SeanF

Succeed or fail, the hit on Daenerys and Rhaego makes good sense - not as a way of protecting Robert, but as a way of provoking Drogo’s revenge. The hit itself was amateurish in the extreme. I think that was deliberate.

I love the title of this thread. But not as much as I did one meme, which had Spock saying: ”They’re Trump’s toupees, Captain. They’ve been breeding.”

I do think opinions of later seasons of GOT have got worse over time. People will forgive a lot, if they get a good ending. Now most people only talk of the show’s flaws. The show has no rewatch value for me. What’s the point, when the end of it all is a nihilistic mess?

WRT the portrayal of women, well there are plenty of historical figures to choose from who were neither victims, nor empowered girlbosses. Catherine the Great, Maria Theresa of Austria, Elizaveta, Catherine de Medici, Isabella of France etc.

It was Peter Dinklage’s reaction to the fans’ criticism of Season 8 that made me think he’s unlikeable. The two D’s had favourites (like Peter Dinklage, and Lena Headey) and Benioff saw his father in Tywin, who was “lawful neutral”, tough but fair, whereas, in their eyes, a character like Daenerys was always evil. I suspect they disliked Kit Harrington, with all the jokes about his height and penis size. With his unfunny practical jokes, and stunts like waterboarding Hannah Waddingham, or Ros’ eroticised death scene (Esme Bianco was being severely abused at the time), Benioff comes over as particularly unpleasant.

We get the fall of Astapor from his POV, and yet, Dany has already been told how terrible things got there. OTOH, Quentyn's story does resonate with me. We also learn through him that the Windblown are willing to defect. I'm not bothered about including Quentyn's POV. I do think that both Dany's and Tyrion's chapters should have been pruned., which would have given space to round off the Meereenese storyline with the battle for the city.

I did feel so sorry for Quentyn. Quentyn was me, at the age of 18.

George should have them gone on to ask, “Well, that was an easy one. Give me the identity of the Alchemist, and the Ghost of High Heart?” As to your last point, a friend said to me, “D & D were paid millions for producing crapulent fanfiction. Why aren’t I?”

A surprising number of people have sexual fantasies about nuns, believing that they smuggle men into their convents and/or enjoy wild lesbian sex with each other.

Decent people get betrayed all the time, for reasons of jealousy or greed.

There seems a widespread assumption that the Taiwanese will just roll over if/when China invades. If not from the experts, certainly from many commentators. That’s one of the things I would not bet on. Taiwan is in a similar position to Israel, in that military defeat is existential. The fact that people have no option but to fight is a huge motivator to do so.

Try writing in English rather than Gibberish.

We don’t know how China would fare in war, as it has no recent military experience. In its last war, it did not distinguish itself. My own view is that an attempt to conquer Taiwan would end in disaster for China. A lot of popular military commentary assumes that people living under dictatorships are tougher and braver and better fighters than the decadents who live in democracies. That’s not something I would bet on.

@CelestialThere's a widespread view on both far right and far left, and among "realists" like John Mearsheimer, that Russia as a rightful place as the gendarme of Eastern Europe. Unsurprisingly, Eastern Europeans don't agree. There also seems a reluctance to view countries like Poland, Ukraine, the Baltics. etc. as "real" countries.

@Knight Of WinterOne of the most remarkable burials of the hatchet, IMHO, is the reconciliation between the US and Vietnam. Yet, it seems the Vietnamese regarded the US as just a passing threat, whereas China is the old enemy (and former hegemon). China does have more diplomatic skill than Russia, but also has problems with states in its immediate vicinity, such as Vietnam, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines. Some Chinese alliances seem more trouble than they're worth. But, Russia is so bad at diplomacy that it alienates even potentially friendly states, like Kazakhstan.

Russia has a remarkable lack of diplomatic ability. Even its allies are always allies of convenience, on the basis of "my enemy's enemy is my friend."

Historically, Bulgaria was very pro-Russian, so losing Bulgaria was entirely down to Russian behaviour.

A backroom comment is binding upon no country It looks to me as though Eastern European nations had good reason to fear Russia, and that joining NATO was the prudent course for them to pursue.

But some contributors to this thread think those are good deeds.

Being born.

Another poor effort to justify evil. The Lannisters attempt to murder a child; are nominally led by a boy psychopath, who enjoys ripping out tongues and sexually abusing an 11 year old girl; inflict mass murder, starvation, and rape across the Riverlands. Roose and Ramsay murder, flay, and rape for sport. The Freys murder thousands at a wedding because they’re butthurt. And you, @Rondo @Quoth the Raven @Darth Sidiousare all cheering them on. For the sake of consistency, you should be on the side of Ghiscari slavers, and, in real life, of people like Dirlewanger or Beria. They’re your sort of people.

Murder of Ned’s retainers, and assault and battery on the Hand. Murder, pillage, rape of the folk of the Riverlands, who were living under the King’s Peace (he commanded half the Lannister army, and bears command responsibility). Attempted murder of Bran. Assault and blackmail, by threatening to murder Edmure Tully and his infant. Treason and incest (attempting to pass of Joffrey as heir). Abetting the rape of Tysha. Perfidy, due to his breach of the conditions of his parole, to Catelyn Stark. Murder of vagabonds (who may or may not have been guilty of capital crimes, but were granted no chance to speak in their defence). It’s a sordid list.

I don’t believe that good people ever turn evil, but I think good people can become misguided, or misguide themselves. Especially, once they attain supreme power. I think that people like Robespierre, Dessalines, the Heavenly King, Mithradates Eupator were basically decent people who hated injustice and wanted to end it. But then they came to think that any means , however awful, justified the high and good ends for which they strove. That may perhaps, be Daenerys’ path in the tale. That’s the path of the tragic hero. The person who nearly achieves greatness, but just falls short. They’re different to those who were always rotten to the core. Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot were of that ilk, as is Cersei.

It's not a one on one comparison, and in all likelihood, treating the Scots in this manner would have been considered more justifiable to contemporaries, given that they were a foreign enemy, who had raided over the Border on numerous occasions. Also, there's probably a distinction to be drawn between a war of retaliation (in which case, extreme brutality would be inflicted upon the inhabitants) and a war of conquest, where more restraint would be practised. That said, I'd view Edward I's treatment of the Scots as bad, even by contemporary standards. Executing people by means of hanging, drawing, and quartering, was Edward's innovation, and worse still, to contemporaries, he inflicted that fate upon nobles. When he captured Robert Bruce's wife he had her exhibited in a cage from the walls of a castle which again, was not at all how noble ladies were supposed to be treated. In-universe, one can see that many people from the Reach and Stormlands view the Dornish as scarcely human, the same way that Northmen view the Free Folk.

Incredibly, I read of one French landowner, granted lands in Yorkshire, who actually handed them back to William, and returned to France, in disgust at what he had witnessed. Nobody would have condemned William for hanging rebels, or burning villages that harboured them. It’s the fact he made no attempt to distinguish the guilty from the innocent, and just killed or starved most of the population, his own subjects, that shocked many contemporaries.