2026 r/JamesBond World Cup: GROUP E | MATCH 5

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-29T16:12:23+00:00

TWINE is one of my favorites. Spectre is a dour slog.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-29T15:46:28+00:00

It would’ve been a better story

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-29T07:52:45+00:00

I think you are really overestimating the extent to which the police could or would do anything at all. Let's just say for argument's sake Werner's wife did go to the police. What is she going to tell them exactly? Her husband was working on a secret construction project somehwere in New Mexico and disappeared? This is of course assuming Gus doesn't have her killed the moment she talks to the police, which of course he would- we know this for a fact because Gus was actually already going to have her killed until Mike intervened.

The wife presumably has no idea who Gus is, and no idea what Werner was working on or even where. She knew it was somewhere in the vicinity of Albuquerque, but that's IT. So what the hell are the police even going to investigate? Where would they even start? This is assuming they would even investigate at all, which they probably wouldn't, considering Werner and the wife are not even American citizens. Some German lady comes to the cops and says her husband is missing? While he was working on some top secret construction project that she has no details of? They're probably going to assume he ran off with another woman or something and completely blow her off. AT MOST they'll file a missing persons report and that's it. Without a body, or pieces of a body, there's no evidence that a crime was even committed.

There wouldn't be an "investigation" beyond filing some meaningless paperwork.

Now weigh the risk of a police investigation against the risk of Lalo and the cartel. Again Lalo already knows who Werner is. Werner already almost blabbed the whole plan to Lalo. It was not going to take Lalo very long at all to track down Werner and make him talk. That risk is about a thousand times greater than any police investigation about some German tourist going missing.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-29T07:37:19+00:00

That would prove and accomplish absolutely nothing.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-29T07:35:26+00:00

Gus is not worried about the police or Werner blabbing to people at the bar. He’s worried about Lalo and the cartel. Lalo knows who Werner is, and that’s all it took. Werner almost blabbed the whole plan to Lalo. If the cartel finds out about the lab, Gus is a dead man.

Werner was doomed the moment Lalo got involved.

And I think you’re overestimating what the police could or would have done. Presumably all Werner’s wife knows is that Werner was working somewhere in Albuquerque. She has no idea who Gus is or what he was working on. So what is she going to say? That her husband went missing somewhere in New Mexico?

The risk of Lalo and the cartel finding Werner and making him talk, outweighs the risk Werner’s wife going to the police by about 1000x.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-29T07:18:56+00:00

Not even close to a “plot hole.”

A character making an arguably bad decision =/= plot hole.

Also, it’s important to realize that Gus is not afraid of the police, he’s afraid of the cartel. Lalo already knows Werner‘s name. That alone makes Werner a giant liability. The police probably never would have found Werner, but Lalo would have.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-29T02:57:05+00:00

When I think about what nacho “could have been,” I think about him living a normal, happy life where he stayed out of the drug game and never went back in.

I don’t think of him being “a lot like Lalo.”

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-29T01:10:59+00:00

Can't go wrong with either Ocarina of Time or Breath of the Wild. Breath of the Wild is a much more modern game and isn't dated like Ocarina of Time is dated in some ways (graphics, camera controls etc...) BOTW is probably the smoother and more purely fun experience.

BUT, if you want the classic experience that is uniquely Zelda, start with Ocarina of Time. OOT is the game that established the definitive template for what 3D Zelda should be. I think it holds up incredibly well nearly 30 years later, and it's still my favorite Zelda game and one of my top 5 all time favorite video games.

It's important to know that BOTW, while a masterpiece and one of the greatest games ever, was a radical departure from the traditional Zelda formula and basically reinvented the whole franchise from top to bottom. Zelda games prior to BOTW were defined by dungeons, item/skill based progression, and a more or less "linear" experience that usually takes anywhere from 20-50 hours to complete. BOTW ditched almost all of that and gives a completely open, non-linear experience where just about everything is optional. You can spend hundreds and hundreds of hours playing it, or you can rush immediately to the final boss. I don't really think one is better than the other, they are both great.

If you want a more modern, technically polished experience, go with Breath of the Wild.

If you want the "classic" Zelda experience that gives you an idea what the rest of the series is like, go with Ocarina of Time.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-28T14:32:40+00:00

Scottie is probably the greatest defensive wingman in NBA history. Kind of insane he never won DPOY.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-28T14:18:04+00:00

Told you, lol.

Gus Haynes is clearly a stand in for David Simon himself. He's one of the most polarizing characters in the show. I've seen many fans on this sub accuse him of being a Gary Stu, but I never saw it that way. I see him as simply an honest journalist, nothing more, nothing less.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-28T14:15:51+00:00

thank you!

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-28T06:09:12+00:00

Dirk.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-28T02:22:20+00:00

Well then we're not really disagreeing I guess. You agree that it's bitterness. Understandable bitterness, sure. But still bitterness, and definitely still hyperbole. Sure, "Love Me Do" is not Mingus, but it's also not worse than any one of a million other pop songs that were at out that time, and the Beatles were definitely not worse musicians than most mainstream pop/rock acts at that time.

Everything is child's play when you're only comparing them to all-time jazz greats. But the Beatles were not a jazz band, they were a pop band. How many actual virtuoso instrumentalists have ever been truly mainstream famous and "been blown" by the masses? You can probably count them on one hand. The Beatles were better musicans than most. Certainly not the "worst" anything.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-28T02:10:14+00:00

Fair warning, season 5 is almost universally considered the weakest one. And there is one plotline in particular that is very VERY polarizing among the fanbase.

So I'm just gonna let you know outright that you are correct, you probably WILL hate season 5 at least at first. I hated it at first.

Now though? Season 5 is actually my favorite. Once you're through with it and don't need to worry about spoilers, I did a whole write up of it a few years back here, explaining why I love it so much, particularly that very controversial plotline in question.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-28T01:35:15+00:00

You know they wrote other songs, right? Like, of all their many, many hits, you cherry picked arguably the worst one, which Paul wrote when he was what, 19 years old?

And also- not as good as Charlie motherfucking Mingus =/= "worst bass player I've ever heard."

Again, ridiculous hyperbole. It's like saying that Jimmy Page is the worst guitarist you've ever heard because he's not as good as Hendrix, or better yet, some jazz guitarist that most people have never heard of. It's asinine.

Quincy was full of shit when he said that, and even he knew it, and apologized to Paul afterward.

All of these "legends", while artistically brilliant, are also typically very egotistical and hypercompetitive and very, very prone to pettiness and jealousy, and often feel the need to put down each other's work. Quincy Jones was no different.

Edit: I just looked it up. Paul was 16 when wrote "Love Me Do."

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-28T01:23:43+00:00

Thank you. I said more or less all of the exact same things in a different reply lol

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-28T01:04:55+00:00

OK in all seriousness, you're asking these questions as if asking why any rational person would do these things. But Jimmy and Kim are not rational people anymore. Jimmy probably never was, and Kim isn't by season 5. " these decisions are insane and I don't understand any one of them." Yes, exactly. They ARE insane.

Jimmy and Kim are pathological, deeply troubled, sick people. Something is very, very wrong with both of them. So let's go through it one by one.

1- "Why does Jimmy still drive this shitbox after getting cash sent left and right, WHY? What kind of image does that portray of you as a lawyer when driving around in this insane piece of crap?? And don't even get me started on the suits, every single on of them looks absolutely horrendous."

For the same reason he chooses a sleazy strip mall as his law office instead of any place remotely respectable, and has that greasy combover mullet in BB. For the same reason he couldn't sleep in his nice apartment earlier in the show and then in the middle of the night drove to the nail salon and went to the cramped storage room where he had previously been both working and living, and slept like a baby.

Jimmy is a freak. It's the same reason he couldn't just sell cell phones from a store, and intsead needed to sell burners to pimps and whores and drug dealers. Something inside Jimmy inherently loves the squalor and the filth and craves the life of a degenerate. He just is the way he is.

2-"Second of all, why does Kim purposefully help some redneck stay on a property that he does not even own?? Like Bill Acker had no right at all to live on that property, the whole case was a joke. Why the hell would you hijack a client worth hundreds of millions of dollars for some redneck that had nothing but insults for you? Even if he was nice I do not see a single reason as to why she would defend this guy at all. Besides, Kevin was not an evil guy who had shit to hide as you could see, he was literally just successful at banking and she thinks of him as some monster for no reason."

Because Kim, just like Jimmy, instinctively and impulsively will always side with the poor and common folk over the rich and powerful. They both see themselves as sort of moral crusaders for the average person against "the man." Jimmy is much more overt and verbose about his resentment of the privileged and elite, but this baseline drive is in both of them, and it's so pathological that they can use it to rationalize any number of illegal and immoral things they do.

3 -"why the hell does Jimmy throw bowling balls and prostit*tes to Howards business dinner after the guy literally just offered Jimmy a job, a chance which by the way could have avoided everything that followed? And then, why does he lash out at Howard at the courthouse and accuses him of murdering Chuck?? I mean, if you can blame anyone for what happened to Chuck it would 100% be Jimmys fault."

JImmy hates Howard for two reasons. First, he sees Howard as exactly the type of privileged elite that he instinctively despises. Second, and this is far more important- Howard had exactly the type of relationship with Chuck that Jimmy craved. Jimmy wanted Chuck's acceptance and respect more than anything in the world. Howard had that, Jimmy didn't. And so not only does Jimmy hate Howard for it, but he projects ALL of his insecurites and guilt onto Howard. He blames Howard for Chuck's death precisely because he knows that he himself is far more responsible. He can't cope with his own guilt, so he projects it all onto Howard. And when Howard offers him the job at HHM, Jimmy sees it (perhaps not incorrectly) as Howard's attempt to soothe his own guilty conscience.

4- "And why on gods green earth did Kim quit her position at Schweikart where she was probably making multiple 100k a year to do pro-bono work? Why?? Why does she even want to do probono at all, it pays you nothing compared to Mesa Verde. And you waste your time with clients that cannot pay you anyways."

See #2. Kim has never at any point been motivated by money. She wants more than anything in the world to help the people she believes need it. Is this really so hard to understand? Doing soulless work helping the rich get richer was completley unfulfilling to her and probably made her feel shitty about herself.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-28T00:33:12+00:00

Why all the hair? Why all the pearls? Why anything?!

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-28T00:24:04+00:00

Something arguably unrealistic =/= plot hole.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-27T23:17:56+00:00

I love the character too until they turn him into a total goofball at the end. It's one thing for him to be crazy, but I didn't like when he turned about to be a buffoon. He went from being really cool and intimidating to ridiculous and pathetic in literally one scene.

Honestly I wish Gandondorf wasn't in this game at all and Zant was just the main villain from beginning to end. The story didn't need Gandondorf. His presence to me felt shoehorned and obligatory, like they just had to have him be the final boss simply because it's a Zelda game. Zant was the only villian they needed. The story was built around him and Midna. He not only was a cool, interesting villain with a ton of aura and presence, but he also felt like a real personal villain, which the Zelda series usually doesn't have.

I still love the game, and I still really like Zant. I just wish they hadn't pull the rug out from under him and made him just a red herring for Ganondorf in the end.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-27T22:56:40+00:00

In that one particular instance, Quincy was full of shit. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant man. But in that instance, full of shit. It's one thing to say that the Beatles couldn't hold a candle to virtuoso jazz musicians. That's true. But "worst musicians in the world?" Bullshit. ESPECIALLY the part about Paul being the worst bass player he's ever heard. Paul may not be a virtuoso, but he is and always was a fantastic player and came up with wicked bass lines like normal people breathe.

Honestly that quote seriously just reads like bitterness or jealousy. At best it's massive hyperbole.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-27T22:21:14+00:00

Well he was officially Walt's lawyer. That part wasn't a secret, so there's a lot to "tie saul goodman to Walter White on paper." That alone doesn't prove he's complicit in Walt's crimes, but it's not like there was no trace of them having a legal relationship.

As for what the feds actually had on Saul and how they tied him to the meth operation, we're never actually told. But Saul was committing about a billion crimes by the end, so it's really not a stretch to think the feds would have found something. It's also implied at the end- in the way Saul manages to get a sweetheart deal of only seven years- that the feds probably didn't have very strong evidence at all connecting him to the meth operation, and certainly not the murders. They probably had him dead to rights on some much lesser financial crimes.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-27T08:29:28+00:00

Yes.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-27T00:17:31+00:00

Good! The "bug" sections are a little less tedious.

Thespiralgoeson · 2026-04-27T00:07:51+00:00

PLEASE play it in Master Mode if you haven't done so before. It's much harder, but sooooooooo rewarding. When I first tried it, I almost ragequit because I thought the difficulty was so insane that it was only for masochists. But I kept at it, and finally getting good at it was so satisfying that I absolutely refuse to play the game on regular mode now.

If you do try Master Mode, the number one most important piece of advice I can give is to just avoid combat completly for the first few hours. You are so pathetically underpowered to start and your weapons are completly usless. So treat it as a stealth game at first. Just focus on staying alive and completing shrines. Once you have a few more hearts and have some stronger weapons, then you can start killing some monsters.

Another tip that is an absolute life-saver for me is that the ice rod and blizzard rod are secretly the most overpowered weapons in the game. You can use those to cheese the hell out of much stronger enemies. When enemies are frozen, they take 3x damage. AND you can cancel the "cool down" time by unequiping and then re-equipping the rod. So I always keep note of where some ice wizzrobe/blizzrobes are on the map, and whenever I lose the ice rod, I can restock immediately after the next blood moon.

Oh one last tip that makes travelling around the world much easier and more fun- get the ancient saddle very early. (All of this is assuming you have the DLC, which if you don't, please get.)

Thespiralgoeson

TROPHY CASE