I know this is hard for you, but journalism you don’t like isn’t automatically the same as a “blog post”, and randomly accusing stories you don’t like of being “blog posts” just makes you look like a complete idiot - and also very  unoriginal given it’s the #1 standard insult for journalism someone doesn’t like.

I don’t think anyone who follows your advice is going to thank you, judging from the descriptions of those books.

“He’s a fantasy author—of course he’s going to be an awkward dork.”

“Lots of fantasy, SF and genre writers generally aren’t good in a literary sense.”

I disagree that his books are for a “non-mainstream audience”.

Calling Sanderson’s work the MCU of fantasy books is wildly overgenerous, yet does have some truth in it.

The reason SU comes to mind is that SU is harmless, and so, for the most part, are Sanderson’s books. SU’s main message is about being kind to one another, yet its fanbase is ultra-rabid and hyper-toxic. Sanderson’s work is mostly imaginative in the worldbuilding, with profoundly middle-of-the-road/safe characters,…

Payakan was a fuckin’ badass to the max. That harpoon dodge was some Neo shit.

I think there was a lightsaber fight at one point. I'm hazy on the rest.

To be fair, a lot of scriptwriters who come out with something great also have some astonishing stinkers in their resume. Tony “Andor” Gilroy had a wild mix, including writing by far the best and by far the worst Bourne movies, which it’s hard to believe the same guy came up with.

Because that worked so well for Eternals, right? Two inexperienced but supposedly ultra-talented writers came up with that dire script. Kasdan helped because Lucas was talentless at dialogue, not because he was “a rookie”.

Re: difficult choices, yes. TNG does do that as well, at least in later seasons, but Picards speeches are so good people often miss it - and DS9 does it quite a bit. But certainly Orville does it to an even greater degree - indeed it’s practically the trademark in S3.

“It just doesn’t work for me. And if i’m looking for those other genres, it’s not gonna be in the context of a Star War (which i generally enjoy with a joint at 11pm)“

“Anyone can generate SW vibes all day with AI now.”

Yeah which just devalues it even further. Like, you want me to pay £15.99 for 4k resolution, and that gives me 6 screens, but I can’t share that? How about fuck off. 

“I absolutely think that The Empire Strikes Back is a legitimately great movie, not just the best Star Wars film but one of the best films, period.”

I’m well aware of neoliberalism but for some reason it being put as “neo-liberalism” with a hyphen, in the context of the rest of what was being said, caused my brain to switch to an entirely different track because I normally think of it as a (terrible) macroeconomic policy not an attitude.

No, that’s completely rewriting history, and absolute bullshit as a result.

I think you’re really speaking for yourself there, and the fact you you didn’t like Andor, which is easily the best-written, most dramatic, and most compelling SW has been in a long time (and probably the best-written period), is extremely telling.

I mean, 10+ years ago, I’d have been agreeing completely, but I’m sorry, he’s redeemed himself.