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Tidus learns the Summoners' fate

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Bellucci handing Nadal a lifeline. Dumb move.

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Don't know if I'd call that falling apart, but she lost in three sets. Had 0-40 at 3-2 in the second set, and having failed to break, never really recovered.

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18 year old Robson giving Schiavone a bit of a battering at the start of their R1 match. Currently up 4-1.

(Watch her fall apart now.)

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Their development culture just isn't suited to handling the incredible amount of hands and co-ordination needed to develop AAA HD games (though the problems at SE are worse than that, and go back to FFXII, if not before).

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I think the ending would have been superb if it had just left Korra alone with Naga (or, perhaps, with Mako and Naga) in the snow. I can understand that a lot of people reacted badly to the crammed events after that (I did too). But I think the finale as a whole was an amazing piece of animation. I prefer it to the end of season 3 of TLA (though not to S1's and S2's).

Episode ranking:

1. And The Winner Is... (E6)
2. When Extremes Meet (E8)
3. The Revelation (E3)
4. Out of the Past (E9)
5. The Voice in the Night (E4)
6. Welcome to Republic City (E1)
7. Skeletons in the Closet (E11)
8. Turning the Tides (E10)
9. The Aftermath (E7)
10. A Leaf in the Wind (E2)
11. Endgame (E12)
12. The Spirit of Competition (E5)

And just to see in how many episodes there were instances of characters being kidnapped/captured, let's see (if you ever watch TLA season one again, note them).

1. Welcome to Republic City
- Korra is arrested by Lin's police for her fighting with the Triads. Tenzin intervenes to free Korra.

2. A Leaf in the Wind
None.

3. The Revelation
- The Equalists kidnap the gang leaders and Bolin. Bolin is freed by Korra and Mako before Amon can take his bending.

4. The Voice in the Night
- Tarrlok's taskforce, including Korra, capture a group of Equalists in their hideout.
- Korra is captured and then released by Amon.

5. The Spirit of Competition
None.

6. And The Winner Is...
- The Equalists take over the bending arena, effectively kidnapping everyone inside it.
- Korra, Mako and Bolin are knocked unconscious by the Lieutenant and tied to a pillar holding up the fighting area.
- Tahno has his bending taken by Amon.

7. The Aftermath
- Lin's police force arrest the owner of the cabbage factory.
- Satoshi traps Korra, Lin, Tenzin and some of Lin's police underground. Bolin and Mako are also kidnapped when they attempt to intervene. Asami's intervention saves the main cast, but Lin's men aren't so lucky.

8. When Extremes Meet
- Korra, Bolin, Mako and Asami capture a group of Equalists and hand them over to the police.
- Saikhan's police, assisted by Tarrlok, arrest a huge number of non-benders. They also arrest Bolin, Mako and Asami. Lin later releases them.
- Korra is kidnapped by Tarrlok and taken away from Republic City.

9. Out of the Past
- Korra remains kidnapped by Tarrlok for most of the episode, eventually escaping thanks to Amon and her own quick thinking.
- Tarrlok is kidnapped by Amon, and has his bending removed.

10. Turning the Tides
- Equalists kidnap the council members and take their bending.
- Equalists attempt to kidnap Saikhan's men at the police station, and are at first successful, overcoming Tenzin's resistance. Korra, Bolin, Mako and Asami arrive and rescue them.
- Lin is captured atop an airship and has her bending taken by Amon.

11. Skeletons in the Closet
- Amon removes the bending of captured Republic City citizens en masse.
- Tarrlok is found in a cell by Korra and Mako, and remains there.

12. Endgame
- Bolin, Iroh and Asami are captured by Satoshi's men after walking into an electrified fence. They're released when Naga intervenes.
- Amon reveals he has captured Tenzin and his family. They are freed thanks to Korra and Mako.
- Amon uses bloodbending to capture Korra and Mako. He takes Korra's bending.

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A full FFVII remake would be a glorious note to go out on, especially compared to the whimper of spin-offs and unwanted sequels (I don't think a topic was made on this board about Toriyama's plans to continue the XIII story, was there?).

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"Yevon is embodied by eternal, unchanging continuity, summoner." - Mika

That scene is one of the most underrated in the game, I think. Mika has the best lines in it.

Zanarkand Ruins

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Tidus learns Summoners' fate

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Woo Watson. Great first set. Hope she can finish Benesova off. Must've been a real thrill to be told "you're been moved to Centre Court".

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Bye bye Berdych. Djokovic's path to the SFs just got a bit easier.

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The trial

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I did wonder at the time what the significance of seeing a tear fall down the cliff was. That'd make sense.

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More important, however, was the freedom Andrea Pirlo enjoyed. At times England’s shape was good, bringing both strikers back into the midfield zone, remaining compact and getting both Danny Welbeck and Wayne Rooney goalside of Pirlo. When Welbeck was in a position to close down the Juventus midfielder, he generally did his job excellently.

Rooney was much sloppier, and after half an hour when Pirlo’s dominance had become clear, Joe Hart was clearly heard shouting at Rooney to pick him up. Hodgson clearly wanted Rooney to do this, because for much of the game Rooney could be seen half-heartedly jogging towards Pirlo. It was reminiscent of the 2011 Champions League final, where he started off marking Sergio Busquets, before gradually leaving Manchester United outnumbered in midfield.

It’s odd that Rooney’s tactical indiscipline has become such a problem – only a few years ago his willingness to sacrifice his own attacking game for the good of the team was reagrded as one of his main qualities. England could have done with someone like Rooney’s club teammate, Park Ji-Sung, who did a superb job on Pirlo in 2009/10 – Urby Emanuelson did something similar for Milan earlier this year. Leaving Pirlo free was suicidal, and he completed over 30 more passes than any other player.

Zonalmarking.net critcises Rooney for not pressuring Pirlo.

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I much prefer Aang/Katara over Korra/Mako, largely because the characters in TLA have room to breathe and develop. There's just not enough to the Korra/Mako relationship for me to care too much for it. It doesn't annoy me like it does others, but it could have been much more interesting, especially if there'd been more of an effort to develop Mako. Other than Ep. 3, I can't remember too many occasions where Korra and Mako were together alone for a significant amount of time (okay, the finale sort of counts). Mako spent more time with Asami while Korra was off training, battling and being kidnapped. Too much of it happens off screen, unlike Aang/Katara, where the attraction is clear from very early on and develops across the whole series.

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As a neutral, I really want to see England v Germany, so cheering on you lot tonight. Great rivalry.

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- I didn't particularly appreciate making Aang (partly) the hero by giving Korra energybending and her powers back right at the end.

- By far the best section of the finale was Tarlokk telling Korra and Mako about his history with Amon. Apart from being voiced perfectly, and that it justified spending the time on Tarlokk beforehand, it an excellent backstory to Amon. Being a prodigious bender forced by his father to become a "tool of revenge" seems like exactly the set of circumstances that could have led to him becoming first cold and resentful, and then to develop an ideology based on ridding the world of its power.

- Tarlokk's guilt leading to the murder-suicide caught me completely off guard. Wow.

- It doesn't surprise me that apparently Asami won't feature greatly in S2. I can't believe she never told Mako where to go. At least she got resolution with her father.

- Even though I didn't appreciate Aang's intervention, my spine tingled when I heard the (slightly remixed?) old Avatar music play.

- Iroh was badass as hell during the flight sequence.

- I was moved by the scenes towards the end where Korra headed out alone. I was hoping beyond hope it would end with her drying her tears and going to Naga for comfort. It was not to be.

- That said, unlike many others, I didn't have a problem with the Mako/Korra scenes. I've written this before. I do, though, wonder how this will work in S2 - presumably they'll still be together, which will mean a dynamic that no Avatar series has had before.

- Tenzin & Co. being caught didn't cheapen Lin's sacrifice IMO. The fact was that she did it and held up the blimps. Amon had a Plan B. Them's the breaks. Nor does it bother me that Katara couldn't fix the bending block - her bloodbending was never as advanced as Yakone's, never mind Amon's.

- All in all, the finale was superb animation and a satisying conclusion, even if a little too much was going on. The villains will live longer in the memory than the heroes, which suggests that while the central conflict in Korra S1 was significantly stronger than that behind the original series, it was over ambitious for its length, which undermined the our connection to the cast members we were intended to support.

- I can't wait for S2. I expect they'll be able to build off this by planning the next series more efficiently.

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The trial

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Tidus learns the Summoners' fate

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Draw's out.

Djokovic/Federer
Murray/Nadal

Djokovic's projected path:

R4: Monaco/Granollers/Troicki
QF: Berdych/Gasquet/Almagro

Federer's projected path:

R4: Verdasco/Simon
QF: Isner/Tipsarevic/Seppi

Murray's projected path:

R2: Karlovic
R3: Anderson/Dimitrov
R4: Raonic/Cilic
QF: Ferrer/Del Potro

Nadal's projected path:

R3: Kohlschreiber/Haas
R4: Lopez/Dolgopolov
QF: Tsonga/Wawrinka/Fish

Women's:

Sharapova/Radwanska
Kvitova/Azarenka

Serena is in Kvitova's section, projected to meet her in the QFs. Wozniacki is Azarenka's projected QF opponent. Stosur is Radwanska's. Kerber is Sharapova's.

First round matches likely to attract hype/interest:

Nalbandian v Tipsarevic
Dimitrov v Anderson
Tsonga v Hewitt
Haase v Del Potro
Andreev v Golding (young Brit factor)

Clijsters v Jankovic
Venus v Vesnina
Watson v Benesova (young Brit factor)
Robson v Schiavone (young Brit factor)
McHale v Konta (young American and Brit factor)

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The next QF will be Germany v Greece, which will probably play out exactly like tonight's match. Thank you very much, Group A.

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Portugal would be near unbeatable if they had a proper playmaker in midfield.

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Because a significant minority of people just want to destroy things.

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Staff Roll

(6)
(3)
(10)
(2)

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Persona 4's The Genesis might not be the greatest song to listen to out of context, but during the final battle it's an immensely powerful piece. Boss music can be such a large part of setting the scene - it's a high point of nearly any game when it's done right.

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Zanarkand Ruins

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Campfire scene

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The trial

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(2)
(3)

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Tidus learns the Summoners' fate

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Ah damn. 28 spots too low.

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For about 80 minutes Spain were a bit like what happens if you play a game of FIFA with the shoot button off-limits. Jeez.

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The trial

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Only the matches between the tied teams count for determining ties (so if Italy, Croatia and Spain all end on 5 points the matches against Ireland are ignored).

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Tidus learns the Summoners' fate

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Onimusha 1 through 3 was pretty amazing last gen. Otherwise, it's the usual suspects: DMC, KH, R&C.

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Jyscal's Sphere

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Campfire scene

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The last few gaming summers have been very, well, dry. It's surely got to be time for a big publisher to launch a hyped game in June/July away from the end of year rush. The year has became ludicrously imbalanced in favour of the Oct-Mar swing.

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Nalbandian loses his 150 ranking points, his runners-up cheque of £36k, and is fined $10k (£6.3k) for his behaviour.

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The trial

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Called this one right at least. Wonderful performance from Ronaldo, but lol Holland. The Danes were unlucky Badstuber's shirt tug on Bendtner wasn't given, but good show all the same.

Spain > Italy after tomorrow I expect. Croatia are good on the ball, but I think Spain will wear them down and beat them pretty easily in the end to finish top. Ireland will provide more resistance than people expect, but Italy will get the win to take them through.

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Normally Haas beating Federer in the Halle final would be the biggest tennis story of the day, but Nalbandian's found a way to overthrow (or should that be overkick) it.

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- I think everyone knew Amon's big attack was coming sooner or later. Echoes of Ozai in the way he watched on amid a fleet of airships. I do wonder if they might've been better off dropping the Tarrlok sequence so we could have had this earlier. I can imagine some really tense "subterfuge" episodes might have been possible for Team Avatar while Amon's crew were in control of the city.

- I'd been saying for some time that it'd be Lin or Tenzin who would be the first big "good" casualty of Amon, but during this episode I suspected it'd be Tenzin. I thought he'd lose his bending but it'd be offset with the hope of a new child. Instead it was Lin's turn.

- Airbending returns to great effect. Equalists can't even deal with the children's use. Jinora would've been a better Team Avatar member than Asami if she'd just been a couple of years older, IMO. Enjoy her character a lot.

- Iroh is introduced while commanding a ship, just like Zuko once was, only now it's an armada instead of a expelled vessel. Looking forward to the big fight.

- Had to laugh at Mako's efforts to shut up Asami with "oh, let's just forget about this for now". Slight misreading of the situation there, pal. I wonder what Asami will do during the finale... it could have pretty serious consequences if her actions resulted in Mako ending up in the hands of Amon.

- Can't wait for the finale.

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Can't see this being anything other than Germany > Portugal. Germany are ruthless perfectionists who won't collapse a la Russia, and Portugal are cynical, defensive and effective enough that they're unlikely to be beaten by two clear.

I suppose if Holland really turn up they might do it, but I don't expect their attitude to be great. Denmark might get something off Germany, but Portugal only need to match their result.

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Fantasia or Pinocchio I expect.

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God I love Greece. Anti-football masters.

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Karagounis! 2012 paging 2004.

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