The turing test in reverse Real TikTokers are pretending to be Veo 3 AI creations for fun, attention From music videos to "Are you a prompt?" stunts, "real" videos are presenting as AI Kyle Orland – May 31, 2025 7:08 am | 13 Of course I'm an AI creation! Why would you even doubt it? Credit: Getty Images Of course I'm an AI creation! Why would you even doubt it? Credit: Getty Images Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Since Google released its Veo 3 AI model last week, social media users have been having fun with its ability to quickly generate highly realistic eight-second clips complete with sound and lip-synced dialogue. TikTok's algorithm has been serving me plenty of Veo-generated videos featuring impossible challenges, fake news reports, and even surreal short narrative films, to name just a few popular archetypes. However, among all the AI-generated video experiments spreading around, I've also noticed a surprising counter-trend on my TikTok feed. Amid all the videos of Veo-generated avatars pretending to be real people, there are now also a bunch of videos of real people pretending to be Veo-generated avatars. “This has to be real. There’s no way it's AI.” I stumbled on this trend when the TikTok algorithm fed me this video topped with the extra-large caption "Google VEO 3 THIS IS 100% AI." As I watched and listened to the purported AI-generated band that appeared to be playing in the crowded corner of someone's living room, I read the caption containing the supposed prompt that had generated the clip: "a band of brothers with beards playing rock music in 6/8 with an accordion." @kongosmusicWe are so cooked. This took 3 mins to generate. Simple prompt: “a band of brothers playing rock music in 6/8 with an accordion”♬ original sound - KONGOS After a few seconds of taking those captions at face value, something started to feel a little off. After a few more seconds, I finally noticed the video was posted by Kongos, an indie band that you might recognize from their minor 2012 hit "Come With Me Now." And after a little digging, I discovered the band in the video was actually just Kongos, and the tune was a 9-year-old song that the band had dressed up as an AI creation to get attention. Here's the sad thing: It worked! Without the "Look what Veo 3 did!" hook, I might have quickly scrolled by this video before I took the time to listen to the (pretty good!) song. The novel AI angle made me stop just long enough to pay attention to a Kongos song for the first time in over a decade. Kongos isn't the only musical act trying to grab attention by claiming their real performances are AI creations. Darden Bela posted that Veo 3 had "created a realistic AI music video" over a clip from what is actually a 2-year-old music video with some unremarkable special effects. Rapper GameBoi Pat dressed up an 11-month-old song with a new TikTok clip captioned "Google's Veo 3 created a realistic sounding rapper... This has to be real. There's no way it's AI" (that last part is true, at least). I could go on, but you get the idea. @gameboi_pat This has got to be real. There’s no way it’s AI 😩 #google #veo3 #googleveo3 #AI #prompts #areweprompts? ♬ original sound - GameBoi_pat I know it's tough to get noticed on TikTok, and that creators will go to great lengths to gain attention from the fickle algorithm. Still, there's something more than a little off-putting about flesh-and-blood musicians pretending to be AI creations just to make social media users pause their scrolling for a few extra seconds before they catch on to the joke (or don't, based on some of the comments). The whole thing evokes last year's stunt where a couple of podcast hosts released a posthumous "AI-generated" George Carlin routine before admitting that it had been written by a human after legal threats started flying. As an attention-grabbing stunt, the conceit still works. You want AI-generated content? I can pretend to be that! Are we just prompts? Some of the most existentially troubling Veo-generated videos floating around TikTok these days center around a gag known as "the prompt theory." These clips focus on various AI-generated people reacting to the idea that they are "just prompts" with various levels of skepticism, fear, or even conspiratorial paranoia. On the other side of that gag, some humans are making joke videos playing off the idea that they're merely prompts. RedondoKid used the conceit in a basketball trick shot video, saying "of course I'm going to make this. This is AI, you put that I'm going to make this in the prompt." User thisisamurica thanked his faux prompters for putting him in "a world with such delicious food" before theatrically choking on a forkful of meat. And comedian Drake Cummings developed TikTok skits pretending that it was actually AI video prompts forcing him to indulge in vices like shots of alcohol or online gambling ("Goolgle’s [sic] New A.I. Veo 3 is at it again!! When will the prompts end?!" Cummings jokes in the caption). @justdrakenaround Goolgle’s New A.I. Veo 3 is at it again!! When will the prompts end?! #veo3 #google #ai #aivideo #skit ♬ original sound - Drake Cummings Beyond the obvious jokes, though, I've also seen a growing trend of TikTok creators approaching friends or strangers and asking them to react to the idea that "we're all just prompts." The reactions run the gamut from "get the fuck away from me" to "I blame that [prompter], I now have to pay taxes" to solipsistic philosophical musings from convenience store employees. I'm loath to call this a full-blown TikTok trend based on a few stray examples. Still, these attempts to exploit the confusion between real and AI-generated video are interesting to see. As one commenter on an "Are you a prompt?" ambush video put it: "New trend: Do normal videos and write 'Google Veo 3' on top of the video." Which one is real? The best Veo-related TikTok engagement hack I've stumbled on so far, though, might be the videos that show multiple short clips and ask the viewer to decide which are real and which are fake. One video I stumbled on shows an increasing number of "Veo 3 Goth Girls" across four clips, challenging in the caption that "one of these videos is real... can you guess which one?" In another example, two similar sets of kids are shown hanging out in cars while the caption asks, "Are you able to identify which scene is real and which one is from veo3?" @spongibobbu2 One of these videos is real… can you guess which one? #veo3 ♬ original sound - Jett After watching both of these videos on loop a few times, I'm relatively (but not entirely) convinced that every single clip in them is a Veo creation. The fact that I watched these videos multiple times shows how effective the "Real or Veo" challenge framing is at grabbing my attention. Additionally, I'm still not 100 percent confident in my assessments, which is a testament to just how good Google's new model is at creating convincing videos. There are still some telltale signs for distinguishing a real video from a Veo creation, though. For one, Veo clips are still limited to just eight seconds, so any video that runs longer (without an apparent change in camera angle) is almost certainly not generated by Google's AI. Looking back at a creator's other videos can also provide some clues—if the same person was appearing in "normal" videos two weeks ago, it's unlikely they would be appearing in Veo creations suddenly. There's also a subtle but distinctive style to most Veo creations that can distinguish them from the kind of candid handheld smartphone videos that usually fill TikTok. The lighting in a Veo video tends to be too bright, the camera movements a bit too smooth, and the edges of people and objects a little too polished. After you watch enough "genuine" Veo creations, you can start to pick out the patterns. Regardless, TikTokers trying to pass off real videos as fakes—even as a joke or engagement hack—is a recognition that video sites are now deep in the "deep doubt" era, where you have to be extra skeptical of even legitimate-looking video footage. And the mere existence of convincing AI fakes makes it easier than ever to claim real events captured on video didn't really happen, a problem that political scientists call the liar's dividend. We saw this when then-candidate Trump accused Democratic nominee Kamala Harris of "A.I.'d" crowds in real photos of her Detroit airport rally. For now, TikTokers of all stripes are having fun playing with that idea to gain social media attention. In the long term, though, the implications for discerning truth from reality are more troubling. Kyle Orland Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper. 13 Comments

We may earn a commission from links on this page.HBO was, for at least a couple of generations, the home of movies on cable—no one else could compete. For a while, it seemed like HBO Max Max HBO Max could well be the ultimate streaming destination for movie lovers, but the jury is still out.Even still, HBO Max maintains a collaboration with TCM, giving it a broad range of classic American and foreign films. It's also the primary streaming home for Studio Ghibli and A24, so even though the streamer hasn't been making as many original films as it did a few years ago, it still has a solid assortment of movies you won't find anywhere else.Here are 30 of the best of HBO Max's recent and/or exclusive offerings.Mickey 17 (2025) The latest from Bong Joon Ho (Parasite, Snowpiercer), Mickey 17 didn't do terribly well at the box office, but that's not entirely the movie's fault. It's a broad but clever and timely satire starring Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, a well-meaning dimwit who signs on with a spaceship crew on its way to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Because of his general lack of skills, he's deemed an Expendable—his memories and DNA are kept on file so that when he, inevitably, dies (often in horrific ways), he'll be reprinted and restored to live and work and die again. Things get complicated when a new Mickey is accidentally printed before the old one has died—a huge taboo among religious types who can handle one body/one soul, but panic at the implications of two identical people walking around. It's also confusing, and eventually intriguing, for Mickey's girlfriend, Nasha (Naomi Ackie). Soon, both Mickey's are on the run from pretty much everyone, including the new colony's MAGA-esque leader (Mark Ruffalo). You can stream Mickey 17 here. Pee-Wee As Himself (2025) Paul Reubens participated in dozens of hours worth of interviews for this two-part documentary, directed by filmmaker Matt Worth, but from the opening moments, the erstwhile Pee-Wee Herman makes clear that he is struggling with the notion of giving up control of his life story to someone else. That's a through line in the film and, as we learn, in the performer's life, as he spent decades struggling with his public profile while maintaining intense privacy in his personal life. Reubens' posthumous coming out as gay is the headline story, but the whole thing provides a fascinating look at an artist who it seems we barely knew. You can stream Pee-Wee As Himself here. The Brutalist (2024) Brady Corbet's epic period drama, which earned 10 Oscar nominations and won Adrian Brody his second Academy Award for Best Actor, follows László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor who emigrates to the United States following the war. His course as a refugee follows highs and devastating lows—he's barely able to find work at first, despite his past as an accomplished Bauhaus-trained architect in Europe. A wealthy benefactor (Guy Pearce) seems like a godsend when he offers László a high-profile project, but discovers the limitations of his talent in the face of American-style antisemitism and boorishness. You can stream The Brutalist here. Babygirl (2024) Nicole Kidman stars in this modern erotic thriller as CEO Romy Mathis, who begins a dangerous (i.e. naughty) affair with her much younger intern (Harris Dickinson). After an opening scene involving some deeply unfulfilling lovemaking with her husband (we'll have to suspend disbelief on the topic of Antonio Banderas as a schlubby, sexually disappointing husband), Romy runs into Samuel (Dickinson), who saves her from a runaway dog before taking her on as his mentor at work. She teaches him about process automation while he teaches her about BDSM, but his sexy, dorky charm soon gives way to something darker. For all the online chatter (Nicole Kidman on all fours lapping up milk!), the captivating performances, and the chilly direction from Halina Reijn, elevate it above more pruient erotic thrillers. You can stream Babygirl here. Bloody Trophy (2025) Bloody Trophy, HBO Max Credit: Bloody Trophy, HBO Max This documentary, centered on the illegal rhinoceros horn trade, gets extra points for going beyond poaching in southern Africa to discuss the global networks involved, and by focusing on the activists and veterinarians working to protect and preserve the endangered species. The broader story is as awful as it is fascinating: webs of smuggling that start with pretend hunts, allowing for quasi-legal exporting of horns to Europe countries (Poland and the Czech Republic being particular points of interest), and often coordinated by Vietnamese mafia organizations. You can stream Bloody Trophy here. Adult Best Friends (2024) Katie Corwin and Delaney Buffett co-write and star as a pair of lifelong friends, now in their 30s, who find their lives going in very different directions. Delaney (Buffett, who also directs) who has no interest in settling down or committing to one guy, while Katie (Corwin) is afraid to tell her hard-partying bestie that she's getting married. Katie plans a BFF weekend to break the news, only to see that the trip back to their childhood home town fall prey to a string of wild and wacky complications. You can stream Adult Best Friends here.2073 (2024) Inspired by Chris Marker's 1962 featurette La Jetée, which itself inspired the feature 12 Monkeys, docudrama 2073 considers the state of our world in the present through the framing device of a woman (Samantha Morton) gazing back from the titular year and meditating on the road that led to an apocalypse of sorts. Her reverie considers, via real-life, current, news footage, the rise of modern popular authoritarianism in the modes of Orbán, Trump, Putin, Modi, and Xi, and their alignment with tech bros in such a way as to accelerate a coming climate catastrophe. It's not terribly subtle, but neither is the daily news. You can stream 2073 here. Flow (2024) A gorgeous, wordless animated film that follows a cat through a post-apocalyptic world following a devastating flood. The Latvian import, about finding friends and searching for home in uncertain times, won a well-deserved Best Animated Picture Oscar. It's also, allegedly, very popular with pets—though my dog slept right through it. You can stream Flow here. Heretic (2024) Two young Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) show up at the home of a charming, reclusive man (a deeply creepy Hugh Grant) who invites them in because, he says, he wants to explore different faiths. Which turns out to be true—except that he has ideas that go well beyond anything his two guests have in their pamphlets. It soon becomes clear that they're not going to be able to leave without participating in Mr. Reed's games, and this clever, cheeky thriller doesn't always go where you think it's going. You can stream Heretic here. Queer (2024) Director Luca Guadagnino followed up his vaguely bisexual tennis movie Challengers with this less subtle (it's in the title) William S. Burroughs adaptation. Daniel Craig plays William Lee (a fictionalized version of Burroughs himself), a drug-addicted American expat living in Mexico City during the 1950s. He soon becomes infatuated with Drew Starkey's Eugene Allerton, and the two take a gorgeous journey through Mexico, through ayahuasca, and through their own sexualities. You can stream Queer here. The Parenting (2025) Rohan (Nik Dodani) and Josh (Brandon Flynn) invite both their sets of parents to a remote country rental so that everyone can meet, which sounds like plenty of horror for this horror-comedy. But wait! There's more: A demon conjured from the wifi router enters the body of Rohan's dad (Brian Cox), an event further complicated by the arrival of the house's owner (Parker Posey). It's wildly uneven, but there's a lot of fun to be had. The supporting cast includes Edie Falco, Lisa Kudrow, and Dean Norris. You can stream The Parenting here.Juror #2 (2024) Clint Eastwood's latest (last?) is a high-concept legal drama that boasts a few impressive performances highlighted by his straightforward directorial style. Nicholas Hoult stars as Justin Kemp, a journalist and recovering alcoholic assigned to jury duty in Savannah, Georgia. The case involves the death of a woman a year earlier, presumably killed by the defendant, her boyfriend at the time. But as the case progresses,Kemp slowly comes to realize that he knows more about the death than anyone else in the courtroom, and has to find a way to work to acquit the defendant without implicating himself. You can stream Juror #2 here.Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) While Godzilla Minus One proved that Japanese filmmakers remain adept at wringing genuine drama out of tales of the city-destroying kaiju, the American branch of the franchise is offering up deft counter-programming. That is to say, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is every bit as ridiculous as its title suggests, with Godzilla and Kong teaming up to battle a tribe of Kong's distant relatives—they live in the other dimensional Hollow Earth and have harnessed the power of an ice Titan, you see. It's nothing more, nor less, than a good time with giant monsters. You can stream Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire here.We Live in Time (2024) Director John Crowley had a massive critical success with 2015's Brooklyn, but 2019's The Goldfinch was a disappointment in almost every regard. Nonlinear romantic drama We Live in Time, then, feels like a bit of a return to form, with Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield displaying impressive chemistry as the couple at the film's center. The two meet when she hits him with her car on the night he's finalizing his divorce, and the movie jumps about in their relationship from the early days, to a difficult pregnancy, to a cancer diagnosis, without ever feeling excessively gimmicky. You can stream We Live in Time here.Trap (2024) Cooper (Josh Hartnett) is a pretty cool dad in M. Night Shyamalan’s latest, taking his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to see a very cool Billie Eilish-ish pop star in concert. But we soon learn that Cooper is also a notorious serial killer (this is not the patented Shyamalan twist, in case you were worried about spoilers). The FBI knows that "The Butcher" will be at the concert, even if they don't know exactly who it is, and the whole thing is a, yes, trap that Cooper must escape. Of such premises are fun thrillers made, and Hartnett has fun with the central role, his performance growing increasingly tic-y and unhinged even as Cooper tries to make sure his daughter gets to enjoy the show. You can stream Trap here.Caddo Lake (2024) While we're on the subject of M. Night Shyamalan, he produced this trippy thriller that spends a big chunk of its runtime looking like a working-class drama before going full whackadoo in ways best not spoiled. Eliza Scanlen stars as Ellie, who lives near the title lake with her family, and where it appears that her 8-year-old stepsister has vanished. Dylan O'Brien plays Paris, who works dredging the lake while dealing with survivor's guilt and the trauma of his mother's slightly mysterious death. Their stories (and backstories) merge when they discover that one doesn't always leave the lake the same as they went in. You can stream Caddo Lake here.Dune: Part Two (2024) Denis Villeneuve stuck the landing on his adaptation of the latter part of Frank Herbert's epic novel, so much so that Dune zealots are already looking ahead to a third film, adapting the second book in the series. The chilly (metaphorically) and cerebral sequel was a critical as well as a box office success—surprising on both counts, especially considering that the beloved book was once seen as more or less unadaptable (with the deeply weird David Lynch version serving as Exhibit A in support of that assertion). If you're playing catch-up, HBO Max also has the first Dune, and the rather excellent spin-off series (Dune: Prophecy). You can stream Dune: Part Two here.Problemista (2024) Julio Torres (creator of Los Espookys and Fantasmas, also available on HBO Max) wrote, produced, directed, and stars in this surreal comedy about a toy designer from El Salvador working in the United States under a visa that's about to expire. What to do but take a desperation job with quirky, volatile artist Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton)? The extremely offbeat and humane comedy has been earning raves since it debuted at South by Southwest last year. RZA, Greta Lee, and Isabella Rossellini also star. You can stream Problemista here.MaXXXine (2024) The final (for now, anyway) film in Ti West's X trilogy once again stars Mia Goth as fame-obsessed Maxine Minx. Moving on from adult films, Maxine gets a lead role in a horror movie, only to find herself watched by a leather-clad assailant. This film-industry take-down includes Michelle Monaghan, Kevin Bacon, and Giancarlo Esposito in its solid cast. You can stream MaXXXine here.The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024) An anime-infused take on Tolkien's world, The War of the Rohirrim boats the return of co-writer Philippa Boyens, who helped to write each of the six previous LOTR movies. In this animated installment, we're taken back 200 years before Peter Jackson's films, to when the king of Rohan (Brian Cox) accidentally kills the leader of the neighboring Dunlendings during marriage negotiations, kicking off a full-scale war. Miranda Otto reprises her role of Éowyn, who narrates. You can stream War of the Rohirrim here.A Different Man (2024) Though it was all but shut out at the Oscars (getting only a nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling), A Different Man made several of 2024's top ten lists, and earned Sebastian Stan a Golden Globe (he got an Oscar nomination for an entirely different movie, so the erstwhile Winter Soldier had a pretty good year). Here he plays Edward, an actor with neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that manifests in his body as a disfiguring facial condition. An experimental procedure cures him, and Edward assumes a new identity—which does nothing to tame his deep-rooted insecurities, especially when he learns of a new play that's been written about is life. It's a surprisingly funny look into a damaged psyche. You can stream A Different Man here. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024) Alternating between Christopher Reeve's life before and after the horse riding accident that paralyzed him, this heartfelt and heart wrenching documentary follows the Superman actor as he becomes an activist for disability rights. Archival footage of Christopher and wife Dana blends with new interviews with their children, as well as with actors and politicians who knew and worked with them both. You can stream Super/Man here.Sing Sing (2024) A fictional story based on the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, this Best Picture nominee follows Diving G (Colman Domingo), an inmate who emerges as a star performer in the group. The movie celebrates the redemptive power of art and play with a tremendous central performance from Domingo, who was also Oscar-nominated. You can stream Sing Sing here. Am I OK? (2024) Real-life married couple Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne directed this comedy based, loosely, on Allyne's own life. Dakota Johnson plays Lucy, a directionless 32-year-old woman in Los Angeles who finds that her unsatisfying romantic life might have something to do with her being other than straight. She navigates her journey of self-discovery and coming out with the help of her best friend Jane (House of the Dragon's Sonoya Mizuno). You can stream Am I OK? here.Love Lies Bleeding (2024) In a world of movies that are very carefully calibrated to be as inoffensive as possible, it's nice to see something as muscular, frenetic, and uncompromising as Love Lies Bleeding. Kristen Stewart plays small-town gym manager Lou; she's the daughter of the local crime boss (Ed Harris), with a sister (Jena Malone) suffering from the abuse of her no-good husband (Dave Franco). It's all quietly tolerated until bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian) stops off in town. She's 'roided up and ready for action, falling hard for Lou before the two of them get caught up in an act of violence that sends everything spiraling toward a truly wild final act. You can stream Love Lies Bleeding here.Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play. (2024) A provocative title for a provocative documentary film, Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play. sees playwright Jeremy O. Harris exploring the creative process behind the title work, a play that earned a record number of Tony nominations, won none, and that is equally loved and hated (it's about interracial couples having sex therapy at an antebellum-era plantation house). The narrative here is entirely non-linear, and the rules of a traditional making-of are out the window, with Harris instead taking a nearly train-of-thought approach to examining the process of creating the play, and in understanding reactions to it. You can stream Slave Play here.Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Parts One, Two, and Three (2024) While the live-action DC slate went out with a whimper (at least until next year's Superman reboot), the animated series of films has been chugging along more quietly, but also with more success. This trilogy adapts the altogether biggest story in DC history, as heroes from across the multiverse are brought together to prevent an antimatter wave that's wiping out entire universes. Darren Criss, Stana Katic, Jensen Ackles, and Matt Bomer are among the voice cast. You can stream Crisis on Infinite Earths, starting with Part One, here.The Front Room (2024) Adapted from a short story by Susan Hill (The Woman in Black), The Front Room gets a fair bit of mileage out of its in-law-from-hell premise. Brandy plays Belinda, a pregnant anthropology professor forced to quit her job by hostile working conditions. Her deeply weird mother-in-law Solange (a scene-stealing Kathryn Hunter) makes Brandy and husband Norman an offer that could solve the resulting financial problems: if they'll take care of her in her dying days, she'll leave them everything. Of course, the psychic religious fanatic has no interest in making any of that easy. It's more silly than scary, but perfectly entertaining if that's the kind of mood you're in. You can stream The Front Room here. Quad Gods (2024) We spend a lot of time fearing new technology, often with good reason, but Quad Gods offers a brighter view: for people with quadriplegia, for whom spots like football are out of the question, esports offer a means of competing and socializing among not only other people with physical restrictions, but in the broader world of what's become a major industry. While exploring the contrast between day-to-day life for the Quad Gods team and their online gaming talents, the documentary is an impressively upbeat look at the ways in which technology can put us all on a similar playing field. You can stream Quad Gods here.Elevation (2024) There's not much new in this Anthony Mackie-lad post-apocalyptic thriller, but Elevation is nonetheless a well-executed action movie that never feels dumb. Just a few years before the film opens, predatory Reapers rose from deep underground and wiped out 95% of humanity. Now, single dad Will (Mackie) is forced to leave his sanctuary to travel to Boulder, Colorado, the closest place he can get air filters to help with his son's lung disease. On the way, he's joined, reluctantly, by scientist Nina (Morena Baccarin), whose lab may contain a way to kill the Reapers. You can stream Elevation here.

Tolkien Myths and Legends Hardcover Box Set (2025) $125 | Releases June 10 Preorder at Amazon The Great Tales of Middle-earth Hardcover Box Set (2025) $125 | Releases August 19 Preorder at Amazon See at Amazon (2018 set) J.R.R. Tolkien fans can soon add two display-worthy book box sets to their collection. Tolkien Myths and Legends Box Set, which features lesser-known original works and translations of classic English literature, releases on June 10. It will be followed up on August 19 by new editions of The Great Tales of Middle-earth, which is comprised of the final three prose novels set in Tolkien's iconic fantasy world. The new hardcover box sets feature lavish cover art and display cases. They are considered the fifth and sixth entries in a series of hardcover book box sets that debuted last year with the The History of Middle-earth, which was published by William Morrow in its entirety across four beautiful collections. Tolkien Myths and Legends Hardcover Box Set (2025) $125 | Releases June 10 The Tolkien Myths and Legends Box Set is a unique collection of J.R.R. Tolkien's work, because it doesn't contain stories about Middle-earth. Instead, as the title suggests, it compiles classic myths and legends, two of which were written by the author, while the other two were personal translations of some of his favorite works that inspired him.Like the vast majority of his posthumously published work, these were pieced together and edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien. Each hardcover book comes with a double-sided dust jacket. Just like The History of Middle-earth Box Sets, one side features elaborate artwork, while the other side has a more subdued aesthetic with solid colors. The four books come packaged in an eye-catching display case. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight / Orfeo / Pearl: Translations of a trio of classic epic poems juxtaposed with Tolkien's famous 1953 lecture on Sir Gawain.The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún: An epic verse poem by Tolkien. It was inspired by classic poetry and Norse mythology. Along with Tolkien's composition, you'll find notes and commentary from Christopher Tolkien.The Fall of Arthur: A narrative poem written by Tolkien that chronicles King Arthur's final days. The book includes extensive notes made by Tolkien while drafting his only Arthurian legend. Fans of The Silmarillion will want to read this one, as it clearly inspired the plot of Tolkien's Arthurian-esque Middle-earth book.Beowulf: One of the most famous--and the oldest known---epic poem of Old English literature, Beowulf has received many translations. Tolkien wrote his translation in 1926 and then circled back later. In addition to the translation of the original poem, this book contains a plethora of commentary by Tolkien himself, which will give readers a glimpse into the mind of Tolkien the scholar.If you're interested in the Myths and Legends Box Set, you should also check out The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, a massive three-volume hardcover box that released last fall. The gorgeous box set, which is on sale for nearly 50% off, compiles Tolkien's life's work as a poet and clocks in at over 1,700 pages. Preorder at Amazon The Great Tales of Middle-earth Hardcover Box Set (2025) $125 | Releases August 19 The Great Tales of Middle-earth is a must-read collection for all dedicated fans of The Lord of the Rings. Though understandably not nearly as well-known as The Hobbit, LOTR, or even The Silmarillion, the trio of novels in this set are the final pieces of prose fiction that take place across the author's iconic brilliant fantasy world. All of the stories take place during Middle-earth's First Age, so while written and published later than Tolkien's other books, these are the oldest full-length stories in Middle-earth.The new 2025 hardcover editions come with reversible dust jackets and feature special color plates, pencil drawings, and illustrated maps by Christopher Tolkien and beloved LOTR illustrator Alan Lee.Here are the three books you'll find in the beautiful display case, which features a fire-breathing dragon.The Children of Húrin (2007): Written after The Silmarillion as a standalone prequel story, The Children of Húrin takes place 6,000 years before the events of LOTR. The story follows the cursed son of Húrin, named Túrin, during an era of intense and constant war and widespread devastation caused by the Dark Lord Morgoth. If you've read The Silmarillion, you will recognize some of the names found in this novel.Beren and Lúthien (2017): Another very early tale set in Middle-earth, Beren and Lúthien was reworked and revised over time and eventually became part of The Silmarillion. This compilation of Lúthien and Beren's story was originally published in 2017. It shows the evolution of the love story between the mortal man Beren and immortal elf Lúthien.The Fall of Gondolin (2018): Founded by King Turgon, the eponymous city of elves was concealed for many years before Lord Morgoth's quest to destroy elven life across Middle-earth. The Fall of Gondolin's main protagonist is Túrin's cousin, Tuor, and his family. Tuor is married to Turgon's daughter, Idril. The story follows their attempt to save their child after the Gondolin (unsurprisingly) falls.It's worth noting that The Great Tales of Middle-earth is already available as a hardcover box set. While it won't match Myths and Legends or the four History of Middle-earth Box Sets, the 2018 hardcover collection is on sale for only $50 (was $100) at Amazon. Alternatively, you can purchase each book individually in hardcover or paperback.The Great Tales of Middle-earth Editions:The Great Tales of Middle-earth Hardcover Box Set (2018) (3 Books) -- $50 ($100)The Great Tales of Middle-earth Hardcover Box Set (2025) (3 Books) -- $125 | Releases August 19The Children of Hurin (Paperback) -- $10.70 ($19)The Children of Hurin (Hardcover) -- $14 ($35)Beren and Lúthien (Paperback) -- $13.69 ($19)Beren and Lúthien (Hardcover) -- $22.50 ($35)The Fall of Gondolin (Paperback) -- $11.69 ($19)The Fall of Gondolin (Hardcover) -- $14.41 ($35) Preorder at Amazon See at Amazon (2018 set) The Great Tales of Middle-earth Hardcover Box Set (2018) $50 (was $100) See at Amazon The History of Middle-earth Hardcover Box Sets (2024)J.R.R. Tolkien - The History of Middle-earth Box Sets (2024)The History of Middle-earth Hardcover Box Set 1 (4 Books) -- $63.37 ($125)The History of Middle-earth Hardcover Box Set 2 (3 Books) -- $57.18 ($100)The History of Middle-earth Hardcover Box Set 3 (4 Books) -- $73.60 ($125)The History of Middle-earth Hardcover Box Set 4 (4 Books) -- $68 ($125)The Complete History of Middle-earth Hardcover Box Set (3 Books) -- $138 ($250)The History of Middle-earth Paperback Box Set (5 Books) -- $28 ($50)The History of Middle-earth was originally published over a 14-year stretch from 1983 to 1996. While creating his fantasy world, Tolkien took extensive notes, building a backstory for Middle-earth across three different ages and 6,500-plus years. You could argue that the author's dedication to crafting the setting that would become home to a pair of landmark fantasy novels turned Middle-earth into the most believable character Tolkien created. His mythopoeic writings formed what is commonly referred to as Tolkien's legendarium.At the time of Tolkien's death in 1973, the exhaustive backstory of Middle-earth remained unpublished. Over the next few years, his son and literary executor, Christopher Tolkien, undertook the daunting project of editing, expanding, and curating the legendarium into publishable works. The legendarium would become a 12-volume series titled The History of Middle-earth.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Germanicus Julius Caesar (24 May 15 BC – 10 October AD 19) was an ancient Roman general and politician most famously known for his campaigns against Arminius in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the patrician gens Claudia. The agnomen Germanicus was added to his full name in 9 BC when it was posthumously awarded to his father in honor of his victories in Germania. In AD 4 he was adopted by his paternal uncle Tiberius, himself the stepson and heir of Germanicus' great-uncle Augustus; ten years later, Tiberius succeeded Augustus as Roman emperor. As a result of his adoption, Germanicus became an official member of the gens Julia, another prominent family, to which he was related on his mother's side. His connection to the Julii Caesares was further consolidated through a marriage between him and Agrippina the Elder, a granddaughter of Augustus. He was also the father of Caligula, the maternal grandfather of Nero, and the older brother of Claudius. This bust, depicting Germanicus in AD 4, is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Sculpture credit: unknown; photographed by J. Paul Getty Museum Recently featured: The Cocoanuts In the Loge Black-crowned barwing Archive More featured pictures

All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.“I don’t like fame. I don’t like the sense of belonging to the public,” Elizabeth Taylor admits in Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, the 2024 documentary featuring unearthed recordings of the Hollywood legend by journalist Richard Meryman. “The person my family know[s] is real. But the other Elizabeth Taylor, the famous one, really has no depth or meaning to me. It’s a commodity and it makes money. One is flesh and blood, and one is cellophane.” Taylor, who skyrocketed to fame as a child actor and was among the first film stars to receive a $1 million payday for a role, spent much of her life in the spotlight. It’s not surprising, then, that the late icon considered her public image to be completely divorced from her private persona.The Lost Tapes grants viewers a glimpse into that life through Taylor’s candid reflections on it all—the romances, the tragedies, the opulence, and the scandals. Though her superstar status meant that even her rare private moments sometimes got the on-camera treatment, the below selection reveals an intimate look at the “real” Elizabeth Taylor’s time at home, outside the limelight.Photo: George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images1/211942In 1939, Taylor, her older brother Howard, and her parents—stage actress Sara Sothern and art dealer Francis Lenn Taylor—moved from London to Los Angeles. After a couple of years living in LA’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood, the family moved into a Spanish-style Beverly Hills home. Here, Howard and Elizabeth are seen in the backyard with their pets during the year in which the 10-year-old began her acting career.Photo: Earl Theisen/Getty Images2/211947This 1947 shot shows Taylor and her mother prepping hamburgers and hot dogs in the kitchen of their family home. Biographer Alexander Walker wrote that the 1929-built abode sported “pink stucco walls and red roof tiles, a huge round-arched window facing the road and a dusty front ‘yard’ with an olive tree in it.” It would remain the young starlet’s home until her first marriage.Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images3/211949Featuring decorative tiles and terra-cotta floors, the dwelling had all the classic Spanish-style details that remain beloved throughout Los Angeles today. The Hollywood legend is pictured here at age 17, drying off her dog, Amy (named after Taylor’s character in the film Little Women, which hit theaters in March of that year).Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images4/211949The future Oscar winner is seen here with her mother reading sheet music at their piano. At the time, Taylor was engaged to William Pawley Jr., the son of a US ambassador. “I want our hearts to belong to each other throughout eternity,” the teenage actor wrote in a letter to Pawley. It wasn’t in the cards, however; the engagement ended just a few months later.Photo: Archive Photos/Getty Images5/211950Photographed in her childhood home, the movie star twirls in a velvet dress before an ornately framed painting. Walking in her father’s footsteps, Taylor continued to collect art throughout her life. The very same painting can be seen in photos of Taylor’s final residence, six decades after this snapshot was taken.Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images6/211950Eager for independence from her sheltered upbringing, Taylor married hotel heir Conrad “Nicky” Hilton Jr. in May 1950 at the age of 18. However, Hilton was “abusive, physically and mentally,” the actor wrote in her 1988 book Elizabeth Takes Off. “The honeymoon and the relationship were both over by the time we returned. I couldn’t bear to reveal that my marriage was a failure, and I kept quiet for months. Around Christmas, I could stand it no longer and moved out of our house.” The residence in question, pictured here, was a Pacific Palisades rental where the pair stayed after a stint at the Bel Air Hotel.Photo: Ed Jackson/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images7/211951The young couple officially divorced in January 1951 and Taylor moved into New York’s Plaza Hotel, which was owned by Hilton’s father at the time. The exes met on October 15, 1951, in her suite to wrap up some loose ends—including a property settlement, per the New York Daily News, which published the above snapshot. The star speaks fondly of her time at the iconic hotel in The Lost Tapes, describing it as “the first kind of free, independent time I’d ever had in my life.”Photo: Ed Jackson/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images8/211951The couple discusses the divorce settlement and meets with the press in Taylor’s Plaza suite here. “I was a divorcée, and I was 19. Roddy [McDowall] was there with me, and Monty [Clift]. Just having fun with my chums, doing all kinds of crazy things,” Taylor said of her time living at the famed hotel. “If I wanted to go ice skating at nine at night, we would. Or we’d just have hot dogs all day long. Completely irresponsible sort of behavior. I didn’t have to keep proper hours. I didn’t have to do anything properly. And I had a ball.”Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images9/211952In 1952, Taylor married English actor Michael Wilding and moved into his London apartment, where they are pictured here playing piano. The starlet looked to Wilding, who was two decades her senior, as a source of stability and comfort following her volatile first marriage, she explains in The Lost Tapes.Photo: WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images10/211953Taylor and Wilding bought a house in Beverly Hills in 1953, the same year that the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof star gave birth to her first child, Michael Jr. Pictured in September of that year, the 21-year-old actor reclines on her sofa with the infant. “We will have the outside painted yellow, with white shutters, the living room will be in gray with periwinkle blue—my favorite color, ” Taylor allegedly said upon buying the home.Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images11/211953Baby Michael’s sweetly decorated nursery had a butter yellow, baby blue, and pink color scheme. Taylor described the storybook Beverly Hills dwelling in her 1965 tome, An Informal Memoir. “One whole wall was built of bark with fern and orchids growing up the bark,” she wrote. “You really couldn’t distinguish between the outside and inside. And all the colors I loved—off-white, white, natural woods, stone, beigy marble. The pool was so beautiful. There were palm trees and rock formations—it looked like a natural pool, with trees growing out of it. It was the most beautiful house I’ve ever seen.”Photo: CBS via Getty Images12/211957Taylor and Wilding split after nearly five years of marriage. One month after the divorce was finalized, the Cleopatra star married film producer Mike Todd in February 1957. The two are pictured here in their penthouse apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Taylor and Todd kept estates on both coasts; in addition to their NYC abode, they maintained a 1920s Spanish-style primary residence near Coldwater Canyon in Beverly Hills. The roughly 4,000-square-foot home didn’t offer the high-profile pair much privacy—its front steps began right at the curb, winding around a turret, and up to an arched wood front door.Photo: CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images13/211957A few months after they married, Todd and Taylor welcomed CBS’s cameras into their NYC home at 715 Park Avenue for a 1957 Person to Person segment, which showed the newlyweds’ duplex filled with art; a Monet painting in a gilded frame hangs behind them in this photo. Taylor gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Liza, before Todd’s tragic 1958 death in a plane crash.Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images14/211966After a five-year marriage to singer and actor Eddie Fisher that generated tons of scandalous tabloid fodder, Taylor married her Cleopatra costar, Richard Burton, in 1964. The couple, whose relationship essentially birthed modern paparazzi culture, is pictured here at their Gstaad, Switzerland, property. Dubbed Chalet Ariel, Taylor and Fisher purchased the estate early in their marriage. The Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? star retained ownership of the dwelling for the rest of her life.Photo: James Andanson/Sygma via Getty Images15/211967The couple—again pictured at their Swiss vacation home, with a trio of petite pooches in tow—were known for their passionate yet turbulent marriage. “We enjoy fighting,” Taylor reportedly said. “Having an out-and-out, outrageous, ridiculous fight is one of the greatest exercises in marital togetherness.” It’s fitting that the relationship was filled with drama, seeing as it began with some: The couple started their affair while Taylor was still married to Fisher and Burton was married to Welsh actress Sybil Christopher.Photo: David Cairns/Getty Images16/211967The frequent costars also spent a great deal of time on their yacht, Kalizma. They reportedly bought the luxury vessel for $192,000 (roughly $1.8 million adjusted for inflation) in 1967 and invested another $200,000 in refurbishing it to their liking. It was onboard the Kalizma that the Welsh actor gifted Taylor the famous 69.42-carat Cartier diamond now known as the Taylor-Burton diamond.Photo: David Cairns/Express/Getty Images17/211967The couple looks out from the deck of the Kalizma in this snapshot. They reportedly outfitted the vessel with Chippendale mirrors, Louis XIV chairs, and English tapestries. Taylor’s suite—from the bedroom to the bathroom—was done up in a hot pink color scheme. Grace Kelly, Orson Welles, and Ringo Starr were among the A-list guests that Taylor and Burton entertained on the yacht.Photo: Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images18/211977After divorcing Burton (twice—once in 1974 and again in 1976 after a brief second marriage), Taylor married American politician John Warner in December 1976. They are pictured here in the kitchen of their roughly 7,000-square-foot fieldstone-walled manor in Marshall, Virginia. Taylor reportedly kept horses on the sprawling property, which was known as Atoka Farm.Photo: Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images19/211977Warner and Taylor roam the grounds of the 400-acre plot in this photo. The actor helped her husband with his 1978 senate campaign, though his busy government schedule put a strain on the marriage, and they divorced in 1982. “She was my ‘partner’ in laying the foundation for 30 years of public service in the US Senate,” Warner said later. “We were always friends—to the end.”Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images20/211987Taylor’s primary residence from 1981 until her 2011 death was at 700 Nimes Road in Bel Air. This 1987 photo shows the Hollywood icon smiling on her sofa in the ranch-style home, which was formerly owned by Nancy Sinatra. Taylor worked with AD100 Hall of Fame designer Waldo Fernandez to decorate the dwelling, which was posthumously featured in the July 2011 issue of Architectural Digest. A trophy room, plush pastel carpets, and abundant flower gardens were among the estate’s highlights.Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images21/211987Taylor sits in a welcoming living room at her Nimes Road dwelling in this shot. “Of course when she had to appear at an important event, she would put on the most beautiful dress and the most amazing jewelry and become Elizabeth Taylor, the star,” famed fashion designer Valentino once said. “But at home she liked a cozy life, friends, good food.”The Hollywood legend died in 2011 at age 79.

It’s a provocative idea: that empathy — that is, putting yourself in another person’s proverbial shoes, and feeling what they feel — is a sin. The Bible contains repeated invocations from Jesus to show deep empathy and compassion for others, including complete strangers. He’s very clear on this point. Moreover, Christianity is built around a fundamental act of empathy so radical — Jesus dying for our sins — that it’s difficult to spin as harmful. Yet as stunning as it may sound, “empathy is a sin” is a claim that’s been growing in recent years across the Christian right. It was first articulated six years ago by controversial pastor and theologian Joe Rigney, now author of the recently published book, The Sin of Empathy, which has drawn plenty of debate among religious commentators. In this construction, empathy is a cudgel that progressives and liberals use to berate and/or guilt-trip Christians into showing empathy to the “wrong” people. Had it stayed within the realm of far-right evangelicals, we likely wouldn’t be discussing this strange view of empathy at all. Yet we are living in an age when the Christian right has gained unprecedented power, both sociocultural and political. The increasing overlap between conservative culture and right-leaning tech spaces means that many disparate public figures are all drinking from the same well of ideas — and so a broader, secular version of the belief that empathy is a tool of manipulation has bubbled into the mainstream through influential figures like Elon Musk.What “empathy is a sin” actually meansThe proposition that too much empathy is a bad thing is far from an idea that belongs to the right. On Reddit, which tends to be relatively left-wing, one popular mantra is that you can’t set yourself on fire to keep someone else warm. That is, too much empathy for someone else can erode your own sense of self, leaving you codependent or open to emotional abuse and manipulation. That’s a pretty standard part of most relationship and self-help advice — even from some Christian advice authors. But in recent months, the idea that empathy is inherently destructive has not only become a major source of debate among Christians, it’s escaped containment and barreled into the mainstream by way of major media outlets, political figures, and influencers.The conversation began with an incendiary 2019 essay by Rigney, then a longtime teacher and pastor at a Baptist seminary, in which he introduced “the enticing sin of empathy” and argued that Satan manipulates people through the intense cultural pressure to feel others’ pain and suffering. Rigney’s ideas were met with ideological pushback, with one Christian blogger saying it “may be the most unwise piece of pastoral theology I’ve seen in my lifetime.” As his essay incited national debate, Rigney himself grew more controversial, facing allegations of dismissing women and telling one now-former Black congregant at his Minneapolis church that “it wouldn’t be sinful for him to own me & my family today.” (In an email to Vox, Rigney denied the congregant’s version of events.) Rigney also has a longtime affiliation with Doug Wilson, the leader of the Reformed Christian Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. In practice, what Rigney is typically decrying is any empathy for a liberal perspective or for someone who’s part of a marginalized community.Now well-known for spreading Christian nationalism, and for allegedly fostering a culture of abuse (allegations he has denied), Wilson’s infamy also comes from his co-authored 1996 essay “Southern Slavery: As It Was,” in which he claimed that “Slavery produced in the South a genuine affection between the races that we believe we can say has never existed in any nation before the War or since.” (“My defense of the South does not make me a racist,” Wilson said in 2003.) Rigney appeared on Wilson’s 2019 podcast series Man Rampant to discuss empathy; their conversation quickly devolved into decrying fake rape allegations and musing that victims of police violence might have “deserved to be shot.” In an email, Rigney told me that both he and Wilson developed their similar views on empathy from the therapist and Rabbi Edwin Friedman, whose posthumously published 1999 book, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, has influenced not only family therapy but conservative church leadership and thought. In the book, Friedman argues that American society has devalued the self, leading to an emotional regression and a “low pain threshold.” Alongside this he compares “political correctness” to the Inquisition, and frames a “chronically anxious America” as one that is “organize[d] around its most dysfunctional elements,” in which leaders have difficulty making tough decisions. This correlation of emotional weakness with societal excess paved the way for Rigney to frame empathy itself as a dangerous weapon. Despite using the incendiary generalization, “empathy is sin,” Rigney told me that it is not all empathy that is sinful, but specifically “untethered empathy.” He describes this as “empathy that is detached or unmoored from reality, from what is good and right.” (An explanation that begs definitions for “reality,” “good,” and “right.”)“Just as ‘the sin of anger’ refers to unrighteous or ungoverned anger, so the sin of empathy refers to ungoverned, excessive, and untethered empathy,” Rigney told me. This kind of unrestrained empathy, he writes, is a recipe for cultural mayhem. In theory, Rigney argues that one should be “tethered” to God’s will and not to Satan. In practice, what Rigney is typically decrying is any empathy for a liberal perspective or for someone who’s part of a marginalized community. When I asked him for a general reconciliation of his views with the Golden Rule, he sent me a response in which he brought up trans identity in order to label it a “fantasy” that contradicts “God-given biological reality,” while misgendering a hypothetical trans person. The demonization of empathy moves into the mainstreamDespite receiving firm pushback from most religious leaders (and indeed most people) who hear about it, Rigney’s argument has been spreading through the Christian right at large. Last year, conservative personality and author Allie Stuckey published Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion, in which she argues that “toxic empathy is a dangerous guide for our decisions, behavior, and public policy” while condemning queer people and feminists. “Empathy almost needs to be struck from the Christian vocabulary,” Josh McPherson, host of the Christian-centered Stronger Man Nation podcast and an adherent of Wilson and Rigney’s ideas, said in January, in a clip that garnered an outsize amount of attention relative to the podcast episode itself. That same month, Vice President JD Vance struck a nerve with a controversial appearance on Fox News in which he seemed to reference both the empathy conversation and the archaic Catholic concept of “ordo amoris,” meaning “the order of love.” As Vance put it, it’s the idea that one’s family should come before anyone else: “You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country,” he said. “And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.” In a follow-up on X, he posted, “the idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense.” Vance’s statements received backlash from many people, including both the late Pope Francis and then-future Pope Leo XIV — but the controversy just drove the idea further into the mainstream. As part of the odd crossover between far-right religion and online reactionaries, it picked up surprising alliances along the way, including evolutionary biologist turned far-right gadfly Gad Saad. In January, Saad, applying a survival-of-the-fittest approach to our emotions, argued against “suicidal empathy,” which he described as “the inability to implement optimal decisions when our emotional system is tricked into an orgiastic hyperactive form of empathy, deployed on the wrong targets.” (Who are the wrong targets according to Saad? Trans women and immigrants.)In a February appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Elon Musk explicitly referenced Saad but went even further, stating, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy — the empathy exploit. They’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization” — the “they” here being the left wing. “I think empathy is good,” Musk added, “but you need to think it through, and not just be programmed like a robot.” By March, mainstream media had noticed the conversation. David French had observed the “strange spectacle” of the Christian turn against empathy in a column for the New York Times. In April, a deep-dive in the Guardian followed. That same month, a broad-ranging conversation in the New Yorker with Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, led to interviewer Isaac Chotiner pressing him about why empathy is bad. The discussion, of deported Venezuelan immigrants wrongfully suspected of having gang tattoos, led to Mohler saying that “there’s no reason anyone other than a gang member should have that tattoo.” (Among the tattoos wrongly flagged as gang symbols were the words “Mom” and “Dad” on the wrists of one detainee.)The pro-empathy backlash is fierce The connective tissue across all these disparate anti-empathy voices is two-fold, according to Christian scholar Karen Swallow Prior. Prior, an anti-abortion ethicist and former longtime Liberty University professor, singled out the argument’s outsize emphasis on attacking very small, very vulnerable groups — as well as the moment in which it’s all happening.“The entire discourse around empathy is backlash against those who are questioning the authority of those in power,” she told me, “not coincidentally emerging in a period where we have a rise in recognition of overly controlling and narcissistic leaders, both in and outside the church.” Those people “understand and appreciate empathy the least.”“Trump made it okay to not be okay with culture,” Peter Bell, co-creator and producer of the Sons of Patriarchy podcast, which explores longstanding allegations of emotional and sexual abuse against Doug Wilson’s Christ Church, told me. (Wilson has denied that the church has a culture of abuse or coercion.) “He made it kind of cool for Christians to be jerks,” Bell said. “He made the unspoken things spoken, the whispered things shouted out loud.”Prior believes that the argument won’t have a long shelf life because Rigney’s idea is so convoluted. Yet she added that it’s born out of toxic masculinity, in an age where stoicism, traditionally male-coded, is increasingly part of the regular cultural diet of men via figures like Jordan Peterson. That hypermasculinity goes hand in hand with evangelical culture, and with the ideas Rigney borrowed from Friedman about too many emotions being a weakness. In this framing, emotion becomes non-masculine by default — i.e., feminine.“Everybody’s supposed to have sympathy for the white male, but when you show empathy to anyone else, suddenly empathy is a sin.”— Karen Swallow Prior, Christian scholarThat leads us to the grimmest part of Rigney’s “untethered empathy” claims: the way he explicitly genders it — and demonizes it — as feminine. Throughout his book, he argues that women are more empathetic than men, and that as a result, they are more prone to giving into it as a sin. It’s an inherently misogynistic view that undermines women’s decision-making and leadership abilities. Though Rigney pushed back against this characterization in an email to me, arguing that critics have distorted what he views as merely “gendered tendencies and susceptibility to particular temptations,” he also couldn’t help reinforcing it. “[F]emale tendencies, like male tendencies, have particular dangers, temptations, and weaknesses,” he wrote. Women thus should recognize this and “take deliberate, Spirit-wrought action to resist the impulse to become a devouring HR department that wants to run the world.”As Prior explains, though, Rigney’s just fine with a mythic national human resources department, as long as it supports the status quo. “Everybody’s supposed to have sympathy for the white male,” she said, “but when you show empathy to anyone else, suddenly empathy is a sin.”What’s heartening is that, whether they realize what kind of dangerous extremism undergirds it, most people aren’t buying Rigney’s “empathy is sin” claim. Across the nation, in response to Rigney’s assertion, the catchphrase, “If empathy is a sin, then sin boldly” has arisen, as heard in pulpits, seen on church marquees, and worn on T-shirts — a reminder that it takes much more than the semantic whims of a few extremists to shake something most people hold in their hearts.See More:

Here are your PS Plus Catalogue additions for May Sand Land! Battlefield! Soul Hackers 2! Image credit: Sony News by Ed Nightingale Deputy News Editor Published on May 14, 2025 Sony has revealed the next round of additions to its PS Plus Catalogue for subscribers, which will be added on 20th May. The following games will be available later this month for Premium and Extra subscribers: Sand Land | PS4, PS5 Soul Hackers 2 | PS5 Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted - Full Time Edition | PS4, PS5 Battlefield 5 | PS4 STALKER: Legends of the Zone Trilogy | PS4, PS5 Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising | PS4, PS5 Humankind | PS4, PS5 Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life | PS5 Gloomhaven Mercenaries Edition | PS4, PS5 Additionally, Premium subscribers will get access to PS2 classic Battle Engine Aquila on PS4 and PS5. Action-RPG Sand Land was released last year and features designs from Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama - this was his last game before he passed away. He posthumously praised the game in a statement shared after his death: "I haven't watched through all of the gameplay yet," he said. "However, it greatly expands the worldview of the original manga with many new exciting elements. It is high-quality as a stand alone game and I can tell it is a highly satisfying action-RPG game!" Earlier today, GSC Game World announced a free Enhanced Edition upgrade for Stalker: Legends of the Zone Trilogy, which combines the first three games in the series. It includes a visual upgrade and other improvements, but it's unclear if PS Plus subscribers will have access following its inclusion here in the subscription. Elsewhere, Soul Hackers 2 is a 2022 RPG from Persona-maker Atlus that, confusingly, is the fifth installment in the Devil Summoner series, which is part of the Megami Tensei franchise. If you like anime RPGs, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is probably also worth a shot, while Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a more relaxed farming experience. Are you excited to play any of these? | Image credit: Sony These Catalogue games are in addition to the free monthly games also available this month to those on the Essential tier: Ark: Survival Ascended | PS5 Balatro | PS5, PS4 Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun | PS5, PS4 New additions mean some games will likely be leaving the service this month too, we'll update once we know more. More details on this month's games can be found on the PlayStation Blog. You'll find more details on what else is available in our full PlayStation Plus guide here.

While Square Enix has been largely quiet about Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate since its original announcement all the way back in 2021, the team working on the game has ocassionally popped up every now and then in order to assure fans of the franchise that development on the game is still going on. Speaking to GameReactor during Comic Con Napoli, Series creator and Dragon Quest 12 director Yuji Horii once more repeated that work on the game was still continuing, apologising for more concrete news. “Yes, indeed, I can’t say anything, I apologise,” said Horii when asked about development progress on Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate. “I am making it, putting lots of work into it”, he insists in the video below. “I can only say that the next work will be great too, working really hard. Please look forward to it, is the only thing I can say.” Horii also spoke about the potential of releasing Dragon Quest 12 on the Nintendo Switch 2. While he didn’t give any concrete answers, his response did indicate that there might be plans to bring the RPG to Nintendo’s upcoming console. “Yes, I believe it could be compatible with Switch 2 as well,” he said. Horii’s answers came just a few months after he assured fans of the series that work on the game was still continuing. Back in February, during a livestream, Horii assured fans that Square Enix was still “working hard on Dragon Quest 12.” More details, however, including a release window weren’t revealed. Rather, Horii said that the plan was to reveal more information about the game “little by little.” The Dragon Quest 12 director has been accutely aware of how much anticipation is building up for the game. Back in May 2024, he had taken to social media to apologise for the overall lack of communication from the developers about the game. In his post, Horii wrote about wanting to ensure that the title would be a worthy tribute to series composer Koichi Sugiyama, as well as art director and character designer Akira Toriyama. Sugiyama, for context, had passed away back in 2021, while Toriyama had passed away earlier in 2024. “Thank you so much to everyone for all the congratulations,” Horii wrote. “I’m sorry for the worry about Dragon Quest 12, but I was just having a meeting about it. I can’t say much yet, but I want to make something worthy of the posthumous work of the two people who passed away. I’ll do my best!” Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate was announced during the Dragon Quest 35th Anniversary Special livestream back in May 2021. The title, in development using Unreal Engine 5, was revealed with a teaser trailer. It is slated for a simultaneous worldwide release. Square Enix, however, hasn’t yet confirmed what platforms the game will be coming to. Considering the series’ tradition, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the RPG on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC when it finally comes out.

en pointe Ana de Armas is caught in Wick’s crosshairs in final Ballerina trailer "When you think of me, you should think of fire. Risen from ashes, again and again." Jennifer Ouellette – May 13, 2025 10:08 am | 0 Credit: Lionsgate Entertainment Credit: Lionsgate Entertainment Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more One last trailer for From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. We're about three weeks out from the theatrical release of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina,  starring Ana de Armas. So naturally Lionsgate has released one final trailer to whet audience appetites for what promises to be a fiery, action-packed addition to the hugely successful franchise. (Some spoilers for 2019's John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum.) Chronologically, Ballerina takes place during the events of John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum. As previously reported, Parabellum found Wick declared excommunicado from the High Table for killing crime lord Santino D'Antonio on the grounds of the Continental. On the run with a bounty on his head, he makes his way to the headquarters of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate, led by the Director (Anjelica Huston). The Director also trains young girls to be ballerina-assassins, and one young ballerina (played by Unity Phelan) is shown rehearsing in the scene. That dancer, Eve Macarro, is the main character in Ballerina, now played by de Armas. Huston returns as the Director, Ian McShane is back as Winston, and Lance Reddick makes one final (posthumous) appearance as the Continental concierge, Charon. New cast members include Gabriel Byrne as the main villain, the Chancellor, who turns an entire town against Eve; Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Nogi, Eve's mentor; Norman Reedus as Daniel Pine; and Catalina Sandino Moreno and David Castaneda in as-yet-undisclosed roles. The first trailer was released last September and focused heavily on Eve's backstory: Having been orphaned, she chose to train with the Ruska Roma in hopes of avenging her father's brutal death. Wick only made a brief appearance, but he had more screen time in the second trailer, released in March, in which the pair face off in an atmospheric wintry landscape. This final trailer opens with Eve looking up while directly in Wick's crosshairs. Much of the ensuing footage isn't new, but it does show de Armas to her best deadly advantage as she takes on combatant after combatant in true John Wick style. Her vow: "This isn't done until they're dead." From the World of John Wick: Ballerina hits theaters on June 6, 2025. Jennifer Ouellette Senior Writer Jennifer Ouellette Senior Writer Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 0 Comments