I am so glad you articulated the criticism of Dany crucifying the slavers as a political folly and not a moral folly like listen I am a Dany fan if I could send asks from my sideblog you would know this but I do not believe we are supposed to just brush off the crucifixion like Dany herself isn’t even fully convinced it was the right thing to do. Remembering it she feels sick and has to shut down her doubts and TELL HERSELF it was right. She is an interesting character to me because she can’t stand the compromises she must make to maintain peace AND YET she does want justice and liberation BUT she also hates the suffering and bloodshed of war AND YET she is quick to command violence on impulse. I do think her peace in Meereen was real (big Meereen Knot Essays believer) but all of her internal conflicts lead her to her mistakes. Can’t stand peace but can’t stand war so she just tears herself apart!! It’s tragic! It’s interesting! So much more interesting than an unambiguously heroic Dany who makes no mistakes ever!
Yeah, like....it's certainly morally messy, and I think it's morally more messy because Dany isn't a slave of the Ghiscari like Missandei or an Unsullied like Grey Worm, Red Lamb, etc who is rising up and using violent revolution to liberate the slave class of Meereen - she is a descendant from a foreign, formerly slaving culture that enslaved most of the cultures represented in Meereen, someone of noble birth who has experienced immense suffering but was able to pull herself out of it because of her immense social privilege and magical abilities, using violence in an attempt to liberate those her family had once helped subjugate while...still keeping herself at the top of the pyramid.
There's a lot of mess and contradictions in this situation and I find it much less interesting (as you say) when people paint what Dany is doing here as unambiguously heroic. I know I sound like a broken clock when I say it, but the justification of "well this culture has slavery and slavery is bad" is the exact sort of rationalization many colonial and imperial powers make when conquering. White Americans made it about various Indigenous communities ("oh well the Iroquois had slaves and conquered their neighbors" yeah and white americans had chattel slavery which is objectively worse so what now??), the UK and France used it as a rationale for conquering most of Africa and parts of Asia; there's always this annoying through-line of "well Africans sold themselves into slavery" and I think making this argument that "Well the Ghiscari are brutal slavers" is really similar. And I know people don’t like the dragon/nuke comparison or the imperialism/colonizer comparisons but….what made the genocides of the Americas, and the colonization and imperialism of the 20th centuries stand out from the wars that came before is the sort of hellish combination of nationalism, political schisms, fervent hatred of the Other, and industrial growth. Never before could people amass armies and kill on such a massive scale before. Never before did we have weapons that were so fucking good at killing. Never before did we have the bureaucracy capable of streamlining the process so damn well! (and not for lacking of trying, shout out rome but like...still). I think the dragons are a commentary on that - when someone has access to technology like that, can one person be left to decide if it’s use is good or evil? can one culture not be completely corrupted by their technological advances? can nuclear bombs or weapons Ever be used for good, and if they can be then where is that line drawn? who draws the line? why does that person get to draw the line? I don't think any of this will have a clear answer because that's not exactly how he does things - he's just writing a scenario about this and letting us analyze why it happens on our own.
So it’s like okay the Ghiscari and Dothraki are slaving cultures...Sacking a city is still a violent, destructive thing to do and she does it three times including to a city she is attempting to rule. The moment she had an inkling she might be ruling Meereen, she should have rethought her actions there so she doesn’t start off alienating a large group of people. Coming in as a stranger from a culture who used to be slavers and constantly making comments about how much she hates the culture she’s ruling over is....not great! Dany going back and forth between "I hate these people I was right to crucify them" and "there's too much violence amongst these people I have to stop the violence" is why the issues in Meereen become so complicated. Does she have reasons for acting this way? Yes! It doesn't change the outcome of her actions!
What's interesting about her is that as you say, she does realize this conflicting dichotomy within herself! That’s like, the entire issue she’s facing in Meereen - she wants peace because she knows that’s what’s best for the people there and yet struggles to control her boredom and temper because she is too traumatized to sit still any longer. She’s associated the constant move, the constant fight, the violence and blood and death and destruction with righteousness, justice, goodness, and we can SEE it’s having a negative effect on her psyche, her emotions. She’s not HAPPY by the ending of adwd, she’s not self actualized, she’s just hardened herself completely in the face of this unending monster of a campaign. She wants off this ride and yet she’s unable to find a way out. I don’t think we’re meant to cheer her on here!! SHE is barely cheering herself on here!!! It’s a burden to her!!!!
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Hcs on Solar System finding Kel crying by himself? (With him obviously denying the claim and telling them that he's fine)
ooh, I actually had a fic idea in my head kinda like that! (not solar system, but baseball bat. but I can change a few things)
This is less headcanons and more just word vomit/a pseudo-fic lol (under read more for the benefit of everyone here lol) Cuz I know I wouldn't be able to rest until I got this out of my head now (thanks a lot anon /lhj)
Sunny, Basil, and Aubrey were walking through the streets of Faraway Town, looking for the last person they needed to complete their group. They were hoping to find somewhere to just hang out at, whether that be one of their houses or somewhere else, like the park, Hobbeez, or maybe Gino's, but they didn't want to do it without Kel.
He wasn't at his house, and when they asked his mother where he was, she told them that he'd just gone for a walk. They thanked her, and she said to them, as she always does when they stop by, that they're welcome there anytime.
After stopping by his house, the three of them decided to check the park to see if he had stopped there while on his walk. He wasn't there either. Aubrey suggested checking their secret hangout spot, and the other two agreed that it wouldn't hurt to try.
None of them were particularly expecting him to be there, but when they walked past the trees into the area, they saw Kel sitting on an old picnic blanket. He was hugging his knees to his chest, and his forehead was pressed against his knees. His face wasn't visible from where the three others stood, but it was obvious something was wrong.
Aubrey was the first to approach him. She walked up to him and kneeled next to him. He didn't seem to notice her.
"Is everything okay, Kel?" she asked. She then saw the tears streaming down his face and facepalmed mentally. Of course he's not okay, what kind of question is that? She can't recall the last time she saw him cry...
Kel turned his head to look at her, before smiling weakly. "I-I'm fine!" He brought his hand to his face and wiped at his tears. More fell, replacing the ones he wiped away. "Don't worry about me!"
Sunny and Basil had also walked over to him. Sunny sat down next to him, as did Basil. Sunny gently grabbed Kel's hand.
"No, Kel." Sunny's voice was firm, but caring. "You aren't 'fine.' And that's okay." He squeezed Kel's hand slightly.
Basil cautiously placed one arm over Kel's shoulder. He leaned his head slightly against Kel's shoulder. "We love you Kel. A lot. We want to be here for you, the same way you always are for us."
Kel shook his head at their words. "I'm... I'm fine, really! You don't need to worry about me..." His voice was shaky and broken up by sniffles. He continued trying to wipe away his tears, but they just kept flowing.
Aubrey pulled him into a hug, not saying anything just yet. She let his head rest against her chest, and she placed a gentle kiss on the top of his head.
Basil moved closer to Kel, leaning against him to hopefully be a comforting presence for him. He turned to fully hug Kel, and he buried his face in Kel's shoulder. Kel in turn moved his face to rest in Basil's hair.
Sunny scoots closer, so that he could be sitting right next to Kel. Sunny didn't let go of his hand while moving, and once he settled into a comfortable position, he squeezed Kel's hand again.
"I'm sorry." Kel's voice was barely above a whisper. "I... I didn't mean to worry you guys..." When he spoke, his voice broke, then trailed off into a near-silent sob.
"It's okay, Kel," Sunny reassured him, and he rubbed his thumb over Kel's knuckles. "You're allowed to cry. Just let it all out. We aren't going anywhere."
The four of them sat in a comfortable silence, which was only broken by the occasional sob from Kel. After a good few minutes, Kel's crying seemed to slow, then eventually stop.
Basil noticed that Kel had stopped crying, and he was the first to speak. "Kel... Would you want to talk about why you were upset..?" His tone carried genuine concern and love.
Kel paused for a moment, before shaking his head. "No... Not right now..."
Sunny nodded. "Okay. We'll be here for you whenever you're ready." The other two nodded in agreement, all three of them smiling warmly at Kel.
"Now, weren't we planning to hangout?" As she spoke, Aubrey started to stand up, and she extended her hands to help the other three up. Basil and Sunny stood up first, then all three of them pulled Kel up.
Kel smiled, chuckling lightly as he was pulled up. "That sounds nice... How about a sleepover at my place?"
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hey so i'm not making a DNI because i don't want to (i initially had a longer attempt at articulating a reason and then i realized i don't have to explain more than "i don't want to") but the past few blogs that have followed me are very harry pottter focused and given the actions and rhetoric of jk rowling i'd appreciate it if any blogs who prominently post harry potter themed content would kindly refrain from following me.
you can probably still reblog my posts, not bc of my moral stance but bc honestly i don't really notice who reblogs from me unless they have a huge red flag in their url, but in terms of following my blog i'd prefer it if harry potter bloggers could just not
and i know there's always the excuse of separating the art from the artist (like people who continue to post about harry potter but end every post with "fuck jkr tho"), and not everyone even knows why jkr is a horrible person bc a lot of the discussion is very online (that's the reason this is worded so empathetically, i'm assuming harry potter fans who follow me are in either of these two camps but if you're just an outright terf then go fuck yourself of course). but even if you're entirely dedicated to balancing every harry potter post with a post about hating terfs, the fact that harry potter is still being promoted in a way that's uncritical of the content itself makes me uncomfortable and by making the harry potter brand maintain relevance that's still supporting jkr no matter how many times you put "fuck terfs" on your blog
disagree with me if you want bc i can't control whether people post about one of the largest fandoms in history, but i can make a statement being like "hey if you follow me and your most recent posts are all harry potter gifsets i will be blocking you so honestly for your own convenience please don't put in the effort of following me"
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And maybe you'll be like "but if you don't trust businesses, how can you trust welfare?"
I fucking don't. My mom trying to get on food stamps fucked me up because a lady I never met without my permission got my SSN from my mom and started editing my files. My heart still races to this very second whenever I think about it, it kinda messed me up bad and I'll never ever ever see any kind of recourse
And I'm terrified that I'm gonna lose my medicaid just cause I inherited some money from my grandpa
And I've never even applied for disability cause it kinda doesn't matter finding out if I'd qualify or not cause of my depression, when the rules are so restrictive I don't know if I've even be allowed to keep my house
I do not fucking trust these things on a personal level. I feel like out of a lot of people I have the most to fear from them cause I'm on the edge of having things work, and that gets you punished
...but I need medicaid in order to have insurance (and when you strip out the finance side of medicaid, I love medicaid... they're honestly incredible insurance... I just... I just... dental is like 90% of why medicaid is so important to me, ever since I found out this state pays for it I've actually been able to do cleanings which is important to me cause I can't always get myself to brush)
And I think things like disability and food stamps are pretty damn important on a personal level, and honestly are also good for the economy cause they get people spending... it's practically a free cash infusion into the economy, cause these are people who need to buy stuff
There's just so much important stuff welfare does that it's worth dealing with government
No, what I want is more accountability so if someone gets my SSN from a 3rd party like my mom they're held to HIPPA styles standards where that's not ok to access my files without my permission (She changed my fucking address and tried to get medicaid to investigate me for fraud! Never even met me)
Like have some accountability there and in every situation
Secondly I want less punitive focused rules. I'd frankly prefer bezos get on disability than smack down some poor sod cause they got $2000 in the bank or cause their friend lets them live with them for free
If there's gonna be a cut off on these programs, it needs to be a solid step above the poverty line, cause... by definition I assume poverty line denotes kinda the minimum expected income people can reasonably live off of, and if you take away benefits people are gonna lose a chunk of money to covering that stuff themself, so you need a buffer before you kick people off
I don't fucking trust the government for a second, I've actively been fucked by them and on a personal level I avoid everything but medicaid and only that cause everything but the money is pleasant to deal with and I kinda need it (honestly if I was rich I'm not even kidding that I'd rather give medicaid like $400 a month than some insurance company, I sincerely like them as insurance)
But I'd trust them a lot more if they were less punitive, less out to hunt me down and gut me cause someone handed me a fiver or cause I started to get on my feet, and if government employees had concrete rules they had to follow that were actually transparent and enforced
Like 90% of my problems with welfare go away if they're held accountable and there's less "catch the welfare cheats" mentality going around
I don't trust the government in the slightest, but sadly there some jobs it kinda has to do, so I'd just rather force it to be an open book where the public can keep an eye on it and if they step out of line there's consequences (sort of like I don't trust most mega corps but happen to sometimes need stuff from them... did you know literally every cell service provider has been illegally selling shit like your location data to random people like bounty hunters, and the FCC just slapped them with a fine that's 0.02% of their yearly incomes and debated even doing that? I even can offer a source on that)
...I don't trust much of any authority cause they constantly fail me and kinda screw me. Don't trust doctors either, but I still gotta go to them, you know? ...they're just... they're real bad at listening... so many systems need systemic change
(You know who I really don't trust is the cops. I could point to so many examples. My uncle doesn't trust cops either, and he's an ex Fire and SWAT paramedic, he worked with them and we still got into a long conversation where he basically tore into them far better than I can)
(I don't trust authority that's not accountable)
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