Fairy Tail is Ending in Two Volumes:

A Fairy Tail volume typically has eight to nine chapters in it.  There's already eight chapters which haven't been turned into a volume yet, so that accounts for one of the 'two remaining volumes.'  To account for the second of two and go no further, Fairy Tail would have to end in 8 chapters.  That's exactly in line with my prediction a bit ago that Fairy Tail would end in 'a couple months.'  It's scary how intelligent and accurate a prognosticator I am.  It just felt like there wasn't much story left and it could all be wrapped up in a couple months, and Hiro Mashima, also being a good storyteller, instinctively felt the exact same length was needed as I did.

So here we are, 2017, the year of all the great manga series coming to an end.  First it was Akame ga Kill! (#3), then Hayate no Gotoku (#4), now Fairy Tail. (#1)

I'm going to miss Fairy Tail once it's gone, it was the only weekly manga series left that regularly came out on a weekly basis.  But it was time.  Any delays would just be frustrating filler without any emotional impact.  This way we get to enjoy the roller coaster ride all the way to the scintillating conclusion.

And Hiro Mashima, being the workaholic he is, promises he'll come roaring back with a new series just as soon as he finishes the old.  Maybe the next work after Fairy Tail will be as much better as Fairy Tail was than Rave.  Who knows?  Maybe we're lucky Fairy Tail is ending because something even better than the best manga ever is waiting in the wings.

I dredged up some new video game music that I somehow hadn't noticed before, so my perfect 3,600 song collection has been foiled.  On the other hand, I now have a more complete collection, and thus a more accurate and beautiful one, than before, even if the numbers aren't as aesthetic.  (For instance, I just discovered that the main theme of FF 12, Kiss me Goodbye, hadn't been included in any of my playlists, and was simply floating lost in the giant vacuum of memory, a song that was indeed in my itunes library, but had never been played even once and wasn't categorized anywhere, which I've now rectified)  As a repository for all these new songs, I created a new 1 star video game music playlist.  It currently has 428 songs, but if I deem the songs unlistenably bad, that might shrink down quite a bit.  There's no use in a playlist of music I have no intention of listening to, so some songs may just have to be cast into the outer darkness.

So now the tiers look like this:  700, 700, 700, 700, 428, 800 = 4,058.  I've also had to change some songs around again in all the tiers to accommodate the new reality.  So even though I thought the song lists had been finalized, that was just a passing dream.  The tinkering will continue until morale improves.

I'm halfway through Middlemarch and I'm deeply impressed by its quality so far.  I guess Mill on the Floss will be next?

The Force Awakens really was an awful movie.  There were zero interesting lines of dialogue and the plot made no sense.  Why was it so freaking easy to just waltz into Starkiller Base, put down the shields, and then blow it up from within, with just an old guy and a wookie to do the job?  How on Earth did they manage to even land on the military installation, aren't there any security clearances for who can just fly in to the most important weapon of the First Order?  And why was this pivotal security point, the shield generator and the oscillator, only guarded by a handful of storm troopers?  Why wasn't there 'an entire legion of my finest troops' awaiting them?  Why didn't Snoke foresee the attempt and act to preempt it?  Isn't he a Sith Lord?

Why did Kylo Ren insist on fighting Finn and Rey, none too well, with a lightsaber, when previously throughout the movie he'd shown his ability to paralyze his opponents with the force, or throw them about, like he did to Rey seconds previously before she kicked his ass in a lightsaber duel?  Why did they decide to take Han Solo, Finn, and Chewbacca prisoner at Maz Kanata's place?  Why didn't they just blast them?  They were of no value and there was no reason to keep them alive.  They were under orders to 'capture or destroy' the droid, so even the droid wasn't necessary, much less the droid's companions, which should have exactly zero value to the First Order.  So why the insistence on sparing them?

 Why did Leia go hug Rey, ignoring Chewbacca, when they had literally never met before even once in the movie, had never talked to each other, didn't know each other, had zero reason to be hugging?  Did she just suddenly turn lesbian and start lusting after this young flesh, and just had to embrace this hot girl she saw passing by?  Ignoring the person she should be commiserating with, Chewbacca, the best friend of her just-deceased husband?  Shouldn't they be mourning together, not chasing new hot young flesh with sudden groping attacks?

If The Force Awakens is to have any value, it is only as a set-up for the later movies.  If the later movies are also no good, then setting them up will also have been pointless.  In which case I will subtract the movie from my must-see list.  But I can't judge until I've seen episodes VIII and IX.

It's ridiculous how well-received this movie is.  It's still the top selling streaming movie, and made billions in theaters.  And yet it's just a steaming pile of shit.  ::shakes head::  The Star Wars brand doesn't deserve to be associated with this kind of follow-up.  Why didn't they just leave Timothy Zahn's wonderful novels as the true sequels?  Those were worthy successors.

The same for Jurassic World.  This was a crappy movie.  Everyone acted stupidly and everything was just a rehash of the original.  And yet it made over a billion dollars.  Presumably simply because people like seeing high definition cg dinosaurs on screen.  ::shakes head::  Have some standards, people!  Stop dragging every good franchise through the mud with these ridiculous, sub-par, not-even-by-the-same-directors sequels!