u/KrispyKingTheProphet

I rewatched the series recently and this totally went by me because there’s so much fuckery to keep track of, you can’t keep track of it all, but this is such an absolutely insane thing to try to claim happened.

Maegor, Aegon’s son, tried to do this sort of thing and had (what would seem like) a semi valid reason at the time: he was unable to produce heirs and thought it his wife’s fault (that didn’t end up being true. Maegor was impotent, probably from his “father,” but that’s a theory (with a lot of evidence) for another time.) How did that turn out? He was banished to Essos, came back, stole the throne, declared war of the Faith, and burned half the continent and still lost. Maegor wasn’t even an heir to the throne and he was Aegon’s son. So this was right after the exceptions for Targaryens were made.

By Rhaegar’s time? Valyrian faith and customs are virtually gone. They’re fully vested in the Faith, Rhaegar was the crown prince, AND had legitimate heirs… but apparently he just ran away with Lyanna (who everyone thought he kidnapped) and one single Septom officially annulled his first marriage because… he had visions of the future? Just fuck on. The Faith notoriously do not belief in the Targaryen fuckery and wanted their customs gone. Marriage annulment needs an extremely compelling reason and even then, it basically never happens, let alone to the crown prince with heirs. It’s not something one rogue Septom can do either. That would be brought to the entire Faith to discuss before having any kind of ruling (which would’ve been “fuck off, Rhaegar. We’re not officiating this.”)

It’s crazy that this is just randomly slipped in from Sam, from a random book a nearly literate woman read, and EVERYONE just accepts this as fact. Not to mention, this completely re-contextualizes the war. Rhaegar was a fucking moron for not coming out with the truth and more quickly deposing his father, but while the whole, stupid “Robert’s Rebellion was built on a lie, they were in love” line is beyond stupid. Aerys was sparking that war for years and it started because he unjustly murdered Brandon, Rickard, and the other lords then called for Jon Arryn to execute Ned and Robert, but if Rhaegar came out with this and parlayed with the rebels, agreeing to help depose his father, it probably wouldn’t have happened. Robert would be absolutely pissed, but he alone isn’t enough to pull off the rebellion. Ned would absolutely reconsider if he knew the truth and Jon Arryn’s a little mysterious, he was clearly ambitious, but the Mad King gave them the perfect rallying cry to rebel and Rhaegar fueled it. The rebels would’ve lost, for sure, if Stannis didn’t hold out as long as he did, but Ned wouldn’t relay a lie to rally the Northerners, he’d be honest, and without the North, they don’t succeed. There might still be a rebellion to remove Aerys, but Rhaegar would not be roped into it and just logically, deposing one very disliked king is much easier than removing an entire near 300 year monarchy when the crown prince was beloved and notoriously reasonable, and he’d take the throne.

Why even bother with it either? We literally just an entire plot line about how no one cares that he’s a bastard and elected him King in the North anyway. Jon never made a claim for the Iron Throne personally either way AND the Targaryens were deposed. Legitimate or illegitimate son of Rhaegar, Jon’s claim is basically the same and rests of rule of conquest. At that point, there already is a VERY CLEAR legal heir: Gendry. Even without Dany legitimizing him, he is the legal heir but it’s not even mentioned. The depth of Gendry’s station ends with “I don’t know how to be a lord. I don’t even know how to use a fork” (fucking blacksmith doesn’t understand forks???)

Just insane that they slid that in there like it was no big deal.

It wasn’t until a rewatch that this felt intentional, but it really feels like Logan never fully recovers from his stroke. The kids talk about him being “off his nut” often, but that could just be because they oppose him. What’s interesting is how much the old guard actually talks about this too. Frank talks about it a few times and not only when he’s opposed to Logan. Karl also agrees with this (I think twice) and Gerri, maybe the most competent person around along with Karolina and Stewey, also agree with this.

On top of that, Logan’s pretty damn erratic and reckless throughout the entire series. Having no contingency in place for him being incapacitated/the 4 bil debt (could just him being a narcissist,) buying a bunch of local cable tv networks which make no financial sense just to spite Kendall, signing away hit board seat/vote to Marcia upon his death, going straight up piss mad, the entire handling of the Josh situation, many aspects of the cruise situation, trying to fire Gerri and then following through with it despite being chief legal council AND a repeated sexual harassment victim of her son (and doing this during the cruise scandal, AND Gerri actually being good at her job and loyal,) among quite a few other things.

I do think it’s very possible that Logan never mentally recovered from the stroke. What are your thoughts?

Lyle Thompson is in the game and a bit of the source material, not too much but enough to know he’s the real deal. We know he reported on wars, wrote honest and scathing pieces on Arasaka, which likely led to his wife being killed, and he’s been on an anti-megacorp/expose the truth ever since.

Pondsmith confirmed he’s still around and in 2077, he wrote a truthful essay on the awful state for people in Night City, no major publication wanted to published it because it makes all their funding parties look bad. So he got an independent publisher to release it.

Guy’s actually pretty awesome and Johnny punching him was an understandable outburst, but a dick move. The guy was recording because he too wanted to expose all of Arasaka’s evil atrocities and he was taking evidence. He wasn’t some vulture out to sell the footage to a high bidder.

My take? Why does everyone seem to need to upscale one at the sake of the other when they both upscale each other in that fight.

Whichever side you’re own, most people use their fight to glaze one and put the other down. It’s an upscale for both.

Kashimo achieved an insane level of power with nothing but a CE trait and CE manipulation. That CE trait didn’t even affect Hakari and Kashimo still put up a hell of a fight against him. That CE trait would trump almost anyone else. He lost, but his only real trump card Hakari was immune to and he only has a one time use CE. He was still firing off limbs of one of two students Gojo said WILL surpass him and he considers the strongest. He had him nearly dead once. All while basically countered.

People still think base Hakari is weak and only is good while under Jackpot. Base Hakari is very fucking strong and Jackpot does what it says: makes him virtually immortal. People seem to think Jackpot only gives auto RCT. No. It’s infinitely overflowing CE. That’s reinforcement, power behind strikes, speed, manipulation, everything, all automatically buffed to the moon. He was virtually immune to Kashimo’s CE trait not because he was special, it was because his reinforcement is absurd with Jackpot. He was beating the breaks off Kashimo under Jackpot because it’s like 11/10 to all stats. Hakari is canonically lucky, Gege lists that as a skill. It’s not a matter of CAN he get Jackpot, it’s WHEN will he get Jackpot. Hakari also puts himself in danger, loses limbs, and takes damage because it creates openings for him no other sorcerer can get. If he winds up a punch, you blow his arm off, you think that punch isn’t happening, but his RCT is notably better than even Gojo and Sukuna. He’s making you think that punch isn’t happening, but his arm will be fully regenerated by the time it connects. He takes risks and fights dangerous because it fits his kit and works for him. Outside of Jackpot too, his domain is absolutely nasty. He can open it over and over without any burnout of it: no other sorcerer can. You’re forced to play the game in the domain, making it hard to fight him during it, he gets the natural 120% boost from being in his domain, and right when Jackpot runs out, he can open it again. Hakari’s domain is also the only domain (outside open domains) that Gege remarks as exceptional for clashing. Non lethal domains are automatically better at it, and his is noted to be spectacularly good at it even among non lethal domains. He can activate it faster than anyone: Gojo, Sukuna, and Kenjaku included. He can move its coordinates, it’s extremely refined. He probably wins a clash against any non open domains and maybe Gojo.

Both are top tier and honestly, I think if Hakari and Yuta switched places, Hakari could handle Sendai, Uro being the only problem, really inconvenience. He can just win a clash, get her on burnout, then pummel her. Yuta against Kashimo? Idk. He doesn’t have Sky Manipulation/Thin Ice Breaker or Jacob’s Ladder at this point and Kashimo, while not having a domain, almost definitely deals a lot more damage than Yuta and is faster.

Both are beasts and you don’t need to pick Kashimo or Hakari. They both upscaled each other.

I always grab the Hoon early. It’s a great car even into late game. It’s heavy, four wheel drive, great for driving through the badlands and fast too. With all the badlands gigs, jobs, cyberpsychos I drive off road to get there quicker. Half the time it works, half the time I’m hit with this multi kilometer long wall of garbage that cannot be driven over. It doesn’t even appear of the map. So you can’t identify gaps or the ends.

It’s infuriating and unnecessary. These are the badlands, the desert, and purposefully, long distances between anyway. Your instinct is to take an off road suited vehicle to drive through it, but nope. Great Wall of fucking Garbage there to stop you all over lol.

Not a big deal and I’m just venting frustration but man, why the fuck did they include these? lol. They’re not even edge of map barriers, just a pointless nuisance.

Goro Takemura is fun. His dad energy texts and photos, his complete inability to read sarcasm and the personification of the comedy “straight man” taken to extreme, being very polite but also extremely rude while constantly calling everyone else rude, and even though he saved V to save his own hide and get justice for his master’s death, I do think he grew to genuinely care about V a bit (especially if you spare Oda and save Goro’s life during the parade. He starts thinking of you more “honorably” and speaks more like a peer he respects.)

Nonetheless, Goro Takemura is thoroughly a bad, bad man. He is Saburo Arasaka’s personal bodyguard the way he describes it, the kind of guy where if Saburo wanted something, Goro made sure it happened. He genuinely supports Arasaka, Saburo personally, and all of the MANY massacring, soul killing, slave laboring, pretty much every crime against humanity, Goro Takemura was right next to Saburo who chose all of it, and supported him every step of the way and facilitated whatever he could help with. He believes in Saburo Arasaka so much, he is on board with soul killing Yorinobu to make Saburo effectively immortal, he does what he does out of (seemingly) pure loyalty to that monster, and is there to support Hanako and Arasaka fucking V over in the Devil ending, the broken soul killing of Jackie potentially, all of the fucked up things Arasaka and Saburo personally do, he not only supports them, but he’s a true believer. There’s almost more nobility in Adam Smasher, weirdly. He likes to kill, he’s there because he’s paid well and gets to kill, no allusions of honor or true belief. Goro does all this shit because he believes in it.

And yes, Goro Takemura was conditioned for this. Saburo hand picked him because of his proven loyalty and belief in the Arasaka cause (aka a sucker, easy to exploit,) raised him out of obscurity and poverty to unbelievable status, gave him what would be viewed as the most honorable position, and I’m sure Saburo exploited that loyalty and true belief to shape him into the perfect un-questioning believer.

BUT Saburo dies, Yorinobu turns on Goro, Goro becomes a fugitive, and he’s forced to live life as most of NC has to. In dialogue, he’ll even acknowledge how unaware he was of what it’s like for the majority of people, he (can) have his life saved by V and make a true friend, he’s broken from the programming, but what does he do? Ceases everything opportunity to get back to Hanako, clear his name, and avenge Saburo, and he jumps back into Arasaka’s arms in every possible ending where he lives, or is trying to (we’re not sure if he’s back in during the ending voicemails where he threatens you, but he’s clearly a full on believer.)

Goro Takemura doesn’t even get the benefit of “he was just following orders” excuse. He LIKED his station and what he was doing. When robbed of it and forced to live like the rest of NC, he doesn’t have any moment of “wow, Arasaka is evil and ruining so many lives. I should rethink my situation and goals.” NOPE, right back into their arms and he saw the other side and had a chance to get out of their grip. In WW2, there were genuine believers that weren’t high in command, but most surrendered when it was over, pleaded they were just following orders, and many of them had the offer of “join the military or we kill you and your family” (my family’s German, came from Germany, and my grandmother says this was very common and how her brother ended up in the German military. He was executed for helping Jewish citizens and my family out of the country and getting caught. I’m very proud of that and I exist because of him. Anyway.) Goro didn’t have these circumstances. He wasn’t forced to join (although if Saburo asks you to be his personal bodyguard and you say no… things probably won’t go well.) He got out, he did not reconsider what he was doing and the monster he was supporting, he leapt right back into Arasaka’s arms, and he is a genuine believer in all of the Saburo Arasaka executive decisions (which include, like, a TON of absolutely horrific crimes against humanity. Sometimes without any real point.)

He is a fun character, he’s funny and seems decent with V, but he’s a monster. A succession quote from Frank sums it up very well. I’m paraphrasing a little because remember the exact wording, but it’s just “we are what we do, Logan. That’s it. Our choices define who we are, that’s it.”

Goro might think there’s nobility in what he does, he might have excuses, he might be indoctrinated, but he’s too smart and too exposed to the other side of Arasaka’s boot now to get a pass for his choices. His choices facilitate one of the most evil men on the planet to live forever and continue committing atrocities, which Goro will help carry out. His choices and actions are evil and facilitate evil. Hanako may be the “Devil” in the ending where we, basically, sell our soul to the devil, but Takemura is the one who makes the introduction, vouches for them, and convinces us to side with the devil in this ending (if he’s alive. Even if he’s not, his actions make us sympathy a bit and think “maybe Arasaka has a different side to this story…” if you’re a corp-loving, dumbass sucker that is.) He’s a very bad man and he is undyingly loyal to this world’s devil who, if you read his in game data pad if you klep it from his helicopter during the heist, was considering dropping nuclear bombs on NC for the lols on his way to his meet with Yorinobu. Vile.

Not even getting into the “is Yorinobu actually a hero?” side of theorizing. He’s not a hero, but he did want to depose his father and at least attempt to take down megacorps in general from the inside. He isn’t lying either. His dying words are “if bomb doesn’t work… become bomb.” At the least, Takemura should’ve considered supporting Yorinobu after becoming privy to everything. And no, Goro Takemura’s sense of “honor” doesn’t excuse any of it. He isn’t honorable at all. He facilitates and supports a genocidal maniac who wants to live forever and mused over nuking a city to pieces during his ride to Yorinobu. Maniac.

I have no evidence to support this aside from Jack Quaid voicing Atreus the spartan that Atreus/Loki is named after in the most recent God of War project along with him voicing the cube in Laufey.

Points against? Many. Mainly, Atreus of Sparta was not a god thus shouldn’t be in the Everywen. He also wasn’t a cube in Son of Sparta.

Points for? The narrative angle. Laufey meeting the man or some form of the man her son is named after opens many interesting possibilities narratively. Also, even though the Everywen is the afterlife for the gods, there appear to be many non-gods there. Begtse and Sekhmet have loads of goons. That boy Laufey frees from the cage doesn’t appear godly. As far as we know, Laufey isn’t a god. Then there’s the sword and its ribbon’s sentience and the cube itself. I think the Everywen is going to be more complicated than just only a god afterlife, for narrative reasons and gameplay reasons. You need mobs to fight, side characters, sentient ribbons and cubes. They can’t all be gods.

Idk probably not, but hiring Jack Quaid to VA two important roles in back to back GoW projects is interesting, especially because one is the namesake of Laufey’s son and the other is going to be a companion of Laufey/Faye.

Is there an incest quota that needs to be met? Where tf did Aemond wanting to make out with his mother come from??? Jesus.

I don’t have a lot of information on how much presidential election campaigns cost aside from knowing it’s, well, a fucking lot.

We know Conor’s employed a team of “real, serious” people as Shiv says and she’d know. I believe that was back in season 2 as well. So at least a year of full staff.

Conor also asks Logan to float him a “cool 100 mil” which is… insanity. He must be hemorrhaging cash to need more from Logan (I know he’s financing Willa’s play at the same time, but financing a play can’t cost THAT much, right? As far as performance based entertainment goes, a theater’s gotta be one of the cheaper routes.)

It’s hard to gauge exactly what the siblings are worth. It’s hard to gauge what Waystar is worth, but we can kind of piece it together. Josh owns 2% at $400 million he says, which makes Waystar worth about $20 billion, which seems fair. I think they started out higher and gained a bump after the Living Plus nonsense and the GoJo deal hype, but the company seems to be between $20 and $30 billion throughout the show.

Kendall wants to be bought out at $2 billion, along with a “chunky asset” which has to have a decent bit of value, and some staff. We also know the siblings are each, individually, billionaires. Now that likely isn’t fully liquid, it’s probably a net worth leveraged against their stock ownership, yadda yadda, but they are billionaires.

Conor seems to be going broke by season 3’s end episode boat scene when he asks for money. He also seems very eager to get the GoJo deal done as fast as possible and the other siblings call him out on this because he’s just desperate to get the money fast.

Again, idk political elections. I know they’re very expensive… but are they THAT expensive? Is it possible Conor sank over a billion dollars into that campaign to get only 1% of the vote? Someone smarter than me please explain it, because that seems absolutely insane, even for a self funded presidential campaign.

I guess it’s also popular that Conor isn’t as wealthy as the other kids. Now, I doubt that. I did take business classes for my major and got the basics of some big boy moves that Logan does: diversifying your stock between children, siblings, etc. is a relatively common move to avoid concerns over too much control and even potentially illegality. So I feel like he’d give each kid an equal share (I honestly could see him giving Conor a bigger share. Conor is the safest bet for Logan. He is completely removed from the company and will do whatever Logan wants. He’s not on the board, but he’s still a huge shareholder.) Anyway, yeah. I guess it’s possible that Conor is just not as rich as the others, but I doubt it.

Is it even possible to spend and lose BILLIONS in a presidential race? Especially to receive such little result? Like Conor doesn’t seem to be buying up any ad time, he’s never doing the circuit, speaking at events, debating, it feels like the money isn’t even going anywhere other than staff. And yes, they may be “real, serious people” but not pay a billion a year serious.

Is this similar to real life costs? And if so (or also, if not) where did Conor spend all this money? It really feels like he didn’t do any of the things candidates do with the money they have while running, mainly advertising, doing the national circuit, etc. He’s always just chillin’, doing nothing.

Roman’s always been morally bankrupt, but ya know, as I’m sure many of you have also felt, you almost start to at least enjoy him because he’s funny and he knows he’s morally bankrupt. Unlike Shiv, Ken, Ewan, Logan to a degree, all of Waystar C-Suite, all of Pierce, hell, basically everyone rides some kind of high horse, but not Roman. He knows what he is and you almost respect him for it.

Then in season 2, he gets kidnapped and I honestly think getting kidnapped and held hostage by a hostile terrorist cell was good for him. He seemed to mature a bit from that point forward and he does have good instincts. Outside of the stray dick pic, he chills out a lot too.

Then there’s fucking Mencken. I didn’t realize it until this rewatch because honestly, the dialogue is amazing in this show but sometimes it’s so layered, witty, and just worded so uniquely it can almost feel like they’re speaking a different language at times. I didn’t fully catch what Mencken was saying to Roman in Logan’s bathroom until this rewatch (and I still might’ve missed a bit) but Jesus Christ, that man is terrifying. Mencken is flat out erratic and unstable with how much he bounces between being on topic to completely off topic, along with bouncing from topic to topic multiple times per sentence. The stuff he actually says is wild though. Like racism and classism, that isn’t even really veiled. He says he’s “not saying we build work camps” (paraphrasing) but he also is kind of saying it’s not a terrible idea in the same breath? He talks about how he’ll grab quotes and insight from anyone, and is willing to hear anyone on if they have something good to say, including the big “H” (fucking Hitler,) and his whole conversation with Roman is basically just him saying “I am an unhinged, erratic class, view, and race divisionist stick of dynamite who will take a page out anyone’s book, including Hitler” and Roman just hears it all and goes “dad, please take this match to set this insane stick of dynamite off.”

Like the show treats the early calling of the election as this moment of moral rock bottom, and it’s bad. Even presidential votes have gone to the wire and an early calling tells many potential voters to not even bother, but Roman loads the gun that is Mencken and gets it points at the country. It was for petty reasons, but Logan was already writing him off for his “fuck ATN” little moment. Roman’s responsible for him being the chosen candidate.

I’m currently at the spot where he fires Joy, the Hollywood Studio Manager (Producer? Idk what she is, but she clearly runs their whole entertainment in Hollywood industry) and Roman is absolutely unhinged with her, way worse than I remember. He opens up with some slight insults and asks who he can fire/blame over a movie that under-performed. He then tells Joy he’s ready to throw money at the studio if they’re prepared to crank out hits. She says absolutely, is entirely agreeable, and even comforting to Roman who’s clearly feeling insecure. Then she brings up a TOTALLY REASONABLE concern, California and Hollywood being heavily democrat and liberal, about ATN pushing Mencken so hard it’s beyond heavy handed and basically propaganda. She works this far more diplomatically as well. Roman brushes her off, jokes condescendingly, then just fucking fires her. The head of their entertainment TV and movie industry, he just lets her go out of nowhere.

I know he fires Gerri soon after this (wise fucking move to fire your company’s chief legal council that you’ve sent a mountain of dick pics to) and I remember that being bad, but now I’m sure it’s going to be much worse than I remember.

This fucker really lost his mind the second he got some power lol.

I’ll go first: Fire Bending (though if I could be granted any element today in real life, I’d go water.) By Legend of Korra, Lightning Bending is so common that Mako works a 9-5 with a bunch of other Lightning Benders powering a plant, and we see many factories and plants all over the city.

Unlike the movie that shall not be named, main series Fire Benders don’t need a fire source and can generate it themselves. The same goes for lightning, which is just electricity. Lightning-Benders are creating and controlling extremely large amounts of electricity (compared to what I’m going to cite) and it’s a common thing by LoK. It seems pretty accessible to learn and in this hypothetical, you’re a masterfully talented bender at your choice element.

So my idea would be Lightning-Bending, but instead of generating a bolt of lightning to hurl at an enemy, I’m just targeting the electricity generated by a human brain. A human brain runs on electricity and generates 15-25 Watts. Water and Earth are the only elements that seem to require a source, but we know all Bending appears to be stronger when you have a source to work with, or natural elements that lend towards your Bending (like Water-Benders are stronger with a full moon and while near large bodies of water. Fire-Benders are more powerful when they have a rising sun and Sozin’s Comet, which is a super powerful source.)

The electricity is already there, in every human being’s brain and it is a MUCH smaller amount than what Lightning-Benders can produce and manipulate out of thin air.

Blood-Bending is considered the most terrifying form of Bending. Zaheer suffocating the Earth Queen is terrifying, but Lightning-Benders? They should be able to just fry anyone’s brain off the rip. It’s just doing what they can already do except they have an existing source to make it easier and a much smaller amount they need to manipulate. They’d only need to manipulate it for a second to end someone too.

Anyway, that’s mine. What creative ways do you think you could explore bending an element that the series’ and comics haven’t shown?

Not better than Logan, not even exceptionally or anything. Just competent enough to keep it afloat. In this hypothetical, they are in sync and willing to work together in whatever way best serves the company.

Let’s also say they get a merger of equals with Mattson. Or fuck it, they buy Gojo and remain the controlling party in this hypothetical.

Do you see any way the siblings could take over and it actually work out well enough to NOT sink the ship?

Idk if that’s possible, like Shiv basically says to Logan at the end of season 3: they only have a shot at climbing the ladder because daddy’s CEO. With Mattson, they’re nothing.

A shape that could maybe work though?

Kendall: Kendall is capable of competently doing the job. He’s shown that. He’s capable of doing the work, he has an eye for modernizing the company, and he does have the killer instinct when he’s not suppressed by Logan. His real problems are his addiction and wild mood swinging from (probably) being an un-diagnosed bi-polar (he reallllyyy seems like he is and has the symptoms.) There’s the question of if he’s even capable of being mentally healthy, or even mentally functional, doing the job, but if he could tackle those issues and keep it together, he could be competent enough to at least do an average job, maybe. He’s also a bit flimsy in negotiation at times and doesn’t always have the spine he needs. Having his siblings actually supporting him, keeping him clean, and keeping him on track, his flaws might get serious mitigated.

Roman: maybe that’s where Roman comes in. Roman is honestly pretty damn useless. During the episodes where him and Kendall go to Vaulter to find the profit centers before shutting it down, Roman is baffled at Ken’s ability to just sit down and do a day’s work, like he’s witnessing a Martian landing on Earth. He’s a walking HR violation and we see in season 4 especially, power goes to his head fast. Roman does have good instincts though, the show tells us this and it does seem true. His intuition when it comes to deals and big shit in general is usually spot on, but he hasn’t developed enough self confidence because of Logan to go with his gut over constantly just folding to what Logan asks. Roman is also a very good “corporate bro” (as we call them in my industry.) Basically like an account exec/manager, relations, whatever. He is very good at winning people over who should despise him. Lawrence, the Vaulter employees, private equity, Mencken. He’s very good at just being a guy corporate allies just like chatting with and hanging out around, which for better or for worse, is a valuable career skill that can take you very far. He also doesn’t bend like Ken with negotiations, he’s pretty firm, or flip flop nearly as much as Ken, or Shiv. With the siblings there to check his power and rein him in, he could be good. Gerri was probably right about that.

Shiv? PR. I know it’s ego, but it’s crazy she didn’t just shoot for this in the company anyway. Shiv is the only sibling who actually went out trying to “build her own pile” and we don’t see it, but she must’ve actually been decently good at political PR. She’s the daughter of the man who owns the right wing media empire in the country and successfully got her first candidate (can’t remember the name, but her husband tweeted pictures of his ass, if that reminds anyone) and then Gil. Both left leaning, democrats. Even just the word of having Shiv on their team given her father would upset their base and party. So she must’ve added enough value to offset that. She might be the smartest sibling and she does have a good much for PR. Shiv’s also their best bet at appealing to a newer audience and adapting as we know Waystar’s base is “old men, big veins, fat wallets” which is not sustainable long term. She could either help them pivot to more centrist OR take some of Roman’s ideas (which he never articulates well, but actually work as we’ve seen in the real world,) particularly giving “morsels.” We’ve seen that young Gen Z and now Gen Alpha are surprisingly flocking in large numbers to right wing politics. Not surprising because there are right and wrong answers in politics, people just assume under 25, especially college age and younger, will mostly lean left. You see it on TikTok, YouTube, etc. though. Short form content, attractive women delivering it, right wing but not radical, those kind of approaches work and Roman seems to have understood that. Shiv can guide away from the potential radicalism and Roman has a finger on the pulse of younger society. Shiv’s ego needs reigning in, but the siblings can help with that by simply stroking it and reminding her PR and all that is just as important as what they’re doing. They could even invent a C-Suite, C( )O title for her.

Conor? The Conheads rise up soon, overthrow Mencken, Conor wins by the first 100% in favor presidential vote in history, and they have a Roy sibling in the Oval Office. Easy. That’s probably going to happen after the series end anyway.

That might actually work, but idk. They’re still slightly above average at their absolute best moments. They’d never get close to the crown without nepotism, but COULD they at least keep things floating if they all worked together and played to strengths? Maybe. That’s how I see it potentially working.

What are your thoughts?

On a rewatch, I’m realizing how absolutely obnoxious, delusional, and power hungry Kerry gets. This is just one instance of Kerry trying to condescend and lord over Greg. She does it to the siblings.

She’s stupid for thinking Logan would marry her like she rambles about while leaving Logan’s apartment and Marcia’s request. It’s easy to feel bad for her in that moment and during the funeral, but she has been obnoxious as fuck, she even introduces herself as Logan’s “friend, assistant, and advisor.” She is Logan’s assistant that he’s nailing, nothing more, and the power goes straight to her head. Logan’s clearly losing his marbles throughout the show, but Kerry is so much more obnoxious than I remembered. She has no real position, her only leverage is her appeal to Logan physically until it gets bored, and she walks around like she’s on the board. She’s pretty insufferable honestly and really, wtf was she doing showing up to a wake at his apartment hoping to be alone in his room as his mistress with his (still) wife in her home?

I’m on the last episode. So my constant posts will be ending soon, thanks to all who engaged. In the words of Bubs: much obliged.

When I first watched the show, I admittedly was not as interested in the Carcetti storyline and I didn’t clock all he was doing as much. I got the general gist of idealist turned realist turned the same, even worse than what was before, but I was so focused on the police side, McNulty’s “serial killer,” the journalism (which is an under-rated plot line for real. I’ve seen people call season 5 weak and cite the journalism arc as a primary reason often in reviews I scanned, but it’s great,) and of course, Marlo and his lot. I lost track of the details of Carcetti’s doings, but you know how that go. Like pigeons in a storm.

Anyway, what a fucking snake. The whole show does a great job of illustrating that corruption and bureaucracy infect all institutions, but he’s the one character I think you can cite as the source for the most problems.

Norman was sooooo right when he got pissed at Carcetti for not just taking the money for the schools and his only reasoning was that it’d potentially hurt his shot at governor.

I forgot how fucked everything is because of that decision alone. The schools? We don’t see or hear as much in season 5 but we know they’re still fucked. Marlo? Legitimately, Lester would’ve had him, easily too, if Carcetti didn’t obliterate the police budget (he was still using burners and dumping them every two weeks while Lester was on him. Stringer and Avon’s crew were using pagers and payphones. Then burners for only a day and they caught them.) Not only did the vacant murders go unsolved, but many more murders were going unsolved because of his cuts. Crutchfield’s double, I think it was, that would’ve gone unsolved. Kima’s triple. Idek if they give his name, but the new guy, black guy McNulty calls “rookie” when they’re checking out a potential “serial killer” victim. His (I think) single home invasion murder goes unsolved. Bunk PROBABLY would’ve gotten Chris, but that lab work was going to take weeks, months, and the serial killer lie got that expedited. There’s another homicide, I can’t think of the detective. I think the vacants were 25-26 bodies? Crutchfield had a double, Kima had a triple, we’ll call him Rookie had a single. Chris’s kill might’ve gone unsolved. Whatever that other guy’s homicide. That’s just who we’re directly told. That’s 32-33 right there. All the bodies Marlo’s crew continued to drop are on him too, which we see, I think, 5 of and are told there are more. Almost 40 murders, at least, because he wanted to protect his career options.

And like Norman said: by not taking the money, they’re doing severe budget cuts across everything, they raise taxes, and the crime and murder rates jump double digits. He loses his credibility as a governor candidate anyway because of what an awful state the city’s in during his first year because he didn’t take the money.

Not excusing McNulty and Lester’s actions, per se, but needing to manufacture a serial killer for the basic resources to solve actual murders is a direct result of his bullshit.

Crazy thing is after all this and the state the city is in because he was too prideful to take the money, he STILL continues to make idiot choices for a shot at governor and has zero accountability. He turns down FBI aid, in huge force, because it gives the FBI captain or whoever the ability to let his republican gold buddy the ability to hold that over Carcetti. Which like, aren’t you a politician? These aren’t hard things to swing. “We took financial aid from those willing to give it because I promised I’d help the schools and crack down on crime in a meaningful, serious way. I’m not too proud to reject aid that’ll help fix the city I represent and love.” Some shit like that. He’ll get thrashed by the opposition for how the city’s running anyway. I know from my local government, my governor specifically (Gretchen Whitmer. Who, not making this post as a political debate and I vote and judge based on issues and have voted left and right, is doing a good, sometimes great job. If her and the mayor of Ann Arbor got a bunch of funding to help fix actual issues and used it for that, that secures my vote for wherever she runs next. Idc if a republican or whoever gave the funding, I care how it’s used and most voters do as well; I hope at least.)

Carcetti also has zero accountability. Not an ounce of “I ran primarily on the platform of fixing the crime problem. I gave my word to the department and Daniels, a man equipped to do it with proper resources, that he’d have them. I promised him and the police department a “new day” and immediately fucked them over worse than Royce ever did because of my pride and the CHANCE that it could hurt my governor bid. Maybe this is on me.” No. He wants to sink McNulty and any detective involved, he wants Rawls (and really) Daniels to shoulder all the blame, along with potential jail time, and anyone else he can throw under to possibly shield himself from blame. The only reason he back pedals, even a little, is because the consequences could blowback on him.

This is more of a rant, but Carcetti is one burdensome (fella) mothafucker. I’d pop a cap in his ass myself and wouldn’t even have to hear about it over Thanksgiving dinner. God damn, not even a full season with this fuck as mayor and I wish I fictionally voted for Royce. I wish Clay Davis shook him down harder and I actually am kind of pro Clay Davis now for shaking down all these politicians.

At least I’ve come to find Norman to be a new favorite character. He’s great, he actually calls Carcetti on his bullshit pretty often but still does his job, and he’s right very often but Carcetti still pulls his bullshit.

There’s a running that Norman maybe didn’t actually vote for Carcetti is season 4 and you know what? Wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t. Carcetti didn’t even wait a year to fuck the city further. He just went straight for being as bad a mayor as he could.

P.S. I don’t want to hear any Carcetti apologists. I don’t want to hear about the system being rigged, any of it! He’s a fuck!

Asking on a lot of questions on here during my first rewatch. Don’t mind me.

I just got to Marlo and Chris killing Joe. When I first watched, I fully interpreted it as Marlo gloating and being sadistic, especially now that he’s fully getting the crown, but on a rewatch, I’m not as sure.

“Close your eyes, Joe. Relax. Breathe easy, it won’t hurt none.” and, even though they’re beyond the vacants at this point, he let Joe die in his home and didn’t despose of the body. He did let Joe die with some dignity and left him in his home. So his body could be found and buried, which is not his style at all, with anyone.

I think there is definitely some reveling going on. Marlo always wanted the crown and this was the last obstacle, but maybe he did have some sort of appreciation for all Joe taught him and I know he “wasn’t meant to play the son” but Joe was very good to him.

Joe was an absolute moron for trusting Cheese and introducing Marlo to Vandos. Absolutely just a matter of time, but on a rewatch, I do kind of get the impression that Marlo’s killing of Joe wasn’t like the rest.

There are no one dimensional, fully black or white, characters in the series, but… Marlo “Black” is about as close to a purely morally black character as it gets. He’s a full on psychopath and I don’t think he’s even capable of real empathy, but it does kind of feel like there was at least a bit of respect for Joe and he gave him a more dignified death than anyone.

Anyone else think there was something like that there with Marlo? Or was the whole “close your eyes, breathe easy, relax, it won’t hurt none” just him savoring the moment fully? I kind of now think there was a mix of both.

“He shows us even if we say no, he will still come back.” So I guess, maybe, he sees Marlo as an inevitability. No matter what, Marlo wants the full crown and to get it, Joe has to go. Maybe they assume, that Marlo’s assumes, if he just kills Joe anyway, they’ll still have the incentive to benefit from their drug trade and then they’ll be forced to deal with him anyway. That’s the only way I can see it.

Even still… that’s a lot of if’s and a lot of risk, especially with the Greeks implied vast and extensive network. We know the drugs in Baltimore are just a small part of their business, we know their operate all over, and have connections as high up as FBI leadership. We don’t see much of it outside of season 2, but they give the impression that they could pop Marlo pretty easily and he wouldn’t see that coming. Call a meet at the cafe/restaurant, kill him, Chris, Snoop, Monk, the operation collapses and Joe remains their guy without opposition.

Joe’s with them for a long time. Joe’s dependable, quiet, buys for a dollar sells for two, and keeps a very low profile. Marlo is extremely volatile, no sense of diplomacy, and him getting busted is an inevitability with how sloppy and eager he is.

Even if they see Marlo as an opportunity, why not take care of him and remain with business as usual? They’d have to kill 3-4 people, but that’s never been an issue before and they’ve probably got dozens of men are hardcore as Sergei who could do it. Not too much risk here either. Even if they don’t get rid of the bodies, Marlo and his lieutenants dying would just be written off as gang retaliation.

Joe’s implied to have been working with them for at least a few years before even season 1 and he’s always been dependable and quiet. No need to learn new names, have their names learned, and everything remains steady. Why put up with Marlo?

I guess you could say it’s Westside pride and lingering Barksdale loyalty and that fits, might not need anymore motivation than that. At the same time, Slim has thrown in with Joe and Bodie and him go back to the Barksdale days. Bodie is prideful, but he’s not stupid either. He is in a completely fucked situation. He’s taking Joe’s package, he’s in Marlo’s territory, but he’s independent from both of them.

I get him talking to McNulty and I understand his emotional response to Little Kevin’s death and Marlo’s general homicidal mania, but before all that, specifically between the beginning of season 4 and Marlo threatening to have him take his package or step off (get killed,) why is he still independent? Feels like a man purposefully without a country in the middle of enemy territory.

Odin is phenomenally written as a pathological liar. I think a testament to that is how I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a person like him, I don’t understand why he lies a lot of the times, but he still feels like someone I could meet any day. His and Mimir’s about his loss of an eye and the mask are very interesting.

Hearing Mimir explain his lies is particularly interesting, especially regarding his eye. “Liars lie. They’ll lie about anything they can get away with and some things they can’t just to demonstrate their power over reality.” It’s just… fascinating.

On one hand, you have Mimir’s account of his eye and the mask, who I obviously trust way more: Odin got smoldered on magic mushrooms and gauged his eye out. Then (or before) got drunk, found a wooden mask, and convinced himself it was the answer to all his problems.

Odin’s account: as a young god he defeats Ymir, shapes the realms, and somewhere along the way finds the rift. Somewhere else along the way he finds the mask fragment and notices the magical connection. He tries to look in the rift himself, loses an eye, then makes it his life mission to complete the mask to look into the rift.

Odin is probably lying, but is he entirely? Atreus feels the same “truth” and “knowledge” in the rift. Atreus and us, we see that the mask is connected to the rift. Odin’s reaction to Atreus going to peak through the rift is… interesting too. Odin immediately stops him and has the eye story ready to go. He’s a world class liar, so maybe he did just have that excuse ready to go, but why stop Atreus from trying to look if he doesn’t know what happens? Odin also feels like a guy arrogant and eager enough to try looking through that rift at first. Is there maybe something to see in there that he doesn’t want Atreus to see? Maybe he thinks it’s possibly dangerous and doesn’t want to lose his translator? I just don’t know why Odin would assume that before finding the mask. Atreus is drawn to look into it and he might be a child, but his father is the living embodiment of restraint and discipline. I can’t imagine Odin stopping himself from the urge all this time.

So, Mimir is KIND OF incorrect. The mask IS magical, the rift IS something. It’s not just drunken ramblings, though Odin deciding it’s the answer to all his problems does sound right. I fully believe Mimir’s story about Odin losing his eye, but I also find it really hard to believe Odin NEVER tried looking into that rift at least once in his life and there’s a reason why he stopped Atreus from trying. Was he sincerely concerned for Atreus’s safety? Almost definitely not and if he was, it was just because Atreus was his only window to finish the mask, but still… pathological liar or not, he stopped Atreus for a reason. Looking into that rift has to have some consequence, right? Or maybe I’m just a fool who Odin could easily manipulate.

Where do you stand on what really happened with these accounts? What about the rift, the mask fragment, and Odin’s history with it?

Atreus talks to Ingrid and Thor talks to Mjlonir. Interestingly, Thor is also the only other her refers to Ingrid as it is has a gender and an identity. When you go off with Thor as Atreus, he’ll things like “it’s a good thing you brought the sword, SHE’S doing all the work” and other comments like that.

Everyone else seems to treat this as a pretty weird thing to do. Atreus asks Mimir why Thor talks to Mjlonir and he goes “ugh.. he’s still doing that?” Atreus asks if he’s charming the steel or something and Mimir says no, he’s just a “weird bloke” lol. Atreus can also ask Odin if Ingrid is the same of the soul inside the sword or something and he responds (paraphrasing a little) “soul… what? No. Bit of advice: don’t let anyone catch you talking to your sword. It’s a bad look.”

No other characters acknowledge their weapons as having an identity… except Freyr, who specifically had it forged to has it’s own personality and passions and had it charmed to him. When Freya tells this story, she still refers to Ingrid as a thing, not a she or sentient being. When Freyr gets Ingrid back, he doesn’t talk to it either. Now, it’s safe to assume Ingrid is very special to Freyr and vice versa, but we only see characters that we know have giant’s blood treat their weapons like sentient beings. I can’t remember if Angraboda ever interacts with Atreus while having Ingrid, but I don’t think so. Freyr might and probably does acknowledge Ingrid has a personality and passions, he made it that way, but we never see him treating it like a person.

Ingrid and Mjlonir behave very similarly too. The way Freyr takes off into the air with Ingrid is identical to the way Thor and then Thrud do with Mjlonir. I think Thor just has the power to move around like that as fast as lightning on his own. In the intro fight, he flings Kratos into the air with Mjlonir and then zips up to catch up with them. They’re similar though… I don’t think all weapons have “souls” but maybe some do and only giants can see it. Atreus’s whole journey through “Giant stuff” magic shows us they’re in tune with souls in a way no other race is. They can even catch them in marbles like Pokemon.

Idk. Kind of rambling here, but I don’t think Thor is actually a “weird bloke” like Mimir and Odin seem to think for talking to Mjlonir. I think, maybe, he doesn’t realize it but he’s more in touch with his Giant side than he realizes. He talks to Mjlonir, he treats Mjlonir like a friend, and he even takes offense at the prospect of anyone insulting Mjlonir. Mjlonir might be like Ingrid and with how lonely and miserable we see Thor is, Mjlonir might actually be his only real friend. It’s kind of sad to think about. We see how excited Atreus is to meet Ingrid and how well they get on. Now imagine your father is an abusive maniac who pushes you into committing atrocities, calling you a useless idiot the whole time, you’re depressed and lonely, and the only friend you can talk to is your hammer, and everyone thinks you’re just a creep for doing it.