I personally find recaps extremely helpful to remember tv shows and follow along well to what happened. Netflix doesn't have them, because they hate me. But almost every other show on the other streaming services do have recaps. So, why do the Torrents for those shows overwhelmingly not include the recaps???? I'm super new to this whole thing
First things first, the main characters are mostly women. Gender bent from their book counterparts. They're so badass. Gaal Dornick and Lady Demerzel are legitimately some of the best written female characters in sci-fi ever. Demerzel in particular is, in my opinion, the best robot/AI character I've ever seen. I don't wanna spoil, but she's just absolutely incredible.
It's also so ambitious and grand in scale. And it's so well made. Every technical aspect is fucking crisp. The effects look amazing, everything is so baroque and you can feel how expensive it was to make.
Season 1 has some flaws, but season 2 is legitimately a masterpiece. It also has some very interesting things to say about the way men violate women's consent if you read between the lines. It's a very complex show with many moving parts, well worth a rewatch.
It's an incredible work of art, with a very hot Lee Pace if you're into that. I expect its next season, season 4, to be its last. It's just really, really good sci-fi and I cannot recommend it enough.
Rewatching episode 5 of season 1, something I don't think is given enough weight in the story, is how Hari invites Gaal to Trantor to, well, essentially kidnap her into the Foundation. Not literal kidnap, of course, that was Empire, and she could have lied about psychohistory being true and be free to live whatever life she chose.
But the thing is, that didn't happen. Seeing Gaal's life on Synnax and how quickly she had to pivot from living on Synnax, studying in secret, and joining the Foundation, she basically never had any freedom at any point. Hari used Gaal for his psychohistory purposes, and it was honestly quite evil from him. He definitely deserved getting stuck for 100 years while she traveled to Synnax.
She trusted him, to finally be free to pursue knowledge, and his intention was to immediately coerce her into joining his cult. And then when she arrives at his ship instead of Raych he has the gall to be mad at her!!! His intention was to bring her from a water planet to a freezing planet and have her die of old age establishing the Foundation, but he never thought of what she might want! She never gave him informed consent!
Yes, he was doing it all to save humanity, but..... He was still a huge asshole. I think his wife would have been disappointed in him. I don't know why exactly Kalle (aka Earth's robots) was so sympathetic to him, to the point of bringing him back to life. The man is very morally nuanced. He might be doing things for the greater good, but he's not being in any way ethical about the way he does them.
Also, good on Gaal for manipulating New Terminus Hari on season 3!!! "Oh I don't like living in a box for hundreds of years" well, you put yourself there!!!! Am I supposed to feel sorry for you? I don't! Looking back, Hari is so much more manipulative than he first appears. Definitely not any kind of hero.
EDIT: actually, I forgot something huge. HE TOOK AWAY HER OPPORTUNITY OF SAVING SYNNAX. The people of Synnax had been indoctrinated by their priest class into doing nothing about the global worming that would kill them. If Gaal had been free to become something she chose, a scholar at a university or something like that, she could have tried to save her home, her people. But they all died, and if Hari hadn't immediately recruited Gaal into the Foundation, their culture could have been saved. In this sense, Hari is indirectly responsible for a whole ethnic group's disappearance
EDIT: I HAVE NOT READ THE BOOKS. THIS IS ENTIRELY ABOUT THE SHOW
I'm rewatching the show after having finished it. There were so many twists, details, resolved mysteries, shocking revelations.... It all gets a bit muddled.
I'm on episode 2 right now, and Hari intends to kill himself so he can become two AIs of himself. He intends for Gaal to live and die on Terminus, which she won't. He also wants to found a Second Foundation, on a location that is ultimately not where it is founded.
He is able to predict a whole bunch of things thanks to psychohistory, the Prime Radiant specifically.
So, did he and his wife build the Radiant? Or did they get help from Kalle (which is to say, the robots who now inhabit Earth)?
In any case, he's about to make a grand speech, swallow a pill to copy his mind... Into both a knife and his coffin? And he knows the AI in the coffin will lack information about the Second Foundation and whatnot. But it also will be able to transform his coffin into a 4-dimensional ship of sorts. That part becomes confusing to me. How is that supposed to work? How does he know how to do that?
He's also said psychohistory can't predict the behavior of individual people. And yet, he knows about the future Mule? Or does he not? I'm not sure.
He also lied to Empire about his plans. He doesn't intend for humanity to go through a period of 1000 years of darkness, right? His actual plan is to build up the Foundation (and I guess the second foundation or whatever), to rival the Empire, yes? Although his calculations about the Empire and humanity's fall without his intervention are still correct, as I understand it. Gaal confirmed he was right about the math.
Then there's Demerzel, who believed that Hari was correct in his calculations, even though she hadn't examined psychohistory (the Radiant) herself. In any case, she was willing to destroy the Star Bridge, and frame people from Anacreon and Thespis, so that Cleon XII would believe Hari was right and would give him the ship to go to Terminus and carry out his plan (I think Demerzel believes Hari is telling them (Empire) the truth about his plans, even though he isn't).
And then, how do the Mentallics play into all of this??? Are they uniquely able to change the course of events? Obviously they are telepaths, but Gaal can also see the future. And you have her, Salvor, and the Mule, at least, who play major roles in the different crisis.
Is there something I'm forgetting? Something else that I should be taking into account while rewatching this?
I want to understand, with my retroactive information, what exactly is going on, who is planning what, at any given time. Thanks!! 🩵🩵
MY GOODNESS WHAT A SHOW!!!! Every season was just so good! And I loved season 3! I thought the Mule twist was pretty unnecesary, but whatever. It does make the Mule more threatening.
In any case, the reason I am here is to talk about Demerzel!!!! My love!!!! She's dead 😭😭😭. How dare they!!! I've always been particularly invested in robot and AI characters, and honestly, she might have become my favorite one of all time. Obviously, I need to let the show marinate in my mind for a bit. But she was GLORIOUS.
As saddened as I am about her death, it was a fitting end for her character. So tragic! God, what a fascinating concept for a robot character. A real, full person, forced by their programming to do monstrous things. And she had already managed to get free from her initial programming!!! Only to then be immediately enslaved again by Cleon I!!! Btw, it's on sight for Cleon I. My god, what an evil, egocentric, ridiculous, monstrous man. Episodes 9 and 10 of season 2 were so good!!!! The explanation of Demerzel as the mastermind behind the throne.
And now she's dead!!! And she was so close to freedom, too! But her character is extremely morally complex, and tragic, and so her ending is very fitting indeed. As satisfying as it would have been to see her finally freed, and as fascinating as it would have been to see what she would do with that freedom, it would never have been as interesting as the trapped Demerzel. Her dying according to her programming is a fitting end. But oh, so tragic.
Although, if the show lasts more than 4 seasons, which I highly doubt, it would be great for her to come back! She certainly could! When she died her programming chip had been melted off, and she could have the ability to change bodies. It's certainly more interesting than Hari Seldon being resurrected again lol.
In any case, what an incredible hidden gem of a show!!!! A sci-fi masterpiece, truly!!! What do you guys think? It wasn't perfect, imo, but whatever, nothing ever is. And the highs are so high, aren't they??
Hi, Torrentio is down, yes, prayers, sorrows, prayers. Anyways, I'm super new at this whole sailing the seas thing, and I do have bitTorrent, so... where can I go to find the magnet links? What do you recommend? Because I've gone crazy the last couple of hours trying to get Comet to work, paying 3 bucks for Torbox, downloading Nuvio..... And for what??? For a couple links??? So, where are the links?? I just need the links themselves. I just wanna watch season 3 of Fundation in peace T.T
A few days ago I made a post talking about Plutarch, in a fairly negative light. I was so surprised by the amount of people who disagreed with me. Did we read the same Mockingjay??? He was an essential part of the rebellion, yes, but the whole point of the book is that Coin is as bad as Snow. That revolution doesn't necessarily bring about positive change, that you can't just replace one flavor of authoritarianism with another.
And Plutarch, although a completely essential figure for the Rebellion, was not a particularly moral man. Not the Plutarch I read about. He was callous, fully backed Coin's regime, and had very few reservations about doing whatever it took to win (aka war crimes). He was also pretty unlikable, overall.
Katniss mentions how fake he is quite often. I'm surprised so many people seem to like him. Is it because of the movies??? I did watch the Mockingjay movies, but only once, and I don't remember much about them. I also haven't read Sunrise yet.
So, yeah, I just didn't realize Plutarch had so many fans. Gale is so hated, and he did much less than Plutarch.
EDIT: I think I explained myself poorly. If you think Plutarch is a fascinating character, that's awesome. Hell, my favorite character in the series is probably Snow. What I meant is that people were defending Plutarch as in, the in-universe person! Not the character, written by Suzanne Collins. The man, from Panem. Like, I love Snow, he's my favorite, but I wouldn't defend him, you know??? He's monstrous!! People were defending Plutarch in that sense
I saw a TikTok by Nicolette Hill, and it sparked some thoughts about Plutarch for me.
So, why did Plutarch rebel, despite being part of the Capitol elite, and having so much to lose? Well, he is extraordinarily well educated and intelligent. He comes from such privilege that he's never had to struggle to survive, in any way, unlike Snow and the rest of the Capitol elite. This gives him a unique perspective. He understands, as Snow comes to, the social contract. But he understands it more deeply than Snow. Plutarch can see, as many intelligent people can, where the winds are blowing, during his lifetime. Snow is a psychopath, the inheritor of Doctor Gaul. District people outnumber the Capitolites.... How much?? 100 to 1? If you are the ruler of a nation, and you want stability, you need to keep the people happy. Ruling through fear, as the Capitol does, lasts for a time, but then it doesn't. A second rebellion was inevitable. Plutarch, knowing as much history as he does, saw this. And he decided to carefully jump ship before finding himself on the losing side. We know from Mockingjay that he's unscrupulous. He doesn't care about Panem's people. He's a social climber. He abandons Snow because he realizes the Districts rebelling is a matter of time, especially with 13 still out there. By the time of Ballad, everyone expected 13 to collapse. But by the time of Plutarch's coming of age, he can plainly see that it hasn't. He made a calculation, and he was so smart, he was right. He placed his bets on the winning side, and still fell on top. Snow might always fall on top, but bees can fly, they never have to fall
Oh my goddddddd I loved it so much 😭😭😭😭😭😭. Was it perfect TV? Nah. But it was almost tailor made for me!!!! Give me middle aged sorceresses or give me death!!!! A show about space witches using forbidden technology for their own nefarious means is just.... God it's just perfect. An evil, but internally consistent, pair of sisters as the protagonists??? God yes. It was incredible. The absolute PERFECT part of the Dune universe to expand upon from the movies!!!!! And every time they used the Voice I giggled. When Mother Superior shouts "STAY WHERE YOU ARE. DEFEND ME. KILL HIM". It was music to my ears 😭😭😭. Like literally, slayyyyyyy motherrrrrrrrrr. Never in my life had I rooted for eugenicists so much
[Content warning for domestic violence, gender dysphoria induced rant, and personal vulnerability]
(spoilers only of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2)
I'm a 27-year-old bisexual trans woman. Been a woman for 6 years. This book is absolutely excellent, but it's a hard fucking read. Very emotional read. Right now I'm going through Reese's willfully abusive past relationship with Stanley. I have known so many sisters who were in abusive relationships with monstrous men. That Reese would intentionally seek one out, that she would go willingly into an abusive relationship, on purpose, breaks my heart, and also completely stuns me. She gave a reason for it:
She hadn’t wanted a charming, reliable boy for a best friend; she had wanted a charming, reliable boy for a sexual, romantic, and life companion, and simply framed that as “friend,” the only word available to her. She’d found charming plenty of times, but reliable hadn’t come her way. So she found a certain comfort in Stanley’s possessiveness, his assumption that she was his to install in an apartment as one installs a new sink. His controlling behavior confirmed how badly he wanted her. Anyone who needed her so close, who assumed the right to know where she was at all times, whom she saw, what she wore, was someone who wasn’t going away, someone who could be counted upon, not just despite her trans-ness, but for it. This time she felt she’d found reliable, if not charming.
It's very hard to read, as a transsexual.
And then there's fucking Ames, living my literal worst nightmare on Earth. Having detransitioned, having gone back to manhood, a fate I would personally find worse than death, and to top it off: becoming a father. I've been on hormones for almost 6 years. I'm a bottom, I've never actually had sex with a woman, with the exception of a brief pussy-eating at an orgy. And yet, months ago, I got a vasectomy, because the idea of ever becoming the biological father of a fetus scares me more than anything else in the world. And Ames just..... Assumed he was sterile. Sure, a doctor (wrongly) told him he'd be, but still, he never looked into it himself. He was never too bothered by it.
The thing is, one of the reasons why I've always been so exceptionally afraid of getting someone pregnant, despite how unlikely it would be, is that the pregnant person would hold my fate in their hands. If I were a cis woman, I could simply get an abortion. I know, I know, it's not "simple", but I could get one (it's legal where I live, anyways). But as the biological father, that choice would be beyond my control. I've always been acutely aware of this, enough to be sterilized, even though I was almost certainly already sterile anyways.
So Ames, who's gone back to manhood, who's been reckless enough to get someone pregnant...... THIS BOOK TOUCHES ON A LOT OF SENSITIVE TOPICS FOR ME.
I've thought about stopping reading it. But there's something hypnotic, or magnetic, about it. It's so fucking real!!!! I hadn't read anything by a trans author before, and god, Torrey Peters nails what it's like. She portrays what it's like to be a young, but adult, trans woman so well.
So, yeah. This was very personal, but I felt the need to share my thoughts, and the one person I know who's read this book... She doesn't need to hear all this right now.
Thank you for reading my post!
I'm writing fiction for the first time in my life. It feels great, honestly. In any case, the story is high fantasy in a fictional version of our real world, in the 1400s (yes, it features Joan of Arc, how did you know? Lolll).
Anyways, I have this ancient order of mages in my story, my biggest inspirations for which are the Aes Sedai and the Bene Gesserit, from The Wheel of Time and Dune. The order does contain men, though. But my focus is the women. You know how in Star Wars, the overwhelming majority of Jedi are men? Like that, but the opposite. Men exist, but they will have less narrative weight.
So, I am very seriously considering calling my Order a Sisterhood. You guys know how in fantasy and sci-fi there's plenty of Brotherhoods that include women, right? So, why not a Sisterhood that includes men? I like the idea. I worry it could be confusing for the reader, but I mean.... If men get to have brotherhoods with women in them, why don't we get to have sisterhoods with men in them????? It just grinds my gears so much how fantasy is so often so misogynistic and male-gazey. I want male readers to feel what we have to feel, every time. What do you think?
I've been interested in gnosticism for several years now. I'm far from the only person who has felt this way, its theology can feel so wild and strange that it tends to attract attention. And I remember, 5+ years ago, reading that this old 90s cartoon, which got a mid movie adaptation I saw as a child, was an example of a work that dealt with gnosticism. So I got interested in it. I remembered the movie being interesting, and it had an eye catching a fly on the cover, so I put it on my watching list.
I hadn't seen it until now because it's not streaming anywhere, it never has. And I didn't know how to sail the seven seas until now. A friend taught me recently. So I decided to watch this cartoon that I had been waiting for for years.
Well, if you've seen it, you'll know it's weird as hell. I guess that's to be expected, from avant-garde animation. I didn't love it, but I also didn't hate it. It was very unsettling, very often. It seems like it had things to say, even though I'm not sure what they were. As a woman, the sexism definitely jumped out at me. The obvious main sexist aspect of the show is the protagonist's ridiculous dominatrix outfit. She clearly has an innie, for that thong to not let anything out, labia-wise. Especially with all those crazy movements she makes. It's definitely very edgy, very 90s provocative, in that way. Although the sexism is more prevalent in the way female bodies are often brutalized, often due to them acting as doormats for the men in their life. The episode where a girl loses a vertebrae and gets fucked through the leftover hole was particularly disgusting.
But to dig deeper, moving beyond the sexism, I have to ask, what the fuck is this show even about??? Was it good??? I'm not sure. Does it have anything to say? If so, what?? Is it just crazy, creative and shocking, with no particular themes? I don't know, and I was wondering if somebody might know.
It was just so fucking crazy, honestly. I feel the need to talk about it in some way
This realization might actually seem obvious, but I don't think I've seen this discussed directly very much. In any case, Rivington feels weird as hell to play through, even though it is, by all accounts, delightful. We ALL love the circus, you've got a murder mistery with shapeshifters, a brothel, hundreds of stupidly-named NPCs that are among the players' favorites of the whole game. And yet, it's overwhelming and not very fun to play at all.
The problem is that Act 3 screeches the game's pacing to a halt!!! Up to that moment when you enter Rivington, the scales couldn't be bigger. You've just defeated the god of death, possibly lifted the Shadow Curse, learned that a mindflayer has been manipulating you this whole time, and that you carry in your little prism the ancient prince of the Githyanki, enslaved by infernal chains. You have also recently seen the literal army of the Absolute marching towards Baldur's Gate.
And yet! In that moment of massive gravitas, when you'd expect the game's narrative to start gearing up to the inevitable final confrontation with the Absolute, you're greeted by a city full of hilarious nonsense. A gnome washing his pits, a silly kobold vendor, a small regiment of pidgeon soldiers, Gale's hilarious cat... A FULL FAIRY CIRCUS, complete with rigged games of chance, facepainting, an odd couple of sculptors made of dirt, dangerous redcaps for cleaning ladies, a fabulous drag queen running the whole thing...
It is absolutely delightful. However, the massive change of scenery, tone, gameplay even; it all stalls the game's narrative to a halt. Despite BG3 famously being comprised of 3 acts, the story doesn't follow a 3 arc structure AT ALL. Act 3 of modern story is when shit hits the fan. When our heroes finally go face the danger they've been fighting all along. They might tie up loose ends, but they start getting ready, forming a plan, and ultimately go fight The Big Bad. Not in BG3!
In this game, when you reach the so-called Act 3, you basically start a whole new game. A sequel, definately connected to what happened before, but still, you face a new beggining, with a new cast of villains, NPCs, and in the case of Jaheira and Minsc, even new companions.
I don't say this to shit on Act 3. I love it, it's a lot of fun. But I finally realized why we all feel an urge to start over a new savefile when we get to it. The story we had been following ends, and a new story starts. Which, naturally, we weren't expecting. I understand this is all simply because of the way the game was developed, but it doesn't make it less true. How very interesting, isn't it?
Ranking of the American Horror Story seasons I've watched in order of most to least likely to survive:
-Roanoke: I'm just not going there, ever
-Red Tide: I wouldn't take the pill and also I would leave
-Coven: I'd probably die at some point, but I think I'm getting brought back. I'd also be a witch, I think, but I wouldn't try to be Supreme (I really do think I'd be a witch and if you knew me irl I'd hope you'd agree)
-Murder House: this is really up to the ghosts. I think I'm leaving early though, so I'll probably live. I'm not going back in
-Hotel: this is also up to the ghosts, but there are more of them and it's generally more dangerous. I fear I might die there
-Freak Show: I'm a trans woman so maybe I end up in the freak show. I'd like to think I'd skedaddle before shit hits the fan though but still, I could die early. I'm putting it below Hotel because of the time period
-Aliens: I don't remember what happens, but I think many people died
-Asylum: I'm a trans woman so I'm dying by suicide
-Apocalypse: the nukes obviously kill me
Obviously, if you've read or watched Dune, and also The Wheel of Time, you are able to see the massive inspiration Robert Jordan took from Dune's Fremen when conceptualizing and writing the Aiel. They are almost identical, if you switch sci-fi with fantasy and blue eyes with red hair. I'm just now watching Dune Part Two, which I had never gotten around to doing before, and I'm just starting the movie, and I see the Fremen have this super ingenious way to remove water from corpses. Although it could be a movie creation, I have to assume it was in the books, which I've never read. If it was in the books, it feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity to not have the Wise Ones able to channel the water out of a corpse. True, Wise Ones are very rare among the Aiel, but this usage of their powers seems almost obvious. I have always considered fantasy in general isn't creative enough with the body horror aspect of water powers. Humans are half water, so.... If you can make threads of water, you can kill a person very quickly. Even the famous ATLA bloodbending is very tame, which is normal of course, for a show for kids. But yeah, just saying, the Aiel could have ingenious ways to get water from a corpse. It could even help explain why they're so hostile and warrior-like. A kill is liters of the stuff
EDIT: you're entitled to disagree with me, obviously. But I don't quite understand why some people seem to disagree with me that Jordan was inspired by the Fremen to write the Aiel? He said he wasn't, fair enough, but not every inspiration is a conscious one. I don't understand why some people seem so willing to accept the LOTR inspiration, but reject any Dune inspiration? The inspiration is quite obvious. The Aes Sedai are very similar to the Bene Gesserit. Obviously, both the Aiel and the Aes Sedai are very different to their Dune counterparts, but that's how inspiration works. No two stories are identical, Dune and WOT have completely different themes, explore completely different topics. But no one comes up with things in a vacuum. I just don't understand why anyone would react negatively to WOT being a product of things that came before it. Two authors could write a text based on the exact same pitch, the summaries could be identifical, and yet, the texts would be completely different. I don't understand why WOT being heavily inspired by Dune is controversial. It doesn't say anything bad about WOT. No one writes in a vacuum
I have very little more to add. I'm watching season 4 of The Clone Wars and I felt like I needed to say this. He seems like a perfectly fine character but his name makes me laugh
I am only talking about people who left it when it was an actual order. So, at any point before Order 66, or in the short time when Luke ran his academy. I am not talking about people who never joined the order in the first place, and I also don't mean survivors of Order 66, because the Jedi Order didn't exist by then, to enforce any kind of exit costs or shunning behaviors.
I know of Dooku, Ahsoka, and Osha from The Acolyte. I'm currently watching The Clone Wars, and haven't made it to the point where Ahsoka is kicked out. Nor I have seen anything else with her in it that takes place after.
I'm thinking about what are the negative consequences for leaving voluntarily (loss of status, loss of identity, loss of close people, loss of community, etc?) as well as the reasons why someone might be kicked out and what the costs for leaving forcefully are, and if they are different from one another.
Thank you so much!! 🩷🩷
This is genuine question, I have no idea. The Force would be a fascinating area of study, from a scientific perspective. If there are any specific characters or any media or just source where characters like these might show up, i'd love to hear about it
The Empire killed all the Jedi. Several survived. If enough turned to the Dark Side while simultaneously hating the Empire.... That's a new group right there. It would be a really cool concept, I hope we get to see it one day
There's this idea in the fandom that, at their peak, there were only 10000 Jedi. That is, obviously, very few, considering the size of the Galaxy. So I was wondering what the source is. I'm asking because in The Clone Wars some politicians were talking about making "millions of credits" from the war and I thought "wait, that number is ridiculously low considering the scale of this thing". Like maybe we, as fans, aren't meant to pay particularly close attention to big numbers like those? It's like how George RR Martin wrote that the Wall was however many feet high, and when he saw it drawn he was like "it isn't supposed to be that big!" but the artists were like "that's the number you wrote though..." And it turns out George RR Martin is just bad with numbers and conceptualizing them. The thing about Star Wars is that the amounts of people, money, resources, and so on, are so unbelievably vast, that I can easily imagine whoever came up with that number to not really be considered just how absurdly big this particular setting is. So whenever numbers are brought up, we're not really meant to take the exact number literally
EDIT: honestly, I worded this terribly. What I mean is that I don't think the numbers honestly matter in Star Wars. When they throw a number to refer to something that's on a big scale, I honestly think they're just saying whatever random number feels big enough in that moment. Because a low estimate of the population of the Galaxy is 10 quadrillion sentients. That is an unimaginable number to us. Which is why, in my opinion, the writers choose not to do the math every time they mention the size of anything. 20 million clones is a lot, because the story tells us it's a lot, even though it's absurdly tiny in galactic sizes.
My point is this: we shouldn't take the 10000 Jedi number, or literally any other number thrown at us, as gospel, even if it is canon