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My wife is going to buy this for me when it comes out. We'll listen to it nonstop for a few days, laugh at how the Prologue still plays at the wrong speed and she'll say, "The members of that old JWFan forum would have loved this release." I'll turn toward her my voice filled with sadness and reply "I know, but they're all dead."

That doesn't mean they have to make the music sound boring, unoriginal and/or obnoxious. A lot of the older video games for example did a great job of sounding different from Williams while also staying within the Star Wars musical landscape. Mandalorian (for the most part) did a pretty good job of this as well. Solo is probably the perfect example of what can be accomplished with this mindset. That's why people love it so much, it's the perfect blend of old and new. It respects Williams' legacy while also doing its own thing. On the other hand, Rogue One is what you get when you try to copy Williams' pastiche verbatim, and Kenobi is what you get when you have no respect for the source material at all.

To be bluntly honest I wish they would stop trying to fuck around with the Star Wars musical sound. They make it a point to emulate the look of the original trilogy in every possible way they that can; costumes, plot points, color grading, vehicle design, creature design, occasional miniatures, usage of puppets, sound effects, etc. etc. etc. But for whatever ridiculous reason they ignore the music, trying to change it into some Hans Zimmer abomination (*cough* Kenobi *cough*). If Lucasfilm is so anal about keeping Star Wars exactly the way it has been, and STICKING TO THE SAME 20-YEAR PERIOD, why do they then feel the need to alter ONLY the musical vocabulary, which has been the same for the past 50 years? I am reserving any judgements for this show until I have seen at least the first episode, but it's not sounding very promising so far.

Is Greece not in the world?

The new Amazon Prime LOTR score is a better SW score than any of the recent D+ shows

Well this is part of the little game the apologists for this mess play. The evolution goes something like this... You can't judge the show based on production photos! You can't judge the show based on the trailers! You can't judge the show based on the first two episodes! You can't judge the show until the season's over! (season ends) It's only the second season, it's too early to judge the show! It's a five-season arc! You can't judge the show until the final episode!

No idea, but I did read it as "Geek Dance," if that helps at all.

Desplat's score for Philomena, the previous Frears-Coogan collaboration, is one of my favorite scores of his. Hope this one is as good!

AI. Good score

Is time now an ally of the Pan? "But maybe they'll get it right when the definitive Star Wars scores are finally released next year. I mean, it's only a rumor, but they have to come out sometime, right? The A.I. Mike Matessino that they wrote has really been knocking it out of the park. They say it's the only one that God Emperor Williams will let touch his scores."

So is it "sweeping and stirring" or "light piano cues"? some reviews make it sound like E.T. and others Stanley and Iris

Same recording and takes on all 3 prequels I believe, with slight mixing tweaks. Shame we don't have a clean version of the recording done for TLJ (they just reused the TFA recording, despite recording it anew). I'd love to hear the opening note in TLJ's wetter mix. I find the brass significantly more appealing on that score, better integrated with the rest of the orchestra (and not as "abrasive" as the brass in TFA).

Wow. In the book you already have focus, a clear world with loveable characters and stakes, a clear POV you follow as it discovers that world so it expands for the both if you, others soon joining them before separating, to give them a clear setup, and the main motivating story has already begun and just takes some time to truly kick into gear. What you have in RoP is a mess of many characters, most with zero relation to each other other than having seen MM and maybe possibly thinking they'll share a villain in the future sometime maybe not sure probably, they almost all share the same basic generic setup (different thinking person wanting more somewhat oppressed by their environment), nothing has really happened yet in most of their storylines beside basic setup, just generic filler and manufactured conflicts to make the audience think something did, and they're all generic cliche domestic small characters and plots as opposed to Tolkien's larger than life mythology, and either insufferably annoying or painfully bland and boring.

I don’t like TV, so I’m the first to admit I can’t compare this to other shows being produced these days. I have zero interest in Game of Dragon Thrones or any other nonsense like that. I’ve never seen an episode of Big Band Theory and don’t intend to. I just don’t watch them. But I have loved Tolkien for almost 30 years when my parents gave me the books for my 10th birthday. Unless you’re a particularly fast reader, after four hours buried in Fellowship of the Ring, you’re still in the Old Forest chasing characters, villains, and plots that have nothing to do with anything and never provide any payoff. Long amounts of time with rich details but very little action is to be expected in Middle Earth. It’s what Middle Earth IS! So far all the complaints I’ve heard against this show (except casting and the Warg design) are complaints that go right back to the source material and Tolkien’s style of story telling. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. But it’s beautifully Tolkien-esque so far.

Sounding like Williams and sounding like Star Wars are two different things.

Hook: The 108th Anniversary Edition

David Arnold Scoring BBC’s & Netflix’s ‘Inside Man’ David Arnold (Casino Royale, Independence Day, Stargate, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough) has composed the original music for the new BBC/Netflix limited series Inside Man. The show is created and written by Steven Moffat (Doctor Who, The Adventures of Tintin) and stars Stanley Tucci, David Tennant, Dolly Wells, Lydia West, Lyndsey Marshal, Atkins Estimond, Tilly Vosburgh, Mark Quarterly, Louis Oliver, Kate Dickie and Dylan Baker. The 4-part thriller follows the intertwining stories of a prisoner on death row in the U.S., a journalist on a train in England and a vicar in a quiet little village. Sue Vertue (The Time Traveler’s Wife) is producing the project for Hartswood Films, alongside Ben Irving (His Dark Materials, Gentleman Jack) for the BBC. Paul McGuigan (Lucky Number Slevin, Push) has directed all four episodes. Arnold has previously co-scored all episodes of the Moffat-created BBC series Sherlock and Dracula. Inside Man will premiere in the UK next Monday, September 26 on BBC One and is expected to debut in the U.S. and other markets on Netflix later this year. http://filmmusicreporter.com/2022/09/19/david-arnold-scoring-bbcs-netflixs-inside-man/

JKMS is playing coy, but these sure look like JW sketches, presumably for Indy 5, so it seems recording is still very much in progress:

Another fantastic episode. It's not quite reached the heights of GOT at its best, but it's getting there. Crisp writing, along with engaging, interesting, complex characters with real motivations, and of course the whole thing looks phenomenal. Agree! She was excellent, and when I first saw her, I thought "wow, so who is this", and now I'm sorry we're not going to see more of her! Hmmmmm. Interesting observation. I think Alicent would have come to this conclusion on her own, it was inevitable, if for no other reason than it's the truth. But Otto certainly hastened things along, didn't he? Who was going to stop him? I didn't see many other armed people around who would have been a position to do. There was so much chaos going on, and people were in a state of shock. Most of them were just Lords & Ladies...drunk guests at the feast. I also think that if people saw a member of the King's Guard putting someone down like that, the victim must have done something wrong, or presented himself to be some kind of threat. This is really the only thing that didn't work for me. I don't mind that Alicent found out, that needed to happen. But the way it happened just felt a little soap-operaish, with Cole just sort of blurting the truth out because he misunderstood what Alicent was suggesting. Almost like the kind of miscommunication scenario two people on Friends might have found themselves in. I didn't mind it that much, but I think it could have been handled a little more deftly. It's a small complaint though, this is the best show on TV right now.

Finished Tales yesterday (apparently almost exactly 11 years after I first played it), so here's a quick bunch of comments before I fire up Return. (Warning: Minor spoilers for those unfortunate few who haven't played through the series yet) As I mentioned before, this was my first time playing the SE-based talkie versions of the first two games - I'm not a fan of the new art style for the remakes, but luckily some clever people on the internet managed to integrate the voice assets (and a couple of the necessary mods) with the original SCUMM versions. I've probably replayed these more than any other game, so there's a certain been there done that factor these days (i.e. I must not play them too frequently anymore), but the voices freshened them up a lot. Can't help but make sure I listen to every item description by Dominic Armato in full. It also revivified Insult Swordfighting™. There's not much else to say other than these first games still hold up tremendously well (a bit more on that below). There were a few moments when I was temporarily stuck in the first game, but I think I could play through the second one in my sleep. Curse was a bit of a surprise, because I'm pretty sure I played it almost as often as MI2 (the one I originally started with), but there were a couple of sequences I could barely remember, and a few times when I was stuck I let a fellow MI fan nudge me slightly into the right direction. The third game also holds up very well, the refashioned interface makes sense and is easy to use, the music is some of the best in the series (and the Barbery Coast is second only to Woodtick in iMuse goodness) - and the voice acting (the first in the series) is of course top notch. A few of the puzzles seem awfully random - it took me ages to remember that you just have to push Cutthroat Bill to get his jawbreaker, and I actually had to look up how to get rid of the cabana boy (using wet towels twice for two different puzzles in close proximity is rather counter-intuitive, and I still don't understand *why* that gets rid of him). But mostly they make sense, and you're guided reasonably well through most of the game. I'd welcome a modern remaster in the style of Double Fine's outstanding remasters of various Lucas Arts point & clicks - in fact, CMI is easily the best suited game in the series for that, because the style would look just perfect in a straight, smooth high res upgrade, the sampled music could be freshly recorded to replace the original assets, and everything else is fine as it is anyway. Escape… oh boy. Ever the "bad" one in the series, and it turns out it's really mostly bad. Badly designed (technically) to begin with, badly designed (graphically) - and badly aged. The new GrimE engine worked very well in Grim Fandango, for which it was designed, because that game used it very well. The calaca-based character design actually looks good with the early 3D technology available at the time, and the location layouts mostly make it clear where you can (and should) go, and make navigation relatively comfortable. But EMI tries to use the same engine for an entirely different style that just falls flat on its face right from the first frame (not that the character design itself is anything to write home about), and the locations are nothing but a confusing mess. Half the time is spent just running around and trying to get Guybrush to go where you want him, or trying to figure out *if* he can go where you think he should go, or trying to figure out *where* you can go in the first place - the free roam pirate towns have so few clear boundaries that there's hardly anything to guide you (unlike the location layouts in Grim). And just to make things more confusing, the camera perspective changes all the time, sometimes putting Guybrush almost off screen. And when you're not struggling with the navigation, you're struggling with the puzzles - I actually got so annoyed so quickly that I started using a walkthrough quite early on, and still got frustrated a lot. Some of the puzzles I didn't understand even when I read the solution (not just how to figure them out, but why the solution is a solution in the first place). And to make sure that you're frustrated even if you manage to not be bothered by all that, the game is absolutely loaded with red herrings. Most of the dialogue isn't very funny either. That said, there are clear quality shifts. Much of the Lucre Island section is quite fun, and I actually played much of that without the walkthrough (until I got stuck because I didn't see that there's a can of glue hidden in the background on Stan's screen for no clear reason). But even there, many puzzles feel rather lightweight once you find the right items, and not substantial enough to support such a big location. The Monkey Kombat is nothing but frustrating, barely makes sense from a story POV, and takes forever to get through. There's some good new music, but the highlight (almost the only one) is again the voice acting - Dominic Armato, Earl Boen, and Nick Tate's Ozzie Mandrill are first rate (Charity James isn't bad, but seems quite miscast as Elaine). Armato's comments about Mandrill's taxidermy collection are some of the best in the entire series. But the game was never good, and its insistence to join the early 3D craze no matter what makes most of its design choices seem horribly misguided, from a modern POV and probably even back then. With EMI being such an ordeal to get through, I was running short on time before the release of Return. In fact, I only finished EMI late last week, and spent the entire weekend and Monday and Tuesday evening going through Tales as quickly as possible - with*out* a walkthrough though. The difference to EMI is staggering - although ToMI is far more similar to that in design than to any other game in the series, it actually plays well and looks nice. The looks can be (largely) attributed to the roughly 10 years of 3D technology advancements since between the games, but the controls are mostly just a matter of getting things right (in ToMI) vs getting them horribly wrong (in EMI). They're still not ideal - on PC, walking around with just the mouse is horribly awkward (less so in the later chapters; I think the location design in those works in the mouse controls' favour - probably deliberately), but overall it's rarely more than a minor annoyance, and often fine enough. The quality of the chapters varies - the first one is a solid entry, the second one is good (with some awkward puzzles that had me running around aimlessly for ages). The third and fourth (mainly the first half) chapter are glorious and absolutely worthy entries for the series. The fifth and final chapter is ambitious (the story certainly leaves a mark - I'd only played the series once before, but had such strong (if vague) memories of the ferryman that I was convinced he must have been from the third game), though more frustrating again, and the showdown tries hard, but is mostly a failure as far as gameplay goes. I probably spent an hour just trying to figure out the right combination of moves in what is essentially and endless interactive movie sequence - and the last ten minutes of that getting either the timing right or clicking on just the right pixel (I still don't know *what* exactly I did differently when it finally worked out) for the final part of the puzzle. The story is very satisfying, and some characters (Morgan!) are truly memorable. The entire manatee segment is perhaps the most hilariously disgusting thing ever put in a major video game, and putting an extended court room sequence in a point and click game was a stroke of genius. First rate voice acting as usual, and it's good to have the original British Elaine back. Nice themes for the Narwhal and Morgan. Ultimately, the puzzles are a bit hit and miss - or rather, their execution is, because I loved most of them, including several that I found rather frustrating. It's not so much the puzzle design itself that sometimes goes astray as the hints and feedback the game gives you, which can sometimes be horribly misleading. The voodoo menu puzzle in the second half of chapter 4 is conceptually brilliant, but sometimes it was really hard to figure out what the game wanted me to do (some nudges from the above mentioned friend helped again, but nothing I would consider cheating). Ultimately, what astounds me most (although I already knew it) is how well the original point & click design still works today, especially compared to later approaches. From the very first game (Maniac Mansion) to the MI2, the only real changes to the interface were the (essential) switch from joystick to mouse (which didn't alter the controls at all), a slight reduction in verbs, auto hover feedback (without having to specifically click on every item), and the ability to use a right click for an item's default action (mostly "look") - and a slight reduction in verbs, but I consider that only streamlining. And MI2 still plays perfectly today. CoMI works fine as well, and the 3 verb popup interface allows the cartoon graphics to use the full screen, but essentially it's still the same. EMI does almost everything wrong that it could, but even the much more comfortable ToMI isn't half as comfortable to play as the first three games in the series. The single click interface at times makes figuring out what your options are really confusing, and even with ToMI's much improved movement controls, you spend a lot of your time and energy just on running around - when in the earlier games, you simply had to click to get Guybrush going exactly where you wanted him to go. Perhaps the original SCUMM style interface was so much ahead of its time that it was close to being perfect almost right from the start, when later games (not just in the series) struggled to stay technologically relevant (a mostly irrelevant exercise, in my opinion) and struggled to develop a satisfying UX that worked with all the changes. Even if they had figured out the perfect interface for the 3D incarnations, I don't see how it could rival the original 2D style. It may not be modern, but it's just the perfect interface for these kinds of games. Even ToMI's frustrating showdown would have been much easier to handle with SCUMM controls. Anyway, writing all this has kept me from Return for long enough. Allons-y!

It's a step up from the gloriously awful 'Obi Wan', but man, that pacing is deadly. Three 40-minute episodes and what happens in three would fit comfortably into one (is that Gilroy's talent, making you feel everything in real-time?). It's more 'Blade Runner' than 'Star Wars', which might not be a bad thing, but somehow there's a big neon light blinking over the proceedings, saying 'We're rudderless here!' The score, subject of much self-congratulory pr, amounts to exactly the kind of industrial noise you'd expect for locations like a huge iron foundery.

lakeshore Records will release a soundtrack album for the British comedy drama The Lost King. The album features the film’s original music composed by Academy Award winner Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The King’s Speech, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Queen) and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. The soundtrack is expected to be released digitally and physically on October 7, 2022. Check back on this page for the pre-order link. The Lost King is directed by Stephen Frears and stars Sally Hawkins, Steve Coogan (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jeff Pope) and Harry Lloyd. The movie tells the true story of an amateur historian battling skepticism and bureaucracy in a quest to locate the final resting place of King Richard III. The dramedy premiered at this year’s Toronto Film Festival and will open in UK theaters on October 7. IFC Films has picked up domestic distribution rights and is expected to announce a release date soon. Here’s the album track list: 1. The Lost King (2:55) 2. To Prove a Villain (3:12) 3. City’s Archives (3:25) 4. Leicester (2:16) 5. The Ricardians (1:43) 6. Greyfriars (1:03) 7. National Library (4:29) 8. New Street (2:59) 9. Empty Bench (3:02) 10. The Maps (3:17) 11. The Next Morning (2:02) 12. Digging The R (2:02) 13. The Boar (3:52) 14. We Found Richard (3:09) 15. Farewell Richard (2:44) 16. Bosworth (3:01) http://filmmusicreporter.com/2022/09/21/the-lost-king-soundtrack-album-details/#more-93860

I would at least confirm, it is a better LOTR score than the recent Star Wars scores are Star Wars scores. From the sound perspective I think, I am basically ok with the Andor score at the first episode. Big weakness is in my eyes the thematic material. Typical modern film score. Sound, chords, percussion and no melody worth mentioning.

...you have to stop yourself air conducting Test Drive from HTTYD. In the office.

I haven't watched the episodes yet, I'll watch 'em tonight. If I like it, I'll pull up all the quotes of me being excited and optimistic for this show going all the way back to when it was first announced. If I don't like it, I will surreptitiously edit those posts away

WB didnt have a clue then and now..

Ok but its still a terrible score. And the film makes Superman a murderer.

The two-film structure wouldn't have alleviated the issue. And really, 45 minutes of setup is not at all so long, especially in fantastical or period-set films. The original Star Wars, which is 117 minutes long, has 42 minutes of setup. Braveheart, which is 170 minutes long, takes a solid hour. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (161 minutes) takes 74 minutes. Gladiator (164 minutes) takes 75 minutes. Willow is 121 minutes and takes 42 minutes. The Two Towers is a sequel and yet takes 55 minutes out of its 215 minute runtime. The Godfather (173 minutes) takes 75 minutes. This is not an exhaustive list. As long as the audience gets the sense that, when the setup is done, it'll become really interesting and intense, and so long as the setup period itself is suffused with enough intrigue and suspense, you'll be surprised how much audiences will be willing to sit through, especially in the comfort of their own home. The Rings of Power doesn't have that, and is taking longer than even the most extreme of the examples I've provided.

I honestly don’t get the love for this score (or this track). I love plenty of Morricone’s other scores, but this is so repetitive. It sounds lazy. Still haven’t seen the film.

Oh God, I hope neither of them is reading this.

Once John Williams uploads his consciousness to an AI, Mike will need to follow suit. There'll be an endless supply of scores requiring expansions!

Would AI MM be able to track down all the takes for every POA cue?

This was composed specifically for the film and it is in my opinion one of the best things ever written for film.

You jest, but I spend times in corners of the net where these apologetics are used all the time. I was already objecting to it back in the marketing days: "You can't judge the show until its out" - well, not thoroughly, of course, but if you're at all media savvy and have been around the block a couple of times, you can probably tell if it will or won't be for you. I mean, that's how we decide what to watch and what not to watch, being that we clearly don't watch EVERYTHING: We look at trailers, synopses and listen to word-of-mouth and decide whether we might like something or not. Now that half the season is out, there's more and more of this last apologetic of "well, we need the context of the whole season" and in this case I think the apologetic stems from people being, well, franky, naive and taking the showrunners' words much too at face value when they equated this season to "an eight-hour movie." Its one of those things where I'm sure the showrunners would like us to think of the season as one long movie, both for artistic reasons but also for this very reason: that it basically makes the season critically-impervious until after the final episode has aired which I have nothing to say to except "oh, how convenient!" I think at one point they even made the equivalence of the show is one, 50-hour movie which is even more preposterous. It reminds me of George Lucas standing at the AFI awards and saying how he considers all six Star Wars films to be a single movie. This is the same kind of thing: even just within the first three episodes we've switched directors, an art director and a set of writers; and we know the episodes were made sequentially, and that there had been a long break in the schedule before embarking on the third episode. This "one movie" equivalency is empty.

Another review describes the score as "stirring and sweeping": http://thejamreport.com/2022/09/21/tiff-review-the-fabelmans-radiates-with-an-unassuming-and-warm-old-school-charm-thats-impossible-to-resist/

Barry: Season 2 WOW. What a season. And those last 2 episodes were outstanding. Bill Hader is terrific in this, shows a lot of range. And his directing on the series has been nothing but great. Episode 5 was chaos at it's finest, I laughed out loud at it. It was sometimes so ridiculous, but because it was so well directed it made total sense. And the finale was a brilliant piece of directing as well. The shootout at the end. Chef's kiss. And what a treasure Henry Wrinkler is to this show. I love him so much. He broke my heart in the final episode, without saying a single word. That was phenomenal. And the cliffhanger, I'm glad I don't have to wait 2.5 years to see season 3. And how did Sarah Goldberg not win the Emmy that year over Bornstein for Ms. Maisel (who already won, and I'm not a fan of that show). Her performance throughout the season but especially in the penultimate episode in her one take scene, beautiful. I was stunned when that scene happened, so impressed. Stephen Root does a great job as well, I truly dislike his character, but he keeps it interesting. Anthony Carrigan is comedy gold and I'm excited to see what happens with his character. Onto Season 3

House of the Dragon 1x05 We Light the Way Holy shit, what a fine example of building and building tension up to a crazy release! I loved how deftly the release was, not only of what built up in this episode, but in the entire season so far, and that we got to dwell in the aftermath a bit before episode's end. These first 5 episodes have really been quite the run of interesting television! Daemon - Wow, I did not expect him to kill his wife; this guy is becoming the ultimate wildcard, you just can't predict what he's going to do (and he almost always fails, which is also really interesting). I spent most of the episode wondering why he killed his wife, until finally near the end of episode it was clear that he wants to inherit The Vale as his own. I wonder if he even can inherit, if their marriage was never consummated? Every episode reminds us that this guy is either impotent or something near it, and it must all be leading up to something! I thought it was interesting that when he turned up at the wedding, Viserys did not kick him out; This is like that meme of Moe kicking Barney out and he's just inside again. The scene with him and Rhaenyra on the dance floor was awesome! I loved that just like at Dragonstone, she completely calls his bluff immediately and directly to see what he will do. Oh, how I wonder what might have happened next had the big incident not happened! The Strongs - Man, was I glad to see Visery made Lord Strong his new hand! He seems to be one of the most honest and best advice-givers around. His "bonebreaker" son was awesome at the wedding, heading into the scrum to get Rhaenyra out quite easily. Loved it! The other son... oh, man! What a conniving little shit! How did he find out about the Plan Tea, anyway? And the way he delivered the news to Alicent was sooooo obvious, how did she not see it? Is she too young? This guy already knows how to play the game, and she doesn't seem to really bother to start until after this scene. All three Strongs are really interesting character I can't wait to see more of! Viserys - Man, I feel so bad for this guy. Not only is his health seriously failing, but he's pondering his own reign, asking Lord Strong how he'll be remembered.... a question which is pretty hard to answer. Sure, peace-time kings are probably not going to have a lot of songs written about them, but he also held the kingdom together peacefully for many years and that's pretty good! I wish he took more initiative at times; It was nice to see him enter Driftmark and settle negotiations with Corlys swiftly, but then later at the feast, he just let Daemon enter and had someone get a chair for him, then when the kerfuffle started he just kind of sat there watching it and not doing anything, Lord Strong had to send his son in on his own volition. Damn. And then he collapsed right after the wedding! I hope he's OK.... Otto - Man, I think I have a new opinion on this guy. He seemed like such a shit for most of the show. But I think a lot of circumstances out of his control put him in impossible positions too. Like he's probably right that power transferring to Rhaenyra instead of Aegon will cause a war in the kingdom, but he's in the unfortunate spot that trying to tell Viserys that looks like he's securing his own power since Aegon is his grandson. And likewise, he gets the info that Rhaenyra was in a brothel with Daemon, but being the one to tell Viserys makes it look bad for him for the same reason. He kind of got stuck unable to win, and his goodbye scene with Alicent this week was interesting. He lays out only 2 options for her: Force Viserys to see that Aegon should be king, or get on Rhaenyra's good side so she won't kill him, ignoring all the other possible ways to approach the future. I wonder if he has a future role on the show? Criston Cole - Holy shit! This guy has been growing on me, but then this episode made me think he's actually kind of a dumbass! Like, did he seriously think Rhaenyra was going to want to throw away her position as the next ruler of Westeros to run away with him to Essos and live as peasants? And then Alicent asks him into her quarters, asks a vague question about something Rhaenyra might possibly have done that she clearly wasn't sure about.... and he just spills all the beans immediately? And suggests she kill him for it? And then when Joffrey Lonmouth tries to buddy up with him and form a little alliance about their mutual position, he can't stop himself from murdering him in the middle of a party in front of a hundred witnesses? It all seems like something a teenager would do in some old cliched story - do we know how old him and Rhaenyra was supposed to be in this episode? Man I can't believe he wanted to kill himself after it all, and am really curious what Alicent has in mind for him when she stops him at the end... The Velaryons - It was good to see all these guys again after they had been sidelined for a bit. I thought it was interesting that Corlys snubbed the King by not being there for his arrival, making him come into his throne room instead, and even then took a while to approach and kneel. But then, they agreed on terms for the marriage anyway, which was interesting. It's probably worth noting that the stipulation that Rhaenyra and Laenor's child being born a Velaryon but using the Targaryen name when ascending to the throne was completely pointless, since that will only happen after Viserys and Rhaenyra are dead anyway, lol. Speaking of Laenor, he's an interesting character, I liked his relationship with Joffrey and how he understood the importance of the arranged marriage, and was happy with Rhaenyra's idea of how to handle it. Boy, you really felt for him when he was forced to state his vows to her through mega tears with Joffrey's blood just feet away at the shotgun wedding, damn. It was interesting to see Laena all grown up, and flirting with Daemon a bit; If he can't have Rhaenyra, I guess he'll settle for her! And finally Rhaenys, her hair may be weird but it was nice to see her, and specifically to see her and Viserys reunite briefly. I keep thinking she's going to have a bigger role to play somehow. Rhaenyra - Man what a great character she's become. I loved her quiet assessment of everything happening and Driftmark, and then her nice conversation with Laenor; The way she so deftly told him she was cool with him being gay, and laid out a plan for them to perform their royal duties while also living the lives they want, was awesome, and I was glad he went for it. The dance she learned to do with him at the feast was really fun, and then I loved the way she handled Daemon when he approved her on the dance floor. I love how it's completely ambiguous if she is just calling him on his shit, knowing he won't do anything, or if she genuinely would accept a marriage to him against everyone's wishes. I guess we'll never know! I'm not sure if her and Criston having a conversation about their future on the open boat was risky and someone might have overherd, or if it was just done to look interesting for TV and nobody knows their secret. I loved that she was genuinely sad for Laenor at the end, but knows there's nothing she can do but marry him anyway. Alicent - Man, the star of the show; It's like this entire half season has been her long coming-out party as an actual player of the game of thrones. I liked her goodbye with Otto, and how it led to her trying to get more details out of Criston before doing anything else. Interestingly, I read her reaction to Criston's confession completely differently than I guess I was supposed to. What I thought happened there was that she was almost secret hoping Criston would reveal that Rhaenyra did sleep with Daemon, to confirm that her father was right and Rhaenyra lied to her, to at least have a definitive issue to use as a point to go forward with a clear plan in mind... and then when he confessed that he was the one that slept with her, I thought she was defeated, and was basically like "oh, she didn't lie to me, and I don't care that she fucked some Kingsguard. I guess I'm still her friend then, and Otto did receive bad info after all, everything's all good". But no! It turns out she is STILL mad at Rhaenyra anyway for lying to her about sleeping with anyone. Huh. If only Rhaenyra had said something more liek "I promise you, I did not sleep with Daemon" instead of "I promise you, I am still a maiden!", maybe things would be different now... the green dress entrance scene was pretty cool, even though it was really goofy to have the young Strong have to explain the green color as it was happening; I think it would have been much cooler if this had been set up in a prior episode instead, like maybe in that episode where Alicent and Rhaenyra were studying their books, the question she asked to proof Rhaenyra was paying attention was about what color the Hightowers use for war, instead of whatever they used in that episode. So damn, all because of one lie from Rhaenyra, which isn't even anything Otto even knew about, Alicent has decided that Rhaenyra is bad and the Hightowers offspring deserves to sit on the throne after all, jeez. And she's already had one Hightower relative pledge his support, has her own Littlefinger, and now has Criston Cole for whatever he can bring. Man, things are getting quite spicy now!

Disappointed to see Obi-Wan leading Galaxy's Edge. For me, Galaxy's Edge and Adventures of Han are nearly tied, while Obi-Wan is a distant third.

The story of the Rings was certainly LotR setup. Númenor came about independently as part of a time-travel novel that Tolkien was writing in conjunction with C.S. Lewis’s space-travel novel (eventually a trilogy). This was in 1936-37, right around the time The Hobbit was being published (obviously after it was written and before there was a clamor for a direct sequel).

Finished this most recent season. While I’ve enjoyed them all, I think this was an improvement over season 4 which seemed to tread water a bit. They’re still perfectly walking this razor edge of camp and sincerity that is super hard to pull off. It’s never snarky or winking. Lots of heart. Just fun. The score continues to be great with several established themes popping up again. Looking forward to season 6 (the final season!)

OK. Then I will probably invest in getting an AI that in my place spends its time listening to all that stuff that AI JW and AI MM put out.

To Kill a Mockingbird / Walk on the Wild Side is a steal at that price.

I only remember two things in Lifeforce.

I am surprised the previous Poltergeist is still in print because that would have been an obvious choice. Speaking of which, this arrived literally just now. Karol

It's "Adventures On Earth". Get. It. Right.

MV confirmed in this thread that the Potter box is expected to be back in stock "mid to late November"

Britell's talent is rather that he can write chamber-sized music well. Ask any pro about that: before you can run you need to walk. You don't need much musical talent to make music sound BIG the way RCP does it. To do it good, you better learn how to write effectively for 10 instruments, the rest will follow naturally (Goldsmith and Williams repeatedly mentioned how helpful their salad years were in developing their craft).

I wouldn't have thought that the second score is the longest of them all WITHOUT tracking.

Quidditch, Third Year for Harp