#Just or Unjust

[sirgawainofgalifrey]

You know, now that Athena has gotten pissed off and tried to kill Annabeth, and we know that later Hera is gunning for her as well, they should keep it going

Like by the end of the series we could have Percy "picking a knife fight with every single god" Jackson paralleled by all the gods fistfighting over who gets to personally murder Annabeth.

[synchodai]

HBO's Continued Insistence on Dumbing Down Westerosi Politics

So there have been countless thinkpieces already on how GOT simplified the feudalist politics of Westeros (by giving a lowborn sellsword lordship over The Reach, by having no consequences for destroying the Sept of Baelor, etc.), but I haven't seen a lot of people talking about that for House of the Dragon.

The worst being that the show presupposes that Rhaenyra is the lawful heir when the books showed there are plenty of lawful arguments why she wouldn't be.

Mind you that I've been enjoying the show a lot so far. This is just to vent out my frustration with the writers' failure to fully engage with the values and protocols of the Middle Age-inspired setting. The show seems uninterested in laws of the Realm in a story ostensibly about politics, save for when they're using it as an excuse to amplify depictions of sex and violence.

Blacks vs Greens wasn't a matter of misunderstanding of who each side thought Viserys wanted on the throne. It was the Targaryens' belief of their absolute authority clashing with the Realm's established traditions. Everyone always knew who Viserys chose as heir. In Fire and Blood, Grand Maester Orwyle said as much when he was parleying with Rhaenyra on behalf of the Greens.

Rhaenyra heard his terms in stony silence, then asked Orwyle if he remembered her father, King Viserys. "Of course, Your Grace," the maester answered. "Perhaps you can tell us who he named as his heir and successor," the queen said, her crown upon her head. "You, Your Grace," Orwyle replied. And Rhaenyra nodded and said, "With your own tongue you admit I am your lawful queen. Why do you serve my half-brother, the pretender?" Munkun tells us that Orwyle gave a long and erudite reply, citing the Andal law and the Great Council of 101. Mushroom claims he stammered and voided his bladder. Whichever is true, his answer did not satisfy Princess Rhaenyra.

(For non-F&B readers: Munkun is the Grand Maester who served Aegon III, the king who came after this civil war. Munkun's book, The Dance of the Dragons, A True Telling, is one of Fire and Blood's source texts. Mushroom is the King Landing court jester from Viserys I to Aegon III's reign. One is a source written with academic rigor but is secondhand at best. The other is a firsthand eyewitness account but is from a literal fool who will take every chance to make things more scandalous and sexual to please the crowd.)

In House of the Dragon, they replaced Orwyle with Otto and Orwyle's discussion of legal precedent with Otto handing Rhaenyra a book page from Alicent. It's quite evident here that the writers, much like Mushroom, thought a discussion on the actual laws of the Realm were negligible in this story about a succession war.

Even Alicent made no pretense that Viserys chose Rhaenyra over her children and I have no idea why the HBO writers decided to make her mistakenly think otherwise. Maybe they thought a queen regent pushing her son to take the throne over another woman made her appear unsympathetic as a character, but if anything, this only makes show!Alicent less politically savvy and more delusional than her book counterpart, fully believing an addled king's vague muttering on his deathbed was sufficient grounds to change heirs last minute.

Book!Alicent following Andal laws instead of her husband's wishes makes sense given her Andal upbringing, her devotion to the Faith of the Seven which enforces said laws, and her desire to protect her children from Rhaenyra given that Rhaenyra has shown she's not above murdering family (see: Laenor).

In the books, there was a long discussion between the former king's council on who should succeed Viserys.

Here are the arguments for Rhaenyra:

Rhaenyra was older than her brothers and had more Targaryen blood

the late king had chosen her as his successor, that he had repeatedly refused to alter the succession despite the pleadings of Queen Alicent and her greens

hundreds of lords and landed knights had done obeisance to the princess in 105 AC, and sworn solemn oaths to defend her rights.

Here are the arguments for Aegon II:

many of the lords who had sworn to defend the succession of Princess Rhaenyra were long dead [...]

Ironrod, the master of laws, cited the Great Council of 101 and the Old King’s choice of Baelon rather than Rhaenys in 92

the hallowed Andal tradition wherein the rights of a trueborn son always came before the rights of a mere daughter

Ser Otto reminded them that Rhaenyra’s husband was none other than Prince Daemon, and “we all know that one’s nature. Make no mistake, should Rhaenyra ever sit the Iron Throne, it will be Lord Flea Bottom who rules us, a king consort as cruel and unforgiving as Maegor ever was [...]”

Should the princess reign [...] Jacaerys Velaryon would rule after her. “Seven save this realm if we seat a bastard on the Iron Throne.”

Once again, the show chose to cut out this long political discussion. Instead, the council had already made up their mind and decided to stage a coup (when in their perspectives from the books, it would definitely not be a coup).

For all their marketing how two sides are equally grey, HotD is actively delegitimizing Aegon II. The strongest argument for him is how his claim follows the laws of the Realm, but the show doesn't seem to care about the laws of the Realm or the political need to maintain a more predictable/tested transfer of power.

Instead, the show focuses on Viserys's relationship with his daughter and the mysticism of the Targaryen bloodline. In doing so, they emphasize Rhaenyra's strongest arguments for succession — that she's more of a Targaryen than her half-brother and that her father prefered her.

And what for? Because in our modern-day, we don't have male-prefered inheritance and people can only imagine misogyny as the only injustice here? What about the injustice of a monarch exercising absolute control, thinking that his "superior" heritage makes him above the established laws of the native people?

This is not to say Aegon II is unquestionably the heir. But this is to say that the show removed the political nuance of why people are questioning in the first place. Precedence isn't the end-all-be-all of succession, but neither is "because daddy said so".

[zuiz41]

Flirty Oiks and Tsun tsun Iwa 😳✨

Happy OiIwa Day!!🎊🎉

[thevalleyisjolly]

I hope we never learn Luthen's backstory and also I hope he's just some ordinary guy. Perhaps a somewhat well-to-do antique dealer on Coruscant, maybe with a sideline or two in less legal trade, things like rare artifacts or kyber crystals. Sometimes a Jedi drops by, maybe trying to track down whispers of stolen crystals or just investigating tangential leads for a mission, but it isn't hard for him to smile genially and wave them off. He's very good at his job and while it's sometimes an annoyance, these busybodies and eager beaver detectives, it's rather satisfying to get away with lying to a Jedi.

One night, on a night of fire and blood, he finds a Jedi on his doorstep. Maybe he's met them before once or twice, maybe it's a complete stranger, a fugitive who made it out of the massacre and somehow stumbled their way to wherever the Force led them. Whoever they are, however they got here, they don't make it any further, leaving Luthen with the dangerous body of a newly-declared traitor and a lightsaber.

The body, at least, is easy to dispose of for a clever man with a toe in illicit activities. The lightsaber too must be gotten rid of, deconstructed into its component parts, wires and metal and a crystal.

He holds the blue crystal in his hands, hands that just hours ago, days ago, were the last touch that a dying stranger knew. And as the proclamations start coming out over the Holonet, the Senate's roaring approval of their new Emperor, the announcements of martial order, the executions of traitors to the Empire be the Jedi or Separatists or a lonely, scared person who fought until the end to reach the doorstep of an unfounded hope-

Luthen looks at all he's done. All he hasn't done. All he might do. And he writes an equation.

[turquoisemagpie]

Appreciate the little things.

Not to ignorantly deny all of the big bad things in the world, but to survive them.

[astoria-rese]

here to remind people that if Till didn’t decide to turn back during the meteor shower both Till and Ivan would probably be alive

[tarraxahum]

This was gonna be a reply to a reply but I thought maybe I should just make my own post. Yes this is about Vi again.

It's no secret that "Vi should've fought for Zaun" and the expectation of her being Vander's prodigy and feeling like the plot dropped the ball on her in that regard and the betrayal at the fact that she's living comfortably in Piltover now are. Frequent sentiments in the fandom. Which I get, but also I feel that this line of expectations is. Diverging from who Vi actually is by the end and what she was realistically capable of.

Vi in season 2 is basically running on fumes and because she has no other options. It is a well known thing in irl activist spaces that to participate in any kind of fight for justice you need to take care of yourself, otherwise you won't have the energy to be any kind of useful to your community. Ekko also says this - "It's not enough to give people what they need to survive, you have to give them what they need to live". Vi has been surviving and not living in any shape or form for years, she's exhausted and broken in places. That's no mental state to fight for Zaun or make any kinda change. I think it's extremely realistic and human and hardly a flaw of writing or the character if by the end the only thing she was able to do was collapse into the safety and peace she was offered for the first time in forever (aka Caitlyn). It's clear that in her last scene she's still recovering mentally - Cait seems to be excited to have any sign of life (singing) from her at all, and the "Are you still in this fight?" question is very loaded. (But it's indicated that Vi is very much still in the fight, so? It's really anyone's guess what she'll do once she's healed and remembers how to live. And don't bring up LoL's Vi brutality thing, it's clear they're different characters).

I think in wanting to see Vi stand up for Zaun or be Vander's prodigy we often deny her the flaw of being a breakable human and forget just how much she's held together by duct tape. Just because she was full of this 'fuck Piltover' fire as a kid doesn't mean she is still capable of matching that energy. Sometimes after lots of trauma humans grow up into tired adults who just want to sit down and feel safe regardless of where it happens and how questionable it might look (re: living in Piltover). Not to mention, that even as a child Vi's main reason for fuming at the Topside was wanting safety for her family and herself. Well, now she's all out of family, she's estranged from the community of Zaun thanks to being in prison for 7 years and Silco changing the place so much, and the only person who's offering her safety and not more fighting (which she's exhausted and thoroughly burnt out from!) is Caitlyn, so. How is where she ended up any kind of surprising or a failure of her writing/character?

Yes, a lot of people wanted a revolutionary, no, Vi isn't one. Dare I say, never really was one. At her lowest, when she's got no one left to protect, she's not trying to fill in that void by taking on protecting Zaun and becoming a vigilante or something, no, she spirals. That is not something on her radar, that's not something she's visibly cut out to do, she cares so so much but on a smaller scale. Even the whole shimmer factory debacle was less about Zaun and more about her desire to hurt Silco personally for what he'd done to her family. If Jinx agreed to run away with her back at the tea party Vi would ditch the entirety of Zaun (potentially leaving it to Silco forever since he's still alive at that point) in a heartbeat to keep her sister and save Cait in one move. She puts on an enforcer uniform BECAUSE she cares for Jinx (through convincing herself that at the very least she should take her out of her misery herself rather than leaving it to people who don't care, yes) and Cait both.

Perhaps a hot take, but not becoming a leader despite being good at taking hits to the head and caring about people in general and being a daughter of one does not make Vi a badly written character or a bad person. It just makes her a person. And a character whose arc culminated in choosing herself. And choosing yourself sometimes means leaving the fight to others (perhaps temporarily, considering the final dialogue). And that's okay.

Arcane is tragedy about flawed people, not a feel-good story about a successful revolution and rich people paying for their crap, and it was never going to be. Ergo one of our main character isn't an upcoming hero in shining armor who was allegedly robbed of her potential. She's just a broken young woman who barely knows how to keep her own little life together and her biggest victory by the end is allowing herself to take a breath and live for once. Yes, while her home down there is still in shambles. Yes, that sounds selfish. For some people a bit of selfishness is the greatest thing they can ever learn for themselves.

[kimpining]

Did you know that right now you could be reading over a million words of trans lesbian communist sci-fi?

Unjust Depths is a webnovel about communists struggling for the sake of a better world, through mech combat and romance and sparking waves of liberation in the depths of the sea. And there's even an epub now!

It's my favorite story, and its dedication to portraying the clashing ideologies and ideals of such a large ocean-spanning cast of memorable characters inspires me every day. The vast majority of its cast is trans and gay women striving and fighting for a better world that has a place for them. The willingness of the story to jump between perspectives and understandings of the world and to manage it so gracefully and effortlessly is incredible to read.

And at the heart of it, the story is funny, romantic, sensual, just capable of encompassing so many different dimensions of the characters within and using all of those elements together with ease to shape the work into something I've been turning over in my head for years. It's got romantic cannibalism, muslim catgirls, horrors from beneath the hadal zone, toxic old women yuri, and gertrude lichtenberg. It's really good. I think everyone should read it.

[jerreeeeeee]

i don’t know if i’m ever gonna write the fic but i’ve been thinking abt like. the eternal stockade. the implications. lup, a lich who was trapped in a dark featureless cell for a decade completely isolated with nothing to keep her sanity but her own mind. she has to put people in the eternal stockade. how many liches does she see herself in. how many liches started out just like her. how many liches are truly too far gone. and the only liches we ever see other than her and barry are edward and lydia. they’re certainly evil, but mad? they seem pretty sane. they’re not, like, tattered echoes of souls, they’re definitely still people. even as much of a grudge as lup surely has against them, wouldn’t they remind her incredibly strongly of herself? do they deserve to be trapped just like she was? for eternity? isn’t eternity what turned john to existential despair in the first place?

[australianklaviergavin]

(The werewolf was you)

[definegodliness]

Tonight, I would like to leave you with my favourite Snoopy classic.

[thatswhatsushesaid]

Who are your top fave characters from each mxtx novel? 👀

i'm going to exclude svsss from this list because i haven't finished it yet and therefore all of my opinions are just based on hearsay. but for the other two:

mdzs

1. jin guangyao (obviously); the antagonist of circumstance who but for a trick of fate and authorial intent could have easily been the novel's protagonist

2. lan xichen; the very best of men 🥹 truly the person with the kindest heart and (in my opinion) the most tragic ending in the novel*. also i'm xiyao trash, who's surprised

3. su she; he and i are the same person honestly

4. jiang cheng; i think if i was going to go insane about any of the core cast, i'd probably go insane over jiang cheng. and i probably would have, if jin guangyao didn't exist! sorry, jiang cheng.

5. wen qing; who doesn't love a mad scientist??

tgcf

1. xie lian; no seriously, i love the protagonist of this novel the best because he is everything i love about jin guangyao and lan xichen burrito'd up into one character

2. shi wudu; the heavens' cuntiest proto-capitalist, and also arguably the elder brother that the mdzs fandom wishes nie mingjue was for nie huaisang 👀 (this opinion has gotten me into at least 4 fights on the mdzs subreddit specifically)

3. pei ming; my ethical slut general. also the other half of peishui, my main non-hualian ship for this novel

4. mu qing; he did NOTHING wrong except have a bad attitude, since when is that a crime!!! (this is not serious analysis, please don't @ me with your mu qing criticism, i'm too tired for it right now)

5. jun wu; daddy 🥺

[wiirocku]

1 Peter 3:18 (NKJV) - For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,

[kasseesstars]

Trying to fall asleep but all I can think about is a pretty tboy in my bed cuddling as close as he can to me in his sleep :(

[selfmenticide]

oh the sick and twisted desire to write the wilford and actor from my dark's canon divergent backstory...

[1nvad3rz1m]

like i feel like people want to wipe away the things that make zim Zim. this happens to dib too bc theyre just very difficult characters to swallow.