Real steel swords actually used for fighting were light (usually between 2 or 3 pounds) and quite nimble. (The exception being those two-handed greatswords that came up to the wielder’s chin, which usually weighed 6 or 7 lbs.) I don’t know why a weapon that’s practically insubstantial would be heavier than metal.

Paramount didn’t want to pay hefty licensing fees for more recent works, so they stuck to things in the public domain, or things they completely made up (Dixon Hill, Klingon opera, etc.).

“I thought about how much a part of my life Star Trek was,” Lin said. “Growing up, my parents had this little fish and chips restaurant in Anaheim in the shadows of Disneyland, and they didn’t close until 9 PM. As a family, we didn’t eat dinner until 10 PM, and we would watch the original Star Trek every night at 11.…

I feel like this franchise can be summed up as: Falls From Great Heights. Magic Transporter Tricks. Enterprise Wrecked.

As opposed to thr trope that everything stays the same? That’s built into the universe. Perhaps the whole “energy being” thing is drastic,

The shot in the arm sword & soul needs!

That’s how every book in the genre—and half the ones outside of it—are currently being marketed by the publishers. It’s the touchstone for “epic fantasy” or general sword-and-sorcery in the mass consciousness. If this was happening before 2011 he would have probably said “Lord of the Rings” instead.

SPOILERS

“I represent less than 3% of the American labour force, and probably less considering most of my industry’s work is done by migrant labourers. But who’s going to listen to an office drone or Wal-Mart greeter, amiright?”

I think I read every Dragonlance book up to Dragons of Summer Flame (Weis & Hickman come back to the series and lay waste to what came before!) before I finally moved on to other things.

I let my past go too fast
No time to pause
If I could slow it all down
Like some captain, whose ship runs aground
I can wait until the tide comes around

(Time stand still)
I’m not looking back
But I want to look around me now
(Time stand still)
See more of the people and the places that surround me now
Freeze this moment a…

Ron Howard must have a very skewed idea of what “grown up” means...

“MY BROTHER NUMSPA!”

It’d been a while since I read the Books of Samuel and Kings (and I was fairly young at the time). Late one night, the 1985 film King David, starring Richard Gere, comes on TV. And in the very first scene, Saul is taking some Philistines prisoner after a battle to ransom them, and the prophet Samuel comes up and…

Those are my favourite stories in the Bible, probably because of how pagan they are! The rise of David fits neatly next to The Iliad and The Aeneid and other contemporary work for straight-up ancient propaganda. “Of course you should commit genocide and make your kingdom into an imperialist superpower—you have divine…

Basically, if you were any kind of book-loving nerd in the ‘80s and ‘90s, you couldn’t avoid Piers Anthony.

Luke only needed a weekend retreat to learn how to meditate properly, and then the rest of his training could be self-guided. Aside from that practical knowledge, most of Yoda’s philosophical blathering was ultimately useless and Luke ended up succeeding by ignoring most of it.

I assume that Hoth is not just cold, but exceptionally cold, and most equipment would have trouble operating there. E.g., Korea has winter, but not Canadian winter, so when it gets really cold here, the subwoofer in my girlfriend’s Hyundai stops working.

I don’t agree with most of your points, but I am 100% on your side about Yoda. “I’ve been training Jedi for 800 years, I’ll keep my own counsel on who I train.” Well, that worked out, didn’t it? Your whole Order was destroyed on your watch! Luke succeeded by ignoring almost everything you said!

Chris Vrenna’s video game soundtracks were pretty good too! Someone should tap him for a film score.