CletusMusashi

I'm one of the few people who liked Season 4. Well, most of it. I thought the Initiative was a great way to expand the story into a world that was bigger than high school. I liked Maggie Walsh, I loved Adam, hell, I even liked Riley. He was an interesting character, even though he was certainly more boring than, say, Spike, and I did enjoy all the "Riley is boring" jokes that everyone was making about the show. Harmony was fun, Spike's chip issues and need to find a different way of being evil were brilliant, and the Core Four were all not only relevant, but recognizable. Anya was finally a main character, Faith woke up and was awesome, characters' romantic lives were actually interesting and well-written, and we were treated to possibly the funniest Thanksgiving episode of any show ever. However, the end of "Primeval" was The Shark for me. Buffy defeats Adam by turning machine bullets into doves? WTF? I'm pretty sure that's not a Slayer power. And it wasn't a witch power from Willow, either. S4 Willow had a good hacker's mentality for improving on existing spells, but she did not have the kind of built-in superpowers that she displayed in later seasons. Superpowers which, incidentally, . Tapping into Willow's natural power at that point might have, maybe, allowed Buffy to change a dove into a bullet, but turning dozens of rapidly moving deadly projectiles into complex living organisms? I don't buy it. it was an unnecessary distraction to the climax of an otherwise great story. And then they spent the next episode having weird dreams. Compared the finales of 1,2, 3, or 5, Season 4 had an extremely weak finale. And then after all that big symbolism of how importantly integral the Core Four are, Oh, there were more drops in quality to come, certainly. Just as nobody seriously claims that Fonzie jumping over a shark was worse than Fonzie becoming a nerd-mocking schoolteacher, I'll take "Primeval" or "Restless" over most of the episodes of Season 7, any day. But most of S4 was honestly good enough that, even after being spoiled on the quality of the first three seasons, I was still really happy with it until it fizzled. And then, for the first time, I found myself rewatching episodes over and over, not for pleasure as I always had before, but because I felt like there was some kind of deep brilliance that I just didn't get. And that kept on happening in the subsequent seasons. Because, somewhere during "Primeval" I think the writers shifted into a kind of bad fan-fiction mentality, and from then until the end of the series, events were too often based on what they thought it would be cool to see the characters do, rather than what might actually make sense or be in character or be consistent with the what we knew about magic, vampires, yadda yadda yadda.

I think he was a great character who the writers eventually fell too much in love with and lost their perspective. I could accept his pre-soul crush on Buffy. He does have a history of falling for problematic girlfriends, he does respect a good ass-kicking, and, let's face it, after Harmony, I wouldn't have been surprised if he fell for Clem. But the actually wanting a soul? That was a bit much. When it first aired, I thought he was trying to get his chip removed, and the demon screwed him over by giving him a soul instead. That arc, I could get behind. But then the writers had to go back and retcon everything to show how even when he first became a vampire he was actually a sweet sensitive boy at heart, and that point my bullshit meter skyrocketed. Somebody over on TVTropes once posted a very interesting hypothesis that, when the doctor in S5 was forced to tinker around with Spike's chip, without proper tools, it resulted, as warned, in permanent brain damage. They were mainly using to explain his sudden passion for Buffy, which manifested at the end of that episode, but it might also explain why, in Season 7, he might remember his early vampire days incorrectly. Which works a lot better for me. Sometimes, especially when you're dealing with Joss Whedon's tendency to get bored and turn every show he writes into "Dollhouse," you've just got to go Death of the Author if you want things to make any sense.

One hundred is an insanely huge group to drop down. Not only does it waste a ridiculouslyhuge landing craft, but why would they expect that many people to stay organized and cooperative. One hundred. Who are all kids. And criminals. Yeah, that'll end well. But my biggest problem isn't that it's stupid. it's that, as mentioned, how the hell am I supposed to tell them apart? I like the skeletal framework of what could have been a coherant plot. I just don't think it's very well written or executed. I'll watch for a bit. Maybe it will get better. Maybe it will get zanier. Or maybe Octavia will show her butt a few more times. If none of those things happen, though, I'm probably out.

I want to see Hoyt back on the show. Come on. Alaska? Wolf country with extremely long nights for a good chunk of the year? When he first moved up there, I thought it was a setup for the next story arc. But now I think the narrative is too crowded and time limitation too short for them to go there. Which is too bad, because I'd rather watch Hoyt than Bill or Sookie.

Season 7 had the worst villains of any season. Caleb was entertaining, but The First was awful, and the ubervamps were even stupider. To compound that problem, Season 7 had the worst heroes of any season. Buffy was long-winded and short-sighted, right up until the end. "OK, time to divvy us up into good, balanced teams. Oh, I know. Anya and Andrew versus a gang of Turok-Han." Screw you, Buffy. Giles was a complete nonentity, oh, but they could still devote an entire episode to Spike deciding to put his Fonzie jacket back on. Really? The best thing about S7 was Faith. Whether it was that awesome bit of confusion when she came back to town and thought Spike was a bad guy, or simply her stealing Andrew's hot pocket and him whining about it, Faith was always good television. Honorable mention goes to Anya, as well as to her supporting entourage- Olaf, D'Hoffryn, Hafryk... perhaps even Xander. Xander and Anya dealing with one another as exes who still cared about the other one's well-being was interesting. Once Anya was dead, Xander immediately failed to convey that, so no honorable mention for him. Honestly, as much as I agree that Jonathon's Murderer should not have been the comedy relief sidekick, the overall season was so godawful that I have to make Andrew the only other main character that I sort of enjoyed. Oh, not if I stopped and thought about his overall arc. Of course not. But at least when he was being used for comedy, he was funny. Giles was no longer smart or useful, or... relevant. Willow was no longer plucky. Spike was no longer evil, hell, he wasn't even a proper anti-villain any more. Buffy was no longer anything resembling Buffy. At least Andrew was funny. And in fact, he brought out the funny in others as well. Dawn, when she was torturing Andrew, was funny. Willow,when she captured him, was actually a fun version of Willow again. For one scene. So if the characters who have earned their right to be there aren't pulling their own weight, someone's got to pick up the slack. I have fond memories of stupid filler like Andrew's hot pockets and "the troll doing an Olaf impersonation", because I have so few other fond memories of S7. It was the first and only time that I ever found myself enthusiastically waiting for the finale of a show that I was addicted to- not because I wanted to see how the story ended, but simply because I wanted that hour of life back every week.

Yes, excellent point! Cougarmom being sentenced to death for using too many medical supplies makes no sense whatsoever when their way to punish her for wasting useful medical resources is to... do exactly that. I'm still struggling with how Spacewalk Dude wasted a month's supply of oxygen. Did he leave out of, like, one huge room and leave the window open, and then open up a window to yet another huge room when he came back in? I am of the opinion that if this show makes any sense (and that's a pretty big if, 'cause I'm leaning more toward CW show with SF trappings than SF show that happens to be on the CW,) then blaming criminals for wasting resources and exaggerating how much they wasted is a handy way of distracting people from how colossally stupid that whole "execution by airlock" nonsense is.

And god forbid one of the zombies ever gets a soul... Early Buffy was at least awesome as late-season Faith. However, early Buffies grow up to be late Buffies. Now I'm wondering who'd be the worst five. Off the top of my head, I'm gonna say Gilligan, Honey Boo Boo, Dr. Smith, King Joffrey, and The Earl of Lemongrab, What if they're allowed to bring pets with them? At that point, my top picks become Harley Quinn: Her hyenas would probably love chewing up rotting corpses all day. Danaerys Targaryan: Because dragons beat zombies. Tarzan: I think an elephant could survive OK in Georgia, and could trample a field of zombies with no difficulty whatsoever. Stewie Griffin: Because I'd like to drink with Brian, and even though Brian is technically Peter's dog, if Stewie were the only surviving Griffin then it would still work. And I think Stewie would be a lot more useful in the apocalypse than Peter. and, of course, Aquaman: Because the biggest problem with just living on a nice island is keeping it secure. FINALLY, Aquaman's powers are extremely useful for something. Plus, if you ran into Eugene and wanted to find out if he were full of crap or not, you'd be able to just ask. Because Aquaman can talk to mullets.

1. Xena. Xena can kill so many mooks before breakfast that I could sleep through most of the action. Kind of like that line in the "Blues Brothers." "How often does the train go by?""So often you won't even notice." 2. Gabrielle. Not as awesome as Xena, but capable enough in her own right. And if you want Xena to stick around around, you've got to have Gabrielle. 3. Faith. Almost as tough as Buffy, and way less sanctimonius. Plus, Faith gets better each year. Buffy just gets weirder, more long-winded, and insanely more reckless. Late-season Faith is a pragmatist. Late-season Buffy tends to have back-up plans like "OK, let's try the same exact thing again, and hope that Joss thinks the viewers "need" it to work this time." Also, Faith is way easier to get in bed than Buffy if you're not a vampire. I'm sure as hell not gonna get anywhere with Gabrielle and Xena, so give me Faith. 4. Batman. Even though the one true Batman will always be Adam West, in this case I'm gonna say Kevin Conroy. He's as tough as Faith or Gabrielle, even more versatile intellectually than The Professor from Gilligan's Island, and would keep enough of an eye on the group to step in when we really needed help but would still spend most of his time out helping other groups. So he wouldn't bat-block me with Faith. He seems to only be romantically interested in villainesses and teenaged boys, so if anything he'd be busy hanging around Rick's group, tempting Carl with invitations to the Hatcave. 5. Dr. Zoidberg. Armored, good at pinching heads off, and probably immune to the zombie virus anyway. He'd probably think zombies were delicious. Also not the worst of surgeons. Oh, your arm might not get sewn back on in the right location, but at least he'll do it quickly and you'll survive and be back in action ten minutes later. Also. he wouldn't rock-lobster-block me with Faith. (Yes, I'm a little insecure there; you think I'm seriously gonna want to be competing with Tyrion Lannister, Denny Crane, or Bill Clinton? A man's gotta be realistic, come on, people.) Also, there would occasionally be times when we had to run from danger. And I say, if you've got to run from zombies, you should at least be able to hear Dr. Zoidberg yelling "Woopwoopwoopwoopwoop!"

First of all, these kids are in amazing shape for having lived on a space station all their lives. Even if we assume that the gravity is kept at earth-normal for bone-health reasons, they seem like they've been getting improbable amounts of exercise. And not just standing there pulling weights, either. Cardio, sports, the whole schpiel. They seem way too at ease adventuring around in the great outdoors. Even the nerds can swing as well as Tarzan. Secondly, if there's such an oxygen shortage, why the hell do they keep blasting so much of it into space? You're a totalitarian dystopia, I get it. You want to execute someone. I get that, too. But there a million ways of killing someone that do not waste a roomful of air. Dumbasses. Honestly, I find it hard to even believe that they waste the bodies as cavalierly as they do. If they don't want to go all Soylent Green, that's fine, but every body they space wastes over a hundred pounds of extremely useful chemicals. These people should be used to recycling their urine for water and their feces for fertilizer; it's just moronic that they insist on wasting so much of their bodies. Not to mention the roomful of air. Not to mention the clothing that could be repurposed. Oh, and did I mention the air? Because they do. Constantly. I'm not sure the problem is really with the recycling machines. I think the people in charge are just idiots. Okay, I feel a little bit better. Somebody else complain for a while.

Ramsay might be fun in smaller doses, but ten minutes at a time of him torturing Theon just takes up way too much time on a show that doesn't make that many episodes anyway. Roose, on the other hand, is awesome. I'd rather watch him being evil than Robb and Cat being boring, so, yay, net gain for me!

Wow. Who was that unpleasant person this week, and where did she come from? Is there like some kind of entitled bitch vacuum that opened up now that Lindsey's gone, and it turned Sarah evil? I'm surprised both sides didn't turn on her.

I want to be him when I grow up. Or down. Whatever.

I still think Tyrion should be the one named Littlefinger. A guy who owns a chain of brothels that he's always running in and out of with hookers ought to be named Hodor.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing what happens with her and The Hound. Hopefully they can have some zany mismatched buddy adventures. I'll take zany mismatched buddy adventures over crow dreams and wiener-chop bondage any day of the week.

I really don't like wasting the final episodes on the Ramona storyline. Too much new crap being rushed too quickly. I know the writers say that they knew this was their last season, but it really feels like they didn't find out until it was half-written. The Kenny thing? Just confused the hell out of me. Everybody else was a hallucination, so maybe he was? Or he was real, but then he got possessed? Hell, I'm still struggling with whether or not Astrid was a ghost or a Ramona trick. Werewolves never turned into ghosts before, except in Donnaland. You'd think if they could, Liam's kids might have had a thing or two to say at some point. I don't mind having a few things to wonder about, but right now the confusing parts are in danger of overwhelming the coherant parts.

I liked him last episode, but it doesn't fill me with much hope. Rick's personality is whatever the writers need it to be at that particular moment. When the time that they want him to be a crazy ass-kicker is over, he will probably go back to sucking, so that they can "surprise" us again the next time he does anything interesting.

One thing I'd forgotten until recently is that crossbows can fire other things besides arrows. During certain points in history, "Bullets" or "stones" were not uncommon. So if there's a lot of clay in the local soil, you could make a lot of cheap, portable ammo. Save the arrows for deer hunting. This flexibility of ammunition something I wish they'd address on the show. Come on, who doesn't want to see Daryl go all "Dukes of Hazzard" and fire a lit stick of dynamite at somebody?

He won me over with "William Shatner." Do zombies like ham?

Is there any chance of Rick having an evil twin brother who grew up in England? Because watching him have to do the dueling accents would be awesome.

Something like this: _________l____ Figure about 30" on the left, another 18" on the right, and a shorter spike going about 10" on top. Left and right aren't meant to represent any official fighting stance; I'm just doing it that way for reference, and I'll continue to refer to them as such. I figure after about four feet it would too hard to use while scavenging a cluttered house or someplace like that. The left point would be better for stabbing at a distance, and that cross-piece would even give your hand something to keep pushing against for stronger penetration, just like with a sword, dagger, or lance. The top and right points would be better for closer work. Also, the right-angled spots where two extensions come together would be useful for catching, pushing, blocking, and even tripping, not that I'd want to use tripping attacks against a zombie, unless there were stairs or a cliff involved. A human on the ground is on the defensive, but a zombie on the ground is still biting. Might be nice to have some combat options if you're fighting skilled humans, though, and even against walkers, you can't always land a kill shot, so having more positions from which you can push their face and hands away is a good thing. I think the little side-point would even be good as a climbing aid, if you had to get over a high fence or something. Plus, if you wanted to go all "Hulk Smash" like Maggie, you could hold it by the left end, and swing the top point like a pickaxe. I think generally you'd be better off sticking with hard thrusts, though. If something gets stuck in there, it's easier to pull out a straight thrust than to pull out a side-spike that had to be swung in an arc to get angled in there in the first place. There's also a trick where you tie two wrenches together to create a makeshift set of nunchuks. Oh, it won't be as good for all the flashy martial arts stuff, but it'll break a head, and if you don't make the cord too long you can easily fold it in half and carry it as a convenient backup weapon. Learning to use a sling would also be handy. Not so much for dealing with ground ambushes, but for situations like: "Hey, look, there's a bunch of zombies outside. Wouldn't it be nice if we could go up on the roof and shoot them quietly?" Imagine how useful a few slingers would have been for clearing the prison yard.

No, Eugene is still alive in the train car. They haven't made assburgers out of him.

Something light, hard to break, and no more than four feet long. A steel rod with a point at each end would be about right. Bonus points (no pun intended) if there was a third sharp extension, maybe a foot or so, sticking out the side like a tonfa handle. So basically you'd have a very, very sturdy three-pointed spear. The middle point would be for ramming into an opponents head at close range, when necessary.