#Monarch Stays

[alex-281]

Majestic vistas of Pune Table Land, warm yet calm weather, and endless green environs. Step into a world beyond the mundane at Backyard Blues, an opulent residence tucked in a tranquil, secluded environment. It provides the ideal ambiance for soaking in unobstructed views of the lush surroundings while lazing by the outdoor pool. To know more, visit https://themonarchstays.com/monarch-anemone/

[trash-and-trash-accessories]

One of my favorite and the most important things about Gary is that when he got buff, he didn’t also get thin.  He didn’t go from an overweight pudgy guy to a thin buff guy.  He went from a fat pudgy guy to a fat buff guy.  And to me the distinction is important.  This is a body type that exists and turning him into Hugh Jackman in Wolverine with a shredded six pack twunk body would be outrageous and unrealistic.  He’s fat.  He has a stout body type that will NEVER look like a thin person’s.  He’ll never have the Monarch’s stick figure frame.  But he CAN get swole as hell and be a total badass with this body.  AND still have a tummy on top of it.

[whats-9plus10]

Gary whimpering during the eclipse

[the-meme-monarch]

so like queen Was Going To be a calculator. i have to wonder how far into development this was changed, since her design is still clearly reminiscent of it but there are certain things in-game that do rely on her being a computer (like her concern for/fixation on noelle and her searches)

but since it was changed to her being the laptop, why didn’t they make it resemble her? like why not make it a blue laptop

[greenerteacups]

oooh please someday tell us what you think of GOT

oh, no, it's my fatal weakness! it's [checks notes] literally just the bare modicum of temptation! okay you got me.

SO. in order to tell what's wrong with game of thrones you kind of have to have read the books, because the books are the reason the show goes off the rails. i actually blame the showrunners relatively little in proportion to GRRM for how bad the show was (which I'm not gonna rehash here because if you're interested in GOT in any capacity you've already seen that horse flogged to death). people debate when GOT "got bad" in terms of writing, but regardless of when you think it dropped off, everyone agrees the quality declined sharply in season 8, and to a certain extent, season 7. these are the seasons that are more or less entirely spun from whole cloth, because season 7 marks the beginning of what will, if we ever see it, be the Winds of Winter storyline. it's the first part that isn't based on a book by George R.R. Martin. it's said that he gave the showrunners plot outlines, but we don't know how detailed they were, or how much the writers diverged from the blueprint — and honestly, considering the cumulative changes made to the story by that point, some stark divergence would have been required. (there's a reason for this. i'll get there in a sec.)

so far, i'm not saying anything all that original. a lot of people recognized how bad the show got as soon as they ran out of Book to adapt. (I think it's kind of weird that they agreed to make a show about an unfinished series in the first place — did GRRM figure that this was his one shot at a really good HBO adaptation, and forego misgivings about his ability to write two full books in however many years it took to adapt? did he think they would wait for him? did he not care that the series would eventually spoil his magnum opus, which he's spent the last three decades of his life writing? perplexing.) but the more interesting question is why the show got bad once it ran out of Book, because in my mind, that's not a given. a lot of great shows depart from the books they were based on. fanfiction does exactly that, all the time! if you have good writers who understand the characters they're working with, departure means a different story, not a worse one. now, the natural reply would be to say that the writers of GOT just aren't good, or at least aren't good at the things that make for great television, and that's why they needed the books as a structure, but I don't think that's true or fair, either. books and television are very different things. the pacing of a book is totally different from the pacing of a television show, and even an episodic book like ASOIAF is going to need a lot of work before it's remotely watchable as a series. bad writers cannot make great series of television, regardless of how good their source material is. sure, they didn't invent the characters of tyrion lannister and daenerys targaryen, but they sure as hell understood story structure well enough to write a damn compelling season of TV about them!

so but then: what gives? i actually do think it's a problem with the books! the show starts out as very faithful to the early books (namely, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings) to the point that most plotlines are copied beat-for-beat. the story is constructed a little differently, and it's definitely condensed, but the meat is still there. and not surprisingly, the early books in ASOIAF are very tightly written. for how long they are, you wouldn't expect it, but on every page of those books, the plot is racing. you can practically watch george trying to beat the fucking clock. and he does! useful context here is that he originally thought GOT was going to be a trilogy, and so the scope of most threads in the first book or two would have been much smaller. it also helps that the first three books are in some respects self-contained stories. the first book is a mystery, the second and third are espionage and war dramas — and they're kept tight in order to serve those respective plots.

the trouble begins with A Feast for Crows, and arguably A Storm of Swords, because GRRM starts multiplying plotlines and treating the series as a story, rather than each individual book. he also massively underestimated the number of pages it would take him to get through certain plot beats — an assumption whose foundation is unclear, because from a reader's standpoint, there is a fucke tonne of shit in Feast and Dance that's spurious. I'm not talking about Brienne's Riverlands storyline (which I adore thematically but speaking honestly should have been its own novella, not a part of Feast proper). I'm talking about whole chapters where Tyrion is sitting on his ass in the river, just talking to people. (will I eat crow about this if these pay off in hugely satisfying ways in Winds or Dream? oh, totally. my brothers, i will gorge myself on sweet sweet corvid. i will wear a dunce cap in the square, and gleefully, if these turn out to not have been wastes of time. the fact that i am writing this means i am willing to stake a non-negligible amount of pride on the prediction that that will not happen). I'm talking about scenes where the characters stare at each other and talk idly about things that have already happened while the author describes things we already have seen in excruciating detail. i'm talking about threads that, while forgivable in a different novel, are unforgivable in this one, because you are neglecting your main characters and their story. and don't tell me you think that a day-by-day account tyrion's river cruise is necessary to telling his story, because in the count of monte cristo, the main guy disappears for nine years and comes hurtling back into the story as a vengeful aristocrat! and while time jumps like that don't work for everything, they certainly do work if what you're talking about isn't a major story thread!

now put aside whether or not all these meandering, unconcluded threads are enjoyable to read (as, in fairness, they often are!). think about them as if you're a tv showrunner. these bad boys are your worst nightmare. because while you know the author put them in for a reason, you haven't read the conclusion to the arc, so you don't know what that reason is. and even if the author tells you in broad strokes how things are going to end for any particular character (and this is a big "if," because GRRM's whole style is that he lets plots "develop as he goes," so I'm not actually convinced that he does have endings written out for most major characters), that still doesn't help you get them from point A (meandering storyline) to point B (actual conclusion). oh, and by the way, you have under a year to write this full season of television, while GRRM has been thinking about how to end the books for at least 10. all of this means you have to basically call an audible on whether or not certain arcs are going to pay off, and, if they are, whether they make for good television, and hence are worth writing. and you have to do that for every. single. unfinished. story. in the books.

here's an example: in the books, Quentin Martell goes on a quest to marry Daenerys and gain a dragon. many chapters are spent detailing this quest. spoiler alert: he fails, and he gets charbroiled by dragons. GRRM includes this plot to set up the actions of House Martell in Winds, but the problem is that we don't know what House Martell does in Winds, because (see above) the book DNE. So, although we can reliably bet that the showrunners understand (1) Daenerys is coming to Westeros with her 3 fantasy nukes, and (2) at some point they're gonna have to deal with the invasion of frozombies from Canada, that DOESN'T mean they necessarily know exactly what's going to happen to Dorne, or House Martell. i mean, fuck! we don't even know if Martin knows what's going to happen to Dorne or House Martell, because he's said he's the kind of writer who doesn't set shit out beforehand! so for every "Cersei defaults on millions of dragons in loans from the notorious Bank of Nobody Fucks With Us, assumes this will have no repercussions for her reign or Westerosi politics in general" plotline — which might as well have a big glaring THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT stamp on top of the chapter heading — you have Arianne Martell trying to do a coup/parent trap switcheroo with Myrcella, or Euron the Goffick Antichrist, or Faegon Targaryen and JonCon preparing a Blackfyre restoration, or anything else that might pan out — but might not! And while that uncertainty about what's important to the "overall story" might be a realistic way of depicting human beings in a world ruled by chance and not Destiny, it makes for much better reading than viewing, because Game of Thrones as a fantasy television series was based on the first three books, which are much more traditional "there is a plot and main characters and you can generally tell who they are" kind of book. I see Feast and Dance as a kind of soft reboot for the series in this respect, because they recenter the story around a much larger cast and cast a much broader net in terms of which characters "deserve" narrative attention.

but if you're making a season of television, you can't do that, because you've already set up the basic premise and pacing of your story, and you can't suddenly pivot into a long-form tone poem about the horrors of war. so you have to cut something. but what are you gonna cut? bear in mind that you can't just Forget About Dorne, or the Iron Islands, or the Vale, or the North, or pretty much any region of the story, because it's all interconnected, but to fit in everything from the books would require pacing of the sort that no reasonable audience would ever tolerate. and bear in mind that the later books sprout a lot more of these baby-plots that could go somewhere, but also might end up being secondary or tertiary to the "main story," which, at the end of the day, is about dragons and ice zombies and the rot at the heart of the feudal power system glorified in classical fantasy. that's the story that you as the showrunner absolutely must give them an end to, and that's the story that should be your priority 1.

so you do a hack and slash job, and you mortar over whatever you cut out with storylines that you cook up yourself, but you can't go too far afield, because you still need all the characters more or less in place for the final showdown. so you pinch here and push credulity there, and you do your best to put the characters in more or less the same place they would have been if you kept the original, but on a shorter timeframe. and is it as good as the first seasons? of course not! because the material that you have is not suited to TV like the first seasons are. and not only that, but you are now working with source material that is actively fighting your attempt to constrain a linear and well-paced narrative on it. the text that you're working with changed structure when you weren't looking, and now you have to find some way to shanghai this new sprawling behemoth of a Thing into a television show. oh, and by the way, don't think that the (living) author of the source material will be any help with this, because even though he's got years of experience working in television writing, he doesn't actually know how all of these threads will tie together, which is possibly the reason that the next book has taken over 8 years (now 13 and counting) to write. oh and also, your showrunners are sick of this (in fairness, very difficult) job and they want to go write for star wars instead, so they've refused the extra time the studio offered them for pre-production and pushed through a bunch of first-draft scripts, creating a crunch culture of the type that spawns entirely avoidable mistakes, like, say, some poor set designer leaving a starbucks cup in frame.

anyway, that's what I think went wrong with game of thrones.

[camuscomprix]

The monarch chrysalis I've had hanging on one of my potted plants for a week is getting ready to emerge!!! Pictures are all 2/3 hours apart

[werewolfetone]

Reading this book about the ulster plantations two pages at a time because that's about how often I read a paragraph which makes me so pissed off I can't see and I have to go and do something else

[teamoon7]

🇺🇲: A little drawing I did for bugnoire :D I kinda liked her design in general although I'd make some changes. I'll probably redesign her AND make an ADRIEN version of this fusion in the future. (Also I promise I didn't forget my other redesigns, I'm just extremely lazy sorry)

🇧🇷: Um desenhinho que eu fiz da bugnoire :D Eu até que gostei do design dela apesar de que eu provavelmente faria algumas mudanças se pudesse. Eu devo fazer um redesign dela E fazer um design pro ADRIEN com a fusão principal no futuro. (E eu JURO que não esqueci dos meus outros redesigns, só sou extremamente preguiçosa e procrastino demaiskkkk foi mal)

[y-rhywbeth2]

Who decided the drow should have so much fucking lore anyway.

('I should've been a drow.' You can't fucking stand Cazador or your 'siblings' you would not fucking want to be a drow. Although I guess Astarion would make a fair Vhaeraunite.)

[alex-281]

Spread across a whopping 1,000 sq. ft, Monarch Alstroemeria is cradled amidst sweeping landscapes and gentle breeze. The facade of the house exhibits Italian design amidst tranquil sit-outs complemented with an elegant stone wall mosaic. The classy and artsy interiors of the home feature a muted palette, in the hues of blue.

[sesamenom]

alright you’ve been extremely extremely kind and indulgent to me about my oc and i cannot possibly thank you enough <333333 so MY turn now to ask YOU about YOURS. please tell me about maglor’s distant granddaughter who is also your bbeg?? .w. or about the chatty hobbits i would very VERY much love to hear about both!!!

~ @nelyoslegalteam, reporting from main <3

(long post, sorry for the random people stumbling upon this lol)

so I'm the dm for the chatty hobbits campaign and essentially it's set in a beleriand-adjacent continent, but with a few extra races and stuff. of the founders of the original settlements, the king of elende (the elf kingdom) is Gil-galad's (invented for the campaign) twin brother Finellach/Finwain. originally he was inspired by the fact that gil galad has a ton of names but only uses ereinion/gil, so I just invented a new character and gave him half the names. I headcanon gil galad as maglor's son, so finwain is in universe maglor's son (left at the havens with gil bc his wife divorced him for kinslaying and his kingdom, being next door neighbors with morgoth, is far too dangerous for small children).

Anyways, his descendant Elinyel (also known as aramire or elinnor) is the current queen of Elende! she's an evil fire-themed bard who is extremely feanorian in all the worst ways - her actual kingdom prospered under her reign, but she just does not care about everyone else as long as she's protecting her people. There were some tensions with one of the major kingdoms to the north (conflict over unclaimed territory between the kingdoms and some tariff stuff), so instead of risking the other kingdom starting a war and hurting her people, she just preemptively invaded it and started burned all the border territories to the ground.

her actual coronation was pretty weird- so she's the second child, but her older sister was born in wartime and there's a general belief in elende that children of peacetime make better rulers, so Elinyel was chosen as her family's heir. her grandfather (the crown prince of his generation) died defending Elende in one of the major wars, but his younger brother and two young kids survived. there's a whole feud between their houses because the brother chose to retain the kingship even after the kids were old enough to take the throne. anyways, two generations later Elinyel killed her cousin Arendil (the previous king of Elende) over a dispute about the legitimacy of his house (and what she believed to be a dishonoring of her grandparents' sacrifice) and took the throne.

obviously she has many Issues. arendil also has two surviving kids who are now essentially trying to stop her from murdering all their neighbors in proactive defense of her people.

however, when she first ascended she recruited her friend group as her elite guard/vassals of the kingdom. (aka the other bosses in the storyline). so it escalated to a war between her forces and the children of arendil, which ultimately culminated in her beloved sister being killed by one of arendil's children. this in turn led to her having basically a massive mental breakdown and feeling like she failed to protect her loved ones (exacerbated by some of her other friends being killed in battles she led). a normal person might decide this is was kind of her fault for starting a war and putting her friends in charge of the army. instead she decided she needed to destroy everyone who could ever potentially pose a threat. which is, in her eyes, literally everyone on the continent (except for her kingdom, of course).

so now she is at war with absolutely everyone of all factions! She is also somehow winning by virtue of Song almost on the level of maglor himself, and ten (now six) also incredibly powerful friends. Anyways, she has decided that the best way to wipe out the continent (except her kingdom) and start fresh is to literally find an ancient lost stone that can break the Doors of Night, summon Morgoth himself, and start the Dagorath. obviously this will Not go well for anyone at all if she succeeds, but she is on a full-on rampage and genuinely believes she (plus friends) can protect her kingdom from Morgoth's army while he wipes out everyone else.

Here's some old art of her btw!

And some slightly more recent unfinished art of her and the Evil Friend Group from when they were younger:

and here's (L-R) her cousin who is the 3rd boss, Elinyel, and her sister from before the war!

[groovygladiatorsheep]

Have my ocs from a world I made :] they’re one of the main characters !

Thé character with butterfly ears is Ellis, and the one with pale skin is Edenyn <3

•─────⋅ᓚᘏᗢ⋅─────•

Info :

Ellis -

- Ellis uses all pronouns ! It started when Edenyn found him, and just decided that she would be all pronouns because he couldn’t decide. The best of all world ?

- Ellis is not so quiet, it’s more that they listen and learn rather than bring a loudmouth.

- The butterfly wings glows in the dark !!

- currently a teenager.

- While she doesn’t often have expressions, he smiles when comfortable or when people they trust !!

- Likes to discover new worlds, as in their universe, planets are connected through path that allows people to visits everywhere.

Edenyn -

- Ellis’s adoptive father

- Tired guy, want nothing more than to raise his kid, and is ready to do a lot to achieve that.

- Always try to find a purpose in life, since that’s how he was created.

- when the wings near his face opens, a fade of multiple colour shine <3

- used to be a mercenary

- He always tries to stay strong so that Ellis can be the safest possible, but you can often hear him crying at night.

- Cold with a lot of people, as a way to protect himself from harm again. Often surprised when people are nice to him.

Ellis feat @oatsynalliums oc Yuu <3

[basslinegrave]

v bros should be gayer tbh. whenever i see brock, doc and the boys standing all next to each other im like aw thats a cute family of 4. rusty is the mom you know

[ghostjellyfishheart]

au where gabriel is the one who ends up in a coma after using the wish and adrien gets to be happy with his two moms

[grahamdefamily]

Parisiens, Parisiennes,

It is with the greatest dishonour that I stand before you today, as I finally get the recognition I deserve as the Worst Adult to ever plague this series.

Not that you should be congratulated for seeing the obvious, of course. You only fell for the vision of the Worst MLB Adult I created for you all to love and loathe. Or whatever Meryl Streep says in The Devil Wears Prada, I didn’t understand a word of it actually. Man, being an actual fashion industry leader seems like hard work…

Still, I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to the people who have helped me get to where I am today:

First and foremost, my son Adrien, whose adorableness pushes me to constantly find new and innovative ways to ruin his life;

Nathalie, whom I haven’t paid in 5 seasons;

Chloé, by far my best Akumatised Victim Supplier;

My nephew, for literally doing all of my work for me;

And last but not least, my wife, for being dead.

Great things await us in future seasons as I finally seize Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous! Because that is definitely happening. The fact that I have at least four different teenagers ready to cut my throat doesn’t scare me at all! Who even is Lila anyways?

For now, I must leave you, my despicable subjects. My presence is required by my window, as it is crucial that I spy on teenagers and ruin every opportunity they get to be happy. All in a day’s work. Might celebrate with tasteless pancakes later idk

Akumatisedly yours,

Gabi

Gabriel

Hawkmoth

Shadowmoth

MONARCH

[whereintheworldiskamalakhan]

y'all. this episode.