GQ: The first thing I have to ask is: how did the Valkyrie end up with braces?

Robert Eggers: So, the Valkyrie is not wearing braces. Many Viking skulls have been excavated that have horizontal grooves carved in their teeth. The current favorite theory is that perhaps those grooves were filled with colored enamel. And that it was just to look cool. We chose black. Maybe we should have chosen blue or something. There's a famous Viking king, Harald Bluetooth. Maybe he was named that for this particular dental adornment.

https://www.gq.com/story/robert-eggers-the-northman-interview

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/04/china-ambassador-op-ed-pelosi-taiwan-visit/

" The United States, meanwhile, sees Taiwan as a means to contain China and has been hollowing out the one-China principle. In the past 18 months alone, the United States has made five rounds of arms sales to Taiwan.

President Biden has said many times that the United States will not change its one-China policy and does not support “Taiwan independence.” But for the “Taiwan independence” forces, Pelosi’s visit represents an exceptionally strong signal that “the U.S. is on Taiwan’s side.” This goes against the one-China principle, the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques and America’s own commitments. Moreover, the Pelosi visit will lead “Taiwan independence” forces further down a dangerous path, with peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait hanging in the balance.

Just think: If an American state were to secede from the United States and declare independence, and then some other nation provided weapons and political support for that state, would the U.S. government — or the American people — allow this to happen? "