I didn’t watch either of the dueling town halls.
My ballot is already in the mail, and we all know Joe Biden is going to win New York anyway. At least I got to vote for AOC for the first time.
Anyway, I figured I’d do something worth my time instead, so I started reading Talia Lavin’s “Culture Warlords,” and let me tell you it is FANTASTIC.
Talia, who describes herself as “Jewish bitch journalist with an IWW membership card,” spent a year going undercover and infiltrating white supremacist groups online. She even created fake profiles on a white supremacist dating site, which led to my favorite passage so far:
When they wrote to me, they wrote about their cats, about their dinners of pinto beans and pork, about their love of Xbox gaming, about gas prices, the motorcycles they owned. They wrote about guns. They wrote a lot about guns. And just as often they wrote about their desire to maintain the purity of whiteness; about the white children they hoped I or some other willing woman would bear them; and about the sinister Jews controlling the world, about the “cucks” (cuckolds) running the government, about the “Marxists” brainwashing kids, about “white genocide,” and their favorite fascist YouTube channels.
I got about a third through the book before I made myself put it down. I’ve been a fan of Talia’s on Twitter for a while, but this book is a feat. I highly recommend it.
How Game of Thrones sabotaged Emilia Clarke and betrayed Daenerys Targaryen
The night is dark and full of spoilers!
First of all, holy crap. I guess we know why this season of GoT took so much time and money to film—the epic destruction of King’s Landing is unlike anything we’ve seen from this show so far, even the Battle of Winterfell two episodes ago.
However, like many fans, I came away feeling unsatisfied by Daenerys Targaryen’s heel turn. While plenty of people predicted she might be on a path toward villainy, the moment itself felt unearned and out of character. Already, dozens of essays explain how this is a betrayal of the fans of Game of Thrones, a betrayal of Dany, a betrayal of feminism…the list goes on. In the end, I think there were subtle failures on the parts of the writers that left viewers unprepared, and more importantly a real betrayal of trust between the show runners and Emilia Clarke, who portrays Dany on screen, that sabotaged her ability as an actor to fully present her character. Continue Reading
The Winterfell Crypts Secret: My Bold Game of Thrones Prediction
I’ve talked about this on Twitter a couple of times, but with Season 8 Episode 3 impending, I wanted to write it up in full here, so I have proof if I turn out to be correct.
But first, my standard Game of Thrones warning: This post includes spoilers for every episode of the HBO series, and every book in the Song of Ice and Fire books, and all supplemental books. Basically, if there’s anything you don’t want spoiled, turn away now. The post is dark and full of spoilers.
With that out of the way…
Following Sunday’s “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” as Winterfell prepares for battle, many fans were distressed by the oft-repeated plan to put the most vulnerable people in the crypts–and with good reason! You don’t have to be a strategic genius to think hey, with an army that reanimates the dead approaching, maybe that chamber filled with eight thousand years of dead Starks might not be the safest place!
I find it frustrating, personally, that this thought didn’t occur to a single character–not Jon or Tormund, who were at Hardhome; not Sam, who is going into the crypts himself; not Tyrion or Davos or Jorah, all of whom are basically strategic geniuses. Not even Bran considered this possibility–or maybe he knows better? Maybe Bran knows something I have suspected since Season Six, that most fans have not considered:
Maybe the Starks are immune to being “wighted.”
Consider a few facts we know to be true, at least according to accepted Westeros history:
HBO’s Game of Thrones: Bran is not the Night King, he’s the Old Gods.
As the end of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” draws near, fan theories are flying faster than ever. Heck, I’ve even tossed a few out myself. One I’m seeing more frequently, however, is that “Bran is the Night King.” The case for this theory typically centers on his ability to exist in many different times (an ability I do think will be important to the story’s end) but I’m not a subscriber. It makes little sense to the narrative–Bran has already watched the creation of the Night King, after all–but more importantly, the Three-Eyed Raven outright told Bran he’ll never walk again. The Night King walks. So, debunked.
Another theory says “The Night King is a Targaryen.” This one also makes little sense, especially since Targaryens didn’t exist in Westeros when the Night King was created. The “evidence” for this theory is pretty much just that the Night King rides a dragon–something only Targaryens can do. But I’m confident the Night King’s ability to ride his undead dragon is due to his command over dead things–and to the core ability behind much of Westeros’s magic: The ability to warg.
Continue ReadingJabba the Trump: A Comic and Coloring Page!
I drew our awful, criminal President and some of his cronies. Then I thought some people might like to have it as a coloring page! I loved coloring books when I was a kid.
