#King Capital Management Review

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I hate how Rhaenyra is being written. In F&B, her place as the protagonist is taken by Daemon thanks to GRRM’s fascination with him.

During the war, Daemon:

Advised the Black Council to send envoys to the Great Houses that hadn’t declared for Aegon, which helped get the Arryns and Starks on their side.

Captured Harrenhal without bloodshed with his dragon, allowing the Riverlanders to majority declare for Rhaenyra.

Led “a strong force” of Riverlanders to capture the last big Green supporting Castle, Stone Hedge.

Hired his mistress to kill one of Aegon’s children, resulting in his mother’s insanity and removing her as a dragonrider/voice of reason/even ability to escape.

Was the principal factor for the fall of King’s Landing for the Blacks. He led the Gold Cloaks decades before which inspired them so much they killed Alicent’s brother and turned the city over to Daemon.

Refused to obey Rhaenyra when she demanded Nettles be killed under guest right, allowing her to escape.

Waited 2 weeks for Aemond to appear at Harrenhal; succeeded in killing him by driving Dark Sister into his blind eye, as well as the biggest dragon Vhagar. His body was never found, so it’s still speculated he lived to be with Nettles.

Meanwhile, Rhaenyra:

Sent Knights Inquisitor to pursue those who let Aegon II escape the capital, and apparently the spikes on the gates started to be filled with more fresh heads each day.

Levied higher taxes on the peasants each day, turning them against her, especially when she planned lavish celebration to mark Joffrey as heir to the Iron Throne.

After the Two Betrayers burned Tumbleton, irrationally decided that the other two loyal dragonseeds were also going to betray her, so sent warrants for both their deaths. She even tortured her former father-in-law Corlys Velaryon because he’d helped Addam escape, making him defect to the Greens. Her warrant for Nettles’ death under guest right (a sacred custom) led both Lord Mooton and her husband chief supporter to turn on her as well.

Overthrown by the smallfolk and forced to fled King’s Landing after the Storming of the Dragonpit to Dragonstone.

Was betrayed at Dragonstone by a senior member of her garrison, her remaining knights killed. Eventually, Aegon fed her to his dragon Sunfyre, who ate her in 6 bites in front of her 10 years old son.

Side by side like this, there’s no comparison. Daemon despite being characterized as impulsive and ruthless, was able to win 3 victories with relatively little bloodshed, and gets a heroic and epic death (and he might still be alive!), killing a legendary dragon and the biggest threat to the Seven Kingdoms, saving the Riverlands from Aemond’s tyranny and ending his reign of terror, but abandoning the Black cause to save an innocent teenage girl. Meanwhile, Rhaenyra orders executions and high taxes and tortures, turns her biggest allies against her, is chased out of the city in 6 months, gets betrayed and eaten by a dragon (she’s definitely dead, since hundreds of people saw it). She doesn’t get a single success of her own (even Aegon managed that in getting Dragonstone to defect), while he gets several despite having someone kill a child. Caraxes is an “old, fast, clever dragon” who helps win Harrenhal without a fight and kill Vhagar, while Syrax is a lazy dragon who mainly exists to get Joffrey killed and then die in the dragonpit (even Sunfyre is better than her, essentially coming to Aegon’s rescue). It’s not necessarily that Rhaenyra’s cause fell apart when Daemon abandoned her (though considering how he’s made so epic it’s a blow), it’s that her irrational, tyrannical actions caused nearly everyone to abandon her. If she hadn’t issued the warrant for Addam and Nettles’ deaths based on nothing but paranoia, then Daemon and Corlys wouldn’t have betrayed her, and considering the Dragonpit would’ve still happened, she’d at least have 3 dragonriders plus the wealth/loyalty of Driftmark on her side. Daemon gets introduced as “made of lightness and darkness in equal parts” meanwhile Rhaenyra is written as one-sidedly incompetent and tyrannical (to the point that even Aegon outshines her sometimes, despite him also being astonishingly incompetent and psychotic). There’s no sense of balance to her, she does basically nothing but the wrong political moves, when she’s supposed to be the protagonist of this story.

[*EDITS* are dated in various posts of post]

"no sense of balance", this is a great criticism of bk!Rhaenyra, or rather the writing for her. finitefall wrote something about Rhaenyra's tyranny HERE, Watsonianly and Doylistically. But my answer will be long and maybe a tedious answer to you so ignore it when it gets dumb, anon. I'm shooting from the dome. There's no analysis happening in this post.

Essentially/To Summarize:

A)

Actually, Aegon was not as strategic as you think. No, he did not plan the Dragonstone fall or deliberate with anyone on how to seize it. that was done for him as much as Daemon taking Harrenhal for Rhaenyra was. And Rhaenyra had a set of circumstances that no other Targ monarch has had to face, not even Jaehaerys.

B)

However!!!! I have out of text v in-text critiques. Basically, as a Doylist argument, yeah I agree. In-text and if we take the story as is? I think it's to pull the these sides into the despair of war and highlight the irresponsibility of it falling here in the first place. Wars must be done for a good reason, not because you killed your sister's son and usurped her for power. Or that you pull your families into a war where they'll die and the realm will be plunged in with you. Yes, HotD had something to the whole "both sides", but not to the extent that they make it: why canon!Rhaenrya wars doesn't matter at all.

And GRRM could have done the above AND emphasize that this never should have happened if not by misogyny without falling back on sexist tropes himself. Which is why this isn't a feminist tale; not because Rhaenyra herself is or should be a feminist (that's impossible) NOR because Fire and Blood was mean to be a "anti-female ruler" sort of thing and this any events where Rhaenrya did ride on Syrax burning people or strategizing and working through her pain was deliberately left out (how can you hide that fact that Rhaenyra would have done the dragon burning at least?! Survivors are also giving testimony! By that argument, we can say it wasn't Baela who burned Aegon, it was some male dragonseed. Nah.)

It's not a feminist tale or even much of a pro woman one because GRRM had so many opportunities to showcase a woman actively participate in a war (in 2 different ways without her being a swordswoman or something like that: flaming bitches OR/AND strategy/tactics/logistics) she was using to reclaim her authority and position and power WHILE showing how Gyldayn's book tries to make her out to be incompetent or evil *[6/1/24]*(and yes real histiographies or versions have both recorded great things women have achieved as they also brought both unsubtle and subtle bad-faith criticisms for those same actions [post from poorshadowspaintedqueens])*[6/1/24], END*…but didn't.

*[11/26/24]* And there's something to that; kings and rulers in general -- after maybe the 14th - 16th centuries, and even then, eh -- were largely both advised and usually to not directly go to battle or fight themselves. They let their commanders and their commanders' soldiers and peons do that, for obvious reasons.

Rhaenyra, also, canonically does delegate when she needed to--issue here people love to bring up is whether the stuff she planned out or wanted done not panning out well for her were bc:

her fault due to lack of intelligence or privileged "laziness"

not her fault by lack of time or space to plan/her kids' dying having a huge mental toll on her impairing her ability to think more on what she had to do so that she ws relgated to making the simplest delegatory decisions

The issue here and that I think you bring up is that we're not even given one major thing that came from Rhaenyra herself or Rhaenyra was inspired to do that also well for her. *[11/26/24], END*

You can still tell the tale of how she became too paranoid and make a point of how the sexist writers saw this as female weakness by forcing them to record major events where she didn't do that but they had to record that anyway because it was so impactful on scale or effect. You can still make us witness her decline at her own hands or have her sons' deaths, one by one, affect her responses to specific events in the war. Make it so that the people around her were being shady and that's what encourages her paranoia to strengthen, that would be better. Make some sort of misunderstanding situation happen with most/if not all her supporters. Make Celtigar or Corlys do some questionable stuff or suspicious stuff (or seem like it, we don't know who's in the shadows trying to divide the blacks after all…) so she reasonably starts to suspect them and lose her trust in them, these men she has to sort of depend on to lead her armies and naval support and direct her funds, and then have some green strike in the moment of unpreparedness. Something!

Instead, canon!Rhaenyra's mental decline is too caricaturistic. *[6/1/24]*There are also some tiny saving graces (listed below, way below), but again, TINY.*[6/1/24], END*

I imagine that this is all the motive for why you and some people might prefer show!Rhaenyra and her going to participate directly in the war as we've been clued on. I'll first say that I get why people do for S2 Rhaenyra...not so much S1 her. HERE is why I prefer bkRhaenyra before Rhaenyra-w-a-Sword pooped up AND summarizing, bc the writing for her in the show is still bad and sexist, but worse because it denies the neutral/good parts of bk!Rhaenyra.

Still, Branwynhalfwitch of Twitter explains it better (S2 Rhaenyra, anticipation).

And your ask reminds me of this ASK/POST about the same issues with Rhaenyra's writing. That anon said what you describe:

I don’t get why Martin uses a mother’s grief so often as a convenient plot device to force passivity, silence and absence on his female characters to fit the requirements of the plot, why it’s always the women who break down, rend their garments and retreat from public life, whereas men react to similar tragedies with anger, pursuit of vengeance and singular political focus.

You:

It’s not necessarily that Rhaenyra’s cause fell apart when Daemon abandoned her (though considering how he’s made so epic it’s a blow), it’s that her irrational, tyrannical actions caused nearly everyone to abandon her. If she hadn’t issued the warrant for Addam and Nettles’ deaths based on nothing but paranoia, then Daemon and Corlys wouldn’t have betrayed her, and considering the Dragonpit would’ve still happened, she’d at least have 3 dragonriders plus the wealth/loyalty of Driftmark on her side. Daemon gets introduced as “made of lightness and darkness in equal parts” meanwhile Rhaenyra is written as one-sidedly incompetent and tyrannical (to the point that even Aegon outshines her sometimes, despite him also being astonishingly incompetent and psychotic). There’s no sense of balance to her, she does basically nothing but the wrong political moves, when she’s supposed to be the protagonist of this story. Rhaenyra is written as one-sidedly incompetent and tyrannical (to the point that even Aegon outshines her sometimes, despite him also being astonishingly incompetent and psychotic.

You're right, it's very Daemon-forward. Don't get me wrong, I see his value for Rhaenyra, but if you're going to write about a woman...write about her and don't let her fall completely to the interpretations of the writers against her when everyone else gets more story than her in her own war. IF you're going to make it about her trying to reclaim her birthright, make her decline much more organic, the pressure on her mind must be more gradual and sensical, and not immediately make her fold under pressure or death of sons. Because yes, mothers/women can think through their pain as Daemon did. Like in that other ask I likened your ask to, there are legends of women like that Sforza woman and Olga of Kiev putting their kids in safer but still active positions to participate in war so they them selves can then take over the war proceedings as unofficial head. Rhaenyra is the actual head of her side, with Daemon as her commander on the ground...so let her do something and colloborate! (By legend/history, Olga had her son throw a spear to signal the beginning of a war she wanted to wage, bc only the male monarch could to officially begin a war). Yeah-ish, not every woman, "realistically", can do something like that but this is fiction and again, in the story about a woman trying to take back her power through a war...do not undermine that point of her trying to defend herself by making her not defend herself, only to drive how wrong it was to usurp her through how her kids live with trauma the rest of their lives and "make up" for it by having the Targs descend from her. There's a difference b/t a woman herself gaining wins/trying her best for herself and her propagating "winners" eventually. (Talking about Aegon V and Dany mostly).

It strengthens the impression of high femme-in-presenting people unable to do the "hard"/big man stuff. It solidifies the whole medieval "women can't do war, that's why they aren't leaders" even as you try to say that Rhaenyra's grief this, Rhaenyra's miscarriage that, bc you're clearly creating reasons for why she will sit out when you do have the option of not doing so, as a writer.

It'd have been more meaningful to have Rhaenyra flout that medieval binarism by at least doing logistics or tactical stuff: oh, she may not be a warrior, but she impacts their moves by reviewing the battlefield or thinking up ways to replenish supplies for their armies or ways to infiltrate this castle and that castle, etc.

And have her burn a few soldiers, come in and do a "save the day" in that battle without necessarily having her swing a sword. She already sort of does flout the binary a little by being a dragonriding princess, in the Andal ideology of masc vs femme---like Branwynhalfwitch of Twitter says, lean on that fact that she is a dragonrider!

Why all this hype about her being the youngest rider to have bonded with a dragon if you're not going to allow her to really use said dragon to reestablish her political power?

Out-of-text: Lately I've gotten more frustrated by a lot of this. Yeah...I know I said once or twice that we as the readers, can still draw significance in how Rhaenyra's supposed mediocrity vs Aegon's craziness shows ever more the point of how sexism makes a mid/good woman undeserving in the face of any mid/evil/incompetent man but GRRM not giving Rhaenyra at least one self-generated strategy plan is more than annoying. It helps to make more substantial this "rational man" v "irrational woman" trope we're all done with because it make women way too passive in a story that's supposed to be their own. She is still the protagonist, just a not-well written one.

A better female character GRRM wrote in F&B is either Rhaena (Dreamfyre's rider, daughter of Queen Alyssa Velaryon and Aenys I) and perhaps Queen Alyssa Velaryon. Maybe Alysanne. The best is Rhaena, though. I wrote at least two posts back to back defending her AND made a 3 "volume" maybe 20 video series on TikTok...this girl is my babe.

I resent GRRM for the circle of "reasoning" I'm about to put you through.

Like I mention below abt Aegon at Dragonstone, Aegon "outshines" her in more crazy than genius or rational-ness. He actually never acts rationally. Like at all. So ironically, we got them similar in that aspect. Aegon was also, unlike Daemon, separated his whole life from that. Aegon is not and was never known for being the swordsguy/warrior his brother was. He was mentally and physically unprepared for war.

I believe GRRM's intent was to have Rhaenyra--who actually ruled Dragonstone for years and sat at council with Viserys and his councilmen for years listening and maybe giving suggestions/learning-- still was so separated from the face of violence and death to those closest to her, that she "lost" her will to meet her odds for a time when her Luke died. Why not Visenya? She lost not one but two, ad so she breaks down. But that's so...flaccid(?) to me, too. It's like he's saying that she "lost" herself or some faith there. Paralyzed by the realities of war and choosing to go to war. So both her and Aegon had been living in the lap of aristocratic wealth it seems, but then it also seems like Rhaenrya had a leg up on Aegon by having been an active ruler on Dragonstone....but then he doesn't take advantage of that one element of potential for Rhaenyra, that one advantage...why? Perhaps someone better at this can explain, I'm tearing my hair out!

By contrast, Daemon had experience and lived in with the possibility of his loved ones dying AND went to war in the Stepstones for years.

The arguments for why Rhaenyra's "deserving" to rule being relegated to how incompetently she acts in the war--like I've said in other posts--gets easily confused for she must actively fight in battle to be considered a good leader...which is exactly the sort of medieval thinking that argued femininity is itself an anthesis to war-faring, militancy, and leading; and we modern Americans and other Western nations don't even practice for leaders. Our president doesn't go travel to fight beside the troops, not even in airplanes. Should they start? That's a good question.

Anyway, I get reluctant to question GRRM's thinking here just bc it's so...dumb?

At the same time, I also truly think that Rhaenyra's "arc" and decline into paranoia does have a potentially interesting journey and that it began with her rivalry with Alicent, from the age of at least 12 if not when Aegon is born which when she is 9-10. What effect would Alicent's turning the court against her and trying to mentally tear her down have on a child growing up expected to also have to be queen? How did that look and turn into how she interacted with the men in her life--father, uncle, brothers, husbands....and the women/girls in her retinue, how did she really feel about them and why? We know the women were loyal more or less. How susceptible did her childhood make her to manipulation from men, where/when/with who did she draw lines/why? It's that GRRM also didn't get into how Rhaenyra may have developed an ever-present insecurity alongside and motivating her need to stand up for herself that grew and worsened with the first few disasters of the war...BUT HE FUCKING WASTED IT!!!

Yes, this is a history book with unreliable sources determined to paint female ruler=bad for stability, but they'd be forced or compelled to at least write a few achievements or two. If you're so attached to this concept and refuse to divulge this girls' thoughts through a fucking letter or journal entry or excerpts of such or something of reflection and thoughts of the moment that reveal character like with Daemon and Otto's letters in the Rouge Prince AND one, just ONE tactic she made up on her own during the war...preferably two. I wouldn't remove her grief and the paranoia entirely. (And I'm not necessarily talking altruistic; Rhaenyra is not and never was that. Just bc you maybe a little clever, doesn't mean you're nice or compassionate.)...You may question, why not Rhaena BB then, instead of Rhaenyra? Well, tbh I much prefer if we somehow got this for every single Targ, attached to every history book, alongside how the maesters interpreted those writings so we got meta-on-meta. Its just richer that way, more engaging. And each character would have still given a voice...after all why describe Daemon's actions in such unrealistic detail if you're goin that far? But alas. Maybe it's a bad or even worse idea, but I'm spitballing.

(Ironically, a lot like how HotD does with some of their own changes or tweaks, like Helaena being a dreamer, which makes me want to compare the two)

Levied higher taxes on the peasants each day, turning them against her, especially when she planned lavish celebration to mark Joffrey as heir to the Iron Throne.

Every bullet point aside from the Nettles one are things I don't really begrudge Rhaenyra for, but I do question why GRRM really made her so sheltered(?) isn't the right word but he made her not try. And with each point, why he decided to give her so much at once but not come up with one good plan that soiled anyway? Or is that sexist? Again, she ruled Dragonstone and sat at council for years....where's all that acumen and experience now?

I honestly don't know what I would have done to replenish the treasury after my wicked half brother and his cronies stole it without putting taxes on people if I have been born high classed. I wouldn't execute people at such alarming rates and I think I'd have a smaller investiture ceremony for my "Joffrey". But I don't know what I'd do. Can't go to the Triarchy bec they just killed one of my kids (Jace), wouldn't trust me, and don't really exist as a unified until anymore, less interested in Westerosi affairs after that. The Hightower armies are in the Reach and parts of the riverlands preventing aid from coming in. Cregan Stark is not due until my own death. So I have but my own funds from Dragonstone and my allies' funds. And you can't demand they fork over $ or you risk losing more allies that way.

I suppose that was what GRRM's job was.

Some posts I wrote about this problem, Watsonianly, so don't come for me:

Basically, GRRM also maybe trying to make her one tragic flaw her need to self determing in the face of people acting/telling her she doesn't deserve power bc she is female.

Excerpt:

Doylistically, Rhaenyra's lack of "focus" (not to be that Try Guy) on what would happen after Viserys died can be attributed to GRRM just wanting her to be at a huge disadvantage at the beginning of the war, for that effect of off-kilterness and foreshadowing things never being the same again after 10 years of peace and presumed happiness with Daemon and her kids. However, writing this error -- without providing any sort of other reason other than she made Dragonstone her home -- does still belies her intelligence, or at least sacrifices that for that effect described. Because she had 10 or so years to contemplate the aftermath of her father's death. *EDIT (8/21/23) *And perhaps he did that on purpose to highlight how misogyny doesn't care what kind of person a woman is so much as it tries to reshape her into an evil being needing destroying so she could become the reason why women, in general, shouldn't rule and "disturb" the "natural" order of male rule. *END OF EDIT*

Others:

Some other saving graces:

A) *[6/1/24]*

Rosby and Stokeworth was an issue that I don't think that most women in Rhaenyra's shoes (from this world) could have have avoided without losing important things. It's a thing that reflects what real life Queen regnants also had to sometimes deal with when persuading men who lead their various martial units, provided supplies, aided in coups [Catherine the Great], etc. Against the concerted efforts of several camps (men and the women who lead armies on behalf of close male relatives) to prevent a woman from claiming power in her own right, the same power-claiming woman needs more than herself and a few other relatives to assure she gets the throne/seat/privilege, etc. Corlys is a sign of that very thing--he twice tells Rhaenrya that if she were to go by Daemon's suggestions of giving Ulf & Hugh any dead noble's (rightfully executed or not) past holdings and titles, the other lords wouldn't likely stand for it:

("Rhaenyra Triumphant") -- First Incident (Not Rosby & Stokeworth)

("Rhaenyra Triumphant") -- Second Incident (Rosby & Stokeworth)

Corlys held her naval support. And while yes for the sake pf setting a precedent of girls becoming lady regnants of houses or being considered as possible, more viable heirs, Rhaenyra ALSO has to measure if she can keep those supporting her to destroy the obstacles in her way so she can ascend and set that prime precedent of female rule. She can't do that if she doesn't win.

If she chose to have these girls become the ladies of their houses, it could have alienated some of the lords she needed to stick with her and support her during an ongoing war. With Daeron-the Hightowers and their army doing well against their own soldiers outside of the city. And she denied Ulf and Hugh the Baratheon/Lannister holdings (correctly) in the next black council when they deliberated how to deal with her brothers, Alicent & Helaena, and those who helped the greens usurp her. She measured the high risks and decided it was way too big in lieu of her other circumstances. (We don't get how she herself felt about it, bc no letters, journal entries, self-reminders, no notes...)

The bulk of her argument for being queen was that the past King/monarch chose her, not that her womanness made her a needed ruler. This is our/the reader's argument. What about the person who must do the actual thing of becoming the precedent, though? There are still material steps to be made towards that. While I would love to see a woman choose to take on that risk, I understand it as the risk it is, what world she grew up in, her limitations, etc.

As Rhaena the Black Bride/Dreamfyre's rider could have been much "nicer" to her kids, she wasn't because of extentuating circumstances--where her own family isolated her despite how they essentially made sure she herself couldn't ascend, how she already proved her loyalties, how she was abandoned by her mother, and how she endured Maegor raping her. Rhaena, who also faced patriarchal violence and is blamed for not "rising above it" by fans. Rhaena is better written--her psychological distress much more comes across as organic bc: the distress does that stop her from seeking and achieving revenge against Androw Farman and even Maegor in various ways and levels and it doesn't or stop her from actively trying and sometimes succeeding in making her and her kids' situations better--but this one element of being trapped in the world you are born into with limited options holds true for Rhaenyura. At least with Rosby/Stokeworth and how she intended to deal with her brothers/their supporters.

And the pressure, again, of the stolen treasury, threat of her brothers still out there, two sons dead violently and her unable to bury either of them. Everything of this happening all at once...I maintain that it would have raised more faith if GRRM made her do the Dragonseed bit herself or more events where she took the lead, but that doesn't mean that since she is the final decision maker that we/GRRM should totally erase how this would cause more of a mental toll on her versus Daemon or Corlys. It's just that he refused to write more events showcasing Rhaneyra's getting back into the "game", so to speak. To show any trace of the clued education and resilience SOONER and MORE OFTEN before Jace dies. Those things that he himself clued us in on from the pre-war era, in favor of letting his male characters shine.

Still, Rosby and Stokeworth was an actually difficult conundrum of a rock and a hard place.

*[6/1/24], END*

B)

and he might still be alive!

That's more legend/fandom wishful thinking. He's definitely not alive. But yeah, he's male and an active one in the war so he gets a legend.

Why don't Visenya, Rhaenya and Alysanne all get "legends" of their own? Because Visenya and Rhaena conquered Westeros w/Aegon while acting as pseudo-Queen Regents/Regnants, apssing laws in the realm they constructed. Instead of just being his consorts. As his consort, Jaehaerys I allowed Alysanne to give suggestions and critiques, but she never actually made or passed or enforced laws; while without her many laws wouldn't have been made or they wouldn't have been abolished, she is also still Jaehaerys' consort without any "hard" political power required to directly change structures in Westeros without having to persuade Jaehaerys to do so. It's part of the decline of female non-militant autonomy and direct authority (which came with the Targ assimilation into the comparatively more violent, abusive, and restrictive Andal patriarchy) that was beginning to rise again with Rhaenrya becoming heir and given that male-designated power...until she's usurped.

C)

even Aegon managed that in getting Dragonstone to defect

However, anon, Aegon actually didn't accomplish the Dragonstone thing. There is no indication that he orchestrated or planned in detail how to take Dragonstone. That was Larys and the men who actually took it for Aegon while he sat up in the cliffs of Dragonstone. ("Rhaenyra Overthrown"):

And the only other moment where one could say he displayed some leadership--Rook's Rest--when he decided to fight on dragonback, it was a terrible plan he ended up flamebroiled, which shows how Rhaenyra was better staying out of the battle not already being battle trained herself. Again, we have no indication that Aegon was much of a warrior, like how Viserys was not and Daemon was. Because he rushed too much and wanted to hammer his opponents out of aggreived impatience, partially due to his son getting killed and more so because his ego needed him to show how he can beat the other side and annihilate them. He loses his temper several times at Otto until he dismisses him for Cole's more aggressive approach ("The Red Dragon and the Gold"):

D)

Caraxes is an “old, fast, clever dragon” who helps win Harrenhal without a fight and kill Vhagar, while Syrax is a lazy dragon who mainly exists to get Joffrey killed and then die in the dragonpit (even Sunfyre is better than her, essentially coming to Aegon’s rescue)

Some theorize that Syrax actually shows what happens when you domesticate your dragons or force them into enclosed spaces for long periods of time. But this sentence and other indications that. Plot-wise, it certainly looks like Syrax is completely useless and yet ("The Blacks and the Greens"):

“That makes four dragons of fighting size,” said Rhaenys. Queen Helaena’s twins had their own dragons too, but no more than hatchlings; the usurper’s youngest son, Maelor, was possessed only of an egg. Against that, Prince Daemon had Caraxes and Princess Rhaenyra Syrax, both huge and formidable beasts.

AND

Where's she planned to be a part of at least the KL takeover and ambush if not be the last point of a line of dragons bc the monarch must always be protected...but GRRM makes it so Rhaenyra hangs back for some woman-specific physical reason or other: recovery from miscarriage AND grief or just her anxiety over her sons' deaths.

And Syrax lays many, many eggs that are stored for future Targs--more than other female dragons have been known to. I wouldn't call her completely "useless", it's that she wasn't used for war -- against, that maternal element that feels insufficient for wartime, at least as the only thing she's doing for the blacks.

("A Question of Succession"):

AND

("The Blacks and the Greens")

On the one hand, yay, more dragons and the symbolism of fertility and women being the center of Targaryen magic and prosperity and Rhaenyra is very happy to birth her final two boys and she wanted her Visenya. All definite heirs to the dynasty...

On the other, it seems as if GRRM is also maintaining a binary between female reproductive labor vs masculinized military labor (not just swordwork but tactical, strategy, logistics, etc.). Canon!Rhaenyra is what I've called "high-femme" in presentation and lack of knowledge of how to confront through arms (swords, bow-and-arrow, basically anything physical and war-related). I've also often said that Rhaenyra is not and never will be Daenerys Stormborn, who has many gender subversions without being very "tomboy". Like Arya (no, bk Arya is actually interested in "femme" stuff, it's that she's teased and discouraged bc she doesn't act "ladylike" in the Westerosi paradigm of aristocratic femininity). She doesn't have the same sort of background nor the compassion as either of these two, but does have the backbone to not succumb to other's calls for her to give up something they do not think she deserves due to her gender--in the beginning of her life, events before Lucerys' death, and then when she gets to KL onwards. Daenerys is way more complex and interesting, but if anything this is the only thing I can think of that these two women share and it's very important still. (Even though Dany's not a woman-woman.)

And it presents the question of why GRRM didn't allow Rhaenyra to do both and present more to do with her but make her just fail because of very unlucky shit other than the KL stuff? Like her make her strategic, but luck or the green counteract and got the better of her...because it is a fact that she has to die in some way. Not only that, she has to die/lose partly by her own hand, which she does by not getting a handle on the paranoia that's been accruing since childhood (yes) and relying on her class to carry her in a way where it opposes Dany and Nettles' ingenuity and understanding of dragon bonding. But again, that sort of mania, level of loss of senses, and how its used in the story to disable her from participating in some way in her own cause is...crazy and a cheap and sexist shot to make her fall by her own hand. Making her lose all her sons within a short time is dramatic and expressive of the horror of this particular war...you couldn't do that by giving more to your female protagonist things to do as you kill off her kids?!

I'm actually fine that Rhaenyra doesn't directly participate in war-faring as Visenya or Rhaenys or how Daenerys inevitably will--not every person is a warrior or can be, to enact great positive change. Like Daeron II & Alysanne (Alysanne may or may not be a good example bc she may have been discouraged from using Silverwing for that, but we don't see her confronted with this possibility behind closed doors, so...). Not everyone can/should be a swordsperson, archer, etc. What happens when you were not trained in these things, should you be considered "useless"? Or what if you simply weren't good at it?

*[6/22/24]* But she could OR she could have in strategy or logistics or something. But it's like because she doesn't have those of her body with her anymore, her mind must go as well? It's not even that she became "crazy" at the very end so much as she became paranoid and I'm sure that the impression of her going "crazy" was manufactured subtly by Gyldayn...but GRRM couldn't have given Rhaenrya more of a material reason to suspect those around her and not diffrentiate Ulf/Hugh from Addam/Alyn Velaryon/Nettles?! Bc in our eyes and observations, the Velaryons and Nettles' loyalties are undoubtable and she also had some moments of quiet to try to gather herself while at KL to even be a part of many councils and make decisions she had the capacity to think..., so why does Rhaenyra so easily suspect them even with the hanging deaths of her kids over her head? This is still a fictional piece of work; GRRM had options and we know he's creative enough. How this is all written without even a rumor of how Rhaenyra reasoned more Dragonseeds would betray her, unless this is just lost to history AND it is Gyldayn/other maesters before him doing dirty work?

Perhaps this is another reason why I really don't mind a little rewrite here for Rhaenyra, as long as it's written well and I don't trust these writers of HotD for a sec to provide a nonsexist reason for her turning on the Dragonseeds. *[6/22/24], END*

And then there's the definition of a warrior to be discussed: Rhaenys the Conqueror was still war-faring on Meraxes, Meraxes was her war device as much as Vhagar and Balerion were for the sword-wielding other two. It is Andal parameters of "warrior" that has labeled Rhaenys as not one even as she, on a dragon, burnt people at the Field of Fire. Do we not consider Air Force to be "warriors"--well Americans and those in the military have a weird thing about Air Force vs Marines vs yada yada, but again that might (probably) be patriarchy at work. Either way, in this case, yes Rhaenyra could have at least done the Rhaenys thing and stayed on Syrax burning people alive. So I fine with this happening on HotD as well. There's interesting commentary to come from that that GRRM refused to indulge.

Honestly, I don't know. To me it has to do with what the former brideoffires/Twitter's danylanzhou has said about Nettles and Dany, how Rhaenrya did not have what they describe and how GRRM actually went way too hard in the paint for that. but that's as much as I can say.

Do any if these graces make her a more active OR complex/interesting character to read as we are given? Not really. Again, not without PoV chapters or at the very least letter or journals or something(s) she wrote for reflection if she was ever interested in that, IF GRRM just refused to just give her more stuff to do. It's as disappointing as when some Shakespeare fans describe their extreme disappointment with how Merchant of Venice contradicts his other play's wittier and more...compassionate(?) tend to be.

I also still don't like and will never like HotD's Rhaenyra bc they also simply have not developed her with the money they had before the strikes. And now with this DV shit, I definitely will never like the writing for her...because how the fuck is she so determined but performs no domestic power against Daemon after ruling Dragonstone for years?!!! How is this "better" and not more sexist than canon?! [@rhaenin-time's post HERE]

So yeah, in this way, HotD is just following GRRM's lead...while not at the same time.

[richincolor]

Book Review of A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur (허주은)

Summary: Hope is dangerous. Love is deadly.

1506, Joseon. The people suffer under the cruel reign of the tyrant King Yeonsan, powerless to stop him from commandeering their land for his recreational use, banning and burning books, and kidnapping and horrifically abusing women and girls as his personal playthings.

Seventeen-year-old Iseul has lived a sheltered, privileged life despite the kingdom’s turmoil. When her older sister, Suyeon, becomes the king’s latest prey, Iseul leaves the relative safety of her village, traveling through forbidden territory to reach the capital in hopes of stealing her sister back. But she soon discovers the king’s power is absolute, and to challenge his rule is to court certain death.

Prince Daehyun has lived his whole life in the terrifying shadow of his despicable half-brother, the king. Forced to watch King Yeonsan flaunt his predation through executions and rampant abuse of the common folk, Daehyun aches to find a way to dethrone his half-brother once and for all. When staging a coup, failure is fatal, and he’ll need help to pull it off—but there’s no way to know who he can trust.

When Iseul's and Daehyun's fates collide, their contempt for each other is transcended only by their mutual hate for the king. Armed with Iseul’s family connections and Daehyun’s royal access, they reluctantly join forces to launch the riskiest gamble the kingdom has ever seen:

Save her sister. Free the people. Destroy a tyrant.

Review: [Cruel tyrant is not an exaggeration so there is a content warning in the author's note that indicates the following: rape (mentioned), sexual abuse, misogyny, kidnapping women and girls, sex trafficking, incest (mentioned), violence, murder, animal cruelty, suicide (mentioned), infanticide (mentioned), psychological trauma, and panic attacks.]

Though this story is fiction, the setting and King Yeonsan are part of actual history. June Hur has not tidied up his tyrannical behavior so there are a lot of atrocities to witness in Iseul and Daehyun's path. This does make for a difficult read, but there is also love and strength that shine through. The dedication says, "To those who have dared to be a beacon of light in the bleakest of moments." There are numerous characters who are that light for others and even in the midst of so much awfulness, there is hope. That's what kept me reading.

Iseul's life has turned upside down and she has realized that she had taken her sister for granted. She is out on her own for the first time and is making brave and rash decisions because she seemingly is unaware of how truly risky and deadly her choices might be. Watching some of her actions is hard, but as she stumbles and begins to find her feet, she is also making connections with some folks who are those beacons of light.

It is equally troubling to watch Daehyun make decisions when there really are no  actions to choose that feel truly right. My heart was with both of them knowing that they really were doing the best with their circumstances even when there were no good options. And even when they pick a way that seems best, there is endless frustration as they continue to face horrifying loss and disappointment. Many characters in this story, in addition to so many Korean people in that time period,  dealt with a feeling encompassed in the word han. In the book it's described as the "feeling of outrage, the vicious urge for vengeance to right the wrong, pierced by the acute pain and grief of knowing our overwhelming odds at ever claiming justice."

Yes, the odds seem overwhelming, but Iseul, Daehyun and their allies continue to fight, sacrifice, and are willing to give their all to try anyway. They are all inspired by the Korean people, their families, loved ones, and the hope of creating a more peaceful place for all. Some of these allies are so wonderful and even though they are side characters, they managed to worm their way into my heart too. In the midst of all of the effort of so many people, there are also intrigues and mysteries to puzzle out so it's definitely a page turner.

Recommendation: Get it now. For those who watch historical K-dramas already, this will definitely be a must read. For others, this will appeal to anyone who enjoys history with some romance and political intrigue. Though it shows a lot of trauma and hardship, June Hur also provided characters that will touch hearts and stay with readers for a long time to come.

Extras:

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends Pages: 368 Review copy: Digital ARC via publisher Availability: On shelves now

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 56 – Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone

I consider myself a pretty big fan of Gladstone’s, but until now I’d only ever touched his standalone works – I was previously a bit put off by the length of the Craft Sequence and so never actually tried it. So, thank you to the people who recommended I give it a try anyway! Despite being the first in a series, Three Parts Dead is a perfectly fine self-contained story and not relying on you reading the sequels to finish anything important. While it’s not the best thing of Gladstone’s I’ve read (Last Exit my beloved), it’s not the worst, either.

The book takes place in an industrial fantasy setting about a generation out from the apocalyptic, centuries-long war between the old gods and the ‘deathless kings’ – human sorcerers who had learned to master magic such that they could face them and tear the world apart in the crossfire. Tara, the hero, graduated from basically-Hogwarts entirely because there’s a binding preventing the school from doing bodily harm to its students – the next second they literally threw her out a window at 10,000 feet. The story follows her as she’s hired as a junior associate helping a world-famous lawyer/archmage as she’s hired by the church of Kas Everburning to investigate the sudden and mysterious death of their god. What follows are several hundred pages of convoluted scheming, legal proceedings, forensic accounting, and bloody magical duels and assassinations.

There are a few twists I genuinely didn’t see coming, the plot overall hangs together very well, and the pacing was just about perfect for the kind-of pulpy mystery/adventure story it was. Overall just a great time reading it.

That said, the setting’s probably the main thing to really sell people on this book. It’s just fun, and actually pretty damn original. The basic conceits are that a) magic is real, and b) so is capitalism. Kas Everburning is the beloved god and protector of the city, and also a highly leveraged legal entity loaning power across the globe whose death would catastrophically destabilize the global financial/metaphysical/political system. Mages can fly and raise zombies and enscroll people, but it’s all done in the idiom and with the vocabulary of contract law.

Beyond the basic conceit, Gladstone just clearly delights in layering weirdness on weirdness. Vitally, he does actually have a bit of restraint with the exposition – the book’s full of off-hand comments about different places and institutions that make you (me, anyway) incredibly curious about what the hell their deal is, but the actual explanations are restricted to what’s actually relevant to the plot and what the characters actually need to know. I still really want to know what’s up with King Clock or the Iskari or a half dozen other things, though. So, top-tier worldbuilding.

The themes are not exactly subtle, but I very appreciate that Gladstone lets them mostly remain as worldbuilding subtext and manages to make them feel like they emerge very naturally. I appreciate the slight restraint it takes to let the reader draw their own conclusions about the fact that the city’s police force is so empowered by strength and lack of need for doubt when on the clock that it’s literally addictive, or that one of the main antagonists is a brilliant older academic whose masterwork is a system where his star pupils (including a disproportionate number of attractive young women) are magically networked together to achieve incredible results he can take credit for while their lives and personalities are drained away to nothing. Being able to literalize the subtext a bit is half the fun of secondary wrld fantasy, after all.

Anyway, yes, very fun read. Four stars.

[nkjemisin]

Things in my ask box #2

Got a new one for the “questions that might catch the poster some flak” bin. The poster asks, “What were you thinking when you wrote ‘The Ones Who Stay and Fight?’“ There was more to the question, but that’s what it boils down to (and I did clarify with the ask-er that this is what they wanted to know most).

I don’t generally like to discuss readers’ interpretations of my stories. Art is subjective, and what one person loves another might loathe, sometimes for the exact same reasons. Also, half the time I don’t even know what I’m doing; sometimes I don’t notice a theme in my work until years later when a reviewer mentions it, or I re-read it long after publication. My mind works in mysterious ways, even to me. But since you asked what I was thinking and not to confirm/deny a particular interpretation, I’ll try to explain.

(First, for those who haven’t read it, Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” is her most famous short story, and probably one of the most famous short stories in the world. There’s a whole subgenre of responses to it, because it provokes such powerful reactions in readers, and I’m no exception. [I’m a huge fan of Le Guin, if you didn’t know from me screaming about her to anyone who would listen for like 10 years now.] If you haven’t read the story, you should; it’s probably available somewhere online. There are a million ways to interpret the story, and if you poke around for reviews or lit crit analyses you’ll find feminist readings, anti-capitalist readings, mythopoeic/folklorist readings, and more. My story does not make sense if you haven’t read her story; it functions solely in conversation with Le Guin’s. Think of it as fanfic, if that helps.)

I’m not a literary scholar and I don’t pretend to be, but I’ve always leaned into the anti-capitalist reading of “Omelas.” Anybody who’s reading this in the developed world is already living in Omelas. Every time we buy a pair of Nikes, we’re contributing to sweatshops, child labor, migration crises, pollution... our own version of the abused child locked in a cellar. No ethical consumption under capitalism. Also, I lean anti-capitalist with “Omelas” because I think often of this quote by Le Guin:

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”

Bad. Ass. I want to be her when I grow up.

That said, when I decided to respond to this as a writer -- by writing back to it -- I was more interested in anti-racist readings of Omelas. Those interpretations don’t seem to be as popular, but at the time I wrote my story, I was trying to process the absolute bombardment of open racism and every other kind of bigotry that seemed to be metastasizing in the wake of Trump’s election. I pondered the world that these people seemed to want:  a world of war and endless suffering, doomed to end in extinction for us all (tho some believe Jesus or Jeff Bezos will whisk them away before things get too bad). I wondered what it would take to come back from that world, if we went down that path but managed to survive as a species. So to my mind, Omelas works well as a metaphor for conservatives’ (and fascists’) endless fantasies of the world that was, in which everything was wonderful before the “corruptions” of liberalism destroyed it -- corruptions like equality, diversity, intellectualism, religious freedom, and democracy. This is the “again” that the “make America great...” people embrace -- a “better” world that never existed. We all know that in the 1950s, there were plenty of kids in cellars, worse than today: BIPOC kids, queer kids, disabled kids, poor kids. If America’s wealthy and powerful get what they want, they will get to live in a utopian fantasy; the rest of us go in the cellar.

The society these people want is one that further-codifies the idea that some people are lesser. Some people aren’t as fully people, basically, and therefore don’t deserve rights, basic necessities, compassion, or life. Therefore I decided to make my “utopia” (scare quotes because, like Omelas, Um-Helat really isn’t) an anti-bigoted society, which has instead chosen to codify the idea that no one is lesser. Instead of its happiness depending on limited oppression, I wanted my “utopia” to depend on limited suppression of that insidious idea.

Suppression is no better than oppression, by the way. We’re used to oppression, so maybe it doesn’t seem so bad... to some. But both ways of maintaining these not-quite-utopias require harm to be done to some for the benefit of others. Omelas chose to limit the harm to a random child, and to a lesser degree to all its citizens, who must morally compromise themselves in order to enjoy their lives. Um-Helat chooses to limit the harm to those who’ve internalized some people are lesser -- the intolerant, per Karl Popper’s paradox of tolerance -- and to the “social workers,” who must morally compromise themselves in order for the other citizens of Um-Helat to thrive. I was also playing with the idea that there’s nowhere to walk away to. Imperialism and capitalism have made pretty much the whole world Omelas, in real life. So how does any society grapple with its own complicity with evil? Omelas is better off than our own world, and Um-Helat, because people can walk away, there.

It’s entirely possible that I failed to do what I tried to do with this story -- first because I tried to do so much. “Omelas” is a deceptively simple argument with deep, complex points being made; my attempt to answer had to cover a lot of territory. Second because Le Guin was a master of the short form, while I’m pretty much a dabbler, and third because this was also my first time trying pastiche, and it probably shows. But I believe in shooting my literary shot, hit or miss, and I’m glad that I did. It turned out better than I expected.

So that’s what I was thinking. ☺️

[libraryleopard]

The TV show Mary and George premiered in the UK and has gotten some good reviews which reminds me that i read The King's Assassin by Benjamin Woolley, the book it's based on, back over Christmas break and I should stick my thoughts here for posterity so I can compare later

So the political machinations and scheming and gay drama in the court of King James VI and I is some really interesting history and I have to say I did enjoy reading the sections that are just really wild historical anecdotes (George Villiers and James's son, Charles, go on a TRULY wild road trip to Spain in an attempt to secure a match for Charles that has a truly comedic and jaw-dropping number of ridiculous problems and I had a fantastic time relaying that story to many people)

It seemed clear to me that Woolley did his research—there is an extensive list of primary sources included at the back and his understanding of how James’s favorites played into the broader political and religious maneuvering of the time is very thoroughly laid out (there is a LOT about parliamentary meetings and promotions and papal dispensation)

What I thought was weird about how the book is advertised is that the title and description HEAVILY emphasize that Woolley has new cutting-edge evidence to prove that George Villiers assassinated King James which is a) not actually a huge part of the book (literally the epilogue, maybe 20 pages out of almost 300) and b) not…that convincing?

Certainly there’s a LOT of ruthless behavior done by the Villiers family and the political environment of the time is one in which assassination, even of the king, is totally on the table, but Woolley’s new evidence is that he…described the situation to a forensics expert who said he thought James had been poisoned while being treated for malaria? That’s it!

And like, cutting-edge medicine of this time literally included “smearing brick dust and oil on the king to cure him of gout” so I’m not convinced that James wasn’t just killed by a bunch of 17th-century physicians just not knowing how to treat malaria TBH

Also how do you even get malaria in 17th-century England…?

I think when you’re analyzing the death of a king from the 17th century you can’t really rely on forensics to prove he was murdered because you can’t exactly do an autopsy, and I think if Woolley wanted to convince me that Villiers murdered the king he should have backed it up with some solid analysis of why Villiers would have murdered the man who raised him up from a backwater noble second son of a second marriage to one of the most influential men in England and the most Woolley managed was “well maybe George Villiers and Prince Charles liked the vibe of how monarchy functioned in Spain [a country they were in active conflict with at this time so I feel like would not have been a role model??] and murdered James together so they could create a new monarchy” which is literally introduced in the final paragraph of the book (that is a very silly way to organize your argument)

Also I was unsatisfied by how Woolley analyzes the queer aspect of the history he's discussing

It’s not that the book no-homos the relationships between King James I and his “favorites,” because Woolley does clearly understand these relationships were romantic/sexual even if these men were both married to women and had children with them, but the book seemingly has no interest in analyzing what it means for the king of England and Scotland to have fairly public relationships with men in a country in which sex between men could be considered a capital offense punishable by death and I was frustrated by the fact that Woolley simply doesn’t touch on how the relationships and historical figures he’s discussing in his book fit into queer history, it seemed odd to not touch on it at all??

Also, this book taught me that the novel Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston is incorrect for saying that King James met George Villiers at a jousting tournament! That was Robert Carr, James’s previous favorite who Villiers replaced (George Villiers met James I because he was a cupbearer at court).

My ultimate analysis of the book was that I think the history it's drawing on has the possibility to make a REALLY fascinating TV show but I thought the book was not improved by some weak analysis of James's possible assassination

Also, I am very excited that Julianne Moore's Mary has a high billing in the TV show and seems to have a lot to do because I found her a very fascinating historical figure (she tried to steal bales of wool from her second husband to sell for her own profits and when she was caught just said she needed the money to pay off debts!), but she basically drops out of Woolley's book once George is instated as the king's favorite

If this show is good I am going to be so annoying about it and I'm not sorry

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged – Plan to Eradicate Christmas Review

Originally posted... today!

Instead of the true meaning of Christmas, we see the true meaning of an abridged series.

Over the course of Dragon Ball Z: Abridged, Team Four Star has established a lot of minute details about its characters. We saw in Christmas Tree of Might that Goku is earth’s most ardent defender of Christmas. We also learned that across the universe, very few people got to celebrate Christmas, as it was replaced by Freeza Day on any planet he conquered. And we learned that even before Freeza conquered Planet Vegeta, Santa was never able to visit them to spread love and good cheer, because the Saiyans tried to shoot him down.

Every single one of those details is capitalized on here in Plan to Eradicate Christmas. Through snippets of character interaction, we learn that Goku has been itching to defend Christmas yet again. We see Freeza’s ego displayed as he commands the Villains of Christmas past to referthemselves as the Villains of Freeza Day Past, despite them having agreed upon Christmas. Even Santa’s inability to deliver presents to Planet Vegeta is called back to, as Vegeta nostalgically recalls his favorite Christmas pastime of shooting energy blasts at Santa’s sleigh.

If these callbacks rested solely on referring back to things we already know, it’s possible that they could fall flat, but every single one is rooted in the nature of these characters we’ve come to know and love. Of course the violent egomaniac Vegeta would try to shoot down Santa’s sleigh. Of course Freeza would refuse to bow to the demands of Cooler, Turles, and King Picc…Lord Slug, who he all views as his lesser. And of course, the battle hungry, ever optimistic Goku would be salivating over another opportunity to save Christmas, his most wonderful time of the year.

The specificity of these characters is also what makes Santa work so well as a villain here. After our heroes defeat the Villains of Christmas Past, they are confronted by Santa, who reveals that all have been naughty and fallen short of the glory of Santa. Vegeta is, well Vegeta, we know what he’s done. Goku’s lust for battle endangers the entire universe, brought to the forefront with a perfectly timed ad for Dragon Ball Super, and Piccolo is held to account for his and his father’s past attempts at world domination.

Even Trunks is at fault, having time traveled so recklessly as to endanger the space-time continuum, brilliantly highlighted with a cut to what I believe is Dragon Ball GT footage. Only Gohan is without naughtiness, and is granted a present by Santa, but like every Christmas before, Santa gives him what he likes, and he likes books.

The jokes in this Christmas special all land so well because they draw on our understanding of these characters, who we’ve gotten to know over the course of the last decade Dragon Ball Z: Abridged has been produced. It’s genuinely delightful to see Team Four Star tackle a Christmas special once more as well, as they manage to turn a story from an uninteresting OVA with a generic villain into a hilarious Christmas romp.

Plan to Eradicate Christmas is a great example of what abridged series can do at their best. They can take weak ideas and repurpose them, giving them new life and meaning with a comedic edge. Team Four Star really did go and give us a gift in Christmas 2018, and showed us what abridging is really all about.

Rating: 4.5/5

Stray Observations

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fantastic music Cliff Weinstein composed for this special. Christmas Eve-olution / Carol of the Hells is the standout track in particular. It is wonderfully ominous and builds perfectly to the final confrontation and group Kamehameha.

Thanks for reading! You can support her continued film criticism addiction on Patreon.

[elvis1970s]

Wayne Harada is an entertainment writer, who in the 1970s was a leading reporter for the Honolulu Advertiser. He wrote with great enthusiasm about Elvis' performances in Hawaii, and penned possibly the definitive review of the Aloha From Hawaii concert. The line, 'A thrilling compact hour, long on music, loud on screams' has been widely quoted, including by leading Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick.

Elvis had also played three shows in Honolulu in November, 1972, which Wayne Harada also reviewed;

"...Elvis Presley remains one of the most electrifying showbiz marvels - an incandescent musical force who's a legend in his own time. And the 26,000 fans who took in his three sellouts at the H.I.C. Arena over the weekend will long remember Presley's mystique, the charisma and that indelible animal magnetism that combined to make him a Big Leaguer nearly two decades ago... when he hits that stage, there's no denying. Elvis is a champ, the king of rock, a living American myth..."

Harada was one of a minority of concert reviewers who appreciated the talents of warm-up comedian, Jackie Kahane;

"...Comic Jackie Kahane turned out to be a pleasant opening surprise. His gags are witty, timely, and above all, clean. And unlike so many others, Kahane quits when he's ahead, never overstaying his welcome..."

Reviewing the January 14th, 1973, satellite broadcast show, he described the Honolulu International Centre (with reduced capacity to accommodate the broadcast equipment) as a 'supersized TV studio' with camera crews everywhere, "on stage, in the aisles, in the audience, zooming in on Presley and his breakthrough performance."

"...Perhaps only a phenomenon like Presley could pull off such a coup, at such a wicked showgoing time - 12.30 am curtain, Hawaii time - yet draw a full house..."

He referred to the show as 'smartly paced and packaged to suit all camps in the Presley following', noting the effective blending of older songs and later hits.

(The setlist had been put together by Elvis, Red West and Charlie Hodge).

The inclusion of local musicians in the orchestra was noted with appreciation, as was Kui Lee's ballad, I'll Remember You, and the fact that the gate was a benefit for the cancer research charity in his name;

"...For the Hawaii audience, his I'll Remember You vocal easily was the most sentimental. The Presley version retained the Hawaiian flavour, but also capitalized on the International scope of the tune; it easily could emerge as Presley's next No. 1 hit..."

"...Yesterday's show reaffirms Presley's and manager Col. Tom Parker's philanthropic fondness for Hawaii. Like the enduring nature of Kui Lee's music, the incandescence of Presley is incomparable..."

Wayne Harada retired from the Honolulu Advertiser in 2008 after 45 years as entertainment editor and columnist. You can find his current work at www.wayneharada.com.

Concert review content thanks to www.elvisconcerts.com

[dhanusagar]

What is Digital marketing and how can we earn from it?

According to me I can offer valuable insights into the field and lucrative earning opportunities. Digital marketing involves promoting products, services, or brands through various online channels, including websites, social media, search engines, email, and mobile apps. Here are some strategies and examples that are working well for freelancers in the digital marketing industry:

Content Creation and Marketing: Content remains king in digital marketing, and freelancers can capitalize on this by offering content creation services such as blog writing, article writing, video production, and infographic design. High-quality, engaging content helps businesses attract and retain customers while improving their search engine rankings.

Example: A freelance writer specializing in technology creates informative blog posts and whitepapers for software companies, helping them establish thought leadership in their industry and drive organic traffic to their website.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO is essential for businesses to improve their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) and drive organic traffic to their websites. Freelancers can offer SEO services such as keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, and SEO audits to help clients rank higher in search engine rankings.

Example: An SEO specialist helps a local bakery optimize its website for relevant keywords such as "best cakes in [city]," resulting in increased online visibility and more foot traffic to the bakery.

Social Media Management: Many businesses struggle to effectively manage their social media presence. Freelancers can offer social media management services, including content creation, posting schedules, community engagement, and paid advertising campaigns, to help clients grow their social media following and drive engagement.

Example: A freelance social media manager helps a small business owner create and curate engaging content for their Instagram account, increasing brand awareness and attracting new customers.

Email Marketing: Email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to nurture leads, promote products or services, and maintain customer relationships. Freelancers can offer email marketing services such as email campaign creation, list segmentation, A/B testing, and performance tracking to help clients generate leads and drive sales.

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[quoteablebooks]

Genre: Fiction, Adult, Science-Fiction, Fantasy,

Rating: 4 out of 5

Content Warning: Violence, Murder, Death, Sexual content, Child death

Summary:

Every year, thousands in the kingdom of Talin will flock to its capital twin cities, San-Er, where the palace hosts a set of games. For those confident enough in their ability to jump between bodies, competitors across San-Er fight to the death to win unimaginable riches.

Princess Calla Tuoleimi lurks in hiding. Five years ago, a massacre killed her parents and left the palace of Er empty…and she was the one who did it. Before King Kasa’s forces in San can catch her, she plans to finish the job and bring down the monarchy. Her reclusive uncle always greets the victor of the games, so if she wins, she gets her opportunity at last to kill him.

Enter Anton Makusa, an exiled aristocrat. His childhood love has lain in a coma since they were both ousted from the palace, and he’s deep in debt trying to keep her alive. Thankfully, he’s one of the best jumpers in the kingdom, flitting from body to body at will. His last chance at saving her is entering the games and winning.

Calla finds both an unexpected alliance with Anton and help from King Kasa’s adopted son, August, who wants to mend Talin’s ills. But the three of them have very different goals, even as Calla and Anton’s partnership spirals into something all-consuming. Before the games close, Calla must decide what she’s playing for—her lover or her kingdom.

*Opinions*

So this is one of the books that I got through my Adult-Book-only Fairyloot subscription, and I will admit that I was a little skeptical. I had heard some middling reviews about Chole Gong’s Young Adult Romeo and Juliette retelling, so I wasn’t sure how I would get on with this novel inspired by Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. I am happy to inform you that I really enjoyed my time with this novel, though it took some time to collect my feelings on this story and the characters that Gong introduces us to. While I will admit that the scaffolding of the plot was not original, I enjoyed the setting and characters enough that I kept turning the pages to see how this set-up we had seen before would play out. 

The plot of this novel is rather simple at its core and something that has been used before. Two competitors enter a tournament to the death for different reasons, but both have no option but to win. There is an individual behind the scenes pulling the strings, other disruptive forces at work, and an uneasy alliance between the two competitors might turn into something more. After the success of The Hunger Games, and Battle Royal before that, competition to the death is a very common plot in novels and a few of the lower-rated reviews complained about this scaffolding for the story. However, while Gong does make a number of comments about capitalism, the 1%, and social ills, there is a very different tone than The Hunger Games. Everyone enters the games willingly, even paying an entry fee, instead of being forced to fight to the death. They can also leave the games of their own accord at any time without fighting or killing. The society in San-Er has a lot of problems, which Princess Calla Tuoleimi and Prince August Shenzhi want to change in their own ways, but it is managed in a different way than that of The Hunger Games, so I don’t think it’s a fair comparison.   

I have seen a number of reviews complaining about the lack of solid world-building and that things are just said are happening in San-Er without any explanation. While I think some of that is due to not picking up subtle hints that Gong left throughout the story, some of it is that this is the first novel in a trilogy. Now, I will admit that at the back of the Fairyloot edition, there was a printed conversation with Gong, in which she stated that this first novel was very self-contained, but the world would expand in the rest of the series. While I am a strong believer that the story should stand on its own without reading author interviews or blog posts, I didn’t have any issue with the world-building. This novel was about the games and that is what it is focused on, with the rules or lack of them clearly defined. The rules of qi were also explained and then challenged without the context of this novel in a way that made sense to me. Perhaps I was just too enamored with the setting to be bothered by things that were grating to other people. I am also a reader who appreciates character work over plot so that probably contributes to it. 

Speaking of the setting, Gong did a very good job of making the city of San-Er a living breathing character in this novel. You can easily visualize the neon lights, the mass of humanity that is constantly on top of each other, and the smells and sounds that are constant throughout the novel. Gong also makes the reader feel the absence of these things when there are scenes in the Palace of Union or outside of the wall. While at times all the chaos in the city made it hard to track the action that was happening, which added to the chaotic nature of the action sequences in this novel. Still, the setting was a large reason why I enjoyed this novel as much as I did, I really got immersed into the world that Gong created and the constant struggle that the characters and citizens were facing. 

There are three main characters in this novel, Princess Calla Tuolemi, Prince August Shenzhi, and Anton Makusa. Now I don’t know if any of them can be called likable, but I find Calla the most sympathetic of the bunch. What drives her in the games is a naive notion that King Kasa is the reason for all the horrors and tragedy within the city and if she could just remove him from his reign, things would improve for the citizens of Talin. Now Calla is such a practical character that this thought that removing Kasa would start the country toward the path of healing or trusting August who wants the same thing was a little odd to me. However, her thought process usually makes sense, even if she makes decisions that aren’t the smartest. Given the ending of the novel, I am interested in seeing how her character is going to be in the sequel. 

Anton Makusa grows on you as the story progresses, but he doesn’t change, he just becomes obsessed with something new and does whatever possible to keep it. I think what keeps him from being completely unlikable is the fact that he is aware that he can be insufferable at times. I also enjoyed when he is around Calla and the balance they strike between competitors and whatever else is blooming between them. I will admit that the use of “I love you” in this novel was far too quick, especially given the circumstances, but I also have not read the source material so perhaps that is the reason. 

Prince August is the least likable, but the most interesting. Much like Anton, your opinion of him shifts throughout the novel, but he does not get enough screen time to really draw any conclusions about his character. Instead, you get the way that numerous people react to August, especially those who are closest to him. While Calla has naivety and Anton has confidence that is warranted, it is hard to get a read on August. Given the events at the end of the novel, it is unclear if we are going to get a better idea about him as the trilogy continues, but I am excited to get answers if they are provided. 

Overall, I enjoyed this novel a lot more than I expected and it is a 4-star read. However, if someone asked me why I liked the novel I would have a hard time pinpointing something other than the setting. While this is a full arc of a story, telling what happened during the games, the plot and the characters aren’t sitting in my feelings. That being said, I keep thinking about this novel and will pick up the sequel when it comes out.

[glapplebloom]

You’ve seen the review, now let’s see if I could improve it...

So most of the beginning is the same. The guys arrive at the Capital, Discord promises not to use Chaos Magic. But instead of seeing a big sign saying No Magic or Visitors, they see a crowd of cats. When they try to introduce themselves, they begin to panic and rush into their homes and any buildings they could. This is not because of anything the Ponies or Discord did, it's because they recognize Capper.

Fluttershy wonders how they could show them that they mean no harm but that’s when Trixie gets an idea. A few minutes later, Capper makes an introduction to Trixie’s Magic Show that makes the Cats curious to see what he is talking about. Discord is fussy because he thinks he can make a better show but Trixie’s Show does get them to open up. And that includes the current King.

Seeing they seem to have no harm, the King invites them to meet. He informs them that he does recognise Capper and feared the worse because his old crew just became much worse than before. He doesn’t know how but that’s when they hear panic from the Street. It’s Capper’s Gang, but their eyes are all black. They’re causing mayhem and Fluttershy and the gang arrives to stop them.

Discord is finally allowed to go all out and tries to snap them into kittens, but nothing happens. That’s because during all his boasting, Shadow managed to sneak around and collar him. So Pinkie takes on Molly in a battle of explosions. Trixie and Admiral Fluffington go in a Third Person Off. Discord holds off Max because while he may not have his powers he’s slippery enough to avoid his strength. And Capper tries to talk Chummer out of doing this.

Shadow went to confront Fluttershy, thinking it was going to be easy, when Fluttershy uses the Stare on her. This causes Shadow to suddenly act differently. Far away from here, Morrigan is having difficulty since the Stare is counteracting her controlling magic. So when Shadow is finally free, she commands the others to escape. That’s when Fluttershy and the others find out about the Knights of Order to end the first issue.

Issue 2 will begin with Shadow explaining to the King and others what happened. They were just doing their usual thing when Chummer and another showed up. This creature called Morrigan casted a spell on them making them do everything she wants. And what she wants is to make Abyssinia fearful of everyone. Discord is still stuck since nobody can pick a lock like Admiral Fluffington can. So they think Fluttershy could free the others if given the chance.

Back with the others, Morrigan tells an unknown person (Danu) what happened. Fearing the worst, he tells Morrigan to just possess everyone. Shadow and Capper talk about what happened to each other after the Storm King. Capper wonders how Chummer survived that crash. But that’s when they hear screaming. They look and they see a new creature they never saw before. Shadow confirms that’s the one controlling them.

Morrigan is possessing everyone while those under her spell are rounding up the others. That’s when our heroes come in. Morrigan begins to try to possess them when Fluttershy counters with the Stare. It’s a struggle that seems to stop the Possessed from doing anything. That’s when Capper hugs Chummer. He forgives him for the betrayal and wishes that they can just start over and be friends again. This gets through to Chummer and he hugs back.

This activates the Magic of Friendship between the two and it spreads to all of the Capitol. Everyone Possessed was freed and showed magic. They hoped this meant Morrigan was stopped. But to their surprise, she blocked the Wave of Magic by encasing herself in a shield of Harmony Magic. Seeing she can’t win now, she escapes. Capper stays so he can get reacquainted with his old friends as the rest return to inform Twilight of this new information.

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 2.5/5

Book Blurb: She'll save Christmas just to spite him…

There's only one thing standing in the way of Cat King saving Merry, Connecticut's Christmas festival: Grumpy town manager Noah Yates.

Single dad Noah takes his responsibilities seriously. When a late season hurricane turns his town into a disaster, he's left scrambling to pick up the pieces of the town he loves.

At least, until home renovation expert and smoking hot reality TV star Catalina King arrives with a camera crew and a budget big enough to put the town back together again. But Noah doesn't want a celebrity diva capitalizing on their tragedy or filling his young daughter's head with visions of glitz and glam.

Blonde bombshell Cat is used to being underestimated, but Noah has an uncanny knack for getting under her skin. They can't be in a room together without rubbing each other the wrong way…except that time in the dark alley where the rubbing was just right. Can these enemies work together to pull off a Christmas miracle or will their fighting leave them both on the naughty list?

Author's Note: These enemies-to-lovers deliver the holiday feels with a dirty-talking hero, ballsy blonde who never backs down, steamy hot break-the-dining-room-table sexy times, and a small town that still believes in the magic of Christmas.

Review:

She's a reality TV star who wants to save a Christmas festival and he's the grumpy town manager who wants her as far away as possible from his town. Cat King wants to save Merry, Connecticut's Christmas Festival, especially after the flood that had damaged the town. She wants to help the town rebuild, get the festival back in time, and put it all on tv to help raise money, the only issue is that the grumpy town manager, Noah Yates wants her as far away from possible and wants nothing to do with her show. Noah is a single dad who wants to be a role model to his daughter and to rebuild his town after the hurricane season wrecked it. He does not want Cat to make his town look pathetic on her tv show, he does not want her anywhere near his town, he doesn't trust her but he doesn't have a choice in letting her go ahead with her show because he so desperately needs the funds to help rebuild. Cat is dangerous for Noah, she's beautiful, famous, and gets under his skin. Noah and Cat get off on the wrong foot except their animosity towards each other might fuel another emotion, lust. One kiss and suddenly they can't stop wanting each other, and it's going to take a Christmas miracle to fix Merry and to figure out their feelings for one another. This is a Christmas romance between a feisty actress and a grumpy town manager. Cat and Noah are an enemies to lovers trope romance, yet if I'm going to be honest, I really didn't feel anything for them and didn't really get their romance. They both felt a bit immature (though to be fair, Noah is way worse, seriously I was fed up with this man the entire book). It didn't feel like a Christmas romance and I kind of wish there was just more holiday or more emotional storyline. I found myself just getting a bit bored with the story but managed to get to the end. While this one didn't work for me if you enjoy enemies to lovers with a bit of reality tv show mixed in give this one a go, it might be for you!

*Thanks Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books, Bloom Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[yay855]

It's because actual quality requires management and shareholders to let go of the product's production and let the people actually working on it decide what's a good idea and what's a bad idea. You can't abuse and overwork your employees into making something that's actually really good, but you can abuse and overwork your employees into making something that's okay enough to keep some players invested long enough to shove microtransactions and overpriced DLC that should have been part of the base game down their throats.

The former requires that the people in charge actually let their workers use their expertise and have a healthy working environment and work/life balance, while the latter lets the people in charge continue to be abusive assholes while still making some money.

There's also the fact that CEOs and shareholders don't actually know or want to know about the things their companies make and how to make them well, nor do they care about market diversity. They want- need, even, because of how capitalism works- to have all the money now, and all they know are data points. So they see a video game that's wildly popular and rather than actually examining the player reviews or popular sentiment among users, they take the bare basics of the new game's mechanics and staple it onto something they know also sells well, if not just make a bare-bones copy with the aesthetics and basics of the thing players love but none of the actual quality or the tiny tidbits that make it work. Hence why so many games have crafting mechanics stapled onto them after Minecraft got popular, or why so many shooters hyperfocus on multiplayer (while not even maintaining a healthy user community by banning bots and toxic players). And of course, every few years there's another big wave of copycats trying to ride on the coattails of something else, like the MMORPG boom, the crafting boom, the GTA boom, and of course booms for first and third person shooters, and every single time the vast majority of titles trying to ride the coattails of something that was wildly successful end up dying out or fading into obscurity.

Sure, everyone knows about World of Warcraft, and plenty know about Final Fantasy 14, but who here remembers Rift? DC Universe Online? Dungeons and Dragons Online? The Lord of the Rings Online? Maplestory? Star Wars The Old Republic? (FYI, all of these are still playable today)

Sure, everyone knows Call of Duty, but who here remembers Transformers War For Cybertron? Star Trek Voyager Elite Force? Serious Sam? Star Wars Dark Forces?

Everyone remembers Mario 64 and Sonic Adventure, and lots remember Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank, but who remembers Ty the Tasmanian Tiger? Chibi-Robo? Tak and the Power of Juju? Gex? Ape Escape?

And heck, Pokemon has totally eclipsed nearly every single other franchise like it; Digimon is often seen as "that thing that tries to be pokemon but computers" (which it really isn't, it's older than pokemon and started out as a virtual pet, but some of the video games tried to be more like pokemon), and some hardcore fans still care about Shin Megami Tensei and are happy it got another release (again, predates pokemon), but who here remembers Medabots? Spectrobes? Dragon Quest Monsters? Dinosaur King? Monster Rancher? Zoids?

And I can go on! This is not a comprehensive list of these copycat games (many of which good on their own merits!), nor of the game booms that keep happening. And most of these games/franchises I listed ranged from fairly high quality to at least decent, it's just that they never got the popularity that the name-brand games of the same genre did. And we've seen in recent years that indie games have become wildly popular by trying to recreate many more niche genres, such as Project Zomboid being a true survival game, Stardew Valley being Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons but slightly less idealistic, and of course Minecraft, The Binding of Isaac, Celeste, Hollow Knight, Cuphead, Undertale, etc. And these all get so popular because they either try new things or polish an older but relatively niche genre until it shines. And that's something big companies typically refuse to do, because the ones in charge refuse to accept that they don't know what they're doing.

Baldur's Gate 3 owes at least some of its success to building off of decades of other CRPGs and utilizing one of the most popular tabletop gaming systems of all time (Dungeons and Dragons), but honestly, most of its popularity comes from the well written characters, the intriguing plot, the actual roleplaying aspect that makes dialogue feel like more than simply clicking an option, and the sheer variety of things you can accomplish in combat if you're paying attention or come up with something clever. It is, simply put, really polished, and that sort of attention to detail and love for what you make shines through, made all the better thanks to the high production value and Larian Studios having a ton of experience making CRPGs. And that scares most big studios' execs, because BG3's wild popularity means that players have tasted genuine passion and quality and attention to detail in a new high-budget game for the first time in years, and we don't want to settle for the same cookie-cutter generic repetitive junk big companies have been insisting is the best they can do.

The way Triple A game developers are reacting to Baldur's Gate 3 being seemingly an amazing game with no microtransactions reminds me of the reaction Triple A game developers reacted to Elden Ring being an amazing game with no microtransactions, which to me, is hilarious, because you'd think the reaction to seeing something groundbreaking and that's clearly beloved by the people who love and are immersed in the artform would be "Wow, incredible... Maybe we can learn from this and make a breakthrough, maybe we can redouble our efforts and take this as reference to make something fantastic ourselves!" and not "Well, You See, this game is bad for the industry because it's TOO good and it creates an expectation of quality and love (and no microtransactions), do not, my friends, become addicted to good video games. It will take hold of you, and you will resent their absence!"

[localseonewyork]

SEO Services in New York for Increased Visibility

In today's digital landscape, the visibility of your business can significantly impact its success. As more consumers turn to the internet to find products and services, businesses need to invest in effective SEO strategies. This blog will explore how SEO services in New York can help increase your online visibility, featuring insights from a New York SEO expert and examining the roles of various service providers.

Understanding the Role of a New York SEO Expert

When you’re seeking to improve your online presence, consulting with a New york Seo Expert is a wise decision. These professionals are well-versed in the specific challenges and opportunities presented by the New York market. A local expert understands regional consumer behavior, industry trends, and the competitive landscape, allowing for tailored strategies that resonate with your target audience.

Benefits of Hiring a New York SEO Expert

Local Expertise A New York SEO expert knows the local market inside and out. They understand the nuances of New York consumers, including preferences, language, and cultural influences.

Custom Strategies Unlike generic solutions, a local expert can develop customized SEO strategies that align with your business goals and audience needs.

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Ongoing Support SEO is not a one-time effort. A New York SEO expert provides ongoing support and optimization, ensuring your strategies evolve with changing trends.

SEO Services in New York: An Overview

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When looking for SEO services in New York, it’s essential to choose a company that offers a comprehensive range of services. Here are some of the key services typically provided by an SEO company in New York:

Keyword Research and Analysis Understanding which keywords your audience is searching for is crucial. An Seo Services In new york will conduct thorough research to identify high-value keywords that can drive traffic to your site.

On-Page SEO This includes optimizing individual pages to rank higher. It involves tweaking titles, meta descriptions, and content to align with target keywords.

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Technical SEO Technical aspects like website speed, mobile optimization, and secure connections are vital. SEO professionals will audit your site and implement necessary changes to improve its performance.

Content Creation Quality content is king. An SEO company in New York often has a team of content creators who can produce engaging and informative articles, blogs, and other content that appeal to both users and search engines.

Local SEO For businesses serving a local market, local SEO is crucial. This includes optimizing Google My Business listings, acquiring local citations, and managing online reviews to enhance visibility in local searches.

Analytics and Reporting Tracking your SEO performance is essential for understanding what works. An SEO expert in New York will provide regular reports and insights to help you make informed decisions.

The Importance of Choosing the Right SEO Company in New York

Choosing the right Seo Company In new york can make a significant difference in your digital marketing success. Here are a few factors to consider when selecting an SEO partner:

Experience and Expertise

Look for a company with a proven track record in delivering successful SEO campaigns. Check their case studies and client testimonials to gauge their expertise.

Services Offered

Ensure that the company offers a comprehensive suite of services tailored to your needs. You might require a blend of SEO, content marketing, and digital marketing strategies.

Transparent Reporting

A reputable SEO company in New York should provide clear and transparent reporting. They should keep you updated on the progress of your campaigns and the impact on your visibility and traffic.

Customized Solutions

Avoid companies that offer one-size-fits-all solutions. Your business is unique, and your SEO strategies should reflect that.

Communication

Good communication is vital for a successful partnership. Choose a company that is responsive and willing to explain their strategies in a way you understand.

The Connection Between SEO and Digital Marketing

SEO as a Core Component of Digital Marketing

SEO is a fundamental aspect of any effective digital marketing strategy. A digital marketing company in New York integrates SEO with other services to maximize visibility and drive traffic. Here’s how SEO fits into the broader digital marketing landscape:

Increased Website Traffic By improving your search engine rankings, SEO drives organic traffic to your site, which is crucial for digital marketing success.

Enhanced User Experience Effective SEO practices contribute to a better user experience, which is essential for retaining visitors and encouraging conversions.

Brand Awareness High visibility in search results helps increase brand awareness. The more often potential customers see your brand, the more likely they are to choose you.

Cost-Effectiveness Compared to paid advertising, SEO offers a cost-effective way to attract customers. While it requires an upfront investment, the long-term benefits can outweigh the costs.

Integrating SEO with Other Digital Marketing Strategies

Content Marketing Quality content is essential for both SEO and digital marketing. A Digital Marketing Company In new york can help create content that ranks well and drives engagement.

Social Media Marketing While social media does not directly influence SEO rankings, it can help increase visibility and traffic. Promoting your content on social media channels can lead to backlinks and increased exposure.

Email Marketing Integrating SEO with email marketing can enhance engagement. Providing valuable content can encourage recipients to share your emails, further boosting your visibility.

Paid Advertising While SEO is a long-term strategy, paid advertising can complement your efforts. A digital marketing company in New York can help you create targeted ads that drive traffic to your site while your SEO efforts gain traction.

The Role of a Website Design Company in New York in SEO

Importance of Website Design in SEO

A well-designed website is essential for effective SEO. A website design company in New York can ensure that your site is visually appealing and optimized for search engines. Here’s how website design impacts SEO:

Mobile Responsiveness With a growing number of users accessing websites from mobile devices, having a mobile-responsive design is crucial. Google considers mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor, so partnering with a design company that prioritizes this can improve your SEO.

Site Speed Fast-loading websites enhance user experience and improve search rankings. A New York SEO expert can work with designers to optimize your site for speed.

User Experience (UX) Good design enhances usability. A site that is easy to navigate keeps users engaged and encourages them to explore more pages, reducing bounce rates—an important factor in SEO rankings.

Content Layout Properly structured content helps search engines understand your site better. A website design company can ensure your content is organized effectively, making it easier for both users and search engines to navigate.

Collaborating with SEO and Design Experts

To maximize your online visibility, collaboration between your SEO team and website design experts is vital. This ensures that SEO best practices are integrated into the design process from the start. A New York SEO expert can provide insights that help designers create an SEO-friendly site that meets user needs.

Investing in SEO services in New York is essential for any business looking to improve its online visibility. By working with a New York SEO expert, you can develop a comprehensive strategy that encompasses all aspects of SEO, from keyword research to technical optimization. Pairing these services with a digital marketing company in New York and a Website Design Company In new york ensures that your online presence is not only optimized for search engines but also appealing to users.

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, having a robust SEO strategy will help your business stand out in the crowded New York market. With the right experts on your side, you can drive more traffic, increase brand awareness, and ultimately boost your bottom line. Don't underestimate the power of SEO—embrace it today to secure your business’s future in the digital world.

Read More: https://www.zupyak.com/p/4330641/t/hire-a-top-seo-agency-in-new-york-for-results

Get in Touch

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[deistarr]

This is probably the saltiest, funniest book review I've ever read.

I've never read the book it's about; saw a rec for it and clicked on it, only to see this review and think twice about reading it. But the review had me in stitches and I wanted to share it.

THE REVIEW:

There are a lot of plot problems with this novel. Most of us grow in a society with non-arranged marriages and even a smaller percent of the population are actually royalty and don't understand the importance of bloodline, the reason why kings marry off female courtiers, etc and why Lucia is really just a lazy bum who acts like she's on a vacation for the rest of her life.

Spoiler:

First take a look at Lucia's mother, Amanda. Amanda snuck Lucia and herself out of the castle and decides to hide in the country's capital, probably only a few hundred miles/km away from the imperial castle. Yes they were able to successfully hide in the capital but that also implies that the jobs that they did were not outdoors because outdoor labor would risk them being found by the members of the royal family which also implies that they probably didn't do any hard labor. The arthor writes that Lucia and her mother lives with some foster family for a short time and then her mother dies from a plague that spreads throughout the city. Lucia is later found after Lucia delivers a letter written by her mother, before her mother is about to die to the royal family, which results in Lucia to be brought back to the castle to start her supposedly new dream as noted by the synopsis. Lucia then reenters the imperial court as a courtier except she does nothing a courtier would do and instead hides in the castle like she is leveling up her sneak skills like she is going to be a master thief. What is most impressive is that her sneak skill is so high that she even manages to be invisible during church service, a public function that all royalty is pretty much required to participate in. In fact, Lucia's sneak skills are so good that she is even more elusive than a WIMP, Weakly interacting massive particles (quantum physics), and since there is no Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in that day in age, no one but God, aka the author, is able to prove that she exist which is what literally happens; She only shows herself when the writer says so; More details will clarify this fact later.

What the people around Lucia perceive about her at first is that she seems autistic but Lucia, being the legendary-tier thief that she is, doesn't do anything about it. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure having autism isn't really going to help a person in a society that does arranged marriages in finding a spouse. Maybe you can argue that there are many stages of autism but the fact is that the rumors of her having autism have already spread and she makes no effort to disprove these rumors, like showing up at social events and actually holding a conversation with anybody.

Lucia is also born out of wedlock, which means her mother didn't marry the king, no church-held ceremonial service took place to declare the union of Lucia's mother and the late king (unless the church does postmortem marriages) which means she is a illegitimate child, aka bastard child, which means she isn't even a princess but at most a legitimized bastard. To be clear, being born out of wedlock implies that Lucia's mother isn't even a concubine, wife, or consort of the king.

Let's just assume that the king gave out the title in advance, well he's not dead at the time he receives the letter but he obviously can't marry a dead women unless the church allows a union between dead people which could be done in some religions, Lucia still had opportunities to go to meetings, festivals, balls (dance events), and even church service to show off herself; The importance here is to show potential suitors that she isn't autistic but nope, Lucia is too busy leveling up to be a sorceress leaving the rumors of her being autistic well in circulation. Maybe the king married Lucia's mother in their last seconds? But that would mean that Lucia would have to be present at the wedding which is held by the church which is a pretty big event since her father is literally the king of the kingdom and would give Lucia a huge amount of presence/publicity. Maybe said event does happen but Lucia acted like she was autistic which lead to the rumors of her being autistic? To be clear, said event might not have happened, I made it up to fill plot holes but the author does state that Lucia seems autistic at first when she enters the castle.

I know females act reserved when it comes to romance but there is a clear line between acting reserved and not even telling people you exist and the latter is what Lucia clearly does at her stay in the castle. I'm not sure how anyone is supposed to find her if she hides in her room all day. Maybe if Lucia does some singing, some prince might come along and at least hear her singing which would be a pretty good start even if she can't sing well; Rapunzel reference for those who don't know. When it comes time for her to be married off, she is disappointed that her brother, now the 9th King of Hesse is going to marry her off to some hedonist count after said count won the auction. The fact here is that even if the king was still alive, the current king is the 8th king of Hesse and Lucia's father, would still have to marry her off. Lucia's father might not use an auction system but the fact that he wasn't able to find any suitors means that either he was too busy, no suitors wanted her, or Lucia couldn't compete with the competition, or a combination of said options; Maybe she is waiting until the internet to be invented so she can just use dating sites? Her brother marrying off siblings in his court is proper and something he is required to do anyway, unless you think that Lucia can just leech off the royal family forever or maybe she really is trying to be wizard; If you're going to be a wizard, you better be a F-ing wizard. As stated earlier, her brother and potential suitors all think she is autistic or rumors of her being autistic make it really hard for Lucia to get arranged with suitors that are par/sub-par so she has to settle with the worse of the worse, some hedonist count. If her father, her brother, and suitors knew that she was not autistic that would greatly increase the chances of them trying to find a good match. I don't know about you but I'm pretty sure you would use a reporting agency when you are about to purchase a car from a re-seller and this is exactly what the bidders do, they ask around for the historical equivalent for CarFax and probably learn about rumors of Lucia being autistic, not a very desireable trait for their children's arranged marriage partner if you ask anyone. Maybe if Lucia actually appeared at social events which would build her presence/popularity, and also serve to disprove the fact that she is autistic then none of her problems, problems that she caused herself, would have happened. Also, if Lucia's mother did not take her out of the castle then Lucia would have had time to educate herself, be known among peers, advertise herself, and maybe even get a suitor to ask for her hand in marriage in front of the king.

I feel like the novel has no consistency. The author makes Lucia's value during her time in the royal castle next to nothing by giving Lucia the curse of silence, it's like the same curse that happens to the Islamic version of Mary Magdalene (True fact and you can read about it by Googling the search phrase "First Miracle of Jesus in Islam", make sure its the Islam version because the numbers don't match in the Christian version) except there is no talking baby Jesus and Lucia's curse also comes with autism, Thanks God!

Lucia spends all her time doing nothing and just relaxes all day and just expects handsome men to come ask her hand in marriage. It's like she read Sleeping Beauty and expects something similar to happen to her; Fun fact, the original version of Sleeping Beauty and variants include either the prince having s*x or raping the sleeping princess, maybe Lucia is into sleep fetish?, which results in the sleeping princess bearing children so maybe she expected that too; Disney wasn't even born yet so the G-rated version doesn't exist yet or maybe it does exist and she hopes that the G-rated version happens to her. She clearly does nothing to change her fate while at the castle despite the synopsis saying she does something; Maybe she does some closed-door cultivation while in the castle to become a Taoist Immortal? Anyway, no surprise later when all her dream of just chilling and relaxing every day for the rest of her life, her foster family were clearly Timon and Pumbaa from Disney's the Lion King, "hakuna matata", It means no worries for the rest of your days; is crushed after no one really wants her and when her brother tries a last resort option of auctioning her off to be married, far better value than just having her eat, sleep, and do a good job at being a liability, the next thing you know, she is all healed by some divine being (cure for autism found!), she suddenly changes her behavior, gains a ton of awareness, and actually has an ambition for self-improvement. I wouldn't be surprised if she uses her legendary-tier higher invisibility to sneak out of the castle since it seems to be a hereditary trait/skill. The story would also be more believable if Lucia died from the thought of marrying a hedonist count and someone transmigrated into her body thus dramatically changing her character because this is what exactly happens.

There is also the option of being disowned by the royal family and marrying a lowborn aka commoner. The number of suitors may increase, obvious fact that commoners greatly outnumber royalty = more suitors, which means she can pick from a larger number of suitors but why give Lucia all the presence in the world when she is among the commoners and none when she is among royalty? Maybe she can request her brother, Lucia's brother is now the king and has the authority to request excommunication, to be excommunicated by the church, because no one ever sees her at church which is a very valid cause for her excommunication, which would allow her to marry a commoner because excommunication also is also a acceptable clause to disown and exile someone.

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If you're wondering, there are a many cases of high profile princess and princes revoking their own titles to marry lowborn/non-nobles and still end up with happy lives with no one intimidating them:

Princess Mako of Akishino (Japan), King Edward VIII (England, abdicated from the throne)

Just to prove that I'm not biased, Emperor Akihito and his son Naruhito, former is the current ruler of Japan and latter the crown prince of Japan, married commoners but they are a male and they still kept their royal status. Lucia was very far in the line in succession, that's if females were even in the line of succession at all. The only point to keeping her royal status is to the ease of marrying other royalty. If she doesn't intend to marry royalty, then there would be no harm to just revoking her title to marry a commoner, the royal family would just formally disown her, and both sides can go on with their happy non-overly dramatic lives.

Bonus content:

https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?v=_Kmh4BbJPz8

The linked video is literally how drastic Lucia's fate changes 

[urbanfeattech]

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