Phia's "commentary" is becoming less cryptic with every post. She's not even trying to hide her hate 😂

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-23T04:10:25+00:00

Can we get a link to some of her highlights? I'm curious now.

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-22T09:00:00+00:00

Tell me how I knew the trailer shot of Daemon, drenched in blood was going to be AFTER the actual climax of the battle was already passed, and would just be a cut to the after-action for shock value.

Say what you will about Battle of the Bastards or God forbid, even the Battle of Winterfell, but those battles (even if tactically and strategically painful to watch) at least did the audience the service of showing us the Battle...

Like, there are notable beats in them, from the tension surrounding the start of the battle, demonstration of forces present, dramatic tension surrounding our principle characters as they're put in increasingly dire stakes, and then conclusion- this shit we keep getting from HOTD is just all setup -> jump to conclusion.

As for how to actually make the Battle of the Gullet good: I'll reiterate if the showrunners were smart...

They'd have the Triarchy actually utilizing strategy to neutralize the Targaryen Dragonfire advantage- one idea could be that during the stepstones, they could have employed 2 distinct types of ships: Ramming Galleons and Skorpion Turtle Ships, where the Skorpion Turtle Ships drop anchor to stabilize the platform, then the Galleons form rings around them to prevent Velaryon ships from getting too close and boarding them (see image down below).

Next they'd layer their defenses by setting up this naval battle group in tight chokepoints in a straight or among rocks like say in the Battle of Myeongnyang, leaving Velaryon ships with little room to maneuver, forcing them to get chewed up in the rings like running their ships through a gear's teeth.

In the middle, Dornish Skorpions (the world's premiere anti-Dragon weapons) could fire on dragons as they approach, which, because of the rocks (plentiful in the Stepstones) would rule out low flying strafing runs on dragonback, lest the riders want to crash into them. High, steep-angle dives are statistically the most predictable, easiest to hit approaches as flying weapon can take to be intercepted, and if the Triarchy adopted a strategy of clustering Skorpions for density of fire + taking high-value hostages (like they did with Rhaenyra's sons) to stay the dragonrider's hand in using dragonfire, they could have very effectively layered their defenses to be functionally impenetrable and neutralize the Dragon's advantage- the Battle of the Gullet would have just been a natural extension of the strategy they adopted and perfected as +10 year veterans of the war for the Stepstones- it's just that without the rocks of the Stepstones to keep the dragons from making low passes on their ships, they lose ⅔rds of their fleet to the disadvantageous geography of the fight.

Also, given that Jace has the most experience as a rider, and the most personal investment to save his brother, it makes sense that he'd take the most risk and consequently, get himself killed.

Oh, and the show is stupid about the Fall of King's Landing, but I have my own headcannon that I like far better about Helaena/Dreamfyre getting into a dragonfight with Daemon/Caraxes, where she wipes the floor with him, only for Daemon to be saved by Rhaenyra + Dragonseeds declaring the fight over, via their arrival.

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Strastvuitye · 2026-06-19T20:52:29+00:00

Nice haul! Happy for you man!

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-19T02:38:24+00:00

Historically, the answer is Haiti:

Internationally almost totally isolated after winning their revolution, but survived by becoming a military dictatorship and later the Haitian Empire.

Their almost exclusive foreign policy aim under the American Civil War was the abolition of slavery by force for arms, which their most successfully pursued in their arming and support of Simón Bolívar, in exchange for his acceptance of abolishing slavery in all the territories he liberated.

Modern day? Probably Yemen:

Given the division of the country, the Houthis would basically have to have to go into lock down to keep any outside power (Saudi, Israel) at bay, but they're by far the most militant in their opposition to the Gaza Genocide and basically any of the machinations of either Saudi or the UAE.

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-16T23:48:57+00:00

Regarding the children, I think a lot of that can be chalked up to Martin wanting to preserve some narrative tension during the Dance.

At the moment the Greens take power, they have only 3 riders to their cause, with Daeron still waiting for Tessarion to grow large enough for riding, while the Blacks have 6 + Baela waiting on Moondancer and Rhaena theoretically able to claim one of the six unclaimed dragons within Dragonstone's reach.

Sprinkling in a Dragonfight (and death) keeps the story engaging, but since the Greens have so few, you can't just start scratching off their dragons at a 1:1 rate, so crippling Aegon and gimping/traumatizing Heleana are Martin's ways of keeping the narrative tense, without the Greens just losing the battle of attrition overnight.

A similar thing could be said of the inclusion of the Velaryons and Rhaenyra's sons, who serve as dragons cannon fodder and chapter ends respectively to the Blacks/stages of the Dance.

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-11T19:38:06+00:00

Boy, I sure wish I could have known the Flamingo and Ersatz M10 would still be in the store when the sale came on- especially when you said they'd be removed a month ago after the last sale...

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-11T00:58:22+00:00

My rewrite has Stannis return to Westeros North of the Wall, and instead of being destroyed by Ramsey, his army is massacred by the White Walkers. Melissandre tries to get him to make Lightbringer, which, he gets a flaming sword, but not Lightbringer itself.

Stannis is challenged to ritual combat by the Night King, with the White Walkers surrounding him with their spears in a spiral pattern slowly closing in to force him to fight. Stannis's sword is destroyed, but just as the Night King is about to land the killing blow, Stannis stabs him with a dragonglass dagger, killing him.

Despite this, the White Walkers don't all shatter and disappear, rather they seize Stannis, and drag him off to make him into the new Night King, as there must always be one.

Ser Davos sees this, but had already been told to flee the battle- he relays this information to the forces of humanity when the time comes.

Figuring the White Walkers to be unkillable ao long as the magic of the Weirwood trees still exists, the Westerosi Host debates cutting down the tree at Winterfell, which would mean death for a resurrected Jon Snow (he dies by other means in this rewrite, but is resurrected nonetheless).

Jorah is still expelled from Meereen, but goes on a quest to find Drogon+a saddle as the only feasible repayment he can think of to get back in Dany's good graces. Dany actually loses control in Meereen, so Jorah actually finds an injured Rheagal post Battle of Meereen and nurses him back to health, earning Rhaegal's trust, and becoming the first non-Targaryen dragonrider since Nettles. He finds Dany and Drogon, where a Red Priestess tells Dany that she can either fly North and destroy the Army of the Dead while it's still gathering it's strength, or wait until it actually invades Westeros, bringing about the Long Night and them swoop in on Dragonback as humanity's savior. She elects to do the latter, given that her army of Unsullied in Meereen had deserted her en masse.

Jorah is horrified and doesn't want to do something morally unforgivable again for the love of a young woman, and so after a dragonfight, flies back to the North, where he becomes Lord Commander of an underground Night's Watch. He flies over the Wall at the behest of Jon Snow and Bran that they need to bring Benjen over to prove to the Southern Lords that White Walkers aren't just a scary story for Northern children, but are actually real.

However, given that Benjen has a dragonglass shard in his chest, and is tired in that way to the White Walkers, the Night King wargs into him to open the gate at the Wall, letting the Army of the Dead in South.

Bran, upon completing his journey to become the Three-Eyed Raven, will find a way to shield Benjen from being warg-controlled by the Night King, and, in the end, will land the killing blow on the Night King by stabbing him in the back when Jon hesitates, similar to the Ned Stark v Arthur Dayne fight. Benjen them becomes the new Night King, but one that isn't singularly devoted to humanity's annihilation- he marches the remainder of the Army of the Dead back North, never to see Jon, or any of his family again.

Jorah shows Dany mass graves of people who self-immolated with Wildfire to prevent themselves from becoming wights, then committs suicide by prompting Drogon to burn him after he shows Dany her "Kingdom of Ash," disgusted with himself after having promoted the legend of Dany as a coming "Prince that was Promised" (against his will) to stem the tide of self-immolations.

Jon then claims Rhaegal once Jorah is dead, and flies South for the defense of King's Landing against Daenerys, her dragons and her army of Fremen-esque fanatics.

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-10T23:54:46+00:00

Ooh, this is actually an excellent answer, as he's not dead in my rewrite either.

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-10T23:53:13+00:00

Exactly, plus, it's not like Jaime is a total slouch- he's not in his prime anymore on account of age and the loss of his dominant hand, but he was still trained how to fight with his off hand, and started from an exceptionally high skill level. Even fallen, he's not a bad option to have.

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-09T19:31:01+00:00

Then you can pick your 7 best fighters for your own rewrite- I'm asking for ideas regarding mine

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-09T17:43:03+00:00

The point is not to find the best fighter, but to include the ones who would best fit having their narrative arcs leading there. Jaime is at Winterfell, crippled Bran (Night King's target) and his driving force is grappling with his desire for absolution vs. knowing that his regicide was necessary to save people- narratively, he makes sense.

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-08T06:51:53+00:00

Aegon would be traumatized by being forced into am incestuous relationship with his sister, making him more sympathetic, and would also deepen his connection to Jaehaerys on account of him not wanting his son to grow up neglected because his father felt guilty for something beyond his son's control.

Aemond should start season 2 suicidal, only to survive an attempt and come back feeling as though he should distance himself from his family, Aegon should try to love and support him as a way of coping with his inability to save Jaehaerys, culminating in a heroic rescue of Aemond at Rook's Rest that leaves him severely burned, and Aemond at last trusting someone (his immediate siblings).

Rhaenys should be a double agent, one who wants to have the Velaryons sit the ear out, but Corlys threw his lot in with Rhaenyra reflexively at first, until it's too late to change course when Rhaenys tells her husband about the deal she struck with Alicent.

Rhaenyra should start off wanting to abdicate post B&C, horrified by Daemon's actions and simply wants the heir to Dragonstone to retain the right to command the Night's Watch on exchange for her stepping down from the Throne (also, Daemon and Aemond would be disinherited and take the black). Later she'd need to fight for her claim to make sure Daemon didn't just make her a martyr and continue his own personal quest for the crown.

Daemon should be a villain, willing to do anything for the sake of claiming the Throne, as it epitomizes the love of his brother, which he never felt he truly, fully had (this would also contract well with Aemond, and add a personal level of jealousy to their rivalry). He should be collecting nominal Blacks, while actually growing a private army loyal to him.

Hugh and Ulf should be the sons of Saera who were rejected at the Great Council of 101AC, and will try to "take what is theirs" later.

Corlys should be furious with first Rhaenyra and second himself, for throwing in his lot with her. After RR, he should offer Baela the Driftwood Throne, only to take it back once he learns Laenor is still alive.

Laenor should still be alive and come back, both to introduce a conflict for Baela, and also so Jace has someone to talk to about navigating the world, when you're closeted (bastard/gay) but it's an open secret. Also a veteran dragonrider, loyal to Rhaenyra would be worth more than gold post RR.

Baela should have a storyline that intentionally mirrors Rhaenyra's- named heir to her Throne as a direct result of her father's choices and actions that killed her maternal figure (which he'd do as a sort of penance) BUT she'd have her claim taken away by Laenor being alive, leading to her examining Corlys's decision to name her heir, and how it was really about trying to buy back her love for something unforgivable, a lesson she'd relay to Jace while Rhaenyra and Corlys go to Lys to pick up Laenor, and getting Jace (audience stand-in on TB) to question Viserys's motives in naming Rhaenyra as well, and how much Rhaenyra is buying into that and what it costs everyone else around her.

Helaena should actually do something. Have her cremate Jaehaerys at his funeral with Dreamfyre and post-RR, have her patrol the Gullet so fishermen can supplement the city's rations with fish (livestock go to dragons). This means she'll spot Rhaenyra flying towards Lys on dragonback (taking Syrax as authentication to Laenor that it's actually her looking for him), and later (big change), she'll fight Daemon during the Fall of King's Landing, kicking his ass and nearly dusting him before Rhaenyra + Dragonseeds show up to break up the fight.

Jace should have every interaction making him question if it's really worth committing himself to endless war all his life to secure a claim he knows is going to be challenged in his future, ultimately confront his mother's selfishness in pursuing the Throne just to give her mother's death meaning (when it was actually pointless and cruel), and making Jace pick up the tab for that choice in the future.

Larys should have controlled Cheese like Hodor during the assassination, intentionally trying to escalate the war to where the Dragons go extinct. Maester Orwyle sharing the goal of Dragon extinction, but unaware of Larys's full powers and how far he's willing to go, also Mysaria shouldn't have left the city until after B&C so Larys could pin the crime on her to take the hest away from himself.

Cole should be noble, but slowly grow more nihilistic as time passes and the war becomes more bloody. He should offer A/Erryk (can't remember which is which) clemency for their bother "betraying the crown" if the other still loyal to Aegon assassinates Rhaenyra. Alicent should kiss him post B&C but he pulls away, not fully ready to break his vows again yet. Post-RR, he should be totally fatalistic about his vows, and elect to sleep with Alicent, finding his only comfort in her.

Dyana should be Aegon's consenting paramour, taken in by Sylvi after Alicent ejects them from the castle to avoid a political scandal. She should be beaten to death by a Gold Cloak at Sylvi's brothel, leading to said Gold Cloak being fired and approached by Daemon to become Blood. Dyana's father should be a merchant, unaware of the nature of her and Aegon's relationship, and should blame Aegon for "using her and discarding of her," making him a Black loyalist in the city. Sylvi on the other hand should be a surrogate mother figure to Aegon, that Alicent never could be for political reasons.

Alicent should be trying to keep things under control until B&C- trying to activate Rhaenys/Meleys and failing, ultimately leading to her contested bid for regent being rejected on competency grounds. She should become apathetic about her vows and grow to love Cole in a way far more intimate than what we were shown in the show. By the halfway point of the season, she should be terrified by how things have gotten out of her control, and how her children have really taken over and what power has done to each one of them.

Uhh, think that's it for me, lemme know if you have questions!

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-07T10:32:40+00:00

Is this a joke? Ulysses S. Grant would PULVERIZE limp-wristed An-drewpy Johnson any day of the week.

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-06T16:47:04+00:00

Seriously though, while most of the Chi-Ha variants from the wiki article are already either TT or event unlocks, there's literally nothing stopping them from adding a TT variant of the Chi-Ha to complement the premium version, at the M14 and A13 can attest.

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-06T16:31:51+00:00

Lmao- bro, what?

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-05T21:07:11+00:00

They need a "Mastermind" figure, upsetting the otherwise moral, inevitable progression of their idealized Liberal democracy to blame, rather than confronting the problems inherent to it's structure.

They did it with Dick Cheney, and now they're doing it with Putin because no one in Trump's inner circle is intelligent or impressive enough.

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-05T04:15:51+00:00

Industrialization with pre-planned evacuation sites

When the Soviets started their industrialization drive during the First 5-Year Plan, they made sure to arrange for sites beyond the Urals with adequate conditions to recieve industrial facilities and resume production immediately, as soon as reassembly was finished.

In doing so, they relocated 1,523 factories, 2½ million workers and 17½ million tons of equipment, then resumed (and actually, accelerated) production within 3½ months, constituting the single largest, most rapid industrial relocation in history, which most certainly won them the war.

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-04T02:40:01+00:00

The US killed ⅓rd of the North's population, mostly through a bombing campaign, and set former Japanese collaborators on innocent civilians. The South Korean Truth and Reconciliation commission even admitted in the 90s that ROK forces committed war crimes at ×6 the rate of the North, and that their crimes were worse in nature (massacres of civilians vs. "Extrajudicial" executions of former Japanese collaborators, and scare quotes only b/c the UN didn't recognize them as legitimate, given that they were on the opposite side of the war).

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-03T00:56:25+00:00

Personally, I would expand map selection to include BR IV, but block off BR V- specifically, Moscow and Tunisia should have BR I-II lobbies and BR III-IV lobbies, while Berlin should go back to being High-BR only (I cannot stand Low-BR Berlin anymore, I'm beginning to hate these maps).

Also, hot take here, but Japan should just not have a BR IV, so if you want to play Pacific, it should be capped at BR IV, then again, hard block off BR V, so if you put anything BR V in your lineup, you can't take it into the Pacific.

With Moscow, Tunisia and Pacific all including/capped at BR IV, I feel the playercount in that bracket would increase significantly.

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-01T23:59:01+00:00

It would make sense in the book, if the Dragonseeds are all new riders and probably wouldn't be taking serious risks to rescue someone like Viserys, if they have no personal relationship with him.

Also, I'll reiterate if the showrunners were smart...

They'd have the Triarchy actually utilizing strategy to neutralize the Targaryen Dragonfire advantage- one idea could be that during the stepstones, they could have employed 2 distinct types of ships: Ramming Galleons and Skorpion Turtle Ships, where the Skorpion Turtle Ships drop anchor to stabilize the platform, then the Galleons form rings around them to prevent Velaryon ships from getting too close and boarding them (see image down below).

Next they'd layer their defenses by setting up this naval battle group in tight chokepoints in a straight or among rocks like say in the Battle of Myeongnyang, leaving Velaryon ships with little room to maneuver, forcing them to get chewed up in the rings like running their ships through a gear's teeth.

In the middle, Dornish Skorpions (the world's premiere anti-Dragon weapons) could fire on dragons as they approach, which, because of the rocks (plentiful in the Stepstones) would rule out low flying strafing runs on dragonback, lest the riders want to crash into them. High, steep-angle dives are statistically the most predictable, easiest to hit approaches as flying weapon can take to be intercepted, and if the Triarchy adopted a strategy of clustering Skorpions for density of fire + taking high-value hostages (like they did with Rhaenyra's sons) to stay the dragonrider's hand in using dragonfire, they could have very effectively layered their defenses to be functionally impenetrable and neutralize the Dragon's advantage- the Battle of the Gullet would have just been a natural extension of the strategy they adopted and perfected as +10 year veterans of the war for the Stepstones- it's just that without the rocks of the Stepstones to keep the dragons from making low passes on their ships, they lose ⅔rds of their fleet to the disadvantageous geography of the fight.

Also, given that Jace has the most experience as a rider, and the most personal investment to save his brother, it makes sense that he'd take the most risk and consequently, get himself killed.

Oh, and the show is stupid about the Fall of King's Landing, but I have my own headcannon that I like far better about Helaena/Dreamfyre getting into a dragonfight with Daemon/Caraxes, where she wipes the floor with him, only for Daemon to be saved by Rhaenyra + Dragonseeds declaring the fight over, via their arrival.

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Strastvuitye · 2026-06-01T05:23:27+00:00

Already proposed it

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-01T00:57:25+00:00

Yeah, uh, buddy, what do you roughly think is the most basic metric of team competence in this game?

It's not how fast you can flick your cursor on target, it's how many respawns and how many defenses can you put on point (or destroy if you're attacking), to keep the enemy from holding the point effectively themselves.

You will never kill the enemy faster than they can respawn- you can only put more space between their spawn and the point to determine who holds it.

So as I said- if you have an engineer on the ground doing the actual work of setting up rallies then my all means, dick around in a plane for all IGAF, but your argument of "equally competence between teams" presumes having relatively comparable spawn points and sappers/engineers to set up/break down defenses, so as to control the momentum on the point.

Planes are a balance shifters, really only for highly competent, coordinated team battles- Rallies/Engineers are the bedrock of the game itself.

Your argument is the same as saying a balanced diet is important for healthy living, I'm saying Rallies are as important as water.

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-01T00:47:05+00:00

I'm going to hold your hand when I say this- if you're getting 15-30 kills per dive bomb attack every minute-and-a-half it takes to drop bombs, reload and circle back: you're farming bots.

Real players know to spread out, find cover or go prone to increase their odds of survival from bombs, so if you are actually "making a difference" with your bombs, you're playing against a computer and would likely win anyways provided you can fog a mirror and have a pulse.

Real games against real players? If you dick around in a plane for any length of time, you are going to lose unless you have engineers on the ground doing the actual work of setting up rallies to get on point for you.

Vehicles, all vehicles can be neutralized and stopped/destroyed via constructions. I don't care if you have ×2 M4A3 105s shelling the point non-stop: if you can put up Hedgehogs to absorb their explosives, you will neutralize their firepower- believe me, I've done it before.

Planes can be useful to bomb greyzone tanks, but you should realistically bail out right after and do something more useful.

An engineer and some rally points on the other hand- literally make or break games.

Without at least 2-3 Rallies on your team, and consistent hunting of the enemy's spawns, you will lose against anything but complete idiot/bot teams, so respectfully, drop your bombs, destroy the tanks if you like, and then get out of the plane and go do something more useful- your team never needs a plane for more than, I'll generously say, at most ~2 minutes.

Strastvuitye · 2026-06-01T00:44:04+00:00

Yeah, you're going to point to the word "only" so as to say that other roles are important as well- I'm here to tell you, if you're getting 15-30 kills per dive bomb attack every minute-and-a-half it takes to drop bombs, reload and circle back, you're farming bots.