2007)

Desperado (1994)

Die Hard (1988)

Django Unchained (2012)

Double Indemnity (1944)

Dragon Inn (1967)

Fantasia 2000 (2000)

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Flash Gordon (1980)

Ghostbusters (1984)

The Godfather (1972)

Goodfellas (1990)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

History of the World, Part 1 (1980)

Hot Fuzz (2007)

How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)

The Incredibles (2004)

Independence Day (1996)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

The Italian Job (2003)

Jaws (1975)

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Logan (2017)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro (1980)

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Meatballs (1979)

Men in Black (1997)

Moana (2016)

Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005)

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)

Network (1976)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

North by Northwest (1959)

Notorious (1946)

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Porco Rosso (1992)

Princess Mononoke (1997)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Ready Player One (2018)

Rear Window (1954)

Rio Bravo (1959)

Robin Hood (1973)

The Rocketeer (1991)

Romeo and Juliet (1968)

Scream (1996)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Skyfall (2012)

Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Spaceballs (1987)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Spirited Away (2001)

Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)

The Suicide Squad (2021)

Surf's Up (2007)

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)

The Thin Red Line (1998)

Tombstone (1993)

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Treasure Planet (2002)

Tremors (1990)

Tron: Legacy (2010)

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)

The Wind Rises (2013)

Wonder Woman (2017)

Yojimbo (1961)

Young Frankenstein (1974)

Zombieland (2009)

Now, before I wrap things up, I would like to nominate @skygent, @is0gild , @firecraker-j, @mrcowboytoyou, and @piglets-not-so-big-adventure to do this challenge. Hopefully we can get the ball rolling so more and more people can join in. I look forward to seeing what kind of lists you guys will put together. Good luck!

[geekcavepodcast]

New Film "Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum" Team Announced

Warner Bros. Discovery has announced the team behind the new Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum (working title) film. Andy Serkis will both star in and direct the movie. Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are writing the screenplay with Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou. Ken Kamins, Serkis, and The Imaginarium's Jonathan Cavendish will serve as executive producers. Producers are Peter Jackson and Walsh and Boyens.

Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum (working title) is one of two films that Warner Bros Discovery is developing at this time. The film is currently set to release in 2026.

(Image from 2002's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)

[thewriterowl]

Now for the hard question: in your top 10 movie franchises list add in ALL of the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings movies in order of favorites.

Oh you have to ask the hard questions! Ok, let me see...in order for Star Wars:

Empire Strikes Back -- it is just such a good movie with some iconic Luke looks and Daddy-Son moments. It's so good and him with grandpa-Yoda is so cute. I also love how we see this lead up into Luke's change of perspective with everything.

Return of the Jedi -- Also great Luke and Daddy-Son moments. I think it barely inches over New Hope simply because I got to see it again on the 40th re-release in theaters and I was feral over how Luke looked. Also, loved the fighting scenes and we get Lando. I also happen to love the Ewoks.

New Hope -- May actually be in second place once RoJ-theater release gives me peace (need another few months). But this Luke is just so pure and whiny and I want to put him in my pocket forever and ever and ever. (let me throw this Luke at Din omg)

Revenge of the Sith -- UGH just UGH so god. Anakin is so hot in this and so messed up and this lead up is just fantastic and wonderful and absolutely tragic.

Rogue One -- I mean, how could I not adore this? It is absolutely AMAZING. Just heartbreaking with amazing graphics, awesome characters, and is only getting better thanks to the Andor series.

The Force Awakens -- Honestly, I adored this movie so much. It wasn't perfect, it needed more Luke and the original trio, but it had so much potential. I just thought it was leading up to something amazing and the memes Mark gave us after left me excited and laughing for a long time.

The Phantom Menace -- Part of this is spite-love for young Anakin and Jar Jar Binks; both deserve better. But honestly, I have rewatched this a few times recently and was all "this is actually great? why the hate?"

Attack of the Clones -- Honestly, I need to rewatch this again. It's just here cause I haven't rewatched it in a while and i don't know why. We get Jango! We get the Clones! Baby Boba! The SAND-QUOTE! Obi-Wan's mullet! The lead up to the Clone War series! Badass Yoda! Yeah, gotta do a re-watch.

Solo -- Again, i actually really enjoyed the movie. It wasn't the best but it wasn't bad. Honestly, there were just some weird choices for some story movements and character interactions but other than that? It was good. I need to rewatch it honestly.

The Last Jedi -- I hate, hate, hate what they did to my Luke. If they were going to go this route with him I'd understand 100% because it would make sense for him to to have so much PTSD and just be burnt out and so hurt (still, i think we have enough of this and deserve older heroes that are still full of hope and silly and are kind). But the execution and how he is made to be a loser is just wrong. There were also some other scenes and interactions that were "uh...no?" but the fight scenes were great, Po was great, I loved Rose, I loved Finn's story and realization. It was just really wonky, disjointed from what we were getting before, and I will keep my head-cannon Luke in my claws.

The Rise of Skywalker -- I...didn't like it. I saw it twice and actually checked the time till I could go home often (only have done that with like two other movies). It was so awkward, the dialogue was poor, the actors seemed done, there was so many random new stories thrown in at last second, characters were thrown away, "Palpatine somehow returned?" like...what??? It was just lame. Such a lame, lame ending. The OT-trio and the new trio deserved so much better. It needs a re-do.

Now for the Lord of the Rings!:

The Fellowship of the Ring -- Even though it wasn't the most action packed, what it sparked, how good it was...just AUGH perfection. I adore this movie so much.

The Two Towers -- Incredible, amazing, also perfect. Great action, all the characters are given their due-time (with Legolas making faces). I love it.

Return of the King -- AMAZING ENDING. The wraps up is just...the moments of suffering and the release. The HAPPINESS. How ever gets what they deserve (tho RIP Boromir) just adore it so much.

The Desolation of Smaug -- PERFECT. Except for maybe some off CGI, this movie was amazing. So much Bagginshield, the intense cliffhanger, the Arkenstone....it was so good. I adored this movie so much!

An Unexpected Journey -- I adore Bilbo. I love him so much. And how this opened up Bagginshield just how could I not adore it??

Battle of the Five Armies -- I didn't like it the first time I watched it. But a few more times I was "huh, actually, it's not bad!" It honestly should've been loads better. There were so many wonky decisions and everything that happened did not feel like it met up with the end of a trilogy. But the end....how everyone survived! Can you believe that there was absolutely NO HEARTBREAK WHAT'SO'EVER??

[avastrasposts]

MicrosoftFlightSim!Frankie

Inspired by @jazzelsaur idea about Frankie Morales being a hardcore Microsoft Flight Sim player, I wrote this, because Frankie playing MFS has to be canon.

Frankie will take time off work the day the new Microsoft Flight Sim releases, triple checking months in advance to make sure his gaming PC can run the game and make it look epic

He’s been planning for this since the specs were released, saving up to buy new parts for his PC set up, including a yoke, throttle, rudder and pedals. He even replaced his old gaming chair with a better model, second hand on Craigslist. 

This is the only game he plays, except for a bit of GTA V that he got online for $10 when Rockstar had a sale. 

The day before the launch Frankie will let his friends know he’ll be unavailable for the next few days. Benny totally understands, he will spend days playing UFC on his old Xbox and gives Frankie some healthy gamer snack tips. Will rolls his eyes, the idea of wasting so much time on a game just doesn’t sit right with the more responsible Miller brother. Pope just offers to come over and take you, Frankie’s girlfriend, out for a date, earning him a punch in the arm. 

The game releases at midnight but Frankie’s has had it pre-downloaded for two weeks already so he goes to the store and picks up snacks and any caffeinated soft drink he can find. Snacks have to be non-sticky, dry and not greasy. He takes Benny’s advice and prepares apple wedges with peanut butter in advance. 

As zero hour approaches Frankie snuggles you and tells you to sleep well while he tucks you into bed, you’re already half asleep, not really caring much about your boyfriend’s sudden crazy behavior. 

At ten to midnight he settles in and starts preparing his first flight. He’s had it planned ever since he saw that they were adding the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, the game’s first military fighter jet. He’s always dreamed of flying one. 

Finally loading up the game he quickly skips the tutorial, (as if he would need a tutorial), and takes the jet out on the runway. He’s read every manual available about the jet and soon gets the all clear from the tower and takes off. As per usual, Frankie talks to the tower, relaying any information they will need, even though there’s no need for it in the game. 

He logs on to Discord and his preferred flight sim channel, logging his flight and setting a course for Japan. He’s always wanted to go to Japan and it’s tradition for him to do a fly-by of Mount Fuji the first time he’s in a new aircraft ever since he got MFS for Windows 95 on sale back in -97.

Hailing other aircrafts as they cross his flight path, he tries to keep his voice low to not wake you up in the next room. 

Once he’s done playing with the Hornet (there are no targets to shoot anyway, this is a civilian flight sim), he switches to the new commercial airliner, the Boeing 7847-8 Intercontinental and sets a flight course for New Zealand from Newark, he wants to test his skills and the new PC parts on a really long flight. Plus, it’d be cool to see where they shot the Lord of the Rings. 

The next morning you find him asleep in the chair, slumped over the keyboard, headset askew over his head. The plane has crashed somewhere in the Andes. 

The next evening you take Pope up on his offer of dinner and a movie, “just as friends” you underline in your text to him, “need to get out of the house while #GamerFrankie gets this out of his system”

[the-rewatch-rewind]

Script below the break

The year was 2003, the month was January. Gas was $1.50 a gallon, the iPod was in its 2nd generation, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was #1 at the box office. And 12-year-old me decided to start keeping track of all the movies I watched.

Hello, my name is Jane and I’ve been counting all the movies I watch for TWENTY YEARS. To honor this ridiculous milestone, I decided to make this podcast to talk about my top 40 most-watched movies from 2003 through 2022. So here it is. Welcome to the Rewatch Rewind!

In each episode, after this one, I will be talking about one of my most frequently re-watched movies – about the film itself, and also about my own personal experience with it: how I first discovered it (if I remember), what makes me keep returning to it, etc. Most of the time it will just be me, but sometimes I’ll bring in a guest who also loves the movie so we can talk about it together. Before I dive in, I do want to make it clear that I am not saying these are the 40 best movies. I’m not even saying that they’re my 40 favorite movies, although I do love them all. Sometimes excellent films are hard to watch more than once, and sometimes films that are objectively bad are fun entertainment. This isn’t meant to be a list of the Greatest Films Ever Made, so please don’t expect that or you’ll be disappointed. Bear in mind that I was 12 years old when I started this. While many of my favorite movies when I was 12 are still among my favorites today, most of them would be lower on the list if I’d started ten years later. Part of that is because the way I watch movies has changed significantly in the last 20 years. In 2003, Netflix was still a DVD rental company, so streaming wasn’t really a thing. At the time, I barely owned any movies, so most of what I watched was what happened to be on TV or what my family borrowed from the library. Over the years, the accumulation of more and more VHS tapes and DVDs and streaming subscriptions has led to almost limitless possibilities when I want to watch something, which has led to a decrease in rewatches and an increase in new discoveries. So partly because of that, and partly because of the way time works, movies that were released before 2003 have an advantage over those that were released later, both because I had the full 20 years to watch those, and because the ones I had access to then were more likely to be rewatched, since I had fewer overall possibilities. Also, in 2002, I had started getting into Old Hollywood, which led me to watch a lot of films from well before my time. So the oldest movie I will be talking about was released in 1935, and the most recent is from 2017.

According to my records, in those 20 years, I watched 1,812 different movies a total of 4,592 times. But what exactly counts as “a movie”? Clearly theatrically released feature films count. Direct-to-home-viewing and made-for-tv features also seem obvious to include. But what about short films? What about limited series? Those were a little bit harder to know whether to count or not. I don’t think I was completely consistent, but for the most part, I counted short films if they were at least a half hour long. I didn’t count limited series if I knew they were going to have a second season, but otherwise it’s kind of based on feel. If a mini-series feels like a long movie, I count it; if it feels more like a TV show I don’t. I haven’t been including webseries unless there’s a feature cut, in which case I only counted the times I watched the feature cut, not episodes. Sometimes I counted filmed stage shows as movies, and sometimes I didn’t, but that won’t really affect this podcast because I didn’t watch any of them enough times to make it to the top 40.

Usually, the movies I watch are determined by reasons as simple as, “This movie is available and the people I’m with and I feel like watching it today,” but other times I watch movies for more specific reasons than that. There are certain actors or other filmmakers whose birthdays I celebrate every year by having my own marathon of their work, and there are certain dates that are mentioned in movies that need to be watched on those dates. And over the years, I’ve done a few movie-watching “projects” that have impacted my view counts a bit. In 2010 I started watching through all the Best Picture Oscar Winners in chronological order. Similarly, in 2015 I started watching through the Best Actress Winners, and in 2017 I started on Best Adapted Screenplay, which took much longer since I was also reading the source material to evaluate the quality of the adaptation. I ultimately got tired of that last project before I got caught up…maybe someday I’ll finish, or not. I also did a non-Oscars-related project in 2020 with my brother when we watched through all the theatrically released Disney animated features so we could attempt a definitive ranking. Most of the movies I’m going to be talking about on this podcast weren’t part of any of these projects, but some were, so I’ll mention that when it comes up.

Looking through my list, it strikes me that most of the characters in these films are white, straight, cis, middle-to-upper-class Americans or Europeans, and most of the writers and directors are white, straight, cis men. I have been trying to watch movies from more diverse perspectives recently, but I haven’t been doing that long enough for it to be very noticeable in my top 40. So again, don’t take this as a full and complete list of the best films ever made – that list should have way better representation than this one.

Speaking of representation, or a lack thereof, another thing I do want to mention in this introduction is that in the last few years I have started to understand that I am aromantic and asexual, or “aroace” for short. Those terms represent a spectrum and therefore mean different things to different people, but for me personally, it means I don’t experience romantic or sexual attraction to anyone. It took me until my late 20s to early 30s to figure this out because it was just…never presented as an option. I kind of assumed eventually I would meet somebody I was attracted to in that way because society and media presented it as an inevitability. I was just a late bloomer, just very picky, just… not interested in pursuing that kind of relationship. Once I found and understood and adopted this label, so many things about myself made a lot of sense. Recently I’ve started realizing just how much this part of my identity has impacted every aspect of my life, including the way I consume media. So when applicable, I’m going to be talking about the things about these movies that particularly appeal to me, or that I interpreted in an alternative way, from an aromantic and/or asexual perspective. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that had official, canonical aroace representation, but there are characters and situations that can be interpreted that way, and I want to talk about that. Part of why I’m making this podcast is because it would have made a huge difference to me if I’d heard anyone talking from this perspective when I was younger, so I’m hoping that sharing my voice might help someone else waste less time being confused about themselves. And I also think it serves everyone to learn more about different identities, whether or not they describe them.

So just to get some definitions out of the way: aro is short for aromantic, which means little to no romantic attraction, and ace is short for asexual, which means little to no sexual attraction. Sexual and romantic attraction are not the same thing – so I’m told; I don’t really know because I don’t experience either of them, but some people have a romantic orientation different from their sexual orientation, hence the different terms. These are the identities that the “A” in LGBTQIA+ stands for; it does not stand for ally. I’m saying all this in the introduction partly so I don’t have to keep defining these terms, and partly to let you know that if, for whatever reason, you don’t want to hear someone talking about asexuality or aromanticism, this is not going to be the podcast for you.

For everyone else, subscribe or follow or whatever you have to do on your platform if you want to hear what I have to say about my most rewatched movies for the last 20 years. I’ve never made a podcast before so I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’m going to try to get these out weekly, so that I finish before the end of the year – we’ll see if that happens. I’m going to do a countdown, so the first movie I’ll talk about will be the one in 40th place, and I’ll work my way up to my #1 most re-watched movie. I broke all ties using runtimes, so longer movies are ranked higher than shorter movies that I watched the same number of times because I spent more minutes watching them.

Thank you for listening to this rather rambling introduction! I’m planning to end each episode with a quote from the next movie I’m going to talk about, so I’ll leave you with this: “First of all, I would like to make one thing quite clear: I never explain anything.”

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

So I’m going to be doing a big review of all the 2023 releases I saw, hopefully by the end of the month so I can catch a few I missed. For now, have my top 50 movies of all time as of the start of this year:

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

John Wick

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Lighthouse

The Princess Bride

Evil Dead II

The Silence of the Lambs

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Drive

The Suicide Squad

American Psycho

A Clockwork Orange

The Thing

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

The Incredibles

Barbie

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

RRR

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Disney’s Hercules

Clash of the Titans (1981)

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

The Room

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Aladdin

Oldboy

The Prestige

Fight Club

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Predator

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Strange Magic

It

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Hot Fuzz

The Batman

Nope

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Batman & Robin

Eraserhead

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Guardians of the Galaxy

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Freddy Got Fingered

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Cats

[jellogram]

In hindsight it's kind of wild that just one year after you-know-what the Lord of the Rings films released a movie called The Two Towers

[byneddiedingo]

The Apu Trilogy

Subir Banerjee in Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)

Cast: Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Chunibala Devi, Uma Das Gupta, Subir Banerjee, Runki Banerjee, Reba Devi, Aparna Devi, Tulsi Chakraborty. Screenplay: Satyajit Ray, based on a novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. Cinematography: Subrata Mitra. Production design: Bansi Chandragupta. Film editing: Dulal Dutta. Music: Ravi Shankar.

When I first saw Pather Panchali I was in my early 20s and unprepared for anything so foreign to my experience either in life or in movies. And as is usual at that age, my response was to mock. So half a century passed, and when I saw it again both the world and I had changed. I now regard it as a transformative experience -- even for one whom the years have transformed. What it shows us is both alien and familiar, and I wonder how I could have missed its resonance with my own childhood: the significance of family, the problems consequent on adherence to a social code, the universal effect of wonder and fear of the unknown, the necessity of art, and so on. Central to it all is Ray's vision of the subject matter and the essential participation of Ravi Shankar's music and Subrata Mitra's cinematography. And of course the extraordinary performances: Kanu Bannerjee as the feckless, deluded father, clinging to a role no longer relevant in his world; Karuna Bannerjee as the long-suffering mother; Uma Das Gupta as Durga, the fated, slightly rebellious daughter; the fascinating Chunibala Devi as the aged "Auntie"; and 8-year-old Subir Banerjee as the wide-eyed Apu. It's still not an immediately accessible film, even for sophisticated Western viewers, but it will always be an essential one, not only as a landmark in the history of movie-making but also as an eye-opening human document of the sort that these fractious times need more than ever.

Smaran Ghosal in Aparajito (Satyajit Ray, 1956)

Cast: Pinaki Sengupta, Smaran Ghosal, Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Ramani Sengupta, Charuprakash Ghosh, Subodh Ganguli. Screenplay: Satayajit Ray, Kanaili Basu, based on a novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. Cinematography: Subrata Mitra. Production design: Bansi Chandragupta. Film editing: Dulal Dutta. Music: Ravi Shankar

As the middle film of a trilogy, Aparajito could have been merely transitional -- think for example of the middle film in The Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Two Towers (Peter Jackson, 2002), which lacks both the tension of a story forming and the release of one ending. But Ray's film stands by itself, as one of the great films about adolescence, that coming-together of a personality. The "Apu trilogy," like its source, the novels by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, is a Bildungsroman, a novel of ... well, the German Bildung can be translated as "education" or "development" or even "personal growth." In Aparajito, the boy Apu (Pinaki Sengupta) sprouts into the adolescent Apu (Smaran Ghosal), as his family moves from their Bengal village to the city of Benares (Varanasi), where Apu's father  continues to work as a priest, while his mother supplements their income as a maid and cook in their apartment house. When his father dies, Apu and his mother move to the village Mansapota, where she works for her uncle and Apu begins to train to follow his father's profession of priest. But the ever-restless Apu persuades his mother to let him attend the village school, where he excels, eventually winning a scholarship to study in Calcutta. In Pather Panchali (1955), the distant train was a symbol for Apu and his sister, Durga, of a world outside; now Apu takes a train into that world, not without the painful but necessary break with his mother. Karuna Bannerjee's portrayal of the mother's heartbreak as she releases her son into the world is unforgettable. Whereas Pather Panchali clung to a limited setting, the decaying home and village of Apu's childhood, the richness of Aparajito lies in its use of various settings: the steep stairs that Apu's father descends and ascends to practice his priestly duties on the Benares riverfront, the isolated village of Mansapota, and the crowded streets of Kolkata, all of them magnificently captured by Subrata Mitra's cinematogaphy.

Soumitra Chatterjee in The World of Apu (Satyajit Ray, 1959)

Cast: Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Swapan Mukherjee, Alok Chakravarty, Dhiresh Majumdar, Dhiren Ghosh. Screenplay: Satyajit Ray, based on a novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. Cinematography: Subrata Mitra. Production design: Bansi Chandragupta. Film editing: Dulal Dutta. Music: Ravi Shankar.

The exquisite conclusion to Ray's trilogy takes Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee) into manhood. He leaves school, unable to afford to continue into university, and begins to support himself by tutoring while trying to write a novel. When his friend Pulu (Swapan Mukherjee) persuades him to go along to the wedding of his cousin, Aparna (Sharmila Tagore), Apu finds himself marrying her: The intended bridegroom turns out to be insane, and when her father and the other villagers insist that the astrological signs indicate that Aparna must marry someone, Apu, the only available male, is persuaded, even though he regards the whole situation as nonsensical superstition, to take on the role of bridegroom. (It's a tribute to both the director and the actors that this plot turn makes complete sense in the context of the film.) After a wonderfully awkward scene in which Apu and Aparna meet for the first time, and another in which Aparna, who has been raised in comparative luxury, comes to terms with the reality of Apu's one-room apartment, the two fall deeply in love. But having returned to her family home for a visit, Aparna dies in childbirth. Apu refuses to see his son, Kajal (Alok Chakravarty), blaming him for Aparna's death and leaving him in the care of the boy's grandfather. He spends the next five years wandering, working for a while in a coal mine, until Pulu finds him and persuades him to see the child. As with Pather Panchali and Aparajito, The World of Apu (aka Apur Sansar) stands alone, its story complete in itself. But it also works beautifully as part of a trilogy. Apu's story often echoes that of his own father, whose desire to become a writer sometimes set him at odds with his family. When, in Pather Panchali, Apu's father returns from a long absence to find his daughter dead and his ancestral home in ruins, he burns the manuscripts of the plays he had tried to write. Apu, during his wanderings after Aparna's death, flings the manuscript of the novel he had been writing to the winds. And just as the railroad train figures as a symbol of the wider world in Pather Panchali, and as the means to escape into it in Aparajito, it plays a role in The World of Apu. Instead of being a remote entity, it's present in Apu's own back yard: His Calcutta apartment looks out onto the railyards of the city. Adjusting to life with Apu, Aparna at one point has to cover her ears at the whistle of a train. Apu's last sight of her is as she boards a train to visit her family. And when he reunites with his son, he tries to play with the boy and a model train engine. The glory of this film is that it has a "happy ending" that is, unlike most of them, completely earned and doesn't fall into false sentiment. I don't use the world "masterpiece" lightly, but The World of Apu, both alone and with its companion films, seems to me to merit it.  

[madseance]

Fortunately, as someone old enough to have seen each of the Lord of the Rings movies released a year apart, I'm used to feeling Insane listening to people react to multi-part stories. "This movie [The Two Towers] felt like it didn't have a beginning or ending." Yes... the beginning was the first movie and the ending will be in the third movie... you just watched movie #2..........

[pippin-katz]

RWRB Essay Part Ten: Pacing

Word Count: 611

The film moves fast, but this is because the book also moves fast, but the film has way less time to get the same point across. I may be in the minority, but after I disconnected the book from the movie, I didn't feel like it was rushed.

Here's the thing, a lot of movies have a nasty habit of being stuffed with filler. There's so much unnecessary stuff that's put into films to pad the runtime, make it longer. Most people don't really think about it, but it's actually super common, and annoying for those who notice.

The minimum runtime to be considered a feature length film in the US is 60+ minutes, but a lot of movies nowadays try to get closer to 120+ minutes, which is a big difference. Consider the original Avengers film, 143 minutes, which is a lot, and then we got Avengers: Endgame which was 183 minutes.

For some perspective, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers released to theaters with a 179 minute-long runtime, but the extended edition runtime is 235 minutes. The Lord of the Rings films are notorious for their extended versions and the fact that they are extraordinarily long. Almost everyone who watches the extended edition trilogy spreads it out over several days, if not a week because it is too much to watch in one sitting unless you have the entire day free.

These massive numbers come from the fact that they have a lot to show, most of which is vital to the plot. Too many movies now add unnecessary content to make their runtime longer.

Red, White, & Royal Blue does not move too fast. It simply does not waste time.

There is not a single scene in Red, White, & Royal Blue is meaningless. Even the fun montage scenes like those at the lake house are there to communicate the development of their relationship, and how far they've come.

While we can see their love showing up early on, obviously they lead with friends-with-benefits relationship that makes for most of their physically shared time being sex centered. The lake house shows them genuinely enjoying being around each other outside of that context, like reading together on a hammock or Henry doing drunk karaoke. Their small conversations are picked carefully to showcase their banter, then their growing connection.

The story is about them, and therefore, there's no point in taking a winding sidetrack to go into the details of Alex's college classes or the campaign progress. That's all great for the book, but in the movie, they don't need to do that, and the decision not to was the right one. It only would've taken the focus off of them.

They have a lot to do with just them. There's no reason to drag their feet around, so they don't! There's no point in spending fifteen-twenty minutes to show something they can accomplish in five. There's no point in dragging out the passage of time.

The fast pace only doesn't work if their progression as a couple isn't believable, and we've already established that their progress as a couple is perfectly balanced.

That's my take on the pacing, that it's not rushed. I prefer them just going, not wasting any time. That's the other part that makes the cuts not bother me.

As much as I love so many scenes that didn't make it, they didn't need to be there for the story to progress as it needed to. Trying to cram more in would've only made it hard to keep up with. That would've made it rushed. The way it is is fine.

previous part | next part | master post

[captainsspnanon]

C2E67 - Beyond the Eyes of Angels - rewatch

Fair warning, this one is loooong and rambly.

Well, while I still greatly enjoy CR, it’s clear that my hyperfixation stage of it has passed. It lasted a good two years before it calmed down, so that’s good! But it means that these rewatches end up going a lot slower, because I’m not binging 2 to 2.5 episodes a day. It also means that I jump between lots of media now, which is fun. :) I’ll be starting my re-read of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings soon. I last read the Hobbit probably around 25 years ago? And LoTR was 21 years ago. I loved the Hobbit, my mom read it to me as a child. LoTR was a big struggle for me at first, I kept trying and giving up within the first book of the first book. I only ended up finally reading it all once the Two Towers movie was released, and binged them very quickly. Turns out it’s ONLY the first book of the first book that was a struggle for me, the rest was easy. So I’m really looking forwards to seeing how my interpretations of the story will change after two decades. (not going to be posting it, don’t worry! That’s just for me)

Oh wow. So this is the ad bit where Sam says he’s too depressed to do a bit, so they have a pre-recorded generic version – which is him acting like he’s dead and it’s his will. And after, I don’t know if I noticed this before!, Liam actually got hit pretty hard emotionally! I actually went back a few seconds to check, and it doesn’t look like he’s playing it up? I wonder if he had other stuff going on behind the scenes, or if this is just Sam’s particular ability to always seem to grab Liam by the emotions. (If I remember, he gets choked up both during the five year song, and the pandemic welcome back.)

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Codependent!Caleb. Even though Nott ended up still being invisible so the scene doesn’t work, I do like Liam having Caleb looking panicked and stressed flicking between Nott and the team, Nott and the team, until he goes after Nott. As much as I joke, I do wonder why Caleb is so stressed about Nott being separate at the moment. We know that he has faith in her, and she’s gone on ahead before a number of times. Is it because of the atmosphere of the tomb? Is it because Nott is sober, so he thinks she’s more likely to make bad decisions? I wouldn’t call it a regression in behavior, but it is a bit jarring compared to how he’s been interacting with the entire team for a number of in game months. ...Well, maybe not. The last time, I THINK, was in episode 54, when they split up the rooms and Caleb didn’t realize that he was going to be separated from Nott. Looking at critrolestats, I think that’s only a difference of 20 in game days.

OH GOD THIS IS THE SPIDER ROOM ISN’T IT I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THIS AAAAAAAAA (i’ll find out in a few minutes if I’m right, but Matt describing things stuck around the wall, and one of the words he used was ‘sacks’, so I’m pretty sure I’m right) Interestingly, I WAS actually just the other day thinking about rogues in dnd – I’d seen some post talking about how rogues actually were bad at dealing damage unless the sneak attack critted, and I remembered Nott’s exciting sneak attack crit that basically took out the entire baddie. Of course, I couldn’t remember what the baddie WAS, but this brought all the memories rushing back.

One BS comment I have seen way too much of online is Laura being ‘entitled’ with her spells, being ‘whiny’ when things don’t go her way with spells, and trying to get as much out of Matt as possible. And here we are – with Laura specifically bringing up to Matt that the Bless that she cast would have faded by now and so not have been present with initiative. Something that had she not brought up, Matt might not have caught. No whining, no complaining, just playing fair. *sigh* I’ve gotten off of those places (aka reddit forums), but still some of the shit I saw just DIGS.

Poor Travis. I am very lucky that while I am thoroughly freaked out from bugs, I’m not bothered by situations like this. The figures don’t bother me, nor do the descriptions. I’m pretty good with seeing them in movies and such as well. It’s only 1) in real life, especially if they’re close to me or move fast, 2) if they are ON ME – my actual literal phobia is them somehow getting inside me (nose, ears, mouth), and 3) some of the really freaky videos you can see online where someone brushes a dark clump and it spreads out into a million spiders.

Beau attacks, misses, Matt barely starts to speak before Marisha rolls again, then she apologies and gives him the go ahead, he gives her the go ahead, and then she tells him he can do his description, which he then does, but keeps it short. A good sign of a good table, a player recognizing when a DM wants to speak and giving them the space to do so, AND a DM recognizing that a player may want to just get the attacks out and is willing to forgo the usual flavor speech. You love to see it! Mutual respect!

(coming back to this at the end of april) wait I’m only half an hour in? I thought I was way further than that!

OH WHAT. We have the red Ashton lopsided 6-sided dice here with Tal!!! I totally thought those were c3 only, I don’t recall seeing them before! Clearly he’s had them though.

ROGUE CRIT!!!!! I love how Sam is so astonished by it too. Are rogue’s the best class to get a crit on? I’d assume paladin would be up there as well with smite…. 20th level rogue can get 60 sneak at max, so 120 per CR rules, then plus weapon damage. Divine smite has a max of 6d8, so max of 96 plus weapon damage on a crit. Wait, does improved divine smite and another d8 on top of that? So 112? but do smite spells add to a smite, or replace? Like, if it was banishing smite, would it add 5d10 on TOP of that? Or INSTEAD of that? I’m thinking way too hard about this, especially considering I prefer spellcasting to melee for my own personal play. EITHER WAY – badass moment!

...I got distracted just watching it. There’s something so comforting about the humor in C2, the feel at the table is different than it was in both C1 and C3, and sometimes I prefer it. Don’t get me wrong, the balls to the walls punchiness at the table in C3 is great and leads to a ton of laughs, but there’s a nice balance in C2 that almost lends itself to the PCs as much as it does to the cast. I’m doing a horrible job of explaining it, but it’s pure comfort food for me.

Anyhow, yay for spell scroll for Caleb, but also I’m glad that it’s not some super amazing spell. It’s something where Liam wouldn’t feel like he was missing out or punished if he never found it, but it’s a nice bonus to have to where he feels rewarded for looking.

Once again my grumbles about the table attitude towards a rogue though. Caduceus wants to move forwards, but Tal/Cad has to tell Sam/Nott to search for traps. Jester wants to open the door, but Laura/Jester has to tell Sam/Nott to search for traps. There are times that I really would like to get into Sam’s head and see what his choices were for this. If he’d known how it would have gone, would he have picked a different class for Nott? Was he deliberately making a rogue who wasn’t particularly good at what she did, not because she couldn’t but because she forgot and didn’t care a lot of the time? It would fit with the housewife picture, but it’s a sense of almost spiting the class for the roleplay. I feel like with C1 and C3, Sam was able to explore his roleplay within the confines of the class, whereas C2 it feels like the roleplay just has the class slapped on top of it. *shrugs* It’s hard to say, because she does do a lot of sneaking around during combat, but it always feels a little forced. It’s much more Liam/Frumpkin doing early exploring than Nott, a lot of the time.

I really love how they discovered the stairs going down (this is the lightning one where Matt uses an hourglass, I think?), and I also love how they were able to so quickly and smoothly give the marching order. In the weirdest way, I do think the Nein ended up being the most smoothly combined group, which is very surprising considering they started out the most fractured. (also in fairness I really don’t have much recollection of this aspect of C1, so I could be totally wrong here)

LOL I love that Laura stands up and hits the mic, then Taliesin stands up and hits the mic, and then Sam stands up and hits the mic. They talk about how it had to be so loud for the audience, but either Chris the sound guy is REALLY good at his job, or no it’s not that loud at all.

(wait is this the episode where they have three encounters/maps and sam gets short [humorously] with the last dwarvenforge sponsor bit?)

(omg I’m only an hour and forty three minutes into this, we’re now in May. I don’t know why I’m watching this so slow, it’s SUCH a good episode!)

In the span of five minutes, Sam hits the mic AGAIN and Marisha, while bending down under the table, cracks the back of her head against in while coming up.

I have no recollection of the mist/wind spirit! I thought this was the electrical pulse! (I still think it is, and that’s what the timer is for, which honestly is a great method of using it. I know Matt used it a few times in C1, and I think this is the only time in C2, but I appreciate that while it’s punishing in an effect, it’s not massively punishing like they LOSE or FAIL if they can’t accomplish what they are doing in time. Especially because them asking Matt for clarifications eats away time, as well as Matt’s own turns. I’ve seen some detractors online wish that Matt pulled out the hourglass more, as a way to get the players to make decisions faster, but all I can think is that pulling out the timer means that it becomes even HARDER to think because now you have the external pressure as well as whatever circumstance you’re in. I can’t fully pooh-pooh the detractors as there have been a few circumstances where I have found that the players really dithered, either consistently during combat, or having ooc conversations during a quick event that took way longer than I thought Matt should have allowed, but I see people claiming this for so many things, including encounters where there may have been minor dithering but then moved smoothly, or one or two players turns took long but everything else was smooth.)

Beau jumping down = so fucking hot. Especially because she’s the first to break from the ‘run down and maybe action’ format which reveals the bottom tier allowing other players to start having more creative movement. (polymorph of eagles coming in five, four, three…) Hm, I trying to think now of how often Marisha is the red-button pusher. We know that Travis and Sam will go for it, Ashley’s pretty decent at button pushing, is Marisha the next one? ...I’m struggling to think of examples in all three campaigns, which could meant that no, she’s not, but it also could mean that I have a very shitty memory (well confirmed at this point).

Matt allowing Beau to both investigate and yank out the power source of the electric crystal is something that I think is a very table-specific decision. On the one hand, I love that he allowed her to do essentially two actions because she is a monk and able to do things very quickly (such as step of the wind, flurry of blows [I typed bleaus without even thinking what the fuck]), but on the other hand that can definitely feel bad at a different table with another player being allowed two actions where you may only be allowed the standard one. I genuinely am unsure of how I’d feel about it at my table, though that’s also because I have a really shitty attention-grabbing player at the table. If they were allowed the double action I’d probably be pretty annoyed, but if the really nice good player at the table were allowed it, I’d feel better about it. Breaking the action economy for a cool moment really only works when you have full trust at a table. Here, it’s a moment done well, with a group of players who fully respect the choice and decision (and are glad not to take additional damage XD), at a table like mine? ….I’d rather have taken the damage, tbh. (side rant, but last game I got to do some exploring as a water skimmer, DM describes to me what I see, players immediately start going off of the description and I’m like….alright, I guess I went back and transformed, lost my wild shape, and told them. Fuck me if I had other things I wanted to do, or even if I’d wanted to roleplay the moment.)

(also off topic, I read a chapter update today of a shadowgast fic that I’m enjoying, but Caleb is SO OOC it’s ridiculous, to the point where I’m like his canon backstory must not have happened in this fic, and coming back and watching canon Caleb is DELICIOUS. We’re not in an rp moment, but even the way Liam portrays using shield, the facial expressions and body language, it’s like YES this is the caleb I crave.)

There’s so many good tactics on display here. Fjord jumping with his held Misty Step, both polymorphs with Jester going back to grab the other party members, Beau investigating the door and finding the slot! There are small bits of metagaming that I just...eh. Would Jester have gone back for Nott and Caduceus if the hourglass had still been going? Maybe not, but that also can be explained by her seeing that the glow has stopped. Caduceus thinking that there’s no monster now? ...Honestly that just feels like Taliesin thinking ‘well we beat the encounter so we’re good now’. Usually I’m not too heavily bothered, even if I notice metagaming, but that bothered me just a little bit. I’m a tiny bit nastily pleased that the creature attacked again shortly after. ….I have a petty side, okay?

OH GOD IT’S THE START OF MAKING MY WAY. (I think someone found that it technically started in a one shot before this, but this is the first in game of a very very long running gag)

Interesting that Caleb flying down triggered an attack of opportunity from the creature, with Fjord, Jester, and Beau not triggering one. I wonder if Matt had specific ideas of where the creature was in the tower and this really was the first, or if he’s just been blanking because he was focusing on the electrical charge and this is the first time he remembered.

…..why does Sam want to know if goblins have tails? I want to know what he’s thinking! I can’t think of any mainstream depiction of goblins with tails, so it’s certainly a bit of an out-there thought.

For what it’s worth, while we all know and love Veth’s Big Naturals, I greatly appreciate and am entertained by Sam’s insistence that Nott also has Big Naturals, despite every piece of official artwork (presumably signed off by Sam) depicting Nott as smaller-busted.

I’m sure this was speculated about by the fandom at the time, but I wonder if Jester being so preoccupied with making sure that everybody gets out of the mist tower before she will leave ties back into her getting left with the young dragon back in the happy fun ball. I know Laura has talked about the impact that moment had on Jester, but unless I’m forgetting stuff (super entirely possible) I feel like this is the first time we’ve really seen Jester make an effort, putting herself at risk, to ensure that everyone else is safe.

Sam just did his usual bit when Matt went to get the map for the zombie room. I wonder what the section I’m thinking of is? To be fair, *I* don’t actually remember it, but I saw a post talk about it. AH – thank you CR Transcripts! It’s episode 79 “It's a fantastic company that makes a fine product and if you don't go to their fucking website, I'll kill you.”. Searching “kill you” under Sam worked. Based on context, rather than it being the ‘holy shit a third encounter’ that I thought it was going to be, instead it was just the pure stress and time crunch with Obann and the tree. Understandable.

I admit, I’m a bit exhausted with initiative. As much as I enjoy this episode (and I really really do!) three back to back combats, regardless of the tactical aspects of them, is just tough to watch. It’s the same thing for me for the really big episode long fights (Lucian, Vecna, etc). Four plus hours of combat is a LOT. I’m usually good if it’s two or less.

When Matt decides to just ‘roll with it’, it works out fantastically at the table. Jester casts Turn/Destroy Undead, which he has just impact the five undead that he had minis out for. After a bit of ooc clarification about the slopes and creatures on them, Laura asks if her destroy undead would have worked there too. In terms of the encounter, I’m pretty sure Matt saying yes or no wouldn’t have impacted the main combat at all, but he acknowledges the legitimacy of her point, rolls some rolls, and has a total of ten more get destroyed. Does it make the encounter any easier? It does trigger Caduceus seeing the glowing heart, but that would have happened fairly soon anyway, I’m sure. What it DOES do is it has the table let out a cheer at Jester being badass and destroying thirteen enemies with a single spell. It’s a feel good moment, rather than a numbers game moment, and even as a viewer it does exactly what it should do, it Feels Good. In comparison to the other GMs I’ve watched (Brennan on ExU and a number of D20 shows, Aabria only on ExU so far), he does roll with things a lot less, as he is a bit more of a stickler for the rules, so I notice the moments more. With Brennan a few times, and with Aabria in ExU a lot more of the time, I’d see Rule of Cool moments where, for my tastes, I would have preferred a harder RAW/RAI ruling. (again, no judgment to Aabria in Misfits and Magic or A Court of Fey and Flowers, I still have not seen those though I want to! Especially because I’ve heard her GMing style is very different in those other systems.)

Coming right off of Jester’s Feel Good, we’ve got Caleb’s Feel Bad. Very smart to do a fireball into the massive pit of undead, but then immediately after it fails to have any true impact at all. While I can understand the choice not to have it impact the number of undead spawning, I could see having that area be considered difficult terrain due to the flaming corpses, or simply just having no undead spawn at that specific area until the next turn – instead have them spawn on the other side. There was no actual benefit to Caleb casting the fireball, which is just a sucky feeling – especially with a third level spell. Especially because Caleb is the only one targeted by two undead, with anyone else only being targeted by one.

Double Feel Bad of Matt not letting Nott at least try to give the door a physical tug after expending her action using Mage Hand. It’s some inconsistent DM decisions this episode, considering Beau being allowed to inspect and grab and pull out the rod from literally just the previous encounter.

Granted, I don’t think any of the players are taking issue with this, or I’m sure they would always speak to Matt about it after game if it bothered them, but it’s things that I’m noticing that just feel just a bit sucky.

Off topic, but I’ve been seeing some complaints about C3 with the group talking over whoever is making the action in combat, and how rude it is and how it’s so bad in C3 and it was never this bad in previous campaigns. Meanwhile I’m watching the gang non-stop chitchat during the combats, I literally think the only difference is that C3 has better mic pickup than C2 or C1. I don’t think the group is being any more or less than they usually are, it’s just now sometimes we can hear them more clearly which covers up the audio of the main player at the moment.

LOL Marisha saying she’s never playing a wizard after seeing Caleb basically being the only one actually hit by the zombies. Double lol at Liam saying he’s only playing bloodhunters from now on.

It’s fun to see Sam clarify that Nott is running low on bolts, only six left! because we really only had one ranged combatant before with Vex who never needed to keep track of arrows – but only because she bought a thousand of them before the stream started. (I’m not counting Percy because he had to make his own ammunition versus being able to buy it in a shop.) I actually don’t think Nott ever runs out though, what with being able to collect them back after combat. Also interesting looking through the transcripts now that Nott/Veth always seemed to buy bolts in amounts ranging from 10 to 40. I’m not sure if Sam’s thought process was that Nott/Veth didn’t have a bag of holding for the bolts, or if it’s just the Mighty Nein vibe of buying what they need, as little as possible, versus the Vox Machina vibe of buying what they need and want in larger quantities than they may use. I love this little dnd-broke group so much. (also with all the transcript searching, bolt/bolts no longer look like actual words.)

...Did we ever figure out what caused the glowing hearts versus grey hearts? Critrolestats doesn’t know. I’m wondering if it was just DM fiat based on an estimated frequency.

One thing that I really love about M9 versus both other campaigns, this group somehow seems to perfectly convey that exhaustion and despondency. VM had a lot of grief, but it was always intense emotions, always a 9/10 or higher on the scale. M9 I feel is perfectly able to capture those days where you are deep in your feelings but it only shows as a 2/10. That’s such a horrible way of explaining it. It’s High Fantasy versus gritty realism, in a way. BH has it’s own frequency of emotions XD

IT’S BEEN SO LONG I literally forgot there’d be a Talks Machina after this!!!!!!! AAAH SO HAPPY.