u/JadisDidNothingRight

I'm pretty sure I've read all the well-known titles and even some more obscure stuff like Soil and Wet Moon. Anything with hard to spot plot twists or unexpected developments would be interesting. Shoot, even something that is 'just' a page turner, regardless of genre would be neat.

The art is strange. Some of it is mediocre and some of it is exceptional. Mask off Mana panels are genuinely disturbing at times. It's absolutely the most unhinged shoujo I've read.

What out there is similar?

Reducing the count to under 50,000 is such a powerful moment of despair and it's completely understated in its presentation. Billy is mindlessly exhausted. Roslin wipes away the board with almost absent minded resignation. The shift from 50,000 plus to less is damning. The miniseries was great and 33 was a a wonderful follow-up to the premise. Out of all the post apocalypitic stories I've read or watched, BSG stands out.

Is this normal? I've deleted accounts in the past and could have sworn that it logged you out automatically. The feedback navigating account management is garbage.

Robert Duvall said it was possibly the best film he'd seen in 25 years.

Scorcese praised it. Tarantino called it the best film of the year. Spike Lee and Edward James Olmos also openly praised the film.

On RT it pulled a 65%. Granted, Tarantino (as an example) doesn't see eye to eye with those cumalitive ratings. He loves Unbreakable and that film also received middling reviews. Still, Apocalypto was given positive reviews from a fairly diverse cast of actors and directors.

Were the reviews more concerned with Mel Gibson's antics at the time than the actual film?

Was the criticism because the film depicted the Mayans as brutal? I struggle to see the validity of some of those criticisms. Jaguar Paw and his village were not depicted as evil. The evil was limited to a warmongering urban society twisted by religion. That's occurred all over the world. It's almost a foreshadowing of what is to come. One criticism was that the Spanish were depicted as coming to save the 'brutes.'. The title of the film is Apocalypto. I don't see how they can be seen as anything other than coming doom. Maybe I'm naive, but even in 2006 I thought it was broadly understood that Europeans wiped out indigenous American culture.

What are your thoughts? Did you like the film? Do you wish Hollywood would make more films like this?

Throgg is strong, but I think confederation is a trap for Norsca as far as minor factions are concerned. Maybe it's good for him, but the value of your settlements below t4 (when they raise the hero cap) is effectively nil past the first one. He's also the farthest away from unlocking the Cathay technology for Mastery of the Elemental Winds. If spellcasting is your passion, Throgg is not the answer.

Also, Norsca is a pain to navigate and defend in my experience.

Sayl has completely absurd faction mechanics, but they're at t3+. His start is diabolical. Dealing with Zhatan or Vilitch is easy, the follow-up is pain until you get into Cathay. By that point, Wulfric is already entering god mode.

You can confederate Skeggi (rare case where confederation is good, because it allows you to jump Hexoatl next turn) and delete Hexoatl before turn 10 easily. Hexoatl gives you spices, marble, and gold. That 10,000 gold boon from abandoning Norsca lets you raise a second army ASAP.

Your southern flank is secure. Yuan Bo just wants to trade. The Masque and Skulltaker basically fanboy over you. Ulthuan is not a concern yet.

You're free to delete Morathi before Baba Yagate finished off her minor enemy and from there you can easily take her undefended port. Once she's down the game is effectively won.

Ulthuan is one of the easiest areas to take because of how limited the routing for movement is and because you can limit wars with the High Elf factions to as many as you want at a time.

The Sisters of Twilight can have a NAP bought out with a mere minor settlement, so you can kill them at your convenience.

Malekith is also consistently a fanboy because you've been abusing his enemies.

You're in the perfect position to knock out the Naggarond, Ulthuan, Lustria, and, thanks to Sea Lanes, Cathay hunts. You're also in the best position to grab that coveted Cathay tech and confederate Sayl.

Lastly, the "default" Norsca shrine choices are so much stronger than what Sayl gets. Sure, he has crazy spell intensity, but you can get beastly characters with Slaanesh, insane movement after winning a battle with Khorne, or unlock multiple technologies per turn with Tzeentch. You can also eventually max out all of these making his end game arguably stronger than Sayl even with Sayl's machinations.

Oh, you can break a faction's treaties? I can delete them in two to three turns while stacking gold and XP.

I knocked out the LCV in 55 turns and it's doable faster. By turn 100 I had a million gold and you can stack more by simply running more armies. You can literally spit out a doom stack of Champions, War Mammoths and Chimeras every two turns if you want, and that's if you're only recruiting in a single province. Each one deletes endgame Dwarf crisis stacks in auto resolve and is even more abusive against other factions.

Wulfric is completely absurd when unleashed in Lustria, everyone should try it.

Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell were already established.

Katee Sackhoff has Longmire and her Star Wars role.

Everyone else effectively vanished.

I guess Michael Hogan had Skyrim, 12 Monkeys, and Fargo. He was already fairly old, so it's somewhat expected that he didn't blow up more.

I thought Jamie Bamber was fine, not exceptional, but he is gorgeous and fit, and that turned into nothing.

Aaron Douglas was a stand-out to me and basically begging to be the god of blue-collar roles, but nothing happened.

James Callis was also exceptional, but again, that turned into nothing. This one really confounds me. His performance was honestly amazing. Also, am I the only one who finds him and Julian Bashir's actor to be strikingly similar?

Tricia Helfer was good, and her role(s) in the show demonstrated her range. I'm amazed she didn't end up in some recurring role on a cult sitcom at least. I think she would've killed it as Cersei in Game of Thrones.

Helo (I can't spell his name off the top of my head) seemed like a more capable Sam Worthington, but one is the lead for Avatar and the other was basically dissed by casting calls.

I have a similar frustration with Babylon 5 and DS9. All three shows had excellent performances that didn't lead to similar or bigger things.

I'm playing Wulfric. Stayed in Lustria and took Ulthuan after wiping out Hexoatl, Morathi, Sisters, and DoF. LVC popped on turn 55 while I was finishing off Ulthuan. Rolled the Dwarves. At that time Malekith was SR2 and Hag Great was top 5.

Grombrindal rolled Malekith into the dirt and I had to send three armies to save him. Hag Graef has done okay against Masters of Innovation, but they're currently SR1. I finished off Courenne and Belegar.

Sylvania has done fine against the encroaching dwarves. Lizardmen are doing okay against Ironbrow.

I don't understand how Malekith got rolled so damn hard. It seems like he lost every engagement against them.

Also, I swear I saw Belegar allied with Courenne and Ungrim has a DA with Repanse? How? Why? I thought they were supposed to be neutral or going HAM on everyone over their grudges.

What genre even is this? It feels like city pop with a darker edge. Almost darkwave, but not synth enough.

I've been listening to Isiliel for years now, but somehow I've never listened to this song. Most of her music is rock-metal-ish, and I enjoy it, but I kind of feel like she wasted her potential at making eerie and unnerving pop.