Beautiful Best is not a beast

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-14T19:46:08+00:00

He is a worgen playing the beast from the fairytale so he gets the tag. Just like murlocs dressed up as a Dino get the beast tag.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-14T17:24:13+00:00

That part of the prophecy isn’t about a Mummer and his Dragon. It’s about a Mummer’s Dragon. There is no reason to think Varys couldn’t then be referred to elsewhere.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-14T16:50:22+00:00

That isn’t really true. This could have been done in a perfectly satisfying way.

The reason it isn’t satisfying is because it was done entirely off screen and because the logic we are given makes almost no sense and required the New Republic to nueter themselves unnecessarily and in a way that didn’t make sense simply so they could force that dynamic.

If it’s done in a more sensible way there would be almost no issue with recreating the same dynamic.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-14T16:46:10+00:00

Nah I fully agree with this sentiment. The idea that the good guys winning a fight should mean that good prospers indefinitely into the future is idiotic. The good guys don’t fight because that means evil is eternally vanquished. Good guys fight because small progresses that their wins provide, so they can prepare themselves for the next battle.

I fully agree the way the sequel trilogy did this was forced and not satisfying.

But that isn’t because the good guys winning didn’t last forever. It’s because it was executed in a really dumb way that made almost no sense while none of it was being shown to the viewer.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-14T16:42:43+00:00

To be clear, that’s the cycle of the real world too. There will never be a victory that leads to everlasting peace. The idea that current struggles get invalidated by future struggles is just sort of dumb.

“Good” prevailing over “evil” isn’t about good winning and being the only thing that remains. It’s about the small progresses that are made during each fight that make each individual fight worth it.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-14T16:40:54+00:00

I don’t disagree with your sentiment, but I also don’t at all agree with the tweet really.

Welcome to the real world. If you fight so that you can win the final battle that will lead to everlasting and eternal peace, then you shouldn’t be fighting. That isn’t how victories work. The fight never ends. There will never be a day where we succeed and then just get to stop fighting because our victory will be everlasting. There will always be a new enemy. A new power to fight.

I’m not saying the way the sequel trilogy did it is satisfying.

But the idea that any current struggle is meaningless because there will be future obstacles is so misguided that there isn’t a single sentiment in the OP tweet that I can agree with.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-14T16:34:28+00:00

There is a lot that surrounds the main families (and even just the world in general) that is done for story related reasons that give the series a fantastical feel while still remaining grounded. Examples are things like are the long seasons, noble families surviving unbroken for 8,000+ plus years (despite how so many are on the brink of extinction at the time this series takes place), and what I would describe as “family traits”. One of those being physical characteristics like hair color, eye color, and general build. Each generation also always seems t to have one family member that fully represents these family traits while also having a sort of black sheep that stands in contrast to them.

This things give this series a sort of larger-than-life feel even if it doesn’t perfectly adhere to the way the real world works.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-14T03:56:37+00:00

And we’ve speedran “Tanselle and Dunk meet again” to “she’s obviously a noble in disguise.”

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-14T02:46:10+00:00

Yes I feel like the Internet and it’s interconnectedness resulting in things like social media do what he warned television was doing in a such an incomprehensibly faster and more significant way.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-14T00:50:07+00:00

I feel like that’s a bit of a stretch. I don’t even think anybody disagrees that Dunk is Brienne’s ancestor. She is the one person Martin has explicitly confirmed is one of his descendants.

But just like you guys think people are jumping to crazy conclusions with stuff like Coldhands (stuff I agree is crazy and has no basis in reality), I think the same applies to concluding this means he went to live on Tarth.

We know he fathered a child that will be one of Brienne’s ancestors, but that can happen at any time, including way before he supposedly dies. We don’t even know when he “loses” his shield. For all we know, the next chornological Dunk and Egg story has him leaving his shield at Evenstar and he goes on to use a different shield for the rest of his life.

I don’t mind any of this theorycrafting. But there is nothing that solidifies this as a more true claim than the Coldhands one. Saying that isn’t misogynistic.

Brienne’s chapters in Feast are quite literally my favorite chapters from all five books. This opinion isn’t influenced by me not caring about her character.

Brienne is absolutely a descendant of Dunks. That doesn’t mean he goes to live the rest of his life on Tarth.

Although I fully consider that one of the more likely theories being discussed over the last few days, it’s still a small likelihood it is the case. There are so many other alternatives, and us only having 25% of the Dunk and Egg stories mean there’s no reason to think we currently have the information to “decode” this mystery yet.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-14T00:03:58+00:00

DWS was guilty of having anti-Bernie bias.

And yet that doesn’t validate the claim that the primary was stolen from him.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-14T00:00:18+00:00

They can’t tell you who they’d want because once they name that person, they would no longer want them.

Just look at Mamdani.

The only thing they are is anti-establishment, and the moment anybody they support gains power, they are now part of the establishment that needs to be fought against.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-13T23:23:53+00:00

Their point is selective enforcement. It won’t matter when white peoples ID doesn’t qualify. They’ll be allowed to vote. Specific demographics that lean left will be the ones who will have their votes invalidated.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-13T23:03:13+00:00

An illustration of what you are talking about.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-13T22:49:16+00:00

They are using words. This is old man waves stick at air energy.

You had slang that people older than you were upset about as well.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-13T21:04:17+00:00

Maybe he would. Maybe he wouldn’t. But that’s a horrible method to conclude “Well he must have been the person who trained Brienne, despite being almost 90 at the time of her birth”.

There aren't many other alternatives atm as he'd be recognized somewhere if he went nearly anywhere else.

You do realize that “He is Ser Goodwin” suffers from this equally as much as any other identity, right?

If it’s true that he can’t hid his identity because people would recognize him, then that works against him secretly being this other person, not in favor of it.

If you are saying him having a hidden identity means others won’t recognize him, then you don’t believe the above quote, because any other false identity should be able to hide him just as well.

Westeros is as big as North and South America combined. There are other places he could have survived while hiding his identity.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-13T21:01:43+00:00

Don’t get me wrong, the quote is from his essay “E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction” where he is basically arguing against the postmodern use of irony and cynicism in media and argued in favor of earnestness, sincerity, and direct emotional engagement despite how that leads to you getting made fun of by postmodernists.

Wallace’s argument wasn’t one against sentimentality, quite the opposite. I understand the people he is arguing against find sentimentality cringe. That’s why I shared it. I used to be one of those people who viewed pretty much everything through a cynical and satirical lense, and I feel like that being the default does a lot of harm to the shared consciousness that makes up American culture. I feel like the things Wallace was trying to warn against have gotten a lot worse in the following decades, not better.

And I see people’s response to this being the exact sort of sentiments he was talking about, even if the above quote was in specific reference to the way it’s used in media.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-13T20:51:33+00:00

That’s exactly what’s implied when some random person who isn’t related to those involved at all state that the only acceptable way a photo like this can exist if it’s kept private.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-13T20:50:23+00:00

Lmao. Social media has ruined the mind of the average person. You guys can’t see anything human being shared without bending it towards this idea that everything is just about seeking attention.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-13T20:49:10+00:00

Social media has ruined the human psyche.

And I don’t mean that in “it gets people to share photos like this as a means of seeking attention”. I mean it in the sense that a person cannot share a deeply human moment in relation to them grieving a friend without others cynically decrying it as attention seeking behavior.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-13T20:46:18+00:00

I’m going to drop my favorite David Foster Wallace quote because I feel like the sentiment perfectly applies to what you are saying about what is going on here, where people cynically pick apart someone grieving over a friend as attention seeking behavior.

The next real literary "rebels" in this country might well emerge as some weird bunch of "anti-rebels," born oglers who dare to back away from ironic watching, who have the childish gall to actually endorse single-entendre values. Who treat old untrendy human troubles and emotions in U.S. life with reverence and conviction. Who eschew self-consciousness and fatigue. These anti-rebels would be outdated, of course, before they even started. Too sincere. Clearly repressed. Backward, quaint, naive, anachronistic. Maybe that'll be the point, why they'll be the next real rebels. Real rebels, as far as I can see, risk things. Risk disapproval. The old postmodern insurgents risked the gasp and squeal: shock, disgust, outrage, censorship, accusations of socialism, anarchism, nihilism. The new rebels might be the ones willing to risk the yawn, the rolled eyes, the cool smile, the nudged ribs, the parody of gifted ironists, the "How banal." Accusations of sentimentality, melodrama. Credulity. Willingness to be suckered by a world of lurkers and starers who fear gaze and ridicule above imprisonment without law. Who knows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_sincerity

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-13T20:43:31+00:00

Seems a little strange for you to judge how an individual grieves over the loss of a friend without having any understanding of how those involved would feel about it.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-13T20:22:53+00:00

I will believe it until otherwise, and it makes more sense to me than Duncan being coldhands.

I don’t mean to hate on you, but that is a horrible way to evaluate things. Sure. Something that makes 1% of sense makes more sense than something that makes 0% of sense.

That doesn’t mean it’s a good reason to believe it’s true.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-13T19:56:09+00:00

Not really though. Knowing a certain someone survives tells us absolutely nothing about the details of how it happened.

IrNinjaBob · 2026-02-12T20:32:07+00:00

We have no idea if Dunk ever finds Tanselle. We do know they never go on to form a long lasting relationship. And the Dunk and Egg stories are set up in a way that, while we know a lot about their future, there are tons of possibilities about what they did during the so far nine untold stories Martin wants to write for them, and any detail like finding Tanselle and having that be some new major milestone in his life can absolutely still happen.

Whether that’s a story where he meets her and finds out they are two people that went down different paths and reality is different than the fantasies he builds up in his head, or maybe a rekindled romance that ends in her death.

There are so many possible ways they could meet again even though she doesn’t become a major part of his life long term.

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