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Cake day: April 7th, 2025

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  • First thing to ask is what state you live/work in? Is it a right-to-work state? If so, then they can fire you or choose to not promote you for no (reported) reason at all, which very likely means you have no legal recourse. If they were to come out and directly say in documented way that they will fire or not promote you if you don’t use this app, that might be different. You’d need to talk to a lawyer who is familiar with laws in your state. But you’d also need documented evidence of this, which means emails sent stating this, or a recording (keep in mind if your state has 2-party consent laws) of a higher-up saying it.

    If you’re in one of the 27 Right to Work States, though, there’s likely very little you can do about it short of finding a different job.


  • I don’t think it’s a distraction. I think it’s people who are too bought in on conspiracy theories and desperately want there to be some kind of spy thriller conspiracy to uncover. They just really want the world to be less mundane and banal than it is, so they latch onto a single thread while ignoring the overwhelming weight of evidence.

    I think calling it a distraction is itself a conspiracy theory. Who is orchestrating this distraction? What are they supposedly distracting from?


  • To me, “Not to mention” implies a bonus thing to consider that doesn’t need to be mentioned to form a complete thought; it’s just additional context.

    I also feel like it not only adds, but enhances or expands the initial thought. EG, “I can’t go to the store with you because I have work. Not mention that you’re in a completely different city.”

    The initial thought, “I can’t go to the store with you because I have work,” is a complete thought. But the addition of “you’re in a completely different city,” enhances it. Even if that initial thing wasn’t an issue (if I didn’t have work) the thought would still apply (I can’t go to the store) because of this even greater reason (you’re in a different city).




  • “It is an energy field made of all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, binds the galaxy together.” —Obi-wan Kenobi, A New Hope

    That’s why I think this is more of a reversion of the lore than a change or expansion. In the OT, there’s never any suggestion that only Force sensitive people can use the Force. People, including Luke and Anakin, are described as being “strong with the Force,” but that implies that others are weak with the Force.

    It was the Legends EU which really created the idea that only certain people born with an innate connection had the ability to use the Force at all. Within this framing, the vast majority of people in the galaxy are simply not Force-sensitive and will never have the ability to use the Force. Among those who are Force-sensitive, the degree to which one can use the Force depends on your innately born connection to it. So someone like Luke or Anakin had very little (if any) upper limit to what they could do with the Force because they had a very strong connection. While others (like Tionne, one of Luke’s earliest students in Legends) had a very weak connection to the Force, but were still Force-sensitive in a way someone like Han Solo or Lando Calrissian never could be.

    I don’t believe this is the lore that Lucas ever intended for the Force. I believe his intention was what I described above: anyone can use it with proper training, but some have a better natural inclination.


  • I think this is more getting at the expansion (reversion?) of the lore we saw in Ahsoka with regards to Sabine Wren. Its not that there only certain select people are capable of using the Force. Everyone is connected to the Force. Everyone has the potential to use it, but you have to have the right mindset/focus to do so. For some, those we call Force-sensitive, that just naturally comes more easily to them. For others, they have to train and work at it.

    I think of it like making music or drawing. Everyone has the potential to make music, but some people are just naturally more inclined towards it. Some people can just pick up an instrument for the first time and play it well without practice or training. Others can still learn to make very good music, but they have to train and practice a lot. An elite music school could train anyone, but they’re going to seek out more naturally gifted people.

    I’m guessing this Force healer (like Sabine) is in that latter camp. She doesn’t have a natural aptitude for the Force like Luke or Obi-Wan. But she learned how to tap into a certain aspect of it to help heal.



  • I think seeing Andor was rage and lashing out at the man who set him on the path to losing his religion, as it were.

    It’s partially that, but it’s also a little spark of hope in Syril after having his whole world ripped away.

    Remember, he believed he was sent to Ghorman to root out outside agitators. He thought his ISB believed people like Andor were active with the Ghorman Front, and that his mission was to hunt down and expose them. Then he had the realization that was a lie the whole time. That, really, he, Syril, was the outside agitator. That he had been played by both the ISB and his own girlfriend into astro-turfing the Ghorman Front into something militant enough to enable the genocide of Ghorman. He has his entire world shattered.

    Then he saw Andor in the crowd. That was a sign that his whole mission hadn’t been a front. There really were outside Rebel agitators. Not only that, but it was the very guy Syril had been so dogmatically chasing and hunting for so long. Like you said, Andor was the man that set Syril on the path that inevitably let him to Ghorman. Now it turns out (as Syril is suddenly believing) that Andor was also the person he was hunting on Ghorman this whole time. In Syril’s mind, he’s now realizing that Andor has been at the center of everything important (in Syril’s mind) he’s ever done in his life. That’s why the “who are you?” line is such a gut-punch. He’s obsessing over Andor. He built his whole ideology and world-view around the myth of Andor (and people like Andor) Syril kept in his head. Only to learn this guy doesn’t even remember him?

    I think Syril’s rage and attack on Andor was Syril trying to redeem himself in some way. Like, if I can just bring in proof that this outside Rebel agitator really was here, that the Ghorman Front really always was the militant force the Empire is now making them out to be, that Syril could convince at least himself that he wasn’t so directly responsible in their genocide.


  • Am I the only one for whom the Force healer bit didn’t really work well? I’m just rubbed the wrong way by some Force-connected character talking about Cassian having some pre-ordained purpose. I prefer Cassian to be some regular guy who stood up to fight than the Special Boy selected by Space Magic.

    Otherwise, this was amazing. The Ghorman massacre was so well done. My adrenaline was pumping the entire in the lead up to, during, and the escape from Mon Mothma’s speech. The hotel clerk delivering the “Rebellions are built on hope line” was perfect, and Cassian giving that line to Jyn in Rogue One now has so much more impact. Also, the line in Rogue One about the Senate being told Jeddha was a mining disaster has so much more significance after seeing Ghorman.

    Syril’s death was the most satisfying fascist death since Inglorious Bastards. He had EVERYTHING ripped away from him. He realized that he WAS the outside agitator he thought he was trying to hunt the whole time. He learned his girlfriend knew they were setting up a genocide the entire time and was just using him. He learned the Empire is exactly as evil as he had always denied it was. He was a True Believer in the Empire in every sense of the words and had that true belief ripped away from him. HE personally played one of the largest roles in making the genocide happen. Then he finally found Andor, who he had been obsessing about for YEARS. Then the “who are you?” gut punch right before that fascist fuck got got. Chef’s Kiss Couldn’t have happened to a worse fellow.

    I hope we get more Saw in the final arc.




  • Get over yourself. You’re not better or smarter than everyone else. Yes, the PT both mirrored and predicted IRL events. That’s what good social commentary does. And, yes, you could learn the lessons taught in those movies through other media or history, but the same could be said about tons of stuff. You could say literally the exact same thing about Andor, which is deservedly getting a lot of praise right now.

    Every generation needs fiction that speaks to them and meets them where they’re at. Maybe you could learn the same things taught in the PT by watching something else or reading about history. But that’s not as accessible and engaging to everyone, especially the children who the PT was geared towards. Get off your high horse and recognize that not everything needs to be perfect or groundbreaking to have a genuinely important contribution to society and culture.


  • You said the first scene, by which I assume you’re referencing when Rey hands him the lightsaber and he tosses it away, “basically took a shit on a beloved character by way of cheap slapstick,” which I thoroughly disagree with. I think him rejecting the lightsaber is perfectly in character with what we saw in the OT and the 30 years of character development since.




  • There’s problems with them, especially with dialogue and the existence of Jar Jar. But they were also incredibly prescient for the modern political climate. I think it’s an important story about how a scared and lonely child raised by people who told him to suppress and ignore his emotions can turn into a fascist while also telling the story of how a manufactured political crisis can get a populace to support the transition from a liberal representative democracy to a fascist dictatorship.