#the bomb went off… and thousands (more) people died and reality fucking set it in a few years and a billion dollars late

[paunchsalazar]

Oppenheimer made me laugh….

[selkiewife]

I know i’m late on this but I wanted to talk about The Dragon Demands videos based on the Game of Thrones Season 8 blue ray commentary and the original archived scripts for Game of Thrones, Season 8.

Basically, YouTuber, The Dragon Demands went to the Writer’s Guild Library where he was able to see the archived scripts of Season 8 of Game of Thrones. Both the archive scripts and commentary on the blue ray confirms that most of the destruction in King’s Landing was originally supposed to be caused by the caches of wild fire left by Aerys being accidentally set off by Drogon and not because Daenerys herself “went mad.” The script says that civilians being used as human shields are caught in the crossfire as Daenerys is targeting Lannister soldiers in a strategical maneuver right before she heads to the Red Keep to enact revenge on Cersei. However, Daenerys is never described as specifically targeting innocent civilians needlessly.

My thoughts under the cut:

I have to say, that this makes me feel slightly better in a strange way. I mean, it doesn’t erase the bad writing, the ridiculous way the war against the white walkers ended, the misogyny, the inconsistency, etc etc ETC... but this crucial plot point was the one I just couldn’t let go of because it was just baffling to me. With other controversial plot points, I would disagree with them, but I could at least understand what they were going for and what the motivations of the characters were. But Daenerys turning on innocent civilians was truly baffling to me because it comes out of nowhere, is entirely out of character, her motivations are incredibly unclear, and was not set up at all. But with all the fandom discourse, I had really started to think that maybe I am lacking comprehension skills or something. But no, there is actually a reason it made no sense. The “madness” plot line was added later. Emilia Clarke was never given the opportunity to portray Daenerys as mentally unstable. Emilia was portraying grief and revenge on Cersei (as the original script and directors told her to do) in contrast to D&D’s final editing which was portraying the “mad queen.” No wonder it came across as completely false and bewildering- before we even get into the discussion of whether or not this is in character or not.

I think this is definitely more than just a theory that the script was changed pretty late in development because of all the evidence- it is confirmed by Emilia’s commentary, the Visual Effects team member’s commentary, and also the original concept art. But even if there wasn’t all that evidence, there is also the fact that the original ending makes so many other confusing things in Season 8 suddenly make SENSE.

For example, when Jon confronts Daenerys in the throne room and he talks about the women and children that were burned, Daenerys responds with “She used their innocence as a weapon against me.” Which makes total sense for Daenerys to say if she thinks she is talking about civilians that were used as human shields that died in the crossfire. But it doesn’t make any sense if she carpet bombed the city- although it does make her seem delusional, which is probably why Dave and Dan kept those lines in- hoping it would make her appear “mad,” since Emilia was never actually given the opportunity to portray Daenerys as mentally unstable.

There is also the scene where Jon asks Tyrion, “Was it right?” to assassinate Daenerys and Tyrion responds, “Ask me again in ten years.” There is really no reason for them to have that dialogue if Daenerys really did target and massacre innocent civilians. That is the kind of dialogue they would have if they were discussing someone who had done something more morally ambiguous.

Then there are the lines that are out of place in the final version but that would have made complete sense in the original wild fire version, such as Jon saying “now and always” as he stabs Daenerys. “Now and always” as any Theon fan will tell you, is a phrase that belongs to Theon and Robb and what they said to each other when Theon was pledging loyalty to Robb. Having Jon say this to Dany as he is killing Daenerys represents the ultimate betrayal but also calls back to Theon’s struggle and how difficult it is to chose between loyalties- between families. In this case, Jon is choosing the Starks over the Targaryens. Kit Harrington even says that this is motivation in an interview he gave with winteriscoming.net. But given the fact that in the final edit, Daenerys massacred innocent children and civilians on purpose, Kit’s motivation for Jon seems like a relic of an earlier script:

Kit Harrington: “Jon essentially sees it as Daenerys or Sansa and Arya, and that makes his mind up for him. He choose blood over, well, his other blood. But he chooses the people he has grown up with, the people his roots are with, the North. That’s where his loyalties lie in the end. That’s when he puts the knife in.”

And Yara Greyjoy’s lines. She surprisingly remains completely loyal to Daenerys, despite the fact that she massacred the entire city for no reason:

Yara Greyjoy: I swore to follow Daenerys Targaryen.

Sansa Stark: You swore to follow a tyrant.

Yara Greyjoy: She freed us from a tyrant. Cersei is gone because of her, and Jon Snow put a knife in her heart. Let the Unsullied give him what he deserves.

This kind of conversation only seems plausible if they are discussing Daenerys taking out Cersei after she had surrendered and killing human shields in the process, something I can see Yara completely defending- since she was always in favor of attacking King’s Landing as seen during her war counsel scenes in Season 7.

There is also the Emilia Clarke quote in the behind the scenes video HBO put out after the episode where she explains that Dany was targeting Cersei herself:

Emilia Clarke: “It’s just... grief. It’s hurt. And she has this ability to make that hurt a little bit less just for a minute. And here she is, sitting on this ridge and there’s the emotion and there’s the feeling and the feeling is to fucking kill her.”

Note that she does not say “the feeling is to fucking massacre the city,” or “the feeling is to target innocent civilians.” She says “the feeling is to kill her” as in Cersei Lannister- who is responsible for the death of her dragon and Missandei- and who massacred countless innocents herself when she blew up the goddamn sept lol.

Not to mention all of the set up lines between Cersei, Tyrion, and Varys about Cersei using “human shields” which never came to fruition in the final edit, now make complete sense:

Cersei: Keep the gates open. If she wants to take the castle she’ll have to murder thousands of innocents first.

Varys: Tens of thousands of innocents will die. That is why Cersei is bringing them into the Red Keep

And yet, lol, we never actually SEE Daenerys attacking the Red Keep. We never see innocent civilians inside the Red Keep. We only see civilians being massacred in the streets.

I also remember people who had seen the post Season 8 Game of Thrones Live Concert saying that Ramin switched to footage of the other wildfire scenes in past Game of Thrones seasons during his Bells sequence, instead of showing the massacre of innocent civilians by dragon fire. I use to think he did that because Daenerys was his favorite character. But given what we now know about the original ending, he probably chose to show the wildfire scenes because that was what he had specifically written music for before it was changed- the destruction of Kings Landing by wildfire.

I really wish they had kept the original script the way it was. It still would have been an incredibly controversial ending. Daenerys still goes after soldiers and a Queen who is surrendering- and that action unintentionally leads to the destruction of the entire city. Jon Snow still assassinates his lover and betrays one part of his family for the other. But, it would have at least made logical sense. People would have gone back and forth over whether it was in character or whether it was a good ending. But it would have been something people would be able to actually debate on an intellectual level- the way we debate Daenerys crucifying the slavers (who themselves crucified children) or Jon Snow executing Olly... It is a very grey and tragic ending with a lot of moral questions. It still might have gone over like a lead balloon. But... the ending we have is so much worst because it’s nonsensical.

The only reason I can think that they changed it was to make Jon and Tyrion appear less morally grey for plotting Daenerys’ assassination. They probably knew that the ending would be very problematic and were trying to smooth that over by turning Daenerys into a super villain. Yet they did this too late in the process after already showing Daenerys to be heroic in fighting with the north and then having Emilia Clarke finish her filming still believing she was playing a complex and at times ruthless character but not “mad” or “evil.” And then, there is also the intensely problematic issue with them conflating mental illness with mass murdering super villain. Even if it had been clear throughout the entire season that Daenerys was losing her grip on reality and becoming more and more mentally unstable, it still would have been incredibly controversial and I am not entirely sure it would have made the men look any better anyway.

Even though it is tragic af, at least with the original wildfire ending, all of the characters are incredibly complex and morally grey and you can understand the motivations for everything they do, even if you don’t agree with them. For example, if Daenerys attacks Cersei after she surrendered, it is wrong, but it is also completely understandable. And in my opinion, it’s even more understandable when you remember that Cersei cannot be trusted. She can’t be trusted to send her armies to the north- why should Daenerys trust her to surrender in good faith? This kind of ending would also have said something very powerful about unintended consequences. Even though Daenerys did not intend for so many people to die needlessly, they did because war is horrific. And that message becomes even more powerful if her motivations are understandable. But yeah, this kind of ending would have still been hated and debated but... at least the debates would have been more about the story itself rather than everyone trying (and failing) to make sense of what the story even is.

[divulgacion-alternativa]

Ben Ful Links - February 22/2021

Weekly Geo-Political News and Analysis

Benjamin Fulford. February 22, 2021

Massive March Campaign Planned Against Global Idiocracy

Source: benjaminfulford.net

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Ben Ful Links - February 22/2021:

For example, the peer-reviewed scientific report sent to us by British and French intelligence says:

“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on August 23, 2020, ‘For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned.  For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.’”

(Science, Public Health Policy and the Law Volume 2:4 October 12,2020) https://jdfor2020.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/adf864_165a103206974fdbb14ada6bf8af1541.pdf

Here, for example, is a link to a scientific report admitting CRISPR is used in “Covid-19” vaccines. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7469881/

The Cabal’s state actors are now under increasing attack for their criminal activities.  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told puppet President Biden off last Wednesday after China Joe instructed him to shut down the state because of the fake Pandemic.  Speaking to vaccine czar Dr. Anthony Faustus DeSantis asked, “How much do you stand to earn from these vaccines, Dr. Fauci?”  He then added, “And, Joe, if you continue with this course of action, I will authorize the state National Guard to protect the movement of Floridians.”  When Biden replied, “Address me as Mr. President or President Biden,” DeSantis replied “I will not, and you can go fuck yourself,” before hanging up. https://realrawnews.com/2021/02/gov-desantis-tells-biden-go-fuck-yourself/

The situation on the ground is now so dire that, in just one example, a new survey by the NYC Hospitality Alliance reveals that 92 percent of New York restaurants couldn’t afford to pay December rent. https://thenycalliance.org/information/december-2020-rent-report

Also even to corporate propaganda media is starting to revolt against their fake narratives.  For example, in an appearance on MSNBC, White House COVID adviser Andy Slavitt said the fact that Covid infection patterns were identical in no lockdown Florida and hyper-lockdown California was “a little bit beyond our explanation.” https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/watch-biden-adviser-struggles-explain-similar-covid-numbers-ca-fl-despite-opposite

The Cabal is now desperately dialing down the fake pandemic as reality becomes impossible for them to deny any longer.  That is why they are reporting a huge drop in “Covid” cases and propaganda news articles are now saying the entire “pandemic” could be over by April. http://www.battleforworld.com/2020/08/01/covid-19-where-does-it-end/#CovidCasesDrop

https://www.statista.com/chart/22067/daily-new-cases-by-world-region/

Of course, we must never underestimate these criminals because they have literally thousands of years of experience in herding humans as if they were livestock.  The attack on Texas -which involved deliberately shutting down their power grid in the middle of a cold snap- is one example.  This came after Texas Congressman Ron Wright “died of Covid-19,” and as an election for his replacement looms, the corporate propaganda media is full of articles criticizing the Texas establishment for “mishandling,” its energy grid. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/17/texas-shows-that-when-you-cannot-govern-you-lie-lot/

Now, NSA sources are telling us the next thing the criminal regime is planning is food shortages. The NSA notes:

1) Small farms shutting down world-wide.

2) Over 1,000 ships off our coast with food as the FDA keeps them out at sea; allowing the food to rot,

3) China is outbidding everyone for food worldwide as their crops fail,

4) This NASA-created freeze is not allowing food shipments across the nations; USA, Europe, etc.

Furthermore, the NSA notes railroads are sitting idle so trucks must pick up the slack meaning shipping costs went from $1,000 per container to $10,000 per container from Seattle to Chicago.  They note the same trouble in Japan as ports need constant upgrades due to shaking.  To top things off, they say “Biden is shipping USA Grain Reserves to China again.” https://news.yahoo.com/world-pay-more-meat-food-050000496.html

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/amid-soaring-food-prices-kraft-heinz-conagra-brands-set-raise-prices

The cabal has also been tearing down power substations in the U.S. for years “so a 3-hour power outage becomes a 3-week power outage,” the sources note.  They say what happened in Texas was “just a foretaste.” https://www.revolver.news/2021/02/texass-power-grid-disaster-is-only-the-beginning/

In addition to economic sabotage, the Cabal is now promoting multiple space missions to gather money. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9273375/Seven-minutes-terror-NASAs-Perseverance-land-Mars-TODAY.html

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/worldnews/14089099/russia-china-sign-historic-deal-build-first-moon-base/

Now let us look at a recent snapshot of some of the moronic policies the Cabal is trying to impose on the world.  For one thing, they are still harping endlessly about Iran and its so-called “nuclear bomb.”  Here for example is a Mossad linked Debka comment saying “the blank wall reached by President Joe Biden’s policy for re-engaging Iran in nuclear diplomacy is that his advisers could not get together on a strategy for stalling its progress towards a bomb.”  This is the same BS they have been repeated endlessly for over 30 years. https://www.debka.com/are-bidens-moves-for-nuclear-diplomacy-with-iran-stuck-in-the-sand/

Of course, if you take a look at Iranian leaders wearing their sheep masks, you can tell Iran is also just a cabal colony playing their role in trying to get us all to kill each other in WWIII.  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/white-house-signals-iran-its-ready-eu-sponsored-talks-major-nuke-deal-breakthrough

In Israel meanwhile, the sheeple there are now being given the mark of the beast vaccination certificates that allow them to go shopping, etc.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-re-opens-further-with-green-pass-for-vaccinated/ar-BB1dSlf1

And then we have German Chancellor Angela Hitler saying, “the pandemic is not over until all people in the world have been vaccinated.” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-politics-g7-merkel-idUSKBN2AJ1WG

Of course, any nations opposed to this are “rogue nations,” opposed to a “rules-based world order,” which is why NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, “China and Russia are trying to re-write the rules of the road to benefit their own interests.” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-security-nato-idUSKBN2AJ24G

The Pentagon is on board with the plan to occupy Israel and so are the Russians.  “Russia is the last island of freedom,” State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said recently adding, “Do you see what’s happening in the United States of America?  The country is dying, everything has been canceled out.” https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/02/17/russia-is-the-worlds-last-island-of-freedom-parliament-speaker-says-a72995

Several targets have been outlined for the spring offensive against the cabal.  In addition to Israel, any world leader pushing for Covid-19 vaccines has to be removed ASAP.  These include Boris Johnson of the UK, Justin Castro of Canada, Angela Hitler of Germany, Joe CG Biden of the U.S. etc.

Removing Justin Castro in Canada is a high priority because it will allow Canadian troops to join their compatriots in states like Texas and Florida to fight against the Khazarian mafia strongholds like California and New York.  https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/14-5m-canadians-to-be-immunized-by-june-updated-vaccination-timeline-shows-1.5314048

Also, Google and Facebook were created with taxpayer money and then given to private individuals.  They are now taking over power from elected governments and must be nationalized.  “Freedom of speech is not something that anonymous moderators working for private companies should decide,” Deputy Polish Justice Minister Sebastian Kaleta said recently.  “Instead, that is for the national body; duly elected officials,” he added.   https://www.foxnews.com/world/poland-fights-big-tech-push-block-social-media-censorship?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-foxnews&utm_content=later-14580965&utm_medium=social&utm_source=instagram

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-admin-working-directly-big-tech-crush-vaccine-dissent

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[ssnakey-b]

Okay, this isn’t the sort of content I’d normally post on the blog, if only because I know better than to discuss controversial topics on Tumblr, but I feel this needs to be seen by as much people as possible. Now, the topic is about a video game, but this shit would be abhorrent no matter what or who the target were.

In short, a fear-mongering “news” channel ran an almost entirely fabricated story about an android game that they declared to be a “variation of Grand Theft Auto”, despite it having nothing to do with GTA or Rockstar Games (the “journalists” don’t even know who Rockstar Games are!) and went on and on about how it’s a game that allow you kill citizens and police in the city of Adelaide, Australia and how it was “too close to reality” for some people.

Oh yeah, you thought this sort of paranoid nonsense died as gaming became more mainstream, first-generation gamers grew up and started having their own families and the public at large became wiser about what video games are? HA HA! NOPE!

Now, without even getting into the absurdity of getting outraged at the fictional violence being portrayed in real settings (don’t tell these people about the Die Hard or Purge movies), or the absurdity of getting outraged at fictional violence at all, what these people did can only be described as wretched:

- They took an early, pre-alpha build of the game dating back to 2013 that they found on a random forum post and completely represents what the current version of the (still unreleased) game is like, meaning that’s not even a real game;

- They showed footage of it to random passers-by so they could have a few shots of middle-aged people acting indignant. This, by the way, is the extent of the “outrage” they are reporting on. It was entirely fabricated and stirred up by them, as the only people who had ever heard of this game up to that point was the few members of that forum. I can only presumed they did that because they’re not tech-savvy enough to post random tweets of people being offended, the modern way to pretend a made-up outrage is a bigger deal than it is;

- they spliced in some GTA footage modded to include Australian police (of course without mentioning that they’re from a different game or that the content was modified) to make people who don’t know any better think it’s the same game;

- they straight-up lied on multiple occasions, including claiming that the developers did not reply to requests for comments. He did, and of course they didn’t publish that. Ironically, THEY have failed to answer any of the multiple requests Jim Sterling sent their way for comments on their vignette;

- but the most nauseating part, was them exploiting terrorism, by drawing a connection between this and London bombings. Of course, said connection boils down to them saying “this game exists. Terrorism exists too. COINCIDENCE?!!”. I especially love how they say this footage was found days after a terror attack in England despite, again, the build they’re showcasing being 4 years old at the time of the report.

That last part is truly unforgivable to me. How pedantic moral guardians can keep convincing themselves that they are some sort of keepers of decency while they themselves exploit real tragedies, defame people, lie to the public in ways that can have very strong and long-lasting effects as it’s actively trying to hurt someone’s reputation (and indeed it has had such effects on the dev), and overall incite hatred, is beyond me.

And again, I can’t stress this enough, but the game as they describe it doesn’t exist, the outrage they report on doesn’t exist, the police investigation they claim is going on doesn’t exist, the footage they inserted is irrelevant, as are the references to terrorism. They created this entire thing from scratch. This is as close to literal fake news as we can have

To make matters worse, the developer of the game reached out to 9news, pointing out that the current version of the game is nothing like the footage they have shown (he abandoned the violent material entirely and is now focusing on creating the most accurate recreation of Adelaide possible for people to simply walk around and drive in) and they refused to use footage from that and according to the dev, they flat-out said that they wanted to make the game as unappealing as possible.

And here’s the thing, it’s an indy game still under development here. It’s very low-key, and it already had horrible consequences, but if these people are willing to do this to a random person for no reason, they can and will do this to far more people, they’ll keep inventing outrages and assassinate people’s characters, all to make a quick buck off sensationalist horseshit. You or people you love could be next.

I honestly hesitate to call this sort of people journalists. The world needs journalists, as in people informing the masses about major events that could affect their lives and that of everyone around them. People who expose facts that society would have remained unaware of if it weren’t for them. People who risk their own lives so everyone else can know the truth about what goes on thousands of miles away from them. THOSE are journalists. And they are fucking heroes.

But the people at 9news and their ilk, they’re not journalists. At best, they’re lobbyists. They don’t report news. They don’t even report facts. They corrupt their medium by instead using it to spread lies and push their own agenda, and they don’t give a fuck who gets hurt in the process. At a time when terrorism can hit at any moment, Nazis are creeping back into the political spectrum, social freedoms are being set back decades and a White supremacist sex offender who usurped power thanks to a massively anti-democratic loophole has the power to launch nukes, these shitheads have decided that the best use of their status was to lie to the public for their own petty interests.

[cwdcshows]

The Flash - S6 E10 - Marathon

Man, the recap for this episode is all of the reasons they should have started the seasons on each of the shows with Crisis; it feels like forever since any of this other shit happened and I barely remember or care about any of it. So wait, Jitters is celebrating the crisis being over - but how?  No one remembers Crisis except those at the dawn of time or their memories being restored by J'Onn. I mean, there'd probably be at least $100 in the til at the start of the day, right?  Not much, but how much cash does this tiny coffee shop do in one day otherwise?  It's not like anyone robbing it would be walking off with tens of thousand of dollars or anything; they could maybe make off with a grand tops.  Plus, they say they've "just opened," but clearly some people have ordered and presumably paid, unless the employee is handing out freebies to the first dozen customers.

Yeah, dipshit, you're robbing a coffee shop in the town where the Flash lives and works, what the hell did you think was going to happen? Ah, yes, Iris' new oh so important news article.  Where to start?  A) Flash didn't disappear during crisis, at least as far as anyone else was aware.  Sure he ended up at Vanishing Point for a while, but that was after Earth 1 was gone; and at no other point was there really any noticeable absence of the Flash to go with the original concept that he vanished during Crisis or need to specify his return, since he didn't really go anywhere.  B) Once again, no one is supposed to remember that Crisis happened, unless they're now referring to the moment the Anti-monitor attacked for all of two minutes and got taken down by some handguns and a shrink bomb.  And C) Flash saves the day?  Flash.  Well, I guess fuck you, Oliver.... Diggle!  ....Eh.... Sorry man, I know Oliver would be all smiles about seeing you, but it feels a little soon after you series ended for you to pop up in a show a week later.   And is it right after the finale episode or sometime during that transitional period?  Because he's talking about still packing boxes and getting ready to move and I was under the impression that he had finished with that by the end of the episode, but maybe not.  More importantly, is this before or after his encounter with an ominous green glowing object that may or may not have been a power ring? This is the second mention of Diggle moving to Metropolis, is this supposed to be setting up John being part of the new Superman series? Augh, and here we go with Barry tilting at windmills, because there's genuinely nothing better to do...   Seeing as how they reminded us of the other two employees at Iris' paper working together, obviously this episode is going to focus more on them than Barry. Wait, if a prototype and an employee go missing at the same time and someone says the missing employee's background looks fishy, why the fuck wouldn't you believe him?  Just the fact that they both went missing at the same time is suspicious; and if there's any proof to further warrant that suspicion, why wouldn't you at least entertain the notion? What?  How is this fucking "reporter territory?" and is there nothing in between Joe sitting around with his thumb up his ass and launching a fucking Rico investigation?  There are legitimate crimes being committed that they could be investigating in their own right; and if in the course of that investigation they find enough proof of conspiracy, you apply the necessary resources. To Cecile's point, if they don't have enough evidence for the police to move forward with, it seems kind of irresponsible for a newspaper to start printing something that is at least partly speculation.  I mean, they'll more than likely turn out completely right about every assumption they've made, based on the least amount of evidence, but that's more due to lazy writing for the series.  In any other circumstance there's every possibility that they might get at least some details wrong.   How is this magic gun shooting through the outside of the office without first damaging the exterior wall of the office....? Is Cisco still Vibe?  They made a big deal about the Monitor making Cisco Vibe again during Crisis, but they they didn't even seem to need his powers during Crisis, or barely used them if they did; and since he wasn't at the dawn of time either and is therefore a version of Cisco who never physically lived through Crisis, he shouldn't have his powers.... God, Crisis is the cluster fuck that keeps on giving.  It's become the herpes of crossovers. Why is Nash?  I know that's not really much of a sentence, let alone a questions; and yet it pretty much sums up everything that crosses my mind when he's on the screen.  Why is this the version of Wells they're going with now?  Why is he going to be permanent Wells they go with, en lieu of a multiverse from which to plumb the infinite depths of others Wells?  Why couldn't it have been Harry?  A version of Wells already established, that the audience likes and has a rapport with the other characters that can be friendly, but still abrasive?  What is the point of any of this?  He wasn't even at the Dawn of time and shouldn't exist post-reboot. Why is Nash? How exactly did Nash becoming Pariah accomplish anything for his atonement?  They did even less with that than Cisco becoming Vibe again. But for that matter, does Nash really deserve the level of blame he's gotten?  He was doing what Oliver was basically trying to do; and to some degree the Flash too.  Oliver was at a point where he was determined to undermined the Monitor and find a way to stop him to prevent Crisis; and while Barry wasn't quite as active about it, he wasn't exactly against the idea - none of them were.  And the fact that most of the characters knew that Crisis was happening before  it was supposedly triggered by Nash opening the vault or whatever it was, kind of makes it a paradox that might have been unavoidable. This again is where it would have made more sense for Harry to be responsible for awakening the Anti-Monitor through some experimental work he was doing; and then trying to find a way to rectify his mistake, but all this bullshit putting the blame on Nash - who only really has memories of doing these things, since he technically didn't physically experience them, since Crisis never happened.  Which there again, "Nash" Wells shouldn't exist on this Earth, because in a timeline where there is no multiverse and Crisis never actually happened, there'd be no Nash Wells.  If anything Nash should have died during Crisis and have the discover that in this reset reality the real Harrison Wells is alive and wells. Or Harry. So Harry and Jesse are effectively dead and apart from Cisco casually throwing that out there, it doesn't seem like anyone on the show actually cares. How does a hologram from a version of Harrison Wells who in this new timeline never existed....exist....? Seriously, how long after the attack did it finally occur to Iris that the attack happened shortly after she confronted that CEO? "I never miss twice." I mean, except you did.... You missed Iris in her office and again later in the parking garage..... So they're going to wrap up this elaborate conspiracy theory and meta-cabal or whatever after an episode an a half, split up between a bunch of other bullshit and like 3 or 4 months of a gap since the last time this was brought up?  They're not going to do anything else with? *sigh* So is Frost basically immortal or damn near close to it? Oh for fuck sake, make up your mind.  When Cisco and Caitlin talked about how Cisco had been given his powers back again, I took that to mean he did still in fact have his powers; and that he was having difficulty working out whether to get rid of them again or keep them.  Now he's saying he doesn't have his powers, so when did he lose them or?  Or did the reboot of the universe mean he never got them back and he just remembers getting them back? I called Cisco leaving, but the way they're doing it is kind of open ended and ambiguous as to whether he's actually going to be gone gone or if he's just sort of less involved and we occasionally see him for an update on his research or something, like how he spent time away last season to work on the meta-human cure.  Given the preview for this episode shown the previous week, I had the impression that one of the characters had been erased from history and that it would turn out to be Cisco and they'd explore what that might mean for him, but that's clearly not the case here with Cisco.  And I'm starting to think it's going to turn out Ralph was erased from history, seeing as we haven't seen him or anyone mention him; so I'm expecting him to pop-up at the end of the episode and everyone be like, "Oh, yeah.....we forgot you exist...." Why would anyone go to the trouble naming a door the mirror inverse of their wife's name?  I mean, I suppose it helps reversed it looks like a room number, but it's kind of like making your password "password" when it comes to subtlety when hiding shady shit; plus they continued the convention by numbering the other doors using the same convention.  So what, the big bad CEO said, "I'm going to hide something in this random room in the middle of the hallway that has something to do with my wife.  And because it has to do with my wife, I'm going label it using her name, but reversed; because her name in a mirror is AV3.  So name the doors before it AV2 and 1 and doors after it AV4 and so on." "Uh sir, what if that room hadn't been the 3rd door?" "Fuck you, that's what." And don't you just love how for no fucking reason Iris took notice of this other door that as far as she or anyone else could tell, was just another door along that hallway?  And she ties it all together with the random last breath comment by her informant about "mirror" which of course is going to turn out to be completely unrelated to the door number. It could have been the fucking broom closet for all she knew, but no, she has a reporter sense or some bullshit, so not only she immediately right about the elaborate conspiracy she's uncovered on the first guess with the least amount of evidence, she's God damn prescient. Wait, she just happened to have that little dodad she found on the dead guy months ago on her?  That thing looked like a fancy button off a coat or something, what would give her the idea that she could use it as some sort of magic key?

[selkiewife]

I know i’m late on this but I wanted to talk about The Dragon Demands videos based on the Game of Thrones Season 8 blue ray commentary and the original archived scripts for Game of Thrones, Season 8. 

Basically, YouTuber, The Dragon Demands went to the Writer’s Guild Library where he was able to see the archived scripts of Season 8 of Game of Thrones. Both the archive scripts and commentary on the blue ray confirms that most of the destruction in King’s Landing was originally supposed to be caused by the caches of wild fire left by Aerys being accidentally set off by Drogon and not because Daenerys herself “went mad.” The script says that civilians being used as human shields are caught in the crossfire as Daenerys is targeting Lannister soldiers in a strategical maneuver right before she heads to the Red Keep to enact revenge on Cersei. However, Daenerys is never described as specifically targeting innocent civilians needlessly. 

My thoughts under the cut:

I have to say, that this makes me feel slightly better in a strange way. I mean, it doesn’t erase the bad writing, the ridiculous way the war against the white walkers ended, the misogyny, the inconsistency, etc etc ETC... but this crucial plot point was the one I just couldn’t let go of because it was just baffling to me. With other controversial plot points, I would disagree with them, but I could at least understand what they were going for and what the motivations of the characters were. But Daenerys turning on innocent civilians was truly baffling to me because it comes out of nowhere, is entirely out of character, her motivations are incredibly unclear, and was not set up at all. But with all the fandom discourse, I had really started to think that maybe I am lacking comprehension skills or something. But no, there is actually a reason it made no sense. The “madness” plot line was added later. Emilia Clarke was never given the opportunity to portray Daenerys as mentally unstable. Emilia was portraying grief and revenge on Cersei (as the original script and directors told her to do) in contrast to D&D’s final editing which was portraying the “mad queen.” No wonder it came across as completely false and bewildering- before we even get into the discussion of whether or not this is in character or not.

I think this is definitely more than just a theory that the script was changed pretty late in development because of all the evidence- it is confirmed by Emilia’s commentary, the Visual Effects team member’s commentary, and also the original concept art. But even if there wasn’t all that evidence, there is also the fact that the original ending makes so many other confusing things in Season 8 suddenly make SENSE. 

For example, when Jon confronts Daenerys in the throne room and he talks about the women and children that were burned, Daenerys responds with “She used their innocence as a weapon against me.” Which makes total sense for Daenerys to say if she thinks she is talking about civilians that were used as human shields that died in the crossfire. But it doesn’t make any sense if she carpet bombed the city- although it does make her seem delusional, which is probably why Dave and Dan kept those lines in- hoping it would make her appear “mad,” since Emilia was never actually given the opportunity to portray Daenerys as mentally unstable.

There is also the scene where Jon asks Tyrion, “Was it right?” to assassinate Daenerys and Tyrion responds, “Ask me again in ten years.” There is really no reason for them to have that dialogue if Daenerys really did target and massacre innocent civilians. That is the kind of dialogue they would have if they were discussing someone who had done something more morally ambiguous. 

Then there are the lines that are out of place in the final version but that would have made complete sense in the original wild fire version, such as Jon saying “now and always” as he stabs Daenerys. “Now and always” as any Theon fan will tell you, is a phrase that belongs to Theon and Robb and what they said to each other when Theon was pledging loyalty to Robb. Having Jon say this to Dany as he is killing Daenerys represents the ultimate betrayal but also calls back to Theon’s struggle and how difficult it is to chose between loyalties- between families. In this case, Jon is choosing the Starks over the Targaryens. Kit Harrington even says that this is motivation in an interview he gave with winteriscoming.net. But given the fact that in the final edit, Daenerys massacred innocent children and civilians on purpose, Kit’s motivation for Jon seems like a relic of an earlier script: 

Kit Harrington: “Jon essentially sees it as Daenerys or Sansa and Arya, and that makes his mind up for him. He choose blood over, well, his other blood. But he chooses the people he has grown up with, the people his roots are with, the North. That’s where his loyalties lie in the end. That’s when he puts the knife in.”

And Yara Greyjoy’s lines. She surprisingly remains completely loyal to Daenerys, despite the fact that she massacred the entire city for no reason:

Yara Greyjoy: I swore to follow Daenerys Targaryen. 

Sansa Stark: You swore to follow a tyrant. 

Yara Greyjoy: She freed us from a tyrant. Cersei is gone because of her, and Jon Snow put a knife in her heart. Let the Unsullied give him what he deserves. 

This kind of conversation only seems plausible if they are discussing Daenerys taking out Cersei after she had surrendered and killing human shields in the process, something I can see Yara completely defending- since she was always in favor of attacking King’s Landing as seen during her war counsel scenes in Season 7. 

There is also the Emilia Clarke quote in the behind the scenes video HBO put out after the episode where she explains that Dany was targeting Cersei herself:

Emilia Clarke: “It’s just... grief. It’s hurt. And she has this ability to make that hurt a little bit less just for a minute. And here she is, sitting on this ridge and there’s the emotion and there’s the feeling and the feeling is to fucking kill her.”

Note that she does not say “the feeling is to fucking massacre the city,” or “the feeling is to target innocent civilians.” She says “the feeling is to kill her” as in Cersei Lannister- who is responsible for the death of her dragon and Missandei- and who massacred countless innocents herself when she blew up the goddamn sept lol. 

Not to mention all of the set up lines between Cersei, Tyrion, and Varys about Cersei using “human shields” which never came to fruition in the final edit, now make complete sense:

Cersei: Keep the gates open. If she wants to take the castle she’ll have to murder thousands of innocents first.

Varys: Tens of thousands of innocents will die. That is why Cersei is bringing them into the Red Keep

And yet, lol, we never actually SEE Daenerys attacking the Red Keep. We never see innocent civilians inside the Red Keep. We only see civilians being massacred in the streets. 

I also remember people who had seen the post Season 8 Game of Thrones Live Concert saying that Ramin switched to footage of the other wildfire scenes in past Game of Thrones seasons during his Bells sequence, instead of showing the massacre of innocent civilians by dragon fire. I use to think he did that because Daenerys was his favorite character. But given what we now know about the original ending, he probably chose to show the wildfire scenes because that was what he had specifically written music for before it was changed- the destruction of Kings Landing by wildfire.

I really wish they had kept the original script the way it was. It still would have been an incredibly controversial ending. Daenerys still goes after soldiers and a Queen who is surrendering- and that action unintentionally leads to the destruction of the entire city. Jon Snow still assassinates his lover and betrays one part of his family for the other. But, it would have at least made logical sense. People would have gone back and forth over whether it was in character or whether it was a good ending. But it would have been something people would be able to actually debate on an intellectual level- the way we debate Daenerys crucifying the slavers (who themselves crucified children) or Jon Snow executing Olly... It is a very grey and tragic ending with a lot of moral questions. It still might have gone over like a lead balloon. But... the ending we have is so much worst because it’s nonsensical.

The only reason I can think that they changed it was to make Jon and Tyrion appear less morally grey for plotting Daenerys’ assassination. They probably knew that the ending would be very problematic and were trying to smooth that over by turning Daenerys into a super villain. Yet they did this too late in the process after already showing Daenerys to be heroic in fighting with the north and then having Emilia Clarke finish her filming still believing she was playing a complex and at times ruthless character but not “mad” or “evil.” And then, there is also the intensely problematic issue with them conflating mental illness with mass murdering super villain. Even if it had been clear throughout the entire season that Daenerys was losing her grip on reality and becoming more and more mentally unstable, it still would have been incredibly controversial and I am not entirely sure it would have made the men look any better anyway.

Even though it is tragic as fuck, at least with the original wildfire ending, all of the characters are incredibly complex and morally grey and you can understand the motivations for everything they do, even if you don’t agree with them. For example, if Daenerys attacks Cersei after she surrendered, it is wrong, but it is also completely understandable. And in my opinion, it’s even more understandable when you remember that Cersei cannot be trusted. She can’t be trusted to send her armies to the north- why should Daenerys trust her to surrender in good faith? This kind of ending would also have said something very powerful about unintended consequences. Even though Daenerys did not intend for so many people to die needlessly, they did because war is horrific. And that message becomes even more powerful if her motivations are understandable. But yeah, this kind of ending would have still been hated and debated but... at least the debates would have been more about the story itself rather than everyone trying (and failing) to make sense of what the fuck the story even is.