Smogon Forums

because it seems very arbitrary to me, people will appreciate some references and think others are cheap. and very rarely do the references matter. like for example in Ant-Man some people were like "derp he said tales to astonish and tales to astonish is the name of the ant-man comic wow so clever" but like did it really matter? I mean the guy is talking about propaganda so the term "tales to astonish" is appropriate right. Like if he changed the line though it wouldn't make a difference so what's the big deal?

because to me whether a reference is good or bad just seems to depend on "how hard is it to understand" and if it's easy people don't like it.

I think it's all about setup, the more the worse the reference

really because most references are just from random offhanded dialogue or the name of a place or a hotel room number or something. again it just seems to me if it's easy to understand then people don't like it

Also visual can gO much farther than words; if the new actor realizes it's a reference then it's probably bad

Let me rephrase; if the new actor must be told it's a reference then it's bad

so like for example why did you not like the references in Star Wars such as the new death star being called Starkiller. Like that didn't matter at all what it was called what made it bad was that it was the death star for the third time.

"X base" isn't what any imperial bases have ever been called. Also, starkiller was already used as a reference as vader's apprentice. Double dipping on the most widely known star wars fact is kind of hmmmm