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12:08 AM
@Stormblessed Hebrew?
 
I'd be curious to know how many IDs are mine
Also grmbl your Greek letters aren't in order, it's confusing
 
12:23 AM
@Jenayah I know, right?
 
35 so far
As of revision 36
 
1
Q: Was Riker, whenever he led the ship, more of a military leader or was he diplomatic like Picard?

AdamNYWatching "Chain of Command" made me think - Riker and Jellico have a lot in common. Riker, when he led the ship to fight the Borg, was definitely a military leader. He may not have been extreme like Jellico or Sisko but he definitely was not purely Picard either. Plus the way he gave orders was ...

 
12:41 AM
@Alex well borrowed from Hebrew, but yes
 
@Stormblessed That was pretty dumb of me...
I guess I shouldn't multitask here and on Mi Yodeya.
 
Why does it think that every time my CW answer is edited, everything is deleted and then put back? Strange
 
Use side by side markdown comparison
 
12:56 AM
Let's stop at 42 for now
 
1:14 AM
1
Q: How does the name "Marauder's Map" indicate that its creators are "the Marauders"?

AlexReferring to the group of James, Sirius, Lupin, and Pettigrew as "the Marauders" seems to be pretty ubiquitous. There are many such references to them on this site alone; on a popular fanfiction site, there is an entire category called "Marauder Era". In fact, in the books themselves there is at...

 
(I actually got around to reading that book)
Discworld 1 is much more coherent yet still funny, but HHGTTG is still a very good, funny SF book
 
1:34 AM
0
Q: How do Homelander's powers differ from Superman?

ThePopMachineI've only watched the first three episodes for The Boys on Amazon Prime, but we have Homelander who is an obvious analog to Superman. As far as I recall, so far we've seen him employ: (presumably) super speed, strength, and longevity flight heat vision x-ray vision super hearing Not yet cle...

 
2:13 AM
0
Q: Why does Daredevil use the 48-star US flag?

DaveInCazIn Marvel's Daredevil there have been a number of scenes where a 48 star US flag is shown (instead of the 50 star flag which in the real world has been in use since Hawaii and Alaska were added as states in the 1950s). Here's an example from season 2, episode 7 of Daredevil, the 48-star flag is ...

 
 
5 hours later…
7:28 AM
0
Q: How does the ministry control ghosts?

SamalotAt several points, ghosts are shown to be under the ministry’s control. But ghosts seem to care little about the law, and I doubt peeves would do it out of obedience. How does the ministry control ghosts?

 
7:48 AM
0
Q: Why didn't the Doc believe Marty was from the future?

colmdeIn Back To The Future, Marty calls to Doc's house to try to get his help, explaining that he's from the future. Doc flat out refuses to believe him, responding with sarcasm and incredulity, laughing at the notion of a celebrity president of the US, before running out of his house and down to his ...

 
 
1 hour later…
9:06 AM
0
Q: If Marvels Blade were to go to DCs Zur En Arrh Planet

DJ Diligent and JustIf Marvels Blade were to go to DCs Zur En Arrh Planet would he gain the powers of Superman as well as keeping his vampire skills because he's half human?

 
9:26 AM
0
Q: Where did more Sky Bison come from after the events of ATLA?

NathanSThroughout the Avatar: The Last Airbender, it is implied that Aang's Sky Bison, Appa, was the last surviving Sky Bison, and yet, in The Legend of Korra, multiple Sky Bison are seen. How is this possible?

 
 
1 hour later…
10:54 AM
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive answer detected, toxic answer detected (160): How did Doctor Strange regain use of his hands? by ur mum gay on scifi.SE
 
SQB
Please flag R/A, not just delete.
 
I do both, the important thing is that it is gone as quick as possible and 3 VTDs are quicker than 6(?) R/A flags
In the grand scheme of things IP blocking and the other things put in place to stop R/A, spam and troll accounts don't really matter much here considering the low levels we actually get
I'd much rather have fewer eyeballs on something unsavoury and delete it the "wrong" way than do it the "correct" way but having it sit there for longer with more people seeing it when they didn't have to
And I believe the same sentiment was expressed when Mith wrote his meta on it
 
SQB
11:31 AM
Wasn't saying you didn't, just that R/A should always be flagged.
 
 
2 hours later…
1:21 PM
0
Q: Why was Rhodes following Barton?

C.KocaAt the beginning of Avengers: Endgame, we learn that Hawkeye Colonel Rhodes was chasing him. What was his reason of following him? We also see him at the end at A few meters behind Rhodes. Was he forgiven?

 
1:49 PM
@DavidW That actually sounds like something Douglas Adams might have written.
@DavidW There's a Gogol story about a guy whose nose disappears for a day, another guy who finds a nose in a loaf of bread, and the first guy chasing his nose around St Petersburg while it's dressed in an official's uniform.
One person's "far too wacky to write a story about" is another person's "awesome surrealist fiction".
Edgar Allan Poe has some stories in a similar wacky vein too.
 
Greetings, Earthlings.
@Randal'Thor Stanislaw Lem and Philip K Dick
 
2
Q: SF short story about an immortal man as he grieves for dead partner, becomes a mercenary, meets ageless artificial intelligence

XillanelleI only remember some elements and only hazily - nothing of the ending. An internet link took me to the story, I read it online, but it wasn't dated so I don't know which era it's from. I, however, read it about 2 - 3 years ago. The story itself starts in modern times (might be during or around t...

 
2:20 PM
0
Q: Can the Green Lantern ring be used to locate a nearby power battery?

ShreedharIn the game Injustice: Gods Among Us, when the Justice League members are pulled into an alternate dimension, Hal Jordan sees that his ring is low on power. He then proceeds to use his power ring to locate a nearby Green Lantern power battery (cannot find the video, but here is the transcript). ...

 
2:30 PM
@Randal'Thor Granted, but it would have been a 2-page scene in a much more wide-ranging story.
@Randal'Thor I guess I'm at the "Sturgeon was an optimist" point. The few authors who are good enough to pull off a decent story about something totally random aren't nearly numerous enough to cover all the possible variations, so the overwhelming odds are that the stranger the premise the more likely the story is to be crap.
 
2:53 PM
@DavidW Nicola Sturgeon?
 
@Randal'Thor That was mean. My first thought was "Nicola Sturgeon's an author?" followed by "There's an author called Nicola Sturgeon?" Then came "She doesn't even rate on a list of surreal politicians in the U.K.!?"
Apparently I need a coffee. Or three.
 
It was also a serious question, as I don't know what "Sturgeon was an optimist" means.
 
The guy from Sturgeon's Law, presumably?
The implication being that his law is more optimistic than the practical reality.
 
There's a Sturgeon's Law?
 
-1
Q: Children's Fantasy Movie

Inês ShrubsallI'm trying to remember the name of a movie I haven't seen in years and it's really been bothering me. I don't remember much except that it's about a girl who moves in with her uncle (I think). I remember that her room had a ceiling that actually had the sky on it. There was also a scene where the...

 
3:05 PM
Sturgeon's revelation (as originally expounded by Theodore Sturgeon), commonly referred to as Sturgeon's law, is an adage commonly cited as "ninety percent of everything is crap." The sentence derives from quotations by Sturgeon, an American science fiction author and critic; although Sturgeon coined another adage that he termed "Sturgeon's law," the "ninety percent crap" remark has become Sturgeon's law. The phrase was derived from Sturgeon's observation that while science fiction was often derided for its low quality by critics, the majority of examples of works in other fields could equally...
 
Oh, just Googled it. OK, makes sense now.
@Feeds Heh, I clicked through to edit and improve this, then realised it's on the wrong site ;-)
 
@Randal'Thor I was trying to come up with some clever fish pun but my brain isn't working today apparently
 
Now to decide if it's high enough quality to be worth recommending the OP here instead ...
 
Now you can leave a comment instead encouraging them to ask their awesome question on the "right" site. ;-)
 
Why the quotes?
 
3:08 PM
@NapoleonWilson The unnecessary snark is greatly appreciated as always.
2
 
You're welcome.
@TheLethalCarrot To denote that it's primarily intended as a reference to the comment it's replying to and avoid any connotations beyond that.
 
@TheLethalCarrot jinx
Maybe delete your comment as mine has a bit more detail?
 
@Randal'Thor I thought your message was about the "awesome", though. The ""right"" was decidedly not "snarky".
 
The "jinx" was a reference to the fact that we both left comments at the same time on that question.
 
@Randal'Thor Done, I had info about which tags to use but that's not too much of a problem to fix if they do ask it here
 
3:14 PM
But yes, the ""right"" came off as snarky too.
 
user132126
I'd say this site has a fair mix of right and left
 
@Randal'Thor Ah, I see.
 
@WebHead Oh hey, long time no see!
 
You didn't suggest any tags, though. ;-)
 
user132126
I'm been practicing my stealth skills.
 
3:14 PM
@Randal'Thor Oh.
 
@WebHead Useful skills for a spider.
 
user132126
Indeed.
 
Unless "Web" is a reference to the interwebz.
 
@TheLethalCarrot Meanwhile my brain was trying to come up with an adequate analogy for a "scottish surrealist" the entire time I was off getting a coffee...
 
user132126
I haven't even had much opportunity to try and get onto any chat lately. I have a new role at work and onboarding eats up all my mental bandwidth.
 
3:16 PM
@Randal'Thor Possibly, but then there's still the profile pictures to go from.
(Assuming you know how Spider-Man works.)
 
user132126
You mean for Sony and not Marvel?
 
@NapoleonWilson I mean the clue is in the name right?
 
@NapoleonWilson I don't, but I can still see the webs on the avatar.
 
1 min ago, by Rand al'Thor
Unless "Web" is a reference to the interwebz.
 
But his avatar is changeable anyway ;-)
Are you going to change the CE logo to WH, @WebHead?
 
user132126
3:17 PM
 
Especially if you're rereading WoT book 9.
 
user132126
@Randal'Thor Nah, it's the only quick "link" for people to still recognize me. I just was changing up the search results for CE to see how that worked.
 
user132126
Make people work for getting from one social media service to another.
 
user132126
@Randal'Thor My heart's not in it to reread anything these days. WoT ended and I kind of stopped reading... anything, lol
 
@NapoleonWilson Is it Spiderman or Lord Loss? :-P
 
user132126
3:20 PM
Spider-man.
 
@Randal'Thor Neither.
 
user132126
Hyphenated, lower-case "man"
 
You already know I'm not a fan of Marvel or DC or whatever it is that he comes from.
 
You're lucky I've even heard of him ;-)
 
user132126
3:21 PM
He may as well be his own entity. Pretty sure he's the most valuable and popular fictional character of all time.
 
That's what the cautious adage was for afterall.
 
@WebHead rolleyes
2
 
user132126
Superman has similar recognition levels, but I'm pretty sure Spidey has him beat.
 
Really?
 
Gotta add Batman into the mix too
 
user132126
3:22 PM
@Randal'Thor You disagree? 6 years ago, Spider-man was pulling in 1.3 billion USD per year in branded sales, and that was before he was added to the MCU.
 
He made his entry into the broader pop-culture only very late, though, about 2000.
Yes yes, there's earlier TV-shows and animated series, but that'd be rather niche.
 
user132126
Who?
 
Batman and Superman seem to have a much broader appeal to the general public.
@WebHead Spider-man.
 
I wouldn't necessarily say appeal. More like they've been in popular culture for longer
 
Or that.
 
user132126
3:24 PM
Oh, man, the Spider-Man cartoons from early on were not only hugely popular, but there was even a Sentai Spider-Man that brought the craze to Japan. Not only that, but Spider-man is a relatable character, whereas Superman is and Batman are clearly not like us.
 
Well, granted. ;-) I was more about knowledge/reverence, since that seems easier to measure than relatability.
 
@WebHead I dunno, man, you can show big sums of money from the 2010s, but nothing about "branded sales" is going to convince me that he's "the most popular fictional character of all time".
That's a big claim.
 
user132126
I don't think it is.
 
user132126
He has the broadest appeal to the widest reach of people, the most brand power, and to match it the most successful merchandising box office performances.
 
Do you mean out of any fictional character though or just limited to comics/superheroes cos one is a much bigger claim than the other
 
3:27 PM
Probably Jesus anyway. <gasp>
 
user132126
Any.
 
user132126
@NapoleonWilson I didn't say it
 
Spiderman has been around for, what, half a century at most?
 
user132126
Game of Thrones is hugely popular, for instance, but it's still relatively nascent and is pretty much locked to a certain demographic.
 
Now any is a massive claim that probably isn't true... I'd say it's quite a big claim when just on about superheroes
 
3:28 PM
Granted, when measuring people wtaching films and buying toys last year maybe. I was admittedly onto something broader and fuzzier than that.
 
user132126
@Randal'Thor Almost 60 years.
 
I wouldn't say any GoT/ASOIAF character is "the most popular fictional character of all time"
 
How does that match up to classic figures like Robin Hood or Sherlock Holmes or King Arthur?
Or has nobody heard of them outside Britain?
 
user132126
They are, but you're talking now about something like an "I've heard of it" scale.
 
@WebHead Money doesn't measure popularity. Lots of people don't go out and buy branded goods.
 
3:29 PM
@WebHead And 40 of those in comics read by US kids. ;-)
 
@Randal'Thor Robin Hood is quite popular in Japan/China (I live at Sherwood Forest and used to work there) - you get a lot of tour buses from there
 
@NapoleonWilson I was trying not to go there ;-)
 
@Randal'Thor I think we all were haha
 
@TheLethalCarrot I doubt any of them is "popular" to begin with. ;-)
 
user132126
@Randal'Thor Right, but the more people that do pay for the stuff the character is in, it's reasonable to presume there's also more people that enjoy the content that don't pay for it.
 
3:30 PM
(Well, maybe Daenerys, judging by the outcries last season.) ;-)
 
@WebHead Why are you guys all thinking of new, modern stuff that could be forgotten in fifty years?
@NapoleonWilson Jon Snow maybe?
 
user132126
Spider-man will not be forgotten in 50 years.
 
@NapoleonWilson Even if they were S8 seeked to destroy their popularity anyway
 
@WebHead Five hundred years?
 
user132126
You know what, they can't be consistent with the M, I won't be either.
 
3:30 PM
Because King Arthur and Robin Hood have already lasted more than that.
 
@WebHead Granted, but so are a lot of people.
 
user132126
@Randal'Thor If we as a race last 500 years, I don't see why Spidey wouldn't.
 
@WebHead They already aren't in Marvel alone.
 
@WebHead Unless there's a degree of "appeal to nerds who're likely to buy branded goods" over "appeal to general audiences". (I've no idea if that's the case or not, just adding a possibility to the mix.)
@NapoleonWilson Do you mean marvel? :-P
 
@Randal'Thor No.
 
user132126
3:33 PM
The reason Spider-Man became so popular in the first place, and still does well, is because he's written as a person who struggles with the issues of his powers and his life, like the rest of us. Batman, Superman, all these other characters that pre-dated the Marvel explosion, were stoic, statuesque characters that were practically infallible.
 
@WebHead That's probably what they said about <insert random forgotten character from 19th-century literature here> too ;-)
 
@Randal'Thor That's an interesting point. The dude who doesn't buy a Spider-man action figure isn't going to buy a King Arthur sculpture instead of it.
 
user132126
I don't think most people 500 years ago could imagine 500 years in the future!
 
user132126
@Randal'Thor But Spider-Man is a general audience appeal, that's what I'm saying.
 
@Randal'Thor Exactly, most fictional characters end up forgotten at some point - very few last a few hundred years
 
3:34 PM
I'm looking outside the bubble of modern western pop culture here.
@TheLethalCarrot And when they do, it seems to be figures whose fictionality is debated.
 
Granted. I'm not denying he's immensely popular, let alone will stay so for quite some time. But I'm still not buying into him being the most popular ever just because he's a teen boy like you and me.
 
@WebHead Spider-Man appeals to the general audience because superhero stuff is popular at the moment. As soon as that passes the popular superhero characters will start to be forgotten again
 
I'm not even sure I'll buy it for comics people alone.
 
King Arthur, Robin Hood, Odysseus, ... all of them could have been real people, or at least based on such.
 
user132126
@TheLethalCarrot No, that's absolutely not the case, he was popular before the Comic Movie boom, and is pretty much why there was a comic movie boom.
 
3:36 PM
Based on real people or time has turned them into a myth where they could be yeah... really helps to pass on the "legend" of a character rather than the story of someone made up
 
I guess they predate the super sharp and clear division between fact and fiction that exists nowadays.
 
user132126
X-Men 1 was huge, but without Raimi's Spider-Man 1, we would not have had this last 20 years of comic movies.
 
If you're listening to a ballad in a 16th-century tavern, who's going to nitpick about whether this guy really existed and did those things or not?
 
Right but the popularity was contained to a group of people not to the general public
 
@WebHead He was popular, but among the comics crowd, who, contrary to right now, haven't always been the owners of popular culture.
 
user132126
3:37 PM
There has been Spider-Man on TV pretty much non-stop for 50 years
 
user132126
Languages and countries across the world.
 
user132126
@NapoleonWilson No, he was popular among everyone, people knew him, heard of him, kids would watch his stuff, and people would buy his toys.
 
@WebHead Everyone? Really?
 
I might be underestimating his popularity but I think you're vastly overestimating it because you like the character
 
See, a statement like that always needs to be qualified, since you don't actually mean all the however many billion people in the world.
 
user132126
3:39 PM
@Randal'Thor In the sense of "across demographics" not "the enumerated population of Earth"
 
user132126
@TheLethalCarrot I like the character's toys and movies, I'm otherwise a big poser. I've read more Green Lantern comics than Spider-Man, and I have not read a lot of Green Lantern comics :D
 
@WebHead Again, that's highly locally dependent. Before the comic film boom, hardly anyone I know knew him, and particularly not my 50 year-old mother, or my cousin who ended up falling all over herself for Tobey Maguire.
Yes, the comics boom has much to thank the Spidey films, but that's not all just the character's merit.
 
@WebHead Which demographics though? Different sectors of the US population? Different TV-watching demographics from the developed world?
For the record, as someone who's never been into the comics/superheroes world at all, from cultural osmosis before joining this site I was aware of Superman, Batman, and Spiderman, in that order.
 
user132126
@NapoleonWilson Yes, it's definitely been a change since then, but the appeal was there, which is why the first Raimi movie pulled in as much internationally as it did domestically 17 years ago. .
 
And assumed from the names that Superman was the top one and the others might be guys who could control / turn into bats and spiders or some such.
 
user132126
3:42 PM
Superman has the recognition, for sure
 
@WebHead I still wouldn't just attribute all that to the character alone.
And even before the comics film boom started, Superman and Batman films raked in da money and fame.
 
user132126
In a logo study, Superman's S-shield beats out pretty much every other logo
 
user132126
As in, worldwide recognition, people are more likely to know that the S-shield means Superman than the golden arches means McDonalds.
 
But now you're talking about logos (which are inherently branded) rather than characters.
 
user132126
Sort of, but not quite. They can't know that the S-shield is for Superman if they don't know who Superman is.
 
3:45 PM
If I saw a shield with an S on it, I'd just think of this:
> Upon their shields they bore a strange device: a small white hand in the centre of a black field; on the front of their iron helms was set an S-rune, wrought of some white metal.

> 'I have not seen these tokens before,' said Aragorn. 'What do they mean?'

> 'S is for Sauron,' said Gimli. 'That is easy to read.'

> 'Nay!' said Legolas. 'Sauron does not use the Elf-runes.'

> 'Neither does he use his right name, nor permit it to be spelt or spoken,' said Aragorn. 'And he does not use white. The Orcs in the service of Barad-dûr use the sign of the Red Eye.' He stood for a moment in thought.
But then I'm a nerd.
 
user132126
The awareness of Superman is pervasive.
 
Just not a comic-book nerd ;-)
 
You're hardly a representative sample.
 
@WebHead And now I read that as "Saruman" ...
 
user132126
I'm not making this stuff up myself, either
 
3:46 PM
Actually, gonna go and Google "superman shield" to see what that thing actually is.
Hm. Yeah, I guess that's familiar.
I probably wouldn't associate it with Superman without the colours, though.
 
Also, Batman has to struggle with his powers and his life, too. Granted, he's not as relatable to a teenage boy as Spider-man, but he's also not complety out of this world as Superman. He's immensely rich, but...he's also not a mutant spider. I'm not sure relatability can be reduced to a teenager struggling with life or is even entirely important to begin with.
 
user132126
Batman is a billionaire, already not relatable.
 
I like Batman a lot more because of his more serious tone and pschylogically-based villains. And while I'm just a single sample, so is other guy who likes Spidey for being a teenage boy. Yet I also liked the Raimi films. There's just more levels to this than relatability.
 
SQB
@WebHead yeah, but he's a tragic billionaire.
 
user132126
Spider-Man's powers and description do not read like they meet the criteria of a successful super hero, which is a testament to his popularity IMO.
 
3:51 PM
Contrary to what modern identity politics suggest, relatability doesn't work that superficially or is the nonplusultra to begin with. ;-)
 
I can relate to a billionaire more than I can to some kid that was bitten by a radioactive spider and got powers from it
 
SQB
I can relate to Spider-man more, since I've been bitten by a spider once.
Didn't give me superpowers, though. Just a small spot that went away again.
 
Maybe you have superpowers that you didn't discover yet.
 
user132126
Looking at some of the highest earning characters of all time, and so far it's loaded: Mickey Mouse, Frodo, Harry Potter, Winnie the Pooh.
 
Well then that's not relateable at all!
 
3:53 PM
What is this "earning"?
I thought we were talking about most popular characters.
How much did Robin Hood "earn"?
 
user132126
We are, but you can't earn money if you're not popular, it just doesn't relate.
 
Whatever it was, he sure didn't give it to Hollywood filmmakers ;-)
 
user132126
@Randal'Thor Almost nothing, the movies keep sucking, lol
 
@Randal'Thor To his defense, he sketched quite early that he goes to large deal by sales.
 
@WebHead Movies themselves are a very recent invention, when we're talking about most popular fictional characters of all time.
 
user132126
3:56 PM
In this particular article (not the first I've read on the subject), this is how they classify the earnings:
 
user132126
> Earnings were calculated by adding together worldwide toy/merchandise sales, videogame sales, publishing and box-office revenue, and DVD/VHS sales and rental revenue. Actual numbers were used whenever possible, but in some cases we were forced to rely on the estimates of industry insiders. Excluded were advertising and promotional revenue.
 
@Randal'Thor Though, so is globalization, which enables whole new levels of world-wide appreciation.
 
Even within the world of movies, I'd probably put money on Charlie Chaplin over these recent comic-book characters who get played by a bunch of different actors anyway. Although that's more recognisability than popularity, I guess.
 
user132126
@Randal'Thor Does it matter? Robin Hood, presuming he wasn't real, was created in the 1300s. Even if the entire population of the planet at that time liked him, that's still less people that saw the latest Spider-Man movie.
 
@Randal'Thor Old classics on all honours, but the banal reality will be that not that many people know or revere Charlie Chaplin.
 
user132126
3:58 PM
Probably because he had pedophilic tendencies and so modern trends are not to persist his content.
 
He's also...not a fictional character anyway. ;-)
 
@WebHead I'd say popularity should be measured as a percentage of total population rather than absolute numbers
 
user132126
@TheLethalCarrot Current living or all time?
 
@WebHead I guess now we're getting into a question of how to define popularity.
 
@Randal'Thor Which seems the basis for this entire disagreement.
 
4:00 PM
@WebHead Current living over time probably makes most sense but I dunno
But that aside I'd still say even today Spider-man isn't the most popular fictional character
 
user132126
@Randal'Thor I thought we had done that from the start, lol.
 
user132126
@TheLethalCarrot What proof or counter example do you have?
 
user132126
About to head to a meeting, so before I go I want to offer some OC daily floof.
 
With apologies for bringing politics into it: in the London mayoral elections Boris Johnson won the largest personal election mandate in UK history. Does that make him the most popular Brit ever? I don't think so.
 
@WebHead The same that you do, intuition. ;-)
 
4:01 PM
@WebHead If it's not a spider, you have failed this chatroom :-P
 
user132126
 
Well Batman and Superman just in the superhero genre are probably more popular/recognisable but yeah I have no physical proof
 
user132126
 
But +1 for cats instead of dogs for once! \o/
 
4:02 PM
@NapoleonWilson I was about to say the opposite... :P
 
@Randal'Thor Chaplin? Really? I'd recognize him, but I've never seen one of his movies; I'd wager than more than half of my (mostly much younger) co-workers wouldn't even recognize him.
 
For whatever that's worth (a random Guardian opinion piece).
It makes a good point about Shakespeare characters though.
Romeo has practically become a word in the English language.
 
Well, so has Rambo. ;-)
 
@DavidW Gosh darn, kids these days ... :-P
 
@DavidW I bet if someone has never heard of him you're most likely to get a "hitler tash" response to showing them a picture of him
 
4:05 PM
Also true.
Though, he's quite popular, too. ;-)
 
FWIW though, I think enduring popularity is an important factor because, you know, if something's been popular for the last 1000 years there's a fair chance it'll be popular for the next 1000 years too, whereas if something's been popular for the last 50 years it might be forgotten in another 50-100 years.
@NapoleonWilson Recognisable, at least. Sadly not a fictional character though.
 
Granted, if you use signed popularity, it'll still sum up quite negative.
@Randal'Thor Like Chaplin.
Though, our popular culture will make the classics of the future. Not all, sure, but a lot of it. And I have no doubts people like Superman and Batman, and sure also Spider-man, will last for quite a while.
 
@NapoleonWilson Nah, people have mostly forgotten Rambo; the new movie coming out only serving to emphasize that.
 
That something is just 50 years old doesn't mean we're not the first 50 of the next 5000.
 
@DavidW I never even heard of it.
@NapoleonWilson Sure, but it's very hard to know in the present day which of the current round of "popular" stuff will become future classics.
 
4:10 PM
It might also not be part of the English language, granted.
 
But apparently noone actually defines that anyway.
@DavidW Oh my.
@Randal'Thor True.
But universality of themes combined with popularity does seem a good measure. And people like Superman are quite old, measured by their medium.
 
@Randal'Thor Can I hope? Or at least hope for the opposite?
 
@DavidW A trailer for a 2019 film isn't inspiring me with confidence about this guy's widespread popularity or recognisability ;-)
@DavidW Do I look like the hope police?
 
Imagine if 200 years from now what the remember from our era is Twilight and its fan-fics.
 
4:12 PM
How do Twilight fan fics compare to HPs?
 
Fifty Shades of Grey is a 2011 erotic romance novel by British author E. L. James. It became the first instalment in the Fifty Shades novel series that follows the deepening relationship between a college graduate, Anastasia Steele, and a young business magnate, Christian Grey. It is notable for its explicitly erotic scenes featuring elements of sexual practices involving BDSM (bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism). Originally self-published as an ebook and print-on-demand in June 2011, the publishing rights to the novel were acquired by Vintage Books in March 2012. Fifty...
 
@TheLethalCarrot Well, at least 50 Shades of Grey made it quite big.
 
@DavidW A fitting punishment for current culture, I think.
Although in fairness I've never understood why people hate on Twilight so much, other than "cuz it's cool".
 
@Randal'Thor If you were such, it might actually give me some hope... :)
 
@DavidW Oh I had no idea haha
 
4:14 PM
@Randal'Thor Sparkly vampires?
 
@Randal'Thor Do you mean you have never heard about the first three Rambo movies?
 
@DavidW And apparently that's actually a thing.
 
Vampires and werewolves going to war over some random human girl?
 
Because Americans give their towns odd names.
@DavidW What's wrong with that?
@Loong The only time I remember hearing the word "Rambo" is a throwaway line from a Doctor Who character, which I actually keep meaning to ask on SFF what she was on about.
 
@Randal'Thor Let's make super-predators twee?
 
4:17 PM
@DavidW I heard of this enduring classic with armies and gods going to war over some random Spartan girl.
> The face that launched a thousand fanfics?
 
@Randal'Thor That'll either get a tonne of DVs or hit the HNQ and get a tonne of UVs
 
@Randal'Thor Well, it was justified in-story at least; the gods were bored and wanted to play.
 
But despite Stallone's attempts at destroying the lagacy, John Rambo will definitely remain as an important figure in film history.
 
@DavidW Do you equally hate all vampire romance, or stories with nice vampires?
@TheLethalCarrot Or both.
 
@Loong I wouldn't be suprised about that.
 
4:20 PM
@Randal'Thor If something gets a lot of UVs it usually ends up gaining more UVs than DVs in the end though
 
@Randal'Thor The last vampire story I read was the semi-romance Blood Pact in 1993. After that I swore off vampires.
 
@Randal'Thor So you don't know "blue light", "Surrounding them's out." "God would have mercy. He won't." "How many days' walk?". :-o
 
I don't read books about vampires, cats or furry-things-with-wings.
 
@TheLethalCarrot I give you this former HNQ.
 
@Randal'Thor And the girl carried the soul of an old war criminal general?
 
4:21 PM
@Randal'Thor I knew you was gonna link that!
 
@Loong ... no?
 
We all know that's an odd case
 
oh
 
@NapoleonWilson Really?
 
TBH I have no clue what those quotes are either
 
4:22 PM
@NapoleonWilson What?
 
@Randal'Thor No, I only tend to forget "n't" every second time. ;-)
 
@Loong This kind of blue light?
 
@Randal'Thor Well, that was literally God's Army ;-)
 
(Don't worry, I still recognized the Iliad.)
 
4:23 PM
@NapoleonWilson I don't know what you're talking about, so I'm going to assume it's a screen thing ;-)
@DavidW Even the "original" scary vampires?
 
@Loong I still think the best is "to survive war, you have to become war."
 
@NapoleonWilson One L.
 
Fixed.
 
@NapoleonWilson That sounds like Sun Tzu ... wait, no it doesn't.
 
@Randal'Thor I might get around to re-reading some of them someday. But the TBR shelf is more like a shelf-and-a-half plus a couple of boxes...
 
4:25 PM
It could as well be a quote from The Sphinx. ;-)
 
...pretty sure it communicates exclusively via oneboxes...
 
@NapoleonWilson I am surprised that "How many days' walk?" is not on IMDb. Do I remember wrong?
 
@DavidW There's some decent vampire films too.
I enjoyed the old Hammer ones with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
 
@Loong I...don't quite know what specific quote you're talking about, I admit.
 
Even Dracula: AD 1972 which is, as the name suggests, set in a more modern era.
<listens for sound of Napoleon falling off his chair>
 
4:28 PM
@Randal'Thor Oh hell, those were terrible!
 
I think my favourite vampire story is the one where the researcher in the Soviet economic bureau notices that there is an unexplained drain on the resources of the union. When he publishes his research he is invited to present it to the party members...
 
Like, gheez, you're the book dude. They made so many totally random but odd changes in the Lee film, it was utterly egregious.
 
@NapoleonWilson Really?
TBF, it's been a lot of years since I watched them.
 
> Hamid: Where do you come from?
John Rambo: Arizona.
Hamid: How many days' walk?
Rambo: Two years.
found it
 
Well, they were okay as 50s horror C-movies? But then you gotta like 50s horror C-movies to begin with. ;-)
 
4:30 PM
@NapoleonWilson I was less able to enjoy the first one because the story was kind of based on, but so different from, the book.
The ones that weren't even connected with the original book, though - no problem with them.
Except the last two. They should have stopped at AD 1972.
God, the Chinese-martial-arts one was dire.
 
Granted, they are a big pop-cultural legacy. But I still think the Coppola film is ultimately the quality choice, even if the Lee films will last longer, I guess.
 
@NapoleonWilson I don't even know what "C-movie" means.
Also, 50s?
Huh, yeah, the first one was from '58.
 
@Randal'Thor An exaggeration of B-movie? ;-)
@Randal'Thor I...was guessing a little there, too.
 
Well, I don't know what "B-movie" means either, although at least that's a term I've heard before.
@NapoleonWilson Coppola? Is that the one with Bela Lugosi as Dracula? (Which I've heard of but not seen.)
 
@Randal'Thor No, it's the one with Gary Oldman.
 
4:34 PM
Heh, no, apparently the Lugosi one is from the 30s.
 
Whom you might know from...
in The Screening Room, Apr 20 at 19:49, by Napoleon Wilson
I just noticed that Gary Oldman's Count Dracula looks pretty much exactly like Wendy Hiller's Princess Dragomiroff in the '74 Murder on the Orient Express.
 
@NapoleonWilson Isn't that the guy who plays Sirius Black in the Harry Potter screen fanfics films?
 
Yes, as well as a ton other people.
Including Commisioner Gordon, to make the turn back to comics, and last recently Winston Churchill.
Possibly also with just one L.
 
Blimey, from the films I know you'd think I'm as old as our friend 14111 :-P
Or at least from the films I knew before this site turned me to more modern sci-fi.
 
I wouldn't, I know it comes down to other reasons. (Similar to what I think of user14111.) ;-)
 
4:38 PM
Oh, 14111 really is that old.
At least up to "on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog" considerations.
 
Sure sure.
There's also an octogenerian who's made it big on the language sites.
(Or the 90-equivalent of that even.)
 
user132126
I'm baaaaaaaaaaack. Is everyone still here?
 
@NapoleonWilson The ELU mod?
 
Not anymore now! ;-P
@Randal'Thor Or that even.
 
@WebHead A couple of us are, at least. Looks like Carrot dropped out.
 
user132126
4:40 PM
@Randal'Thor Not a great point, though. I've seen real examples of people using words or memes about a character or story and having 0 idea where it originated from, because the common usage is just a thing.
 
user132126
Those cats were my 2 new ones we adopted Sunday.
 
@WebHead Ain't nobody here but us chickens.
 
@WebHead True, but is that the case with Romeo? I wouldn't say so.
@WebHead Aww :-D
 
@Randal'Thor A little probably.
I'm not sure your average street kid is going to know who Shakespeare is. But granted, maybe kids these days don't call each other Romeo anyway.
 
"Moving on to the 21st century, we find the primary cultural influences were One Direction, Quotev, Simon Cowell and the first group of proto-clones known initially as Kardashians."
 
4:51 PM
I hardly know any of these. ;-)
Though, One Direction is the band with the Dunkirk dude, right?
 
I guess it's a good thing that I've never heard of half of those and don't know anything about the other half except the names.
 
@NapoleonWilson I am aware of them; they are usually the signal that I should be doing something else. :)
@NapoleonWilson Maybe?
 
Which brings us back to Churchill.
 
And the Churchiliad.
 
Apparently our fourth highest viewed question is scifi.stackexchange.com/q/173404/4918 Why was Thor's quinjet password 'Point Break'? [marvel] [marvel-cinematic-universe] [thor-marvel] [thor-ragnarok]
 
4:54 PM
> The face that launched a thousand nodding bulldogs.
 
Wow, that's a very TonyStarkesque reference that completely eluded me (if it even was the same in the German version).
 
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