#and an ic post for it too

[winterrss]

Queen Alyssa Velaryon and young Rhaena

[pigeon-princess]

Some Rhaenyra studies I did for my warm up today! My new years resolution has been to post more sketches and learn to be less precious about presenting only super polished pieces.

[elcoffin]

we came into the world as brothers, and now let's go hand in hand, not one before another

[malleefies]

coming out as a ned stark appreciator a little cat as a treat too

[neon-garbage-angel]

a little yuuri art! <3

[intermundia]

Saturn’s rings loop for hundreds of thousands of miles. And just beyond them, one of its largest moons changed everything we thought we knew about volcanic activity this far out in the solar system.

With a hard, frozen exterior, Enceladus’ surface averages minus-330 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s one of the coldest places in the Saturn system; an ice world, where we’d expect everything to be completely still, frozen and unchanging.

But in 2005, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft travelled to the south pole and discovered that stillness shattered. It captured explosive jets, constantly erupting from the surface. Giant plumes, far bigger than the moon they erupt from, are an incredible sight.

Over 660 pounds of water erupt from the surface of Enceladus every second, creating visible eruptions that can thrust up to 6,000 miles into space. It’s called “cryovolcanism,” “cryo” from the Greek for cold.

As Enceladus orbits Saturn, it wobbles like a raw egg, by about 0.12 degrees on its axis, a tiny but significant movement that tells us something about the moon’s interior. There is an outer shell of solid ice, around three miles thick, sitting on top of a global ocean of water.

When the liquid ocean is heated from below, by energy from tidal heating, it expands, so the liquid wants to take up more space. As it seeks to take up more space, it pushes up against the bottom of the ice shell. Once that water goes through a crack and then is exposed to the vacuum of space, it’s like a suction.

That’s how tidal heating, caused by an elliptical orbit, drives volcanic eruptions on Enceladus that aren’t even hot.

Solar System: Volcano Worlds on NOVA

[youloveamonsterlikeme]

"Sometimes it feels like Larry only comes over to pet Gizmo. And Gizmo soaks it up every time."

{{ hiii i doodled this during work n in between commissions LOL i used a pic of my bf and our roomie's cat as a ref }}

[amoural]

birds of a feather — 🐦‍⬛🕊️

extras:

[synchodai]

HBO's Continued Insistence on Dumbing Down Westerosi Politics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are the arguments for Rhaenyra:

Rhaenyra was older than her brothers and had more Targaryen blood

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

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

Here are the arguments for Aegon II:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[hauntedbythenarrative]

[jeremyjohnirons]

im sorry but i see two hot dumbasses and i go crazy

[washimbembe]

You Only Live Once ending scene screenshot redraw

[icewindandboringhorror]

On average, what is the total MONTHLY amount that you spend on dining out*?

*(This doesn't only count going out to restaurants, but also stuff like picking up fast food to bring home, getting a coffee on the way to work, getting a premade sandwich from a grocery store deli during lunch, buying a quick snack from a convenience store or food cart whilst walking somewhere, ordering a pizza or any other food to be delivered to your home, etc.)

*(If you often dine out in groups/as a household: calculate and divide the costs so that you get a Per Person average. This is for YOU individually, NOT the total household/group costs)

(I'm sure polls similar to this have been made before (very common topic), I just haven't personally seen one that I can remember, so, I was curious to do my own! I was discussing this with a group of people today and it was very interesting to see how widely the number varied between individuals. :0c )

(Reblog for bigger sample size if you can, and feel free to explain your answer in tags if there's anything extra to add!)

[skadoodle-with-extra-ification]

Inspired by I'm Not Looking for Perfection/I'm Not Offering a Saint by @watcheraurora! This fic is SO GOOD OMG

I read chapter 10 and... Deepfrost Tango in white..... yeah...

ft Jimmy having a crisis and enjoying some cocoa

[reitheist]

in light of recent yoi news

[asterrisms]

theon and david with the head of goliath or something 😀