Apollonian Gasket Forge

ACAB includes Worf from Star Trek

Me, watching science fiction: Of course I side with the basic humanity of the robots, I'm liberal in good standing
Me, reading the news: Of course half the people on earth won't be AI, those fucking clankers aren't /people/

Oh, hey! My novel does this! A heist using a time machine and the attendant benefits (and surprising difficulties) of being in two places at once!

All I'm saying is that it's a very different franchise if Beverly Crusher can't go to Space Scottland and fall in love with her grandmother's parasite with only minimal kink-shaming from her psychic best friend!

Star Wars could never!

Anyway, it does suffer from all the problems the prequels do---some of the dialogue is rough, Lucas doesn't always know how to frame his plots and themes so they absolutely sing, and a few of the choices (Jar-Jar) are dubious, to say the least. But TPM backlash was an overcorrection!

Podracing. This is the one with Podracing. Bump it up *at least* a step

People do not appreciate how many little scenes go to real character arcs. Jar-Jar calling out Padme for her fucking racism, and her having to find some humility to take back the planet, is some underrated character work

I wouldn't say the visuals could *save* a worse movie, but I do think some of its admitted rough spots are compensated for by the fact it is one of the most visually interesting.

John Williams always turns in good work, but he was in fine form for this one too

It got a reputation for being inessential, but the whole trilogy turns on the dinner scene on Tatooine where Anikan declares he will use his wizard powers to keep his loved ones from dying at any cost. His failure to grow out of that is the coming tragedy

On theme, TPM is about greed. The first act is an invasion over a trade dispute, the second act is about slavery, the third act is about political corruption allowing those things, and the fourth act is about the factions around Naboo setting their differences aside to overcome it

My Star Wars Rankings hot take is you're not putting The Phantom Menace high enough. It is one Lucas's most thematically coherent, visually stunning, and ambitious movies and he very much executed on all that

The Unification War was swift and terrible. The Empire came from the future, they had superiority in numbers, weapons, and intel, and they quickly consolidated rule over the planet

If you're not willing to participate in tipping, don't go to places where the workers depend on tips! Refusing to tip is just *you* extracting labor without pay. Like, Jesus fucking Christ!

(This is a little uncharitable, and could fairly be said to be in some measure bitterness from years of Online, but also, not for nothing, I have those experiences)

Bigger than this, I think people should be more skeptical of online leftism that says, "Actually, under capitalism I don't owe other people anything." Oh, your communal philosophy says you can be interpersonally vicious and steal from other people? How convenient!

This also isn't a "Hell hath no fury" situation and her interest and involvement in the case is entirely justifiable by their stations in the Empire

She is, maybe, lying a bit to herself when she says it's only professional, though

Well, and as much as I'm joking about not answering your questions, the thing consuming my thoughts is, "What if the future were knowable and fixed like history?" and so don't worry, I feel like I'm in the spirit of your questions

And internal/external view of timelines is a whole thing!

Probably not in Minerva's case. She is trying to have him executed! Not in a fun "lovers to enemies" way, but in a "this is a horrifying authoritarian government" sort of way

Kira, doing a great prompt series: So what is the past?
Me, a gremlin: So, time is pretzel-shaped so let me tell you about the future, which the characters remember like the past

Time travel being time travel, the 11th Century uprising is not contained to the 11th Century, though most of the events that aren't are clandestine

Time travel being time travel, the events of the uprising in the 11th Century are *tecknickly* the future for most of the characters, but they all know it's there on the timeline and it looms over everything

I am, I'm sure to the chagrin of some of you, a "the dog can die" author

*wise voice with an indeterminate /foreign/ accent* You can tell a lot about an author by whether or not you believe the dog can die

Who is your most online character---either as a literal fact of having the internet or equivalent to be online about or as a matter of personality

Beverly Crusher saying, "I did fall asleep reading a particularly erotic chapter in my grandmother's journal."

My roommate has been doing a TNG rewatch and I've been joining on and off and we just got here

Character who is not sure the Old Magic works, but is the first to burn sage the moment anything seems even slightly ominous

Perhaps a different complaint, but I think they are intimately related: As a reader, I actively resent being marketed at like the only thoughts I can form about a work are AO3 tags

Yeah, we've all been there I think

Answering the literal question, I haven't had needed to get into the fine-grained politics before the Empire and create any leaders yet, though it is quite possible I will. (There is prequel potential in the invasion from the future by the Empire, but its kind of bleak, even for a bleak story)