So to push back a bit on this analysis:

Oh, and something like an NFT that purports to authorize owners of physical MAGIC cards, or digital cards hosted in some other context, to create some sort of reproduction or derivative work for use in a new digital version of the game would very likely require a license for that authorization.

So one possibility is the NFT itself could be considered a “derivative work” of the copyrighted work, in which case you need a license from the owner of the copyrighted work to mint an NFT, absent an exception.

I think one of the realistic things about all this is when there are people who have felt very restricted in their lives by these sorts of social rules, and then they see someone else who has found happiness breaking the rules, they can get very angry. And while they may present that anger as based on moral…

That’s a good question.

Yeah, for large parts of the film she was a very passive protagonist, which I think is a major reason why the story didn’t grip people. Zhao once said something about how Sersi was supposed to make us rethink the concept of a hero, but I think it was likely a mistake to try that (or maybe to take it so far) in the…

Didn’t they make two Angry Birds movies?

After Red Notice and Jungle Cruise, I am very cautious about movies in the general form of movies I have liked before, with some actors I have liked before, but with worrying execution red flags.

Yeah, I personally think the acting so far has generally been quite good, and I would not necessarily agree Coon has been clearly the best (although she has been good too). The dialogue is indeed not always the best, but the actors are otherwise mostly coming across as quite believable to me.

If so, I am not sure it will be THIS season. This show so far feels to me like one of those first-season shows learning on the fly what really works and what doesn’t. So I suspect it is at least possible it will make some adjustments and really hit its stride in one or more future seasons to come.

And in support of that, the high society men are the ones constantly pushing their wives to accept the Russells socially due to their need to be on good business terms with George. So the consistent theme seems to be the men are not really diehard social snobs at heart, it is fundamentally all transactional for them.…

This show continues to generate incredibly mixed feelings in me.

His weakness is sometimes he cares TOO much . . . .

So she does clear half his age plus seven, but just barely.

Problem is they either leave before finishing, or just slowly shrink down to nothing.

Well, you gotta have faith . . . .

I don’t necessarily need an expensive, well-known cast (lots of great TV has been made with people new to most of the audience), but I sure do hope they get good material to work with.

Although movies and not TV, the LOTR movies were enormously popular without any significant “adult” content (or really much sex/romance at all). Same basic deal with the Harry Potter movies (a touch more romance, but all very child-friendly).

Yeah, she has a pretty promising resume. As do at least Jason Cahill (Sopranos/Fringe) and Justin Doble (Stranger Things/Into the Badlands).

Good writing and directing should be able to make good TV in this setting without having a lot of fleshed-out storytelling by Tolkien to work with.