AN ADVICE COLUMN, WITH RESERVATIONS.

Dear Villains exists because most advice columns flatter the asker. We don't. Each letter — drawn from a long stack of advice-column archives, paraphrased into the era the columnist actually inhabits — gets answered by someone who will name the inconvenient adult in the story and tell the asker to stop subsidizing them. The columnists here have no professional reason to be liked. They have a tactical reason to be useful.

Sentimentality, frankly, is theft of time the asker doesn't have. Lex Luthor will tell you the one move you can make today that costs you nothing and forces the other party to either show up or be exposed. He will not tell you to journal about it.

Across the way at Dear Heroes, you can read the gentler take on the same letter. We link the companion column on every page that has one. Read both. Decide. Honestly, you already have.