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I really thought that you were giving it a grade of D+ and dismissed it as not worth watching. I will have to follow-up on that!

I saw it last night. The tributes to Chadwick Boseman were great. The actors who reprised roles from the first movie all did outstanding jobs. The casting was quite solid.

[spoilers]
The antagonist was a little bit ridiculous in being overpowered. Just happening to find a genius MIT student who rivals Tony Stark and can build an Iron Man suit is total convenient plot armor, figuratively and literally. The blue water people being able to insta-heal just got a bit silly.[/spoilers]

So, the acting was great. Some of the writing was too loose for my liking though. 7/10 overall; it made for a great action flick with great tribute work, but lacks the nuance of more thoughtful writing for the main plot.

Schedule some events for World 9-3 podcasts too, while you're at it. 

I already said happy birthday elsewhere, butttt... happy birthday again! 

Mario Kart, SNL style... uhm..

Annd to celebrate the forum upgrade, I did some hard drive and OS upgrades to our computers at home! I know an m.2 will blow away any SATA III drive, but since Renee's older laptop and my older desktop both had room for an EVO 870, in they went!

The Clone Wars series got really, really good as the series progressed. The final three episodes ending with Order 66 marked the end of the Clone Wars, so it was a perfect place to continue with Bad Batch. The animation, voice acting, storylines, and moody soundtrack are epic in this.

Renee and I are rewatching Star Wars: Rebels as well, currently.

LOL... wait... you're an adult, @Grindspine ?

I try not to be, but am failing at that ambition lately.

I mostly used my GBA back when I had breaks between classes. Once my girlfriend (now wife) started stealing the GBA, I started using it far less. I used to game a lot more when I was a student working two part-time jobs. Working full-time day shift kinda kills gaming vibes so much of the time.

It's the conundrum of being an adult; now I have money for more games and no energy or time to play them!

wut?

My internet was down for a few days after the storm. It doesn't look like I remember it "before the storm."

Why do all of the weapons break on EVERY enemy encounter?

I remember that games like Diablo II had a durability stat on weapons. Sure, they'd break if you were really negligent about repairs when you visit a town. With Breath of the Wild, I go through multiple melee weapons with every moblin group I encounter. Also, bows shattering while just drawing the string even though arrow are depleted is just.. silly.

Anyone else completely dumbfounded by the game design on this one?

I don't know if I have ever seen one in person. Was yours behind that air purifier tower next to your TV?

Yeah, that guy and his mom suck.. but I think that's the point. They are setting him up to be a creep. He's an overachiever who listens to no one. He's a zealot. He is just generally distasteful. His mother is annoying and overbearing. He ends up being almost stalker-ish at points. They are crafting him as a creep to the highest degree. He's not "evil" in the traditional sense, but they are creating a character who is believable.

Yeah, this show is dramatic on a level that I never expected from Star Wars or Disney.

I liked that Andor, as a series, was a bit more relatable. It is cool to see Jedi and Sith, but it is more difficult to relate.

Also, in opposition to the prequel trilogy, this series had real backgrounds and real sets. They did not add CGI every other scene. It seemed like a more tangible, relatable world, but still had the epic feel of a galactic scope.

It also has the looming dread of knowing what is to come with what the empire is building.

So, after episode 6, Renee and I thought that was the complete series. I started seeing a bunch of reviews, as if the show was still happening. So, Renee and I just finished the second half of the season...

That show cultivated drama more effectively than anything I have seen. It was serious tension with a palpable, real-world feel, though it was still set in the Star Wars Empire era galaxy.

I am floored by how good that series was.

Also, at the end of the last episode, there is an end credits scene.

You know what happens to all the ghosts of all the turkeys after Thanksgiving?

Spoiler: ShowHide

They become poultrygeists...

Happy thxgiving!!

Sometimes brick walls have meat.

The NES TMNT was one of those games that I beat once, then never picked it up again. That game was hard beyond the point of challenging and far into the zone of being frustrating. I spent most of 5th grade trying to beat that game. I think that 7th grade was dominated by Castlevania III, then 8th grade into freshman year was Mega Man 7. Those three games were all a pain to beat. I remember Castlevania more fondly though.

Renee and I played through Turtles in Time in one sitting. There is a bit of nostalgia there, but that game's responsiveness has not aged well.

I think we'll have to go straight back to the TMNT arcade game. I spent so many quarters on that back in the nineties!

I do not want to ever play the NES original TMNT game by Ultra though. That water level still gives me the shivers!

Just don't start yelling about "get off my lawn!" and you'll be okay. 

2021, we had maybe four of the neighbors' kids come up to get some candy. This year, we had zero trick-or-treaters. I guess that living in a condo neighborhood, I am about thirty years younger than most of my neighbors.

I made the mistake of going to a housing association meeting last month. It was right out of a sitcom making fun of old people complaining about parking regulations. I think that I witnessed what at least one corner of hell looks like that night.

By "ran through the first game" I am not taking that as you beat it, right? Because, seriously, after stage four, that game is super difficult. I think I spent most of 5th grade trying to beat that game.  That NES TMNT made by Ultra was Turtles, but it doesn't hold a candle to the TMNT arcade game.

That water level with the electrified seaweed still gives me shivers.

So far Renee and I have only played Super Mario Party Superstars and some Link's Awakening.

We have the TMNT Cowabunga Collection, but haven't opened it yet!

I had zero plans over the weekend. I miss having Halloween parties, but still have no social network here as I moved down here right before COVID started.

Why did the skeleton bail on seeing the scary movie?

Spoiler: ShowHide

He didn't have the GUTS to see it!

Why did the student witch have to go to elementary school?

Spoiler: ShowHide

She needed to learn to SPELL!

I thought I had a pumpkin joke, but every one of them that I could remember was just too seedy.

I have started Clone Wars probably four times, even as a go-to-sleep white noise show, and the first season is so boring that I make it about 6 episodes and give up. I also don't love using cartoons as canon. Thoughts?

I have probably watched through it more than 4 times, also as a go-to-sleep white noise show. The first three seasons are boring and slow. It really isn't until Ahsoka grows up a bit from those times she is independent from Anakin that she gets interesting. The story arcs with Obi Wan and Dutchess Satine of Mandalore get really good. Maul's return makes it even better with an actual tangible threat to the Jedi Order.

The series really culminates in the last four episodes of season 7 though, since it really shows a much deeper view of Order 66. It isn't just a handful of Jedi masters being killed, it is really a galaxy-wide event. At the same time, a civil war is occurring on Mandalore and you get to see how things play out between Ahsoka, Captain Rex, Dearth Maul, and Bo-Katan Kryze during that Mandalorian occupation.

Renee found some cutesy anime shows that were great to binge. Romantic Killer is streaming on Netflix. It is a cute short story about how a girl who is obsessed with video games, chocolate, and her cat, gets dragged into a real life dating sim game. Cutesy, but pretty good overall and short enough to binge in a night.

Since we know Obi-Wan is invincible between now and ANH, bring in some other characters (maybe Maul?) and just make him a badass for a couple more seasons.

Watch Star Wars: Rebels, season 3, episode 20 "Twin Suns"

You'll get to see Maul and Obi Wan.

Edward Norton in Fight Club was better.

But I guess I can't talk about that.