Lantern7

Thanks, MisterGlass and Morrigan2575. I'm not super into the franchise . . . I only read the latest Star Wars and Darth Vader trade paperbacks because they were available from my library's system.

I wouldn't be surprised if Finn was Force sensitive. He's a Stormtrooper that overcame his programming. That's gotta be indicative of something special. Not a slam on Peter Mayhew . . . how old is Chewbacca? If he was an adult in Ep3, he's gotta be downright ancient by now. I wouldn't be surprised if "Chewbacca" was a linage thing, and the Wookie we're seeing is the second guy. Or possibly third.

I hate the format the season has taken. Sure, Johnny would have to go out if his cousin (whom he labeled "Plan C" in the preview special) loses in the Pit, but where would the nice feeling go? It's like being cheated of satisfaction . . . like last season, when he lost. Twice. That was fun.

I haven't seen this season lately, but the memories are still vivid. I think Flo & Zach's win was the first bummer ending in the show's history. Sure, Zach was cool, but how much Flo could the average viewer take? She quit so much in the last few legs. While I know John Vito & Jill weren't the best Racers, I'm still a fan. I interviewed them after they were eliminated. I think they were the best male/female team in the game, because they didn't fight or show signs of breaking apart. I can't believe Teri & Ian outlasted them. Twice.

I dug this season. Maybe it's because I'm secretly into curbstomps. And I still regard Tom as one of the best players in the game. Guy won all but two individual immunity challenges, and his name wasn't even brought up the times he was vulnerable. Sure, it sucks that -- IIRC -- he and Ian had an agreement that the winner of the final immunity challenge would take Katie to Day 39, but Tom was a dominant force. And I don't think Probst would acknowledge him because he was over 40. I keep forgetting about Jenn, even though she made it to Day 37. We called her "Anonymous Jenn" for a reason.

Checking out the show's first season on Comedy Central. Saw Archer talking to Krieger without the techie even saying anything. Now that's an old episode. After "Training Day" is "Diversity Hire." Conway Stern! Cheryl as Cristal!

Ugh. I totally forgot about the rappelling/flag-collecting mission in The Inferno. Bad enough that Abram was in on saving Veronica in order to sacrifice Katie into the Inferno, but he did in the most obnoxious way imaginable. If Katie had somehow cut the rope Abram was swinging from, I would not have blamed her.

Recently, I found out one of my fave reality folks passed away. Tillman didn't last long on Greatest American Dog, but he catapulted himself to fame as a skateboarding Bulldog. Here are two posters I made back then. ETA: Since I watched The Force Awakens, I might as well share what I figure to be my only Star Wars-related poster. (Shin Chan; Crayon Shin-Chan)

With all the talk of Abram and his Challenge past, I thought I'd set up a non-specific thread for past seasons. Today's question: What were the lowest points Abram hit? I have two examples: 1. The threesome with Rachel & Veronica. (The Gauntlet) I know, not many heterosexual men on the cast would pass that up . . . but with Butterface and the Verantula? Ew. I'm also pissed that the girls talked shit about Sarah and Theo's off-camera hookups prior to the show scene. At least she tried to keep it on the down low. Also, I figure she would have been with Steve if he didn't have a girlfriend at the time. 2. Saying Karamo had no dignity. This was in Inferno II, so this took place before the beatdown of Adam and other stuff, but after the threesome and Donell. From what I remember hearing about it, Karamo threw the Inferno against Landon because he had a speaking engagement that would have cost money to miss. I wasn't a fan of Karamo, but my basic reaction boiled down to, "Bitch, have you looked in a mirror?!?" Any other Abram memories y'all want to share?

Did Jabberjaw have horns? Just checking to see if anybody is watching the marathon right now. I'd power through the filler if I ran Toonami, but I don't, so we're stuck with the grind. I have a reserve for that arc's DVD from the library, and I'll post on the All Episodes thread when I see it. ETA: I'm good with the narration bit. It's like listen to an Elric talk about Equivalent Exchange before the start of Fullmetal Alchemist.

Saw the movie. Read through the posts post-12/18. Knew I saw Parkman from Heroes, but I missed Judah Freelander. I probably wouldn't have recognized him unless he was wearing a "#1 JEDI" cap. Looks like the prequel trilogy has been consigned to the same pyre as Vader. Yeah, I'm thinking that David Prowse would make for a better Force Ghost Vader than Hayden. While I'm on the subject . . . damn, Kylo Ren is a punk, isn't he? I'm thinking steroid use was a "thing" a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, at least judging by the tantrums. It's like JJ wants a character to know he's a character with big boots to fill and no way of filling them. Sure, he can hold a laser blast in midair (Jedi say what?!?), but he can never be as awesome as Vader. Has this paragraph made sense? I'll understand if it didn't. I'm thinking Rey is Luke's daughter, though I'm guessing that seems to be too popular an option. Rey as a Kenobi would be out from leftfield for me. Now I have Ewan MacGregor in my head, muttering, "I swear, this has never happened before." Han's death scene was telegraphed, albeit nicely. Poor Chewbacca. Poor Leia. Skewered by his own kid . . . nasty way to go. I'm sure I have more thoughts, but I'll stop here. When does the next movie come out? ETA: Were there any maimings in this flick? Interesting that I didn't see anybody lose a limb, and C3P0 has a new arm.

Here's the finale of the countdown . . . I don't follow DBZ that much, so I have to defer to TFS. I did see the top pick. Also, after seeing Battle Of Gods and Resurrection [F], I don't see Beerus as a villain. An antagonist, sure, but not a villain. And for anybody with an abridgment itch . . . TFS came through with their 51st episode, a major turning point in the Androids/Cell saga. ETA: Almost forgot . . . what if Gohan and Krillin hit up Porunga for something other than Piccolo's life?

That was fun. On a lot of levels, I figured a Twelve/River pairing would work because he now looks old enough to buy his own booze and smokes. Sorry, Matt, but Alex looked like she was robbing the cradle with you. While I can't see River as a proper companion, it would be nice to free her up from "Silence In The Library"/"Forrest Of The Dead." I mean, if Clara's death could be rendered moot, why not more River? Too many decapitations for a Christmas special, though. Maybe Moffat didn't want to maim in case The Force Awakens went hog-wild on that. Hopefully, I'll find out this weekend. ETA: I really hope Capaldi stays on longer than three years. He's a good Doctor with the right writing, and I think he wouldn't overstay his welcome. Oh, and I want a River/Missy showdown. I can wait until 2017 for that, but I hope it comes.

I hope everybody had a good holiday. I had family come in from NJ. They got me an AMC Theater card, though I don't know if I live near any of those. And I got an iTunes card, and I never use that. My mother got me lots of birthday and Christmas stuff, including a FitBit I'm charging right now. It might replace my pedometer.

I visited StopBeingPolite. They retweeted this from Johnny: "I heard @AbramBoise has a cool magic trick where he can make @ThomasBuellMTV disappear! #TheChallengeBloodlines @MTV" I admit, it made me laugh.

I thought Istanbul was the capital of Turkey. I got a few questions wrong, so I don't know how much smarter I am over those idiots. I know I'm smarter than Jenna, but that's not saying much.

The surfboard made the sketch a classic. "Wow, for real??" Going through the Christmas specials. . . did the last episode suffer because Seth MacFarlane didn't reprise his role as Santa? I couldn't tell the difference either way. Maybe I'm just splitting hairs about how lackluster the show has become.

In regards to Tony . . . what exactly does a spleen do? At least the scar from the incision looked small. I'd hate to think what would have happened if somebody's liver ruptured. And man, it really has been fourteen years since Aneesa was on Real World: Chicago. That's an eternity in reality time.

That was an eventful hour. We lost Leroy and Shane, but we're rid of Camila. Granted, her sister wound up losing in the pit, which was hard to take . . . but you gotta take your good news where you can get it. And if Abram finds out about Cara Maria's flirtation with Thomas, we're going to be out three teams. And two people permanently. Glad that Tony is okay, even though he's a Madison-impregnating tool. I don't even know what a spleen does. I'm hoping Shane comes back down the road, since he doesn't seem to be an eternal fuck-up like his brother. But that's not likely. Ditto for Candice coming back . . . aside from the blue hair, there's nothing for BMP to pull for. Wow . . . Mike looks . . . normal. Granted, he's probably covering up all his scars and tattoos, if his brother is any indicator. And are those tattoos on Abram's head? Nice for the show to remind us that Abram is a nutjob, and that Cara Maria and Thomas should be sleeping with one eye open. I'm pulling for the rookies. Even if Vince winds up punking out in the Pit, that still means no more Johnny. That's a good thing, as far as I'm concerned. We'll sort through the carnage when we get to it.

Just curious about whether anybody would be interested in seeing the original Transformers cartoon, or GI Joe: A Real American Hero. Discovery Family (fka The Hub) runs episodes back-to-back starting at 5 a.m. They also have episodes from Transformers Prime, which was an interesting CGI series, loaded with epic moments. The network also showed episodes of Jem and the Holograms, but I think they were taken down after the movie. ETA: Funko to produce dolls based on anime characters. Not really my thing, and I'm not into Fairy Tail, but they look cute.

While I'm thinking about it . . . no more ten-person juries. Nobody should have to spend more of the game on the bench and at Ponderosa than in the game itself. Jeremy was impressive scoring the 10-0-0 win. Let's hope he's the last person to pitch a perfect game with ten people. (Yeah, I'm resigned to S32 having that, because a ten-person jury is a mistake that Burnett would like to repeat, like he did with S31)

Two things . . . 1. The episode is slated to run for 93 minutes. I don't think an After Show is involved. Even famewhores have families to spend the holidays with. 2. The Bozo from Bozeman has a brother? Yikes. ETA . . . "Cara Maria's ex"? Wait, can she be retroactively broken up with after she snuggled up with Tony? Or Thomas?

Heads up . . . Comedy Central will be running Christmas-themed episodes starting at 6:58 with "Merry Christmas Charlie Manson!" What are your most/least favorite holiday eps? For least, I gotta go with "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics." It was basically an infomercial for the album. I liked the Santa/Jesus song duel, though. ETA: Does "#REHASH" and "#HappyHolograms" count as a single special? My gut says "no," even though it's set around Christmas, and Comedy Central is including it in the marathon.

No Johnny Bananas. Even if he's stripped of his power to luck out of elimination matches, I would not want Bert & Elise to pick him. That opens the doors to all sorts of famewhores, especially Evan and Kenny.

Heads up . . . [as] is running holiday specials in the 4 a.m. slot this week. Tonight will be "A Huey Freeman Christmas" from The Boondocks (subplot: Riley Freeman assaulting mall Santas), and tomorrow will bring the Christmas episodes of Moral Orel, aka the first episode and the finale. "I love you . . . Oooooorel." ETA: There will be holiday programming on Thursday night. Interesting that they'll be going back-to-back with "T-Shirt Of The Dead" (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) and "Rebel Without A Claus" (Squidbillies), since the same guy voices Santa in both episodes.