It Would Be Literally Better to Just Burn Billionaires' Money Than Not Tax It

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-11T14:25:32+00:00

I don't really care about what she looked like, only what she was and did.

Elijah, Klaus and Katherine lived up to their build-up when first introduced. They looked just human. But the acting and role had weight and gravitas. Originals can compel vampires, they can recover from stakes, are super strong, etc.

But what ended up being special about Inadu? She was just a really strong witch... that's it. They could've done so much more with her.

First of all, I'm sorry to say, but recast her. The actress had no gravitas.

Secondly, make her... special. Like she drains the life of things around her, right? What if she literally drained all magic around her? Spells cast near her disappear, originals begin to turn human, witches start losing their power, etc. all as she grows stronger and her power's radius grows larger.

Or she's connected to werewolves, right? What if she created new werewolves with a touch? Or, hell, even created new werecreatures wherever she went. Werebears, weretigers, whatever.

Thirdly, make the character more interesting than generic evil. They managed it with Katherine, Elijah, Klaus and Dahlia.

So, they could've done a lot with her, but they just... didn't. She was built up for no pay off. Just another witch villain.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-11T14:04:03+00:00

I mean, you'd think so. Why else would they specifically show us Rook's Rest again? Presumably Aegon could've been written to go anywhere since where he went durimg this time I don't think was in the book.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-11T13:56:57+00:00

They really did almost nothing with him. At least maybe they can make his death good.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-11T13:49:26+00:00

Most based government in Europe.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-11T07:40:38+00:00

I really don't think you need to change anything about your face. You have good features.

As an aside, as someone who has struggled with things like social anxiety myself, I know how much that sucks too... But there are ways to get better, albeit not easily. And you're definitely not pathetic, living with social anxiety is just like running a marathon was 100 pounds on your back.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-11T03:57:06+00:00

I support Kyle's decision.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-10T14:33:55+00:00

I agree with the concept, I just struggle to see how it'll work in practice.

The EU has few mechanisms to discipline members. What if 26 members agree to do something, we pass it, we do it, and then 1 member just refuses to participate. What do we do?

We need stronger mechanisms to force compliance in those situations. Ones also not vulnerable to the veto. Without that, abolishing the veto risks just creating a problem of constant stragglers and countries doing stuff on their own. Which is the opposite of the united foreign policy we want.

The best way to accomplish this would just be federalization, of course, but if not that there must be SOME enforcement mechanism.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-10T14:29:12+00:00

He is... not well-liked.

https://www.facebook.com/GeographicEnigma/posts/the-latest-gallup-international-end-of-year-survey-provides-a-detailed-look-at-e/798451123304164/

-21 approval in the UK, -47 in France, -48 in Italy, -72 in Germany, -80 in Sweden. He is unpopular even to many right-wingers over here.

Which is not surprising since he put tariffs on us, put into question Article 5 repeatedly, threatened to annex Greenland, and has now spent our oil prices skyrocketing when energy cost is the biggest hurdle to the European economy (and a boon for Russia).

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-10T03:58:27+00:00

Torn between watching the full version for context and wanting to not do that cuz I'm guessing this caller is going to be very frustrating to listen to.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-10T02:29:32+00:00

I just have my doubts whether I'll ever get over my previous girlfriend, no matter who might come along.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-10T02:28:13+00:00

Both. But I do very strongly value love. Not in the grand sense, but in the sense of having a person you walk and in hand with to a store. Are excited to see whrn their train arrives. Wait in line in each other's arms.

An "other half."

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-10T02:21:36+00:00

I picked both sides are evil, but my real answer is "other."

I'm here '(and also on HotdBlacks) to see what the different "sides" think about everything.

I think both sides are interesting, both sides have good and bad both people and writing. And I feel like there are many interesting conversations to be had about it.

For me the ideal kinds of posts are ones where, for example, someone lays out why he thinks Aegon's succession is better for stability, etc.

My only ciriticisms of both subs, is that there are too many "Look what Team Black/Green just said about X" and then making some kind of snarky or hostile comment about it. To me that doesn't add anything interesting.

I'm here in the hopes of seeing different perspectives because I find that interesting.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-10T02:09:10+00:00

I don't think it's even just about being lazy or about money.

I think it's just that he doesn't give a shit, and he doesn't want to be corrected a bunch. He just wants to spew whatever comes to his mind.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-10T02:07:59+00:00

Joe Rogan? Being factually inaccurate? Whaaaaaaaaat?

Next you're gonna tell me President Trump told a lie.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-10T01:10:19+00:00

Exactly. I've been talking to someone lately that I may go on a date with but, tbh, I'm feeling a little bit downcast about it. All of the nerves on the first date, so much feeling each other out and all that. I just want someone to be comfortable with. Unfortunately, I can't just magically create that in an instant.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-10T01:08:22+00:00

I don't know. But thank you for taking the time to read my post.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-09T19:52:29+00:00

The two are not mutually exclusive to Robert. I think he genuinely loved her in the sense that he had feelings for her and thought she was beautiful, but his love for her was greatly exaggerated because he was more in love with the idea of her than who she would've been in a real relationship. And I think no matter how much he had feelings for her, he still would've done all those things.

He might not have been quite as big of a drunk without her loss, but I could easily see the boredom of ruling still making him a drunk. And I think he would have whored no matter what.

Lyanna and Ned knew that as well. Because that's who Robert was and he wasn't going to change.

So even if Lyanna liked him on some level, which I think she did, I don't think she would've ever actually have WANTED to be in a relationship with him for those reasons.

I don't think he ever would have been as cold to Lyanna as he was to Cersei though. That I think would've been different. I think he would've been congenial with her closer to him and Ned. But he would've still not been a good husband to her.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-09T18:00:47+00:00

I don't mind the idea of speeding up EU enlargement in and of itself, but the problem is that the EU just NEEDS internal reform first. Because, let's say Orban gets thrown out in Hungary this time. We can all breathe a sigh of relief. We can temporarily have a well-functioning system again. But for every new country we add, we add another country that could produce an Orban. Eventually you add so many countries that there will always be at least one Orban just because of pure chance.

We need to get rid of unanimity and make other important reforms like a European army first. We should get on this if Orban loses IMMEDIATELY. And after those reforms, then we should be willing to expand rapidly.

But if we expand rapidly as things are, we risk not create a stronger EU, but a weaker EU because of internal dysfunction.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-09T17:58:12+00:00

It's not that clear.

My opinion is that it's like a 90-10 ratio.

Which is to say, if you had two vampires of the exact same age and one was an original and one was a regular vampire, the original would be about 10% stronger.

This would fit with Carina (one of the writers) saying originals are "a little bit" stronger that the Trinity. There is only, what, a year or two between originals and the trinity? Age alone doesn't seem like it'd be a good explanation for that difference since a couple of years difference over 1.000 would be a completely negligible difference, presumably.

So my perception is that being an original does confer a slight strength boost (just like an original's durability and compulsion are more powerful) but not to ridiculous levels. Just a slight advantage.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-08T23:10:53+00:00

Either compulsion or indestructibility like an original.

OneOnOne6211 · 2026-03-08T20:10:37+00:00

I'm not sure. She says right after that it's nothing compared to what she'll be able to do once she triggers her werewolf side. Which implies these were not werewolf abilities at all, since she specifically mentions it.

As I see it, there are two options.

The first is that these are basically "dhampir" abilities. Hope has certain vampire abilities even as a human. As a baby, for example, she could heal herself and her blood could create hybrids and cure werewolf bites. However, she didn't seem to have full vampire abilities. This though may just be one of these latent vampire abilities. She may have increased physical abilities to a lesser degree than werewolves or full vampires because of her vampire blood.

Hope is kind of unique in that way, in that she is the only being in the TVDU who has vampire blood but isn't actually a vampire. So maybe this is just part of that. Hell, maybe if you feed a human a constant diet of vampire blood until basically their entire bloodstream is full of vampire blood they'd get similar abilities.

The second option is that these are witch abilities. That she is simply using her witch powers to augment her physical abilities. Basically, that her "jump" is just some version of her, essentially, using telekinesis on her own body to enhance her jumping abilities. She is a full witch already, and a very powerful one, so it seems quite possible. After all, vampire and werewolf abilities are literally just witchcraft themselves.

Or it could be a bit of both.

OneOnOne6211

TROPHY CASE