loyalbarbarian

[loyalbarbarian]

D&D getting projects cancelled and being fired from things over and over again is so satisfying

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#angst with a happy ending ?! #slow burn ?! #mutual pining ?! +100k ?! status: completed ?!

[loyalbarbarian]

My favorite character was introduced as a rape and abuse and child marriage survivor, grew to become a Queen in exile, was raised in poverty and came from nothing but a name, and almost had everything she wanted in her grasp but was turned into a mad queen and then betrayed and killed by her intimate partner. Your favorite character is a man whose biggest trauma was being a bastard and yet was raised in luxury and privilege in spite of that, who wasn’t raped or abused or sold into child marriage, who didn’t grow up in poverty, who got everything handed to him on a silver platter and literally FELL UP instead of down, got RESURRECTED after he died, and then after kinslaying and queenslaying his lover by tricking her with a hug and kiss, got to take his friends and his dog and go north and live without any repercussions. 

We are not the same. 

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[loyalbarbarian]

Hohoho @reddoorandlemontree​, time has come to pack your little present! But first let’s check I am not forgetting anything… or anyone. You ask Santa a happy ending futur Jonerys with Targling (or 3).

So let’s see what we’ve got:

Happy is here !

And 1 Targling

And another one !

And a twin sister for our little guy makes 3 Targlings!

Everything is ready to go !

MERRY CHRISTMAS  @reddoorandlemontree​!!!! I which you to be overwhelmed with as much love as those six, today and for the many years to come. 

Your Secret Santa

[loyalbarbarian]

Daenerys Targaryen in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (8.02)

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Daenerys Targaryen & her braids

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Why Dany is not a villain

A hero is a villain to someone

I’ve been thinking a lot about the arguments that people use to support villain Dany theories and thinking why this argument always got under my skin and it suddenly struck me. Yes, this line stands true. We know in part, roles such as villains and heroes aren’t ubiquitous in some ways. Tyrion is considered a villain by the smallfolk and the Starks and while we know that he is no villain, most other people do not. The people within the text may not truly know who is the hero of the tale and who is not but the audience certainly will. We have a greater perspective than all the characters put together and therefore we know completely and absolutely who are the heroes. It’s very clear from the text who are the heroes. We know the Starks are heroes. We know that Tyrion if not one already will be a hero just as we know that Cersei, despite her history is not. Why, therefore, do we play obtuse when dealing with Dany’s character?

More so, does being a villain to a group of people therefore then make you a villain? You could easily argue that Sansa is a villain from this basis since she’s believed to have murdered Joffrey. She’s certainly a villain to Cersei at the very least but does this basis, therefore, transform her into a villain? No, we know that to be wrong because we know Sansa to be both kind and good. This is similar to Dany who we know to have a strong love for both justice and humanity, to the point that she pushed back her plans for a Westeros conquest in order to end the slavery within the different areas of Slavers Bay. Yes, Dany may be considered a villain to a wide range of people but considering that these people happily use slavery, are depicted as sexist, greedy and so on, should we even begin to consider this idea that Dany is somehow a villain for this.

Even more importantly and separate from this point, how does Dany becoming a villain even fit or belong to the narrative. What point does GRRM make with doing that to her? I know many people cite the fact that it offers shock value and that the series does not rely on tropes and therefore, makes sense. But, all the shocking moments we have seen were done for a reason. The Red Wedding and Ned’s death weren’t just depicted for shock value but to allow Arya and Bran and Jon and Sansa to take center stage and to lead the change that their predecessors had been so focused on achieving. Ned’s death itself is beyond tropey, we’ve seen it in Harry Potter and Kingsman and other huge series and narratives. The death of a mentor or parent is a massive aspect of many stories. Dany turning into a villain makes no narrative sense. What important message does it give if Dany is turned into a villain? 

So much of his series is based on human perseverance and hope and doing good despite how difficult it is. Being good is hard. Having power and not falling into the same pit as Cersei and other villains we have seen, not allowing that power to corrupt is even more difficult.It is some of these themes that are so central to Dany’s character. What purpose would it, therefore, serve to make Dany a villain?

In addition, all the villains we have seen have been very flat and clearly evil, even Cersei is very clearly a villain. GRRM does not do gray with his major villains. We don’t even have the POV of most of the antagonists and yet we have been with Dany from the beginning. We’ve seen her character grow from a scared little girl to the Mother of Dragons and queen. Seen her grapple with morality and her idea of home and her identity. Seen her, very overtly separate herself from the Valyrians, her ancestors, use of slavery and continuously rejects Viserys way of ruling and dealing. Let’s not even begin to discuss how Dany is likely the figure within these prophecies and how she did the impossible and brought dragons back (which if you’re wondering is a very heroesque type of thing to do) or how the narrative continuously frames her as a hero.

If you still don’t believe me on this then how about on a practical level? The story is drawing closer to the battle against the Others in which it has been shown that Dany will play a part.

That night she dreamt that she was Rhaegar, riding to the Trident. But she was mounted on a dragon, not a horse. When she saw the Usurper’s rebel host across the river they were armored all in ice, but she bathed them in dragonfire and they melted away like dew and turned the Trident into a torrent.

 It was a futile thought. He might as well wish for another thousand men, and maybe a dragon or three.

The story is moving away from the political war and onto the supernatural one in which Dany will establish herself fully as a hero and save the word. 

Now, this isn’t to say that Dany hasn’t done a great many things that are both villainous or wrong or even that she doesn’t walk closer to the edge of darkness in comparison to our other heroes. Dany has and likely will do some more things that will be wrong but this in no way means that she will be a villain or that she should even be considered one

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I know she is proud. How not? What else was left her but pride? I know she is strong. How not? The Dothraki despise weakness. If Daenerys had been weak, she would have perished with Viserys. I know she is fierce. Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen are proof enough of that. She has survived assassins and conspiracies and fell sorceries, grieved for a brother and a husband and a son, trod the cities of the slavers to dust beneath her dainty sandalled feet.

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Important quotes to take from this article, that sums up perfectly why Daenarys’ treatment in season 8 was so heartbreaking..(long post with bullet points for easy reading):

Game of Thrones is “a world where women are often treated as disposable objects, Daenerys outwitted and overpowered her male enemies. As the sole protagonist in her own storyline, far from the rest of the characters, she was set up to be one of the few unambiguously [female] heroic figures in the series.”

“in just a few episodes, she quickly transformed from a woman who has prided herself on saving the downtrodden to one who burns the innocent.”

“[Daenerys’] treatment this season from the makeup of the writers’ room: The writers and directors on the show have always been overwhelmingly male, and women were shut out of both writing and directing jobs for every episode in season 8.”

“Throughout her life, Daenerys has shown a commitment to justice…She freed the slaves in Meereen… When Drogon burned one child, she chained up her other two dragons, leaving herself more vulnerable…She put her fight for the Iron Throne on pause to fight in Jon’s war against the White Walkers [in the North where she knew she would feel unwelcome].”

“She was called the “Breaker of Chains” for a reason. When she misstepped, we forgave her, as we forgave, say, Tyrion for strangling Shae.” [And Jon for killing a child for betraying him!]

“Daenerys has certainly used “Dracarys” to punish plenty of people during her reign… she always gave some compelling reason for doing so.”

She first used her dragon’s fire to kill a warlock who tried to imprison her, and again against a slaver who tried to cheat her…she crucified all the masters in retaliation for them having killed slave children — but they had killed children…She burned all the Khals who were threatening to keep her as a slave or rape her, or both.“

Dany’s advisors gave awful advice:

“Daenerys agreed to make Tyrion her hand because Tyrion said he “knew things”…specifically, he claimed to know how to make alliances in Westeros and exploit people’s hate of Cersei in order to put Daenerys on the throne. Except, Tyrion did…none of that.”

“…when did Tyrion convince a single lord that if they joined their side, they could get a new title and nice castle and see the land’s most hated woman [Cersei] burned to a crisp? Never.”

“…what Tyrion did do: Try to cut a deal with slavers that would have kept slavery legal for a longer period of time, until Daenerys decided to burn their ships instead; convince Dany not to fly to King’s Landing and burn the Red Keep, which would have resulted in far fewer Kings Landing deaths; come up with the horrible plan to capture a wight that almost got Jon killed and lost Daenerys a dragon and still didn’t earn Cersei’s allegiance; convince Daenerys to trust Cersei, who has never proven herself to be trustworthy; forget to remind Daenerys that Euron and the Iron Fleet would almost certainly be waiting near Dragonstone, thus losing Daenerys another dragon; free Jaime from captivity in an effort to help both his brother and Cersei escape death at Daenerys’ hands…”

“Don’t even get me started on Varys, who didn’t write a single letter to a single lord to gain intel against Cersei or an ally for Dany but did find time to spread the word about Jon’s true parentage…”

“Tyrion and Varys were supposed to be her helpers. They failed her. Instead of owning up to this and realizing the part they have both played, Tyrion and Varys begin to worry that Daenerys is a flawed ruler exactly because she’s losing faith in them over their terrible decisions.”

On the Sansa v Dany struggle:

“…The writers of the show cited much more petty reasons for their [Sansa and Dany’s] conflict: “[Daenerys is] also very pretty, and how much does that factor in? Sansa starts off this season very suspicious and not at all friendly with Dany.””

Her Isolation:

“In the last few episodes, Daenerys finds herself envying the love that Jon’s people feel for him…it’s destabilizing for her to arrive in Westeros and find that people are not eager to see her. Why, exactly, the Northerners don’t appreciate her dragons — without which they could not have defeated the Army of the Dead.…”

“Daenerys rightfully glowers at Jon as his countrymen celebrate the fact that he mounted a dragon a couple of times when Dany has been riding one for years [Not to mention she is the first Targaryen in hundreds of years to have successfully mothered & raised/trained dragons]…In a mission to make Dany feel as isolated as possible, the show killed off her closest advisors, Jorah and Missendei.”

“Daario is controlling Slaver’s Bay in her absence. Yara Greyjoy is sworn to her. In theory, the new Prince of Dorne would be allied with her since Daenerys struck a pact with Ellaria Sand. Daenerys could have called on any of these allies when she faced Cersei’s army but didn’t — simply because the show needed her to be alone .”

On Missandei:

“Game of Thrones fridged Missandei. There’s no other way to put it. Her capture and death happens just so Daenerys would feel isolated. The fact that the writers turned the only major black female character on the show into a device to motivate Daenerys feels even more cringeworthy.”

“The fairly quick transition from complicated hero to totally mad villain leaned heavily on an oft-repeated line: “every time a Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin”. But should Daenerys’ Targaryen blood necessarily doom her? After all, Jon is half Targaryen, too. So why does he get to sit comfortably on the other side of the coin?…The show has long been obsessed with various characters’ struggles to shake their family’s legacies. Tyrion killed his own father and joined Team Daenerys, only to betray Daenerys in order to help his family again." 

"Daenerys has long tried to differentiate herself from her father, the Mad King, only to become her father’s daughter.”

“…the show’s most recent plotting flaws was Varys’ rushed decision that Daenerys was a terrible enough queen that he would endeavor to poison her — quite a stretch for a man who served under King Joffrey…Remember that Varys once wanted to put Dany’s brother Viserys, a demonstrable megalomaniac, on the Iron Throne.”

“…when Varys found out Jon was a Targaryen, he began openly conspiring to undermine and overthrow Daenerys…He accused her of being paranoid while simultaneously conspiring against her, which means she had every right to be suspicious…Again, it’s a failure of the show that the man who was once revered as Master of Whispers walked up to Jon in the middle of a crowded beach and suggested he usurp Daenerys.”

“Other rulers we think of as heroes in this story have executed men for less than attempted murder: Robb Stark executed Rickard Karstark for killing the Lannister hostages, against Robb’s orders…Ned Stark executed someone for abandoning the Night’s Watch…Jon Snow executed the men who succeeded in murdering him (before he was resurrected) including Olly, a young boy.”

“…Jon betrayed Daenerys’ trust by telling his family, and Tyrion betrayed her — twice. Davos also betrayed her too for totally inexplicable reasons by helping Tyrion smuggle Jaime to Cersei…Her advisor’s lie to her and gaslit her, plain and simple. And yet the way that Daenerys’ destruction of King’s Landing is shot, we are supposed to see her as the irrational one and Tyrion as one of the victims of her terror.”

“…either due to time restrictions or lack of source material or just plain lack of creativity, the show took shortcuts this season…And those shortcuts tended to rely on the laziest of sexist stereotypes about crazed, power-hungry women.”

“Maureen Ryan at the Hollywood Reporter put it best: “Inescapably, infuriatingly, what we’re left with is apparently the central message of Game of Thrones: Bitches are crazy.” ”

“…Had [Dany’s] paranoia been seeded many episodes ago and grown over the course of several seasons, it would be an epic Shakespearean tragedy. Instead we must infer this descent based on her frizzy hair.”

“Worse, the moment when she seemingly decides to rule with fear, not love, comes after she’s romantically rejected by Jon…” [Suggestible that the lack of requited love is a strong enough reason for a level-minded strong woman to fall into a pit of craziness, despite all the good she has ever done and vows to continue doing..]

"Varys suggested that Jon would be a better ruler exactly because he did not want to rule. Figures in mythology and history ranging from Moses to George Washington to Harry Potter have been heralded as heroes because they came to power reluctantly. Those figures also tend to be male. How do our stories cast women eager for power? As evil queens. And now Daenerys is a cliché.”

“There have been a lot of problematic characterizations of women this season, as revealed by the writers’ own commentary surrounding the episodes…Sansa essentially parroted what the writers have been saying for years about her rape by Ramsay Bolton — that it made her stronger…and the showrunners called Cersei, one of the smartest, most vicious characters on Thrones, “just a girl who needs the comfort of a man..”

”…in the end, Daenerys cycled through several tired stereotypes: Another evil, power-hungry queen literally shot with a dragon’s wings behind her; the crazy lady that a noble man has to heroically overcome…“

Like Cersei, Dany was a character introduced in the first episode, who ws incredible meaningful in the narrative of Game of Thrones. Instead of going out with a bang, Daenerys’ death wasn’t a bang like she truly deserved, but a whimper and forgotten to emphasise the man’s conquer and victory.

[loyalbarbarian]

D&D:

Fired of Star Wars trilogy

Their GoT “The long night” spinn off cancelled

GoT prequel House of Dragons confirmed writted by George RR Martin and directed by Miguel Sapochink

Us:

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this is the perfect grade of good luck

reblog in 5 seconds and all of your grades will inch ever closer to perfect

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Just some of the many critics praising Emilia’s performance in Season 8

no matter what happens at the emmys, you are my best actress, from this day until my last.

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Emmy for Emilia Clarke good luck post 🐉👑

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What it’s like to be a Dany fan. Be proud and own it.

(X)

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what if dany’s and sansa’s storylines in s8 had been switched? what if sansa had been the one going “dark” and getting murdered by her lover (or by jon)? how would have people reacted? i’m pretty sure everyone would have been rightfully upset and found it disgusting, because what kind of bullshit would it be to write about a rape survivor, a woman who’s been abused by men her whole life, and make her die in a moment of intimacy, murdered by a man she trusts? but guess who was a rape survivor too? guess who had been abused by men her whole life too? yeah, that’s right, it’s daenerys. oh, but daenerys was a mad and evil queen, right, while sansa would have never been mad, because she isn’t the mad king’s daughter - i guess, after all, we’re all defined by our blood and can’t do anything about it, can we? but sansa has also always been way less threatening to men than dany - hell, they even made her thank her abusers. notice how people have always said daenerys acts “entitled” even though she made herself, even though she started from nothing? people used to like her in s1, when she had little to no power. then she became too powerful, too strong, so they had to cast her down somehow. ruin her so they could make jon kill her without people realizing how fucked up it was. maybe they wanted to teach women a lesson. “don’t be too loud. don’t take too much space. be grateful to men.”

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by MarkRaats