Beech27

That is a crucial difference. And of course he’ll have far more space in which to demonstrate her fall. I think the show clearly established her capacity for ruthlessness, but I’m less convinced they got her to the point of mass slaughter of civilians—at the moment of her victory, no less. We might say Jon’s shadow looms too large now, but I still see that as “justifying” her trying to kill him, not lots of others. And I don’t think that’s what the show writers meant anyway. They seemed, rather, to lean on the “blood will tell” trope and a notion that it’s “personal” now. Problem is, killing innocents hurts Cersei not one bit. I think it also undermines some of the work done earlier. Why diminish Dany’s forces if not to make her face a hard choice between winning with a lot of collateral damage and losing? And why not indulge the question of how much evil is justified to win a theoretically good end? The firebombing imagers echoes Tokyo and Dresden, so it’s hard not to think that option was there. Still, I’m getting to close to fanfic now. Great spectacle and one of my friends, wearing a Seth Rollins shirt, gleefully yelled BURN IT DOWN right as Dang, y’know, did. So I had a good time.

That, and women and their emotions being a bigger big bad than an extinction level invading force. Not saying it’s the wrong choice for Dany to turn (though I don’t think the writing earned it, a conqueror with a messiah complex is a conqueror with a messiah complex). Just, when your show has been called racist and misogynist so many times... optics. Ultimately I don’t think there’s a satisfying person to put on the throne. The thesis is essentially a refutation of the great (wo)man theory, and sitting anyone there—especially Jon—would feel like a reversion to a Miltonian theory that absolute power is fine if held by the right person.

I’d recommend these, and Ashino in general. He’s a squat dude with a dapper haircut and cauliflower ears who enters to Fuel and suplexes everyone. But overall “inessential” was the right word. A small roster that goes trough the usual booking. (Ashino as junior ace in NOAH or AJPW would be pretty great, though, and he could credibly move up in the former eventually.)

I’m not convinced this is a problem of any real breadth or depth in society at large, but keeping it to the Lars thing, I really don’t think it applies at all. Dirt sheet writers are behaving like they always do, and Twitter is being Twitter. Who is getting rich because of this? Famous? Furthermore, this wasn’t Lars’ worst moment, but chronic behavior. And no one is denying him the right to do better; many are simply denying that he’s demonstrated any movement in that direction. Point being, even if there is a slippery slope here whereby people are unfairly canceled, Lars is not presently an example.

That’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m rejecting the utility of this generational categorical model when it comes to deciding right action/ethics. All we can do is the best we can do, right now. I have no idea what that will mean in 50 years or 500, but history tells me some things will be better and some will be worse. Ultimately I’m advocating for personal responsibility and autonomy. If you’re always self-critical and willing to be better, you needn’t get left behind. And to the topic at hand, you can avoid tone-deaf non-apologies.

It is true that social mores change, and that we should hope they change for the better. However, it's not remotely accurate to say they always have trended that way, or that they will do so by default. "Be careful, or someday you'll look like a bigot!" is an argument for stasis, and ultimately--because those working against progress keep working--regression. The arc of history doesn't inevitably bend towards justice, or anything except that which people bend it towards. This is not to say people should be destroyed for past--or even current--transgressions, but "sorry you were offended" is a non-apology, and people are right to regard it as such.

This is a useful thread if you, like me, hadn't heard of him.

Checking in on Dallas, and yeah, there are tons of tickets available. I don't think he'll do the G1, though. Too many bumps and New Japan won't struggle to move tickets once they're home. If they wanted him on the Dallas card and he wanted to do it, just give him and Liger fifteen minutes. Versus Kenoh and Nakajima are both pretty good.

Gonna say "yes."

If we assume the Dany heel turn is forthcoming, it’s easy to see how anyone invested in the character might just suggest, y’know, she raised armies and brought them to stop the apocalypse, lost them, lost the only people/creatures she’s ever really cared about, lost a lot due to bad advice, and taken a lot of that bad advice from people who might be conspiring against her to support a man we’re told is a hero and a leader—but doesn’t really show the skill for either and doesn’t want the throne. Obviously that’s slanted, but I could see why Clarke might feel Dany has a right to be very mad, if not mad. And I imagine the fan response will reflect that to a pretty harrowing degree... (It wouldn’t be a wrestling board if someone didn’t say the heel was really the baby face before the turn even happens.)

Omega's win over Okada in the G1 was basically a perfect example of how you pull of selling cumulative fatigue/damage against a dangerous opponent, while still delivering a main event the in-house crowd won't feel cheated by.

If he doesn't elevate in the junior ranks Despy could apparently just transition to deathmatches.

-For fiction that's always been positioned as the anti-Tolkien, Varys might as well have quoted the man's late-life political disenchantment. ("The most improper job of any man... is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity," fits very well.) -Regarding the dragons: I think the preview hints that Dany has learned from her tactical blunder, and will choose a different angle of flight/attack next time. I want to say that using the sun and/or clouds as cover and dive-bombing was mentioned in Fire and Blood, but I can't recall for sure. -Were I being generous, I'd take Sansa's line as taking ownership of her trauma in order to rob it--and those who perpetrated it--of power. I'm just not sure the writing has earned that generosity. -I do generally feel the show has gone from rewarding paying attention to punishing it, but I'm still invested and entertained. (It would be very boring to say I'm waiting for the books, but...) I don't think the negativity is an instance of impossible expectations so much as a genuine decline in quality.

Interesting, but I’m not sure there’s anything to it. Two things being shot two miles apart in Los Angeles is just life in Los Angeles. Even putting aside the Union Jack, the synthwave aesthetic doesn’t fit Moxley at all; and I don’t think New Japan would slot him in at the US title level anyway.

Okada in a big dumb brawl with King Diamond will be different, and fun. Like SANADA’s new look! (What a transition.) It reminded me of when Takeshi Rikio got a fancy new robe before beating Kobashi—but of course no one thought SANADA was winning here. And he didn’t. 0-6 against Okada all-time now, but this, I think, still managed to be a good and useful showing for him. And the fans treat him like a big deal even if his record doesn’t quite suggest they should.

Switchblade's getting a Knife Friend (with even more pronounced synthwave aesthetics). Would this fit David Finlay's return time? (British flag, so maybe Chris Brookes?)

Honestly, it slightly irritates me how far we've not come in the years since Swordspoint. "Badass killer queer lady" has become a reliable trope for basically all (save Sanderson, who has his own hangups here) traditional epic/grimdark authors (who, were I being cynical, are mostly straight men writing for straight men) while male/male relationships are still in the bin of not-quite-fanfic that's just had the serial numbers scrubbed off, and an awful cover tacked on, in order to facilitate a self-pub on Amazon (and is, were I being cynical, mostly written by straight women for straight women). Which isn't to say there aren't exceptions, or that authors can't/shouldn't write outside of their experience, or that readers shouldn't read for "those" reasons. Just that Swordspoint still stands out for depicting a fairly "just so" same-sex relationship between variously competent people that doesn't seem wholly designed to titillate the author and audience. Aside: I first read Swordspoint because of a recommendation from Brent Weeks, during a chat on queer characters in fantasy that I accidentally incited, mentioning in a forum that I was a little let down he'd rather off-handedly and (I thought) needlessly fridged the one queer-coded character in his Night Angel trilogy. It wasn't really even a criticism and I didn't know he read the forum, but he sent a nice email, so I buy his books. I probably would anyway, since I think the Lightbringer series does Sanderson a little better than Sanderson--although the last book fell deep into the Robert Jordan "1000 pages that moves no plot nowhere" trap. Another aside: I found an old, old copy of Three Hearts and Three Lions in a local used bookstore. Being a tabletop nerd, I've always been interested in this book, as it was cited in the famous Appendix N as a D&D influence. Not to mention, Anderson's got a good reputation. If I enjoy it, I'll make an effort to track down The Broken Sword as well.

Nakajima, of course, got his start in Kensuke Office too. Another would be Zeus, who began in Osaka Pro.

This tournament was great, since I only watched the stuff I was basically sure I'd like already. No Hashimoto, no problems. Lee produced the performance he needed in the finals; after his stellar title challenge, it looked like Nomura might have sprinted past him.

Yeah. A lot. I mean it's somewhat beside the point, since the AEW marriage is so obvious. But no one can possibly argue that New Japan has enough--much less too many--good tag teams.

I think the only potential problem with Kenny being clearly on a higher tier than the rest of the roster is that--to my taste--he's always done way better work with the Okada/Tana/Naito/Ibushi tier guys, who were presented as being similarly superheroic. When he wrestled guys on the SANADA/ZSJ/Page tier, I always felt they came away looking a little worse for losing. The caveats here: I'm a big fan, and I think he can get better at this. But I also think he probably needs to.

I do wonder about this, since--if I'm not mistaken--Shingo hasn't dropped a fall yet in New Japan. Usually tournaments have upsets, but it stands to reason his first loss will occur on a big stage.

Looking forward to Shingo lariating people, both members of RPG3K hopefully taking a step, and Despy getting his yearly "actually, this guy's really good" stage. (Although three SZG members means we're probably getting some tedious shenanigans.) Mostly, it feels like Ospreay has to win this, but that he also has to move past being a junior. It's hard to reconcile both of those.

Honestly I’d misremembered that whole thing totally. In my recollection he’d vacated the NEVER title, but of course you’re right that he didn’t. It’s pretty clear that Naito versus Okada, title versus title, is the biggest match New Japan could make, and might well sell out the dome. But of course they have a second night to consider, now. I wonder if there will be a clear hierarchy, with one show being bigger; and if not, I wonder what could close the other show.