Mercalius

He had started - I dunno the best way to put it - becoming a parody of himself for awhile. He was always contentious and a bit controversial but every so often he’d take part in some meaningful discussion. That had started becoming more rare in his last couple years here. Instead it was basically all just self-congratulatory, usually outlandish takes on things to the point even those that were kinda his buddies were put off by him. It was a gradual decline at first that turned into an avalanche at the end. I will say the ribbing he got at first when he posted the pictures wasn’t that bad. But he made it get bad by being overly defensive and trying to “own” the haters. Once there was real blood in the water it was over for him.

Wait yeah you’re right. Didn’t CMJ start the whole thing off by posting that pic of him on the hammock?

From my understanding he (or he had someone else) delete all of his posts after he decided it was time to call it a day here. I think a few folks screen capped some of it, or at least saved some of the pics he posted. Granted this was a couple of years ago so some of the stuff that was saved could be lost by now. But it absolutely happened. Many here will vouch for that. The gist of it was this: CTF had presented himself here for two decades as this (basically I think) retired, super handsome, very wealthy guy who had some very strong opinions on certain things. He prided himself on his wealthy lifestyle, superior intellect, and basically having it made compared to most of the plebes here. He was a HUGE proponent of pot. Like, imagine the Joe Rogan DMT meme but apply it to weed. That was CTF. He worked it into every conversation. He had some other strong opinions that were kinda out there (namely debt is a better reflection of wealth than savings, etc). He’d argue tooth and nail over his assertions then kinda do the typical thing of LOLing at other posters who disagreed with him because he was rich, getting high on the reg, and better looking than everyone here. His forum handle was “Powerful and attractive” anyway he got into a debate with folks over the benefits of pot - how it actually made one smarter than non smokers. It went back and forth with him not waivering that weed actually made him more intelligent than everyone else. It wasn’t shtick. He believed it. To prove his point he finally posted some real life pictures. It started with him taking a selfie and including the wrong date. People laughed at the self ownage. He doubled down by posting more selfies of his lavish lifestyle to rub it other folks faces - with his luxury vehicle and golf equipment. In doing so, it was revealed he wasn’t in the best physical shape and also given the possessions shown, very likely not as wealthy as he had claimed for the better part of two decades. He got made fun of yet again. And he tripled down with more pictures - all of them slowly revealing the charade he’d been presenting himself as to all of us on the forums. The masses weren’t kind. He went nuclear and raged and made it worse. And basically revealed he’d been strong armed out of his own family business because he was too immature/irresponsible to be trusted with it and was living on an allowance. The piling on didn’t stop. He had become a meme. And his ego couldn’t take it, so he finally just Thanos’d himself. It was ugly.

It was pretty brutal. People were offering life-lines and he just kept digging himself deeper. I don’t know how many on here are/were RL friends with him, but I know several (probably you included) were decent enough friends with him at some point, or at least acquaintances since y’all bumped heads every so often, but watching him punch himself out while several were at least willing to let it go if he’d just drop it was something to behold. He and I spatted a lot over the years, especially early, but that smoke had mostly cleared out. But even with whatever leftover grudge I may have held, it was too savage to even get involved. He had outs, and even some allies, if he’d have just humbled himself for a microsecond. 15ish years of residency on the board, people he’d interacted with daily for nearly two decades, Hell he was even one of the rallying voices to help unify everyone when the board switch was happening. Love him or hate him, he had clout and at least some portion of respect from a lot of posters here. And he just...nuked himself out of existence to the surprise and laughter of everyone watching that thread unfold. Honestly I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like a weird mix of Bruce Willis finding out he was dead the whole time (but somehow not believing it) and someone being exposed as Catfishing themselves - all the while the audience LOL’s at them and pelts them with eggs. It was something to behold.

Like when Jon was named Commander of the Nightwatch or Jon or Rob was named King of the North? Those scenes were great. Not the cringe fest that was last night. Tyrion, the prisoner, very likely hated or barely tolerated by several in attendance suggests the kid who’s done nothing should get the crown and everyone just goes along with it. He essentially set Jon up to be exiled by begging him to merc Dany, had Varys killed when he was right all along (then committed treason himself ten minutes later) and gets rewarded by being the Hand again by suggesting the kid who likely saw all this death and betrayal coming should get to rule the land. It’s dumb. And Tyrion was/is my favorite character. The decision making in the moment doesn’t mix with any form of logic and the dialogue/presentation was forced to fuel an ending without any semblance or organic transition. Those earlier scenes where folks were chosen as leaders worked because they had just accomplished great things or it made sense in the flow of the narrative. This literally felt like they drew a name out of a hat. Why was he the best choice? Because he’s a Stark? So is Sansa. So is Arya. So is Jon, kinda. Because he’s a male? He very likely can’t reproduce due to his accident. So traditional hierarchal rules are basically out the window. Its because hes “magic”. They just didn’t want to make it seem that simple and cliched so they had the hammy justification as to why he should be the ruler. And in the same argument to prop him up it destroys his kingliness because we have to (at minimum) assume he knew about the coming catastrophes and his first cousin taking the fall for a necessary assassination and doing nothing about them nor showing any true remorse about him having to be inactive in their occurrences. Which is also bullshit because as we’ve seen with Hodor, Littlefinger, and Jon’s parentage - he uses his knowledge of the past/future plenty of times to manipulate the flow of the story. Its shit. And the more you explore it, the more shit it is.

And that small bit of clarity completely ruins any thoughts about him being a “good” king. Forget his unlikeable writing/acting for the last four seasons. Once the wirings fire and you connect his implications that he’s seen this play out with the fact that we just saw what played out to get him there - he’s a total asshole. “You can’t change the future”....ok, try? Or monologue on why not? Or at least give some reason as to why an entire city full of women/children dying was necessary to get to where you are. You can manipulate the “present” by not denying what Sam discovered in the texts about Jons lineage and puppet-master one boy’s entire life in Hodor but you can’t bend the rules again just a tad to send out a few dozen Ravens with “free steak buffet at the Vale Sizzler” coupons to the peasants to get them to ship out before the purge? He’s a sociopath who only wanted the throne at any cost or it’s shit writing.

He could’ve attempted it. Or told anyone. Or suggested ways around it. This whole omniscient angle is bullshit in the first place let alone when you try to write it in that he’s the solution when terrible things will happen to lead to it. It’s bad storytelling. Unless he’s the big bad? And Tyrion and every other main is an idiot? So, Bran is the necessary king if he’s a psycho and everyone is an idiot? I guess I’m okay with that. It seems to fit the narrative.

Just saw this on a YouTube video but if Bran can see the future (which is implied with his vision of the dragon flying over Kings landing and the line about “why do you think I came all this way” he knowingly let hundreds of thousands of innocents die so he could be the king. Brilliant.

Congrats to D&D for having a once murdered but resurrected character from royal blood from two of the most revered Houses in the lore birthed from a secret wedding, whose union even in secret tore apart the very fabric of the lands’ political and social stability finally do what a write-off wine salesman/assassin would’ve done in season one if it weren’t for a turncoat with a boner of gold.

7 year old thread with nearly 7k comments and the finale ended a little over an hour ago and there’s been like 50-60 comments about it? Basically sums it up. I defended this show for three seasons as the complaints and criticisms piled up hoping they’d nail the landing. I bit my tongue for a long time and focused on the good, as few and far between as it’s been lately, knowing the complaints were correct but still feeling loyalty to what it once was. They just needed an ending I could get behind. Just nail this one thing. It doesn’t have to be a feel good ending. Just make it make sense and bring everything together. Just end it in a way that’s “bittersweet” but logical and rekindles some of the excitement from previous season finales. They didn’t. Clearly. Folks were right to start burning it down. Good luck with fucking up Star Wars worse than it already is. I’m sure they’ll find a way.

I was totally on board until Dany died. Up to that moment - no problem. The second Grey Worm led Tyrion to the council it went off the rails totally and completely and was just like “uh hey....here are most of the important people” *throws darts* “sure, why not?” Jon’s resurrection proved to ultimately lead to an assassination? Whats the importance of his heritage outside of being one of the (several) reasons used to justify said assassination? Bran had no interest in ruling Winterfell yet is totally on board for being the king? Tyrion went from executionee to Hand of the King in 30 seconds yet Jon MUST have some compromise of punishment. Bronn goes from ally to murderous enigma to Master of Coin because lolz whorehouse jokes. Sansa declares her independence and that’s totally fine but everyone else must bend the knee, asserting Stark preferential treatment. But..um, why must Jon fuck off again? For the Ghost and Tormund feel gudz! The Unsullied have two prisoners who’ve committed treason and basically directly overthrown their expectation of hierarchy. Yet they just welcome the allies/friends of these usurpers and are willing to adhere to their decisions all while still maintaining some form of justice be served on one of the prisoners? who cares about the dragon that just obliterated a city? He’s not here so it’s chill. Bran’s got this, supposedly. Bran, whose basically only real “good” deed being that he exposed Littlefinger as a shit head, made the NK more of a threat, and has been a useless, creepy ornament for half a decade is absolutely the best ruler Tyrion can think of! I mean he did sit there all boring as Jon and Sansa inspired/rallied/schemed and ultimately led their houses to improbable victories several times. It makes total sense why all the other Lords and leaders of their houses who’ve seen this would just get behind him like that. And Grey Worm? He was seeking justice for Jon and Tyrion? So convenient his justice was sailing off to mourn his booty call after executing surrendered prisoners when the new regime took over. I’m sure he had tons of leverage to demand that Jon not be pardoned. But the mains got together and made silly jokes at the end! And Jon gets to go back to Ghost! Hooray!

The last hour of this episode felt like fan faction. BAD fan fiction.

Straight fucking garbage.

I’ve been calling her heel turn to my friends for several seasons now. I hit them with a snarky “well who saw that coming” as the shit was going down lol.