It is hard to overstate my satisfaction.

Whaaat? That’s ridiculous. What the hell is ol’ “Withers” even doing with the money? It would be great if he kept upgrading his tent and whatnot with the money you give him for respecs.

Yes, I think that’s one of this game’s biggest strengths; it allows for a broad spectrum of player actions, and actually shapes the narrative (to a degree) around those actions. I do think there ought to be a way to avoid the >!boss fight at the end of Act 2,!< but overall the freedom you have is really impressive. I’m in Act 3 of my first playthrough (total dark urge murderhobo) and I’m constantly impressed both by the scope and depth of the bad guy route, as well as the sheer amount of content I’m completely missing by telling lost kids to kick rocks, and casually slaughtering dozens of fully-voiced, potentially quest-giving NPC’s. It’s a glorious game. Definitely in the top 5 of the last decade, along with Witcher 3 and Disco Elysium.

Maybe we could get like a change.org petition going to replace the stars and stripes with a rat’s anus?

It’s from the early days of Greatest Gen, and references Captain DeSoto of the USS Hood (NCC-1703). DeSoto and the Hood made several appearances in TNG, and Ben and Adam leaned into his chill vibes, theorizing that the Hood would be a great place to work.

It’s also an allusion to the phrase Friend of Dorothy, an older euphemism for LGBT people.

I think it was originally jokingly conceived as a sort of passphrase or shibboleth for fans of the pod to identify each other without revealing their embarrassing enthusiasm to outsiders, e.g.

Q: “Are you a friend of DeSoto?”

A: “Best boss I ever had!”