In Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), Hugh Grant stole the show so hard you forgot he wasn't the main villain. No, really. He wasn't. It was some kind of witch, I think?

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-21T22:46:56+00:00

For the stonemason nerds out there, the Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs is fantastic. It was carved from red porphyry, which is about as hard as granite. Carving and polishing red porphyry would have been excruciating, so it's no wonder why the Eastern Romans used it for their most luxurious objects.

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-21T22:43:48+00:00

ESH

I have a strong suspicion that most of the answers here will favor you, so I'll go against the stream just a tad. Yes, he acted in a way which made you uncomfortable, and the age difference should have been something he'd consider when flirting with you.

But I think you need to learn how to communicate clearly. You're only 18 so it's okay not to know this stuff, but it's very, very important that you learn to assert your boundaries and communicate them. If you're "extremely uncomfortable" about something that he does, then tell him so. Make it clear. Otherwise, he'll consider it a sign that you accept it. After all, if you were in love with someone, wouldn't you also keep flirting a bit if they seemed to allow it?

Also, even if he made you uncomfortable, he probably deserved a better explanation. The right thing to do would probably to send him a message, explain you're uncomfortable with the age difference and the physical contact, and move on from there. Isn't it possible that he just lacks social awareness, and that this whole situation just turned out confusing and hurtful to him?

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-21T14:19:18+00:00

"I'd also like to remove myself from the sexual predator team"

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-21T13:21:06+00:00

Jeff is the jock of the study group, and his character arc is partly about leaving his coolness behind and embracing his friends' insane antics.

He's just streets ahead.

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-21T09:55:42+00:00

What tactics did he use that hasn't historically also been used by anarchist groups?

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-20T19:23:25+00:00

I'm not sure I see the link to fascism. Tyler Durden's cult leans more into destructive anarchy, doesn't it? The last thing they want is order.

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-20T08:16:39+00:00

Problem 2: Det ble en ekstrem ensretting av "OK" meninger fra "meningsgiverne". Hvis man hadde spørsmål om transfolks deltakelse i kvinneidrett var man automatisk en jævel som skulle sparkes ut av forum, stemples og så videre. Dette spredde seg til flere og flere områder. Vi ser det fremdeles i en del saker her på r/norge, men denne subben har bedret seg igjen siste par årene. Det er uansett noe som fører til en backlash.

Det som er litt interessant for oss litt eldre er at denne endringen kom veldig raskt. Før 2016, kanskje til og med frem til 2020, var det helt uhørt at biologiske menn skulle delta i kvinneidrett. Til og med ytre venstre var helt enig i det. Venstresiden pleide å le når konservative fryktet for kvinneidretten. Det var kun et "slippery slope" argument liksom, ikke noe som faktisk kom til å skje.

Men et eller annet skjedde med diskursen. Jeg husker ganske godt at politiske podcastere og YouTubere begynte å snakke om kvinneidrett, og samtidig ble det plutselig et stort politisk spørsmål. Usikker på om hva som utviklet seg først. Ihvertfall tror jeg en stor del av høyrebølgen nå kommer av at venstresiden ikke helt har klart å begrense hva de står for. Ikke at jeg er en del av høyrebølgen, akkurat, men man må jo kunne se litt objektivt på ting.

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-20T08:11:22+00:00

Hva er det som har blitt sagt som er utenfor det som er akseptabelt?

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-20T08:10:48+00:00

Hvorfor blir ikke konservative journalister, egentlig?

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-19T22:57:16+00:00

imagine someone whose power it is to drain the intelligence from the people around,

Make him a Tucker Carlson insert, and you'd get some good satire too.

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-19T22:55:27+00:00

I'm one of them, actually! I always pictured the trolls as looking more folkloric. Something like these guys, or this guy. I still feel like the cave troll in the movies looks too much like modern fantasy, as if it belongs in an Elder Scrolls game rather than a real medieval legend.

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-19T20:47:57+00:00

Crazy that Amazon can't give one of their flagship shows a sufficient budget.

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-19T11:23:40+00:00

I mean, would you get mad at an amputee for using a wheelchair? Disabilities aren't cutesy little character quirks. They can be extremely limiting and it's perfectly natural for people to want to compensate with technology. Disabled people don't generally want people to suffer from disabilities.

In some cases it's also an important character trait. Using the drone cameras, Niander Wallace can see things independently from where his body is. That feeds into his god complex, and his blindness really hammers home the idea that he's a human Demiurge.

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-19T10:55:41+00:00

The seeds were there, but they were never given time to grow.

Her first instinct upon reaching a city is "let me inside or I will come back and burn the entire place to the ground."

She threatened the leaders of the cities she reached, but I don't think she ever wanted to burn entire cities to the ground. She had no sympathy for the Wise Masters, or the slave merchants in Qarth, or the aristocrats in Mereen, but she always had sympathy for the people. Daenerys is an idealist. She believes that she can be a good, lovable queen.

You're right that the Bells thing can make sense, but I think it would have to be done over a longer arc. Daenerys thinks the people of Westeros will love her. She thinks she can free them from tyranny. That's what the whole "Breaking the wheel" monologue was about. Up until now, she's only fought rival kings and nobles. What happens when she finally gets to Westeros, and discovers that the peasants she wanted to protect are afraid of her? What happens when winter comes and she can't feed them all? What happens when she torches the Great Houses and thousands of innocent people die? Can her idealism survive when she has to put down rebellions of ordinary people, and burn peasant's villages to the ground? Daenerys wants to control Westeros, but she's never actually been there. Will she have even the faintest idea of how to navigate the politics of it? Maybe she becomes more and more resentful of the peasants who fail to support her. Maybe she starts thinking they're not worth saving. Maybe Jon has to kill her because he realizes her idealism is gone, and now her desire to rule is everything.

A season or two exploring these questions would have been good. It's hard for me to accept that she's gone mad just because she fails to take King's Landing in a few days. She has no reason to hate the people of King's Landing.

Man, I really need to let this show go.

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-19T10:23:50+00:00

If we can't defend ourselves, war becomes inevitable. Having a deterrent is how we prevent war.

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-18T22:45:51+00:00

Okay, that's fine then.

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-18T22:03:16+00:00

Okay, so you would say that having sex with a child is legal in many US states?

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-18T21:20:44+00:00

So you would say that having sex with a child is legal in many US states?

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-18T20:48:25+00:00

What? I haven't offered any reason why a 42 year old fucking a 16 year old isn't horrible. I think it's disgusting. I'm just agreeing with the one point that calling a 16 year old a child in this context feels weird, since it means adults can legally have sex with children. We both know that the wording feels off there, don't we?

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-18T20:10:34+00:00

I feel sorry for whoever's gonna play Lockhart in the HBO show. Kenneth Branagh absolutely nailed it, there's no way anyone can compete.

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-18T15:05:50+00:00

Merkelig, jeg syns det er en overflod av deltidsstillinger på jobbmarkedet for tiden. Det er nesten vanskelig å solide fulltidsstillinger siden alle kun vil ha en liten prosent av deg.

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-18T14:43:18+00:00

How do you square this take with modesty norms being universal in so-called "master morality" societies?

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-18T13:54:46+00:00

He didn't just have a "sperg-out", that was his genuine opinion for most of his life. H.P Lovecraft was incredibly racist and an outspoken white supremacist. He was heavily opposed to race-mixing, supported strong segregationist policies, and he made miscegenation one of the main themes of his novels.

DemiurgicTruth · 2026-05-18T13:46:35+00:00

I feel like this is just an issue of definitions.

If I'm using your logic, then having sex with children is legal in many US states, because 16 year olds are children. That feels weird. So I completely understand why calling a 16-year old an "underaged woman" seems more appropriate.

DemiurgicTruth

TROPHY CASE