cynicalclassicist

[cynicalclassicist]

That is what socialism is! You get the myths of you running out of other people's money, from the likes of Thatcher. Well, capitalism seems to be making us run out of money!

[cynicalclassicist]

Sad and sweet...

[cynicalclassicist]

On the 18th, I got and began The Turn of the Screw and Other Ghost Stories by Henry James from the library! On the 28th, I began The Turn of the Screw! I've just finished Chapter 21! #TheTurnoftheScrew #TheTurnoftheScrewandOtherGhostStories #HenryJames

[cynicalclassicist]

That's... quite a family.

rhaegar dany aerys

[cynicalclassicist]

By the Seven, these people are all mad!

Let's imagine you're the average Westerosi peasant. And someone read to you the newest hottest tea in the realm right after king Robert died: Queen Cersei is sleeping with her brother the Kingslayer and all her kids are actually inbred bastards! Gasp! (this message is brought to you by Azor Ahai and the rightful one true king Stannis Baratheon)

But then later that day you hear a different tale: Stannis is getting cucked by his own court fool (who is crazy and will bring watery death to everyone) ! His ugly kid is the clown's bastard! Gasp! (this message is brought to you by the Lannister fascism propaganda department and queen regent Cersei Lannister)

NOW PUT ASIDE THE FACT THAT YOU KNOW THAT CERSEI IS DOING INCEST. You are a peasant who never saw these people ever. (had to redo the poll to last more than a day)

[cynicalclassicist]

Just signed this.

Petition: Stop "gender critical beliefs" being protected under the Equality Act https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/712741

[cynicalclassicist]

Hooray for Angie the ICE Chaser!

[cynicalclassicist]

God, Crimson Peak looks so wonderful.

Crimson Peak (2015) dir.: Guillermo del Toro

[cynicalclassicist]

So... JK Rowling helped someone?

Anyway, JK Rowling continues to look kind of ridiculous.

[cynicalclassicist]

Now that is proper reporting!

Don't give the whole Trump is top of his game, Trump shows his moves, or whatever. Call him a felon, call him a rapist, call him a golf cheat, call him what he is! Don't suck up to the fascist!

Also, he's in the Epstein files, so you know, keep bringing up that he's a sex offender.

[cynicalclassicist]

Well, at least Beric fulfilled his honour in his last breath. How very knightly of him!

Even if it won't be quite how Arya wants it.

Thoros chuckled. “Your brother will pay, child. Have no fear on that count.”

“Yes, but what if he won’t? ” she insisted.

Lord Beric sighed. “Then I will send you to Lady Smallwood for a time, or perhaps to mine own castle of Blackhaven. But that will not be necessary, I’m certain. I do not have the power to give you back your father, no more than Thoros does, but I can at least see that you are returned safely to your mother’s arms.”

“Do you swear? ” she asked him. Yoren had promised to take her home too, only he’d gotten killed instead.

“On my honor as a knight,” the lightning lord said solemnly.

— Chapter 39

And then Beric died, resurrecting Catelyn Stark as Lady Stoneheart. Oh yeah, Arya is definitely going to meet her mother again.

[cynicalclassicist]

Yes. Olenna could have carried the poison herself. But Baelish wanted Sansa to smuggle the poison in so now she feels complicit in a plot that she is being falsely accused of being complicit in. It's an abuser tactic, you carried the poison in!

And yeh, the Royces would be more on Sansa's side than Baelish. He is not her friend, he is a liar, as he deceived her parents and everybody else!

"It doesn't make logistical sense to include Sansa in the plot to kill Joffrey ☝️🤓." It wasn't meant to be logistical; it was meant to tie Sansa to the regicide so Littlefinger would have an easier time manipulating her later. Turns out it's really easy to isolate your victim and keep her solely reliant on you if you tell her that you're her only friend and everyone else in the world will betray her to the queen who wants to torture and kill her. An abuser using abuser tactics? Shocking.

Gee, I wonder why the villain of Sansa's story told her to be wary of Myranda Royce... Is it because she's from a house with friendly and familial connections to House Stark and may want to help Sansa? No, it must be because she's secretly a bad guy and this definitely isn't all a way to make it harder for Cat Sansa to leave him again /s

How are asoiaf YouTubers so daft?

[cynicalclassicist]

Because life is better than death! The Starks love each other!

possibly the greatest asoiaf moment ever is when jon gets the letter about bran waking up and mormont expects him to grieve because “sorry kid :( it’s actually bad news :( he’s never going to walk again :(” but jon is all like “my brother is going to live !!!” and then he races out of the room and tells everyone he passes that “my brother is going to live !!!” and he gets back to the common hall and picks tyrion up and spins him around and makes him read the letter too because “my brother is going to live !!!” and he’s so giddy that he befriends grenn and tells thorne to go fuck himself and then everybody laughs and jon is just so happy because “my brother is going to live !!!”

meanwhile bran is back in winterfell listening to robb’s bannermen whisper about how death is a kinder fate than his, how they should’ve just let him die, how he’s too broken to be alive—with no idea that his big brother is out there celebrating because bran is going to LIVE !!!

[cynicalclassicist]

Lady Stoneheart is Catelyn with all the sympathy gone, now there is only a desire for vengeance.

That is how resurrection works in this world! Beric was left with his desire to help the Riverlands, his mission when he was killed the first time. Catelyn dies after watching her son's treacherous murder, thinking of the family that she lost, having just tried to gain some manner of revenge on the Freys. Now that is all she has driving her.

Another thing I found interesting is that despite Catelyn's chapters extending more sympathy towards Cersei Lannister than any other, Catelyn's hate towards Cersei is also used to showcase her darker impulses from as early as AGOT.

In AGOT, during Robb's conference, when lord Karstark starts needling Cat in his grief about her being of the gentle sex, its her anger, hate and want for revenge against Cersei that Catelyn mentions when shooting him down and making her plea for peace.

in ACOK, when she visits the Sept the night before the battle that was about to happen between Renly and Stannis, Catelyn wonders to herself whether or not Cersei prayed to the same gods, pondering whether or not she herself would be willing to kill for her children too, the same as Cersei had. Then, not long afterwards, that sympathy breaks again when she also confides to Brienne about how much she wishes she could strangle Cersei with her own two hands till her face turned black. Except she can't and that wish goes unresolved.

When it comes down to it, Catelyn is not a pacifist. she's a peacemaker, but she is not inherently against violence and the compassion and empathy she can extend towards characters like Cersei or lord Karstark is always used to contrast her anger. There's a reason why Catelyn's chapters have both the most sympathetic and the most hateful thoughts about Cersei and that's because Catelyn herself is both a very sympathetic and a very hateful character. Lady Stoneheart didn't come out of nowhere, she was spawned by the depression, anger and despair we've seen develop through out Catelyn's chapters and one of the reasons it Feels so radically different is because Stoneheart doesn't have the inner conflict of love vs hate, she simply hates, and unlike Catelyn Stark, Lady Stoneheart can actually live out her darkest thoughts and impulses because she doesn't have anything to lose anymore.

[cynicalclassicist]

I was sorry to hear of the passing of Ozzy Osbourne at 76 on the 22nd. He is a great figure of heavy metal while in Black Sabbath and in a solo career. He managed a final benefit concert on the 5th! My thoughts are with his loved ones.

[cynicalclassicist]

OK, as a result of it I did that!

First thing I looked up? A song of ice and fire!

The filter relies on manually curated open-source blocklists, including the ‘nuclear’ list, provided by uBlockOrigin and uBlacklist Huge AI Blocklist,” DuckDuckGo said in a post on X. “While it won’t catch 100% of AI-generated results, it will greatly reduce the number of AI-generated images you see.

Left: AI filter is off Right: AI filter is on

[cynicalclassicist]

So basically, we're screwed.