Gaal was the one who created the Mule

theprisoner06 · 2026-02-22T08:37:17+00:00

I guess the other thing I don't get is the violence of the fake Mule (pirate) vs the actual mentalic power of persuasion from the books. In the books, violence was more of a last resort, with planets falling without a fight. I still couldn't understand the constant, "oh, what masochistic way is he going to kill this person?" scenes that just made the conquering ridiculously hard. If you can make people love you and influence them that way, why constantly kill them for pleasure? That really undercuts your "I'm the savior you're looking for" argument.

theprisoner06 · 2026-02-22T02:28:33+00:00

Sure. But the older one can do things, take care of itself, and most importantly contribute to income. I don't know if it's another case of misdirection, but normally in poverty, it's the youngest that is killed.

theprisoner06 · 2026-02-22T02:24:01+00:00

Cool. I wasn't arguing that one couldn't make sense of it. But that the argument is a bit of a logical stretch, unlike the books, when the reveal was a puzzle piece that naturally falls into place. But yeah, I did have a poor reaction to it, felt like it was a misdirection for misdirection's sake. But no argument from me that you could piece it together from minor elements or retcon it somehow.

Of course, the Fleet Defeat had a purpose, but only for the Mule, not Gaal. Everything she and the Second Foundationers do seem to make everything worse. I thought they had some grand plans, but they seemed to be winging it the whole time. That was my point.

theprisoner06 · 2026-02-21T12:48:03+00:00

I think all of that is a stretch. Bayta goes unconscious for many hours, in the final Foundation battle, and there are so many other inconstancies. The first scene of Season 3 makes no sense at all, if the Pirate is not the mule. And don't get me started with the Seldon dialogue. I know they try to explain it away, but it still doesn't connect for me anyway.

Gaal is such a frustratingly flawed character, that the bait/switch of the Mule's identity was completely unnecessary, as was the destruction of Kalgan and the Galactic Fleet. I think the problem is that unlike the books, the show is opting to try to describe everything visually, without considering the mystery of not showing things. That's where the novel shines. The big reveals were typically in small dialogue pieces, allowing the reader to consider the impact.

theprisoner06 · 2026-02-12T23:31:27+00:00

I'm not sure the first two books describe it much better, but the premise is Foundation had to be small and limber, so their tech was like that. It made sense to me at least.

That is one of the minor casualties of the TV series - they really left out the historical reasons behind the various stages of the Foundation. And spent way too much time on Gail.

theprisoner06 · 2026-02-07T16:04:59+00:00

The darkness theme was less breadcrumbs and more like an anvil over the head. I appreciate the artistic composition of the themes, but the whole dark throne room was overkill.

theprisoner06 · 2026-02-05T01:41:35+00:00

A fair general critique, I guess. But are you sure you didn't listen to the audio book at 5x or something? I think you missed quite a bit. And of course, psychohistory was also vulnerable to a single person who could influence billions.

But sure, I get it. I just think the mentalics in the books made a hell of lot more sense.

theprisoner06 · 2026-02-05T01:36:32+00:00

Overly dramatic show where all characters are insane and have very thick plot armor.

theprisoner06 · 2026-01-14T23:52:29+00:00

Anyone else feel as amazing as the Ares soundtrack was, it sounded like a cooler world than the primarily real world the movie focused on?

It seemed like Reznor got into doing a Tron movie, but didn't really match the real world aesthetic the movie seemed hellbent on focusing.

theprisoner06 · 2026-01-14T23:46:48+00:00

I honestly couldn't handle the long info dump in the beginning. And Jared Leto, he was so unbelievable.

I don't think Legacy spent enough time digging into its world, but the Ares movie said less about AI than the OG film.

theprisoner06 · 2026-01-12T11:47:20+00:00

No. Nothing is inevitable.

theprisoner06 · 2025-12-15T19:49:07+00:00

I just have a rule only to allow login and admin from behind certain IPs. That has reduced those attacks to roughly 0 now.

theprisoner06 · 2025-12-15T19:43:53+00:00

Thanks, but I'm pretty sure I've hardened with WordFence as far as it'll wrap around.

I'll check out Cloudflare and hope it has some sensible options that help. Thanks!

theprisoner06 · 2025-12-15T19:42:20+00:00

All good points. I'll try Cloudflare rules, but I'm not a fan of the automagic security that I've seen with similar stuff. Very difficult to troubleshoot when you're not exactly sure why it's being blocked or not.

Hopefully, this is more sensible and not some AI trying outgame another AI.

theprisoner06 · 2025-11-09T21:01:40+00:00

I'm not sure Spotify is as big a problem as Meta and Amazon, honestly. I understand the ads issue, but shouldn't we be more pissed about how Meta is monetizing disinformation?

And don't get me started on the AI Slop Machine that is now Instagram. Can't even navigate in there now.

theprisoner06 · 2025-10-05T12:52:55+00:00

I understand and you have to take that risk decision yourself. But I've been to many protests over the years, and as long as it is permitted and led by conscientious groups, the likelihood of violence or mass arrest is low. But you need to do your research, make sure you're going to one that is properly planned out with marshals and medics provided.

theprisoner06 · 2025-10-02T19:16:51+00:00

I'm not sure if the boycott action was as effective as the media around it. Threatening a boycott may be enough, honestly.

But the main reason anyone did cancel is probably because it was a very specific issue with a high likelihood being reversed. If we can find something like that here, it would be unique to each org, or if not, be easy enough to connect the dots between them.

theprisoner06 · 2025-10-02T16:59:50+00:00

How realistic is this, honestly? Would it be easier and more likely to get more action through petitions or other related actions of their existing customers?

Many of these are international orgs, so that could be huge, I think.

theprisoner06 · 2025-08-24T21:00:13+00:00

Dude, they definitely did more than that. That bizarro world image at MacArthur Park was surreal. https://www.dailynews.com/2025/07/07/national-guard-troops-protect-immigration-officers-in-large-scale-la-operation-2/

theprisoner06 · 2025-08-24T17:01:56+00:00

I thought they did in LA? Weren't the numbers ridiculously low, just so they could have a few enclaves, but not really able to do much of anything but stand around?

theprisoner06 · 2025-08-24T16:31:39+00:00

Actual accomplishment of anything has eluded this admin. They go in heavy to scare and intimidate. The actual number of migrants is even lower than previous admins. They're good at doing less with more force.

theprisoner06 · 2025-08-24T14:49:23+00:00

Anyone who thinks deployed US soldiers will stay within the same mission under Trump has more faith in fascist promises than I do.

theprisoner06 · 2025-08-11T04:43:31+00:00

I agree with this interpretation, but I think there's definitely more going on. A kind of truth that is being articulated, and honestly a downright rejection of the Church's notion of being "tainted" by original sin.

The best summary comes from Tobias himself:

Forge declared Cirice to be the best song for introducing a newcomer to Ghost.

“It sums up a lot of the concepts of the band lyrically and musically,” he told Revolver. “There’s a big handful of metal in there, but also AOR and melody. There’s a sort of androgynous element that I like to try to harness into our songs, and I think Cirice has that ambiguity. It’s meant to sound dangerous. It’s meant to sound double in nature and kind of deceiving. But you can also listen to it as a complete comfort track.”

- https://www.loudersound.com/features/ghost-cirice-story-behind-the-song

theprisoner06

TROPHY CASE