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(Hope you don't mind me tacking on, Skarm?)

My brother wanted to see Black Panther in theaters with me, but the only night we could do so this month was Saturday, in the middle of my work week. So Sunday was a terrible, slow day for me, and I didn't get as much done as I wanted. But the payoff was Monday, when I happened to be driving past a certain service gate in my golf cart when a radio call went out that an ambulance was coming to attend a zoo guest who had had a seizure, and that someone needed to open the service gate immediately. The ambulance arrived less than half a minute later. I have to wonder, if my brother hadn't had me out past my bedtime Saturday, and ruined my productivity Sunday, would anyone else have been close enough to that gate on Monday to let the ambulance in immediately? I don't know, but I do know this has been a Wildly Off-Topic Spoiler Block.

So yeah, Black Panther is amazing, and I barely know where to start. As usual, I won't really know characters' names, because I'm terrible at catching characters' names while I'm watching something on film, and I'm not going to look them up to avoid having outside information affecting my initial reaction. Of course, this initial reaction is based on notes I took two days ago, but uuuuuh

The way the designers made Wakanda appear on-screen is incredible. The mix of futuristic, modern technology, and the uniquely shaped skyscrapers, mixed with all the costuming, body paint, weaponry and names make Wakanda entirely distinctive from any other setting, ever. I love that it combines science fiction, comic book technology with traditional African aesthetics and values. It really gets across how Wakanda has kept itself sheltered over the millennia, developing new technologies at its own pace, and without outside influence undermining its traditions.

Maybe it just seems this way to me because I don't watch a whole lot of movies, but the plot of BP feels incredibly unique to me. I can't think of another story to compare it to. The use of royal bloodline interaction to fuel the conflict not only reinforces Wakanda's heavy reliance on tradition, but causes the plot to advance in a way that made the whole story feel unpredictable and engaging. The characters' motives and restrictions were a bit foreign and outside my ability to understand at a glance, so it forced me to stay captivated and follow along with the action. The battle sequence at the end, too: what movie about a fantasy culture features a civil war at the end, with fellow citizens turning on each other to push different ideologies forward? That part actually made me feel bad, seeing people who should have been allies attacking each other, but it reinforces the idea that I was observing aspects of a foreign culture.

Speaking of conflict, I really liked both major villains in this movie. Killmonger is such a memorable figure because you can see the logic to both his motivation and goals. His aims are violent and destructive, but you can sympathize with him through his history and the real life plight of the disenfranchised around the world. I also liked the contrast between his calculating mind, planning abilities, and combat skills, and his stereotypically "punkish" speaking mannerisms. It defies the way movies normally portray characters with those traits, which made Killmonger an incredibly fun and active character to watch on screen. I also really liked Claue's constantly excited, almost manic attitude to . . . anything, really. I don't remember him being lack that back in Avengers: Age of Ultron. I don't know if it's due to different writing/directing, or just because he got overshadowed by Ultron at the time (also a fun-to-watch-and-listen-to villain). The drawback to me liking both villains so much is, of course, that they both got killed off. I'm actually getting pretty tired of the MCU writing out its villains that way. Aside from the socially problematic, and media-wide, issue of constantly portraying conflicts as solvable only with violence and life-taking, it sucks when you like a villain, and know you're never going to get to see them again in this very long movie series. (Who else really liked Yellow Jacket in Ant-Man? Literally no one but me? Okay.)

The soundtrack was cool. I think it's definitely the most memorable MCU soundtrack to date. I don't usually take much notice of the music in a movie while I'm watching it, but in this one, I especially liked the traditional vs. modern motifs that represented T'Challa and Wakanda with African tribal music, and Killmonger with hip-hop.

As we left the theater, my brother said he "hated all the white-shaming." Well, uh. I thought the "white-shaming" was freaking hilarious. Honestly, I like how the usual roles of white and minority characters got reversed in this. Goes to show that Hollywood's perceived "appealing to the majority/baseline" is garbage. Everett Ross, in particular, was interesting. I didn't expect we would even see him again after his purely bureaucratic role in Captain America: Civil War. I now remember he was in the trailers for BP, but I had forgotten that when I started watching the movie, and was surprised to see him appear. I was further surprised that he joined in the ensuing shootout, and again at the end when he was forced to put his piloting skills to use in the final conflict. It fits back in with what I said earlier about Killmonger, taking a character who was presented as a pure dialogue dispenser in his previous appearance, and allowing him to show off other traits and skills that one wouldn't expect to see in his character archetype. I also love that Ross's last push to stop the weapons distributions required T'Challa's sister to instruct him in making a Wakandan arm gesture. Very appropriate!

—doctorlit will totally respond to Skarm's review a bit later today, wanted to get this down before the movie faded too much from his mind

"They're sitting on an entire mountain of spoilers, and they've been mining it for centuries." "They're sitting on an entire mountain of spoilers, and they've been mining it for centuries." "They're sitting on an entire mountain of spoilers, and they've been mining it for centuries."

I fixed on the Doc. Nesh will fix her version soon, no doubt.

Don't worry about the pun-lover thing, you'll be in excellent company.

But as is my habit, I spotted some technical errors:

it seems our Stu was was born in a ‘test-tub.’
Paging the Repetitive Department of Repetition.

Then I cannot even kill the man who was partially responsible for making my brothers and I the shadows we are?
Shouldn’t this be “my brothers and me”?

HG

“Thoth, how did you get your name?” Tom asked the question seemingly apropos of nothing.

Thoth sighed, not looking up from his book. His partner’s occasional and seemingly random enquiries resulted in discussions that were either mildly interesting or extremely irritating. This one seemed to be approaching tiresome. “‘Thoth’ was the name I took after my legion’s egress from the Imperium. It was the name of an ancient Terran god of knowledge, although many details regarding this god have been long forgotten. It is an arrogant name, perhaps, but it is better to appear pretentious then to show a lack of confidence. In most cases, at least.”

“You know, I’ve been reading about Thoth of late,” said Tom. “While it may be half-forgotten in your continuum, in World One knowledge of Egyptian mythology is still very much alive. It’s quite fascinating.”

Thoth looked up, at once intensely focused. “Might you provide me with such information?”

“Certainly!” Tom grinned, almost laughing. “Take the book. I’ve just been reading about Thoth’s origins, so that’s where the bookmark is.” He tossed a moderate-sized tome over to the Space Marine.

Thoth caught the book and began to read rapidly.

“Well?”

Thoth nodded. “Fascinating. I appreciate it.”

“You’re not going to—”

“No. The fact that you continue attempt to jab at me is more bothersome than the jabs themselves.”

Tom gave his most winning smile. “Well, I’m glad you enjoy the book at any rate, headchild.”

“Tom…” Thoth sighed. “Cease. It is pointless, and I am reading.”

Tom turned to his monitor. Sooner or later, he’d manage to get a reaction. And although he recognized this might be a bad idea, he found it amusing nonetheless.

--

This bit was prompted by a discussion on Discord. If you weren't there and don't study Egyptian mythology (I really don't know enough about the subject, given my name), you may be confused a bit as to what Tom's up to here.

Egyptian mythology is a confusing mess of entirely contradictory stories. However, one of the more popular versions of Thoth's origin is... extremely NSFW.

Tom continues to love jabbing Thoth with things, because He Is A Child.

...and that loophole is Dahlia-shaped.

As long as the fic's text is pasted into a Google doc, I could still write a Monstery Science Theory story.

...assuming anybody actually liked Dahlia and her weirdness, that is.

Here are some anecdotes from Maltese Falcon author and former Pinkerton detective Dashiel Hammet:

http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/hammett2.html

Scape provided the shirt, and I just photoshopped the rest.

Shallot.

I have a lot of practice at noticing the absurd and pushing it into the extremely absurd, but the trick is simply to always be asking yourself "how would this be the most ridiculous?" Preferably in a way that makes your characters suffer react in amusing ways. ^_^ The point, after all, is to show why bad writing is bad. That's the key difference between a mission and an MST.

Of course, it won't always work. Humor is subjective. But the best humor is based firmly in truth, so it's important to always be honest to the source material as you interpret it.

And remember that a lot of good stuff came about during rewrites. It doesn't happen by magic, it happens by thinking pretty hard about it. Comedy is serious business. {= )

So, basically, the Neshomeh Method is this:

1. Push the envelope.
2. Show, don't tell.
3. Be honest.
4. Keep pushing that envelope.

~Neshomeh, presenting this advice to the Board at large for posterity.

Have a pile of multi coloured pens.

...I'm gonna have a hard time doing a follow-up mission after this.

(Especially since Nesh wrote a lot of the really good parts :P)

Hey, Ix, remember that old Doctor Sins doc we were working on?

My memory is pretty fuzzy, and I also think that it's SEVERELY unbalanced. This doc needs moar Ix riffs; I have way too bloody many.

I find the mission quite funny, what with elvish cursing and the "one bloody caprine..." line, and the badfic itself has some powerful strangeness, like the main character apparently having three hands, battle sheep, cheat leather, and the inexplicably funny misspelling that is Slaneesh. Also, I'm glad to see the 41st (31st?) millennium finally get a mission.

Thank you, and to the others as well who welcomed me. I can't wait to be an actual part of ppc.

I'll be sure to read up on them very soon. My favorite fandoms happen to be the run of the mill things; Furry, Undertale, Homestuck, etc, etc.

When it comes to genres, I excel in fantasy. Quite a bit of sci-fi gets mixed in as well.

Nice to meet you! What's your favorite genre, beit of writing or of movie? Welcome aboard, and enjoy your stay. Have a pair of sneakers with laser pointers on the ends. You'll never know when you'll need them most.

Welcome to the Board! Here, have some chocolate and enjoy your stay! And don't worry, we don't bite... much.

If you haven't yet read them, may I point you towards the Original Series and the Constitution? They're pretty much the only required reading around these parts. Another useful resource you might use is

Hallow! The name is Avarice, and that's what I'll go by when I appear here. I hope I can be of use around here, fair warning I'm a pun lover. Oops. Well I guess that's all I have to say on this matter. Let's all hope to get along.

I don't know that much about Cato Sicarius, but from what I have heard, I suspect Kyrastus would probably hate him just like he hated Androch. {= )

~Neshomeh sadly has neither the knowledge nor the time to write a Where Is He Now? for Kyrastus.

If there are any others, I'm not aware of them. It is funny, though, since there have been several agents from the 40k continuum and there are plenty of fans in the community. I feel like a total poser having my name on the first mission there, having only gotten into the Horus Heresy novels about a month before starting it, but it's been such fun I'm glad it happened this way. ^_^

Was there anything in particular you liked about the story?

~Neshomeh

Is this the first completed mission in the Warhammer 40,000 continuum? If so, congratulations on breaking new ground. If not, the mission is still good and the wiki is inaccurate.

(If this had been Scratch and you had announced that you were ceasing to make Scratch projects, people would have cried in all caps and even made entire sad projects about it. They would have said "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PLZ DONT STOP!!!!11!! UR PROJECTS R SO AMAZING & I WANT MORE OF THEM!!!11!!1!1!! D': D': D':" They would've made and signed petitions to try to make you begin again, because Scratch likes to think it's capable of actually changing the world.

If you had left, they would've acted like you'd died and told people who wanted to contact you things like "THEYRE GONE OK!?!?!!?!?!?!" After they'd accepted that you were gone, which would be several sad projects and "bring them back" petitions later.

Whereas here, people respect your decision and the motivations behind it. The PPC is capable of dealing with a member who can't contribute anymore in a mature manner.

The PPC Boarders are far from the fanfic cops I thought they were when I came, and I really like that.

-Twistey)