Darzin

I don't think China cares about Russia's war enough to do this, and dead Ukrainians don't benefit China the way dead Russians benefit Poland and the Baltics. China and Russia have reason to be friendly and will continue to be friendly but they are not going to be true allies anytime soon. And I don't think China has much reason to support Russia militarily.

Invading a friendly country on China's border would be a major issue for China. But it's not going to happen China has already moved to prevent that. Xi Jinping's first trip abroad was to support Kazakhstan and he publicly stated that Kazakhstan's territorial integrity is an issue for China, and with Russia more and more dependent on trade with China I'm sure it has been communicated privately that this a red line and Russia can not afford to cross China nor do they have the military power to do it even if they wanted to.

Yes absolutely their is a very clear patter of which countries Russia delegitimizes and which it doesn't. Russia and Russian commentators have called Kazakhstan and especially Ukraine fake countries multiple times they've repeatedly made allusions to the Baltics. On the contrary Georgia a country which they fought a literal war with has not had nearly the same types of provocations neither has Azerbaijan. If Putin wanted to he, prior to this war, could have rolled into Central Asia with minimal initial resistance and he's currently refusing territory whose local government is offering itself up for annexation. I dunno modern Russia has pretty much the same system as the Soviets did except with Federal republics instead of SSRs and ASSrs. I agree people do assimilate though I think it has a lot more to do with the Russian as a dominate culture rather than state policy the Tartar local government has tried rather hard to keep Tartar culture alive to know avail. Though Chechnya very much the exception to the rule shows what an unassimilated federal subject looks like. Regardless I think adding a few million unrussified Azeris or Tajiks would not be something Putin would want.

Yes but he also had Russian soldiers in the entire Warsaw pact and didn't annex the rest of Poland and Bulgaria applied to join the Soviet union and was rebuffed. Ossetia has been trying to join Russia but was pressured by the Russian government to not join and this is not the first time this has happened. Putin doesn't want every bit of clay that was in the empire else he'd take the willing and enthusiastic region of Ossetia.

Even Stalin didn't annex the whole Warsaw pact I don't think even in Putin's most fevered dreams does he dram of annexing the Czech Republic and Poland. If Putin was really trying to restore the Soviet Union why not go after softer targets first? Belarus, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan were all much easier grabs then Ukraine. Do you really think Putin wants to incorporate millions of hostile Azeri Muslims into Russia, not to mention Tajiks Turkmens and all the rest? It seems pretty clear he wants Russians and "Russians" in his state. The only land Russia has annexed has been Ukrainian and it seems pretty clear from Putin's speeches that he sees Ukraine as a uniquely fake country. South Ossetia has been dependent on Russian influence for ages and has even asked to be annexed and yet Russia hasn't done it. I'd guess Putin's ideal Russia would be Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltics and North Kazakhstan. No way it includes annexing impoverished backwaters like Tajikistan, or millions of non Russian ethnic groups.

I don't think Putin wants to restore the Soviet borders so much as European Russia.. There were a lot of "softer" targets he could have gone for but he chose Ukraine. It seems to me he wants to gather all the areas with large Russian populations. Rather then the full Union.

Turns out when you boast you are fight risk you get treated as a flight risk.

I'm curious what they'd say if you pointed out he's said he's done the things he's been accused of. I don't get Tate fans saying it's a set up when he has videos and videos boasting about the things he's accused of. So how can it be a setup? Looking at you @cock_merchant. My guess is they'd say it's consensual but even if it was (something I doubt btw) it can still be trafficking. Facilitating the transport of women (or men! it's 2023) for sexual purposes is often illegal regardless of consent. Just like you can get get busted for cocaine trafficking, transporting goods and people for illegal purposes it turns out, is illegal! Like, it doesn't take a conspiracy, when a guy whose been bragging about specific crimes gets arrested for those same crimes.

I don't think certain men and boys admiring someone who displays crass wealth and is surrounded by fast cars and beautiful women is anything new. There are always going to be those who see that as the epitome of success, some will grow out of it some won't. I find the moral panic over him way overblown. He's a scumbag and I hope he rots in a Romanian prison, but like we've always had Andre Tate's and his influence is way overblown. No way does Jordan Peterson who wants young men to settle down and live a straight laced lifestyle promote the same ideas as Tate who advocates a life of hedonism and forming a harem. Just cause they are both "right wing figures" doesn't mean they overlap much.

It's crazy in China to have gone from it being insanely rare to know someone who has had Covid to go everyone knowing someone who has it or more likely has it themselves. It's peak pandemic here now with shops and offices closed do to lack of workers. I don't think there was any master plan with this it's very obvious there wasn't up until just before the lockdowns were lifted the propaganda was still 100% pro zero Covid and then turned on a dime. If I had a guess the protests and zero Covid starting to show heavy cracks gave the anti-zero Covid faction of the Party enough leverage to get their way. but I'm just a mook so you should take that with a grain of salt but you should also give it equal weight to the opinions of whatever "China watchers" the media have rustled up.

As you were.

My current drink is cheap Chinese beer but now that the bars have opened I may need to go out and buy some swanky overpriced IPAs. Does that make me a lame hipster? maybe? but I dunno if I care I need something better than watery lager.

I'm definitely going to rewatch this before this week's episode because I totally missed it was a fake death, well fake for Laenor anyway they still had a body.

I seem to be the only person in the world whose TV displayed this in a visible fashion so lucky me I guess. A very good episode. Dragons, murders and characters living their lives with the choices they've wrought. Rhaenyra having her dutiful husband murdered shows that Alicent is not the only one who time and duty have soured a little. And Alicent projecting her bitterness and unhappiness onto Rhaenyra is a very human failing even as she runs to the actual cause of her misery her father. As the daughter of a second son Alicent's marriage was not terribly important and her father could have easily let her choose the heir to a minor house or landed knighthood or the second son of a great house, that would have been appropriate in Westeros but it was his ambition that saddled her with the king and all for a son who is not the heir and a bit of a prick. I do wonder if Rhaenyra will regret murdering her dear husband, he might have drank a bit but he was a fighter and stable. Daemon while hot, heterosexual, and claim-boosting, might prove to be a mercurial ally and lover can he get it up next time? that's the stuff we really come for.

Well if they are using the prequels, on the bright side they probably couldn't make them worse... and HBO does make good stuff. I wonder how they intend to balance that. I'm not enthused but I thought HotD would suck too and I'm loving that.

I do think your deep knowledge of history is hurting your ability to enjoy the series a bit. Maybe it's impossible to turn off but Westros while borrowing a lot of "medievalisms" isn't actual history. The faith for example acts nothing like the Catholic church despite it's Catholic trappings especially when you consider it's relatioship with the old gods. I don't find this a problem though because Westros isn't Europe and GRRM has sketched out this relationship on it's on terms plausibly enough. I think Alicent ordering Rhaenyra exposes a bit of the weakness of Rhaenyra's position as well as the knowledge that with Viserys old and sick the difference between the king's orders and the queen's orders are not so clear. As it was Viserys seemed completely oblivious to the toll it took on Rhaenyra. Which seemed somewhat in character. I wondered this as well. It seemed such a major plot point for the first half of the series. I do wonder if this is something explained more in the books? Because it seemed like something got cut. I kept waiting for some reveal to explain it but it never happened. Overall I found this the weakest episode of the series, it really suffered for the time jump, and maybe should have been tow episodes. 16 ish years is a long time and the series clearly needed a bit more breathing room to establish character motivations and the dynamics of kings landing.

Apparently Chancellor Schultz has said asked in a speech that Germany join the security council as a permanent member. Does anyone know the reasoning behind this? It seems a very odd play to me.

Well I liked this episode despite it's flaws. I liked the dance scene too despite it being panned maybe just because I'm not interested in dance but rather all the political and sexual tension going on between everyone but the bride and groom. With all that tension in the air something had to pop off and it did. That's been much criticized but it worked for me until the last minute. I thought Cole has fled to the godswood and was going to kill himself which seemed a fitting end. Alicent swooping in at the last second ruined that and unless they come up with some really good excuse it will make no sense that he's still breathing. The next episode opening with his execution would redeem everything but I doubt they'll do that. We got to see Daemon's cool wife too for a nanosecond before she was murdered. And a new level to Daemon, making him much more of a black character and he wasn't that light to begin with. But now stepping into a full on villian role. Despite this an other flaws I still enjoyed the episode. Probably more than I should have but it worked for me.

Surprised everyone hated this so much. I really liked it. Alicents turn made perfect sense to her she stuck out her neck for her friend and got her father fired for her troubles. I'm not even sure she realizes Rhaenyra lawyered her way aroung the question as she's said multiple times Rhaenyra swore she was a virgin and even if she did realize it's still a law by admission. That whole ball was a mess of poltical and sexual tension. I don't find it unreasonable it errupted into murder from someone.

@Zorral Again a very good take. One of the things that first struck me with these books is the story of Micah the butcher's boy. It shows the powerful impact of class duty and station on the world. Arya and Micah both step outside their role and obligation. Arya loses a wolf for it because of who she is it's really a slap on the wrist wheras Micah gets killed but because he doesn't matter it's rather brushed off even by the "good" characters even if it upsets them. I think pop culture commentators are used to writing about media and content through a modern cultural lense and not a historical one. They analyze Game of Thrones the same way they do Breaking Bad. And in some way that works Game of Thrones does resemble a soap opera with Dragons a lot of the time. But it would come off a bit better if they blended those lenses of pop culture, history, and pop history as Game of Thrones itself does.

Someone somewhere should give you a column this is better than most of the proffessional recap/reactions I've seen. Somehow I don't think Rhaenyra's upcoming marriage will go off with out a hitch. But I've no idea what the hitch is except the King dying but it feels a little early for that. I do wonder though with Rhaenyra so worried about childbirth maybe Daemon isn't that bad of a match after all. And who will be named hand I wonder? The next episode's title "we light the way" makes it seem that the hightowers might not take Otto's dismissal lying down. And Otto certianly won't. Overall I'm very excited to see how the drama of this episode pans out in the next. For those of you lurking be the change you want in the world and post we need more people in the unsullied section.

Thanks for clarifying. I thought he was borrowing Daemon's dragon. But I'll bet if i look back the color will be different.

The Sea Snake show sounds interesting a lot of Essos really lends itself to an adventure story. I really really hope one of the animated series is set in one of the free cities, I'd love something like Aryas chapters that just explores one if them inside and out could be Braavos could be another but I really like the idea of a more narrow city focused story.

The first chapter of the Wisdom of Crowds is available on Joe's website a long with a summary blurb. The first chapter opens up with the armies vanguard returning to a riotous Adua and we get Orso's Leo's and Savine's POVs. Judging from the chapter where half the union seems to be in revolt including Adua which seems half in revolt and a "people's army" ominously set to arrive on the doorstep of Adua, as well as the blurb which mentions of Citizen Brock and Citizen Savine. It seems like the union government is poised to fall pretty early in the book and most of the book will be dealing with the post revolutionary government and society. I'm pretty excited for this and can't wait to see what Joe does with it. My only regret is I wish we had more than one book to explore it. Predictions: I don' think Bayaz is behind the revolution. One of the Burners key goals is to burn the banks, and we see both the Breakers and the Burners kill multiple agents of Valint and Balk no way Bayaz tolerates his power being assaulted like that. If he was behind the Breakers and the Burners his agents would be among them rather than being strung up by them. I think the whole revolution is going to blindside Bayaz he's used to intimidating nobles not mass popular revolts. I think the new parliament of whatever sort of regime replaces the Monarchy will imprison and eventually execute Orso. A group of owls is called a parliament and given that Joe read a lot of books on the French and Russian revoltions I think the outlook is grim for Orso. Plus he hates hangings and Joe Abercrombie loves irony. My fanfic is that Orso runs away to the North and becomes Rikke's kept prince/househusband but you have to be realistic about these things. I think Rikke will unite the North and annex Angland, but at some personal cost. How much I don't know she could be a shell of herself or have a chance to let a sliver of light into her stone heart.

I've enjoyed these two episodes a lot. This season seems to be above four hopefully they are getting back into a groove.