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....yeah. Good on him. His character was as dumb as the rest of the movie though. Not his fault I'm sure.

What I Liked:
Rey's and Ben's whole thread worked for me, that is their stuff together. Aside from agreeing that the kiss was completely unearned and unnecessary, there was some really cool stuff with the fighting-in-different-locations and teleportation. It got set up (some of it in TLJ) and paid off well.

What I Didn't Like:
Juuuust about everything else. It had some fun lines and good moments, but man was it a mess.

As a movie...this was not a movie. It felt like a thousand disjointed vignettes all clamoring for attention, with characters saying nothing but catchphrases, exposition, and platitudes to each other. Which, yeah Star Wars has always had dialogue problems but it really felt like 95% of the lines were like that. The scene where older General is kneeling before the Emperor (so we can see he serves him) and says, TO THE EMPEROR: 'I served you before, I serve you now'.....what? That was such an unnecessary thing to say. And it felt like that was most of the dialogue.
Mind you, this was not an especially bad movie. It was just bad. That's fine. It's about what I expected Abrams to do.

But as a story? Fuck this movie. For all its pacing issues, TLJ made an awesome theme that you don't have to be related to someone special to accomplish great things. AND, the Jedi have been arrogant to claim the 'force' or at least its 'light side' as their own. The force is everywhere and everyone. Rey claiming the Skywalker name would have even been fine if she really was nobody. She just wanted a family, and she got one. She didn't need to be related to anyone to matter. And Luke was right about the Jedi being prideful.
But this movie says, "NOPE. You have to be related to someone uber-powerful. AND, NOOOOOPE, the Jedi are literally all the embodiment of GOOD."

Fuck that.

Me again! With a sermon! About fighting BABIES! (It's a Christmas thing...)

Interested? https://crossroadsct.info/media/who-is- … e-humanity

This is the second time the audio didn't work for ME specifically, but our guy was able to make it much better even without the main channel.

Lol I am SOO glad for that joke. Without it, the shot would have been the most ridiculous, self-indulgent bit I've seen in anything outside of wartime propaganda.

I was laughing *at* it until Mando said that line, then I was laughing with it. Me of little faith...

Also enjoyed the setup-payoff of the steel in the jacket pocket

....you just blew my mind, Marty

I'm beginning to get a little more confident that they won't retcon Rey's parentage. Thank goodness.
I *think* that Rey will be handed (by all the force ghosts) the mantle of "Skywalker" which will serve as an open caretaker of Force knowledge, rather than an exclusive "we're the only good guys" vibe of the Jedi order.

Here's hopin'

Also I'm looking forward to this, one way or another.

So far TFA is the only one I haven't liked. Rogue One remains the best IMO. Loved TLJ's themes and execution. Solo was rockin' fun with a story/atmosphere/vibe that felt like Solo himself was telling it.

Update #11
Hey, this is actually still going! Turns out that finagling a board game with many part abilities/bonuses takes a long time. Not that I'm surprised, just enjoying the process. Oh, also I can't focus on it all the time because programming!

Ok, so where we at? Well, it's adorable that I said "I don't expect the rules to change *much* before sending out test kits" because...wow. But a lot of the changes have been very gradual. For the most part, the core mechanics (asteroid, ship-building, combat cards) are the same.
On that note, the cards (I started with dice remember?) work amazingly well. They've felt random *enough* and had a good ratio of Hits to Critical Hits in every game. That part has not ever felt like it needed adjustments since they were first introduced. Using the cards as damage counters (and secondarily as collection bonuses) has turned out to be an inspired move, though I say it myself. They seriously add to the game by giving a player who's getting pummeled a chance to come back. Basically, the more times you're hit, the more likely you are to get a good bonus. It's a built-in balancing mechanic that has allowed for some serious comebacks without ever feeling unfair to the almost-winner. I really freaking love this mechanic, and if I ever finish this game, it will probably find its way to future games in some form.

As for the asteroid, it's basically the same, just with more varied tiles: instead of just resource tiles with a scattering of Hyacinth wreckage (bonus tiles) and dead exosuit guys (increase asteroid aggro), there are now Grit tiles (resource tiles that build up dangerous levels of foreign material), Shuttle wreckage tiles (tiles that grant a nice bonus *and* a drawback as long as you hold them), Void tiles (causing mass-discard of a whole asteroid pile), and a couple of others.

Just recently I've changed the function of asteroid attack tokens. Whereas before - if a player drew them - they would immediately attack both ships, now they build up and then unleash one giant attack before resetting. This helped the early-game breathe a bit more before things started getting out of hand. Plus, it feels *different* from just any ordinary attack, so that's a plus. This also allows players to see the odds of an incoming attack and prepare for it within reason.

So what's next? More experimenting! Of course.
1) Different system for asteroid aggro: instead of Saniss 130991 attacking both players at the same time, the aggro build-up can be *somewhat* directed by the players. Certain actions will influence the asteroid's attention to the other player, allowing for some strategy other than "Build guns and blast 'em!"
2) a pretty big shift in part-inventory: right now, each player starts with a set, equal number of parts in their inventory which they build with resources they obtain. I want to *try* giving each player only a few of the basic parts, and shifting the rest of the parts into an orbital "debris field" that players can scavenge as a separate action. This would allow for different strategies relying on attrition and force players to adapt if the parts they wanted have been taken.
This would be a significant change, but it will be fun to try out. It also gives a whole new set of options for part abilities/bonuses.

So, that's To Smithereens right now! Still iterating.

The main rules are here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aA5 … sp=sharing

The player handbook (parts, bonuses, etc) is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ttV4pz … sp=sharing

Why is one a docx and the other a google doc? *shrug* Don't @ me, bro.

I was hooked by the end of the 2nd Ep, so YMMV.

Anyway, just finished the series last night. My opinion hasn't changed re: Gelfling face puppetry, but man I enjoyed the storytelling. There were lots of opportunities for things to happen that would have been nice, neat, pat, and sappy, but no. The show was like "how about MURDER INSTEAD??"

Really enjoyed it. They did a great job of setting up the world of the movie, giving greater context for it, and leaving some stuff open for another season if they can make it. In other words: how you do a prequel
I would not be upset if the series just kept going and remade the movie as another short season. Maybe that makes me a Heretic, but it would be awesome to see the original fleshed out a bit more. A lot of the story beats in it were overly-simplistic and often unjustified. And since this ain't a show for little kids anyway, I'd love to see the show remake the movie.

Oh shoot what if that's a *feature*?

What if the face being a bad reproduction is just a hint that