#(( since she's the queen of the dragons ))

[ponypickle]

I will never not be sad by the de-fangification of our female characters on hotd. we could've had all of them serving cunt and warfare/bloodthirstiness but instead they are all 'peaceful' and everything is the men's fault 🙄🥲.

a cersei-esque alicent dead set on having her kids on the throne at all costs because she believes it's their gods given right, ready to slay everyone who gets in her way

rhaenyra asking her feral husband to eliminate anyone and anything that offends her, like vaemond, a son for a son, etc. stopping at nothing to get HER throne because SHE wants it, not stopping at anything to achieve her goals

rhaenys ready to ride into war for her queen to slay all her enemies instead of feeling bitter as she came across in the show a lot of the time

baela truly being the embodiment of her father in female form, being feral and ready to eliminate everything at once, etc.

oh, the show we could've had if they just weren't scared of the audiences reactions to powerful decisive women that aren't apologetic about their claims to power and what they believe is their's.

[justbringtherain]

Aemond: I could have you killed Helaena: I could not give a single fuck

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

I'm continuing my DAO replay and like....... are we just not going to talk about the fact that Anora's handmaiden is Orlesian?

I'm sorry, how did the Queen of Fereldan end up with an Orlesian handmaid? Did Loghain approve of that? Because I bet he sure didn't! Given everything about him, I bet he threw a real stink about that! And yet, Erlina is close enough to Anora to beg the wardens to save her after she's locked up by Howe, appearing entirely loyal to her.

So I broke out the World of Thedas vol2 to see if it said something in there about her and I couldn't find anything. All the wiki has to say is, "Erlina is the handmaiden of Queen Anora. Not much is known about her background but she apparently escaped from Orlais. Arl Eamon suspects that she is more than a simple servant."

Gee, ya think, Eamon?

I just find that to be a very interesting detail, one that has my theorist gears cranking and spinning.

[tidetower]

Dragon Mates: Seasmoke & Tessarion

Commissioned artwork by cl_pepperin // DO NOT REPOST

[navree]

"Who was really behind blood and cheese?"

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLuRCbUQ/

In this video on TikTok, the creator claims that Daemon couldn't possibly be behind blood and cheese because he's not a "schemer." 🙄

Oh yeah I saw people talking about that on Twitter and it's dumb as Hell. Like, for one, no Otto's not going to do it because killing one of only two heirs to the throne and driving his granddaughter to madness to the point where she can't create any more is much more of a problem than any good PR would be a solution. Just because Otto decided to capitalize on a grotesque situation as best he could doesn't mean he orchestrated it. Not to mention, Otto's canon characterization, as expressed not only in the show but also behind the scenes by the writers and Rhys himself, is as someone who loves his family. His problem is that he's not good at verbalizing it (Rhys said something to the effect of Otto not having the language available to tell Alicent "I love you and I'm scared for you" even if that's how he feels) which doesn't allow it to be verbally expressed, and he also values power and advancement too much. So he places it over the love he has for his family, chiefly Alicent, who he clearly adores as his child, and it causes him to grievously hurt his family in spite of his love for them, like setting up Alicent to be groomed and sold off into marriage to Viserys despite the damage it will cause.

And yeah, Daemon isn't a schemer, but you know what he is? Violent. Violent and cruel and uncaring towards the suffering of others. Show Daemon isn't a schemer, but he is someone who bashed his wife's head in because he wanted to murder her for the crime of him not liking her. Show Daemon isn't a schemer, but he did fabricate an entire plot that could have resulted in Mysaria being killed without even taking her wants and needs into consideration. Show Daemon isn't a schemer, but he is the kind of man who takes teenage girls to brothels to ruin them and then leaves them there with their clothes off at the mercy of rapists and murderers and no way to get back home. Show Daemon isn't a schemer, but he is a father who neglects his older children and shows no care or concern for their wellbeing or emotional needs. Show Daemon isn't a schemer, but he is someone who giggles at his wife's funeral in front of her family and responds to his brother's attempt at conciliation with personal insults. Show Daemon isn't a schemer, but he is a husband who put hands on his wife and throttled her when she hit on a sore nerve and he wanted to lash out. Daemon's involvement in Blood and Cheese doesn't require scheming. It requires him having contacts in King's Landing, which is likely given his time living there, and it involves his propensity for significant violence against anyone he wants it done to and his disregard towards early anyone who isn't himself. So him hiring people to kill a child and telling them to be as merciless as possible about it? Yeah, that tracks with Daemon as he's portrayed on this show. That tracks really well.

Anyway funny how Team Black stans were all about 'and we'll support them in their war crimes era!' about Daemyra but now that the war crimes are approaching and we're about to watch baby murder and threatening to rape a child and mentally torturing Helaena and Alicent on an HD screen, now there's theories that make no sense. Blood and Cheese is, at minimum, Daemon's fault, not anyone on Team Black, and it's high time his fans at least follow his own lead and own it.

[domi091]

Assigning my moots a dragon from Httyd

You are the Fireworm Queen :]

OMG YESSS !?? Fireworm queen my beloved!!!!!!!

[micorriko]

Just found out my lizard Trixie is actually a male so her new last name is now Mattel. I now have a drag queen lizard <3

[atopvisenyashill]

Saw someone compare Catelyn and Alicent as “abusive andals who force their religion on others” and like, completely disregarding the vastly different situations those two are put in, it’s such a ridiculous complaint!!

Firstly, Aegon the Dragon converted to the Faith of the Seven even before his conquest! Yes, both he and Jaehaerys carve out exceptions for Valyrian incest behavior, but it’s like the equivalent of going “well i think catholicism is a little high strung can we be church of england instead.” Even before he starts the Conquest, Aegon has clearly started converting House Targaryen and likely House Velaryon, to the Faith:

Lord Aegon and his sisters took counsel with them, and visited the castle sept to pray to the Seven of Westeros as well, though he had never before been accounted a pious man.

Aegon even counts his reign to have started not with his first battles, but with his anointed crowning:

Three days later, in the Starry Sept, His High Holiness himself anointed Aegon with the seven oils, placed a crown upon his head, and proclaimed him Aegon of House Targaryen…perhaps for that reason, it was thus coronation, rather than the Aegonfort crowning or the day of Aegon’s Landing, that became fixed as the start of Aegon’s reign.

The Targaryens landed on a continent of people whose ancestors, by and large, came to westeros specifically to flee Valyria, decided to follow in Valyria’s footsteps by conquering with their dragons, but in an attempt to show they weren’t the Freehold, assimilated into the dominant cultures of Westeros. There’s several instances of Aegon purposefully tying himself to Andal religion over anything Valyrian when he’s building King’s Landing:

A makeshift sept constructed out of the hulk of a cog in the Blackwater served the common people, and soon a much grander sept was raised on Visenya’s Hill…Aegon decreed there should be room enough for the city to expand within those walls, and that seven great gatehouses would defend seven gates, in honor of the Seven.

Rhaenys the Conqueror does this as well when she sits the Iron Throne, clearly attempting to align the Iron Throne’s justice with that of the Faith:

After deliberating with the maesters and septons, Rhaenys declared that, whilst the gods made women to be dutiful to their husbands and so could be lawfully beaten, only six blows might ever be struck—one for each of the Seven, save the Stranger, who was death.

It’s not explicitly in the text, but the fact that Visenya’s building about the Kingsguard comes in the same chapter of Fire & Blood (and I believe on the same page in TWOIAF), and she picked 7 men to make up the Kingsguard, points to a similar, “we are tying our dynasty to the Faith of the Seven” reasoning.

This is like, the one major concession the Targaryens make to the rest of the continent and given that a peasant uprising happens when they attempt to drift too far from the Faith, it’s an important concession bc religion is important to the people of Westeros. Alicent isn’t oppressing Valyrians for being religious when The Seven are already baked into the establishment of King’s Landing and the Iron Throne - it’s not like she disowns Aegon or Helaena for incest marrying, does she? In the show, she’s even the one that pushes for it.

Secondly, there is no evidence that Catelyn is crueler to Jon for believing in the Old Gods, nor is there any indication that she begrudges her own children their faith in the Old Gods. In fact, Catelyn not only understands their faith, she encourages it, and even seems to believe the direwolves were sent by the old gods to protect her Northern children. We see this first after Summer saves her and Bran’s lives:

The wolf was looking at her. Its jaws were red and wet and its eyes glowed golden in the dark room. It was Bran's wolf, she realized. Of course it was. "Thank you," Catelyn whispered, her voice faint and tiny. She lifted her hand, trembling. The wolf padded closer, sniffed at her fingers, then licked at the blood with a wet rough tongue.

Emphasis is mine - she doesn’t just thank Summer, she holds her hands out as a sort of peace offering, which Summer gladly accepts. And there’s several instances where she’s insistent Robb keep Grey Wind with him:

The wolf. The wolf is not here. Where is Grey Wind? She knew the direwolf had returned with Robb, she had heard the dogs, but he was not in the hall, not at her son's side where he belonged.

Despite her initial reluctance - during a time of incredible stress, I might add - Catelyn comes to see the direwolves as a favorable omen, as accepting of the direwolves as protectors as she is of her children worshiping the old gods.

“These scars . . . they sent a man to cut Bran's throat as he lay sleeping. He would have died then, and me with him, but Bran's wolf tore out the man's throat." That gave her a moment's pause. "I suppose Theon killed the wolves too. He must have, elsewise . . . I was certain the boys would be safe so long as the direwolves were with them. Like Robb with his Grey Wind. But my daughters have no wolves now."

Yes, she does often associate her children with her Faith when she’s praying, but this is no different than Robb, Sansa, or Ned praying in the godswood - she is simply looking to a higher power to give her peace and answers. Notice she even associates Jon with the Faith!

Not even a cricket could be heard, and the gods kept their silence. Did your old gods ever answer you, Ned? she wondered. When you knelt before your heart tree, did they hear you?

…the Father's face made her think of her own father, dying in his bed at Riverrun. The Warrior was Renly and Stannis, Robb and Robert, Jaime Lannister and Jon Snow. She even glimpsed Arya in those lines, just for an instant.

There is no sense of “I just wish my pesky northern daughter and her stupid northern bastard brother were more southern” in her thoughts, merely that, while worrying after all the men she knows that are fighting a war, she sees them in the Warrior’s face, and then sees her lost daughter as well.

The only “these northern gods are weird” moment we get is her very first chapter, where she’s a little unsettled being in the godswood. But note that the godswoods of the North are way different than the ones in the South, something she literally spells out:

The godswood there was a garden, bright and airy, where tall redwoods spread dappled shadows across tinkling streams, birds sang from hidden nests, and the air was spicy with the scent of flowers.

The gods of Winterfell kept a different sort of wood. It was a dark, primal place, three acres of old forest untouched for ten thousand years as the gloomy castle rose around it. It smelled of moist earth and decay. No redwoods grew here. This was a wood of stubborn sentinel trees armored in grey-green needles, of mighty oaks, of ironwoods as old as the realm itself. Here thick black trunks crowded close together while twisted branches wove a dense canopy overhead and misshapen roots wrestled beneath the soil.

It’s a creepy place her husband goes to pray whenever he’s executed someone, but it’s a creepy place whose power she clearly respects!

And anyway, in this scene, what disturbs her more is that she feels the old gods have sent an ill omen, and here, in the middle of their power, she’s worried about what it means for her family, which is a very normal reaction to have, and she’s not the only one who is worried:

Catelyn wished she could share his joy. But she had heard the talk in the yards; a direwolf dead in the snow, a broken antler in its throat. Dread coiled within her like a snake, but she forced herself to smile at this man she loved, this man who put no faith in signs.

A Baratheon king on the way to see the Starks to ask Ned to be Hand after the last one was killed, just after her children find a direwolf dead of an antler in its throat. Yeah, she’s unsettled as she walks into a site of power for the same gods that sent that omen.

Trying to paint either of them as somehow evil for believing in the Faith of the Seven is odd. It’s fine if you’re like “Well I’m just critical of Fantasy Catholicism in general”, that’s a valid reading and clearly GRRM shares that feeling of “faith is great but organized religion is just as corrupt as every other huge organization.” But Catelyn is not pledged as a Silent Sister or Septa, she doesn’t even belong to a particularly religious family (the most pious Tully we hear of is all the way back during Maegor’s rule, Lucinda Broome Tully, as a matter of fact). Cat simply has faith and clings to it when she’s upset, something like 80% of the characters in this series do.

As for Alicent - again, you can make the argument that her family is super entangled in the Faith of the Seven a la the Medicis, and while you can argue that her religion is part of what pushes her to help kickstart the dance, due to Seven/Andal belief in male primogeniture, the First Men and Valyria also practice male primogeniture.

(the only Westerosi ethnic group that doesn’t is Dorne, and while the First Men believe a daughter should come before a brother, plenty of uncles usurp or attempt to usurp their nieces amongst the First Men - look at Alys Karstark. It’s a belief that’s clearly half theoretical, because all of Terros is fueled by violent patriarchal standards, it isn’t exclusive to the Southron lords).

Alicent making King’s Landing more outwardly Seven looking when the Targaryens have been ostensibly in the Faith for going on five generations now, is not really a crime you can ascribe to her. Rhaenyra’s marriage to Daemon is done in the fashion of Old Valyria, but like, even Rhaenyra has a Maester on her councils because including those involved with the Faith is important to the smallfolk of Westeros - so important they start two separate peasant uprisings when the Targaryens, and later the Lannisters, drift too far from their religion. The misogyny ingrained in the Seven and the Andal culture is not solely the responsibility of these two random women.

[thedeadthree]

AS COMFORTABLE IN RINGMAIL AS IN SILK. — VALAENYA TARGARYEN; A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE.

TEMPLATE I by @unholymilf | TEMPLATE II | ICON

[howuart]

Royaltyshipping barbie thingy? Harumi as barbie about to attack the cameraman and Vania as ken just being silly goofy. If u wish to

I had so much fun drawing them. But again I want to say this isn't exactly a ship thing, while you can do ships, it's also duo's ie I've down green cousins and Smith siblings, but what ever.

[kaerinio]

smth smth, the image of drogon diving . . . and dany intent, holding on, standing up slightly with her feet braced on his scales!

[edmunderson]

Just realized, but unless someone has caught zojja up on things, she has no clue who aurene is since aurene hatched after the end of HoT

[kedreeva]

For anyone interested in media featuring rescued sacrificial maidens, Damsel is on Netflix and it is extremely good.

Except the sacrificed maiden isn't rescued by some dude with a sword; she's rescued by the memories of those damsels sacrificed before her, and the messages they left behind in the hopes that even though they might not make it, the women who follow them will fare better because of them.

I don't want to spoil the ending, but the reveals that happen at the end regarding the monster and the maiden are choice, as is the way they handle it after.

Hey anybody going to talk about rescued sacrificial maidens. Like yes a guy with a fuck off sword turned up and so you're not getting fed to the dragon/water creature/mountain spirit/vague embodiment of all things scary and you get to go back home, but is that really home? Your mom hugs you and your dad says he's so happy you're alive and you know that when they said they'll do anything to keep you safe they didn't really mean it. They have a feast prepared and you get to taste what they cooked for your funeral, help wash the dishes after. And it's selfish to think that between the whole village with everyone in it and you they wouldn't pick the lesser evil but it still leaves an emptiness in your chest, knowing exactly how much your life is worth. And the neighbors smile at you awkwardly and the neighbors' kids yell "hey! I thought you died!" because they don't know not to do that yet and maybe you did. Maybe you did.

And the hero with the fuck-off sword rode off into the sunset the way they always do but you're still here and you herd the cows by the cliff where you were tied up in your cleanest clothes waiting to not be alive anymore and sometimes you think that would be easier and when you don't come back one day, you can imagine it's a relief for everyone involved. Maybe you'll be the new thing to haunt the mountain, or maybe you'll follow down the road and listen for cries that sound like yours did. Either way, there's little left to fear. You know exactly how much your life is worth.

[bulletbilltime]

I'm so sane. Only sane people think about "Life is Strange but isekai'd into Paper Mario TTYD". I'm so sane I swear.

[navree]

"princess rhaenys targaryen would have made westeros a better place to live if she had been chosen as jaehaerys's heir" how? literally how? what material evidence can you point to in the character of rhaenys that shows a desire or even remote interest to use the throne to better the lives of the people or the state of the country in any way? what proof can you even attempt to give that rhaenys being installed as heir would have made life better for westeros at large? how, in specific, would rhaenys being queen have made life better for the people of westeros as a whole and made it a better place to live for everyone, not just courtiers in the red keep?

[pcndaemonium]

❛   dressed .   help  my  muse  put  on  an  article  of  clothing .

Her attentive gaze watched the aspect closely in the looking glass as he closed the golden clasps of her over-robe between her shoulders. Its heavy fabric followed her shape elegantly, as if it had been woven for no one but her - just like the lighter robe beneath. " You seem to have thought of everything, " Atharia commented once his hands merely rested on her body, and he was looking back at her. " But you have missed a small yet most important detail. "

And she turned around to face him, not through the looking glass but in earnest. Nothing had ever pleased her skin as much as the attire he had gifted her for the meeting they would attend soon. The corners of her mouth twitched into an attempted smile that spoke half of amusement and half of something else; hidden beneath the otherwise neutral expression. " I am not the one to present my research to those in power. And especially not to the Queen of Dragons herself, who surely will find my experiments cruel and unspeakable. After all, she is the Lifebinder and will not look kindly at those who meddle with it. "

She tilted her head to the side while searching his eyes for a response to her words.

" Dressing me like you would dress the queen at your side might not change her mind regarding the proposal you have to make. I might look like a queen, but we both know I am merely a researcher, who happened to contribute to the solution to our plight. "

@earthwarden