#but like its less bc of him as a character and more bc hes a lannister and I miss them :( but hes also a funny little guy :)

[horizon-verizon]

To add to all this, people (deliberately in this fandom) mistake epigenetics when they try to use it against Rhaego; epigentics says that even though you can inherit genetic markers and predispostiions from your biological parents that affect your development, the experiences you will have during said development will have just as much influence over how that development goes throughout your childhood.

It's not "nature overpowers nurture every single time". It's "they work in tandem, overlap; life is complicated and despite having particular genes that can affect you, after birth your genes can be almost if not just as affected by your environment, thus nothing is 100% definite and unchanging or can be inherited perfectly as as it was expressed before"--something that which has been explored and found again and again in fantasy but esp sci fi fiction for hundreds of years. Epigenetics is the observation of how the environment can cause your genes' expression to be rearranged and even be marked to show at all or not. Epigenetics is not phrenology nor anything like it. It is not scientific racism nor eugenics. It is its opposer!

What does this mean for Rhaego? Rhaego is BOTH Dany' s and Drogo's biological child. Dany is not inherently evil nor is she bound for madness and there's no clue in text for such AND she has done no evil against anyone, including Mirri or her people herself. Drogo had been dying when Mirri cursed Rhaego to die; if she had left him be, he would have been raised by the queen regnant/conqueror/rape-banning-Dany, not a man who had power above her. And he would have been raised in the environment Dany cultivated for him, herself, and others. Because Dany is both compassionate in behavior and is not an innately mad or violent person...if one really tried to apply any idea of epigenetics to them all, he had all the chances and likelihood to be something/someone totally different from Drogo...duh! Anyone would be a different person if they lived in a different country or amongst a set of people/society than if they had been in another, that's culture's influence!!!!

People love to gloss this part over or twist the text into something it's not. They say/imply Dany's life is worth less than it is, or that it needs to be so bc she herself (when they want to avoid saying Rhaego was definitely going to be evil, rapist, etc.) was also eventually going to be mad like her father even though Targs are not predisposed to madness and actually few of them really went mad and even fewer went mad bc of some possible genetic condition. And under their consolidated-Westerosi-rule (when the different kingdoms were combined), there have actually been less war compared to before where these kingdoms warred every Tuesday. They weren't perfect nor did war end, but it is a fact it was reduced and thus their rule did not have a worse violently disastrous effect on Westeros!

It's actually a very racist arguement in of itself, to argue that one's parent's exact traits and more disfavorbale ones or that certain physical features spell evil in the person's very character and future behavior. That's racist eugenics, folks!!!

Besides asoiaf fandom being racist as per usual, this fandom' also is encouraged from their own desire's racism is propelled and informed by their desire for a more didactic and simpler reading of ASoIaF , or:

the flattening of a complex story into a reductive, didactic message of their preference people have correctly identified that despite the power fantasy of their conceptualisation, martin is not writing them as merely self indulgent, aspirational figures, but they've also overcorrected that into 'actually every element of their characterisation reveals one true didactic intent'. so, every instance of incest must be a metaphor for auto cannibalism, the dragons are only a nuke metaphor, the sense of superiority is a stand-in for supremacist ideology etc. [a post from branwinged]

Mirri Maz Duur wasn't thinking of the world when she went after a teenaged bride slave and her unborn child when she targeted Dany INSTEAD OF THE FULLY GROWN MEN actually doing the pillaging and raping. Dany was 14--her body was underdeveloped for pregnancy.

Mirri went after her bc that is what she had the easiest access to. The easiest accessed thing does not mean that you have actually addressed the entity that is the "root" and "cause" of all the evil done to you; it's just makes you feel more in control, and in Mirri's case, part of your revenge against someone like Drogo. Who had already been dying. She could have left Dany's child out of it, but she FULLY UNDERSTOOD that 14-year old Dany COULD HAVE DIED from her forcefully aborting Rhaego WITHOUT DANY'S CONSENT. As for Dany's vision of a purple eyed man with darker skin and her hair leading an army, what makes one think that it wasn't an army that was doing good as hers is/was doing?

They want so bad to see the Dothraki embody the violent "savage" stereotype that indigenous people's have had lobbed against them as the true colonizer's method, in justifying their own violence in destroying them altogether. Or to the point of difficulty of self-recongization and erasure of cultural meanig of "self". Under Dany, those that were the most vulnerable and left behind by the stronger that Dany became queen and savior of--through absolute necessity, they were going to die, can't stress this enough--the Dothraki people and the weaker slaves/unslaved became not that stereotype. Or at least moved away from it and can't be said to match other hordes. And that is why they continue to try to make all these racist arguements.

No I am not saying that Dothraki's culture is rape. I am saying that under Dany's leadership, her particular Dothraki horde are even moved away from the historical practice of enslavement just as "dracarys" is now often used as a freedom call amongst enslaved people. Her influence matters and is positive and is necessary.

What does "she has a savior complex" even mean? What do you want her to have done, leave behind all those vulnerable women and children (small or teen) to die out in the desert? Not try to free slaves? Leave Eroeh out to die in the desert when she fell ill? Be as sel-fconcerned as some of your favs? Not try to stop the Dothraki from raping and killing even before her husband got his mortal wound--when she had been just a bridal slave/khaleesi consort? What then, is a objectively good and non-savior-complex example of a leader in ASoIaF?! It seems people in this fandom--esp in this very thread--just want selfish or self-absorbed and self concerned leaders.

These people will be one stroke away from calling Dany a goody two shoes but then also say she's bound for madness and imply she has a festering evil core that will one day out! What they really mean to say is that she should have died so she doesn't intefere with the status quo of slavery or women subjected to violence or children subjected to anyone's violence--man or women.

To be completely honest

I would’ve done what Miri Maz Durr did if I were her.

You have the chance to destroy a mans budding dynasty. This man conquered your village and his men thought it was their right to rape you, and his wife thought making you her slave, was her saving you.

Then you get the chance to destroy him, his wife and his legacy.

I would’ve taken it, if I were Mirri Maz Durr.

[choccy-milky]

I was out with my mom at the store and saw this beautiful picture! I instantly thought of Clora and imagined her walking through a flower field with Seb trailing behind! Ahhh! So pretty!! ❤❤

(I can imagine this piece being from Seb's perspective, or he commissioned someone to paint it for him. We love a simping man 🥰)

thats bc it IS clora 🌼🌿

but that painting is beautiful AND IM SO HONOURED U THOUGHT OF CLORA WHEN U SAW IT??😭💖 and i love the idea of it being from sebs POV too...him taking her to a field of flowers and just watching and smiling as she twirls and frolics around and brings a truckload of flowers back with them....GRAHHH MY HEART🥹💖💖

@fulica-atra AW😭😭 i rly do have SO much fun drawing clora and seb all the time BAHHA so im happy if that can come across in my art as well🥹and im glad i could help inspire you too!! omg i was working on a webtoon before HL consumed me, and creating your own universe/characters/original world is definitely a challenge (but a fun one) and im with you there on daydreaming as you fall asleep...its the best part, tbh😤 GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR STORY!! and THANK YOUUU💖💖

hi and thank you!! so the first 2 times that smut happens in my fic i DO put a warning in the beginning notes, but overall, FROM WHAT I REMEMBER, smut happens in chaps 16 (not a sex scene tho...just some solo seb BAHHA), 26, 27, and 32. there could be more im missing tho/smaller scenes i dont remember, so if you wanna be absolutely certain, you could also read it on ffnet! that site doesnt allow explicit content, so i cut the scenes out before uploading it there. (but i honestly would recommend just skimming past the smut on either ao3 or wattpad, since the ver of my fic that's on ffnet is a lot less polished/not edited💀 and sometimes dialogue happens before/after the smut, but i think i just cut it out entirely in the ffnet ver, i cant remember...) BUT ANYWAY, if you do get around to reading it, i hope you like it!!🙏

LMFAOOOO speaking of smut...truly the duality of man....i guess this is a sign i should finish the nsfw wips i have rn👀

BAHAHA THE WAY I THOUGHT THIS WAS GONNA BE SCATHING WHEN I FIRST GOT THIS ASK and saw the preview of 'im trying so hard to get through it..." LMAOO im sorry for making you put up with bitch ass lawley😔🙏 BUT THANK YOUUU AND IM GLAD YOU LIKE IT/ARE SO INVESTED💖💖💖

and your anon immediately afterwards made me laugh LMAOO. all better now!!! 🥰lawley who???

@vaiotai bc thats how men SHOULD be when theyre in love🥰i dont make the rules🥰🥰(except for when i do😇)

[specificpollsaboutbooks]

Fiction Works with Footnotes

Semifinals

Propaganda under the readmore

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell :

The best book I've ever read with no sequel. Read at your own risk, it is an immaculate novel that will probably never get a follow up. The worldbuilding is some of the finest I've read.

The book is filled with footnotes mimicking academic citations and references to innumerable fake books that really make it feel there is a much wider world out there and the book is only centering on this one period of time

So the book is an in universe academic account and the footntes are basically the watsonian author being salty about historical figures. like what more could you want in a footnote. In terms of the book as a whole, its villain was the inspiration for michael shelley of magnus archives fame so something mustve been done right

Bartimaeus :

There are in-character footnotes all the time from Bartimaeus's POV, along with more standard footnotes explaining things less frequently in other POVs. Fundamentally changed my writing style as a child, I bear the brunt of these footnotes.

This series has a lovable (to me) snarky morally gray protagonist. Also it is a demon (djinn).

these books have footnotes by the narrator who is a cool magical djinn and theyre super fun bc they allow him to elaborate on worldbuilding or make snarky remarks that wouldnt otherwise fit in the narrative :3

it's been years since I read them but I still remember them fondly for their fascinating world-building, interesting characters, and their wit, which was often on display in the footnotes

the series is about a demon named bartimaeus who gets summoned by a teenage magician and it's written from the demon's perspective so all the footnotes are from his perspective as well and they're really cool because they give more information about the worldbuilding AND they're also really fucking funny because bartimaeus is a sarcastic bitch most of the time <3

This series is fun and the footnotes add information AND are funny! Seriously one of the best YA fantasy series

Bartimaeus is one of the main characters* of the trilogy**. He's a djinni summoned by the young magician Nathaniel. The story is set in a world where magicians, by binding the powers of magical beings from the Other World, hold all the political power over non-magical commoners.*** Bartimaeus, as a djinni****, can think about many things all at once and this is represented in the story as footnotes.*****

*One would say that HE is The main character (he would say that), but there are two other (similarly) flawed and interesting main characters.

**Actually it's a 'sequence' with a prequel book set in ancient times, but we're seperating that one from the OG story now.

***It's slavery and oppression. Let's call it what it is. Magicians are not good people.

****And as a quite extraordinary and humble creature.

***** Like this! :D

[treasureplcnet]

assorted bodies doodles (transcript of that messy relationship square under the cut due to my handwriting/incoherency)

TAKE THESE W A GRAIN OF SALT i am like 90% joking:

hillinghead -> hasan, and vice versa: immediate mutual respect

hillinghead -> whiteman: he's incredibly smart, deceptively cunning but very kind. but he is also so annoying oh my god--

hillinghead -> maplewood: "please someone explain science fiction to me"

whiteman -> iris, and vice versa: two friends secretly think of the other as the sidekick

whiteman -> hillinghead: annoying him is quickly becoming a favorite pasttime

whiteman -> hasan: will not admit it but he wants parenting tips from her

hasan -> whiteman: has slipped a parenting book to him

hasan -> maplewood: deja vu about their future weirds her out a little, but she trusts her

iris -> hillinghead: fond of him from the time they spoke in the prison. enjoys fucking with him

iris -> hasan: SHE'S THE GOAT

[rey-jake-therapist]

The rings stopped working after the One ring was destroyed before Sauron had cast a spell so the rings were connected to the Ring. There's nothing that indicates that the rings heal also because of him, only that whatever power they have, he may amplify this power when he takes part in their making, though I'm not even sure if that. He also establishes a connection between him and the Rings. The way I understood it, the Mithril that wasn't enough became enough because Sauron and Celebrimbor tapped into the Unseen World to amplify its healing qualities.

But until the One Ring is forged, the rings aren't connected but not bound to Sauron, that's why he can't control their bearers. When he saw that their bearers enjoyed the use of his rings but remained themselves uncontrollable, he forged the One Ring, and cast a spell using powers from the Unseen World so all the rings that were forged became bound to this ring. The moment he did that, It's only then that the Elven rings' powers indeed became dependant of him, or more precisely of the One Ring's existence. That's why they had to remove their rings, otherwise they would have become slaves of Sauron.

As for the rest, no offense but I think you keep confusing two things that are unrelated. The question of the Valar presents itself when it comes to judge Sauron for his crimes : only the Valar can judge him, not another Maiar, because they're his equal and equal beings can't judge one another. The question of his pre-judgement healing by Nenya or any other way is another one.

You have your headcanons, that's cool but I don't think there's any reason given in the lore to think that Nenya couldn't have healed Sauron's corruption. And anyway at the end it's not even the topic of this discussion. The topic was the absurdity of showing that Nenya could heal Adar's corruption, but not following this scene with a discussion involving Sauron's own corruption.

I saw someone dismiss this idea "because if Sauron had been healed by Nenya the show would stop there". Nobody asked for Sauron to be healed by Nenya lmao that's the kind of reasoning that gives plot driven arcs instead of characters driven arcs : "we can't have x characters doing x thing even if it would be in character for them to, because it's not good for the plot". It was simply out of character from Galadriel to not even have this conversation with Sauron. I believe like it was suggested in another post that for Nenya to heal corruption, the character has to know they're "sick" and want to be healed : they did a terrible job at showing that Adar wanted to be better so it looks like Nenya did all the job for him.

Sauron doesn't think he's "sick" and doesn't want to change, not anymore. He believes what he's doing is right and for the greater good. So we could have had a scene where Galadriel suggests that *he* could be healed like Adar was, and him dismiss the idea. It would have enraged Galadriel, would have made her sound much less stupid than when she said "do you want to heal me?" (Made no sense in that context), and later "heal yourself" (again didn't make sense bc at no point she acknowledged that he was sick). There, problem solved.

Nenya being able of freeing someone from the corruption of morgoth should have a bigger impact in the narrative and caracthers and be a game changer in middle earth and the fact that Galadriel refuses to give it to Sauron that is desperately trying to escape melkor's influence is beyond shortsighted and cruel I blame the writers, mind you Not her but this is huge plot hole (idk what we would call a device being able to fix all the issues of a universe being ignored) and I can't stop thinking about the what if scenario where gal handles sauron the ring

[mohntilyet]

Personal headcanon about the "you picked the wrong dellamorte" line, I don't think illario actually likes rook outside the context of them being someone close to lucanis. Like rook on their own isn't much to him, but when they meet it's yet another person talking about his cousin (why isn't he good enough for whatever job they're hiring for?) and on top of that they somehow bring him back from the dead (another whole can of worms for illario). Now he starts turning on the charm, but whether he's actually interested or this is just one more thing his cousin has that he doesn't and it gets under his skin, who knows. Either way, rook ignores illario, the guy who lives off his charm, and is instead interested in the guy who's never even dated before and thinks giving someone a knife is how to flirt. Infuriating

NO THANK YOU !! i am genuinely sorry if i have ever implied illario is into rook like i see some takes about it and unless it like ties into your rook's personal backstory i don't seriously think he's romantically jealous. at all. my enjoyment of that line stems from illario's pathological need to make it about himself and not see his strengths but what lucanis has, and therefore what he doesn't. he's annoyed enough to try and goad you in the middle of a fight about the 'wrong' dellamorte and completely blind to the fact that the venatori are at best, a stupid fucking alliance, and at worst, a cult that will devour the crows from the inside out and illario would have been the one to give them the keys. he sees lucanis make allies, needs his own, and instead of charming the other talons/houses as he should, he (probably spitefully) picks the venatori. or maybe he just thought it would be easier. ugh he makes me want to telekenetically throw him around

[melodyatlas]

in the actors au ive decided jason deals with the backlash of fans getting upset about him and tim dating bc their characters are psuedobrothers by very loudly shipping their characters lmao

[francy-sketches]

I think aemond might be one of my least favorite greens rn (not that I dislike him I just like the others more) which is crazy bc I started out ready to be a hardcore aemond stan and I'm gonna be honest I think a good part of it is that he's too popular 💀 like it's not as fun to justify the crimes of your evil little gremlin guy when there's one gazilion other people doing the same. I need to be #notlikeothergirls or whatever idk

[imavikingo]

I said this in tags on another post, but it’s relevant and deserves its own post (I should be reading my usual pre- sleeping fic selection, BUT! I had this revelation -being sleepy is useful once again! -)

They NEEDED Steve to disappear, to be gone. To never care about Bucky anymore. That way they could treat Bucky as they see fit, and that means treating him like shit.

Steve would NEVER accept or allow Bucky to make amends, he would NEVER let the government take care of Bucky or be part of his “rehabilitation” in any way shape or form. That’s why he became Nomad, that’s why Bucky stayed in Wakanda. He would had fight with teeth and nails for Bucky.

“He died already more than once! He was a victim! A prisoner of war. He saved the fucking universe. What the fuck do you mean with amends!”

He became a wanted criminal for that same reason, to not let them have Bucky (nor other people in a fucking watchlist)

They needed Steves relationship with Bucky to become bitter, to be nothing more than a memory.

Steve being in retirement wouldn’t have cut it and…

Bucky was always going to follow Steve, no matter what.

So they needed him to stay alone (or with a companion that didn’t really care as much as Steve, enter Sam)

This way they killed two birds with one stone in Endgame: Reinforcing Steves “love” for Peggy, because “he’s NOT gay, you guys!”, and the partial isolation of Bucky.

[ghostlypawn]

honestly think saying wicked is a ‘story about friendship’ does a disservice to the show when at its crux its a story about discrimination and corrupt governments

[13eyond13]

love it when a character that's hard to read intuitively for you has like a dedicated fandom interpreter who can just glance at their blank face in a panel and then give you a 3k word essay on their innermost thoughts & desires & fears and neatly tie it back into the themes & whatnot as if it's the most obvious thing in the world

[skitskatdacat63]

"Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily."

+ process(tw blood)

Also, look at him, bloody little guy 🥹

This drawing was inspired by several matador pics :D here and here:

^ I don't think I'll ever live up to the second one ah. There's several pics of that specific guy just soaked with blood, and I'm uh a bit obsessed with then ITS FUCKED UP I KNOW OKAY! But I've not drawn blood in a while so it was a bit difficult so I added less than I would want to I guess. Also I'm obsessed with how often they kneel in bullfighting?? Like okay who are you arching your back and spreading your legs for-

[bitchthefuck1]

you know what, I actually will talk about this because it's bothering me. The issue with focussing so heavily on syd and carmy's potential for a romantic relationship isn't that there's something inherently unintellectual about romance or whatever, it's that a lot of people seem incapable of doing that without immediately flattening the story and ignoring or intentionally misreading any and all nuance for the sake of that romance. Every scene suddenly becomes about how it impacts their relationship, every analysis is done through a romantic lens, every frame or line of dialogue becomes about finding some easter egg or hint that "proves" these people should start dating. Their dynamic is absolutely a fundamental part of this show, but if you can only see it as a will-they-won't-they, you miss so much of what the story is actually trying to say with these two.

There are good versions of this story where their relationship is romantic and there are good versions of this story where it isn't, but as soon as you decide them being together is "the point," you lose the ability to actually judge the story for what it is, not what you want it to be.

[gladiatorcunt]

thinking about rafe & coryo & anakin & astarion and how imo their inherrent appeal (if you pick up on any) is supposed to be in the fact that something is extremely wrong with them (or they aren’t meant to have any appeal at all). bc i don’t understand the stans who are so selective with reading and hearing they try to argue otherwise like were you so blinded you ignored the glaringly & obviously bad things about them??????? rafe & coryo & anakin later especially?????????

[ahti-the-janitor]

Sometimes I feel like people are allergic to any sort of nuance and complexity when it comes to the characters. They either see them as completely evil, without any nuance whatsoever, and every single action from them as evil and bad as if everything is always so black and white and people are only one way, or then they see them as these perfect people who never do any wrong and try to explain away their faults and mistakes and shortcomings.

I am not saying you cannot dislike characters or that These or Those actions are redeemable, that doing a few things makes a person good etc. but the lack of nuance is frustrating me. I think it makes the characters much less interesting and less compelling to only reduce them to "completely evil person who never did anything good" or "perfect person who never did anything wrong". I've just seen a lot of oversimplification of these very nuanced, conplex characters.

People either go "yes, this character acted in a questionable way, but none of it was bad bc This and That, they did NOTHING wrong!!" or "omg they never did anything good and every action of theirs was an evil one". Like... You are allowed to have things be complicated, you are allowed to see the complexities It makes the characters interesting!!

[beaulesbian]

this is insane! zoro wasn't even at the first discussion where luffy said he doesn't want to be a hero, with his whole "heroes had to share their food" analogy, yet later he repeated almost the same words.

at that time zoro was locked in the ryugu castle in the cage dangling above water with usopp and brook, when luffy and jimbei had this discussion (chapter 634):

and then at the end of fishman island arc, as they're leaving (escaping), zoro explaing in almost the same words to princess shirahoshi why that thought of being a hero makes him feel sick, bc that'd mean he had to share his drinks (chapter 649):

(and nami was there to hear both versions of this analogy! the things she has to deal with them around)