My girlfriend is kind of a pop culture virgin. Her parents are weirdos who raised her without radio, TV, books, or movies — except the action movies her dad likes. (She's seen every James Bond.)

Well, I suppose you could classify Harlan Ellison as fantasy, and I'm a big fan of his. I also love Roger Zelazny, who swings from traditional genre fare to literary fantasy. That's more my style.

I've read enough. Hell, I collect John Norman's Gor novels (though I can't actually read them). I've read Eddings, Hambly, Cook, de Camp, T.H. White, and I'm a big fan of Fritz Lieber. But the main thing is… I play Dungeons & Dragons. You get a feel for fantasy stereotypes as a player. They come up in plots and…

It was goofy, cartoonish, and fun… all the things people admonish BvS for not being.

The third book is actually the best. When GRRM actually ties together various plots in a grand culmination, rather than noodling about endlessly, he produces some wicked stuff. It's not literature, and GRRM is no stylist, but it's highly entertaining.

Even in that case… people with disorders have, well, disorders, and I wouldn't be too quick to judge them either.

Now that I've cooled off, I see that I wasn't thinking straight when I replied to you, and I do get the point you were trying to make. Which still comes off as too contentious, in my view. Anyway, to get on with this whole "ball of death" thing, clearly we can lay the blame on the feet of the beauty industry and as…

I didn't know you meant, then… coz my impression was that here's someone else who thinks "rail thin models" or whoever can be defined by their physical attributes rather than being seen as people. It's good to know that you don't feel that way. I am not here to pick a fight. I was honestly miffed, and felt the need to…

Well, you're basically describing my girlfriend and I'm gonna call this out as bodyshaming of a different sort.

The Empire Strikes Back

There are *dozens* of us!

The thing about compliments is that people love it if you notice they've had their hair done… or if you notice a particular thing, say a necklace pendant, that they wore for specific reasons… coz you're noticing them as people. You're admiring their uniqueness as a person.

"Filipino" isn't an ethnicity, it's a nationality. A minority of Filipinos have Spanish ancestors. But the islands are home to various ethnic groups. Most Filipinos are of mixed ethnicity, usually native (indio) ancestry mixed with European, American, East Asian, or South Asian. And then you've got Chinese Filipinos,…

If Willow wants to self-identify as lesbian, that's her prerogative. Identity is pretty much a construct, and sexual identity is also, to a large degree, a construct. Do we really want to go around imposing labels they didn't choose on people, just so they fit our definitions?

Yeah, only 100% pro-Rey opinions are valid around here. It's no wonder some people see her as a kind of Mary Sue.

The Empire Strikes Back, obviously.

Rey didn't make as strong an impression on me as Finn… I feel that he carried the movie. Rey has flashes of awesomeness, but more often she is an enigma that I find difficult to engage with. Ridley does a great job, but personally, I feel that wrapping Rey in so much vagueness and mystery, without payoff, was a…

Sponsored by the Taco Bell Bell?

I don't read superhero comics anymore, but what I really miss is the ridiculous, the grotesque, the insanely stupid that they could deliver. Give me more films like Scott Pilgrim, is what I'm saying.

There are other Christians like you… I was one, back in the day… and there are Christian artists that go their own way. Sufjan Stevens comes to mind. It's not impossible for a Christian artist to go out there and do something great… there's the possibility that the Christian community won't support or understand the…