now i’m not one to harp on letter scores, but i just really don’t understand what sam wants from this show.

Totally agree.

All right, who had Barsanti giving a bad review to a fun episode after whining the day before about how the episodes were too dark?

Oh, everyone did. That’s right.

“Why, it’s almost like the show has been quietly setting up some kind of arc for its narrator, but would could have possibly seen that coming?!”

Would could…

I don’t know what that means, if anything, but I maintain my stance that some of these stories only work if you have the movie actors involved.

Tired: turning beloved works of anime into inevitably inferior live action products.

We can’t all be El Camino.

Part of the problem is that “What If”s are (mainly) intended to be one-offs that have an ending and don’t have to mesh with other stories. In the Sacred Timeline (or whatever), the stories are all “heroes face challenge, heroes ultimately succeed.” Every single MCU film can be categorized this way (except Infinity War…

Counterpoint: What If they lost Atlantis Attacks? What if they lost Inferno? What if Phoenix hadn’t died?

I also long ago decided that the MCU - for better or worse - was ahead of me when it came to threading it all together. The Red Skull thing sealed it.

I don’t think it’s so much as a grand master plan as a very…

The Zombie episode ends with a zombie Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet missing only one stone. The stone that the Avengers are bringing right to him. The implication is clear. I will note that a zombie story where everything looks hopeful but has the rug pulled out at the last moment is very on brand with the genre.

IIRC Thanos doesn’t have all the Infinity Stones at the end, because the good guys still have one left.

“But What If…?’s definition of a dark storyline has been limited, alternating between either “everyone dies” or “the bad guy wins.”

The undeserved Marcia fawning is almost as bad as the mostly undeserved Gary Kurtz fawning.

None of it is original research. It’s not very good. Rinzler’s books are great, though.

Well. That's some fun internalized misogyny.

The story was much better when there wasn’t a reason why and Rey wasn’t special, just a vessel for the Force to balance itself out (I’d also argue that even though it’s maybe the most famous twist of all time, the reveal that Darth is Luke’s father was a net negative for both Star Wars, as it completely sold out the…

I am one of those people who thinks that Marcia Lucas is as essential to the original trilogy as George, but the killing of Han Solo is obvious; Harrison Ford wanted him dead. It was either kill Han Solo or no Han Solo.

I think she’s off-base here. Star Wars’ whole deal is adherence to Campbellian monomyth, which is famously unkind to mentor figures, and Han was the mentor in TFA. I know it’s a move some folks weren’t happy about, apparently her included, but I don’t think it’s out of step with the rest of Star Wars at all.

*looks at the clock counting down the years until we can discuss the sequel trilogy without weapons in hand*
*reads this*
*sighs and gets out the long stick to hit the reset button*

The cinematography and music alone- also I loved the supporting actor performance for the guy who played Francis Dolaride/the Red Dragon. He really managed to make the character somewhat sympathetic and monstrous 

Plenty off the top of my head. Walton Goggins for Justified. 90% the cast of The Wire, particularly Clarke Peters, Michael K. Williams and Jamie Hector (but honestly, you could pick almost anyone from that show). BoJack Horseman for its final season and earlier Will Arnett for his performance in Free Churro…