#and on an entirely different note so should have jace

[pookiebearhelaena]

Princess Jaehaera and her uncle Prince Daeron, 131 AC

[whoblewboobear]

It’s strange, I’m used to hyperfixating hard on things like HARD (beats my 2yr long beetlejuice musical obsession back with a stick) but Starbreaker- not even fantasy high itself took me over to the point of feeling like a teen about. Like I haven’t had this much fun in fandom in years. I haven’t like- interacted with people this much in fandom in years (which is still not enough but if I beat myself up about social interaction again I’ll jump off a cliff)

But there’s never been a concern of like “this obsession won’t fade for a while but it’ll lose popularity” and that’s fine and surprisingly it hasn’t. But it is different. It’s like adapting to it constantly as the thing itself changes even when there are aspects that you’d like to stay the same. Like that ‘I don’t go to this school of thought, but I’ll still take the class bc it’s interesting’ sorta thing.

And then there’s that feeling of WANTING to contribute but the thing has become such a beast that it’s like oooh I’m so out of my depths here.

Also like constantly having to look myself in the eye and be like ‘bitch you don’t have to talk or contribute to EVERYTHING’ and the sooner I accept that and accept that it is what it is, ill miss things, I won’t get enjoyment out of every aspect and every aspect isn’t for me and that that isn’t a bad thing, I’ll stop having moments of feeling weird and out of place. I have my lil corner and that’s okay

[sonolynn]

Forbidden Fruit

summary | Jace didn't want her, but Aemond did.

pairing | Aemond Targaryen x Fem!Reader

tags | 18+ MDNI, Jealously, Aemond yearning, explicit sexual content, mentions of bastards, loss of virginity, unprotected sex, size kink (?), oral f!receiving, Angst if you squint. "Technical" infidelity but is it really if Jace started it? (yes). ooc!Aemond (probably). NOT PROOF READ (its one am, leave me alone).

w.c | 3.8k

note(s) | My first smut fic!! Ah I'm scared...I also think I have a problem with making Aemond want fem!reader when he rightfully can't have her. Also I swear I'm not a Jace hater!! I love Jace, but in this fic specifically I made him long and wish for Baela.

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“Why don’t you marry her then?” 

Aegon’s voice was taunting, as if pushing Aemond to say something. Aemond stared down at the cup in front of him; even with a stoic expression, his mannerisms betrayed him. He tapped his finger against the edge of the cup, he picked at the skin around his nails on the opposite hand-all the tell tale signs of thinking, a mind that cannot be stopped. 

“Because she is betrothed to Rhaenyra’s bastard.” His voice dripped with malice as he spoke. Aemond hated that Jacerys would inherit the throne enough; What his bastard nephew didn’t need was the girl Aemond had wished for his entire life. Ever since the two of them were children Aemond had a…weird infatuation with her. When he was a boy, he would pick flowers from the garden and he would purposely do good deeds for her, just to have her hug him or smile graciously at him. 

But now, everything was different. She was a woman grown, and him a man grown. She was to be engaged to his bastard nephew, and he would have to sit and watch as they shared a kiss, held hands, smiled and danced as newlyweds. He’d have to hold a straight face as the two of them left to Jacerys’ bed chamber, only knowing the connotations that came with what would happen on their wedding night. 

Ignoring his brother's tedious rants about hells knows what, Aemond stood from his chair, opting for a walk in the gardens.

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Aemond walked, hands clasped behind his back, and his gaze drifted into nothingness as he walked with just his thoughts, and the cool breeze that accompanied the summer evenings. He tried to distract himself from the thoughts of her, for they were all almost too painful to ever truly think about. 

But he couldn’t help himself. He thought of her as a sickness, one that lingered and grew stronger by the day until it fully consumed your every waking moment. He thought of her laugh just as contagious as the plague, her eyes as intoxicating as the finest of wines. He thought her to be a type of sickness, and he so desperately wanted to be affected. 

Aemond was never one to smile-one to truly-smile, his half smirks or half smiles were only ever in a sarcastic sense, but for some reason his smiles were real with her. With her he laughed a little more, with her he walked a little faster. He knew it was stupid, perhaps perpetually idiotic-to ever think, let alone long for such a pure and innocent creature. 

As Aemond walked, he noticed her sitting by one of the fountains in the garden. She looked breathtaking, he thought to himself. Her hair was down and cascaded down her shoulders, her face was just the perfect amount of shaded with the moon's light. And above all, she held that intoxicating smile that she always held. He never knew why she was always smiling, nor did he wish to find out. 

She turned her head, her smile widening at the sight of Aemond. 

“Aemond!” Her voice was cheerful, slowly standing as he walked towards her. 

“Princess,” Aemond smiled-a half smile-at her as he looked around, then slowly back at her. “It’s quite late. Should you not be in your chambers?” 

She always thought the way he cared for her, even if he didn’t show it outright, was extremely enticing. She knew how he was with others, but she knew the differences he had with almost everyone in court-so what made her so different? Why her, the object of the second son's affection. 

“Perhaps I do not wish to sleep. Perhaps…I quite like the quietness of the garden.” She smiled innocently, looking back towards the fountain as she started to walk. Aemond knew her well enough to see that this was a quiet plea for him to join her; Because no matter how much she enjoyed the quietness of the garden, she enjoyed it much more when he was with her. 

Aemond stared at her, as he often did, but this time, it was different. The stare he held was nothing short of primal. He watched the light in her eyes as she smiled up at him and for some reason, now, he wished to watch as the innocent light in her eyes slowly dwindled as he claimed her. 

“Aemond? Is something wrong?” Her voice snapped his thoughts back, if only for a moment. She stopped walking to look up at him and she crossed her arms underneath her chest. His eye trailed down slowly, fixating on the way that her cleavage just slightly out of her dress. He was like a man starved; Clinging to the littlest of details that would make his imagination run wild. 

She seemed to notice the way that his eye raked over her chest like a starving man, and her face flushed with embarrassment. She-though subconsciously-reached up to place her arm over her chest, but to her surprise, Aemond gently took her hand, and when she looked up, his one sapphire eye was locked with hers. 

“You needn’t cover up. Not around me.” He spoke calmly, though his heart was racing and his head spinning. He let out a shaky breath as he lowered her hand and looked into her eyes. 

She watched him carefully, searching his gaze for anything that would betray him. In truth she didn’t know what she was searching for, but she felt as if she should be searching for something. 

Aemond lifted a hand, placing the back of his knuckles against her hot cheek. The gesture was gentle, and slow, something he was not known for. His eye slowly trailed down her face, and his eye caught on her lips, his breath heavy as he reached his hand up and gently placed his thumb over her plush bottom lip. 

Her eyes followed his, big, and full of longing. She stared at him as his thumb pushed against her lip. She didn’t know exactly what to do; She knew that this moment was intimate, far too intimate to be happening between a betrothed woman and a bachelor. But, the way he gazed at her made her feel hot, and the way he trailed his hand over her face and body made her want to see where this could lead. 

His free hand shakily went up to her waist, cupping it firmly as he brought her closer. He leaned forward, just slightly, till his nose was pressed against hers. Her breath hitched, and her eyes instinctively closed. She waited for him to press his lips against hers, to feel his mouth on hers like she had (shamefully) always wished for. But, it never came. 

When she opened her eyes again, she saw Aemond breathing heavily, desperately trying to restrain himself. He pulled away slightly, and he shook his head,

“I shouldn’t take advantage of you…not like this.” Though his words held conviction, it seemed his body betrayed him. His hand stayed on her waist, slowly trailing up and cupping her breast in his hand. She gasped softly at the feeling, and his thumb went to her lip again before he connected his lips to hers. She responded immediately, putting her hands on his arms. 

He kissed her like he was dying, his body subconsciously reacting more to the kiss then he’d wish it to. He pulled her flush against him, his strong hands coming to cup her face, his shoulders shrugging in a futile attempt to have her closer. He opened his mouth, causing her to gasp at the feeling of his tongue against hers. Her mouth moved with his as if it was known to her; As if this was a dance she had practiced for years to perfect, as if the dance of her lips was a song that Aemond had mastered just for her. 

She practically melted in his arms. She had been kissed before; Jace was a good kisser but he was soft, and the kisses were never not chaste. But, kissing Aemond was like walking through fire. Her entire body reacted to the way he clung to her body, how he pulled her impossibly closer. It was like a fire had escaped through his lips and was now coursing through her veins and settling in her abdomen. 

Even though she didn’t know exactly what to do, it seemed her body did. Her hands slid down his arms and slowly made their way to his chest as she moaned softly. 

The moan grounded him, like he had been falling from the heavens and down to earth. He suddenly pulled away, breathless as he stared down at her. Her eyes opened steadily, and she looked up at him with confusion while a frown graced her kiss swollen lips. 

“We shouldn’t have done that.” He spoke breathlessly, his hand still gently stroking her side. 

“Maybe not..but it felt good.” Gods, the way she spoke held him in a chokehold. He wished desperately to dive back into her; To drown in her lips and never come up for air, but.. 

“Not again. You are to be married.” He suddenly pulled away and at the feeling of his hands leaving her body, she frowned deeper. 

“Aemond-” “Goodnight, Princess.” 

And with that, the prince turned and rushed back into the keep. 

____________________________________________

Aemond couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned in bed, picking at his nails, biting his lip-genuinely anything to help stop the incessant thoughts of her lips. 

The thoughts started off sweet and innocent. The way she looked up at him as he trailed his thumb over her lip, the way her lips pursed just slightly when he leaned forward. 

But then the thoughts got venereal fast. He thought about how he felt to finally kiss her. The way his lips practically burned when they pulled away. He knew that as he gazed at her kiss swollen lips his night would be harbored with thoughts of what they’d look like doing gods knows what else. 

His hand slid down underneath the sheets, firmly grasping at his length as he let out a shuddering breath. He hated doing this; Feeling so pent up and so desperate that he had to resort to using himself. But as of right now he couldn’t care less. 

He imagined her lips around his cock, her innocent eyes gazing up into his. He’d imagine the way she’d gag around him, how her lips would look kissing the head of his cock. 

He groaned at the thought, his head tipping back as he closed his eye and let his thoughts wander more. He’d think about how she’d look with his seed covering her lips and her chin, how she’d moan his name as he devoured her between her legs-

He peaked with a gasp, and a low moan of her name. The minute his orgasm washed over him, and he started to slowly come down, he felt an intense feeling of guilt, shame, but most of all pain. 

Guilt and shame because he hated himself for touching himself to someone who couldn’t be his. 

Pain because she’d never be his. Pain because he knew that no matter what he did, she’d still be betrothed to Jacerys. 

____________________________________________

The next morning, she sat alone at breakfast, supposedly liking it more that way. With her fiance practically ignoring her, and her father too entranced with kissing the king's ass, she learned to enjoy the solitude of just…nothing. 

Plus, she always had her thoughts. Even if they were only occupied with Aemond. 

She played around with the food on her plate as her mind trailed. She remembered the way he kissed her, how he held her. She felt happy, something she so rarely felt with Jacerys. 

She knew how he felt, how he longed for and wished for Baela. She did not blame him, she was beautiful, but she also didn’t feel sad, which, at a point did bother her but, not so much. 

At least, not after last night. 

She smiled to herself as she thought about the kiss, wishing that he would do it again, longing for the way the heat escalated through her body. 

She didn’t register the voice next to her until it spoke her name. 

She looked up, surprised. But, when her eyes met with Aemond’s, her heartbeat quickened, and she smiled. 

“Aemond.”

“You’re not hungry?”

“What?” “You’re not eating.” “Oh,” Her cheeks flushed red for a reason unbeknownst to her, and with a soft huff, she pushed the plate away, “It seems as though I have lost my appetite.” 

Aemond looked concerned at that, and he looked down at her. Despite himself, he found himself worrying yet again for her comfort, her needs. 

“Is something the matter?” She shakes her head, but for some reason, Aemond was persistent. “If this is about what happened last night, then I should apologize-” 

“Apologize?” She interrupted, sitting up straighter at the mention of the word. “Why?” 

“Yes…apologize. Because we should not have done that-”

“But I wanted it to happen.” 

Aemomd stopped and he slowly looked towards her. His eye pierced into hers as if to read every thought and emotion that crossed her brain. He just simply couldn’t believe her. 

“You shouldn’t say things you do not mean, Princess.”

“You don’t know that I don’t mean it.”

“Princess-”

“Aemond.” She said his name as if to challenge him, and he knew that he truly could never challenge her. He saw it in her eyes, he saw by the way she looked at him and smiled that she wished for him just as he wished for her. But these feelings-these blockages-would only cause unnecessary trouble. 

“Please, do not give me a hope that cannot be upheld.” Her heart broke a little at that, and, as he stood to leave, she instinctively stood with him, taking his wrist in her hand as she pulled on his arm. As if the small gesture would stop him from walking, (it did). 

“Aemond please..You do not know what I wish for.” 

His lip curled down into a small frown as he looked at her. He knew what she felt-at least he thought he did-but even if his suspicions were right, even if she did wish for him like how he longed for her, he couldn’t. He may dislike, perhaps even hate his nephew, but he was better than stealing his fiance. 

Right?

“We cannot. To be with you would disgrace your family and the alliance-” 

“Fuck the alliance!” She swore, her eyes boring into his as she studied his face. “Fuck the alliances Aemond, I wish for you. Desperately, I wish for you. Jace does not see me like how you do. Jace does not make me feel the way that you do-”

“It does not matter if Jace makes you happy or if he makes you feel desired-” “He does not wish for me as you do!”

“Princess-” “You do not understand! We are speaking of breaking it off. Neither of us wish for this.” Aemond went quiet at this and he sighed heavily, turning his full body towards her. He pried his arm away from her, staring at her incredulously, his body language giving no open window to how he was truly feeling. With no words coming from him, she continued. 

“I love you.” At those words Aemond showed his shock. He took a step back from her and he raised an eyebrow. 

“You do not mean-”

“Oh for the love of-Yes! I mean it! I love you, Aemond! I love you as if it is breathing! Instinctively, not thinking about it….I love you.” 

Aemond couldn’t hold it anymore, he walked to her and gripped her face tightly, her cheeks squishing slightly in his grasp as he smashed his lips against hers. She initially was shocked at the sudden kiss, but she kissed him back fiercely, holding his wrists as she leaned up to kiss him deeper. 

He led her back until he pressed her back against the table, holding her thighs as he pushed her onto the table. His body fit perfectly in between her thighs, just like he imagined it would. His hands gripped her thighs, one of his hands traveling up, feeling and savoring the soft skin as he groaned. 

She pulled away from the kiss to leave small kisses along his jaw. He bit his lip at the feeling, the action presumably so innocent and so sweet it almost made him chuckle. 

He pulled back slightly, his gaze intense and lust filled as his hand trailed underneath her breasts. 

“Tell me to stop.” He demanded. His head was spinning with the lust that clouded it. He waited for her to push him away, or to whimper a soft “I do not think myself ready”- But she shook her head, bringing his head back to hers swiftly to connect their lips in another passionate kiss. 

He pulled away from the kiss, groaning to himself as he left hot, open mouthed kisses against her jaw and neck. He looked down, his breath heavy as he stared down into her cleavage. He wished for nothing more than to rip her dress open and kiss every inch of her body, but being in the dining room came with its disadvantages. So, he settled for kissing her cleavage, before trailing his lips down the fabric of her dress till he came to her thighs.

Aemond pushed her dress up as far as he could, staring at her the whole time. He slowly pushed her thighs about, giving her time to stop him but she never did. Gently kissing the inner side of her thigh, he tried to reassure her. He could see the uncertainty in her eyes; The way she looked at him with both anxiety and lust. He stared up at her searching for any sign or signal that would make him stop. 

“Is this okay?” Once he saw the light nod of her head, he disappeared underneath her dress. 

She had never been intimate with a man-courtesy of her father, enforcing the “Women should be pure” melodramatic speech into her head ever since she could stand. She always thought it to be a chore, only having heard stories from unhappy married women who hated their husbands, and much less disliked their children a little less, but this? This was exciting, this felt good. 

She placed a hand on his head, moaning his name under her breath as he ate her like a beast. His hands gripped her thighs as if to ground himself-He had tasted women before but for some reason she was so much sweeter, so much more divine. His eyes practically rolled back just from pushing his tongue into her heat, sucking gently on her flit before he pulled away slightly, focusing his attention on her clit as he dipped a finger inside of her. 

The sudden stretch made her jump, and gasp loudly. She may have pleasured herself before but it really never felt like what Aemond was doing to her. He eased his finger in slowly, dragging it back out, and then slowly pushing it back in. Hearing the moans that graced her lips, he continued the slow thrust of his finger for a moment before he added another one. 

She let out a loud moan, a hand on the back of his head as she pushed his head closer to her heat. She felt him chuckle against her, the vibrations only adding to the pleasure. She moaned loudly, perhaps too loudly for comfort, but Aemond only seemed to want more of those noises to come from her. 

He slowly curled his fingers, his mouth praising her clit. The added pressure with the curl of his fingers, and the sucking of her clit made her eyes squeeze shut. 

“Oh gods Aemond, I’m going to-” Just as her orgasm was going to consume her, it stopped. With her heavy breathing, and slightly shaky legs, she slowly sat up. Aemond smirked up at her, holding her gaze as he nipped at her inner thighs. “You stopped..” 

“Yes. Because if you are going to peak it should be on my cock.” 

Her face flushed at the words, and she stared at him with wide eyes as he pulled his trousers down slightly to free his throbbing cock. As their eyes met, he seemed to notice the slight anxiety in her eyes, because he pressed his forehead against hers and lined himself up with her entrance. 

“Tell me to stop if it hurts too much.” She nodded in response, and she wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders as he pushed into her. She let out a gasp; The feeling was new, discomfiting but..new. Her face scrunched up at the stretch, and Aemond shushed her quietly as he started to move. After a few thrusts, her body relaxed, and she started to moan his name. 

Hearing his name fall from her lips was like a prayer answered, like a lifelong dream he had been waiting for. He grunted as he started to rock his hips back and forth into her slowly. It took everything inside of him to not pound into her, to fuck her like he had fantized about. He wished that her father could see her now, her maidenhood gone and her body fully submitting to the pleasure he so gracefully gave her. 

“Aemond..Aemond oh gods-” Her voice broke as he went faster, her moans only getting louder. She tried to wrap her mind around the pleasure he was giving her, the way his hips moved slowly yet deeply, the way the tip of his thick cock rubbed against the spot so deliciously. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she held him close to her. 

One of his hands was on her thigh, the other on the table as he thrusted into her, as if holding the edge of the table would stop the creaking sounds, or the way she moaned his name, or how his groans got louder as his climax approached. 

White splattered her vision as her orgasm washed over. She cried out his name in pleasure, holding him close as his legs trapped him inside of her. The feeling of her core pulsating and tightening made Aemond’s head spin, and he grunted out a moan of her name as he came himself, spilling his seed inside of her. 

As the two sat there, basking in the afterglow of being intimate, neither of them would move for what felt like hours. Even though the position that they were in was compromising, they smiled, and laughed softly at the situation itself. 

Once they both got cleaned up-the best they could get cleaned up for just having sex on the dining room table-Aemond took her hand. She smiled softly at Aemond, her heart racing in a new, and exciting way. The two stared at each other for a while, trying to wrap their minds around the fact that now, they could truly be together, or at least, now, they had a hope that they could be together.

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[misswynters]

Stormbound

Jacaerys Velaryon x pregnant!reader

[WARNING: pregnancy, mentions of difficult pregnancy terms, fluff

[SYNOPSIS: You were heavily pregnant as you and jace encounter a wild dragon while a storm raged on.

[NOTE: you had poor jace stressed out, we love jace being protective over the reader: also if you would like something specific, send an ask!

"Where are they?" he muttered to himself, running a hand through his dark curls. The maesters had assured him that everything was fine, but he couldn't shake the feeling of dread that had settled in his chest.

Your pregnancy had been difficult, and the tension had taken its toll on Jacaerys. He had tried to be strong for you, but the fear of losing you, or the child, was ever-present. He couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to you both.

Just as he was about to go in search of you again, the doors to the hall creaked open, and you stepped inside. Despite the strain of pregnancy, you carried yourself with the grace and strength he had always admired. Your hand rested protectively on your swollen belly, and your face lit up with a tired but genuine smile when you saw him.

"Jace," you said softly, your voice a soothing balm to his frayed nerves.

He rushed to your side, his hands immediately going to your belly. "Where have you been? I was worried sick."

You laughed lightly, the sound easing some of his tension. "I just needed some fresh air. The castle can feel so confining sometimes."

He sighed, pulling you into a gentle embrace. "You should have told me. I would have gone with you."

"I know, but you worry too much," you replied, leaning into him. "I wanted a moment to myself. Besides, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

Jacaerys pressed a kiss to your forehead, his heart swelling with love and protectiveness. "I know you are. But I can't help it. I love you too much to let anything happen to you."

You smiled up at him, your eyes filled with warmth. "And I love you, Jace. But you need to relax. Stress isn't good for either of us."

He nodded, though the worry didn't entirely leave his eyes. "Alright. Let's find somewhere quiet. I need to feel you and the baby close."

Hand in hand, you led him out of the grand hall and towards the more secluded parts of Dragonstone. The storm outside raged on, but within the castle, it felt as if the two of you were in your own world. The soft glow of torches lit your way, casting flickering shadows on the ancient stone walls.

You reached a small alcove near the courtyard, a place where you had spent many quiet moments together. Jacaerys helped you settle onto a bench, his hand never leaving yours.

"You know," you began, your voice soft and contemplative, "I sometimes wonder what it would be like to just... leave all of this behind. To take our child and live a simple life, away from the responsibilities and the danger."

Jacaerys looked at you, surprise flickering across his face. "You've never mentioned that before."

You shrugged, a wistful smile on your lips. "It's just a thought. I know we have our duties, and I wouldn't trade our life here for anything. But sometimes, it's nice to imagine a different path."

He squeezed your hand, his gaze intense and loving. "If that's what you want, we'll find a way. Your happiness means everything to me."

You shook your head, a gentle laugh escaping your lips. "No, Jace. This is our home, and we belong here. But it doesn't hurt to dream, does it?"

"No, it doesn't," he agreed, pulling you closer. "As long as we have each other, we can face anything."

For a while, you sat together in comfortable silence, listening to the distant roar of the storm and the crackle of the torches. The tension that had gripped Jacaerys slowly began to fade, replaced by a sense of peace.

But peace was a fleeting thing in times of war and unrest. As the storm continued to rage outside, a distant, echoing roar pierced the night. Jacaerys tensed, his protective instincts flaring to life. "Did you hear that?" he asked, his voice low and urgent.

You nodded, your own heart racing. "What was it?"

"Stay here," he commanded, rising to his feet. "I'll go check."

"No," you protested, grabbing his arm. "I'm coming with you."

"___, you're pregnant," he began, but the look in your eyes silenced him. "Alright. But stay close to me."

Together, you made your way through the castle, following the eerie sound. The further you went, the louder the roar became, until you found yourselves standing at the entrance to the courtyard.

And there, in the middle of the storm, was a dragon unlike any you had ever seen. It was massive, nearly as large as Vhagar but with a wild, untamed look in its eyes. Its scales were a deep, iridescent purple, shimmering in the lightning flashes.

"Aero," Jacaerys whispered, awe and fear in his voice. "The Catastrophe."

You had heard of Aero, the wild dragon that roamed the skies near Dragonstone, but seeing it in person was an entirely different experience. The dragon's presence was overwhelming, and for a moment, you were frozen in place.

But Jacaerys didn't hesitate. He stepped forward, his voice steady and calm despite the fear in his eyes. "Aero," he called out, "we mean you no harm."

The dragon turned its gaze towards you both, its eyes glowing with an almost intelligent curiosity. It took a step forward, and Jacaerys instinctively moved in front of you, shielding you with his body.

"Jace," you whispered, fear gripping your heart.

"It's alright," he said, his voice firm. "Just stay behind me."

Aero lowered its massive head, sniffing the air around you. For a moment, it seemed as if the dragon was considering whether to attack or not. But then, with a huff that sent a gust of hot air over you both, Aero turned and took to the skies, disappearing into the storm.

Jacaerys let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, turning to pull you into his arms. "Are you alright?"

You nodded, clinging to him. "Yes. That was... incredible. And terrifying."

He chuckled, though the tension hadn't entirely left his body. "That's one way to put it. I can't believe we just saw Aero up close."

You leaned into him, the adrenaline slowly ebbing away. "We should get back inside. The maesters will have our heads if they find out we were out here."

He nodded, but didn't move to leave. Instead, he held you close, his hand resting on your belly. "I'm so glad you're safe," he whispered, his voice filled with emotion.

You kissed him gently, your heart full of love for this brave, protective man. "I am. Thanks to you."

As you made your way back inside, the storm began to die down, leaving a sense of calm in its wake. Jacaerys was still tense, but the fear had been replaced by a fierce determination to protect you and your unborn child. Later that night, as you lay in bed, Jacaerys held you close, his hand never leaving your belly. The events of the evening had only strengthened his resolve to keep you safe, no matter what.

"___," he murmured, his voice soft in the darkness. "I promise you, I will always protect you and our babe. No matter what it takes."

You smiled, feeling a sense of peace settle over you. "I know you will, Jace. You will be a fine father."

In the quiet of the night, with the storm finally gone, you both drifted off to sleep, your hearts full of love and hope for the future.

taglist: @benjicotblckwood

banner by: @cafekitsune

[presidenthades]

Trigger warning: Birth and infertility

Randomly popped in my mind. We know, due to prophecy,Jace and Aegon are going to have three children. But how will that be possible? Jace's first birth was really tough, it almost took her life and she was relatively young (not Aemma Arryn young but young). And Aegon is very afraid to lose Jace so how do they decide to have more kids? (I just know Aegon would age 90 years in those 9 months after what happened with Elaenar's birth)

And when they come around how is Jace able to safely deliver? I know every birth is different but some births mess up mother's bodies really badly they're never able to conceive and/or give birth again. I'm sorry if this is a rude or an out of pocket ask, but after we saw what happened to Aemma Arryn I got confused. (You know since she couldn't deliver healthy children because she was bedded and gave birth too young.)

Again, I am sorry if this is a gloomy ask 🙏🏼Ignore it if it makes you uncomfortable.

Good question!

(I would like to take this moment to point out, again, that GRRM makes his female characters get married and have kids younger than even the real medieval world would’ve deemed appropriate. In the Middle Ages, a lot of women, especially commoners, didn’t get married until their 20’s. But we’re playing in GRRM’s sandbox, so…)

I don’t have an expert understanding of obstetrics, and there is some fictional hand-waving involved. But my thinking is that despite the difficulty with them waiting for Elenar to turn the right way, he was born in the ideal head-down position (thanks, Aunt Joff), and the birth didn’t cause long-lasting damage to Jace.

IMO, a lot of Aemma’s issues were because A) she got pregnant as soon as possible at age 13, and B) she probably wasn’t given much recovery time between the miscarriages and stillbirths. Even though from a modern perspective 16 is very young to give birth, there can be a huge developmental difference between a 13yo and a 16yo. That’s a major reason Rhaenyra demanded that Jace and Aegon wait to consummate the marriage. Rhaenyra would probably have preferred they wait even longer, but 16 is the age of majority in Westeros.

Aegon and Jace are also doing their best to prevent another pregnancy for a while, so Jace isn’t having another baby until she feels ready. I think after a few years, Jace will want more kids, and she’ll be the one who has to convince Aegon to try again. (It should also be noted that moon tea, like any contraceptive, isn’t 100% effective.)

If/when Jace gets pregnant again, Aegon is probably immediately taking her to Dragonstone for the entire duration of the pregnancy to reduce her stress and risk factors. I can also imagine Aegon gathering a bunch of pregnancy/childbirth experts from Westeros and Essos. (And that’s how Aegon inadvertently hosts the world’s first obstetrics conference.)

[nrilliree]

“Aegon has been debauched and abusive from an early age, and that's okay. In exchange for the benefits, Alicent sells her body - her feet (which has a certain name as a profession…), but that's okay. After all, they are "honor and decency".

But Rhaenyra's children should be treated as inferior people because their mother is promiscuous. That's how it is. This is right and justified.”

Gurl what?

1. No one from TG thinks that aegon’s behavior is ok. He’s a rapist.

2. Alicent sells her body? What? She’s literally being manipulated and blackmailed by larys to show him her feet in exchange for information. Larys has been lurking around alicent ever since ep 5. Not to mention he killed harwin and lyonel and basically blamed alicent for telling him to do it. So he’s prob also holding that over her head and blackmailing her. Dude that’s so messed up that you’d actually blame alicent for what larys has forced her to go through. She looked so disgusted and miserable throughout the entire scene. Calling a woman a whore for being SA is so messed up.

3. Rhaenyra’s children are not abused by anyone? Nor did anyone ever said that they deserved to be? Criston hates them, fine. He’s not kind to them. There’s a big difference between being “treated as interior” and being disliked. Do you really think anyone would dare to mistreat the boys? Viserys and Rhaenyra would’ve killed them.

Nobody? And yet I have seen people (not this specific person) who justify his behavior because he is misunderstood, unloved and maybe he didn't understand the definition of rape, so he didn't know what he was doing was wrong. You can't say it's nothing, because you're generalizing just like I am I'm generalizing ¯_(ツ)_/¯

TG (not that specific person, please note) can call Rhaenyra a slut and I can't use the textbook definition of that word 🤔? A whore is a person who obtains benefits in exchange for services of a sexual nature. Why can TG do something I can't🤔? Could this be bad after all 😱? But is it only bad in one direction? Because I don't think Alicent is a whore, I just started using this term on purpose ¯_(ツ)_/¯

But seriously now. In the ninth episode, Alicent has been queen for 20 years. She hasn't found any allies at court in 20 years? Nobody? Book Cersei was stupid and cruel, and she did better. For 20 years, Alicent still had only Larys and Criston's support, even when Otto returned to his position. Alicent had King's Landing to herself for several years because Rhaenyra was away and did absolutely nothing about it. She found no allies, made no alliances through the marriage of her sons, did nothing. She only continued working with Larys, although after the Strongs' murder she could point to him, because he did not even pretend to mourn and was happy with his new position. Even Criston could see that something was wrong.

3. I may use not entirely correct words or expressions. English is not my first or even second language. I do better in Polish, Russian and German. Sometimes I express myself badly, so maybe "inferior" is not the best word.

Of course they would kill them. They would kill everyone. This is why Criston openly favored Alicent's sons, and when this was brought to his attention, he dragged Jace by the breastplate to face Aegon. Jace was forcibly treated, Aegon was not. This is not treating some as worse than others ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[horizon-verizon]

One of my favorite post-Dance moments is when Torrhen Manderly suggested Aegon III and Daenaera go on a royal tour and “when Aegon III wears black, Daenaera will wear green and vice versa” and Aegon III said “no fucking way I’m putting green on myself” and canceled his plan lmao.

These are the quotes from Fire and Blood ("The Lysene Spring and the End of the Regency") - you can just look at the first and last two pics:

It's a little bit more than "no fucking way I’m putting green on myself", though that's so funny.

I have thoughts about the layers we can get from the conflicts Aegon will have with his own subjects and the path of the Dance to the "Broken Reign" when the last dragon dies. These are my PDF notes so far, so they will not be entirely legible:

There are layers to Aegon's motivations, inspirations, & handling of coming into power and interrupting the progrees versus the regents and the Grandmaester's desires for it.

1) His time with Cregan Stark, whose motives were to keep with his oath/promise to Jace-Rhaenyra and thus was more on Aegon's side than others, also comes with Cregan's focus on making hard decisions for the more vulnerable sections of the populations over making oneself more amicable or pleasing to nobles. Him and the Winter wolves who literally sacrifice themselves so some of their families will have enough food to eat in the winter, as they relate that.

2) "Spring is the time for new beginnings" -- thinking of Geoffrey Chaucer and his prolouge of his Canterbury Tales where traveling (specifically a religious pilgrimage) gives different people the opportunity to reconnect or be confronted by different sections of society/perspectives through their either firsthand experiences or interpretations and retellings of familiar ideas/tales/tropes...but the prologue itself uses spring as the period of joy, beginnings, restoration, playfulness, merriment, and sex...bringing one out of the winter/time of anxiety of survivial (Dance) --> "true beginning of reign" -- Aegon's time and beginning associated with happiness and hope: nobles seeing Aegon to be familiar with him and for him to show that he is attentive to their image of him or wants to be involved with them and their interests (one of whom was Unwin, to "assuage" him [?!]), juxtaposed against lower classes' need for food & the pseudo symbolic assurance of survival (return to understanding that need from the "winter"/winter of several things gone wrong before) -- displays of prosperity vs actions to ensure prosperity and miscommunication or refusal to relate the self or the abandonment of persuasion/rhetoric from internal exhaustion, or an internal "winter", and the subsequent determination to conserve the borders between those closest to you/you and those with the potential to harm.

3) Spring is also associated with youth pushing out the old -- Aegon has been a helpless child for long and he now pushes out the "old" Torrhen/older male authority styming his own...ironically he also requires the other lords' participation and/or eager participation with whatever policies he wishes to institute...which should be how it goes just how it is with springtime flowers and such, so with feudalism there is a lot of self-contradictory dynamics that serve to generate the same old conflicts or plant the "seeds" of such potential

4) an impure repetition of Jaehaerys vs Rogar and the conflict of male authority there -- the halting of one cycle when another (changing of the seasons, which is inevitable but always yearned for in a weird sort of nostalgia, isolation versus social interaction)

[finitefall]

Hi!What do you think about Aemond from the show so far?

Don't you think they've made him more sympathetic than he should be?

Especially when there is a contradiction between what the actors say and what Ryan says.I don't completely remember what Ryan said, however I remember him saying something similar about how Aemond was supposed to grow up to become a great leader but him getting bullied and lost an eye has destroyed the possibility of it. While the actors (Ewan, Olivia) have called him psychopath, simple as that.

Hi! I definitely have an issue with how they whitewashed Aemond on the show given that I've read Fire & Blood, as well as how Condal want us to see him.

Aemond is introduced to us in episode 6 as a lonely boy, the outsider in the group of kids since back then Aegon apparently got along with Jace and Luke, and because he's the only one who doesn't have a dragon. Our first introduction to his character is when Aegon, Jace and Luke made that cruel pig prank. Obviously, everyone is gonna feel for him unless they're cruel themselves. I don't have an issue with the scene itself, but the fact that they chose it as the starting point for Aemond's character. Because it seems that his entire personality, his reactions, his choices are all based from this, which is bad writing. Yes, it had consequences on him, it's not uninteresting to explore this. But who was Aemond before? A nice kid? No, he wasn't. Everyone who has read Fire & Blood could say he didn't become a psychopath because his big brother and his cousins once made a cruel prank. However, chosing this as the starting point for Aemond seems to be a writing choice to introduce Aemond as a victim.

The next episode is the turning point for Aemond. We first see him talking with his brother about Helaena, telling him he would marry her if their mother had betrothed them, that it would strengthen the family and keep their Valyrian blood pure. He also tells Aegon that Helaena is his future queen, which gives is more insight on what happened among the Greens off screen: the treason is, as everyone knows, already planned since Helaena can only be the future queen if Aegon if the future king after Viserys’ death. Aemond doesn’t have an issue with usurping Rhaenyra, but he does have an issue with being the second son and not the one who will be king.

Then, Aemond claims Vhagar, and fights with the four other kids, which led to the loss of one of his eyes. I talked about this here: Alicent had been telling their sons they’re trueborn Targaryens and that Jace, Luke and Joff are bastards. Aemond, conceived between two married people, with a Targaryen father, one of the sons of the King and Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, doesn’t have a dragon. Rhaenyra’s sons, conceived out of wedlock, with only a Targaryen mother, all have a dragon. Alicent is surprised their dragons’ eggs hatched, both because of her religious beliefs (they’re the result of adultery) and because of misogyny (since Aegon, Aemond, Helaena, Jace, Luke and Joff both have only one parent with Valyrian blood, the only difference is that her children have a Targaryen father). But somehow, Rhaenyra’s bastards as his mother call them are worthy of a dragon while he’s not? So when Aemond manages to claim Vhagar, this is literally the best moment of his life. He’s not just worthy, he’s better than them because not everyone could claim Vhagar, this legendary dragon. And those bastards had dared to mock him when he’s clearly superior to them? Of course he welcomes the opportunity to confront them when he lands. The girls who just lost their mother aren’t important either: he’s become the bully here and can insult them too. It’s his turn. Jace and Luke want to defend them? They’re nothing. They’re bastards, and he’s just proven he is more worthy than them, he is a trueborn Targaryen unlike them. He enjoys the fight, especially since he’s still feeling the adrenaline rush after riding Vhagar.

I will note that they did whitewash him in that scene too, since he attacks 3 years-old Joffrey in the book, but anyone watching the scene can still see he’s not a poor victim. In the next scene, we see he does care about his mother when Viserys demands to know where he heard that Rhaenyra’s sons are bastards. He looks at Alicent first, who’s absolutely terrified (and for good reason), and says it’s Aegon.

Episodes 8 and 9 are pretty on point with who Aemond is too: after everyone made an effort during the last family dinner with Viserys, he choses to start another fight with Jace and Luke. He teams up with Criston Cole to find his brother, and those two were also fighting together in the book. Ever since episode 7, they started writing Aemond pretty much like his book counterpart. But in episode 10, Condal made a mistake by relying on another accident, when they had the opportunity to keep writing Aemond as the person he truly is. That’s even when they do at first, when Aemond demands that Luke gives him one of his eyes for his mother and he then follows Luke on Vhagar. His intention seem, at first, as clear as in the book, but Condal decided that it was more “nuanced” and brought “more depth” to Aemond’s character to make it an accident where Aemond tries to stop Vhagar.

Aemond is first introduced as a victim, because they chose that cruel prank for us to discover his character on the show. And his finale scene in the first season is an accident, where he’s a victim of consequences because Vhagar doesn’t listen to his commands and is the one killing Luke. Not only is it terrible writing to rely an accidents as Seth Abramson pointed out in his review, but Greens stans keep thinking of Aemond as a victim, who became a bad guy because he was bullied for years as the writers said (where is it on the show? nowhere), but not a psychopath. Proof being that even after what Luke did to him, he didn’t really want to kill him.

Condal said in his interview with The Hollywood reporter that:

Aemond is definitely not blameless in what happened to Luke. But Aemond was also a kid who was bullied and was made a mockery for part of his life for not having a dragon. Now he does, and he rides the biggest dragon in the world. I think he was showing his rival that he will not be intimidated and trifled with is probably more in play there than trying to become a kinslayer – that would be very un-calculated and stupid of Aemond to do at the outset when the pieces are moving about the board and loyalties are being set and figuring out who is going to make marriage pact to guarantee whose army …  for Aemond to launch nukes right out of the gate and go for an all-out dragon war would be very foolish, but that’s exactly what he ends up doing because things get out of hand and out of control. It’s a complex scene. Aemond is not blameless, but he’s also not a psychopath without a logical line of thinking.

He doesn’t see Aemond as the psychopath he is in Fire & Blood, but as, again, a victim of bullying, and as a very smart character. However, Condal also changed his own version of what happened in his interview with Variety as, once again, Seth Abramson pointed out in his review:

Between one sentence and the next, Condal suddenly (a) denies that Lucerys’ death was an accident (suggesting that Aemond exhibited some sort of criminal mental state preceding Lucerys’ death, whether purposefulness or recklessness or negligence) but then (b) insists that Lucerys’ death was “not... what Aemond intended” and that it is because we’re supposed to assume Aemond in no way wanted Lucerys dead that “it adds complexity and nuance” to his character. So which is it? Either Aemond is the sort of young man who knowingly took actions that would lead to a death or he very much did not want that death to occur and did all he could to stop it; it is not possible for complexities and nuances to be drawn out of his character in the midst of such wildly unproductive vagaries. As literary critics have known for many decades, ever since the New Critics of the early to mid-twentieth century, there is a wild gulf of difference between ambiguity (which can be both narratively fraught and generative) and mere vagueness.

What I’m taking from all of this is that a) Condal doesn’t seem to know what he’s writing himself, b) he seems to love Aemond and just as Alicent “misunderstanding” Viserys’ last words to her, he’s absolving another Green of his responsability with another “accident”, and c) the fact he and Hess kept repeating that Daemon isn’t a hero (we know, we’ve read the book) makes it seem like they want, just like most of Aemond’s stans, for Daemon to be Aemond’s foil instead of the opposite. Because in the books, Aemond has two main traits: being a psychopath and being Daemon’s foil (I talked about this previously). Meanwhile, I don’t know what Olivia said, but Ewan did describe Aemond as a “whole other monster” (source). Both Ewan and Matt seem to be the only ones who don’t say a lot of crap in interviews, honestly.

[onetimetwotimesthreetimess]

Can we get part four - maybe with Magnus opening up about what he did?

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

“Raziel, what the–” Alec swears the second he enters the room.

His entire office is covered by bouquets and bouquets of flowers, there’s not a single surface that isnt being occupied by one. 

He moves closer to the desk and picks up a flower from the bouquet of lilies and brings it upt o smell it. 

It smells fresh.

Alec knows that magnus handpicks all these flowers himself—that he could do it with the snap of his fingers but he won’t.

He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to make of that considering everything that the man has done.

Magnus has been relentlessly sending him flowers for the past ten days, with the same note attached to it, written in his beautifully artistic handwriting.

You once told me that you have never been to an amusement park since the shadowhunter codex doesn’t have a chapter on ‘fun’ in it. I’m sure you have heard of Coney Island and please do not do that thing that Jace does where he pretends to not know about mundane things just to seem more mysterious.  I know you know of Coney Island. 

I will be waiting for you there. There are things that I need to tell you that I do not think I can write. I have magic in my veins but I have been wishing at every shooting star that you will show up today. 

I have caused you a lifetime worth of pain, Alec. So, I will wait for you for a lifetime, if I have to.

It’s the same note like everyday. Just a different location.

Today it was Coney Island.

Yesterday it was Rockefeller centre.

The day before, there was a small fair being organised by some college students.

An ice-cream parlour they used to frequent. 

All perfectly mundane places.

Alec had wanted to visit each and every one of them but he didn’t have the courage to push through the heartbreak. 

He didn’t want his hopes up.

He didn’t want excuses. 

He just wants Magnus and he knows that he can’t have that. 

Alec sighs and sits on his chair, his eyes darting across the flowers. 

“What are you doing?” Alec had blushed the first time Magnus had gotten him flowers. Magnus had snapped his fingers and turned the flowers into a beautiful flower crown.

He moved closer to Alec and placed the crown on his head.

“You look pretty,” Magnus had said, tilting his face from left to right to inspect his work. 

He had wanted to thank Magnus for the compliment but it had been hard back then. He’d still been getting used to being called pretty and beautiful.

“But why?”

Magnus cradled his face in his hands and said softly, “I saw a flower and it reminded me of you. That’s why.” 

Alec had giggled at that because it really was that simple.

“Okay.” 

The memory seems as clearly as the day it had happened. 

It always seem impossible to forget anything about Magnus.

Alec doesn’t want to either.

He picks up the note and reads it again. 

He remembers the heartbreak and pain from the past few month—from the day that Magnus broke up with him. It hadn’t lessened even a bit and Alec doesn’t know how long he can keep living like a dead-body. 

He thinks if it’s reasonable that the person who broke his heart is the one he wants to go to get it fixed. 

He wonders if it’s the same for everyone around the world. 

And then he wonders how Magnus went through so many of them and made through it.

Maybe he really should see Magnus.

If there's anyone in the world who knows a thing or two about moving on: It has to be Magnus Bane.

@carelessflower this will always be your masterpiece anh sjjsjsksk

[cephalog0d]

Hey, Batfans, are you a weird completionist who likes sortable data way too much, like me? Do you want a giant spreadsheet of appearances of a bunch of Batfam members that you can filter across multiple people to see where they show up in the same issue together?

WELL GOOD NEWS because thanks to my hyperfixation I made a spreadsheet. (It's view-only but if you save a copy it should be editable for personal use.)

The Spreadsheet currently contains all post-crisis appearances for the following characters: Barbara Gordon, Cassandra Cain, Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson, Duke Thomas, Harper Row, Helena Bertinelli, Jace Fox, Jarro, Jason Todd, Jean-Paul Valley, Kate Kane, Luke Fox, Stephanie Brown and Tim Drake. I feel like that's most of the big ones (and several not-very-big-ones), but if there's a Bat-person missing you'd like to see on there, feel free to ask!

This is up to date through July 2023. I have intentions to keep updating it on a semi-monthly basis, but we'll see if that happens.

All sheets are conditionally formatted so if you enter "Y" in the Read column it will highlight the whole row in green to mark it off, if you're the kind of person who likes to keep track and mark things off a list.

The Master List is filterable by any character, and more importantly, multiple characters! Up to "all of them" although I don't think anything actually contains *all* of them.

(Some more notes below)

SOME NOTES:

Dates are the start of the series, since that's how a lot of places besides DC itself with their weird "volume" convention distinguish different runs.

These aren't sorted by preboot vs. New 52 vs. Rebirth vs. IF, sorry, that was too many sorting functions for now. You can kinda figure it out by date, though (New 52 was 2011, Rebirth was 2016, IF was 2022) or look up the issue on a wiki and see what version of the character is tagged.

On that note, all of this was pulled from the DC Wiki, and while I did a little bit of spot-checking as I went for things I knew off the top of my head it's entirely possible things are missing or mis-attributed. I'm happy to update accordingly if there are.

Similarly, I didn't go through every issue here to check what role people are appearing in, either in terms of what identity they're using (e.g. Spoiler vs Robin vs Batgirl) or if they're a major character or not. Some of these are as minor as background appearances or off-screen mentions. Some day I might add more metadata to sort for those things, but right now that's not part of it.

[the-flora-family]

Hello everyone! Welcome to our Tumblr page. We are an OSDD-1B system that is made almost entirely out of fictives, aside from Venus who is the host, and Pain, one of our persecutors. There are way too many of us to write down and describe in one entire post, so we will simply list the sources we have. Sources marked red have alters that are either always up front or otherwise very active in our system. Only sources marked red will have the alters listed out, but as always you’re free to ask for an individual list of alters if we happen to share sources. We’re always open to making new friends.

Brain-Made

Venus - 26 || Shey/shem || Host || engaged to Mickey & Ian || 🪴

Pain - Age Unknown || it/its || Main Persecutor || 🩸

Shameless

Mickey Milkovich - 26 || he/him || Main protector/traumaholder/cohost || Married to Ian, engaged to Venus || 🚬

Ian Gallagher - 26 || he/him || Caretaker || Married to Mickey, engaged to Venus || 🍅

Fiona Gallagher - 32 || she/her || Caretaker || 💚

Lip Gallagher - 27 || he/him || persecutor to Ian only || 🧠

Debbie Gallagher - 21 || she/her || Caretaker || 💛

Carl Gallagher - 20 || he/him || we honestly don’t know what he does apart from cause chaos regularly || 🌿

Liam Gallagher - 12 || he/him || Middle/protector to Franny || ⚽️

Franny Gallagher - 5 || she/her || Little || 🧸

Frank Gallagher - 63 || he/him || persecutor to all the Gallaghers || 🍺

Monica Gallagher - 67 || she/her || Unknown. We don’t know where she lives in here, only that she’s ‘around.’ || 💊

Mandy Milkovich - 25 || she/her || Protector || 💄

Harry Potter

Harry Potter - 17 || he/him || Unknown || Dating Draco || ⚡️

Draco Malfoy - 17 || he/him || Unknown || Dating Harry || 🐍

Sirius Black - 35 || he/him || Unknown || Dating Remus || 🐕

Remus Lupin - 35 || he/him || Unknown || Dating Sirius || 🐺

James Potter - 21 || he/him || Unknown || Married to Lily || ��

Lily Potter - 21 || she/her || Unknown || Married to James || 🌸

Severus Snape - 37 || he/him || Unknown || 🦇

Aberforth Dumbledore - 48 || he/him || Unknown || 🐐

Aurelius Dumbledore - 20 || he/him || Traumaholder || 🌪️

Newt Scamander - 35 || he/him || Unknown || 🦎

Shadowhunters

Alec Lightwood - 33 || he/him || Gatekeeper || Married to Magnus || 🏹

Magnus Bane - Unknown because he keeps saying a different one every time || he/him || Caretaker || Married to Alec || ✨

Jace Herondale - 31 || he/him || Protector || 🗡️

Isabelle Lightwood - 31 || she/her || Protector || 👠

Max Lightwood-Bane - 14 || he/him || Middle || 🫐

Rafael Lightwood-Bane - 16 || he/him || Middle || 💧

Chairman Meow - Age Unknown || he/him || Does he even have a role? He’s literally just a cat, so who knows? || 🐈‍⬛

Sense8

The Fosters

Love Victor

Wednesday

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Carmilla

Death Note

Teen Titans

Dear Evan Hansen

Hamilton

Be More Chill

Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends

Powerpuff Girls

Ed Edd N Eddy

Encanto

DNI

People who subscribe to any of the following ideas should not interact with us under any circumstances.

Racist

Sexist

Ableist

Xenophobic

Fascist

Republican

Anti-MOGAI/Anti LGBTQIA+

Truscum/Transmed

TERF/SWERF

Pro-J.K. Rowling

Anti-Ace/Anti-Aro

Anti-Pan/Bi/Omni/Polysex

Anti-Polyam

Anti-Kink

Anti-Agere

Anti-Mspec Lesbian/Gay

Anti-Men/Enbies using Femme or Butch

Anti-Neo Pronouns

Anyone Under 18

MAP/NOMAP

Anti-Pro Ship/Anyone who can’t separate Fiction from Reality

Gendercrit

Nonbinary Skeptic

Anti-Queer

Anti-Endogenic Systems/Sysmeds

Anti-Self Dx

Autism Speaks Supporter

Anti-BLM/All or Blue Lives Matter Supporter

Pro-Trump

Fatphobic

Anti-HAES

Pro-Sui/Pro-SH

Pro-Ana/Pro Mia

Using us for ‘Thinspo’

[araneitela]

I'm a mess (I know most are asleep and I should be too, but shh). Sometimes when I browse Youtube (and talking to Jace about Kafka as a whole, goodness, the walls that I type about this woman), I realize just how much I focus on the... how to classify this, the intricacies of reactions that are vehemently human, and that entire aspect of Kafka that was more so (/especially) presented since and in her SQ, though one I'll also say to have been inherently present before that. It's not that I neglect her violence, not at all, if anything I try to explain this element of her as to firmly tie them in together, though finding the words to do this is quite difficult, as this post will make clear, honestly. I'm a mess, this is a mess, it's a problem. Any way, this is probably why Mihoyo makes such intense use of music to convey so much for her. Cue me putting on her trailer music, and I'm literally making all of the little oddly precise head movements to each bow of the violin in it. Love her.

God, it's just, there are in my opinion, from a normal human's perspective, 'two sides' to the coin that is Kafka, except despite their intense contrasts, they work together to fit into a perfect mold of 'one'. And a good glance into this is their pull of your attention to the music that they composed (and perfectly edited, my god) for her trailer(s), Vivaldi's Winter in her main one but the very important part to note, is that it also includes compositions of Spring (? I now also feel like I recognize a snippet of Summer a glimpse of Autumn) alongside it, which is representative of something wildly differently; and then Lacrimosa in the Jepella Rebellion trailer. God, god. Yes, it's always inherently tied to mourning and grief, and one can argue that it's entirely because of the destruction outside that is happening in due part due to her (and the others; but it's worthy to note that the SH don't destroy for the sake of destroying; it all has purpose, always), but Lacrimosa can also be evident as a reaction from Kafka internally. And I say this, because if memory serves correctly in terms of my weak knowledge but stronger research, it's used within the Requiem Mass, in which it follows a 'divine judgment' movement, and Lacrimosa plays in emotional response to it, a composition displaying sorrow and grief as people seek redemption. So the question now comes— as much as Kafka 'plays with her food' so to say, could you also tie the 'mock trial' in with a response of 'divine judgement' of her own in reaction to, well, divine judgment that was executed prior? Am I making sense? In essence, what exactly is all of this in response to? Could she have been wronged by these judges? Or judgement by default, or does she simply not believe in such judgement? I also still firmly stand on my hill that Kafka has suffered an immense loss before, so could this play into that as well? Does she hold judgment within the palm of her hand because there is grief in her? The layers, guys, the layers. I'm losing my mind.

And then also, slightly unrelated: I see comments like this (and as someone who sadly never go to continue my piano playing), and I thrive, because it tells me that they aimed for this accuracy for her in specific. The violin, guys, one of the instruments if not the primary one that depicts human vulnerability in sound and play. The accuracy tells me even more that it's way too likely that she actively plays the violin. Which means, which means, that I get to thrive even more in terms of layers.. Oh, happy day.

Point of this entire post? I don't know, consider it the ramblings of a mad woman. There's no such thing as a simple conclusion for Kafka. There is simply... Kafka. A woman who is Destiny's Slave, but also inherently holds and practices her own sense of control in some ways. A woman who knows an ease in violence that we see her partake in by choice (this is so important), and with an element of emotional disengagement (one must, no? Or?) I usher my gratitude for bringing me back here. I'm thriving and will thrive on all 3 accounts.

Post-script: Okay but also:

"The old me? I used to be a Devil Hunter. (...) When people don't feel fear they are dominated by desire and pleasure — they become "devils."

But why are you not one of them? How did you hunt them, instead? /rattles bars of cage.

[dumplingwrites111]

I don't really care for the sex scene, but I think it's incredible how the reason it was cut is because Condal said it "adds no relevant info about the characters", meanwhile we have Rhaenyra basically doing nothing apart from pouting she wants to ride her dragon for 5 episodes straight, Jace just leans for like 5 or 6 episodes, and Daemon on LSD for 7.

Team green isn't left with no useless scenes, either: we have alicent lake sequence (thanks! always knew depression could get better if you only touch some grass, glad to have it affirmed), Helaena who's a NEURODIVERGENT BUG-LOVING GIRL, if it wasn't already clear (oh she can also see the future but good luck understanding shit with her 3 lines of dialogue this entire season), Gwayne's there for two seconds, glad to see they pay Freddie Fox for his 3 full minutes there, I'm always in for hotd budget going to him, Daeron is mentioned but we don't get to see or hear from him (so why mention him? oh, right, to showcase alicent "bad mum" targaryen), the green grandkids were cool, glad we've got to see them for two scenes and that's it, even though one of them is a) alive b) probably traumatised as heck? and c) someone both Helaena and Alicent can cling to and coddle. I mean just think of the potential. We could get a domestic green ladies scene.

Also on a different note: I don't get why people get over death so easily in this series? sure, grieving is time-consuming and not nearly as exciting as dragons, but if you expect me to care about a character's dying, I would like to a) get to see it when it's alive (I'm looking at you Jaehaerys, rest in power) and b) to see how its death affect people and the story. Everyone moves on within days. If not even their mother, father, husband, brother, sister, hecking grandma care, why should I? in episode one, Rhaenyra can bearly speak with grief (and my, how I wish it'd stay that way. At least when you're quiet no one can think you're dumb and crazy), by episode THREE, Rhaenyra risks her life, claim and faction going to King's Landing to discuss peace. PEACE. They killed your son, for crying out loud! The same goes with Alicent and Helaena, by the way.

I don't know babe, if you can write neither battle and war nor characters' reactions and fallouts, maybe don't write.

THEY CUT A MESSY SCRAPPY ALICOLE SEX SCENE… THEY HIT THE PENTAGON 😭💔😭💔

[hopestrope]

We should appreciate Cassandra Clare more.

Can you imagine the amount of effort Cassandra Clare puts in her books? Every single book is filled with literary, historic and religious references, mentions of various cultures and foreign languages that I am sure needed a lot of research that took so much time. 

- There are so many characters with different nationalities such as Cordelia, Alastair and Sona who are Persian, Cristina, Jaime and Diego who are Mexican, Jem Carstairs who is Chinese and Celine Montclaire  who is French. Throughout the books they often speak their mother tongue and those parts are written with help of speakers of those specific languages. Their overall cultures and language are reflected very well throughout the books. 

- The entire Infernal Devices series is based on A Tale Of Two Cities.

- The titles of the stories from Ghosts of The Shadow Market are references to novels, poems, proverbs etc. 

- The chapter titles of Lady Midnight are from the poem “Annabel Lee”. 

- Characters such as Will and Jace can quote from any literary or religious text.

- The locations of the books such as Devil Tavern and Chiswick House from The Last Hours and Hidden Treasures from Lady Midnight and so many more are real places. Cassandra Clare has visited most of them and writes the descriptions accordingly. 

- The route Will takes in Clockwork Princess as he goes to save Tessa was mapped and most of the inns he visited and roads he took were real. 

- The excerpts from Layla and Majnun from The Last Hours were taken from the 1836 translation because it is said that’s the one Cordelia would have owned. 

If you skip the “Notes on the text” part at the end of the books like I used to I suggest you read it to understand how much effort has been put into the book you have read, now that I have the books are much more valuable and important to me. I think Cassandra Clare is more than just a young adult fiction author and those books aren’t simply young adult fantasy novels. There is real passion and effort behind them and they and the author should be appreciated more. 

[renaroo]

Other History? More Like Other MYSTERY

as in it’s a MYSTERY how the hell this got past an editor the week before Pride Month are you fucking kidding me?

I was kind of hoping for more than like... a week of being back on tumblr before I breathed fire and ripped a comic book to shreds. But we all know why I’m here.

There are so many preemptive things to get out of the way before I rip into this thing...

John Ridley as a writer in other forms of media has been incredibly accomplished and an important additional voice to entertainment industries. I do not wish to take away from that or to minimize the impact of voices like his.

But, you know, he’s a voice in media. Not the end-all, be-all to all marginalized people worldwide who can substitute his perspective for any nonwhite straight male voice. And I don’t think that has ever been more apparent than the continued spiral down the drain that has been every issue of The Other History of the DC Universe since the first. 

DC’s “new” approach to everything being canon and everything mattering is dumb and filled to the brim with ways it’s going to backfire and reveal itself to be the eye sore of publications that it’s aiming for, but I was curious to see how they would try to incorporate these characters’ long and contentious histories in the comics with the real world issues they often were billed to tackle, and try to fit it into the current pop culture landscape. That was the whole reason I had my eye on this comic to begin with.

By the second issue we were getting some stark warning signs because as much as I appreciated hearing an authentic perspective on how the Teen Titans brand carried on while neglecting its landmark Black teen heroes (Mal Duncan and Karen Beecher), there was a note of cruelty added to the issue that felt otherwise misplaced and uncharacteristic of the tone being set. 

There was no reason to have a significant portion of that issue dedicated to Mal and Karen’s monologues taking some aggressive words out on Roy Harper specifically for being an addict. 

Perhaps it was a quirk of writing from a flawed perspective or a show of how righteous upset and anger could be turned outward to other people suffering in a vy for your own empowerment. 

I’m now pretty sure that wasn’t it at all. I’m pretty sure because it kept getting worse every issue and it’s culminated in today’s issue where the retelling of Renee Montoya’s story managed to be petty, cruel, shockingly pro-police brutality int its adulation of Jim Gordon and especially Harvey Bullock, and managed to make a well-rounded and very beloved Latina lesbian and just retrofit every stereotype she never had before to her without regard for what it did to her story or to the stories of people around her. 

Honestly, lapsed faith and a poke at the damage that Catholic guilt can have on especially queer believers is kind of my jam, so it’s not that I wouldn’t be down for a story with that perspective. I could even understand exploring that with Renee. But not at the expense of her established history.

Which is a question all of its own. Here we have the skeletal structure of Renee’s life events that we have read before (in much better stories), but they are surprisingly out of order and also shockingly twisted in a way to make EVERYONE as unpleasant as possible. 

And in a way that has convinced me that either John Ridley has never read comics featuring Renee, or that he was mandated to change things that had no business being changed.

According to this issue Renee hated Batman and other superheroes? Which, ah, I don’t even know where that could come from. Ever since the animated series where she got started, Renee’s whole bag has been “the acolyte of Jim Gordon, only other cop who supports Batman”. Like I don’t even know how you get around that.

But according to Ridley she’s hated them all along as an extension of her internalized homophobia and self-loathing. Great.

What follows out of that is that apparently? Renee and Batman specifically butted heads over wanting to rehabilitate Harvey Dent? As in Renee wanted to help him and BATMAN was the one flipping out and saying Harvey was a sociopath and couldn’t be helped.

Like. I’m starting to question if Ridley has read Batman comics before. I don’t know where that interpretation could possibly come from? Bruce and Harvey were friends? Bruce has always held out hope for saving Harvey from his psychosis? It’s like. THE storyline for Two-Face.

The cop stuff... I don’t really know how to talk about the cop stuff to be completely honest. If you mention the LA Riots on one page and a few pages later try to frame it so that over policing and methods of brutality weren’t a thing until 9/11... I don’t know what to say to you. 

I’d say maybe I was being ungenerous here except there were two characters who got entire full page spreads about what good cops they were. And one of them was goddamn Harvey Bullock with the explicit commentary that Renee USED to be uncomfortable with his torture methods and general brutality but figured it was “okay” because he knew how “innocent people screamed different” and that he “never collared someone and it didn’t stick” because. Y’know. Police violence and falsifying evidence never go hand in hand. what the actual fuck ever right?

The timeline for Renee and Kate’s relationship is also completely changed which means that we get to add a trope I just LOVE as a lesbian personally, which is that lesbians can’t keep relationships and can’t keep from cheating on their loving partners. Especially when they are butch. 

And I’m not talking about Renee cheating on Kate. Oh, no. Ridley decided Kate was the Other Woman during Renee’s relationship with Daria. 

And just.. the cruel commentary that Renee had about both Kate and Daria throughout. It made my skin crawl. The way she talked about other women in general made my skin crawl. “Uncomplicated women” “Broken souls” “Can’t be with someone better than yourself”

So I actually planned to go into a full rage post about just the queer content because 1. my lane and 2. it honestly affected me so bad I was shaking and tearing up in anger a bit. Every single friend I know who loves Kate and Renee, see themselves in Kate and Renee, have been the same kind of mess I am after this.

The NASTINESS of the internal monologue. I don’t know how to explain it more than this is how poorly men think of flf and to have one use a character so meaningful to the community to spout this hatefulness has revolted me in a way I... haven’t had happen to me for a while.

I was going to talk about the weirdness of just... randomly deciding to retcon Renee’s parents into being undocumented when that’s never been a thing before and just doing NOTHING with it the whole while after. Or how it’s pretty questionable how Renee suddenly became so adherently Catholic when it’s never been portrayed like that before (that’s Hel B’s bag, JPV if you squint) but it’s entwined with any of her commentary on her ethnicity p sus too but I don’t have the nuance for that discussion right now.

Rena Rants are back and what a fucking JOKE this comic was. 

I didn’t pay for it and neither should you.

P.S. bringing back Tim Fox and calling him “Jace” is dumb as fuck too

[visenyaism]

I am back to show my work via incredibly undercooked notes app essay i’ve had for a while. So I stand by the idea that the non-targaryens in fire and blood are more interesting in that watching the ways in which regular people have to twist themselves around to fit within this monarchical system run by decidendly alien incest blood curse practitioners is FASCINATING because really it is all about integrating yourself within the paradigm of dragon-magic-assisted state violence.

Which takes us to big point: fundamentally Criston Cole and Nettles are both answers to this question that the narrative asks: “What happens when the lowborn are elevated to positions of historical consequence and societal power because of their usefulness in war/capability to commit violence?”

Initially, there’s there’s a lot of similarities in how they respond to that question: ultimately, this idea of class elevation means you have to follow all of the societal rules perfectly without any of the exceptions made for Targaryens because unlike them, you have everything to lose. (see: criston being rightfully concerned his affair with rhaenyra will lead to his execution vs. nettles almost getting executed due to rumored getting groomed by daemon) The operative difference between those two examples being the insertion of gender into that power dynamic. Nettles has to fight classism AND misogyny to the extent that she gets NO acceptable way to be, and has to flee the country.

The aspect of being elevated from lowborn status also carries with it the implication that no matter how far you rise you still belong to whoever elevated you there in the first place before you belong to yourself (Criston fully personally belonging to Rhaenyra who named him and then Alicent who kept them around/ Nettles belonging to Jace who started the dragonseed effort and then Daemon who decided she should follow him around personally for uh. reasons.)

I’m about to mix show and book canon so feel free to tell me to kill my self if you’re from dragon twitter and you hate that shit. BUT. there’s also the parallel of both being products of ongoing cycles of violence (criston’s dornish mother and marcher father, nettles and the dragonseeds being products of centuries of state-sanctioned rape of lowborn women on dragonstone and driftmark by the valyrian lords.) And then despite being products of this violence and conquest when they are first elevated to power it is because of violence against groups they are themselves somewhat a part of (show criston earning his knighthood fighting the dornish in the marches/nettles being immediately asked to prove herself fighting and killing other dragons because this is the only way to elevate herself. She can’t even stop her home from burning.)

But Criston and Nettles’ final responses to that big question i asked earlier ultimately diverge a LOT.

Criston as a character really is this big allegory for the role knights (especially the kingsguard as agents of state violence) and unquestioningly following the inherently cruel societal rules for knightly behavior has on history. And this allegory wished really hard to be a real boy and then it came true. He dies trying to follow the Rules, getting shot while demanding fair parley in a war that he had an incredibly pivotal role in starting because of his belief in the rules of supremacy of male primogeniture.

Criston gives his entire life to violently enforcing the rules of this paradigm, he’s the perfect ideal of a westerosi knight and this actively makes him a terrible and completely empty person. And because he is lowborn, all he IS is his ability to be an agent of state violence. there’s no exceptions no flexibility it’s just him and his black and white morality that stops him from experiencing complete societal freefall. The Rules don’t save him, and he dies (notably shot by crossbows which fellow sword violence enjoyer jaime lannister will not shut up about being a coward’s weapon outside of the knightly paradigm.)

In contrast, Nettles faces several attempts by the Targaryen monarchy to bring her into the fold, but she ultimately CANNOT give up her identity, her compassion, or her bond with her dragon primarily being one built on mutual respect and wonder. She cannot follow these rules, which IS partially because misogynistic double standards give her no option to actually follow all the expectations without being killed by someone or another. But as a result, she is kicked out of not only the narrative, but Westerosi society as a whole, having to find a home with the free folk in the Vale. She escapes with her life, but as a result literally belongs nowhere.

Unlike a lot of other dragonriders in the text, Nettles’ bond with Sheepstealer isn’t a symbol of dynastic power, an agent of class mobility like it is for the other dragonseeds, or something given to her, it’s something she earned herself and feels personally and deeply. Her being named a dragonseed and part of the Targaryen dynasty is explicitly called out for being this like. veneer to co-opt her power into the targaryen narrative of blood supremacy and dragonriding.

Criston ultimately gets remembered as a Kingsguard knight, historicized as being morally grey despite his extreme and terrible violence because he can’t be completely evil, he followed all the rules! Nettles is remembered as a lowborn girl before anything else. The only way to survive that system of classist misogynistic feudal violence is to reject it entirely, but to do so means you also get punished in historical memory. Only way through is OUT.

what are your thoughts on nettles?

understanding nettles and criston cole as narrative foils is the key to unlocking the secret good fire and blood that is about unpacking ways in which the targaryen dynasty maintained control through class, gender, and state violence. and also dragon magic.