Post Archive
Region: The Confederacy of Free Nations
Eh? The last episode came on at 2am last night for us in the UK. Jon and co went north to capture a wight.
Just let it go already.
... That's not the finale... That already happened....
The finale is this coming sunday....
Yup. Just checked. One more episode. I thought last night's was the finale.
What qualms did you have with 5 and 6?
i'm like that 1% of the population that has never seen an episode of Game of Thrones
Jaslandia, Percyton, Cesorion
I'm right there with you, dude. I don't like GoT.
Cesorion, United Continental States
Bloody heathens. Off with your heads!
Djo
Guess who else is with you......
*gasps*
No, I was being serious......
Yeah, but if I started a party following my ideology you'd decry me for not being socialist enough.
*Raises hand* I once saw a few minutes of an episode and switched to something else instead.
*shakes head in disappointment*
[spoiler=Game of Thrones EPisode 5 and 6 Spoilers]
I only had one major issue with episode 5: just how long can one hold their breath for, because Jamie and Bronn can do it for HOURS. We're supposed to believe that Dany et al. finish destroying the Lannister forces, take a bunch of prisoners, march them off all during a time in which Jamie and Bronn are holding their breath under water?! Also, Tyrion saw Jamie lance towards Dany, but he had no concern or mention of this when Jamie wasn't found amongst the prisoners they took?
But episode 6:
GoT used to pride itself on the notion that no one was safe. But, as we all know by now, nothing will happen to Jon. So, the final battle when he's completely encircled, and when he eventually gets left behind, was entirely anticlimactic- we knew he was going to survive. At worst, we would have lost Tormund. Knowing this going in, that standoff and eventual battle was kind of lacklustre.
When you thought Tormund was going to die, he was getting dragged into the water by two undead who popped up out of it when he got near. I guess there was no undercurrent in this body of water? Knowing this, why did the original breaking of the ice stop the undead when they encircled the party? They don't get cold- they could have just jumped in the water on one end and got out on the other, continuing their fight.
Seeing Dany take off with her dragons to save Jon. They shouldn't have shown this scene, because it contributed to a lack of vested interest in the Jon et al. fight scene- you knew who was going to save them, you knew how they were going to do it, and, because you know Jon won't die, you knew she would arrive just in time to do so.
Death of a dragon. Okay, this was kind of silly because the only reason the dragons were even still present to be killed was because instead of getting on Drogon to fly away, Jon decides to keep fighting. There's a giant firebreathing beast right there that could fight off the few undead still advancing on the party, but Jon has to go separate from the party getting on Drogon to fly away and be a hero. This was a forced excuse to keep the dragons there longer than they needed to be, and felt a bit silly to watch because you knew they were buying time in a cheap way for something bad to happen.
Also, when Dany showed up with three dragons, not one of them thought or was directed to attack the congregation of undead commanders sitting up on a hill in perfect view? No, just fly around and kill the less important undead while giving the Night King the perfect opportunity to play with his javelin.
Lastly, why the eff did he not throw the first one at Drogon? He's the biggest, and the one that was helping everyone escape. Also seemed forced as an opportunity to give them an undead dragon.
A bit nitpicky, but it's these types of scenes that I don't expect from Game of Thrones calibre of entertainment.[/spoiler]
Your criticisms are fair enough. I was also annoyed by Jon trying to be the hero. I knew nothing would happen to him. We all did. Although I was scared Tormound would die. And obviously Dany could not kill the Walkers, we need them for the next season. :P
I still enjoyed the episode immensely and still love the show and story/world.
Plus, dragon fire has no effect on the Walkers, so trying to burn them would be useless.
Damn those are nice spoilers
Percyton, United Continental States
They're not massive spoilers. We knew back from the previous season that fire did not affect the Walkers.
[spoiler=Still Spoilers]Yeah, I never assumed Drogon or any other dragon could kill the Walkers- then all that would have been needed to fight them would be the dragons and all this quest for dragonglass and assistance from Cersei would be unnecessary. But, blowing fire at them to knock them down/incapacitate them while saving the party wouldn't have been a half bad strategy. Fire can't kill Walkers, but it can melt the snow/ice they're standing on and temporarily make it so they don't have premium javelin throwing opportunity.
Basically, we're to believe that Jon and Dany are in this moment terrible strategists and essentially just bumkins in order to accommodate the happenstance of this particular scene. I think some better writing could have brought about the same end effect in a more believable way. This wasn't sudden execution of Ned/counterseige of the Blackwater/Red Wedding/etc. calibre content.[/spoiler]
Eh. Still love it and still love Dany. Kinda shipping her and Jon now.
Just a spoiler free comment passing bye
Nuremgard, Jaslandia, Axeldonia, Kalaron, Percyton, United Continental States, Neo-Icelandic Commonwealth
A season....I haven't watched....
Well too bad lol. The season has been airing on the telly so it's in the public domain now.
Thanks man
Nuremgard, United Continental States
Why have you not been watching it on a weekly basis?
Eeeeewwwwwww... they're closely related...
Kalaron
Why is my economic output decreasing downhill when my economy rating is 100?
Post self-deleted by Nuremgard.
Correction: aunt and nephew. Carrying on the Targaryen tradition lol
Because NS ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
Cesorion, Neo-Icelandic Commonwealth
How is that any better?!
Nuremgard, Jaslandia
Not saying it is lol. But related or not, they are both hot.
incest is wincest sul: the internet basically revolves a good portion of its resources to this category
Nuremgard, Axeldonia
Different stroke for different folks... ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Nuremgard, Jaslandia, Axeldonia, Pirate Kingdoms, United Continental States, Moldegaard
This boytjie knows what's up
Nuremgard
Besides, Dany is the one true queen so she can shag whoever she likes. :P
Goodnight people. Have a wonderful remaining day and sweet dreams tonight. Love you all. <3
Nuremgard, Jaslandia, Axeldonia, Percyton, Moldegaard
https://youtu.be/EQr4FhbcPMg
Goodnight, Peng!
Same. Nothing against GoT, I'm sure it's a great show. But I don't have HBO or Netflix, I'm not interested in Torrenting it (On the rare occasion I watch pirated content, I prefer to watch it on more accessible places like YouTube), and I'm not sure if I have the time to catch up on 7 seasons now.
Penguania And Antarctica, Percyton, United Continental States
To the Wall with you, Jas.
Jaslandia, Penguania And Antarctica
As long as Donald Trump didn't build it, I can accept that.
Nuremgard, Penguania And Antarctica, Cesorion
Oh my Nature
Nuremgard
Oh, snap.
Btw, I am positive Trump is just copying Game of Thrones now. He wants to build a wall and he promised to give North Korea "fire and fury."
He thinks he's a Targaryen. He's certainly crazy enough for it.
Jaslandia, Penguania And Antarctica, Moldegaard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTzeWR57znE
Jaslandia
https://youtu.be/ehle4fpymxA
Percyton
Goodnight, Peng!
Wilbert Awdry's Ghost: https://youtu.be/cao3MKPKCP0
Jaslandia, Penguania And Antarctica
Crap. Had a chance to lower crime in my new nation by putting graffiti artists in jail but I legalised it because the country is liberal. Should not have done that as it increased crime.
Woops.
Jaslandia, Penguania And Antarctica
Eh, I'd rather have an increase in crime (which I don't really understand- you LEGALIZE it) than put people behind bars for doing stupid but harmless things with paint
Nuremgard, Penguania And Antarctica
Ugh. I can't stand Jon's broody demeanour. I just want to slap the angst out of him every time he's in a scene.
That's the funniest quip I've seen on this B in a long time. Touché, Jas
Nuremgard, Jaslandia, Penguania And Antarctica, Percyton
Some of the graffiti can look great. But I need to reduce my crime rate. 18% of my population die are murdered.
Penguania And Antarctica, Moldegaard
I actually thought that was one of my weaker quips, but thank you.
Nuremgard, Penguania And Antarctica, Percyton
He broods, yes but he is handsome.
Penguania And Antarctica
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/21/secret-service-costs-protecting-trump-unpaid-agents-randolph-alles
Surely only the President and his immediate family who live in the White House should get protection? The rest of the family should hire their own protection.
Jaslandia
You would think, but the law states the President and his immediate family are protected, whether said family is in the White House or not. To be fair, some of the stuff is out of Trump's control: Trump's sons still run his business empire (even though that's a conflict of interest and not a blind trust, but that's another story), and since the sons make business trips, the Secret Service has to come with them; plus, Trump has a bigger family, and you can't really blame Trump now for having a bigger family. Still, Trump's frequent trips to his properties and golf excursions (one source I saw said the Secret Service has spent about $60,000 just for renting golf carts) aren't helping, and a more considerate President would take fewer trips in light of the fact that he's already burdening the Secret Service with his large and globe-trotting family.
https://youtu.be/RJ27ERXyv3o?t=8m34s
Nuremgard, Penguania And Antarctica, United Continental States, Neo-Icelandic Commonwealth
They're worse than a royal dynasty. If you ask me, the whole Trump presidency is just a way for him and his rotten family to have a free ride at taxpayer expense. They're trying to squeeze as much out of it as possible, to see how much they can get away with.
But America voted for it so I have little sympathy.
Jaslandia
Technically we didn't vote for it, since Trump lost the popular vote.
Nuremgard, Penguania And Antarctica
Hi all I just wanted to know how many of you started school recently because we started on August 10 and I fell robbed of my summer
Penguania And Antarctica, Percyton, United Continental States
Yeah, your system sucks balls. I also think it's ridiculous that the President can basically appoint anybody to the cabinet, including high up corporate peeps.
Your country is literally ran by corporations. At least in Britain, ministers must be drawn from Parliament and are democratically accountable (in theory anyway.)
Jaslandia, Axeldonia, Solla Ultima
I don't go to uni until September but Scottish pupils go back to school in August.
Jaslandia, Penguania And Antarctica, Percyton, Solla Ultima
I mean, I could see some advantages to America's Cabinet system: For certain departments like Commerce and Treasury, a person hired from the private sector might have more experience in their field than someone who is required to already be a member of Parliament (a politician). In practice, however, these private sector folks often aren't the model of a loyal public servant, and their position may have more to do with their donations and campaigning for the winner rather than their experience (ex: Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, Andy Puzder of Hardee's/Carl Jr. almost becoming Secretary of Labor, etc.).
Nuremgard, Neo-Icelandic Commonwealth
Are the Presidents cabinet members accountable to Congress?
Jaslandia
They can be impeached by Congress, and they have to be confirmed by the Senate before they can take office; but besides that, Cabinet members serve at the pleasure of the President.
Nuremgard, United Continental States
Considering the reasons the US wanted independence, that is ironically monarchical.
Jaslandia
You're not the first one to point that out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Presidency
Nuremgard
We learned about that in college. The Founding Fathers would be spinning in their graves.
Jaslandia
Very much in theory. Ministerial responsibility is pretty much just something they teach in Poli Sci 100 courses, now. And that's pretty much the case across Westminister governments.
But, that's partially the voters' fault for not being more ready to punish at the ballot box those Governments that allow their Ministers to dodge accountability. Like in Canada, the Trudeau Liberals will almost certainly be returned to government despite huge broken campaign promises. Including implementing proportional voting, which would likely increase accountability as almost all governments would then have to rely on coalitions to remain in power.
Nuremgard, Jaslandia
It's far more difficult, almost impossible, to punish politicians when your voting system is first past the post and you only have 2 choices. Plus, the people in Britain are totally bewitched by the media and would rather see savage cuts to welfare and education than elect a "communist" like Corbyn.
Jaslandia
Precisely. Which is why Trudeau, once he won an election with FPTP voting, flip-flopped. He wouldn't get another majority if he changed the voting system, and he found a majority government to be downright enjoyable.
Yet, he blames the Conservatives for wanting the issue to be brought before a citizen referendum. And people somehow ate that up? Because somehow this is the only policy issue where the majority Government couldn't proceed because of that dastardly Official Opposition.
Nuremgard, Jaslandia
No
Yeah, they promise you the moon but once they get in and have a majority they can use to steamroll their agenda through Parliament, different story then.
The Cons wanting a ref on making voting fairer? Now that surprises me.
Why not?
Jaslandia
Our Conservatives are actually a merged party between the Progressive Conservatives and the Reform Party. Reformers are intensely populist; they used to advocate for a policy where petitions that, if they reached a certain threshold of signature, could force a parliamentary vote on an issue or the recall of your constituency's Member of Parliament.
So, there's a significant branch of the Conservative Party that is very pro referendum. Prime Minister Harper was an old Reformer.
Nuremgard, Jaslandia
A Tory MP over here proposed a law that would allow voters to recall their MP if they were dissatisfied with their performance. The bill was naturally defeated by a thumping majority.
Self-interested, corrupt, snout-in-the-trough wankers.
Recall legislation would be a Godsend. Imagine politicians who represented their constituents' desired policies rather than their parties?
Having the gauge their constituents' opinions so as to stay in office rather than towing the party line for a better opportunity at a ministerial appointment?
Having to actually be present in Parliament to represent their constituents' demands and be back in your riding to hear from your constituents on your off days rather than living in the capital and missing sessions so that lobbyists can buy you expensive meals?
But, who is going to vote in favour of having to put in so much more effort?
Nuremgard
Exactly. They get fat salaries, expenses and perks for doing sweet FA. They barely show up to Parliament or hold surgeries. And many have second and third jobs. If you ask me, once you get elected, you should be barred from having any other job. If you can be an MP and have other jobs, you're not doing it properly. Representing your constituents is a full time job.
For every session of Parliament missed, they should dock their wages. That would get their arses in the seats. And remove the whip system and allow all politicians to vote with their conscience.
Hey do I lose my citizenship if I leave the region for a few days?
Percyton
Nope. Where you off to?
Not everyone watches it at the same time or starts at the same point?
Well sorry. Who sh!t in your porridge today?
I'm not sure if this is true- you'd have to check with Sul. To be safe, I'd say move a puppet here and declare it to the MoIA (if you haven't already).
Nuremgard, Percyton
They didn't? I'm just saying it quite literally that not everyone starts to watch it at the same time or watches it at the same intervals (i.e per week)
United Continental States
Well apologies for the spoilers.
Now announcing the Spoilers Belong in Spoilers Labelled as Spoilers Party.
Because screw your left-right dichotomy.
Nuremgard, Jaslandia, Axeldonia, Andromitus, Yukona, Percyton
P.s. That links to my Constitution because I needed a NationStates url. And because that isn't a real party, obvi.
Nuremgard, Jaslandia, Axeldonia, Percyton
So many Cs in that factbook title.
Jaslandia, Percyton, United Continental States
We call it the CotCoCC for short. Because appartently this is a region that uses minor words in its abbreviations.
*glares at CoFN*
Nuremgard, Jaslandia, Percyton
Another speech but this time from the Vice-President: https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=421225&p=32378282#p32378282
Percyton, Cesorion
Hello, I apologize for my prolonged absence.
I need help decide what my next golden gun will be in overwatch. https://strawpoll.com/54x5r7fe
This is just the first round the bottom choices will be removed after you guys vote.
Russkov Soviet, Penguania And Antarctica
More of this content, please.
Penguania And Antarctica
Large fish house for lunch with the o
Penguania And Antarctica, Percyton
Uh, depends. You would have to make it first so that I could see what it's like. If you're going to basically make a sock for corporations to wank in like Clinton wanted, then I will get shítty because I'm sick of people like her claiming to be for the people when they're so far up the ass of anti-democratic institutions that they are tasting the tears of children in sweatshops.
Otherwise, you must have me confused with yourself. The notion, as I'm sure you know by now as I've explained about it at length, that Marxists and Revisionists (+everyone else) should not get along is frankly alien and ridiculous to me. In fact, I'm a Marxist in every way except for advocating for an intermediate dictatorship between liberalism and communism.
Neo-Icelandic Commonwealth
I'd feel so frustrated if I lived in the US. Two right wing parties that take turns doing the bidding of corporations. Britain is the same mind you. My only recourse is I am able to vote SNP.
You consider Jeremy Corbin and Caroline Lucas as right wing?
No but most of the Labour party is Blairite. Plus, even Corbyn said he was going to keep some of the welfare cuts the Tories have been making. The choice is between austerity and austerity-lite.
Well you can't have welfare here to the sun
Did I say that? I'm saying what's the point in voting for either party when one says, "we're going to cut welfare a lot" and another who says "we'll only cut some welfare."
Funny how we cant have "welfare here to the sun" but there's plenty of cash for Trident, foreign wars, tax breaks for the rich and money for the royal family and their various palaces.
Toot toot :)
Jaslandia, Vista Major, Yukona, Percyton, United Continental States
I already explained to you the difference between the massive amount of money welfare already occupies in the budget in comparison to Trident funding and the royal family - which in the past you admitted you ignored the reality of?
Neo-Icelandic Commonwealth
You mean Trident that costs billions to maintain? Ah that's just a drop in the ocean compared to welfare spending. I suppose welfare cuts are necessary to preserve our "security" right?
And of course, funding for the royal family is also insignificant. There is nothing morally wrong with funding one of the richest families in the country with public money while Grenfell victims remain in limbo.
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Written by Refuge Isle.