Author: Randy Rydberg

A fairly mellow fellow who likes to read history books.

121123 • Thrift Store Finds

I paid full price for these as it was a Monday, but they were still all very cheap considering what they would cost from anywhere else… especially Amazon, where the shipping for each book costs more than a book from this thrift store! A bonus: Most of these are only a few years old; meaning, somebody paid full-price for them, not too long ago. Usually, newer books have access to more information than older ones do, often due to newly opened archives and other new sources, which leads to different perspectives and new conclusions.

I like both old books and new ones, but I don’t like paying full-price! These wouldn’t have lasted long if they had made it to Saturday, which is half-off day, and when I’m usually there. Basically, I got twelve really good books for the price of just over one new one!

One has to wonder where these came from, though. Did someone pass away, and their books were taken to the thrift for easy disposal? Is this one of those wackos who reads a book, and then gets rid of it? Did these find their way to the thrift because of a bad divorce? Who knows. But whoever had them last, had good taste!

Stratego

Just picked up this Stratego game for a buck-fifty. This version is the same as the one I had when I was a kid. They change these games over time; for instance, the more powerful pieces should be 1-9, but in the newer versions they are reversed, 9-1. I also like the box art. I haven’t played in decades, so if anybody wants to beat me before I get my skills back, this is the time to do so!

Why Modern Movies Suck – Nobody Can Stay Dead!

(Below is my own list of those who don’t die in Disney Star Wars)

One of the many, many reasons I’m not a fan of modern Star Wars, (with a few exceptions) is that the only Star Wars characters that died, yet came back, were Yoda, Ben Kenobi, and Anakin, as Force ghosts. There was a set rule, or reason that they could, and that was limited as they didn’t just come back as a character that could go on more adventures, they were there only to advise, and disappear. Because they had died. Because dying was something that was taken seriously by the writers. 

But now, in the post-Lucas Star Wars era, killing a character is a cheap trick to get some drama into the script, because the writers have no idea how to write a good story. Here are all the characters I could think of that have died, yet came back: 

Palpatine – They couldn’t make a better bad guy, and Snoke didn’t work out, so…

Leia – Blown into the vacuum of space… nope! Just floats on back, she’s amazing!

Rey – How romantic. And odd that nobody ever used the Force in this way before.

Chewbacca – They’d never actually kill the Walking Carpet.

IG-11 – Blown up while in a river of molten lava. But he’s coming back somehow.

Poe – He… didn’t make it. Wait, there he is!

Ahsoka – Time travel. They use time travel in Star Wars now.

C-3PO – They’d never really kill Goldenrod.

Fennec Shand – Predictable, but it happened.

Han Solo – Force Ghost. This means that now, any non-Jedi can return as a Force Ghost.

Darth Maul – How? HOW? He was cut in half and fell into a bottomless pit!

Boba Fett – Why not, everybody else comes back.

Two characters in Kenobi take a lightsaber to the body… and they are fine.

Snoke – Wasn’t worth bringing back.

Reva – (Kenobi) Stabbed through with lightsaber (when she was a child), didn’t die. Stabbed through as an adult, didn’t die.

Grand Inquisitor (Kenobi) – Stabbed through with lightsaber, didn’t die.

Sabine (Ahsoka) – Run through with lightsaber, survives and doesn’t miss much.

Add to all of this, the over-use of The Force, of which they use to do anything they want now, including bringing people back from the dead.