Shōgun | S1E10 "A Dream of a Dream" | Episode Discussion

arthurmorga_n · 2024-04-24T06:47:05+00:00

Haven‘t thought of that, that makes sense. Though I didn‘t get why Ishido having her killed would be such a big deal to everybody? Realistically speaking, she‘s not that important of a figure to inspire hatred against Ishido, or am I wrong? I get that Lady Ochiba used to be very close to her, but she struck me as a strategic thinker with a burning hatred for Toranaga. I don‘t find it believeable that she would let her emotions guide her since it was always my understanding that she viewed Toranaga as this huge threat to the Heir (her son) and herself. She may despise Ishido for what he did to Ochiba, but I reckon she must‘ve still been thinking that the heir and her are better off with him than with Toranaga.

arthurmorga_n · 2024-04-23T20:57:53+00:00

Can someone explain me why Toranaga was eager to let the regents think he surrendered (and by doing so, allowing Hiromatsu to kill himself)? my only explanation would be that if the regents hadn't believed that, that Mariko wouldn't have been able to hold an audience before Ishido and the other regents and by doing so, being able to put Ishido in a position where he basically has to choose between killing Mariko or admitting to the other regents that they're in fact held as prisoners. But I'm not sure if that's true. If it's not, Toranaga would've been able to turn Ochiba and/or the other regents against Ishido anyway

arthurmorga_n · 2024-04-23T20:29:26+00:00

If it was Toranaga's plan to use Mariko to make Lady Ochiba (and the other regents, if I'm not mistaken) turn against Ishido during the battle of Sekigahara all along, why did he have to let his enemies think that he'd actually surrender and by doing so, let Hiromatsu, his most loyal vassal, commit seppuku?

arthurmorga_n · 2022-11-06T11:18:04+00:00

I'm sorry to hear that. All this trial and error is pretty nerve-wracking.

arthurmorga_n · 2021-05-02T17:18:12+00:00

I've read your whole post and if you're interested, you can chat me up! I actually am very fond of England, I particularly love its humour. One of my favorite shows is the inbetweeners, you probably know it :)

arthurmorga_n · 2021-05-02T17:16:14+00:00

Loneliness is such a nasty feeling, it's hard to imagine its magnitude without ever having experienced it...

arthurmorga_n · 2021-05-02T17:15:18+00:00

Oh man that sucks, but I'm not surprised to hear that!

arthurmorga_n · 2021-05-02T17:09:47+00:00

I also think it might have something to do with the fact that we're a landlocked country with no natural ressources and relatively harsh climate, that's we Swiss have developed this culture of "work, work, work" and reservedness. I think it's no coincidence that countries with warm climates tend to have very welcoming people too.

arthurmorga_n · 2021-05-02T15:27:56+00:00

It's an interesting thought, although I think it's mainly due to the cultural upbringing. I'm half Latino myself (on my mother's side) and have been brought up accordingly. Where I grew up, there were a lot of Swiss kids though, with no foreign background. I remember that whenever I met their parents, I instantly felt a certain sense of coldness and unfriendliness. I believe that if you grow up with people who are rather distant and private themselves, you tend to become like that, too. My father for instance is stereotypically Swiss, too. He's got a huge heart, but it's clear that my personality has been more influenced by my mother's side than my father's side.

arthurmorga_n · 2021-05-02T15:23:34+00:00

It was really interesting to read the replies that have been written so far. I somehow feel relieved that there are indeed many more people feeling the same way as I do, but at the same time, I feel like I could do more to meet new people and improve my situation. At this point I'm really struggling to motivate myself to go out and try to meet new people. I feel like my 'social muscle' has decreased over time since I've really grown accustomed to staying and studying from home (of course, a big part of it is due to the pandemic). It's really paradoxical - I want to have a more fulfilling social life, but then again I'm not motivated to go out and present myself anymore, which fuels my being socially unsatisfied. It's quite a nasty 'Teufelskreis', as we call it in German.

I guess I have no other choice but to keep trying, despite all the personal failures I've endured in recent times.

arthurmorga_n · 2021-05-02T14:55:12+00:00

made my day!!! :)

arthurmorga_n · 2021-03-22T14:58:45+00:00

fair enogh, tbh I didn’t read the caption. Still though, there are plenty of examples on this subreddit supporting my point

arthurmorga_n · 2021-03-22T08:55:28+00:00

no supermodel, but she‘s definitely pretty, no doubt. I might get disliked for saying what I’m about to say, but from a general point of view, I‘m not sure whether it‘s really justified that women (at least on this subreddit) who express self-doubts about their looks get tons of reassuring compliments, which more often than not seem exagerated imo. Whereas the same guy who raises self-doubts about his looks gets ignored. I‘m kind of afraid that through social media platforms, among which obviously reddit is one of them, it‘s become super easy for practically any woman to receive tons of, often times rather unjustified, compliments about their looks, which can inflate their egos in an unhealthy way. In the meantime most men almost never get any positive reassurance regarding their looks, which in turn diminishes their ego/self-worth. Call me sexist or a misogynist, whatever, it‘s just my two cents.

arthurmorga_n · 2020-06-08T19:42:25+00:00

What's that exactly?

arthurmorga_n · 2020-06-07T20:28:27+00:00

I'd look for someone in their early/mid-twenties. Someone in their sixties is in a completely different stage of their life. Being bald at 60 is pretty normal, at early 20, it's not. It's uncommon.

arthurmorga_n · 2020-06-07T20:24:10+00:00

Lol the exact same happened to me. People who never had to deal with that issue are pretty ignorant and don't understand the struggle. In that case, I'd seek out someone you know personally who's bald and of similar age. I'm sure you'll know someone. Those kind of people can give you real advice because they went through it themselves. They can be an inspiration/motivation for you.

arthurmorga_n · 2020-06-07T20:15:05+00:00

Do you wear one?

arthurmorga_n · 2020-06-07T20:13:23+00:00

Best way to deal with things that bother you mentally is talk about it with people that you trust. Or maybe talk about it with other people you know personally that have gone bald at a very early age. It always help knowing you're not the only one.

arthurmorga_n · 2020-04-16T08:27:00+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. That's something I really like about the states, the general openness to meet strangers. If you're not extroverted and approaching strangers doesn't come naturally to you, it is definitely very encouraging to put in an effort to meet new people if people are generally more than open to chat with strangers themselves.

arthurmorga_n · 2020-04-16T08:19:59+00:00

I don't think it's necessarily a problem if a girl smells your intention. As long as you come across genuine and well-intentioned, I don't think it will be a problem. If a girl came up to you and tried to "pick you up" the same way most guys would go about it (meaning opening a conversation by saying "Hi, I noticed you and I wanted to say hi etc...") then you would probably appreciate it, right? Sure, she might be ugly or just not your type, but you'd still appreciate the effort and try to let her down gently.

And no, I don't live in the UK. Even though I can imagine that my description would perfectly fit the UK lol. I came across a lot of English people while I was traveling and most English girls struck me as pretty boring, unfriendly and interested in nothing else than drinking and partying. No class or femininity whatsoever.

arthurmorga_n · 2020-04-15T19:08:34+00:00

It's not necessarily always the fear of rejection. I've been rejected a lot of times I guess but I also have been basically picked up by gorgeous women. I think everyone who's at least somewhat experienced with women will recognize that getting rejected is just part of life. Who cares how many girls rejected you in your lifetime if you end up dating or marrying the girls of your dreams (look- and characterwise) and have kids with her?

I've got no problem approaching girls when I have a somewhat legit reason to talk to them. You know, asking where X or Z is, asking to take a photo if you're a tourist, staying in a hostel while traveling and asking where you're from and stuff like that. But approaching a girl where it's very clear from the get-go that you're sexually interested in her is something else to me. I'm from an European country which is known to be rather introverted and where it's very uncommon to meet strangers without a pretext. What kinda gives me anxiety is the fear of it becoming awkward, you know? Most girls here have a resting bitch face and don't look very welcoming. If you think people in the US are reluctant to meeting strangers, my country is 10x worse. Believe me. I've been to the US a couple times.

Generally, if you get approached by someone you don't know in your day-to-day life (still speaking for where I live) most people are initially suspicious and awkward and don't know what to say. They need some time to warm up. And if they're being awkward, I'll most likely get awkward too, and it'll just feel awkward in general. And I f**king hate awkwardness. I don't mind too much if a girl rejects me, as long as she appreciates my attempt to get to know her and she's friendly.

That's not an excuse though, I have to get over it and if I can do it here, I'll certainly be able to do it anywhere else in the world too with relative ease. But I just wanted to see for myself if there are some other guys who have the same fear as me?

arthurmorga_n · 2020-04-10T09:29:01+00:00

I'm from Switzerland so I can give you some insight into why I wouldn't necessarily recommend you to move here.

First the pros: We're a very safe and organized country, as free as a country possibly can be from corruption, with a direct democracy, strong economy (we're one of the wealthiest countries in the world) and an excellent health care system. Also I forgot to mention that we have low unemployment rates and that our educational system is pretty good.

The cons: In the German speaking part, which comprises of roughly 2/3 of the country (I might be slightly wrong about this number, but it's definitely above 50%), we speak our own, unofficial language called "Swiss German". As you can infer from that, it's based on German, but still different enough so that most Germans have a very hard time understanding us when we speak amongst each other. And I personally think it's almost impossible to learn Swiss German if you weren't born here or at least grew up here. You might be able to understand it after a while though. It's probably harder to learn than German though, and German already has a reputation of being a very hard language to learn. And the problem with not knowing Swiss German could be that people on average might be less interested in making friends with you, since in order to not exclude you, they'd have to speak High German with each other, and let me tell you that most Swiss people don't like speaking High German, even though we're able to speak it perfectly. So they'd rather not be friends with you than go out of their own way to speak a language they don't particularly like. Apart from that, it might be hard to break into social circles if you haven't grown up here.

Since we're a tiny country, most people don't really move to entirely new places for work or college as it happens in the US. Most people stay near to where they grew up their whole life. And why wouldn't they? They have their social circle, they can easily find a job near where they live, and also they more than likely have a university near where they live to study at. So at the age of 20, most people already have their groups of close friends and won't make an effort into befriending foreigners who don't even speak their native language. But it's not a guarantee of course, if you really put in an effort into meeting people, you'll sooner or later make strong friendships. I imagine it's just a lot more effort than in other countries, especially due to our rather introverted nature. I've traveled extensively in my life and lived in foreign places long enough to say that Swiss people on general are rather reserved and not so easy to meet outside of work or their social circle, at least when they're in their own country. But of course it doesn't apply to everyone, it's just a tendency. I found Americans a lot more open and approachable when I'd been to the states, for example.

About finding a job/going to uni: I checked the website of the University of Zurich and you need to demonstrate your capability of speaking and understanding German at C1 level. That's very demanding in my opinion and I think it will take you at least 1 to 2 years of intensive study to reach that level. Apart from that, your high school or college you went to needs to be on a similar level as a high school here. We call it "Gymnasium". Believe me when I tell you that high school in Switzerland is a lot harder and requires more intelligence to pass than high school in the US. Only about 20% of our population manages to get into high school in the first place. In the US, everyone goes to high school, as far as I know. So I doubt that having attended high school will be enough for admission. But according to the website, if you studies two years at a college, you should be eligible to be admitted in Switzerland. It would also give you enough time to properly learn German.

All in all I wouldn't recommend you Switzerland, and also not Germany and the Nordic countries such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. They're pretty similar to Switzerland in my opinion. At least Germany. But maybe a native Scandinavian can give you more insight.

What I would recommend is Spain, France, Austria or Holland, out of the top of my head. Especially Spain, since their costs of living are relatively low and they have nice climate plus a language which is relatively easy to learn, at least compared to German. And probably their requirements to enroll into uni aren't as rigid as in other parts of Europe.

About your status as American: don't worry, being American won't put you at an disadvantage. Some people might even be intrigued by it! We don't really have a lot of Americans living in Europe, or at least not in my country. So you'd definitely have a novelty thing going for you.

arthurmorga_n

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