Your initial criticism wasn’t even that it was bad, just that it was shallow, which is an objective truth. The triggered minority who identify as blue cat people don’t want to live in reality with the rest of us though, so they have to come up with these cope reasons like “you’re just a hater” or “you’re just too dumb to understand it”. Like you can enjoy the franchise and not pretend it has more depth or symbolic value than it actually does, there is nothing wrong with enjoying some light entertainment. People always have to make these things their entire personality now though, so any valid critique immediately gets twisted into a personal attack.

Each game tells you where they are in the timeline in relation to the other games

They setup the new world in preparation for the main theme, sure. At its deepest level that was always just (up until Skyward Sword when Nintendo began monetising fan-created lore) the echo of a myth throughout time and reality. The fans so desperate to make a direct linear connection between the conclusion of one game and the traditional introductory cut-scene of the next are so far down their rabbit hole they seem completely unable to accept the much more logical explanation that it’s just a convenient way for Nintendo to recycle the same basic narrative structure that has been used in almost every single game.

It’s not about whether or not they “hit” me - they are just extremely superfluous and lacking in any depth. If you like the film that’s nice, but its take on colonialism is objectively at a primary school level with its one-dimensional bad guys and noble savages.

The first one was definitely a massive cinematic event because of its visuals and the second one was also an event in itself because it was the sequel to the first film. If the third is released any time soon then I might reconsider going to see it. The gap between the first two was sort of what interested me but the second wasn’t as visually impressive for its time as the first. I would be surprised if there were many Avatar “fans”, though. It just doesn’t have anywhere near enough depth to its characters or their world and a lot of its themes about spirituality and indigeneity feel like some borderline cultural appropriation white guilt stuff. The people who are really into that aspect of the films are revealing quite a lot about themselves and their own insecurities, I think.

I think it’s probably a reflection of their age, reputation and personal wealth, as well as how much of the casual cinema audience has died out and shifted to streaming. They can make a 3+ hour epic for film enthusiasts to see in the cinema and then put it on a streaming service where everyone else can watch it in two or three sittings very easily thanks to the playback position being retained on exit.

I agree, I think the whole “official timeline” thing was 100% a fan created mythos which Nintendo saw was gaining traction and played into to make more money. It’s pretty clear that most of the games had very little connection to one another beyond the basic concept of the core theme (the hero saving the world from a great evil) repeating itself.

The Legend of Zelda: The Monkey’s Paw

GOTTEM

Not sure which NutriBullet you were looking at but my partner had the Portable one and it died not long after the 1 year warranty expired. It seems we are not the only ones who had issues with them, either. Of course, there are theorical consumer protections beyond the warranty in Australia, but that does require chasing up retailers and/or manufacturers which can be time consuming and annoying. NutriBullet doesn’t provide a post-purchase repair service either, so if you can’t provide proof of purchase you can’t even pay them to get it fixed.

I’m pretty sure general gameplay already has all core systems in place, movement, shooting, reloading, etc. I don’t see that changing much.

I was thinking more in terms of soul mechanics. There have been lots of big meta shifts this year in relation to wave sharing, jungling and the urn. I’m not sure if they’ve settled on that yet or if there will be more big changes in 2025 as they try to work out how much they want to play into the MOBA component vs the hero shooter component.