Defenestrator

This is actually a pretty good suggestion, but you can branch out a bit depending on the type of genre you're really interested in:

For a gothic sort of feel, Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series was pretty good. Also: "Death: The High Cost of Living."

If you like crime drama I can thoroughly recommend "100 Bullets."

If you like odd science fiction, give the first TPB of "Planetary" a try. (The whole series is good, but you wouldn't want to buy all 4 books if you don't like the first.)

Like Westerns? Try "Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo" or the Ennis/Dillon series "Preacher." (Note: the latter can be found very offensive by some people and is not for the faint of heart.)

There are also super hero stories where you don't have to be invested in a large universe: Watchmen and Astro City are really good. I think "Marvels" is collected in a TPB version and is a good gateway read. ("Kingdom Come" is excellent, but if you're not too versed in the DC universe the mind-boggling number of characters can be daunting.)

Do you want humor and adventure? Jeff Smith's "Bone" series is fantastic (and you can get the whole series in one big volume).

Horror? Try "The Walking Dead" or "John Constantine: Hellblazer." (With Hellblazer, see if you can find the "Dangerous Habits" TPB as a gateway read. It's not as weird as some of the earlier stories, but it really defines the Constantine character pretty well.)

Other fun suggestions:
Hellboy
Y: The Last Man
Cerebus (but only the volumes: "Cerebus," "High Society," and both volumes of "Church & State." It really kind of ran out of steam towards the end of C&S 2.)

Dance has been a great addition to the cast, without doubt. And after reading the books, I really can't image anyone else as Tywin Lannister. He's completely nailed that part.

Likewise for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who has managed to sum up all of Jaime's personality quirks in the few scenes he's had this season. Just great work from him in last night's episode.

No, there were tons of departures these past two episodes. The departures do shorten the journey to get the characters where they need to be to wrap up the season, but it's the downside of having only ten episodes.

But they're also giving screen time to characters who would otherwise be receiving fairly little -- Tywin Lannister (loving his scenes with Arya), Jaime Lannister, and even Queen Cersei. Also, in the book version, Dany really doesn't do a whole lot in the second book. The whole "kidnapped dragons" subplot seems a bit of a cliche, but it is breaking her character down to rock bottom so she can build herself back up.

And here I was thinking Brienne knocked it out of the park last night. Her anguish over [that redacted horrible thing that happened] was terrific.

And, yes, Maisie Williams is doing great. As are Sofie Turner and Jack Gleeson.

After rewatching the 4th episode last night, I think Gleeson should also be in the running for Best Supporting. He is absolutely CHILLING in that scene with the two...ahem...ladies.

The Moe, Larry, Curly and the Moe, Larry, Shemp line-ups, of course, had the benefit of working with each other for YEARS on Vaudeville before trekking out to Hollywood to make shorts. I know I'm pointing out the obvious to a Stooge fan, but when you bring in three guys to work with each other for a few months on a film shoot, they're just not going to have the chemistry.

I haven't seen this movie yet, and I doubt I will. I've heard it's not the complete end to civilization I thought it might be, but most assessments put it at "meh" on the quality scale.

I have most of the shorts on DVD, and am perfectly happy watching those when I'm in the mood. I know the Three Stooges are mostly known for their slapstick (and were the absolute best at it), but a lot of their routines showed great lateral, comedic thinking. They definitely had some good writers working on some of those shorts.

I think part of the frustration in explaining this is a desire not to spoil things that are coming.

The books do talk about the construction of the wall, and that the magic things the wall was meant to keep out had disappeared. There are 23 (?) castles located along the wall, but only three are currently manned.

From the books, we're not exactly clear when all the magical things disappeared from Westeros. The "children of the forest" have been gone for some time, and the Others (White Walkers) have not been seen for thousands of years. (It does not mean they haven't been there, though.)

Here's the thing -- with the way the seasons work on this world, I can buy why there has been little technological progress amongst the people. You're just not going to see a civilization advance when crippling winters come in and drop tens of feet of snow everywhere. And I can buy into the wall. It wasn't meant to keep people out of the south, but that's come to be the belief as generations passed when all the magic disappeared.

As others have said -- the wall does have magical properties, though this has not been explained on the TV show.

Either someone will buy into it, or they won't.

Here's what I do when slotting.

At level 47, I slot level 50 sets.

Along the way, when I can, I use Hero Merits and Reward Merits to buy Luck of the Gambler Global recharges and slot them where I can. If you're a flyer, you can take Hover and Afterburner and put LotGs in those powers, for example. (And with Fitness becoming inherent, it's easier to take more peripheral powers.)

I don't "aim" to build to have the biggest overall defense to be untouchable. If I can gain defense, great, but it's not my biggest concern.

My favorite way of dealing with attack powers:

Ranged attacks get Thunderstrike. It's a good, inexpensive set that will give you decent Ranged Defense bonuses.

Defensive powers (like with your Reflexes powers) I try to slot with Red Fortune since that gives damage and recharge bonuses.

Melee attacks get Crushing Impact. Recharge and other assorted bonuses are pretty good. Mako's Bite is certainly a decent set, too and (if I remember correctly) can give you a damage bonus and (I think) a melee defense bonus.

Targeted AOE -- Positron's Blast. This isn't the greatest set except for the nice recharge bonus, so I've either been replacing this with Ragnarok (which will run you between 1.5 and 1.8 billion to buy) or the new ATO set as appropriate.

PB AOE -- Scirocco's Dervish is good. Obliteration is better but far more expensive. Also a good candidate to replace with Armageddon if affordable. (Save your pennies!)

The way I look at it is my characters are all capable of functioning within the confines of the game either solo and on teams. I am not building to pull off incredible feats of might (like soloing Giant Monsters) and that's not my playstyle. ANY SET BONUSES I GET ARE GRAVY and nothing more.

As far as the Devs metagaming us against the high defense builds, welcome to the newer content. The Dark Astoria mobs tend to have a number of Defense Debuffs that can shred a defensive build. If you have no defense to begin with and know how to play accordingly, they're not going to be all that bad, but players are going to have to start thinking again instead of just blindly wading through stuff.

Viserys is actually quite drunk when he barges into the Khal's tent. I don't think there was a whole lot of "thinking" behind his actions other than "ME WANT NAOW!" He did seem to sober up quickly when his arms got snapped like twigs, but I think this is understandable with the adrenaline rush.

As far as the gold chains melting -- creative license. I was okay with this.

That at least 'splains why I don't remember it.

As far as the Greyjoy stuff goes, Theon seems a bit more tormented over his current life's direction than he did in the books. This actually does make a lot of sense, though -- you don't stay with people and grow up with them for 9 or 10 years and not be affected by them at all.

Release date = 7/10/12 according to Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Dance-With-Dra...9&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Snape kills Dumbledore!
Vader is Luke's father.
Bruce Willis is dead the whole movie.
Nicole Kidman, too.
And Tim Robbins.
Rosebud is the sled.
299 die.
They were on Earth the whole time.
Soilent Green is people.

EDIT: and I'll join that thread when book 5 hits paperback in a few months.

If that had been Terra Nova's only problem, I could have overlooked it.

The kids are doing a great job on Game of Thrones. Joffrey Bieber as an awful character in the books, but Jack Gleeson has taken that awfulness to new heights. I've never wanted to see a good stabbination befall a fictional child more than I have Joffrey.

It's troll worthy to end the season there, but I can't think of anything that would keep people frothing with anticipation of the next season more than that scene.

I approve heartily. The gnashing of teeth of nerdrage will be hilarious.

Loving the new season so far. I made it through the first 4 books during the offseason.

Also, with the changes that are being made -- remember that even though GrrM isn't penning the episodes personally (well, he wrote ep. 9) that he is involved in the writer's room for the show when they plan these things out. I imagine he has a great deal of say regarding any changes or added scenes, and I also believe that changes do need to happen to fit everything in to 10 episodes.

Loved how the wolves looked. They got big.

It's a narrow view that it's not a vampire movie? It isn't, and it can't really compare to one. If anything Prince of Darkness incorporates more of the zombie mythos (the demonic possession of the "weak of mind") that occurs throughout the film.

From the trailer to "Demon Under Glass" and the book description of the same, they don't seem to be even remotely similar.

Prince of Darkness is not a vampire movie, so I'm not sure why it would compare to another vampire movie.

The 3rd one (the prequel) was not very good at all, but the first two are enjoyable as guilty pleasures.

30 Days of Night -- I really enjoyed this. Maybe I was in the mood for a good, gory vampire movie after all this sparkly "Twilight" dreck. It delivered.

Daybreakers -- cool concept; poor execution. Sam Neill was cool (as he usually is in roles like this), but this movie was just plain bad.

Let The Right One In -- very cool, creepy movie. I've not seen the Americanized version yet, but understand it was also good in its own way.

I do appreciate the old Hammer films with Lee and/or Cushing and/or Price, but it's been quite a long time since I've seen any of them.

It's certainly provided a rather hefty spike in DC's sales. Whether or not this translates to a long term gain remains to be seen. It's just too early to tell.

That could have been bears for all we know.

Or he might have been eaten while in the process of dying. We don't know.

Evidence is inconclusive on that one.

Kirkman has said the zombies need to eat live flesh, which is why they don't eat their own.

So, either Shane is smart enough to know this and hobbled Otis to get away, thinking if he'd shot Otis in the head the zombies would still follow him.

OR...

Shane is a big jerk.

Yes.

As someone else said above: you don't have to outrun the zombies, you just have to outrun your friends.