Game of Thrones begins....

[Solmyr]

Natalie Dormer is like twice Margaery's age. Not that it makes her bad for the role, but the whole "have people had a chance to sleep with her?" plotline in books 2 to 4 might look weird.

[Gups]

Incidentally, I wonder if anyone has written a critique of SOIAF as an example of "leftist fantasy". If it was a typical (read: more conservative) fantasy, then Ned and Robb would be the heroes - instead they are casualties.

The real heroes, in my view - Daenerys, Jon and Tyrion (with a possible secondary "child" cast of Bran and Arya) are outcasts - an exile (and a woman), a bastard and a cripple. If you want to know who has plot immunity in Martin's books, don't look out for princes, knights and lordlings - they never live. Instead, look out for the "broken things".

A princess and two sons of high lords. Yep, real working class heroes.

[The Minsky Moment]

A princess and two sons of high lords. Yep, real working class heroes.

Exactly.

One bases her claim to authority and power based on heriditary descent from a brutal conqueror, and engages in such hippyish practices as mass retaliatory crucifixtion.

The second is the son of a powerful feudal baron who is raised to the command an army liberally staffed by rapists, after infiltrating the free peoples beyond the wall as a spy and them betraying them.

The third is a scion of the wealthiest man on the continent, who instead of using his wealth and power to help the simple folk, expends it liberally on prostitutes and poorly disciplined mecenaries known for their brutality and lack of respect for the customary laws of war.

[Habbaku]

Sounds pretty leftist to me, though not the kind of left Martinass was thinking about.

[Berkut]

Sounds pretty leftist to me, though not the kind of left Martinass was thinking about.

Oh, it is the kind of leftiness that the kind of leftiness that Marty was thinking about leads to though...

[Tamas]

Let's not forget that what we traditionally call "the left" are, in Europe, the ruling class, the status quo. Really it's time to call them conservative. Enough time has passed for that.

[citizen k]

Let's not forget that what we traditionally call "the left" are, in Europe, the ruling class, the status quo. Really it's time to call them conservative. Enough time has passed for that.

Or reactionaries/revanchists.

[Siege]

Sounds pretty leftist to me, though not the kind of left Martinass was thinking about.

Oh, it is the kind of leftiness that the kind of leftiness that Marty was thinking about leads to though...

This line made me dizzy.

[grumbler]

Let's not forget that what we traditionally call "the left" are, in Europe, the ruling class, the status quo. Really it's time to call them conservative. Enough time has passed for that.

Or reactionaries/revanchists.

Revanchists?  I don't see that.  Can you expand on that idea?

[Martinus]

Let's not forget that what we traditionally call "the left" are, in Europe, the ruling class, the status quo. Really it's time to call them conservative. Enough time has passed for that.

Or reactionaries/revanchists.

Revanchists?  I don't see that.  Can you expand on that idea?

It's probably not going to be useful since he was already expanding on Tamas talking out of his ass again. I fail to see how he could call the European left anywhere as "defending the status quo" or better yet, being the "ruling class". I wonder if he means that leaders of the leftist parties (as leaders of other parties) are professional politicians which makes them the "ruling class" but I don't think even Tamas is so idiotic, so perhaps he meant something else. Or perhaps it was some unique Hungarian perspective, as we know his country is quite fucked up.

[Martinus]

A princess and two sons of high lords. Yep, real working class heroes.

Exactly.

One bases her claim to authority and power based on heriditary descent from a brutal conqueror, and engages in such hippyish practices as mass retaliatory crucifixtion.

The second is the son of a powerful feudal baron who is raised to the command an army liberally staffed by rapists, after infiltrating the free peoples beyond the wall as a spy and them betraying them.

The third is a scion of the wealthiest man on the continent, who instead of using his wealth and power to help the simple folk, expends it liberally on prostitutes and poorly disciplined mecenaries known for their brutality and lack of respect for the customary laws of war.

Lies.

[Tamas]

The welfare state, and the state's relatively heavy involvement in regulating the economy is an unqestionable basic law of existence in almost all European countries, and it is so since many, many decades. "The left" has long ceased to be the grand idea of the opressed, waiting to overthrow the ruling class. It's main ideas are as good as dogmas in ruling the European societies (I am not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, just that this is so), and the only "left vs right" debates are on the extent of the welfare state.
And on wether to stigma jews as "speculators" or "jews"

[Slargos]

Sorry, Marty. You guys are in power now. We are the revolution.

You're the Evil Empire. 

[The Brain]

The Left is retarded and should be ridiculed at every opportunity.

[Martinus]

Sorry, Marty. You guys are in power now. We are the revolution.

You're the Evil Empire. 

Not in Poland. And you are not a revolution - at best you are reactionaries.