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Some years back I read "Sapiens", which I forget if I posted about here, but anyway if you enjoyed that you might also enjoy "Hunt, Gather, Parent," which of the many parenting books I've read is the only one that I could see being interesting to non-parents.

Similar to "Sapiens", a central thesis running through it is that the way we're living (in industrialized societies) isn't anything like the way we evolved to live over the hundred thousand years before the invention of agriculture, and there are a bunch of associated costs that we don't necessarily think about much.  A big takeaway I had from it was "maybe a lot of people in this country are self-centered assholes because we've spent a few generations using parenting methods that tend to raise people to be self-centered assholes?"

Ronan can stand toe to toe until the plot needs him to get jobbed; that's pretty much his entire role, getting jobbed by superheroes, by the Inhumans, by the Annihilation Wave, by the Super-Skrull, by the Shi'ar, etc., usually while bellowing about his ultimate weapon and the mighty Kree. About the only badass things he's ever done are a) killing the Supreme Intelligence (didn't take) and b) killing one of Thanos' henchmen.

Ronan doesn't really get jobbed though. The Guardians just end up target his weapon to blow the Power Gem out of it and then band together to use the Power Gem to destroy him. For a superhero climax it actually makes a reasonable amount of sense.

It's an interesting thing--about how to keep a bad guy as a threat as opposed to a kind of ritual punching bag that establishes a protagonist. To me the master class was letting the Richard Rider Nova character rip out Annihilus' innards--it came after a really hard fight, some unique circumstances, and a lot of character growth, so you absolutely bought it AND the bad guy still felt like a serious threat. As opposed to "oh wow look the newest whatever mutant whatever just took a shit on Galactus and he died, wow he's really strong."

In fairness, this isn't limited to bad guys. Worf's role in Star Trek TNG after all was to get bitch slapped by whatever alien they needed to show was a threat.

It's an interesting thing--about how to keep a bad guy as a threat as opposed to a kind of ritual punching bag that establishes a protagonist. To me the master class was letting the Richard Rider Nova character rip out Annihilus' innards--it came after a really hard fight, some unique circumstances, and a lot of character growth, so you absolutely bought it AND the bad guy still felt like a serious threat. As opposed to "oh wow look the newest whatever mutant whatever just took a shit on Galactus and he died, wow he's really strong."

Kinda like the bad guy in this movie, stands toe to toe against the three marvels, one of whomst can reignite a god damn sun... and then gets taken out by a wall falling her.

Ronan can stand toe to toe until the plot needs him to get jobbed; that's pretty much his entire role, getting jobbed by superheroes, by the Inhumans, by the Annihilation Wave, by the Super-Skrull, by the Shi'ar, etc., usually while bellowing about his ultimate weapon and the mighty Kree. About the only badass things he's ever done are a) killing the Supreme Intelligence (didn't take) and b) killing one of Thanos' henchmen.

Other places I've worked have generally been much more reluctant to touch code that's old and moldy, but usually it's less "this is my baby, you can't touch it" and more "it's working fine already, we should focus on building something new that we can sell."

Since I wrote this, I've discovered a part of the spectrum beyond "this is my baby", which is "the existence of this useless and unmaintainable abomination that literally everyone hates gives me job security, so I'm going to add as many unnecessary dependencies on it as possible to make it hard to get rid of".

Luckily once the Q4 hiring lull passed, the recruiters showed up in droves.  Only a couple more weeks until I collect my hard-earned bonus (and PFL, which I'd also have to forfeit if I left before taking it) and then I'll be free to make my escape.

Godspeed to you...

Other places I've worked have generally been much more reluctant to touch code that's old and moldy, but usually it's less "this is my baby, you can't touch it" and more "it's working fine already, we should focus on building something new that we can sell."

Since I wrote this, I've discovered a part of the spectrum beyond "this is my baby", which is "the existence of this useless and unmaintainable abomination that literally everyone hates gives me job security, so I'm going to add as many unnecessary dependencies on it as possible to make it hard to get rid of".

Luckily once the Q4 hiring lull passed, the recruiters showed up in droves.  Only a couple more weeks until I collect my hard-earned bonus (and PFL, which I'd also have to forfeit if I left before taking it) and then I'll be free to make my escape.

TBF, the Accusers were a very powerful group of judges in the Kree Empire in the comics. The "Ultimate Weapon" that all of them wield is pretty strong, and Ronan has always been able to stand toe-to-toe with some of the Marvel Universe's heavy hitters.

Unfortunately, the MCU really didn't have a clue what to do with the Kree Empire and the Accusers, so both of them were extremely nebulous in the movies. As much as I love GotG, what Ronan actually planned to do with the Power Gem is still a fucking mystery to me.

He had the power gem.