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Accretionist posted:I assume the goal is a wealthy, globally-influential fiefdom. The Congo's rich in key resources. I really like the "Salted nuclear weapons" idea here as a reason why they care about the Congo. Given White Rose's penchant for overkill and utter disinterest in collateral damage, the fact that the bomb couldn't realistically be traced for someone, and the use of an Iranian flag as a disinformation seed in the garage, I can definitely see an "Iranian" dirty bomb being set off to sweep Trump into victory and cause the U.S. disintegrate itself to destroy Iran, all to WR's and China's personal benefit.
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Nov 25, 2017 00:55
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hoo boy 
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Whiterose manipulated Angela's timeline using savestates, I thought that was obvious.
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Nov 25, 2017 00:56
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Accretionist posted:I assume the goal is a wealthy, globally-influential fiefdom. The Congo's rich in key resources. So this is about cobalt-thorium g. I knew the plant whiterose was building was something nefarious.
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Nov 25, 2017 01:11
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I figured the Congo storyline was based on reality, considering, from what I understand, a Chinese conglomerate already controls the majority of the mining operations there. And wasn’t there a real attempt by the Chinese to annex the Congo not too long ago (or something along those lines)?
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Nov 25, 2017 01:36
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The Congo storyline could also be a wink and a nod to Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. Actually I'm pretty certain it is after this last episode.
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Nov 25, 2017 01:52
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empty baggie posted:I figured the Congo storyline was based on reality, considering, from what I understand, a Chinese conglomerate already controls the majority of the mining operations there. And wasn’t there a real attempt by the Chinese to annex the Congo not too long ago (or something along those lines)? No not in real life. Whiterose mentioned coltan mines at the end of season 1 which probably just means the Congo features as the writers have combined some half-remembered stories about "China takes over Africa" and the coltan smuggling during the Second Congo War to feed high demand for consumer electronics with coltan = wonder tech substance in the context of the story.
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Nov 25, 2017 04:25
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Blind Rasputin posted:So this is about cobalt-thorium g. I knew the plant whiterose was building was something nefarious. White Rose read it in the NY Times.
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Nov 25, 2017 04:49
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Huge episode that fundamentally redrew the lines of conflict. Elliot is gonna meet Price books it and cook it
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Nov 25, 2017 10:51
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I just rewatched it and the sitcom ep from Season 2 holds up incredibly well.
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Nov 25, 2017 10:53
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Am I the only person that doesn’t completely equate anger with “losing the game”? It’s clear what the show expects us to feel over Price losing his temper, but WR exuded no charisma and would have had to leave awkwardly without that “I created you after all” asspull.
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Nov 25, 2017 11:54
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I don't think Price has lost the war yet, but much like every other character, he got hosed hard this episode. I can't imagine being a person of Price's stature and reacting any other way to how he was treated.
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Nov 25, 2017 12:37
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kustomkarkommando posted:No not in real life. Yeah, none of this would ever happen in real life. The economic, political and demographic dynamics are totally different today than they were in the 19th century, when Africa was first colonized. IRC Congo has now a population of around 100 mio people and it makes absolutely no sense for China to take on these people as citizens and/or dependents, just to exploit some natural resources. Neocolonialism works absolutely fine for that and there is zero reason to go beyond that.
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Nov 25, 2017 16:02
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JDate is going to have some explaining to do when it comes out that Iranian terrorists got through its screening process.
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Nov 25, 2017 16:12
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MD2020 posted:JDate is going to have some explaining to do when it comes out that Iranian terrorists got through its screening process. Good catch. I bet Dom figures this out somehow.
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Nov 25, 2017 21:25
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Blind Rasputin posted:Why does whiterose need the Congo? I’ve never understood the relevance of that place for the plant. On several occasions, they mentioned coltan ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltan ).
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Nov 25, 2017 22:02
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This is a good show. I loved the cold open this week and Angela being crazy and just sitting there rewinding the clip of the building imploding over and over again was wild.
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Nov 25, 2017 23:10
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Raspberry Jam It In Me posted:Yeah, none of this would ever happen in real life. The economic, political and demographic dynamics are totally different today than they were in the 19th century, when Africa was first colonized. IRC Congo has now a population of around 100 mio people and it makes absolutely no sense for China to take on these people as citizens and/or dependents, just to exploit some natural resources. Neocolonialism works absolutely fine for that and there is zero reason to go beyond that. Yeah, this is one of those things that really takes you out of the show whenever it's mentioned. Why in god's name would China want the Congo when they can use its resources via companies?
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Nov 26, 2017 02:58
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I'm assuming that Whiterose wants the Congo because the plant pollutes like crazy, seeing as it poisoned all those people in the 90s.
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Nov 26, 2017 03:08
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muscles like this! posted:I'm assuming that Whiterose wants the Congo because the plant pollutes like crazy, seeing as it poisoned all those people in the 90s. It's not like pollution stops this in the third world now anyway. My guess is that it's so that WR can better exert secrecy over their project (can't send UN inspectors to "China") but at the end of the day it's a show about hackerman and his hacker friends (including Angela, who went from "can't figure out how to type one command for the femtocell, this is really hard everyone  ", to extracting a HSM key under considerable pressure). There have been a couple of stupid incongruous things already, and at best we just don't have the information we need to make the connection. So, sit back and enjoy the show 
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Nov 26, 2017 05:37
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Volmarias posted:It's not like pollution stops this in the third world now anyway. I mean, the HSB had extensive instructions she could read off of, unlike the FBI hack. I might not be a Super Hacker, but I can follow walkthroughs on how to update my motherboard's firmware without l33t skillz. Looking forward to learn that WR wants to go to the Congo for the weather, and literally no other reason.
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Nov 26, 2017 06:13
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T-man posted:I mean, the HSB had extensive instructions she could read off of, unlike the FBI hack. I might not be a Super Hacker, but I can follow walkthroughs on how to update my motherboard's firmware without l33t skillz. Yeah but she couldn't follow the extensive directions earlier, with handholding, which were "memorize and type exactly one thing". I'm secretly hoping that Angela has her own Mr. Robot but I guess we'll see.
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Nov 26, 2017 06:24
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Volmarias posted:I'm secretly hoping that Angela has her own Mr. Robot but I guess we'll see. jesus christ thread, how can you be so bad at watching a simple show
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Nov 26, 2017 07:06
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Chadzok posted:jesus christ thread, how can you be so bad at watching a simple show It's not easy
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Nov 26, 2017 07:12
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White Rose wants to build a data haven in the Congo, like the one in Cryptonomicon. Esmail loves his cyberpunk references.
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Nov 26, 2017 08:39
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Volmarias posted:It's not like pollution stops this in the third world now anyway. Yeah, I think that's what they are going for. It's probably supposed to be Zhang's private fief now where he can run his secret experiments undisturbed and build his secret evil lair. This reminds me again of the "Fate of the World" game where you try to keep the rise in global temperatures below 2°C by the year 2100. In the beginning, the developing world is always your main focus, but you also need a strong presence in the developed countries because they are the only ones with the technological and scientific base to develop the new biofuel or power generation technologies needed to achieve your goals. Sometimes around 2050 China usually catches up though and you can move all the research funding and projects over there. If Zhang started his power plant/particle accelerator project ~20 years ago, he could have only build it somewhere in the west. But now that China has caught up a lot to the west, he doesn't need American scientific and engineering expertise anymore and get the gently caress out to somewhere else.
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Nov 26, 2017 16:30
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I’m not the only one who’s been listening to the Knight Rider theme since watching the episode...right?
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Nov 26, 2017 17:29
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Boywhiz88 posted:I’m not the only one who’s been listening to the Knight Rider theme since watching the episode...right? I can do you one better. I was actually AT the Fry's Electronics that Mobley and Trenton worked at the other day for Black Friday, and on my way back home, I put the Knight Rider theme on a loop for a good 15 minutes.
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Nov 26, 2017 21:45
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A little late on this, but I didn't want to phone post it. I think that "annexing the Congo" is a story-telling device. I mean, is it something that makes actual geo-political economic sense in the real world? No. But if you want to convey to the viewer some kid of tangible expression of political power, people know what annexation is. This is a show were we're already show and have accepted the level of information control and financial control that the major players have. How do you communicate clearly and concisely to someone that a giant organization with more power and money than can properly be conceived of by the average person has "won a major victory"? You can't just say "China made 10 trillion more dollars" and have it have any real weight as a plot point. Saying "China annexed another country" conveys a sense of tangible conquest. I think it's a good concession to storytelling over realism.
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Nov 26, 2017 21:56
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Chadzok posted:jesus christ thread, how can you be so bad at watching a simple show It's still better than a LOST thread.
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Nov 26, 2017 22:10
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At what point did Whiterose stop doing the beeping watch thing, and was there a reason given for it?
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Nov 26, 2017 22:29
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Doom Mathematic posted:At what point did Whiterose stop doing the beeping watch thing, and was there a reason given for it? I assume only Whiterose does it and not Minister Zhang.
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Nov 26, 2017 22:31
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Volmarias posted:
This hadn't actually occurred to me before. Like on the face of it there's no reason for whiterose not do her particle accelerator elon musk style hijinks that lead nowhere in China. Like maybe back in the day they didn't have the engineers or the infrastructure so starting in the US made more sense but not in 2015. So there should be some limiting factor like they think it could explode and kill a lot of people and who cares about foreigners or what would be more interesting is some people opposed to it who whiterose can't just roll over because they're either equally important in government or Chinese elliot is stopping it. Like easier access to Cobalt might be nice but it seems like Zhang/Whiterose has the resources or a super power at their disposal so I don't see it as that important.
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Nov 26, 2017 23:12
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The Whiterose facility in the Congo is a large multi floor time travel device activated that operates on the principals laid out in the movie Primer. ECorp has their own building sized device that was activated shortly before Washington Township leak of 1993 called the failsafe(1). No time travel is possible before this point. They used advanced knowledge of event to increase their own wealth. Whiterose worked for a secret Chinese government agency like the CIA or KGB except more secret because we dont even know their name. They have their own failsafe(0) device but it much smaller. It was activated before the ECorp device thereby allowing them to travel to a point before and possibly even prevent the activation of failsafe(1). Due to size limitations the Chinese are only capable of sending a much smaller team back to in failsafe(0) so even if they are first they do not have full advantage. This is only the beginning of course there has been many failsafe devices constructed by both sides since then allowing travel back to key points in the timeline. Elliot has the ability to access memories from deleted timelines due to the Washington Township leak of 1993. Mr Robot is future Elliot from previous reset timelines. Due to his ability Elliot is more valuable alive even if they kill him a version of him would still exist if the timeline is reset. His therapist is working for the dark army and Mr Robot is aware of this.
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Nov 26, 2017 23:42
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Mr Robot is John Titor
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Nov 27, 2017 00:02
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pahuyuth posted:Mr Robot is John Titor hahaha
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Nov 27, 2017 00:10
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DrPlump posted:The Whiterose facility in the Congo is a large multi floor time travel device activated that operates on the principals laid out in the movie Primer. ECorp has their own building sized device that was activated shortly before Washington Township leak of 1993 called the failsafe(1). No time travel is possible before this point. They used advanced knowledge of event to increase their own wealth. Whiterose worked for a secret Chinese government agency like the CIA or KGB except more secret because we dont even know their name. They have their own failsafe(0) device but it much smaller. It was activated before the ECorp device thereby allowing them to travel to a point before and possibly even prevent the activation of failsafe(1). Due to size limitations the Chinese are only capable of sending a much smaller team back to in failsafe(0) so even if they are first they do not have full advantage. This makes so much more sense than Angela is Darlene.
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Nov 27, 2017 02:23
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Man it's crazy that everyone from fsociety other than Elliot and Darlene is either dead or didn't actually exist. The first time I watched this show was on an airplane, and the first episode they had was the one where the gang hacks Steel Mountain. I remember thinking that the show reminded me of Veronica Mars. Whatever similarities I thought I saw, uh, sure didn't stick around.
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Nov 27, 2017 03:21
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Snak posted:I assume only Whiterose does it and not Minister Zhang. I'm pretty sure Minister Zhang does it at the very end of Season 1 to let us know they are the same person.
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Nov 27, 2017 04:52
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Am I forgetting something with regards to Cryptonomicon and the Congo? The data haven in that is supposed to be constructed in a fictitious country near the Philippines.
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Nov 27, 2017 06:16
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Doom Mathematic posted:At what point did Whiterose stop doing the beeping watch thing, and was there a reason given for it? I think this is just one of those weird instances on TV where something from early episodes gets dropped and never returns because the showrunner's ideas of what the show should be changed (hey remember Vera?)
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Nov 27, 2017 18:54
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