1) I can't believe anybody did this.

2) Thank you for doing this.

3) I'm so sorry you did this.

I'm telling you, it kinda worked!

Can one of y'all still-drinkers ( ) do me a solid and just try a shot-glass sized pickle martini? Chilled vodka, splash of pickle juice? Can a brother get some backup?

No?

That's fair.

hashtag realtalk.

I think I may have mentioned this on the Extended Edition SW7 commentary, but I went through a sudden realignment/rejection of Star Wars fandom recently which could not have been predicted; for twenty-two years I lived and breathed Star Wars, and in six months it evaporated from my consciousness entirely. Just the whole damn thing. Affection, interest, participation; it just blew away.

I'm mostly sad that I'm not sad.

The footprint is still there. I still have the whole damn Phantom Menace memorized. I appreciate the fuck out of the art Auralnauts and Bad Lip Reading have been making out of Star Wars movies. (Context remixes are the contribution of our generation, y'all, they're the hip-hop of our moment in film history, get onboard.) I still know what Yoda's walking stick is made of, for fuck's sake. All this stuff is still in me. It's also, simultaneously, disconnected. It's disconnected from me, and I've disconnected myself from it. I'm out. (Same with Marvel movies, but dropping those was uncomplicated.)

Pop culture just died in me, all at once — and it had been most of my personality up until recently, so, it's been whiplash-inducing. I didn't swear off the world or anything; I'm still into movies that are well-crafted little inventions. But when I look at movies in general these days, I only see our inevitable march to automated blockbuster production and schedules that require John Williams to write shapeless 'suites' as modular editorial assets in advance instead of writing sculptures to picture that intertwine-with and compliment motivations in the scene because we have to keep the edit unlocked until four weeks before release because we know in advance we'll be integrating last-minute pick-ups into the edit because we know in advance that a focus group of reasonable people will describe our picture-locked plot as 'images; inordinant.' These patterns are all I see at the theater, and always while seeing the global pattern they're a microcosm of, and the whole damn Marvel shit looks like the fuckin' downfall some days, I swear to god.

You know, my Star Wars thing may not be particularly similar to your Star Wars thing, actually.

I feel I've made this weird.

Not tryin' to get weird here, but that was fairly moving to read. I'm still chewin' on the 'arc' of DIF myself; it's gratifying to know someone else is too.

(Of course, I've also just realized that it probably looks like I bumped this thread to get someone to say nice things about the show, and now I feel like a doofus for not predicting this predicament.)

Anyway. Thanks for the analysis, P. Nice to see those years through someone else's eyes.

True fact: this is the first feedback I've ever heard about the game itself. Glad it's not a piece of shit!

You're welcome, and, incidentally: thanks.

Hey look, Tom's back!

I want so badly to help you, and cannot.

Seconded.

EDIT: Was just doing the 'Williams has to make modular suite-music now' shpiel for a co-worker ten minutes ago, oddly enough.

Prax, not sure what I was expecting, but that first trailer was a lot cooler than it.