Clueless Northman

Funnily, I'm deep into Curtius' History of Alexander right now - which differs a little bit from the original (Greek) Alexander Romance. And due to Sir Leech's post, I finally gave in and bought Plato's early short dialogues. At long last, time to go back to the man and read some Socrates (had read, the Symposion and the trilogy of Socrates' last days years ago).

You could trash previous rulers of Rome as much as you wanted to, as long as you didn't mess with the current ruling dynasty. The fact most writers were from the Senatorial order helped as well with some kind of protection - and also explains why they tend to criticize past Emperors, considering that the Empire made the Senate quite irrelevant, apart from a rich men's club. If you wanted to trash the current Emperor, it was a bit trickier. In this regard, Procopius' Secret History is a riot and a must-read. Now, if you want Greek historians that are a bit more reliable, trustworthy, and who have some in-depth understanding and analysis, I'd say Thucydides and Polybius are your best bets. Not really. Like many other of Socrates' disciples, it's his execution which was a key moment. Xenopho pretty much cut ties with Athens after that and went full-Sparta fanboy. After all, he implied that everyone outside Athens celebrated Sparta's victory as the return of Freedom in Hellas. Well, they didn't have Twitter at the time, so if you wanted to play it like Trump, you had to be a bit more creative.

For example, when Cavill was first cast as Geralt and showed off his costume, fans were bemused as to why he didn’t have the game character’s beard Wait, what? These aren't even fans of the games; he only has a beard in Witcher 3, not in 1 and not even in 2.

Either that kind of things, or the Frank Pentangeli treatment.

I'd say both you and Triskele are quite right. Dems might not win if they shift too far left and the Left cannot win in the short/medium term. And the Left needs to realise that the NYT isn't their friend and that people like Friedman and Brooks definitely aren't to the Left; heck, I'd say the US Left should consider them as strictly temporary allies of opportunity and not as friends and genuine allies, or even should consider them as just one step better than the current crop of GOP politicians when it comes to a lot of policies.

This, without a doubt.

Sure, but the Wildlings were a real and well-known threat. Now, with the seasons being more in order again and the White Walkers out of the way, odds are that there will be far better relations between both sides. A massive border wall won't be needed anymore, though of course some degree of military reaction force is always good to be on the safe side. As for Jon, one can assume that the rest of the Night's Watch tasked him with bringing the Free Folk (some of them at least) back North where they would be able to settle down once again and live freely - and actually more freely than ever before.

To be fair, he said "There's some part of the Reach which is quite empty now". Though that's silly; in the TV show, the Reach like the Vale and the Stormlands and Dorne didn't lose much men. North, Riverlands, Crownlands and the West (due to Robb and sizable Lannister losses during the years of war) were the most hit.

Shit

Well, the problem is that unless GRRM states so, it will be tricky to convince readers it won't :p

Mass Effet 3 shitstorm? Oh, it's just entitled gamers. The Last Jedi shitstorm? Oh, it's just entitled elder fans. GOT Season 8 shitstorm? Oh, it's just entitled book fans. That has been the standard shitty deflective tactic used for years, no reason they're going to stop, as long as there are tools in the media to actually report such idiotic defenses. At this point, I'm just wondering when we'll see the "Critics of Season 8 / of D-D are juste alt-right goons" line of arguing :p

Yeah, it's a pity. I bash a lot the show and D/D, but the production value is still amazing, music, costumes, CGI, design, and actors still do their best with what they're given. Taken out of context, we had great scenes and acting (which only makes things worse because we can see how good it would've been with a better script). Brienne and Jaime, Jaime and Tyrion, heck even Varys and Tyrion, Jaime and Cersei at the very end (nice change for Headey), Clarke having for once to do something else (desperate Dany, then upset, haughty and defiant dragon-riding Targaryen). I hope their disappointment comes from the fact that, given the first seasons and the few tidbits we've in this one, they know they could've make something great, and not from fear people will blame them for what we get. Fans and critics can see where the failures lie, and that they tried to make it as good as possible. Heck, that's not even new - Dillane barely had a clue what the fuss was about with Stannis and he still managed to do a really good work, often recognised as such, ruined by a shitty ending.

I sure hope he's going to get busy finishing them. If possible with Winds being finished and released in the next 12 months. And that he definitely makes sure that the basic plotlines of the last book is released, one way or another, whatever happens to him. Otherwise, he runs the risk that people will have to assume that most of what happened in the last seasons was actually what he intended, and happened in a manner close to what he had in mind. Obviously. Still, we shouldn't mock them, but actually seize this golden opportunity to unite the bulk of the fandom (books+show) against these hacks and the travesty they did with ASOIAF, story, themes and characters, and make sure everyone in TV and Hollywood is aware they're mediocre writers and story-tellers.

I don't know D/D and don't want to sound too harsh about them. But considering that it's not just that they dislike Stannis or didn't get Jaime's character arc, but that they pretty much didn't get any of the characters and didn't get their caracter arcs either, that they seem to be unable to relate to most if not all characters, and that they only seem to enjoy the biggest psychos around, are on the record thinking Red Wedding was awesome and the main reason they did the series, and are the ones who pushed for ever more violence and graphic sex "because that's what people want to see", I'm now seriously wondering if the reason all this show has turned out so badly on so many levels isn't simply because, deep down, they're just horrible human beings that simply cannot get honour, virtue, redemption and only value the basest instincts, without a shred of empathy or sympathy. I sincerely hope I'm wrong and this is merely incompetence, though.

Reading the title, I was going to post that it was all a bad dream that Bran had after seeing his dad behead the Night Watch deserter - apart from prologue and very first chapter of AGOT, nothing is real :p