The 3rd season of Stranger Things won't be coming until sometime next year.

As often mentioned I'm not much into viewing movies anymore ever since my hearing loss reached a certain level. However, History Buffs (YouTube channel) review of "The Death of Stalin" almost convinces me to make an exception. This sort of thing looks to be right up my alley.

Curious to see where they take this series next. Honestly, Khajiit felt the last episode of S2 was a good point to end the series on but naturally we all want to see more of these kiddos. This one would like to see them bring in some vampire neighbors or something, though Khajiit suspects we’ll be dealing with “the upside down”... again.

I suspect we will be seeing the Demigorgon again as well. Plus more of the other girl who was a science experiment like Eleven (and the other experiments).

In other news, I finally started on rewatching Star Trek: Next Generation from the blu-ray's I bought. This version (and I think the one on Netflix), has been remastered in HD. They went back to the original uncut negatives and did all the shots over from scratch. I am watching a little featurette on how they did it, and it is amazing to compare the original to the new HD version. It is not just the cgi stuff like spaceships that look so much better. But every element, especially faces. The HD version has so much more resolution that now you can see the pores on the actor's faces, count their hairs, etc...

I have been enjoying STNG immensely. Even though the first season was without a doubt the roughest, I am still having fun watching them. I think a lot of it is simple nostalgia. It is fun to see this old show again.

I also saw the first episode of Titans. It was good. So far it mostly concentrated on Nightwing and Raven, though Starfire is in a bit, and Beast Boy makes his first appearance at the very end. It is very dark and gritty. Zack Snyder may not be involved, but it has the same feel as his Watchmen and DCEU films. I like the character of Raven, so I am pleased. There are not enough goth girls in any media. She even appeared in the most recent DC Super Hero Girls film - Legends of Atlantis.

It also appears be set in Detroit, at least so far. I do not know if it was actually filmed here. But I did see some exterior shots of the real city, so that was nice.

I just found out that season 2 of Castlevania will be out next Friday!

Sweet!! Been looking forward to this!

She-Ra and the Princessess of Power is coming to Netflix. I'll wait till it comes to DVD then buy it and watch it then and as a fan of the classic She-Ra, I'm totally excited for this new series.

The 1985 horror comedy The Return of the Living Dead. Such a fun flick!

I was listening to a podcast the other day, and one of the hosts mentioned that whenever zombies get their hands on a radio they immediately become glib.

"Send more cops!"

Lol, yeah the zombies are a lot more expressive than what most films show them.

*in excited tone* “More brains!!”- Tarman

I've lately been watching videos from the YouTube channel "The History Guy: History Deserves to be Remembered." These are well presented short clips, from less than 10min to no more than 15min, covering all sorts of historic events and people. Many of these don't get much if any exposure elsewhere. I'll link two I rather enjoy as representative of what the channel has to offer.

Killer Miller, Cowboy Hitman

The 1895 Fairy Trial of Bridget Cleary

Brooklyn 99. By god is it funny. Anything Michael Schur makes is a gold mine!

Khajiit heard about that last one from Lore. Pretty screwed up stuff.

The Craft

Not an accurate depiction of Witchcraft btw... But somewhat entertaining.

Oh I know, it’s total movie trope cheese. Basically, the story folks were sitting around and one person was like “What if the mean girls were witches?!”. Lol

Watched a bit of Castlevania on Netflix tonight. Good stuff! Makes this one want to go buy that compilation with Symphony of the Night in it Khajiit saw on the PS4 Store (which this one was planning to do anyway )!

I am watching Castlevania as well. I started back with season one again, so I can watch it all the way through. I love the voices. Hearing Richard Armitage and Graham McTavish always makes me want to watch the Hobbit films again.

Khajiit likes Dracula in this show. This one really feels for what he is going through.

Indeed! In fact both Dracula and Trevor Belmont are much the same in personality: nihilistic misanthropes who have had their lives destroyed by the murderous, self-righteous, bigotry of the Church. I loved how one of them (I even forget if it was Dracula or Belmont) even unloads on the common people, who stood by and did nothing while their wife/family was murdered. Basically paraphrasing the old saying that all evil needs to triumph is for good people to stand by and do nothing. Which I whole-heartedly agree with.

Khajiit remembers some one berating them but can’t remember if it was Trevor or Drac. Leaning towards Trevor during the attack. But yes, it’s very true.

Sleepy Hollow, as is Khajiit’s custom every Halloween (Khajiit doesn’t consider Halloween over until he goes to bed tonight).

I have not seen that in ages. I think I will break it out and give it a watch again. It was nice to see Witches portrayed as real people, rather than cardboard cutouts of Evil.

It’s one of Khajiit’s favorite movies. It’s just so much fun! This one agrees that it’s depiction of Witches is good, but Khajiit also likes that the flick points out the evil of religious zealotry.

Look what came last night! Time to turn on the bat-signal.

I took a brief look at the first episode. It does look much better remastered in HD. Even though it is only animated, everything is so much more clearer and sharper than the originals.

Ahhh yyyeeeaah!! Khajiit used to watch that after he got home from school! Very well done series!

Finished watching Season 2 of Castlevania last night. Really good stuff; it actually felt like an old school Castlevania game. Loved the big fight in Dracula’s entrance hall/throne room. They used a version of a classic Castlevania in game background track (Bloody Tears, one of Khajiit’s favorite tunes in video gamedom) for the background score of this fight! All around very well done. Curious to see where they take the series in Season 3 (if indeed they have a Season 3, though they did leave a bit of unfinished business at the end of the Season 2 finale).

The Hunt For Red October = one of my all time favorites!

I finished the second season of Castlevania a few days ago. It was good. It was a lot different from the first season. There were a many more characters, including other vampires. That was probably the biggest change. In season one it was Dracula vs. Wallachia. In season two it is Dracula and an army of vampire minions vs. Wallachia. Naturally that comes with the all the back-stabbing it demands.

I also liked the addition of the Forgemasters, who are basically necromancers. In season one Dracula had apparently summoned an army of demons from hell. In season two he instead has an army of night creatures reanimated (and mutated) by his Forgemasters. It gets away from the religious aspects of Christianity and Hell, and makes it all much more earthly, which I liked.

Finally in season one Dracula is filled with righteous outrage. In season two that seems to be gone, and instead he is just... tired. He has no actual plan to destroy Wallachia, and he is content to leave the prosecution of his war to others.

In many ways it seems like they changed writers, but I don't believe that happened.

I also rather liked that the stock d-bag vampire Godbrand (odd name for a vampire), points out that if they wipe out the human race, there will nothing left for the vampires to eat. Turns out this is Dracula's intent. He really does not just want to exterminate humans. He was everything dead.

I liked Carmilla as well. She was the sane vampire. Like Godbrand, she was smart enough to see what was going on, and smart enough to keep her mouth shut and play her own game. She will make a good villain for season three.

Khajiit really likes it as well. Season 3 should be very interesting!

Hey Subbie, have you watched any of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix?

You mean THIS Sabrina?

Lol, well it’s the same universe, but it’s a new show on Netflix. Khajiit was curious if Subbie specifically had seen it, given her interest in witchcraft.

I saw it was out there, but have not tried watching it yet. I am a little hesitant, since the reviews I see say that the protagonist is a half-Witch, half human, who must choose between being evil and being a regular girl. There is a lot of head-scratching there. How can you be a half-Witch? Or a half-Christian, or a half-Buddhist? Why does she have to be evil or human?

I have enough other things to watch that I have not bothered to learn more. This is the problem with being a Witch. It is hard not take it as an insult when people so dramatically mis-characterize my religion.

Exactly. Khajiit is not familiar with the comics, but the show associates witchcraft with Satan worship, which is its major misstep. This one means full on “Hail Satan!” (variants of this are even proclaimed by several characters, repeatedly) Satan worship. Khajiit would imagine this would be quite insulting to the Wicca community.

It turns out The Church of Satan is suing Netflix, so it looks like they are insulted too. Here is a blurb of what I found:


Because the statue is featured prominently in the show, The Satanic Temple claims its members are being associated with the "evil antagonists" depicted in the series. The characters of the show, who worship the "Dark Lord" or Satan, engage in cannibalism, necromancy, murder and torture, among other nefarious activities.

The Satanic Temple, on the other hand, "does not promote evil and instead holds to the basic principle that undue suffering is bad, and that which reduces suffering is good," the organization claims. It hails Satan as a "rebel against God's authority, rather than an evil being."

Khajiit is not familiar with how the Satanic Temple operates, but is that statue a certified icon of just that particular sect or is it a universal icon of all Satan worshipping sects (similar to how Jesus on a cross could be displayed in any Christian church)?

I am not really sure. It is a statue of Baphomet, but I don't know if it is just any statue, or if Netflix took a specific one the Satanists own and reproduced it. Tbh, I don't think the statue is what they are ticked off about, but rather the entire negative slant overall.

Oh yes that was well understood. The problem with their complaint now is that, did Netflix particularly say their Satanic Temple was evil? The witch coven in the show is called “The Church of Night”. The statue was a centerpiece in the entrance hall to an academy for “dark arts of magic”. So, if the Satanic Temple can prove that the statue is an icon particular to their specific sect of Satanic worship, then they may have an argument. Otherwise Netflix can always point out that they never meant for the Satanic Temple to be compared to the group in the show, and therefore can’t be held responsible for the wrongful association between the two by a handful of viewers (Khajiit certainly didn’t think of any real world religious groups when he watched the show; the stuff they were doing was just so ridiculous).

Breaking Bad, WOO HOO!!! Netflix is carrying the whole series right now. I could watch this 100X and never get sick of it.

Khajiit made it to like, the last season but grew kind of fatigued with it.

This is only my third time getting to see it; and all three times I binged it from Pilot to the final episode. It doesn't come on often enough for me to get bored yet, lol.

One of my favorite scenes in the series:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u73RSSpstkk



Another one:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2jhrE15Urg

Batman (1989) is on AMC right now!

Where does he get those wonderful toys?

Batman: You weigh a little more than a hundred and eight.

Vicki Vale: Oh really!

I started watching the new She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. It is a lot of fun, and really cool. Not what I expected. I am enjoying it immensely.

Watched the Venom movie.

7/10 and that’s because I’m feeling generous. Like the titular symbiote, I find the character development and awareness (more on this later), humor and overall pace to be hungry and trying to get its paws over everything it once.

Tom Hardy is Tom Hardy, and honestly I can’t see him as anything else; with that kind of body language and basically his history of playing badasses, it was REALLY hard to see him as some sort of Peter Parker-esque everyday next-door-loser. His innate intensity is just too ... intense.

The weakest link was the female sidepiece, his Mary Jane presence, the character of Annie Weying. Her reactions to something really nasty as the Venom symbiote is really baffling. Like, I find myself saying, “what in the hell is she doing?” in amazement a couple of times.

The plot was ... well, it’s not bad? I guess? Not entirely memorable, but it functions well I suppose.

Its crown piece would definitely have to be the action scenes tho, which is what you would expect from a movie about fricken’ Venom kekeke

Honestly I could ramble on, but I’m feeling tired and kinda robbed. So like every adult in this fine earth, I gotta sleep it off.