scarynikki12

Given the Sam mentions along with time passing aesthetic changes like Alexi shaving and Yelena and Bucky growing their hair I'm leaning toward the ship indicating this scene is set during Doomsday.

I agree it made sense for Sansa to be wary of Dany and not try to be friends. Sansa wanted a free North and Dany didn't. Their desires were fundamentally opposed so, at best, they really could only be capable of basic civility when in each other's presence which is what happened. Something that always stayed with me whenever the conversation would turn to "will the Starks/the North ally with Dany when she makes it to Westeros?" is so many people repeating the line "It was the dragons we bowed to" when the North initially declared itself independent. A lot of people believed, then and now, that line was purely metaphorical when I can't see how it was anything other than literal. If Aegon the Conqueror hadn't had three dragons, and a willingness to destroy everyone who opposed his rule, the Starks followed by the North would never have bent the knee. They bowed to the actual dragons to save their families and neighbors. The Targs were incidental in that moment. The dragons made the difference not the humans riding them. That's something that was downplayed to Dany when she was learning about her heritage and she quickly bought into her own hype to the point she never would have considered it herself. It was good she didn't realize the Westerosi people bent the knee to the dragons rather than her ancestors as she may have gone mad earlier and torched the whole of Winterfell in retaliation for not getting the welcome she'd expected. Honestly if Dany wasn't involved with Jon I wonder if she'd have burned Sansa to force history to repeat itself. She knew burning any of Jon's family would have been a dealbreaker for their relationship and she wanted to keep it so she didn't. Had Jon not killed her I think she'd have flown back North and burned Winterfell in revenge. And I do get Dany's position. She firmly believes the whole of Westeros belongs to her and only her and letting any of the regions have independence may give the rest ideas. If she'd won the Iron Throne I don't think she'd have waited long before moving to conquer Dorne. They were allies in her invasion but Dany wanted it all and I don't know if they realized that. I've posted before about how real life friends bought into the Dany mythology so hard they expected everything to go her way once she invaded and, as expected, they hated Sansa for not falling in line. The really interesting thing for these friends, and a number of other people across social media and various forums, is how many people hated ARYA even more than Sansa for not falling in line. Yes, Arya liked the Targaryen stories she'd been told when she was a kid but that doesn't mean she was going to automatically bend the knee. If Dany had invaded earlier in the series maybe the Starks would have been willing to broker an agreement to keep the North independent but, at that point in the story, all of them were just tired of 7 kingdoms shit. Sansa was pushing the hardest for Northern independence but they all wanted it while Dany wanted history to repeat itself.

Yes please join us in the HG thread when you’re done. I’ve posted A LOT of theories inspired by Sunrise and a trilogy reread and we could use some new ideas.

Sinners will return to IMAX from May 15-21.

So they took the title and not much else if the trailer is any indication but still looks good.

It's being reported Sinners second weekend drop is only 6%. To give an idea, it's normal for the second weekend drop to be 40 something. All week the assumption was the word of mouth was going to make the drop between 20 and 30 so there was already an awareness of the movie's popularity. But 6% is unheard of. Hell yes. I can't wait to see how the studio execs will once again learn the wrong lessons from this.

New theory time. Something I think about a lot is how the Career districts are 1, 2, and 4. Not 1, 2, and 3. Or even a combo of districts that border each other (eg, 1, 4, 7 or 2, 5, 10). So the first part of my theory is all the districts made an attempt sometime after 10, whether en mass or one or two followed by the rest, to implement what became known as Careers. It's easy to see why the Careers became a thing in the first place. Your district's tributes are more likely to survive if they're better prepared. So they decide to give the kids some basic combat training and survival skills. At first I don't see the Capital having a problem with this. Snow in and after Ballads was determined to make the Games successful by upping the entertainment factor and a bunch of kids who stand a chance is more interesting than one or two. But, after a few years, Snow realizes if all the districts are allowed to spend years training their kids in combat and survival skills they may remember who the real enemy is and band together again. So he had to do something. The next part of my theory is this leads to the announcement of the Quarter Quell system and, surprise!, the first Quell just so happens to involve the districts voting on their tributes. Most/all of the kids who are elected to go have that training which does make for an exciting Games. The Capital would've had a ball watching a bunch of evenly matched kids fighting each other. After that Quell Snow drops the bomb that pre-Games training is now illegal and enforces this in most of the districts. He goes easy on 1, 2, and 4 and lets it slip that the Capital will turn a blind eye to their training if they aren't as obvious about it. Katniss said the kids in the Career districts were better fed so Snow also arranged for food to be more available. He also may have given money to the people in charge of the training to start encouraging the kids to not only volunteer but to see it as a high honor. Why did he go easy on those districts? Well 1 makes the luxury goods so he'd want to keep them mollified. Peacekeepers come from 2 so no brainer there. With 4 I just assume he loves seafood and doesn't want to disrupt access or maybe everyone in 4 is stunningly beautiful and he knows that will play well on television. This theory was sparked by some things I saw on YouTube after reading Sunrise but also Mags. She won 11 and I can see her being involved in the creation and/or initial implementation of the Careers. She'd have been coming from the perspective of wanting the kids to have their best chance in the Games.

Finished my Mockingjay reread last night and this time my post-ending thoughts are about Gale. I'm as shocked as anyone. When I think about Gale's double bombs going off in the Capital I always focus on them killing Prim and other innocents. But this time my brain brought another detail to my attention. A detail so obvious I should have seen it instantly so of course I only realized it last night. Gale's bombs almost killed Katniss as well. Katniss herself only focuses on Prim's death so I'm not sure she ever truly realized this as well. If Peeta hadn't been there to rip off her cloak* and put out the fires burning her body she'd have died in that moment as well. Even with Peeta's intervention she almost died. PEETA almost died as well as he was in the burn unit longer than Katniss. I know Gale wouldn't have been too upset about Peeta dying which isn't a knock on Gale. Gale would have felt some guilt as he knew Peeta was a good guy but I think he could have easily justified it as a mercy death in light of the torture and attempted strangulation. But Gale would have been consumed with guilt had Katniss died. Since she lived they both automatically shifted all focus on his bombs killing Prim. Like I said, an obvious fact but one I never realized before. Moving on, I am curious as to the details on Gale's new life after Coin's execution. Which then expands into some general curiosity and some headcanon. We know he's in 2 when Katniss, Peeta, and other 12 refugees return home and he has what's described as a "fancy job" but we don't know anything else. Makes sense as these are Katniss' POV and these lines are meant to be some of the final thoughts she has of Gale. She knows he's currently doing well, feels relief, and moves on. Any thoughts of him in the future would be in reference to that book she makes or answering questions from the kids. I don't see Gale or his family ever returning to 12 and I don't see Katniss ever thinking of him with regard to the present. I wonder what Gale's job in 2 is. Is he there as part of a group to figure out and implement a more positive type of law enforcement? We know an area of 12 gets designed for growing crops, which I assume has the primary purpose of feeding the residents, so maybe that kind of thing gets implemented across all the districts? Maybe Gale's in 2 to teach people how to survive in nature? He knows how to hunt and forage so whose to say he doesn't lead a program in 2 teaching this kind of self sufficiency? The primary purpose of 12 changes from coal to medicine making so I assume 2 experiences similar changes. I doubt 2 returns to masonry being their primary purpose, and definitely not providing the nation's Peacekeepers, but likely something else. No idea but it'd be interesting to know. I have to say I love Paylor and her government giving a whole district the job of medicine production. It's good they had it be at 12, as their population is super small post-war and benefit from producing something positive, but also with regard to the time we spent with her earlier in the book. Paylor saw all the wounded crammed together in that makeshift hospital just like Katniss and, while the words weren't spoken, she also had to be aware how such close quarters would allow disease to run rampant. Well, had the hospital not been bombed a few minutes later. Paylor's government making a point for an entire district industry to make and provide medicine for the whole nation's use is a nice effect of what she had witnessed earlier. Widespread medicine availability will help everyone and strengthen the nation. It's also another way to demonstrate how we don't have to worry about her leadership. She's not another Snow or Coin. I'm also curious what 13 will be doing going forward. They have a whole underground community in place that's kept them alive so I wonder if they'll become something like a general scientific research district. I also think there will be plenty of above ground residents reestablishing a community like what the other districts have. A piece of head canon I have is the debts of the Capital citizens will get wiped clean. Maybe outright no questions asked or maybe in exchange for moving to the districts and helping build up those communities. 12 will need plenty of workers for the medicine factory but they'll also need new shopkeepers. Same with 13, 2, and probably all the districts to different degrees. Plumbing and electricity will need to be installed in the new neighborhoods of 12 and 13 so those residents can live quality lives. The schools will get curriculum updates and will need new teachers. There will be a need for entertainment. There's actually a lot various Capital residents can do that doesn't involve dyeing their skin different colors. None of this would be coerced to be clear. It'd be along the lines of real life programs like the GI Bill. Also I would assume moving from one district to another would become not only possible but much easier. If Katniss' daughter has a yearning for the ocean she'll be free to move to 4. For the record, I don't see her kids moving from 12 simply because she can't. Grandchildren and future descendants, yes, but not her kids. Once they learn what she and Peeta went through, and how she's on district arrest, they'll want to take care of them as they get older. *callback to his promise to rip China's burning cape if it goes sideways in book 1

I'd say it depends on how you react to blood on screen. I'm never bothered by it so, for me, I'd say medium. There's a fair amount of blood in the movie but we do get shown wounds. No organs or bones but lots of bites, some head injuries, and a variety of other wounds. The story takes place over a 24 hour period, and these vamps don't insta-heal like they do in other stories, so the bites that turned them and any wounds after are still present. Even with all that, the human buffet is there but also isn't. We see some people get attacked and turned but the vast majority takes place offscreen. We know it's happening but we get shown the aftermath which I found scarier and sadder. Also the use of the lights in the eyes for the vamps was super creepy even knowing it would be there from the trailers. So, no torture or gore porn like the Saw movies, but still very creepy and bloody with multiple wounds. If it helps I'd say about a good half of the movie is set during the day so, if you're unsure and want to wait until streaming, you could watch that and then decide when the sun goes down.

Just got home from the theater. Excellent movie. A few highlights: fantastic music (Rocky Road To Dublin making an appearance made me so happy), scary vampires, great casting in general, and bravo making Michael B Jordan playing twins work.

I'm doing a trilogy reread and am thinking about something really sad in light of Sunrise. In all likelihood Beetee's family are all dead long before The Hunger Games. We know Ampert dies in the 50th Games and that Beetee's wife was pregnant at the same time. Fast forward to Mockingjay and no mention of the Capital using his wife and second child/other children to keep him in line. Meaning they're all dead. I know Johanna in Catching Fire made a point to say she had no one left she loved but I don't think it's meant to mean all the other victors still had people. It's just that Johanna had no one as opposed to Finnick, Katniss, and Peeta. If Beetee still had a loved one back in 3 he surely would have tried to make sure they were secured by Plutarch before the Quell. I think by that book everyone he loved had also died. Maybe the child born after the 50th was later reaped, maybe his wife died of a broken heart after losing Ampert, maybe Snow arranged for them to be killed in retaliation like Haymitch's loved ones, etc. It's not unusual for there to be discrepancies when prequels are written but I'd think Collins making a point of including Beetee and letting us get to know his son before his death would mean she remembered not including any family for him in Mockingjay. Anyway, it's just really sad.

I love the book Pomona Afton Can SO Solve A Murder. It's a fun mystery romance and I think it would easily adapt to be a fun movie.

Today I had an idea for the movie that I love, don’t expect to happen, and have to temper my enthusiasm so I’m not disappointed. My idea is for the movie to have a Haymitch voiceover in the manner of My Girl, Stand By Me, The Sandlot, and other movies that utilized it well. That’s a way to get certain internal monologue moments, like when he sees Lenore Dove as the train leaves, into the movie and keeping them internal. It would also give Woody more to do than the epilogue at the end. And the voiceover would turn out to be him telling his story to Katniss and Peeta. Like I said I love my idea and don’t expect it. One thing I do expect is them to film the epilogue and I hope they go secretive about it so people are surprised. There will be some who read the book and promptly forget details when they finish and others who only watch the movies so plenty of people will be surprised.

In the past I've theorized Annie may have been on the Career track but not volunteered and that a Finnick related prequel should be from the POV of Annie. After doing going down the rabbit hole on YouTube after finishing Sunrise I'm making some adjustments to both of these positions. First I've come around to believing Annie likely volunteered for her Games. A lot of the YouTubers pointed out how the being on the Career track wouldn't just have been the necessary physical training but also the mental training. The kids of 1, 2, and 4 are already trained in weaponry and physical combat when Reaping Day arrives. There's no reason to believe they aren't also aware that a twelve year old, no matter how well trained, is less likely to succeed than a tribute a couple years older. The theories put out there are that the Career track includes encouraging the kids to volunteer when they're older as that would increase their chances. Doesn't mean a confident twelve year old won't volunteer but if the general sentiment is to wait until they're at least fourteen or fifteen then it gives the kids more time to prepare and they live a bit longer. Now none of this training really prepares them for what it's like actually being in the arena. This is why I've come around on Annie. I can definitely see her being on the Career track and thinking the fame and fortune is worth killing a few people. For all we know part of the Career training includes telling the kids just how poor the other districts are and killing them is a mercy so they don't think too hard about it. I definitely think the victors of 1, 2, and 4 are discouraged from spending too much time with the rest of their districts so the trauma of the Games themselves isn't revealed. They probably spend most of their time in their respective Victor's Village and are just celebrities viewed from afar. That's why Annie wouldn't have known Finnick or Mags personally before she volunteered. As we saw in the first book, Cato had all the preparation thanks to the Career track, and was eager to compete for fame and fortune, and at the end realized everything he thought he knew was a lie and none of it was worth it. I can see Annie having the same character arc though hers happened much faster. She volunteers, meets Finnick and Mags, starts the official pre-Games training, flirts with the Golden Boy, and then is faced with the reality of the Games soon after they begin. We know is her district partner was decapitated but we don't know when. I'm inclined to believe he died fairly early on as she seemed to be hiding for a while. I also think he was probably Annie's last straw. I can imagine her taking part in the opening bloodbath with the other Careers and having a tough time after, as none of the Career training would include how it feels to take a life, but Partner maybe quietly talking her down in the aftermath. We know there's some level of attachment between district partners so I can imagine Partner being someone Annie trusted and maybe even had known for years thanks to the Career track. Then he not only dies but dies horribly and it's the last straw. She goes and hides and wins only because of her swimming talents. My head canon is they broke the dam because too many tributes were still alive. Katniss thinks multiple times how the viewers will get restless if a day or two go by without bloodshed and she'd know this from how previous Games unfolded. Annie's was probably one of those. She's hiding, not even close to being found, and whoever else was still alive were either failing to find each other or were just focused on their own survival. The viewers got bored and the Gamemakers broke the dam. Annie can swim, and swim well, so she won. Finnick describes Annie as having snuck up on him and I think it was after her win. Finnick volunteered at fourteen and then won. If the many theories about the Career track including the general belief that the volunteering would be done by the older teenagers, then Finnick volunteering at fourteen demonstrates a huge level of genuine self confidence and a lot of cockiness. We know he became disillusioned with the Games soon after his own win and I can imagine that would sour him on other people acting the way he had. Doesn't mean he wouldn't do everything in his power to help prepare them when he became their mentor but it wouldn't make him eager to make friends either. I can imagine cocky volunteer Annie flirting with Finnick, because he's hot and the darling of the Capital and District 4, and him having no interest. She didn't know what the Games are really like and she didn't know Finnick winning also included him being trafficked by Snow. But in the aftermath of her win she'd have needed a support system. First to get through the interviews with Caesar and whatever victory celebration 4 does, then for her Victory Tour, and finally in general. Now only Finnick and Mags have an idea of what she's going through and I think both would definitely be there for her to help with her trauma. That's what Finnick means when he says she snuck up on him. He was just helping out a fellow trauma survivor, the way he'd have done if it had been Partner who won those Games, and instead he fell in love. And that's all with regard to my first point. My second is I still think Annie is the person who a Finnick prequel should center on but I want this book to also include Mags. Mags won the year after Lucy Gray so she'd have seen the evolution of the Games as Snow envisioned as well as the first Quell so her perspective would be very different than Finnick and Annie. We know how close Finnick and Mags were and have no reason to think she and Annie weren't as close so having all three characters and their stories intertwine for a prequel would work.

They came out over three weeks in July that year.

You'd be amazed. I've done it with books I've loved entirely, books I've loved and were mildly dissatisfied with one tiny area, and with books I've hated. There have been many books that fall under these categories that don't inspired me to wonder and speculate so I can't predict when it will occur. I agree with you at liking Nicholas and Roslynn and their relationships with Regina and Tony in their respective books. I started theorizing Lindsay feeling Author's Remorse as the series went on as I couldn't understand why each character would regularly get excluded from stories where they were natural supporting characters (Derek for Nicholas and Judy for Roslynn) and why they were always presented in a negative light (especially Roslynn in that stupid Katey story). Even James being her pet isn't a full explanation. Tony tagged along when James was being shoehorned in so there's no reason to not include Nicholas or Roslynn where they made sense.

Total agreement and if Amy were just reminding Sheldon it was time to leave for the game I'd have no issue. She had to browbeat him into going and it wasn't the first time they'd had that type of conversation. That's how we learned Sheldon doesn't change. He changed enough to be willing to have sex with Amy, marry her, and have children but that's it. Years into the future and Amy is still begging Sheldon to care about things that matter to others with a bonus of forcing him to show support for their kids activities. Whoever wrote that scene fell back into the bad habits from Big Bang when it was an opportunity to show some real growth.

Another reason I don't like Amy is she talked shit about Weird Al. For someone who prides herself on her intellect you'd think she'd appreciate someone as clever with language as Weird Al. I wish that fight she had with Sheldon where they took turns putting down the other's area of science had led to her leaving forever. That was a funny episode and would have been a suitable goodbye for the character. Then we would have been spared years of her begging Sheldon to have sex with her and the subsequent whining when he said he didn't want to.

Thank you!

Amy was so frustrating. I did think she was funny at first but they quickly turned her into a whiny and needy character who was determined to force Sheldon to be something he wasn't and to want something he didn't. And then she succeeded. I caught their scene in the final episode of Young Sheldon and it reiterated all the problems with her character and their relationship all over again. Like on Big Bang she was begging Sheldon to do something he had no interest in (attending his son's hockey game) and all but dragged him there. She knew this man had no interest in sports or anything that mattered to other people and was selfish as hell even when dealing with things he cared about yet she believed he'd magically change. She always wanted him to be something he wasn't and then started whining and begging when he didn't change. She should have kept Sheldon for intellectual conversation and found someone else to satisfy her desire for romance, marriage, and children.

Lucy Gray's headstone in the Covey forest says: "Yet some mountain that to this day She is a living child; That you may see sweet Lucy Gray Upon the lonesome wild." I take this to mean she was never seen again after Snow shot at her in the forest. Maybe he killed her or maybe she escaped. We didn't know for sure in Ballads and I don't think we're meant to. The Covey knew she vanished and the headstone marks her loss even if she survived Snow's bullets and made it to another district or outside the borders of Panem. We don't know how many members of the Covey took Baird as their last name do we? It could be Maude Ivory took Baird after Lucy Gray vanished or it could be the Covey equivalent of Smith or Miller and be common among them.

I think she regretted not having James be the first Malory hero and series introductory character. Once his story was published he became the star of her series even in books where he shouldn't have been more than a minor supporting character at best. I think she also regretted Nicholas and Roslynn being the love interests given how they were treated as the series went on. If James had been the introductory Malory character then she may have written Tony to still be the hero of Book 2 but I think his story would have been VERY different. Not necessarily the Katey nonsense but definitely not Roslynn. Same with Regina. I think she'd always have gotten married but her love interest wouldn't have been Nicholas. In a lot of ways Amy and Warren feel kind of like her re-do of Regina's story. The cousins look alike and their love interests share animosity with their uncle but the resolution to Amy's story is far more positive with regard to the uncles and Warren is presented in a positive light in subsequent books. Amy was also allowed to have more than one child. I love the moment in the Christmas book where James or Tony tries to needle Warren but he doesn't hear due to helping his twins open presents. That moment would never happen with Nicholas as he'd hear, respond in kind, and then be punished by Regina. Amy's not a gossip like Regina but she helps out with those "feelings" like Regina helps out with her gossip. I didn't know about the dedication to readers who loved Tony. That actually explains a lot. She no doubt felt pressure from the publisher to continue (Regina's story actually works better as a stand alone and was clearly written as such) and wrote accordingly. It explains why so much of the book is Roslynn being angry with Tony and James-the least likely man to ever get married-describing himself as being in love with her. That book, more than any other, also spends a lot of time on James and sets up his own story and is probably when she made him her pet.

I'm also surprised Regina only had the one child. She named their son after her father so I assume she'd have named a daughter after her mother. And Nicholas mentions in one of the later books that Regina wants more yet was never written to have them. It's not like we needed to see her pregnant or anything. She could have been written to have more after the time jumps leading into the Christmas story or Jeremy's. That's how she did it for Amy, James, Anthony, and Derek yet not Regina? I've mentioned before my theory about Lindsay getting Author's Remorse (my name) after the first few books, changed her mind about Roslynn, and that's why we rarely saw Roslynn/Anthony in the same positive light as their book. I think the same happened with Nicholas. At the end of the first book James and Anthony had come around on him yet starting with the next one they still hate him and Regina, who once got in their faces about how they treated her husband, regularly punishes only him for their arguments. Yes, they acknowledge they do enjoy arguing with him but it's because they know he'll be punished. Also Nicholas was another character who should have had major presence in Derek's story, as they were best friends, yet all the friendship moments are with Percy and Jeremy while Regina shows up to save the day with her gossiping. James definitely became her pet character after his book and I think she regretted him not being the introductory character. If he had she probably would have given entirely different stories and/or love interests for Regina and Anthony. Maybe Anthony would have still been single at the time of the stupid "Katey's his surprise daughter from a woman he loved and would have married in spite of being horrified at the idea before he met Roslynn" plot. Maybe Katey's mother would have still been alive and that story would have culminated with her and Anthony getting their happy ending. Who knows but James was definitely her pet and I am confident she wished she'd done Regina's and Anthony's stories differently. Smaller things that annoy me about him being the pet character are how it diminished Regina's relationships with Jason and Anthony. In her first book it's explicitly stated Anthony is her favorite uncle. She was also raised by Jason and, in her book, it was clear he was the uncle who actually was a father figure to her and Derek was her brother. Yet anyone coming into the series after her book would be forgiven if they thought James was her favorite uncle and the closest thing she had to a father. Shame Lindsay passed and we can't find a way to get any confirmation of these theories.

Sing it If the opposite gender nickname thing was just his personality then no big deal but it was presented as him being intentionally combative and rebellious and ended up feeling more like a performance. It was most natural with Connie but then we didn’t see Connie that much. I can’t think of any feminine nicknames for Jason, Edward, or Anthony but I think a way to really sell it as a genuine part of who James was would have been to have one be named, say, Elliot and James always calling him Ellie. He did call Edward ‘Eddie’ so nicknames in general were a real part of his personality but the opposite gender thing was him just being a poser. Lindsay even says this whenever the explainer for Regina’s nicknames is brought up though she’s presenting it as James just being cutesy. It also wouldn’t be a big deal if Georgina hadn’t told him early in his book that she didn’t like him calling her ‘George’ but he ignored her and got his way. He could’ve called the twins ‘Addy’ and ‘Gilly’ but I guess it’s not cutesy when it’s his sons. James would’ve been way more tolerable if he (and Anthony to a lesser extent) weren’t shoved into every Malory story. Less is more! Jeremy, Judy, and Jack make sense being their children (though I only like Jeremy’s of the three) but James should never have played as big a role as he did in, for example, Derek’s or Amy’s when their own fathers were literally right there. Jason helping Derek find Kelsey and reveal himself to be a badass as well as the proper English aristocrat would have been nice and would’ve gone a long way towards the forgiveness when the Molly reveal came. Yes Amy’s love interest was James’ brother in law but, again, it would’ve been nice to see Edward have a moment to shine. You mean Edward didn’t want to rip apart the men who kidnapped Amy? Didn’t feel torn about wanting to follow societal norms by pressuring them to marry after sleeping together while also wanting to let her make her own choices? He was content just hanging around London while his brothers found her? The final two reasons James sucks is he’s supposed to be oh so rebellious, a total Bad Boy, yet he never relinquishes his title and he was a plantation owner which would’ve included slaves. The real ways to rebel in this setting would have been to refuse all titles and be anti-slavery. Instead he was a rebel in name only. Oh no he has an illegitimate son! Bug fucking deal so did many of his peers including his older brother. Some Bad Boy. He’s the worst.