Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer...

++ The murder of indigenous actor Jonathan Joss (King of the Hill, Parks and Recreation) is absolutely tragic and devastating, but even more so is the aftermath of the police outright denying that it was a hate crime despite eyewitnesses and his own husband saying so from the homophobic threats and attacks sent to them. Fortunately, in a surprising turn of events they have recently backtracked on this statement have apologized for making such a rushed conclusion without a proper formal investigation, which accountability by the police is very rare to come by. However, to be honest the pessimistic side of me knows that if this had just been a random person they wouldn't have bothered to care, but since this was someone in the entertainment industry and has been gaining a lot of public attention and outrage so quickly they had to admit fault to prevent further backlash. Regardless though, it's still horrible and I hope the murderer (who admitted to the crime, though released on bail) get severely punished and his husband and family get justice.

++ While I haven't been watching Doctor Who, hearing what happened in the latest season finale really confirmed by concerns about RTD returning as showrunner. Overall, I just feel sad for Ncuti Gatwa.

++ Blumhouse Productions acquires rights to the Saw franchise from Twisted Pictures.

Earlier it was reported that the production into Saw XI, which was supposed to have been released later in the year, was halted due to inter-conflict between creators about the future of the franchise, leaving an indefinite question mark. It seems that this was the reason and result of whatever behind-the-scenes disagreements and negotiations were happening. The series is now back under James Wan, as well. Whether or not he'll be directing is unknown, but he'll no doubt be part of the creative process. Although reports claim that there's no movie in production yet, I highly suspect that whatever was planned for Saw XI will resume shortly. I do want it to be a continuation from Saw X since while it did conclude nicely, there were a few loose ends that can be explored, but if nothing else having Tobin Bell continue to reprise his role will always be a treat. Plus, I would love for there to be movies similar to that of Spiral, where John Kramer isn't directly involved but is still a huge influence to other characters and events.

++ Yellowjackets has been renewed for a fourth season. \O/

++ Craig Mazin confirms that The Last Of Us will be a four-season plan. I remember him bringing this up some months ago, but it's good to get further confirmation especially since the show was renewed for season three already. And it makes sense, because the second game is quite long with so much happening that it would be impossible to wrap everything up in just a short amount of time.

With that being said, it makes me wish even more for 22-episode seasons again. When you look at the way these streaming platforms have shortened the number of episodes per season for shows, it's honestly not enough. You can literally combine at least two or three of those seasons would actually be considered one full-length season of what shows used to be, and that's kinda sad. While not every show needs 22+ episodes a season, a lot of them could really benefit from it, and I cannot help but wonder how the above shows would be like if they had gotten the full-length season treatment that I believe they should've gotten.

++ It has been confirmed that Krysten Ritter is returning as Jessica Jones in Daredevil: Born Again season two. Ever since she voiced her interest in returning I knew there would be a high possibility of it happening, and now it's finally arrived! I'm curious to see what they do, but I know that the Jessica and Matt dynamic is going to be amazing regardless. They were the highlight of The Defenders for me, so seeing them together again is going to be an utter delight. All they need to do is get Elodie Yung back as Elektra, since has has also expressed her wishes of returning in the role as well, and that would be icing on the cake for me.

++ HBO Max has changed its name back after two years of a brief rebranding. This is such a frivolous thing, but I just find it funny since the renaming was so pointless.

++ As someone who watches a lot of YouTube, I've become quite disillusioned by a lot of individual YouTubers over the years. For various reasons, the obvious being the push of the algorithm and the strive for monetization instead of just the passion of creating or talking about something they wanted to share which has ruined a lot of people who I initially used to like watching and seeing that shift has, either soured me to them or left me feeling indifferent and just no longer engaging. Between that and people just making long form videos (ex: the video essay bandwagon) to say a whole lot of nothing (literally an example of "this could've been an email" vibe, just link the wikipedia article you're directly reading from and STFU) I just have very little patience for things that waste my time in such a way. I get wanting to make money, I get that the platform has forced this on creatives who just want to do their own thing, but as I mentioned previously regarding true crime there are a lot of grifters and even sadly people who turn into grifters (anything involving drama or supposed drama, exaggerating or poorly representing a situation just for clicks and views) and it makes it difficult to find anything genuine or authentic and, while it is important to do so, it can be tiring to constantly question the motivations of why someone is making a video about a topic.

I know that YouTube has always had this side to it even in the early days, but with the way everything is online nowadays it can be quite disheartening seeing it so much more. It's why I've become so selective of who I choose to watch more frequently of.

++ Pit Babe S2 full trailer just dropped! So much is going on, but I'm ready.

++ We also have the official trailer for The Next Prince, a Thai BL drama. After seeing the small teaser for this a little while ago it quickly was among my list of anticipated BLs and I didn't know when it would be coming out, and now we not only have a full trailer but also a premiere date of May 3rd. And the trailer itself looks amazing. The outfits, the production value, and already I'm intrigued by the story. I do love a good body guard/royalty love story and this has that plus whatever royal politics are going to be featured.

++ In other news, it seems that the Oscars are changing some rules which includes a requirement that all Academy members must watch all of the nominated films before voting. How this wasn't an already implemented rule from the start I have no idea, but it does further confirm what I think most of us already knew. Just based on what I've seen over the years, most Academy members don't like watching films. Many have outright admitted they don't care, only watch the movies that they see are popular and ignore the rest, or don't watch a movie in its entirety before turning it off. Even worse when it's animation or anything foreign or obscure which most will claim they're not worth seeing. Again, not surprising but it's disappointing all the same since this really skews the votes and robs films that are deserving of such recognition. Of course how this new rule is going to be enforced, I don't know.

The bad news of this rule change is that now films made by AI can still be eligible for nominations and can potentially win despite controversy surrounding it. Further demonstrating how this ceremony continues to be a farce. Boo. :/

++ GRRM admits that "The Winds Of Winter" is "the curse of his life".

Now, I don't particularly care for anything related to ASOIAF anymore, but I just find it so funny (both in an amusing and in a sad way) with how things turned out with this series. What was supposed to have been just a planned book trilogy became an extended book series that he regrettably wrote himself into a corner with. I also have my suspicions that upon seeing the reactions to how the Game of Thrones show ended he became less and less motivated to finish the books. On one hand, I don't believe in pressuring writers to finish things that aren't ready, however for over a decade he has promised and posted excerpts without actually delivering, meanwhile working and releasing other projects during this time. It's really telling in that sense, to be honest. While I do think The Winds of Winter might be finished and released at some point in the (distant) future, I don't think A Dream Of Spring, the final book, is ever going to be written. I think fans of the books have long accepted that they will most likely never get a conclusion to the series.

++ One of the things I hate about warm weather is how irritable it makes me. I was just reminded of this yesterday when I basically had a little freakout over nothing, and it was a combination of other things happening but the warm air didn't help matters which escalated the way I was feeling. :/

++ The Last Of Us was renewed for a third season ahead of the season two premiere. Well, obviously. I would sure hope so. We knew months ago that the second game was going to be split into two (or possible more?) seasons, and it would be foolish to just not renew something that is basically going to be incomplete as a story itself. It reminds me of the situation with Dune with them splitting it into two movies even though the second one wasn't filmed yet after the first was released, a decision of studios and whatever else creatives have that I still don't understand. Regardless, it's just good that there's further confirmation with TLOU.

++ NaNoWriMo is officially shutting down for good. This has been a long time coming considering the numerous controversies and scandals over the years, with their whole ordeal surrounding genAI being the final nail in the coffin.

Funnily, it took until quite recently to realize that NaNoWriMo was an actual non-profit organization. I had long thought that it was simply just a self-induced prompt that writers challenged themselves and promoted it annually to write and complete a story in a month. It wasn't until some of the issues that arose not too long ago was being spread around that I finally understood, lol. I'm hoping that this doesn't discourage people from continuing challenging themselves with their writing, since I know a lot got their starts and were pushed to finish their projects because of NaNoWriMo. They can just continue on without the organization.