#but anyway - what struck me was this:

[anewp0tat0]

i lied i had like atleast one more weston thought to expell from my brain, before i miss this boat entirely. we're heading to green lands woooo

[halfstayed]

“I should have married you”

(credit: ★ ☆)

[acedavestrider]

i dont think gerard talking about his bag of knives before sleep was funny silly or quirky i think it was a very real look at how he handled/is currently handling the grief he feels about his friend dying. something about wishing someone would come and hurt you so you have an excuse to kill them is like very... its grief thats so intense and violent it makes you wish you could project it onto someone else. anyways.

[artuurle]

because today has been a Bizzyboy kick for me i decided to sketch my hcs about the height and builds of these guys. who knows if i draw them like this again or iterate upon the designs though.

Also calling out how horribly I dressed Grujaja. theres a reason i did it but its still foul XC

[edennill]

elured&elurin who died alone in the forest and elros&elrond who had their home destroyed over and over but survived to help build a new tomorrow and elladan&elrohir who were raised in peace and prosperity, and all of them star-twins. "shakes you by the shoulders" meme, do you understand

[ministarfruit]

just had a somewhat cursed outfit swap idea

[anoant-haikyuu-dump]

In the Philippines rn and was hit with a stroke of inspiration

[fascinationstreetmp3]

when he's almost like your claudia

[megsdoodletag]

the funniest part of juno's canon is that cato sicarius and lelith hesperax end up as like. some kind of work friends. to the detriment of everyone else, naturally

they met bc guilliman and yvraine keep stationing them as guards outside the study during their 'meetings'

the super secret spicy guillivraine meeting under the readmore

LMAO fun fact for the juno verse: 90% of her parents relationship is just this, don't let anyone tell u otherwise

[phoenixyfriend]

If your favorite contains backing vocals, go with whatever feels right in terms of 'they are just as important as the main vocalist' or 'they are functionally another backing instrument like the guitarist or drummer.'

I know that the musicians are in fact just as important as the vocalist (obvious example: the guitar solos in classic rock, like Queen), but hopefully you get what I'm going for here.

[cq-studios]

Made a little Quiz about Brain, not too hard but I hope y’all enjoy it anyways ^^

[deadpanwalking]

I’m… neither of the previous anons, but— twentieth century history, if you would?

Still way too broad, but I don't have any fight left in me. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson is one of the best history books of the past few decades. If it had just been the sum total of fifteen years of oral histories (over a thousand, iirc) and rigorous archival research—dayenu!—it would have still impressed, but Wilkerson took all those interviews and distilled them into the personal narratives of three different African Americans who left the South during the Great Migration; if she had only given us their stories and presented the research and historical perspective in the context of this barely recognized 70 year migration of six million people—dayenu!—it would have still been a massive achievement; but Wilkerson also put the Great Migration into larger contexts, constantly reflecting the way it shapes the present and future.

[quinn-pop]

Metadede

yep. metadede 👍👍

dedede is great at getting people to stop overworking by the process of Shenanigans. even if it’s just taking a little break

meta’s weakness is fighting so egging him on usually works

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: STARLING HOUSE by Alix E. Harrow.

Still in my Haunted House Era™, finished this one this afternoon, had a great time!! Harrow somehow always puts Just Enough of my personal catnip in her books, and I've really enjoyed everything of hers I've read so far (WITCHES, JANUARY, and now this, which was decidedly more modern--I'm a fan!).

Like with THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES, I really enjoyed the sibling dynamics in STARLING HOUSE. Opal and Jasper were delightful, and the ONLY valid Miscommunication Plot Point is one-upping each other on [SPOILER REDACTED]--wholesome, perfect, no notes. I loved how sharp and vicious Opal was, and I loved how insufferable Arthur was, and I loved Jasper (who, me? having a soft spot for clever kind teenage boys?? whaaaat), and Bev, and the hellcat, and THE HOUSE!!! The House was great, I'm making so many NaNo prep notes over here.

I also enjoyed the parallels between Eleanor and Opal and how cyclic violence was emphasized through the circular framing. AND it was fun piecing together the whole manuscript's structure--definitely a break from, say, VanderMeer, or Le Guin, but I liked the footnotes and the offset fonts and figuring out who was telling which stories and Why It Was Framed Like That. Good book! Good time!! Do recommend!

[bruhstation]

of fucking course the best, most harrowing, most gut-wrenching tugs character only appeared in one episode (a bit of ramble in the tags)

[starry-eyer]

magic in asoiaf is genetic. and that is intresting. and the fact that grrm doesn’t shy away from the implications of this makes me love asoiaf even more.

because it’s very understandable that these people who could ride dragons would see themselves as more gods than men. it’s understandable that the practice of sibling-sibling incest would become common in order to keep this ability in the family/to not lose said ability. it’s also understandable that these people would see their race as superior because they are able to do these things that others could not.

it also makes complete sense that this human civilization collapsed in a horrific magical event due to their own hubris because they saw themselves as gods when they were always only men.

and that is peak world building.

some more peak world building is that the noble houses of westeros also clearly gained power and held onto their power through the use of their magical abilities inherited from their ancestors.

a godlike existence like Garth the Green being the ancestor of all the oldest and most noble of the reach houses makes perfect sense for this world!and it also makes sense that the lords without this ancestry are discriminated against in this region that still holds onto the values their society cultivated in the past in order to maintain their magical superiority, even though most of these noble and old houses no longer exhibit these abilities.

and it also makes sense that these people no longer have access to these abilities as they no longer practice the religion that was centered around these powers; plus their blood is simply diluted at this point as these houses have married into a different ethnic group so often that the magical gene just doesn’t surface anymore.

but the fact that it still matters if you can trace your ancestry back to Garth the Green? peak! peak! peak!

george does such an excellent job showcasing the stagnation of westerosi society here because why should it matter if you’re connected to this magic guy if magic is no longer commonplace? however, it also makes total sense that the ruling class of the reach still harps on and on about this as it’s how they maintain the status quo and differentiate themselves from those they consider lesser now that they no longer have access to magic themselves.

and this is also why it’s very important that the Starks still retain the blood of the first men. because the first men interbred with the children of the forest and other elder races, which is what gave these humans these powers. it’s also worth noting that before the direwolves connected with the Stark children, none of our current Starks were able to awaken their abilities by themselves, which shows that even now they are very far removed from their ancestor who’s genetic makeup gave this bloodline these abilities. and it makes sense that the Starks experienced this slow magical decline because magic itself was declining in the world after the doom of valyria.

another reason for this decline is because Andal culture started heavily influencing the North and slowly changed the way magic was perceived. so now in the present, a warg/skinchanger/greenseer has become something to fear being because that’d make you different and therefore puts your life at risk, which means that there’s now practically no safe environment to cultivate these abilities and no secure way to pass down any knowledge you do have about said abilities.

i can’t help but be reminded about how Jon Snow has rejected his nature and how that has led to the stagnation of his abilities, and then i think about Arya and Bran and how their new environments have led to an astonishing growth in their abilities, which shows that it’s not just genetics that matter, environment is also just as, if not more, important.

i bring all of this up because magic being genetic in asoiaf is not as problematic as people try to make it out as. in real life, sometimes people just have genetic gifts. some people can become olympians, and some people are disabled. some people are born 10 times smarter than the average human, and some people believe that covering their faces in lemon juice would turn them invisible. that is reality. and in this universe, some people have access to magic and some don’t, and it’s all based on genetics. it’s unfair! and that makes it realistic.

not everyone gets to ride dragons and not everyone gets to travel back in time, and that grounds asoiaf, which is what grrm was going for.

and how these societies have organized themselves in response to these genetic abilities and the dangers they pose makes absolute sense. on one hand we have the valyrian freehold, which was a magic hotspot and the people who lived there used magic to propel their society to new heights, and on the other hand we have the seven kingdoms that demonize anyone too different, and all magic practitioners are different from normal humans.

and the fact that george decided to go this route with asoiaf is so juicy to me cause:

we have characters like Varamyr and Euron who use their abilities to commit great evils and we know that their powers have influenced the way they see and interact with others. on the other hand we have characters like Dany who use their abilities to fight against evil violent institutions. and through characters like her we learn how vulnerable fledgling magic practitioners/characters with these abilities are to these older and more dangerous institutions and individuals who are perfectly aware about the knowledge gap between them and these younger characters and know exactly how to exploit them.

so, while it’s understandable that the fandom is uncomfy with the practices and values that grrm has written about, this isn’t bad world building by any means. it’s logical and well thought out. and i truly enjoy that grrm doesn’t shy away from writing about the more worrying aspects and implications of magic being a matter of genetics. i also like how the seven kingdoms and the valyrian freehold are kinda extremes on the matter of magic and how this is/was detrimental to both of these societies and at the individual level. a horrific magical firey doom is not any better nor any worse than a slow drawn out icey decline.

imo, what is important to remember is that in the world of asoiaf, people with magic are the ones who are discriminated against (bc most POV characters are in Westeros and magic is a no no there). so they are the ones who are in danger if they out themselves as magic users. now, it is true that some societies are more tolerant (Qarth is a great example of this and Valyria before the doom was likely the most tolerant to have ever existed in this world), but as of now most societies simply aren’t. remember jojens warning? he didn’t pull that out of his ass. bran would’ve been in a lot of danger if he came out and told the wrong people about his dreams/abilities. also, jon’s assassination may have been partly motivated by the mutineers fear of wargs. this is the life-threatening danger magic practitioners are in for simply existing in an intolerant society.

tbh the reason i typed all this up is because it’s very annoying when people try to ignore the reality, which is that the dragonbond depends on genetics. now, i’m sure there are other ways to ride a dragon, as dragons are magical animals so of course there may be a one in a million chance of a dragon allowing some rando to ride it, but this doesn’t change the fact that there is such a thing as a genetic ability that gives these certain humans the ability to form a connection with a dragon.

(another example that i can’t help but remember is that melisandre was able to get ghosts approval by using some of her tricks. of course there could be other reasons for ghost to have done this, but the most likely reason is that ghost simply fell for melisandre’s trick and this influenced how jon saw mel. but this doesn’t change the fact that melisandre will never have the kind of bond jon and ghost have because melisandre is not a warg. this is also another example of how vulnerable fledgling magic practitioners are to older ones.)

so, sorry not sorry that george decided to create a realistic representation of what a society would look like if only certain bloodlines were able to ride dragons <\3.