A Game of Drones

Film review: Batman Returns

So everyone, I have a confession to make. And it's a big one.

Ready?

The first time I saw Batman and Robin, I liked it. The second time I saw Batman and Robin, I liked it.

There, now you can never take me seriously again.

As long as we're trashing my reputation, I also enjoyed The Phantom Menace the first time I saw it. (I was 11.)

Now I mention Batman and Robin because for whatever reason when I was somewhere in the 12-14 range, we had two Batman movies, and that was one of them. Having seen it (and liked it) I wanted to see the other one.

Because I figured it'd be another campy neon film, right? I was too young to know which order they'd been made in or what a big deal a change of director can make. I was young and innocent, and...

Hellooooooooo skintight PVC fetish.

Star Trek Into Darkness

To create Star Trek Into Darkness: Take five parts Star Trek II, four parts Star Trek VI, one part Babylon 5, one part Blade Runner, and one part Battlestar Galactica. Stir randomly until the vaguest sense of originality appears, and fling on the screen.

And so he spoke...

Winter is Coming

A Game of Thrones producer thinks the show will run seven seasons.

 I agree.

My crazy idea for a Doctor Who regeneration story

The Doctor lands in some sort of situation where the stakes are high and time is limited. The Doctor does his usual thing of running around for 45 minutes and appears to fix the problem... but then we learn that his "solution" only made the problem worse. And furthermore, the episode's villain, who's been trying to stop the Doctor the whole time? He knows the Doctor's solution won't work and will even force the Doctor to regenerate, because he is the next Doctor. What forced him to time-travel back and re-live the whole thing again? I don't know, you figure it out.

But the point is, I like this idea of the next Doctor showing up early as some guest star and only outed as the new Doctor later on. Is he trying to get the old Doctor "killed" so he can be "born," or is he just abiding by a fixed point in time?

Why can't they both lose?

Harry Truman on Hitler and Stalin:

• If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances. Neither of them thinks anything of their pledged word.
  • As quoted in The New York Times (24 June 1941); also in TIME magazine (2 July 1951))
   

Whenever two people I hate/don't like/can't bring myself to say anything positive about start fighting each other, I have a similar thought: not that I want to kill as many of them as possible, or even want them dead, but that I'd like to see them both "lose."

Case in point.

Proof that Josef Stalin was worse than Tywin Lannister

y'know aside from the whole "killed about 60 million people" thing.

When Tywin's unwanted son was kidnapped, he started a war to get him back.

Stalin...

h/t The Chive.

AGOT Eddard II, Tyrion II, Catelyn III: Studies in Assassination Techniques

Chapters 12-14

Talkin' 'bout the Kingslayer. Teensy sploilers for A Storm of Swords.

I wish.

AGOT Jon II, Daenerys II: Ice and Fire

Book 1, Chapters 10 and 11. I'll be talking about things that haven't happened yet but everyone assumes has to happen before the series ends.

A humble suggestion for GRRM

is that before he gets too far into The Winds of Winter, he visits this subreddit thread and learns that nobody's "favorite very minor character" lives in Meereen.

Despite the fact that I haven't played StarCraft 1 in years

I still have the terran theme music running through my head.

AGOT Tyrion I: Imp Slap

Or if you prefer, Chapter 9. Some vague hints as to what's to come, but no actual spoilers.