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I agree.  I know she wants to hold out until he releases whatever, but she's going to be president.  If she wants us to trust her, she needs to rise above Trump and not answer everything "well, he's not doing it so I shouldn't have to."

She should release her medical records, the Wall Street transcripts, and anything else people want.  It shouldn't just be about being better than Donald Trump.  The bar to be president should be higher than that, even if this election isn't.

Ah, I was about to be really impressed!

I'm just wondering what his most lasting memory is of the show.  I wonder what, if anything, his first thought about it would be.  Something generic like "working with great people" or if a specific scene or episode really sticks out for him.

For a lot of people, acting is just work.  I know Cleavant cared about the show more than, say, Robert Floyd, but I'm just curious what, again if anything, his memory of Sliders is.

This is clearly just for fun.  No one is allowed to get offended or say anything that would cause someone to otherwise be offended.

The Johnson stuff, to me, is irrelevant.  He's not a serious contender for the President, and as a 3rd party candidate, his only role in this election is to push his party's agenda.  And his party's agenda is mostly domestic.  So it honestly doesn't matter what his thoughts are on Syria because, in the long run, it doesn't matter.

As a former journalist, I was also a bit disturbed by the way that question was phrased.  “What would you do if you were elected about Aleppo?", to me, is a question designed specifically to get the response that Johnson gave.  Because the question had little to do with the city of Aleppo and more to do with the Syrian refugee issue as a whole.  It would be like asking "What are you going to do about Raqqa?" when you're actually asking what you would do about ISIS.

Regarding Putin, Trump is an idiot, but Putin isn't going away.  So what should be the US' policy on Russia?  If you go to Hillary's website, there's a ton of issues she talks about.  Nothing in there about Russia.  So while they're saying Trump would let Putin bully him, what's the alternative?  World War 3?  A second cold war?

There's thoughts that Putin in supporting Trump because he's worried about Hillary.  She's a known war hawk who's already responsible for the death of one of Putin's allies (Gaddafi), and who's openly wanted to get rid of another of one his allies (Assad).  And while "a bad person with bad friends is afraid of her!" sounds like a great reason to vote for Hillary, do we really want a scared Vladamir Putin?  Is that really in the best interests of anyone in the world?

Again, Trump is an idiot, but it's another instance where I'm not sure Hillary really looks much better.  It's just a terrible election with two terrible candidates.

Haha, well as we discussed privately, I hope you find the time to finish up.  I rather liked the last part and look forward to the conclusion.

I know why they did, but they shouldn't have included any movie characters in the show.  It should've been kept separate.  Ripples are fine, but there shouldn't be anyone major from the movies (except Fury) for these guys to interact with.

That way, it would be separate, which is what they want.

Instead, they're splitting hairs and it doesn't make sense.  Tony should know that Phil is alive.  So should Cap.  At the very least, those two should know.  And right now would be the perfect time to reveal that.  Cap is in the wind with half the team.  No one else on the team now even knew Coulson.  So either get RDJ to film a cameo on Skype (PHIL!  WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE ALIVE) or have Coulson say he just got off the phone with Stark and he was pissed.

Problem solved.  Saying that no one knows he's alive is stupid.  Even for the MCU.

The next season of Agents of SHIELD could be interesting, but I can't believe they're still trying to convince the world that Coulson is dead.  He's been working in the open for years now.  I could see how Joe Q Public doesn't know he's alive, but people *freaked out* at the idea of Bruce Wayne appearing in one random French cafe for five minutes in Dark Knight Rises. 

Coulson was apparently the big death in the biggest attack in history.  People don't recognize him?  And everyone in the government knows he's alive but Tony and company never figured it out?  Steve doesn't know?

http://www.superherohype.com/news/38146 … d#/slide/1

There was one night where I answered questions for literally 30-40 times until I just gave up (since the conversion from Sliders questions to "Hello" and "Earth" questions).  But since that time, it's worked perfectly.  I get questions every couple times, and it's only made me answer one (and on occasion, twice).

Yeah but she claims the emails she was deleting were about yoga and weddings.  Regular deleting works pretty well for that stuff, right?

And the hammer just seems excessive.  Why not hydrochloric acid?  Or having Elon Musk shoot it into the sun? 

It just adds to the Hillary dichotomy.  She'll pay a ton of money to permanently delete emails about yoga, but she uses a $3 hammer to destroy a Blackberry with national security information on it.

That's exactly right.  What's crazy is that the Republicans are already making moves to "rig" their next election, and the Democrats don't really have their next guy lined up.  The Democratic Party has spent the last 16 years trying to set up Hillary Clinton for a run that I'm guessing we'll have a wide-open field next time.  Bernie will probably be dead and Tim Kaine would be 66 this time around if Hillary wins two terms.

Well, she said she was never trained on it.  But handling classified information is a decent part of the Secretary of State, right?  Wouldn't she ask questions?  What keeps coming back to me is that this wasn't a job she ever took seriously.  She didn't want to handle matters of state - she wanted the job to put on her presidential resume and nothing more.  It's why she accomplished practically nothing and even members of the State department can't name a single thing she accomplished that was noteworthy.  It was a paperboy job your kid gets so he can buy a bike and then quits as soon as it's bought.

I go back and forth with her in my mind as either a cunning, devious, power-hungry monster.  And then when I read the FBI report (and I read the whole thing), she just comes off as an idiot.  She just sorta floated around in the State department not really understanding what was happening and not really understanding what she was supposed to do.  I can see her setting up this private server to do all kind of backroom deals, and I can also see her spending all this money because someone tricked her into doing it.

It's mutually exclusive, I know.  And I struggle with which side she actually falls on.  Is she a liar or does she actually not know the answer to any of these questions?

Well, the only thing is that he got billing (in the credits that were released) second.  Ahead of everyone but Will Smith.  That doesn't always mean anything, but it does usually mean something.  The example I keep thinking of is Scream with Drew Barrymore, but 1) that was done as a surprise because she dies so early and 2) she's still the final "and" billing on the poster (5th spot).

For Leto to be 2nd billing, he'd either need to be paid the 2nd highest (which is possible even if he's not the 2nd star) or he's the 2nd biggest character.  And, again, just based on material that made it into the trailers, there's enough to think that maybe he was a much bigger character.  Maybe even as big as Harley (Leto is ahead of Robbie, who's easily a top two character in this movie, and she's arguably a bigger star than him).

So maybe they sold him as a big enough force in this movie and in Harley's backstory that he could be 2nd billing.   And if he was sold that, then I could see why he was upset.  If he wasn't sold that, I can't really explain why he'd be second billing.  He both doesn't have that big of an impact on the narrative and doesn't have the screen time to warrant that.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/38080 … s#/slide/1

A couple interesting tidbits from this:

1) It provides the first visual evidence (that I've seen) that Harley was involved in Robin's death.  Although it says "accomplice" - she didn't do it (as was previously reported).  Since she's Joker's accomplice, that makes sense.  And based on how she reacted when she found out about Diablo's crime, she might've even been an unwilling accomplice.  Changes things a tad.

2) I didn't notice this, but Jared Leto was second billing in the end credits, ahead of Margot Robbie.  Considering how many scenes were seemingly cut (based on scenes not in the trailer and leaked scene descriptions), that both makes sense from a credits perspective (which were probably made before the movie was completely edited and/or were based on contractual obligations which were signed before the movie was completely edited) and explains why Leto is so upset.  He was signed as second-billing and gets a wandering 10 minutes of screentime.

Or, alternatively, Marvel is so scared about the success of the BvS Ultimate Cut and Suicide Squad that they're going into full panic mode.  And since their movies are so cartoony, they turned to a comedic writer to make everything brighter and funnier.

If Hillary were running against any politician, this email story would've been the end of her campaign.  Cruz, Rubio, Bush, Ryan....name the guy, they'd beat her.  But no one cares about the emails because she's running against someone who's universally seen as worse.

Trump is getting one percent of the African American vote.  This race should be mathematically impossible due to that fact alone.  But it isn't...because she's a really terrible candidate.

I don't disagree with any of this, and that's actually been my biggest struggle as a writer.  I feel like I have solid ideas but just an awful translation from brain to paper/screen.  I'm working on my second novel, and I love the story but get bored my some of my own writing.  Which is....bad. 

I have a dozen ideas that I absolutely *love* and want to get out there, and I'm considering putting them in a collection of short stories.  I think a lot of them would do better in a full version in someone else's hands, and if I can do some sort of Phillip K. Dick stories, maybe a handful of talented writers can make the next generation of Blade Runner/High Castle/Minority Report/etc.

Not that I'm anywhere near as good or talented or creative as Phillip K. Dick.  But you know, I can dream.

PS - I just checked my email, Ib.  On it.

I agree.  But this is the ultimate time for Easter Eggs, hints, etc, and there's just nothing in the three movies to indicate that Batman ever had another partner.  There's a Robin Easter Egg in both BvS and Suicide Squad, but there's nothing else.  And in this age of hints and teases and after credits scenes and ultimate editions, you gotta think they'd throw something in if the Bat-Family was going to be used at all.

I hope I'm wrong too.

The problem is that we spent so much time focusing on Trump, someone who's not going to win, than about Hillary.  She's already backing off promises she made a couple months ago, hiring a transition chair that is pro-TPP and a fracking defender.  Usually candidates wait until they're in office to start breaking campaign promises, but this election was over long-enough-ago that she's already basically doing whatever she wants.

We'll be in Syria in her first 100 days.
Fracking will be expanded extensively around the world.
TPP is here to stay.
Any progressive idea that Hillary agreed to appease Bernie folks will be ignored or worked against.

And we're ignoring all of it because Donald Trump says stupid stuff.

Hashtag America.

I can understand the idea that Dick doesn't want to talk to Bruce or vice versa, but Dick thinks of Bruce as his father.  Bruce thinks of Dick as a son.  I don't think they'd be able to stay silent when Bruce is about to fight Superman.  And if they did, I don't think the silence would last long.  Dick would call Bruce and apologize - thank God that he wasn't dead.  Or Bruce would call and apologize.  Couldn't believe that things went so bad.

These are world-building, character moments that would've really helped establish the world.  My problem with BvS is that I'm still not really sure who Batman is.  We know the crazy, murderous guy that Bruce became, but who was Batman before?  We've had three DCEU movies, two featuring Bruce, and we know almost nothing about him.  How long was he Batman?  Did he have other partners?  Was he retired when Superman showed up?  Did he retire because of Robin or something else?

BvS is a 3+ hour movie, and Batman is the protagonist.  How could they not give us more than we got?

Ooh, I really like that too.  Padalecki is 34 and Affleck is 44.  That'd work, honestly.  If Bruce started his career at 25 and Dick was a teenager when his parents were killed.

Although I don't know if Nightwing will be in the DCEU.  I bet there's only one Robin and he ends up being Red Hood.

I would like Nightwing to end up in the Arrowverse, though.  I don't know how you do Dick without having the rights to Bruce, but one step at a time.

While trying to cast Shazam / Captain Marvel, the guys at the Weekly Planet threw out the idea of Jared Padalecki.  Thoughts?

The name Peter Parker might sell.  Does the name Mary Jane Watson sell?  I'm sure some comic fans might be upset about a new character being invented, but they're seeing the movie regardless.  Non-comic fans won't know the difference.  They might've thought Gwen Stacy was a new character.

It's the same with Iris West in the Flash movie.  I know Iris is becoming like Nick Fury and known to new audiences as a black woman.  But other than its impact on Wally, who may or may not even appear in the DCEU, Iris has no impact on the story.  Barry's love interest could be a new character named Donna Williams and it wouldn't matter.

These are ancillary characters, and it really doesn't matter.  Even for main characters it doesn't matter.  It has always just seemed lazy to create diversity by race-swapping.

Thor 3 is going to get some extra buzz because they're mixing in Planet Hulk.  That's a story a lot of comic people would love to see, and I bet it's something that gets more buzz from casual audiences than a normal Hulk sequel.

Civil War did better as an Avengers 2 than Ultron did so while Ultron wasn't that big of a deal, Civil War made up for it.

I expect Doctor Strange will do well.  Not as well as the others but as well as Ant-Man.  It will depend on word of mouth.

Informant won't like this:

http://www.superherohype.com/news/38039 … n#/slide/1

Another traditionally redheaded character possibly race-swapped.

Well, I think it might've been in the presentation.  Yes, he struggles with the lightsaber, but he also is adept enough in the Force to stop that blaster and hold it in the air for a while.  We saw Vader deflect/absorb Han's blaster fire in Empire, and maybe one is harder than the other.  But it's something we'd never seen before from any other Force-user, and I think it was supposed to be impressive.

Then there's the fact that Ren appears to be in the "Vader" role for Snoke.  So Snoke is the master and Ren is the apprentice.  Now, maybe Ren is an apprentice in the true meaning of the word and is simply learning the ways of the dark side and the Force, but it'd be odd for Snoke to entrust someone who could've easily been killed by a couple people with no experience.

The problem with the "Is Rey too powerful" argument is that you have to weaken your villains to make it work, and I'm not sure that's any better.  The Force Awakens has three villains: Snoke, Kylo Ren, and Phasma.  Snoke and Phasma are barely in it and don't do much so almost all the "villain" weight falls on Kylo Ren.  And if he's just a very-Force-sensitive guy with "rudimentary training" and "marginal talent" then he's not much of a villain.  I know they're going for a villain who's conflicted and maybe someone who will rise to power on the same level as our hero, but Star Wars has a legacy of strong villains that the hero has to rise to overcome (even in the prequels).

To suddenly have an inexperienced guy who doesn't really know what he's doing isn't a great way to go either.

I don't think it's been announced, but people have identified a number of scenes included prominently in the trailers that didn't appear in the movie.  So whether or not there's an extended edition released, there's enough for one down the road.  Whether it's the original Ayer version, the original Trailer Park version, or some sort of version with everything thrown in.

I mean if you got something from Croc or Boomerang, that's awesome.  I know I saw the movie last weekend, but the more time that passes, the less I can remember *anything* relevant that they did.  They make a couple offhand jokes, Boomerang is the one that convinces Slipknot to escape, Croc swims underneath the battle scene (but doesn't detonate the bomb). 

And this is where I think you're misunderstanding me.  Mis-utilizing the characters or under-utilizing them is different from what I'm talking about.  If you edit out Hulk, you cause plot holes (how did they find the sceptor?  How does Thor get thrown off the heli-carrier?  How does Loki end up unconscious in Stark's tower?).  Thor would be almost impossible to remove without destroying the movie (who took Loki into custody?  how did Loki escape the ship?).  Not to mention there are scenes that revolve entirely around one of those characters (Thor sets up the first intra-Avengers fight, and Hulk is in the middle of the second one).

If you took editing software and literally removed Killer Croc and Captain Boomerang from every ensemble scene and removed any scene where the characters are alone, I really don't think any plot holes are created outside of "who threw the bomb?"  Slipknot escapes because of course he does.  The soldiers take the bomb through the sewers because that was the plan originally.  There's no "video boomerang" but they got intel some other way.

Some dialogue might not make sense, but we're talking about removing entire characters with (and again, I could be forgetting something) almost zero impact on the plot.

Thor and Hulk might be one-dimensional characters and they could probably be swapped for someone more interesting, but you can't edit out their scenes and still have a movie that makes sense.  Croc and Boomerang literally (and I mean that) have almost no impact on the plot and can be removed without affecting anything.

A good recent example is Rogue from Days of Future Past.  She was removed entirely from the plot, and it didn't impact anything.  Her story was interesting and it did add to the plot when she's there, but it was removed without altering the main story.  So, yes, Croc and Boomerang might've done the same.  But for the most part, they're doing so little and contributing so little that there was almost no point in them being in the movie at all.