Start? Your government can do far worse on the pretense you're involved in subversive activities (terrorism).

There's no stopping it. Living room cameras are probably next on the list.

It's the end of an astronomical cycle. On that date the earth and the sun lines up directly to the galactic center. We'll be going from the age of Aquarius to the age of Pisces (or the other way around, my memory is a little hazy).

It all dates back to the Mayans who were heavily into astronomy and the cycles of the stars. Their calender ends on this date so that's where all the theories about judgment day etc. comes from.

Nobody really knows, but there is reason to believe that the special line up with the earth, sun and milky way will cause a lot of energy to be released/redirected, which may in turn result in global cataclysms and even a pole shift. This happens to "clean up" in the Universe as to foster new growth and get rid of dead weight.

If you date this cycle back to the last time it happened you end up around 10000 BC which corresponds with what the bible calls the flood/deluge.

Who knows, but it's definitely interesting and the event itself is definitely real, we just don't know what it will do, if anything. As opposed to Y2K which was an entirely man made event.

My player is 5 years old, so that could very well be. I'll try playing them on a newer one when I get the chance.

I don't see how they exclude each other sic.

Lucas is many things, but a great script writer is not one of them. That's why ANH utilizes Hidden Fortress and the characters are modeled after classic, greek traditions. That's why the reigns where handed over to other directors and screen writers in the latter part of the OT. They are vehicles to make his story work dramatically since he can't or won't do it himself. ANH is not Hidden Fortress, it's HF happening in the SW Universe. It's that Universe I'm talking about and the overall intent.

The direction your proposing is a natural one, and would have been the greatest dramatically. Yet Lucas chooses to go another way. He doesn't want the pessimistic ending. It would be the most realistic and interesting, but the point he wants to make is that you can actually win and have an all out happy ending. He wants people to feel that even the most helpless, primitive beings can defeat a mighty empire simply by applying greater numbers, cooperation and will. It doesn't work very well on screen, but that is what he was trying to do.

The kids aspect is obvious imo. Jar Jar, CGI, Ewoks, happy, pompous endings and corny comic relief. And I gotta say, he succeeded. My nephews and step brothers love the new films as much as we did the old. Still he's retained a lot of serious themes. Deep societal commentary, and the classic dramatic hooks are still there. It just doesn't flow as well as it used to when looked at with technical eyes.

Parts of season 6 was pretty ridiculous and stretched. The Ray Curto storyline which they had built for 3 seasons ended with a total cop out when he gets a heart attack in the first episode, then after that one of the perifer characters is also exposed as a rat, then he too dies in that very same episode. And it's not over yet, after that Tony gets shot!

The Ray Curto storyline could have been great, and I think they could have resolved it by Agent Harris (with an active FBI HQ approval angle) helping to squash the case in return for some bullshit terror advice (happens more often than one might think). The Vito thing could have been great if they had just cut out the out of town scenes. Sopranos is about Jersey and sometimes Brooklyn, not fucking Nutall or whatever, and certainly not some Village People biker with a soft side. The reactions in the mob though were pretty good. Other than that they should have taken a different approach with AJ. Him becoming a liberal wuzz is just plain boring. They seemed to be on the right track when he fixed a party at the end of 5. At least make him a little independent.

However, I think the rap this show gets is way exaggerated. True, it didn't have the same feel after the second to third season, and in many ways the first, but the show still retained a fair share of unchallenged quality. And in many aspects it grew all the way to the end. The portrait of a man that runs his family like a business and then goes to the shrink to become better at it is great and complex all the way to the cop out ending. In many ways I consider season 4 the best for its immense character development and intricate writing. I've probably watched all the seasons 5-10 times and every time I discover something new.

Every show jumps, but the Sopranos sharks are still superior to 99% of the shows out there. Season 6, even though seriously flawed still had some great moments. The baptizing of Chris' child comes to mind. The music and silent exchange between him and Tony sent chills down my spine. Paulie's reaction to Vito being gay was satisfying to say the least, and the way they played on Phil taking it up the ass while in prison without actually saying it was also great. He's never been in the can, not really.

Apart from that I think the show was of good quality up to the end of season 5.Tony sitting down with the anguished horse is season 4 with a cigar is perhaps one of the best scenes of the series. No dialouge but still so powerful. The finale in 4, Whitecaps, contains some of the strongest acting ever seen on TV and the screen in general. Steve Buscemi and the Johnny Sack storyline in 5 was great.