Say what you will

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.

Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.

Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.

It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.

The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.

Well, if you're in the USA and haven't remembered the MidTerm elections are today then this is a gentle reminder to use your most influential power as a citizen, and go vote in whatever elections you have running, because these are kind of important ones (Sorry, my understatement-ometer just exploded).

In the weird MAGA/progressive intersection set, we have had Stephen Miller posting a tribute to Sir Patrick Stewart (Star of two sci-fi franchises which seem anti-ethical to everything Miller stands for) and Elon Musk posting an AI image of Anakin, Padme, Luke and Leia running the friggin' Empire and subtitling it "This is what they took from us", which is a breathtakingly bizarre take on "Star Wars" no matter which way you look at it.

In the UK, our Prime Minister has raised the notion of closer ties with the EU, given the complete lack of benefits gained by Brexit. The usual parties have clutched their pearls in outrage.

Last week we lost both Walter Koenig, and of course Sir Patrick Stewart (who has his own post to comment on). However at the weekend we lost another sci-fi icon, as John Leeson, the voice of K-9 from Doctor Who, The Sarah-Jane Adventures, numerous Big Finish dramas, his own spin-off pilot from the 80's and an Australian spin-off from the mid 00's also passed away.

The Archive Of Our Own website is currently out of action for a few weeks, so if you hear strange sounds online it might well be fanfic starved geeks wandering lost and alone... be kind to them.

The UK's second Celebrity Traitors season ended with an entertaining round of betrayals, admissions and double dealing with the high points being one traitor simply admitting that he WAS a traitor in the Round Table because he was tired of deception, and James Blunt managing one final magnificent self-destructive self-own beyond the expectations of even the most jaded viewer. The fact it turned out both winners were playing to support refugee charities (and one focussing on the plight of queer refugees at that) led to even more pearl clutching from the same people from three paragraphs up, so at least they're consistent.