Centrally Unplanned

the paper part is fine, it's mostly made from mulching rags into a pulp and that's a well-established industry by the 1200s

To tie this back up to the top, I think most stories in the "uplift/kingdom building" genre are frequently very explicitly about these material conditions! Absolutely 101-level Isekai'd Industrial Engineer plot is "ah, I know what guns are, I can beat these goblin hordes! Now...how, uh, how do I build one...?" In more mature works, you get real answers to this question, and whole arcs are about figuring out the art of the possible from all the future tech in the MC's head.

Explaining the premise directly to the camera

IMO it's a milieu movie -- the point isn't the plot or characters, it's "hey look at this cool world" and "spend some time living in the world and appreciate its unique vibes" and "emerge with a new sense of wonder". I put James Cameron Avatar solidly in this bucket as well. Glad I watched this; does this well; etc..

I would agree with the 50 minute cut idea - its best parts absolutely are a mileau movie, the ~vibe of cyberpunk futures and hacker crime and "what is being human anyway" aesthetics. But alas the majority of the run time is spent on the non-mileau portions of the flat characters or boilerplate plots. It is a film that gets in the way of itself.

Explaining the premise directly to the camera

IMO it's a milieu movie -- the point isn't the plot or characters, it's "hey look at this cool world" and "spend some time living in the world and appreciate its unique vibes" and "emerge with a new sense of wonder". I put James Cameron Avatar solidly in this bucket as well. Glad I watched this; does this well; etc..

I would agree with the 50 minute cut idea - its best parts absolutely are a mileau movie, the ~vibe of cyberpunk futures and hacker crime and "what is being human anyway" aesthetics. But alas the majority of the run time is spent on the non-mileau portions of the flat characters or boilerplate plots. It is a film that gets in the way of itself.

Explaining the premise directly to the camera

The whole thing is pretty contextual imo - what is being automated? What resourcesa are scarce versus abundant? How is tech improving R&D, and are scientists totals going up or down as the economy and demographics shift?

Film, manga, home video releases, and other products in the franchise have achieved record sales in Japanese markets and strong sales in overseas markets, with related goods earning over ¥150 billion by 2007 and Evangelion pachinko machines generating ¥700 billion by 2015.

So, question to readers: have you ever stopped reading a book because it didn't hook you in the first line/paragraph?

I've never dropped a book in the first paragraph because it was boring, but I have put it down at that point because the prose actively repelled me.

Similar to you on this one - I have never dropped a book on the first line, or paragraph, outside of egregious style considerations. But I definitely don't need more than a page to make at least some form of "keep going" judgement.

The eye would be a known thing, right? "Sometimes the hurricane stops but you need to not stray too far from safety, because it can come back quick, and then it will last about as long again"

I think this one has a clear answer, fortunately! In 1831, William C. Redfield published the results of his study of the damage of an 1821 hurricane in Connecticut. He mapped out the directions that the trees fell, and the "lines" of damage that the storm had left, and proposed that the storm must be a cyclical vortex to account for it all. It was definitively a debated idea at the time, so there was no clear consensus on what hurricanes "were" before then; as more evidence piled up the circular model won out.

the fact that we can simply see them from space now is wild

Extremely amusingly, the first uncontroversial observation of Jupiter's Great Red Spot is... also in 1831! By German astronomer Heinrich Schwabe. Real banger year for hurricanes.

The eye would be a known thing, right? "Sometimes the hurricane stops but you need to not stray too far from safety, because it can come back quick, and then it will last about as long again"

I think this one has a clear answer, fortunately! In 1831, William C. Redfield published the results of his study of the damage of an 1821 hurricane in Connecticut. He mapped out the directions that the trees fell, and the "lines" of damage that the storm had left, and proposed that the storm must be a cyclical vortex to account for it all. It was definitively a debated idea at the time, so there was no clear consensus on what hurricanes "were" before then; as more evidence piled up the circular model won out.

Anon asked (cut for length):

Marriage also seems like the biggest "play" to make - Rhaenyra's kids needs to marry true-blue, completely-uncontested Targaryens. Helaena is the obvious choice of course, though the politics/practicality there all depends on what kind of alt history this is. But they have other options (the canonical engagement to Baela, and the whole rest of the Velaryon wing come to mind). Ideally you wrap the line of succession back around, so even if someone were trying to depose Jacaerys, they would be deposing him for the person who was gonna inherit anyway so why bother. And at minimum, you make sure everyone can treat the current reign as a "blip" and be assured that everything will go back to normal without any positive action on their parts.

Equestrian case-law on this is pretty spotty though. Most decisions like Equestria vs Sugar Sprinkle, or Belle vs Glimmer, are slapdash additions to the legal code after the Saddle Arabian Oil Crisis ushered in the collapse of the command economy. Constitutional law clearly had no provisions for "cutie mark discrimination" given that the previous economic order was literally propping up empty nightclubs with subsidies just to generate jobs for all the ponies whose "true calling" was being a fucking DJ! And while the "Invisible Hoof" Faction did their best to throw together a series of bills to saddle the rough ride into a free market economy, it was absolutely a "results over proper procedure" affair. And they *certainly* never had the supermajority of the High Council they would have needed to enshrine any of those bills in the constitution!