I don't think the plot necessarily needs to be about the main character in a backstory sense, or even that they need a personal investment in the case, but the events of the film have to be contingent on the decisions of the main character, which in turn have to be informed by their flaws/virtues

I think it's possible (and preferable) to have a dramatic protagonist at the centre of an infinite melodrama, where their essential character virtues and flaws drive the plot - but the plot can't change their fundamental nature. You basically need sitcom rules - soft resets after each film

okay but surely if I can do that I can also accept that he's exploded and now he's back

then I find you viscerally upsetting

anyway my pitch for the new Bond is it's exactly the same as the old one but he's got a tiny penis and he tells everyone new he meets within thirty seconds

really with no reboot it's the same issue The Simpsons has, characters being slowly sucked out of the time period that made them, stretching the reality of the world until it snaps and they're left isolated in the middle of time, still alive but unable to understand the 21st century

and then there's the issue that the original Bond is not a timeless character at all but shaped very much by postwar Britain, and that as we get further and further away from that time he becomes less recognisable and relevant, until he's just a vague shape representing a memory of a forgotten world

the problem here is they want to keep Bond alive as a timeless character but also want to tell a long running story which rewards superfans with a strict continuity, and those two things are mutually exclusive, because timeless characters cannot live that way forever

"he can't just wake up and say 'woah what a weird dream'" the guy's lived as a spy for 60 years through the Cold War and War on Terror and his body transforms every decade without warning or comment, a weird dream is the least of his troubles

It is utter bullshit that the mistaken splicing of two bits of his January 6th 2021 speech on Panorama in October 2024 had any significant impact whatsoever on the reputation of Donald Trump in Britain, or globally, and the claim for $1 billion damages is bullshit and bullying by the US president

me, you ask? I'm a pigeon fan, til I die. born into it. every Saturday afternoon my dad and I go down to my local Asda carpark to cheer them on, mostly by shouting obscenities.

"CALL THAT A COO YOU PIECE OF SHIT???" "MY GRANNY COULD HAVE EATEN THAT WORM BETTER YOU FUCKING BEAKY TWAT", etc

I know I've already said this but I'm seeing loads of people post that Trump said the "state your name" bit by accident - I think he was meant to say "and state your name" because he was swearing enlistees in

Do you really think Donald Trump would miss out on the opportunity to say his own name

Yeah it's a fair point, I think I'm probably fighting a war that was lost decades ago

yes they should have acknowledged the edit was careless but given their reasons for why the spirit of it was accurate (which it was!) AT THE SAME TIME this is a long-term war on truth and the BBC have capitulated over a minor skirmish, I can't really be having with the "oh they've got a point" crowd

See also the prison service, universities, local government, and the rest.

And the response of this government?

No - not to fund and run them better and prepare the ground for success.

But to join the baying mob. 2/2