u/Pure_Artichoke_5168

Recently took advantage of the referral promo, of £25-£200 credit. I received the £200 credit (which I was in disbelief at), so picked up some Pokemon products.

Woke up this morning and found my account banned, due to referral abuse, which I wasn’t shocked at tbf, but I’d be stupid to not take advantage of free credit and never use the app anyway so it’s not a loss.

Wondering however, will I still receive the products I bought? Or will they be cancelled? As I said it was all with credit, so won’t have lost any money if they are, just curious and hopeful the orders go through still. (All orders did say ‘payment received’)

So I’m fairly newish to the hobby, started earlier in the year. I have a load of bulk commons (holo and reverse etc etc all go into binders). When people usually sell their bulk, do you sort into what set you got them from? Or do buyers and card shops happily take it regardless? I’ve got probably touching 1k bulk cards, and cannot for the life of me be bothered sorting into the correct sets😭

I’m currently 24 years old, and have never done any sort of investment, but seems to be the way to go for a strong future.

I never looked into it as from the outside it seemed so overwhelming, but I’m wanting to build a better future for myself.

Is it simply a case of, choose whatever whether it be S&P500 or VWCE, invest £100-£200 a month into that (would fit my budget), and simply let it grow and grow over time?

How confident is everyone in getting product tomorrow from sports direct? Despite stock being low, chaos rising etb they only had an allocation of 10 of, and got there 7:15am first in queue. Chancing a 6:30am start tomorrow for prismatic as no doubt it’ll be more popular. Just gotta hope staff don’t get it for themselves, however going off previous 5 times I’ve queued, none of the staff are interested whatsoever. Hoping because I live in a quieter area it’ll be the same as last drops. Good luck to people in the busy areas!

Arguing with a rag at work about Alvarez (due to the Real Madrid news) and said we sold Alvarez for 90m, obvs that’s with add ons, what add ons were they and did we get that money in the end? Think it was like 17m

So me and my gf are looking to move into our first home together in about a year or so time. I’ve only got PayPal credit card debt that will be paid off by then easily, then obviously the odd thing like phone or car that’s monthly. My gf on the other hand to clear off her debt has set up a payment plan through a charity in which she pays a certain amount of money, but it will have cleared all her debt completely. ATM on my own, I’d be able to get roughly a 200k loan, if I included her income and name, that goes to about 270-280k. However due to doing a repayment programme, how difficult will it be to get a mortgage if I included her? Or how much higher will interest be?

‘Spoilers for the show will be right at the end of this post’

Going into this show, I was under the impression that Maul would be the main character and every episode would have him performing at his best, being the chaotic animal we all know him as. However this wasn’t the case, and I’m actually not disappointed in that.

PLOT:
The plot is strong enough. It’s very simple, it works, it’s purely a setup for season 2 and Mauls Crimson Dawn story. There’s not really a lot to say for this. But it’s good.
8/10

SOUNDTRACK:
GREAT. You get moments of the music that plays homage to the phantom menace, the empire theme etc etc. some really beautifully done tracks. Especially in the final 2 episodes, it added so much to the scenes that were already mind blowing to begin with.
9/10

ANIMATION + VISUALS:
The best Disney has ever done. I really thought that The Bad Batches animation would’ve been the peak of their abilities, but they’ve took it to a whole new level now. The backgrounds are gorgeous, and look so alive despite being just still paintings. It adds a gritty feel to the show that helps it really feel like the darker show it is. The animation when fighting is superb, and I actually prefer this more ‘janky’ motion to the perfectly smooth motion of Clone Wars. It’s like a stop motion creation sometimes, or like an Anime. It’s done so so subtly but so well. The Lightsabers are stellar too. It’s like a crossover of Visions and Clone Wars. Each blade feels like a beam of raging, uncontrollable light, rather than just a smooth stick of light. It adds, again, a gritty feel to the show that works brilliantly.
10/10

CHARACTERS:
All are fantastic bar Lawson’s son Rylee. But to begin with, Daki and Devon are great. You can really sense Daki’s desperation to keep Devon from turning, and despite not seeing an ounce of training, you feel how strong their relationship is. Devon gives SERIOUS Ahsoka vibes. But an Ahsoka whose mind isn’t as strong as hers. You can tell she doesn’t want to give into her rage, but only for her masters sake. You can tell deep down she’s been on the fence about it a while since meeting maul. Season 2 for her is going to be brilliant.

Vario is great. He’s funny, cheeky, untrustworthy but also trustworthy at the same time. At first I was hoping Maul offed him quickly, but as the show went on I actually enjoyed his presence and found him a great addition. Not much to his story, just a fun character that tags along.

Lawson and Two-Boots. Again, fantastic. Their duo dynamic works great. Two-Boots being the comedic relief droid like every Star Wars project needs. Definitely not my favourite of droid partners, but he’s probably top 10 atm, (could be top 5 if season 2 keeps him going strong). Lawson is solid. He’s a character that I really want to know more of. His past seems so interesting and really deserves some more insight to it. (SPOILER). No in the finale, we see him ‘sacrifice’ himself to get Rylee on the ship. Now as it’s Star Wars, we never really see him die, so does he actually? Or will he return in season 2 in some way? I usually roll my eyes when they bring so many characters back, but I really hope he does come back. Or we get some story into his past.

Rylee…weakest of the characters by far. And unfortunately it comes slightly due to the voice acting. I don’t know why, but I didn’t feel as much weight and emotion to his characters lines compared to everyone else’s in the show. As a character, I’m interested to see where his storyline goes. But as it stands, if they were to off him in season 2, I personally don’t think it would be a big loss.

The Two Zabrak’s (I forgot their names I’m sorry). These I feel were a bit wasted. From the trailers, I was hoping for them to be more involved with more voice lines especially with Maul. But in the end they were just two grunt brothers that worked for Maul. They worked as just that. But I wish we had some more personal time with them and got to learn their stories more. However that’s a sacrifice you have to make in a show that’s pretty short.

(MAJOR Spoilers Ahead)

Rook…some say she was wasted with her death, but I think otherwise. I think that the way she was offed, worked so well because it showed that truly NO ONE has plot armour when *HE* is involved. She was good in the show. Enjoyed hers and Mauls conversations, and how she was not afraid of him in the slightest and would be happy to challenge anything he said if needs be.

Spybot. Not much to say about him, other than he is now in my top 5 all time droids.

Marrok and The Crow. JUSTICE!!! Finally these two sinister and quite frankly awesome looking characters were given some proper time. Marrok in Ahsoka was a cool introduction to him, but we didn’t get anywhere near enough of him as we should have. The Crow, again, Ahsoka!!! The design for him is my favourite of all the inquisitors. He looks absolutely terrifying, and the movements he was doing in the final 2 episodes…wow. This show made 2 of the most wasted recent characters we’ve had in Star Wars, to arguably some of the fan favourites now.

Maul…our favourite Maul. Don’t even know where to start. His scenes where he’s having deep conversations with characters are some of the best we’ve ever had. He cemented himself as one of the Star Wars GOATS in Clone Wars, not just for his action, but his dialogue. I can still quote word for word his interaction with Ahsoka on Mandalore. And in Maul, he’s at his very best. This is helped by Sam Witwers phenomenal voice acting capabilities. You feel the emotion in every single sentence Maul utters throughout the show, and makes you forget it’s animated. He feels like a real character. No one brings characters to life more than Sam does. But this show really displays how determined of a character Maul is. He will sacrifice anything if it means he gets his way. He’s as cunning as ever, and you just feel he’s in command of every scene that he’s in (NOT IN EPISODE 10). Dialogue wise, this is the best we’ve ever seen Maul. If you told someone in 1999 that the Double ended lightsaber wielding monster, would in the future, become a character best known for his dialogue and not his fighting…they’d laugh at you. But that’s seriously what he is, great in action, perfect in speaking. I could listen to him speak about how grass grows and I’d be in awe. He’s that good.

MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS!!!

The Dark Lord, Vader. I have never grinned as hard as I did when he came on screen, and took on a 3 v 1 with pure ease. This is Vader at his absolute best. We have never seen him this powerful on screen before, EVER. He made Maul look terrified for the first time I think ever (chronologically). And this is why we need a Vader solo project. There is not a single character in all of fiction that even comes close to Vader. His breathing alone is the single most iconic sound put to TV and Film. And to have him not say a single word, was utter genius. It shows you that he really is just an unstoppable force, (Pardon the pun), that sees you as a toy to play with. During that 3 v 1, I don’t think he even used 50% of his capabilities. I just can’t put into words how GREAT it is to finally have a project that shows off Vader properly. Which leads me to a different argument I want to make in regards to Star Wars in general.

ANIMATION vs LIVE ACTION:

This show cements my opinion that any project in Star Wars that’s primarily action oriented, especially with lightsabers, you make animated. Ahsoka unfortunately showed off that nowadays, for whatever reason, live action lightsaber battles feel too weighted, and clunky. Not every moment, but many. With animation, there is just so much more you can do with it. The characters really can act like themselves and you can make them do proper Jedi things that the latest live action projects just can’t achieve. However if we’re going down the political side/no lightsaber route (Andor), you make it live action as that works so much better, because those themes need live action emotions and feelings.

OVERALL: This show was so much more than I thought it was going to be. But the final 2 episodes really did cement this as an S Tier show for me. I’d say it sits above Bad Batch, and as long as season 2 is just as strong, it will sit level with Rebels. My only complaint now, is that Ahsoka is next on the series release schedule, and that show has a lot to live up to with what was setup in season 1. And coming off the back of a show where the action was the best I’ve seen in Star Wars, I really hope they nail it this time.

Maul: Shadow Lord - 9/10

I already know what I’m doing, I’m opening it, but what would YOU guys do in this situation? Keep it sealed, or rip it. The charizard is about £70-£80 alone, the Oricorio about £20-£30 ish. So talking about £40-£50 on 18 packs, sleeves etc. all in all I’d say that price is pretty worth it? But now would you hold or open?