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James Arryn

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Everything posted by James Arryn

  1. I used to be entirely against AA (and I guess on paper still am) because it is racism by definition and that’s what we’re trying to move away from. I eventually came around because; 1) no one else has thought of anything that addresses the issue more effectively. 2) data seems to show that a lot of bigotry decreases just by proximity, so over time AA should erode it’s hold. I’m still in the same place. In an academic sense I think it’s all wrong, it’s raising lines along walls we want to lower, but I have yet to find anything else that works. I used to place a lot of hope in technology making people more anonymous, ie remote working, etc. but studies show that more remote people often foster the harshest prejudices and don’t get the interactions that reduce it, so if anything I’m more AA now when so many seem to be saying things I said decades ago. It’s not an easy problem to fix, and I had been somewhat unaware of Asians suffering the downside of it, so that complicates it more. I’ll say this, getting rid of AA with nothing substantial to replace it is imo a retrograde. Letting the perfect get in the way of the good. If it was being phased out in favour of a new approach I’d find it more interesting, but this seems to be more of the plurality doing away with something that doesn’t favour itself, for that reason.
  2. Not support, no, but I think both sides had legit arguments, both sides did awful things, neither side imo emerged as morally superior and the show decided to follow GoT in overtly casting the world as grey but underneath that very much pulling for one side. Ironically, their choice to Cersei Rhaenyra…to omit, redistribute or mitigate her worst actions…most acutely how she became available to Daemon…while creatively done, was a clear indication imo that they had chosen sides. Whereas it did not mean that with Cersei, at all. They just decided to give a lot of her worst stuff to Joff, etc. in order to make her more sympathetic, either because they felt she was too one dimensional or because they wanted her to evolve into her later self because of pain and experience rather than starting out already there. The show also really leaned into Aegon being a complete asshat whereas in the books he’s not particularly anything, and actually argues against being crowned until the (legit) point is made that his continued existence as the male heir will be a problem for Rhaenyra, one likely to be used for revolts or coups and as such he and his children will probably fall out of open windows fairly soon after she’s crowned, if not by her order, certainly Daemon’s. That’s what persuades him, and imo it should. Anyways, my favourite characters in this era are almost all on Driftmark, so this isn’t personal preference, but imo the events, so clearly based on the Anarchy, ought to be as nuanced. Though to be fair popular depictions of Stephen have over time gone down the mustache-twirling avenue that was very much not the contemporary or historical view. In fact the criticisms of him in and immediately following his time was that he was too…chivalrous, too forgiving, too moved by sympathy (Shrewsbury being the notable exception) and that while he was one of the greatest warriors of his age, he lacked the required ruthlessness to rule in such a divided time. Ironic how over time he has been almost completely inverted.
  3. Have you seen the original outline? He submitted that with the first GOT chapters, which were apparently never changed. So at the very least she was a designated villain (though I’m sure GRRM’d have greyed her up) 18 chapters in. He later started changing his mind. Now if you want you can think he changed his mind completely in the elevator on the way down from dropping off his outline/18 chapters, or you can think it more likely to have been later…how much later is the interesting question. It’s interesting that her denying Arya, losing Lady, and still after all she had seen of his being a complete asshole she still wants to marry him and stay in the South she loves (as opposed to the North she dislikes) so much that she betrays her father to Cersei. So you might think it more likely than not that he reconsidered her sometime after that, but YMMV.
  4. I’m fascinated about trying to figure out exactly when he decided to not have Sansa as a villain? Towards the end of GOT, or before Clash, or between Clash and Storm? When? So interesting, in terms of all the differences it potentially makes.
  5. So the Rockets debate at 4 was Amen or Cam. Decided pretty firmly on Amen, took him. Then when Whitmore started dropping they were frantically working the phones to try and get back in the lottery to get him…Stone says his most active draft night ever, but they just couldn’t find a match, were pretty frustrated…then he drops into their laps at 20. Two top 5-7 talents without making a move. Doesn’t remotely even out for missing out on Wemby/recent lottery bad luck, but it’s a start. Their freak athleticism now can come at you in waves.
  6. They’re all dead, let them lie together if that’s what the families want. Who is harmed? Yeah, I guess it’s a bit tacky for me, but my tastes are irrelevant. Just the families of the victims, and I suppose the families of the Titanic victims if any are still alive and/or care. No one else’s opinion matters much to me on this. As long as they’re not harming anyone, I learned a long time ago that grief manifests itself in countless different ways, almost everyone is a bit different…there’s no right or wrong way to deal with death, except maybe those who, like myself once when younger, refuse to process it because it feels like a storm mass that will blow through me and leave nothing left, so I kept putting it off and putting it off until finally when I was ready to face it, I never really got there. Talking about my paternal grandmother who helped raise me and was in many ways a second mother…I am tearing up as I write this, but coming down from migraine/screaming babies it might just be physiological. Anyways, she had probably the best, most caring, completely non-judgmental heart of anyone I ever knew until one of my twins took that place. I hope I let her know that…I told her I loved her all the time, but I’m not sure I told her why, how wonderful she was. I used to have almost no regrets in life; lately my reviews of past behaviour I’m finding incidents come to mind and I see many of them in a less forgiving light. Becoming a parent is a bit like a personality transplant. Sorry, migraines can leave me very scattered for a while, total tangent.
  7. Confused. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/school-compulsory-lessons-colony-slave-trade-b1807571.html
  8. Upper Canada…modern Ontario…got the jump on the empire by almost half a century, outlawing slavery back in the late 18th Century (in just their second session as a legislative body, the first having been entirely devoted to bureaucratic/technical aspects of forming a legislative body). Slavery had never really been much of a thing in Upper Canada…the highest recorded number of slaves in the province before the mass immigration of UELs was 15, of whom some were just in transit. Then the American Revolution happened and a bunch of loyalists…including ancestors of mine…flooded into Ontario, many bringing slaves (no idea if that includes mine) and almost overnight it went from 15 to over 500. This caused a great commotion and political unrest, and less than a decade after the Revolution ended, the Act Against Slavery was passed. Canada screwed over our native population…though nowhere near as brutally or comprehensively as our peers…but otherwise has pretty much been on the ‘right’ side of history for most of its existence, and has never started a war in it’s entire existence (unless you count the small Canadian company that was amongst the western nations that launched an unprovoked invasion of Russia during it’s civil war/revolution to back the Czar….an interesting if conveniently forgotten episode in modern history) Not a patriot, but I am proud of that.
  9. It is one of mankind’s greatest tragedies that the war that did the most to formulate popular understanding of war was among the greatest of exceptions. So since then the exception became the rule, and wars were bought and sold and countless civilians died because oh, appeasement.
  10. Nationalism may have begun with mixed motives, but the evolution of patriotism is just another way of getting the masses to fight and die for the material interests of people who are rarely seen anywhere near live action. Studies show that most soldiers almost always have only a vague idea of why they are fighting…other than, since nationalism, almost everyone fighting on every side in every war thinks they are the ones under attack.
  11. There’s zero doubt imo that Putin and his supporters will try and spin this as a victory. That’s one of the few things about all of this that’s pretty easy to predict/understand. It’s also quite likely that, as we see everywhere, people who have already bought into him and/or authoritarianism will be perfectly happy to see it whichever way keeps them from having to question anything, especially their own choices. Whether that comprises a sufficiency is well beyond my rudimentary grasp of the Russian political situation. That’s almost as impossible to judge as it is for Russians from the other side because of course our side employs rooms of weavers too. More and more contemporary history seems to revert to the Greens vs. the Blues + technology.
  12. Another advantage LF has over other schemers is that he doesn’t have to conclude anywhere in particular. It’s a LOT harder to plot and stay in the shadows and affect the changes you need when you have one specific goal in mind. Amongst other issues, if people can determine where you need to end up, they can anticipate your actions much more easily. This is why imo Varys >>>>>LF as a plotter, because he had kept so many moving pieces working towards a specific agenda without anyone being able to spot it or stop him. If he had the freedom of movement LF has, he could…well, do almost anything. Who in KL would ever be safe if Varys decided he wanted chaos?
  13. Renly didn’t need Stannis’ fleet, he had the Redwyne coming around. It was a done deal, Renly required nothing from Stannis in order to win and restore peace. Well, except not using blood magic to assassinate him. Whereas Stannis needed almost everything from Renly, especially his men, and without it stood zero chance. But if he just wanted to save lives he could have Shadowbaby’d someone other than his brother. Tywin? Joffrey? Or would that have been unsporting?
  14. As Peaches highlighted, not specific to you. But the entire point of Stannis Baratheon is that he would have someone like Stannis Baratheon maimed for smuggling, executed for treason, burnt alive for kinslaying, sent to the wall for dereliction of duty, etc. provided it wasn’t actually Stannis Baratheon.
  15. There is 0.0000006% chance Stannis goes north without the Blackwater. Not while the crown is yet to be won. He did not choose going north over taking KL, he chose it over the only plan suggested aside from surrender; a petty payback raid on Claw Isle. Not remotely the same alternative.
  16. Except for the minor quibble that one of these brothers declared war on the other, then attacked the other with the specific agenda to be his assassination. And the other brother defended his capital from attack and did not forbid his commanders from killing Stannis in the battle (to defend himself against the attacker, again) if necessary. So yeah, hardly any difference. I’d say it’ll never happen, but with the sheer number of polls/data collection I wonder if we could ever find out what % of Stannis fans are Trump supporters, or vice versa. The…not just willing, but enthusiastic, enraptured capacity for cognitive dissonance and false equivalence is very evident ‘on many sides’, ie spectically one side. Not saying this about you, rather the sheer volume of Trump like blind devotion to the Mannis has taken its toll. As far as the OP, it would really be a fascinating moment. On the one hand Stannis might be the most self-centred character in the books…at least from the outside. Cersei’s POV puts her pretty high but imagine being inside the Mannisphere. On the other hand he does seem to put a lot of weight on duty or law. On the other hand when the law/his duty gets in the way of Stannis getting what Stannis feels he deserves, it gets sidestepped pretty neatly with regularity. So, I dunno. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that if it is absolutely and unshakeably shown to him that his death WILL save the world and similarly it’s shown that only his death will accomplish that, he’d do it.
  17. Yeah, if SE was just a murder trap, a much better path would be to just not get in your brother’s way as he crushes the Lannisters, restores order to the realm, etc. and then do it after having no record of openly opposing King Renly. Then you bring in the new human sacrifice religion and begin the proscribed hit lists of Stannis long and troubled memory. But it would have at least been good for a while between the victory and the Fire God’s hungry reign.
  18. So they had advance knowledge of the Shadowbaby? Because otherwise Renly would by a pretty significant margin have made the most effective king of any of the 5K. Including long-term. No Shadowbaby is good for pretty much everyone but Lannisters. And readers/publishers, because it would have really been a short book.
  19. I agree that’s likely Smith’s M.O., but Garland really seems to prefer doing nothing.
  20. Well, in just the past 20 years the US drops an average of ~ 40 bombs a day on someone somewhere, so doubtless there are international crimes he committed which…stop me if you’ve heard this before…will never be addressed because US Presidents are beyond international law.
  21. I don’t think Raffensberger has to abide for it to be a guilty act on Trump’s part. That would involve Raffensberger’s guilt. Trump’s is in trying, like trying to bribe, trying to blackmail, etc. It might make it easier to prove…or possibly harder, as it gives the system Raffensberger to be the sacrificial goat.
  22. Yes, but we’re living through the time where Trump/Fox keep being the worst clients, making normally difficult to prove elements fall like rain. Imagine before having heard of it as fact, to…for example…say in the documents case ‘well, we have two separate recordings of Trump himself breaking the law while describing how the law is being broken, how incredibly important the documents are and for good measure including the specifics about not declassifying them while President/inability to do so now’. It’s like prosecution Christmas. Docs on US sources on Iranian nukes? Any other perp would have had their door kicked down 4 AM with dogs and weapons drawn within the first week of non-compliance.
  23. Death in Three Acts, or similar. I LOVE the new series of Dalgliesh. I found/marathoned the first series when we first moved in here…remember watching it on breaks from painting, and when the rooms were basically empty, and loved the length and depth of the adaptations, though a bit dated. Really wish more book adaptations took that long, but anyways, I think he’s a difficult character and whoever plays him is doing a lot with very little. Marsden was a bit too built along the lines of Sean Connery to me, though his acting was great, but his innate physicality didn’t suit the character because in the books he’s only ever intimidating with his intelligence and meticulous control over his behaviour…Marsden would have been immediately intimidating physically, which is never hinted at by anyone, and that physical presence got in the way of the mental/emotional presence which defines the character almost in negative form. Shaw was also good, but much more ebullient and at ease, his sensitivity much less well hidden. It worked, so no complaints, just a slightly different tack than I’d imagined reading. But imo Carvel instead fits better. He chooses his words and when to speak them very carefully and that plus his presence has affects on other characters…immediate authority for one thing. Haven’t seen him have to raise his voice yet, he does a lot with mostly silent subtle acting (so did Shah and at times Marsden). For example it’s completely clear he ~ values but mostly can’t stand one of his officers, and that’s made very apparent pretty quickly in the way he…does the same things as with everyone else (very reserved but perceptive, quiet, intense, focused, well mannered, thoughtlessly authoritative)…in other words all the same things he is almost all the time, but because of the subtle acting it screams at the viewers that_____ is not his kind of person/detective, though that does not affect his assessment and he still does credit him with the skills/nous he has. Conversely he demonstrates a compassionate care with another officer, though there it is made more explicit in the dialogue, but even there he imbues what might be awkward or ~ empty words with a sense that _____ getting what they deserve has become very important to him. That was always an issue with Dalgliesh…he’s too Swiss clock, he’s too letter perfect, almost always in total control, wielding prolonged silences like rapiers…though James does not give him Holmes or even poirot’s almost superhuman brains, he does not often make huge deductive leaps, but rather just grinds away, meticulously, until he gets there. It’s his ability to pretty completely control himself and others, and his ability to keep all elements of the crime in mind pretty constantly, so that his new information is always taken in in full context. Another aspect…maybe the one that makes him remotely sympathetic to me…is that he really does care about people, generally and specifically the victims. This comes across in little ways…for example he always finds little ways to help people in need, and his reactions to the crimes are always first about the person, the life, that someone chose to end. He thinks of them/asks about them always as he would a living being, and I think the combination serves to give us the understanding that his control is so constant and unrelenting because he feels that’s what the victim/murderer deserve, that’s how he fuels his work with his outrage. I think Carvel is conveying it very well, but that means a lot of silences/non-verbal aciting and an emphasis on atmosphere and that’s not everyone’s bag. And my major complaint is the show appears to be falling into the trap of every two single adults of compatible persuasions who like each other MUST explore that through the romance lens…though in this case they are, I think, intending to keep that aspect very one-sided and possibly un revealed. That’s better, but no romance between colleagues who get along would be even more refreshing.
  24. Lots of different pollsters saying the indictments are energizing Trump’s base. And it’s all the sound bite stuff, nothing about the actual charges, just ‘why not Hillary’? etc. Which makes sense in a weird way. If you categorically refuse to look at the charges or evidence, of course any indictment is going to require secondary motivation. It’s frightening how quickly any behaviour gets excused under colours.
  25. You will warn us, won’t you, when you’re feeling a little ‘inspired’?
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