Rayvin

Sounds about right.

Is there any indication whatsoever that Smith might win? This all feels very futile from his point of view.

Wow. Bold fucking advert.

...darker as in sex scenes involving jabba? Did you quote the right comment?? I think you meant my one about Rey smurfing everyone. On that I'd agree. No chance of it.

Good post.

I went to a bog standard school with no selectiveness. It was a decent enough school but they would let anyone in. I did reasonably at A level but worse than I hoped/predicted and had to go into clearance. I found a degree which I thought would work for me and got a 2:1 - in Chinese. Under the model that both Fish and Ant suggest, I would have either been too poor (only able to afford university, even back before the tuition fees hike, because I qualified for a government grant and higher than normal student loan), or not successful enough at school to qualify. I now have a second degree in which I got a distinction, and run a £2m company (not mine, I hasten to add). I would not have had the opportunity to do this if either of your policies were in place. And I'm damn sure I do better than most people who outperformed me at school. As someone else very wisely said, people progress at different speeds, and school education performance should not be something that dictates what happens across the rest of your life. University gives people options and the chance to work out where they're heading in life, especially those people (arguably like me) who just weren't hugely interested in school. If I hadn't had this opportunity, I genuinely dread to think where I'd be in life - because I was fucking useless before University.

Broadly agree with CT's utopian vision, but it's really hard to cater for the hugely increased challenges that kids from disadvantaged backgrounds have without actually tackling social inequality in general. They need to start on making the economy fairer (and, I would argue, offering better mental health services to people from disadvantaged backgrounds). You could do really extreme things like remove all children from their parents until they're 10, offering them all an equal chance at development; that would level the playing field but no one would vote for it

I got Gordon Brown. Which I'm ok with, oddly enough

Occasionally I wonder what opposition fans must make of our match day threads...

They are definitely lacking the raw sex appeal of Jabba in the latest film. Surprised that was overlooked.

Why can't the bad guys win for once!! FFS.

I liked that bit too. In fact the humour in the movie was generally spot on. It really is just the story and the massive overpowering of Rey (I keep misspelling her name due to Evangelion, sorry about that) that I struggle with. I'll take it all back if she turns to the dark side and smurfs the resistance though.

Fair enough - I'll have to disagree but I can see where you're coming from.

I felt compelled to watch it after this There are some absurd points in there. I think the men in chains bit was sarcasm though, given the reference to triggering. However he makes one point accidentally that I think is worth mentioning based on our earlier discussion. He cites an article (and I'll bet there are now thousands) noting that this story is another example of Disney giving us a 'feminist' character to root for. So SJWs definitely see the driving force for how Rei is portrayed as being the same as what Parky thinks. They approve of it, and he condemns it. As do I, insofar as it fucks up what could have been a compelling trilogy, if that is indeed what drove the decision. Which sort of pulls me back over to think there is an agenda, that the SJWs certainly believe there is one (and they approve of it), and that this agenda made Disney take some fucking stupid decisions. That said, what I think doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. If Disney satisfied loads of new Starwars viewers with this then they did their job well. Whether I think it's poorly written or not is really just a matter for me and my wallet. EDIT - I'm going to caveat this and state that on reflection, they could have written an awesome 'feminist' character in a none ridiculous way, and that I would have been right on board with it. So maybe we are back to shit writing again.

I'm glad some people liked the new one at least. As I say, I'm hoping against hope that Rogue One is a huge improvement.

I thought Parky was saying the same thing as me? Up until his comment about flimsy bitches. Maybe it comes from a different place though?

Looks really nice!

I thought Lawrence was good in the HG. She had depth and wasn't all powerful. The story was a bit dull but her character was unobjectionable, IMO. Unless I missed something.

This is pretty much true tbf. It is possible to take issue with how they did this film without being a misogynist lads, it really is. The only real debate here for me is if they did this through shitty writing as the Fish suggests, and or if they did it through the need to conform to current prevailing cultural narratives. I'm happy to say it could be either at this point. I'm just pissed off that it happened.

Midi-chlorians are fucking important

This is true - and the alternative is quite possible, I concede. As I say, I'll give it the next film to 'correct' my assumptions on it I suppose.

I think they're going to run it close to the original canon, despite initial appearances. They have a very similar breakdown of characters. Then again, if they were, they'd not be making Ren so useless. I suspect you're right, and that Ren will be rescued given the amount of chatter the film had about bringing him back from the brink. Then he'll probably fall on his sword in some manner of noble way. Maybe the issue is me, maybe I just can't handle this cliched shit any more. I suppose I'll watch the next one and see if it continues in the vein I expect it to. If it does, I'll probably just not bother with the final one. This is why Rogue One is so important to me - It's literally the last hope for the series IMO. As a final note, interesting point about DC. Hadn't considered that ever, although I've always found Superman tedious in the extreme for much the same reasons I don't like Rei or Thor. The fact that his enemy is a businessman is something I'd never considered and is actually truly bizarre