The knight in the big world of American TV series

Chapter 2358

The biggest culprit behind all of this is Nar!
Nar needs Gol to go completely insane. His initial hatred of the gods was just a trigger. Nar doesn't care about those instigators in the Pantheon at all, or rather, those things aren't worth Nar's time and effort to scheme against. All he needs is to drive Gol completely into the abyss of emptiness!
Nar needs Gale to kill him, to exact a mad revenge!
Actually, revenge is something... how should I put it?

Revenge is about balance, not gain. Regardless of what happens after balance is achieved, if tormenting someone isn't your passion, the revenge is essentially over. Continuing with the topic of emptiness, aside from revenge, everything leaves a sense of emptiness afterward. For example, the joy of passing each stage of a driving test is definitely greater than the satisfaction of actually getting the license. And afterwards, there are situations where recalling the experience still evokes anger and sadness. Don't let these emotions make you feel like you're still suffering. If you hate something happening, you'll have those emotions whether it actually happened or not. Whether revenge succeeds or fails doesn't prevent you from hating a person or something. For example, if you don't like strawberries, whether you've ever eaten them or not, the aversion to them is ingrained in your DNA.

So, let your emotions run their course. Don't try to mitigate them by making the villain feel better, such as by thinking, "I feel sorry for him," or "I need to be more magnanimous and let it go." These self-deceptive defense mechanisms will cause you to miss out on opportunities for revenge. Revenge is still necessary, regardless of success or failure; at least show some respect. You might have reservations about taking revenge, fearing you might end up in jail. But don't let perfect conditions prevent you from using them. Don't dwell on these emotions, thinking that having them means you haven't done enough, even if you've already crushed your enemy. Don't let yourself be repeatedly hurt by dwelling on those emotions. Try to take revenge with a joyful heart.

At the same time, don't dwell on the thought of "if only this hadn't happened." Everyone seems to be living normal lives, but everyone experiences their own misfortunes. There's good and bad, and only bad can get worse; encounters are inevitable. At this time, you should learn from this experience to protect yourself and your loved ones, helping them prevent and overcome misfortunes. Especially, prevent permanent damage. As other answers have mentioned, even if revenge is successful, what's lost can't be regained. For example, amputation or other permanent organic injuries, or death. Given the opportunity to inflict unimaginable suffering while remaining uninvolved, I believe I will seize it. Therefore, I'm not worried. Improving myself and seeking revenge are not contradictory; improving myself will increase my chances. Whether revenge succeeds or not doesn't conflict with who or what you hate. Everyone starts from ignorance and weakness; everyone makes mistakes.

Only by viewing one's experiences correctly can one avoid becoming trapped in them. Do what needs to be done. When seeking revenge, do not harm the innocent.

But clearly, Ger didn't get over it; instead, he became deeply trapped in those emotions and couldn't escape them.

Nar definitely played a role in this, but as for how much of a role he played... it's hard to say.

After all, Gell himself had some issues. From a psychological perspective, this can be explained by a shift in his paranoid-schizoid position to a depressive position. In the paranoid-depressive position driven by revenge, the target of revenge is omnipotent, perceived as an all-knowing, all-powerful, and detestable villain. However, upon actually defeating the target, this omnipotent illusion shatters, transforming into a depressive position, characterized by grief and mourning for the lost target. This shift in position doesn't necessarily require the actual completion of revenge. Film and television often depict this scenario: the protagonist, upon discovering that the target is also flawed, incompetent, and helpless, abandons revenge and walks away. This implicitly represents the disillusionment of omnipotence and the shift in position. Of course, in real life, this is an extremely difficult process. Delving into the source of hatred, from a Freudian psychoanalytic perspective, it's like the anger and resentment of an extremely vulnerable and helpless infant towards a "bad breast" that cannot meet its needs. Behind this lies a profound yearning and fervent expectation for a "good breast." Therefore, love and hate are often two sides of the same coin; hatred contains love, and love harbors the resentment of shattered expectations. Sometimes I ponder how to avoid being held hostage by such a primal and intense emotion as hatred. I think it's about telling yourself, when overwhelmed by overwhelming hatred, that you are no longer that fragile and helpless infant. What you need to do is not to cling to your love-hate entanglement with the object of your hatred, but to act like an adult, take responsibility for your actions, and maintain the peace and tranquility of your own mind.

But Ger remained consumed by hatred, showing no intention of escaping it.

Adding the two together, Ger became more and more extreme and more and more insane.

He gradually expanded the scope of his revenge, from the pantheon he initially believed in to the entire pantheon... there's nothing wrong with that. Then it extended to all the gods... Asgard is a typical example. He wanted to attack Asgard, even though Asgard had absolutely nothing to do with the encounter with Gol, and they had no connection to the pantheon either.

But Ger didn't care at the time, since they were all gods anyway.

Next up is Earth.

If you had asked Gale to kill an entire planet's inhabitants just for revenge when he first obtained the Black Death Sword, he would absolutely not have agreed.

Although he was also deeply mired in hatred at that time, he knew who his enemies were. However, as his obsession with revenge deepened and the emptiness in his heart grew, he gradually began to convince himself to justify his actions. Although to outsiders, his so-called justification was complete nonsense. Why should unrelated people pay the price for your revenge?

However, convincing oneself is a complex issue… Individuals are more likely to objectively view their own behavior and thoughts, while their judgments of others often carry a subjective projection effect. For example, we are often clearly aware of our own emotional fluctuations, but find it difficult to perceive the underlying motives of others. When convincing oneself, information processing is more efficient: it can be accomplished through self-suggestion or internal logic; while influencing others requires external cues (such as authority, visual presentation) and interaction skills (such as questioning techniques), which significantly impact the effectiveness of persuasion. Changing others requires the other party to have an intrinsic need or sense of identification, while self-change relies more on rational decision-making or immediate feedback (such as emotional catharsis). For example, communication is often ineffective if the other party does not resonate when trying to persuade them; while self-regulation can be quickly achieved through cognitive restructuring.

Convincing yourself is easy; for example, when you're on vacation, you have to do your homework.

You might think, "I'll play for a while, it's okay."

Yeah, I played for a while.

Then I checked the time and felt it was about time, but I didn't want to write anymore, so I kept trying to convince myself.

I'll play a little longer. Anyway, it's a holiday, and I have plenty of time.

Then another day passed.

The same reason was used again the next day. It's okay to play for a while.

It's almost time!
It's okay, I can write more tonight!
Then it was night.

Ugh, I'm so tired. I'll just copy it at school tomorrow morning!
See, convincing yourself is very simple.

If things continue like this, Nar's plan might actually succeed.

Anyway, in the end, Ger will really go crazy, so he might as well wish for everyone to perish together! That way, he won't have to suffer the torment alone!

……

This dream was truly beautiful.

In this dream, the good season finally arrived in Ge'er's hometown, and the rain returned.

The land transformed from its unchanging yellowish-brown color into lush greenery, teeming with more and more prey than could be eaten!
The once oppressive and desperate tribe has become harmonious and peaceful.

He even attended a wedding, which was very lively... You know, there used to be no weddings here... It's not that there weren't any from the beginning, but as the situation got worse and worse, people couldn't even feed themselves, so how could they possibly have any banquets!
They don't even usually visit other people's homes.

After all, no one had an extra bit of food.

Even Ger himself had forgotten that they had a wedding custom.

Everyone ate, drank, danced, and made noise together, creating a lively atmosphere.

This was something Geer had never experienced before.

It was late at night and everyone was asleep.

Ger walked out of the cave alone and looked at the moon in the sky... He didn't know what was wrong with him.

I am very happy.

He had a successful hunt every day, and everyone in the tribe respected him because he was the tribe's most powerful hunter.

The elders were even discussing having him succeed the aging chief.

so good!
The children are very well-behaved. Agar has already started learning to hunt with him. Although so far he can only catch a few mice at most, he is very talented and can make traps very quickly.

My wife is also very good and gentle.

Why do I feel like something's missing?

What's the near miss?

do not know.

……

Now, Ger is completely immersed in the beauty of illusion. From the beginning, when he knew that everything he saw was a dream, he is now completely immersed in it and can no longer distinguish between reality and illusion.

He was earnestly playing his role in his dream.

A powerful hunter, a capable husband, and an all-powerful father!
He began to forget that he was engaged in a life-or-death battle.

Actually, it's not Gel's fault.

Since his debut.

They rarely rely on tricks or schemes; they always go head-to-head with a hard-hitting approach, finding the enemy and then directly attacking them.

It’s over.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that he doesn't know how to use tricks or schemes.

You should know that the most evil plan he could think of was kidnapping.

He was even moved by the hostage, and if Hill hadn't been unwilling, he might have even released Sif... Just how kind of pure-hearted is this guy?

He thought the battle of wills between him and Nar would be a life-or-death struggle.

In reality, the truly deadly methods in this world are not limited to frontal attacks.

On the contrary, those unseen and intangible techniques are more terrifying!
Just like nowadays, many of the conflicts between countries are not actually military conflicts, but rather soft power conflicts!
For example, cultural invasion and information warfare.

It may not draw blood, but it can be more deadly than bullets on the battlefield!
It doesn't rely on swords, cannons, or the struggle for cities, but it can still win people's hearts.

This is what many people call the 'cognitive war'.

Cognitive warfare is far more than simply transmitting information. Its core lies in subtly influencing and shaping the perceptions of decision-makers and even ordinary citizens in a target country, ultimately aiming to control and change their behavior. This is a more covert and subversive form of "non-kinetic warfare" than direct military strikes, striking directly at the very heart of a nation's spirit. Those seemingly readily available "free lunches" may actually be carefully packaged ideological "sugar-coated bullets." Hollywood blockbusters, popular games, and hit variety shows instill "America-centrism" in the world day after day—that America is justice and the hope of the world. When countless young people yearn for the American lifestyle and even begin to distance themselves from their own cultures, a crisis of identity quietly descends. A UN report once showed that as many as 42% of young people in developing countries identify more with Western culture, a figure that should sound an alarm. This is merely a broad-based infiltration. Even more frightening is the "precision strike"—the "ideological delivery" targeting the elite classes of various countries. From the Fulbright Program to various exchange programs, the United States has cleverly woven an "elite conveyor belt," "inviting" scholars, officials, and young talents from various countries to the United States to "study." After returning home, these people often hold important positions, and their thinking patterns may have already been assimilated by American values, making them the most "natural" spokespeople for America.

The smooth operation of all this relies on the United States' absolute control over global information infrastructure. Satellites, fiber optic cables, root servers—these key nodes are all under US control. Even more insidious is the "non-neutrality" of social media algorithms. They are not objective information disseminators, but rather creators of meticulously designed "information cocoons." Through precise targeting and selective downgrading, these algorithms can easily amplify social contradictions and undermine national cohesion. The silent lambs are awakening. Faced with this silent infiltration, the Global South is uniting to fight back at an unprecedented speed. China has elevated "cognitive security" to the level of national security, launching a series of coordinated measures, from strengthening content management and popularizing information literacy education to adjusting education ratios and raising the bar for overseas study.

This is not something just any country can do; it requires a massive system behind it. For example, in the media sector, movies, TV series, music, and even the popular online videos are all tools of their "soft power."

In Hollywood blockbusters, the US military is always portrayed as a "savior," leading a group of young people to believe that "American products are the best."

The most typical example is many American hero movies, which many people watch and feel have no problem with.

But when we make a similar movie ourselves, we're immediately ridiculed, with people saying it's impossible and unscientific... Does that mean it's scientific for Americans to save the world? Does that mean it's scientific for the whole world to speak American English?
Why can only superheroes be American citizens?
But this kind of thinking is extremely popular... This is a cognitive war!
That's pretty much what Nar is doing to Gel now.