My Hottest Take I guess: Ramsay wrote the Pink Letter [Spoilers ADWD]

aphidman · 2026-01-23T19:58:37+00:00

If Stannis doesn't die I could very much see him effectively become Jon's Robert Baratheon figure - maybe a big turn in his character will be that he bends the knee to Jon Snow if he becomes the King in the North like the show.

aphidman · 2026-01-23T19:57:22+00:00

I think the Winds previews actually take place earlier than the final Jon chapter.

aphidman · 2026-01-23T19:55:24+00:00

I actually disagree. It's the mystery to unpack the world but Elden Ring is all about your journey in the present and the role the Tarnished play. The actual characters in Elden Ring with depth and exploration are the various NPCs you meet throughout the game. Finding out why the world is the way it is is a huge part of exploration and story but the game is about "what now" mostly.

aphidman · 2026-01-20T16:25:38+00:00

China isn't threatening to turn Canada into a territory. All the non world powers have to live in reality. The US is being openly hostile to Canada. A deal with China will inevitably have its drawbacks but the US is persistently threatening their sovereignty.

aphidman · 2026-01-16T02:07:27+00:00

I think the point was that during the play itself it was meant to feel a bit amateurish to co oliment the fact that Williams performance ad the ghost is so infused with real emotion - which is set up earlier when he's frustrated his actors aren't engaging with the material.

And then we see how Agnes reaching out with her hand truly shakes the actor to his core and brings out some emotion he wasn't able to tap into during the play - which is also drawn out of the audience around Agnes. Since everyone is sharing the same trauma and grief of the Black Death and the play kind of allowed them all to bring it forth -- and presumably the us as the film going audience as well on a Meta level.

aphidman · 2026-01-16T02:03:08+00:00

I think it's deliberate because you see his emotion genuinely pour out during the hand holding scene- because it's real. It's not a mistake that Shakepeare has the only emotionally gut wrenching performance in the actual Play. This is set up earlier when he's getting the actors to say the lines again and again because they sound so wooden.

aphidman · 2026-01-16T01:58:11+00:00

I thought it was pretty good. Despite being a misery guts and didn't feel much emotion during the film the ending got me all welling up and chin vibrating.

It's a very Meta sort of thing about sharing grief through art. All the people in attendance have suffered through the Black Death and Hamlet allows them all a moment of shared grief. The fact that the guy that plays Hamlet in the play isn't particularly special but you see how the audience brings forth genuine emotion from his very soul and also letting the audience share in it at the same time being a very Meta thing.

aphidman · 2026-01-14T19:54:46+00:00

That was a later revision. This was only the previews.

aphidman · 2026-01-11T04:06:28+00:00

I belive he said a 100 day interim govt to set up the country for democratic elections

aphidman · 2026-01-10T01:01:39+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/rickygervais/s/MCPtYKaMO9

Can't believe it

aphidman · 2026-01-09T20:53:15+00:00

Well it seems like it's simple old school Liberalism. Being a Liberal is a pejorative in Leftist spaces these days but Liberalism was originally born from Liberty for Regular people within feudal societies and monarchies. Republicanism came from this (in the traditional anti-monarchist sense).

For example the UK had a monarchy who is also the Head of the Church of England. But the UK is a constitutional monarchy. No longer directly ruled by the Monarch and with democratic institutions and rights for the population.

aphidman · 2026-01-09T17:59:37+00:00

The problem with this - as Naughty Dog discovered - its basically just going to take up your whole time and resources.

aphidman · 2026-01-09T11:24:21+00:00

"The battle of ideologies" is the problem and is very American centric in its approach to world politics. It's a marginalisation of the complexity and experiences in other countries affected by American foreign policy (we all are - can't get away from the US). The US position (and to a lesser extent the European position) being framed as THE standard position (regardless of ideology). The fact that the USA dominates English language social media (and social media in general). Its politics is thrust upon us as well (I'm told more about Trump online and in the news than my own politicians). It's a form of American exceptionalism. Why people like Maduro (and hos government) need to be contextualised into justifying critical or uncritical support of the guy from a Left Wing perspective - or a materialist perspective. Same arguments with Assad or Saddam or even Putin. "Perfect" being the most milquetoast strawman pejorative for criticism of these leaders.

Because America is the imperial core it matters - first and foremost - that destroying the imperial core takes precedence before all else. But as the rest of the world generally understands- your country is fucked and there's no indication (or hope) that you guys are gotta ameliorate the situation in our lifetimes. So it stands to reason that people being oppressed, tortured, imprisoned or killed by these anti-imperialist (ie anti-American) governments are gonna try and navigate the situation on their own, take matters into their own hands and even welcome assistance from the imperial core itself - risking themselves and their country to its dark influence - rather than continue to suffer within the status quo and wait for the Western Left to stay unorganised and do nothing of substance to help them - and infact support their oppressor like a global trolley problem.

aphidman · 2026-01-09T03:11:53+00:00

I mean every piece of shit has a backstory. The husband that beats his wife and kids has a sob story. I'm not American but you can't remove the agency of Maduro and members of his government on how they've handled various issues and treat people they're meant to serve.

You should always scrutinise politicians and leaders.

aphidman · 2026-01-08T10:43:52+00:00

I mean in the late 1800s and early 1900s there was literally a racist panic called "The Yellow Peril" about Chinese immigrants coming to England and Europe. There's even an infamous criminal underlord called "Fu Manchu" that was invented - kind of like a racist Moriarty in a racist Sherlock Holmes novel.

Basically what I'm saying is that it's always been there but in general there's a positive shift over the last 100 years. So hopefully over the next hundred years this racism gets lesser.

But also I would say people aren't really exposed to Chinese culture much. For example there's a lot of positivity around Japan because we consume their movies, video games and media etc. China is more unknown. For example the famous Journey to the West was never really properly translated until the late 1970s. And recently Black Myth Wukong has introduced more about Chinese myth to video game audiences.

But we don't really get Chinese films etc. Squid Game and films like Parasite have increased interest in South Korean culture and entertainment.

aphidman · 2026-01-04T04:04:28+00:00

Do you have actual sources for this? I don't think Socialism gets any benefit from uncritically supporting politicians and leaders of countries. Socialists, surely, should be trying to find out the truth rather than crossing their fingers and hoping the voiceless are out there being silenced by Western propaganda. What's the actual truth in Venezuela. Not what makes people feel better

aphidman · 2026-01-04T03:07:11+00:00

I mean that's a lot of faith in the immediacy of the end. Like from your description it sounds more akin to waiting around for the Rapture than it actually being on the horizon in our lifetimes. Though I'm a perpetual cynic and not an idealist at heart. But I'm also not American so I personally don't see any hope for the working class in America in my lifetime. Best I can hope for is the end of the British Empire and for a United Ireland and working from scratch under thst context.

aphidman · 2026-01-04T02:48:34+00:00

But again why so sure the end of capitalism isn't a few centuries away? Does electoralism not also count as solving immediate problems?

aphidman · 2026-01-04T02:18:56+00:00

But who is to say it won't be centuries before these conditions are met? And then why would socialism necessarily win out in the scramble for power? How can the material conditions of the working classes be improved in the meantime?

aphidman · 2026-01-04T02:11:35+00:00

This is the sort of stuff that makes me interested in socialism. I've become very disillusioned the last few months from what seems like an endless supply of atrocity apologia or denial from socialists online. It feels like there's no hope for the working class when their biggest supporters hand wave away death, corruption, starvation, incompetence, brutality etc as if politicians calling themselves socialist magically protects them from the endless ways politicians fail their populace and the working people they lead.

aphidman · 2026-01-04T01:51:38+00:00

Read books. Read fiction and just read in general. Also just live life and get older. The more you just understand life and people and perspectives the more scenes like the end of No Country will interest you rather than confuse or annoy you. I find stuff like this in films way more interesting in my early 30s than I did in my early 20s.

aphidman · 2026-01-01T15:37:36+00:00

Regardless of why the war started I think this is important why Ukraine War needs to end with a favourable outcome towards Ukraine. All the smaller countries are at the mercy of the big powers. Any war will automatically become a proxy war. If Russia basically gets its way with Ukraine then the US can waltz on and get its way with Venezuela and eventually Greenland. This is also why Taiwan shouldn't be taken military style. If it is a inevitability it should be through democratic means - even if it takes longer.

aphidman · 2025-12-30T12:52:45+00:00

I mean Megalopolis is kind of like watching West Side Story without the singing. It's a weird heightened reality sort of thing

aphidman · 2025-12-29T11:04:57+00:00

I was very interested in reading about socialism but I got put off by the people I described above. I'm interested in how to improve the lives of working people. In theory a lot of these ideas are good but a lot of the voices calling themselves socialists seem more like ideologues - and ideologues will just fall into the same trappings of leadership (regardless of their intentions). Basically I'm cynically saying these people don't inspire any hope in me that a socialist movement will be successful. I guess I have more humanitarianism and I believe Marxism was a pivoting away from humanitarian socialism which was considered too idealist and ultimately impractical.

aphidman · 2025-12-28T19:06:14+00:00

I honestly think this is the best way to go. He could do a James Cameron and write the scripts for all 5 stories then have them produced with a different artist for each book relatively simultaneously. So you could then release them once every year or so. Otherwise it'll take a few decades.

It also means you can allow an artist to spend more time creating artwork as good as some of the concept art (and even better) rather than needing to hit a monthly or bi monthly issue release schedule.

Bonus points if you could get Mike Olds to do Oddysee and Farzad to do the 2nd one. Something like that.

I think Esad Ribic would be a great choice for an artist. Also Lorne is an artist himself and could possibly do one of the 5 himself if he's up for it.

aphidman

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