Not marriage material for the Emperor's daughter though, he would have had a chance if he were a governor or something. "Keep your enemies close" and all that.

I don't think there's any way to hide an engagement, that kind of thing is public knowledge.

It was probably a simple case of them being lovers when they were young, and then she was chosen to marry a dude for political reasons.

Neither Max nor Lucilla had a say in the matter. In fact their relationship was likely secret (Max is far below Lucilla on the ladder of power), and the Emperor found out about it via spies, but because he's so chill he didn't have Max tortured to death for sleeping with his betters.

The line about survival is just Max being bitter and ironic I think. He'd also be aware that as a woman her choices would be limited, powerful though she is.

The ChatGPT invasion of /movies has begun!

Mr Robot is one of the few mystery shows that answers every single mystery and satisfyingly so. Watch it.

I also read Asbridge's book earlier this year and thought it was fantastic. Very well written, not too dry and not too 'pop-history' either. I've got another one of his on the backlog: The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal.

By the way, do you not find it fascinating how little movies we've got from the Crusade era? Like the siege of Acre, or the battle of Jaffa. There's so many stories to tell, but all that springs to mind is Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven.

Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels by Guy Ritchie was the first time I saw that technique. Probably one of the best uses of it too.

They're not part of the Aliens film series, but offshoots. No Alien movie will ever reference them.

Yep, didn't like anything about it. Pacing was bad, the plot pretty boring, and the Riddler performance laughable.

Also, the whole point of Batman as a force against crime, is that he has tools and methods unavailable to the police, but in this he's just a dude who turned his back on his wealth, drives a muscle car, and strolls into crime scenes like a consultant.

I prefer Batman visiting crime scenes before or after the cops get there.

Tonally the movie veered too much into grounded territory, whereas Nolan's movies struck the right balance between grounded and batshit comic shenanigans.

You just told me they're making an alien movie on earth set before Alien. These ideas are getting less interesting.

Sad thing is they have a blueprint for compelling ideas in the Dark Horse comics written decades ago.

This franchise hasn't made sense since Alien 3. :|

Unlike Ripley's previous two movies, the comics have not to my knowledge given an origin for what the aliens are. Humans adapting to them however gives our species a modicum of intelligence.

One of the best lines in a recent comic I read was something like "imagine what kind of predator there had to be, for the aliens to evolve acid blood as a defence mechanism..."

The comics do not go down the AvP route at all. Apocalyptic cults start forming around the world worshipping the aliens, which hastens the breeding process. After a few story arcs, once Earth has been retaken many years later, humans start wearing mech suits which counters acid blood, which gives the whole franchise a new aesthetic instead of characters stupidly getting acid all over their face. Mega-Corporations start looking for 'royal jelly' from the alien queen and turning it into a designer drug.

There's so many routes you can go by allowing Earth into the mix, instead of repeatedly having stupid ass characters running down spaceship corridors being chased by ever-increasingly shit looking aliens that still haven't rivalled the ones in Alien 1 and 2.

No I think she was living on a space station orbiting Earth.

Aliens on Earth is completely different type of story than an Alien killing a crew one by one which is the same damn shit we've gotten in literally EVERY SINGLE ALIEN MOVIE. Literally every single one follows the same template, Alien 1, 2, 3, 4, and even the shitty last two movies.

The comics have stories set on Earth and they're vastly more interesting than Alien 3 onwards for exploring how a traumatised Newt and Hicks living in a cyberpunk world deals with aliens, plus there are stories set on the Alien homeworld which are more interesting than anything Ridley's done with the shitty prequels.

This is why I'm still astonished the franchise hasn't gone to Earth yet, it opens up new narratives, but instead they just keep repeating the same damn formula, it's mind-boggling.

EDIT: for all the sad people who watched AvP, no those movies are in their own timeline and don't count.

I've been reading the Aliens Original Years omnibus recently and it's always struck me as weird how the Alien movies have never gone to Earth.

> Whedon fought to set the film’s finale on Earth. It is the Alien series’ ultimate dramatic question: what would happen if xenomorphs came to Earth? “The reason people are here is we’re going to do the thing we’ve never done,” Whedon argued. “We’re gonna go to Earth.” The studio, however, wanted to spend the money elsewhere.

Well, shit.