Raachel2008

In my corner of the world a few jouralists were able to see the first six episodes (provided by HBO, all legal and such) and they said it is all I take that these folks didn't like all that for me made GoT: the scenes/plot that didn't realy advance the story but settled that universe.

For me it was b. How come everyone in that square was a criminal? At first it looked to me that it was just your regular market with a few vendors left but then suddenly everybody was a rapista or a thief. It didn't look - for me - like there was some serious detective work going around.

I could be mistaken, but GRRM was inspired by medieval Europe, and the concept of one marriage at time. Other than that, heirs coming only from the queen solve many many problems, namey internal wars that weaken the family/house/dinasty on power. A marriage to a king is a political alliance, the queen's family/house gains power from that and woudn't want to see a bastard 'usurp' the throne.

Oh, my mistaken then. Got it.

To be fair what Viserys says is that when that 'when this great winter comes, Rhaenyra, all of Westeros must stand against it. And if the world of men is to survive, a Targaryen must be seated on the Iron Throne. A king or a queen, strong enough to unite the entire realm against the cold and the dark.' Depending on how you look at it. you had the North, Starks, Arryns, Mormonsts, Knights of the Valley, Lannisters, free folk, Dohtraki, some Ironborn, the Insullied. Yara was backing up Dany in the south, Cersei's fall was just a matter of time. You had two Targaryens already rulling, Jon in the North and Dany in the Bay of Slaves. I don't think the Prophecy as Viserys told Rhaenyra is what we saw on screen, but it isn't thaaaat far away. The point there IMO is more to give the Targaryen in the line of sucession the idea that the Targs have another reason to rule; they are so special they will defeat the terrible enemy to come and it must be theeeeem, those special children. Also that couldn't have been Arya's dagger. Arya's dagger was a gift from Jon; he had a blacksmith made it for her as parting gift when she left for King's Landing with Ned and he to Castle Black. However, I do think they wanted to make it clear that she may have some traits in common with Arya, free spirit/rebelioussness and all that. For the regular viewer, I mean.

The really dumb thing Otto did there is that by sending his 18 year old daughter to the king chambers alone, in the day/day after he becomes a widow, he is sending to the whole kingdom the message that she is a "whore". A girl of her positon sole asset, so to speak, is her capacity to have children, as Aemma pointed. There can't be doubts about the paternity, whoever's the father, even more if the idea is for said father down the road to be the king. On another note, hello folks. It has been what, three years? Time flies. It was a good first episode. A bit too explanatory but I guess they didn't want a repeat of what happened in GoT that even after having it spelled on screen people didn't get that Jon was Lyanna and Rhaegar son, or why he had a claim to the throne. I never cared much about the Targaryens, and for me wolves >>> dragons. I loved how these Targaryens - or at least Viserys and Rhaenyra - were self aware enough to know that without the dragons they are just like everybody else. No predistinated bullshit, fate or 'I'm so special boo hoo'. You have power because you have the power of the dragons, and rule Westeros because your dragons back up you. End of the story. ETA because I posted before finishing. I've never been a fan of Matt Smith, but I think he was a good example of a prime Targaryen: a bit crazy, kinda of competent, entittled, spoiled, but with potential. Viserys had no choice because Aemma was going to die, but he was dick for not talking to her. He basically took her agency - not that she really had a choice, but you get my point. I'm sure all she needed was a single minute to understand what was going to help. No one deserves to die like butchered meat. Speaking about butchered meat, the massacre of thieves, rapists, etc, as well as the orgy (?) scene were very poorly done. Don't get me wrong, I don't need to see them, and I know they wanted to establish this as a GoT child, but these were awful. Don't get even me started on the championship, that was lazing filmmaking.

Maybe she is just shy? Loved the floor podium; tbh I don't think Jade has the spark, if you know what I mean, but she is consistent. I'm extremely happy Vanessa Ferrari got her medal, and IMO she was better than Jade (yes, I know Jade's start value was higher). I'm just glad she finally got her medal - and at 30 it was not a small feat.

This gets us nowhere. We'll never know if Simone had been in (and in a good mental place) if she wouldn't have made a mistake - even the GOAT make mistakes. We don't know if any other day Rebeca would have been better, or if Jade would have been better. Maybe they would, maybe another athlete would have made the jump of ther life and taken the gold. This, IMO and please don't take it personally - sells Rebeca, MyKayla and Suni very short. Their medals weren't an accident, these three girls worked very hard and each of them overcame a lot to be there and perform the best they could at that moment. I read somewhere (AP, I think) Rebeca saying that she wasn't thaaaat nervous nervous but that she was worried because she couldn't warm up before and she wanted to 'feel' the vault. It is utter stupid to not let them warm up, and I have to worder if that's why so many good athletes didn't perform that well?

Because it is empty?

I meant Suni, but typed Simone - I Just fixed that - Rebeca finished qual ahead Suni so what? Suni was amazing today and deserved the gold. Would Simone have won the gold? How can we know? She may have made mistakes even if she had been in her A game. Suni may have been better. Another gymnasts have stepped up. For me what counts is that Suni won the gold. Rebeca the silver. Melnikova the bronze. That's it.

And Rebeca's were higher than Suni's, so... This is something that I loathe in sports, all the ifs. What if Simone had been there, what if Melnikova had been better on the beam, what if Rebeca hadn't landed wrong, etc. Fuck that. Those three girls were exactly where they should have been on the podium -they deserved those medals because they were awesome. It is just offensive and patronizing, IMO, all that 'any other day Simone/insert name would have won' talk. There is no other day. There is just today. And nobody in that podium was less than brilliant. I'm very happy for Suni, who was awesome. I hope Rebeca wins a gold in the individuals. I'm expecting the Russians to win a few. I wish a few other athletes from other countries would medal too. ETA: I don't mean this as a direct reply to you, just the general idea of 'could have been/should have been' when clearly Suni, Rebeca and Melnikova are high performance athletes on the op of their sport.

You are totally missing my point - that McKayla got a pass because she is white, while had she been black the perception, reaction and aftermath of the smirk would have been different. Whatever the narrative about Simone dropping out, it is naive to think that the color of her skin is not part of that.

I'm sorry I didn't make it clear, but my point is that she ended in the White House doing the smirk with the sitting president. Her behaviour was widely was accepted, approved and repeated in the White House with POTUS. I don't believe for a second that the same thing woudl have happened if she had been black.

And Simone is black. She is a black woman and as such she gets bashed way way way more than a white athlete. McKayla Maroney 'not impressed' face on podium in 2012 was disrespectful, childish and wrong no matter how the press tried to spin it, yet not only she got a pass but ended in the White House doing the smirk with Obama. Gabby Douglas didn't stand at attention with her right hand over the heart in Rio and was called names and trashed on national brodscasting. Ryan Lochte lied saying he was mugged at Rio when he actually trashed a gas station and was called "a boy". Simone can never win with those people, but fuck them. She gave US six medals, was abused, will have physical problems later in life due to the abuse on her tendons and joints and as we can see is mentally struggling because of the sport. Yet she is wrong because 'she let her team down'? I bet all those girls have been there before.

Ok, four Olympic golds, one bronze - five Olympic medals. She owes nothing to anyone.

In my corner of the worl we have, like everybody else, former Olympians commenting, and one of of them, who was still competing last year said something like that: "We never had more than 10 days off year, but during the pandemic we had three months off, and when we came back it is was not that bad, it was ok. We got back in shape in a couple of weeks. So why so much terror? So much pressure?"

Simone Biles doesn't have to prove anything to anyone, and I'm glad she and her coaches were able to recognize that a medal is not worth her life, her mental health or a serious injury. She gave FIVE Olympic golds to US. FIVE. She made people turn on the TV, sponsors cash in. She made tons of young girls think 'I want to do it, I can do it'. All power to her. I thought I had posted it earlier, but clearly I didn't hit the reply buttom, but I liked the Russians. They were first in the trials and they seemed solid. I loved their coreographed parts on the floors, to my untrained eyes they looked more gracious and flawless than the others. I was rooting for the Italians to get a medal, but I can't be mad with the results. I don't feel sorry for the Chineses at all.

I'm not sure who is following surf here, Gabriel Medina (world #1, two time world champion) was in the semifinals against Kanoa Igarashi. He was winning, and with 5 minutes left Igarashi needed like 8 points - which is a lot in surf. Anyway he surfed an okay wave and got a 9+ and went to the finals. Everybody on web was saying he was overscored because no way he deserved that.

This, so much. The Karoliyis are horrible horrible human beings and they should be banned from the sport forever. They should never ever be allowed near young woman in any capacity whatsoever. While we have some idea of how they ruined some of these girls' bodies, we'll never fully understand the impact they had on their mental health. They are socipaths and criminals in my book. Men: The Russians were genuinely happy. They were pretty solid too. I think here they should go back to six or at least five people. It is too much. Women: I loved the Russians, they were a delight to watch. Rebecca Andrade was amazing, I hope she does medal, and I also want Valentina Ferrari to go back home with a medal. I'm sure Simone will perform better tomorrow, but I was kind of surprised by her mistakes (specially on the vault) because I thought she had more control on her strenght by now. Is there someone where were we can watch the complete trials and the complete men's competition from this morning?

I liked France, I would wear that. Brazil in flip flops was the most Brazilian thing ever. US Team should ditch Ralp Lauren for good.

Wow, I didn't see them - and that's mind blowing.

But Cathy's Aboriginal. With Australia's history of killing, mistreating, etc Aboriginal Australians )who where in the land before Australia even existed) I get it - you take the chance and use the ceremony for some sort of historical reparation.

Thank you!

I second this and I add my own question: US women aside, who has a real chance of winning a gold medal or at least making it to the podium?

On a different note, things I enjoyed: The Argentinians - there are a feew videos of them backstage waiting to enter the arena and it's insane, Brazil in flip flops. Toga oil hottie. The parade as a whole. The soundtrack. The pictograms. Including Paralympics. I'm ok with the caldron. I'm on the fence about Naomi Osaka to be honest. For all the reasons everybody knows, but above it all, because they have Olymmpians who deserved it. The cynic in me thinks they just checked the boxes: native born, woman, half Asian, half black, young, and at the top of her sport.