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aboveallarescuer · 1 year ago

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If any other Daenerys fans who are 100% convinced without a show of a doubt that she will remain strictly a hero, I would love it if you’d add onto this post and tell me why!

It should go without saying that no one is "100% convinced without a show of a doubt" of anything about the future books because no one is inside GRRM's mind, but there are lots of reasons why many doubt that book!Dany will become a villain.

If I was in charge of the story, I’d have Dany participate in the battle against the Others and, in the process, really get to know and understand the people of Westeros and realize that claiming the throne could not happen peacefully.

First of all, Dany shouldn't be expected to know all the intricacies of Westerosi culture or to take the Iron Throne without spilling blood when the lands and privileges of all the other noble families (including the Starks) rest on their Essosi ancestors having also conquered lands and killed their enemies. Dany shouldn't be held to a higher standard than every other house, otherwise her actions - as a product of her pseudomedieval society - will end up being misconstrued.

Second, Dany already knows that "claiming the throne [cannot] happen peacefully"? In fact, she's one of the few who tries to reduce the damage caused by war and those efforts inform her anti-slavery campaign:

This is war, this is what it looks like, this is the price of the Iron Throne. [...]

"Stop them." She spoke to her khas in the harsh accents of Dothraki. "Jhogo, Quaro, you will aid Ser Jorah. I want no rape."

"The blood of my enemies I will shed gladly. The blood of my innocents is another matter. Eight thousand Unsullied they would offer me. Eight thousand dead babies. Eight thousand strangled dogs."

Third, are you implying that Dany may not participate in the war against the Others...? That's pretty much guaranteed to happen, she even has a prophetic dream where she burns the White Walkers:

That night she dreamt that she was Rhaegar, riding to the Trident. But she was mounted on a dragon, not a horse. When she saw the Usurper's rebel host across the river they were armored all in ice, but she bathed them in dragonfire and they melted away like dew and turned the Trident into a torrent. Some small part of her knew that she was dreaming, but another part exulted. This is how it was meant to be. The other was a nightmare, and I have only now awakened.

And yes, that dream is prophetic and meant to be taken seriously. As GRRM said, "the Targaryens have certain gifts"; "an occasional Targaryen had prophetic powers and could see glimpses of the future, which they didn’t always necessarily properly interpret because, you know, they were fragmentary and sometimes symbolic". (source)

It’s hard for me to buy the idea that villain Daenerys isn’t an idea that GRRM at least floated to them.

That's YOUR speculation, but that's all it is as far as we know. What GRRM has actually confirmed in Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon was that the three twists he told D&D were 1) Hodor and "hold the door", 2) Stannis burning Shireen and 3) who sits on the Iron Throne. (source)

If he had planned to have Dany burn KL or to be killed by Jon, then it's very likely that these plot points would have been listed among the big twists he told D&D, and yet they weren't. Indeed, D&D already confirmed in the Blu-Ray of Game of Thrones' S8 that "WE came up" with the idea of Jon killing Dany. (source)

[Daenerys destroying King's Landing] is just such a major event that effects literally every other surviving main character.

And yet it did not really effect any of the main characters in the show? All the remaining Starks + Tyrion came out of S8 (aka the season where Dany was supposed to be a bloodthirsty villain) unscathed.

It's worth pointing out that D&D admitted in the Blu-ray of GoT's S8 (source) that "WE didn't really realize was how much residual drama there was left. Once WE realized that both Jon and Tyrion were inevitably going to be prisoners, WE knew that their fate was far from settled". If that had been GRRM's plan, then surely they wouldn't have had to stop and think about what to do with Jon and Tyrion - undeniably two of the main characters - next? Again, this adds to the well-founded speculation that Dany's villain arc was an original idea from D&D.

[...] But it’s just hard to buy the idea that these men whom GRRM trusted would do something that entirely betrays his ideas for the story. And GRRM REALLY had faith in them. He did NOT want there to be an adaption of his series but they won him over.

GRRM already said that "by seasons 5 and 6, and certainly 7 and 8, I was pretty much out of the loop" and that "my ending will be very different". (source) That "as the show went on, I found I had less and less influence until by the end I really didn’t even know what was going on. [...] Some of these things I watched like everybody else, and ‘oh, okay.' (source)

Your assumption has already been disproven by his interviews. It's also worth noting that, in the show, Benjen turned out to be Coldhands when that's a specific fan theory that GRRM previously debunked. (source) D&D were certainly not above doing things that contradicted GRRM's vision.

Another major example that proves their willingness to deviate from the books is how the War for the Dawn ultimately ended. Not only because there's no Night King in the current timeline of the books, but also because D&D literally admitted that they decided who would kill him based on shock value. They considered having Brienne or even a non-POV character like the Hound kill him before settling on Arya. (source)

Additionally, GRRM already shut down a theory about Dany burning a place (Water Gardens) and hinted at the possibility that she’s not involved in the second Dance of Dragons. (source 1, source 2) These statements - coupled with book!Dany's characterization, GRRM's non-involvement in S5-8, Dany burning KL or Dany being killed by Jon not being among the three big twists GRRM told D&D and D&D's disregard for the books and fickleness in general - are some of the endless reasons why many of us doubt that Dany will ever be a villain in the books.

He also refers to the Starks and the Lannisters as a "threat" to the Seven Kingdoms in the 1993 outline. That doesn't make Ned, Robb or any of the Stark children villains or even antagonists. rainhadaenerys already talked about this at length here.

This isn’t because I think she’d be a bad ruler (it is hard to judge who would it wouldn’t be a good ruler when they’re young teenagers).

GRRM already singled out Tyrion and Dany as suitable leaders, so your assessment of her as a ruler has been contradicted by the author himself (source).

He already told Marc Simonetti that Dany wants equality for everyone (source).

He wrote several villainous characters as foils to Dany - from Viserys/Aerys II (Viserys was Mad Aerys's son, just so. Daenerys … Daenerys is quite different.) to Cersei to the Others themselves (she and her dragons are the Fire of ASOIAF to the Others' Ice and, as GRRM himself said, Fire symbolizes love, passion and sexual ardor in contrast to Ice representing betrayal, revenge and cold inhumanity).

There's a lot of book evidence indicating that Dany is Azor Ahai/Prince that Was Promised.

Why would GRRM reverse pretty much everything he wrote so far to make Dany a villain (instead of a prophesied hero)? It contradicts what he's said about his writing process:

I am aware of some of the speculation out there, but I try to keep my distance from it precisely because I don't wanna be impacted. I mean, it's one of the drawbacks of the whole internet culture in this world that you guys have created--that something that previously maybe one reader in a thousand would have guessed, but you still had the other 999 who would have no inkling until you reveal it in a book. Now, that one person in a thousand puts it on an internet message board and everybody sees it and they say, "Oh, yeah, yeah. That's right. Now I see the clues. I got it." And pretty soon, half the readership, or at least the internet savvy portion of your readership, knows it. But what do you do then? Do you change it and come up with something goofy and outlandish that you haven't lead the, that you haven't done the foreshadowing for, that you haven't laid the foundation for just in order to surprise people? I mean, sure. I could have like, aliens come down and-- that would certainly surprise the hell out of everybody. No one is predicting that, but it would ruin the series. So, basically you can't let yourself be influenced by this stuff. And I try not to. (source)

Lastly, I would recommend reading some of the metas in this masterpost, especially the third section. Pretty much everything you brought up has been already refuted ad nauseaum by so many Dany fans.

I still think there’s a chance Dany doesn’t become a villain in the books because her characterization IS different in the show but I don’t think it’s really fair to claim the only reasons people think she’ll become a villain are misogyny and hatred of her and desire to see her get a bad ending. Yes there are Dany haters and misogynists who believe this but those are not the only reasons.

I love Dany. What I desire for her is not necessarily what I believe will happen in the story. I’m still split on what I think will happen and I’m keeping an open mind. What I want for Dany is a happy ending where she is loved and can live in peace. If I was in charge of the story, I’d have Dany participate in the battle against the Others and, in the process, really get to know and understand the people of Westeros and realize that claiming the throne could not happen peacefully. I want her to choose the path she wants deep down and not the path she was told is owed to her. She does not seem to particularly enjoy ruling. Based on my interpretation, what Dany wants is a home. She wants love and acceptance and belonging. But growing up with Viserys she’s come to believe that she is owed the throne and has a duty to rule and she doesn’t know what else to do. This isn’t because I think she’d be a bad ruler (it is hard to judge who would it wouldn’t be a good ruler when they’re young teenagers). I just don’t think it would lead to a happy ending for her. I don’t want the IT for ANY of my favs.

However. This is just what I WANT for her. There are many things in the show that are clearly made up completely by D&D, like replacing Jeyne Poole with Sansa. However, I don’t think something as major as Daenerys, one of the main characters who has been presented as a hero thus far, destroying King’s Landing is something D&D would just pull out of their asses. It’s just such a major event that effects literally every other surviving main character. It’s hard for me to buy the idea that villain Daenerys isn’t an idea that GRRM at least floated to them. It was super rushed and poorly executed, as was the rest of the show. But it’s just hard to buy the idea that these men whom GRRM trusted would do something that entirely betrays his ideas for the story. And GRRM REALLY had faith in them. He did NOT want there to be an adaption of his series but they won him over. I do NOT want this to be the trajectory of Daenerys’s character but I just can’t pretend it’s not a very real possibility.

And then there’s the original outline. Yes, many things have changed since then. But George refers to Dany as a “threat.” This demonstrates that at least at one point, he has toyed with the idea of her ultimately posing as an antagonistic force to Westeros. Is this enough evidence to say without a shadow of a doubt that this is what George will do? No I don’t think so. Not a single one of us can say what he’s going to do with this story. There’s also a very real chance that Winds is taking so long because he decided to make major changes after seeing how GoT was received by the public but I’d like to think he has more integrity than that. But again, I just don’t know.

I want Daenerys to be a hero. The ending she got in the show was so, so tragic and would be heart wrenching if it had been executed well. As a big ol Jon lover, I don’t want that ending for him either. There are characters who are obviously on different trajectories based on major changes the show made to events (Sansa), characterization (Arya), or statements GRRM made (Jaime). But I just can’t say for sure that that’s true of Daenerys. If any other Daenerys fans who are 100% convinced without a show of a doubt that she will remain strictly a hero, I would love it if you’d add onto this post and tell me why!

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mackeydoodledoo · 4 years ago

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The Blacksmith Chpt. 1

Pairing: Dimitrescus x (Fem!)Reader/Daniela Dimitrescu x (Fem!)Reader

Summary: You are a human, a human who is in charge of the armory; polishing, blacksmithing you name it. You are strongly valued by the Dimitrescu family, specifically one that has strawberry-blonde hair. She’d always come visit you whenever you’d be working on a new piece of armor or weapon.

Warnings: Fight; ends slightly bloody, Fluff at the end

A/N: So, I’m obsessed with armor n such and hearing that there’s an armory when you fight Cassandra.... So, we are making a story about a Blacksmith falling for one of the Dimitrescu daughters!

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You wipe the sweat from your forehead as you dip the blade you’ve been working on that Heisenberg had requested into a barrel of water.

“Is it just hot in here or is that just you?” A familiar voice flirts at you

You place the now cooled blade down onto a table as you turn to see Daniela standing in the doorway, checking you out. You wipe more sweat off your forehead. You notice Daniela giggling.

“What?” You ask

“You got a little something there-” Daniela says, “Here, I’ll get it.”

Daniela takes out a white handkerchief from one of her pockets and wipes your forehead, noticing the black smudge now left on it. Your eyes widen in embarrassment. However you just watch Daniela smell your sweaty scent on her handkerchief.

“You know my sweat is on there right?” You could only ask

“I know,” Daniela moans from your scent left on her handkerchief, “Your scent smells so good.”

You blush at the compliment.

“Oh the little baby is blushing,” Daniela says, “I make everyone blush.”

“Oh- it’s just because-it’s just because it’s hot in here,” You say, trying to play it off

“Sure little baby,” Daniela whispers, “Will I see you for dinner tonight love?”

You nod, not being able to have any words come out of your mouth. She lets out another giggle and makes her exit however, Heisenberg rolls in before Daniela could make her leave.

“Uncle Heisenberg!” Daniela smiles, hugging him

“How’s my niece doing?” He asks

You watch Daniela take her leave from the armory. However, coming back to reality, you grab the blade you have been working on and present it to him.

“My liege,” You greet Heisenberg, “The end result as of right now. If this is the shape you’re going for, then I’ll hop right onto the final stages of its production.”

Heisenberg requested for a longsword. However, as it had required for you to smelt more metal for the sword itself, you had to use a full armor set to melt it down to the mold of the blade, as much as you had been against the idea. However, Alcina had given the entire armory at your disposal. However, it did not help that you had to use one of your own metals rather than Heisenberg giving you some to make the longsword with. You have made the hilt of the sword when he first commissioned the sword to be made.

“Your work is as great as ever y/n,” He smiles, “Do what you must, but make sure to have it ready by the same time the day after tomorrow.”

He takes his leave from the armory.

Tomorrow night?! But that’ll mean- I told Lady Daniela that I-... It can’t be helped I guess...

Almost immediately you took the dull blade and went over to the sander to sharpen it and polish it from its outer crust, slowly forgetting your agreement with Daniela about joining her and her family for supper.

At the dinner table, Daniela continuously looked into the seat next to her; empty. She had told her sisters and mother she’d invite the blacksmith to supper however, you were still cooped up in your armory room.

“Dani, you haven’t touched your food at all,” Cassandra states, but quietly, “It’s gonna get cold if you don’t eat it.”

“I’ve asked y/n to join us for dinner,” Daniela sulks, “She’s always so coped up in the armory. I’m kind of getting tired of bringing her food..”

“Heisenberg is really working that poor girl,” Alcina sighs, “That fool... He’s ‘tech-savvy’ they call it? Why couldn’t he just do it himself?”

“Y/n is the best blacksmith, It kind of makes sense why he’d ask for y/n,” Bela states, “That is why we hired her personally as well mother did we not?”

“Oh you are most correct,” Alcina agrees with her eldest daughter, “It’s just she’s been cooped up in there for so long. I’d hate for someone as young as her be burning the midnight oil for one single sword...”

“I’ll go check on her after supper I guess,” Daniea says, shamefully, “I apologize for this mother...”

“There is no need for an apology my daughter,” Alcina reassures her youngest daughter

Daniela just weakly smiles and then goes to dig into the meal that had been prepped in front of her

You didn’t realize how much time has gone by until you hear knocking at the doorframe.

“Oh, lady Daniela,” You clear your throat, removing your gloves to air out the sweat and then tearing your eyes away from your work to make eye contact with Daniela, “My apologies, I missed supper... Heisenberg needs this new blade done by-”

She puts the plate of food on a nearby table as she begins to walk toward you. You’ve truly felt bad however, you’ve been working on this item for weeks, you couldn’t just simply ‘take a break’ for it.

“There’s one reason why I wanted you to come to supper y/n,” Daniela interrupts you, “You need to get out of here and more importantly- let me see you out of this work outfit of yours..”

You felt your heart pounding in your chest, your throat go dry and your legs becoming jelly. You’ve mostly worn simple ripped skinny jeans, a short-sleeve shirt; the sleeves rolled up to your shoulders and one of those aprons blacksmiths wear while they work with molten metal. You also worn gloves whilst working in the armory, showing off your toned arms from the blacksmithing you do non-stop.

“I’m no one special my lady,” You sigh, wiping sweat from your forehead again, “I’m just the blacksmith.”

“Whose created all of this amazing armor,” Daniela states, gesturing to the entire room full of armor and weapons

“Coming from a long line of blacksmiths is one perk,” You say, “But, I’m just a human, like every other human in the world.”

You could hear footsteps coming even closer into your direction. A pair of hands are forcefully placed on your shoulder and you’re physically turns into Daniela’s close proximity.

“You listen to me now y/n,” Daniela almost snarls, “You are an amazing Blacksmith. Otherwise my sisters and mother would have had you for supper already. I believe you are one of the greatest people to be working in this castle, consider it to be a privilege to be working so closely to us.”

She leans close to your ear, making you shiver, “To be working so closely to me.”

A shiver is sent down your spine. You needed to burn the midnight oil for this weapon for Heisenberg, should Daniela continue to tease you like this.

“My my, your heart is beating pretty fast love,” She whispers once more, “You’re welcome...”

You feel a finger trace your jawline, however, you feel a slight pain in your jaw as you look down and felt something wet along down your neck.

“Oh-oopsies,” Daniela says, flirting heavily

“Not funny,” You groan from the pain

“Oh-oh it’s dripping,” She continues to flirt, “I’ll get it.”

You let out a small gasp as you felt the tip of Daniela’s tongue gently run along the blood trail. She traces the blood from the thin skin of your neck to the bone of your jawline. She guides her hands to wrap around her neck. You coil one hand into her hair to keep her steady as you let out yet another gasp.

“Yes, my lovely,” Daniela whispers, “Continue making that music for me...”

Before you let out another gasp, you push her away form your neck slightly to look at her. You look down at her lips and then back up to her eyes, asking for permission. However, you stop yourself when the both of you heard the Lady Dimitrescu calling for Daniela.

“Curses,” She mumbles under her breath just as her lips were about to crash onto yours, “My my you taste divine. Until next time.”

With hast she makes her exit, turning into a swarm of flies in the process. You sit there, trying to process what just happened. However, you couldn’t linger on the thought any longer as you were just about to start the leatherwork on the hilt before Daniela began distracting you.

I wouldn’t call it a bad thing if she distracted me though... It was only for a couple of minutes and... It was... Enjoyable...

You couldn’t believe a Dimitrescu daughter had taken a liking to you. You were a simple human from a long line of the finest blacksmiths. Why you? Of all people, you weren’t special. However, someway somehow the youngest Dimitrescu was enticing to you.

I have no such time for a relationship... Besides... Lady Daniela has many other maidens to choose from... Am I even a choice to be one of their... What was it that they call them? ‘Plaything’? Yeah... Am I? Oh well, but it looks like I have to burn midnight oil again. Nothing that I don’t already experience though...

Your eyes are heavily concentrated on the leather work you’re doing on the handle. However, you could easily feel your eyes grow heavy. But, you knew you couldn’t waste time like you did earlier.

“Sir Heisenberg won’t be pleased if he catches me passed out at the table,” You sigh

You take a deep breath and shake off your tiredness and continue working on the leather handle.

By the time you finally finished the handle you take a step back to admire the work you had done

“Not a bad job if I do say so myself,” You smile

you were sketching out the design for the sheath. The sheath itself will be crafted with the thickest leather. Leather you’d normally use for sheaths; it’s so that the sheath’s won’t tear apart then the sword is sharpened. You’d also press in an intricate design you had crafted earlier when you were taking a break from the leather work.

“I guess I can close my eyes for a couple of minutes while I wait for this to ...” You tell yourself

Oh how wrong you were.... Unfortunately you didn’t catch it fast enough. By the time you had realized you took more than a couple of minutes, you were fast asleep.

The next morning you could feel a pair of lips on the bone of your cheek. When you opened your eyes you could easily tell it was Daniela.

“Morning sleepy head,” She whispers

She puts the plate of human food right next to you. The aroma of the food gets you to feel more awake.

“Can I ask you something?” Daniela asks, looking at you with pleading eyes

“Mhm,” You reply with food in your mouth

“I was wondering if you could make me one of those daggers you place on your thigh,” She requests, “But-but if that’s too much right now you could always do it after you finish-”

“I’ll do it,” You answer clearly, “The blade for Heisenberg isn’t due until tomorrow so I’ll be able to do it.”

She squeals of excitement and wraps her arms around you, engulfing you in a tight hug. You hug her back.

The first form of physical affection after awhile... This is nice

She lets go of you, but continues smiling.

“Design is solely up to you,” she says calmly, “I really want you to make it how you want to.”

You nod as Daniela takes the now empty plate from your hands. You watch her walk out from your armory you immediately jump into your closet and pull out a thick gauged metal sheet.

“Since when did you become so jittery in the morning?” A voice asks you

You let out a yelp and drop the sheet metal. You quickly turn your heel to see who it was.

“Lady Bela,” You sigh, re-composing yourself, “You really scared me there. Good lord...”

“I can do more than just scare you,” Bela chuckles, “But Daniela would be at my throat for that so consider yourself lucky.”

You see her forming into her swarm of flies. You couldn’t process what she was doing until she was up in your face.

“You hurt my baby sister, there will be hell to pay, got it?” She says, almost growling

Your throat catches something; thus, you couldn’t form any words. However, you only nod.

“Good,” She says

She dissipates into her swarm and leaves the armory. You just stand in your place for a second before picking the metal sheet back up.

You finally found yourself outside of the armory for once. If it weren’t for Daniela dragging your ass out of there you wouldn’t really be there. However, it was a silent supper for you. You really couldn’t find a way to strike up conversation with the Dimitrescu’s.

“I know you’ve been here a long time y/n, but how are you liking it?” Alcina asks, nervously

“You know, to be honest, It’s a lot nicer than where I used to live,” You smile slightly, “Yeah, I might be having a workload right now but- It’s nothing new to me.”

Alcina sighs in relief. Not knowing how to continue the conversation, you drop your head back down into your plate and continue eating. Alcina had made some arrangements so that the maids and yourself can have nutrients from human food.

After supper, you beeline it back for the armory to start on Daniela’s requested garter dagger. You didn’t have much experience in textiles, so you requested one of the maids who was more experienced in such do it for you.

“Thanks Amelia,” You say, gently taking the newly sewn garter, “I got everything else. That’s all.”

“Lady Daniela really requested for this?” She asks

“Yeah,” you say, “Interesting though right?”

“That’s one way to put it,” She says, “Be careful.”

“You too.” You say

You wipe sweat off of your forehead as you finally break your concentration on the sharpening blade. Once it had reached a certain sharpness, you begin the polishing stage.

“Finished, and now..” You talk to yourself

Although you’ve never encrusted a weapon with many gems; you only had experience with one gem going on a weapon. However, it was Lady Daniela, so you wanted to make it look like the prettiest dagger in the whole castle, prettier than all the weapons and armor you have created. You take out a special cannister and begin organizing the blue-green gem from all of the other colored gems.

You found yourself outside of Daniela’s chambers however, you weren’t sure if she was even there or out somewhere in the castle. But, you place the weapon down right in front of the bottom of the door and knock as loudly but as gently as possible and you beeline it for the shadows. From a distance, you watch the door open and see Daniela; in a nightgown. It was the first time you’ve seen Daniela without her regular dark robe and hood up in her face.

“Oh my god...” Daniela says in awe as she picks up the weapon, “Y/n...”

She tries to look around for you however doesn’t spot you on sight.

“Thank you...” She blushes as she closes the door

You blush a deep red as you turn your back to her door to head back into the armory to try and finish up Heisenberg’s weapon.

#daniela dimitrescu #daniela dimitrescu x reader #bela dimitrescu #cassandra dimitrescu #alcina dimitrescu #karl heisenberg #resident evil village #female reader

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groovypalacewobblereagle · 3 years ago

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Dany antis:

We have to understand that Mirri was devastated over her town and the abuse she suffered. To empathize. She’s a “hero” therefore, for killing a BABY.

We do NOT have to understand that Daenerys was devastated over the loss of her husband and child. She does not deserve empathy despite her losses. She’s “evil” for killing a grown woman who killed a baby.

We have to understand the culture of wealthy grown educated men who have subjected human beings to slavery for hundreds of years.

Oh, but they weren’t alive for hundreds of years! We can’t hold that against them!

But we also can’t deny them the benefit of the excuse that they’ve done this for hundreds of years.

We do NOT have to understand the culture of a teenage girl who is a Khaleesi of the Dothraki, who kills the wine seller for trying to kill her and her baby.

Because she killed him painfully. We don’t care that Varys suggested killing her with the tears of Lys, and remember that the victim dies an agonizing death. We don’t think about the morals of a painful death when the intended victim is Daenerys.

The same applies to when she crucified the slavers. We’re going to insist she did it indiscriminately, even though we know she didn’t kill a single woman who would have had less power, or child who would be entirely innocent, nor did she kill random civilians, they were all nobles. All slavers. But there are innocent slavers! Innocent slavers are definitely a thing.

The people who make laws that are not up to modern standards, like Daenerys, are evil.

But the people who follow those laws, like Ned beheading a man for running away from the dead, or Jon who beheaded a man for refusing to follow an order, or Robb who threatened to hang a man if he didn’t join the war against the Lannisters, aren’t.

Daenerys may have warned the slavers she would show no mercy if they didn’t free the slaves and pay them reparations, but she should have given them a trial even though they own the system.

It’s true they were all slavers, but if she was punishing them for being slavers, she should have killed all of them. The fact she didn’t kill all of them shows it wasn’t about justice, so she’s evil.

But she was also wrong for wanting to kill all of them, and Jorah talked her out of it. The fact he had to talk her out of it shows she’s evil.

And then when Daario tried to talk her into slaughtering them Red Wedding style, and she refused, that’s also proof she’s evil because Daario represents her evil nature.

We can empathize with the slavers! Because we might have done the same thing! We all like to think we’d stand against slavery, but if it’s our culture we might not. And we might stand by while our friends torture 163 children to death to spite an abolitionist.

We say we empathize with the slaves, too, but it’s more we sympathize with them. We understand that they are victims. We don’t see ourselves in their place. We don’t empathize with the anger the parents of those children felt. They follow Dany blindly. They don’t understand choice. That’s why they follow her.

What we CANNOT empathize with (because we know we would NEVER) is a teenage girl who walked along a road lined with the corpses of children who were tortured to death to spite her. We know a GOOD ruler would be stalwart in the face of such horror and hold a trial. Because even though the slavers own all the systems in existence in that city, there’s no way a trial could have caused the death of lesser evil instead of greater. Trials are foolproof!

She should have killed them all or tried to have every one of them examined by witnesses who are profoundly biased. We cannot empathize with that.

Dany’s attachment to the Dothraki shows her savagery. The Dothraki are rapists and slavers and she lusted after her husband when he made that speech and so it doesn’t matter how she tried to fight rapists later. They are all terrible. The Khals are monsters and she loved one, so that shows she’s a monster.

Also, she’s evil for killing the Khals.

She was wrong for sacking Astapor and Yunkai but not staying to rule them. She made it worse because poverty is as bad as slavery and the freed slaves are not able to build their own society, and she should have known that. She was wrong for not staying and ruling them.

She was also wrong for staying in Meereen and ruling it because that makes her a colonizer.

She agrees to allow adults to sell themselves into temporary slavery, and that’s wrong, because voluntary indentured servitude is as bad as generational chattel slavery-except when it’s in Westeros! The rulers in Westeros are rightful, but Daenerys was trying to enslave them by having them bend the knee! She was using the privilege of her father’s name, and it’s different when the Starks do it.

Dragons are evil. They serve no good purpose and she’s evil because she has dragons.

Also, Jon should have a dragon.

When Arya met the Lannister soldiers, and Ed Sheeran, that was to show how she realized that they are not all bad. This shows that sometimes enemies are good. This will show that we should empathize with enemies. That Dany is bad because she doesn’t even though she agrees to help the Starks, whose father supported the man who murdered her brother, and was not disturbed by the murder of her niece and nephew. Who would have killed a baby, had he known Jon was her nephew. Who would have killed her.

This does not apply to Daenerys and her armies, of course. The North was one hundred percent right to treat her with hostility.

Daenerys considered killing Tyrion when she met him! This shows that she is willing to kill people just because they are related to enemies! She’s evil!

Even though she named Tyrion her Hand. Even though she agreed to aid the North with no strings attached once she saw the army of the dead. Even though she accepted Varys into her service when he’d tried to have her murdered. Varys being part of the plan to sell a teenage girl into sexual slavery was not evil because she turned that to her advantage.

Dany was wrong for even considering killing Tyrion despite the fact that she didn’t and ultimately named him her Hand.

She was wrong for killing the Tarlys even though they were oathbreakers who killed their own friends and attacked their liege’s home. Even though the punishment for oath breaking is death. Even though they refused to bend the knee in exchange for keeping their lives, lands and titles, which is standard procedure in Westeros. Even though they refused the Wall, where Tarly sent his eldest son.

She didn’t kill them for oathbreaking or murdering her allies. She killed them for not bending the knee! Even though she only attacked them after they did that, and she did not harm Jon when he refused to bend the knee, she allowed him to mine her dragonglass, and offered to provide men and resources to help.

Sam was not wrong for hating Daenerys for killing his father, even though he was an oathbreaker, an abuser, and threatened to kill Sam. Even though he said that nothing would give him more pleasure than telling Sam’s mother that her son died. Even though Sam knew of Dany’s great deeds from Aemon. It’s understandable that he would still mourn his father. Even if his father was a monster, we have to empathize with his anger.

YET Daenerys is dead wrong for calling out Jaime for murdering her father. Her father was a monster! How dare she feel anything about his murder! She had no right to object to Jaime’s presence at Winterfell, even though he tried to kill her on the battlefield and said straight out said he wasn’t sorry for all he’d done and would do it again to protect his family.

She was wrong for restoring the family name of the man who killed her brother and cheered the brutal murders of her niece and nephew. Because she only legitimized Gendry for personal gain, even though he could have done the opposite of joining her, and tried to take the throne himself.

She is wrong if she is good to the family of her enemies because she is self serving, and she is wrong if she’s not good to them because it’s not their fault.

The Starks are not wrong for judging Daenerys by her father’s actions even though she came to help save them. Sansa is not wrong for wanting to evict children from their homes because their families were traitors.

When the Starks are suspicious of the family members of those who’ve harmed them, it’s fair. They are being smart.

When Daenerys is suspicious of the family members of those who’ve harmed her, it’s proof of her being paranoid like her father.

When Sansa told Jon that the free folk should join their fight against Ramsay, that they owed it to him because he’d saved their lives, that was smart!

When she told Arya “you should be on your knees, thanking me,” she had every right to assert her accomplishments.

YET, Daenerys was very entitled to want the North to fight Cersei with her in exchange for her helping them defeat the army of the dead, even though Cersei was their enemy too, and she sent them a letter saying “come bend the knee or face the fate of all traitors.”

It was not wrong of Jon to tell the North he bent the knee to save them, even though she said she’d help before he bent the knee.

It’s Dany’s fault the Night King got a dragon even though the wight hunt was Tyrion’s idea and Daenerys did not like it. Even though Jon told her, “I don’t need your permission. I am a king.”

Dany held Jon prisoner even though he had to stay to mine the dragonglass and he stated that he did not need her permission to leave. That’s what being a prisoner means, right?

Daenerys went mad because her family was fraught with incest. This does not imply that Jon will go mad, because his mother was not a Targaryen (even though his mother’s parents were related). Generations of inbreeding unequivocally mean madness, but the ramifications of those generations are undone if one guy at the end of the line produces a child with a woman whose parents were also related. That’s how genetics work, right?

Daenerys is a colonizer. Even though she didn’t have any goal other than destroying the slave trade in Essos. She only did that for selfish reasons even though Yunkai trains bed slaves and neither Meereen nor Yunkai added to her military might. Even though she never forced her religion or language on them. Even though she renounced power over the cities when she left, so that the people could choose their own leaders.

The Starks were never colonizers! Even though the earliest Starks were First Men, who committed genocide against the Children of the Forest. The First Men called themselves the First Men, they did not acknowledge the humanity of the Children. Therefore, the Children were not human.

The First Men destroyed the Children. The Starks built a Wall to separate the dead from the living, but left thousands of living and Children of the Forest at the other side of it. The Starks destroyed the other families, established power over the area, established their religion and language as the official religion and language. The Starks became the Kings of Winter by bringing to heel, and sometimes extinguishing, other families. That’s fine because the Starks are good. That’s not colonizing! The Starks were always good! They killed the warg king and his sons and beasts and then married his daughters. That’s not rape, that’s marriage!

The Targaryens who adapted the Westerosi religion and language and did not in any way repress other religions or languages, were the oppressors.

Dany hardly did anything in the Long Night. Her armies and dragons did not thin out the dead army, making it possible for Arya to kill the Night King. Two dragons can only do so much against an army of 100k. Even though Dany’s army also was over 100K.

YET, she burned MILLIONS in KL (even though the population of KL is under a million and even though I just said she could not have possibly taken out much of the dead army.)

When Daenerys didn’t weep and wring her hands over her abusive brother’s death that was evidence of her turning “mad.” Even though he abused her, sold her, and pressed a sword to her belly and threatened to cut her baby out of her body.

When Sansa smiled as Ramsay screamed, being torn apart by dogs, that was not a sign of anything bad. He abused her!

When Daenerys crucified the slavers even though a trial would have yielded nothing, because they had owned the entire system, that was a sign of her being a villain.

But Varys wasn’t wrong for trying to poison her before she did anything wrong because he sensed what she would do! Instinct > Trials. Unless the “instinct” is Daenerys’. Then it’s paranoia, even when the people she suspects of plotting against her are plotting against her.

When Arya killed two men, baked them into a pie, fed them to their father, slit his throat, smiled faintly as he died, cut off his face, then killed every one of his bannermen, with no knowledge of whether those men had been there at the Red Wedding, or whether they’d spoken against it, that was not a sign of her being a villain. Because if it’s a Stark, we understand complicity.

Besides, Arya is not a ruler. Only rulers do harm. Not explorers! Explorers who believe “I’ll never know her, she’s not one of us”, have never done anything bad in all history. Happy Columbus Day, btw.

#daenerys #daenerys targaryen #i stand by daenerys #daenerys defense squad

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dannyphantom-rewrite · 4 years ago

Text

Timekeeper's assistants AU

Alright y'all! This is gonna be my info dump post for the Timekeepers assistant Au- buckle up cause it's gonna be a long one!

Inspired by @queendibz post here

The entire purpose of the assistant squad is to keep all the time lines running smoothly- this can range from stopping a world ending event to making sure things misplaced by natural ghost portals get put back into the right time and place.

So First up on the crew list,

Dan:

-Dan definitely isn't a homicidal maniac anymore but he's not 100 percent "redeemed" either.

-I mean he's probably still a bit of sadist but he tries not to be?

-The best description I can give is that he's in recovery, basically.

-So, Clockwork knew that Dan would eventually bust out of the thermos just because it wasn't built to hold a ghost of his power level for a prolonged period of time. But beyond that?? He has no idea about anything in regards to Dan. Since Dan's creation was averted, his timeline doesn't exist anymore. He's a paradox that exists outside of time, and unfortunately, that means he's the one entity in the multiverse that exists in Clockwork's blindspot. There's no way for him to know what Dan's going to do next.

-Anyway, Dan eventually breaks out of the thermos fully intending to Fuck Shit Up, And Clockwork makes a point of informing him that if he leaves the clock tower he will cease to exist. (Like Dan, the tower exists outside of time, so he's safe there.)

-Dan is the first member of the assistant squad. Granted, it took a while for him to come around to the idea of helping Clockwork but he got there eventually.

-Dan is an entity that was born out of the rage and grief of two very broken people and he has so much shit he's working through as a result

-One of the first things he had to do was recognize and accept that he's an entity that's completely separate from Vlad and Danny. He might have all their memories and the weight of their mistakes on his shoulders, and on top of that, the atrocities he himself committed because of them. The first step is realizing that he doesn't have to be defined by the people that made him.

-It's a really fucking difficult thing to do tho and he's got a lot of weird emotions in regards to Vlad, Danny and the Fentons as a result. A near constant identity crisis, self loathing, daddy issues, something that could arguably be called an Oedipus complex, (FUCKING THANKS, VLAD)

-Cannot stand the smell of fast food, it makes him nauseous and the sight of Nasty Burger sauce alone is enough to make him vomit Ectoplasm.

-He's just a hot mess all around y'all

-He tries to keep his interactions with the Danny's as minimal as possible at first bc of this. The first time he meets them in person he shape shifts into Danny like he did in TUE and just pretends to be one of them. Some of them have had interactions with their respective Dan's already and would be super wary of him and probably pretty freaked out otherwise.

-Dan is eventually allowed to leave the clocktower for supervised "Field missions" with the aid of a time medallion to keep him from poofing out of existence, but it takes a while for clockwork to build up that level of trust.

-Dan's shapeshifting ability Actually comes into play a bit on a lot of those missions, since he can Mimic Danny it also makes sense that he'd be able to impersonate Vlad in the same way. Granted he's not incredibly comfortable taking on either of their appearances but it does help him hone his shapeshifting ability to the point where he's able to pick and choose features from both Vlad and Danny and sorta make his own human disguise.

-Most of the time he acts as the eye in the sky from the tower, monitoring for timeline anomalies and then notifying the appropriate member of the assistant squad.

-He has a room under the clock tower that he operates from. I kinda like the idea of there being like, catacombs down there? Anyway he's got all kinds of monitors and view screens and he very rarely leaves. It also doubles as his "living space." He doesn't need to sleep but he's got a big mess of a pillow fort that he crashes in regardless bc sometimes you just NEED to be unconscious for a while. The catacombs are also absolutely full of those little blob ghosts that wander around the zone bc They're attracted to the ecto energy the tower gives off. He's really annoyed by them at first but they grow on him after a while and now he just dotes on them.

-There's a specific throw pillow sized one that likes to hang out in Dan's room a lot and he ended up getting a little over attached to the stupid thing. His name is Dorian. Bc he's a gift.

-SIR THATS MY EMOTIONAL SUPPORT BLOB

-Dan's appearance has changed slightly. He wears his hair loose now and it's kinda just this big fiery mane when it's not contained. His cape is more of a cloak now, it has a hood and he wears it sorta pinned together at the shoulder so the DP logo is covered.

-Dan's relationship with the rest of the Danny's is kinda weird, and a little strained. He has a hard time being around them for very long because, well, he used to sort of be them? Except not really? He does care about them tho, and the last thing he'd want is for one of them to end up like him.

-His relationship with clockwork definitely starts out pretty familial, after he becomes his assistant, anyway. There's room for that to develop into meddling minutes but I'm not entirely sure if I'm gonna go that route yet.

-The Danny's only ever hear his voice for a while before he finally let's them meet him for real, so they end up calling him Charlie for a while as a joke. Cause Ya know. Charlie's angels. Even after Charlie still ends up being his designated name on missions.

Mer! Danny:

-Was recruited bc a lot of the shit that gets sucked through natural portals ends up in a body of water somewhere and when that happens he's on call to retrieve it.

-Is Actually not at all ghostly! Mer Danny's situation is basically the plot of H2O (just add water), or if you haven't seen that, Aquamarine. And by that I mean he's only a merfolk in water.

-He's an electric eel

-His Jack and Maddie are marine biologists, with a particular interest in marine cryptids

-We're taking sea monsters baby!!!

-Not entirely sure how this Danny ended up half mer yet but I'll figure it out, lmao.

-14 years old

-His nickname/ designation is "Moray"

Crown Prince! Danny:

-Nickname/designation is Prince / Princey

-16 years old

-Not allowed to go anywhere in the zone without the Fright knight bc of some ancient ghost law bullshit, so he has a constant babysitter.

-He's next in line bc he sealed away Pariah, but can't take the throne until he is both, A) at least 18 years and B) Completely deceased

-Vlad is his Regent bc he did have a part in the whole sealing the previous king thing, but he's also not completely dead so his power is super limited there.

-As Prince Danny has the crown of fire in his ghost form, although now the name is kinda ironic seeing as it's completely frozen over. It's blue now and it smokes like dry ice.

-As Regent, Vlad has the ring of rage for "safe keeping"

-Vlad and Danny are pretty much constantly at each other's throats, fright knights probably had to shut down more than a few of Vlad's attempts to usurp the crown from Danny through combat.

-Princey deals with the timeline issues that involve the ghost zones' internal / political affairs, and he's gotten very well versed with dealing with the Observants.

Winged! Danny :

-15 years old

-Mallard duck wings

-His Vlad is a swan

-Comes from a family of waterfowl, Jack is a goose, and Maddie is a white swan. Both he and jazz are ducks bc of their grandparents.

-As Fenton his wings are white, like jazz, and as phantom they turn black with a green iridescent sheen.

-He's trans

-Nickname/ designation is inviso Bill. Bc ducks have bills haha get it-

-Ghostly wail?? Nah son he's gotta killer QUACK

-Absolute besties with Mer!Danny/ Moray, sometimes they go swimming together after a mission.

Clone! Danny:

-Physically he's a 12-year-old, but he's only been alive for a few months.

-Alt universe where Vlad manages to stabilize the perfect clone with his own DNA.

-Dani still exists, and the original danny from his time line also rescued the other problematic clones.

-Doesnt like the fact that he's a clone, and very much wants them all DEAD. Bc them running around is a reminder that he's not the real danny.

-Human half looks the same aside from the widows peak and the mallen streak. His ghost half takes after plasmius. Blue skin, and the Hazmat kept it's original white colors.

-Probably has fangs and a forked tounge.

-Not so much a member of the squad as he is someone that they need to be keeping an eye on.

-Does NOT get along with them.

-Dan enjoys making him uncomfortable.

-Designation is Masters / the brat (not to his face tho)

Family Breakfast AU! Danny:

-A BABY

-The boy is a fucking overpowered todler okay. He's an 8 year old.

-The biological son of his Vlad, was born a Halfa. Jack, Vlad and Maddie got their shit together and are in a healthy poly relationship.

-Got separated from Vlad one time in the zone and inadvertently adopted by the assistant squad and clockwork.

-His Vlad is aware of the squad and just. Dad's the crap out of the Danny's as a result. It makes for some..... interesting interactions.

-I can't think of a nickname so I'm just gonna be lazy and say he gets to be the one Tru Danny bc cute little kind privileges lmao.

Full ghost! Danny:

-15 years old, will always look 14.

-Nickname/designation is Toast

-Died in the portal accident and got fucking FRIED.

-He always smells like somethings burning.

-He's really bright and sorta sparks a bit, you can see his bones glowing through the hazmat.

-He still leave the zone to protect his version of amity, but lives with clockwork full time.

Canon Danny (NOT PHANTOM PLANET COMPLIANT) :

-Basically show Danny, except phantom planet never happened fuck you

-Joined the crew after the events of de stabilized

-Also he's trans fuck butch

-Franken! Danny

-Yall remember that Headless Danny Au? This is my take.

-Is Actually 20 years old, but physically stuck at age 14. Bc he's a walking corpse :)

-Came from a timeline that was directly parallel to Full ghost! Danny. He dies in the portal accident, but jack and Maddie are in the lab when it happens and manage to sort of bring him back using a combination of science and freaky ghost junk.

-So he's basically possessing/ stuck inside of his own dead body. Which, is thankfully not rotting or going into rigor mortis bc Ectoplasm is rather similar to formaldehyde, but he's not the most durable thing and bits and pieces fall off from time to time.

-Like his head. For example.

-He's pretty desensitized to it at this point and if he loses a leg after a ghost fight he doesn't see anything wrong with sitting down on the curb of a main street to stich it back on. His being dead isn't exactly a secret.

-Don't ever ask him to "give you a hand" bc he can and will not hesitate to pop one off and Chuck it at you.

-Said hand and any other body part will continue to function just fine even if it isn't attached to anything, btw.

-Nickname/ designation is Adam. Bc. Ya know. that's the name Frankenstein's monster gave itself.

Post Phantom Planet! Danny:

-A very jaded 22 year old who is driven only by spite and enough caffeine to kill a horse

-Very, very tired of the hero thing.

-Being a global celebrity isn't all it's cracked up to be.

-Decided to follow Vlads lead and fuck off to space for a while. Partially to get away from everyone and also partially bc he kinda feels responsible for the fact that the only other person like him and probably floating DEAD in the void somewhere? And yeah Vlad fucked up all on his own but what if he'd tried harder to get through to him things could have been different-

-Joins the crew after a natural portal opens up in space and decides to help out and use clockworks resources to try and track down his Vlad.

-Nickname/ Designation is Polaris, aka the north star.

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agentrouka-blog · 4 years ago

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Dany is not graceful as queen in books. Remember when she openly mocked quentyn in books n laughing. Her own council was surprised that why she is even laughing. She even shows immaturity in meereen court by throwing fruit on xaro. Sometimes I think her stans stans reject this as moment of immaturity. They claim meereen arc was mistake n she will learn her lesson or it's not her fault that she tried but people don't listen. I'm waiting for her to go north n show her immaturity.lol

It sort of shows that all this is intensely personal for her. She doesn’t put on a “Lord’s face” the way Ned sometimes does, there is no “lady’s armor”. She will put on a prop (”floppy ears”) or a costume (the tokar) and she can most certainly hide her true intentions if she so chooses (Astapor) but her personal feelings in a situation are always paramount and often on display. She is not Daenerys doing the job of a queen. She is Queen Daenerys, 100% of the time. Her interactions tend to be informal, whenever she can get away with it, and her emotions rather than an understanding of her duty guide her. Because nothing stops her from doing that, no checks and balances, all power is concentrated in her hands, all decisions flow from her. She is not a servant to a system, she IS the system. It’s very absolutist, very god empress. L’État c’est moi.

There was something in his face that reminded Arya of her own father, even though they looked nothing alike. He has a lord's face, that's all, she told herself. She remembered hearing her lady mother tell Father to put on his lord's face and go deal with some matter. Father had laughed at that. She could not imagine Lord Tywin ever laughing at anything. (ACOK, Arya VII)

Ned makes a clear distinction between his role as a ruler and his private life. His private life, that is Cat. That is his children, his closest counsellors, his brother Benjen. Robert, to a degree, before Ned realizes he’s become a stranger.

Jon tries to do the same thing, but to a horribly exaggerated degree. Where Dany is Girl and queen, inseperably, Jon turns to ice. (At the behest of a Targaryen, no less.)

Jon’s POV:

Kill the boy, Jon thought. The boy in you, and the one in him. Kill the both of them, you bloody bastard. "You have no father. Only brothers. Only us. Your life belongs to the Night's Watch, so go and stuff your smallclothes into a sack, along with anything else you care to take to Oldtown. (ADWD, Jon II)

Translates in Sam’s POV to:

Jon, he'd said, but Jon was gone. It was Lord Snow who faced him now, grey eyes as hard as ice. "You have no father," said Lord Snow. "Only brothers. Only us. Your life belongs to the Night's Watch, so go and stuff your smallclothes into a sack, along with anything else you care to take to Oldtown.” (AFFC, Samwell I)

It fits well with Dany’s POV:

"Rakharo is blood of my blood. His life belongs to me, not you," Dany told the two of them. Rakharo had grown almost half a foot during his time away from Meereen and returned with arms and legs thick with muscle and four bells in his hair. He towered over Aggo and Jhogo now, as her handmaids had both noticed. (ADWD, Daenerys VI)

Dany tells them. The girl Dany, who is the queen. Over something so trifling as their crush on a growing young man.

Dany is mostly emotion, little duty, no real plan. She just overthrew a system, everything is new. Jon is all plan, all duty, no emotion. His problem is the same as Dany’s: He has no private life to balance him. No spouse, no siblings, no friends, no family. These “brothers” are no true brothers. And Dany’s “blood of my blood” is just another form of servant.

How are these babies supposed to lead with no outlet for their inner lives? It can only end in one extreme or the other.

Jon does it all for duty but he seems just as arbitrary to some of his brothers as Dany allows herself to be.

But there is no good solution for either of them. The structure of the NW condemns Jon to loneliness, and he himself sends his allies away. He is alone and friendless when he can no longer sustain the all-duty facade because actual family suddenly appears within reach and requires his help.

Dany has no family to tempt her. Not a human one. Her family are her “children”. Her options to ameliorate this are blocked by her infertility, and her natural personal desires.

Marriage as a queen comes with political concerns first and foremost, which sucks, and she really struggles with that. Her disappointment with Quentyn is not political, it’s about sexual attraction. Her objection to marriage to Xaro, to Hizdaar, they always tie to love and desire. And to the trauma of childbearing and infertility. The satisfaction of a political deal successfully concluded cannot outweigh her resentment over having to subjugate her physical autonomy, sacrifice her personal desire. And that is normal for a 15-year-old girl. Heck, that is normal, in general.

Combining political power with personhood, rather than an established office, and leaving no recourse by political control or by private relief… recipe for disaster. Especially for these extremely young people.

They are in positions within systems that require them to NOT be 15 or 16 year old human beings with emotions and needs. But they cannot stop being that. And so they fail, themselves and others.

Dany chooses her dragons. Jon chooses the Starks. Both choices are inevitable. But Jon has the privilege that the Starks are his pack, his human family, his actual and true emotional balance. Within that embrace, he can rule, and rule well.

Dany’s dragons are destructive WMD’s and they give her only ever more power but no emotional balance. She will keep being god empress, and she will keep failing.

#asoiaf #daenerys targaryen #jon snow #asks #my posts

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rainhadaenerys · 6 years ago

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Idiots are still defending the ending of GoT. The way Daenerys was handled and the way some people have reacted in defense of it makes it clear that sexism is so heavily ingrained in our society. It's actually terrifying.

It really is terrible. How do people not see just how sexist the ending was? The two main female rulers in the story, the two female characters with the most screentime and the most important storylines amongst the female cast (Dany and Cersei), both ended up as hysterical women and the main villains of the story (and having Sansa, who’s not a protagonist, be the only good woman in power is not enough, especially considering that Sansa only got power because the men in her family didn’t want it and gave it to her, while Dany and Cersei had to fight for their power and were demonized for it; and also especially when you have her thanking her success to her abusers, while vilifying Dany for not crying for her abuser). They had the barren woman be the unredeemable villain, while making Cersei sympathetic because of her baby, because motherhood is obviously the only thing that matters for a woman. They kept constantly saying that Dany needed to be controled by men, that cocks are more important, and in the end, they just validated those views. They used infinite double standards to vilify Dany for things that many other characters had done. They had her go mad because she was rejected by a man. They gaslighted her and the audience by saying she was mad even though there was no reason to think that, because apparently women having emotions is “madness” and they need to be restrained by all the sane reasonable men. We didn’t see her perspective, her opinions or her political views, we only saw Dany through the eyes of the men in the story that were narrating how she was becoming mad. The men are portrayed as saints, voices of reason, “calm and tempered”, can do no wrong, everyone should listen to them, while the women are crazy, irrational, petty, emotional and need to be controled.

And it’s not just this. Even if you don’t see the sexism here, then what about the rest? The North was racist and xenophobic, and in the end they were validated and rewarded for it, and the savage brown people were really savage (also, they conveniently go away and leave Westeros behind when the plot no longer needs them to save white people or be vilified, so the white people of Westeros no longer will have to deal with them). A black female character is fridged as a plot device to make the white woman go mad. Brienne is a plot device to give closure to the story of a male character. You’re fated to be like your parents. If you’re a bastard, you’ll always be seen as dishonorable and have no place in society. No character development led nowhere, and in fact, everyone is acting out of character. Love is foolish, never love anything. The best ruler is the one who has omniscient powers and no emotions. Revolution is bad, people that want to change the status quo are just secretly selfish power hungry tyrants. The simplistic message of the ending is “too much power corrupts”, but only if you’re a woman (because if you’re a man, you’re never going to abuse the omniscient powers you have), and only if you had to fight for your power. If you’re a man, or if you were born privileged and already had power given to you, then power won’t corrupt you. Seeking power is bad and corrupts, even if you want to do good things with this power, so oppressed people should never seek power, power should stay with the people that already have it. Nothing changes, the same powerful people stay in power and nothing gets better for the smallfolk. The person that was selfless, fought for what was right, and put aside her own desires and enmities to save the world goes mad and evil, and the people that were petty, selfish and conniving, the people who sowed discord and refused to compromise because they wanted power, the people who did nothing to save people or prevent slaughter (show!Sansa and show!Bran) were the ones rewarded for Dany’s work. Basically, the villains won (yes, I’ll forever say that show!Starks ended up as villains. Just because they didn’t go mad and burn a city doesn’t mean what they did wasn’t selfish and harmful, and they also bear a part of the responsibility for what happened in King’s Landing).

Anyone that is defending this ending is either a conservative person that thinks demonizing women in power is “original and subversive” and doesn’t care about all the terrible messages in the ending, or brain-dead people that think grimdark and plot twists are somehow synonymous with a good story. The ending was sexist, racist, conservative, nonsensical, and I’m pretty sure we could stay here for a long time just making a huge list of all the plot holes, OOC moments, disgusting messages, bad lighting, ruined ships, ruined character arcs, Starbuck cups and all the idiotic things about this season. People defending it are ridiculous.

#ask #anti got #anti got rant

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moonlitgleek · 6 years ago

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"[Arya and Sansa] actually have a bit in common in terms of the skills they are picking up from their individual journeys" Can you please expand on that? I'd love to read more about their parallels!

I’ll speak to the parallels that I was thinking of when I wrote that, but I’m afraid this is not going to be comprehensive because it’s been a while since I read the books. I might come back to it later when I have the chance to do a reread.

Adapting to their surroundings and managing their image

Both Arya and Sansa have a penchant for adapting which develops from an intuitive reaction to a conscious effort that plays on managing people’s perception of them. Sansa approaches it through the medium of a lady’s education; she instinctively employs her socially-approved image as a proper lady and her courtesies to try and sway the court in her favor when she delivers her plea for Ned’s life, then consciously and carefully modifies her mannerisms and her wardrobe to reflect the persona she wants to convince others of as she shifts from playing Joffrey’s dedicated royal betrothed to Littlefinger’s daughter-slash-mentee to the bastard girl the Vale lords think her to be. She takes care of how to present herself to various factions and leans into people’s perception of her as unthreatening and naive to achieve her goals. Who would think that little Sansa was planning her escape in the godswood? Who would pay much attention to the unassuming bastard girl?

Arya also leans into people’s mistaken perceptions of her. She is repeatedly mistaken for a boy which she eventually uses to conceal her true identity and evade capture. We see her high awareness of how to behave while with Yoren to pass as a boy and is conscious of how her dirty appearance at Harrenhal sells her false identity as a peasant and tries to behave accordingly. She learns to be conscious of her mannerisms in the House of Black and White to adapt to the identities she slips between. In fact, one of the main things Arya is taught during her time in Braavos is how to adapt to her surroundings and adjust everything else down to her body language and facial expressions to take on a new persona and she is very adept at it. She has also repeatedly uses the fact that people underestimate her because of her size or her gender to get close enough to do what she wants, whether that’s to get information or to launch an attack as she did with the weasel soup.

That’s three skills the girls are getting better at: learning to adapt, learning how to use self-presentation to support an endeavor or alter perception, and learning how to deliberately play on others’ expectations to accomplish your goal. All of which are extremely handy in political situations.

Experiencing the life of the disadvantaged

The experiences that Sansa and Arya go through in their individual journeys are sure to inform the political philosophy of both girls. As we’ve seen with the example of Aegon V and his pro-smallfolk reforms, a life among the lower social classes can have a significant effect on policy. Aegon V lived with the commoners over the course of his squiring for Ser Duncan the Tall which made him more attuned to the needs and struggles of a social class that often goes ignored by the high lords. Daenerys’ powerlessness and harsh life similarly informs her anti-slavery campaign in Slaver’s Bay.

In the same vein, Sansa and Arya’s arcs in the aftermath of Ned’s death leads them to live the life of the disadvantaged in a way that could only elevate their natural compassion. The girls are innately kind, and Arya in particular has always been sensitive to injustices inflicted on the weak, but it remains that the girls start the series with a great deal of privilege as the daughters of a great lord who, despite his own compassionate nature, doesn’t really know what it is to live a disenfranchised or unprivileged life. That Sansa experiences the prejudiced attitude leveled at bastards and Arya shares in the hardships the smallfolk go through could only bolster their innate kindness in having them able to empathize with the plight of those who suffer from the class hierarchy that tramples the weak in the game of thrones. The degree of separation that the girls had before gets degraded to an extent. They struggle through those hardships and prejudices, through the cruelty and apathy of the noble class towards a population they don’t see as valuable enough. That can only make Sansa and Arya mindful of how their decisions reflect on those below them in the social ladder when they are the ones in charge and enable them to be a source of change to the social attitude towards lower classes.

A similar effect would result from how the girls went through experiences that showed themthe horrors of war. Arya travels through the Riverlands and sees how war, even just and righteous ones, ravishes the people and exacts a toll on the commoners first and foremost. She sees the destruction and the misery Robb’s troops inflict on innocents in a similar way to the Lannisters’. Sansa lives the reality of being a political hostage and what it really means to have your life hanging on the balance. While the Lannisters push and break the boundaries of acceptable practices as always, holding hostages against the good behavior of their family on the threat of death remains an acceptable political tool that everyone freely partakes in. It is also a fundamentally unjust practice that inflicts harm on people for the actions of their kin. The Starklings have all grown up with Theon suffering from that perilous position but none of them really understood it. That builds an awareness of the consequences of these accepted political practice and puts the human side of the game of thrones firmly on their minds.

Leadership skills

The arcs of the Starks girls, different as they get, keep circling back to how they personify an ideology that implanted the Starks into the very history of the North. Despite not being in power the way characters like Jon or Dany are in their own leadership roles, the girls find themselves in spaces that allows them to understand power, whether as a duty or a privilege, and build their own leadership model. The thing to note is that the Stark girls understand that leadership is a duty of protection and care. So it’s not just that Sansa saves Dontos Hollard or talks Joffrey into giving that poor Kingslander with the dead baby money instead of running her down, it’s not just that Arya fiercely pursues justice for those victimized by the Lannisters from Mycah to Ned to Lanna to Lomy; it’s that the girls understand that that leadership is a responsibility. Sansa correctly identifies that ruling through love through easing the suffering of people is the correct principle and considers it a main part of royal role.Arya steps in for her family taking on the role of the Stark in Winterfell when she metes out justice to Daeron in the name of the Starks. Both girls reflect their father’s ideology and teachings, with Arya directly invoking Ned’s leadership lessons to Robb and Jon.

As the story progresses, the girls get more instances where they step up to take charge in time of need. Arya emerges as a natural leader during the attack on Yoren’s group and tries her best to steer her little newfound pack away from danger. She plots with Jaqen to free the Northmen and refuses to leave Gendy and Hot Pie behind when she flees Harrenhal. She takes Weasel under her wing and is very protective of her. Being caring and protective has always been in Arya’s nature but we see her growing awareness of the unfairness of the world and her determination to push back. This is the girl who stepped in between Joffrey and Mycah and was literally the only person who cares about justice for Mycah after all. Justice is a major concern for Arya, but she also clearly understands that justice has to be tempered with mercy as shown in her reaction to the Karstark men dying in crow cages.

Where Arya leans more towards the protector role, Sansa leans towards the providing aspect of leadership. She is associated with the wish to provide foodstuff to the starving population of King’s Landing, with successfully getting Joffrey to give money, with giving comfort to the terrified women during the Blackwater, with helping Lancel and calling for medical attention. Her more traditional feminine skills like sewing and running the household has always been cited as majorly important skills to surviving in winter. Sansa’s story associates her with relief efforts which she is positioned to do as winter kicks in with a vengeance considering that Littlefinger is currently hoarding food up in the Vale. I’m quite invested in the theory that she’ll be the one to hold Winterfell during the thick of the War for the Dawn as the castle becomes a refuge for those fleeing winter and the Others. I think both girls will embody the historical roles of the Starks in that war, with Arya protecting the North with her wolf pack and Sansa comforting and taking care of the civilians inside the castle.

Political analysis and deduction skills

The girls are each developing a mind for political analysis that is being bolstered by the crash course they are receiving in the Vale and the House of Black and White respectively, under mentors who actively encourage them to hone their observation skills and connect the dots to a larger picture.

Sansa’s skill shows when she starts looking closer at her maids in the aftermath of Ned’s death and concludes that they are spying on her for Cersei. Her affinity for political analysis shows itself when she thinks over what Margaery’s betrothal to Joffrey and Loras’ appointment to the Kingsguard mean in light of Joff’s temperament, unknowingly putting her finger on the design of the Purple Wedding. In the aftermath of the wedding, she connects the missing amethyst in her hairnet and Dontos’ insistence that she wears it to the wedding to Joffrey’s murder, a fact Littlefinger confirms later. She also figures out that Petyr framed Tyrion from the information that he was the one who arranged for the jousting dwarves. In the Vale, Sansa understands the significance of Petyr’s act in granting Nestor Royce the Gates of the Moon as a political play, and pays close attention to the Lords Declarant upon their arrival in the Eyrie, noting the purpose behind the seating arrangements and deducing that Lyn Corbray is working with Littlefinger. Her training montage with Littlefinger includes lessons her about inheritance, the intricacies of social interactions and the interpersonal dynamics of Vale nobility which is immensely valuable in a political setting. Sansa is also basically running the Eyrie right now and her idea about the tourney of the Winged Knights and organizational skills shows budding political skill.

Meanwhile, Arya is developing a knack for gathering information from multiple sources and how to separate hard facts from her own deductions. She has always been good at listening and her underfoot tendencies gave her access to a lot of important information ahead of time, even if she does not always realize their importance in the moment. From the plotting of Varys and Illyrio to the design of the Red Wedding, Arya gets bits and pieces about some rather significant events. Syrio Forel hones her skills by teaching her to be fast and silent, to look closely and observe carefully which Arya consciously employs across her arc, most notably when she sees the guards in grey cloaks waiting by the Wind Witch and figures out that they are not her father’s men. The kindly man only bolsters Arya’s perceptiveness by forcing her to rely on her other senses and furthers her awareness of body language and facial expressions, both her own and other people’s, which helps her see through people’s lies and also sell her own lies capably. The kindly man also encourages Arya further to observe and listen once in Braavos by asking her to learn three new things every day, and the things Arya bring ranges from mundane (jabes, riddles) to important politically (sailor’s tales about the war in Slaver’s Bay and Dany’s dragons) and economically (”tricks of this trade or the other”).

On top of that, Arya’s time in Braavos exposes her to adifferent culture, ruling model and political atmosphere, which she we see her use to build a growing understanding of the politics of Bravoos and how it compares to that of Westeros. Her political ability shines through when she uses the data she gathered to deduce that the death of the current ill Sealord will bring a conflict and assassinations till a new one, who she identifies as Tormo Fregar, comes out on top. Arya’s knack of making friends with any and everyone, whether highborn and lowborn, Westeros native or not, means she is quite capable of building a huge network of relationships and diverse sources of information.

Parallels also exist in the way Sansa and Arya are both learning to recognize cues that they are being played or lied to. To slip between personas as befits their circumstances but without losing the core of their identity. They are gaining a lot of knowledge about political intrigue and learning the tools of diplomatic relations. The methods and the aspects of their training montages may differ, but I don’t think the skills they are each acquiring are all that divergent. In fact, I think the girls’ skills are rather complementary, and they are each meant to enhance and round off the other’s skillset.

#asoiaf #asoiaf meta #valyrianscrolls #sansa stark #arya stark #parallels #Anon asks #ask box

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foreverunburnt · 5 years ago

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Happy Daenerys Appreciation Week everyone!!

Here's part 1 of my fic; I have a part answering a different prompt for each day. This takes place in an AU where there’s a lot less death and violence ☺️

Day 1: Longing.

Daenerys Targaryen sighed heavily as Sansa Stark, Queen in the North, gathered the maps spread out on the floor.

“I can’t believe you’re doing all this while you’re pregnant,” Sansa remarked.

Dany shrugged. “It’s important. If the rumors about Cersei Lannister are true, we need to act swiftly; time is of the essence.”

Sansa nodded. “And I suppose your Hand told you having your baby at Winterfell will go a long way in maintaining a relationship with the North after we secured our independence,” she joked as she handed Tyrion a goblet of wine.

Dany laughed as Tyrion gasped dramatically and took a long drink from his glass. “A happy accident, I assure you. I didn’t anticipate something like this happening, but…” She sat up and groaned, grasping her belly as she did. “...she’ll come when she’s ready, and she’s more than ready.”

“She?” Sansa raised an eyebrow as she headed for the door.

“It’s a girl,” Dany said with a smile, rubbing her belly like a crystal ball. Sansa smiled and nodded on her way into the hall.

“How could you know that?” Tyrion said as he affixed a scroll to a raven bound for King’s Landing.

“She hadn’t been wrong yet,” Drogo grinned as he entered the room and reverently pressed a kiss to Dany’s forehead. “We have three children, and each time she’s said, ‘it’s a boy.’ And we have three sons. It’s the closest thing to a sure bet I’ve ever seen.”

“I’ll take that bet,” Tyrian scoffed as he took another gulp of wine. “Three barrels of Dothraki wine if it’s a boy.”

Drogo raises his eyebrows. “Your finest horse when it’s a girl.”

Tyrion laughed and extended his hand. Drogo looked at him and rose up to his full height, his face stoic and mean. He extended his hand to shake the shorter man’s. As they shook, his face broke out into a grin and he laughed. “Deal! Soon I’ll have a baby daughter and a fine new horse.”

“Are you two betting in my chambers?” Talisa walked in with a smile and her young son in tow. Although she was married to Robb Stark, the King in the North, she had given up power to Sansa upon seeing the younger woman’s vision for Winterfell. Truthfully, she hadn’t enjoyed her time as Queen of the North, and the new arrangement allowed her to continue her work as a healer. “No gambling allowed in the birthing chamber, it’s bad luck.” She winked at Drogo as she picked up her son.

“It’s not a birthing chamber yet,” Catelyn called from the hallway, following behind her daughter in law. She ran her fingers through her grandson’s hair. “Neddy, go show Rhaego, Bharbo, and Aegon your toy ships. Take them to the river and show them how how they sail.”

“Yes, grandmother,” the red haired boy smiled as his mother put him down. He peered around the doorframe and saw Dany and Drogo’s three sons, his new favorite playmates, and happily scampered out the door to meet them.

“Make sure Aegon doesn’t fall in the river!” Dany called after him.

“My queen,” Talisa bowed. “How are you feeling?”

“Giant. Enormous. Ready to have a baby.”

“I have a feeling we’ll be meeting the little one soon,” Catelyn smiled.

Talisa smiled back at her mother in law as she felt Dany’s stomach. “Baby’s turning. It won’t be long now.” She pulled the blankets up to Dany’s chin and motioned for Drogo to take her place at the side of the bed. “I hear our eldest boys have something in common: they both survived attempts on their lives before they were even born.”

Dany grined. “And I hear they’ve both been driving Ser Davos up the wall.”

Talisa shrugged. “Your three and my singleton.”

“My boys are part Dothraki, part Targaryen. I don’t know what Ser Davos thought would happen when he agreed to care for them,” Dany grinned. “But truly, thank you for your hospitality. Yours and Robb’s to us, and little Ned’s to our boys.”

“Of course, my lady.”

Dany laughed. “Our boys love your son. I’m nervous they won’t come with us when it’s time to leave Winterfell. Or they’ll try to sneak him out with us on the backs of one of the horses.”

“Bharbo and Rhaego tried to teach my grandson how to ride a fully grown stallion. He fell off and nearly broke his neck,” Catelyn interjected, admonishing with a smile.

“Everybody falls the first few times,” Drogo shrugged. “Rheago still has a lump on his head from when he tumbled on the journey here - oh wait. I’m sorry, I’m thinking about Tyrion.”

Tyrion clutched his collar in feigned offense. “A tumble? A TUMBLE? It was a noble, graceful plummet off the back of an unruly creature. Besides… it’s not a fair comparison, Rhaego is taller than me.” The two men smirked for a moment, then bust into uproarious laughter.

Dany watched from her bed, smiling. She’d missed moments like this: lighthearted. Jovial. Looking toward the future. Watching her husband and dear friend turn into brothers before her eyes had been a privilege.

Every time their boys played together, Dany saw a twinge of sadness in Drogo’s eyes. He’d wanted a large family as a child, and while they’d created that family together, she knew he always wanted brothers and sisters of his own. It was similar to the look in Tyrion’s eyes when he saw the Starks together or when someone brought up his brother and sister. She understood their need for each other, and she was grateful they had each other. “Alright, boys,” she finally said in a tone usually reserved for her sons. “It’s time for the adults to talk.”

Drogo snickered and kissed Dany’s hairline dutifully. “Of course, moon of my life... I’ll go assess the men downstairs. I’ll bring word.”

“Thank you, my son and stars,” she said sweetly, running the palm of her hand across his stubbled cheek.

He kissed her again, then reached down to kiss her belly. “Girl, Girl, Girl...” he chanted playfully in a whisper. Dany swatted him away with a smile. This is good, she thought. This is good.

#daenerys targeryan #dany appreciation week #targaryensource #dany appreciation 2019 #gotfic #danyappreciation2019 #daenerys targaryen #khaleesi #daenerys x drogo #house targaryen

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thousandeyesand-one · 6 years ago

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Tagged by @naomimakesart

■What are your top 3 favorite houses of Westeros?

HOUSE TARGARYEN. I mean Hello! 👀

HOUSE STARK. The Ice to my favorite fire house!

HOUSE DAYNE. Extremely underrated & unexplored I would love to know more.

■If you could live during one era in GRRM’s universe what era would it be? (Age of Heroes, Valyrian Empire, Conquest of Westeros, Dance of Dragons etc.)

I'd probably be like either a weirwood & live through all of these eras lol or I'd be a child of the forest secretly surviving since dawn age at the isle of faces or something! Coz I can't choose one era 😜

■What is your favorite episode/scene from the Game of Thrones TV series?

Battle of the Bastards, Loot train attack, Tower of Joy, First look at Ser Arthur Dayne 💜 basically every time arya is on screen. But I guess S05E04 holds a special place in my heart that whole episode was about Subtle hints at jon's Parentage/Subtle-mild hints at Jonerys future magical babies/ & had perhaps my most fav scene in the show of dany & Ser Barristan Selmy bonding over Rhaegar!

"Rhaegar never liked killing, he loved singing."

■What ruler do you think brought about the most change in Westeros, be it good or bad?

Jaehaerys I Targaryen, the Conciliator. Alysanne Targaryen, the Good Queen. I think they were the Obama's of the 7k literally inherited the realm from Maegor who almost crumbled the dynasty & the realm but they rebuilt it to last for two more centuries. While you asked Good & Bad I'd like to mention for 99% of good that Baehaerys did there was 1% of bad done by him too. The Iron Precedent of 101 A.C. that establishes male inheritance over female which single handedly caused DOD, Blackfyre Rebellions & is still a problem! If only Jaehaerys would've listened to Alysanne & made daenerys the heir! Listen to your wives Men! Make it a habit!

■If you could ask GRRM one question what would it be?

In a shitty, patriachial world like Westeros, where it is more than clear that men have build & sustained their kingdoms & legacies through Acts of War or Revenge or Want & Need to secure power. Why are women like Daenerys, Arya & Cersei criticized as would-be Mad or psychotic/Too far gone or Already Mad characters?

■If GRRM could write a short novel/series about one other family or historical time (besides the Targaryens) in his universe what would you want it to be about? (My choice would be Nymeria’s Journey!)

Good choice Naomi!👌

I would like to learn more about The Daynes man House Dayne! They are so peculiar, mysterious & any reader of asoiaf knows theres more to that house that is important for the endgame than what we know! More about this family dating back to the Dawn age & the era of the rule of Kings of Torrentine. More about Ashara Dayne & her eldest brother who is still unnamed what is his name? How did he actually look like if his son has valyrian features? was he a snack just like his younger brother?.. you know.. important questions like those needs to be answered!

■What was your first introduction to ASOIAF/Game of Thrones? Did someone tell you about it, did you see it online or did you come across it at a store/shop?

My cousin told me about the book series but I was busy with my studies at the time so I couldn't pick it up. But then the show happened & he told me about it too so I watched the first season before reading the books. Then I picked up my Jaw from the floor after watching S01 & straight away bought those books. & THAT'S HOW MY LIFE ENDED!

■What’s one thing that bothers you about GRRM’s series?

I think it's the doylism that bothers me. It has always bothered me I am a Tolkien nerd & that man wrote stories beyond human capacity & error. Middle earth is as fantasy as fantasy can be & even though J. R. R Tolkien was inspired to write his stories by the service he did in military during war his story isn't a doylist one, maybe mild references here & there but nothing as serious as asoiaf. I feel like doylism complicates everything in this story! (P.S I also never was much of a history student Biology was Life!)

■What’s one thing you unabashedly love about GRRM’s series?

The impossibly, irrevocably, unattainable & unfair high expectation of men (selective men) that GRRM has created. I mean good luck to myself on getting in a relationship or getting married coz you aint never gonna be Ser Arthur Dayne awesome or Rhaegar Targaryen & Jon Snow Broody, Melancholy sexy!

■What are your feelings about the prequel series in development at HBO right now for the Long Night?

I really really love Bran Stark & how he is connected to the rich 8,000 or longer history of Kings of Winter & the actual nature of this world, all the stuff that predates back to Dawn Age. First Long Night is something I would definitely love to watch, Fingers crossed am sure I'll like it! Also because valyria came into existence right after the First Long Night so this series only gives me hope for a Valyrian Freehold Prequel THAT WHICH I TRULY WANT!

Now tagged by @chillyravenart

Here goes..

■Which Westerosi castle would you like to live in?

Starfall, Dorne. Duh!

■Would you rather be a rich and influential lord, born into wealth and privilege or would you rather be someone who wields power from the sidelines, like Littlefinger?

I'd rather be born rich & influential because I know myself I won't be another cuckoo Lord or lady of the 7k. Plus it seems like anyone like Little Finger or varys who rises from sidelines have to sell their souls to the Satan with zero sense of humanity & everything being a race for power.

■Pick one: platinum hair or purple eyes?

I'll take purple eyes because I have jet black hair & purple eyes just compliment the fuck out of black hairs!

■Based on a tag I made once, based on your physical features, which part of Westeros/which house do you belong to?

In dorne probably House Martell.

■Who do you think will actually defeat the Night King?

I think Bran is the one who is truly going to defeat Night King.

■Three people you think will die in season 8?

Night King, Cersei & Varys. Can I add a fourth? Melisandre too.

■What would you name your dragon/direwolf?

My Dragon would be called Tzarax & my Direwolf would be called Amaris which means Child of the moon. She'd be an albino without red eyes maybe golden eyes!

■How must Ser Pounce be avenged?

Ser Pounce's daughter should train to be a faceless assassin & return all badass with many faces of cats & avenge Ser Pounce roaming around the red keep biting the hell out of anyone because Valar Mewghulis. All Men must be biten.

■Whose POV chapters are your favourite? (If you haven’t read the books... skip this and hang your head in shame lol jk jk jk)

My fav POV chapters are Bran, Dany, Jon, Arya. In that order!

Hang your head in shame lmao👏😂

■Your favourite ASOIAF/GOT antagonist?

Varys. This dude is going to burn in the seventh hell for all the bs he has unleashed upon just about everyone he has ever come across. I would name LF too but unfortunately it seems Varys outlived him so yeah The Spider & his webs are deadly as they come.

My Questions are:

1. What is that one moment or situation in asoiaf or GOT Tv show that inspires you positively?

2. YOUR ONE TRUE SHIP?

3. What is your favorite, ride or die character? CHOOSE ONE, ONLY ONE!

4. If you were to be the Ruler of Westeros & name Seven fighters to your Kingsguard who would they be? (They can be from the current generation of asoiaf or any fighter from any era, choice is all yours!)

6. Your own House sigil, house color(s) & house words?

5. What are your views about Robert's Rebellion?

7. Which is that one Character you wish had more screen time on the show (or) had a POV in the books?

8. Imagine Red Keep School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, which houses would the sorting hat sort these characters into? { Arya, Jon, Daenerys, Bran, Tyrion, Robb, Jaime, Cersei, Sansa, Rickon, Gendry, Joffery, Margaery, Brienne, Pod, Tormund, Hound, Missandei, Greyworm, Bronn, Sam & Gilly }

9. How do you prefer to watch the Final season? With a partner or spouse / alone by myself with no one to bug me / go to a watch party or bar episode events.

I'm Tagging @chillyravenart @naomimakesart @beautifuloutkasts @drakhus @phoebemaybe @mamadragon-daenerys @blue-roses-and-red-rubbies @northernlights37 @tomakeitbeautifultolive @toaquiprashippar @daenerys1417 @submarinesofpacific @crystalmusezz @ anyone who would like to do this i'd like to know your answers!

10. Nobody knows for sure how this story ends, but what is your ideal end to this story?

#tag #game of thrones #a song of ice and fire #this was fun!#ya'll better answer these questions it took me forever to make them up!

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myteenagerstuff · 6 years ago

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GoT Season 8 isn’t bad!

I keep seeing everyone saying that the characters have been completely ruined and everything racist and sexist and turned to shit and this isn’t true!!

(Btw all this is my opinion pls lmk ur thought!)

1. Dany isn’t turning into the mad queen. She’s at the end of her rope and she’s making some dumbass decisions but she isn’t going mad. She has been told her whole life that when she goes to Westeros the ppl would love and look up to her as their leader but when she gets there and they don’t it’s confusing for her. She would be angry and scared because she doesn’t know if these ppl will follow her. She is also power hungry which is natural for a human with her privilege to be. Of course knowing her family history ppl would be scared of her and distrust her. They don’t have reason to trust her and they’re being completely rational. Don’t blame ppl for mistrusting dany because rn she’s acting like the tyrants she keeps talking about destroying.

2. Sansa telling Jon’s secret wasn’t because she wants power or to fuck over anyone it was because she was terrified and didn’t know what to do. She just got told that her brother isn’t her brother and actually the rightful heir to the iron throne which could 110% start another war. She is also scared of Jon going south because as we know starks who go south usually end up dead. You can see her panicking and Tyrion keeps asking if she is okay. She trust Tyrion and she tells him something that would otherwise possibly tear her down. Another rational human thing to do.

3. Arya leaving Gendrey and Jamie leaving Brianne wasn’t them being heartless but because they both intend to go to Kings Landing and die there. Arya says it herself with the Hound and Jamie is obviously going to kill Cersei possibly dying in the process. Leaving the ppl they love with hope of their future would be heartbreaking and even though they didn’t leave them the best way possible they both again showed THAT THEY ARE HUMAN!

4. Missadei didn’t die because she’s the only woman of colour. IT WAS CAUSE CERSEI IS A COLD STONE BITCH!!! This was amazing writing because Cersei knew that Missandei was one of the most important ppl to Dany and she was still heartbroken from the loss of her child. Killing Missadei did everything Cersei wanted because now Dany is fucking raging and she probably won’t care about the lives lost whole taking Kings Landing which will make the ppl of the capital hate her - GIVING CERSEI MORE POWER EVEN IF SHES DEAD! Cersei is a fucking evil genius and that was amazing planning on her part. I miss my baby tho she was so special but dam her last words were something! She choose her last words to be powerful and full of meaning instead of doing the whole “I’m sorry, I love you” thing which is sweet and would have been fine but she was a total badass and basically told Cersei to fuck herself and burn in hell!!!

5. Jon isn’t an annoying privileged white boy. Tbh he would be an amazing king and I personally think he would be better than Dany simply because he is 100% willing to put his ppl first. But he must be so confused and fearful. He was just told his whole life was a lie and that the woman he loves (maybe - maybe not) could potentially be his rival. He is being torn between his love and his family and what’s right for the ppl and considering that he’s doing a bloody good job! And for the ppl talking about how he was getting hyped for riding the dragons when Dany was sitting there. The northern don’t know that Jon is a Targaren, it makes no sense that he would just be able to have that connection like Dany does so for them to see him riding and fighting on a dragon must be pretty awesome for them. Plus most of them already don’t like Dany and they weren’t just going to start talking about how the dragon queen can ride a dragon now were they. Plus they were all pissed ass drunk soooo can u blame them for hyping up thier boy.

But Jon is a total bitch for leaving Ghost. Dude wth he’s been with you since SEASON ONE EPISODE ONE. DONT LEAVE HIM NOW WITHOUT A HUG U LITTLE SHIT!!!!?!

#GoT #gameofthrones #jon snow #dany #sansa stark #arya stark #season 8 #ghost #my boy deserved better #jamie lannister #fucking Cersei man...#Cersei Lannister #Missandei #Greyworm #Brianne #Game Of Thrones #got spoilers #got season 8 #s8x04

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sxpiosexualx · 7 years ago

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Who would make a better Queen?

A lot of people come for Sansa stans but especially Jonsa shippers for wanting to see Sansa rule, even if it means only ruling the North. So let’s take a crack at who would make a better Queen, shall we?

SANSA STARK:

Cons:

Cried a lot that one time because she kept hearing news of her family’s demise while being held captive when also physically and mentally tormented, manipulated and abused all when she was only 11.

Has no knowledge of war - but that’s what military generals are for(also why Jonsa shippers support the dynamic of our ship).

Pros:

Is a Northerner, trusted by the Northern Lords and has an actual claim to Winterfell that we are reminded of; “Winterfell belongs to [Sansa],” “the blood of Winterfell,” “key to the North.”

Has spent a fair amount of her life in the South, getting accustomed to their courtesy and mannerism.

Was trained by Septa Mordane to one day be Queen.

Learnt from some of the best political players; (i) Petyr Baelish, (ii) Margaery Tyrell, (iii) Cersei Lannister - the actual Queen, etc.

Is kind hearted and adored; (i) saves Ser Dontos’ life, (ii) calmed the maidens during the Battle of Blackwater, (iii) “If I ever become Queen... I’ll make them love me,”

Thinks long-term; (i) preparing to feed any refugees that come to Winterfell in winter, (ii) ensuring the blacksmiths/knights make changes to their armour so that it’s better suited for winter, etc.

Is currently ruling effectively given the situation.

Listens to the complaints of her people, as a good ruler should, without severing any ties or threatening to burn them.

Has knowledge of the people she would potentially be ruling.

What’s that you say? We’ve only seen her do a couple of things as acting ruler and Lady of Winterfell given how little the show featured her? Alright, let’s examine Daenerys since her entire arc has been about her quest for the Iron Throne and therefore should by now display the qualities of a good leader.

DAENERYS TARGARYEN:

Cons:

Claims she has a birthright to the throne but her father was usurped by right of conquest so, actually, not relevant.

Wants to rule a continent she has never lived in.

Constantly favours alternative facts especially when recalling historical events.

Temperamental; (i) allowed for the torture of a couple of young girls before their father’s eyes, (ii) had to be spoken out of burning the entire red sept, (iii) crucified 163 men, some of which were innocent, (iv) burned and fed a potentially innocent man to her dragons as a deterrent, etc.

Wants to inherit her family’s power but not acknowledge their crimes.

Restoring her family’s dynasty would be restoring a dynasty that ruled with fear.

Colonially subjugates with no interest of ruling effectively; has no interest in learning their culture - i.e. her entire Mereen arc.

Is guilty of war crimes; incinerating Randyll and Dickon Tarly for e.g.

Gives ultimatums to her war prisoners; “Bend the knee or die.”

Her lineage has a history of going mad due to generations of inbreeding.

Is the epitome of white privilege; full offence.

The only reason she’s still alive is due to her dragon ex Machina.

Dragons are symbolic of weapons of mass destruction.

Constantly abuses her power via her dragons.

Thinks short term; refuses to discuss an heir.

Has no knowledge of war either but let’s pray she listens to her generals; she wont.

Favourite words? “I will take what is mine with fire and blood.”

Growing paranoia; threatens her own counsel of advisors.

Does not care about people unless it benefits her; (i) Will only help the north if she rules it thus, withholding their independence (ii) Will only join the fight if Cersei joins too (iii) Expects total loyalty from Varys who serves the people, promising him she will burn him alive if betrayed, etc.

Kept a man hostage on her island for refusing to give up his kingdom

Hypocritical and constantly contradicts herself: list too long but, wants to break the wheel but not until she sits on top first, for one.

The North - i.e. one of the more larger kingdoms is wary of outsiders but especially Targaryen rulers.

Burned the food that would have otherwise kept the people she so badly wants to rule from starving in winter out of impulse.

Does not want to learn, or rather, is only interested in selective learning; shutting off Barristan Selmy trying to tell her about Ned Stark.

Has done nothing to come to her ally’s aid; the whole Greyjoy situation

**bonus since you could easily say, “well that’s why she has advisors!!! She will learn!!!”: Does not listen to her advisors, favouring the opinion of her love interest, as well as others(Olenna Tyrell over Tyrion for e.g.)

Pros:

has a “good heart” but also irrelevant if it means compromising her ambition to be queen

?? i honestly don’t know maybe cue pro-dany stans to make up excuses like “lol GRRM planned this for 2 decades she is fire and jon is ice and they will rule and have a magic incest baby and incest is ok here cause targaryens practice it!!!! never mind the fact that there was an actual uprising from the faith militant because of targ!incest !!1!! they love each other cant u see lol ure delusional”

#anti-daenerys #Anti-Jonerys #anti d&d #anti-targaryen #pro-sansa #sansa stark #pro sansa stark #jonsa #anti-dany

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queer-failures · 4 years ago

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TV Does the Queer Family

In “New Traditionalism and Postfeminism: TV Does the Home” Elspeth Probyn analyses 1990s tv shows that use some feminist motifs without referencing their framework, feminism, or some of its society-altering ideas. While the 2010s brought mainstreaming of feminist ideas (as exemplified by Beyoncé performing in front of the sign that read “feminist”), not every feminist agenda is easily popularized. This post follows Probyn’s suggestion of embedding cultural texts in the wider network of discourses rather than reading their “importance … off their surface” (156) and applies her take on feminist ideas in post-feminist television to relationship between queer kinship and its Showtime interpretation – The L Word: Generation Q (2019 -).

The 2019 season, similarly to those preceding it (2004-2009), explicitly engages with feminism. For example, metanarrative on making the movie Lez Girls, whose characters are fictionalized counterparts of The L Word characters, often reflects about lack of female film professionals and fetishization of lesbian relationships and thus serves as an ironic commentary on the show that relied on questionable tactics for attracting audiences. Moreover, political conflicts are often resolved through the well-known trope of romantic love that overcomes all: for example, Alice takes issue with Tasha’s involvement with the army as she is (rightfully) against imperialist wars, but they still end up dating and this altercation is painted as a difference in opinion. As it came after ground-breaking shows such as Orange is the New Black, Generation Q took itself more seriously and attempted to go beyond The L World formula of monogamous couplings whose dramatic relationships often end due to cheating. However, and, interestingly enough, similarly to the ideology of new traditionalism and its claim that women always choose domesticity as it is a natural choice (but still a choice), Generation Q features tropes such as all women want children and real relationships are monogamous and romantic. While the outcome of the first narrative arc, Shane being pressured into having a baby with her wife Quiara through paradoxical arguments such as you will start wanting a child once you have it, will be part of the season 2 that is still in the making, the plots privileging romance and monogamy show how, contrary to Probyn’s prediction according to which introducing queer families would, at least partially, challenge ideology of domesticity and biological reproduction, ideal of family in maintained in queer media.

Beth’s speech about diverse families and choosing one’s kin (part of her very bland campaign discussed in the previous post) is voice-over played when various close relations are shown. While the idea of chosen family, as Hicks shows in his study on gay and lesbian parenting, has been a part of the queer culture for a long time, Generation Q clings to more conservative arrangements often used to seek and justify access to legal marriage, adoption, and assisted reproduction. This tendency is displayed when a seemingly polyamorous relationship dissolved into traditional couple and when close friendship turns into affair, rivalry, and love triangle. As the final scenes in which recently engaged Sophie is running through an airport to reunite with her best fiend/affair partner Finley or her fiancée Dani show, Generation Q is not really about community, but about (admittedly more diverse, but still economically privileged and conventionally attractive) couples.

Hicks, Stephen. Lesbian, Gay and Queer Parenting: Families, Intimacies, Genealogies. Hampshire and New York: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2011.

Probyn, Elspeth: “New Traditionalism and Postfeminism: TV Does the Home” In Feminist Television Criticism: A Reader, edited by C. Brunsdon et al, 126-38. Clarendon Press, 1997.

#the l word #generationq #kinship #queer #blog post

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kingsmakers · 7 years ago

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Why I’m not a Daenerys supporter

Okay so buckle up because this is probably going to end up long. With Season 7 just around the corner, I’m already hearing people who are so excited for Daenerys Targaryen finally arriving in Westeros and claiming the Iron throne. Sadly, I’m not one of these people, and I’m about to tell you why.

First of all, let’s start off with Dany’s dragons. These are creatures she uses as instruments of fear and destruction. If those dragons hadn’t hatched for her, would she have been able to do a lot of what she has done? The answer is no. Her dragons are her main ingredient to success, and they’re weapons of war. They’re as devastating as wildfire and yet Dany frequently uses them in her conquest of whatever city of Essos she wants to claim next.

So let’s put the dragons aside, as problematic as they are. Even if it was Dany on her own, do you think she’d be successful? I don’t. The fact that she has prominent people who support her - Barristan Selmy, Tyrion Lannister, Jorah Mormont - is more out of luck than anything else. Not to mention that she frequently ignores the advice of these people who are much older and more experienced than she is. What happens when she does? It causes more problems. Dany constantly believes that she knows what is “right”, and that the counsel of her advisors is optional.

This leads to possibly the most concerning element of them all - the “white saviour” trope. Dany has grown up in Essos because she was literally exiled from Westeros, through no fault of her own as she was only a baby when this happened. Yet she sees these other cultures and believes that she has the right to disagree, to say “this isn’t how things should be”. These are cultures that have stood for centuries, yet Dany wants to tear them down because she believes her way of ruling is better and fairer. Her advisors even tell her this is problematic and that she needs to pay attention to the customs of the people she’s overthrowing. Does Dany care? Nope. She just wants to “free” them, and being free means being subject to her own morals and beliefs of what is fair and just. A lot of these cultures were problematic, sure. But the idea that a young white woman can just waltz in and tear down another’s culture to replace it with her own is highly worrying.

Who else do we know who has ruled through fear and intimidation? Oh yes, that’s right, Dany’s own father, Aerys Targaryen. There are constant comments about how Aerys was a tyrant. Do you know what else Aerys did? He killed people who didn’t believe he was the rightful king. Is this sounding familiar because it really should be. Although the show and the people surrounding Dany portray her in a positive light, it’s becoming quite obvious that she and Aerys share these traits.

Dany, who has never set foot in Westeros, is already saying the Iron throne is “rightfully” hers. She gives massive speeches about the death and destruction she’ll rain down upon Westeros when she gets there. Also remember that these are people Dany has never met. All she knows is that they “wronged” her and her family, based on accounts of what she’s heard from other people. She has no first-hand experience with Westeros. Again, she doesn’t know much about Westerosi culture. It’s just that Dany feels she’s entitled to something, Dany’s going to go and get it, no matter the cost.

So overall, I’m really hoping Jon Snow or someone else gets the Iron throne. Someone with far less of a sense of entitlement, white privilege and this bizarre concept that they’re “saving” people by forcefully becoming their ruler. Game of Thrones has some great female characters - Cersei Lannister and Sansa Stark being two examples. Unfortunately, Daenerys Targaryen is not one of them.

#game of thrones #anti daenerys #sorry for the rant but #honestly this white saviour thing is bs #and i'm never going to be a dany supporter sorry #daenerys targaryen

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lady-alayne · 7 years ago

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Game of Thrones: An Angry Recap

Season 7 Episode 6: Beyond the Wall

Winterfell:

Sigh. Okay. Let's do this.

Arya and Sansa's relationship is all over the place. After a heartfelt reunion where it seems the old tension between the sisters had been set aside, Arya became more and more paranoid of everyone and everything, resulting in the lurking bonanza last episode where it seems Arya got royally littlefingered.

Because just as Petyr planned (presumably), Arya jumped to all the wrong conclusions about the letter Sansa was forced to write to her brother, urging him to bend the knee to Joffrey. “Why didn't you just murder everyone instead, like I would have?” she snaps at her sister. “This is what this show is about! Violence begets violence, and it's awesome! No wonder everyone on reddit hates you.” Ah, sisterly love.

It breaks my heart that GRRM wrote the Stark sisters as polar opposites, but equally strong. Arya is the more traditional Strong Female Character(TM), portraying stereotypically male traits: She wants to learn how to fight, she has a temper, is reckless, and she solves her problems with violence rather than words. Sansa, on the other hand, embraces her femininity. And that's wonderful. She navigates through the snake pit of King's Landing because she is polite, well-trained, and knows when to shut up and swallow her anger and then attack later out of a position of power. Although different, the sisters are both strong, resilient, and grow more and more powerful over the course of the series. GRRM has done a beautiful job portraying women as real people with unique characters.

Enter D&D! While doing some pseudo-research for their characters, biding their time until they ran out of books so they can make up their own shit, they decided to A) dumb Arya and Sansa down to have “invincible killer robot whose trauma made her want to murder everyone” and “stupid girl who is stupid and everyone takes advantage of” and then to B) PIT THESE CHARACTERS AGAINST EACH OTHER IN THE MOST FORCED CONFLICT IN THE HISTORY OF TELEVISION.

Are we really supposed to believe that single letter poses such a threat??? To make this conflict work, Arya had to be:

stupid enough to think Sansa meant what she wrote

evil enough to blackmail Sansa with it

paranoid enough to think Sansa has ulterior motives and wants to usurp Jon or whatever (can you usurp something that is RIGHTFULLY YOURS?)

Sansa had to be

stupid enough to believe that letter poses a threat—as if the Northern lords wouldn't immediately know Sansa wrote what Cersei told her to write

evil enough to send Brienne away, a woman in the perfect position to mediate and de-escalate

paranoid enough to break into Arya's chambers and try to steal the letter back

And all just so D&D can create random conflict out of thin air because, uh, good television.

Also at Winterfell, we get out weekly dose of two minutes Petyr Baelish screentime. (And it's not enough. It's never enough.) It looks like Sansa and Petyr are friends again and she asks him for his council (after telling him to go away, telling him she's smarter than him, and gloomily talking about what he wants, but who cares about characterization in this show? The plot demands that Sansa and Petyr speak.) Petyr helpfully suggests to have Brienne talk to the girls, as she has an invested interest in those two being on the same side, which makes Sansa send Brienne away. Logic(TM)!

As mentioned above, Sansa then sneaks into Arya's chambers to steal the letter back from her, and finds Arya's work clothes under the bed. To dial up the creepy, Arya then appears and... threatens to kill Sansa so she can know how it feels to wear beautiful dresses??? Arya, YOU COULD HAVE WORN ALL THE BEAUTIFUL DRESSES, but you WANTED TO BE A KNIGHT INSTEAD. Before stabbing her sister, Arya changes her mind/reveals she was bluffing (who can tell with this demon child), and gives Sansa Littlefinger's dagger because... reasons. Oh boy, that dagger is going places! Tune in next week to see Sansa give the dagger to Gilly's four year old baby when Sam and family turn up in Winterfell on their way back to castle black! And stay tuned for season 8, where we find out THE DAGGER IS AZOR AHAI!

Beyond the Wall:

Jon, Tormund, Jorah, Gendry, the Brotherhood Without Banners, and a few nameless extras to be killed off as needed hike through a blizzard during Operation Catch a Wight, and we are immediately treated to a rape joke! This time Tormund jokes about raping Jon because “fucking is best to stay warm.” It's funny, because it's two men! Haha, gay! Like Loras! Lol!

But Jon is not just the butt of the joke (I couldn't resist), we are also reminded once again that he's super nice and honorable, much like his “father,” and so he offers Jorah Longclaw back. But Jorah declines, because he's also super honorable and a good guy(TM). I was rooting for him to take the sword and stab Jon with it while yelling “I'm getting rid of the competition! Khaleesi, here I come!!!” But, oh well, when D&D fanservice they somehow never take my wishes into account. Wait while I send them a raven and complain.

My raven seems to have reach them, because a little later the Hound insists he does not like gingers, and all the SanSan shippers break into crisis mode while I laugh. Heehee. Then we have the incredible honor and privilege to witness a dialogue that includes the words “dick,” “cock,” and “pussy” within what feels like 0.000001 seconds. Finally, proof of GoT's level of sophistication that everyone is talking about. But... Tormund x Brienne, so yay!

The shipping does not last long, because out of nowhere ZOMBIE ICE BEAR ATTACK!!! Run for your lives!!! We watch with bated breath while the bear threatens to kill our beloved heroes and hope he will kill one of the suspiciously random background extras instead, but then we realize we are already dead inside when it comes to this show, so we would not care either way. By the way, is anyone else reminded of Star Wars whenever the Brotherhood Without Banners switch on their fire swords?

But killer zombie bears are not the only threat beyond the wall, and soon the men meet a white walker taking his pack of wights out for a walk. Now I feel safe enough to scream again. THE WIGHTS ARE WEARING HOODS WHILE THE MEN ARE NOT. THE UNDEAD PEOPLE ARE WEARING PROTECTIVE HEADWEAR WHILE THE LIVING PERSONS ARE NOT. THIS SHOW MAKES NO SENSE. NO SENSE. UGH!!!!

Because this is Operation Catch a Wight, the men decide to, you know, catch a wight, and set a trap for some reason. I guess just attacking their enemy without the enemy knowing they were even there would not be sneaky enough! Luckily, the dragonglass proves potent, and Jon successfully makes the white walker burst into a billion pieces AND re-deads the un-dead! DOUBLE KILL! …... except for one wight, who is still undead for practicality and thus immediately captured. Lucky!

The team soon realizes their chances are dire at best, and decide to send Gendry back to Eastwatch so he can send a raven to Daenerys. GENDRY. WITHOUT ANY WEAPONS. ALONE. THROUGH A BLIZZARD. While Gendry runs of to his certain death—who would survive a marathon through a snowstorm?— Jon & Friends also run to their certain death, as they are suddenly attacked by an army of thousands of wights. But—oh joy!—there's a lake there! And the ice on the lake is super special and only breaks AFTER ALL THE IMPORTANT CHARACTERS have already passed! But then it drags all the wights, plus one nameless extra for supposed shock value, down to their icy (re-)deaths, and our heroes manage to escape on a strategically placed isle in the middle of the lake to wait for their rescue.

Dragonstone:

Meanwhile, Dany and Tyrion are having some girl talk because Missandei seems to be MIA. After establishing that Jon is, like, super in love with Dany, you guys, and of course Tyrion knows that because he's SO SMART!!!, Tyrion broaches the topic of succession and SUGGESTS IMPLEMENTING A DEMOCRACY. I mean... yeah, Democracies are nice like 94% of the time, unless you elect someone like Donald Trump Euron Greyjoy. But it just gets SO FUCKING BORING how Tyion is always so super duper good and even his mistakes just make him more human and more lovable, isn't Tyrion just the awesomest, hooray hooray, all hail the best character in the history of the universe.

After what seems like 2 minute flight time, the raven from Eastwatch arrives and delivers Jon's cry for help. The men are trapped in the wilderness, under attack, and in dire need of immediate rescue! Daenerys wastes no time leaping into action. “I have to fly North immediately to rescue the guy I have a lady boner for, the guy who has a sad boner for me, the guy who knows how to turn dragon glass into weapons, the grumpy fan favorite, and their friends... As soon as my seamstress has finished my new winter coat! What fur should I use? This one matches my eyes, but this one goes better with my skin tone!”

Back beyond the wall:

It seems as if Dany's seamstress is really fast, because Dany makes it to the little isle at the perfect moment—Thoros has just died for shock value (and let's face it, nobody cared about Thoros anyway), and the wights have just discovered that the lake has frozen again, and are about to attack, when—DRAGONS!!! Dany swoops in and saves the day. Everyone climbs aboard Drogon, EXCEPT FOR JON, who runs off on a one man “Fighting my way through thousands of wights to kill the Night's King while he's surrounded by his four friends who are all expecting me” mission. Naturally, he does not get far and soon joins nameless extra in the icy depths below. RIP Jon, RIP.

To make matters worse, the Night's King turns out to be an insanely accurate spear thrower, and pierces Viserion's heart. Now that was a death for shock value! The mighty dragon plunges out of the sky, and Dany watches him motionless. I suppose she was just shocked, but maybe that was also Emilia Clarke's inability to act.

Drogon and his human load then get the hell out of there, and—OH GOD!!! JON IS NOT DEAD!!! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT???? HE'S ALIVE!!!!

And then IT'S BENJEN EX MACHINA!!! AND HE SAVES JON!!! AND HE PUTS HIM ON A HORSE!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!! AND JON SNOW IS SAVED!!!

Dany, it turns out, is very relieved about that, and immediately rushes to his side while he's lying in bed naked, recovering from almost freezing to death. Because that's how you get warm—you go to a somewhat warmer room and take off all your clothes. Then, when you freeze, you realize the cold outside was not so bad in comparison, so your body heals itself. Science(TM)!

#game of thrones recap #got an angry recap #got season 7

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hakureiryuu · 8 years ago

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SENSE8 SEASON 2 ALRIGHT ALRIGHT

i am growing just a tiiiiiiiny bit frustrated with the way kala and wolfgang keep flipflopping on their feelings about each other. i get annoyed when shows milk some “will they or won’t they” trope for all it’s worth, but so far it’s still well within my tolerance. and that’s largely because of the characters and the performances their actors give them.

i mean, they go back and forth not only to the audience, but to each other. wolfgang falls in love with kala but pushes her firmly away at the end of s1, then can’t keep himself from commenting “we’re perfect for each other” in the christmas special. he tells kala she deserves better than him, then scolds her for denying her feelings towards him. he fools around in every direction, ostensibly to distract himself (or to allow the writers to assert his masculinity idk), but gives no indication of how much he misses kala until he tells her.

i’m not saying the tension isn’t there. i just felt like it could have been much more pronounced, for how loudly the fandom raves about it.

kala, meanwhile, flipflops much more openly, and i’ve come to understand it’s largely due to her upbringing. what she wants clashing with what she feels is right is a story that’s been told since the beginning of time. it may feel a bit tired here, but kala’s actress is phenomenal and plays every conflict across her face in perfect detail.

moreover, kala is, in essence, the “rebellious princess” in the middle of a (vastly showed down and picked apart) process of rejecting her life of ease and privilege in favor of something she views as more meaningful and fulfilling. leaving a place of comfort and walking into the unknown is a scary thing, and that’s probably why she married rajan in the first place, why she stayed with him despite every chance he gave her to back out. i understand it now, and it’s interesting to watch her distance herself from her privileged life in baby steps.

not to mention it’s really fucking gratifying that the only reason all this flipflopping started was because they wouldn’t communicate with each other about their feelings in the first place. like, THAT i’ll buy. normally i hate miscommunication tropes but this one managed to nail it as something truly touching. i just wish it was brought up sooner, before they finally said it to each other.

also i was incredibly pleased that my wish from the christmas episode was fulfilled - kala was/is instrumental in will’s treatment and recovery, as she should be. ^_^

I AM UNREASONABLY EXCITED ABOUT DANIELLA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH LITO AND HERNANDO I MEAN I KNOW PEOPLE WILL FEEL LIKE IT “TAKES AWAY” FROM THE GAY REPRESENTATION SOMEHOW AND I KNOW SHE’S A BIT FETISHIZING OF THEM (dammit dani stop taking pictures of gay dudes haven’t you learned your lesson yet?) BUT I’M JUST SO THRILLED FOR THIS WEIRD MIXTURE OF POLYAMORY AND QUEERPLATONIC IT IS MY LIFEBLOOD AND I NEED MORE OF IT

they call each other family. oh my god.

i am almost as excited for a black bi/pansexual woman dating a man. zakia is gr8 okay? she needs more development but she is gr8. NO BI ERASURE TO BE SEEN HERE NOPE

(now if only they could lay off the ace erasure siiiiigh)

how come they couldn’t do e-death on will too? he has even less to lose by it than nomi does at this point. or was that just too big of a deus ex machina? sun would also benefit but her incarceration was way too public for it to be forgotten just by erasing the data, so that one i get at least.

the idea of nomi being indebted to fucking Anonymous is hilarious to me for some reason. can’t wait to see where that plot thread leads XD

riley continues to be my fucking role model. so cautious and clever and sure-footed. most of all, she’s healed. she wandered for years without a reason to live, a hurricane of depression and self-destruction. now that she’s a sensate, she has a purpose again. and yeah, there’s elements of “rescue romance” in there, but damn if i don’t have a weakness for that trope. plus she goes from being rescued right into doing the rescuing, so i think that redeems the trope by a lot.

i’m glad they went a tiny bit further into the repercussions of being nigh-constantly high on heroin for almost a year, though it wasn’t nearly enough imo. i mean this isn’t a show about drug addiction so i forgive them, but i still think will’s (almost) perfect recovery from all that bullshit was very, very contrived.

how did will’s dad recognize him through riley? i’d be willing to buy some bullshit explanation of heightened global consciousness when approaching death, but they didn’t even mention it. i would have been sadder if will hadn’t been able to say anything at all, but now i’m just confused.

i still don’t really like will’s dad. half the scenes of him being happy or laughing in that montage were of him laughing at will’s expense.

poor will though. he’s kind of having his entire life fall apart around him. i wonder if he’ll fall to pieces too, later down the line.

sometimes i forget that all these characters are meant to be the exact same age as me (28). it’s easy to because all the actors look something like late-thirties, and most of them had stable employment nice homes before all this happened. then will says something #relatable like “our generation doesn’t get to have nice things” and i go “oh yeah”.

so like i appreciate a lot that white savior narratives were brought up in capheus’s storyline but i give side-eye at the fact that capheus disagreed with this concept. however it was done quite well (and couched within the epic “who am i” god i love these overlays) because capheus more or less admitted he could be wrong in his opinion, AND that it was just his opinion. not to mention that zakia is portrayed as very intelligent and reasonable in her own right, and entitled to her feelings on the subject as well. i hope so much we see more speeches from her in the future, because i want to hear her thoughts on PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING.

i’m not sure how i feel about capheus running for elected office. it seems so... out of place? i mean i know his character has to go somewhere, but this seems an odd direction to move in. i mean some form of governor or congressman equivalent is one thing, but amondi said something about him being president? does that mean of the entire country??

(i have no idea how kenyan government is run.)

of course it does give an excellent platform for the inspiring speeches and amazing one-liners on which this show runs, so i’ll allow it and see where this whole thing goes. besides, even though the plot is strange, they’re at least playing it smart. capheus already had a lot of notoriety, and it didn’t take much more than his charm to go from notorious to inspiring.

but then he took an impromptu flight to paris right in the middle of his campaign so tHAT’S NOT GONNA LOOK WEIRD AT ALL.

side note: where did he get the money for the flight? i mean i know his bus business is booming and he and his mom live in a slightly bigger hovel now, but that doesn’t mean he has hundreds in savings to blow on a flight. he’s still delighted by a coffee-maker for goodness sake (my precious shining innocent happy child).

or it could be money from his party for his campaign. in which case EVEN MORE TOTALLY NOT SUSPICIOUS.

that superpower guy, whatever his name is? i goddamn love his accent okay? i could listen to him talk all day.

capheus finding out kala’s company was likely responsible for his mother’s poor health in s1 was both heartbreaking and very cathartic. rajan had zero self-awareness there; like he said, it’s just one of those things you don’t even think about until someone points out how disgusting it is.

as good a guy as he otherwise is, i’m a little suspicious of his apology. he’s been pretty dismissive toward kala in the workplace, and i’m wondering if he’s just paying lip service to her.

and then, of course, there’s ajay. i get the creeps whenever he walks in, and i know that’s intentional. THAT BOX TERRIFIED ME FOR LIKE 2 WHOLE EPISODES UNTIL IT WAS OPENED I LEGIT THOUGHT IT WAS A BOMB.

wolfgang’s gang-kingdom plot was... just as incomprehensible/uninteresting to me as it was during the christmas special? and even then i felt like it was a highly abridged version of what they were initially going for. that giant fight on new year’s led to nothing. wolfgang and felix hang out with a creepily generous dude who Expects Things in return for his generosity. wolfgang knows this but only rejects him outright when he is asked outright, keeping whatever “good faith” tokens that came his way like an idiot. and let’s be fair, i’d be the first to do that sort of thing - accept bribes to Do A Thing, only to Not Do The Thing and exploit the doubletalk that surrounds such interactions to deny accountability. BUT. NOT. WHEN. DEALING. WITH. MURDERERS.

jesus wolfgang do you have a death wi- oh wait.

lila is... flat? as a character? she’s a sexpot and that’s kind of all. i’m a little disappointed that she’s so underdeveloped but maybe we’ll get more of her in the future.

puck is vile and i hate him. i almost hate that he rescued sun but at least she got to break his toes. i mean does he GENUINELY BELIEVE half the shit he says or does he just enjoy making women uncomfortable? i’m not sure which is worse.

but when he said he’s personally connected to over 300 sensates that kind of blew my mind. that’s a hell of a lot of potential for our cluster, y’know? the possibilities are dazzling.

THE ARCHIPELAGO IS SO FUCKING COOL LIKE THAT ENTIRE VISUAL SEQUENCE WAS PHENOMENAL AS USUAL BUT ALSO THE CONCEPT IS JUST REALLY FUCKING GR8

there was a fat sensate woman sitting in a library among the archipelago and i felt represented. ^_^

i thought jonas’s death felt a little abrupt, a little unnecessary, even though it was masterfully done. turns out i was right, in the worst way: they broke him, and turned him.

he was always a little shady but now he’s gone full dark side. what’s the cluster gonna do with him prisoner? who knows. i’m excited about it though!

wolfgang’s abduction is a magnificent jumping off point into much wider plots than the relatively narrow-focused ones we’ve seen thus far. however, i must point out that it felt sadly rushed. i mean, the same thing happened to riley and it took nearly two episodes to talk about, and only will was physically present for it. when it happened to wolfgang THE ENTIRE GANG jumped on a flight to help out and yet it took a mere third of an episode to pull off a much more complex plan from start to finish - “finish” being a loosely used term, since they haven’t even officially rescued the dude yet. i’m just saying it went by much too quickly to feel like more than a cliffhanger tacked on as an afterthought.

not to mention i wanted a lot more fanfare in the entire cluster physically coming together for a cause. it should have been an entire 12th episode imo, since season 2 only had 11? (i mean one of said eps was double-length so it’s the same runtime as s1 in terms of minutes, but still.) what did capheus say to his mother before he left? what did lito say to dani and hernando? THESE ARE SCENES THAT SHOULD HAVE TAKEN UP SCREENTIME, DAMMIT.

also how did will et al infiltrate the facility to surprise whispers in the first place? i need to understand the details of what the hell just went down.

AMANITA AND NOMI ARE GETTING MARRIEDDDDDDD

flawless execution. i had been wondering about amanita’s thoughts on all this nonsense and how she fit into it since nearly the beginning, and having it addressed all through s2 was very satisfying.

tbh i kinda thought lito was gonna propose to hernando at sao paolo but realized after the fact that he just wasn’t, and still isn’t, in the proper headspace for that. he’s just barely coming to terms with being openly gay; that’s nowhere near ready to be openly gay married. he’s getting there though :)

a loose end that i thought would be wrapped up this season but it looks like we’re going to have to wait for: todd. he’s alive and in prison, and he is either a member of angelica’s cluster or one of her earlier children. either way he’s probably chock-full of plot-related information and the sensates need to grill him. since his objections to being a sensate appeared to be largely religiously motivated, i recommend kala for the job.

angelica zombified raoul and used him to burn down her cabin in order to hide her research from whispers while maintaining deniability. that is... so firmly gray with such a wildly disparate set of motivations that i’m a little astounded. it’s horrifying. it was necessary in her eyes. she did something “good” and “right” through some truly viciously evil means. she was ruthless enough to burn an innocent man to death but compassionate enough to comfort him and let him hear his father’s voice before he died, even as she was controlling his mind against his will. i can’t reconcile these things, and it’s AMAZING that the writers managed this kind of event.

meeting sarah petrel’s family was fascinating, and i have to wonder how so many people “knew” her. will is obvious. whispers and angelica i can understand. but when did jonas or raoul meet her? is sarah actually way more significant than we thought? is she more than just will’s sad backstory? :O

tell me more about ruth el-sadawi.

tell me more about other clusters in hiding, and their system of organization.

tell me more about the mechanics of sensate abilities in general, specifically the process of giving birth.

tell me more about BPO’s early days, how it changed, who was responsible for those changes. tell me how whispers became part of it.

now that whispers knows who kala is, will he go after her family? how will this impact rajan’s investigation?

will sun need to protect detective mun until he recovers and can testify?

why did the woman riley met commit suicide shortly after their meeting? what part in her decision to kill herself did jonas play?

will kala’s blockers work as they should?

give me more of riley’s dad singing songs to make his daughter smile.

give me more of amanita being a huge book nerd and developing her newfound interest in parapsychology.

give me more of daniella confronting and gradually recovering from her abusive childhood.

give me more of capheus’s mother being an art’s teacher!

give me more of sun’s prison friends! (i have a bit of a crush on soo-jin)

give me more of whispers being calmly, terrifyingly sadistic.

will we ever see yrsa again?

will we ever find out what happened to capheus’s baby sister?

all the tiny little continuity nods and references to season 1 made me giddy.

BRING SEASON 3 THE FUCK ON MY DUDES!!

#sense8 #sense8 season 2 #spoilers

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