There’s a lot of dubious notions in the way some British liberals/leftists talk about the Falklands (exemplified by the absolute nonsense controversy around the sinking of the General Belgrano, where even the captain of the Argentine ship was baffled at why some people thought it wasn’t a legitimate target), which I…

They even brought up the real reason - she was going to lose the next election and wanted a diversion - but left it hanging.

I feel like Morgan wasn’t expecting Doherty’s Anne to be as big a hit as she was, to the point where there were a bunch of complaints after Season 3 about them skipping over a bunch of stuff that Anne did in that period.  So this season they’ve belatedly started referencing things like her Olympic appearance.

In practical terms they could probably chance it because if they were sued the Duke of York would have to submit to be deposed regarding the veracity of the allegations, and I can’t imagine he cares to do that.  But yeah, it’s a minefield.

I had to laugh at the Cabinet scene where they have Howe suggest that the public won’t tolerate them spending money to defend against an invasion of British territory. It’s hard to imagine any politician (let alone a senior member of the Conservative Party) being dumb enough to view the matter through that lens.

She’s gawking at the festival like it’s an alien landscape.

The Braemar Gathering is a very popular Scottish festival that has been running for several hundred years in various forms, dedicated to traditional athletic activities. Look at the participants and the crowds. She’s sneering at it as unreal and frivolous compared to the city.

The Sith and the Jedi aren’t meant to be balanced, the Sith’s existence is the cause of the imbalance.  Hence why in ROTS when Rey is hearing all the voices of past Jedi, Anakin is urging her to restore balance to the Force like he did (by killing Palpatine).

Damn SPCA, they should have wounded and killed a real stag.

I don’t think it was a coincidence that Morgan had Thatcher have such a dreadfully snobby reaction to the Braemar Gathering, considering how relations between her government and Scotland would eventually go.

Let’s all pause for a moment and remember “Sunny Jim” Callaghan, the first PM to not even get name-checked (a courtesy at least afforded to the uncast Earl of Home).

The show’s first introduction to “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland (or to anything involving Ireland at all, actually) comes via a quick opening montage and then voiceover of the IRA claiming responsibility for Lord Mountbatten’s death as retaliation for “Bloody Sunday”—the 1972 massacre in which British soldiers…

That’s the thing though, per Lucas bringing the Force into balance meant eliminating the Sith entirely (as Vader eventually does by killing the Emperor).

The most annoying thing about the prophecy is that there’s never any explanation about what “bringing balance to the Force” even means.  I recall that at the time I interpreted it as bringing balance by reducing the Jedi to the same size as the Sith (though that raises questions about why the Jedi would think that was…

Reviews of TPM that emphasize the “taxation of trade routes” as a sign that Star Wars had fundamentally miscarried are, to me, seriously missing the mark. The franchise could (already had, if we’re remembering the novels) easily have incorporated more sophisticated plotting and worldbuilding. The problem was that by…

Biden has tons of policies that would benefit the working class.

[citation needed]

That seems more like what you want to be the case than what actually is the case.

Adrenaline and excitement are as much a part of war as the horror, I think. I don’t think it’s contradictory to present both aspects; people will find themselves drawn to certain parts of the text more than others depending on their mood and personality. There’s a passage in George R.R. Martin’s The Sworn Sword that I…

Shakespeare in Love is hardly obscure.