James Arryn

I suspect Arya’s original role was part of the ~ Columbus narrative, probably being the one to arrive in Ashai from the east, and then ‘leading’ Dany’s army back across the Sunset Sea to the west coast of Westeros. I also think she was the hinge/link between Dany and Jon, and having spent the longest time with Dany (of the Starks, at least) was to be the first to grow apprehensive of her and her dragons. She may even have been responsible for eliminating or at least being part of an attempt to eliminate w/e dragons were left once they had played their role against the Others**. I think becoming part of the FM for much longer (5 year gap) and rising within it was how she/we were supposed to learn about their role in the Doom, which may also have been the foundation for her apprehension about them. In that scenario she would also be the one to put Jon on the horns of dilemma…she is clearly the character he loves the most, well she and Robb, but Robb is dead…until Dany, and thereby putting his heart in the conflict with itself, either directly if/when she kills a dragon or is caught trying to do so and possibly being killed herself, leading to Jon’s ultimate sacrifice of Dany for the greater good, or indirectly by counselling Jon about the danger Dany/dragons represents to order once Ice has been defeated, or some combination thereof. But when George scrapped the Columbus parallel, her role became more ambiguous and probably more tragic. I think George still intends to use her to put Jon’s heart in conflict with itself, but it won’t be as clearly defined and won’t be as a result of her experience with her while leading Dany’s fleet to Westeros. I don’t know if there will be a romantic aspect to this triangle as originally planned…I hope not, but by virtue of their being cousins, not siblings, and by having in many ways the most Ygritte-like personality, it’s still possible*. So I do think her primary role has been redefined, and I think her role as Agent of Death/Nemesis will be heightened to ~ compensate for having lost her Odyssey around the globe. I am afraid she is destined for death, but the one glimmer of hope is that instead of the Columbus role playing a major role in the main story, she might survive to instead, after all the death dealing/vengeance fuelling the Jon/Dany conflict, fulfill the Columbus role by implication, setting off to see what’s west of west at the end much like in the show. I do however think this is less likely, and the probability is that her council about Fire and subsequent death at the hands of Dany or her dragon(s?) will serve as the catalyst for his killing Dany. So I think since scrapping the 5 year gap and Columbus angle, George has been struggling to retain aspects of her intended role, and the Nymeria element might be reduced to a combination of leading the Riverlands Wolfpack and possibly the ~ show ending. And arguably replacing one nautical analogy with another, ie the Ferryman. Meantime, though I realize her strongest supporters (coupled with those just generally more comfortable with characters killing people for very dubious reasons/child killers) reject this very strongly, she has been the most heart-breaking character to me. Originally vying for top spot in my favourite character list, she now just saddens me, as do those ‘9 year old casual killers is fine/Daeron deserved it, etc.’ readers. ** or possibly more, serving to heighten the conflict narrative. *I think if that ‘sister’ to lover transition happens now it’s more likely with Sansa, especially after deciding to avoid her intended villain/betrayer role, though I think I’d put the odds at either very low.

Ty Cobb, Trump’s headline hunting former lawyer…sorry, the one named after an old timey baseball player…says that evidence of both aspects of crime were so abundant in the documents case that he confidently predicts conviction and jail time for his former client. He further says that though there is scope for expansion of the charges, he feels the case as is is so solid the prosecution will likely not bother.

The NAACP has issued a travel advisory for the state of Florida. Basis being the hostility and significant risk of violation of the civil rights of African-Americans and the LGBTQ community.

I kinda look at it as checkmate where your opponent can play it out or concede, but you both know it’s over. The price for playing it out here would have been ridiculously high for zero gain. But the second part of doing it the way GRRM does is kinda two-fold symbolism; it’s the invulnerable Vale’s weak spot (dragons, which to be fair is everyone’s weak spot, just with the Vale it’s more singular) writ small. And it also establishes a kind of affinity. Every major house has a kind of personality model, and the Arryns is the closest to the Targs (Gardeners might have been as well, hard to know now)…unless you count the unofficially major Hightowers who are similar to both in many ways. But both are proud, haughty, martial, ~ remote/aloof, austere, overtly prioritize honour but quite prone to periods of viscous infighting, both (before the Conquest) felt themselves invulnerable, both their seats are foreboding works of improbable engineering but kind of cold and uncomfortable to those not raised there, both houses represent the centre of origin of an Essosi culture and religion brought to Westeros, both sigils are killers who strike from above, etc. I’d add that both are often represented as physically attractive, but this is true of several houses so not really a distinction. And then if you look back at the earlier history, the Targs intermarried with the Arryns far more than any other house of non-Valyrian descent. The sense you’re left with is that the Targs felt more akin to the Arryns than was true for other Westerosi houses, though I don’t know if the Sharra/Visenya interaction was chicken or egg re: this dynamic. And over time, as the Targs became more and more Westerosi this, lol, special relationship waned (as it did with the houses of Valyrian descent).

I would not call her persuasion of Lady Arryn “charming”. She held the heir in her lap, with her dragon behind her. The threat was so implicit it might well be regarded as explicit. If we want to credit her here, I would call it an ability to be subtle, or as Sun Tzu says, ‘winning without fighting’. Edit: If by ‘of the family’ you mean all Targs, I’d probably disagree, but if you mean ‘of the three siblings at the conquest’, yes, easily.

Sure, but the comment I was responding to was about appearance based assumptions, ie the people we know have done much worse would of course never do such a thing. Just because.

Wait, it’ll get worse, next there will be rumours about tabloids bugging phones and stuff like that, and you and I can sit back rolling our eyes at the idiotic credulity of everyone whose flagpole doesn’t rise upon hearing the national anthem.

Lol, sleeping pills kicking in, going to bed. Maybe we can do this structuralist vs. gestalt thing tomorrow if we’re all interested. Night, with fond affection .

Sure, but she’s a living breathing reminder of both cognitive decline and a political machine being willing and able to ~ hide it for quite a while. Put it this way, it definitely doesn’t help.

Yeah, thinking I might have been just a tad hyperbolic; it’s terrible timing and MIGHT be the worst moment, but a bit closer to the election where Biden would have less opportunity to demonstrate cognition to ease doubts might be the worst. So hard to know how these things will take hold, but it’s one of those things that can be hard to unthink once you start thinking it.

It’s…okay. Don’t watch it too much. Prefer Pakman, a few others. Some good takes, a lot of purity tests. Lead guy (Kyle?) is better on his own; when he’s co-hosting and they start bouncing off each other he can get more and more the kind of left-winger right-wingers imagine us all to be, though brighter.

Feinstein is happening at a terrible time for Biden. Many who weren’t worried about his age will be more likely to now, whereas those who were a bit worried will now be much more worried.

You watch Secular Talk too, huh?

I worked all through undergrad and sort of off and on through grad. I’d say most of my classmates did too, but tbh I don’t really have any way of being certain of that broadly, just that…maybe engineering aside…it seemed like most of my school friends had something on the side.

Yeah, I saw that. Still not sure how to factor in two different pitchers, though. But to be clear, the Jays themselves never went near this; teams/players/coaches generally stay as far away from these kind of controversies in public as they can. It was the announcers…who also usually do the same. Basically anybody whose career depends on the game keeps this in-house, though to be fair I have yet to hear any ‘anonymous sources’ saying anything either, which is possibly telling. But yeah, it reduces my suspicion a bit, no question.

I guess I didn’t make my main point: it was back to back at-bats against two different pitchers. I find the odds that they both were tipping their pitches, both picked up on and both to the same batter, somewhat stretching probability. Not impossible, especially when the second pitcher has been rumoured to tip a bit in the past, but I think other explanations are at least as likely. Pitchcom has been beneficial, but we also know how arms races work. Again, not saying ‘they are cheating!’…but I’d feel pretty comfortable in saying that if this were reversed and the Yankee announcers felt they caught something, twice, and were literally talking about it just before say Guerrero hit a moonshot, it would not end there as it likely will here.

Well, that and The Big Sleep.

No thoughts on the Judge controversy? To get out in front, Yank fans seem to keep missing a few facts: 1) it was noticed and discussed (by two of the most universally respected and loved announcers in the game with like 55 years combined experience announcing, and another 17 as a mlb catcher) on TWO back to back at bats against TWO different pitchers. 2) In all their years broadcasting, neither has ever made this kind of ~ allegation before, and both looked at each other immediately after they first saw it in the at bat prior to the moonshot and were uncomfortably discussing it again in the moonshot at-bat BEFORE the moonshot. 3) No cheating is ever believed until it’s proven undeniably. 4) His explanation about players chirping I could almost believe..partly because I have so much respect for his talent…except that only covers one of the two at bats at most. 5) So we are left with…what? The odds that back to back pitchers were tipping and the Yanks immediately noticed both? You think that’s the Occam’s answer? I honestly have no idea wtf happened, but pretending this is standard/gamesmanship not cheating/a nothingburger seems imo the least reasonable assumption. That it was a team from another country against the biggest star on the highest profile team inAmerica, I don’t expect this will go anywhere. Maybe that’s the correct call, but it leaves a ton of unanswered questions imo.

Sadly, that was said about an entirely different atrocity, well several in fact but most famously after the battle of Ben Tre. The left-wing NYTimes was the first to get ahold of it and, probably in some devious socialist plan to stop the war, chose to bury it. To be fair, the vast majority of the countless villages and up to millions of civilian casualties were destroyed from aerial bombardment. The US’s own findings determined that aerial bombardment alone destroyed over 400 villages…and though overall casualty estimates vary wildly, the US’s own numbers bear almost no resemblance to those of every independent and/or VM estimates. Of note: US operational command made no official distinction between civilian and military casualties, a fact blamed by many for the wildly overestimated enemy military casualty numbers recorded in US field reports.

Try reading it again. I presented you with an alternative. In fact I have presented that alternative to you several times, and you keep ignoring it. If that is not what you are saying, if you don’t think people should have less autonomy in decided if and when to divorce, what ARE you saying? As asked several times, are you just spouting slogans that have zero application and nothing to do with politics or the law? If so, why? What is your actual point as you see it?

You think outside bodies have some role to play in other people’s relationships when not both of the people actually in it want that. How is that not some lessening of the voluntary nature of the relationship? Or, if that’s not what you want, what the fuck are we talking about? Slogans? Be better, think good thoughts, try hard, one day at time, eyes on the prize, what the fuck?

Who is saying marriage is bad? People are saying bad marriages are bad, good marriages are good, and the people in the marriages are best placed to determine which is which. Should you ‘try harder’ at anything, like say sports? I guess, if you want to. But if you don’t? Why do you want marriage to be less voluntary? Are you in a relationship? If so, are you willing for the board here to vote on what choices you should or should not make in that relationship? If not…why not?

What do you mean when you say their marriage ‘dragged on’? How exactly do you legislate couples ‘trying harder’? What role does government have in that, and FFS why would you want that? Or if this is just about platitudes and sloganism, knock yourself out, but what is it doing in a politics thread? And, lastly, on balance, who do you think knows more about the state of a marriage, the people in it, or the outsiders trying to make generalized statements about what others should or should not do with their lives? This indirectly reminds me of a joke I heard about American capitalists enthusiasm for ‘exporting freedom of economies’…yeah, provided it’s their freedom and other peoples’ economies.

My parents split when I was 2 and I am astonished they made it that long.

Was it you? I went to your profile looking for it but after a few pages gave up. But if it was you, major kudos. If it wasn’t you and you are agreeing with me, well, kudos too.