Post by UnmaskedLurker on Aug 21, 2017 11:53:36 GMT -5
^^ I do consider it my job to find excuses for D&D -- and I really tried. And I recognize that those plot developments are why the wight hunt happened. And I understand that D&D would have a hard time figuring out how to put everything in place otherwise. I am not mad about the wight hunt -- I get it. Usually, the lack of plausibility is something I overlook and can get past.
In this case, watching them trudge through the snow just kept the issue glaring in my brain that under no plausible version of rational behavior would these people decide to go on this mission. I generally can get past individual stupid "out of character" actions -- or strained elements done to move the plot in a needed direction. But this mission was supposedly thought through carefully and judiciously. And they still decided to go on a mission that was virtually certain to be suicidal -- without any real plan for how it might succeed. The absurdity simply keep creeping into my mind and preventing me from sitting back and just trying to enjoy the show. But that episode is over and it accomplished for the plot what it needed to accomplish. So now I can just accept it as having happened and try to enjoy the next episode and the final season on their own terms.
I don't think saying that the Wight Hunt was bound to fail and therefore this entire episode's writing was illogical is fair criticism, because that's the entire main theme of the episode itself. This episode is about the meaninglessness of the struggle that is life and that in the end death will win no matter what. Beric and Jon talk about this. Their mission is unlikely to succeed and they don't even know what they are doing half of the time, but both made the choice to fight the enemy that always wins: death.
This theme becomes even clearer in Dany's scenes about heroes doing stupid things. The show actually acknowledges that Jon's mission is stupid. It's not supposed to come across as a good plan. That's the entire point! But what does Dany do? She goes anyway and tries to be the hero. Stupidly.
Saying the plan is illogical and therefore it's bad writing is ignoring the underlying theme of Dany and Jon as existentialist heroes. It's a metaphor for how we desperately and stupidly try to hold on to life even though the vast meaninglessness of death will always win. That's not bad writing IMO. Not at all.
Last Edit: Aug 21, 2017 12:11:07 GMT -5 by Deleted
I don't think saying that the Wight Hunt was bound to fail and therefore this entire episode's writing was illogical is fair criticism, because that's the entire main theme of the episode itself. This episode is about the meaninglessness of the struggle that is life and that in the end death will win no matter what. Beric and Jon talk about this. Their mission is unlikely to succeed and they don't even know what they are doing half of the time, but both made the choice to fight the enemy that always wins: death.
This theme becomes even clearer in Dany's scenes about heroes doing stupid things. The show actually acknowledges that Jon's mission is stupid. It's not supposed to come across as a good plan. That's the entire point! But what does Dany do? She goes anyway and tries to be the hero. Stupidly.
Saying the plan is illogical and therefore it's bad writing is ignoring the underlying theme of Dany and Jon as existentialist heroes. It's a metaphor for how we desperately and stupidly try to hold on to life even though the vast meaningless of death will always win. That's not bad writing IMO. Not at all.
That's deep.
And I agree, it's exactly the conversation between Jon and Berric and at the moment you don't think about it that way but when you ponder all the individual conversation throughout the series and the episode in particular you see the theme unfolded over and over again. Of course we are all going to die, that's the end point of being alive, however, that doesn't mean that we jshould just give up and wait for death to catch up to us. While we are alive, while we are in this world we should learn to live, learn to give and to leave this place a little better than how we found it. For Jon and Dany this is one of their central themes.
I will agree that the writing was as sophisticated as the message they are trying to get across. That, however, doesn't negate the complexity of the message.
It's gratifying to see that the episode is being received positively by the general audience. Admittedly, the IMDB score isn't truly a representative sample, but it's holding strong at a 9.7 after 15,000+ votes there. And most of the comments that I read on places like the EW recap were focused on things like how devastated they were when the dragon died, rather than bullshit like the travel logistics and "where did the wights get the chains?", which is fast becoming a litmus test as to whose opinion I should value. I've mostly tuned the hardcore book readers out on a similar basis - there are certain key phrases that have become common parlance, and anytime someone says anything along the lines of "the writing hasn't been good since Season 4", I know what they're really on about.
Unfortunately, the place where I've spent most of my time viewing reactions is Twitter, which is where all of the worst takes live. It's nigh-impossible to be nuanced in 140 characters, and snarkiness is the currency of the realm there, with everyone trying to prove their bona fides by making what they think is cutting and original commentary. Alas, they're all making the same five or six "jokes", and shit gets old real quick. There's plenty of love there for the episode as well (Leslie Jones's live-tweeting made me smile), but it's an unpleasant stew to sift through.
As much as I love it when the show is in season and we have new episodes to discuss, there comes a time every single year when a vocal section of the fandom (usually, if not always, of the book reading variety) starts to poison me on the rest. I'm not quite there yet, but I think I'm about to hit that point this week. Heading into the offseason after the finale will almost be a relief.
YouTube has always been a wretched hive of scum and villainy. I don't view their reactions as being representative of shit. Half of them are trolls, and most reasonable people don't participate there, because it's far from an ideal forum for intelligent conversation. Everyone just whinges, bitches at each other, or throws out inane questions like "Am I the only one who thought ..." Stop there. No, no you are not. You're just seeking empty validation, and you're not fooling anyone.
As I noted above, I did not really care for the episode -- and not for any of the bolded reasons you indicated. I don't worry about travel logistics or questions like where the chains came from (all sorts of potentially plausible answers to that question -- who cares?). And I have liked this season very much other than this past episode -- so not objecting to the writing since S4.
My objection is simply that watching them go beyond the wall emphasized in my mind how absurd it would be for Jon to think that this mission made any sense at all or that the risks were justified by the potential benefits. There simply was no reasonable possibility of success -- none -- not a chance at all. They thought through the pros and cons -- and after great deliberation -- decided to go on a suicide mission with essentially no reasonable chance of success for speculative benefit. The potential benefit simply is not great enough to justify the virtually zero chance the mission had of success.
And Jon would have known this as he has seen the WW and wights in action before -- why would anyone go on a suicide mission? Oh, and if Jon thought that he might call on Dany and the dragons for a rescue -- then why not have them prepared in a more strategic location to do that (not getting into travel time issues -- just basic mission planning logistics).
I try to overlook lack of logic and implausible behavior because the plot has to be moved forward somehow. But the intense lack of any basic rationale to justify this mission just kept getting into my head and distracting me from what was happening on screen.
These are all valid critiques of the episode. I don't share the same concerns, but you expressed them well - far better than most. It's always valid to question the character's decisions in the proper context of the story. I thought that those decisions were more justified than you did, but we can talk about that. This is the kind of productive discussion that more people should have.
It's the nitpickery and venom that grinds my gears far more than substantive engagement with the story itself. People who whine about the show not being subtle or trusting its audience, but who then turn around and whine because they can't infer things that the show doesn't explicitly spell out for them. People who harp on minor details like the chain thing, and carry on like they've uncovered some massive flaw in the story's internal logic (why wouldn't a thousands-year old being have some massive chains in his arsenal?) People who hold the show not against its own standard, but against the impossibly idealized standard of books that don't exist, and probably never well. And of course, anyone who gets too personal and vitriolic. That's the kind of thing that dominates places like YouTube and Twitter with short attention spans and character limits. Places like this forum and WOTW are much better, and your measured opinion is the type that I wish I saw more of.
When it comes to Benjen, I do think that the show could have perhaps shown him watching Jon and company from a distance earlier in the episode, just to remind people that he was out there. That would perhaps have alleviated some of the Deus Ex Machina complaints.
I didn't have a problem with him not going with Jon, however. Carrying two people would have slowed the horse down - perhaps not enough for the wights to catch them, but it's not a non-factor. Moreover, Benjen's existence was pretty hellish, and it's already been established that he can't cross the Wall, so he would have just had to turn right around and head back into the Night King's domain. Once he saved Jon, he probably felt like he had fulfilled his purpose, and was more than ready to die.
As I noted above, I did not really care for the episode -- and not for any of the bolded reasons you indicated. I don't worry about travel logistics or questions like where the chains came from (all sorts of potentially plausible answers to that question -- who cares?). And I have liked this season very much other than this past episode -- so not objecting to the writing since S4.
My objection is simply that watching them go beyond the wall emphasized in my mind how absurd it would be for Jon to think that this mission made any sense at all or that the risks were justified by the potential benefits. There simply was no reasonable possibility of success -- none -- not a chance at all. They thought through the pros and cons -- and after great deliberation -- decided to go on a suicide mission with essentially no reasonable chance of success for speculative benefit. The potential benefit simply is not great enough to justify the virtually zero chance the mission had of success.
And Jon would have known this as he has seen the WW and wights in action before -- why would anyone go on a suicide mission? Oh, and if Jon thought that he might call on Dany and the dragons for a rescue -- then why not have them prepared in a more strategic location to do that (not getting into travel time issues -- just basic mission planning logistics).
I try to overlook lack of logic and implausible behavior because the plot has to be moved forward somehow. But the intense lack of any basic rationale to justify this mission just kept getting into my head and distracting me from what was happening on screen.
These are all valid critiques of the episode. I don't share the same concerns, but you expressed them well - far better than most. It's always valid to question the character's decisions in the proper context of the story. I thought that those decisions were more justified than you did, but we can talk about that. This is the kind of productive discussion that more people should have.
It's the nitpickery and venom that grinds my gears far more than substantive engagement with the story itself. People who whine about the show not being subtle or trusting its audience, but who then turn around and whine because they can't infer things that the show doesn't explicitly spell out for them. People who harp on minor details like the chain thing, and carry on like they've uncovered some massive flaw in the story's internal logic (why wouldn't a thousands-year old being have some massive chains in his arsenal?) People who hold the show not against its own standard, but against the impossibly idealized standard of books that don't exist, and probably never well. And of course, anyone who gets too personal and vitriolic. That's the kind of thing that dominates places like YouTube and Twitter with short attention spans and character limits. Places like this forum and WOTW are much better, and your measured opinion is the type that I wish I saw more of.
I've read a few reviews, and this as been a theme throughout some of them. The reviewers had genuine gripes with the episode, which I think is fair. I noticed some of them when I watched the episode last week, although, upon further analysis most of the gripes are gone because I began to understand better what the writer were trying to get at.
Anyhow, the reviewers had their gripes but I was flabbergasted that wpthey missed the point of many of the aspects of the episode. It went right over the heads. And granted they might not have watched the leaked episode and didn't really have time to think through what actually happened but I feel like even with some extra time they still won't get it.
I'm reading a few news sites today and this episode definitely has people divided both on the professional media level as well as the general fans. Seems people mostly really loved it, but the ones who didn't are definitely NOT liking it and surprisingly it's not because of Jon/Daenerys getting together!
The biggest complaints seem to be editing ones such as how rushed it felt, or the back and forth transitions from WF to the Wight Hunt. I do get it on that and I'm such a fan-girl I'm willing to overlook that in this episode where other episodes I may have complained more about it. Those giving cosmetic arguments such as where did the NK get the chains, or how the fuck did Gendry run all the way back when it took them all day and night to get up there in the first place ... blah blah, these seem like nitpicks to me. It's a fantasy story and they've never made apologies for the time-jumps and jetpacks characters have on the show. And is it REALLY important for you to know exactly where they got those giant chains? Suspension of disbelief is fine for imaginary dragons, undead people, but not chains?
I don't think saying that the Wight Hunt was bound to fail and therefore this entire episode's writing was illogical is fair criticism, because that's the entire main theme of the episode itself. This episode is about the meaninglessness of the struggle that is life and that in the end death will win no matter what. Beric and Jon talk about this. Their mission is unlikely to succeed and they don't even know what they are doing half of the time, but both made the choice to fight the enemy that always wins: death.
This theme becomes even clearer in Dany's scenes about heroes doing stupid things. The show actually acknowledges that Jon's mission is stupid. It's not supposed to come across as a good plan. That's the entire point! But what does Dany do? She goes anyway and tries to be the hero. Stupidly.
Saying the plan is illogical and therefore it's bad writing is ignoring the underlying theme of Dany and Jon as existentialist heroes. It's a metaphor for how we desperately and stupidly try to hold on to life even though the vast meaninglessness of death will always win. That's not bad writing IMO. Not at all.
Agree with this 100%. The wight hunt was done out of human desperation. Ultimately, our heroes are mere mortals playing games with the gods. Admittedly, the desperation of the mission was not conveyed as well as it should have been back in episode 5 (when the idea of it first comes up). But in this episode one totally understands what they were going for. It works and then some.
I also think the only reason they were "successful" in capturing the wight in the first place is because the NK let it happen. This guy is a million steps ahead of everyone else: he's the only true god figure in the whole story (Bran is not even close yet). So I don't consider that to be a writing flaw either. Everything that happened this episode was always going to happen. Like the Three-Eyed Raven, the Night King has "a thousand eyes and one" (actually, far more than that, given his number of wights, connections to greenseeing, potential connection to fire visions, etc). Nothing escapes him.
Beric's line about "the enemy" always winning solidified a lot about the episode and the whole series for me. But I think Jon will have to go beyond just being a "soldier" to find true fulfillment. Beric is a romantic so he welcomes the idea of a fatalistic death with open arms. Jon's path will be different.
I don't think saying that the Wight Hunt was bound to fail and therefore this entire episode's writing was illogical is fair criticism, because that's the entire main theme of the episode itself. This episode is about the meaninglessness of the struggle that is life and that in the end death will win no matter what. Beric and Jon talk about this. Their mission is unlikely to succeed and they don't even know what they are doing half of the time, but both made the choice to fight the enemy that always wins: death.
This theme becomes even clearer in Dany's scenes about heroes doing stupid things. The show actually acknowledges that Jon's mission is stupid. It's not supposed to come across as a good plan. That's the entire point! But what does Dany do? She goes anyway and tries to be the hero. Stupidly.
Saying the plan is illogical and therefore it's bad writing is ignoring the underlying theme of Dany and Jon as existentialist heroes. It's a metaphor for how we desperately and stupidly try to hold on to life even though the vast meaninglessness of death will always win. That's not bad writing IMO. Not at all.
Let me try to be a little clearer. Suicide missions make sense when the other options are worse. While they acknowledged the probably hopelessness of the mission -- which is good -- they never really tried to explain why the other options were worse. And to be clear, I do not blame the writers of the episode -- they wrote what they were told to write. The showrunners determine the outline of the plot -- the showrunners are the ones I have a gripe with.
The viewers needed to believe that Jon and Dany and the other folks had come to the conclusion that the only chance to beat the WW would be to convince Cersei -- and without her all would be lost with the WW so it was worth any risk to get her proof. They never really tried to make that case -- probably because that case is essentially not possible to make. How can Jon likely dying -- risking losing the cooperation of the North -- justify a speculative possibility of convincing Cersei. If they had tried to make this case -- even if I was not completely convinced -- maybe it would have bothered me less. But the justification for the mission was so thin and the potential loss to the greater cause so great that I just could not get outside of my head to enjoy the action.
The problem was writing in that scene in E5 at Dragonstone. They should talk about the South, not only Cersei.
I still can't believe how D&D didn't realize how important that change for the plot was. 95% of fans thought that this season will be only Cersei vs Dany. If you are going to change that, which I like, you need to sell that change to the audience. And they didn't. And it was so easy to do.
This reminds me of mistake they made in original pilot when they didn't explain that Cersei and Jaime are brother and sister.
It seems that they convinced each other that this development makes sense and didn't do enough with the characters.
It's such a shame, because this episode was great and they created controversy around it for no reason.
I can only expect the reactions next week when it becomes clear it was all for nothing.
But I don't know what else they could have done with overall plot. Maybe the best option for the show was to have only S7 with 10 extra large episodes. Or maybe that wasn't possible because of money.
The WW hunt isn't natural climax of the season. Battle for KL would be. That's the problem.
I don't think saying that the Wight Hunt was bound to fail and therefore this entire episode's writing was illogical is fair criticism, because that's the entire main theme of the episode itself. This episode is about the meaninglessness of the struggle that is life and that in the end death will win no matter what. Beric and Jon talk about this. Their mission is unlikely to succeed and they don't even know what they are doing half of the time, but both made the choice to fight the enemy that always wins: death.
This theme becomes even clearer in Dany's scenes about heroes doing stupid things. The show actually acknowledges that Jon's mission is stupid. It's not supposed to come across as a good plan. That's the entire point! But what does Dany do? She goes anyway and tries to be the hero. Stupidly.
Saying the plan is illogical and therefore it's bad writing is ignoring the underlying theme of Dany and Jon as existentialist heroes. It's a metaphor for how we desperately and stupidly try to hold on to life even though the vast meaninglessness of death will always win. That's not bad writing IMO. Not at all.
Let me try to be a little clearer. Suicide missions make sense when the other options are worse. While they acknowledged the probably hopelessness of the mission -- which is good -- they never really tried to explain why the other options were worse. And to be clear, I do not blame the writers of the episode -- they wrote what they were told to write. The showrunners determine the outline of the plot -- the showrunners are the ones I have a gripe with.
The viewers needed to believe that Jon and Dany and the other folks had come to the conclusion that the only chance to beat the WW would be to convince Cersei -- and without her all would be lost with the WW so it was worth any risk to get her proof. They never really tried to make that case -- probably because that case is essentially not possible to make. How can Jon likely dying -- risking losing the cooperation of the North -- justify a speculative possibility of convincing Cersei. If they had tried to make this case -- even if I was not completely convinced -- maybe it would have bothered me less. But the justification for the mission was so thin and the potential loss to the greater cause so great that I just could not get outside of my head to enjoy the action.
I did voice criticism as to why I thought that last week's episode didn't set this one up well, but I think the fact that they need to convince Cersei and by extension the south to stand a chance was still heavily implied. Do I wish they had spent more time with it last week? Sure. But saying that the entire explanation doesn't make sense is a bit of an exaggeration if you ask me. It was definitely not enough to ruin 706 for me. Because the explanation still works, albeit being a bit underdeveloped in the execution. But 706 retroactively elevated 705 for me with all the very strong themes I mentioned. I'm sure the same will happen with 707 when we see the impact the plan will have on the story, Cersei and by extension the south.
Also, I'm confused at you talking about the writers and the showrunners as if they were separate people. Benioff and Weiss are both the writers of the episode and the showrunners at the same time. Or did you mean Dave Hill for 705? Because then I'd argue the opposite of you. I think D&D's plan made a lot of sense (as explained in the behind the episode), but Hill's writing was weak. His scene needed to be more elaborate. But as I said, I don't think 705 ruined 706. If anything 706 elevated 705 for me.
Last Edit: Aug 21, 2017 13:54:42 GMT -5 by Deleted
Post by UnmaskedLurker on Aug 21, 2017 13:50:35 GMT -5
One more point I want to make clear about my issues with the episode. I have no issue with them accomplishing the mission (more or less -- the death of a dragon might call into question whether to call it "mission accomplished" given that dragons seem to be the best hope to win the war) and with all the major characters surviving against steep odds. Of course shows like this one have scene after scene over the course of the series where a last minute rescue occurs. If people object to the likelihood of those type of events -- then shows like this one simply are not for them. I embrace the "last moment rescue" because as a viewer, it is exciting to watch. I have more than enough suspension of disbelief to go along with these type of developments.
My issue is with how the characters got themselves into the impossible situation. They went there by choice -- knew the situation pretty much exactly as it would be (at least Jon did) -- and decided after great deliberation that this mission was their best option to win the war -- even as hopeless as the mission might be. I just never heard any argument for why the potential reward justified the likely failure of the mission.
Death may always prevail -- but risking almost certain death needs a better rationale than the one that the showrunners provided here. And again, I am not critical because I have a need for logical behavior by the characters at all times -- rather I am critical because I really did not enjoy the episode while watching it primarily because the absurdity and apparent pointlessness of what they were doing just kept creeping into the front of my brain.
Welcome to the help dialog for the Custom Mini-Profile Creator plugin!
Click on any of the tabs above to go through the plugin configuration process!
You can access this menu at any time by clicking on the icon in the bottom right bar (may not be applicable if you're on Forums.net), or you can disable the welcome window and/or the icon by going to Plugins > Manage > Custom Mini-Profile Creator and changing the Show Help option.
This step is essential as it gives the plugin everything it needs on the page to get as much profile information as possible.
To make the profile variables work you'll need to add a new line to the very end of Themes > Layout Templates > Mini-Profile and paste the code below on it. The code should be placed completely outside of the mini-profile, so if you're using the default mini-profile template this will be after the very last closing </div> tag. This needs to be done on every theme you have the plugin enabled on as the template is theme-specific.
If your mini-profile template is already customized and you've hit the variable limit for your template you're free to remove any lines from the code below if they contain information that you don't plan on using. For example, if you have no plans to ever add a user's IP to their mini-profile for staff reference you can remove <div class="mp-info ip">$[user.ip]</div> from the code and everything else will still work just fine.
Once you've added the HTML from the Layout Templates tab you're ready to move on to building your mini-profiles. If you want to get going and try some out now or you're not very adept at HTML, CSS, or Javascript, worry not! This plugin includes some examples for you to try out. You're free to skip to the Custom Profile Fields tab and read over this tab later when you're ready to build your own.
Here's a quick rundown of each of the components in Plugins > Manage > Custom Mini-Profile Creator:
Name This is the name you'll be adding to your custom profile field dropdown once you've finished coding the mini-profile. Pretty self-explanatory. Make sure this name is unique from every other name you use for your mini-profiles or you'll end up overwriting the earlier ones in the list.
HTML This is the HTML that will go inside your mini-profile. You can use just about any HTML tag here so long as it's appropriate for where the mini-profile is showing on the page. Please refrain from using <style> or <script> tags here. You have the next two sections for that! Also, remember that mini-profiles can show multiple times on the same page, so you shouldn't add ID attributes to any of your elements here. Two elements on the same page cannot have the same ID per HTML standards.
CSS This is where you'll place what would normally go in your forum's style sheet or what would normally be between <style> tags. Try to code your mini-profile's HTML in a way that will allow you to target it specifically with your selectors. For example, you can surround all of the content in your HTML with a <div> element with a class and target that class and its child elements specifically with your CSS. That way you don't accidentally target every mini-profile on the page with CSS that was meant for the one you're building. One more thing: The forum theme's CSS still applies beforehand, so your mini-profile may look right in one theme but not in another. The best way to circumvent this is to define as many styles as you can to override the theme's CSS.
Javascript Anything that normally goes between <script> tags will go here. This one's a bit tricky since you'll obviously want to target the custom mini-profile specifically. Luckily there's an easy way to do that. In your statements you can use the $(this) variable to target the mini-profile if you're coding using jQuery. Otherwise, if you only plan on using standard Javascript you can target $(this)[0] instead.
Once you've finished building your mini-profiles it's finally time to add them to the Edit Profile page for use! To enable selection of custom mini-profiles you'll first need to add two specific custom profile fields in Members > Custom Profile Fields in your forum's admin area:
Mini-Profile Theme
Staff Mini-Profile Theme
Mini-Profile Theme is for mini-profiles that are designed for member use. You can set the Who Can Edit option for this field to Staff With Power if you only want staff to be able to choose mini-profiles for users. Otherwise, if you want members to freely be able to choose their own mini-profiles you can choose Members and Staff With Power.
Staff Mini-Profile Theme is for mini-profiles designed specifically for staff use. This field is completely optional.
Set the type for both of these fields as Drop Down Selection. Click on the (View/Edit) link to add mini-profile names to each of these fields.
If you've just installed this plugin you should have three different mini-profiles already installed by default: Example 1, Example 2, and Example 3. You can add these to your dropdowns to test them out and see the plugin in action.
If you're having trouble getting this plugin to work despite following the instructions in the previous tabs you may want to check that each of your themes meets the prerequisites below in Themes > Layout Templates > Mini-Profile.
First, ensure that opening tag of your mini-profile template includes the $[miniprofile_class] variable in its class. On the default ProBoards theme it should look something like this:
<div class="$[miniprofile_class]">
Next, make sure that the default {foreach} loop for custom fields is present inside your mini-profile. It doesn't need to be visible, so you're free to add it inside a hidden element if you don't plan on displaying it or if it would mess up the appearance of your own custom template.
Beyond that you can do whatever you like to the mini-profile template for the most part and it shouldn't negatively impact the plugin.
The following is a list of available variables for use in the HTML section of the mini-profile creator and their definitions. Adding any of these to a mini-profile will generate the content described in its definition in place of the variable so long as the information that variable outputs is visible to you.
To reference your forum's custom profile fields you can use $[user.customfieldname], substituting "customfieldname" with your custom field's name. You'll need to type the name in all lowercase with no spaces and only use characters A-Z and 0-9.
For example, Mini-Profile Theme becomes $[user.miniprofiletheme]. This will output the value of the custom field. In the case of this example, it'll be the name of the mini-profile theme you've chosen in your profile.
IMPORTANT NOTE: These will only work if you followed the steps in the Installation tab of this window on each of your themes. Any themes that do not include the template code specified there will not have these variables replaced in the mini-profile.
$[user]
User's display name link.
$[user.age]
User's age (if visible to you).
$[user.avatar]
User's current avatar.
$[user.badges]
User's list of badges.
$[user.birthday]
User's date of birth (if visible to you).
$[user.color]
Hex color of user's group. If user is not in a group this will return inherit.
$[user.custom_title]
User's custom title.
$[user.email]
User's email (if visible to you).
$[user.gender.image]
Image associated with the gender selected in the user's profile (if available).
$[user.gender.text]
Name of gender selected in the user's profile (if available).
$[user.group.name]
Name of user's current display group.
$[user.group.stars]
Star images associated with user's current display group.
$[user.id]
User's numerical ID.
$[user.instant_messenger]
User's list of instant messengers specified in their profile (if available).
$[user.invisible]
Returns 1 if a user is invisible. More useful for Javascript.
$[user.ip]
User's IP address (if visible to you).
$[user.is_online]
Returns Member is Online if user is currently online.
$[user.is_staff]
Returns 1 if a user is designated as staff. More useful for Javascript.
$[user.last_online]
Timestamp showing when user was last online.
$[user.likes]
Number of likes this user's posts have received.
$[user.location]
Location specified in user's profile.
$[user.name]
User's display name in plain text.
$[user.personal_text]
User's most recent status.
$[user.posts]
User's post count.
$[user.rank.name]
User's current posting rank.
$[user.rank.stars]
Star images associated with user's current posting rank.
$[user.registered_on]
Timestamp showing the date/time the user registered on the forum.
$[user.registered_on_short]
Condensed version of user's registration date.
$[user.social_network]
User's list of social networks specified in their profile (if available).
$[user.username]
Outputs the user's login username in plain text.
$[user.warning.bar]
User's warning bar (if it exists).
$[user.warning.level]
User's current warning level (if visible to you).
$[user.website]
Website specified in user's profile.
You can utilize the $(this) variable in the Javascript component to target the mini-profile <div> element. For example, if you wanted to add a class to the mini-profile you can use:
$(this).addClass('class-name-here');
Profile variables can also be used in the Javascript component in this plugin. In Javascript the value undefined is used to signify that a value doesn't exist for the variable you've specified. With this in mind you can use profile variables in Javascript conditional statements within the plugin similar to how they're used in the actual layout templates section of the admin area.
if(variable) will only run if the variable you specify has a value.
if(!variable) will only run if the variable you specify has no value.
Example 1 (variable has value):
if(user.group){
$(this).find('.group').show();
}
If the user has their group displayed in their profile the above Javascript would make the HTML below visible if you had it hidden with CSS.