Cas Stark

Oh I am biased, I freely admit it. I disliked the Dany Dance chapters that did the same thing again and again and I disliked the Dance Tyrion chapters for the same reason, which I have already said could have been cut by 25% or more, for those particular POVs we could have gotten the same place with half the words. I hated the pointless waste of time that was the Quentyn chapters and while I found the Vic chapters to be more entertaining, they are also probably unnecessary. According to me, the rambling, stay in place, long Essos chapters have already damaged the story. 1) Dany goes to Vaes Dothrak, gets made Khaleesi of all the Dothraki, gets some reports that help set up the battle, kills some Khals 2) Battle of Meereen/burns it down 3) A look back chapter after the battle and after whatever happens to the rest of her Essos enemies, burned it all down, or maybe make that two chapters. We don't need to see it in real time, condense the story and do it as Dany reflects on how it all happened. This could be told partly with Tyrion and Selmy and even Vic chapters adding some additional background. 4) Update on whatever else happened and Dany sails for Westeros.

I hope not. I already turned against Dany as a result of too much Essos going too badly. Reading what felt like 300 chapters of Dany trying to rule and failing was not only boring but it turned me against her character. I once really wanted her to retake the Iron Throne, but no more, she's not up to it. If the show is anything to go by, and I think it is, she will burn it all down, leaving chaos and a smoking ruin, which is pretty much what her actions so far have already done, telling herself it will all be different in Westeros. That shouldn't take a whole book. It could be done in 3 or 4 chapters, or it could have been done in 3-4 chapters by 1990s GRRM. 2020s GRRM, maybe not. Certainly if you are correct and all of Winds takes place still in Essos, then he will never finish in two more books total and finishing the series itself will be impossible. My guess is she gets to Westeros somewhere toward the last half/third of Winds, if it ever gets finished and comes out.

If he is able to stick to the idea of finishing the series in 2 more books, which I don't believe he will progress the story enough to do, based on the sample Winds chapters and the obvious trouble he still is having with writing, there isn't enough time to show the Long Night affecting Essos in any major way. We know she has to get out of Mereen and Essos and go to Westeros and will presumably do that during Winds. If he fails to progress the story sufficiently in Winds to realistically finish in 1 more book, then he could expand on the Essos long night stuff, but that is really only a philosophical exercise for the fans, since he will be lucky to get Winds out, and the chance of getting Spring or god forbid two more books out after Winds are vanishingly small. If the covid lockdown and curtailing all of his travel for a significant amount of time did not get the book finished, it may be that nothing will get it finished, whether 500 more pages to go is accurate or not.

Started watching The Offer. I think I'll stick with it. Some of the casting was spectacular, some, not so great.

Yes. So much this. The Meereen knot being this huge problem was extremely strange, I mean, just decide who comes when and be done with it.

I disagree with this pretty strongly. Dance is extremely bloated, at least 25% of the text could have been cut, maybe more with no loss, instead improvement all around. Dance also doesn't work that well as a novel, in terms of story arc, character development and plot. A lot of stuff happens, new POVs appear, new stories appear, then it ends abruptly with nothing resolved. But then GOT is my favorite of the books, with Storm as a close second. In fact, my opinion is that the skill is inversely proportional to the amount of time spent...Feast and Dance much inferior to the first 3 books.

Maybe the perfectionism is a result of various roadblocks, struggles and knots, if that makes sense. When the words were flowing like wine and he was in the zone most of the time, not such a need for rewriting. When he hasn't been 'feeling it' or the work is a labor, or the various plot points have become too complex, possibly more of an issue of second guessing or not being happy with outcome.

As I understand it, they were 'gifted' Frogmore based on them being full time working royals. That's why the renovations were initially paid for by the sovereign grant, and why when they quit, they paid the money back and were allegedly paying rent, which it turns out, they never did. There may be some mandates on paying market rate rent on some of the crown properties now. I know in the past QEII was criticized for renting apartments to her cousins as a pittance. Worth noting again, that the rf does not own most of the royal residences or properties. They only outright own, e.g. if the monarchy ends they keep them Balmoral, Sandringham and Highgrove?.

The GRRM who found his first inspiration in the Bran chapter was a very different person than the GRRM who was writing Dance, almost 15 years later, and struggled to finish it. He is yet another person and writer today, almost 15 more years later and no Winds and continuing to struggle. I don't find his updates to be very useful, he has been proven to be mistaken on his timing too many times for too many years. If Winds comes out, great, if not, I'm fine with that as well.

No, not even a little.

The devil is in the details as they say. Apparently, H and M neither paid back the cost of the renovations to Frogmore Cottage, as was said, nor paid any actual rent on Frogmore, as was also said. Instead, the cost of the rent they would have paid was applied to the cost of the renovations. https://www.thedailybeast.com/prince-harry-and-meghan-markle-in-tense-talks-with-palace-over-coronation As for Meghan's dog, there are several versions of why she rehomed him. First, it was said the dog, then 6, was 'too old' for the transatlantic flight. The next version was that the dog didn't like Harry. Harry's version in Spare is yet a third iteration where the dog became aggressive as a result of the paps. It's odd that they wouldn't have told this version from the beginning as it would have created huge sympathy for Meg. ETA...that may be wrong, it's different from the Daily Mail story, which says they did pay the cost of the renovations and then the rent was used to offset that cost, e.g. they never paid any rent.

A Clockwork Orange would be divisive even today, and probably would still not win best picture if it came out in 2022. It's no Godfather.

Yes. That said, while I usually like a dark comedy, this was a little too dark for me, and more dark than comedy by a long shot.

No.

Possibly. They did after all award Around the World in 80 Days with a best picture win, and Judy Holiday beat Bette Davis in All about Eve and Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd. for best actress and that was back in the 50s. However, the crop of best picture winners over the last 10 years must be the weakest stretch in film history, not completely the fault of the academy voters, but still. CODA? Spotlight? Birdman? Nomadland? That's a weak stretch.

Birdman is when my personal tracker says that the academy started to really go off the rails.

Blanchett already won for an unlikeable character in Blue Jasmine. Looking at the list of best actress winners over the years, I don't really see much evidence that best actress wins have been for primarily for 'warm' 'caring' roles. If anything there is a preference for showy characters, warm or not.

I have nothing of substance to add. I finally decided to give Picard a try, only to realize I had actually watched part of season 1 and completely blocked it out. It didn't even register that I had seen it until half way through ep. 1. So much for that idea.

Again, no. They were not physically hounded by the paparazzi in the UK. It didn't happen and it does not happen and has not happened since Diana died. Of course Harry lived through his mother's significant harassment as a child, but that doesn't happen now. If you want to argue that the royal rota deal(s) are intrusive and that Harry was right to resent it and take himself out of it, that is a different thing, but the idea that they were unsafe due to the paps harassing them in London is just not true. You know who was harassed by the paps? Kate Middleton. [Before her marriage though, doesn't happen anymore] https://news.yahoo.com/kate-middleton-suffered-paparazzi-harassment-141655274.html

It's impossible to convince the H&M fans of anything, they are seemingly impervious to facts. All quoting facts and details that refute Harry's narrative does is get you slammed for knowing too much about the royals, being obsesed and/or being a 'hater' of some kind.

Meghan was just papped yesterday, in LA. When was the last time Kate Middleton in London was papped outside of a media event?

You're mistaken, but we can agree to disagree. Things have changed since the 90s in terms of how the royal family is treated by the paps as a direct result of Diana's death. But, keep believing.

That is nonsense too though because the paps can't get onto the grounds of Windsor Castle, or Kensington Palace, etc. He also had access to royal protection officers which he no longer has since quitting. They didn't have any actual examples of themselves being chased by paps except the one single guy on a scooter for their documentary, all the examples of banks of cameras they used were either official set ups or instances of someone else being 'hounded'. His safely concerns were a combination of his own paranoid delusions and an excuse. But I get it, people want to believe the Sussex narrative about being hounded out of the UK, and the more that has come out showing them to be dishonest drama queen exaggerators, the more their fans double down. It's the way humans always behave when 'their side' is in trouble.

For fans of James Cameron, Titanic, Hollywood in the 90s. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/titanic-oscars-oral-history-1235343150/

It's objective truth that the UK is safer than the US, so I'm not sure how that is a rationalization. I'm not sure what you mean by 'not even close to their first choice'. I never expected them to end up anywhere other than CA . If you think that they were really ever going to end up in Africa or New Zealand, I've got a bridge to sell you.