@chuckster88: I would suggest forming a philosophy that one doesn't always NEED to, or make a habit of, playing select titles the moment they will release, if indeed that is what is happening here.

Regardless of pre-ordering, I've almost never treated a marketed release date as a promise and usually treat it as propositional. Maybe I was lucky to haphazardly go with my skeptical gut as a kid and make that a character trait.

Also, HL delay came months in advance; it sounded like you were suggesting that was also short notice.

(For the record, weeks to a month out from release is scratching the surface of short notice. Remember being told you gotta do something right away, that you don't want to do at all?)

@hulk9177: Did you ever consider how and why he would be momentarily beat by She-Hulk in meditative exercises, specifically? (No). Or is it just a binary, hyperbolic comparison you've done prematurely? (Yes).

@dushness: where you gonna find a two meter tall woman with Olympian physique who could also act?

@vgmkyle: You do realize MCU has been subverting their own source material storylines to keep us guessing, since forever, right? The generic-ness would only be considered that within their own slate of media offerings (the slate of "content" as you folks would say).

I don't care if Marvel was gracious enough to lend out four episodes for review. Don't pass off a preliminary review of a partial season as *the* final review for the sum total season.

PS: I liked the recent Phase 4 slate, including Thor 4 and Dr Strange MOM movies (except for the Illuminati fiasco). Except Eternals.

Eternals needed to have been a D+ show with ironically more MCU references thrown in and serious focus on specific characters each episode, replete with implied commentary on their terrestrial deification. Can't just assert that they were basically the gods we've always worshipped and just leave it at that. Also, wtf, pretty sure the Infinity War would've constituted a crisis that is beyond the scope of mortals and NOT beneath the purview of "gods," as well as something that would've been counterproductive to Arishek's plan. Also, Phase 4 done Black Widow dirty. And Hulk/Bamner deserved some backstory about their transformation into Smart Hulk, at least in his own episodic show.

@gts-r288: Not quite.

Also, tbf, I had actually intended to say two things but poorly combined them into one. Those two things:

(1) everything is about power (control, resources, etc all to stave off death); when it isn't, it's about sex.

Corollary: sex is also a form of power.

(2) Politics is about power; it's the act of making policy, official laws from an authorized body or otherwise, for whatever purpose of order with whatever means to employ it.

In communications studies, it is said that the message is the medium, and the medium is the message. In other fields, it is said that politics is in everything, and that makes more sense when one considers that it is beyond the scope or context of just campaigns in public forums and two-dimensional demogoguery(left/right, libertarianism/opposite, etc) in staterooms. That's just politicking.

But everytime at least one person postulates a policy, engages a community and implements an idea about human transaction, politics has taken place. A proposed distribution of power has taken place.

Fighting the *existence* of this is pointless; much like pushing on a string or trying to move away from a vacuum of space. Whether the playing field is level or not, the only known *constructive* way to remove the postulating or positing of policy & power is to disengage: seek isolation.

@tread33: Thanks, I also read your post and actually found it even more concise.

I think what you and I were forgetting and alluding to just now, is that this industry and medium isn't just a scientific endeavour or a feat of engineering... It's not just an art form, either. At the end of the day, it's primarily a business. Businesses within businesses... I guess "industry" already covers that, lol.

When we buy a video game, We're buying a product disguised as a production, and the product is less a physical thing and more an experience. So the cookie cutter aspect that you perceive is inherently tied to the nature of globalized modern-day corporate cynicism.

And really, when it's all said and done, such practises become so engrained - so copied everywhere - that it becomes cultural.

So the "Jossified" trailers with specifically edited, quippy dialogue clips, and the horde of people meme'ing those trailers on social media, is a *cultural* phenomenon. (Meme'ing or aping each others' behaviour is essentially a framework for culture itself, as well).

@treechopper88:

The nature of this topic has not truly taken away from creativity - people have argued for expanding the palate of taste for body types and multiculturalism for example, not replacement or sterilisation of these things; also has not been unilateral or hypocritical or virtue signaling (as if that's even what y'all think it is); has never been truly forced upon the viewer.

None of this is be all or end all. This is just entertainment as we see fit; there is no need for such strong assertions of "forced" and "ruination." That's an ineffective way to gatekeep.

Next, none of what was done at all has ever been as bad (or as good) as anyone else ever claims it is - certainly not on merit of diversity. A bad character is a bad character because they weren't utilized sensibly (though what constitutes "sensibly" is highly subject to formulaic tastes).

What I'm sick of is the unilateral half-baked understanding of what's what - which would be tolerable, if it weren't followed by presumptuous fallacies and perceptions of your fellow patrons. Folks, don't do both. One or the other if you have to stand your ground. And certainly expand your purviews, please, regardless.

Lastly, if I can stomache someone else's nonsense as a Sheldon Cooper level of pedant (not saying I'm a genius or possessing eidetic memory, but SUPER PICKY and anal retentive), so can someone else. The displayed weakness is staggeringly annoying.

Edit: that's the end of it. So, again, nope.

Three minutes to type all that on a phone, a new record for me.

@Thaliard: no worries, tbh I thought YOU sounded correct and was going crazy trying to figure out if there was another way to say it, lol.

@operatorzero: The point of writing is to convey a message - concepts and/or assertions or parts thereof - through the power of the word and prose (or poetic verse, where prose isn't relevant).