Lit Apropos of Nothing - ACKBAR IN CAPITALS - The Lit Forum Social Thread, v2.0.15

Kinky too, with lassos, and feathering, and brushes, and soft blur...

 

And that pressure sensitivity!

 

You know, you should really use the "quote" function here so it's clear who you were replying to...

 

Maybe some of us have seen the full RPG

 

Don't worry, your boredom is our amusement.

 

Well, I have 20-25 pages due on Friday. "Citizenship, Identity, and Imperial Control: Roman Italy on the Eve of the Social War". I need to re-outline the damned thing later today. At least my rough rough draft went over well.

So, the campaign AI on Napoleon: Total War is hard but exploitable on hard difficulty.

 

I hate papers so much. I'm probably the least organized person you'll ever meet, so outlines and rough drafts are completely foreign to me. No matter how many times I tell myself I'll do better, whenever a paper is due, I find myself writing it, armed only with a potentially lethal amount of caffeine, in one long, excruciating sitting. The sad part is that it works. I just hate color for the next few days.

 

I don't miss essays at all.

 

This forum is weird. I'll continue it, by reviewing the fifth episode of the second season of GOT in Star Wars literature forum. No propaganda shot this week. Move along.

Spoiler

STANNIS! He was right! He was right and now he is dead! I'll... I'll keep watching, but just to see you dying in the most humiliating way possible.

I don't know how many of you who first read the novels even paid much attention to Renly. No way there was even that much of him in them, and surely not enough to raise him as anyone's favorite character. But he was that. He was someone I could call a king (in democratic way). To whom am I supposed to pledge my sword now? Stannis, who used a cheat code to get a clean victory? Joffrey... surely you can't be serious. Robb, who is a nice kid and leads his armies well, but do I still think that good soldiers make for good kings? Besides, he wants only the North. Daenerys, who is on the other side of the world? It took her half a season to get food, I don't think she will be a player soon.

The map looks very different from what it was last week. Renly has no army, Tyrells have only their own troops, and Stannis has more troops than any other player. Good thing the Lannisters don't surrender, instead they start to meddle in things they don't understand. That's bound to end well.

Melisandre! There! That's her name! Thanks Mr... who were you again? Ser Davos. Right.

Demon monkey. I like that Joffrey can take that kind of insult and not go through the dungeons-sword-spike-routine. (You know something's wrong when that's something you are very glad about).

Theon Greyjoy, through most of the first season I didn't even know who he was. Now I know, but that hasn't done him much good. Son of a villain who wants to pillage villages so his father would like him, and does not even do good job with it. Interesting military discipline system (or lack of), if I ever play a GOT RTS game I won't pick Iron Islanders, with my leadership skills there would be a mutiny almost immediately.

Tywius Lannisterius (sorry Jello, I learnt my Latin from Asterix) is tired of this poodoo, and tells everyone why they keep on losing. That's exactly what I want to hear from him, but could he have any ideas what they should do instead? Well, he has the second Stark girl as his cupbearer, I'm sure he can figure out something (he must have already realized who the girl is, he's dangerously genre-savvy).

A man comes to speak with a girl. A man is written by Jude Watson. A man gives three wishes.

Now we're in the North. No woods, only snow and ice. The Half-Hand? That rings a bell. He was mentioned on page 224 of A Game of Thrones as ”a ranger of Castle Black”. Apparently that wasn't even a half of his story. My ears hurt when I look at these people, heads uncovered, wind blowing through their heads.

I liked Samwell's ”by the way”-exposition about how the First Men stood on that rock through the Long Night. More of that please. Exposition is harder in TV since people rarely comment on ancient stuff in regular conversations. Three hundred years ago the Russian army blew up a castle in my home town, but do I mention that when discussing TV shows? But with Samwell it works. ”Gilly would love it here” Never change, Sam. These short moments of joy are the best thing in this show.

The Song moves forward to tell us about the Fire. I have a bad feeling about these pots. As Wisdom Hallyne said (in more direct words), they are building an exploding dragon. Looks like we won't need Daenerys after all.

Qarth is magnificent. A mixture of different Earthian cultures but without looking directly like any of them. And the costumes are deliciously over-the-top.

I don't really know what to think about Brienne. We never got a reason why she thought that Renly was such a great guy and why she wants to avenge him. Then again, that could be said of me. But the scenery stole the scene. I know that humans have through their existence tried to get as far from nature as possible (and having -22 Celsius degrees outside I know why), but still I get kicks from these scenes in woods.

Torrhen's Square is under siege? But... that really is close when I look at the map. Greyjoys left just this episode, and they have already sailed for over 150 leagues? Time goes fast when it's fun. Good to see Mr. Beard again, but I don't think all of him will come back from the battle. Three-eyed raven means something? I thought it was just... generally symbolic. Well, Night's Watch has three castles in the Wall...

Their ears! They'll fly in the wind soon if they don't cover them. Qhorin says that they need to sneak in and kill the enemy's leader so his people will scatter. That's not going to work twice in a row, is it?

Daenerys says that ”The Baratheons fight each other”. Renly Baratheon lives! Or perhaps Xaro just didn't get the new Stannis-Canon. How much of Jorah's councel was because he was afraid about her marriage to Xaro? Since Jorah is expendable but Daenerys isn't, I'm keeping my eye more on him. No way they are allowed to leave so soon.

Arya is cute. Enough said. And poor Tippler... not! That was just my clever red herring for those that press spoiler tags without thinking.

Man has granted the first wish, and Lugija's going to say that the Mountain's turn comes soon. But now Lugija ends this review. Audience stops reading and starts writing "You have no idea".

 

This made my day. Although if I ever rewatch this episode again these scenes are ruined for me. I won't be able to unthink this.

That thought had crossed my mind once or thrice reading your review. You poor soul.

 

I once finished a paper a couple of hours in advance. That was a good day.

 

I did the same thing. Couldn't stand rough drafts, as the idea of submitting something that isn't already complete strikes me as utterly absurd and impractical. More often than not, the rough draft was the final version.

 

I used to ignore rough drafts until I entered the world of publishing hell. It's a special kind of hell.

Reviewer 1: "Get rid of X and keep Y."
Reviewer 2: "Keep X and scrap Y."
Reviewer 3: *soMethiNg gArbled tHat lOoks liKe a raNsoM notE with AutoCoRrect gOne wRonG* (this is probably the old-timer whose opinion has the most weight)

Then you wait up to a year or two to get the damn thing completed. And subsequently shredded by the critiquing masses who generally sound like the comment section below YouTube videos.

Good luck working on your PhD, anakinfansince1983! (but honestly if you like to write that will help a LOT.)

 

I thoroughly miss writing research papers and the like.

 

I certainly don't.

 

Ow. My head is pounding. I think I played enough N:TW last night that the artillery went through my mind all night. And fun tip for Napoleon: Total War on the Europe Campaign: If you ally with the Prussians and keep them happy, they absolutely will not backstab you until you take Vienna. I've been exploiting this by taking the rest of Austrian territory, keeping Vienna bottled up, and taking the time to mop up Italy and wipe out the Royal Navy.I can't begin to tell you how satisfying it was to send Horatio Nelson to Davy Jones' Locker.

In other news, I finally managed to find that essay I wrote on how Vergere is just a proactive Daoist. In other other news, it's 70 out today! Hooray!

 

Lugija - You have no idea.

Also, you must love Brienne. Everyone must love the Maid of Tarth. I command it.