The Mystery of Tragedy

[regexcellent]

The entire US gov being wiped out and all was perhaps a good thing, but interrupting the Super Bowl?

I said the early ones. I mean before the stolen Israeli nuke one. Forgot what that one was called. Rainbow Six was...alright, if a bit silly.

[Aeson]

The Sum of All Fears ... Ben Affleck playing Jack Ryan retroactively made the book much worse than it actually was when it was published.

[regexcellent]

Part of what made The Sum of All Fears annoying was that it was the point where:

1. The grandstanding of Clancy's right-wing politics becomes obnoxious
2. Jack Ryan acquires god-like powers, such as the ability to negotiate the end to a decades-old conflict with no real solution in a matter of weeks
3. The Soviet Union has ceased completely to be a major threat and thus bull**** villains to keep it going. Druggies were used in the previous one so this wasn't the first book to do that, and it gets way worse in later ones (like Rainbow Six where it's...wait for it...eco-terrorists! LOLwut). However, this is the first book where that is combined with serious other problems. Like Jack Ryan being a god.

I remember there was a passage near the end where that woman who is National Security Advisor, who you are supposed to hate, is thinking to herself about how dumb the Super Bowl is. Just so you hate her even more. She hates the super bowl! How un-American.

[Lorizael]

For a more modern example, consider that episode of Futurama with Fry's dog...

****, man, don't make me cry at work.

[Uncle Sparky]

Dramatic tragedy is a safe release for those northern European type males who have been conditioned not to dispay emotions. Oddly schadenfreude is usually allowed - enjoying or even laughing at someone elses failure.