Antagonists can arc. Any character can arc, and they’re more interesting if they do. I haven’t seen this episode or the second season, but Fisk’s arc in the first Daredevil, pushed by his interactions with Matt and Vanessa, was impressive.  

I didn’t rush.

So people with thinning hair shouldn’t wear it long even if they like having long hair because it offends your eyes? Maybe you should just look away and leave them to enjoy the haircut they like.

The Albert/Allegra romance was the part of this film that I liked. I think they set up her character briefly (she was pretty far down the list of important characters), but they showed that she was nice (never underestimate the pull of a nice person in a world of jerks), that she wanted to help her friends, that she…

I’m not a comic-book reader and I knew what fridging was and I’m really tired of it. A lot of women are because it’s not just in comic books, it happens when any storyteller or team wants to change up a character and goes for the easy motivation. Look at the second Bourne movie. Look at James Bond. If you’re really…

This may be one of those define-your-terms things.

I think the whole “male gaze” argument is really two arguments.

Yes. Well, somebody has to be. (I love you, too.)

So not true. Unless you also think there are only so many situations in a mystery novel. Or a horror novel. Or . . .

I used to write for Harlequin in the late 90's. There was no formula and they let me do pretty much anything I wanted as long as it was a romance. They only thing they made me change was an age difference from the woman being sixteen years older than the man to a ten-year age difference. No idea what it was like…

Oh, yeah. I learned really fast not to engage in internet wars with people who just want to wallow in their outrage. You cannot win with those people.

Absolutely. And this is your column which means you get to decide.

Yeah, "stop posting these stories" is completely out of line. Plus, "because they bother me" is just annoying in that special-snowflake kind of way.

Actually, that is feedback, it's just not helpful feedback.

So asking out of real curiosity here, not trying to be a bitch, truly:

It's just that for some of us they're not funny. Or fun. The fun is in seeing the creep get his comeuppance. Doing something to the food is just weaselly. I realize the power structure there makes it really, really difficult to confront the dumbass, but there's not a lot of satisfaction if the dumbass never knows…

If you put in the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY, you get 30% off the stuff that's not marked down. No idea how long it's good for though.

If you put in the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY, you get 30% off the stuff that's not marked down. No idea how long it's…

Electric mattress pad. If you don't like a lot of weight from your covers but you don't want to freeze to death (old house, single pane windows), electric mattress pads are wonderful.

We may be just having a semantic problem. "Cool" is one of those non-specific words; I usually use "fun" and then have to explain that covers tragedy and horror, too, because I mean "fun for the reader to read and for me to write." I think a lot of the not-fun comes in scenes that are there to set up other scenes…

I always write the cool scenes first. That way when I'm done, I have all cool scenes. Seriously. I used to write in chronological order and I'd be slogging through a scene thinking, "I can't wait until I'm finished," and it occurred to me that if I was bored, imagine what my reader was going to be. From then on, I…