#but I refuse to do that I ain't having my toes out at a con

[vaimetanyx]

I wanted rain so I decided to make god cry

Either you love or hate these things, I have had no other reaction

(Full process under the cut)

[Skull pauldron] [Belt] [Greaves] [Toga + sash] [Wig + Laurels] [Armbands] [Flaming feet] [Satyr Sack] [Stygius v1] [Stygius v2] [Nectar]

These things are terrible and were terrible to make but are actually quite comfy to wear!

I started off with some yellow toe socks, and some cheap insoles. The black ones were used as a draft, before I cut out a white pair and painted them yellow. Then I sewed the insoles into position, trying to stick to areas that would later be covered by the actual show sole so they wouldn't be noticed. There was no way to do with without wearing the socks, which turned out to be the case with several stops of this process.

Next was cutting and shaping the show soles! These were from $4 slip on flats, since I wanted a sturdy sole without being too thick. To get the rough size and shape of my feet on the sole I did paint my foot and just stick it on there, before realising I'd made a mistake and having to hop one legged through my house to wash my foot off in the laundry sink. But! It did give me a good base to work off, so I was able to cut out the right shape and then bevel the edges for a more natural look.

I should have bought white shoes. Or done more research about how paints react to whatever rubber mix these shoe soles are made of. Because painting these yellow was so incredibly painful because they kept getting slightly sticky even if the coats dried properly. It was also quite difficult to get them to stick to the material of the socks since hot glue doesn't like a lot of rubber/plastics if it's sticking to something else, and contact adhesive doesn't like most materials. So I had to use epoxy resin to try and connect these two together since it was the strongest thing I had, and boy was it painful trying to figure out the right amount so it wouldn't all squeeze out the sides and ruin the whole shoesock. Overall terrible experience, -1/10, but they ended up on the feet and painted yellow which was the goal.

Then I got to paint my legs orange along with the socks in order to get that on-fire look. it wasn't the most even gradient due to some of the angles I had to work at while wearing them, but thankfully not too noticeable.

And with that, they were done, and ready to horrify everyone I come across! The greaves have worn some of the orange paint off the socks after my first con, but thankfully that's not noticeable if I place the socks and greaves in the same position each time I wear the outfit.

Terrible

[navree]

Do you consider Criston’s and Rhaenyra’s love scene dub-con or something along those lines? I’m rewatching the series and got a bit uncomfortable while watching it, but tbh I felt pretty weird about it when the episode first came out. Not sure if it was because there were two other dub-con - or in Alicent’s case rape - scenes in that same sequence.

Might be controversial, but I do think it toes the line but falls more towards "consensual" than "dubious", if I'm honest. I also wanna be clear, I am not an expert on assault or rape culture or anything like that whatsoever, this is just my take on that scene. Nor is the view I'm offering here my overall view on sexual engagement in general, just how it reads when looking at the context of the show and the world and the actions of the scene in and of itself, that's it.

The key element here is, I think, desire and capability of saying no. What makes Alicent's scene so hard to watch and very clearly marital rape (unless you have brain worms) is that you can tell that this is not something she wants to do in the slightest, and that she does not have the ability to refuse it. She very clearly can't say "yeah it's late and I've been taking care of a baby and you just woke me up for this, no thanks", because she tries to start that excuse and the person who summoned her on Viserys's behalf ain't having it. Alicent's relationship to Viserys has been shown on screen to be something she was pushed into, and the negative scenes involving it (her discomfort during the carriage ride in ep 3, him being dismissive of her with Daemon, her face when Rhaenyra makes the "imprisoned in a castle" comment) far outpace any positives, like her enjoying hearing him talk about Valyria. This isn't a situation Alicent wants and it's not a situation she can even try to back out of it.

That is very, very strongly contrasted with Criston and Rhaenyra. First things first, we know that Rhaenyra and Criston like each other, Rhaenyra's had an interest in him since episode 1 and we've seen their relationship build through episode 3 and episode 4. We know they like each other, not only because both are good looking but that they also like each other as people, and have a connection, and throughout the actual love scene in and of itself it's pretty clear that they do both desire each other and are being sexually fulfilled during their encounter. This is something that they both want to do, Criston included, this is something that he does engage in relatively willingly, so that's the desire portion. When it comes to capability of saying no, Criston can. I haven't rewatched that scene in a wee bit, but from what I remember I think after she kisses him he says something along the lines of "no" or "I can't" or something along those lines. Rhaenyra ignores that, which ain't great, nowadays we know that if someone gives you a verbal refusal you need to take a step back rather than keep pressing on or trying to ignore it, but I think that's the end of Criston's refusal. And Criston does have the space to say no, he can in fact take a step back and say that his Kingsguard vows are too important, regardless of what he feels, and he can't risk them. I know people have said that he can't refuse because then she could cause problems for him, but crying false allegations because she's been refused would be wildly out of character not just for the Rhaenyra we know but for the Rhaenyra Criston knows as well, so that doesn't seem to be a concern that he would logically have. Rhaenyra might pout if refused, she might be a bit cold to Criston, which again, nowadays we know that sulking because you're denied sex is a bad move, but that's nowhere near the same loss as being executed. And, just as a brief note, I think Criston's still largely in plate armor at the time before he decides he's all in and down for some hanky panky, and Rhaenyra as played by Milly looks like she's less than 100 pounds soaking wet, he could theoretically have ultimately walked away from the encounter and there wasn't much she would have been able to do about it.

I don't think criticisms of the scene and elements that due point to a dubiousness in the consent are without merit. There is still a power differential given Rhaenyra's royal status, and as I said, he does at one point try to pull away before giving in, and Rhaenyra does ignore that. But to me, the scene reads less as "Criston resisting because he doesn't want to have sex with her at all and then gets forced into it", moreso that "Criston is hesitant due to the treason stuff but he really wants to, and ultimately gives in to his baser impulses". The issues in Rhaenyra's treatment of him come afterwards, in episode 5, in not understanding where he's coming from when he wants to rectify his "sin" and in not understanding that this is a big deal for him, that the consequences would be dire for him, and not seeing that her wanting to continue on an affair (in her mind a best of both worlds situation because she does like him a lot and want to have sex with him and doesn't want to abandon their relationship) is insulting not just to his religion but to him as a person. And of course there's the fact that this scene isn't really even about Criston and Rhaenyra as a couple or their thoughts on having sex, it's to set the scene for the eventual falling out between Rhaenyra and Alicent and to further develop Rhaenyra as someone who is playful and willful but also naive and who chafes at the confines of her gender, who wants to be able to behave like a man, especially like a man she trusts and strongly relates to, but can't and has to learn that through her scene with Alicent and her scene with Viserys and the end of the episode when she's given moon tea.

Ultimately, I think that "dubiously consensual" might be the right word for it, but that the dubiousness is incredibly light since, given circumstances and ability to refuse and prior existing relationship and ultimate desire between two parties, it seems pretty clear that, while nervous about consequences, Criston did indeed want to have sex and was a willing participant.