How rich are the Levinsons?

We never really got an idea how rich the Levinsons are in the show.

They must be much richer than the Crawleys because merely Cora's dowry (which couldn't have been TOO substantial a part of the Levinson fortune, since it's unlikely that Cora's father would give away half or most of his fortune just to marry off his daughter) IS a substantial part of the Crawley Estate.

And then Mary and Violet have hope that Mrs. Levinson has so much money that she can quite easily bail out Downton again.

But then Harold seems to lose most of the fortune quite quickly in the stock market crash of 29 and a few bad investments, even though it's apparently all tied down in a trust as Mrs. Levinson claims to Violet?

But then Gus Sambrook must be fabulously weathly if he's managed to steal the Levinson fortune, which makes it strange that he's still trying to run his con.

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u/vivalasvegas2004 — 2 hours ago

AWE: Why does Jack give the compass to Will and send him to Davy Jones and Beckett?

This might be a dumb question, but I just watched AWE, and I couldn't figure out why Jack does this because it seems like he wants Davy Jones and Cutler Beckett to be led to Shipwreck Cove.

How does this fit into Jack's plan?

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u/vivalasvegas2004 — 13 hours ago
▲ 149 r/fnv

Obscure Mistake by the Developers

The quest "Talent Pool" involves you going out to find new acts for "The Aces" theatre at "The Tops" casino for the manager of the theatre, Tommy Torini. The only act Tommy has on already is "The Rad Pack" (a riff on the "Rat Pack" band which included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr).

In the game, if you talk to Tommy Torini, he will say; "Every night from eight till midnight, come on by to see the Rad Pack Revue live, only right here at the Aces Theatre!"

But this is a mistake from the developers, The Rad Pack doesn't actually perform at 8, they perform at 6 PM. To watch them perform, go to The Aces just before 6 PM in game time.

I made several confused attempts to see the Rad Pack perform at 8 PM in game time before I realised accidentally that they performed earlier. It would also be strange for them to perform continuously for four hours of in game time (8 minutes IRL), as it is, their performance only lasts about a minute IRL (30 minutes in game time).

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u/vivalasvegas2004 — 14 days ago

What's Going On?

I am not that up to date with what's going on with the project. I was briefly a patron and I played one of the earlier demos which I enjoyed but found pretty clunky to install and use.

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But it seems like it's been years and years now and the project doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I watched an update video where it seems like they've scrapped the whole Titanic model they built and have instead built a shipyard, which doesn't seem very interesting compared to the actual ship. The video wasn't very clear and no timelines were given. Who wanted this?

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Do they still plan to have a full sinking you can experience and NPCs on the boat? Are they rebuilding the whole project from scratch again? Doesn't seem likely the game will ever come out if that's the case.

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I looked at the comments underneath the video and it seems like everyone has turned against the dev team, I couldn't find a single positive comment.

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I am also hearing that there are other ocean liner games in development. Is it time to give up on H&G?

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u/vivalasvegas2004 — 17 days ago

Violet Crawley vs Constance Trentham

Given that both Lady Violet Crawley and Lady Constance Trentham were elderly Countesses in a show/film written by Juliam Fellowes and both were played by the late, great Dame Maggie Smith, I thought it would be interesting to compare these two characters.

Overall, Gosford Park is a much more cynical and gritty depiction of the British Upper Classes than Downton. Indeed it's hard to believe that both were made by the same man. Where the Crawley family is generally kind to their staff, compassionate and pleasant to be around, the aristocrats in Gosford Park are boorish, unpleasant, vapid and have been morally degraded by their wealth and comfort. The Lord of the House, William, feels up maids and is rude to pretty much everyone. His wife is screwing a valet. Everyone else is trying to leech money out of the Earl.

I think we can probably say that Godford Park is a more realistic depiction of the British upper classes.

But focusing on Violet and Constance is interesting, because both are superficially similar. They are both elderly Countesses with a sharp wit and great one liners. They even dress alike. But they are different in some subtle ways. Constance is rather vapid and ill-mannered. Violet can be pretty mean, but Constance is rude as a default Violet and Constance both have a sharp tongue, but Constance never uses it to say anything intelligent. Violet has a learned helplessness, but Constance is genuinely hapless and seems to know and understand very little outside idle gossip.

What do you think are some similarities and differences between Violet and Constance?

u/vivalasvegas2004 — 25 days ago

Would monarchs in the 18th/19th century just walk around the streets without guards?

I was reading an account of the assasination attempts against Emperor Alexander II of Russia, and one of them occurred in 1879 when the Emperor was walking, seemingly unaccompanied, to the Square of the Guards Staff when a radical attacked him with a revolver. The radical fired 5 times and the Emperor was forced to run in a zig zag fashion to evade the bullets. No guard seemed to have been on hand to intercede.

A similar attempt against the Empress Sisi of Austria was successful. She was walking with a single friend in Switzerland and was attacked and murdered by a madman in 1898.

Did monarchs just walk around the streets unaccompanied? Was this always true or did it emerge in the 19th century?

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u/vivalasvegas2004 — 2 months ago
▲ 12 r/sydney

Viewed from Camperdown towards the North-West/West.

Is it Macquarie Park or Chatswood?

u/vivalasvegas2004 — 2 months ago

Rewatching the sixth season I realised that Tony and Carmela have the same fundamental revelation, both on trips they go on without each other, both after a moment that nearly destroys their lives (Tony getting shot), but that this realisation affects them in very different ways.

Carmela has this realisation on her trip to Paris with Ro. The realisation develops slowly over the course of the trip. Sitting with Ro at a bistro, she exclaims "Nobody f*cking knows us here Ro, can you believe that?". When she sees a Medieval necklace, she remarks "you realise some woman just like us wore this. She was probably married, had children...". Carmela sees the necklace as symbolic of how little anyone leaves behind, a woman just like her lived a like much like hers and is completely forgotten apart from a trinket in a museum, and Carmela's jewelry won't even end up in a museum.

Carmela's realisation is a type of sonder. Her bubble is burst, she realises that in a different city, her whole existence doesn't exist. No one knows or cares who she is, where she came from or where she is going. Everyone is leading lives with their own worries and concerns, none of which involve her.

The culmination of this is when Carmela and Ro visit the Gallo-Roman baths, Carmela feels the stones and thinks about all the people that have touched them, and all the lives they lived, just like hers, but have been completely forgotten. All of them were just washed away, along with all their worries;

"We worry so much. Sometimes it feels like that's all we do. But in the end, it just gets washed away, all of it just gets washed away..."

Tony's epiphany comes on his trip to Vegas. He has just killed Chris, and gone to Vegas and slept with his former girlfriend. Although he is increasingly reckless, we still see him wrestling with the guilt of having killed Chris, expressed with constant unnecessary justifications of Chris' death and irritation with any expression of grief over Chris' death. But all of this changes on the trip to Vegas. He gambles, drinks, and cheats, like he always does, but somethings changed, he doesn't care. When he takes those shrooms and stands over the Grand Canyon screaming "I GET IT!", he realises that none of it matters, he doesn't need to care or feel guilty about anything he does. He has freed himself from his own morality and any remaining conscience has disappeared.

But even though they've come to the same realisation; none of it really matters, it impacts them in very different ways. Tony is overjoyed, Carmela is left crying.

The epiphany is liberating for Tony, he sees it as freedom from his moral conscience, freedom from his guilt, shame and pain, because none of it matters. He can kill Chris, gamble, drink, do drugs, cheat on his wife, steal and rob, and none of it matters, it will all get washed away. There are no consequences and he doesn't have to care. His default is pain, and the epiphany takes his pain away. It does what therapy never could. But the same epiphany is depressing for Carmela, it makes her realise that her existence, everyone's existence, is meaningless, all the worries and insecurities that she has built her life around don't matter outside her little Jersey bubble, and won't even matter there once she's gone.

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u/vivalasvegas2004 — 2 months ago