Lurker > scarletspeed7

Maverick is actually my all-time favorite western! I've always thought it didn't get much love sadly.

Iron Fist, yeah. One of the best tournaments I've ever seen.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

This can also include battle royals too, I guess. I recently rewatched The Quick and the Dead, and I forgot just how much I love the tournament concept in movies. I'll take TV shows too. Hell, any kind of fiction I guess. Let's round up all the competitive tournament play.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

My favorite quote from Link is, "To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."

Great moment, probably one of the best in game history.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Garrus was the star.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Snake5555555555 posted...

Calintares posted...

Chess players

Have to pass this one sorry, I don't much beyond the most well known players.

I think you're searching for Bobby Fischer.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

TotallyNotMI posted...

And done!

First time I read this I found a reading order and read all the tie in issues alongside the main series. It felt bloated that way. Reading just these core issues made it flow better. I will probably read other big crossovers this way in the future, read the main story then go back to read the side stories

That works for a lot of the old crossovers. There are a few crossovers were you do really have to read the crossovers in and amongst the other comics in at least some form of combined order though:

Civil War. Definitely requires a lot of the crossovers in and amongst each issue to make that story have stakes or make sense.

Blackest Night. It reads completely like it all goes together minus one or two truly standalone titles.

Final Crisis. If you just read Final Crisis by itself, it makes much less sense.

Infinite Crisis. You don't have to, but Infinite Crisis actually reads REALLY well with big chunks of crossovers.

Most others though, you're totally right.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Kate, Jack, Jay, Connor, Peege? My boy DAMAGE? Well-played.

Ten video game characters who would be good deaths for a video game Crisis on Infinite Earths
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Becky Lynch?
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Marvel Earth X is way cooler.

How often do I say that?
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

The line-up changes when people want the originals back in the X-Men mainline book because of writer changes in X-Factor and the fact that fans were starting to switch titles.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

TotallyNotMI posted...

I hate Celestials.

I like everyone else who gathered for the Cosmic Powers meeting.

But any time Celestials show up I dread it.

We're reading Earth X next now.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

TotallyNotMI posted...

Yeah but at this time they were X Factor and not X Men and X Factor (when it was just those 5) was lame.

So I'll allow it.

Yeah but X-Factor sold as well as X-Men at this point. Not quite the insane numbers, but... yeah those insane numbers.

Way more than stuff like Iron Man!
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

This one is interesting in that it's mostly the non-group-of-heroes getting development. I love the little moments with Death, Nebula, Thanos, Starfox, Mephisto, etc. I think in big events either you go full DC and have 500 issues involved so everyone gets a piece or you go Marvel and everyone gets one line of dialogue and you accept that they are mostly there to build stakes and create urgency and kayfabe strength.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

JSA members
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

It's also the entire original line up of the X-Men minus Scott.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

I'm at issue #2, but I want to stop and say this.

Motherfuckers hate the Fantastic Four.

What were the odds that the ENTIRE team gets wiped in one snap?
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

thoris
wendy
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

ww
iolande
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Jasmine
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Bombay
Prince John
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Hela is in the right.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Tamina
Cave
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Hermes
Lumiere
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

NBIceman posted...

This argument is really good evidence for why the outdated conceptions of face and heel characters need to be done away with entirely.

Write compelling, logical, three dimensional characters and stories to surround them. Then let the audience decide who to cheer for and go from there.

Hey, another reason why bad writers are killing WWE!

You don't even need to necessarily get rid of faces and heels so much as provide consistent, logical booking and reasoning to the characters. It's like how characters like the Horsemen became faces during the NWO era when they were against the NWO and remained heels against the rest of WCW. Just find natural progression. I will always argue that the character of Lex Luger in the latter half of the 90s is one of the most nuanced characters in wrestling, and it's because he eschews the normal role of a heel and develops microrelationships on the roster that have grayer histories.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

TheRock1525 posted...

HashtagSEP posted...

I don't actually care what it got changed to... Stare down, brawl, whatever.. I'm simply arguing that Asuka beating down Becky and then standing over her as a face was the wrong move.

Becky is on a streak where outside of Summerslam she's won a shit ton of matches.

She's been on the right side of beatdowns 90% of the time since Summerslam, including getting the absolute best of Ronda fucking Rousey.

You ask her ONE TIME to take a beating to establish Asuka and it just ruined everything, apparently.

From my point of view, it's not about Becky so much as Asuka and also the greater show in general. Cut the number of beatdowns and stand-talls on go home shows by half and you STILL have too many on every go home show. The go-home show should establish an equivalency and create a desire to see two workers who rarely or never come in contact with each other to actually touch at a big show. For me, it should be the type of angle reserved for blood feuds. It makes the product almost a little trashy that this is "allowed by management" all of the time. Imagine the impact Shane's head going through a windshield would have had, for example, if on that same show there weren't 3 other post-match beatdowns.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

If this was a movie with a huge budget, I'd believe it could happen, but I have to temper my expectations. We're not getting Lego Batman meets Batwoman.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

I actually disagree that someone has to stand tall prior to a PPV. Stalemated face-offs are actually so utterly unused and they would create a much more grounded sense of stakes. Standing tall has become such an overused crutch to keep someone over artificially that the fans don't really care anymore. It would be best at this point to keep opponents apart more often and create the anticipation with the staredowns and the rare touches.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

I love driving, honestly.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

How cool would it be that, like the vein of using 90s Barry Allen, we get more veteran returns from old shows for COIE? Imagine actual Tom Welling appearances.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

I have more faith in the Smackdown team booking her strong, but I'm very cautious because they have a very difficult time on Smackdown with making more than two people in a division matter at a time.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

TheRock1525 posted...

Don't get me wrong, Asuka standing tall means a 99% chance she doesn't win. Everyone knows that.

It's just that it's weird to say that for a TLC title match when there won't be a pinfall.

It was just a generalization. You're really reading too much into it. In a TLC match, it's like being the person who stands for 30 seconds on top of the ladder while someone else runs up it really fast and grabs a title.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

TheRock1525 posted...

Because Asuka is the conquering face. Becky is the morally questionable Austin-style face. That should be pretty obvious when she says she's gonna slap everyone on the roster after telling them to form a line.

They deserve it though. Especially Randy Orton.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

TheRock1525 posted...

scarletspeed7 posted...

HashtagSEP posted...

TheRock1525 posted...

What she do that was super heel-y on Smackdown? Because all I saw was her talk shit per usual then get attacked by Charlotte so she retaliated. Like was Asuka a heel because she smashed people with a weapon, too?

She just watched Charlotte cheat and beat up Asuka, a face, and then Asuka was portrayed as the conquering face that took both out and got to be cheered standing tall. The hero shot to close out the show was literally Asuka standing over Becky.

WWE has them as squabbling heel and heel people like less, Becky and Charlotte respectively, and face Asuka.

By the way, that's the absolute worst because the person who stands tall on the go-home show always eats the pin.

I'm not sure how Asuka eats a pin in a TLC match for a title.

It just means that it's the person that gets the most clowned in a match.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

HashtagSEP posted...

TheRock1525 posted...

What she do that was super heel-y on Smackdown? Because all I saw was her talk shit per usual then get attacked by Charlotte so she retaliated. Like was Asuka a heel because she smashed people with a weapon, too?

She just watched Charlotte cheat and beat up Asuka, a face, and then Asuka was portrayed as the conquering face that took both out and got to be cheered standing tall. The hero shot to close out the show was literally Asuka standing over Becky.

WWE has them as squabbling heel and heel people like less, Becky and Charlotte respectively, and face Asuka.

By the way, that's the absolute worst because the person who stands tall on the go-home show always eats the pin.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

The work is only awful because the rest of the team is comprised of bottom-of-the-barrel talent that can't even get work on a soap opera. WWE is the lowest form of TV writing and there's no back-end pay for ratings success and there's no opportunity for critical success within the industry and your current company is so massive yet cannot make a single connection for you outside of this company because it's so poorly regarded by Hollywood. It's a dead-end job where, yes, your point of view was maybe relevant in 2006, but it's not relevant anymore. It's an institutional problem now. It's bad because it was bad and it will now continue to be bad because no good writer dreams of growing up and working for the worst show on television.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

It's not that the writers can't write.

It's that the average writer is asked to rewrite a 3 hour show dozens of times every week for a job they've probably been on for a relatively short time.

Imagine asking someone to write the Avengers multiple times every week. That's Raw.

Ever go see an improv performance? A small group of players can make up multiple hours a show multiple times a week. It's not hard.

And you know what? You're not writing a three hour show. You're writing what should be - at most - an hour show. The rest is wrestling or simple angles presented in sentences. "Randy Orton puts Rey Mysterio through announcers desk post-match." That was really hard to write. You have absolutely NO excuse. Vince isn't an excuse. You can write well and still cater to Vince. I'm sorry, but it's true. Yes, the content may be immature and stupid, but it can still be dressed up with good writing. And it can still get over everyone involved.

I'll also throw in camera work. It's shoddy, terrible, and it ruins backstage segments every time. That, too, needs to be reworked. But it's the writing. When you are bankrupt of creative expression, it doesn't matter what Vince says or does.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

The answer is always, always, ALWAYS "they can't write." It will never not be "they can't write."

The reason is, they can't write.

WWE wants TV writers, and TV writers don't want WWE. All you get in that instance are the people so bereft of talent that they can't land anywhere else in the world. It's not a matter of too many cooks. It's a matter of the many cooks lack even one singular good cook. It's like hiring every sous chef from Hell's Kitchen and thinking you can open a restaurant that way. No. You need one Gordon Ramsey in there for quality assurance, or else you have a shitty restaurant. That's WWE.

You ever notice that on Game of Thrones, super minor characters develop followings? Game of Thrones pushes an extremely large cast for about 8 hours a year, and yet most of them get over in the roles presented. Honestly, more than most. Virtually all of them. Yet WWE provides more than that amount per WEEK and can't figure out how to get over its characters? Minor jobbers should still have personality and still be popular. Cesaro, Ryder and Rusev should all still be popular regardless of wins and losses. The Attitude Era didn't even have good writers - it had mediocre writers - and they were able to get over a guy with a mannequin head who hardly ever won and Scotty 2 Fucking Hotty. It's all about writers, it's never not about writers, and the sooner you stop putting anything on the workers, the sooner you'll get it. Bad actors can succeed with good scripts. Good actors flounder with bad scripts. It doesn't matter if you wrestle like the second coming of Misawa if you're being handed the scripts from the second coming of Bosom Buddies.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Infinity Gauntlet.

We... probably don't want to read Infinity War.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Vanellope
Fagin
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Remember that Infinity War is a hard ending cliffhanger and issue #1 is really just a chapter. I agree, but yeah, the pacing is appropriate because they are using the disappearances as a plot device and not an ending curtain jerk.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Baymax
Bombay
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

5.1 is my boy :(
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Espeon posted...

scarletspeed7 posted...

"Hi, I'm missing the easy winner."

Which film ARE you talking about, exactly?

Fitchner with a Shotgun
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Tamina
Cave
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Test is still dead
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Reposted from previous topic:

All right, this week is Marvel Cosmic week.

I'm keeping it simple.

Did you like Infinity War? Cool. We're reading the even better Infinity Gauntlet this week.

Did you like Rise of the Silver Surfer? Of course not. We're reading the infinitely better Silver Surfer: Parable this week. It's a graphic novel written by Stan Lee and art from Moebius. It's good stuff.

Enjoy!
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Lumiere
Hermes
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

I thought contracts were the friends we made along the way.
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful

Yeah none of that will be related to the comic at this point and all based on contracts!
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"It is too easy being monsters. Let us try to be human." ~Victor Frankenstein, Penny Dreadful