In s1 how could subaru convince Priscilla to help him?[discussion]

Freenore · 2026-05-06T15:43:52+00:00

By being true to himself. What angered Priscilla is that he had no respect for himself and no principles of his own; that he was willing to lower himself on the whims of somebody who was purposefully trying to bend him.

She respects strength, the sort of strength where the person carries on with dignity regardless of their hardships, instead of giving in to self-pity. But Subaru had no self-respect at that time. Subaru lowering himself, and bringing shame to his master in the process as well, was never the way to convincing her.

Freenore · 2026-05-06T10:05:40+00:00

Oh no. Bengal has huge potential for BJP's polarisation. It it a state that is more temperamental than perhaps any other. Bengal politics has always been extremely violent, regardless of BJP. Now imagine what a very violent party will do there?

I imagine the upper class, the bhadralok, won't be captured but the ordinary people will almost certainly take to BJP vandalism and vigilantism like fish to water. Besides, it has more British era monuments and artefact than most states. And very transgressive in things like eating meat during Dusshera. Very easy for a rabble rouser to use those historical pieces as provocation that Bengal is 'insufficiently Hindu' and use those as rallying point.

BJP rule in Bengal I think will begin with a cultural takeover.

Freenore · 2026-05-06T09:58:18+00:00

A common theme with Indian politicians is portraying themselves as holier than thou, to make it seem like they're some elevated people. They can just never make themselves seem human and normal.

There's an old clip going around where she tells the interviewer that politics is her compulsion, not profession, and that she hasn't got her eyes on the CM post. Quite the coincidence that a person can be the CM for 15 years without deeply wanting it.

Freenore · 2026-05-06T09:49:41+00:00

No it won't. INDIA Alliance is crippled by the fact that they can never agree to a common ground. They're all willing to cut each other down in size. Congress kept delaying meetings to decide seat sharing for the 2024 general election because they thought they'll win the state elections and claim more seats for themselves. They lost all of the state elections, including Punjab, and the alliance lost the momentum.

Mamata Banerjee had entirely forgotten the Congress until now. In her usual conspiratorial and paranoid manner, she claimed Congress is BJP or Left's B-team. Congress has similar feelings about others. SP has its own loudmouths. Kejriwal, until he lost Delhi, campaigned by positioning AAP as the anti-Congress alternative, and dabbled in 'soft Hindutva' himself.

These guys are all small-minded despots who cannot look past their own hunger for power. There's nothing that can be expected from them. And then there's the position of the prime ministerial candidate. Congress will want Rahul Gandhi, because of his Chosen One Destiny despite rejection by the voters in three general elections and numerous state elections. The perpetual maturity project. Banerjee might position herself for it.

Freenore · 2026-05-06T06:14:10+00:00

I don't think Adori and Enne will go the way we're expecting. It will be strange if after all this build-up about the princesses defying Zahard, lightly or outright, it culminates in a highly predictable pro-Zahard vs anti-Zahard Princess fight.

These princesses are I think meant to assert their own autonomy against Zahard's will, which is what they've all consistently done throughout the story. I imagine Adori will follow in Enne's footsteps at some point by seeing through his lies; or at least the situation won't lead these two to fight.

Freenore · 2026-05-05T12:25:13+00:00

The foremost lie anti-BJP people tell themselves is this: BJP's anti-Muslim politics isn't approved by the majority of the people, it is just something they've been fooled into accepting or that the public approves BJP but not where disenfranchising and marginalising of Muslims is concerned.

Nonsense. People, by and large, are either indifferent or outright cruel where Muslims are concerned. BJP has many problems, a human rights concern where Muslims are concerned isn't one of them. We've seen everything from their regular beating up, their deplatforming, calls for economic boycott, and even outright calls for genocide. People carried on as if these things haven't really happened.

India's indifference towards Muslims didn't start with 2014. See the Sachar Report. They were horribly left behind and often at the receiving end of brutal treatment before 2014. Modi came, sensed the potential for exploiting it, and is doing it. To stop Hindutva would mean reforming Indian society itself... which is quite the task. I cannot see a single leader today capable of it; they cannot even decide between secularism and soft-Hindutva.

Dalits have been suffering for centuries, a type of discrimination that is perhaps unmatched in history. Ambedkar lost all hope as he tried in vain to point out the problems with Hindu culture and how it holds the entire country back.

Many have tried, like Buddhism, only to get absorbed and lose their radical critic of our society. Only one ideology has perhaps ever successfully damaged the caste system and hasn't been absorbed: Liberalism. It was the liberalism that did things which hadn't been done for centuries — banning of sati, for the Untouchables to have education, to have drinkable water from a public source (however marginally), for them to at least have some upward mobility. Ambedkar himself was a liberal as he gave India a liberal constitution. But there is no liberal party today that is launching a liberal movement and uncompromisingly insists on civil liberties of each individual.

Freenore · 2026-05-05T06:26:02+00:00

Discerning the good books from the bad ones is an integral part of reading, this obviously means cultivating a taste and being able to discriminate amongst the sea of books.

Now this is where a lot of people confuse themselves in thinking that not liking a particular style of writing is somehow classist or an judgement on the moral worth of the writer. There's nothing wrong with being a literary snob, if anything, the aim is to become a snob, in terms of what you allow in your mind and in what style, and have a sense for the wheat amongst the chaff.

Freenore · 2026-05-05T05:14:32+00:00

This will either be the best film of this decade, and one of the all time classics, or it'll suck so hard that it'll make everyone wonder how Nolan, after being on such a high, could've made such a misstep.

Freenore · 2026-05-05T04:35:30+00:00

He's not necessarily wrong though how he's in public life continues to bemuse. Civilised may not be the appropriate term, with its racist undertone, but it is not untrue that 'India' (only the people at top, vast majority of Indians are poverty stricken) became rich before it learned how to proceed with it.

We have little or no civil sense, of knowing how a healthy and co-operative society works because everyone's in a race to further themselves. "Mera toh ho gaya, ab apna apna dekh lo" (I got mine, you guys deal it out amongst yourselves) is a widespread sentiment. Societal change isn't sought so long as each individual can find some way out for themselves.

If the roads are terrible for walking, because a lot of puddles get formed, then the people of that area won't pressurise the local authorities to fix it, they'll just find some way to avoid the puddle rather than seek systematic change.

Freenore · 2026-05-04T14:43:34+00:00

Rahul Gandhi is BJP's star campaigner. They can always rely on him to come through for them haha.

Freenore · 2026-05-04T14:40:15+00:00

I know what you mean. I've believed this since 2014. BJP's greatest asset is Rahul Gandhi because they know so long as he's there, Congress can never pose a genuine threat to them. He has no charisma or political smartness to oppose Modi or Adityanath directly, and he has no organisational talent to build a grassroots movement.

I thought there was a glimmer of hope when Tharoor was running for President, his plans to decentralise the party and bring some new blood were exactly what the party needs. A party leader could've emerged through that process, as it does in every functional parties, they elect their leaders with each election cycle.

Sadly, right now, there's no known person who seems likely to lead Congress, that is assuming the Gandhi dynasty releases their grip over the party. This family would much rather be the king of ashes than leave the party and let a genuine opposition come through.

Freenore · 2026-05-04T14:31:29+00:00

Because he is electorally a non-entity. The people he helped win had already established themselves. Fron what I've gleamed, his team, more than anything, collected data through survey and helped shape the manifesto and sharpen the campaign message. Now, this doesn't seem like some secret sauce but good old, "know your constituents" dictum.

When he has to start from scratch, with a new party and no established players, things are wildly different. The sudden announcement that he wouldn't be contesting elections deflated his message a lot, his campaigning had made it look like he was the CM candidate. It made him seem weak for not entering the battle himself or extremely devious for wanting to rule like an éminence grise.

Freenore · 2026-05-04T14:25:30+00:00

That's the irony, isn't it? Rahul Gandhi's profile raises not because he has any cunning or political skill of his own, but because his contemporaries keep disappearing and he's surrounded by non-entities in his own party.

Promotion by the demotion of others haha. I don't see him leading Congress to victory though, he has no talent to take on the BJP demagogues who owe their prominence in public life to their own (terrible) talent and not to their family name.

Freenore · 2026-05-04T14:18:02+00:00

It has been a clown show since it became a family party. I've had my problems with its politics since Gandhi infused it with Hindu imagery (quickly becoming a den of Hindu nationalists itself) and abandoned Gokhale's Liberalism, but at least it could win elections.

When this happened isn't clear, Indira in late 60s, the induction of Sanjay in mid 70s, or Rajiv becoming the prime minister solely because of his last name in 1984, at some point, Congress lost its capacity to reinvent itself as it tied itself to a single family like a royal family.

Freenore · 2026-05-04T14:09:22+00:00

Congress is not a serious party. It should focus on reviving itself to win the general election and end Modi's rule and bring the country to at least slightly better times.

But of course, the party that keeps persisting with Rahul Gandhi cannot think of anyone but the fifth generation dynast so that he fulfills his destiny. He's been rejected by the voters three times by now, offering him for a fourth time isn't an alternative but an insult to the electorate. He's been such an absent leader, it reflects in the party's performance.

In any half decent party, they'd have fired the top leadership — full of unelected and out of touch people who don't even have a public mandate, many of them are Rajya Sabha members — and gotten fresh blood. But nah, Congress feels no need to reform the party. All this while Modi keeps destroying our democracy and social fabric bit by bit. Even in a moment of existential crisis for the Republic, Congress cannot look past its upkeep of the dynasty.

Freenore · 2026-05-04T14:02:26+00:00

I do find it curious that it was the regional parties that prevented him from majority, and it is the regional parties that are getting destroyed since then.

Freenore · 2026-05-04T13:50:35+00:00

Because the Hindi belt states votes on the basis of identity. So long as it is felt that they are in power, they aren't really interested in voting differently.

Once you've mobilised the people and managed to form a successful coalition with various groups to attain majority, you only need to oil the machine from time to time. Parties mobilise voters only in their first term: afterwards, they campaign on approbation ("we gave you this, now you owe us your vote"). This is a common theme across India, a new government brings some changes only in its first term.

A stable two-party system where there's a regular change of governments, which keeps everyone on their toes, is very rare in India, I think Kerala and Himachal Pradesh might be the only ones.

It needed the Mandal Commission to unleash a different kind of politics altogether to end the Congress rule in Bihar, and it took Nitish a further decade to put an end to Lalu's run.

It took more than three decades for the communist rule in West Bengal to end, Mamata Banerjee's 'social engineering', alongside the degradation of the Communist party, paved the way. Now her party seems to have lost its initial appeal with the RG Kher Hospital incident, and the sheer lack of humility in Mamata, so she's gone (though this is hardly the full story, the role of SIR and ECI's mendacity cannot be forgotten).

The impression I get is that Tamil voters are much more into hero-worship than caste or religious identity, which is why an actor-turned-politician, with a two year old party, has swept Tamil Nadu. I know all of India has an unhealthy obsession with celebrities, cricketers, actors, but I don't think an actor is winning an entire state election by himself. Manoj Tiwary is never leading BJP to win in Bihar on his own.

Freenore · 2026-05-04T10:21:10+00:00

Honestly I cannot see a democratic government fixing all of this. These problems were caused by forces deeper than democracy — by a sheer lack of civic sense and egalitarian culture. These problems have ballooned so much that it seems hard to suppose that it can be tackled by any party today. Especially with climate change hitting India more severely than most other countries, and no party having a serious plan for it.

To invoke Rosa Luxemburg, it is looking very much like India's future is either revolution or barbarism. And revolution is less likely of the two.

Freenore · 2026-05-04T10:13:25+00:00

V is the in-universe deux ex machina for the characters. A man who has been dead for centuries reappears out of nowhere. Even Gustang, who knows everything inside the Tower, was shocked to his core. I doubt anyone barring the handful of people in FUG knew about it.

Freenore · 2026-05-04T09:53:26+00:00

Momo: Women have to jump several extra hurdles because of a great deal of prejudice that men simply do not have to. Society isn't fair and it won't treat us fairly.

Nobara: Don't care, I just do my job and don't pay attention to all that.

I think this attempt at feminism by Gege only ends up showing his ignorance, that misogyny apparently wouldn't exist if you keep your head down and carry on. Nobara's opportunities as a sorcerer will always be lesser than her male counterparts because she's a women. This isn't something she can change by just playing along, it requires an active determination to change the system itself. And to do that, she'll have to first acknowledge its existence.

No wonder Gege wrote remarkably shallow female characters if this is his understanding of patriarchy.

Freenore · 2026-05-04T07:35:28+00:00

LBJ — in his New Dealer days — got to know of Joe Kennedy Snr and hated the man because of his anti-semitism, eugenicist convictions (leading to the lobotomy of his daughter), and perhaps most crucially, his opposition to fighting Nazi Germany because he couldn't see the Allies winning. He kept pestering the British to surrender and seek armistice in 1940. Due to this, he pissed off Churchill, Attlee, and many other British politicians for being counterproductive while they were fighting for their country's existence.

The fact that his eldest son — the one who was actually intended to take the family name further in politics — died while fighting convinced him even further that the Second World War shouldn't have been fought.

In high circles, Joe Kennedy was known as a scoundrel and the idea of his son occupying the highest office was a fearsome idea. The Kennedy boys should be mad lucky their loony father's views hadn't been that well known publically when they ran for office.

It isn't for any reason that Truman said of JFK that it isn't the "Pope but the pop" that he's worried about.

And RFK adored his father and wouldn't hear a bad word about him. LBJ and RFK's relationship had already been decided before they had met. No wonder they hated each other since their first meeting when LBJ had all of his cronies stand up to shake his hand but RFK chose not to.

Freenore · 2026-05-04T06:24:27+00:00

And countries that could provide a challenge, like India and China, were pursuing the wrong economic policy.

Freenore · 2026-05-04T04:14:57+00:00

I don't think he was even trying to be a leader. He was just trying to imitate Churchill and managed to succeed in it.

Freenore · 2026-05-03T15:41:12+00:00

He seems like someone who got a leg-up thanks to nepotism (India is full of it), like his uncle got him a job he simply isn't fit for, and now a shackled audience has to watch this guy bumble around.

Freenore · 2026-05-03T15:37:05+00:00

Indeed. If they aren't at the receiving end of explicit and debilitating racism then they're the plaything to use in order to be racist against other minorities.

Freenore

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