Which Tyler

Out of interest - what IS due process for suspected (let alone, known) terrorists these days? There must be a fair few who wish they had been offered what was due to happen to Bucky (psychological support etc; just no lawyer)

Yes, but by not signing she is, in essence, taking temporary leave - making her an illegal imigrant. Of course, the house arrest thing was way OTT - and again, an example of an idiot ball for purposes of plot; they needed something to push her into team "I'm right because I'm me, and I am special"

She retires the same way as anyone else - by not working any more. It's not like Clint can turn off being good with a longbow; or Steve could turn off being strong; but they're perfectly capable of not being a vigilante anymore. The biggest problem with this film (IMO) is also what made it a film at all. Whoever drafted the accords had to be holding an idiot ball larger than Tony's ego to get where they did. Had the accords said something like "When the Avengers have intel that needs action we will alert the relevant authorities (law enforcement, military, political) in the relevant country, and co-ordinate with them. For non-enhanced threats, then we will provide back-up for local forces; when enhanced threats, we request back-up from local forces. If the sovereign nation does not want us acting within their borders then we will not do so (or face the consequences)". Basically, it's an absolute no-brainer that sovereign states want to be treated like sovereign states; it's an absolute no-brainer than using military force without permission (or hell, even alerting) the locals is an act of war; it's an absolute no-brainer that a degree of oversight and co-operation is necessary for a group like the avengers. Equally, it's an absolute no-brainer that individuals aren't going to react well to a fait-accompli of "you're my bitch now" for reasons of... err... plot? Had the accords been drafted with even half an ounce of common sense; then they would have been signed by everyone; Bucky would have been captured; sprung by Zemo and captured again - all with very little bloodshed. The team would have been united when they received intel about the other 5 winter soldiers; and they'd have arrived to find the 5 corpses as a team. Tony would have seen that video of his parents whilst surrounded by a full and functional support network; and in the absence of someone obvious to blame and lash out at. It would have made rather a boring film, however; so the idiot ball was held, nurtured and held on tightly. As it is, the team is split - and will likely remain so for Avenger 3.0; where team Stark will take on the big bad and lose; then for Avengers 3.5 Team Cap will join up with Stark, present a united front, and defeat the big bad. It's the only possible way of needing 2 films to tell the story, especially if the avengers have to lose the first act but win the final. The only alternative is that they face the big bad united and lose; change nothing in order to face the big bad a second time; but things happen to go differently; which... yeah - that's not going to be happening.

That really is the only way of doing these things. In much the same way, we have to ignore the explanation of Ant-Man having the power of a 200lb man when he punches someone as an ant (well; a 200lb man with super-strength, maybe); and yet when he becomes GiAnt-Man, he has the power of a 200 tonne man. Not to mention that whole 200lb ant-sized thing that is so much lighter than water that it will be washed out of the bath by turning the tap on - as opposed to the bath, the floor, and everything above the bedrock simply failing to support that much pressure and breaking to let him through. Dammit - I just failed at the whole "leave the brain on pause, and enjoy the show" thing, didn't I?

Still in common use in the UK

Tony's reaction - give him a couple of days, and yeah, I'm sure he'd accept that Bucky was brainwashed, and can't be held responsible for his actions (but still needs to be brought in and spend some serious time with a variety of shrinks - not allowed to wander around doing whatever he pleases). But Tony only had a couple of seconds - he's being emotional, not rational; and expecting rationality in that situation is ridiculously unfair. Even with that, he's still pulling his punches until he realises that he can't continue that way and come out on top. Even then he needed to know that Cap essentially knew (even if it was through deductive reasoning rather than having direct evidence) and had not only kept that knowledge from him, but still actively tried to keep Bucky from the authorities. Only then did he fight no-holds-barred.

The article's been pulled

I remember having to wade in on that opinion once - was kinda a delicate situation in the midst of some pretty libellous stuff being removed. Trying to basically say that the lot of you didn't know what you were talking about (very consciously and deliberately didn't know) whilst not being able to bring anything to the party in terms of evidence to the contrary; and, of course, knowing full well where you were coming from. That was an interesting time.

Not a dream casting (that'd be Hopkins or Skarsgaard), but about as good as could realistically be expected; and far, far better than feared. Will help massively in getting other talented actors on board too.

That's exactly what I do; for most characters, a year must be about 14 Earth months (so a 15 year old is actually 17.5, a 30 year old is actually 35). However, for the elderly, I simply assume that ages are basically a guess, rounded up a decade or so; so a 90 year old is actually 80-ish, but feels that 90 sounds better. Equally, I assume that a year still has normal seasons, and that there are semi-regular (magically influenced) mini-ice-ages. So every 14 months you get a colder patch, and "summer snows"; and these patterns are predictable and allow the counting of years. However, they don't get referred to as seasons, as those regular mini-ice-ages are so much more important, and frequent enough to over-ride the normal seasons.

The Usurper's Turkeys

I would always recommend "Blink" to start with - if she doesn't like that, then Dr Who is simply not for her. If she does, then I'd agree with Joe - go back to 2005 and start the modern era.

I don't think that anyone has claimed that GRRM is JUST retelling Ragnorak; anymore than he's JUST retelling the War of the Roses or JUST deconstructing genre tropes.

I've never really understood the impatience with an author - I'd far rather he publishes the book he wants to publish, than just get something out to get people off his back. If/when it's out, then I'll chose to read it or ignore it; and the choice is entirely mine, and the time frame between first and last books will be utterly irrelevant. GRRM himself should be far more worried about his legacy; within 5 years of the last book being published, absolutely no-one will give a damn about how long it took, and will judge him solely on the merit of the books. In the mean-time, this reader has millions of other books to choose from and to read; I've no intention of sitting on my hands saying "woe is me, I can't read the book I want to because no-one has written it yet". There are other books, and other authors people.

A quick plea. I'm just catching up after being away for a couple of days, and have been stung a few times. Could we please consider spoilers for a book that hasn't been released yet, to be spoilers for people who aren't Shimpy? Not everyone has read the preview chapters. Not everyone wants to read them. Those chapters are spoilers for everyone who hasn't read them. If you can go to the effort of saying "Spoiler (not for Shimpy)" surely you can go as far as "Spoiler (TWOW)"

I can only assume that you're not 14. If you're closer to 40, then you're not the target audience.

Just watched the first double-episode of The Shannara Chronicles - Good to see an appearance by Littlefinger's magic horse in there. ETA: And seeing the quote in the post above me - did someone really say that Aidan Gillen's Irish accent is really bad?

Hey, I thought it was good to see Littlefinger's magic horse landing a new role.

Andeleisha Agreed, and I feel (almost) the exact same way about R+L=J - Aegon is a Blackfyre, and Jon is a Targ; and that information will be revealed to the audience, but not to the characters, and the Westerosi history books will have Aegon as a Targ, and Jon as Ned's bastard.

Please be good, please be god, please be good.

Merry Christmas all on here

Possibly the best book to screen adaptation I've seen. A few little bits here and there that let it down; whilst in other areas it actively improves from the source material. Probably even ahead of S1 GoT

I've finally put my finger on what I didn't like about this episode, and Riggsy specifically. Count me as another who didn't know who the hell he was before coming on here, and why would I? A perfectly forgettable one-note character from a fairly forgettable episode whose sole defining feature was living in Bristol, suddenly lives in London with a hotline straight to the Tardis. It just felt like they wrote this for a character who meant something , but couldn't get the actor, so just few some random in instead. Maybe James Cordon's diary was simply too full, but they liked the bit with the baby so just dug Riggsy up from somewhere, and couldn't be bothered to set diagonal alley in Bristol.

Good book - but I didn't think you were reading anything else of GRRM's for the time being? ;)

It's almost like man of you guys don't know any teachers. Bossy, "do as you're told", thinks she knows best... etc etc All absolutely perfect characterisations for a teacher.