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Napero
GedankenPanzer

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 4:59 am 
 

I kind of see what you mean about "Let's Kill Hitler", but I love long story arcs, and that episode is important in that sense.
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Subrick
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 5:03 am 
 

What he said. If there's any one thing about "Let's Kill Hitler" somewhat makes it necessary to watch, it's that it's integral to both the season's arc and one of the big arcs of Matt Smith's Doctor as a whole.
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waiguoren
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 5:07 am 
 

Re: True Detective. What a flop that last episode was, it reminded me of the fourth episode actually (you know, where they decided that they needed to add Sons Of Anarchy/Breaking Bad crap to the storyline for some bizarre reason). No spoilers but it was very unsatisfying, thank god Marty was brilliant and kind and intellectual as usual or I would have turned it off.
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Necroticism174
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Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:46 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 5:35 am 
 

I thought the set design of
Spoiler: show
Carcosa
was pretty damn cool, as was
Spoiler: show
Them not getting everyone in the end. But apart from that, yeah totally. Some 2 second shot of a black thing after over 7 hours of subtle buildup and references followed by some out of character optimistic bullshit does not a satisfying finale make.
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volutetheswarth
Our Lady of Perpetual Butthurt

Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2011 8:37 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 6:11 am 
 

It's pretty funny seeing the mixed reviews and backlash the ending is receiving, you'd think it was the ending of The Sopranos or something. I think most were expecting something entirely unrealistic or some metaphorical middle-finger and what we got was as conclusive as a mostly realistic, self contained, (originally) single season story could be.
Spoiler: show
Sure, it's easy to feel cheated because Cohle lived, but it's not wholly impossible to survive something as severe as that, I've seen crash videos with people without limbs and they were conscious for ages. The human body is a persistent son of bitch despite how fragile it appears on the surface. Then you have this absurd notion that the end is something as cliche as Cohle 'finding God' when what he actually finds is hope. Nic Pizzolatto wasn't forcing a hokey faith message, if you'd paid attention to the show you'd be aware that's never been the tone. It was the most perfect climax for his character that a writer could have possibly written. Was it predictable, mostly yes, but True Detective was never going to throw a curve-ball or a twist ending.

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Necessitarian
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Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:20 am
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 6:27 am 
 

volutetheswarth wrote:
Spoiler: show
Then you have this absurd notion that the end is something as cliche as Cohle 'finding God' when what he actually finds is hope. Nic Pizzolatto wasn't forcing a hokey faith message, if you'd paid attention to the show you'd be aware that's never been the tone. It was the most perfect climax for his character that a writer could have possibly written. Was it predictable, mostly yes, but True Detective was never going to throw a curve-ball or a twist ending.

Spoiler: show
He might as well have found God. If his reaction would've been at all in keeping with his character from previous episodes he would've dismissed his near death experience as the bullshit brain-chemistry shenanigans that it was, and not taken it as some reason for hope. From 'let's walk hand in hand to extinction, brothers and sisters' to 'the light is winning' is a huge transformation, and it's completely unbelievable coming from him.

waiguoren wrote:
Re: True Detective. What a flop that last episode was, it reminded me of the fourth episode actually (you know, where they decided that they needed to add Sons Of Anarchy/Breaking Bad crap to the storyline for some bizarre reason). No spoilers but it was very unsatisfying, thank god Marty was brilliant and kind and intellectual as usual or I would have turned it off.

Indeed, episode 4 was for some reason the best received of maybe all episodes but it was similar to the final episode in how out of place it seemed within show. Even that
Spoiler: show
final one-shot take on its own wasn't that great aside from its (probably) technical brilliance

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Empyreal
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 1:38 pm 
 

Subrick wrote:
Empyreal wrote:
6 started off pretty strong (and I remember really liking that one about the minotaur in the hotel; that was good), but also had probably the worst episode of the entire new series with "Let's Kill Hitler."


I dunno, man. "Let's Kill Hitler" wasn't the greatest episode ever, but I still found it better than "The Idiot's Lantern". That episode was powerful in how bad it was. What shows how shitty "The Idiot's Lantern" is especially is that it's right before "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit", two of the best episodes of the show and my favorite two-parter of the new series. Having an episode that low in quality directly before two episodes that were very high in quality highlighted its flaws even greater than just a standalone viewing does.


The Idiot Lantern was campy, but it kept things simple. Let's Kill Hitler, like the finale of season 6 and many other episodes from that season, was over complicated bullshit ... frankly I just don't like River Song at all. I feel like the series went way downhill almost every time it focused on her.
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Napero
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 2:11 pm 
 

Sir, you are objectively wrong; it may be that, knowing my non-linear approach to things, such a Lord of the Rings which I accidentally read in reverse order the first time, I had to watch a few episodes twice to get the story. But the whole River Song thingy is a brilliant piece of scripting, and despite the whole franchise bending its own rules whenever necessary, and often without really needing to do so, too, the whole arc is a pretty awesome work of art. Also, the sheer absurdity of ideas such as "The Impossible Astronaut" and the whole Silence thing are easily worth the time.

I also happen to like Alex Kingston as an actress, which I guess is not a default position to take.
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Wedge_Antilles
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 2:30 pm 
 

"Love & Monsters" is far, far worse than "Let's Kill Hitler" could ever hope of being.

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Smoking_Gnu
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 3:24 pm 
 

Wedge_Antilles wrote:
"Love & Monsters" is far, far worse than "Let's Kill Hitler" could ever hope of being.


Hah, when my gf was introducing me to Doctor Who last year she made a point of saying we should skip that one. I still haven't watched it on my own, but given the summaries, I'm evidently not missing much.
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Necroticism174
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 5:35 pm 
 

I love Alex Kingston and River Song (she isn't exactly too hard on the eyes either). I think the badness of Love & Monsters is overstated. It's not really a "good" episode, but it's definitely watcheable. Right now the show mainly has the challenge to make Clara somehow interesting, or replace her.
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Napero
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 5:45 pm 
 

Necroticism174 wrote:
Right now the show mainly has the challenge to make Clara somehow interesting, or replace her.

Indeed, I fully agree.
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volutetheswarth
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 10:23 pm 
 

Spoiler: show
Necessitarian wrote:
If his reaction would've been at all in keeping with his character from previous episodes he would've dismissed his near death experience as the bullshit brain-chemistry shenanigans that it was, and not taken it as some reason for hope. From 'let's walk hand in hand to extinction, brothers and sisters' to 'the light is winning' is a huge transformation, and it's completely unbelievable coming from him.
Spoiler: show
I don't struggle to see how him basically being killed wouldn't be enough to change him. If anything was going to have a dramatic effect on his outlook, then that would surely qualify. Episode 4 was the most well received because it had the most action and was plainly thrilling to watch. The people and numbers don't lie, if it's that well received then obviously they did something right. I thought it was a great one-two punch the season needed to break up the predictable routine flow and become gripping entertainment again. It felt like a solid cliff hanger and that's not usual mid season with most shows.

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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 13, 2014 3:11 pm 
 

Spoiler: show
People talking about how some abstract intellectual nihilism based on harrowing life experiences ("all philosophy is autobiography") wouldn't/couldn't be affected by a deep, powerful experience like nearly dying and all he went through there with his description of sinking into deeper layers of reality where he felt the warm embrace of his family's love ETC, good lord, I feel sorry for you. Do some acid.

People change, life is inconsistent, and it wasn't even a huge surprise in his case--as the writer has pointed out in interviews, he espouses some nihilistic beliefs but does he act like one? Not really.
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Necessitarian
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 13, 2014 7:53 pm 
 

Nahsil wrote:
Spoiler: show
People talking about how some abstract intellectual nihilism based on harrowing life experiences ("all philosophy is autobiography") wouldn't/couldn't be affected by a deep, powerful experience like nearly dying and all he went through there with his description of sinking into deeper layers of reality where he felt the warm embrace of his family's love ETC, good lord, I feel sorry for you. Do some acid.

People change, life is inconsistent, and it wasn't even a huge surprise in his case--as the writer has pointed out in interviews, he espouses some nihilistic beliefs but does he act like one? Not really.

Spoiler: show
Well, it wasn't even the first time for him to be nearly dying so I fail to see what's so necessarily transformative about that particular fact - I'm pretty sure he was well aware of his mortality. If there was anyone fit to handle the near death experience without jumping to completely unwarranted conclusions, it would be him, considering that he had done some acid and neither its initial effects nor the recurrent flashbacks had managed to mush up his worldview - he hadn't given me the impression of a man who would pick supernatural explanations when perfectly sensible ones were available before, and unless his brain was damaged so as to hinder his critical thinking abilities, I don't see why he would now. Abstract intellectual principles don't count for nothing either.

I guess it isn't impossible for him to change his mind so thoroughly, but it feels very forced and just completely unsatisfying. One of the best things the show had going for it for me was its unremitting bleakness, and the ending just shat all over that.


@volutetheswarth

Spoiler: show
I didn't hate ep. 4, but it was just too different in atmosphere for me not to stick out as a bit of a sore thumb. Something punchier was indeed needed at that point, but, again, it just didn't accord well with the rest of the show. I would have preferred if the shoot-out at Ledoux's had served as the sole kick to liven things up and the way they got to him was less extravagant.

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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 13, 2014 8:41 pm 
 

Spoiler: show
Supernatural explanations? I didn't interpret anything he said or experienced as supernatural.

Ultimately he had a strong series of experiences that could be termed spiritual or religious or numinous, the kind of experience which can profoundly change someone's outlook, on a deeper level than cognitive intellectual ruminations. This is something I'm hoping to study in grad school actually, psychology of religion and spirituality, especially experiences and states of mind belonging to those areas. I've been there myself to be honest, so that's partially why this doesn't seem farfetched or forced to me. I've been a depressed kind of misanthropic, world-hating, reductive materialist "nihilist," and I've been shocked out of that, and the shock transcended any philosophical considerations I had at the time or beforehand, and I still can't fully verbalize the experience(s) themselves, although I do have my theories.

So essentially I suspect that resistance to or acceptance of his experience and any internal changes that resulted from it could be based at least partially on the personal expectations and experiences of the viewer.

Also, like I and the writer have said, he wasn't really much of a nihilist. He did talk the talk but he CLEARLY held things in life as meaningful, had strong convictions in some areas etc. He talked bleak but he didn't live bleak...at least not entirely.
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Adriankat
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 13, 2014 11:10 pm 
 

Necroticism174 wrote:
Right now the show mainly has the challenge to make Clara somehow interesting, or replace her.

She will be the first companion since Rose to have been with two incarnations of The Doctor, so they're pretty damn obligated to make something interesting out of that.
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Necessitarian
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Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:20 am
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:03 pm 
 

re: True Detective
Nahsil wrote:
Spoiler: show
Supernatural explanations? I didn't interpret anything he said or experienced as supernatural.

Ultimately he had a strong series of experiences that could be termed spiritual or religious or numinous, the kind of experience which can profoundly change someone's outlook, on a deeper level than cognitive intellectual ruminations. This is something I'm hoping to study in grad school actually, psychology of religion and spirituality, especially experiences and states of mind belonging to those areas. I've been there myself to be honest, so that's partially why this doesn't seem farfetched or forced to me. I've been a depressed kind of misanthropic, world-hating, reductive materialist "nihilist," and I've been shocked out of that, and the shock transcended any philosophical considerations I had at the time or beforehand, and I still can't fully verbalize the experience(s) themselves, although I do have my theories.

So essentially I suspect that resistance to or acceptance of his experience and any internal changes that resulted from it could be based at least partially on the personal expectations and experiences of the viewer.

Also, like I and the writer have said, he wasn't really much of a nihilist. He did talk the talk but he CLEARLY held things in life as meaningful, had strong convictions in some areas etc. He talked bleak but he didn't live bleak...at least not entirely.

Spoiler: show
If the experience wasn't supernatural, or, more accurately, if he didn't take the experience to be supernatural, then the optimistic outlook he adopted would seem like a bit of a non-sequitur, no? If he thought that the love of his daughter that he felt was just something that was caused by his brain and not some indication of a higher reality or somesuch, why the change in perspective? Surely simply the fact that you can occasionally, when you're lucky enough to be almost killed, get to experience a pleasant near-death experience isn't enough for him to radically alter his worldview. Though I guess that's just me looking at this from the intellectual rumination angle again, and not taking into account the inherent transformative power of the experience itself.

I'm myself in a similar place as you described, though I don't know how many of those words I'd use to describe myself - definitely not nihilist or misanthrope in any case. So, I think you're right about personal expectations and experiences playing a key role in how palatable the ending will be to the viewer.

I never considered him a nihilist either, so that part isn't really important to me. You can have a pessimistic view about the world without being a nihilist, and in fact that's how he himself described himself - as a (philosophical) pessimist, which probably even precludes being a nihilist - of course depending on your definition of the word nihilist.

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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 14, 2014 6:41 pm 
 

yeah, you're looking at it from a third-person, detached, materialistic perspective. Sure, it's all just chemicals, but that doesn't take away from the subjective phenomenology and power of the first-person experience.
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Under_Starmere
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 10:19 pm 
 

So yeah, Game of Thrones S4 coming up right quick. You guys ever heard of that show? Rewatching the third season right now. One thing that comes to mind after the first few episodes (spoiler used simply for absolute noob-shielding!):
Spoiler: show
If Tywin and Cersei despise Tyrion so very much - the latter having just recently made an attempt on his life during the battle of Blackwater Bay - what in god's name has stopped them from having him killed long, long ago, or at any point going forward? Just because one ad-hoc assassination attempt failed, what's to stop there being a completely successful one the very next day? He was never vital to the stability of the kingdom, so why didn't they just have him killed in his infancy, or his childhood, or at any time in his adult life? They could've veiled it under any conceivable number of "accidents" or "sicknesses." It just doesn't really make sense that he's even around at this point. Is there something I'm missing, or is it just implausible writing on Martin's part?
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iamntbatman
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 11:31 pm 
 

Spoiler: show
Honestly, I always just got the impression the twins just felt really bad for him for most of their lives. Tywin obviously treats him like shit, and Jaime clearly looks out for him. Even if Cersei doesn't really like him much, she'd probably leave him alone out of respect for Jaime's wishes. That's my take on it, anyway.


I just marathoned the shit out of House of Cards. Season 2 had kind of a lull mid-season but the beginning and ending of the season were both great TV. I love how they basically do the main-character 4th wall-breaking monologues like Dexter did, only more blatant and about one thousand times better. I could listen to Kevin Spacey drone on in that Southern accent for days.
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Napero
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 3:27 am 
 

@Under_Starmere on Game of Thornes
Spoiler: show
If you read the books, you'll see that it's most likely Tywin who keeps Tyrion alive. In the TV series, too, he specifically mentions that one of the things he did for purely the sake of the family was to keep Tyrion alive after he killed his mother while being born, despite hating him for that. I think it's his influence that keeps them from openly killing him, although it's unclear what kind of advantage Tywin sees in Tyrion's continued existence.
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iamntbatman
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 6:46 am 
 

Possible minor book-related spoiler pertaining to the question:
Spoiler: show
In A Feast for Crows Tywin's sister makes a comment about how Tyrion is Tywin's true heir. While this is also literally true (something that I'm sure wouldn't really be an issue in terms of keeping him around), what she meant was that Tyrion's cunning and intellect are more worthy gifts from his father than Jaime's prowess in battle. It seems likely that Tywin knew this, too, supporting what Napero said.
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VenusianSea
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 6:57 am 
 

iamntbatman wrote:
I just marathoned the shit out of House of Cards. Season 2 had kind of a lull mid-season but the beginning and ending of the season were both great TV. I love how they basically do the main-character 4th wall-breaking monologues like Dexter did, only more blatant and about one thousand times better. I could listen to Kevin Spacey drone on in that Southern accent for days.


I found the second season more entertaining than the first one, but they're both great. Season one was more... even, in the long run, but it lacked brilliant scenes like

Spoiler: show
the train thing in the first episode, or Claire's TV interview


When I watched it I was under the impression that it was the final season (that's what they announced last year anyway) but turns out it was renewed for a third :)

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Napero
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 7:10 am 
 

@iamntbatman, that's putting it better than what I could.
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Empyreal
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 8:00 am 
 

House of Cards is so good. Season 1 was better than season 2 (which never topped its first episode), but they were both really entertaining. I love the way they fuck around with your expectations and have all of these important characters die over the course of the show when you don't expect it. It goes to show you anyone's expendable - and it's really fascinating to watch the way the dynamic of the show changes each time. It's clearly a fearless show that I hope will keep to that level of quality.
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MacMoney
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 8:51 am 
 

[Game of Thrones]
Spoiler: show
Regarding Tywin and Tyrion, what hasn't been mentioned is the fact that since Westeros is modeled after medieval Europe, it is very vital that a lord has an heir and sons make best heirs. And what's better than having a son for an heir? Having two sons in case the first one dies - Or does something else idiotic like disappear at sea or become a maester. Even though Tywin hates Tyrion, he is far too intelligent to entertain his vengeful side on this part since he does recognize Tyrion's skills in intrigue as well as the fact that since he and his brother share(d) a very warm relationship, Tyrion would be a good support and advisor to Jaime when he inherits.

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Under_Starmere
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 9:02 am 
 

@iamntnappy

Spoiler: show
Those points do make sense and go some way toward explaining the situation, though it doesn't all seem to hang together fully. I did think (after I wrote that first post) that he might only be kept around as a last-resort heir to keep the legacy intact should something happen to Jaime. Makes sense, I guess, but if Tywin wasn't satisfied with the two sons he had all these years, what was to stop him from simply taking another wife and having more sons after Tyrion? I can't easily feature a man as obsessed with legacy and family strength as Tywin just sort of throwing up his hands and not doing anything about it. Even adoption would seem to have been a decent option.

Tywin refers to Jaime as his heir and doesn't seem to have ever been interested in fostering Tyrion's talents at any point with the view of making him a viable part of the family, let alone a vital one. So at least from a writing perspective it makes it hard to see Tywin as having any paternal sensitivity or buried affection for Tyrion, or any view toward him being any sort of heir. I dunno.... it's weird. The situation can be rationalized but in so many ways it doesn't seem to jive with what we actually hear and see from the characters involved.

Basically the entire thing would make sense if we saw even a little bit of sensitivity toward Tyrion from Tywin, if he didn't constantly berate Tyrion and make it painfully obvious that he despises him. It would be clear that even though he basically hates Tyrion for the death of his wife and is ashamed he exists, he understands that he wasn't at fault and at least has enough paternal instinct to take pity on him and let him live. I mean I think that's all that's really going on there, except the characterization make it confusing. Perhaps for a hard-hearted man like Tywin that is his version of sympathy and sensitivity.
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Napero
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 10:09 am 
 

@Under_Starmere on Game of Thrones
Spoiler: show
In the books, Tywin is still sort of faithful to his dead wife, and does not have sexual relationships, at least not openly. Neither is he too warm and fatherly to either one of the other two children. He is overall quite cold and calculating, and keeping Tyrion around for the sake of his cunning character and as a semi-disposable tool, but, at the same time, keeping him aware of his shortcomings to keep him under control, seems to me like a fitting logic for him to follow. He is a complex character for someone so easy to describe adequately with so few adjectives.
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Under_Starmere
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 10:51 am 
 

[Game of Thrones]
Spoiler: show
Okay. I guess it's to be expected that this might be clearer to the book readers. But yeah, probably in Tywin's mind it's enough compassion simply to let Tyrion live, even if it means he lives as a loathed pariah, since he basically has all the privileges of a prince anyway. Maybe Tywin's been leaving it up to Tyrion to prove himself worthy of respect, but since Tyrion hasn't been much more than a winesop his whole adult life, Tywin doesn't see any reason to treat him like anything but garbage.
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Morrigan
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:37 pm 
 

Guys, please prefix your spoiler tags (or quote a prefixed spoiler tagged post when replying). There are two concurrent discussions right now, one about Game of Thrones and one about House of Cards, and if you just spoiler tag without prefixing I wouldn't know if I should click or not. I edited some posts but try to think of that in the future.

MacMoney wrote:
[Game of Thrones]
Spoiler: show
Regarding Tywin and Tyrion, what hasn't been mentioned is the fact that since Westeros is modeled after medieval Europe, it is very vital that a lord has an heir and sons make best heirs. And what's better than having a son for an heir? Having two sons in case the first one dies - Or does something else idiotic like disappear at sea or become a maester. Even though Tywin hates Tyrion, he is far too intelligent to entertain his vengeful side on this part since he does recognize Tyrion's skills in intrigue as well as the fact that since he and his brother share(d) a very warm relationship, Tyrion would be a good support and advisor to Jaime when he inherits.

Spoiler: show
Sorry, that's just wrong. Tyrion is a Lannister and that's why Tywin wouldn't kill him (though he wouldn't miss him if he died, surely) but not because he's his heir. If you recall, he explicitly denies Tyrion's inheritance, despite Tyrion being legally the heir. "Casterly Rock? Never."
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Napero
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:51 pm 
 

Excellent point, khaleesi! Nappy will now ride forth to fix his errors. It is known.
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HellBlazer
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:55 pm 
 

Game of Thrones
Spoiler: show
As for why there were no assassination attempts before, well, even Cersei doesn't go around having everyone she doesn't like killed. Now though, with Tyrion in a position of power as Hand of the King and his actions against her interests, she sees him as a direct rival and a threat to her family.

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MacMoney
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 2:36 pm 
 

How embarrassing.

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iamntbatman
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 11:08 am 
 

About halfway through X-Files Season 8. Some thoughts:

Spoiler: show
It's really a mixed bag. I actually like Doggett and the new Scully/Doggett dynamic; the hand was forced where Scully essentially has to own up to the fact that paranormal/alien/occult or whatever shit did actually happen throughout her years on the X-Files and she observed it to be true. I kind of like that Doggett's more of a regular joe, "good police work" character who is skeptical of the validity of things that happen in the X-Files because he's just sort of stubborn, rather than the more contrived and somewhat silly earlier examples of Scully trying to deny the existence of aliens "because science!" or whatever.

Also, season 7 pretty much sucked, so it's kind of refreshing to leave most of the mytharc stuff behind (no more CSM, no more syndicate, etc.) and sort of get back to the show's roots. It also helps that the writing and episodes are stronger in season 8 than in season 7, so far anyway. They also play the Mulder card really well; his brief appearances make for really effective nostalgia that helps to render the lameness of season 7 unimportant. It does, however, highlight that his charisma and charm is sorely missed.

All in all I'd say anyone who stuck through season 7 and still found things to like will likely still enjoy season 8, despite Mulder's relative absence.
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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 1:35 pm 
 

I stopped in season 5, hmm.
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iamntbatman
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 1:42 pm 
 

Season 6 is still pretty good, and the mytharc stuff that happens right in the middle of the season serves as sort of an effective closure on the more interesting parts of the main plot. The back half of S6 starts to drag though, and S7 has very few highlights.
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Diamhea
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 1:56 pm 
 

iamntbatman wrote:
Season 6 is still pretty good, and the mytharc stuff that happens right in the middle of the season serves as sort of an effective closure on the more interesting parts of the main plot. The back half of S6 starts to drag though, and S7 has very few highlights.


*Clears throat* (minor spoilers but nothing you can't handle iamntbatman)

Spoiler: show
I definitely agree that Season 6 is solid, but sort of trails a bit near the end. The production values were probably at their highest by this point, and the migration to California instead of Vancouver (Love the misty forests, but gets old) opened up a few new avenues for filming. In a way, Season 6 sort of portends some of the pitfalls that would later doom Season 7, with some really bizarre departures that aren't entertaining like some of the earlier ones were ("Humbug," "War of the Coprophages"). To me some of the shows best moments are in season 6, as they finally stop teasing regarding the main mytharc and finally deliver ("2 Fathers, 1 Son, dissolusion of the syndicate, etc.) Whenever I run through the show I almost always skip Season 7, I just can't handle how fucking stupid it is. One time I was approached by a friend who wanted to get into the show, and the first season he checked out was 7, I felt bad for him. So many stupid humor episodes, not enough atmosphere, and "Fight Club" is probably the worst X-Files episode of all time. It's cool that they go back to Bellefleur for the finale to tie it in with the series pilot, but otherwise it's a real slog.

That said, I've always found Season 8 to be a decent return to form. Some people say that without Mulder the show is doomed, but to be fair he is around for a good bit. Lots of cool monsters, and "The Gift" and "Roadrunners" make ill to my stomach to this day. So it's not bad at all. I won't comment on 9 since you aren't there yet. My favorite season is Season 2, just so you know :P enjoy.
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darkeningday
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 4:42 pm 
 

I'd say the best thing about House of Cards is how it brings to light the masterful BBC series from the early 90's.

That said, the remake is inferior to the original in most every way. The fourth wall breaking is incredibly tired, twee and done to death, and even at its best the show just feels like a second-string Sorkin project.

Just another sub-par American remake of a groundbreaking British series with three times the budget and one fifth the talent. Yawn.
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Wilytank
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 9:07 pm 
 

So how about that Walking Dead season 4 finale?
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