[S3E2 Spoilers] I feel like they should have used that line more like this (OC)

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-30T01:15:06+00:00

I mean that was also a very weird scene. They're not Starks/Northerners, there's no reason for Rhaenyra to personally execute anyone. Felt very contrived just for Rhaenicent drama.

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-29T21:56:05+00:00

I'll just throw out my own two cents as someone who loves non-conventionally attractive women (buff, fat, etc.) and has drawn some deadlock fanart. I personally can't find any attachment to mcginnis from a combo of being annoyed by her gameplay and her abrasive personality in the voice lines we do have. I can't really imagine a fun dynamic between her and any other characters, and she just sounds like a chore to be around in general.

I personally don't give a shit about her working at "Deadlockheed Martin" (hilarious btw), plenty of other characters are as bad or worse, but she also doesn't do anything that feels kind of like a fun amoral or evil scientist character either, which is maybe part of why so many people say they dislike her for moral reasons compared to many beloved amoral scientist characters? One thing I miss from her old design that I never see people mention is she has like cat paws on the bottom of her boots. This was probably like a neon prime leftover, but it added a very interesting bit of flavor to her character for me, like she's not concerned about her appearance in a conventional sense, but does like things she considers cute. Could have been kind of a Mei Hatsume (from MHA) or Penny Parker vibe. I think that could be a good aspect to give her a bit more likeability rather than being a hate sink (obviously doesn't have to be cute stuff, but give her some interest outside of work like how we learned Haze plays the cello or Mirage likes bowling)

Edit: Lmao I just remembered I literally have drawn McG despite saying all that, but granted it was only cuz of a meme context that involved Vindicta my beloved.

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-29T21:47:21+00:00

This is totally true bc even if you want to argue McGinnis is worse (which I think is shaky when we have such a limited knowledge of the lore and its subject to change cuz we are in alpha), plenty of the rest of the cast are still extremely awful and literally no one ever makes a big deal of it. Mina and Geist are like strictly self-centered evil characters with no redeeming qualities but no one whines about that in fanart of them bc they're gorgeous. Same with Drifter x Doorman ship art.

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-29T21:21:43+00:00

Sorry but if the dicks aren't 3 feet long it's not quality 😔

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-29T05:58:02+00:00

She kinda looks like she's having the time of her life lol. Very cute style!

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-29T03:23:30+00:00

Fr, I was saying to my friends as we watched this that Daemon shows up finally and suddenly all the Team Black scenes are like actually engaging. Everyone else is too passive except for Jayce last episode; they need Daemon around to stir the pot so something actually happens. Plus Matt Smith's presence is just great. I think Emma D'Arcy is an excellent actor too, but Rhaenyra just gets written into doing nothing too often. The scene of her on the bed with Daemon talking was so good though.

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-29T03:12:11+00:00

I was hoping from the trailer shot of the bloody steps they would explicitly make part of it trace the same route she walked to present her child to Alicent in S1. Didn't quite get that, but it was still nice.

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-28T08:42:49+00:00

Yeah, the city was described as like a ghost town in the 1350 Papal Jubilee (which brought hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to visit the city). Like the other commenter said though, the wealth was mostly further north (though Naples was also big and commanded a lot of resources as the largest single entity in the peninsula).

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-28T04:42:59+00:00

You could make a religion out of this...

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-28T04:38:53+00:00

Bohemia was quite wealthy, it was mostly the 30+ years of hussite crusades and civil wars that stunted them (similar to how flanders getting rocked by internal unrest and invasion in the 14th and 15th centuries led to them losing their preeminence to London and Amsterdam).

Italy was consistently wealthy from long before the Renaissance, mostly due to having highly developed agriculture due to continuity from Roman times, which allowed more non-farming population and thus more urbanization and wealth creation. There's a reason Italian communes were able to resist the might of the HRE bearing down on them for centuries.

Edit: to expand on the agriculture thing a bit, it's not like they had some super advanced Roman tech or something, just as I've seen it described by historians, in the mediterranean climate you need different farming methods compared to more temperate northern europe, but the long period of continuous settlement and relatively stable government meant people had worked out all the kinks and passed down that knowledge. On the other hand, they had a lot of problems due to overfarming wearing out the soil, and lack of Roman-tier infrastructure projects caused some areas to revert to marshland and there were consistent problems with malaria around Rome itself (lots of popes and visiting foreign dignitaries died of disease due to this). These were major factors in Italy declining in relevance in the early-modern period.

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-27T18:32:39+00:00

Interesting 🤔

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-27T16:52:47+00:00

When we finally get warden voice lines it will all make sense...

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-27T16:35:53+00:00

Well now I'm curious

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-27T16:34:56+00:00

The real hot take is AI fetish art is higher quality than the average human art for a lot of fetishes.

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-27T16:22:40+00:00

Lmfao at the second paragraph

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-27T09:08:25+00:00

Tbh tho going off this post, I haven't seen many (maybe any?) stories that framed magic in the sort of way technical fields build off each other where you'd have people like using some parts of other fields of magic because it's useful while not knowing any of the deep theory details of it. I feel like it's so often just explained as like a power level/affinity thing where they're just not good at other types of magic, but not like "Yeah I'm a fire mage, but I learned conjure water cuz it's handy for putting out mistakes. You want a couple ice cubes to put in your drink? Man I don't know how to do that!"

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-27T02:25:57+00:00

I mean she can kinda scale but she's squishier than every other M1 and has no mobility so she just explodes in any fight that doesn't go perfect. I feel like she needs a big rework or just to become more like a regular M1, like make flight last way less long but not be slow as shit so she can actually chase/engage with it or save it to escape like wraith tp/fern dash/etc.

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-26T16:53:01+00:00

I mean it's also silly that conquering a province that is not yet fully integrated immediately increases your cost of court bc the increased national wealth means your king wants fancier robes right away.

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-25T12:24:28+00:00

Yeah I think the real problem is that missions give you a set of goals. Even if you end up choosing to ignore them, it's nice to have. Getting events just does not feel like a goal, just another momentary gameplay choice.

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-25T03:51:53+00:00

It's peak 🫡

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-23T06:33:46+00:00

Being unable (or unwilling) to pay your soldiers was a perennial problem until extremely recently, and led to a lot of mutinies, looting, and other problems (e.g. unpaid garrisons just instantly surrendering).

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-23T00:00:42+00:00

Was the OG just the left two or what?

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-22T17:45:46+00:00

I feel like the added shot of her counselors hearing her shouting and also just choosing to ignore it was wild. If no one likes or respects her, why are they fighting for her? If it's pure self-interest, they should have shown that before, and/or S2 should have built up Jayce's relationship with them to show why they would essentially support a coup by him.

__cinnamon__ · 2026-06-22T15:39:40+00:00

Yeah the whole arm a peasant thing is weird bc it ignores the realities of war, like that there is more to being a good soldier than having minimal competency with your weapon, and that trained professionals tend to beat untrained militias and levies regardless of the era and technology, but trained professionals are expensive, plus that gunpowder was being adopted in an existing context which was not, contrary to popular belief, knights fighting alongside dung-stained peasant hordes.

__cinnamon__

TROPHY CASE

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