#also what the fuck did they do to her character in game of thrones

[catofoldstones]

The essence of the series - so eloquently put by ms ellaria sand

[symeraid-s]

Finally watched the final season of the Umbrella Academy. Gotta say, I don't think I have ever felt this betrayed by a series before.

[daincrediblegg]

You know… I think I’d enjoy bridgerton more if it engaged in its stakes more than it engaged with its payoff. You know. Like all the jane austen’s novels it’s trying to chase through charm

[julessworldd]

Hey babes! I finally got an idea that was too good to not waste. @valeskafics gave the inspo for this amazing thing 🫶🏻 love you wifey! Also @foxyanon for the tag

Warnings: cucking, age gap (reader is 19, Robb is 19, Jaime is in his 30s) pussy eating, fingering(F), oral(m and f), squirting, hair pulling, p in v, doggy, mentions of face fucking. Spanking, dubcon at first! , dom!robb 🥵 Mentions of beheading, war/battle, cussing. Theon being early season prev Theon(you’ll see) I probably messed a couple timeline things up. I’m not totally up to speed up to westerlands’ house: I didn’t want a westerling reader so house Swyft

I don’t own characters or rights of Game of Thrones, all credits for G.R.R and HBO. Enjoy besties 🫶🏻🫶🏻

A Lannister bride was today’s Targaryen marriage. The Lannisters were powerful and wealthy people. Even better if it was Lord Tywin’s son, Jaime. Tywin’s power bent the rule of a Kingsguard not taking a wife. Owning lands, fathering children. For that Swyft lord’s daughter Y/n it was a dream come true. She remembers seeing Jaime at a tourney at the rock. He was 17 and she was merely a preteen. But she was dead set on marrying the lion.

Y/n’s wish had came true, she married Jaime Lannister, former Kingsguard, son of the mighty Tywin. She loved life at the rock, gold, nice dresses. Better yet custom dresses that the fabric came from the Narrow Sea. A handsome lord husband, who loved to make her scream until his name was the only thing she knew. Jaime had ruined her for other men, especially since he was well blessed below in the belt. And knew how to pleasure her before his own needs.

After the death of King Robert, the realm had 4 kings who thought they were the true king. One was a Stark, the late Lord Eddard Stark’s son, Robb. He was around Y/n’s age, she was merely 19 after this spring. King Joffrey declared war on all the kings, Robb was moving south. He was apparently near the trident, that was close enough for her husband to pick up and head to battle. After a king screaming match, Y/n was with her husband. She made a promise to stay out of the way and let him ride to battle. Jaime was gone as he went after the Stark army, Y/n stayed like always.

Y/n was reading a book when the tent flap moved and revealed a Stark bannermen. Y/n’s chest tightened as she locked eyes with the bannermen. She tried reaching for the blade Jaime had given her. But she was thrown over the bearded man’s shoulder. Soon enough Y/n was carried to the Stark’s camp, she seen her husband. He was dirty, dirt had hidden his golden hair. He was tied up and had a chain around his neck. Her heart broke for her husband, he was so good at battle how did he get captured? Especially by someone who is three years younger his wife.

“Your Grace, I got Ser Jaime’s wife. What should I do with her?” The bannermen asked as he held her arm

“Leave her in my tent, she’ll forget about her lion after she has me in her cunt” Theon smirked as he checked her out

“Theon, she’s a lady no matter whose house she married in. Set her up a tent near mine” Robb said “Leave her with me”

The bannermen let go of her arm, Jaime was so pissed he didn’t say anything as he was dragged away. He thinking of ways to kill the foul mouthed Greyjoy. How dare he talk to his darling like that.

“What’s a lady doing in her husband’s war camp?” Robb asked

Y/n rolled her eyes “Whats a Stark doing riding south? Don’t you remember what happened to your grandfather, uncle and recently your father. King Joffery surely knows what he’s doing to do to you”

“Mouthy little thing” Robb smirked

“Fuck you” Y/n said, she had to restrain herself from spitting on him.

***************************

It had been a few days since she had seen Jaime, she missed him. Missed his voice, his scent, how his hands felt on her waist. Everytime someone brought her food she begged to see Jaime. They ignored her. Theon asked what’s so good about the lion. She told him his cock and how he stretched her. Theon rolled his eyes and left.

A direwolf walked in her tent, she crawled to the corner of her cot. She had her knees to her chest

“Good wolf. Yeah, you. Go on I don’t have anything” she said trying not to sound scared.

“Greywind” Robb snapped his fingers and made the wolf sit the entrance.

“King in North” Y/n rolled her eyes

“Lady Lannister” Robb smirked

“I want to see my husband, please” Y/n sighed

“I’ll let you see him but on one condition, love” Robb said sitting on the cot by her feet

“What’s that? My family rides for Lannisters not Stark men” Y/n told the auburn haired king

“I want my way with you, but I want him to watch” Robb said rubbing Y/n’s foot

“Him who?” She asked

Rob was surprised she asked who instead of being offended and declaring her cunt for her Jaime only.

“Your husband, of course. I need answers and he hasn’t gave any so far. Seeing you beg for my cock will surely get to him crack” Robb said

“No! I’d rather you kill me than you fuck me” Y/n gasped

“I seen a Swyft flag this morning, a man looked like you. Is that your brother?” Robb asked

“Ryan, he’s my older brother. One of my father’s heir” Y/n said

“If you don’t let me do what I want, I’ll kill him and I’ll have you watch” Robb said

“Fine fine. Have him brought here, I don’t want the other prisoners seeing me like that or your men. Please” Y/n pleaded

“Well we think a lot a like, lady. Theon, bring the kingslayer in” Robb yelled over his shoulder

“Your Grace” Theon said before winking at Y/n before leaving

Y/n seen Jaime and got off the cot. She took in his appearance, he was practically buried in dirt. He had scruff, he looked exhausted. Old worn clothes, his hands chained behind his back. Y/n hugged him, Jaime leaned his head on her shoulder.

“My poor lion” Y/n muttered as she kissed his forehead as she stood on her tip toes

“Just let him do this twisted thing. Once I get out of here, it will be behind us, my sweet girl” Jaime whispered

Y/n looked at him but shook her yes. She led Jaime to a chair by the cot. Robb was still on her cot as he smirked. He patted his thigh, Y/n cringed as she looked over at Jaime. Jaime nodded his head signaling her to do what Robb wanted her to do.

Y/n climbed on Robb’s lap, the wolf wrapped his arms around her as he turned her to face him only. Her back towards Jaime, Robb squeezed her ass. He yanked her down by her hair and kissed her. Y/n had tears down her cheeks as she kissed him back.

Suddenly Robb had her dress off and pushed her on her back. Robb had her naked as he forced his shoulders between her thighs as he dipped his head to her cunt. Y/n whined as she felt Robb’s hot tongue tracing her hole. It had been a week since she had been touched. Jaime fucked her four times or more a week, he fucked her hard the morning he left the Lannister camp. Robb was eating her like a mad man, he rubbed her clit in tight circles with his finger.

She moaned as she grinded her pussy on his face as he licked her clit down to her asshole. Robb moaned, feeling her sweet cunt on him. Her stomach tightened as she came, her thighs wrapped around Robb’s head. Her hands clenched his auburn curls. Jaime was half hard from Y/n’s whines and seeing cum ooze out of her as Robb raised up.

Robb smirked as he turned his head towards Jaime. He gently raised Y/n up to his chest before stripping down. Y/n’s eyes flickered to Jaime, Jaime gave her a reassuring smile. Robb gently grabbed her jaw to kiss her, this time she clutched her fingers in his hair. Robb had snuck his fingers down to her hole, one finger rubbed the outside. He plunged his two fingers into her weeping cunt. Y/n moaned against his lips.

After making her cum again, Robb released his fingers. Licking them off, he flipped Y/n to her stomach. She was facing Jaime as Robb grabbed her hips. Bringing her ass up, he gave her soft cheeks a couple snacks. Y/n wanted to turn around and slap his face. That was one thing Jaime never did even do for teasing. His punishment was usually face fucking her and throat training her despite her whins. Oddly enough Y/n liked it when Robb slapped her ass, she felt herself clenched around nothing.

“I’ll show you why your father should have sent you to Winterfell instead of that ugly rock” Robb teased her clit

Y/n bit her lip to hide how she was enjoying this. Being fucked by another man while her beloved watched. Jaime however was slowly losing his cool. Y/n was his wife, her pussy was his nobody else’s, her body was something for him to cherish and push her boundaries of pleasure.

Robb finally entered Y/n and he was bigger and thicker than Jaime. Y/n moaned it had been a bit too long to not be filled. She missed cockwarming Jaime, but Robb found new areas to touch. Felt like he was going to rip her into two. Robb slammed his hips against her ass repeatedly, her moans were so sweet. Her cunt was tight, warm and kept him snug, Robb loved. He thought it was worth killing Jaime and having Tywin Lannister kill him for it. Your cunt was sweet but maybe not worth his sisters and family being killed.

Y/n moaned as Robb grabbed her by her long hair making her look back at him. Her eyes meeting his Tully blue eyes, a couple whins falling out of her plump lips. Robb stuck two of his fingers in her mouth. The same ones that fucked her cunt in front of her husband moments ago. She could faintly taste herself on his fingers. She swirled her tongue around his dights, Robb smirked.

“Guess Kingslayer did good, training you. The perfect lady wife, gorgeous body with a sweet cunt” Robb rammed into her

She wanted to knock his stupid teeth out for calling Jaime that. She was the only one who knew why Jaime did it. She agreed with him, sometimes betraying someone will help innocent people live another day. But that was soon forgotten as she came around Robb’s cock. Except he didn’t stop his thrusts until she squirted. He let go of her hair and she fell into the cot, she silently moaned as she came down from her hair.

Damn maybe her father should have sent her North cause Jaime never made her do that. Jaime! It hit her, he was there and witnessed the whole thing. She looked up as Jaime was fuming , his fits were clenched as his chest heaved. Robb chuckled as he seen the kingslayer’s reaction

“Theon! Take Ser Jaime back to his cell” Robb called his friend.

Theon walked in, Y/n saw his hard cock in his pants. Theon grabbed Jaime’s arm as he walked out of her tent.

Robb stood up getting dressed

Y/n watched as Theon was across camp

“You never asked him anything”

“I was going to but the gods blessed you with the best cunt the realm has had. Forgive me for being distracted, my lady” Robb smirked as groped her breast.

“He’s never made me do that” Y/n smirked

“That’s a shame, my lady” Robb said

Y/n crawled off the bed as she stopped in front of Robb. Running her hands down his thighs “Can I tell you thank you?”

“At once” Robb snapped his fingers like he did at Greywind

“Not a dog”

“No, but you did let the wolf have his way with you. After all you are a lions wife, maybe” Robb smirked

Y/n looked up at him and cocked her eyebrows. Robb had a point, a very valid one. How could she ever lay with Jaime without feeling guilty about this night. Of course if Robb released Jaime and her.

[iminyourwallsbabe]

Okay so I was thinking about Melvik last night because the streets(one person) asked for a Melvik playlist and I wanted to make sure I did it right and I think I've come to a conclusion about what the hell is going on with those two. There's so many different ways to interpret it, so I'm not saying this is objectively correct. We're in the corkboard with strings and pictures stage of shipping rn.

Okay so if we're being honest, there's not a lot to work with in terms of character interactions but there are clues in other places. One of the things I noticed is that they mirror each other. Mel has freckles in similar spots to Viktor's moles, she's the sun and he's the moon, she's covered in gold while Viktor has a lot more silver in his palette, she's a princess while he's some guy from Zaun but they're both fighting for legitimacy.

So they probably didn't like each other at some point.

Think about it, sometimes people who hate each other are exactly like one another. That bothers them. Maybe that was the case here. Then you add on the layer of their individual goals and I could see how they might clash. I could see how they might not understand each other at first.

I feel like after that, it probably became a game of cat and mouse. A rivalry if you will. It could've been academic, depending on how long they knew each other (we don't know). I could see there being a lot of competition in their relationship, but the thing is, it was never a fair fight. How is a man from the undercity supposed to compete with an exiled royal? You can't. People are more likely to give her what she wants than even consider your position just by default. And then you also have to consider that this is Mel we're talking about. A goddamn mastermind if I've ever seen one, if she didn't already have privilege on her side, she definitely has the people skills to compensate. It was probably frustrating, in a lot of ways.

But wait! There's more. There's something to be said about how the "evolved" humans are white and gold, Mel's colors. Even the way the gold is placed is reminiscent of her. Perfection, the peak of humanity, in Viktor's mind is Mel (and Jayce too if you remember that his little husk still kept a lot of his features, but his look was still inspired by her).

So in Mel, I think at first he saw everything he lacked and it was pissing him off. That probably stemmed from his need to get where he wanted to be quickly, because he knew his time was limited. Like fuck, I'm gonna die and you're in my way by being better at everything.

For Mel, I think she saw everything she wanted to be. Self assured, with direction in life. Peace is such a broad goal to have, living up to your mother's standards is a little more specific, but what does she want to do for herself? Where does she want to be when it's all said and done? Wherever she's been told she needed to be? In a throne or a seat at the council's table? Viktor knows what he wants, he sees it clearly, and he couldn't care less about anybody's standards or expectations besides his own. There's something so ruthless about that, and Mel envies it.

What I think changed with them is an understanding, realizing that it would be more useful for them to work together and be on the same team rather than continue to compete with one another. But how do we get there? Judging by how most of the romance in Arcane works, it was probably sex. I'm not even joking, this is a consistent thing. Jayvik? One of their key moments together involved Viktor saying "wait this isn't my bedroom", Mel and Jayce's relationship was kind of confirmed with a sex scene, Vi started flirting with Caitlyn in a brothel of all places and then LATER there was the whole thing in the prison cell, are we seeing the trend here? Sex and arcane go together like Jinx and explosions.

Anyway, right, back on topic. So yeah, I think unlike her relationship with Jayce, things were not nearly as thought through with Viktor. It definitely feels like a spur of the moment kind of thing, probably involving alcohol. Let me explain. I'm probably not going to phrase this right, but somebody else explained the bond between these two sort of like magnets. They attract and reject each other at the same time. They're so similar that by all means, they could be together, but something keeps pushing them away from one another. Knowing Mel's relationship with trust, and Viktor's relationship with time, this could make perfect sense. This could give way to some very complicated feelings. Knowing Mel, that wouldn't have been good. But then you start to remove those inhibitions, either through something artificial or just heightened passions, next thing you know shit happens.

Now we're in what I wanna call the situationship era! Because god forbid our favorite metal eugenicist has a committed relationship ever.

Mel doesn't know what she wants out of this so it stays casual for a while, Viktor wants more but he's scared to ask because he doesn't wanna scare her away. He knows she's conflicted about it, otherwise she wouldn't act the way she does. Still, it drives him fucking insane. He could die within the next few years, he doesn't have time to be playing will they/won't they. Especially not when the most perfect woman- no, person, he's ever seen in his life is right there in front of him. It's several months of "maybe we should stop doing this", that attracting and repelling I was talking about, with no conceivable end, but eventually it does. Eventually they both find they have better things to focus on than this. Not that they don't love or care about each other anymore, but the stress just isn't worth it. The world needs them, and they can't keep holding each other back.

However, that's not quite the end of their story.

In the words of our Lord and Savior, Shadow the Hedgehog, the light still shines even when the star is gone. They do try to keep their relationship as professional as possible, at least when there's eyes to see it. Outside of that though, it's clear that they're still attached somehow. Is it romantic still? That's up for interpretation, but regardless, no matter how much distance they put between each other, they'll always be drawn to one another.

Then here comes MC Hammer, and now the situation is like this. The moon (Viktor) revolves around the earth (Jayce), who revolves around the sun (Mel). They're all so interconnected now and if you take one out of the equation, shit gets messy. Can't take out the sun, the whole galaxy will collapse. Can't take out the moon, the earth will be in ruin. See what I mean? As Jayce and Mel get more serious, I think both of them wonder what could've been. They're happy where they are romantically but it's always something to ponder. What would it have looked like if Viktor was the golden boy, not Jayce? If they were the ones holding it down in those council meetings? What would it be like if her warmongering mother knew she was in love with someone like Viktor, someone so physically weak? Would she be rejected again? Would she approve based on the false notion that he was only a pet to her? That he meant nothing?

Maybe it's for the better that things are as they are, but when he thinks of what humanity can be at its peak, all he can see is her. When he's gone all she can hope is that he comes back to her. It's so beautifully tragic.

[linka-from-captain-planet]

Florrickology, Part 4: Florrick, Wyll, Ulder, and Character Assassination

We all know it, we all hate it. They did my beloved dirty, used her to shit all over Wyll's quest at what should be a climactic moment, and I will never forgive never forget it.

In Act 3, if Wyll rejects Mizora's offer to rescue his father from the Iron Throne in favor of keeping his pact broken, Florrick will ambush the party, inform them that "Lady Mizora" told her what he did, and seek retribution unless talked down.

This is stupid, makes no sense, assassinates Florrick's character for no good reason, and represents some of Larian's laziest NPC writing--unsurprisingly, in the midst of Wyll's personal quest, and smack dab in what's supposed to be the climax of one of the longest quests in the game.

As I said in previous posts, Florrick being willing to go to the mat for Ulder any day or time of the week is consistent with her other characterization.

Up to the point of this confrontation, the player has observed that she'll follow Ulder to literal hell and back, chase him across half a continent, and become so disappointed in her perceived failure to save him and, by extension, the entire city, that she completely gives up and quietly awaits execution, without even trying to escape (which she probably could do, as a level 11, probably Enchantment School wizard).

All her voice lines and all the things others say about her paint the picture of a loyal and true-blue friend, and a public servant of the highest caliber, "as steady as Tyr's heartbeat" and "as upstanding as the Sword Mountains." She may be sharp and shrewd, and perhaps a bit domineering and curt, but she's not cruel. She may be a bit cavalier, but she's never rash.

She's not stupid. She may be more emotional than she seems.

She has killed someone before, on the spot, for coming after Ulder. It's consistent that she would do it again, even if she had to hunt them down this time and risk being caught by the Steel Watch. In her mind, she has nothing left to lose.

What is not consistent is her being willing to kill Wyll on a flimsy accusation (that she doesn't even really believe if you read her thoughts).

Now as I've mentioned, Florrick doesn't seem to feel any particular way about Wyll; she seems to regard him simply as her friend and boss' son, just a good kid she patted on the head at parades, and when they meet again in Waukeen's Rest, as a valuable asset in rescuing Ulder and saving the city.

And I like this! It highlights that Ulder was Wyll's entire world, and it was Ulder, alone, who failed him and cast him aside. I think this is also part of why there's never any indication that Florrick and Ulder are/were romantically involved, because this would change the expectations for how she treats/feels about Wyll. But as it stands, simply being a woman in the vicinity of a child, even one in need, didn't obligate her to be a mother.

And this the feeling is mutual. In-game, there's also no indication that Wyll had or desired had any sort of personal relationship with her, as he talks about her accomplishments but not, say, seeking her out for advice or spending time with her. He mentions crushing on Stellmayne, but when asked about Florrick, he goes right to "yeah she fucks, she sniped a guy right in front of me once." He only regards her in relation to his father and the city, never himself. She's his dad's confidant and advisor, and an exemplary public servant, but nothing in particular to him.

So, it's not how Florrick feels about Wyll that makes it out of character for her to attack him, but because of how she knows Ulder feels about Wyll.

She says herself, when talked down in that confrontation, that Ulder wanted her to find Wyll and pass his birthright on if he fell, because as many mistakes as Ulder made, and as wrong as he was, and as unacceptable as his behavior was, in the end, he trusted his boy with the fate of his beloved city.

So, Florrick would never betray Ulder by attacking his son, without irrefutable evidence, especially when she'd been told explicitly to trust and help Wyll by the person she respects and reveres the most in the entire world.

As one of the most prominent NPCs in the game, appearing with a fairly significant role in all three acts, and who's been demonstrated to be an unquestionable heroic figure all along, Florrick deserved better than what she got in this blatantly lazy, formulaic scene.

And that's the answer to the question of 'why is this scene so bad?' - lazy, formulaic writing.

That's also probably the answer to any 'why is this Act 3 moment and/or NPC interaction so clunky?' question. This confrontation is Like That because it's how every every NPC Confrontation is: someone is willing to kill you for variably logical reasons, unless you talk your way out of it, and the end result is only nominally different, so it was pointless from the jump. It's the illusion of drama and conflict and a plot twist, not real drama and conflict and plot twist. Of course she (andWyllcoughcough) isn't safe from the "uh oh this game isn't done but we're shipping it anyway so we better make this story beat messy, both under-and over-whelming, and confusing to match the overall tone of Act 3" curse.

So you might then move on to, "okay, well, what's the in-universe explanation for this? How can we make it make sense, considering what we know about Florrick?"

I won't give them credit for implying anything they didn't bother to imply, even though they could have gone several other routes with about 2 lines of better dialogue and a simple animation. So, I think the only true, canonical reason Florrick does this is exactly what's presented in the text. She was approached by "Lady" Mizora, a stranger, told a lie, only half-believed it, slapped a fuckass hood on over her very distinctive freakum dress, went on the hunt, and ambushed the party in front of like 50 human, 5 cat, and 3 Steel Watch witnesses even though she's a fugitive marked for execution.

That's it. There's no further context. Again, nothing implied. As you can tell by this entire series, I will read into anything, and there's simply nothing to read into here.

No indication that Mizora charmed or is controlling Florrick, a simple explanation that could have been easily been introduced with about 1 line, a special effect, and a mocap of her "snapping out of it."

No revelation that "Lady" Mizora has been posing as a patriar and pulling strings in Baldur's Gate for the last seven years, working closely with and maybe kissin haha jk... unless Florrick, making it perfectly reasonable why she'd believe Mizora over Wyll, who's been not only missing BUT cavorting with devils for those same seven years, which is ironic because Florrick had unknowingly been doing the same thing (juicy!). (more thoughts on this)

There's not even really a feeling that Florrick, who again did all that mentioned above for Ulder and her city, is simply just so heartbroken and grieving and demoralized that she's experiencing a mental breakdown and a critical lapse in judgement, grasping at anything to make it make sense or to make her feel in control again, even if she has her doubts deep down. Again, this could have easily been written in with a few lines and some body language. I feel like this is what they thought they did, but the fact is they didn't even though it would have been easy and cost basically 0 extra resources or time.

Clearly, this scene got rubber-stamped because they (painfully correctly) assumed that nobody would care about Wyll's storyline at this point, and his supporting character Florrick with it. They probably just figured that we'd all forget how wack it was when we continued the quest and got gagged by the Emporer being a gay dragon-fucker and also Balduran.

So, what would have made this scene/part of the quest better?

To be clear, better is a pretty low bar as the canonical version full-on sucks. The above suggestions are only what could have made this specific scene (Florrick Confronts Wyll About Killing His Father) better. But really, Wyll's quest, as we all know, needs an overhaul. So, below is what's overall needed to make Wyll's entire quest in Act 3 better.

maintain Florrick's characterization (this post is about Florrick after all)

give Wyll a chance to be a hero in his own story

actually utilize Mizora, who's truly been pretty pointless all this time

provide a sense of stakes--it has to matter what happens

get everything the fuck away from that fucking magic show

I had a whole alternative Act 3 storyline written to suggest, Boss Fight Mizora Avernus and all, but realized just before posting that it doesn't work because it ends with Wyll destroying his pact, and he does sort of need that to remain a warlock for the endgame (being forced to re-class at the 11th hour would be a bit of a bold move). But trust me it was cool and better than what we got.

[greyborn2]

Elisif headcanons now! (friendly tone ofc <3) Why do you think she would be a good marriage candidate? I'm curious :)

Yesssss!!! Okay - so this boils down to two categories. Personal interest in it, and underrated narrative JUICE. Starting with the former because its easier to begin with. So Elisif is just... she's neat. She's simultaneously one of the most politically important people in skyrim while also being COMPLETELY overshadowed by the men around her (Nobody talks about her, really, they talk of Torygg. The civil war isnt her vs ulfric, its TULLIUS vs ulfric. Her own decisions in court the first time we even see her are seemingly overruled on a dime by her own court, by Falk.). Its like she's this big thing of incredible importance and is constantly hidden away both in narrative and in game. But despite that, if you actually sneak in a bit, ignore all the big figures standing in front of her and propping themselves up on top of her, she has a surprising amount of meat to her.

Most of the Jarls are like... a few word summary at best. Greedy idiot boy, honourable honorman, paranoid bigot, old seer, etc etc etc. You get an initial impression of them and thats kinda it. Ulfric has a lot more, obviously, because he's a major character but it would *SEEM* that Elisif should be on the lower end of content. It takes so much to seek her out in her overshadowed little corner after all, but she has so so so much surprising stuff around her. The necromancer potema plot revolves around her, a whole big dialogue tree that isnt super common to see for a jarl, some touching personal quests that go into detail about how she saw her late husband. Its just all super compelling to me to have a character that, despite being so important, is *soooo* hidden away actually have some meat to her. Plus she's just a nice person!!! ANYWAYS!! PART 2!! The JUICE!!

For starters, I think, there should just be more opportunities for the dragonborn to play the political game if they want. Beyond just choosing a side in a war or ticking off their 'thane of everywhere' list, actually getting in on climbing the ladder and enmeshing oneself with the politics of the land they're in. BUT BUT... same can be said for Ulfric. Absolutely true. I do think he should also be a marriage candidate. BUT...

I think Elisif PARTICULARLY makes sense as a marriage opportunity that isn't one you seek out, but one that is put forward to the player. Specifically with an Imperial victory in the civil war.

The war is won. Alduin MAY or MAY NOT be slain. But either way, no matter what, at this point the dragonborn is a war hero, a champion of the people, and decorated imperial legate. And this would be fucking FRIGHTNING, I think, to the politicians back in Cyrodiil. There's a *history* of war hero dragonborns, popular with the people, turning on their commanders and declaring themselves emperor afterall. Oh boy is there a precedent. Suddenly they're the big figure in a war that was supposed to be Tullius' duty and they might start sweating in their boots a little.

SO... after the war is won... the legion starts... pushing. Just a little. A few letters, a few comments, that the dragonborn should maybe marry Elisif. Become High King by marriage. Lock them in and satisfy the war hero with a political title off in the ass end of the empire before they turn their gaze toward a ruby throne. Don't give them time to think on it. Ooooh look tasty treat right here shhhh dont think yes you did very good dragonborn yes yes be high king.

I think from there it could go one of three ways;

1) Last Dragonborn marries Elisif but with her actually agreeing to the union (after completing her personal quests) and she FINALLY steps out of the shadows. Rather than the expected you using her for power, she uses YOU for power. You allow yourself to be the thing she props herself up on and finally really starts coming into public view. Maybe to the nervousness of the Empire as she's a less eager puppet then they might have thought, now.

2) Last Dragonborn falls right into the trap the empire placed. You didnt do the quests for Elisif, she remains in the shadows, there's a loveless marriage and you get to be satisfied with a big title that hopefully keeps you occupied.

3) Last Dragonborn refuses all of this. Things seem to proceed as they do in canon but... well... maybe you notice a few more non-DB assassins using imperial weapons attacking you on the road then you did before. Curious.

[olenvasynyt]

26 for Lucien, Eris, Tamlin, Rhys, Feyre, Nesta (sorry lol I want to see you go on both rants and gushes)

For this character ask game

26. What's something the character has done you can't get over? Be it something funny, bad, good, serious, whatever?

Alrighty, get ready:

Lucien:

I will never ever ever be able to get over him and Jesminda and just his entire backstory. I love a good forbidden romance and unhappy ending, and I love young, rakish Lucien rebelling against Beron and the Autumn Court, him finding love in a dark time in his life, respecting and learning about lesser fae culture. And I just love how he is this rakish, charming and witty character who secretly has so much guilt and trauma. This quote I will NEVER be able to get over:

Eris:

Probably his whole past with Mor and why he left her on the border, and also his whole past in general. But specifically about his betrothal with Mor: I totally think Mor reminded Eris of his own mother, which is weird to say but Mor was in a very similar situation as LoA was with this betrothal.

Autumn and the Court of Nightmares are similar; misogyny is super prominent in both of these courts.  Females are suppressed, their virginity is sold; they are abused. Mor and the LoA are both huge examples of this.  They are two females with power who were sold to males: LoA comes from a very strong bloodline of fire wielders, and Mor has…whatever her powers are. 

And I’m not using this to compare Eris to Beron, but Eris knows how females are treated in Autumn, he sees it all the time with his mother.  Mor would be brought into the same court and High Family that abuses and suppresses Eris’ own mother.  So that in my opinion is probably one of Eris’ motives for refusing to take her in and instead leaving her there on the border.  She was one female that he could protect from Autumn and Beron.

This is actually something that Eris hints at here in ACOSF:

Chapter 14 of ACOSF: “I told you years ago what I wanted, High Lord,” Eris said. “To seize his father’s throne.  “Why?” Cassian asked. Eris grasped what he meant apparently, because flame sizzled in his eyes.  “For the same reasons I left Morrigan untouched at the border.” “You left her there to suffer and die,” Cassian spat. Eris sneered.  “Did I?  Perhaps you should ask Morrigan whether or not that is true.  I think she finally knows the answer.”

Cassian is like, “Why do you want Autumn’s throne?”  Eris answers, “Because the male currently sitting on that throne sucks and abuses females including my mother.”  

And this quote actually illustrates something I find frustrating.  Mor wanted to cancel the betrothal so she slept with Cassian to do so.  And Eris understood that.  When she was dumped at the Autumn border, he was like okay, I understand what you did. You slept with Cassian because you don’t want to be in Autumn.  I got you.  I won’t touch you, because then you’ll be my problem, aka Beron’s problem.  And that makes sense.  

And the IC is almost mad at him for that and it’s so jarring to me.  Because Mor is like I don’t want to be in Autumn, Eris is like cool, then I’ll leave you here and I won’t bring you into Autumn, and the IC is like “You left her there.  How dare you!” 

I am a huge Eris defender, as you can tell lmao. I love him.

Tamlin:

"MY SHAYLAAAA!😩 My Shayla🥺" I will never get over his past and his inherit goodness. He was raised in an abusive household: his father allied with Hybern; he grew up around slavers and murders and abusive people.  Amarantha, a mature, probably several hundred-year-old fae at the time, was lustful of Tamlin.  She was lustful over a child.  A fucking child.  That alone is evidence of how awful his childhood was if he was a child victim to a predator.

He most definitely hated his life and family.  He was ashamed of it, which I think is shown by how he did not want the title of High Lord, how he spoke badly about his brothers and father, and how he became friends with Rhysand, a male who sided against his father in the war.  And the fact that Tamlin grew up in an abusive household and found love and peace through music says a lot about his character.  He was still peaceful at heart and craved something else.  He wanted to join a traveling music band, for fucks sake.  He wanted to get out of his court so badly.

And when he became High Lord, it was violent and sad, and many people supported his father left. And I think Tamlin helped Spring grow a little softer after the Human War.

Rhys:

...you had to throw Rhys and Feyre in there lmao.

There are many things I can't get over when it comes to Rhys but I dislike him in ACOFAS with Tamlin the most. I will never get over him walking into Spring, seeing Tamlin in such a depressed state and Tamlin asking "will Feyre forgive me?" and he kicks him further into the ground. I thought it was so sad and horrible of him! T amlin told your mate to be happy, he SAVED YOUR LIFE, and he has went back to Spring and been in his depression by himself, not hurting you or Feyre or anyone else.

And I will be fully honest: if Tamlin was the one who had died and the High Lords were trying to bring him back, Rhysand would not have lifted a finger. And I think that makes Tamlin the better male than Rhys.

Feyre:

Like Rhys, there are a lot of things Feyre has done that I can't get over 😂😭. I wish Tiktok was still up so I could link the dozens of videos I made ranting about Feyre taking down Spring, or her being a shitty friend to Lucien. But I got this post on tumblr about Feyre being a shitty friend to Lucien, and I got this quote I can simply share:

Chapter 15 of ACOWAR: “Lucien was waiting in the sitting room when Rhus and I came downstairs at last… I fought my cringe as I halted at the threshold.  Lucien was still in his travel-worn, filthy clothes.  His face and hands, at least, were clean, but…I should have gotten him something else.  Remembered to offer him— The thought rippled away into nothing as Rhys appeared at my side.

AJFBEFERGUEVFBJWEFHIFEHJFVEKJHOIF

Nesta:

I just love how Nesta was written in ACOSF (did not like the book, I like Nesta) because I relate to her inner dialogue and self-loathing. She’s so sad and traumatized and that makes her relatable 🙃😂 and people hate on her for “being mean” but I personally love it, and she is (usually) only mean when she’s provoked. I will never get over this exchange with Mor in ACOWAR 😂

[a0random0gal]

Soo today I made the terrible mistake to look for hotd art on pinterest, and came across a... particular comment that genuinely led me to question my faith in humanity.

Oh boy

Where do I even begin with this?

I thought team black was at least cool with Hel cause she's literally the most innocent character in the show (except for the kids obviously) but apparently some blacks have beef with her too now.

Cool, just great.

Haelena had the opportunity to go with her kids to Nyra.

I'm sorry but why? Why would she want to betray her family, her actual family? Rhaenyra never gave a flying fuck about her growing up, they have never even talked on screen! Why, why would she dump her siblings and her parents to join the cause of the woman who's side wants the people she loves killed? It makes no sense whatsoever. The blacks really don't understand that not everyone on Planetos loves Nyra like them and it shows.

Also if she really tried to betray her family for Nyra, I think Aegon, Ali and Aemond would have noticed Dreamfyre leaving King's Landing to go to Dragonstone and would have gone after her on Sunfyre and Vhagar.

And even if she somehow made it there, what do you think was going to happen? Rhaenyra was just going to welcome them with open arms as if she wasn't married to her "usurper"?

Best case scenario Nyra pretends to welcome them in and then Daemon sends his men to strangle Jaehaerys and Maelor as they sleep to get rid of Aegon's possible heirs.

I mean hell in the books Rhae put a fucking bounty on her 2 year old nephew's head that lead to his brutal death and they think she would just allow them to switch sides? Man these people really do not know how the game of thrones works.

She wanted to be queen

When? When has it ever been stated that Hel wants to be queen? When did we ever get a dialogue where she talked about how she couldn't wait for Aegon to inherit so she could replace her mom as queen?

Never

Haelena spends most of her time on screen making prophecies of the future, playing with bugs and dancing with Jace, when has her ambition for the crown been portrayed?

When have we seen any hint of her desire for power? Wtf

We're all dumb and sick bla bla...

Honestly after all this trash I've had to debunk being called names doesn't even phase me lmao. Go ahead, insulting others is always your last resort when you don't know how to admit that you're wrong.

We are blinded by the outside beauty of the characters and don't pay attention to who they really are

Ohhh the sweet sweet irony of this statement .

Team broccoli doesn't acknowledge their rapist usurper, their war criminal prince and their whore queen Alicunt! They're so nasty!

But Isn't Daemon suuper hot? God he is such an obedient malewife, Rhaenyra couldn't have chosen better! He's not a pedo guys I swear, the young silver haired virgins' ages were never confirmed, maybe they were at least eighteen! And he totally didn't pursue Nettles sexually, she was most likely his daughter!

What a joke

[syndrossi]

An ask for when you are needing a break (or procrastinating) from writing! Who are your favorite 3(ish) characters from Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, or from the books? Only include Jon, Rhaegar and Daemon if you give me your favorite SIX characters, as that's clearly cheating. Are there any you like more/differently in the books vs. the tv shows? Or special characterizations you prefer for characters that don't have much screentime *cough* Rhaegar *cough*.

You're making me choose THREE(ish) only from all the books/shows???? That's so cruel! I should be allowed to choose three from each era!

Okay, okay, setting aside my three very obvious favorites (Daemon, Jon, Rhaegar)...

In no particular order:

Aemon, Baelon, Alyssa (bonus Jocelyn). What? Is this cheating? I don't care! Baelon in particular I find so compelling. We see so little of him in F&B, but what we do see is him utterly disconsolate after Aemon's death. Grown man collapsing in his mother's arms, sobbing from the pain after murdering thousands of pirates in revenge. Look, my literary type is very easy to spot, and it's "has the power and drive to burn the world for daring to hurt the ones I love." Especially because, by all accounts, Baelon isn't the murder-kill type normally. He's the joyful, playful one--the Silver Fool. I also have a huge soft spot for second sons. Aemon and Alyssa are our tragic "died too young" members of this group, with vastly differing personalities. I have a huge soft spot for quiet, soft types as well (your Aemons, Rhaegars, even Neds and Jons if you squint). Alyssa is the opposite: bombastic, her joy greater than even Baelon's. Her and Daemon being similar in personality means I feel like I would have loved her? How much did Rhaenys love her wild aunt Alyssa? I'll bet it was a lot.

Rhaena (Aenys's daughter). I was MESMERIZED reading about her life in F&B. This woman LIVED. She gave ZERO FUCKS. She was constantly threatening to feed men to her dragon, with good reason! She had favorites in every holdfast! She survived marriage to Maegor! When her mother died in childbirth, here was the speech she gave Rogar Baratheon: Her blood is on your hands. Her blood is on your cock. May you die screaming. […] She gave you one son, that should have been enough. Save my wife, you should have said, but what are wives to men like you? Hear this, my lord. Do not think to wed again. Take care of the whelps my mother gave you, my half-brother and half-sister. See that they want for nothing. Do that, and I will let you be. If I should hear even a whisper of your taking some other poor maid to wife, I will make another Harrenhal of Storm's End, with you and her inside it. Like...damn.

Sad bois Aegon III and Viserys II. Look, Aegon III breaks my heart for everything he endured. You would think that the Dance would have been the end of it but the intrigues after were awful too.

Baela. She faced Sunfyre on tiny little Moondancer and they won. (In the sense of Sunfyre dying, but poor Moondancer also died in the attempt.) She was 100% her mother's and father's daughter, like damn.

Hm, I'm stuck in F&B right now, oh well.

Rhea Royce has climbed her way into my heart as I've progressed in the AUs, especially Regnal. Her canon counterpart had to put up with Daemon being his utter worst in an attempt to get his brother to annul the marriage, and tbh I feel like she barely cared? Like, she was busy trying to rule Runestone, let that arrogant brat prance about and make a fool of himself, she had work to do. She also successfully supported little Jeyne Arryn when her male relatives kept trying to usurp her on account of being more qualified (read: male). I am so curious what she would have done as queen consort.

...I haven't even made it out of the Dance and could keep going. You'll have to send me another ask sometime for post-Dance and AGOT-era. 😂

[galavant-song-tournament]

Round 3

Propaganda for Gwynne:

I mean were it not for Chef chickening out, she would have fully succeeded in engineering a plan to kill absolutely every powerful person in the world of Galavant except for Galavant and Isabella and Sid who hadn't arrived yet but she later gets on just fine with.

My money’s on Gwynne. She’s got the brains and ruthlessness to carry out schemes while also being sincere enough to form alliances that won’t betray her, and being a servant means others will underestimate her until it’s too late

Gywnne already thinks she's in GOT tbh. Her poisoning plot is very red wedding. She failed because she's in Galavant.

Gwyn is smart enough to avoid situations that would put her in danger. She keeps allies at arms length and avoids enemies, can throw down if she needs to but knows to do that as a last resort, and most importantly: knows when to hit the fucking bricks.

Honestly I think Gwynne is crafty enough and she's in a low enough position people won't expect her (or suspect her). She's not royalty or a fighter

Not only would Gwynne survive GOT, she would win it. She DID win it when she nearly killed every significant character and threat to her, she only failed because Chef was in Galavant and not GOT. (But a reminder that she would then have killed Madalena, another of the people's top choices for winner here. I don't think she'd bother taking out Tad Cooper because he's nice but there's good reasons to assume he'd die in a GOT world.)

Propaganda for Tad Cooper:

In bearded dragon form no one would bother with him since he's nonthreatening. In dragon form he'd be a target but he's also a dragon and breathes fire so he'd certainly be able to fight back. It's established that Galavant has killed a dragon, so clearly there is an in-universe way to kill dragons but it's also told as a brag so it's got to be difficult at least.

tad cooper’s gonna win solely because he isn’t enough of an apparent threat for anyone to kill on GOT until he’s grown up

I think tad cooper’s gonna win solely because I SUPER BELIEVE IN YOU TAD COOPER!

Tad Cooper is a big target by nature of being a goddamn dragon. Everyone and their mother would be coming up with a strategy to take him out. What's worse, he's a loyal dragon--more specifically, he's loyal to Absolute Buffoon™ King Richard. By nature of Richard being a figure in power many would want deposed and his biggest piece of protection being a living WMD that Richard's enemies would be planning to take out first, I'm afraid Tad Cooper is toast.

We've got to remember that Tad Cooper isn't a dragon that no one is after, he's either a totally defenseless little creature that no one's after or he's a threatening dragon that everyone would be after. And even in his defenseless and unthreatening state, he's probably in the blast zone of any attacks on Richard since he's kept in Richard's coat, and let's be real, Richard would be being attacked so much.

He nearly did die in the finale of Galavant when Wormwood smacks him from Richard's hand, he just survives because it's Galavant not GOT.

[bohemian-nights]

If Rhaena claims sheepstealer I’m telling you know that the ratings and fandom is going to go downhill just like season 7 and 8 of Games of Thrones. Like I honestly don’t understand who thought that was a good idea like Rhaena has a dragon her name is morning

Morning definitely would fit in the show especially when you consider that they made Rhaena into this sad unfortunate girl who is rejected by her Valyrian supremacy-obsessed father since she doesn’t have a dragon.

She’s the last Targaryen dragonrider before Dany. Having her hatch a dragon(something even her father could not or did not do) is a million times more powerful than having her claim Sheepstealer.

If they wanted to give her something else to do(this is the absolute worst excuse I’ve seen for hijacking Nettles dragon; these people could care less about Rhaena) on top of her canonical story arc have it be something political in nature or write a Romeo and Juliet romance between her and one of the #teamgreen men(Gwayne, Daeron, or bring in my beloved Garmund).

I’d also like to point out that Rhaena is only getting a part of Nettles story(claiming Sheepstealer).

Other characters like Addam(a Black black haired dragonseed), Mysaria(the scar), and Ulf White(non-Valyrian dragonseed), whoever they have fucking Daemon at Maidenpool, and whoever Daemon is willing to risk his life and turn his back on his wife and queen to save (if they even keep that plot) are getting the other parts of her.

This is what makes this all the more hilarious when you consider how people keep saying Nettles is a character who can simply just be cut and replaced.

I can’t reiterate this enough, if Nettles was as irrelevant and unimportant as these people say she was they wouldn’t be trying to cipher off her story to multiple characters and hoping by some miracle that it will all come together.

This show is really just Ryan Condal’s love letter to the worst Targaryen queen fanfiction at this point. Anybody taking it seriously or saying that it trumps the actual book canon…

[lily-alphonse]

So I finally finished watching ATLA (the animated series) all the way through, for the first time. Here's my final reaction post! You can see the others at the first tag listed below (#lily's atla reactions)

I had always known it was a good show from what little I saw of it. Im not a big TV watcher because a lot of it gets too intense for me. I can’t separate reality from fiction and get so stressed I would actually die watching something like Game of Thrones lol. So I’ve started going through series from my childhood and of course I was going to start with this classic.

(Im cutting this in case you are like me and took forever to watch this and dont want spoilers)

I unsurprisingly love this series. My boy Zuko stays on top, I love his emo ass. Uncle Iroh is a close second, I know, based lol. I was very pleasantly surprised by the Earth King, an unexpected little side character fave that I latched onto and WILL be writing for.

Honorable mention also to Appa. I adore Appa. His episode broke me. Absolutely broke my heart to see him lose his trust in people, and then when Suki found him OH MY GOD 😭 I was so relieved. (Which, btw, did not expect her to be such a big part of the series that was nice)

Speaking of animals though, the hardest I cried was for Roku dying with his dragon. When the dragon just jumped back in to the flames to die with his master I fucking lost it bro. It reminded me of how Aang and Appa nearly died together, and how Aang’s instinct with his dying breath was to protect them BOTH in that ball of ice BRO I SOBBED ALOUD.

Oh as far as characters I also have to mention the explodey eye guy. I love action and he was SO menacing I was always on the edge of my seat when he was around.

In general I love the scenery, I love pretty scenery and colors and I was so well fed. I am worried that if I continue on to LOK I won't like it as much, considering the time jump to the industrial era. I'm a renaissance faire girlie lol.

I love the heavy messages they didn't shy away from. I think the show probably helped conceptualize a lot of really heavy subjects for kids, and I'm grateful to it for that. How revenge hurts everyone, how mistakes don't define you, how grief works.

I love the friendship and found family, the Zuko adventures episodes were probably my favorite. I can see where everyone is coming from with their various Zuko ships, I'm hearing all of you. If I had to choose one, though, I might actually be pro Zuko/Aang? Which is kind of wild and unexpected because Aang isn't my favorite, but I honestly felt like their characters complemented each other the best. It's funny because I share Zukka art all the time and the only fic Ive read was a Zukka fic lol. They're hot together what can I say? I do like Sokka and Suki together though! I think the show really did them justice as a couple.

There were a couple of really cool moments in the ending. Toph falling onto the metal door and metalbending herself armor? SO badass. And Sokka's boomerang coming in clutch again. I love clever moments in action like that.

Overall, unfortunately... I did not love the ending. I wish I had more of a reaction for you, but I found myself being too critical in it, and that is not how I want to contribute to the fandom. I recognize it is a kid's show and I am an adult, and probably wouldn't have anything to say that hasn't been hammered into the ground over the years since it aired.

I loved the show, expect to see an Earth King fic from me someday (and maybe other ships? who knows). I might watch Gravity Falls next since I can't handle adult television lol. We shall seeeee

[astaldis]

Why is House of the Dragon allegedly so much better than The Witcher?

Just watched House of the Dragon S2 and I must say - I found it pretty boring in many parts?

Sorry, but the whole thing mostly and disappointingly feels like a very long and repetitive prologue to what might come in S3. And they do many things that are loudly criticised in The Witcher, some even a lot worse, but with HotD people seem to not mind? Honestly, this really puzzles me. Yes, the costumes and make-up might be better, but:

It's all over the place on the whole continent of Westeros and even outside of Westeros with people traveling from place to place in no time at all. OK, on dragon back, you can do that, but they also do it on foot and by boat. I remember some of the geography of the continent because I was very much into Game of Thrones some years back when it aired and also read all the Song of Ice and Fire books that were available (not the ones HotD is based on though), but the constant jumps from one place to the next are really confusing imo and you'd need to have a map by your side all the time to remember where is what. When the Witcher does that, it is criticised heavily.

Same with people, there are so many main and minor characters, some even with similar or the same names, how the fuck are you supposed to remember who's who and who is related to who and how, who belongs to which house, and who's allied to who and who's feuding who without looking it up again all the time somewhere on the internet? With all the incest and extramarital activities resulting in a host of illegitimate progeny, I found this extremely confusing, a lot more so than in The Witcher.

And does anybody have a shimmer of an idea of how much time has passed since the old king's death? Must be at least months but you hardly ever get any hints about it. And this poor girl, how long is she wandering around the desolate highlands alone trying to find the wild dragon? Must have been weeks judging by the other things that happened in the meantime ...

Maybe it's just me, but I did not find any of the characters really compelling. Not that they are not well acted, the acting is good enough, but emotionally they did not really leave any impression on me. Maybe the only character I find a bit interesting is Queen Helaena and this very young Lord Tully who shows unexpected spine and stands up to Daemon in front of the Riverlords. There are so many seemingly random new side characters popping up all over the place, too, miraculously gaining importance that one is supposed to keep track of, but also none of them that was in any way inspiring it me. And the poor cute Bracken knight only drew his sword and was already dead in the mud on a battlefield with hundreds of men hardly a second later ...

Rhaenyra suddenly and out of the blue kisses this lowborn woman (was her name even mentioned? I cannot for the life of me remember it). I don't have anything against women kissing, not at all, but why? There is no mention of anything going on between those two at all afterwards. Are they in a secret relationship now or not? I haven't read the book and don't know if it's in there, but how is that kiss, as it seems to have no relevance to the plot at all, not 'woke' catering to the LGBTQ community? But everything the Witcher does is?

Then there are the dragons you have to keep track of in addition to the many people and places. How many dragons are there? And who rides which one? And why the heck would a dragon in its right mind choose this dubious Ulf character who accidentally stumbles into its cave as a rider???

And the plot? Honestly, was there, beside the one fight between the three dragons, anything that was really exciting? I remember nothing, no battles, no good sword fights, nothing but TALK. At lest 90% of the plot is repetitive talking about politics and plotting and scheming. I have nothing against a nice political intrigue and of course that's what happens at courts and it can be interesting too. It was in Game of Thrones where you had really interesting characters, too. But here I found it mostly boring and uninspired. And The Witcher is criticised for having too much politics and too many side characters although it has a LOT less so than this season of HotD.

They also seem to have conveniently forgotten that in GoT they established that Targaryans would not burn from fire. In the books this happens only once because some kind of blood magic was performed, but in the show it happened several times, so it seemed to be the rule, not the exception. HotD thus kind of refutes their own made-up lore, which I found confusing and had to look it up online. (They could easily have made Aegon suffer from bad injuries due to the fall instead.)

The music was rather uninspiring, too, imo, except for the intro which is the well-known one taken from GoT and the music at the end of E8 which was partly based on the Rains of Castamere, otherwise there was not a single piece of the soundtack that would make me want to buy and listen to it. The Witcher has quite a few that I listen to again and again (including, of course, Jaskier's songs, but many more).

What I also like a lot better about The Witcher: It does not take itself that seriously and there is quite a bit of humour in it. In HofD S2, the imo funniest piece of dialogue was: "I want you to fuck my wives." - "How many wives do you have?" (that was between this pirate commander, don't remember his/her? name, and Lord Tyland, was that his name?) . And maybe the truest sentence in the show by this random braggart in the tavern who miraculously turns into a dragon rider Ulf: "A sense of humour would do you all good."

All in all, the only thing that I have found to be really good and outstanding about HotD S2 are the dragons. Without them, it would be less than mediocre. I don't think I would want to rewatch it and feel no desire to look up any of the characters and their relationships etc to find out more about them. I cannot say in how far it is or isn't faithful to the source material as I have not read the book(s?) HotD is based on, but even if it's more faithful to the source material, this has failed to make it a great watch like GoT (minus the ending, that was worse than the poorest fanfic could have thought it up). With the dragons it is alright to watch once, hoping for a more exciting S3, but there is absolutely no way it deserves higher critic/audience scores/ratings than The Witcher S3, the contrary.

Update: To clarify, I don't really mind many things that I mentioned about HotD, I can totally live with an unclear timeline and many characters, even if it's not easy to remember every name, relationship etc. If I really like a show or character, I simply look it up, no problem. But these are all things I have seen people criticise The Witcher for on social media, and then they say HotD is so much better. That's what really puzzles me. What I definitely liked about HotD is the diverse cast and that there are many female characters with a lot of screen time and importance. It's not a bad show, only I like The Witcher much better despite its flaws. This is not meant as an anti HotD post but a pro Witcher post.

[fanartist666]

Whiskey and Lead

Joseph 'Bear' Graves x Original Female Character fanfic TAGS/WARNINGS: Hurt/comfort, fix it, slow burn, angst, mentions of: PTSD, child death, canon character death, serious injury, poor mental health, divorce/separation MDNI Summary: Joe Graves is told by his wife, Lena, that maybe it's time to see other people. The biggest problem with that was the when and where, given that Joe's surrogate father figure, mentor and previous team leader, Richard Taggart, had just died, and Lena had said this at his wake. Just before things get too much, an unlikely friend of Rip's knocks him from his trance.

Part 1 wordcount: 1.6k | Part 2: will go here

A/N: just a fun little part one set up, when I started this I hadn't written anything for like two weeks, so I do apologise if this sucks lol, trying to understand writing Joe is a challenge but I like him - also if you like this version of Anubis and want more of her and also like Game of Thrones, I have a long fic called 'A Court of Dragons and Lions' on A03 where she's married to Tywin Lannister bc I'm a sucker for Charles Dance lol, anyway enjoy! Sorry for any typos too I tried but I could still have missed some

Joe’s chest heaved with rage, despair and hurt, all his emotions swirling without a way out on top of the grief he was battling through. Hadn’t he tried hard enough? Tried in enough ways? Love languages, he’d learned what they were and what they meant and fucking tried to show Lena he loved her in all of them.

“Or maybe see other people.”

Lena told him that, then of all times? At Rip’s- At Rip’s fucking funeral? Lena couldn’t have come to him with that at any other point? They were already living apart, wasn’t that enough? Apparently not.

He felt it all swell up inside him as Lena walked away and he stared, talking to this fucked up apparition of Rip telling him it was only there because he wanted it there. It was all too much, Rip had been murdered, and died alone after everything he said on that video and everything fucking else and now he was seeing shit and Joe felt like he was going to explode- suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder. He flinched and turned around to see who had tapped him.

He didn’t know the woman before him, but he recognised the concern in her eyes and the posture of a soldier when he saw it. Her mouth was moving, but he couldn’t tell what she was saying.

“What’d you say?” He asked sharply, desperately shaking his head.

“I said ‘are you okay’, but I think you’ve just answered that for me.” She repeated, and somewhere in his head, Graves registered that her accent was British. “You wanna come for a walk with me?”

The woman jerked her thumb in the direction of an exit, and Joe nodded before following her dumbly. Walking helped. His blue eyes scanned his surroundings but didn’t really take anything in, to be honest, he couldn’t even remember what the woman he was walking with looked like. He could focus on her voice, though. She was well-spoken, with a sweet-sounding voice, slightly roughened by what he assumed was tobacco.

“So, you want to tell me about what’s going on?” She asked, her tone not too gentle and not too commanding, perfectly disarming. Although he couldn’t tell if that was just because he really did need to talk about it. But something stopped him. It needed to come out, but she was a stranger. He couldn’t just unload that.

In the end, Joe shook his head. “No, no you don’t need to hear that.”

“Come on now, I know a C.O. when I see one.” She nudged him in the arm gently with her elbow, and he couldn’t not smile a little and raise his hands in surrender.

“Yeah, I guess you got me there.” He chuckled softly, vision expanding from mere tunnels.

“Alright then, tell me about that instead, there’s a good lad.” Joe’s attention was slowly turning to her words.

“Okay...” he had to shrug off the flush rising in his face at how easily he’d obeyed her order, however gentle. He didn’t want to admit how much ‘there’s a good lad’ had encouraged him, either. “my name’s Joseph Graves, n’ I’m a senior chief Navy SEAL. I’ve got my team that I inherited from Rip when he got out. That’s Buddha, Fishbait, Caulder, Chase... Buck, until a little bit ago.” He felt his voice catch on Buck’s name.

“So you’re the famous Bear, eh? Good on you, Rip spoke very highly of you.” The woman said, and the warm reception to his introduction made him perk up a little. “And I was sorry to hear about Buckley. He was a good man.”

“He did?” Joe looked down at his shoes. “Yeah. Buck was the best of us. I miss him.”

“Oh god yeah, Rip loved the shit out of you. All of you guys, but he spoke about you most.” The woman told him, and he craned his neck to look at her curiously, finally taking in her features. She was pretty, by all accounts. Warm brown skin like caramel, inky black hair and startling scarlet eyes behind a pair of aviator sunglasses. She was dressed relatively normally in a green t-shirt and black jeans. The cool of the night air didn’t seem to affect her, and he could see that she was decently muscled.

“You knew him well? How come I never met you before?” Joe asked, an eyebrow raised.

“Could be any reason, knowing Rip. And with our schedules in special forces, things can be hectic.” She shrugged softly. “Would’ve liked to meet you under nicer circumstances. I’m Anubis Demonium, by the way. Teammates liked to call me Jackal, which is exceedingly clever, and the story stupidly embarrassing, drill me for details after a few pints. Rip and I go way back. Or I suppose we did, hey?” she huffed a bitter laugh. Joe was sensing a rusty command on her, just as she’d identified on him like a hound after a rabbit. “I met Rip on a co-op, SAS and SEAL. We wanted the same target, our governments wanted to get along, it’s a long story I could be put in prison for telling you.” Anubis waved a hand impatiently as they walked along together. Bear finally registered then, as she was explaining the story, just how tall she was, because there wasn’t that much difference between the two of them, she must have been six feet, easily.

“Rip was on his last mission before becoming team leader himself and I was already a Captain of my own squad. I remember him telling me about the guys he had lined up while we had downtime. He was my buddy on that trip, his own leader told him to take note from the two of us. We got to know each other, and he kept me filled in on you guys. He was proud of you, especially. In a way I was proud of you all too. Silly to admit, isn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t call it silly,” Joe huffed a laugh through his nose. “He always had my back, didn’t he? I’m glad to have made him proud.. he didn’t deserve to go out the way he did.”

“Nobody does.. He was a good friend to me, I can imagine he was a good leader to you guys. Everything that happened to him was an injustice.” Anubis said softly as they walked along the street.

“Yeah, he was.” Joe hesitated. “Thank you, for... Uh, walkin’ with me. There’s a lot goin’ on and it’s helped more than you’d think.”

“S’alright. Leaders have it hard, you know?” Joe raised a brow at her, and she elaborated. “Think about it, if you’re in a team, you talk to the leader about what’s troubling you. Who does the leader talk to? Can’t talk to the team, they’ll think you’re weak. Can’t talk to your civilian friends and partners, what if they think differently of you for what you do? If we’re lucky, our own mentors are still breathing, and we can talk to them. And lucky is putting it lightly.”

Joe was floored. He stared at Anubis in disbelief; it was as though she had taken all his thoughts, his fears, his loneliness as a team leader, and put them out in the air. He could hardly find the words to agree with her, just nodding dumbly at her instead.

“Y-yeah,” he stuttered after a moment. “Yeah, you’re right. I appreciate it.”

“It really is no problem, I was in the same position as you not so long ago. After today if you ever want to talk to someone who... You know, gets it like you, or you want to go for a drink, give me a ring.” She put a scrap of paper with a number scrawled on it into his slowly relaxing hand.

“Thank you... I’ll try not to darken your door too often.” Joe chuckled, pocketing the paper.

“Nonsense,” Anubis snorted, waving a hand. “I’d be glad for the company too. I’m retired now, none of the action anymore.” She explained, correcting her expression into a smile.

“Retired? How come?” Joe asked, hardly watching where he was walking now, his eyes fixed on her like a vision from God. He watched her walk, finally taking in more and more detail, and noticing a subtle unevenness to her gait.

“Injury,” she gestured to her left side, where the unevenness was. “I’m covered in scars this side, took a decent hit from an Mk 46, lucky to be alive so I suppose the stiffness and scars are a decent trade for breathing. The rehab was hell, though.”

Joe’s breath caught in his throat. Buck used one of those. He’d seen people blown to pieces by it, and some not. Hearing that would be a story and a half, he thought.

“Jesus, that sounds like a gnarly story…” he trailed off with a breath, and felt her elbow nudge him gently. Blue eyes landed on the weird blood-red ones belonging to his new acquaintance.

“Maybe I’ll tell you it sometime.” She smiled, and Joe realised they’d circled back to the gathering. “See you around, Joe.”

“See you…” He realised that he’d completely blanked what she told him her name was, only a few minutes ago, but they’d already split up, and when he looked back, she had melted into the crowd and firelight. Looking down at the number and his phone, he thought of something that would’ve made Rip laugh, and probably her, if they really had been friends.

‘Hobbles’ Joe typed, and pocketed his phone.

[jackoshadows]

It's baffling how this fandom keeps theorizing that Arya's subplots and role in the story can be replaced by any Stark, specifically Sansa, and it would be just the same when the show did replace fake Arya with another character - and then GRRM specifically refuted that change several times and pointed to that change on the show as where show canon diverged from book canon!

This is a fandom talking point that GRRM himself has refuted and said 'Nah, you can't do that. That plot specifically needs Fake Arya. The story needs fake Arya in the North and when the TV show replaced her with another character, the TV show then diverges from the books and becomes different canon' .

Also GRRM is not talking about the writing for show Sansa in season 6, 7 or 8 and the direction D&D took her character on the show where the only support she gets is from Littlefinger and the Vale army he rallies to help her. In fact GRRM does not even mention Sansa in this interview. He is talking specifically of 'Fake Arya' and how Fake Arya is important to that plot point in the North.

They (D&D) started making changes even as early as season one. And I remember I had discussions with them back in season one. When I was more involved in the process, when we’d discuss things and the fact that they removed Jeyne Poole was a very early thing. They actually said, oh no, Jeyne Poole is in it. You see the girl that’s sitting next to Sansa in the one scene in the feast at Winterfell. Yes, that’s Jeyne Poole, but you never hear a name and she’s not in it, but I did tell them. ‘Yes, but there’s the butterfly effect’, as I called it, deriving from the famous Ray Bradbury story, A Sound of Thunder, crush a butterfly the Jurassic and suddenly you changed all of human history from that point forward. Unintentionally. A little change in a long narrative can have big changes further on. And now, Gone with the Wind didn’t have to worry about that, cause those two children that they removed never had any impact on the story. And Margaret Mitchell didn’t go on to write 6 more novels in which the children grew up and became the leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Whatever the hell, you know, she might have done with those two boys.

And I think they were both boys, and Rhett’s daughter was a girl. So she didn’t have to deal with the butterfly effect there. You know, when we remove Jeyne Poole from season one, then you don’t have Jeyne Poole to be the fake Arya, as happens in the book. So what do you do then? The butterfly effect has done that. (---)

The butterfly effect can have that, but getting back to the whole issue of canon, the butterfly effect affects the canon. But there’s also sometimes deliberate changes in a show where the showrunners or the writers or the studio, the network, or wherever it comes from, goes in a different direction. So what we’re doing at this point in the history of A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, Westeros, whatever you wanna call it. Yeah. We have two canons. We have the show canon, the Game of Thrones canon. And we have the Song of Ice and Fire canon.

GRRM thought Fake Arya was so important he was insisting to D&D way back while filming season one in 2010 to cast Jeyne Poole.

And even D&D realized that the Jon/Arya relationship is so sacred that they didn't even attempt to replicate that with Sansa in the North. They even had show Jon Snow make a suicidal attempt to save his little brother Rickon Stark - which show Sansa advises against because fuck family - but we never got the whole Jon breaking his NW oaths to attack the Boltons for Arya Stark happening on the show with Sansa.

The asoiaf fandom loves appropriating book Arya's plots for Sansa. Jonsa shippers love appropriating her relationship with Jon for their utterly absurd crackship all the while dragging Arya down as 'ugly' 'violent' and 'masculine'.

Non-shippers love to give away all the politicking around Arya to Sansa, take away Arya intelligence and know-how of the North because their sexism only allows them to see one Stark girl as political and leader of the North. It's not about what the author has actually written for these characters, no, it's about which character passes their standard for femininity.

So yeah, one is free to replace Arya with Sansa because one is dissatisfied with Sansa's canonical book story that GRRM has written for the character and instead prefer Benioff and Weiss' show fanfiction or want Arya's book story for Sansa's character because she's conventionally beautiful and a 'real girl' according to the tradfems.

However, keep in mind that GRRM thinks 'Fake Arya' is very important to his story and that's a Northern political sublot that revolves specifically around Arya Stark in the books.

Once again, the Stark sisters and their book subplots are not interchangeable!