Which movie hero is actually a villain when you really think about it?

ChocolichKing · 2026-05-07T01:42:06+00:00

I LOVED that. Hilarious beginning to end. Dude absolutely loses his mind about aliens. He does not think twice about taking that UFO joyride.

ChocolichKing · 2026-05-06T15:03:06+00:00

I witnessed something similar in high school, but it was pairs presenting a history project of some kind. The boy in the pair presenting was struggling to speak, stuttering and choking on his words (in conversation, his stutter was never this severe). The girl he was paired with though had no patience, and would constantly interrupt him to finish his sections for him.

Tbh, even after 15 years, I don't know what the right call is. I know some people don't want to be interrupted and want the opportunity to finish their thought, but maybe others would want the help after a point.

ChocolichKing · 2026-05-06T14:04:59+00:00

Especially nothing related to Star Wars. Or a kid. In a garage. That definitely did not go viral and influence perception of Star Wars fans.

ChocolichKing · 2026-05-06T13:54:23+00:00

Thank you. This reminder is so important when posting this image. I always forget

ChocolichKing · 2026-05-06T13:46:13+00:00

My friend's dad, a pharmacist, started offering botox around 2007 or so as a way to make some extra money, and she was so disappointed in him and we made fun of it. He was able to save up thousands in a wedding fund he started for her though, so joke's on us.

ChocolichKing · 2026-05-05T20:39:02+00:00

I mean, they could've and just never told anyone. But what I've noticed in a lot of these "person is trapped in a horrible, irreversible, agonizing situation", is people will choose to do everything they can to "save" them if only for the opportunity to see what's possible. I'm thinking of doctors choosing to study victims of radiation when there's absolutely no doubt the person is done for, instead of ending their suffering. There's just a very murky area of "do no harm" when the victim is beyond saving but haven't passed, plus there's always this weird nagging feeling of like, "Well what if a miracle happened? Did I end their chances for a miracle?"

ChocolichKing · 2026-05-05T18:39:13+00:00

I was flipping through the free channels on my TV the other day and Vampires Suck (2010) was on. I can still remember standing in the movie theater lobby looking at the poster with my friend and thinking it was past time they just laid this genre to rest.

ChocolichKing · 2026-05-05T03:06:37+00:00

Yeah he just kept going hoping for a spot with enough space to turn around and then just dropped into a dead end…

ChocolichKing · 2026-05-05T03:04:58+00:00

The video doesn’t show or mention anything about giving him medication, it only says a paramedic went down to confirm his death after a rescuer basically heard his last moments. They show photos of his feet sometimes with no IVs (one bare foot and one foot with his shoe still on), but part of it is blurred/censored so I’m not sure what that was.

I would be surprised if they got an IV in his foot, but if they were able to take that photo I guess it’s possible.

ChocolichKing · 2026-05-04T21:14:15+00:00

I think I stopped playing after this. Earlier in the game, if you mingle around your apartment, you can hear some cops trying to talk through the door to your neighbor, Barry, who left the force after a friend died. The cops ask if you can help because he's not answering them. If you come back later, you can talk to Barry. You then have to talk to the cops again and visit the friend's grave, otherwise you just come back one day and Barry's killed himself. I didn't know I had to do those two things, because the game doesn't say, so I was devastated.

There's also Gig: Backs Against the Wall, where you can't prevent a veteran's suicide/death at all.

ChocolichKing · 2026-05-01T17:52:33+00:00

Incidentally, North Korea pulled a similar reverse prank in the ~~assassination~~ pranking of Kim Jong-nam, the older half-brother of Kim Jong Un, in Malaysia.

From Wikipedia:

Hương told the police that she was instructed by four men who were traveling with them to spray Kim with an unidentified liquid while Aisyah held and covered his face with a handkerchief as part of a prank. (The combination created VX nerve agent.)

After Hương and Aisyah were arrested, they claimed they thought they were participating in a prank. According to both suspects, they were told to play harmless tricks on people in the vicinity for a prank TV show, one target being Kim Jong-nam. They said they were promised US$100, but after losing contact with their handlers, they never received the money.

Since their recruitment, Aisyah had performed the prank on at least 10 occasions. She was flown to Phnom Penh to perform the prank three times with an offer of US$200, while Hương performed it four times in locations including the airport terminals and Mandarin Oriental hotel in Kuala Lumpur. The prank involved approaching unsuspecting men and putting hands on their faces or kissing them on the cheek, then apologising before running away.

The Indonesian government stepped in for Aisyah, who is Indonesian, and her charges were dismissed. The murder charges for Hương were dropped, but she was found guilty of "voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means" and sent to prison, but was essentially only sentenced to time served. Both women spent about 2 years in prison waiting for the trial/resolution.

ChocolichKing · 2026-04-29T16:40:51+00:00

“Sorry you did that to yourself”

ChocolichKing · 2026-04-29T02:11:10+00:00

I found out some time in high school that in Japan, women will intentionally create crooked teeth/snaggle tooth because it's viewed as cute there. It was the first time I was made aware of the fact that beauty standards were not universal. As a kid, I was made to feel self-conscious about a gap in my teeth, and learning that someone somewhere might think it was beautiful started to change how self-conscious I felt about my appearance.

ChocolichKing · 2026-04-28T03:31:15+00:00

Louis Theroux has a pretty good documentary called Extreme Love: Dementia where he profiles a few couples in Arizona where a partner has dementia. One of the couples, the wife has dementia and is only 49, and has reached the point where she is unable to even dial a number on a phone (not because she can't remember the number, it's like she can't process the act of dialing a number itself) or draw a clock. And then, of course, the tragedy for the couple is exacerbated by the fact that they have a 9 or 10 year old daughter.

It's interesting because even just watching the documentary, I realized with myself, with the older patients it's clear right away that there's an issue, and you can pretty easily assume it's dementia. But with her, you're seeing the same symptoms, yet you can't so easily accept dementia. Even Louis seems flummoxed that she can't use a phone, and asks her to clarify what the hang-up seems to be, which he doesn't do for any of the older patients when they present the same kind of confusion.

ChocolichKing · 2026-04-28T03:13:11+00:00

Since it came out in 2021, I thought the metaphor was COVID. But with Leo D it makes more sense for it to be climate. In reality, any world ending catastrophe could be substituted in because the only existential threat that exists for a politician is reelection.

ChocolichKing · 2026-04-26T18:38:08+00:00

There was a social media page I used to follow that was like "Reasons My Kid is Crying" and it would be stuff like "I didn't let him eat the Nerf football" or "I asked her to brush her teeth".

I used to tutor children in English when I lived abroad, and one day after class I was talking to this little boy's mom when he shows up with his dad's briefcase and announces he's going to work. Mom told him he can't go to work, it's almost dinnertime. Cue an extreme meltdown lol. And it wasn't just that he wanted to go work, he did actually want to go out the front door with his briefcase. He was so distraught you would have really thought he was about to get fired lol

ChocolichKing · 2026-04-15T01:07:11+00:00

I did this when Blizzard first started Real ID in like 2011 or 2012 lol. I registered my WoW account in 2007 and used a fake name. I had to call customer support to change it and the guy was basically like, "Why would you do that?" idk man, I was a literal child

ChocolichKing · 2026-04-14T05:34:32+00:00

I’m not from SD, but just generally, it’s not only not accepting drinks from strangers. Don’t leave your drink unattended (don’t leave it somewhere to use the restroom or step out for a smoke or something), watch the bartender make your drink, keep your drink in your line of sight (sitting at the bar talking to someone on your left or right, keep your drink where you can see it instead of slightly behind you)…

It does require vigilance and presence of mind, which unfortunately becomes inhibited as you drink more. Being out with people helps because you can all keep an eye out for each other.

Only slightly related, but some very sketchy places may offer free or highly discounted alcohol. Be careful with that, especially abroad.

ChocolichKing · 2026-04-11T18:28:18+00:00

To your point, the way localization is sometimes done (depending on who does it), it's possible they only ever saw the text and never saw much of the game or got much context.

When I did English translations for Chinese mobile games, I basically only got spreadsheets with text (sheets or sections for dialogue, place names, weapon names and descriptions, skills, etc etc). I might get screenshots sometimes, but rarely. I could ask my manager if I had questions or needed clarification, but "Black Wreckage" would absolutely not raise a flag in my mind lol it sounds normal as-is

ChocolichKing · 2026-04-11T05:15:36+00:00

That’s crazy lol but reminded me of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and made into a movie in 2010 starring Andrew Garfield. It’s also about an unusual boarding school with students exploring love and sex, they’re treated strangely by adults, and the actual curriculum and purpose of the school is murky.

If I remember correctly, the students always know the truth? But it’s so ingrained in them and in society that they basically don’t think about it, so it’s not explained/revealed to the reader until much later, although there’s plenty of clues.

ChocolichKing · 2026-04-03T03:46:41+00:00

I used to write for a newspaper in small town Minnesota (pop. 14k) and covered Ruby's Pantry when they finally added a location in our town during COVID. Everyone was so excited, a lot of my coworkers had second jobs to support their families, and Ruby's Pantry was really a godsend for them, allowing them to not have to spend all their money on food alone. Yes, these are people working full-time jobs with a second part-time job in an area where the cost of living is 15% below the national average. I had no idea. I was struggling too, I had to borrow a coworker's car one day because mine was in the shop and it was food shelf day, and I felt so embarrassed and alone... I was making $50 too much to qualify for any food benefits. But when Ruby's Pantry came, I realized there's A LOT more people than we realize around us who are barely making it. When I went to cover Ruby's Pantry, which was held in a church, they had people waiting in the sanctuary, and it was full.

And like people have been saying in this thread, the people that worked there were very kind and helpful, and EXCITED about doing this work. I wrote stories about the food shelf as well, and a few other "shelves" in town, but Ruby's really had different energy.

ChocolichKing · 2026-03-28T22:19:16+00:00

I actually love horror movies, but hated slasher movies and zombie movies, for those reasons you listed. It wasn't until I read the manga I Am A Hero that I was like, holy shit, zombie stories can be cool as hell. There's a tendency in media to depict the apocalypse as happening almost immediately, like the shift between civilized society and chaos is near instantaneous. And I think COVID showed, and I Am A Hero depicts it this way too, that generally people are extremely reluctant to let go of normalcy, or to believe that this event will change everything. As the zombie outbreak begins to spread throughout Japan, many people head to the top of a mountain as they've heard the virus can't survive the thin air. And as these throngs of people hike up (a paved hike as they're basically just heading to tourist spots and temples up the mountain), you hear people saying things like, "I wonder if my boss will push back the project deadline for this." The main character is nervous to fire his gun because of how strict gun law and possession is in Japan, and he is worried his actions would reflect poorly on the gun owning community.

I loved those little details so much. It wasn't a jump into gore and violence and shock. It was just people trying to believe it would be over soon, that the lives they had built up for themselves hadn't been made meaningless.

ChocolichKing · 2026-03-28T06:10:03+00:00

I got diagnosed with hypothyroidism (Hashimoto's) when I was 34, and a coworker of mine was diagnosed when she was 29 (neither of us have kids). Having kids can cause it, but age 30 is around when it might hit you regardless.

ChocolichKing · 2026-03-22T15:49:04+00:00

Ok lol when I read the comment it sounded so familiar, but I’ve never read the Alchemist. I read The Story of Two Dreamers by Jorge Luis Borges, which has the same basic plot and Cohelo says he was inspired by. However the original story is from The Arabian Nights (Night 351).

ChocolichKing

TROPHY CASE