#and ive been meaning to tell you i think your house is haunted your dad is always mad and that must be why

[fatherramiro]

me, three minutes ago: oh this song isn’t about ramiro/ángel i can listen in peace

me currently:

[meaningtotellyou]

What was your username inspired by?

seven 👹

[ropebunnykant]

thinking of seven by taylor swift as a patpran song again

[girlivealwaysbean]

seven the song that you are

[somuch-4-stardust]

crazy that taylor swift wrote seven about me specifically

[angelic-charlie-kelly]

thinking about kid mac and charlie and how they where the only real good thing in each others life and how they probably fell asleep watching trashy action movies and woke up tangled up together and stayed like that because they didn’t have the mind to care at the time and ive been meaning to tell you i think your house is haunted your dad is always mad and that must be why and i think you should come live with me and we can be pirates then you won’t have to cry or hide in the closet

[naggascradle]

i just finished hotd so im obviously thinking about it more but ive been really working to try to narrow down why i found hotd so much more fun to watch despite its flaws compared to my frustration throughout all of game of thrones with the character reductions and missing the point of the books.

first of all i think its down to the new showrunners understanding themes and like... what makes a story compelling in terms of characterization and what you can flesh out from a more barebones text. there's a lot to that you can have fun with & turning vague historical figures into a story to follow. i loved the alicent and rhaenyra background where we see them as children! episode one of season one is such a strong set up for the rest of the show and the themes it wants to deal with on the horror of motherhood and women being seen as vessels to carry children, which leads into the primary theme of the show and assumptions of people based on physical appearance.

which like, compared with game of thrones which seems sort of confused? about what it wants its themes to be for the show? like the books have a pretty major theme of the sins of the father sort of narrative and the cyclical nature of abuse and the way society pushes forward the abuse. the show removes most of these themes, oddly, like the biggest examples to me were tyrion's abuse by his father with tysha (this gets a mention in the show), the greyjoy family nightmare of abuse that just keeps going (the most we get on tv is theon being like my dad doesnt really like me :( and thats it but the books are pretty brutal in being like theon gets told someone's dad will beat them and he's like well my dad did that to me so idk what you want me to do about it.), arya's whole book narrative is how revenge begets revenge and in the process of revenge you will lose your own identity in pursuit of violence as a cycle, the point of the Others is to have the realms of men unite against an evil so great it will kill them if they keep doing petty squabbling, the list goes on. but the show doesnt really seem all that interested in playing with the ideas of cycles or what they mean? i honestly cant even tell you what i think the theme of game of thrones the tv show is. violence hurts people, i think?

hotd does a better job with picking a theme and running with it (the theme being what the assumption of a person means based on their physical traits; societally, politically, and personally). this is a major focus of a song of ice and fire as well, so it lends to the story of house of the dragon in a great way! we get larys who is disabled and his explicit discussion with aegon about how people will underestimate you and it will be your advantage (great parallel to doran martell in the books), the bastardy of jaecerys and his disgust with himself and following it up with him meeting the dragonseeds who have an entirely different view of being bastards (something id love to see more of in season 3, despite knowing jace's eventual end), rhaenyra & alicent obviously and the way people treat them as women. rhaenyra's conversation in episode one with aemma is suuuch a haunting one by the end of the same episode. alicent of course with her discussions about being undermined in front of her sons and how no one will be able to control them if she is continued to be shown as incapable in front of them.

anyway apart from themes hotd does also play with the concept of what adapting stories means, and how they'll play out differently on the screen, especially in a context of an adaptation along the lines of a historical fiction sort of show, as f&b isnt a chapter novel, more like an outline of how the history went. historical adaptations can be fun too in how the narrative is told, like giving nuances to characters when we just have their actions on paper. aemond unintentionally killing luke is up there for me in terms of "this is a really fun way to interpret the text" because all we know is that aemond killed luke when pursuing revenge over his lost eye, having their dragons act like actual animals with minds of their own in that moment was a strong choice! like of course vhagar will turn and try to kill a much smaller dragon for attacking her head on, she's a three ton massive sky beast. luke is a 14 year old with an adolescent dragon that's much more nimble, it makes total sense he could outjuke vhagar for a moment to get a direct fire shot on her. and it makes sense for aemond in turn to try to get control back of vhagar and fail. those are all incredibly compelling character choices to do when the accounts are so vague.

the other historical adaptation moment i really enjoyed was the dragonseed storylines (...enjoyed is a bit of an overstatement, i thought some of the dialogue for these scenes couldve been better.) where you can be like ?? who are these guys why do i care. until addam gets seasmoke and its like ohh those other two are the other two dragonriders ulf and hugh. got it.

honestly this is a very low bar in most shows but game of thrones really, really hated doing things like this except like once or twice (the only example i can think of is olenna tyrell getting a bunch of camera shots with the goblet at joffrey's wedding). game of thrones removed most of its foreshadowing in the tv show for major events that are borderline told to the reader that will happen in the books, and it makes the show a lot worse because it means it doesn't trust its audience can still be compelled by the story if they can figure out what will be happening (leading to like everything from s6 onward in terms of plot decisions lol), as well as made characters like ridiculously stupid in terms of their plans from the start because the show didnt seem to trust the audience in understanding what was happening in the story either? like the whole sansa being snuck out by dantos is... there for like one scene, but the book version makes it a whole shock twist that it was littlefinger arranging the whole thing (which was something you could pick up on beforehand, but from sansa's point of view she had no idea who was doing all this for her.), the show changes it to have petyr straight up tell sansa in the middle of the red keep "i'll sneak you out of here" and its like ?? people can say the characters got a case of the stupids in the later seasons but they definitely had the case of the stupids in early seasons too. why the fuck would littlefinger straight up tell her where everyone can hear him. this successfully lowers the stakes, makes littlefinger look like an idiot & everyone can guess who has sansa. like do varys's little birds mean something in this show or do they not.

i do think hotd leaves room to be desired with not making rhaenyra nuanced enough, but i can see where they really want the audience to root for her. regardless i dont think there's much where i was like "wow this character is ooc" its been pretty decently consistent about every character being consistent, and i do worry about if they start making rhaenyra have bad decisions itll be weirdly ooc lol. she's been shown to be prideful and wanting to be the only person making decisions & getting annoyed at others without her approval which i think is a pretty decent flaw to not make it overkill in making her an incapable ruler. idk i think rhaenyra is like. fine. as is. if she becomes bad at ruling id rather it be a slow progression over her control issues stemming from the way people treat her like she doesnt know anything and doing things without her approval. because it looks like they might lean into that and especially so after jace's and joffrey's deaths.

generally ive been reading everything hotd chooses to do as like this is a historical adaptation and some things will get changed for adaptability reasons. yes some things wont hit as hard if you loved them in the book but for the most part the changes have been in service of the themes i listed before, making the show feel like it has a purpose and wants to try and say something, so im more willing to forgive a lot of things in service of that.

anyway i wish we did have halaena's choice & nettles </3 those are the only two i dont really understand yet but im willing to wait and see how they play out

[bettyrightnow]

AND IVE BEEN MEANING TO TELL YOU I THINK YOUR HOUSE IS HAUNTED YOUR DAD IS ALWAYS MAD AND THAT MUST BE WHY AND I THINK YOU SHOULD COME LIVE WITH ME AND WE CAN BE PIRATES THEN YOU WONT HAVE TO CRY OR HIDE IN THE CLOSET AND JUST LIKE A FOLK SONG OUR LOVE WILL BE PASSED ON

[shortnsweetgf]

and ive been meaning to tell you i think your house is haunted your dad is always mad and that must be why and i think you should come live with me and we could be pirates then you wont have to cry or hide in the closet btw. if you even care.

[aroacewukong]

truten go brrrr

and ive been meaning to tell you

i think your house is haunted

your dad is always mad

so that must be why

[winterrhayle]

offering my taylor top five

cardigan - basic but soooooooo nostalgic and the bridge gets me every time… i wrote out some of the lyrics in black pen on my bed frame and it won’t go away 👹

right where you left me - best evermore track rip gold rush

seven - AND IVE BEEN MEANING TO TELL YOU I THINK YOUR HOUSE IS HAUNTED YOUR DAD IS ALWAYS MAD AND THAT MUST BE WHY

you’re losing me - the way i was so shaken when i heard this song on youtube for the first time

champagne problems - i can play this on the piano 😃

also when my family was out for mother’s day dinner a cover of better man started playing in the restaurant so the vibes were super great and happy and fun

valid cardigan is the most popular from folklore for a reason, she rly is that girl !!!! the way, from like 2:46 onwards the pen game is actually crazy she just keeps going it's so well written

ok me personally i'm not a rwylm stan, but valid. i will take personal offense to this though because gold rush is my favourite on evermore and i believe my most played song of all time

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ‼️‼️‼️ I LOVE SEVEN ALL MY HOMIES LOVE SEVEN

oh my god yeah that bridge is crazy😭 i remember listening to clips on it on tumblr when it had literally JUST been sold on cd at that eras show and people were uploading really bad quality recordings of it that weren't in full 😭

classic ! not one of my top songs personally but speak ur truth !!!!!!! and i need to learn this on piano too actually

also by cover of better man do u mean the little big town version bc taylor gave them that song originally😭 in like 2016 or 2017

[mr-ghost-face]

taylor swift songs (or parts of) that remind me of ted lasso characters

@antitheticallyargumentative made a post about this so here are my thoughts and additions

rebecca is mad woman, ive said it before ill say it again, just listen to the song, its so perfect for her

jamie is mastermind bridge "no one wanted to play with me as a little kid, so ive been scheming like a criminal ever since, to make them love me and make it seem effortless, this is the first time ive felt the need to confess", this is so jamie opening up to people (especially roy) and feeling like he has never been wholey loved by anyone without strings attached (his father with football, relationships with sex, the team with his goals scoring ability)

seven is also so jamie but its people coming to realise what his father is like and not knowing what to do (not doing anything but thats a rant for another time) "ive been meaning to tell you, i think you house is haunted, your dad is always mad and that must be why"

OK HEAR ME OUT champagne problems as roy about his relationship with keeley and feeling like he was going to fuck it up eventually and like he wasnt enough "i never was ready, so i watch you go" " but you'll find the real thing instead, she'll patch up your tapestry that I shred, and hold your hand while dancing, never leave you standing, crestfallen on the landing with champagne problems"

ted as tolerate it especially with his ex wife "if it's all in my head, tell me now tell me i've got it wrong somehow, i know my love should be celebrated, but you tolerate it" SOB

ill probs do more later

[meaningtotellyou]

hi dani what’s your favorite lyric from folkmore era songs?

send me "what's your favorite.." asks 💫

AND IVE BEEN MEANING TO TELL YOU I THINK YOUR HOUSE IS HAUNTED YOUR DAD IS ALWAYS MAD AND THAT MUST BE WHY 🗣️

[sexybabystevie]

guys. i wanna write something like. platonic stobin but as childhood best friends or something based on the song seven by taylor swift...

like - "and ive been meaning to tell you, i think your house is haunted. your dad is always mad and that must be why. i think you should come live with me and we can be pirates and you won't have to cry."

tell me a mini robin wouldn't say that 😭😭

[tineteenieworld3]

No one:

Me with byler: AND IVE BEEN MEANING TO TELL YOU I THINK YOUR HOUSE IS HAUNTED YOUR DAD IS ALWAYS MAD AND THAT MUST BE WHY I THINK YOU SHOULD COME LIVE WITH ME AND WE CAN BE PIRATES AND THEN YOU DON’T HAVE TO CRY

[ohcaptains]

seven by taylor swift makes me cry every time like my poor traumatized inner child can’t take it

AND I IVE BEEN MEANING TO TELL YOU I THINK YOUR HOUSE IS HAUNTED YOUR DAD IS ALWAYS MAD AND THAT MUST BE WHY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!