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SubstantialFrivolity

I'm not even supposed to be here today

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joined 2022 September 04 22:41:30 UTC
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SubstantialFrivolity


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
I'm not even supposed to be here today

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 22:41:30 UTC
				


				
					

					
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 17, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The prequels are overall good, with even the weakest (the first) still being an enjoyable movie. There are people who hate them passionately but they aren't the only Star Wars fans, nor as far as I can tell are they a clear majority of Star Wars fans.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 17, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah I walked out of the theater having enjoyed TFA. It was only after that it occurred to me that it was a beat-for-beat copy of episode 4, which killed my ability to enjoy it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 17, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The proposed story there is actually "Poe learns to listen to his superiors, who got there by being good at their jobs". You could tell that story in a sanctimonious way (and evidence suggests that Johnson may well have done so), but it isn't inherently so. A hothead young guy having to learn to listen to the wise older mentors is a pretty old and respectable story trope.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 17, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Strongly agreed. Cool people aren't doing what makes them look cool, they are doing what they feel like doing. The things they do become cool because the person is cool, not the other way around.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 17, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


So, looking up the AI summaries for these books, this one says that "The story is unique for being the only Star Wars novel told from the first-person perspective of a character not seen in the films." That's uh, damning with faint praise.




That is a pretty terrible summary of I, Jedi so you should probably not listen to whatever other summaries that tool gave you. The pitch for that book was that it took a character, Corran Horn (the one not in the movies at all that your summary mentions) who was popular from previous books, and wove him into an existing (well liked) book's story in a way that felt reasonably natural. Think something like the Back To The Future 2 scenes where they are playing around the events of the first movie, that is kinda what that book does.


There are also lots of characters in the expanded universe books who aren't in the movies (kind of by necessity), as well as characters who are technically in the movies (e.g. Wedge Antilles) but who aren't real characters and get fleshed out almost entirely by the books. So it's definitely not noteworthy that this particular book centers around a character not from the movies.




The others seem to be about either Luke going off to fight "the Empire Reborn" or him going off to fight a new big threat to the galaxy. "Luke Skywalker is guided to Bakura by a vision of Obi-Wan Kenobi, who warns him that the fate of the galaxy is at stake. "




I mean, it's heroic fantasy. What do you want them to do? The genre is kind of defined by people going off to fight larger than life threats. You seem to have this idea that to be good, a new entry needs to go in a bold new direction, but that would in my opinion make it a terrible new entry. I don't want bold new directions from sequels; if I wanted something totally new I'd just watch(/read/play) something new. When I reach for a sequel I want something substantially the same as the first one, but with some new elements sprinkled in to make it interesting.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 17, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Amazing. Everything you just said is wrong.


^ To me that is a far more memorable quote from the movie, but YMMV and all that.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for November 14, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
No doubt. It is a really horny game, isn't it?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for November 14, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I accidentally banged Halsin in that game, or started on the path to it maybe (been a while). I took a conversation option that I thought was being a bro and sympathizing for the tough times he had to go through, but apparently he took that as "let's fuck".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Technically we didn't, but the feeling was that we were close. Because we were willing to let people freely speak their minds on a number of topics (including transgender stuff), we had posts getting removed by site admins. The belief was that it was only a matter of time until the admins closed the sub for refusing to uphold the site-wide rules about what opinions one is allowed to express. Personally I agree with that belief, but we didn't technically get shut down.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I suppose that's true to some extent. But I can't say I ever felt limited by it, 15 spells (assuming max int at level 10) is enough that you can have a pretty decent distribution of utility spells along with a couple of workhorses. YMMV of course, it depends greatly on the individual player and the game you're in.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Only if you aren't getting patches, and the DoD has plenty of money to pay Microsoft for custom support contracts where they still get patches even if the general public doesn't.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There is absolutely nothing excellent about Javascript. Even its creator hates it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
True. Though in fairness, you can craft scrolls in 5e just fine so the same would really apply to that (albeit the DMG gives almost zero guidance to the DM on how to implement magical item crafting, just hand waves a few broad guidelines). And in BG3 specifically you have scrolls coming out of your ears.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


With D&D 5, there is no need to assign spells to slots any more. Instead, you have to decide which spells you want to be able to cast after rest, and are limited to a frankly ridiculously low number, I think on the order of a dozen or so in the BG3 endgame




It's based on level + int modifier, so yeah a dozen or so is about right. That said, the 5e magic changes are on the whole a breath of fresh air. Vancian magic in prior editions (my experience is with 3e, which itself was a softening of the system by including 0-level spells) is a terrible, actively un-fun system. It sucks ass to find yourself in a situation where it sure would be nice to cast (insert spell here), but you only prepared one copy and you already cast it so you're SOL.


The magic system envisioned by Jack Vance, where wizards cast world shattering spells that are so complex that you have to lay them down in your mind in advance, is very cool for a novel. It is not at all pleasant as a game mechanic, however. There are a lot of changes 5e made which are questionable but I disagree that this was one.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thank you for the summary. As you said, I'm not on Twitter soaking up all their drama so my immediate reaction was to wonder what the heck OP was even talking about.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I think the complaints that 15 year old Harry was whiny and annoying fail to consider that this is a realistic depiction of 15 year old boys.




This is a common rejoinder to complaints about child characters, but in my experience is untrue. Nobody says Harry is unrealistic in Order, they say he is annoying. The two aren't necessarily related, and at least for my own taste I would rather have an unrealistic depiction of a teenager if it meant the book was more enjoyable to read. Also for what it's worth I was 17 when the book came out, so I wasn't too far from 15 myself. Harry still annoyed the shit out of me in that book.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for November 12, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Good luck! You're a smart dude and worked hard, I'm sure you got this!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for November 7, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah man, Packers fans are pretty chill people (as are most people in that part of Wisconsin to be fair). I know a few who get genuinely mad at opposing team fans, but for the most part we recognize that it's all in good fun and it doesn't go beyond some friendly talking shit.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
...General Kenobi?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 9, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I'm surprised and dismayed at some of the other comments suggesting marriage or more effort on your part.




Yeah, I agree with this. Even if OP was to keep up in the relationship and try to make it work, marriage is not a good idea with how things stand today.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 9, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I read the whole thing. Ye of little faith! Unfortunately, I don't see a good path forward for you two. Let's break it down:


    

  1. You have an absolute dealbreaker with moving to the city where she lives. Forget the cost of living, that's bad enough, but the psychological problems you said are too big to ignore. It sounds like you're doing everything you can on that front, so until the therapy helps you more (if indeed it does), you're at an impasse. The obvious rejoinder to this issue you have is "just move and put up with the stress, how hard can it be bro"... but based on what you said it's not that simple and it'll be very hard (to say the least) for you to cope with the stress until you adjust.
    2. 

  2. She refuses to live where you are. I totally understand your frustration with her seeming shifting of the goalposts, but either way her reasons add up to it being a dealbreaker for her to live in your city.
    3. 



And that means I think you two are not gonna make it. Even if she has the best of intentions and really loves you with all her heart, you two have irreconcilable differences in what you want out of life. You can't half live in each other's cities any more than you can half have kids and not have kids. Sometimes you can't compromise on something, and that's the end of the road for that relationship. So even if you both are trying to make it work as hard as possible, I don't think you can make it work. And on top of that...


I don't think she's actually trying all that hard to make this work. Let me give the caveat that I don't know her, and I'm only getting your version of events, which is to say I'm not getting an unbiased perspective at all. But with that caveat out of the way, I think her reasons for not wanting to move are weak as hell and it makes me think she's not as willing to commit to you as you are to her. "There's no public transportation" is imo a preference, not something you should ever elevate to the level that it would kill a relationship. And on top of that, every time you've tried to address that concern of hers, she moves the goalposts ("I don't want you to have to drive me" and "I'm concerned for my career"). At least being concerned for her career is a better objection, but still. The fact that she is following up one reason with another as soon as you address the first, makes those "reasons" come across more as "excuses". All in all, (again with the caveat I stated up front), I don't think this girl loves you the way you do her.


So yeah, for two different reasons I don't think it's gonna work for you two. I'm really sorry man, I don't want to be a wet blanket. I'm sure this is unwelcome to hear. But you asked for blunt and honest, and my blunt, honest assessment is that this relationship is a bust.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for November 7, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I mean, I would say that is exactly how the first DLC works to be fair. You get to go on quests for Kibellah's story but they are self contained and don't have any implications for the main story. That is also how Lex Imperialis works, but the side quests are generally engaging (and they cooked up some interesting combat encounters, which is always nice). The only thing which ties back into the main story to any real extent is that you get to spend more time with the Administratum prefect from the base game (she even gets a portrait now!), and she will have some tasks for you. No idea if you can make Solomorne not dogmatic - I wasn't aware you could shift companion alignment at all, I thought it was set in stone.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for November 7, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thanks, this is good stuff. As it happens I also play TEC (Enclave, so far), so this is perfect for me. Right now my basic approach is to spread my fleet comp around - I have some corvettes, some light frigates, a few flak frigates, some LRM frigates, and so on, plus one of each cap. That has been working pretty well against the AI, though sometimes I do need to make use of the garrisons (offensive garrison is a hell of a thing) to win large engagements. I definitely do focus down priority targets - titans and capital ships mainly, but also starbases when I'm tackling a fortified enemy system. It helps a lot because I had noticed that ship targeting is pretty lackluster if you just let them do whatever they want.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for November 7, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I do, and so does everyone that I've seen in the other situations you might use the word. For example, I've never seen someone say "pay homage" and pronounce it with the "o-mazh" pronunciation, it's only with "a homage" that they French-ify the pronunciation for whatever reason. I do drop the h at the beginning of "honest", as one generally does.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for November 7, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I haven't gotten the new Arbites DLC but i hear its not very good, unlike the Void Shadows one which is excellent.




I thought  that Lex Imperialis was also excellent. The story is well done, has some very fun moments, and Solomorne is a great party member. YMMV though.