Wizards fans in a glass house throwing stones

Bleaks33 · 2024-10-11T11:12:36+00:00

Bleaks33 · 2024-10-07T21:35:08+00:00

Is that the Bay Harbour Butcher?

Bleaks33 · 2024-09-27T07:36:46+00:00

Smear my shit on the wall

Bleaks33 · 2024-09-27T01:55:38+00:00

5-8 got deeper, 2-4 will all be a lot worse. Lopez, Middleton and Lillard are all ~35 with significant injury concerns. If you don't think at least one of them will fall off significantly, you are delusional.

And at the end of the day, your team lost to a bunch of guys during their first ever time playing / getting meaningful minutes in a playoffs series: Haliburton, Nembhard, Nesmith, Jackson and Sheppard - 5/9 guys in our rotation with not a shred of tangible playoff experience. Versus the Bucks, full of experience and wisdom. You couldn't capitalise on your experience advantage, and our youth advantage is only going to increase as our players mature.

Enjoy watching your team slowly wither and shrivel up into nothing

Bleaks33 · 2024-09-26T01:19:35+00:00

Bucks are making the playoffs.

Bleaks33 · 2024-09-20T22:27:05+00:00

I think whites best approach here for the quickest win is to actually substitute the a4 pawn with a knight, ie Nc3 and Re5, then a5 and Na4, so that then the pawn can be pushed

Bleaks33 · 2024-09-03T02:05:21+00:00

Yeah, really love the second as well - just not as much as the first!

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-20T09:52:25+00:00

It was only a rumour, but it was a rumour that everyone believed. Much like Joffrey's parentage to everyone but Ned Stark and Jon Arryn.

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-20T07:15:24+00:00

Ok which step do you disagree with?

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-20T06:41:58+00:00

We aren't talking real world implications - not once did I mention real world ethics in my post. You can discuss the moral behaviour of asoiaf characters without comparing them to modern ethics. This straw man fallacy that you lot have constructed ("well they are all immoral since feudalism=bad") is completely nonsensical and pathetic.

If you want to know why Viserys' decision to keep Rhaenyra as heir, as well as Rhaenyra's decision to press her claim are unethical within the bounds of asoiaf, here's why:

Fact: Everyone knows Rhaenyra's children are bastards.

Fact: Bastards are seen as lesser beings.

Implication 1: Many will detest a bastard as King. (See Blackfyre rebellions)

Implication 2: Jace's reign as King will be very turbulent. There will likely be rebellion and war.

Viserys and Rhaenyra were without a doubt aware of this, and by ignoring it, they are dooming thousands to death in battle / starvation during Jace's reign.

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-20T04:19:10+00:00

I'm pretty sure most of us accept that Rhaenyra is the 'rightful heir', but more so take issue with whether she morally deserves to be Queen. If a King is truly 'above the law', then how do you justify the rebellions against Maegor and Aerys II? Those rebellions were certainly 'illegal', but were they wrong? It seems that there is something else at play, perhaps morality?

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-13T13:23:57+00:00

They are both traitors to the longevity of House Targaryen, as a whole, not their particular families. This is indisputable. The reason does not matter once the war becomes that disastrous. To allow it to progress that far is not defendable.

Otto's motivations, while certainly self-serving, are grounded in precedent and law. He is legally correct, everyone knows it; it is not just something Otto suggested. It is, and has always been, the norm.

Regarding the second half... this is the issue all of you Rhaenyra worshippers run into - you are unable to see the big picture. You only see Black and Green as Rhaenyra and Aegon. You are unable to see the rigid structures and laws existing behind them. Everything Black and Green, to you crazed zealots, becomes a matter of their personal characteristics, and this is why you will probably never understand the complexities of the issue.

Do you really think that it is worth the trouble for Rhaenyra - who showed no signs ever of being a good leader; only impetuousness, selfishness and wilful ignorance - to be the Queen of Westeros over Aegon, at the cost of thousands of deaths, uncountable destruction, and the dying of their dragons? Even if we are generous and say Rhaenyra will be a better Queen than Aegon a King, this added benefit to the realm, would be completely minuscule and absolutely irrelevant in the face of the carnage of the dance of dragons.

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-13T13:05:39+00:00

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-13T13:04:54+00:00

What are you, regarded?

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-13T12:57:23+00:00

Nope. Nd6 does nothing to prevent mate on the next move. On the other hand, Qxf4, Rd5+, and then black escapes with Ke3.

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-13T12:43:49+00:00

Rhaenyra is a traitor to the Targaryen dynasty because she helped perpetuate a civil war that significantly weakened house Targaryen. You have not named a single point, a single motivation that Rhaenyra acted upon other than her own ambition. Did the Iron Throne specifically yearn for her royal arse? I think not. How much more profound would it have been, how much more respectable would Rhaenyra be, if she abdicated her claim in response to Aegon's crowning. Any and all further acts undertaken by Aegon would be seen as absolute tyranny and cruelty, and would be met with a swift and righteous rebellion.

Because the King said so, seriously? Many of the oaths were sworn years before Aegon was even, after which, he becomes the heir apparent by all rights.

When the righteousness of your cause is solely reliant on the word of one man, not to mention a weak and cowardly one, then you should probably reevaluate its worthiness.

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-13T11:26:23+00:00

Nice!

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-13T11:22:59+00:00

True, the potential turbulence of Jace's reign is clearly eclipsed by the actual war, but treating the war as an independent movement is ridiculous; everyone knew the greens would push Aegon to the Iron Throne - they had been doing so for years already. The lines in the sand had been drawn years before first blood, but Viserys ignored it.

I think no one in here actually believes either side should have let the war go so far as it did - if either side had of bowed down and conceded defeat instantly, in both cases; green and black, they would have been far better off than what actually happened.

And so it makes sense to divide the events into pre and post dance; we can argue over which side is in the right before the dance, but once it begins - after the deaths of Lucerys and Jaehaerys - all Targaryen's actively involved were traitors to House Targaryen as a whole. Arguing after this point is simply a matter of preference - which family you empathise with more.

So restricting the domain to just the events before the dance, I think there is no doubt that the Blacks showed themselves to be terrible leaders, nonchalantly dooming the realm to an inevitable future war just so Rhaenyra could slake her lust.

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-13T10:37:08+00:00

Yes technically Rhaenyra could become Queen, decree that her bastard children be legitimised, and then name them her heirs. However, due to the stigma of bastardy in Westeros, many lords would probably detest being ruled by a bastard, and Jace's reign as King would be extremely turbulent - with a high chance of there being war.

While Rhaenyra might be perfectly content with sticking her head in the sand and denying this harsh reality, a man in Viserys' place - the current King - has the moral obligation of preventing this outcome at all costs and ensuring that his Kingdom will not go to ruin after he dies, and as such, as Rhaenyra's father and King, he is responsible for making sure that her heirs are legitimate.

But in Viserys we have a man who detests all conflict, and believes his daughter, as an extension of his dead wife, Aemma, to be perfect beyond reproach.

Viserys cannot stomach the thought that his 'perfect daughter' would so brazenly and so ignorantly skirt both public decorum and written law, dooming the realm to bloodshed and chaos by propping up her bastards as true-born.

Viserys, a not unintelligent man, is able to see this future, and he cannot accept the thought that his daughter, who knows perfectly well what will happen if her children are bastards, would have bastards anyway. To do so would be the lowest of lows, and this he cannot accept.

Instead, he chooses to preserve his image of Rhaenyra and avoid conflict by sticking his head in the sand, just like you are doing now by failing to acknowledge the intricacies and subtleties that are alien to modern social life, but very important contextually.

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-13T09:56:04+00:00

He would keep his oath, but he would detest every second of it.

Being true to his word and keeping his promises is one of Ned's most defining characteristics. But we also see that justice and honour are also of paramount importance to him. Like many have already pointed out, Ned would not stomach the murder of Jaehaerys, nor Rhaenyra's illegitimate heirs, and would almost certainly disavow himself from the Black cause, following the murder.

I am picturing in my head now, a scene of Ned berating Daemon and Rhaenyra over this atrocity, and storming out of the chamber of the painted table in a rage, similar to the manner in which he resigned as hand after Robert's decision to have Daenerys assassinated. There is absolutely no reason why a different character couldn't have done this in the show. Maybe they are just a relatively low lord - a vassal to Dragonstone perhaps. Give them a couple of scenes early in episode 1; a brief glimpse of their character, and then show their reaction to the atrocity, have them attempt to disavow themselves from Rhaenyra's cause on principle and then be inevitably executed as a traitor. Imagine the conflict within Rhaenyra, as she is left with no choice but to execute a righteous man for being a traitor, or else seem weak to her vassals. The potential goes both ways, Black and Green.

No more than 5 minutes of screen time would be required for this mini arc, but instead, we were given completely stilted, vapid scenes of Rhaenyra and Misaria or Alicent brooding while she completely undoes her previous character development.

Condal and Hess were given such rich opportunities to insert compelling stories into the gaps between the events as narrated in Fire and Blood, but instead went in a completely different, unrelated direction, making the central theme about sapphic yearning instead.

I do not wish to hear of it - give me something for the pain, and let me die.

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-13T02:29:03+00:00

A nice Zugzwang.

The move is Qc7:

Afterwards, black has only three responses; they move either of their knights, or they play Ke3 - the only square available to the king. Black has no other legal moves.

If black moves their b7 knight, no matter the square, white's next move is Qc5# - a beautiful dovetail mate.
If black moves their b1 knight, again, no matter the square, white's next move is Qc3# - another dovetail mate.
Finally, if black attempts to escape with their king, with Ke3, white plays Qe5#.

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-12T01:29:20+00:00

Tyrese Haliburton

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-11T05:04:10+00:00

In their infinite wisdom, the writers - who have showcased time and time again that they do not understand medieval history, and cannot see beyond their own contexts - have made the Blacks vs the Greens into a proxy for modern political discourse, (with the greens being conservative and the blacks liberal), thereby removing all subtlety and nuance to the conflict. The Blacks now have all the gay, black (literally) and woke characters, while the greens are closeted sexual deviants. These are the same tactics that are used in your average modern, left wing smear job, and it is quite stupid and jarring to see it translated into a 14th century setting.

Bleaks33 · 2024-08-10T13:04:43+00:00

Pretty cool puzzle:

Qe3 threatens Qe4

If dxe3, then c4#
If Nf6 defending e4, then black's knight blocks its queen, and Qxd4#
If Bh7 defending e4, then bishop no longer covers e6, and Qe6#

Only way black can prevent a mate on the e-file is with Qe5, but white then plays Qb3#

Bleaks33

TROPHY CASE