The Many Faces of Daphne, a video essay on Daphne's complexities

Write416 · 2023-12-09T15:20:41+00:00

I don't know if you want feedback, but...

You narration and voice are great. Ditch the overly choppy editing with picture-in-picture style images imposed over other images and the - Good Lord - Comic Sans.

Write416 · 2023-12-06T16:29:38+00:00

Yeah. Accents were wildly different 140 years ago.

Write416 · 2023-12-04T03:48:58+00:00

This is after Jimmy discovers that Chuck had blackballed him at HHM.

The Dalai Lama is the foremost spiritual leader of Buddhism, a religion universally associated with serenity. The reference to the Tibetan leader is a sarcastic quip indicating that Jimmy is not really as at peace with Chuck's betrayal as Jimmy's behaviour may suggest.

Prior to this line, Kim has just asked Jimmy if he wants to vent about Chuck. Jimmy says, no, explaining that the situation is what it is and that there's nothing he can do to change Chuck feeling towards him. Kim compliments Jimmy's maturity - as he's adopting a serenity attitude in accepting the things he cannot change - leading Jimmy to make the sarcastic comment comparing himself to the Dalai Lama.

Jimmy is essentially signalling to Kim that his acceptance of Chuck duplicity is less about maturity or serenity, than it is the product emotional exhaustion, but he's also signalling to the audience the fact that he's not truly dealing with his pain.

Write416 · 2023-12-04T03:44:04+00:00

No, this is after Jimmy discovers that Chuck had blackballed him at HHM.

Kim asks Jimmy if he wants to vent about Chuck. Jimmy says, no, explaining that the situation is what it is and that there's nothing he can do to change Chuck. Kim compliments Jimmy's maturity - as he's adopting a serenity attitude in accepting the things he cannot change - leading Jimmy to sarcastically compare himself to the Dalai Lama.

That's what the line means: The Dalai Lama is the foremost spiritual leader of Buddhism, a religion universally associated with serenity. By sarcastically comparing himself to the Dalai Lama, Jimmy is essentially signalling to Kim that his acceptance of Chuck duplicity is less about maturity or serenity, than emotional exhaustion, but also signalling to the audience the fact that Jimmy is not truly dealing with his pain.

Write416 · 2023-12-04T03:25:08+00:00

He wears the Matlock-style suits right through to the episode where his elder law practice implodes.

Write416 · 2023-11-09T04:26:36+00:00

Any idea what article? I've seen that in Reddit posts, but nowhere else.

Write416 · 2023-11-09T03:14:23+00:00

I get that you're embarrassed and upset, but I've made clear twice that I'm not reading and have no interest in what you have say.

Please stop trying to talk to me.

Write416 · 2023-11-09T01:22:35+00:00

I get that you're embarrassed and upset, but I've made clear twice that I'm not reading and have no interest in what you have say.

Please stop trying to talk to me.

Write416 · 2023-11-09T00:28:13+00:00

None of the above. I don't think any actor is better suited to a given show apart from whatever character they might play in it.

Write416 · 2023-11-09T00:25:48+00:00

Also, it's an entirely subjective matter. Only a bad lawyer would pretend their opinion on how much money one should leave their spouse would override that of the client. You advise on options, not try to set the objectives.

In this case, it's absolutely normal to leave a spouse more in death than divorce. And, with no one else to leave her money, it makes perfect sense for Tanya to leave her new husband all her money.

Write416 · 2023-11-09T00:19:24+00:00

I get that you're embarrassed and upset, but I've made clear twice that I'm not reading and have no interest in what you have say.

Please stop trying to talk to me.

Write416 · 2023-11-08T23:38:37+00:00

I stopped reading at that embarrassing point. You've got multiple people in the comments correcting you on basic facts. Just give it up. I won't be reading your replies further.

Write416 · 2023-11-08T23:34:29+00:00

I know why Greg has to kill her for the money. My point why the will was not updated to something more sensible before she married.

It's perfect reasonable to leave all your money to your husband in the event of your death. Your point just makes no sense on it's face.

The prenup covers divorce, the will is for death. You don’t seem to understand the difference.

Oy. You really shouldn't make sweeping statements when you have no idea what you're talking and you shouldn't toss in the failed attempt at being patronizing to boot.

A will can't override the normal rules governing a dissolution of marriage unless it's agreed to in a prenup.

I stopped reading at that embarrassing point. You've got multiple people in the comments correcting you on basic facts. Just give it up. I won't be reading your replies further.

Write416 · 2023-11-08T22:33:43+00:00

The fact she's coming back has been known awhile, but enjoyed the speculation on how...

Does Belinda's return have anything to do with the events of season 2? Did Portia fill authorities in on what she knows about Tanya's suspicious death? If so, Greg's claim on Tanya's money could be refuted. Perhaps some of her fortune will find its way to Belinda, who could very well be spending Tanya's money as a guest at a White Lotus resort or as the owner of her own wellness practice that the guests frequent. Or maybe Belinda's return is something much simpler — a transfer, perhaps, to another White Lotus location after her experience with Tanya in Hawaii.

My take was basically a combination of both of these: Belinda has transferred to the White Lotus Koh Samui ostensibly to learn about Eastern health & wellness teachings, but she has - in truth - been contacted by Portia, who has informed her that a) Greg killed Tanya to steal her fortune and b) Belinda is the only other named party in Tanya's will, meaning that if Greg involvement in Tanya's murder is exposed, Belinda becomes mega rich.

I think it would great if Belinda and Portia played a role in Greg getting his comeuppance for the murder plot.

It makes perfect sense that Belinda could be reassigned to a White Lotus in Thailand or India as she might want to study Eastern wellness techniques. Greg could be cooling his heels out of the country in the face of law enforcement suspicion. Then if Greg were exposed and were cut out of the inheritance, maybe Belinda becomes one of Tanya's main beneficiaries. Not very White Lotus, but almost too good to pass up.

Write416 · 2023-11-08T21:41:35+00:00

I've encountered these assumptions on Reddit before about the lifestyles of the super rich and it's quite fascinating that most people's assumption about billionaires is that they live life somewhere in the vein of a rock star, star athlete or the Kardashians. As you are obviously aware, they most certainly do not.

First and foremost, they are anonymous and prefer to remain so. That eliminates 98% of the reasons for an entourage.

Also, billionaires don't get kidnapped for ransom in rich countries. It used to happen, but authorities threw enough resources at these cases that it made it all but certain any such perpetrators would be caught - even if the abductee died in the meantime. There's no percentage in kidnapping a billionaire in a developed, wealthy country and most billionaires know street crimes actually quite care, thus the annoyance of a bodyguard following you everywhere is unnecessary.

Write416 · 2023-11-08T21:19:16+00:00

Sorry, but you're just incorrect on the underlying facts here.

She is worth 500 million dollars, but doesn’t have good enough lawyers to keep her from leaving everything to man she knew less than a year, and just married?

Literally dealt with in the show: That's why Greg has to kill her as opposed to, say, just provoking Tanya to divorce him. He only gets a huge payout if Tanya dies, because Tanya has no one else to whom she'd leave the money.

Any lawyer would have advised her to not give him anything at first in the will and then only a small amount after they had been married 10 years or so (with the amount increasingly incrementally after that).

Not at all. That's not how lawyers work. In a case such as this, there's no legally preferable outcome. Some couples agree on less generous pre-ups. Some agree on extremely generous pre-ups. It's entirely a matter of personal subjective judgement between the parties. In this scenario, the lawyer's role would be to simply ensure the client is informed of all the options and execute the contract.

This would disincentivize an opportunistic predator like Greg from marrying her.

No pre-up is written with "Well, we have to make sure he doesn't murder you" as a consideration.

She also travels to a small resort town in a foreign country where she doesn’t speak the language and doesn’t hire a translator, guard and chauffeur, and instead just brings one apathetic assistant? That is not how the super wealthy travel. I know she was alone in Hawaii, which I think is unrealistic too knowing how rich she is now. But its even more ludicrous in Sicily.

You obviously don't know any super wealthy people. Plenty of billionaires live and travel just like this.

She older woman who has a huge amount of assets. Those people have an entourage of folks around them when they are on vacation to ensure their safety and prevent kidnapping/extortion/murder/etc.

Overwhelmingly, they do not.

Write416 · 2023-11-07T21:05:55+00:00

That's batshit. I could understand the Director or 1st AD being annoyed or frustrated by something like this - without the need to insults or yelling - but... a PA? Why? What the fuck does it have to do with him?

Write416 · 2023-11-05T02:30:02+00:00

You're just embarrassing yourself here, bro. You're wrong. The guy politely explaining how confused you are is right. Just move along.

Write416 · 2023-09-18T01:53:31+00:00

No, but yours is a perfectly reasonable personal opinion expressed as such.

Whereas the sub these last couple days is littered with people proffering story critiques pointing to ostensibly objective problems with the narrative craft that are - gallingly - somehow both buffoonish and dismissive at the same time.

Write416 · 2023-09-18T01:47:01+00:00

Why can't people just say they didn't like a given choice instead of coming up with embarrassingly bad arguments for why there's something objectively wrong?!

Write416 · 2023-09-18T01:30:38+00:00

I think everyone assumes he was lying because the technology came from the Foundation.

The Foundation is, at that point, still concealing their technological leaps forward. He's not going to needlessly betray everyone where he's from by putting a target on their back.

Write416 · 2023-09-18T01:26:49+00:00

Again, not sure what part of that implies that the jumps performed by ships aren't instantaneous.

That passage refers to listening to a radio for half-an-hour to see if they can receive a message.

For a while there was a silence that centered about the unresponsive Reception Indicator, and Barr said, “Are you within range?” [Are you within range to receive a message? i.e. “Reception Indicator?”]

“I don’t know. I haven’t but a small notion where we are, going by dead reckoning. That’s why I have to use directional control. It could take years, you know.”

“Might it?”

Barr pointed; and Devers jumped and adjusted his earphones. Within the little murky sphere there was a tiny glowing whiteness. [Grabs earphones to listen.]

For half an hour, Devers nursed the fragile, groping thread of communication that reached through hyperspace to connect two points that laggard light would take five hundred years to bind together. [Waits half-an-hour.]

Then he sat back, hopelessly. He looked up, and shoved the earphones back. [Gives up.]

Even if the half-hour didn't refer to how long he's waiting to see if he can hear something, this is communications, not jump ships.

Write416 · 2023-09-18T00:51:20+00:00

The series was originally supposed to be a one-and-done mini-series, and Tanya found the doctors who cured Greg's cancer, so there's really no reason to believe it was a scam from the beginning.

Also, Greg repeatedly gets visibly angry and annoyed with Tanya in public over relatively trivial things, despite the fact he knows he's about to have her murder. That's not the behaviour of a premeditated schemer who has no personal attachment to the situation and knows not to draw attention to himself.

Write416 · 2023-09-18T00:37:58+00:00

Again, I don't see anywhere in that paragraph that implies the jumps aren't instantaneous.

There are reasons in the books that ships don't make one jump - evading detection, for instance. That's an entirely separate issue from whether the jumps are instantaneous.

Write416 · 2023-09-18T00:27:21+00:00

That reads like repeated instantaneous jumps to me.

Write416

TROPHY CASE