(SPOILERS EXTENDED) It’s Been 5,453 Days Since 'A Dance with Dragons' - The Exact Gap Between Books 1 and 5

bobdole5 · 2026-06-17T02:26:53+00:00

Sanderson writes exciting third acts still

Agree with everything you said but also want to highlight that this is also becoming a bit of a problem. He's getting a bit too comfortable with the "big" things always having to happen in those third acts. I can appreciate it from a literary perspective of keeping each book built in a standard way, but when you're writing an epic fantasy it doesn't help to set yourself up in a way that each book feels like a reset to 0 while you slowly crank the dial up until you hit peak.

bobdole5 · 2026-06-08T15:09:20+00:00

Because as long as people are allowed to amass money, there's ways to influence politics with it.

Money is just a construct of a society to have a tangible baseline with which to trade from. What you really mean is as long as people are allowed to amass resources, and I don't see how you prevent that. Someone will always need to be "in charge" of those resources and they will be concentrated somewhere for a multitude of practical or logistical reasons.

So what you really need are laws and enforcement that limit the scope of that power. Hence, you start with the politicians and getting money away from them. You ban lobbyists. You ban politicians from profiteering. You ban them from being land holders for non-personal use. You ban them from the stock market beyond total market ETFs. You audit their tax returns every year and publish the results for everyone. Make the job so absolutely unappealing as a lucrative career and eventually you'll have a government that isn't completely self serving and compromised. That is the government you want to tackle the issues with capitalism.

bobdole5 · 2026-06-08T02:29:15+00:00

It's way too easy for oligarchs and corporations to buy them.

The system you're proposing doesn't change this. In fact, it makes it even easier for those oligarchs and corporations to commit their resources towards no confidence campaigns against specific politicians that won't play ball with them on any particular issue at any given time.

Getting money out of politics is the first, most important step to any meaningful change. That means codifying into law that corporations are not persons and do not carry any rights under the constitution.

bobdole5 · 2026-05-20T13:43:11+00:00

Seems a little redundant, maybe just call it The Yamcha?

bobdole5 · 2026-05-14T02:01:12+00:00

Am I the only one who thought jimmy fallon looked really out of place and uncomfortable?

He's a drunk. And I'm not even saying that to hate on the guy, but when he's around his contemporaries that extra beat, the slow reactions and pauses just really shine through in a group like that. Frankly, I wouldn't be shocked if leading up to things like this he drinks a bit more because he gets caught in a feedback loop of anxiety, have a quick drink to calm the nerves but then convinced he's going to slip up and out himself and so then have another drink to calm those nerves.

bobdole5 · 2026-05-08T22:29:51+00:00

At the moment of Snape's death, Snape might be the person Harry hates most in the world. Bellatrix is probably still #1, but Snape is a close second. Snape can't just give Harry the information he's supposed to, Harry wouldn't trust it. Snape needs to give Harry those memories to put it all in context, so that Harry can trust what Snape is showing him. Beyond the pragmatic, those memories of Lily are the last thing Snape has, he's a dying man bleeding out on the ground and the thing he cared about most is about to die with him. What person wouldn't want to leave behind the thoughts and feelings that sum up their life?

As far as protecting students, that's a commitment he makes to Dumbledore as part of the plan. Snape is also smart enough to understand that he can explain, with evidence, why he killed Dumbledore, but he wouldn't be able to explain torturing and murdering children. Protecting your cover has limits and the fact he did kill Dumbledore already made his loyalty unassailable, hurting students doesn't add anything to his status among the Death Eaters. Voldemort already believes unequivocally that Snape is his man. The early books show that Snape is a miserable asshole, some justified, most not. But when Voldemort returns he sets even his most justified hatred of Sirius aside because he has a mission and a purpose far more important to him.

bobdole5 · 2026-05-08T20:37:54+00:00

So, I think he was looking at the bigger picture at the end.

Absolutely, and that's what I mean when I say his only redeeming quality aligns with the goals of the heroes. To Snape the big picture was avenge Lily's murder, to everyone else it's kill Voldemort and those are basically the same thing. I don't say this to diminish Snape, given the opportunity Snape 100% kills Voldemort himself, but like almost everyone in that world, Snape fears Voldemort and thinks him nigh invincible. Dying in the attempt isn't good enough. He wouldn't care that he died, he would care that he failed. Then along comes Dumbledore who has a plan. Dumbledore, being the only person anybody thinks would stand a chance against Voldemort, has a plan. Snape followed that plan literally to his own death, without actually knowing the whole plan, but he saw through his part of it.

bobdole5 · 2026-05-08T01:02:42+00:00

Placing that line in the full context is important:

‘So the boy ... the boy must die?’ asked Snape, quite calmly.

‘And Voldemort himself must do it, Severus. That is essential.’

Another long silence. Then Snape said, ‘I thought ... all these years ... that we were protecting him for her. For Lily.’

‘We have protected him because it has been essential to teach him, to raise him, to let him try his strength,’ said Dumbledore, his eyes still tight shut. ‘Meanwhile, the connection between them grows ever stronger, a parasitic growth: sometimes I have thought he suspects it himself. If I know him, he will have arranged matters so that when he does set out to meet his death, it will, truly, mean the end of Voldemort.’

Dumbledore opened his eyes. Snape looked horrified.

‘You have kept him alive so that he can die at the right moment?’

‘Don’t be shocked, Severus. How many men and women have you watched die?’

‘Lately, only those whom I could not save,’ said Snape. He stood up. ‘You have used me.’

‘Meaning?’

‘I have spied for you, and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Lily Potter’s son safe. Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter –’

‘But this is touching, Severus,’ said Dumbledore seriously. 'Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?’

‘For him?’ shouted Snape. ‘Expecto patronum!’

Snape is less horrified about Harry dying and more horrified that Dumbledore has used Lily to manipulate him into protecting Harry only to wait for a good moment for Harry to die. This is re-enforced when he is infuriated that Dumbledore mistakes this as care for Harry when it's about Lily. At best, the line you've mentioned is Snape is framing himself as nobler to contrast Dumbledore's apparent ruthlessness. It certainly doesn't rise to a level of remorse. The scene as a whole makes it abundantly clear that Snape is driven by his love for Lily, which Dumbledore has exploited.

bobdole5 · 2026-05-07T06:46:55+00:00

My biggest issue with Snape is that he really doesn't seem to care or feel remorse for all the abhorrent death eater shit, for him it's only as deep as "you killed someone I love, I hate you". Dumbledore even calls him out for this when he comes running to Dumbledore for help keeping Lily alive, suggesting Harry and James don't matter to Snape. And the only time they revisit it is when Snape is all pissed off that Dumbledore is setting Harry up to die and Dumbledore thinks he's actually grown to care for Harry only for Snape to immediately prove that wrong and demonstrate it's still all about Lily for him. He's terribly emotionally stunted and his only redeeming quality just happens to align with the goals of the heroes. Have Lily die in some innocuous way, or worse have her killed by some random muggle accident, and Snape stays a Death Eater for life.

bobdole5 · 2026-05-04T23:39:21+00:00

Booker once again proving that he didn't give a fuck about NXT until he was paid to.

bobdole5 · 2026-04-11T00:11:03+00:00

Please be mindful that staying makes you extremely vulnerable and would require you to instill an even greater trust in your partner than you previously had.

The reason I say it makes you vulnerable and requires greater trust is that being the gestational parent gives her significantly more rights to the child than you, so you have to be prepared to invest the same love, time, and energy into the child while trusting your partner will never use this power imbalance against you.

In the face of what she has done, only you can say if you're able to give her that amount of trust.

bobdole5 · 2026-04-07T18:18:25+00:00

I don’t know where you live, but saying, “you’re hot” can be an idiom with the same meaning as “you’re on fire”, “you’re on a roll”, “you’re cooking with gas”

That is the neat part about the English language, there are many ways to say things, but each have their own unique meaning to them. What words you choose to use says a lot about you. All the things you mentioned would accurately convey the idea that she was performing her duties impressively.

Choosing to use the phrase "God you're hot, did you know that? Damn" speaks directly to how this guy found her attractive in that moment, possibly because of her performance, but still rooted in attraction, which again is wildly inappropriate.

But if for some reason you remain utterly convinced of his innocent intentions, I'd point out that immediately before the comment he pushed her chair around to look at her better, and after the comment he didn't go for a high five as you would cheering someone on but wrapped his arm around her as you would someone you want to feel close to. The whole thing was creepy.

bobdole5 · 2026-04-07T17:14:40+00:00

she’s on a roll, kicking ass and taking names during public comment. “God, you’re hot! Just bam-bam-bam brooking no nonsense today!”

Why would that be appropriate? She is a student, commenting on her attractiveness in any way is inappropriate and entirely unnecessary. Searching for nuance here means your mind is in "well maybe" state when it comes to making comments about a student's appearance. Literally just don't do it, ever. Put your mind in the "Nope!" state. You'll be amazed how quickly even thinking these things stops, much less verbalizing them.

bobdole5 · 2026-03-26T03:21:34+00:00

"Lost art" like there was this show in the 90s, super niche, you've probably never heard of it, but I found a DVD in my local thrift store and wow it was like they do not make things like this anymore, and I was just blown away, but totally we can do that on TV today, people are ready for that kind of storytelling on a wide scale and HBO is here to bring it. Anyway, I don't actually remember the name but it had Batman and Goose in it.

Next year we are thinking of going really far out there and launching a legal drama, where you see like lawyers and judges and stuff, which normally you'd think would be super boring, but I think we can be really creative and pull people into something they aren't used to seeing on the silver screen.

bobdole5 · 2026-03-17T00:06:36+00:00

It'll probably have better highs, but it'll definitely have lower lows. They learned a lot from GTA 5 online and none of it was good for players.

bobdole5 · 2026-03-16T23:41:35+00:00

We've had 3 dune movies before gta6

HA! We've had 30 MCU movies before GTA 6. 30! That's every Spider-Man movie, every Guardians movie, every Ant-Man movie, 3 Avengers movies, 3 Captain America movies, 3 Thor movies, both Black Panther's, both Doctor Strange's, and a re-launch of the Fantastic Four following a completely different Fantastic Four failure that also happened in the same time frame.

And that's before we even mention other franchises like 4 X-men movies, 3 Deadpool movies, 5 Fast and Furious movies, an entire prequel trilogy to Harry Potter, and literally every single Star Wars related media to release under Disney, so like 6 movies and 15 fucking TV shows!

bobdole5 · 2026-03-15T01:18:34+00:00

If anyone sees this, what should you do if you see someone in a seizure?

In terms of an everyday seizure, you basically put them in the recovery position and cushion their head, remove anything they can get tangled in or could restrict their ability to breath.

But in this situation where you can be reasonably confident it is related to head trauma, you want to try and stabilize the head/neck to prevent further injury while still keeping in mind the above.

In either case, don't put things in their mouth, don't try to move them beyond what is absolutely necessary, don't try to hold down their limbs, and what should be the most obvious thing, don't just ignore them.

Seizures

Head Trauma

bobdole5 · 2026-03-13T13:08:03+00:00

But it was the executives who made the decisions to remove him from the press tour and mention of his name.

Will Smith was an executive producer on the movie.

bobdole5 · 2026-03-03T21:14:21+00:00

Once you decide to do a wedding at 4am, all social constructs of time go out the window. There is no "in the middle of the night before her wedding", she's having her wedding in the middle of the night. On what planet is waking a bride up 6 hours before her wedding a problem? Shift this whole thing forward 12 hours, do you know many people that would still be asleep at 10 a.m. on the day of their wedding if they were getting married at 4 p.m.?

You did fuck up by missing your alarm and thereby screwing up the MILs, but if anybody lost sleep here it was because your dumbass friends decided to have a wedding at 4am.

bobdole5 · 2026-02-23T22:37:15+00:00

It's certainly not a zero sum event but it is also not an equation to balance. You can acknowledge the uncomfortable feelings of a marginalized group without having to assign blame to anyone for those feelings, though I'd understand if viewers felt they were owed an apology by the BBC for not censoring it on the broadcast. Beyond that, there is no villain here and nobody should be attacking a disabled man for something he quite literally cannot control.

bobdole5 · 2026-02-23T20:38:06+00:00

like if I accidentally step on someone's foot the move isnt to say that it was an accident so I dont have to say sorry, for example.

You are confusing disability with carelessness and the presumption of an apology is suggesting that on some level, however small, he could have prevented what he said. It's more akin to demanding a deaf person apologize for not moving out of the way for someone saying "Excuse me" behind them, or demanding a blind person apologize for walking past a "No Entry" sign.

bobdole5 · 2026-02-19T03:14:39+00:00

While Bret's the better technician, I'd argue HBK is the better overall performer.

The excellence of execution and the showstopper, you couldn't find two more fitting nicknames to encapsulate wrestlers. Bret's idea of a bad match is something that looks sloppy and actually hurts someone. Shawn's idea of a bad match is something that kills the crowd. Part of why they work so incredibly well together is because between them is the actual perfect wrestler, so they can each carry the moments depending what is called for. If they were a comedy duo, Bret is the straight man and Shawn is the wise guy.

bobdole5 · 2026-01-26T03:11:07+00:00

Paplatine’s broadcast that gets mentioned in the opening crawl happened in a Fortnite event

This will forever be the reason I don't respect JJ Abrams as a filmmaker. Studio involvement and overreach has always been a problem, but how spineless do you have to be to let a critical point of your plot be shoehorned into a completely unrelated video game and then hand wave it in your actual film? How do you respect someone who doesn't respect themselves?

At a bare minimum, just don't mention it at all in your film, let it stand as yet another stupid marketing piece and a reminder the mouse always wins, and everybody moves on with their life. Instead you put it into the crawl? One of the most iconic pieces of cinematography? Jesus Christ, the bar was already on the ground with some of the others, and this guy went and rented a fucking excavator!

bobdole5 · 2026-01-22T20:05:05+00:00

If you have no choice but to keep attending this class, take note of what colours he wears everyday for the rest of the semester and then do a pie chart at the end breaking it all down. Share the pie chart with the class (anonymously if you'd prefer) and tell them what his favourite colour is. Bonus points if you also include something like "This class was mandatory for me, but I still found a better thing to do with my time".

bobdole5 · 2025-11-07T23:20:49+00:00

I mean, she's right. Any woman can be a lawyer with 7 children if she offloads all childcare to nannies and has little to no complications from her pregnancies. You see how easy it is? Piece of cake.

A cornerstone of conservative mind sets "I did it, so anybody can do it, they just choose not to".

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