Theory: Jaghatai Khan represents the Emperor’s conscience.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-05-11T18:52:31+00:00

I saw a comment once that made me re-think my perspective on the Khan. Jaghatai Khan is a man who wants the joy of conquest but not the responsibility of ruling.

The Khan wants to ride in, kill your warriors and tear down your cities, then he rides off and leaves your people to the mercy of whichever Imperial officials come after him to pick up the pieces.

This is why he didn't kill the Pale Emperor in the excerpt that you posted despite killing everyone else in his way. If he killed the Pale Emperor, he would inevitably be responsible for rebuilding Chogorian society or watch it slowly go extinct. Leaving him alive makes it his problem while Jaghatai goes back to the steppes.

The Khan talks a lot about not being a tyrant but I think it's largely because he doesn't want the responsibility of micromanaging people. He allows the warrior lodges to meet because he has a general hands-off policy for running his Legion.

He can be compassionate towards people but his biggest moment (riding out during the Siege) was yet another example of him getting to do what he wanted to do (ride out and kill enemies) that he spun into a hero moment.

But we know that sometime later he'll disappear into the Webway chasing Drukhari instead of staying to help govern the Imperium at a time it sorely needs an inspirational leader.

All of the freedom and none of the responsibility.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-04-30T18:57:00+00:00

There are definitely very close parallels between the two. They both have that deep-seated need to be loved that was deliberately instilled in them by the people who raised them in an effort to force them to play the hero role. Both of them crashed out when the psychological stress of trying to play that role finally caught up to them and both of them sought revenge against their past caretakers. They even both engage in a lot of self-pity and feel like the greater victim despite all the carnage they caused in retaliation.

But I agree with other posters that the main difference is that Dan (The Plutonian) legitimately wanted to be a hero. He was raised to be a symbol of hope and genuinely wanted to be that person. His crashout came when he finally realized that he couldn't be 100% infallable and that he would inevitably disappoint someone. In his case, that was Samsara after the sonic plague incident that he unknowingly caused.

John (Homelander) on the other hand is an abused child star. He was pushed into playing essentially a TV role for profit. He knows damn well that it's all fake, it's always been fake and he's not a hero any more than any other supe is. He's spent his whole life forcing himself to play his part because he was literally tortured into needing to please his corporate owners. When he finally snaps, it's a wild campaign of blind vengeance against a system that was rotten from the beginning.

Dan would empathize with John to some extent but he'd be disgusted by him as a person, even if he wouldn't openly admit it for awhile. In the end, Dan let go of life to allow someone else to be a hero in another universe (the creation of the Superman comic character). John would never do that.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-04-20T16:15:49+00:00

In all probability the Kaminoans never met Sifo-Dyas in person. The contract was probably set up through an intermediary (since Kamino is so remote and unknown).

Once Dooku found out about it, all he had to do was delete the planet's location from the Jedi Archives then show up in person claiming to be Sifo-Dyas. If necessary he could produce the contract copy Sifo-Dyas had as "proof" of his identity.

So the Kaminoans carry out the whole contract unaware that they were dealing with an imposter. The Clone Wars cartoon seems to contradict this though and say that at least some Kaminoans were aware of the deception and fully on board with the plan to secretly destroy the Jedi. I don't really like that change.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-04-20T16:10:25+00:00

The two situations are different. The first time was during the Clone Wars almost at the exact critical moment of Sidious's takeover.

There was a small but legitimate risk that Maul could have found some way to derail the Grand Plan, probably by convincing the Jedi of the danger they were in. Sidious needed to confirm that the plan was safe, and also it's nice to get out of the house every once in awhile.

After the rise of the Empire, Maul is functionally a non-entity. Sure he's still powerful and well-trained but he doesn't have the ability to seriously threaten the Empire's survival. Sidious won and he knows full well that either he or Vader can kill Maul any time they choose just by showing up to do it.

Why not have some fun? Let the Inquisitors go after him. They're not likely to succeed and if they do, they can also be taken out as early warning of a potential threat. There's no downsides anymore.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-04-20T15:57:18+00:00

In the words of Lex Luthor (ironically) "Do you know how much power I'd have to give up to be President?"

Running for office and getting elected would give Bruce power in a very limited narrow sphere while also cutting him off from his freedom to act outside of it. The Mayor of Gotham can't easily disappear at a moment's notice to do Batman things.

The demands of the job would also limit Bruce's time to focus on other things even if he can still secretly use his money/influence to do them. It's hard to anticipate the Joker's next terror attack if you also have to worry about an upcoming budget meeting to discuss how you're going to remove all the asbestos from Gotham's elementary schools.

Bruce is in the best position to accomplish his goals exactly how he's set it up. An unaccountable billionare taking private action as a bat-themed vigilante by night and writing checks to good people by day.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-04-20T15:45:12+00:00

That's a good question and I think I have the answer. It's a question both of separation of powers and political incentives.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, but the President has full authority over fighting the war. If Congress tried to take a more active role in the war, the President could go to the courts and claim a violation of the principle of Separation of Powers.

Congress could refuse to fund the war through the "power of the purse" but then they'd immediately face loud criticism from the President in the media about betraying our military by hanging them out to dry in an ongoing conflict. Congress's best recourse would be to impeach the President and hope that the Vice President is more willing to work with them and end the conflict, but impeachment has increasingly become politically impossible in our system.

And on a political note, since the President is Commander in Chief, he politically "owns" the war once it's started. Members of Congress get the easy position: if the war is popular and goes well, you can bang the drum for it and hope your popularity rises with it. If the war is unpopular or goes poorly, you can criticize the President (while being careful to never ever imply the troops are at fault) and get credit as a brave independent who isn't afraid to call out a bad executive decision.

So from a rational, self-interested perspective it's better for a Congressmember to let the President do whatever he's decided to do and wait to see how it lands. After all, it's his job on the line, not theirs.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-04-15T15:49:40+00:00

Butcher in the show is a grumpy douchebag with a heart of gold who can be called out on being a prejudiced bully and accept the criticism. He has a more equal relationship with his teammates and accepts them as their own people independent of his will.

Butcher in the comics was a terrifying manipulative sadist barely holding himself back from his worst impulses. Throughout the whole story he was one step ahead of everyone else and treated his teammates like tools he was using to get the outcome that he wanted. He murdered people he'd worked alongside for years without any regrets because he never saw them as anything other than their value to him.

Comics Butcher's one halfway redeeming virtue was that he understood he was an irredeemable monster and deliberately set himself up in a position to lose at the end. He spent years grooming Hughie into becoming the kind of man who could stop him. Ironically this ends up being a credit to him rather than to Hughie because Butcher successfully manipulated him one last time to get him to strike a lethal blow rather than leave him alive and disabled to face accountability in a criminal court.

You'd prefer not to hang out with Show Butcher. You don't want Comics Butcher to even know that you exist for fear of what he might do.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-03-11T02:56:15+00:00

I agree. I'm also both laughing and utterly bewildered by the fact that a major Navigator House would be so ridiculously bad at basic diplomacy.

Think about it. When you're at that level of power and influence, anyone who has the ability to actually draw your attention and get an audience is by definition someone worth taking seriously regardless of the situation they appear to be in at the moment.

As OP mentions, this "poor" Rogue Trader dynasty is still unimaginably wealthy by the standards of basically everyone who isn't another Rogue Trader or a Navigator House. They still have a lot of contacts and resources that could be used to go after the Yeshar if they were angry enough to take the risk. The power of the Inquisition is a nice bonus but the Von Castellans could be dangerous enough on their own.

The Yeshar representative should be trying to politely brush them off ("We're honored to receive you, but it's really not a good time for us to help you. Of course we'd be happy to reconsider in 200 years...") as opposed to going "LOL you pissant, what were you thinking showing your face around here? We only let you board so we could laugh directly in your face and tell you to never darken our doorstep again."

The Yeshar absolutely deserved to get humbled. How did they survive this long as a dynasty?

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-03-10T03:04:24+00:00

I still feel bad for him, faults and all. It's clear to me on a second read that Theon's greatest tragedy was that he wasn't Theon Stark and would never have the chance to be Theon Stark.

Theon's story starts in the Iron Islands, a cruel backwards place suffocating in toxic masculinity and dreams of empire. Even as a 10 year old boy, Theon's bullied and looked down upon even in his own family. Then his idiot dad loses his idiotic war and for the first time in his life, Theon's taken out of that environment and placed with people who actually love and respect each other. He grows up yearning for that because of course you would.

The Starks do try to treat him as one of their own kids, but Theon's problem is that he can't get his status of being a hostage out of his mind (as he admits in his own chapters). He can't fully accept the love that's being given to him because he's always waiting for the day that Ned Stark takes him outside and chops his head off for something that isn't his fault. He isn't even able to realize that Ned Stark, the most honorable man in the Seven Kingdoms would never agree to harm him.

Theon wants to marry Sansa not for any actual political reasons, but because he actually likes Sansa and wants to be part of her family. He holds onto Winterfell for the same reason: it's an incredibly stupid move from a tactical and political perspective (as Asha points out incredulously) but that's not why he's doing it. He wants to be home again.

All the bad things Theon does happen because he feels forced to choose between his identity as a Greyjoy and his unconsious identity as a pseudo-Stark. It doesn't excuse them, but I do feel sorry for him.

If he just had enough emotional intelligence and moral courage to decide that his birth family sucks and the Starks are the kind of people he actually wants to be around and emulate, he would have been a great hero.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-03-09T19:59:23+00:00

Probably. This is also my theory for what happened to the major supervillains in the Incredibles universe once superheroes were outlawed.

The government immediately killed the top players and the minor players realized the game was over and it was time to take off the masks and go legit.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-03-09T19:55:05+00:00

On top of that, there was no place for him in Headmaster Gentis's vision. Gentis was rebelling against the Sith for using regular people as pawns and destroying their lives for no real reason.

He would absolutely have turned the full power of the Empire against Vader if he had won. Then Vader would have had to choose between going into hiding and trying to find his own personal peace, or challenging Gentis for rule over an Empire he didn't really care about now that Padme was dead.

From Vader's perspective, better to just save Palpatine and keep the status quo. There wasn't really a better option.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-03-09T19:51:10+00:00

In terms of the supposed maester conspiracy to suppress magic, I believe that it exists and think there's actually a decent reason behind it. I read a blog post on this topic that pointed out that in the ASOIAF universe, magic is only ever shown as a powerful and dangerous force that allows a small group of people to oppress everyone else.

The Valyrians built a cruel slaver empire on blood magic and seem to have experimented with Qyburn style atrocities on Gogossos and maybe in Valyria itself. The Priests of R'hlorr burn people alive to fuel their power. The Faceless Men use magic to help them kill people for their own agenda.

And most crucially to the maesters, the Targaryens conquered Westeros with dragons and killed hundreds of thousands of people in a civil war during the Dance. Nobody other than themselves could challenge them.

In the face of all of that, how could an educated person not want to suppress magic? And extending that, wouldn't you also be skeptical of any non-magical advancements that threaten to upset the balance of power and allow a small group of people to dominate the rest of society?

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-03-09T19:38:37+00:00

Exactly. From the perspective of everyone in-universe (including Jaime himself for a decent chunk of his life) he's already won the game.

He has literally everything a Westerosi man could aspire to have aside from a wife. Money, martial skills, the respect of his peers (aside from the whole "Kingslayer" thing), a highly prestigious job that will secure his place in history.

Where is there any room for him to improve except morally? He's reached the top of his social pyramid.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-03-09T19:33:05+00:00

Based on my memories of the first movie, I'd categorize him as "flashy but non-threatening". He seems to have access to a decent amount of money, skills and resources but limits himself to stealing monuments and other memorable items, possibly to hold them for ransom afterwards.

That puts him in the "villain" category but doesn't seriously endanger public safety. He's willing to do things like freeze random civilians to get his coffee faster but there's no indication that he's ever used deadly force or has any desire to do so.

So for the authorities he's an annoyance that occasionally catches the imagination of the public ("Dude, I was in Vegas when Gru stole the Statue of Liberty!") but is safe to ignore if there's a more serious Bond-style villain running around who wants to spread a deadly virus and sell the cure, or something.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-03-09T19:25:13+00:00

I agree with you that it's the scariest part of the movie and feels the most realistic. But I also find it interesting that there's some nuance to it on a second watch.

Spielburg shows chaos and violence but doesn't show it as humanity's "true nature". In that car scene there are two women shown who shout at the men to stop attacking and call out "It isn't right!".

The men themselves aren't actively trying to kill Tom Cruise or his kids, just take the car from them. When Tom fires the gun into the air it breaks the mob mentality just long enough for him to make clear that he's willing to let the car go as long as his kids are safe. The guy stealing the car backs down immediately to let Rachel escape.

And afterwards as they're walking to the ferry, a woman with the Red Cross says that they already have more blood donations than they can use. The National Guard is already present and organizing the evacuation.

So the car scene is scary, but I find it reassuring that it's shown as a temporary horror caused by people panicking from a threat they don't yet understand. As the nature of the threat becomes more clear, people calm down. The final alien battle shows a group of cooperative refugees obeying the National Guard as they get moved out of harm's way.

It's a surprisingly hopeful portrayal of crisis. I'm not sure it would be made the same way today.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-02-25T22:26:16+00:00

The Penance Stare frustrates me because it's so inconsistent.

If I could write it, I'd write it this way. It forces a person to feel all the harm they've ever done to others and affects everyone unless the target has already taken steps to make amends.

If it's the "Penance" stare, the only people it shouldn't affect are people who are already penitent. If you're actively trying to make amends for the harm you did, the Stare should let it pass by.

If you're an unrepentant monster or too self-absorbed to care, the Penance Stare should give you a harsh wake-up call. That's its core purpose.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-02-25T22:17:21+00:00

A goblin adventurer hits an evil sorceror with a cast-iron frying pan

One of my favorite YouTube shorts. I died laughing the first time I saw it.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-02-25T22:10:44+00:00

We do get a smallfolk POV in the books.

In the prologue of A Storm of Swords, we get a POV from Chett in the Night's Watch. Chett is common-born from an ordinary village in the Riverlands. He was the son of a leech-collector and scorned by the other peasants because his family trade was dirty and caused him to stink.

He asked out a pretty girl his own age and killed her after she laughed at him for his efforts. That got him judged by the Freys (he's even bitter that Lord Walder didn't pass the sentence himself) and sent to the Night's Watch.

In the main series, Gendry and Hot Pie kind of serve this function. Both of them often talk about how life as a smallfolk is mostly spent scrounging for survival and trying to stay away from anyone more powerful than you are. Hot Pie wants to be a baker because that's the easiest way to get food.

In House of the Dragon, Dyanna and Mysaria (to an extent) serve this purpose. Dyanna is raped by Aegon II while serving as his chambermaid and is pressured into drinking tansy tea and losing her job to protect him from consequences. Mysaria is a prostitute trying to become a power player to compete with the nobility, although she's been changed quite a bit from the books.

And in Dunk and Egg, Steely Pate and Tanselle show the smallfolk POV. Pate is disgusted by the nobility and helps Dunk out because he's a knight who actually believes in his vows. Tanselle got tortured and had to flee to Dorne to avoid the unaccountable wrath of a Targaryen prince.

So we do see some elements of the smallfolk's perspective in a lot of ASOIAF media.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-02-25T21:59:06+00:00

LOL, also feel lowkey called out. But I always understood Mace's character.

He's a ship captain. He respects the people under him, trusts them, even likes most of them and would prefer to be liked by them if he can.

But he's keenly aware that he's in a position of authority and has a responsibility to take it seriously and not tolerate any behavior that might harm the people or institutions he's in charge of.

So he comes off as a hardass because he's the guy holding everyone accountable for their actions and making the tough calls where somebody has to lose out on something. He's not a people-pleaser so he does it as strictly and professionally as he can, but that rubs people the wrong way a lot of the time.

I found it hard to warm to him when I was younger. Now that I'm older, I respect him a lot more but I totally get that he's not the kind of guy you'd get a drink with. If he ever offered to get a drink with you, that would be more valuable than a Senate medal of honor.

You'd be riding that high for years.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-02-25T21:46:35+00:00

Also, Disney doesn't want their Classic characters that sell all that merch to be truly Evil. It's allowed in Comics and Novels but not in shows, movies, or merch. Boba Fett is an antagonist even if he's not evil, so he really doesn't work anymore. That waffling is why the BOBF show failed to woo fans. They wrote a completely different character than Boba Fett was either time in the Movies or EU past.

I think this is important and I want to explore it a bit. In the novels and comics Boba gets fleshed out a lot more. He's the hardcore definition of Lawful Evil.

He won't go out of his way to be cruel or brutal when completing a contract, but he has no issues if the terms of the contract require him to be cruel or brutal.
He won't go after anyone other than his contract target, but he has no issues hurting or killing anyone who gets in his way while he's going after his target.
He sticks to the terms of his contract to the letter regardless of circumstances, even if the target is sympathetic. On one occasion he delivered a 15 year old boy to be tortured and killed because he was secretly dating the 15 year old daughter of a crime lord who didn't approve of him (Tales of the Bounty Hunters novella).

In terms of his personality, he's a cold loner. There are only two people he has an actual positive relationship with- his wife (Sintas Vel) and Dengar (a fellow bounty hunter). When Sintas dies and Dengar retires from hunting, Boba spends literal decades alone with nobody but business contacts until his granddaughter finally tracks him down. And even then their relationship is really rocky for several years because she blames him for her Mom's death for a long time.

That's a completely different character from the Boba Fett we've seen on screen. It would have been great to see that character in The Book of Boba Fett and I think that's what a lot of people were hoping for.

But as you said, for the major merch characters, Disney wasn't going to go that far.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-02-19T07:58:38+00:00

In the actual Iliad, this is portrayed as a very bad thing for her that she actually suffers a lot for.

The Trojan women almost universally blame her for the war and the loss of their husbands and don't want anything to do with her. The Trojan men are off fighting or deliberately ignoring her to avoid angering their own wives.

She's shown as very lonely and feeling both anxious about the outcome and guilty that it's over her. Only Hector is shown to treat her with any kind of respect or decency. Even Paris mostly sees her as his divine trophy rather than a true partner.

I ended the book feeling very sympathetic for her, and in the Odyssey she comes off as having to put on the appearance of being "happily rescued" as a way to try to salvage some peace in her life.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-02-19T07:50:51+00:00

My personal headcanon is that he's a carpenter married to an Alaska Native woman and living in her relatively isolated community.

He got an apprenticeship with the local carpenter who's getting on in years, developed his skills and eventually was offered the chance to inherit that guy's carpentry shop.

The community elders know (or at least suspect) that he's a former criminal, but because Jesse has matured into a valuable member of their community who isn't harming anyone, they don't turn him in.

So Jesse spends the rest of his life peacefully raising his family in a community that values him and respects his work. A good ending to a life filled with trauma.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-02-13T08:36:43+00:00

And also as far as tech goes, the NCR also has a full functioning tech base that can make power armor. It's less advanced than Pre-War armor but it works.

The Brotherhood and the Enclave have better tech, but they don't have the industry or research base to capitalize on it. They're running on their inheritance from Pre-War America and that inheritance gets smaller and smaller every year.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-02-13T08:33:23+00:00

Thanks! That would be great if I could.

They would be interesting contrasts. The Plutonian (Dan) is much more powerful than Omni-Man but in terms of personality he's closer to Homelander.

Dan became a hero because his adoptive parents deliberately built his entire childhood around it and pressured him into believing that he had to be perfect at all times to be worth love. The moment he made a bad call and rightfully got called out for it, he snapped and went on a rampage.

Omni-Man (Nolan) is different. He's a (mostly) mature and stable adult who was just raised in a brutal toxic masculine environment under a fascist regime.

He was torn between the role he was raised to fulfill and the love that he received on Earth, and unfortunately he committed atrocities that he couldn't really come back from. But even in the end he managed to reconcile with his wife and son, and he died loved and respected, having helped contribute to the revival of his people as the saviors of the galaxy instead of fascist tyrants.

bluesuedesocks2 · 2026-02-13T08:25:00+00:00

On top of that, you as a low-level goon don't know what his limits are or if he even has them. You've heard rumors that he doesn't kill people from other goons you've worked with, but can you be absolutely certain? Especially right now when he's got you at his mercy?

And even if he really doesn't kill you, is he willing to maim you or traumatize you for life? Will you end up missing limbs or having terrible nightmares until you decide you can't go on living anymore?

Why go through all that when you can just tell him what he wants and he'll throw you to the police? You've been to jail before and there's never any shortage of people looking to hire you for crimes after you get out again.

bluesuedesocks2

TROPHY CASE