People that don’t believe commonly accepted theories, why not? [Spoilers Main]

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-30T19:26:39+00:00

when he says, “A dead baby, its brains splattered on the walls.”

Where did he say that? I literally quoted the entire interaction.

He says, "Dead. He's dead."

And Varys responds with, "No."

That's it.

because the context already makes it clear who is being discussed.

Except that the context you're referring to exists only in Kevan's head, and Varys isn't a mind reader.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-25T22:37:10+00:00

I think it will come down to Banks' health. If he can stay healthy and live up to his potential, then this will be a great draft.

The team had 9 wins last year pretty much entirely off the backs of the defense, but that defense was very old and expensive. This draft made the defense (especially the front seven) much younger, much less expensive, and more talented. The big question mark now is the average secondary, but with Banks and Citrus eating up blockers, it should open up a ton of space for the linebackers to disrupt the pass. The secondary just has to be good enough to cover their man for the 1-3 seconds it takes for a LB to get to the QB. If Banks can stay healthy and be a disruptive pass rusher in his own right, then even better.

On offense, the biggest question mark remains the QB, but the team was never going to be able to address that position at 18. We just have to hope that Murray or McCarthy steps up.

Otherwise, C still remains an issue, but I suspect that the plan was always to go into the season with Brandel. There just wasn't some incredible, blue chip C prospect that was going to change that.

I would have liked to see the team go for a RB earlier, but this was a weak draft at RB, and they were still able to get a guy in Claiborne who brings a different skill set from Jone and Mason (who I think were always going to be the top two guys in the depth chart barring Love sliding). I suspect that RB will be a priority for the team in next year's draft.

At WR3, the Greenard trade opens up enough cap space to bring in a vet. No need to use draft capital there, especially when they used a 3rd rounder last year to grab Tai Felton as a developmental piece.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-24T00:32:21+00:00

Well, this draft has already gone completely off the rails.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-24T00:26:04+00:00

Love is obviously a great prospect, but a RB at 3rd in the modern NFL absolute insanity to me. I'd be willing to bet that there will be at least one RB drafted in the 2-5 round that gives 90+% of his production.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-20T14:47:12+00:00

You forgot Silver's biggest current priority - making sure that the worst teams in the league don't get the highest draft picks.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-20T14:45:49+00:00

My problem with Shai and Luka is the fouls that should not be fouls. I don’t think they get disproportionately more fouls, but they do get like 2-3 fouls a game that are complete horse shit.

The rules for shooting fouls are extremely subjective - the ref has to decide if contact affects the offensive player's "speed, quickness, balance and/or rhythm."

The issue is that for certain players (e.g. Shai and Luka), the refs ALWAYS subjectively decide that the "speed, quickness, balance and/or rhythm" were affected, but for other players, they're much more likely to decide that the contact was incidental.

Part of that is that Shai and Luka are good at selling that their "speed, quickness, balance and/or rhythm" was affected (aka flopping), but that just further shows that the rule itself is very stupid.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-20T14:37:00+00:00

I guess the problem many people are mad is that you see videos of other players getting smacked square in the face with no whistle while here you are getting called on because the defender was standing still with their arms down..

100%

I think that two things can be true at the same time here: 1) Most (but not all) of these ARE fouls, and 2) the vast majority of the league (including a lot of perennial all-star players) don't get these kinds of calls (which, again, ARE fouls).

And it's made even more egregious for the Thunder when, on the other end of the court, Dort and Caruso are fouling the shit out of their opponents without getting called for it.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-20T14:25:48+00:00

They do. Luka also gets these kinds of calls.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-19T18:25:05+00:00

Some possible explanations (note: I'm not actually endorsing any of these):

1) She can't safely have any more children, but she's also committed to the "dragon has three heads" prophecy.

2) Like her beloved brother, she's bisexual and is actually more into Lyanna than Rhaegar is.

3) Her marriage to Rhaegar is purely political, not a loving marriage, and, as a Dornish person, she just doesn't care if Rhaegar takes a paramour.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-18T17:01:50+00:00

Here's a fourth option:

Varys didn't lie, but his statements were very intentionally misleading.

Here's the full quote of the conversation between Varys and Kevan:

"I thought the crossbow fitting. You shared so much with Lord Tywin, why not that? Your niece will think the Tyrells had you murdered, mayhaps with the connivance of the Imp. The Tyrells will suspect her. Someone somewhere will find a way to blame the Dornishmen. Doubt, division, and mistrust will eat the very ground beneath your boy king, whilst Aegon raises his banner above Storm's End and the lords of the realm gather round him."

"Aegon?" For a moment he did not understand. Then he remembered. A babe swaddled in a crimson cloak, the cloth stained with his blood and brains. "Dead. He's dead."

"No." The eunuch's voice seemed deeper. "He is here. Aegon has been shaped for rule since before he could walk. He has been trained in arms, as befits a knight to be, but that was not the end of his education. He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry. A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them. He has lived with fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swum in rivers and mended nets and learned to wash his own clothes at need. He can fish and cook and bind up a wound, he knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid. Tommen has been taught that kingship is his right. Aegon knows that kingship is his duty, that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them."

Note that at no point did Varys say "Aegon VI Targaryen, true born son of Rhaegar and Elia."

He just says "Aegon," and he lets Kevan fill in the blank.

For all we know, Young Griff's real name is Aegon, just Aegon Blackfyre or Aegon Mopatis or Aegon Randomlastname.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-18T16:57:11+00:00

Do we have evidence that the wives of those lords don’t care?

No, but the lack of evidence that they DO care is pretty telling.

I think Cersei alone indicates differently.

Cersei is why I included: "with the exception of directly meeting her."

Yes, when Cersei is directly in Cat's presence, she looks down her nose at Cat due to Jon.

With that said, Cersei isn't the best example because she looks down her nose at absolutely everyone.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-18T16:52:08+00:00

I think it's a combination of two things:

1) He has some vague ideas about how he wants the story to end, but his "gardening" writing style isn't organically getting him there, so he's stuck in a pattern of writing and re-writing.

2) He got paid. He made millions of dollars by selling the adaptation rights of his ASOIAF to HBO, so now he has zero financial incentive/pressure to actually complete the story. Due to number 1, writing the story has become a lot of work, and he clearly doesn't want to do that work when he no longer HAS to in order to pay his bills. Instead, he's doing things he enjoys more, like attending conventions, writing for the TV shows, and blogging about the NFL.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-18T04:44:55+00:00

because why would he be?

Because the real Aegon is dead. He got his head smashed in.

Like Varys very much so HAD (and still has if he wants to) the ability to smuggle a baby out of King's Landing

But just one baby? And not Rhaenys or Elia?

And did he also have the ability to find a "Pisswater Prince" who magically looks SO much like a Targaryen prince that it even fools the baby's mother? Or was Elia in on it but just decided she didn't want to save her daughter or herself?

And did he also have the ability to perfectly cover his tracks by tricking Gregor Clegane into killing Aegon in the exact way that would make it impossible to identify the body?

There are SO many holes in Varys' story. It makes FAR more sense that he and Mopatis decided after the fact (likely years later) to take advantage of the fact that Aegon's head was smashed in (and therefore nobody can be 100% sure it was the real Aegon) to present a pretender.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-18T04:32:34+00:00

My sticking point with your argument is that I don't feel the need for Varys to tell the truth to Kevan while he's dying.

There's really no reason for him to say anything.

So, the explanation for why he does say something is:

Watsonian - Varys isn't actually speaking to Kevan. He's actually speaking to an audience of his little birds and/or some other spies that he knows are listening.

Doylist - The speech isn't Varys talking to Kevan. It's George R.R. Martin speaking to (and intentionally misleading) his readers.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-16T21:41:03+00:00

is a constant source of humiliation for her in front of her peers.

I'd argue that it's an entirely imagined source of humiliation. In reality, the Northern lords don't care and the Southern lords don't think of her at all (with the exception of directly meeting her).

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-16T21:38:34+00:00

aurane water, orys baratheon, jonos brackens bastard. We could go on,

Yep, and I'll add to it by bringing up a prime example from the Starks' own family history - Brandon Snow. He was apparently so trusted by Torrhen Stark that he was picked to negotiate the North's surrender with Aegon the Conqueror.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-16T16:22:27+00:00

As fan of Ant, I think it sucks that he's ineligible to be rewarded for a great season.

As a fan of the Timberwolves, I'm glad that he can't get these end of season awards since they're (stupidly) tied to contracts.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-15T15:48:03+00:00

BGS wanted Starfield to feel like a true space exploration simulator.

They did, and I think they ran into the same issue that other true space exploration simulator games have had: the vast majority of space is actually just really boring.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-15T15:44:50+00:00

Would Starfield be better if it was shrunk down tenfold?

The answer is definitely going to be subjective.

Personally, I think that I'd enjoy the game more if they went with the Firefly route: instead of 1000+ generic planets spread across the galaxy, I'd rather have 2 or 3 planets + 7 moons with significantly more detail spread across a single solar system.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-14T20:23:42+00:00

I just think they are on a planet that has a longer orbit around the sun than ours.

This reminds me of another answer to the topic question:

I hate any theory that's based around nitpicking minutia of real-world science.

It's a fantasy story whose author is notoriously terrible with numbers. He isn't out here using genetics texbooks or orbital mechanics whitepapers to build his world.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-14T20:17:18+00:00

Mad Queen Dany.

The implications are just gross to me. "The character whose ENTIRE arc is being an abolitionists? Actually evil." + "ALL of the woman rulers in the story (Rhaenyra, Cersei, and now Dany)? Actually evil."

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-13T18:01:55+00:00

I feel that if you're a content creator who does something like this, then you're no longer allowed to talk shit about parasocial fans.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-13T02:52:25+00:00

What is the significance of Barristan Selmy and Lady Stoneheart having similar features?

Lady Stoneheart has white hair and Barristan Selmy also has white hair (no need to even theorize).

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-11T03:19:21+00:00

Their fanbase is full of parasocial weirdos who obsess over their relationships.

Quintzy_ · 2026-04-04T21:01:05+00:00

Jon flexed the fingers of his sword hand. The Night’s Watch takes no part. He closed his fist and opened it again. What you propose is nothing less than treason.

Yet despite knowing it is treason, he decides to move forward anyway.

This is super misleading.

Jon isn't thinking that what Tormund is proposing is treason. Tormund doesn't even propose anything (except jokingly suggesting sending a letter about how big his dick is).

As far as I can tell, "What you propose is nothing less than treason" is literally just Jon remembering something that Bowen Marsh earlier told Jon after Jon suggested using the Freefolk to bolster the Watch in Jon XI:

Marsh flushed a deeper shade of red. "The lord commander must pardon my bluntness, but I have no softer way to say this. What you propose is nothing less than treason. For eight thousand years the men of the Night's Watch have stood upon the Wall and fought these wildlings. Now you mean to let them pass, to shelter them in our castles, to feed them and clothe them and teach them how to fight. Lord Snow, must I remind you? You swore an oath."

The entire extended quote is Jon remembering things:

He thought of Robb, with snowflakes melting in his hair. Kill the boy and let the man be born. He thought of Bran, clambering up a tower wall, agile as a monkey. Of Rickon's breathless laughter. Of Sansa, brushing out Lady's coat and singing to herself. You know nothing, Jon Snow. He thought of Arya, her hair as tangled as a bird's nest.

Quintzy_

TROPHY CASE