And not that these things are protection, but Loras is also supposed to be one of the best fighters in Westeros, so given half a chance he should have a three quarters chance to surprise.

I grimaced a little at that defense of the prequels, particularly the limp "politically correct" phrase. Everyone who watched the original first likes them better, but most conversations have addressed the fact that Phantom is bad and the rest get better—dull or too late flavoring depending on your taste. And hell,…

"Some of them are pretty nutty, but the idea that we should see it as
profoundly feminist, or as a deeply Christian tale, or as a Freudian
exercise… I think all of those have some truth."

King Leopold's Ghost is a great read, and yeah, not light at all. As a paired with Nazi cinema, that's a better fit than I would've guess without knowing anything, Leopold's media campaign being the most revealing part for me.

I feel a little like a shill, now that this is the third post of mine to name this guy, but Ken Liu, the translator for Cixin Liu's stuff, has a young adult fantasy drawn from ancient China. But more topically, a short story collection came out, it tilts more sci-fi, and I like it better.

I mentioned this above, but Ken Liu started a young adult series with a book called Grace of Kings that's based on ancient China. It's rhythm is different than most, and that may be more design than off.

Grace of Kings by Ken Liu is fantasy based on ancient China. It's just the first of a series, and it's his first book—he's written short stories and translated sci-fi. It's 600 or so pages, young adult reading, and it's rhythm overall is purposely a little more fable than straight hero narrative, so it's both more…

I didn't like it that much myself, but I can see good parts from where I was standing. That said, it's so uneven I'm always kind of surprised how well liked it is since the bad parts aren't horrible or anything, but pretty obvious.

Oh, there's a plot, or at least you can piece together the lives of the characters involved as they're all connected. It does feel like a short story collection though, since I think the chapters have a variable quality—like they were workshopped at different times, and not always succesfully. I thought it was…

I forgot what piece he got called out on it for, and he handwaved it away. Nothing like James Frey or anything, but enough that gave me pause. I'm a little tight-ass on these things though.

Can we talk about Telltale games instead? For TWD, I've found them vastly more interesting than the comic (and didn't stick with the show). Season 2 was particularily good about building toward making the player make "give up being good" decisions that felt organic and compelling, though I can see more than an inkling…

It's funny that TWD's simplicity gives the impression of optimism to the author, since for me it does the opposite. It's complete failure to imagine cooperation or complexity means it's frequently too simple to be depicting people, and it's a nihilistic and pessimistic vision of humanity. Even in a zombie…

My favorite part of GoT geography is that Westeros is bordered by the "narrow" sea, and I keep thinking, good god then, get to invading! And cobbled together as the Dothraki are from Comanche and Mongols, it's always been funny to talk about them like they've never tried crossing something so easy it's in it's name.…

I ended up rereading Sandman a couple years back—I think partly inspired by an AVClub feature, and it surprised me by how well it came off. Better than I expected—but that may have had to do with (rightfully) doubting my earlier tastes.

Years of Gaiman superfanness petered out right before Anansi boys, so I dunno that or anything after, but I always gave Neverwhere (and Stardust, depending which version you happen on) some leeway as adaptations of work meant to showcase whoever else was working on them. Even then, they are weaker than American Gods.…

My understanding is that they may actually be much more similar to chimps, and the love-making rep comes from a really small group study.

First Class's handling of race would be typical Hollywood tone deafness, but it gets extra side-eye for being set in the sixties and the sloganeering of the mutants "Mutant and proud" is clearly inspired by the Black Power movement slogan.

And it is a huge thing that he doesn't and then leaves. Its a lesson he learns too.

About the whitewashing, and yeah, I think she's caught in the state of Hollywood—I don't begrudge her taking the role, whether or not she saw it as problematic. But I was impressed by the interview. I imagine she's mindful of it, and like I said, I think it's an imposition, a hard spot for someone with a young career…

Considering how much nuance she was able to get in her answers, I'm a little disappointed she wasn't asked about her casting in the Martian. I imagine that the interview time might be short and it's an awkward position to be put in—speaking of power dynamics with actresses and Hollywood and all. It's an imposition,…