SeanC

The ending took me by surprise insofar as I'm much more familiar with Dorothy Stratten's story versus Banerjee's, so I wasn't expecting that to happen because the show took some pretty significant liberties with how they got to that point. But this is a series about Banerjee, not her and Paul, so that makes some sense from a dramatic perspective. Bits of Paul's time emceeing are depicted in Bob Fosse's film Star 80 (the mud wrestling, in particular), but I don't believe the Chippendales connection is ever raised there.

The vast majority of audiences had no relationship whatsoever to any of the MCU characters prior to the debut of their film incarnations. Iron Man is not a classic character that people all over the world want to see, Iron Man-as-played-by-Robert Downey Jr. is. The Guardians of the Galaxy, who are C-list characters at best in the comics and had no wider pop cultural profile at all, got turned into a hugely successful franchise. The MCU at this point is big enough to create new stars, it doesn't need to continually recast a handful of extant heroes.

I'm so happy for Lolo & Nik, the biggest win of their careers so far. I definitely wasn't expecting that, and they clearly weren't either. Another big surprise is Kim beating Sakamoto, the first Korean win on the circuit since 2009. Rinka can count her blessings that the American ladies all tanked here, otherwise her Grand Prix Final hopes would be slim to none.

I'm excited that Marjorie & Zach seem to have definitively entered the 80+ RD club, since they've done it twice this season, though for whatever reason the camerawork for their performance today way mostly shot from bad angles (maybe the front-facing camera was malfunctioning?).

Definitely lesser. He only had two quads and I think one triple Axel.

Tragically, Roman leads after the short program, so he is doomed in the free skate.

My understanding is that Sam Claflin wasn't available for this one.

Not really a lack of will, it's just that there are rules and procedures to follow. Any time a federation just decides to ignore the rules they can gum up the works for a bit.

I believe Deanna just became the oldest Grand Prix gold medalist in history. Also the first Canadian Grand Prix win for somebody other than Piper & Paul since 2017. Ye-lim Kim's reaction to still being the silver medalist despite not skating particularly well was hilarious.

If they're not on Rhaenyra's side, nobody is going to listen to them about that (which would be tenuous anyway, as they're also Rhaenyra's direct heirs and she has her own house).

But they have no authority to call the betrothals off. Baela and Rhaena are Daemon's daughters, they're his to betroth as he sees fit, answerable only to the head of House Targaryen (which is Rhaenyra, as they see it).

The scene where Daemon immediately kneels to Rhaenyra at her impromptu coronation amused me since Matt Smith's Prince Philip in The Crown has an episode-length snit about doing this.

Nobody last episode knew he had gone rogue, which is why he wasn't stopped. He's a Kingsguard, he'd be assumed to be on the king's business wherever he went (including into the king's quarters, which is presumably where he got the crown).

I don't see the problem. They've got at least two seasons, probably, before Aemond dies. They can build him up as a villain over then. I like the change, as a whole, because it makes Aemond smarter (he knows that killing Lucerys is a dumb move) and gives him somewhere to go rather than being a complete psycho from the beginning.

Presumably because that didn't happen in the world of ASOIAF. It happened in the TV universe.

The general character/dialogue on this show is consistently pretty good, but I've by now noticed that the action pieces are often a bit contrived.

Helaena said that Dyana the maid was supposed to be helping with the children when she first entered that scene.

Also, his name is just Daemon with one letter rearranged.

Most obviously I identified the contrast in Viserys’ reactions.

The problem with that is that nobody reacts like Rhaenyra has demanded torture. Particularly Viserys, who is later incredulous at the suggestion of maiming Lucerys.

That’s what it means in the book. Based on the show usage, I don’t think that is what the line was intended to mean (compare the reaction to Rhaenyra’s line to the reaction to Alicent’s later demand).

WandaVision wasn't even finished when they started making Multiverse of Madness.

Dude is getting a bit full of himself there, even if they weren't bastards, Laena's daughters would be ahead of him in the succession. Laenor evidently not a big fan of his parents.

A good weekend for Canadian dancers, with Lajoie & Lagha winning their first senior medal (gold) at the Nepela Memorial and Bashynska & Beaumont winning the first Polish JPG. The former are doing the Cha Cha Slide in the RD, heh. Bashynska & Beaumont's new Red Violin free dance is lovely.