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CatWoman

(79,302 posts)
Tue Jan 1, 2019, 05:26 PM Jan 2019

Watching Game of Thrones Marathon on HBO, and it suddenly hit me

Even The Wall didn't keep the White Walkers out.

I've seen other comparisons about wall ineffectiveness attributed to The Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall -- heck, even Hadrian's Wall.

George R. R. Martin took lessons from history.

I know. I know.

Trump does not have that in him.

But many others do.

21 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Watching Game of Thrones Marathon on HBO, and it suddenly hit me (Original Post) CatWoman Jan 2019 OP
Trump doesn't care who crosses the border JenniferJuniper Jan 2019 #1
Hopefully we won't need an (spoiler alert) Sedona Jan 2019 #2
'You know nothing, Donald Trump' KO_ Stradivarius Jan 2019 #3
He thought ICE was down there and got confused. dameatball Jan 2019 #5
'You know nothing, Donald Trump' CatWoman Jan 2019 #8
LOL CatWoman Jan 2019 #13
Thanks, but Ygritte deserves most of the credit. KO_ Stradivarius Jan 2019 #14
Great observation CatWoman! bronxiteforever Jan 2019 #4
Add dragons to the ways they can cross the wall! ProudLib72 Jan 2019 #6
these $314 boots are made for climbing steel beams: (seriously) IcyPeas Jan 2019 #7
and this one: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" dixiegrrrrl Jan 2019 #9
I'm still pissed at the Night King for killing Viserion CatWoman Jan 2019 #11
I'm watching it too... FarPoint Jan 2019 #10
What a delicious thought -- the caravan with a white walker dragon aikoaiko Jan 2019 #12
Don't forget France's "impenetrable" Maginot Line that was going to stop Hitler in his tracks. VOX Jan 2019 #15
The Maginot line actually did it job NewJeffCT Jan 2019 #17
If the Maginot Line "actually did its job," how did it stop Germany... VOX Jan 2019 #19
The line was there to prevent Germany from directly invading France NewJeffCT Jan 2019 #20
I see what you're saying now. Found an article that elaborates on it. VOX Jan 2019 #21
He took other lessons from history as well NewJeffCT Jan 2019 #16
and I noticed yesterday CatWoman Jan 2019 #18

JenniferJuniper

(4,517 posts)
1. Trump doesn't care who crosses the border
Tue Jan 1, 2019, 05:27 PM
Jan 2019

He'll happily hire them regardless of their status.

He just wants to keep his racist base happy.

Sedona

(3,771 posts)
2. Hopefully we won't need an (spoiler alert)
Tue Jan 1, 2019, 05:30 PM
Jan 2019

undead magic 747 sized dragon to defeat Individual 1's useless wall. I have no idea where to get one.

 

KO_ Stradivarius

(26 posts)
3. 'You know nothing, Donald Trump'
Tue Jan 1, 2019, 05:41 PM
Jan 2019

Actually, it didn't even keep the Wildlings out for very long, even with a giant ice scythe

You can almost bet Trump considered one until he was told it wasn't in the budget
and there isn't any ice on the Southern border.

CatWoman

(79,302 posts)
13. LOL
Wed Jan 2, 2019, 05:37 PM
Jan 2019

Trump is using/ripping off the Game of Thrones in order to push for his stupid sanctions.

I've been using your line in most of those threads.

I had to come back here for proper attribution

ProudLib72

(17,984 posts)
6. Add dragons to the ways they can cross the wall!
Tue Jan 1, 2019, 06:14 PM
Jan 2019

"You have wheels, Mr tRump. We have dragons!"

In all fairness, I would compare the horde of the undead to the deplorables rather than immigrants wanting to cross the border. The White Walkers are kind of like Rush, Hannity, Miller, etc, the ones leading the rabble of barely sentient beings across a frozen wasteland of hate and despair.

IcyPeas

(21,957 posts)
7. these $314 boots are made for climbing steel beams: (seriously)
Tue Jan 1, 2019, 06:20 PM
Jan 2019

it's only a matter of time that someone will come up with something similar to climb donnie's steel slats. suction cups or putty....

https://odditymall.com/column-climber-steel-beam-climbing-tool

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)
9. and this one: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
Tue Jan 1, 2019, 06:52 PM
Jan 2019

spoken by a supposed hero of the Republican Party."Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"


altho to be fair, the White Walkers needed a dragon.

FarPoint

(12,487 posts)
10. I'm watching it too...
Tue Jan 1, 2019, 07:12 PM
Jan 2019

I think it started on HBO last Friday...s Marathon for me...I know almost all the lines....but I watch it again anyways....I got a Christmas present, a gorgeous broach, " Hand to the Queen" pin...just like Tyrion's.....

VOX

(22,976 posts)
15. Don't forget France's "impenetrable" Maginot Line that was going to stop Hitler in his tracks.
Wed Jan 2, 2019, 05:46 PM
Jan 2019

In which Hitler found the weak spots, and went around/over and through.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maginot_Line
<snip>
The line has since become a metaphor for expensive efforts that offer a false sense of security.
<snip>

NewJeffCT

(56,829 posts)
17. The Maginot line actually did it job
Wed Jan 2, 2019, 06:03 PM
Jan 2019

IT was just fatally flawed and built for the last war - World War 1 - when tanks moved at walking speed and were accompanied by walking infantry.

The Nazis took their tanks and went around the Maginot Line through Belgium and into France that way. When it was built following WW1, they hadn't anticipated hundreds of tanks moving en masse so swiftly (15-20mph)

VOX

(22,976 posts)
19. If the Maginot Line "actually did its job," how did it stop Germany...
Wed Jan 2, 2019, 07:36 PM
Jan 2019

from conquering France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands in less than 6 weeks? “Fatally flawed” pretty much results in a failure, whether it’s the Maginot Line or the Corvair automobile.

You’re correct in that the French couldn’t conceive of the 1940 German blitzkrieg, but the Line was built in the 1930s, and the Spanish Civil War should have served as a warning that the nature of warfare had changed since 1918.

NewJeffCT

(56,829 posts)
20. The line was there to prevent Germany from directly invading France
Wed Jan 2, 2019, 09:21 PM
Jan 2019

which they did not - they just went through the low countries around the line.

VOX

(22,976 posts)
21. I see what you're saying now. Found an article that elaborates on it.
Wed Jan 2, 2019, 09:57 PM
Jan 2019

Never thought I’d be engaged in a conversation about the function of Maginot Line at this late date! I appreciate the back-and-forth, being a bit of a history nut.
I think the last 4 paragraphs illuminate what you’re saying.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/the-story-of-the-maginot-line-2015-4
Why France's World War II defense failed so miserably
Business Insider, Apr 14, 2015
By Pierre Bienaimé

France suffered a notoriously quick defeat at the hands of its German neighbor in World War II. The country capitulated just six weeks after Hitler's land invasion began on May 10, 1940.

France had a system of defense, built in the more than ten years leading up to 1939, but it failed miserably.

The problem was that Maginot Line, a great line of fortifications that spanned France's borders with several neighbors, was essentially a glorified trench.

And like any trench, it belonged to the age of the First World War, not the mechanized warfare known as blitzkrieg that Hitler brought to the Second.

The Wehrmacht simply went around the line, borrowing the low plains of Belgium to France's north.
<snip>
The line's failure had huge implications. In a war that would last another five years, France's role was early on reduced to one of resistance. It would not significantly contribute Germany and its allies as it had down in World War I.

Because of its place in history, the Maginot line has come to mean "a defensive barrier or strategy that inspires a false sense of security," according to Merriam-Webster.

The line was a failure "in the eyes of the average French person. Yet the most modern fortification system of its day actually fulfilled its mission," according to Michaël Seramour, a French author who wrote a book about the line. "It obliged the German Wehrmacht to attack through the Belgian plains again, as in 1914, and immobilized part of its forces."

In this reading, concentrating the German attack in Belgium was actually part of the plan. Moreover, though France's strategy was one of defensive over offensive development, it actually had roughly the same amount of armored tanks on the western front as its German rival (both had nearly 2,500).

But according to analysis by West Point graduate Robert A. Doughty, "the Germans recognized the potential of massed armored forces in conducting rapid, mobile operations, [while] French armored units were committed to battle in a piecemeal fashion."

Whether the Maginot line had the intended effect or not, it did not have the hoped for result.

NewJeffCT

(56,829 posts)
16. He took other lessons from history as well
Wed Jan 2, 2019, 05:58 PM
Jan 2019

the infamous Red Wedding is based on actual events: The Black Dinner and the Glencoe Massacre. Of course, since it's a fantasy novels, it upped the scale considerably. The Glencoe Massacre was 38 people, while the Red Wedding was hundreds, possibly well over 1,000.

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