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Marvel get some real stick for 'promoting the next movie in the last one' and 'building a universe' at the expense of the individual story.

I would have preferred Ant-Man without the Falcon appearance,

The Falcon's appearance hardly detracted from the film or its story; it's a plot tie-in and a decent action gag.

I'm not so certain it was Marvel's desire for some connectivity was that much of an issue for Wright but the idea of someone else re-writing the script.

These Movies are expensive investments so the Director must adhere strictly to whatever script the committee that financed the film gives him/her.

Not in his own case, according to Rian Johnson – "I had as much creative control on TLJ as I've ever had on any of my own movies."



Johnson was surprised with how much freedom he was given with the story, saying that the only thing he was told he had to go off of was The Force Awakens. This left him with a lot of places to go, but luckily, he came up with a pretty easy (and grim) idea for where to begin. "I started by writing the names of each of the characters and thinking, 'what's the hardest thing they could be faced with?'" Johnson said.


James Gunn also seems to have had a free reign on his Marvel films so I think this is not a universal experience.

[One chants out between two worlds]

- Is it now conclusive that Sarah Palmer is (or was possessed by) "Judy"?

I assume that was the gist of it and Doppel-Dale/Bob was trying to return to Mother/Judy.

- How is it possible that Tulpas's can sire human children?

They seem physically capable of doing just about everything else a human can do so why not – but if Richard Horne is an example of Tulpa progeny, then they aren't exactly the full shilling.

- The dimension that Coop & Diane traveled to is an artificial construct right? Created by "Judy" (as a trap)?

These are my own rough thoughts on the last instalment which I do think is The End – quite a few on the web-o-tron are thinking there's more to come, that it can't end here. I disagree. I think the answers are there.


The crossing worlds seems more an attempt at an escape from the forces that were preventing Laura's return to Twin Peaks (Sarah attacking Laura's picture as time is fracturing).

Cooper all ready understood to where and what they were going to when he drove into the different world with Diane to Look for Laura – he warns Diane things may not be the same. It alludes to the words of Mike's monologue: One chants out between two worlds which Mike repeats to Cooper as he enters The Convenience Store/The Dutchman's underneath The Great Northern.

On the other-side Dale and Diane are becoming different people – like Laura who vanished 25 years before and became Carrie after Cooper tried to save her in the forest, leaving retro-fitted Pete Martell to an unbothered fishing trip.

At the motel Diane realises she's becoming Linda and her memories of Cooper are going so leaves him while she still has the chance to say goodbye with the letter. Yet again there's a noticeable difference in how Kyle McLachlan plays Cooper as he's slowly becoming Richard in this new iteration – he's flatter, more serious, matter of fact, and many of the fantastical things of Twin Peaks are rendered as more mundane objects/places/people: Judy is a truck-stop diner, the white horse a mantelpiece ornament, Laura a working-class Southerner in, yet again, a bad relationship that leads to death.

The fantasy of vanquishing evil in Episode 17 – The Past Dictates The Future and the idea of Cooper erasing all the events of the entire series is a catharsis/wish-fullfillment for the viewer's long-held empathy toward Laura but it's ultimately unsatisfying and untruthful to the story and themes of Twin Peaks and not a true ending. Like Superman going back in time to save Lois Lane, Dale's rescue of Laura is a dramatic cheat but in Twin Peaks it's made to work because of the emotional truth/reality revealed at the end of Episode 18 – What is your name?

Dale's persistent wanting to remind Carrie of who she is, is another attempt at fixing the unrightable wrong of child-abuse and despite Cooper's endless dream and reality-bending during his heroic journey across time to save Laura – continuing the Twin Peaks tradition of subverting TV/film tropes i.e. dead characters returning or 'it was all a dream' – they can't escape the truth that in life there's no such thing as a do-over – you can't ever go home, back to the way it was. They don't get to remake/fix their past without losing or forgetting themselves, erasing their memories, which is what happened to Laura, now Carrie, and seems to be happening to Cooper, becoming Richard, in the different world.

Bewildered, Cooper stumbles forward on the road trying to figure out what went wrong and what year it is after finding Laura's parents aren't home and his efforts have again, failed. He's losing his old intuition/self, Carrie starts remembering who she is – all the pain and suffering comes back as a familiar voice cries 'Laura' to a background of electrical interference. Laura screams, Cooper is shocked, Mother/Judy/Bob has returned to haunt her dreams as the lights go out.

We're back in The Waiting Room and it's fitting that the last –recurring– image is Laura/Carrie whispering the terrible secret of what happened to her into the unknowing ear of Dale/Richard.

It's the hour after those 'final 15 minutes' you need to prepare for.

Looks like The Sopranos and The Prisoner have both been beaten by Twin Peaks for most contentious series ending.

________ is the most over praised film I've seen. It's perfectly nice and conspicuously well behaved*, but it's unexceptional.

You can slot just about any 'best' film into that sentence.

I can't help worrying that Coop might be killed off, though. Like maybe he'll sacrifice himself so Laura can live again or something like that.

Really doubt it. Lynch/Frost tend not to write things that way.

I hope it's not a downer. I don't think I could handle another scene of Coop headbutting a mirror and laughing as the credits roll.

The reason for the season is the retrieval of Dale Cooper and possibly Laura Palmer  – to save the town by shovelling it out of the shit – so I think it'll be more an ending of Blue Velvet style closure featuring Julee Cruise singing at the Roadhouse.

[BB-9EIN]

It's BB-9EIN.

We have to watch crappy little prequel mini-movies on YouTube to fully understand the plot of a theatrical release?

Doubt it.

It's been established in previous episodes that the wall is also a magical barrier that the White Walkers cannot cross - so some powerful spell or weapon is required to bring it down, otherwise they would have crossed it seasons ago. By losing the dragon to the White Walkers (in what ultimately ended up being a pointless exercise*) it firmly makes it the direct fault and responsibility of Jon, Dany and Tyrion - the three principal heroes of the entire saga - that the Walkers breached the Wall, and nothing they do from this point on will redeem or excuse this. It's their fault. And the show does not acknowledge this fact.... Do you honestly think that's good/satisfying storytelling?

Tyrion requested Daenerys not go beyond the wall – both of whom have little idea of what the Walkers and the Night King can do.

In his extended struggle to write the final books, GRRM is facing the same problems as the show in trying to lay the path to the ending and I suspect if the remaining books ever get finished, many of the things that are disliked about these final seasons will be present, albeit in an altered extended form, in the 'original' work.

GRRM enjoyed writing himself into a corner in the first 3 books and the 2 subsequent, less plot driven, books seem to imply a writer who's not too sure himself how to pull back from that and has tried to put off the inevitable story convergences for a while longer. He created a feeling in the early books that anything can happen and be emotional but there's only so many times you can kill off main characters to subvert an old trope until it too becomes predictable and tired. It's also hard to have a satisfying story that's just filled with surprises and surprise deaths till the end for the simple fact someone must survive and by simple process of elimination it became clear quite early on who they would more or less be. At some point it all has to come together but also, ironically in this case, be in some way predictable.

It's easy to criticise the tired old tropes of the show but will GRRM fare that much better?

The short film "Nexus: 2036" takes place in the year 2036 and revolves around Jared Leto's character, Niander Wallace. In this short, directed by Luke Scott (Morgan), Wallace introduces a new line of "perfected" replicants called the Nexus 9, seeking to get the prohibition on replicants repealed. This no doubt has serious ramifications that will be crucial to the plot of Blade Runner 2049.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn-csFKhQCg

"100%!"

[The Last Detail]

Wasn't there word of a sequel to The Last Detail in the works at some point?

Well this would be it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Flag_Flying