You could do an entire article about the systematic destruction of old Beijing. Before the Cultural Revolution, Beijing was describes as a perfectly preserved medieval city, much like Jerusalem at the turn of the 20th century. The majority of the structures were centuries old, some going back over a thousand years.

Erotic love, specifically.

The Greek god of erotic love, to be precise.

I've grown kind of weary of it. They were my favorite things ever up to high school for me, but its taste has soured since then. The prequels and the abrupt change of timbre that came with it were a big part . . . actually, that may be most of it.

So much of this.

Naboo made some sense. The Jedi temple and Senate building did too, but besides a Blade Runner homage shot, you never see all of the filth, poverty, crime, and general yuckiness that you would expect to see in a city with a trillion residents.

I think the distinction is having a character/race which has cute tendencies, like R2 or the Ewoks, versus one (more more than one) which serves no other purpose than to be cutesy.

The worst I've seen personally was a kid names Eros. I think his parents were going for Ares, but those pesky vowels make a world of difference.

Actually, maybe not. I knew a family who named their kid "Regalo de Dios," which means "Gift from God," and another guy who was just named "Dios."

I'm not sure that I agree with the "they were always kids movies" argument. The OT had its silly moments, simple plots, a clear-cut good vs. evil premise, and other elements which often overlap with media geared toward children, but at the end of the day there is a world of difference between saying that a film has…

In as much as these are companies—i.e. private establishments—enforcing their own rules on their own "property" of sorts, I completely agree.

One of my favorite TV villains ever, actually.

. . . that's not the Galactic Empire I remember. I was under the impression that the Empire did things like enslave the entire wookiee population, commit genocide, kill political opponents, put the human "master race" front and center while keeping all other species out of positions of power, and generally creating a…

More than anything else, I loved the atmosphere and story of these games. Those were phenomenal, even if the gameplay doesn't hold up to today's standards.

No worries :)

You're right about Gimli and Legolas. I'd forgotten about that.

For a few centuries of happiness. The same thing happened with her uncle, though. Elrond's brother chose to be human and started the Numenorian line (which makes Arwen and Aragon related).

There's a line somewhere in the Silmarillion where (I believe) an elf reflected that man's gift was to die. Arwen is a perfect…

LoTR had one of the most heartbreaking endings in the entire genre. Most of the main characters survive and grow into their new roles as leaders and kings, the enemy is forever defeated, the guys get the girls, and a new era of peace is ushered in. But Tolkien hammered down pat the cost of a victory like this, not in…

Despite how terrible that line is, you bring up a good point.

Ultimately the Jedi/Sith divide is a question of values. The Jedi value stoicism, the established democratic order and it rule of law, and believe that maintaining that order justifies war. The Sith value self-determination, rule by merit, and that laws…

From what I understand, the Jedi—fundamentally—were about abstaining from passion and emotion, enforcing the established order, and submitting to the "will of the force." The Sith were about embracing passion and emotion, creating a new and more efficient order, and bending others to your will. Given that the Jedi…

I've thought about this a lot as well. The Jedi Order, as we see it, as anachronistic, decadent, and operates under the fundamentally flawed ideology that emotions and passions are the enemy. Yet they were supposed to be guardians of peace and justice, the ultimate good guys, etc.

. . . and exploring that…