From what I’ve read, it’s more like being able to convince other people that they are normal, or at least normal enough. But the ones that Holden interviews are past any need for deception and are even reveling in their non-conformity. Kemper, for instance, is not considered charming by any of the other characters and…

There was nothing wrong with the ice skating scene in King Kong. You could cut out almost all of that stuff on the boat at the beginning, but the relationship between Kong and Ann is the defining aspect of the film.

My thinking was that Kemper forced Holden to really examine himself. Holden—and really everyone around him—has been unwilling to admit that he exhibits an awful lot of the same qualities as the men he interviews, and even seems to become more like them after coming into their orbits.

This weekend will, of course, be dominated by Super Mario Odyssey. I’m recovering from a cold or sinus infection or something, so I’m really looking forward to vegging out with Nintendo’s cheeriest franchise to perk me up.

I’m very close to completing my lizardman campaign in Total Warhammer II. I’m sure there are people who consider the Vortex mechanic too artificial, but spawning a bunch of powerful armies to ruin your day means that you periodically have to actually test your skills and troops against large, well-balanced enemy…

I want to finish it so I can move on to Death of the Outsider, thus completing all the Dishonored campaigns.

I encountered the same glitch with that flower on the first island!

I’m working through Cuphead, the last mission of Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches, Stardew Valley, and Total Warhammer 2. It’s hard to juggle them all at once, frankly, and my clan wants to raid in Destiny 2 tonight. So who knows exactly what I’ll be doing this weekend, especially since I’ve got some other things…

One reason I’d like to see them taken down is so that, as a Southerner, I’m not tarred by association with a white supremacist regime. People look down on us, and frankly it wouldn’t be like that if the South hadn’t behaved abominably. The Confederacy ruined the South’s reputation and standing, and it’s beyond…

Germany has plenty of monuments to WWII, including concentration camps that have been converted into museums. They don’t have statues of Hitler or Goebbels hanging up, or streets named after them. They don’t have military bases named after prominent Nazi generals. That the same cannot be said of America and the…

I’m done arguing with you. I don’t care what they think! Nowhere else on Earth are the losers of civil wars so honored as in the US. Honoring the Confederacy isn’t just honoring a losing side, it’s honoring a losing side that would’ve continued a brutal regime of torture and misery. Giving them the benefit of the…

Also, Southerner here, born and raised in North Carolina. Family has lived in the state for hundreds of years and my ancestors fought for the South. Fuck ‘em. They picked the losing side and are long dead. I feel no need to defend them now.

If their side had won, black people would almost certainly still be slaves. Sorry they feel bad that they can’t protest to protect monuments to the evil traitors their ancestors may have felt compelled to side with against their own preferences.

If, say, your state were to secede from the US, would you be “forced” to follow their orders? Couldn’t you and any loyalists defect to serve the nation you recognize yourself a citizen of?

This weekend I will be playing Total War: Warhammer 2, Destiny 2, and with whatever time remains some combination of Legend of Mana, Dishonored, and Stardew Valley (Switch Edition).

It’s so hard to justify High Fantasy anymore. It is played the hell out.

This sounds intriguing, but it’s still a shame that it’s attached to the Lord of the Rings franchise, which really just doesn’t accommodate so much of the narrative trappings. I can’t help but think that everything would fundamentally work better had they used a Warhammer license instead.

What’s your PSN username again? I have a hard time keeping everyone straight.

You could certainly do the early rounds for engrams, but chests are now mostly hidden in the bowels of the Leviathan, and the big reward are the Emperor’s Tokens, which can be exchanged for raid gear at a special vendor who doesn’t become available until you clear the boss. The big way of getting high light now is…

I’m running the raid tonight with some friends, including people I met here on the AV Club. I really wish we could get it down to 90 minutes. I think at this point, now that we’ve done it, we can complete most of it pretty quickly. But we’ve yet to actually fight the boss. I think that’s the goal for this week.