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There weren't any guns with such pin-point accuracy in that era. All the money in the world couldn't buy cannon like the ones depicted in the show. No, he was told to call Mariko that with the very clear implication that it's not something you use for everyone. And he needs to be ridiculous unobservant to not have noticed that nobody else is calling servants -sama. Same with not realizing that he runs the risk of being killed on the spot every time he mouths off a samurai, no matter how minor of a lord the guy happens to be. He also once again kept yelling at people in English (or maybe Portuguese) and expecting them to miraculously understand him. For a guy who has traveled far and wide and knows at least one foreign language, he behaves like the stereotypical Ugly American Brit way too often. He was even surprised he didn't get "his" ship and "his" men back as if there was any realistic possibility of this happening (since there would be nothing stopping him from immediately sailing for home).
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I really wish they would dial down Blackthorne's episodes of being the obnoxious loud foreigner who just cannot fathom that you don't mouth off people of higher rank. Not in Japan, not in England, not anywhere in the early 17th century if you want to keep your head. He is supposed to have served on ships for most of his life and on a ship the captain's authority is basically absolute. Why is he acting like some spoiled 21st century kid who thinks only suckers follow social conventions? And surely he must have realized that only higher-ups are called -sama but, no he had to go and call a gardener that. Very convenient that he is a master gunner too. Though, Yabushige and company are in for a big surprise if the show follows history and Osaka castle proves too strong for this kind of guns. And I don't think guns at that era were anywhere near accurate enough to allow for most things we saw in the episode but Hollywood gonna Hollywood. Fuji was kind of awesome and it's nice that the show mentioned how noble women handle financial affairs and other stuff and do not just stand around looking pretty all day long, as often thought.
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This Portuguese captain sure isn't the sharpest tool in the drawer. Why not ask directly for Blackthorne's head? He had Tokugawa Toranaga by the balls. Blackthorne claiming to be a rude idiot as a distraction isn't very different than his normal behavior and they got stupidly lucky that someone came to countermand that guard right on time. Mariko with a naginata was cool, though it was very convenient that the weapon just happened to be there when she needed it. And flaming arrows? They are stupidly ineffective, those fools must have watched Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves too many times. I am enjoying the show for the spectacle and the actor performances but I do think the political intrigue that so many people rave about it nothing special. And having a pilot train an infantry battalion sounds really silly. With the kind of money Toranaga has at his disposal he should be easily able to hire some European with experience in land based warfare.
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I wonder if it's an oversight to have Mariko insist that Blackthorn call her Mariko-sama, yet that Jesuit interpreter called her Lady Maria. Then again, that Jesuit guy also referred to Toranaga as simply Toranaga when Mariko talked to him, so maybe the show is more careful with the precise naming when Japanese is used. I am enjoying it a lot so far, been a while since I watched anything with spoken Japanese and the Japanese actors are really good. That psycho who ordered the man boiled alive really shouldn't be making me chuckle so often but he does. Main complaint would be Blackthorn often behaving like a rude tourist despite clearly being smart enough to realise the kind of predicament he is. The way things are going he is going to call Toranaga "bro" any day now. Also, I find it hard to believe that the Japanese would be quite so ignorant about the rest of the world. Even later when they closed themselves to the world, they kept track of many technological and some political developments. And at the time of the show is set in they could produce plenty firearms of their own, so they had little to fear from any invasion from Portugal or Spain anyway. As to why Blackthorn would know Portuguese - at the time, if you want to go around exploring the world, knowing Spanish or Portuguese would be a huge advantage. Last but not least, Toranaga's wife stole the show. :)
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If the cordyceps think Ellie is also cordyceps why do zombies attack her?
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This show takes itself way too seriously for me to consider it a handwavy sci-fi series and give it a pass for the many worldbuilding inconsistencies and plot contrivances. If I were watching Legends of Tomorrow or Wynonna Earp, sure, I wouldn't mind stuff like gut wounds miraculously healing with penicillin injection and doctors immediately jumping to killing their precious immunity carrier. I love watching shows about tough choices but I hate it when the set up is so contrived. "We aren't going to try anything else, our first step going to be to open Ellie's skull and thus kill her". Way to kill all the moral ambiguity, writers. I have never played the game, so I have no idea how true the adaptation is but the final twist struck me as a rather video game-y excuse for having the protagonist go on a murderous rampage of rightfulness. I mean, I enjoy video games in general, but even in critically acclaimed ones, the discrepancy between the plot and what the protagonists gets to do when they are controlled by the player can be massive. Some scholars call it ludonarrative dissonance. This adaptation tried to be more subdued but in the end it's all "bad guys do bad stuff for very stupid reasons, go kill those losers ASAP!". Come to think it, the show should have explored the Fireflies point of view a lot more. Why did they send Ellie to be raised by their enemies anyway, did I miss something?
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I really liked the first two seasons of Dark, the third not so much and the big reveal in the end was all kinds of underwhelming, as such reveals usually are. 1899 has the high quality acting and cinematography of Dark and lots of plot twists but I found the characters mediocre at best. They seemed to be on track to become interesting early on when life on the ship was relatively normal but once shit hit the fan it was one surreal crisis after another and their past was explored mostly in brief flashbacks. I can't help but think it might have been better if the main cast were smaller and the characters' pasts and respective traumas were explored more instead of the gazillion repetitive scenes along the lines of one character saying "What the hell is going on?" and another replying "Beats me but we are screwed". Or people asking Maura if she remembers.
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Rhaenyra and Daemon should have been pressing relentlessly for Otto's dismissal for years rather than accept his return as fait accompli. Or pressed Viserys to give them more lands to make Rhaenyra's position as heir apparent stronger. Or at least placed some spies in the king's palace. Instead they did absolutely nothing to prevent the coup or to make sure they are informed immediately when the king died and the only supporters in the capital Daemon could think of were some gold cloaks whom he commanded almost two decades ago. Way to be caught with your pants down, guys. Since the show clearly wanted to portray Viserys as not that terrible of a king, we never saw him refuse such demands, instead it was Rhaenyra and Daemon who ended up looking as complete amateurs who shouldn't run a lemonade stand, let alone a kingdom. Which, again, would be an interesting story to tell if it were a deliberate choice but I suspect it was a writing crutch to allow the Green coup to happen easily and Rhaenyra is supposed to be at least somewhat competent of a ruler after all.
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Because oaths are a serious business in Westeros and Viserys was (somehow) а well respected king who made his wishes in regards to his heir very clear. Because Rhaenyra has more dragons than the opposition and Daemon has a reputation of a good military leader. For ten years Rhaenyra had the support of the Velaryons too, there was ample time for gazillion opportunists to want to join her faction when it seemed ascendant, yet we didn't see a single one. And lords who join her faction can demand rewards in return for support, of course. Misogynists or not, who rules in King's Landing makes little practical difference in the daily life of most of the Westeros nobles but land grants or cash from a grateful Queen can change their life big time. The nobles don't practice incest either but nevertheless support Targaryens who do. Misogyny is the reason the civil war is happening, obviously, but hardly an insurmountable obstacles for nobles who prefer being on the winning side and/or are greedy for rewards. Also, a significant portion of this undoubtedly misogynistic ruling class supported Cersei as a Queen just fine despite her not having any claim for the throne whatsoever and facing three dragons while having none of her own. Mind you, this made no sense, if you ask me but still it's sort of a precedent since Westeros didn't seem any less misogynist in Cersei's time.
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Мany lords should have been falling over themselves to join Rhaenyra's faction without her needing to do anything but say "Sure, if that's what you want". Are we supposed to think she refused them for some mysterious reason rather than merely never bothering to look for support? Or that Otto was the only one who put two and two together and realized Rhaenyra wouldn't succeed to the throne without upheavals? And I never got the impression that we were supposed to see Rhaenyra and Viserys as that clueless or entitled. When Rhaenyra said "my father helped to prepare me for my duties", this sure looked like something we were supposed to accept as truth rather than irony. Especially with the way the writers have praised Rhaenyra's restraint in the finale in their latest interviews. It would certainly make for a better story if Rhaenyra is a person with many flaws who makes costly mistakes due to entitlement or lack of experience rather than a slightly flawed long suffering victim of circumstances but I don't think this is the story the show is trying to portray.
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I don't mind characters doing stupid things because that's only human but so much of the stupidity in the show seems to be very convenient for the plots. Like Rhaenyra not bothering to gather any allies before Viseris died, so she would need to send her sons to basically beg for support. It's all dramatic and grand but it hinges on Rhaenyra being implausibly clueless for a really long time. Same with Otto being back as the Hand and the other faction meekly accepting that. Or Corlys and Rhaenys thinking Daemon and Rhaenyra murdered their son but still supporting Rhaenyra's bid for the throne. I am not among the biggest fans of GoT by any means but it did have a certain "characters actually pay for their mistakes" aura about it. Here, most characters bumble their way through life, make really stupid mistakes that could easily cost them their lives or at least reputation but escape unscathed. Again and again. Alicent stabs Rhaenyra and nothing happens. Not even a slap on the wrist. Nobody even seems to remember this particular incident and Rhaenyra still seems to have some residual fondness for her.
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And he was still far better king than Viserys, if you ask me. Because Viserys was that bad. The civil war is mostly his fault. I mean, Otto predicted exactly what would happen almost two decades ago. Viserys did nothing to prevent it. He could have done a gazillion things to strengthen Rhaenyra's position but didn't. The phrase "after me, the deluge" comes to mind. Robert (well, more like Jon Arryn but still) managed to hold together the realm without the help of dragons. Being deep in dept was quite normal for medieval kings and since Westeros has no external enemies, what does a king need so much money anyway? 🙂
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It was the father of the current head of the Baratheron House that swore the oath to support Rhaenyra's bid for the throne. Viserys, being the clueless fool that he was, doesn't seem to have bothered to have even the lords of the biggest houses take the oath upon their succession. Or maybe he was too ill to care when the previous Baratheon lord died and Otto, of course, had no reason to press the issue. That said, many lords would have broken the oath regardless if it served their goals but leaving them the convenient loophole of "My father took an oath, not me" was really unwise. Medieval politics weren't so much between kingdoms, duchies and counties as they were highly personal affairs between people who could combine many roles and titles in one person. The king of England was also famously the duke of Normandy and then Aquitaine, which led to centuries of trouble with the French kings who usually wanted the English kings to do homage for these domains every time a new king took the throne. Oaths of fealty were renewed every time someone was granted a given title. Oaths to support a chosen king's successor weren't as common but apparently Henry I of England did demand from his barons to swear to support his daughter Matilda not once but several times.
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The same way many medieval kings governed whole realms without being able to read. Clerics did most of the reading and especially writing on behalf of the secular rulers in the Early and High Middle Ages. If adult dragons can be so much bigger and stronger than each other, you would think Daemon would have mentioned it when he counted the dragons on each side. This changes the balance of forces quite significantly and makes his and Rhaenyra's inability to gather any allies before Viserys' death look even dumber in retrospect.
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Rhaenys: Viserys is dead. Daemon: Even though last time I saw him he wasn’t simply at death’s door but well inside the hallway, admiring the carpet and commenting on the hatstand, I am suddenly certain that he was murdered by that bitch Alicent! Who has nothing to gain and a lot to lose from his death but women are weird, man. Told you Rhaenyra hadn't bothered building her faction and would only look for allies now. Your father prepared you to rule, indeed, Rhaenyra. You are just as inept as he was. Except for the silly remark about Alicent the murderer and randomly trying to strangle Rhaenyra (what was up with that and why did she shrug it off this so easily?), Daemon was the rational one in this episode. Daemon! Why is Rhaenyra such a believer in a vague prophecy anyway? "I wouldn't start a war"? Earth to Rhaenyra, breaking an oath to your liege and his selected heir, then trying to kill everyone who wouldn't do the same is the ultimate betrayal in this pseudo-medieval world. You can either submit or fight, you can't just wait for the enemy faction to kill even more of your supporters. Otto was also taking a hefty dose of the stupid pills. He commits a vile betrayal and then comes to negotiate, knowing full well Daemon is a hothead who would probably try to murder him. He should thank his lucky stars that Rhaenyra is an idiot and the show is trying so hard to distance her from every unpleasant thing her faction ever does. Hey, they mentioned Seasmoke. Apparently that beast isn't too bothered by Laenor's absence and has been chilling in Driftmark all along. This Baratheon guy was way too contemptuous towards a faction that has about a dozen dragons. I guess they wanted to portray him as a sort of Walder Frey kind of a dick but Frey was sitting in an almost impregnable fortress while lord Baratheon is at the mercy of the Blacks, should they decide to take umbrage and burn his castle to the ground.