Maedhros

No! I wouldn't mind Norway joining a "United States of Scandinavia" though. Or wait, yes I actually would - Swedes are pretty intolerable.

Comic-Con Russia 2016 Impressive!

Calling Sweden the rape capitol of Europe isn't a very nuanced way of looking at it. They have a much wider definition of rape than pretty much anywhere, and it's a very gender equal society, meaning girls are far more likely to report rapes than in most other countries. I believe the police in Sweden has a rather unique way of registering rapes also. If a girl says she has been raped by her husband each day in a year, that's regarded as 365 rape cases, whereas in other countries it would be regarded as one rape case (or in some not at all "husbands can't rape wives", etc). It's true that the amount of rapes have increased along with the mass influx of refugees, but comparing rape statistics between countries is a very difficult to do because of the aforementioned reasons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_Sweden

Captain Fantastic. It's kind of a mix between Little Miss Sunshine and Into the Wild, and I thouroughly enjoyed it. My favorite film so far this year.

Funny how people suddenly started hating Jared Leto after Suicide Squad. He's a great actor, as shown in Requiem for a Dream, Mr. Nobody and Dallas Buyers Club.

Stranger Things was fantastic, but the beginning was better than the end (which is always the case with the "mystery" genre, Twin Peaks being the best example). I hope they start with a completely new story in season 2, with different characters. Another great new series is 'The Night Of' - HBO at its best.

I kept thinking how good Guardians of the Galaxy was while watching Suicide Squad.

Check out Wolf Hall if you haven't, a fantastic BBC miniseries typically liked by Game of Thrones fans. Another great BBC mini-series is Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel, a fantasy series set in England during the Napoleonic Wars.

If you try to think as Cersei does (messed up, I know), it seems pretty obvious that Gregor was gonna rape the septa. Cersei saying "shame, shame, shame" says it all really. She wants the septa to suffer in the most humiliating way possible - as was done to Cersei herself. Apparently Lena Headey (actor who portrays Cersei) said in an interview that this was the tamer version of the scene, because they filmed another as well. My guess is that they actually filmed some of the rape, but decided not to show it because of the backlash from the rape scene last season.

Egg and Dunk would make for a great HBO miniseries after Game of Thrones is over.

I agree. The whole high speed transit between Westeros & Essos is a bit much for me to swallow. Although oddly dragons are not, go figure. This is supposed to be a "medieval fantasy". It takes time to move around by foot or horseback. Unless of course a lot of time is passing between scenes. But that is not the impression. There were Martell and Tyrell ships in Dany's navy in that last scene, so lot of time has to have passed with alliances sealed and invasion plans laid out apparently. Also, that Citadel receptionist has to be the most unexpected cameo ever. For helvede Frank!

In addition, it would be incredibly risky to let the eagles carry Frodo. I doubt they are immune to the temptation of the ring.

Saw the film today. It was pretty decent, but nothing spectacular. I hope (and think) there will be more films, because there's potential here. I really liked the orcs, but the human characters were all pretty lackluster.

Most reviews I've seen have been positive, with the consensus being that it's a fun adventure with extremely good CGi, but lacking in depth (no surprise there).

Crusader Kings 2 is easily my favorite "chill after work" game, these last couple of years. It takes some time getting into, but once you get to a certain point it's a rewarding experience. The thing with CK is that each game is so different. I've had 10 boring saves in a row at times that I've ended quickly, and then the next time you can be lucky and get a really interesting one. I had a save where I started as a measly count of west-Francia, and somehow ended up as the Emperor of Italia, with Africa, Jerusalem, and most of the mediterranean under my command. The less successful ones can be fun as well, like the time I started up as a count of Sicily, was stripped of all titles by the Byzantine Emperor, and somehow ended up in Caucasus fighting the various riffraff there for control over parts of the Silk Road. Anyways, selling Dota 2 items as we speak to buy Stellaris.

I love Steam. From being absolute crap and full of bugs back when it was released, it's now the best thing that ever happened to PC gaming in modern times. It's what revitalized PC gaming for me, in a similar way that Spotify has done with music, and Netflix+Hbo-nordic with tv-series (convenience being the key word here). They have fair prices, a huge catalogue of games, lots and lots of sales, easy to use interface, and the best multiplayer online game there is, Dota 2, is there for free. It's actually given me around 50-60 dollars for free on item drops, that I've spent on other games. Probably wouldn't be playing on PC if not for Steam.

Got 94% agreement with Sanders. Guess I'm a pretty stereotypical Scandinavian alright.

Sanders is the only candidate that is actually good, in a "he represents his ideology well" kind of way. He's been consistent pretty much his whole career. I'm having trouble comprehending what the other candidates actually stand for? Clinton just seems to mimic Sanders lately, since he's been getting popular. If I was American, and did not agree with him on an ideological basis, I'd probably just refrain from voting. All the other candidates seem to be either crazy or notorious liars.

Say what you want about Bernie, at least he's consistent. It's pretty refreshing to see a guy like him (someone of integrity) doing well in the elections. He might not be on point on everything, but for me it's always ideal when "watch dogs" like Bernie has a voice. (and yeah I know wrong thread, but the other one seems to be dead)

Did you read the text in his link? There is nothing supernatural about "reincarnation" as taught by Buddhism.

When I was younger I was always frustrated with Nintendo for not making a Pokemon 3D adventure-rpg in a huge open world, similar to the gameboy Pokemon games. Seemed like pretty much the easiest way ever to make tons of money, and there's so much potential there too - the 2d games were great. Even now I'd pay lots of money for a game like that. In general I just want more open world rpgs with strong narratives. Think The Witcher 3, but with more fun "world exploration" like Morrowind for example had. Wouldn't mind Blizzard remaking WC3 either. Not for the campaign, but for the online multiplayer. SC2 doesn't do it for me, too much focus on basebuilding and macro, way too stressful - I love WC3 because I prefer the focus on heroes and micro-managing small armies.

Wouldn't that be agnosticism, not atheism? I don't necessarily agree with that. Agnosticism takes the position that we CAN'T know. So for me people who are agnostic can be both atheist or christian, depending on whether they have belief in deities or not. I have several christian friends who freely admit that they can't know 100% for sure whether god truly exists or not, but they still have the belief that he does. But it seems like people just have really different definitions of it all. For me: Atheist = Lack of belief in supernatural deities. Agnostic = Taking the position that humans can't know whether deities exist or not. By that definition, I'm, both. And then you have the "militant atheist" road, where atheism seems to be more agressive, in a "I know 100% sure that god does not exist, faith is irrational and you're dumb for believing in him" way. I feel like it's always religious people, and "militant atheists" who try to attribute more meaning to "atheism". Some Christians tend to define atheism to be more extreme and ideological than it is, maybe as a direct result of people like Dawkins and the lot, who also tend to go on about atheism as if it's an ideology in opposition to (according to them) the stupidity of religion.

I know plenty of atheists who are very spiritual. Buddhism, anyone? I dislike how people try to attribute too much meaning to the term atheism - it simply means lack of/absence of belief in gods. It doesn't mean that you 100% rule it out, it just means that you don't have the belief that they exist. It's not an ideology, it's not a religion, any more than "not believing mutant ninja turtles exist" is.

Witcher 3 (along with its DLC) easily GOTY for me, but my "surprise of the year" was Life is Strange. I usually don't like "click and point" types of adventure games, but this one was something special.

I want to like Fallout 4, but whenever I try to play it I just lose interest after 20-30 minutes. It just feels waaay too similar to Fallout 3 in every aspect. In a "been there done that" sort of way. The narrative (with its terrible dialogue system) simply doesn't captivate me enough, in the way Witcher 3 and Life is Strange did this year. Guess I'm just losing interest in "sandbox" type of games.