Everyone is a fan of something. Or often many things. But do we define ourselves and our personalities by our fandoms? If so, perhaps we should find meaning in something more real. Because that seems to be when fandom becomes toxic. This week we discuss toxic fandom, in the setting of the recent backlash of The Rings of Power. And then, we just may be grateful that Eden and I don't define ourselves by our X-Men fandom, because First Class left us both wanting.

These days, you can find a video game for almost anything. A longstanding, but increasingly broad category of games are those that fall under the "simulation" genre. There are classics, like SimCity and The Sims, that almost everyone knows about. But what about more niche sim games? Euro Truck Simulator, Farming Simulator, Lawn Mower Simulator, and the game that kicked off today's topic, Power Wash Simulator, are all entries in an increasingly diverse genre. We take a look at sim games and our thoughts after spending some time washing the heck out of some things together in co-op.

This week the Summer of X returns with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. We remembered it wasn't a great movie. Critically it did worse than the previous installments in the series. So, we knew what we were getting into, didn't we? No. No, we did not. Nothing prepared us for the experience that was revisiting this movie. I won't say more though. Just listen and hopefully you will find yourself laughing along as we could barely contain our own laughter. We also briefly talk about our thoughts on episode 1 of She Hulk: Attorney At Law, and we reflect on the sad and sorry state that is the DC movie properties. This one was a trip.

War. War never changes. And neither does the world after an apocalypse! Or at least that is how it appears in much of post-apocalyptic fiction. That's on the docket this week, after a (what was going to be) brief recap of some recent Marvel Studios topics. First, we talk about _Thor Love and Thunder_, some final thoughts on the recently wrapped up _Ms. Marvel_, and finish out our Marvel talk with reactions to the _Black Panther: Wakanda Forever_ trailer. Eden then takes us through the post-apocalypse, framed through the _Fallout_ games, as we discuss fiction after the end of the world.

Life sometimes gets in the way. And that happened to us this week. Between travel and being away from home we weren't able to put together and episode that would meet the quality we expect from ourselves. But we will be back in 2 weeks with a great topic courtesy of Eden!

A wet fart. I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. Those two comments pretty much sum up our thoughts about X-Men: The Last Stand. Bad, but not bad enough to be fun, this was a movie that just fell flat in so many ways. It messed with the mythos of the X-Men in incomprehensible and stupid ways, it treated many of its characters very poorly, and is just a dud all the way around. But, it was a lot of fun to talk about. Hopefully, it is fun to listen to us talk about it as well.

Eden loves it, Peter had never even heard of it. Given Eden's love of the book, the siblings decided to read (or re-read) A Bride's Story. Come with us as we discuss this modern work of art and dive into our thoughts and emotions that this book took us on. But here is the most important part: this is a truly wonderful piece of art that everyone deserves to experience.

Some have suggested X2 is the best of the X-Men movies. Braeden and Peter decide to discuss that and put that to the test, watching this hot on the heels of revisiting the original X-Men. And we both agree, higher highs, but trying to cram too much into its run time. Stop by as we discuss this next installment of The Summer of X.

Far flung humanity, a “winner-takes-all” battle with humans and AI teamed up, yet orchestrated by other AI, and lesbian sex all combine to make for a very interesting novella from Thai author Benjanun Sriduangkaew. Braeden is a fan, Peter was unfamiliar until now, and together they discuss this third installment in The Machine Mandate series.

Comic book movies have come a long way in the last few decades. Before the turn of the century, they were often not very good, nor taken seriously. There were exceptions, of course. But X-Men is often included in that group of comic book movies that made great strides to legitimize the genre. Does it hold up though? We decide to jump back in time and see if it does.

There are over 30 entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We bracket them, stack them, let them duke it out, and end up with a singular victor. And the winner just might surprise you. I know it did me.

2022 has impressed both Braeden and I with a surprising amount of good music so far. Come along as we discuss our very favorites of the first quarter. I guarantee we will be talking about some of these come the end of the year.

Braeden loves it, Peter has never seen it. We discuss the 1995 classic film “Ghost in the Shell”. Many tangents ensue as we discuss our opinions of this classic.

FPS games have been around for years. But which ones are our very favorites? Listen and find out!

A discussion of The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson.

A Dune neophyte and (sort of) hardcore fan discuss the 2021 version of Dune.