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    1. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      8 votes
    2. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      4 votes
    3. 2025 WWE Royal Rumble

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Did you watch the royal rumble? How did you like it? I thought the winner was quite unexpected, especially winning directly against John Cena. Overall the performance of both the men's and women's rumble was really good.

      7 votes
    4. Tildes Book Club discussion - The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      This is the tenth of an ongoing series of book discussions here on Tildes. We are discussing Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. Our next book will be Born a Crime by Trevor Noah at the end of February.

      I don't have a particular format in mind for this discussion, but I will post some prompts and questions as comments to get things started. You're not obligated to respond to them or vote on them though. So feel free to make your own top-level comment for whatever you wish to discuss, questions you have of others, or even just to post a review of the book you have written yourself.

      For latecomers, don't worry if you didn't read the book in time for this Discussion topic. You can always join in once you finish it. Tildes Activity sort, and "Collapse old comments" feature should keep the topic going for as long as people are still replying.
      And for anyone uninterested in this topic please use the Ignore Topic feature on this so it doesn't keep popping up in your Activity sort, since it's likely to keep doing that while I set this discussion up, and once people start joining in.

      22 votes
    5. Tildes Book Club Spring and Summer schedule 2025

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Next week we will be discussing the City We Became. Our next book discussion after that will be at the end of January.

      I've organized this schedule so that longer books are followed by shorter ones. I look forward to reading with you.

      Last week in January : Kim Stanley Robinson Ministry for the Future,

      Last week in February: Trevor Noah Born a Crime,

      Last week in March: Dan Simmons Hyperion,

      Last week in April: Adrian Tchaikovsky Elder Race,

      Last week in May: Victor LaValle a People's Future of the United States,

      Last week in June: T Kingfisher A House with Good Bones,

      Last week in July: James McBride the Heaven and Earth grocery Store,

      Last week in August: Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

      Last week in September: Ted Chiang Stories of Your Life and Others

      14 votes
    6. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      7 votes
    7. Homeland leaves a lot to be desired - review

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Homeland - 5/10

      First paragraph works as both the tldr as well as the beginning of the review.

      This show is all over the place. Some parts are really good, some parts are really bad, most parts are just meh. This show lends itself to be picked apart too easily. There are plot holes, convenient coincidences, contrived nonsense, and so often intelligent characters behaving like idiots over and over again which leaves you wanting to yell at the screen. So many eyeroll moments, cheesy stuff, questionable story writing, a lot of times that they tell, not show - it should be show, don't tell of course - and that classic trope that everything would have been solved if they just talked to each other, and another about just doing one single simple thing instead of getting distracted for dumb reasons. It is also pretty unrealistic despite trying to appear grounded. A lot of this show is too reminiscent of Jason Statham movies, if that makes sense. However I was entertained enough by it to keep watching, and it worked fine to pass the time when I was bored. Despite never really getting all that into the show as a whole, the good parts or episodes were worth the wait.

      Family drama in this show was not good. It was just kind of something you had to sit through to get to those good parts. Monica Baccarin was fine and Damian Lewis was incredible, but I really just didn't care all that much about their relationship nor their children. It's a show that is being sold as an action spy thriller, but too large a part of it is this sort of more or less regular drama. It reminds me of The Americans where you of course don't watch it for the family stuff with the children, but because they were super cool undercover Soviet spies. This type of show's biggest weakness is this stuff. It just acts as filler and drags things out unnecessarily. And this goes for the main character's family too. The relationship with the sister was alright, but when the main character gets a daughter? Just kind of felt like a waste of time.

      Most characters are pretty run-of-the-mill spy show stereotypes. Not great, not terrible. The main character, Carrie, was quite unique with a lot of depth, but she ends up going through way too many unbelievable situations. She and her tiny team, or even she all alone, saves the world half a dozen times. Her character at best decent, and that was only in the first few seasons. But then she goes completely down the drain and off the rails in season 4 and never recovered. I am probably in the minority with this opinion but I can't imagine most people see it this way since it's the star of a show that ran for 8 seasons so I guess take this opinion with a grain of salt.. but she just does not land for me after seasons 1-3.

      She is highly unlikable. She is one of the worst mothers I have ever seen in any show or movie. She is very neglectful and abusive mother, she is also a mass murderer who practically never repents or regrets what she has done, she disobeys orders constantly, mostly making things worse, she uses people all the time, and she has such a massive victim complex so 90% of the time she blames someone else for her often fatal fuckups - of which there are a lot. By far the biggest problem with all this is that it is quite clear that the creators of the show want the audience to sympathize with her and are trying to pass her off as the reluctant hero. She was never that good a character, nor do I think actor Claire Danes is very good in the role - just alright. However season 4 and onwards she just in no way works. Just impossible to root for, which is of course a big problem when it's the main character. She's not a cool antihero, it just became a chore to watch her scenes. The best summation is something Saul said to her in season 2: "You're the smartest and the dumbest fuckin' person I've ever known." Characters that are supposed to be intelligent who then do such truly dumb things.. characters are only as smart as their writers. So it's just bad writing.

      On a more positive note, there are a few characters I really liked: Astrid, Quinn, Saul, Max. Astrid was not in the show very much but she was great as the German spy counterpart in the BND. She just had a way about her and I felt the relationship she had with Quinn was quite interesting. She was a joy to watch, just like Quinn, played by Rupert Friend whom I recently saw in Hitman: Agent 47 which was an awful movie, so I was kind of nervous when he first appeared here in Homeland. Turns out though that he was just horribly miscast in the former because in this show, he is great! There's no nonsense with him, it's the "competency porn" feeling while watching him. Same goes for Saul and Max. Saul's actor Mandy Patinkin (who also played Inigo Montaya, couldn't believe it when I looked him up lol) steals most scenes he's in. He is great as the older, experienced spy, the mentor for our main character. His voice is both soothing and dramatic to listen to and even though half his face is invisible because of his huge beard, he still has such good expressions and body language that he really draws you in. As for Max, he was a very minor character to begin with but his role became bigger towards the final two seasons and like I said, it was a joy to watch him on screen and great that he was given more screentime.

      Not much of a joy however was all the nonsense that they had to implement in order to make the show work - they took the easy route to explain things away instead of actually implementing them well. For example they practically never have surveillance drones or satellites available, nor nightvision or thermal cameras, so they constantly lose track of people that they are following. Nor do they have much more than pistols most of the time. The agency does have these things available, and more, so it's just dumb that they pretend it doesn't exist in this show - some special ops guys had nightvision one time in one of the first seasons but I think season 7 was the first time a thermal camera was used and then we saw it maybe twice more. There are also often no contingency plans. Back-up being nonexistent 90% of the time, handwaved or ignored with a quick line or reason that wouldn't really make sense. Plus, everytime they needed to make something thrilling, they added a time constraint element to do it.

      Something I did like was the representation of mental illness. You really see the ugly side of Carrie's bipolar and even though I don't have it, and so can't actually speak to whether or not it's actually a good portrayal, it seemed good. I feel it's important to show regular people what it looks like, and I felt the same way with Max's neurodivergency - that he was quiet and forward added a lot to his character. He could have definitely just been the kind of techy nerd stereotype that is seen everywhere, but I'm glad they didn't go that route.

      And another great thing, I think the best even, was Damian Lewis. It was such a shame that he was written out but it does make sense that they couldn't do all that much with his character. I have only seen him in Band of Brothers, but he was one of the highlights in that show too, so it's not surprising that I liked him in this one too. The best scene of the show for me was the one where he is wearing the bomb vest in the bunker next to all the high ranking officers. The up close shot of his trembling and shivering face.. I have no idea how he was able to even do that. He has won awards which is well deserved.

      Bingewatching the show over about a month instead of watching it week to week across 8 years probably did not do this show any favours. I think maybe it's easier to see through the formula then. Better shows barely even have formulas, but this one certainly does, and I'm not a fan of it. Every single season has ways that they can't trust anyone anywhere. It's always this small team versus the world. That's not unique to this show but it stands out because it's often the same way they do it - they think they can't trust anyone, there's a mole, they're on their own because reasons, etc. In any case, the show was an alright use of my time but definitely not going to watch it again.

      Some kinda pointless nitpicks but I still wanted to post them lol
      • Despite them remaking it a couple of times, this show's intro is awful. Instantly skipped every time.

      • Carrie always has loose hair which anyone with long hair would know is impossible when you move around that much

      • I'm pretty sure that they had at least one writer who stuck with the show throughout its whole run. This same line that I don't think I've really heard it before this show appeared at least once, often multiple times, per episode: "[pronoun] did thing, [name] did". For example "He killed them, Brody did". This exact same line is used multiple times per episode throughout the series' entire run and it really sticks out, like I couldn't unhear/unsee it. I'm pretty sure there isn't even ever an instance where it's not obvious who they're talking about, like there's never a reason to say the last part, it just stuck out like a sore thumb and sounds so clunky every time.

      • Carrie constantly does this shiver with her chin and when you notice it you can't unsee it. It is whenever she in any way gets emotional and it's countless times every single episode

      • Aaand a ton of other tiny things I could criticize.

      Disorganized thoughts and notes taken while watching season by season

      Homeland season 1 - 6/10

      Had kind of stayed away from this show since judging the book by it's cover name, it reeked of patriotism and such. But I'm glad I started watching it.

      The season is a bit slow and has too much filler. It could have been probably 4 episodes shorter - yes some time with characters is lost, but it doesn't seem all that important to be honest. There are also a bunch of flashbacks which felt kind of like the CW show Arrow which safe to say is not a compliment.

      Overall a decent watch. The ending though.. the only plot device worse than memory loss is that it was all a dream. Brought my rating of the season down by a full point. Hopefully season 2 and on becomes better because I had been looking forward to 8 seasons of what I assumed to be a pretty high quality show.

      Homeland season 2 - 6/10

      They thankfully quickly moved on from that memory loss thing, and they upped the pace a lot which is much appreciated. Also, Rupert Friend and Seth Gilliam! Nice surprises.

      Still a lot of eyeroll moments. Just nonsensical stuff like nobody hearing a helicopter before it's like 50 meters over their heads but CIA apparently can't track a helicopter nor do they have a single satellite. Cliffhangers without fail every episode. A lot of like minute long establishing shots that add nothing. Constant arguments between agents where it's always two sides wanting to go in completely different directions which gets really old. 12-episode seasons ought to be a lot tighter than this.

      Carrie always assuming the worst. "He's dead!", "It's all over!", "We lost!", etc.. her character is not written very well to be honest.

      Cool detail I like is that you can hear Brody's breathing most of the time it's especially well done in scenes where tension needs to be created.

      Too many scenes of one agent storming ahead for little reason, not waiting for backup. Most egregious being when they look for Nazir in the penultimate episode. An FBI agent gets killed right behind Carrie, lying dead on the ground, and she - a former soldier, a highly experienced field agent - just walks up to take a look even though Nazir would obviously be right there. Just.. who are you kidding with this? Does anyone find this believable??

      Set up for season 3 seems cool. Lots of interesting ways it can go

      Homeland season 3 - 7/10

      Bald Damian Lewis looks so badass.

      Mental illness and psych ward stuff. She does a really great job - I mean I'm totally convinced that she does have that disorder. Twist about Carrie was nuts! Loved it. The following recruitment of the IRGC officer was a great storyline too.

      Schadenfreude when Quinn shot Carrie - what you get for always disobeying orders and going alone..

      Javadi storyline culminating in the assassination of Akbari was really well done.

      Killed the top general and got captured, then sentenced to death. Carrie then talks to Saul about Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. I mean, fucking really? Again with the intelligent character acting super dumb.

      Can't believe they actually killed off Damian Lewis! I guess I have come not to expect too much from this show, so I thought there was going to be some kind of deus ex machina to save him or somesuch. But there wasn't, which was great. Good ending to season 3 and overall a stronger season than the first two.

      Season 4 - 4/10

      Weird change in Carrie's character. Went from literally always moaning about human rights and innocents to now being completely cynical about killing 40 innocent people at a wedding. Previous seasons she was on the verge of tears almost every episode, and now she's a coldblooded killer. Where did all this come from?

      I liked the storyline about Quinn breaking down.

      Quinn loves Carrie now. Since when..?

      What's with people constantly looking around but never seeing the person who is shadowing them? The person shadowing is almost always completely out in the open, just staring. You would instantly notice that when you look around all the time especially when checking for someone shadowing you!

      Carrie's source gets shot by terrorist holding Saul hostage, and then she wants to just bomb him anyway. Saul, who is her mentor. Again, just the wildest shit, completely out of character. She is written awfully this season.

      A bit too many plot holes about the Taliban prisoner exchange and the embassy attack. An unguarded tunnel, every soldier in the embassy deployed elsewhere - this would absolutely never happen. It's against the norm of any military in any country anywhere in literally all of history.

      Ending to the season felt pretty weak. Set up a huge twist in the penultimate episode, then addressing it with barely 2 scenes and the rest of it filler.

      Season 5 - 6/10

      Germany, nice!

      Miranda Otto!

      Storyline with Quinn recovering at Hussein's place was thrilling.

      Finding it very hard to root for Carrie ever since how much her character changed in season 4. Also, she found God. When the fuck did that happen???

      TV channels transmitting full terrorist messages and even the video of Quinn being exposed to the gas. Would never happen.

      Always somehow ending up as the underdog, lone agent or small team against giant threats. Cavalry goes somewhere else and star of the show saves the day - sorry, is this a 1990's cop show?

      The Laura and Numan storyline was pretty annoying. Very irritating characters.

      Season 6 - 7/10

      Again hard to root for Carrie. She's been kind of unlikable since season 4. Does dumb things over and over, feels bad, cries about it, and then we the audience are supposed to feel sorry for her. For example, she takes credit for saving Quinn even though she just happened to be the one that randomly happened upon him and the BND did the rest.

      Another example, Sekou is clearly inciting hatred and violence but Carrie is defending him - why do they portray it like Carrie is the good guy here? Because it's some free speech principle? Sekou is very much a terrorism sympathizer and we're supposed to root for him/Carrie? I don't think so.

      I like that there is a focus on high level politics - Elizabeth Marvel is great.

      Loved the Quinn storyline. The drama in Carrie's house with the 'hostage' situation, the stuff in the lake house with Astrid, then the sacrifice in New York. Sucks that he's written out - one of the best characters in the show.

      Dar Adal's actor is starting to grate on me a little bit - he's not very convincing. And the character is a bit too comically evil this season.

      Loved that Javadi was back

      Love more screentime for Max

      Political conspiracy and the spy game stuff is almost all of it great

      Season 7 - 4/10

      Worst season yet. It had all the right ingredients to make for a great story, but the way they get from A to B was just not pulled off very well. So many instances where I was sitting there like "this is not how [thing] works". It's still an entertaining show, but that's only because of a select few characters that I really enjoyed when they're on screen - and because the spectacle was still pretty cool. But most of the side plots and especially Carrie's family drama? Bored out of my mind. I didn't care about any of the characters involved and, again, I'm not able to root for the one character that the creators are clearly trying to make me sympathize with.

      Season 8 - 4/10

      Seemed like it would be an improvement over season 7 in the beginning of the season, but too many manufactured twists later and it became more of the same. It's a back to basics in a war zone, which also is not a good thing because they reused a lot of plot points from other seasons - down to the exact same things happening to the same characters!

      President dies in a very predictable way. He travels by helicopter to visit a frontline military base, using only two helicopters. Even when he travels in the safest countries in the world, there will be a lot more security than that.. and he would not sit in a helicopter that hadn't undergone thorough maintenance and double and tripple checks. Idiotic writing.

      Several out of character moments and even arcs. The Russian agent behaves completely differently from season 7. The Taliban leader is also almost entirely different from when we saw him last.

      Carrie is on trial/accused of a dozen things, among them many counts of murders, several counts of being a terrorist accomplice, and even a traitor double agent. Is she taken into custody? Ankle monitor? Shadowed? Nope! Just allowed to roam free and continue to betray her country (that part does prevent a war, but literally nobody knew at the time what she was doing)

      Saul's sister who he has seen once in 15 years holds his deepest secret? And Carrie just guesses this? No. And the very final scene.. an American defector would not in a million years be able to have access to top secret knowledge about Russian missile systems. A very unsatisfying ending to this show.

      Would love to hear anyone's thoughts about either the show or what I have written here!

      14 votes
    8. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      7 votes
    9. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      9 votes
    10. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      6 votes
    11. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      11 votes
    12. What hard scifi books could you recommend?

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Hello! Could you please recommend some hard science fiction books? I am struggling to find a good one. My favorites are Blindsight and Echopraxia by Peter Watts, but I have failed to find anything similar.

      I also enjoyed The Martian by Andy Weir and The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, though in my opinion, these aren't quite what I would call hard science fiction.

      Additionally, I enjoyed books that blend fiction and non-fiction, like Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter.

      What are your favorite hard science fiction books?

      49 votes
    13. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      9 votes
    14. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      8 votes
    15. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      6 votes
    16. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      11 votes
    17. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      10 votes
    18. Tildes Book Club discussion - The City We Became by N K Jemisin

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      This is the ninth of an ongoing series of book discussions here on Tildes. We are discussing The City We Became by N K Jemisin. Our next book will be Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson at the end of January.

      I don't have a particular format in mind for this discussion, but I will post some prompts and questions as comments to get things started. You're not obligated to respond to them or vote on them though. So feel free to make your own top-level comment for whatever you wish to discuss, questions you have of others, or even just to post a review of the book you have written yourself.

      For latecomers, don't worry if you didn't read the book in time for this Discussion topic. You can always join in once you finish it. Tildes Activity sort, and "Collapse old comments" feature should keep the topic going for as long as people are still replying.
      And for anyone uninterested in this topic please use the Ignore Topic feature on this so it doesn't keep popping up in your Activity sort, since it's likely to keep doing that while I set this discussion up, and once people start joining in.

      20 votes
    19. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      8 votes
    20. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      10 votes
    21. Tildes Book Club discussion - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      This is the fourth of an ongoing series of book discussions here on Tildes. We are discussing Project Hail Mary. Our next book will be Ocean at the End of the Lane around the end of July.

      I don't have a particular format in mind for this discussion, but I will post some prompts and questions as comments to get things started. You're not obligated to respond to them or vote on them though. So feel free to make your own top-level comment for whatever you wish to discuss, questions you have of others, or even just to post a review of the book you have written yourself.

      For latecomers, don't worry if you didn't read the book in time for this Discussion topic. You can always join in once you finish it. Tildes Activity sort, and "Collapse old comments" feature should keep the topic going for as long as people are still replying.
      And for anyone uninterested in this topic please use the Ignore Topic feature on this so it doesn't keep popping up in your Activity sort, since it's likely to keep doing that while I set this discussion up, and once people start joining in.

      43 votes
    22. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      15 votes
    23. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      7 votes
    24. Discussion for Malazan Book of the Fallen: The Bonehunters (Spoilers through book 6)

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      I recently finished The Bonehunters, the 6th book in Malazan Book of the Fallen and taking the advice of @DynamoSunshirt I decided to post this to see the thoughts and opinions of everyone here on this book in the series, and by extension how it builds upon the previous books.

      I've felt like each book in the series has drawn me further in, and this was no exception. One thing that I've found in reading large scale series with multiple POVs is that there are often ones that I'm not interested in or find less appealing than others while reading it and look forward to getting back to my favorite characters. There wasn't a single character in this volume, and so far in Malazan, that I wasn't interested in following.

      I'm wrapping up my work day and don't have a lot of time to write out all my thoughts on the book but wanted to get this posted while it was on my mind and then add in more later.

      I loved seeing so many potlines from the previous books start coming together.

      The siege of Y'Ghatan was completely unexpected and was riveting to read, it being one of the longer chapters in the book kept me up late one night because I had to see how it wrapped up!

      The end of the book felt like we were witnessing a pivotal moment and what seemed like a rapid fall of the empire. So many injustices with the Wican Pogrom and how the Chain of Dogs was being treated. I was honestly rooting for Tavore to usurp Laseen.

      Heboric's potline feels like it is not completed and that the Jade Statue and all of those souls will have an impact on the storyline later on. I'm also left wondering what Hood wanted from Ganoes as part of the deal to let Heboric out of Hood's realm.

      Karsa Orlong continues to be awesome and has become of my favorite characters. His self-assurance and introspection along with the seeming threat to civilization he represents is fantastic. I also saw a reference towards the end of the book about certain Tobalki possessing warrens of their own. I'm curious if he has reached that point and how exactly that works with all the other mysteries of the magic in this world.

      I have a friend who has already read all 10 books, and I've been bouncing ideas/predictions off of him which has been great.

      I am currently starting book 7 and would appreciate if any spoilers for the following books, or other books in the Malazan setting, are avoided.

      15 votes
    25. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      6 votes
    26. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      9 votes
    27. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      6 votes
    28. Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2024 - Results

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Congratulations to McLaren! First Constructors' Championship win since 1998!

      Great drives by Sainz and especially Leclerc. Starting from P19 and ending P3 is beyond impressive.

      Hamilton came alive this race, ending P4. End of an era. I'm sure he'd've liked a podium to end his time with Mercedes, but still a hell of a drive, moving up 12 places from the start.

      Felt bad for some of the guys who were or may have been in their last race: Bottas, Lawson, Colapinto, and Perez all DNF'd unceremoniously.

      With that, the season is officialy over. I, for one, am glad. It's been a long season. For US folks, enjoy sleeping in on the weekends again for a few months. Looking ahead, 2025 pre-season testing is in Bahrain, Feb. 26-28, with the first race of the season in Melbourne a couple weeks later. See you all next year!

      Next race:

      Australian Grand Prix
      Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit (Melbourne)
      Sunday, March 16, 2025

      Grand Prix Results -- SPOILER
      Pos No Driver Car Laps Time/retired Pts
      1 4 Lando Norris McLaren Mercedes 58 1:26:33.291 25
      2 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 58 +5.832s 18
      3 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 58 +31.928s 15
      4 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 58 +36.483s 12
      5 63 George Russell Mercedes 58 +37.538s 10
      6 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 58 +49.847s 8
      7 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine Renault 58 +72.560s 6
      8 27 Nico Hulkenberg Haas Ferrari 58 +75.554s 4
      9 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 58 +82.373s 2
      10 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren Mercedes 58 +83.821s 1
      11 23 Alexander Albon Williams Mercedes 57 +1 lap 0
      12 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB Honda RBPT 57 +1 lap 0
      13 24 Zhou Guanyu Kick Sauber Ferrari 57 +1 lap 0
      14 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 57 +1 lap 0
      15 61 Jack Doohan Alpine Renault 57 +1 lap 0
      16 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 57 +1 lap 0
      17 30 Liam Lawson RB Honda RBPT 55 DNF 0
      NC 77 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber Ferrari 30 DNF 0
      NC 43 Franco Colapinto Williams Mercedes 26 DNF 0
      NC 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 0 DNF 0

      Fastest Lap: Kevin Magnussen (no extra point awarded)

      Source: F1.com

      World Drivers' Championship Standings -- SPOILER
      Pos Driver Nationality Car Pts
      1 Max Verstappen NED Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 437
      2 Lando Norris GBR McLaren Mercedes 374
      3 Charles Leclerc MON Ferrari 356
      4 Oscar Piastri AUS McLaren Mercedes 292
      5 Carlos Sainz ESP Ferrari 290
      6 George Russell GBR Mercedes 245
      7 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes 223
      8 Sergio Perez MEX Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 152
      9 Fernando Alonso ESP Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 70
      10 Pierre Gasly FRA Alpine Renault 42
      11 Nico Hulkenberg GER Haas Ferrari 41
      12 Yuki Tsunoda JPN RB Honda RBPT 30
      13 Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 24
      14 Esteban Ocon FRA Alpine Renault 23
      15 Kevin Magnussen DEN Haas Ferrari 16
      16 Alexander Albon THA Williams Mercedes 12
      17 Daniel Ricciardo AUS RB Honda RBPT 12
      18 Oliver Bearman GBR Haas Ferrari 7
      19 Franco Colapinto ARG Williams Mercedes 5
      20 Zhou Guanyu CHN Kick Sauber Ferrari 4
      21 Liam Lawson NZL RB Honda RBPT 4
      22 Valtteri Bottas FIN Kick Sauber Ferrari 0
      23 Logan Sargeant USA Williams Mercedes 0
      24 Jack Doohan AUS Alpine Renault 0

      Source: F1.com

      World Constructors' Championship Standings-- SPOILER
      Pos Team Pts
      1 McLaren Mercedes 666
      2 Ferrari 652
      3 Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 589
      4 Mercedes 468
      5 Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 94
      6 Alpine Renault 65
      7 Haas Ferrari 58
      8 RB Honda RBPT 46
      9 Williams Mercedes 17
      10 Kick Sauber Ferrari 4

      Source: F1.com

      15 votes
    29. Favorite "A Christmas Carol" adaptation?

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      There's a million of these adaptations, both direct adaptations of Scrooge himself, and parodies featuring various other characters. Which one did you grow up seeing the most? Which one do you find yourself coming back to? I just rewatched the Patrick Stewart one myself, which is the one I've seen the most.

      28 votes
    30. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      3 votes
    31. Great shows with a truly satisfying ending?

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      There was a thread about shows with a great beginning and a comment in the thread made me want to ask, what about the opposite? Shows with a really satisfying ending that feels like they wrapping things up in a satisfying way?

      48 votes
    32. Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix 2024 - Results

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Good race, fun race, but overshadowed by the baffling stewarding decisions and race direction.

      What appeared to be a mirror that broke off a car is in the middle of the track, and no VSC or something to grab it? Then two cars get punctures, possibly from driving over that debris, one right after another in basically same place, but no safety car or anything called until a few laps later?

      Then add on the harsh penalties. Plus Max's weird penalty for impeding-but-not-really from yesterday where he lost P1 after quali. As it's said, nothing as consistent as the inconsistent stewarding.

      On a positive note, glad to see Zhou finally in the points! On his penultimate drive, no less. Only Sargeant and Bottas remain without points this year. Maybe Bottas will get some in his final race.

      At least we'll get a down-to-the-wire championship showdown in Abu Dhabi. Ferrari vs McLaren for P1 in the WCC. Who are you all rooting for?

      UPDATE: That was likely Ocon's last race with Alpine. Rumor, which Sky Sports appears to be confirming, is that he'll be out in Abu Dhabi, with Alpine reserve driver, Jack Doohan in for the last race. This is so Ocon can do post-season testing with Haas.

      Next race:

      Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
      Yas Marina Circuit
      Sunday, December 8

      Provisional GRAND PRIX Results -- SPOILER
      Pos No Driver Car Laps Time/retired Pts
      1 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 57 1:31:05.323 25
      2 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 57 +6.031s 18
      3 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren Mercedes 57 +6.819s 15
      4 63 George Russell Mercedes 57 +14.104s 12
      5 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine Renault 57 +16.782s 10
      6 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 57 +17.476s 8
      7 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 57 +19.867s 6
      8 24 Zhou Guanyu Kick Sauber Ferrari 57 +25.360s 4
      9 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 57 +32.177s 2
      10 4 Lando Norris McLaren Mercedes 57 +35.762s 2
      11 77 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber Ferrari 57 +50.243s 0
      12 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 57 +56.122s 0
      13 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB Honda RBPT 57 +61.100s 0
      14 30 Liam Lawson RB Honda RBPT 57 +62.656s 0
      15 23 Alexander Albon Williams Mercedes 56 +1 lap 0
      NC 27 Nico Hulkenberg Haas Ferrari 39 DNF 0
      NC 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 38 DNF 0
      NC 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 8 DNF 0
      NC 43 Franco Colapinto Williams Mercedes 0 DNF 0
      NC 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault 0 DNF 0

      Fastest Lap: Lando Norris

      Source: F1.com

      7 votes
    33. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      9 votes
    34. In praise of Arcane season 2

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      To me this is the best thing I've ever seen, movie or series or otherwise. Characters, artstyle, writing, animations, worldbuilding, character depth, mental issues and disability representation and the music.

      It's bold, it's flashy, it's outright heartbreaking and earth-shattering yet comforting and soft when it wants to be and then totally can spin the story again in a new direction. Bravo.

      And I've seen anything from the Shawshank Redemption and The Dark Knight on release to obscure anime and bad TV series these past 25 years.

      I bow to the incredible talent that has made this possible.

      35 votes
    35. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      4 votes
    36. Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024 - Results

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      And that's a wrap on the WDC! Congrats to Max on his 4th Drivers Championship in a row!

      So I need to rewatch the race. The race was at 1am my time, which isn't super late for me...but I fell asleep between laps 16-45. Oops.

      Anyway, we are back in another triple-header -- anyone else think the schedule sucks this year? Only two more races left. Next weekend in Qatar, and then the season finale the following weekend in Abu Dhabi. The WCC is still in play, so hopefully we'll get an exciting end of the season.

      Next race:

      Qatar Grand Prix
      Lusail International Circuit
      Sunday, December 1

      Provisional GRAND PRIX Results -- SPOILER
      Pos No Driver Car Laps Time/retired Pts
      1 63 George Russell Mercedes 50 1:22:05.969 25
      2 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 50 +7.313s 18
      3 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 50 +11.906s 15
      4 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 50 +14.283s 12
      5 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 50 +16.582s 10
      6 4 Lando Norris McLaren Mercedes 50 +43.385s 9
      7 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren Mercedes 50 +51.365s 6
      8 27 Nico Hulkenberg Haas Ferrari 50 +59.808s 4
      9 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB Honda RBPT 50 +62.808s 2
      10 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 50 +63.114s 1
      11 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 50 +69.195s 0
      12 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 50 +69.803s 0
      13 24 Zhou Guanyu Kick Sauber Ferrari 50 +74.085s 0
      14 43 Franco Colapinto Williams Mercedes 50 +75.172s 0
      15 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 50 +84.102s 0
      16 30 Liam Lawson RB Honda RBPT 50 +91.005s 0
      17 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault 49 +1 lap 0
      18 77 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber Ferrari 49 +1 lap 0
      NC 23 Alexander Albon Williams Mercedes 25 DNF 0
      NC 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine Renault 15 DNF 0

      Fastest Lap: Lando Norris

      Source: F1.com

      17 votes
    37. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      7 votes
    38. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      6 votes
    39. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      11 votes
    40. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      13 votes
    41. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      9 votes
    42. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      7 votes
    43. Formula 1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix 2024 - Results

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      And Sao Paulo completes the triple-header!

      What a weekend. What a day. What a race! Rain, amiright? Gotta be the most expensive weekend all year, in terms of destruction.

      Congrats to Ocon, Gasly, and all of Alpine! P2 & P3, respectively. No one would've predicted that.

      As an RB fan, it's great to see Max back at P1 and extending his championship lead over Norris! The gap has increased to 62pts. Amazing drive, starting at P17 and finishing P1. Plus he kept banging out fastest lap after fastest lap at the front, even with the rain and wet track. Yeah he got lucky with the safety car and red flag, but even before that, he was on form.

      On the other side of the garage...Checo, WTH. Can't even pass your junior team's rookie driver? And then letting Hamilton through, as well? I'll just leave it at that.

      Props to all the mechanics and engineers for having to fix and rebuild all those cars that got destroyed in Qualifying this morning. Especially Williams. I think Albon's crash was the most disappointing for me. He was provisionally P2 with 3min left of Q3, and I was stoked that he might actually keep it. But then he spun out into the wall. I actually yelled out "NOOOOOOO!" when I saw it happen 😭

      Lastly, remember that there are potential penalties for Norris and a few others on the aborted start weirdness at the beginning.

      3 weeks until the next race; enjoy the break. REMEMBER: Vegas is a SATURDAY NIGHT race in the US. Adjust accordingly to your local time.

      Next race:

      Las Vegas Grand Prix
      Las Vegas Strip Circuit
      Saturday, November 24

      Provisional GRAND PRIX Results -- SPOILER
      Pos No Driver Car Laps Time/retired Pts
      1 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 69 2:06:54.430 26
      2 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault 69 +19.477s 18
      3 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine Renault 69 +22.532s 15
      4 63 George Russell Mercedes 69 +23.265s 12
      5 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 69 +30.177s 10
      6 4 Lando Norris McLaren Mercedes 69 +31.372s 8
      7 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB Honda RBPT 69 +42.056s 6
      8 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren Mercedes 69 +44.943s 4
      9 30 Liam Lawson RB Honda RBPT 69 +50.452s 2
      10 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 69 +50.753s 1
      11 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 69 +51.531s 0
      12 50 Oliver Bearman Haas Ferrari 69 +57.085s 0
      13 77 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber Ferrari 69 +63.588s 0
      14 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 69 +78.049s 0
      15 24 Zhou Guanyu Kick Sauber Ferrari 69 +79.649s 0
      NC 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 38 DNF 0
      NC 43 Franco Colapinto Williams Mercedes 30 DNF 0
      NC 27 Nico Hulkenberg Haas Ferrari 30 DNF 0
      NC 23 Alexander Albon Williams Mercedes 0 DNF 0
      NC 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 0 DNF 0

      Fastest Lap: Max Verstappen, Lap 67

      Source: F1.com

      SPRINT RACE Results -- SPOILER
      Pos No Driver Car Laps Time/retired Pts
      1 4 Lando Norris McLaren Mercedes 24 29:46.045 8
      2 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren Mercedes 24 +0.593s 7
      3 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 24 +5.656s 6
      4 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 24 +6.497s 5
      5 55 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 24 +7.224s 4
      6 63 George Russell Mercedes 24 +12.475s 3
      7 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine Renault 24 +18.161s 2
      8 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT 24 +18.717s 1
      9 30 Liam Lawson RB Honda RBPT 24 +20.773s 0
      10 23 Alexander Albon Williams Mercedes 24 +24.606s 0
      11 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 24 +29.764s 0
      12 43 Franco Colapinto Williams Mercedes 24 +33.233s 0
      13 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine Renault 24 +34.128s 0
      14 50 Oliver Bearman Haas Ferrari 24 +35.507s 0
      15 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB Honda RBPT 24 +41.374s 0
      16 77 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber Ferrari 24 +43.231s 0
      17 24 Zhou Guanyu Kick Sauber Ferrari 24 +54.139s 0
      18 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 24 +56.537s 0
      19 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes 24 +57.983s 0
      NC 27 Nico Hulkenberg Haas Ferrari 19 DNF 0

      Source: F1.com

      14 votes
    44. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      8 votes