Obvious things about a creative work you realize after the millionth time (OPEN SPOILERS POSSIBLE)

In the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, Earth is actually quite important, and is relevant (to more than just the Earthlings) at multiple points in the story. In addition to being the Ultimate Computer, of course, it’s also where the President of the Galaxy ends up, it’s the planet of origin of the greatest lounge singer in the Galaxy, most of The Whole Truth ends up being about frogs, an Earthling animal, and so on. And yet, the entry in the Guide consists entirely of “Harmless”, soon to be amended to “Mostly Harmless”.

The logical conclusion, which I only just realized yesterday? The entire planet is under the effect of a Somebody Else’s Problem field.

The Godfather: The horrific scene in which Carlo beats up Connie ends with the bathroom door closing. When it swings shut, a mirror on the door reflects a small teddy bear in the background. Cut to the scene in which Connie calls her mother, who’s holding a screaming baby. It could easily be coincidence and/or my imagination, but it looks to me like the teddy bear was placed carefully to serve as a nexus between the two scenes, as the reflection appears at just about the same place onscreen as the screaming baby. Here’s the scene:

Good catch! That, and how her screams became baby cries in the cut to Mama Corleone.

Finally noticed the connection between “Help me Obi-wan, you’re our only hope” and “A New Hope.”

I always thought that the new hope was Luke. Ben calls him “our last hope” in ESB.

And I think Leia says “MY only hope, not OUR”.

And of course Rogue One, which leads straight into ANH, hammers on the theme for all your retcon needs:

And ending with:

In Paul Simeon’s “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover,” she’s about to leave him.

In Paul Simon’s “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” I think she’s telling him how easy it would be for him to leave.

Furthermore, ‘she’ isn’t his lover, she’s a friend telling him how to leave his lover. Possibly she is saying , leave your lover and come to me instead.

Um, I think the ‘she’ that’s telling him this is his now-ex. “She said it grieves me so to see you in such pain. I wish there was something I could do to make you smile again.” But there isn’t, because she knows she’s already emotionally gone and isn’t turning back. He and she know each other well enough to know what the other means by what they say, and he does appreciate that she’s trying to make this as easy as she can – “and I realized she probably was right.”

“She said ‘Why don’t we both just sleep on it tonight
And I believe that in the morning you’ll begin to see the light.’”

I think she’s grown tired of waiting for him to break it off with his main lover to be with her, and he’ll see the light in the morning because she won’t be there.

(And yeah, I know it’s Paul Simon. Not sure where that e came from.)

Yep.

And then she kissed me, and I realized she probably was right

Seems to me, she is helping him leave his lover, and suggesting maybe she could be his new lover.

“Instant Karma” - 1970

Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack - 1970
(“Superstar” (song from JCS) recorded 1969.)

From Wikipedia:

Superstar" is a 1969 song written by Bonnie Bramlett and Leon Russell with a songwriting credit also given to Delaney Bramlett that has been a hit for many artists in different genres and interpretations in the years since; the best-known versions are by the Carpenters in 1971, and by Luther Vandross in 1983.

I was watching Top Gun again the other day and I finally realized the “enemy” is never actually named. All we really know for certain about them is they fly Mig-28s, which don’t exist IRL. Of course it’s implied that they’re Soviet or Soviet-adjacent, simply from the time it was made, but they’re never explicitly named.

AND the logos on the “MiGs” is the same as on the Su-72s in the new movie. So Maverick is 5 - 1 against them on the road. Not bad.

So to me this is astonishing…its a deep cut Star Trek thing so non-trekkies cut out

In Shore Leave…when Angela Martine and Rodriguez are strafed, Martine is suppossed to have been hit and killed. I thought she ran into a tree and knocked herself out. It never occurred to me that they showed a woman being machine gunned down in the back.

Man, i saw TOS eps in first run. Ive seen them all a million times. To learn something new about an ep is astonishing. And about Martine?? Ive had a crush on that actress forever.

OK, I just made a quick scan of the episode, and Angela is back at the end with Rodriguez. However, since he didn’t lug her corpse all the way back to the glade, maybe she was taken underground and “repaired” like McCoy. She didn’t seem to have a huge goose egg on her forehead or obvious signs of concussion (or worse). But, yeah, I thought she ran into the tree head first and just woke up and stumbled her way back to the glade. Thanks for bringing that up.

An aside: On this new “Strange New Worlds” show, an episode recently was “re-booting” the original series “Balance of Terror.” Unless I’m very much mistaken, Angela dies at the end instead of Tomlinson. Nifty twist. I’m sitting there reciting dialogue from TOS along with the cast and my wife says What’s going on? How do you know the lines before the cast? “Balance of Terror” is one of my faves and after watching it 22,000 times, I have a lot of the dialogue stuck in my head. Writers fell asleep! I tell her and let it drop. She sits there, puzzled.

I was reciting the dialogue too.

Watching the final scene of the Sopranos on YouTube and had the shocking realization that Tony Soprano was killed by future Ukranian President Zelenskyy:

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