You’ve been able to download PS4 and 2 games for years. It isn’t new at all, just poorly marketed.

I miss Jason. The chapter(s) in Blood Sweat and Pixels on the Bioshock and post-Bioshock years were very enjoyable. His insight on JRPGs was the best I saw here. Utterly top notch writer with a serious and thoughtful perspective. I wish G/O hadn’t been shitty enough to drive him away in disgust (as I understood it at…

Yeah as a couple of people have mentioned I don’t think fandom-as-identity is new, but you are correct that the level/scale/scope/breadth of this particular fandom in its mainstream impact as a real life cultural influence is unusual if not unique. Part of that is, I suspect, that it really rose to prominence in the…

Rowling has a tight grip on Harry Potter, which is good for two reasons. First, it represents a victory for creatives in the creative/executive battle. Second, it means the property won’t be endlessly spun off.

“I give up. Who are you?”

Twitter isn’t real life, but neither is magic wizardland, so maybe all the folks who start every conversation with “I’m a Hufflepuff lol” could give it a rest?

Colbert loves LOTR and brings it up as a bit in his show. There are plenty of people who love Star Trek as a comforting show.

“Twitter is not real life” is spot-on as far as most Potter fans are concerned.  I expect most are either completely unaware of Rowling’s personal positions regarding trans people, and few of those who do care much.  Not giving her a pass, but almost certainly true.

I’m not bashing Hamill at all. Likewise Grint, who probably never needs to work again unless he wants to. I’m not super-into the Potter movies, but I’m guessing he has a good nerd credit score as well. 

Mark Hamill never had to work again unless he wanted to, he got free admission for life to SDCC, and he was offered jobs to voice his favorite characters while hanging out at home in his pajamas. He is the High Nerd King whose career all lesser nerds aspire to.

Kind of like how after Star Wars, Harrison Ford became one of Hollywood’s major box office draws, Carrie Fisher became a successful, respected playwright and script-doctor, and Mark Hamill… voiced some cartoon characters (this would be before people actually realized how good Batman: The Animated Series was).

Radcliffe has created a body of work on Broadway and in indie films, Watson starred in Disney’s live action remake of Beauty And The Beast and Greta Gerwig’s version of Little Women, and Grint has taken to doing oddball streaming series.

woof, *any* excuse to try and make a slideshow happen.

These are awful.  

Even if she didn’t have the life and career she had, 99 years is nothing to sniff at. RIP.

This is how I want to go out. In 43 years in my own bed after falling asleep.

My middle turned 10 today. (Most of the excitement was on Dec. 30, but she’s techinically a NYE baby)

Since about Thanksgiving, she’s been calling herself 10.

 Betty White lived to 100. Fuck your calendar.

It’s mentioned in the RIP posting that studios wouldn’t hire White back in the ‘40s because she wasn’t photogenic. I look at that pic in Laraine Newman’s tweet and think that’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.

These guys are turning into Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, with growth hormones.

People getting weirded out by Dwayne Johnson’s constant PR speak seem to be misremembering some mythical time when he didn’t have a carefully crafted public persona. I think they’re conflating him with the character of The Rock, who admittedly was awesome. But even if you go back to his very first interviews, I don’t…

NJ hot dogs are the best.. (though Cincinnati coneys were spectacle to behold).