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I don't know if that's entirely fair.  Gunn has succeeded in doing just about everything he's done.  I get the idea that he's handpicked every project he's done, particularly because he's written almost everything he's been a part of.  He didn't do The Suicide Squad because he was assigned it - DC offered him whatever he wanted and he picked it.  So, yes, a lot of his projects are weird (Slither, The Belko Experiment) or about outsiders (Guardians, The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker, even Scooby Doo).

But remember that Gunn handpicked this too.  If he only liked outsiders or fringe stuff, he could've made a DCU where the Justice League are background characters.  After all, DC has a deep roster and he's already starting his universe with The Authority and Creature Commandos.  He could've copied the MCU model and built his universe around C-list characters, winning people over before the big guns ever come out.

But he chose Superman.  Not just to start his universe but to write and direct himself.  So he must want to do it as much as he wanted to do the other things he's done in his career.  Maybe moreso.

Everything Gunn has done has been pretty well made.  I've seen almost every movie he's made and I've generally enjoyed it all.  I don't think there's any reason to not believe that he's going to guide this ship in the right direction this time.  WB being a mess notwithstanding.

Hypothetical question - if Trump breaks the gag order in his federal trial, would that be an automatic punishment or would that be another trial that he'd be able to delay?

I don't know how this works, but how cheap would that need to be to make sense?  Batgirl was finished and will never get released.  Does it make sense for Netflix (or some kids' streaming service) to pay for 30 episodes of a show?  If it's cheaper to not release it, why would another streaming service pay for it?  If it was part of a package with TOS, TNG, Voyager, etc maybe.  But by itself?

But honestly, I don't know anything about this.  Maybe its an easy sell.  I hope you're right - I would like to see the rest of the episodes, even if the show won't get a proper sendoff.

Yeah, I understand why he was in a tough spot.  What's kinda funny is that I feel like the DCEU was starting to find its footing.  Between Cavill showing up in Black Adam and Gadot showing up in Shazam (which I haven't seen but showed up in promo materials), it was starting to feel like a cohesive universe with some kind of plan.  But I absolutely understand why Gunn and Co. decided to start over.  And I understand why they can't just throw out Aquaman 2 (the sequel to the highest grossing DCEU film?) and a Flash movie that was very expensive.

Still, if it were me, I would've done a post-credit teaser for the "Gunnverse" and just clarified that Barry's universe is done.  It would've fit nicely in the movie and would've shown that something new is coming.

I don't know about Aquaman.  I know they've talked about Mamoa being Lobo so maybe they will recast.

Well, the actors playing Lana, Kyle, Sarah, John Henry, and Chrissy have all been axed as regulars as well.  So maybe we're going to spend a season in Kandor!

Superman & Lois has been renewed for a ten-episode season four.

Okay so he's been indicted.  I think this one is significantly bigger than the New York one, which seems much more politically motivated.  This one still technically could be, but even Republicans see this one as a bigger deal.

I still wonder if Trump will be able to push the trial beyond (well beyond?) election day.  It would be something if Trump was the nominee and having to report to his trial for breaking the espionage act.  I still don't know how this will play politically - the New York indictment consolidated his support but this one has to hurt him, right?

And I think it was annoying they couldn't get Carlos Valdes back.  I get that actors get busy and I'm sure traveling around the country to shoot a scene isn't fun, but that should've been a priority (just like it was a major priority to get Michael Rosenbaum back for Smallville).  Cisco was a major player in the series and arguably its most beloved character.  The show clearly dipped when he left.  An even if he'd shown up on a video chat, that would've been better than literally nothing.  Unless there's something behind the scenes that no one has talked about, Valdes was happy to come back.  If he couldn't make it back for the finale, plan something earlier.  The finale was four episodes long so I assume they filmed for four weeks.

I assume Wallace understands that he may have screwed things up.  I think either he was caught off guard by the end of the Arrowverse or found himself unable to do anything about it.  Again, it's not his responsibility to close up the entire Arrowverse, but I wish he would've said those things if that was the case.  "Look, all I could do was wrap up Barry's story" plays differently than "I would've done X and Y but I only had 13 episode and I needed to use all 13 of those to finish Barry's story."

Because as we all saw, Wallace wasted so many of those episodes.

It's probably unfair to judge him based on the fact that season 9 was the last season of the Arrowverse.  If, say, Batwoman had been the last season of the Arrowverse, it probably wouldn't have been able to do much better.  Legends was probably the most equipped for many reasons.

But I still think Wallace could've done a much better job.

So I wonder if, like Republicans have done with abortion, Democrats could sponsor some kind of challenge on the debt ceiling with the idea that it's unconstitutional under the 14th amendment, get it all the way to the Supreme Court, and get their answer.

Although whatever works for Biden would work for a Republican president and maybe the Democrats want the ability to use the debt ceiling as a weapon as well.

I haven't voted for a single Republican since 2016, and I have voted in basically every election (local, state, national) since 2018.  I was wrong about the Republican Party in 2016 - I thought they'd use Trump and dump him when he became politically damaging (and go with a safer puppet in Pence), but despite losing election after election, they still haven't done that.  And with the rise of politicians like MTG and Kari Lake and the conversion of guys like Ted Cruz from "mostly annoying" to "very dangerous", I agree that it doesn't make sense to vote for any Republicans.

That being said, I think it's alarmist to think that the Republicans can eliminate democracy.  First, we already survived four years of Trump.  Trump definitely tried to overthrow democracy, but he didn't succeed and didn't get all that close to succeeding.  There's a subset of people that believe the election was stolen, but outside of January 6 (which wasn't nearly as violent as it could've been), no one believes it enough to do much about it.  Second, I think a lot of the people that believe 2020 was "stolen" aren't really talking about switching votes or the dead voting or anything like that.  They're talking about Covid-specific policies that may or may not have been unconstitutional that led to increased turnout for Democrats.  I think the majority of people that don't consider 2020 to be legit (and hopefully this is crystal clear but that's *not me*) think Biden got the votes but that some of the votes should've been thrown out because certain states expanded voting rights too much (and they believe illegally).  That it's more procedural issues than actual fraud.  Which is why they're more annoyed than angry.  They'll tweet about it but won't protest it.

Think about the alternative.  If Trump did get Georgia to find him enough votes to win or if the Cyber Ninjas found a way for Trump to win Arizona and Pennsylvania flipped somehow...there would be nonstop protests and civil unrest.  It would've been chaos. 

I do think Trump would try crazy things to stay in power, but I don't think anywhere near the majority of the country would support that.  I worry more that Trump would destabilize the world than destabilize democracy.

And as I've been saying, neither side can get any legislation passed.  Even if the Republicans got a filibuster-proof number of senators (or got rid of the filibuster), I think they don't really know what they want to do with it.  They couldn't overturn Obamacare.  They couldn't even figure out what they wanted to do with Healthcare.  They've done a ton of damage in terms of abortion, but even then, they can't really agree on what they want to do with it.  Several very-red states have struggled to pass full abortion bans, and some of the abortion bans they have passed have backfired on them electorally.

The Republican Party is bad, and I cannot support them until they cleanse themselves of this nonsense.  I fear what they can do with power.  But look at my state of Texas - they just overwhelmingly voted to impeach our super corrupt (and super MAGA) attorney general.  Maybe he'll survive a trial (his wife is one of the state senators who will vote on his removal), but it shows that, even at the state level in a state like Texas, they don't bend to the will of Trump on everything.  Trump was against it, and a vast majority of republicans still voted against it.  Cruz was against it.  MTG was against it.  They did it anyway.

I think the tide is starting to turn, but we still need to stay vigilant.  And I think we need to keep an even keel.

*The opinions of Slider_Quinn21 do not represent the opinions of anyone at sliders.tv or anyone else here.

Yeah.  Again, I know what I would've done with the season, either if I wanted to wrap up the Arrowverse or just the Flash.  Maybe my idea wouldn't have worked that well either, but at least it would've been something.  This season wasn't really about anything, even if you look at it the way Wallace does (as a couple different graphic novels).

Wallace talked about how he needed all 13 episodes to properly wrap up Barry's story.  I think he could've easily done everything he did in season 9 in 6 episodes.  The premiere, one episode for the Red Death, the Oliver episode, and three episodes for a finale.  I'd probably do an entire episode getting Eddie from "who is this guy?" to Cobalt Blue, the episode where Barry goes back and deals with Thawne, and the finale.

That's really all they needed.  So Wallace either needed to tell a bigger story (so there's less wasting time) or spent more time on the rest of the Arrowverse.

That all being said, I think the Flash was still an overall success.  It never got great after season one, but it was watchable all the way through.

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I mean....sure.

I've struggled with the Flash for a while now.  I think Grant Gustin is really good in the role, and I think the show was really likeable.  The problem I've had, essentially from the beginning, is that Flash in the Arrowverse sorta breaks things.  Barry inside of the Arrow universe should be unstoppable.  What's the point in being a guy with a bow and arrow if there's another guy who can run fast enough to go back in time?  Barry and Oliver could be fighting two different people on two different sides of the planet, and Barry could end both fights before anyone knew what was going on.  Barry could end crime in Central City and Star City and be home for dinner.

And, yet, to keep Oliver relevant, they had to straddle this line where Barry is super fast but can still lose to the right guy.  They even had Barry lose to Oliver (on his own show no less!) in the first fight between the two.  Which is fine.  Batman has been a top 3 guy in DC despite having no powers.  Maybe being rich and a good fighter is on the same level as being a speedster.

On Barry's show, they dealt with this in two ways.  One, in the spirit of Smallville, having Barry fight a constant line of metahumans that can give Barry trouble.  And two, having Barry fight someone who is just as fast (OR FASTER!) than him.  First Eobard Thawne, then Zoom, then Savitar.

But the problem with that is that if you have a super fast guy fighting a super fast guy, it just looks like a regular fight.  So what ends up happening is some sort of race.  The two speedsters chase each other until the fight is just over.  We see this dozens of times in dozens of fights.  And to be honest, I just sorta tune out in the third act of a lot of Flash episodes.  The fights, at least to me, have never been visually interesting.  It's simply the end of an episode that has to happen.

After Savitar, the show tried to change things up.  But it never quite worked.  I think the most interesting thing to do with Barry is take away his speed - make him a normal guy still trying to be a hero.  The show played with this a few times but never really committed to the idea.  It's a show about a fast guy, even if that fact is both the show's greatest strength and its greatest weakness.

The show quickly got stale and never really recovered.  While Arrow experimented with different things (magic! alternate worlds!), the Flash never felt comfortable enough to change what it considered its bread and butter.  It was always pretty good but it rarely became great.

Then, it was forced to play its biggest hand (the one it had been toying with from day one) too early.  Barry is able to escape his fate in the form of Crisis...and then the show just kept going.  Barry's greatest fight was already over but the show just kept going.  Cisco left.  They kept giving Danielle Panabaker and Tom Cavanaugh different wigs and accents to play around with.  We met Barry's future kids.  It wasn't from a complete lack of trying but nothing really worked.

As we've already talked about, this season has felt like a waste of time.  Now the solo show in the Arrowverse, the Flash had a chance to be really unique.  Maybe it could be a conclusion to the whole Arrowverse!  Maybe it could use its time to wrap up both Legends and Batwoman, two shows cut down unfairly.  But despite talking a big game about the possibilities, the showrunner said, since they only had 13 episodes, they had to focus on Barry's journey.

Which, as I've said, is fair.  It's the Flash.  Not Arrowverse: the miniseries.

But how do you finish Barry's journey?  What does the end of the Flash, not the Arrowverse, look like?  To me, I think it should have been the story of Barry's hero's journey ending.  He became a hero when he was young.  He had fun with it.  He met the love of his life.  He struggled to be married and be a hero because even he can't be two places at once.  And now he's going to be a father.

Maybe it's time to stop putting his life in danger.

As I've mentioned, I think that's what I would've done.  Follow in Oliver's footsteps and start to plan for his own retirement.  Build a team and tarin a successor. 

Instead, the show just sorta ran in place, adding nothing to Barry (outside of the idea, in the premiere no less, that Barry can't just follow a script written by the future).  Not only were we not telling a story about Barry, we weren't even watching Barry a lot of the time.  We were focusing on Barry's supporting cast, which (like Arrow) was now B and C string team members.

This even continued into the finale, where Barry is missing half the time.  It's great that Allegra got a suit and Cecile got a codename.  It's great the Chester found love.  It's great that Dreamer was able to conquer something, even if it never came up during her own show.  It's great that Becky, a character I didn't remember, was able to have some sort of redemption arc.

But wasn't this Barry's story?

Now the finale.  And the problems we faced we continued to face.  We brought back a bunch of speedsters and they all ran around.  It was neat for XS to defeat Savitar.  But the rest of the fights were a bunch of characters fighting other characters they barely ever interacted with.  And Barry gets Eddie, a guy he's barely dealt with this season (after not seeing him for 8 years).  Reverse Flash, a character we have been repeatedly dealing with and is consistently referred to as Barry's greatest foe, gets beaten by Allegra.  I know Barry already defeated Thawne once and for all but still.

And so I was sorta bored the first couple acts.

The rest of the episode was nice.  Barry becomes a father.  Joe and Cecile get engaged (although I thought they were already married?).  No Bart.  No Cisco.  We get Caitlin back, which at least means she wasn't unceremoniously written off off-screen.  And Barry shares his speed with some new heroes.

It's a happy ending.  And it was...fine?  I'm happy that everyone was happy.  I'm glad the universe ends on a happy note.  But I don't know...the Flash was just never able to recreate the magic from season one.  It was great and then just was good the rest of the way.  And good is good.  There's no shame in good.

I will miss the Arrowverse.  I will miss Barry.  But this was a show that probably should've ended two years ago with Crisis.

To be fair, MSNBC is slanted to the left.  Not as bad as Fox but it also runs news that appeals to those on the left.  There's more complete charts than this, but this is a good one: https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-chart

I say this as someone with a journalism degree that watched a lot of this stuff happen in real time.

As the chart shows, it isn't about accuracy.  It's about slant.  Slant can obviously be editorial, but it can also be selection of stories.  If an illegal immigrant were to commit a mass shooting with a gun obtained legally, Fox news and MSNBC would tell the story differently.  Fox News would report that he was an illegal immigrant with a violent past that was allowed into the country.  MSNBC would talk about how stricter gun laws would have prevented the man from getting the gun in the first place.  Both might be accurate, but the choice of which story to tell is the slant.

There are down-the-middle news outlets, but a lot of people (myself included) like reading/watching news that appeals to them.  I find myself reading stories from questionable sources because they imply all the bad things that are about to happen to Trump in his legal troubles.  I usually have to remind myself what source I'm reading.

To me, it's like watching sports.  I don't like listening to national sports media because there isn't enough focus on the teams that I like.  Local sports radio is slanted more towards the teams I watch, but the personalities on those stations are also fans of the team.  So there's a built-in bias both from them and from me.

You can also have an NFL game broadcast where both teams' fans will complain afterward that the announcers were obviously rooting for the other team.  Both sides heard the exact same thing, but they each interpreted it differently because of their inherent biases.  I think this happens with political coverage too - something that might actually be down-the-middle might seem right-wing focused to me because my own biases lean to the left.  Down the middle to me is slightly left. 

Not criticizing.  Just adding to the discourse.

Well, Valdez spoke fondly of the Flash a couple of months ago.  He said he "couldn't imagine a scenario" where Cisco didn't play a role in the finale.  He said he hadn't watched the Flash since he left because he didn't like the idea of his friends having fun without him.  He said it was "heartbreaking" that he wasn't coming back.  If he had an issue with the show, he didn't seem to mention it in the interview.  And maybe he's just being professional and doesn't want to trash anyone.

I just know that Michael Rosenbaum was done with Smallville but came back for the finale.  I do think Cisco's ending was good and maybe there's nothing more to show.  But Cisco might be one of the best characters in all of the Arrowverse, and I'm sad that he won't be coming back.

There's absolutely narrative reasons to bring him back.  And if he couldn't come back for the finale, they should've brought him back for another episode.  I would've watched an entire episode about Cisco.

I would love to know some of the behind the scenes chaos that happened on this season.

Yeah, I don't want to throw this all on Eric Wallace, but this already feels like a boring spinoff of the Flash with a bunch of characters I struggle to care about.  If they really didn't have Grant Gustin this much, I think they should've done something else entirely with this season.  Having Barry bounce back and forth and be missing for huge stretches is distracting. 

Again, it's their show but there's tons of ways they could've worked around Gustin being gone.  Maybe every episode has an Arrowverse guest star (which would make the Batwoman and Dreamer stuff more consistent).  Team Flash featuring Spartan / Oliver / Dreamer / Cisco / Kara / Black Lightning / Vixen / Wally / Constantine would be fun.  Or maybe focus the entire season on this alternate world where Eddie and Iris are together and have him slowly succumb to the forces of darkness.  And then Barry returns for the final four episodes to reclaim his life.

I don't know.  Not this.

Again, maybe the finale will make it all make sense.

Well, I think we need to have a conversation in this country about what the debt actually is.  I'm not advocating for unlimited debt or anything, but I think there's a consensus among Americans that the debt is controlled by China or foreign interests.  When that's not the case at all.

I'm really not sure what this final season of the Flash is supposed to be.  The showrunner complained that they only got 13 episodes and then proceeded to waste so much of it.

Episode 1 was good/fun.  The next four were...fine?  I don't think the Red Death needed to be two episodes.  I think Red Death is a cool idea and I'm glad they got to play with it, but it felt like a bit of a waste.  The "interlude" episodes were a waste.  I don't think Dreamer needed to be on this show (even though I like her).  I didn't like the luck episode.  I didn't think the time bandit episode was great.

I loved the Oliver episode.

And now we have this 4-part finale.  But what is this story?  Why is it four episodes?  Couldn't this have been a two-parter?  It's been two hours of television (not including commercials) and I'm not sure I could tell you much about what happened in parts two or three.

This is their show, and they were allowed to end it however they wanted.  Maybe they're really proud of this season and how it ended, but it feels like such a dud of an ending.  Maybe everyone will come back for the finale, but where's Cisco?  Where's Wells?  We get Eddie Thawne, but he's the big bad for the whole show?  And they kept talking about having to get Barry's story right, but Barry is barely in any of these episodes.

I know it wouldn't have been fair to the Flash, but I wish they'd had a 13-episode season of a show called Arrowverse.  Wrap up the Legends, wrap up Batwoman.  Give us glimpses into the world of Supergirl and Arrow.  Bring back who you can and make whatever work.  And then end with Barry and his story.  Or give the other shows one episode each and give Barry 6-7 episodes.  I don't know.

But if Grant Gustin can really only be there for 25% of 13 episodes then they shouldn't call this show the Flash.  And with so many stories left to tell, why are we wasting so much time on this?

I'm sorry.  I stood by the Arrowverse for a long time, and it's sad that it's ending this way.

So the Oliver episode.  Some quick thoughts:

- I don't know the constraints that Stephen Amell was under, but I wish we could've gotten a couple more episodes with him.  I think his role was cool.

- I guess I'd forgotten how much I missed him.  I thought he was great.

- I think Wally West is one of the big misses for this series.  Keiynan Lonsdale isn't a problem.  Not at all.  But I wish they could've either found a place for him or picked an actor who could've been a part of the series for longer.  I would've watched a Wally West show.  I thought he was fun on Flash and great on Legends.

- The Barry/Oliver stuff and the Oliver/Diggle stuff was fantastic.  I'm glad it ended the way that it did, and I'm actually pretty glad that it wasn't a time travel thing.

Is there a real-life explanation for why DS9 doesn't get as much love from the producers of modern Trek?  I think it's overwhelmingly thought of as the best Trek, but it's also overwhelmingly the black sheep of Trek as a whole.  Worf's DS9 ending was ignored essentially and he simply showed back up in the TNG movies with less and less explanation.  Chief O'Brien was essentially a TNG castmember (50 episodes) but showed up in none of the TNG movies and none of the seasons of Picard. 

The show is happy to borrow plot elements from it (mostly the Dominion War), but in terms of actual appearances, the only DS9 castmember that got any love is the Defiant (showing up in First Contact and season 3 of Picard).  I know some of the producers of DS9 rubbed people wrong at the time, but that was over 20 years ago, and I assume most of the people have left the franchise by this point anyway.

I get why Enterprise is ignored - it was a massive prequel and wasn't as beloved.  But DS9 takes place at the same time and is beloved.  Why no love for Deep Space Nine?

Interesting.  I watched the special and assumed they'd used archival footage of Kimberly, Jason, and Tommy.  But I guess watching them back to back was a little disorienting.

I was sad that they couldn't get all the original actors back, but I was happy with the special.  My friend was sad to find out that it wasn't a 10-episode series.  I think it would've been a good show if they had gone that route.

I actually missed this line on my initial watch and only went back after episode 9.  But here's the problem: Shaw is not a reliable witness.  And Shaw has no idea - he's speculating.  Just like he refuses to acknowledge Seven's Borg-ness, I think he refuses to acknowledge that the Borg might have evolved.  Even if the Jurati Borg were the real Borg, I think Shaw would've said it.

Now it's obvious that it was intended to be the truth.  But I would've felt better if this were delivered by someone with a little less Borg baggage.

One more thing I forgot to add to my list:

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The Frontier Day stuff and the "whole fleet" being there.  Ummmm....what does that mean?  The entire Starfleet fleet?  Every ship everywhere?  That can't be what they mean, right?  Because I assume Starfleet exists both as a peacekeeping force and a deterrent to other forces, right?  If the entire US military decided to have a big celebration in Washington, DC...I imagine there are a handful of nations/rogue nations/terrorist organizations that might take advantage of that.

Maybe it is simply all their non-essential ships?  Maybe it's all their ships that were going to be in Sector 001 anyway?  I have trouble visualizing what the entire fleet would even look like.  I assume it would be thousands of ships, no?

So I really loved Picard Season 3.  I have a bunch of very spoilery thoughts and some nitpicks

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- I guess I'll start with the future.  I think Terry Matalas gets Star Trek, and I think he hit the right nostalgia notes for most of the season.  Setting an episode at the fleet museum so we got to see all the classic ships...great.  Bringing back the Changelings and the Enterprise D...chef's kiss.  The episode with Ro and the awkwardly poetic end for Shelby...great touches.  If he wants to do Captain Seven and the crew of the Enterprise-G for another series, sign me up.  If he wants to do pretty much anything else, sign me up.  I'd love to see him get another show.

- I was surprised that we didn't get more cameos.  I think Chief O'Brien would've worked well on the show.  Someone like Bashir would've fit in nice.  Janeway would've made a ton of sense.  I know they didn't want to step on Prodigy's toes...but I don't see how Janeway being on two shows at the same time steps on anyone's toes.  They referenced her as being alive so it can't be "well what if we want to kill Janeway on this kid's show".  I do wonder why DS9 is the black sheep of the universe.  They retconned Worf's DS9 ending and he's never spoken of it again.  But since the story focused on Changelings for so long and involved Seven as a key figure, I figured we'd get more than just Tuvok as cameos.  Where's the Doctor???

- Season 3 made me so mad at Seasons 1 and 2.  It's so obvious that this show needed to be Picard and his crew.  Not that I didn't like the new characters - I liked a lot of them.  But it was so much more fun to have the whole cast there, and I can't believe they waited until season 3 to do it.  This is what season 1 should've been, and we could've had two more seasons with this as the jumping point.

- Speaking of that, Matalas didn't seem to have a ton of love for the first two seasons either.  They essentially abandoned the Laris storyline after the season premiere even though that was a huge part of season two, and the rest of the season 2 storylines (the Jurati Borg and Q's "death") got "Rise of Skywalker" level retcons.  I liked season 3 better than Seasons 1 and 2 but it's weird and confusing to re-write continuity with a couple one-off lines.

- I loved the character moments, but the plot this season doesn't hold up under much scrutiny.  One thing I thought I liked about season 2 was that the Borg seemed like a nullified threat.  Maybe they could be villains again, maybe not.  But for the Borg to essentially be the main villain for all three seasons is pretty lame in my opinion.  And to be fair, I didn't even like that the season was about Starfleet being infiltrated again (since it was technically a storyline in all three seasons if you count the Evil Starfleet from the beginning of season 2).  Changelings on a ship being chased by Changelings could be a cool story, but I'm a little tired of Starfleet command always being evil or replaced or infiltrated or whatever.

- So why did the Changelings work with the Borg?  Is it just an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation?  What did the Changelings get out of the Borg being rebuilt?  Wouldn't they hate the Borg just as much as they hate any other solids?  How did the Borg Queen even find the Changelings and how is it better revenge to assimilate Starfleet than to simply take over themselves (which they'd already done).

- The whole Enterprise D thing was cool, and I feel like the explanation made sense?  I don't know how difficult it would be in the 25th century to rebuild a ship by yourself, even if you're a master engineer and you have 20 years to do it.  But maybe when he says he rebuilt it, he means he had low-level grunt help.  I saw an article saying that maybe he used the outlawed "slave androids" from season 1 since they would've been legal for some of that time.  Since he references drones, maybe that's all he needed to do.  And to be fair, maybe the D wasn't as damaged as we think and it just needed a decent amount of cleanup (which could be done in 20 years).

All in all, I thought it was a great sendoff for the Next Generation Crew.  I acknowledge that the series wants to move forward with new blood, but I would love an anthology series where we get an episode for different TNG/DS9/VOY castmembers (either main cast or even smaller roles like Naomi Wildman).  Let's see what everyone is up to and get cool little one-off stories for Bashir and Quark and Tom Paris and even Harry Kim.  Let's see the Doctor again!  I know a lot of these guys could come back for the already-announced Starfleet Academy but I want an anthology show to put some of these characters to bed.  Then we can either do a time jump again (like Next Gen did), pick up from Discovery, or whatever.

Yeah, that's what I mean it's written for middle schoolers.  I watch a lot of TV and when two characters like each other, someone makes a move and it's accepted and then they're in a relationship.  There might be minor issues when it comes to major steps in the relationship and I assume that Allegra might have a little apprehension about those that get close to her dying, but these characters are adults.  They can get over the simple fact that they like each other.

The problem with some of these storylines is that they're repetitive.  Chillblaine and Khione are doing the same thing, it seems.  Barry and Iris have similar issues to Joe and Cecile.

Maybe they should've had Chester switch powers with Allegra and she has to help him navigate it.  And maybe he teaches her about running point so he can be out in the field.  Now they're spending time together but it's not "Do You Like Me: Check Yes or No" - they're literally stepping into the others shoes and learning the other's deepest interests.

I just don't understand what this season is doing.  I would think a final season would be about legacy.  Or moving forward from having a fun superhero life in your 20s to having a family in your 30s.  Maybe Barry starts actively working for Team Flash to replace him (for the most part) so he can be a father?  Or maybe he looks to transfer his speed to someone else so that Central City can still have a Flash without Barry constantly putting his life on the line? 

Maybe they do the Azrael story where Barry finds a new Flash and he ends up being a psycho.  And Barry, no speed, has to take down the Flash.  Or maybe we spend the whole season with Barry working to find a new Flash and realizes that he doesn't have to give up his speed to be a good parent.  I don't know, I'm just spitballing and I've only been thinking about it for five minutes and the CW isn't paying me

But training a replacement allows Grant Gustin to be gone for a certain time, allows for the other castmembers to grow, and allows for fun new stories that make season nine feel like season one.

But, sure, let's keep figuring out if people in their 30s know how to navigate a crush.

I'm interested.  But I'm mostly interested in seeing what kind of response this ends up being because I think most of Star Wars is a studio reaction to what came before.

George Lucas did his prequels, and they were, especially at the time, ridiculed.  Some of that might have been because George Lucas (and team) thought that people liked Star Wars because of the lightsaber fights.  The prequels ended up being a overly complicated political drama in the Star Wars universe with a lot of lightsaber fights.  Although sentiment has flipped a bit since then, the main thought ended up being prequels=bad and Lucas=finished.

So Disney got their hands on Star Wars and decided to make a new Star Wars film.  Since prequels=bad and Lucas=finished, they got new blood in and went as far away from the prequels as possible.  Instead of trying something new, they redid the original movie.  They leaned on established characters and imagery and got as far away from politics as possible.

And while the Force Awakens was a big hit, people didn't like the fact that it was so close to A New Hope.  So Rian Johnson went with the most non-Star Wars film yet.  Johnson tried to defy expectations and made a movie where the great Luke Skywalker doesn't do much and doesn't believe in the Jedi.  Reception was very mixed and the fanbase was split.

In the meantime, Star Wars had a fun little story with a prequel set during the original trilogy.  Maybe the fans don't love the sequel trilogy but they could create tons of spinoffs.  So they banked pretty heavy on Solo, which they shot twice, and it wasn't warmly received.  Reaction: no more spinoffs.

Then came Rise of Skywalker which went back to the Original Trilogy mold.  Brought back the Emperor and Lando and Darth Vader's helmet and tried to undo and redo as much of Rian Johnson's movie as possible.  And even though people hated The Last Jedi, they really hated Rise of Skywalker.

Then came the Mandalorian.  Again, someone tried to do something new - A Star Wars TV show!  There were things that people liked (Mandalorian armor!  Yoda creature!) but not many lightsabers or Star Wars.  It was a western in the Star Wars universe.  And it was a big hit!  And they brought back Yoda and Boba Fett and a lot of fun stuff.  Reaction - movies are bad.  TV is the future.

So where does Star Wars go from here?  They haven't made a Star Wars movie since Rise of Skywalker, cancelling project after project.  Do they go back to the Original Trilogy well?  Do they try to do something original?  Do they make it like the Mandalorian?  If the first movie does well, will they do more like it?  Keep trying new stuff?  If it does poorly, does it become a one-off?  How much of Rise of Skywalker do they try and undo or ignore?

It will all be very interesting.

*****

From a narrative place, I wonder how they will do it.  We won't be far enough in the future that characters from the Mandalorian will be too old to show up.  If the Mandalorian is the new gold standard for Star Wars, will we see Rey added to those stories?  Will we see Ahsoka?  Ezra Bridger?  Din?  Thrawn?

*****

And like I was saying before, why would Rey's next Jedi school work out any better than Luke's?  Did Luke's school fail because Luke was too devout to the old ways of the Jedi?  Luke implies this but....how?  Was Kylo turned to the dark side because he wasn't allowed to love?  I don't think so.  Kylo had the biggest expectations in the history of the galaxy with a darkness inside him that no one was able to reign in.  It was bad but I don't think the old ways of the Jedi are to blame.  Luke probably should've learned that lesson but he didn't and passed it on to Rey.

But I'm unsure on why I should believe this next school will be better than the last.  Or why anyone in the galaxy should buy into a New New Republic considering what happened to the last two.

So the indictment on Trump in New York feels like a nothingburger.  Granted, I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know any more details than anyone else outside of the Grand Jury.  Maybe there's something in there that will both lead to a conviction and even jail time.  But most legal experts I've read, even left-leaning ones, think that even if he's convicted, he's looking at a fine and no jail time.

This coming from a very liberal city and a DA that ran on a campaign to get Trump.  Yes, it would be embarrassing to lose, but his job literally depends on him giving it a shot.

But does that matter?  Does it matter if the first case that goes to trial against Trump is a dud?  Or did someone need to go first, and this one is as good as any to accomplish that?  I feel like the Georgia case is the one that has the best chance of doing something - it's a recording and clearly shows Trump was trying to influence the election.  That one feels like a slam dunk, even though I also don't know what the penalty would be for that.

Also...does it matter?  Will Republican voters turn away from Trump post-indictment?  Some will.  I don't think everyone would.  And we've become so "anti-them" that I don't know if even matters who people are voting for.  Just who they're voting against.  If this were Hillary Clinton running as a republican against Joe Biden, would 75 million Republicans vote for her?  I think maybe they would.

Trump can run while under indictment.  He can serve as president from jail (although I wonder how that would even work with the secret service having to protect him).  He could also be convicted, go to jail, and constitutionally have to be released so he can be president.

Does any of this matter?  I really don't know.  Trump's campaign isn't really going great, depending on which polls you believe.  He's either crushing DeSantis or he's getting crushed by him.  Doesn't seem like it's one or the other.  And I think DeSantis just needs more name recognition and he'd beat Trump.  And if he does, Trump will do something to sabotage DeSantis' chance. 

I think that's the best way Biden wins.

I don't know where I'm going with this.  I just can't get excited about this indictment.  Having a mugshot of Trump could be funny.  Will he be mad?  Will he do that stupid smile of his?  Will he try to look tough?  That's the only part I care about.

That's a pretty good summary.

I think one of the themes of Star Wars is survival against the odds.  It's more exciting when David beats Goliath so to have a ragtag group of rebels beat an overwhelming Empire is fun and impressive.  We like an underdog story.  And even the title "A New Hope" is an inspirational message against something that seems invincible.

And even in the prequels, Lucas does this.  The Jedi and the Republic have all the numbers, but even then, Lucas is able to paint the situation as hopeless.  Palpatine is in charge of the Senate and is ten steps ahead of the Jedi.  Because we know the end, the story still feels grim.  And even though the Republic falls and the Jedi are wiped out, Obi-Wan and Yoda saving themselves and the twins feels like a win against insurmountable odds.

And then JJ Abrams gets the ability to make a new Star Wars movie.  But he doesn't want to make a movie about a fledgling Republic and a new enemy.  He wants the Rebellion vs the Empire.  And not only that, he wants the stakes to be increase significantly.  There is no Luke.  The Republic can't help because it's destroyed without fanfare.  But all the other faces are the same - the stormtroopers and ships and weapons are all basically the same.  They even have a new more powerful Darth Vader and Death Star.

The problem is that there's no growth in that story.  It's not a sequel, it's a reboot.

And besides being lazy, it does a disservice to the stories that came before.  It's a 90s sitcom where they have a Very Special Episode about pill use or suicide and the next week everyone's going to get frosty chocolate milkshakes as if nothing happened.

I think there were ways to do the kinds of stories that Abrams wanted to tell without dismantling all the thematic progress the stories had made.  Maybe the remnants of the Empire escaped to the far reaches of the galaxy.  Maybe they licked their wounds and combined with a greater threat, and they come back.  Maybe Jakku is the furthest planet out in the New Republic and this new threat attacks there first.  That would certainly feel hopeless.  The Jedi and the New Republic are too far out to come, and First Order has Empire ships and loads of stormtroopers.

Maybe they continue this story with the First Order being welcomed on places like Jakku which are too far away to get the protection of the New Republic and are now struggling to survive without the support the Empire used to provide.  That would feel hopeless.

I don't know.  Thinking about it just bums me out.  I don't think the movies are terrible, and I think they have a lot of good parts.  I think they get Star Wars (1977).  I just wish they understood Star Wars (the overall universe that evolved significantly since 1977).

Thoughts on the first 60% of Season 3 of Picard.  First just a general "I really love this show" because I think it's really great.  I think it's as well done as Strange New Worlds but with a level of nostalgia that I appreciate more as a bigger fan of the TNG/DS9/VOY era.  I don't know if it's definitely the best of "new Trek", but it's miles ahead of the first two seasons of Picard and a lot of Discovery.

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I'll start with my negatives.  As much as I *love* that the Changelings are back because I think they're a really cool villain...are we really doing a "Starfleet has been infiltrated and is the real bad guys" season again?  Didn't we basically do that in season 1 and then show it again in the alternate future in season 2?  I get that Starfleet is supposed to be this rock, but TNG went to this well a hundred times too.  Essentially 90% of the admirals we've ever met are evil or corrupt or secretly a (insert evil species).  The Changelings are cool, and if this is going to be their sequel story, this is probably how they'd go about doing it.

But couldn't we just have this be the TNG cast reuniting to go on one more adventure?  Does it have to be the End of Starfleet (TM) or the End of the Federation (TM) every time?  95% of Trek isn't about saving the entire galaxy.  I don't know why New Trek has to be almost entirely about that.

Okay, enough bad stuff.  I love the crew getting back together.  And I love that the space between Nemesis and this season feels lived in.  Worf, Geordi, Crusher, even Data...it feels like time has actually passed.  I know there's some weird timeline stuff (season 3 should be way further removed from season 2 if I understand the timeline correctly), but I feel like they put some thought into how these characters would react and grow.

And I'm really liking the nostalgia stuff, like I said.  Episode 6 is essentially an easter egg factory, and as corny as the scene at the shipyard with Seven and Jack could've been, it was beautiful.  Playing the theme for TOS/DS9/VOY as we saw each ship was great.  Having Seven discuss her life on Voyager as the Voyager theme played was amazing.  I've rewatched that scene several times.

(Side note since I've rewatched it so many times - Jack has heard of the Defiant but not Voyager?  Does that make sense in-world?  I get that the Defiant was a big part of winning the Dominion War, but people know the Titanic before any military ship, right?  Voyager made it seem like the ship was big news for civilians so I would think Jack would be familiar with Voyager before anything from the Dominion War.  But maybe I'm wrong?)

I also think it's interesting that if you look carefully, you can see the proposed refit from the cancelled season of Enterprise.  So they built a model for it, but they didn't mention it?  I know Enterprise has no connection to this show, but you'd think they could've added a line of dialogue about it.

Anyway, I'm still hoping to see more cameos before the season is over....or that the "Star Trek Legacy" show comes about.  I still think there are so many characters that I'd like to catch up on.  And if everyone comes back but Chief O'Brien doesn't....come on.  We need to see some of Seven's old family.  We need to see Dr. Bashir.  We need to see Quark.  I'd love an anthology series where we catch up with each of these guys properly.

And Picard has been so good that I actually started watching Prodigy.  I needed a bit more Trek in my life.  So far it's very kiddie but I hear that it gets a bit more mature as time goes on.  Anyone else watching it?

I really liked it.  I'm a little surprised it was nominated for best picture (let alone won) because I think it dipped into being too silly at times.  But I'm glad it did win, and I hope it inspires Hollywood to do more stuff like it.