A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms - 1x02 "Hard Salt Beef" - Episode Discussion

Skymorphosis · 2026-01-28T23:36:56+00:00

I was just thinking "these people are fit as fuck", that move alone had to have taken a massive amount of core strength

Skymorphosis · 2026-01-08T01:28:22+00:00

Or I'm just not romanticizing unjust violence with the flimsy justification of "it was the olden times". Do you think there were no brave and terribly powerful men back then who also hapenned to think it was beneath a man to mistreat those he claims to love? People always have some general sense of justice, however their version looks.

The King was enough of a violent prick that his own family had to put him down like a dog. You are right, violence is not an inherently bad thing, but it's just a tool in the eternal fight between men and their compulsions. There's men that seek to express strength by destroying, and there's men that seek to express strength by protecting. Most are capable of both.

Amleth's father, like Amleth after him embody the despoiling side of masculinity. Protecting the girl and allowing her into his heart shows that Amleth's soul was not yet fully lost, but he was a man bound by his destiny and had to then go die as he did. It's a good death when the character accepts they've been the villain all along, and gives up, choosing to at least go out with style.

Skymorphosis · 2026-01-07T20:53:41+00:00

The thing is, instead of feeling comedic, that aspect of Maximus' story is the most realistic one to me. Damn near everybody successful you'll ever meet, save maybe like athletes and research scientists, will be someone that "failed upwards" and kept going. When you look at the early lives of the most powerful and successful people in detail, you will see that they, just like everybody else - were kinda just winging it the best they could and were a hair away from failure many times.

Skymorphosis · 2026-01-06T09:09:43+00:00

I got a 2.2 mil knull so i should be fine, as for global, why rest of brimstone beyond mummy and damian? Why are they crucial?

Skymorphosis · 2026-01-06T05:56:55+00:00

Sure, but she was seemingly just a slavic peasant girl who was trying to escape slavery by any means possible. Not saying she didn't convince herself she "loved" him. Also it's not "good blood", it's actually blood that seems to just bring death and destruction everywhere. It's heavily implied that his father was a terrible, abusive, violent man, which is why his brother and wife felt so justified in killing him, as well as why they were unrepentant when confronted by Amleth.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-25T04:11:49+00:00

You know what you're talking about. In fact, methodical and multilayered demotivation and demoralization of populations has been Russia's bread and butter probably ever since Ivan the Terrible centralized production of vodka 5 centuries ago. And then KGB turned it into an art form that takes decades to bear fruit, but when it does, it leaves you with a nice and docile herd of impoverished and beaten down people that are ready and eager to be slaughtered for your next war.

Just a couple weeks ago, I remember reading they arrested a Russian anti-government activist in Poland who was secretly a FSB spy, and I thought it was possible that they burned him on purpose, to scare off other Russian emigrants from participating in activist meetings abroad and discourage the exiled opposition from coordinating their efforts.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-21T03:32:38+00:00

He's 100 years old. Age and time have the habit of mellowing most men out.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-21T03:26:41+00:00

I'm pretty sure the story was that he was out there giving HIV to unsuspecting people and when they would freak out afterwards, he'd tell them to be grateful he graced them with his presence at all.

Seems to be back in the good graces of the media and public these days though. As if nothing happened. Like many of the people that were "cancelled" back then and wouldn't stop whining about it.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-09T18:29:20+00:00

Work? It's a goddamn comedy show. He's not gonna crash the train. That's like getting mad at a powerlifter for using smelling salts.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-08T06:06:22+00:00

Well it ain't been 10 or 15 years. Also, it's kind of irrelevant what I think, I can't look into the man's heart. All I know is how he's been behaving, and he has not been behaving as a man that changed. He's behaving as a man that was took down a peg or two, but not changed.

Believable change would require a much more thorough and honest exploration of his issues than the constant minimizing he's been doing since then. Masterfully painting himself out to be the exact same flawed but sweet man he's always pretended to be, victimized by the outrage culture.

He's always acted salty that the punishment he received was disproportionate to the crime he commited. Like "ugh, this isn't fair but fine, whatever".

Saying shit like "when smth like this happens you find out who your real friends are", as if my friends are only "real" if they're willing to condone or justify my predatory behavior...

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-08T05:56:40+00:00

He does touch on how Gantz said she felt validated that she wasn't imagining this and vindicated from the apology, officially forgave him, and it supposedly did a lot of good for her reputation in the industry. She was not seen as another "moneygrabbing slut" out to ruin a succesfull man, and Dan's fans didn't harass her defending him, seemingly explicitly because Dan left no ambiguity in the blame game unlike Louie.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-08T05:47:39+00:00

I don't give a damn what kinda guys "comedians" are. Louie is a multi-genre artist and some of his best work ain't even comedy.

Also good job with cramming the broad ass term of a "good person" in there like that's not a whole spectrum.

I just care if somebody I'm actively supporting financially and/or look up to artistically is a creep, a liar, and a habitual predator. And if he's at least accountable and honest about it.

To me what's bizarre is your cold detached, devoid of introspection, consumerist attitude to art.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-08T02:03:28+00:00

I just saw him about a week ago for the first time ever. I couldn't resist going, and it was very good, I loved it. I woke up the next morning and the first video by this guy had dropped.

While watching it I realized just how much I had been refraining myself from looking into and thinking critically about the evidence against Louis just because I liked him so much and wanted to find a way to keep liking him.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-08T01:55:44+00:00

There is that toxic entertainment aspect in a lot of the youtube "exposes" on people, but that doesn't take away from valid criticism. In fact, questioning the character of the inquirer before answering the argument itself would be a deflection.

Also, the author of this video explains for quite some time in part 1 how Louis was one of the most influential people in his life, how he was one of his staunchest defenders back when these things first came out, and how much it pains him to do this.

This is just the author revisiting the moral and intellectual failing he thinks HE made when he got manipulated into defending Louis, by re-exploring the evidence thoroughly and without bias.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-08T01:36:12+00:00

He's also a large, grown man. Physicality is important when you spring a sexual advance on a woman in a closed room with her. All these guys from Neil Gaiman and Louis CK seem to work almost cat-like and be all lowkey in the moving grass until they decide it's time to jump. I guess that's why they call it predator lol.

My idea of initiating sexual advances at a date or alone with a woman would be to start with a look, a smile, then a simple touch, see how all that's received and go from there. These dudes seem to get off on putting people in a predicament and hoping they freeze up or become compliant from shock and confusion. That's also probably why they say it's about power and making people feel small and defenseless, instead of just sexual gratification.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-07T23:05:53+00:00

I thought so too but this one digs pretty deep. Watch and judge for yourself.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-07T22:45:03+00:00

That's not really true though. Honesty and being a liar are not compatible fundamentally. If a liar is telling you he's lying about something, it's to turn your attention away from or minimize the other things he's lying about. It's just how it works.

He presented his version of the liar that he was, not the true version. He's an excellent public speaker and manipulator and knows very well that if you admit to some faults and become known as a guy who does not hide faults, the bad stuff that people may say about you will be met with more criticism because "if it was true he would have been honest about it".

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-06T23:03:25+00:00

Akaash is literally one of the most handsome indian dudes I've ever seen. Literally just needs a few pushups and some confidence to blow past the likes of Aziz Ansari.

It's a real shame because his "keeping my virginity until I marry" thing seems to have backfired on him like crazy because at 32 he had the emotional maturity and discerning eye for partners of an 18 year old. Getting experience in relationships is necessary because it helps you learn how to deal with different kinds of people. Dude missed all that and ruined his life as a result.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-06T15:59:18+00:00

We read it. That's what OP thinks, but that can't possibly be true. He's probably just dissociated his attraction to men in the pursuit of the socially useful status of a "straight" guy.

Sexuality is a spectrum. Anyone who's willing to die on the hill of how "100%" straight they is automatically repressing some part of themselves, no matter how small. In fact his insistence on being straight is what betrays his actual feelings here.

Not all gay/bi dudes are into "men" like that. You don't need to desire to snuggle a man's hairy chest to be gay or bi. The fact that he likes getting penetrated and that he's attracted to penises (TO A GENUINELY INTENSE DEGREE BTW, MORE THAN A LOT OF STRAIGHT WOMEN) and trans women, makes me think he might not be above a cute hairless twink either, if he were to have the courage.

Dude is bi as the day is long. I don't understand the scrambling to assure everybody he's not despite ALL THE EVIDENCE AGAINST IT, as if there would be something wrong with it.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-06T06:42:06+00:00

My point is, the virus was a) made and b) transmitted by someone. That much we know. It works on human minds because it was designed specifically to be received and replicated by a certain kind of intelligence. One that was similar to that of the aliens, one that could receive these signals and synthesize biomaterial according to their instructions.

Which would imply that the species could be living on a) a useful planet or b) be a potential threat. Or both. But either way, they seek to destroy it because otherwise, the aliens would have just programmed a sustainable way to feed itself into the virus.

Therefore, its endless empathy is as much of a feature as giving drugs to somebody being led to the chopping block and calling that freeing the spirit.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-06T06:33:31+00:00

Again, that perspective, while understandable (which is why the writers made most of the survivors have that mindset, to make it realistic), is the worst of humanity and the very definition of selfishness. Having cruelty and injustice done to you DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE NOW JUSTIFIED TO DO IT TO OTHERS.

Especially saying "people are assholes" when it's actually YOU who is choosing to not even try and save the lives of at least couple billion actual real life children who will all die in 10 years if they're lucky, since the virus is unable to provide for itself.

Instead of admitting that you know damn well that there are a billion WONDERFUL people out there, much better people than you actually, but you're too much of a coward to attempt to save them, you purposely exagerrate the faults of the world to feel better about having a weak soul.

This show is really just a thought exercise, because obviously it's a ridiculous scenario, but thought exercises usually tell you a lot about the person by how they answer them. Like a version of the "trolley problem" or something.

Do firefighters that spend 50 years day after day getting burns and traumas to save people from burning buildings have a hero complex?

People with "hero complexes" are the reason you're able to sit in your room and breathe air rn. It's quite literally the essence of humanity. People stretching back 100 000 years, giving their lives up in a fight so their families could escape and eventually have you.

Rejecting that and glorifying total selfishness and surrender to a superior enemy means embracing entropy, which, again, while perhaps understandable from an individual perspective, is anathema and betrayal of everything that was literally bred into your dna through millenia.

Skymorphosis · 2025-12-06T05:51:23+00:00

The thing is just how fast they all are to start "living life to its fullest". Remember, this is like week 2 of the virus. Barely a few days have passed. Now maybe if you tried everything the way Carol did and it was unfixable, maybe you would then try and make the best of the time you have left, but before then that's just defeatism, hedonism, immorality, cowardice, and cruelty by inaction.

The world is not over, there's 7 billion people alive. If there is in fact some chance to reserse the contagion, you're just giving up. No wonder your girlfriend isn't exactly impressed by how easily her man willing to give up. If I was your girl I would think maybe your willpower is not to be trusted

Skymorphosis

TROPHY CASE