OMG, how did I forget this:
Tara. Shot through the heart at such an unlikely angle as to defy the laws of ballistics. W. T. F.
All to make Willow go Dark Phoenix, in the lamest season ender BtVS ever did. Pathetic.
Anything after Terminator and/or Alien 2 can’t possibly be canonical.
Isn’t Firefly supposed to be set 500 years from now? I remember that from watching the series on DVD, and from the movie too. Well I think so, I loaned my copy out and never got it back.
I found this website that has a Firefly/Serenity timeline.
Some canon dates:[ul][li]Serenity (the ship) was built in 2459[/li][li]The Battle of Serenity Valley ended in May 2511[/li][*]The episode Our Mrs Reynolds occured in October 2517[/ul]
The setup of Shrek 2. Fiona was an ogre who was too young to remember that the curse turned her into a human during the day, rather than a human who turned into an ogre at night, and I refuse to believe anything different. It would ruin the whole moral of the first movie.
I like it when main characters die off, especially ones who are loved.
“Oh know, the crazy killer guy has Mel & Wash in a torture chamber!” Actually has a level of suspense if you think there’s a chance, no matter how small, that they don’t make it out alive.
I understand that, and I’m usually right there with you, mouth agape and heart pounding.
But there are times when it crosses the line between good drama and sadistic fan torture.
If you’re going to kill off a character, there should be something in that death that pulls the balance out of nihilism and echoes the theme of the piece. I know it sounds silly, but considering the number of times the X-Men have saved the Earth, killing off Kitty to generate “oh noes” among the fans is a cheap ass trick. Worse is that he didn’t officially kill her off. She’s hurtling through space, alone and discorporated, forever. She deserves better than that.
Doctor Who: Rose never returned from the alternate dimension Earth. The rift was permanently, irrevocably sealed up at the end of series 2, and never ‘unsealed.’ There was certainly never any contrived ‘almost’ regeneration that resulted in the instant cloning of a second, albiet human Doctor that would become Rose’s boyfriend and smooch her long & hard. No, that didn’t happen. The last time Rose ever communicated with the Doctor was when she saw his hologram on the beach, which vanished just before he could say he loved her.
Yes, that’s sadder. But it’s a more poignant, profound parting moment. Rose’s ‘happy’ ending at the end of series 4 kind of ruined it.
Donna never lost her memory either. But that’s a whole other story.
On a minor tangent, here’s a ST:TNG scene I’d love to see:
BRIDGE OF THE ENTERPRISE
Thumps are heard and the bridge shakes slightly.
Flashes are visible on the main viewscreen.
TROI
(horrified, almost personally offended)
Captain, I sense...
(frowns, as if puzzled)
...*hostility*.
PICARD
No *shit*, Counselor! They're goddamn *firing at us!*
Picard stalks over and slugs Troi upside the mouth.
A couple of teeth go skittering off into the corner as Troi
crumples. She twitches for a few moments then lies still.
A pool of blood slowly appears.
I’m not denying the prequels were pretty bad movies, just objecting to the nitpick about deflecting blaster fire. If you can deflect a laser shot, hey, why not in a specific direction? After all, the only guy we see do it in the first three movies was Luke Skywalker, who’s something of a sketchily trained dude.
On another note, I’m surprised so many Dopers are on a first name basis with Joss Whedon.
That, Sir, is worthy of being a sig. 
x2.
I actually said such to Joss at Comic-Con…something about “letting him live because he didn’t actually kill her, but that I was not the least bit happy about what he did to her.”
Maybe Dr. Strange got her back when Spidey finished bitch-slapping him.
Missed edit window: Some of us have met the man, you know. It’s still something I treasure a bit, even though he is rotten, lousy, heroine-killing bastard.
To say nothing of Oz.
Tara first appeared in “Hush”, and was in a good dozen episodes before “Buffy v. Dracula”.
(Or am I being whooshed here?)
Actually, blaster fire pretty clearly doesn’t travel at the speed of light, seeing as how you can watch it go “whee” across the screen. (Try that with a flashlight or a laster pointer sometime.)
Spider-Man’s One More D—actually, y’know what, most of Marvel’s mainstream continuity over the last year and a half or so. That should cover it nicely.
Personally, I think TV and Movies should have a bit more Nihilism in them. Good stuff doesn’t always get balanced with bad stuff.
And if it makes you feel any better, Kitty isn’t hurtling through space forever, only until she dies of 1) hypothermia 2) hypoxia 3) starvation 4) dehydration. Did I miss any?
In addition to what was mentioned earlier:
- That wasn’t the Chewbacca in the so-called “Episode III”.
- The Imperial Stormtroopers aren’t really clones of Jango Fett, as suggested in the so-called “Episode II”.
- Qui-Gon freaking Jinn certainly did not discover anything about maintaining individual consciousness as he was the most incompetent Jedi in history (it’s the only thing that makes so-called “Episode I” make sense).
- The Beatles would never have kicked any monster, no matter how ugly, out of the Yellow Submarine.
- Finally, Hulk Hogan was never a villain.
This is addressed in the novels, that clone troopers are different than storm troopers.
Imperial Storm Troopers are recruited from shmoes like you and I, and the Clone Troopers were phased out as they aged (which was pretty quickly, since… you know, double speed and whatnot).
I hate to ask, but given the thread topic… Are the novels considered canon? I bet that could open up an entire new message board’s worth of additional complaints. 