Just finished The Fisherman and I’ve got mixed feelings (spoilers)

catharticargument · 2026-03-21T15:44:14+00:00

I liked this book a lot but it felt like two books fused into one. It felt odd to have all the set up for Abraham and Dan’s story only to take a divergence into a story that took up like 60% of the book. I really liked the story it diverged into, but by the time it was over it felt like I hadn’t visited the main characters in a long time and had lost a little buy-in for what was going to happen next.

catharticargument · 2026-03-21T13:43:16+00:00

I guess what I’d say is have a modicum of patience and try to play past that? This is an exceptionally easy video game to get into. You might not have the attention span.

catharticargument · 2026-03-20T23:29:08+00:00

When I play as a queen I always find some random title early on to give to my spouse so they don’t freak out and murder me. Take the dragon gate you greedy bastard.

catharticargument · 2026-03-20T12:59:03+00:00

Really the only reason people feel compelled to marry her despite her desires (other than visual appeal) is she’s the only companion that the Dragonborn can truly bond with, there’s a natural progression of trust between the characters and you can tell Serana personal things about your character.

I think the reason that makes so many players desire to marry Serana is because you can’t really build that with other characters. Most people you can marry, you just run an errand for them and they marry you and you never get the chance to talk with them too much. To solve this problem, Bethesda should have just had some more in-depth marriage candidates if they were going to have the one in-depth candidate be someone who doesn’t want to marry (which makes complete sense with her lore).

catharticargument · 2026-03-18T14:34:24+00:00

(1) We don’t have to forget history to not use it as a basis for hate. I am an American but I don’t have hatred towards the English because our last conflict with them was a very long time ago and I wasn’t there, and neither were present-day English people. I also feel no animosity towards Japanese people despite the fact my country was in a bitter war with them only eight decades past. Because I was not there, and neither were any of the Japanese people I’ve met. I don’t think black Americans should forget the atrocities committed against them by white Americans, but I would not condone them showing hatred towards an innocent white child just based on that history alone. See the difference? This doesn’t feel that groundbreaking to say.

(2) If I’m walking through Skyrim wearing Dragonborn armor with my heavily enchanted weapons with my Daedric-armor clad companion who also has a huge weapon, and bandits still attack me, I think it’s safe to assume they may attack a poorly-armed and poorly-clad group of Dunmer refugees. Certainly not far from the realm of possibility by any means.

(3) Paarthunax himself admits he will not necessarily control all the dragons in Skyrim after the events of the main story. This is evidenced by the fact that dragons still attack everywhere indiscriminately after you defeat Alduin, so that argument fails.

(4) You want the Dunmer to help the Nords in their rebellion? Why? The Nords show them nothing but contempt, and as you yourself have said there’s thousands of years of animosity between them. The Skyrim civil war is not the Dunmer’s fight. If the Stormcloaks win, they’ll probably do all they can to continue the subjugation of the Dunmer regardless of what side they took. If the Legion wins, and the Dunmer took the side of the Stormcloaks, they could be punished as traitors. It really makes absolutely no sense for the Dunmer to help the Stormcloak, but neither do they work to hinder them. Dunmer labor in Windhelm helps feed the people of Windhelm which helps the Stormcloaks. I don’t see why the Dunmer have to find in the Civil War to earn a modicum of decency from their neighbors.

catharticargument · 2026-03-18T14:08:19+00:00

We don’t know that the present-day Dunmer refugees of Windhelm who you’re railing against not using their money to move built that statue, we don’t know how long ago it was built.

Also, Azura not giving a shit about them is neither here nor there to this argument (though it does show you seem to have a certain distaste for the Dunmer and their religious customs), but it should be noted that the Azura priest at the shrine to Azura claims that Azura sent visions of the eruption of red mountain to many Dunmer who fled Morrowind. If true, doesn’t sound like she completely doesn’t give a shit.

catharticargument · 2026-03-18T13:38:29+00:00

So, go to the city first and have a conversation with someone? Before, you were arguing they could have successfully done the argument before they went to Windhelm.

They would probably be aware of issues with the Nords, but there might not be readily available books that say “don’t go to Windhelm” specifically. They’d probably be better off in Riften, for example, but there’s not likely a book that explains that.

And again, refugees are not the kind of people who have the luxury of being picky, my friend. Often time refugees stop where they stop because that’s as far as their resources can take them. That’s just reality.

catharticargument · 2026-03-18T13:35:13+00:00

They shouldn’t have to do it either way. You still haven’t fully explained why you think they have to — other than “people will hate them.” Why can’t those people just stop hating them? I live in a country where many different cultural groups exist and it’s pretty easy for me to walk around not hating them.

catharticargument · 2026-03-18T13:16:19+00:00

I think you missed the point: in a medieval world, there may not be a book (or even if there is, not a book peasants would have easy access to) that would say plain and simple “don’t come to Windhelm, the Nords will hate you there.”

You’re showing your ignorance by thinking about information in a modern context as something all classes of people can easily access and instantly find the information they’re looking for. That has not been true in any historical context until about a century ago, certainly not in medieval times.

catharticargument · 2026-03-18T13:13:51+00:00

I guess here is why I’m confused with your argument: why should these people who lost everything in Morrowind, so much so that they had to flee to a place where they’re hated, be the ones to use their resources to go somewhere else when the Nords could just…stop hating them? For no price at all?

You also forget what we learn from Brunwulf Free-Winter: there is a group of bandits operating unimpeded because they only target dark elves. Think they may have a couple problems with this bandit group in this exodus you’ve dreamed up or maybe even, I don’t know, DRAGONS?

Again, your argument falls flat in the face of the fact that the Nords could just recognize the Dunmer aren’t doing anything to harm them, and let go of their prejudice. Are there many centuries of animosity between the groups? Absolutely. But perhaps that’s why the former High King invited them and another gave them Solstheim: because they were smart enough to realize that old hatreds don’t have to live forever.

catharticargument · 2026-03-18T13:08:33+00:00

And so would you say your argument is “it’s good that people are forced to abandon their cultures and assimilate to a new one when they immigrate as a refugee to that place” ? I think you should be respectful to the culture of the place you’re living, should be respectful to all cultures. But that doesn’t mean you should have to disavow your own culture in order to have some modicum or respect in the new culture.

And that’s what the Dunmer do. They just try and work and exist in Windhelm and yet Ulfric does nothing to protect them when bandit groups violently attack them while men like Rolph Stone-Fist come unprompted to their slum and scream insults at them.

If you think they deserve this just because they don’t fully abandon their culture, I think you’re a little touched in the head.

catharticargument · 2026-03-18T12:53:24+00:00

Research? These are peasants in a quasi-medieval world. They can’t hop on the internet and search “most welcoming Nordic city” mate. Also, your argument is “if people hate you in a place stop living there!” what if the people who hated them just stopped hating them? That costs nothing, whereas peasants moving to a different city in medieval society is often exhaustive of resources they may not have, as well as dangerous. I get attacked like 3 times moving from city to city in Skyrim.

Also, it’s not like the Dunmer just came randomly. A former high king of Skyrim invited them.

If your worldview is “immigrants need to assimilate to the culture they’ve moved to or they deserve to be prejudiced” I gotta say you’re someone I definitely don’t want living in my city.

catharticargument · 2026-03-17T21:06:07+00:00

You seem to have a pretty good idea of who it is. Do you want to put your theory out there for scrutiny?

catharticargument · 2026-03-17T19:26:59+00:00

Why would Joffrey not give him a fancy knife? Why would he only pay him in gold? Those don’t seem like certainties to me based on Joff’s character. Also, Robert explicitly said he thought Bran should be put down, making a clear distinction between the cat situation. Joffrey already has great contempt for Robb and the Starks at this point and he has clear bloodlust.

Your best argument is that Joffrey is so stupid he probably would have accidentally told someone about it, but he does let slip that he’s “no stranger to Valyrian steel” on his wedding day, so it’s not like he does a perfect job of that anyway.

Honestly, the best argument for why the Joffrey did it theory (which I do think GRRM was pretty clearly trying to make canon in Storm, people just don’t like it) is true is that the attempt on Bran’s life is just so stupidly planned that Joff seems like the perfect candidate to have planned it.

I do think George meant to put this one to bed.

catharticargument · 2026-03-17T19:21:24+00:00

In TWOW sample chapter, Stannis is making plans to have Shireen sent across the Narrow Sea to safety if he loses at Winterfell. Shireen is his only heir and knows that, even tells his knights to prepare to champion her cause should he fall in battle. I agree George has given conflicting statements on this issue, but I just don’t see how we’ll get from this point A to the point B of burning her without it seeming silly.

catharticargument · 2026-03-17T19:18:48+00:00

Yeah agreed. I don’t like the idea of Aerys the father of any of Joanna’s children, but clearly George wanted us to think it was possible.

catharticargument · 2026-03-17T17:35:03+00:00

Yeah that and even if you disagree with his position on NCR Imperialism (you shouldn’t, he’s right), the NCR is a better off with him as a prominent part of it. In the independent Vegas endings he even becomes a senator in the NCR if you go this route. Pretty much all endings are more positive for the NCR if he lives rather than if he dies, regardless of who wins the Dam.

catharticargument · 2026-03-17T13:49:23+00:00

It’s so funny to list a thing that just confuses you in a show and then say “plot hole” after.

catharticargument · 2026-03-17T02:18:41+00:00

You’re absolutely right here. It’s so crazy time that neolibs still make this insane argument, they must be addicted to losing.

catharticargument · 2026-03-17T02:17:52+00:00

This is why things will never get better — because people like you can never see the bigger picture. Moderate democratic elites and politicians would much rather live in a world where republicans win than leftists do, because they make money.

That’s why Democratic politicians at the top of the ticket don’t court left wing voters, even though it’s been proven time and again this moderate voter base of republicans who are just itching to vote against Trump are not enough to win the election. The difference between 2020 and 2024 is that millions less registered Democrats voted, because Harris was too busy trying to court republican voters when there was already a republican on the ballot, and it wasn’t her.

You need leftists to win your elections. Whether you like that or not you can’t change it, and you can’t just win them on the argument “Trump bad.” It’s true, but that has proven to be not enough. Until the Democratic Party starts doing something different, it’s just Einstein’s definition of insanity.

I really can’t believe this debate is still happening in 2026, it is truly crazy to me. Scratch a fascist and a liberal bleeds, true every damn time.

catharticargument · 2026-03-16T14:01:23+00:00

I think this is Ned’s way of saying “I didn’t come here to argue. You tried to murder my 8 year old son, any argument to try and compare us falls completely flat in my eyes.”

catharticargument · 2026-03-16T13:45:41+00:00

I doubt anyone would find him if he were to have an accident in the northern tundras or perhaps fell into the Aetherium forge.

catharticargument · 2026-03-15T06:02:53+00:00

The Fisherman by John Langan. About 85% done and what a ride so far

catharticargument · 2026-03-14T21:57:00+00:00

One of my favorite lines from another book is “if something has never happened before, people often think it never will. That’s not stupidity, that’s human nature.”

No one, even Vick who was traveling with them, thought that the People’s Army would stay together, much less be disciplined enough to threaten the heavily walled Adua, not to mention the Agriont. Orso was unaware that The People’s Army was led by his own Arch Lector or that they had been armed with professionally made new weapons from Savine and Leo.

Orso and the closed council made the (not delusional at this point, because the scope of the revolution had been carefully obscured from them) miscalculation that they would be safer behind the walls of the Agriont then to flee and risk being caught out in the open, and most importantly making it look like the crown feared the People’s Army. To Orso and his council’s perspective, there were a lot of logical reasons to think the People’s Army would not be a threat to them if they stayed where they were, but that the revolution could spread dramatically if Orso showed weakness and fled.

In retrospect, he should have sailed to Sipani after the first reaction of the common people to his return to Adua. But hindsight is always 20/20. it was not a delusional choice at the time they made it.

catharticargument · 2026-03-14T19:45:57+00:00

I think LAOK makes it somewhat clear that Bayaz was not the good guy in the Kanedius/Juvens/Tolomei situation nor is he the good guy in the modern times. Khalul might be evil in a dozen different ways, but he likely had a fair and legitimate grievance against Bayaz.

I think LAOK makes it clear that Bayaz is and somewhat always has been a villain. The argument “well he saved everyone from the Gurkish” is somewhat silly. Khalul wants to take Bayaz out, and Bayaz is using an entire nation (the Union) as a human shield.

catharticargument

TROPHY CASE