#blackfish

[reidmania]

blackfish | spencer reid

summary; being in the early stages of your relationship, spencer has yet to hear your passionate rambles, until you watch a documentary together and the topic of animals in captivity comes up.

warnings; fluff, so much fluff fem!reader, early seasons spencer, marine biology major!reader, start of relationship things, talking about animal abuse, animals in captivity, talks about orca’s and the documentary blackfish (i know the time line is unrealistic use ur imagination please)

an; self indulgent as a marine biology major and someone very passionate about the fact animals should not be used as apart of a circus act. Very very short, and sweet.

Your legs were resting over Spencer’s, the heels of your feet pressing against the side of the couch arm, while his hands massaged the skin of your calf gently, the credits to the documentary you had spent the last hour and a half watching together rolling over the tv. His hands were gentle and hesitate in every one of the movements, a little shy.

“Did you like it?” He asked, turning his head to look at you, thumb pressing against a tender muscle in your calf, the sensation causing a soft sigh of relaxation throughout your body, which contradicted the annoyance that had been filling you as the film went on.

You hummed, unsure of how to answer the question. “It was interesting.” You mumbled out, your head rolling to press against the back of the couch cushions. He smiled slightly as his hands continued to work out the tension in your legs.

“Yeah?” He hummed out. You nodded, interesting was a safe way to describe your feelings on the documentary you had watched. It wasn’t that it was bad, it wasn’t at all. And you had been interested, the entire time. Just the more the details were revealed the sicker the feeling got in your stomach.

He shuffled slightly, “What are you thinking about?” He asked, his hands pausing their massaging movements to instead rub gently over the smoothness of your skin. Obviously he had noticed the slightly sour look on your face and the way your mind seemed elsewhere.

“How horrible the human species are.” You answered honestly although you were aware Spencer was already aware of this fact. He worked to stop all the horrible things the human species did everyday. He witnessed it firsthand.

“Annoyed?” He asked. You nodded.

You shuffled slightly, pulling your legs away from where they had been resting over his thighs to sit up a little straighter, tucking your knees underneath you as your hands came to rest on your thighs.

“I don’t understand how anyone can look at animals in aquariums or even animal’s in zoo’s and think that it’s just.. okay?” You huffed out, annoyance lacing your tone as you spoke, every word coming out just as disgusted as the last. “i mean— These are wild animals and people act so shocked when they act like wild animals. Like that poor orca had been put through hell since the age of two— ripped away from his family and everything he knew, starved, beat up by other orca’s all for what? A quick buck?” You huffed out in frustration.

Spencer hadn’t expected the ramble but it definitely wasn’t unwelcome, your voice was laced with so much passion and intent, every word that left your lips showed how deeply you had thought about this. He had hummed in response, not wanting to interrupt.

“Marine mammals — they are isolated more in captivity than they aren’t which is absolutely insane since every aspect of their being is based on their social and emotional connections— I mean they have a whole part of the brain that human’s don’t have thats dedicated to their emotional bonds. Which means they feel everything probably double the amount that we do” You continued in frustration as your arms came to wrap around your stomach, and irritated pout on your lips.

Spencer raised his eyebrow but nodded, you were right. “They don’t belong in captivity” He agreed simply, you nodded passionately in response to what he had said. He couldn’t help the smile that made its way onto his face as you rambled, because this had never happened before. Normally you were pretty quiet, not in a way that you were shy or awkward, you just didn’t ramble a lot, not like he did. This was a nice change and he couldn’t help the way his heart swarmed at the sight of you getting all worked up over something you felt passionately for. He would listen to everything you had to say, and a million times more.

“It’s— so gross. Like it genuinely makes me feel sick how they take these animals away from their families and then exploit them for money. Like dolphins — Teach them tricks and then act like it’s just an extension of their natural behaviours — it’s not. You know marine mammals in captivity die way earlier than marine mammals in their natural habitats? Especially Orca’s. Orca’s could live up to 100 or even more and they hardly make it to 30 in captivity.” You huffed out.

“I didn’t know that” He did.

“And Orca’s— Oh my gosh. Each family speaks in their own set of vocalisations, no two families will communicate the same way. They literally have their own languages. And— and people want to throw Orca’s from different pods together in a pool and call them a family? They can’t even communicate with each other, or understand each other at all!! You know that can lead to aggression between Orca’s? Nearly half of Orca’s deaths in captivity is because of a different whale being too aggressive—“ You paused when you finally realised you were rambling.

Your cheeks burnt at the realisation, meeting Spencer’s eyes which were filled with nothing but love and admiration only furthered the burning sensation in your cheeks. “Sorry.” You huffed out sheepishly. “I got a bit carried away” you let out a laugh.

He shook his head instantly, his hand reaching out to rest gently against your knee, “No. Don’t apologise. Keep talking, what were you going to say?” He asked, almost desperately begging you to continue on with your passionate ramble, continued to further discover this side of you.

“I-“ you started but your brain short circuited at the look in his eye, pleading, sweet, gentle, loving, admiring. How could he look at you like that and expect you to be able to form a coherent sentence — you could hardly form a coherent thought. “I- forgot.” You huffed out.

He smiled widely, “Whales being too aggressive which can lead to that frustration being taken out on other whales, especially if they feel challenged or uncomfortable.” He finished for you, making your smile widen.

“You’re so smart” you huffed the compliment as if he wasn’t told it so often. He didn’t mind, it always meant more coming from you.

“Go on, angel. What else do you have for me?”

[fukutomichi]

Game of Thrones / S06.Ep07 - The Broken Man House of the Dragon / S02.Ep07 - The Red Sowing "Other houses chose dragons, krakens and lions for their for their sigils. We Tullys took the trout, that most terrifying of fish, especially when it leaps out of the water. I suppose you don't have many options when you live in the Riverlands."

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

This goes for all extremists “animal rights”, Better Dead Than Fed movements but especially for the “Empty the Tanks” activists that continues to block the movement of orcas out of poor conditions and into a better facility because it’s not a sanctuary (sanctuaries for orcas have not been built or established as a viable option in any way)

This is also for all the people whose response to a loved animal dying in human care to be “good, at least he can be free now” or advocating for orcas in human care to be “put out of their misery” if they can’t be moved to a (nonexistent) sanctuary.

Your goal is to get a win, your goal is be right and to assure yourself on how morally superior you are about your stance. And your position on this is only true if the animals are suffering. So you want them to be suffering so that you’re right and will attack anyone trying to educate you otherwise.

You don’t care about these animals as individuals with needs and personalities. They are whatever you project your own miserable thoughts onto.

I’m sick and tired of governments listening to these unhinged lobby groups that are living in a reality that doesn’t exist. Sanctuaries don’t exist. Orcas in human care aren’t longing for the ocean. Most of them don’t know what an ocean is.

Marineland Antibes is objectively not fit to house their orcas anymore, their orca habitat is quite literally falling apart. But the activists want the orcas to stay and be "sacrificed" for their cause.

I'm so tired of this.

French source

[samieree]

"Dawn of the North || Robb Stark" Masterlist

(fanfiction)(Robb Stark x OC)

[General Masterlist with list of boys I can write one-shots with here] [Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon Masterlist]

[my works are also avaiable on Ao3: Samiere and on wattpad: _Saelin]

Prologue + description

Chapter I ''Beginning''

Chapter II ''Two worlds''

Chapter III ''Walder Frey''

Collages: "two years"

[elycetellsall]

family duty honor

[paintnpending]

Ser Brynden Tully, Brynden Blackfish, Warden of the Southern Marches, Former Knight of the Gate.

"Black fish or no, I am still a Tully. I shall leave for Riverrun by evenfall."

Another revamped mini from the original Hand of The King bonus set that I got from the kickstarter a thousand years ago. I got to reacquaint myself with his horse's infuriatingly red bridle and those grizzled good looks. The fate of the Blackfish remains unknown in the books, though if he proves as resilient as the Riverlands, I have my hopes.

[mannyblacque]

Source

[rhymeswithfart]

Black and white 2

If you see this, look here:

https://gofund.me/56e276f3 help the Alkhaldi family survive in Gaza! This campaign is vetted at #156 on Gazavetters' list. Very low on funds, €798 / 100k ≈ 1%.

Please share and donate if you can. Visit their blog :

aboodomar

[cetuselena]

CA51A2A ‘Astrid’

[torturedbitchesdepartment]

[asongofstarkandtargaryen]

The sassy award goes to Oscar Tully. He's truly an ancestor of Blackfish and Catelyn Tully.

[danskjavlarna]

Source details and larger version.

The hunters and the hunted: vintage hunting imagery.

[thebeesareback]

Fuck it, let's talk about Littlefinger

(the ASOIAF character, not just fingers in general. Also, I've said "Brandon Stark" for Ned's brother, and "Bran Stark" for Ned's son)

Trigger warning: rape and forced abortion

So one of the things I've said before is that I love ASOIAF for many reasons, including the complexities and backstories of all the characters. I suppose that's why there's a bazillion characters and the books are so long.

Anyway, one interesting example of narrative framing is the perspective we get on Littlefinger. He's (arguably) the main antagonist in the first book and is responsible for everything from Jon Arryn and Ned's death to the Tyrell marriage to Joffrey's assassination. We see him as a scheming villain, determined to harm our saintly Starks.

Littlefinger was born as a second-generation immigrant and heir to a minor lordship. Thanks to his parents' relationship with fuckhead Hoster Tully, he got to foster at Riverrun, where he befriended Cat, Lysa and Edmure. The books are interested in the "outsider" perspective on power status, hence Jon Snow's POV, and arguably Theon and Arya, too. They live in the home, they're part of the family... kinda. Sansa always thinks of Jon as her "bastard half-brother", Theon knows that Ned might have to kill him, and Arya doesn't fit neatly into her assigned gender role. They see Rob and Sansa and want that, kind of, but know they'll never get it.

Therefore, in his youth, Littlefinger knew that he was smart, knew that he wanted power, yet was keenly aware that it was almost impossible for him to socially climb. He does -- we'll get to that in a bit -- but as a child, he knows it's unlikely. Think of Rob and Jon playing in Winterfell and Jon yelling "I'm the Lord of Winterfell" and Rob just returning "no, my mother says you won't be". It's a horrible situation to be in. We don't get Littlefinger's POV, but if we did, I think there's a good chance he would remember a similar scenario.

Then there's Littlefinger's relationship to Catlyn and Lysa. Little boys often have crushes on little girls, and it's usually pretty sweet and can sometimes become a nice romance or just fade away. We hear that Catlyn is intelligent and beautiful as an adult, so it's easy to see the appeal, and Catlyn also has status through her Tully blood and an understanding of Machiavellian power plays because her father raised her as his heir until Edmure was born. One could easily see Littlefinger's desire for Catlyn being a desire for power and status, as well as her own merits.

Lysa had a crush on Littlefinger, creating the incesty love triangle that GRRM loves so much. I can't imagine playing kissing games with a foster brother and a sister, tbh. Littlefinger himself seems to only see Lysa as a pawn, and uses her feelings to get her to do what she wants. The narrative suggests that, for a time, there's Catlyn, mourning her mother; Lysa, mourning her mother and interested in a boy who doesn't really care about her; Edmure, just being a baby; and Littlefinger, caught up in rules and restrictions: allowed to be close to what he wants, but never truly part of the team.

Events start to occur. Fuckhead Hoster Tully decides to set up marriage alliances for Catlyn and Lysa. Lysa meets Jamie Lannister, who barely pays her any attention (he's distracted by the presence of his hero, Brynden "Blackfish" Tully). Catlyn meets Brandon Stark, who has power, status, a noble house, physical prowess -- everything Littlefinger wants. On the night the Stark-Tully engagement is arranged, Littlefinger gets drunk. He can't cope with the years of complicated class dynamics, he's heartbroken, and he's what, 14? He's immature and acts like it. Then Lysa rapes him.

I'm not a psychologist so I can't comment on the impact of sexual violence, especially when gender and power play into the situation in this way. However, Lysa did an unforgivable thing, and there was nobody Littlefinger could turn to. That's horrifying. I also think that more should be made about Littlefinger's comments about shutting your eyes and getting it over with in relation to being in bed with "an ugly woman".

Soon after, he challenges Brandon Stark to a duel for Catlyn's hand. Catlyn "betrays" him (in Littlefinger's mind) by giving Brandon her favour, Edmure "betrays" him by "squiring" for Brandon, and then Brandon nearly kills him. So we have a teenager who is 1) in huge amounts of physical pain, 2) without friends or allies, 3) was recently raped and 4) considered unimportant and insignificant. Then, Lysa rapes him again. The fact that this poor child didn't have a full mental breakdown is genuinely suprising.

We don't know if Littlefinger knew about Lysa's pregnancy at the time. What Hoster did to her was also unforgivable -- violence begets violence, and Lysa and Hoster's relationship is full of toxicity and harm. Hoster is also just generally monstrous. If Littlefinger did know, that's another layer of complexity where his foster father aborts Littlefinger's baby, a physical reminder of the sexual violence Littlefinger endured.

A few years later Lysa convinces her then-husband, Jon Arryn, to bring Littlefinger to King's Landing. He is traumatised, he is resentful, and he is cunning. He works hard to enter the places he was once barred from, like the court, the Red Keep and the small council. Now he can take his revenge on everyone who hurt him.

GRRM often talks about the futility of revenge. House Martell is the most obvious example of this, and the speech Elaria gives is beautiful and poignient. Littlefinger doesn't get revenge on Hoster or Brandon Stark. He does kill Lysa, but that's more to shut her up. In a story with a different perspective -- and a few characters kept alive -- we could see Littlefinger as a Kill Bill style avenger, ruining the lives and families of all of those who harmed him. It could be easy to root for him, not against him as the narrative sets up.

Revenge isn't simple, and that's why Littlefinger doesn't succed and isn't an inspirational character. He never confronts anyone on what happened to him -- he's too psychologically damaged -- so instead he kills Ned and Jon Arryn, two people who had nothing to do with his traumatic experiences at Riverrun, and then he hyperfixates on poor Sansa, who looks like Catlyn in his memory. He's immature and stunted in his mid-teens. I wonder if Littlefinger and Sansa lived for another 10/20 years he'd find himself losing interest because she moved on and he can't.

Littlefinger will likely die because of Sansa, and nobody will miss him. He's not a good person. He's groomed and lied and manipulated her, and the horrors he inflicted on Jeyne Poole, supposedly her best friend, are even worse. I don't see his future death as triumphant, though, in an unbiased overview kind of way. The Starks will celebrate, because he killed their dad. No one else will really care. The Lords Declarant have got rid of an annoyance, and he wasn't really working with King Tommen or the Small Council any more.

I think there is some sadness, though, for the child who wanted to be included, wanted to be loved, and who was instead hated, abused, ignored and scarred. RIP Littlefinger, a victim of the patriachy and the class structure.

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

Hm it’s almost like people genuinely believe that captivity is the biggest threat to cetaceans…

Could it be that by over saturating the public to anti marine park messaging you’ve now created a general public that thinks having dolphins and whales in human care is more of an issue than entanglement in fishing gear, noise pollution ect?

I mean… you could literally donate to so many more important cetacean charities that are dealing with the huge threats that wild whales and dolphins face every day. But sure, let’s donate proceeds to an organisation that spends most of their money on lawyers to “protect” animals by giving them to unaccredited “sanctuaries!”

[ihazyourkitty]

Orcas, at the Utah Natural History Museum

The Utah Natural History Museum recently opened an exhibition on orcas. It’s really good, and I highly recommend it if any of you have the chance to go. I wish I had taken more pictures.

The display covers a lot of topics, e.g. natural their natural history, pod/ecotype dynamics, neural anatomy, echolocation, significance to indigenous cultures, conservation, etc. They had a life sized model of Ruffles, and even highlighted how it was discovered that Ruffles was unrelated to Granny! Oh, and some of their models even had a few rake marks on them. Loved that attention to detail.

The section on orcas and indigenous cultures was fascinating! Indigenous voices really took center stage there and I learned a lot about just how significant orcas are to many Pacific Northwest tribes.

It was very immersive and well done!

The overarching theme was our shared history and future with orcas. So not only was it just a bunch of facts about the animals, but it progressed through time, highlighting our changing perceptions of them. They briefly talked about Moby Doll, Skana, Namu, Keiko, Tokitae, Morgan and Tilikum. There were some (debatable) inaccuracies about Tokitae, but I do appreciate how they acknowledged Keiko’s release attempt didn’t work. They showed various orca themed memorabilia from the 60’s onward, which was cool.

They also pulled no punches in talking about the plight of wild orcas like the SRKW’s. They went into a lot of details about PCB’s, plastic pollution, Chinook salmon, boat noise, etc. It was heart wrenching and very well done.

And naturally…. yes Blackfish and the general anti captivity movement were highlighted. This was fine, the museum’s intent was to show how public perception progressed, and it wasn’t so much that they themselves took a side. It was just…. unfortunate the glaring blind spot it left.

There was some mention of the work trainers have to do to take care of their orcas, including some memorabilia from the Vancouver aquarium. But was kind of a blip where if you blink, you’ll likely miss it.

They mentioned the important work museums and labs do for research, as simply observing them in the wild can’t give us all the details we need….. but nothing about the research done at accredited marine parks, aside from just how public display changed how we used to fear orcas. Sealand of the Pacific was highlighted in one corner, with people like Steve Huxter* appearing in video. Comparatively, SeaWorld was barely mentioned in passing on the plaque about Tilikum, which I found odd.

My guess is that this was a combination of not wanting to piss off certain donors or contributors to the exhibit given how hot this topic is, and/or simply the lack of contributions from places besides Vancouver aquarium. Perhaps there were too many PR, bureaucratic hoops to jump through. Perhaps all of the above. Curating museum displays is a complicated thing.

I suppose if nothing else, this is true to how our history has progressed here. One side has come to dominate the public narrative, while the other has just clammed up. The biggest mistake SeaWorld and the larger zoological community made in the wake of Blackfish was to just stick their heads in the sand, hide behind their PR departments, and hope the controversy would just go away. Well, it didn’t. And the less we tell our stories, the more they win. They’ve done the work of cultivating media connections and media training. We haven’t.

This, like many other things, has the unintended side effect of erasing women from the picture. They mentioned Tilikum briefly, but said nothing of Dawn or the Dawn Brancheau Foundation (then again, they may not have gotten permission to do that).

Most marine mammal trainers are women, some of whom have gone on to make important contributions to the science of animal welfare, behavior and training…. do they deserve to be remembered only as anonymous pretty faces in wetsuits? Actually, I don’t remember them ever explicitly citing Ingrid Visser, Naomi Rose, or Lori Marino for that matter, not even in the areas about field research or orca brain MRI’s. There’s plenty to criticize about their anti-captivity lobbying to be sure, but they have made some key contributions to scientific literature. So it’s odd they wouldn’t even be mentioned by name given both that and their place in the anti-captivity movement.

Alas. I am not a museum curator, and while I disagree with Blackfish et al., I do think the museum handled the topic very well overall. It is good to be exposed to different points of view, and the truth is that there are valid points to be made about the ethics of orcas in captivity. So how do we go forward from here? Do orcas deserve special legal protections as non human persons? That was a question left open to the interpretation of the viewer, even if slanted somewhat in one direction. I love it when displays can pull that off.

Or at least, they handled it well except for when they talked about Morgan. I am pretty sure that the Free Morgan Foundation was not only the sole contributor to that part of the display, but was given a huge amount of editorial leeway in what little information was provided. The rhetoric in the writing alone was a dramatic departure from how the rest of the exhibit was handled.

So. Many. Problems with this!

First of all, Loro Parque is not connected with SeaWorld. They’ve had a business relationship in the past in that SeaWorld gave them some orcas on a breeding loan, and then eventually transferred ownership of said animals completely to Loro Parque. Their veterinarians and trainers have networked/collaborated with one another in the past. But that’s it. That is the extent of their relationship. That is not the same thing as being “connected.” They are not affiliated with one another. They are two completely different parks owned by two completely different companies. This is such an important legal distinction, how do you get this wrong!?

There are no international regulations that ban orca breeding. Some countries or localities have banned it, but this is not universal. The part about Morgan not being allowed to breed was misleading. When SeaWorld ended their breeding program, they still owned the male orcas at Loro Parque. As such, they were not allowed to breed them until ownership was transferred. SeaWorld never claimed ownership of Morgan.

There’s no mention of Morgan being deaf, which is one of the key reasons why she can’t be released. This was confirmed by multiple third party studies, including the US Navy. Cases brought by the Free Morgan Foundation to multiple courts to have her released have each been dismissed.

And as for scientists supposedly discovering multiple fake orca “rescues” ….I’m sorry, which orcas are they referring to? With exception of the Russian Whale Jail and some facilities in China and Japan, marine parks have not been collecting orcas from the wild for decades. Most orcas alive today in Western parks were born in captivity. We know which orcas are which, where they are housed, and where they came from. Morgan was an exceptional case. So what in the world are they even talking about here!?

Further, marine parks are not the ones who decide whether or not an orca is releasable. Government agencies do.

Orcas rake each other in the wild and in captivity. It can happen from aggression and also from rough play. This is normal behavior. The following is an actual peer reviewed study on the social interactions among the orcas at Loro Parque. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C13&q=Loro+parque+orca+communication&oq=loro#d=gs_qabs&t=1731592546318&u=%23p%3DHSC5vZFo3tcJ

Just. So many problems here! Who wrote this!? Seriously, I was able to handle the rest of the anti-cap stuff there up until that point. I had to really bite my tongue to keep myself from getting on a soapbox with my friend in public. Oh well. It was only a very, very small part of the exhibit at least.

(*I’ve actually had a few online conversations with Steve Huxter. While I disagree with him on a lot of things relating to wild vs captive orcas, I do think he’s a genuinely nice guy whose heart is in the right place. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to have been there when Keltie Byrne was killed).

[garnetislovegarnetislife]

​i literally have not been able to stop thinking about an au where ned and cat have sex one last time when they meet up in kings landing, and then cat gets pregnant and only finds out well after ned is dead. they (aka the north esp robb who is very worried for his pregnant mother, and cat who is very worried for her new child) have to keep the baby a secret in case the lannisters find out, and they somehow manage to (i havent managed to figured the logistics of it). the baby ends up having to be whisked away during the red wedding by the blackfish (who is at the red wedding here dwai) to the eyrie, somehow arriving either at the same time or just before petyr and sansa, who both immediately attach themselves to the baby for different reasons (petyr bc “look a piece of catelyn that has no influence from ned beyond its genetics who i can manipulate from infancy” and sansa bc “new sibling?!?!”). also the baby is secretly the heir to the northern throne