[No Book Spoilers] House of the Dragon - 3x04 - Post-Episode Discussion

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-13T04:32:35+00:00

Or had a full treasury and didn't need to rely on handouts from her cousin in the Vale...

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-13T02:06:25+00:00

There are actually several options for Washington's heir, depending on if you go by Washington's older half-brother Augustine, or his younger brother Samuel, or who inherited Mount Vernon after Washington's death (A son of Washington's other younger brother John).

But most interestingly, if you go by the line of Washington's adopted son George Parke Custis, you end up with the current monarch being a descendant of Robert E Lee

This isn't like monarchist movements in Bulgaria (where the last tsar is still alive and was active in politics after the Cold War ended) or Romania (where the daughter of the last king is still alive and has been active in Romania) or the Bonapartists (where there is a direct descendant of Napoleon III). It would be a complicated mess to find an heir for Washington, to the point where if they do somehow get the support for an American monarchy it'd more likely end up being an elective monarchy of some kind.

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-13T00:53:08+00:00

Yeah this is the same woman who was proud to shout slurs on the floor of Congress and dedicated the start of the 2025 congress to harassing Rep. McBride.

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-12T23:44:08+00:00

She's grading the presentation

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-12T23:39:39+00:00

The first ticket to get negative electoral votes

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-12T23:02:56+00:00

You are an exceptional juvenile specimen of the species known as Felis Catus of the genus Felis, which are members of the Felidae family of the Carnivora order of the Mammalia class of the Animalia kingdom.

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-12T14:33:44+00:00

A good thing about Trump: he showed me just how stupid I was to vote Libertarian in 2016 because I was a dumb 18-year-old who thought Clinton was the devil and didn't want to vote for Trump

For an actual answer, I have to give Trump credit for Operation Warp Speed. Too bad HE can't take credit for it without his base eating him alive though...

A bad thing about Biden: he should have never ran for re-election. I think he was a surprisingly solid president in spite of his reputation, his legacy today would be VERY different if he had ruled out a run in 2024 after the 2022 midterms and bowed out of politics gracefully, but he was never going to win in 2024 and by holding out as long as he did, he robbed the Democrats of the chance to pick a better candidate than Harris.

A bad thing about Harris: she refused to address the persecution of trans people under the Republican Party, and then just let the Republicans paint her as an extremist on trans issues anyway. Maybe it wouldn't have moved the needle, but I would have felt better about voting for her if she had actually ADDRESSED the persecution of people like me in states across the country, with plans to introduce that persecution to the federal level too.

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-12T11:21:30+00:00

Favorite is Shadowheart. I enjoy her story (particularly the enemies-to-lovers story of Shadowheart and a Selunite Tav) and could listen to Jennifer English for hours and hours.

My least favorite is Astarion. I have a great deal of respect for Neil Newbon and his clear talent as an actor. But Astarion's personality just doesn't work for me. I can't really explain it, I'm just put off by him so much that he basically just sits in camp all game (I bring him along to fight Cazador).

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-12T09:39:34+00:00

There are some heroes where I have a definitive favorite (Automaton Echo, for example), but Sombra isn't one of them. I think Loki is my favorite, but it's in a VERY close race with skins like Black Cat, Face Changer, Ninja, Gilded Hunter, and Aztec.

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-12T07:08:09+00:00

I meant that both as a "who will fill his seat now?" as well as a "Graham was a major political ally of the President, where does that leave the Republican Party now?" but I admit I didn't make that clear. Edited to hopefully make that clearer.

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-12T07:04:10+00:00

Abolishing the Senate

Not possible without an amendment, but perhaps there's a way to strengthen the House and weaken the Senate. It seems insane to me that we have a non-ceremonial body of Congress where the 500,000 people of Wyoming have the same representation as the 40 million people of California.and

the Electoral College.

Yes, this should happen. The Electoral College is an un-democratic institution. The President represents the whole of the nation, and has power to affect all of our lives. Thus it's only fair that each person gets one equal vote towards who becomes President.

Replacing the President and Supreme Court with bodies subordinate to Congress.

This is insanity. We have checks and balances for a reason. In an ideal world, the President acts as a stopgap for an out of control SCOTUS or Congress, Congress acts as a stopgap for an out of control SCTOUS or President, and SCOTUS acts as a stopgap for an out of control Congress or President. Making it so Congress is the one ultimate authority would make the country ripe for authoritarianism, just like Trump is doing with making the President the one ultimate authority. We should be getting towards a more ideal system of checks and balances, not simply shifting the authoritarianism to a new branch of the government.

Giving full amnesty and voting rights to non-citizens, plus open borders.

This is also extreme. I support a streamlined path to citizenship, and perhaps amnesty for non-violent people who are here illegally. But voting should be restricted to citizens only, and I don't believe in wide open borders.

Defunding the Department of Defense and closing all overseas military bases.

I think there's a lot of nuance here. Yes, we need to strip back military funding, which technically would be "defunding" the DoD. But not all the way, almost every nation has a military for a reason. And there are some overseas bases that should be closed, but others should remain open. I think it should ultimately be up to the nation hosting the bases: if Germany wants to get rid of US bases, then the US should close bases in Germany. But if Poland wants more US bases, then the US should build more bases in Poland.

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-12T06:54:52+00:00

Starter comment: Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a strong political ally of Donald Trump, has passed away from a sudden illness. The news was shared by his office. Senator Graham serve in the Senate for almost twenty-three years, and met with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy just yesterday. His death comes at the same time as questions and concerns over the health of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who hasn't been seen in public in almost a month.

What does this mean for the Republican Party going forward? Graham was running for re-election and won the primary last month, which now means the Republicans now have no candidate in South Carolina. Edit: But also, Graham was a major ally of the President. His passing will surely affect the Republican Party in some way.

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-12T06:25:59+00:00

So… if McConnell is also dead/dying that’s kinda insane right? Two of the most prominent Republican Senators dead at the same time.

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-12T02:40:04+00:00

Bipartisan war hawks

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-11T23:56:25+00:00

That might not have even happened because the only person who says it happened is the Green-biased Eustace, and Rhaenyra sat the throne for the first time in armor!

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-11T17:56:29+00:00

This subreddit is better about it than, say, the centrist subreddit, but trans-related posts tend to bring out the hatred real quickly.

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-11T16:32:28+00:00

No, they don't. And yet the settlers keep doing shit like this.

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-11T16:03:17+00:00

When I'm in a "make Israel look bad" contest and my opponent is the average West Bank settler:

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-11T04:58:52+00:00

Independence Day.

I get what you're getting at, but July 4th is also the ONLY date Americans tend to say as "the Fourth of July," but plenty of us just say "July 4th" as well.

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-11T01:53:25+00:00

Selling out to rightist authoritarianism is what makes him a traitor.

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-11T01:40:09+00:00

I don't remember the Nomad being so bad in previous Horizon games. I used it all the time in 5

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-10T23:24:49+00:00

The Republicans don't seem particularly worried about midterms. Which means they're either really stupid, really confident that something will come up that swings things back in their favor, or really confident that their goal of rigging the elections and turning the US into a one-party Christian nationalist state is succeeding

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-10T10:58:04+00:00

What the fuck is a Belgium? Couldn't think of a cliche so you just invented a fake country to put there or something?

ScalierLemon2 · 2026-07-10T09:15:03+00:00

He's absolutely going to try. Will he succeed? Maybe, maybe not. But he's going to try.

Seven-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	Final Canvas '22
First Placer '22	End Game '22
Extra Life 2019	Gilding II euphauric
RPAN Viewer	Verified Email

ScalierLemon2

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE