#gemleilou

Hope you have a great day & weekend.

@gemleilou Okay, I’m probably going to be shot for this, but I was never a fan of the Dune books. They’re a solid enough read, but it’s basically a space opera that doesn’t bring anything new or interesting to the table 

On top of that, it was written in the sixties, and while it may have a few interesting things to say about class, it also has a big ass White Saviour trope pushing the narrative, and the woman are barely side pieces in the book. 

I wouldn’t rate it a zero, I’d give it a 5 or 6 out of ten for the world building, but I basically run into the same problem with him as I do with Tolkien - they build beautiful worlds but have difficulty imagining the world outside their very white and male viewpoint. 

A little Addendum: I know they’re making a new film of it - and oh my god the cast is so pretty. I’m really hoping they try to interpret the book in a way that makes it less of a white saviour sausagefest but I’m not holding my breath. ,  

I’m curious to see how Rio reacts when he realizes that Beth didn’t technically kill Boomer.

Also, I’m currently theorizing that Rio’s aggressive behavior at the end of the episode is because I think he feels like he’s losing power in his relationship with Beth. 

When he walked into that bathroom, she just wordlessly pulls up the hem of her dress, and he is more than accommodating. Rio is the one usually demanding things from other people, and this woman can control him without a word. Beth is basically telling him that she was always aware that he was into her (because her confidence in that scene was spot on, like she knew he wouldn’t say no), and that he’s only touching her because she wants him to touch her.

And then we go back to the fact he doesn’t look at her throughout the whole encounter. He doesn’t want her to see the gnawing hunger that he has been suppressing since the early days of their acquaintance. This is probably the first time in his recent memory that he can recall wanting something so much that it makes him vulnerable.

Afterwards, I think he realizes how much he wants her and that that longing is turning into a liability. The quickest way to remedy that is to find her, storm the castle, and remind her that he’s part of a criminal enterprise, and that she’d do well to remember that.

So I think Rio’s anger was more him being angry at himself, for letting himself feel something that he knew he shouldn’t and then basically laying it out in the open with Beth in the bathroom.

I still have hope he is pulling a Ned Stark who lasted about 18-19 years with his lie

My favorite thing about the line “You know nothing, Jon Snow” was always that it was sort of ironic. Because, he did know things. He’s a smart guy. Is he brash? Often led by emotions, getting him into Battle of the Bastards situations? Craster’s Keep situations? Sure. Absolutely. But, he’s also a guy who can do things like infiltrate the Wildlings. Join together enemies to fight together against a force they’ve never seen. He knows what to say, how to act in situations that require him to put on a front. He’s not this ever honest, always honorable dude everyone keeps trying to say he is. Just as Ned was not an ever honest, ever honorable dude. They’re willing to take non-honorable actions for an ultimately honorable outcome. 

Yeah, sure. Wikipedia defines a spiritual successor as “A spiritual successor, sometimes called a spiritual sequel, is a successor to a work of fiction which does not build upon the storyline established by a previous work as do most traditional prequels or sequels, yet features many of the same elements, themes, and styles as its source material, thereby resulting in it being related or similar "in spirit" to its predecessor.”