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aronarchy · 2 years

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FYI this has been going on— (cw for screenshots from a racist rightwing blog)

[image IDs: several screenshots from a blog post by Noah Carl, a rightwing “researcher” of racial pseudoscience, regarding “Nick Bostrom’s pre-emptive apology”

2nd screenshot of Carl’s statement shown above:

Nick Bostrom is a philosopher at Oxford who works on topics like existential risk and human enhancement. I haven’t read much of his work, but people I respect rate it very highly. Anatoly Karlin (whom I had on the podcast recently) considers him “the greatest living philosopher”.

A few days ago, Bostrom posted a document titled ‘Apology for An Old Email’ on his website. The document was subsequently shared on Twitter by his colleague Anders Sandberg, apparently at Bostrom’s request. It begins:

> I have caught wind that somebody has been digging through the archives of the Extropians listserv with a view towards finding embarrassing materials to disseminate about people … I fear that selected pieces of the most offensive stuff will be extracted, maliciously framed and interpreted, and used in smear campaigns. To get ahead of this, I want to clean out my own closet, and get rid of the very worst of the worst in my contribution file.

The email in question, which was sent “in the mid 90s” as part of a discussion about “offensive communication styles”, is as follows:

> I have always liked the uncompromisingly objective way of thinking and speaking: the more counterintuitive and repugnant a formulation, the more it appeals to me given that it is logically correct. Take for example the following sentence:

> Blacks are more stupid than whites.

[I cut off the rest of Carl’s screenshot of Bostrom’s email, as it contained more unpleasant antiblack commentary]

3rd screenshot:

You don’t have to apologise for saying offensive things in a setting that people have selected into for the specific purposes of discussing offensive things. Stand-up comedians don’t need to apologise for telling jokes at their shows that it would inappropriate for them to tell in church. Moreover, Bostrom made the comments more than twenty years ago, and he “immediately apologised” at the time! End of story.

Yet as you well know, academia is crawling with offence archaeologists – low-lifes who spend their time combing through other people’s writing with the hope of finding something they can use to ruin their careers. They are not virtuous, and they do not care about the downtrodden. Their aim is simply to “take down” someone whose views they disapprove of – usually someone who contributes far more to society than they do.

In light of this, you can understand why Bostrom wanted to “get ahead” of the controversy by saying his piece pre-emptively. Unfortunately, what he said may have made things worse – not only for himself but for others who might find themselves in similar situations in the future.

4th:

Rather than making the points I made above (and perhaps apologising for needing to bring the admittedly provocative email to people’s attention), he issued an embarrassingly grovelling apology:

> I completely repudiate this disgusting email from 26 years ago … The invocation of a racial slur was repulsive. I immediately apologized for writing it at the time … and I apologize again unreservedly today. I recoil when I read it and reject it utterly.

As for his “actual views”, Bostrom thinks “it is deeply unfair that unequal access to education, nutrients, and basic healthcare leads to inequality in social outcomes, including sometimes disparities in skills and cognitive capacity”. And he wants you to know that he has given to charities “fighting exactly this problem”, including “the Black Health Alliance”.

The one saving grace of his apology – from the perspective of grown-up intellectual discourse – was that he didn’t denounce the hypothesis that genes contribute to group differences in cognitive ability. “It is not my area of expertise”, he wrote, “and I don’t have any particular interest in the question.” Note: the latter claim is likely to be false; how could you not be interested in it?

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https://twitter.com/rechelon/status/1615072322058076166

[image ID:

tweet by xriskology:

The real victimhood culture is on the political right:

[a screenshot from the same Noah Carl blog post shown above]

thread QRTing their tweet:

“That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.”

My line is that your career can be destroyed by exposing the truth (that you’re still soft on vapid racial pseudoscience 25 years after endorsing it), then it deserves to be.

I find it deeply disgusting and infuriating the way that so many “rationalists” are framing everything in terms of “he said a bad word and immediately apologized 25 years ago” when that’s not even fucking remotely the issue and would amount to almost no blowback on its own.

I think almost no one gives a shit about Bostrom using the n-word 25 years ago, his apology for that isn’t the issue. The issue is that his recent apology is stunning in what it studiously doesn’t renounce and the way it leaves claims about genetic racial intelligence open.

I’m well aware that Bostrom makes the perfectly fine transhumanist move that “even if racial intelligence disparities were a thing, they’re irrelevant because everyone can individually tinker with themselves in whatever direction” but it’s not enough to merely bracket the claims.

Bostrom’s “apology” sounds perfectly fine to him and his circles because “I am not an expert on racial science” sounds like a renunciation of his claim “blacks are stupider than whites” to them. But it’s anything but! It doesn’t address at all what he still believes.

The fact is that the specific measures the rationalist community chooses to valorize, certain limited performances of rationality, do not exclude shitbags willing to make some contortions so those shitbags flock into their circles, expelling others, and shaping background norms.

I’d be willing to bet at sharp odds that >50% of the self-identified rationalist community believes “there are significant genetic racial disparities in intelligence between the races and unfairly we can’t talk about this.”

That is the problem Bostrom’s non-apology exemplifies

Now there are myriad good mechanisms and reasons to dismiss the object-level claim, but sure, ghosts could exist and it could be true, the biggest problem is the way this “likelihood” has been drastically inflated within the rationalist community by their social dynamics.

The rationalist community is running the proverbial bar where they let nazis in. And if you fail to draw the line with one nazi, you very rapidly just have a nazi bar. Because nazis are large in number, have few other options, and are willing to go through a lot of contortions.

Nazis will absolutely shit themselves silly writing endless papers throwing chaff everywhere like the “200 proofs the earth is not flat” and credulous “rationalist” bros whose whole self-image prioritizes feeling smarter than everyone and holders of esoteric truths love that.

And so we see vast asymmetries and distortions in the epistemic frames of most “rationalists” as a consequence of their sociological dynamics. They proactively read anti-woke folks on the right and then pretty much never delve deep into radical leftist arguments.

They’ll delve into the most esoteric neoreactionary screeds with giant bibliographies of catholic and postmodern writers to find the secret actual argument for an inane conservative position, but then assume every leftist argument is the first related tumblr post they found.

Scott Alexander Siskind BRAGGED that his readership was fair and balanced because he had some socialists and only like 22% identified openly as alt-right or neoreactionary. That is not balance. That is a nazi bar. And that social fabric warps one’s epistemology.

Bostrom honestly thought he was addressing the problem with his racist email in the 90s. And Sandberg (god damnit dude) read it and was like “this is a knockout response I want to be associated with” and hordes of fuckers saw the same.

reply to the thread by zorangecats:

One observation I’ve made is I’ve never seen the rationalist “steelman” for the feminist worldview. An interesting omission.

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https://twitter.com/rechelon/status/1614428504581607424

[image ID:

tweet by Aella_Girl:

Lost some respect for EA due to the response to the Bostrom thing. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised? CEA has always leaned a bit too far towards PR at the expense of integrity. I guess I’d hoped to see some more bravery. Feel like the correct response would have had more nuance.

thread QRTing her tweet:

The lost “integrity” she’s bemoaning is that the Centre for Effective Altruism released a very thin anodyne statement condemning Bostrom’s “words” (presumably just his original email and no detail on whether the racial pseudoscience in particular sucks)

Imagine being so fucking twisted that you see condemning racist shit to any minor degree as a lack of integrity.

These people’s entire morality is about fiercely condemning and ostracizing anyone who ever dabbles in condemning or ostracizing people over shit like racism, rape, and transphobia.

It’s pure Coalition Of The Bad shit.

/end image ID]

#repost of someone else’s content #twitter repost #nick bostrom #racism #antiblackness #antiblackness cw #gillis #Enlightened Centrism #the self-proclaimed ‘rationalist’ community #aella #underdiscussed but important #claiming rationality =/= your calculations are free of error #(or that your formulas are correct in the first place)#(or that you are automatically free of bias or inaccuracy)#aesthetic (but ultimately irrational) posturing masquerading as a takedown of of others’ supposed aesthetic irrationalities #as it always goes -- whites make counterfactual statements & construct theories around them motivated by (yes) *bias*#and pass it off as fact --> any of the marginalized who debunk those inaccuracies & present the facts are labeled as biased ourselves #claiming we debunk bioessentialism & tie that to our egalitarian ideology bc ideology first ‘pseudo’science second #when in fact that it exactly what *they* did and what we do is *to undo what they did first*#however their epistemology also has a built-in self-defense mechanism:#‘if they claim x y z they must be wrong because as our ‘facts’ prove they’re too irrational & stupid to know what’s right #(and their disagreement proves our theories are right)’#same self-reinforcing mechanism fundamental to western colonialism (& patriarchy) in the modern form that claims to be rational/scientific #also how the entire psychiatric field conducts itself (heavy ties to other fields of human biological study esp. neuroscience)#& can successfully hook a lot of ppl already motivated to fall for this kind of stacking the deck #but the (yes) *aesthetic* they present themselves w/ makes it easier for them to deflect criticism #bc ‘I am Objectively Right according to Science --> all those critics are just irrational moralist science-haters’#especially frustrating when many in that crowd *do* promote genuinely suppressed but correct ideas (such as transhumanism)#but then try to lump in things like racism as similarly suppressed unjustly as if the dynamics are anywhere near the same #I wasnt aware abt Bostrom bc Ive been off twitter for months

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thefangedstoryteller · 25 days

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you girls with me on this?

the pace we’re currently at meaning, she only has one original c(o)untry song out, but we don’t know entirely if it’s a single or her just being a feature on it. she said to vogue that she’ll release two more singles this year, meaning it can’t possibly be released next month. sorry to all the fans who still think it is though.

#lana del rey #lasso lana del rey #coquette #country #cuntry #thoughts #album release #fan theory #liz gillies #elizabeth gillies

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wally-b-feed · 2 years

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Anthony Fineran (B 1981), Gillie Lord Brown Palmetto, 2022

#Anthony Fineran #Art #Contemporary #Digital #Internet #Net #Web #Google #Images #Search Engine #Color #Theory #Gillie #Lord #Brown #Palmetto

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suzukiblu · 1 year

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Tim’s my blorbo so I’ll always take more Tim content

Apparently Cadmus knew Experiment Thirteen was the one to invest in because Experiment Thirteen had a soulmark.

Apparently Cadmus also considered terminating Experiment Thirteen because Experiment Thirteen had a soulmark.

Tim knows this because he broke into the place and stole a copy of Superboy's file the day after they met.

He also knows what Superboy's soulmark looks like, because these absolute bastards not only took multiple pictures of it, they put those pictures in his fucking file. Not even, like, classified or tucked away behind a firewall or a password or anything. Not even in a seperate folder. Just right there in his standard file where literally any random scientist or doctor or goddamn intern could trip right over them without even meaning to.

Forget the fucking mind control; that's fucked up.

So yeah. Tim knows what Superboy's soulmark looks like. It's a stark, dark red, all sharp angles slung low in the V of his Adonis belt and cutting from one hip to the other, looking not unlike a stylized bird in flight coming at the viewer head-on. Bold. Undeniable. Very much like Superboy himself, really.

And exactly like the mark that came in on Tim when, he now knows, Superboy was first put together in a fucking petri dish. So that's . . . a whole thing, there.

Well. At least his soulmate is only literally fifteen years younger than him, not physically and mentally.

Although that doesn't really seem like a big improvement, to be honest.

Tim didn't even know he was into guys, actually? Definitely didn't know Superboy was into guys, all things considered. Like, he would not expect somebody like him to ever be subtle about who or what he was into.

Maybe they're platonics, Tim tries to tell himself. The fact that his first thought upon learning that Superboy was his soulmate was immediately questioning his own sexuality doesn't really support that theory, though.

Though it does help explain why Poison Ivy putting her hands on the guy had pissed him off so bad.

Like. It very much does.

Tim doesn't actually know what to do about this. Bruce still thinks he doesn't even have a soulmate, due to Tim previously really, really not wanting to deal with the absolute embarrassment of admitting that said soulmate was an actual fucking baby, so Tim never got the Bat-version of the soulmate talk. Bruce'd sat him down to give it to him when he'd first become Robin, but Tim hadn't had a mark then, obviously, so they'd both just assumed he didn't have to worry about it. Tim is pretty sure Bruce had been as relieved as he had to dodge that particular bullet, really. Apparently Dick had needed visual aids and hadn't understood the "gilly talk" version. And Jason had had questions.

Lots of questions.

Creative ones.

Sometimes Tim suspects Jason might've been an asshole. Like, just a little bit of one.

So no, Tim does not blame Bruce for deciding to skip that particular talk with him, especially when they'd both thought he wasn't gonna need to know any of it anyway.

So . . . yeah. He doesn't know how he's supposed to approach this situation. Obviously telling Superboy that they're soulmates would compromise Tim's secret identity and therefore Bruce's, and everybody and their damn mother knows Superboy himself doesn't even have a secret identity so it's not like Tim can figure that out and approach him that way.

On the other hand, not telling him that they're soulmates isn't a great start to being soulmates, now is it.

Crap, Tim thinks.

Then he calls Dick, because if he has to sit through the Bat-version of the soulmate talk, at least maybe Dick will be slightly less embarrassing to hear it from.

As long as there's no visual aids involved, anyway.

"Hey, Tim," Dick greets as he picks up the phone. Tim has a carefully crafted plan of attack, of course; several, in fact. He's got all sorts of subtle ways to lead the conversation without revealing anything too damning or too specific and while keeping everything in hypotheticals. Just making the whole thing either a quick thought exercise or casual curiosity from an unmarked kid who's heard one too many soulmate stories and wants to know more. So Tim's prepared. Tim's ready.

Tim panics.

"Poison Ivy kissed my soulmate and I want to burn down her entire life," he blurts.

"Uh," Dick says. "You're . . . gonna have to catch me up a little here, baby bird. For starters, I thought you didn't have a soulmate."

"I didn't," Tim says as he starts to pace back and forth across his bedroom, because he's already screwed this up so there's no point in playing coy now. "Then some dickheads in Metropolis decided to steal Superman's dead body and make a cocky asshole with douchey shades and a leather fetish out of it."

"Ohhhhh boy," Dick says. "What'd B say?"

"I found out like half an hour ago and you're the only person I've told, so nothing yet," Tim says. "What's the Bat-protocol for finding out your soulmate is somebody in the community, exactly? Specifically somebody in douchey shades?"

"Depends," Dick says. "How'd the kid react?"

". . . I don't know how to say this without sounding like a total creep, but he doesn't know," Tim admits with a wince. "I broke into Cadmus to make a copy of his file after I met him and they just . . . had his soulmark in it. Like. There wasn't even a password. It wasn't even in an isolated folder. It was just there."

"That is the most fucked up thing I've heard since the last time I had to talk to Jervis Tetch," Dick mutters in obvious disgust. "Alright, well, how are you reacting, then?"

"My soulmate is a baby," Tim grumbles disgruntledly, dropping into his desk chair. "A baby who is also a teenager."

"Tim, you're a teenager too," Dick reminds him wryly. "You are very much so a teenager too, in fact."

"Yeah, and it sucks," Tim says emphatically. "And I have, like, actual legal guardians and a home and a trust fund. Superboy just lives somewhere in Hawaii with a sleazy businessman and his kid and some random guy from Cadmus!"

"That's, uh, actually not great," Dick says, sounding a little troubled.

"You think?!" Tim demands. "He's a baby! An infant! And he lives with his frigging manager!"

"What the actual hell," Dick says.

"Just–is it ethical to kidnap your own soulmate and does that even matter if they're not legally a person and so you couldn't actually be charged for anything anyway?" Tim mutters speculatively, drumming his fingers on his desk for a moment and then booting up his computer. "I mean, B can't get mad at me for doing it if the courts can't get me for doing it, right?"

"Wait, Superboy's not legally a person?" Dick asks incredulously.

"Nope," Tim says. "Which neither Cadmus nor the sleazebag selling his likeness for a living has in any way tried to correct, for the record. Technically he's classified as intellectual property, but Cadmus forfeited legal possession when Superman turned up alive again, presumably to avoid Superman ever finding out that they'd had said legal possession, so technically if I went and kidnapped him it'd be more like . . . salvage, maybe? Like, in the eyes of the law, I mean."

"Yeah, okay, in that case kidnapping your own soulmate might be less an ethics question and more a moral obligation," Dick says.

"Good point," Tim says, frowning consideringly as he pulls up his browser. "Do you think if I just do it as Tim Drake I can avoid compromising my identity?"

"I have no idea but if I were you I'd already be booking my flight and thinking up a cheap excuse to 'accidentally' flash a teen heartthrob superhero my soulmark anyway," Dick says.

"I am already booking my flight," Tim says mid-click of said booking. "Although, uh, flashing him our particular soulmark might require, like . . . third base, and I don't even know if he likes guys. I don't even know if he knows if he likes guys, he's like five minutes out of the cloning tube and like, I'm literally fifteen and don't know if I like guys, so why the hell would he?"

"Okay, yeah, that could be an issue," Dick says. "Hm. Wardrobe malfunction? Slutty beach day? Wet T-shirt contest?"

"I'm not above any of those options at this point, frankly," Tim grumbles, even though those ideas are all very "Nightwing" and not very "Robin". Technically he shouldn't be approaching this like Robin would anyway, because god forbid Superboy recognize his methodology.

Slutty beach day might have to be a thing, Tim realizes with resigned dread. He is really not comfortable with slutty beach day being a thing.

. . . maybe if he just gets lucky, he can catch Superboy having his own slutty beach day. Not to make any assumptions, just Tim's pretty sure if either of them were ever going to be the type to wear a speedo or low-waisted swim trunks or just walk around with their soulmark out in general . . .

Which, in Superboy's defense, well–his soulmark is already on file with Cadmus, so yeah. He might not even care if other people see it or not, considering that.

Then again, if Tim knew that a bunch of random strangers who'd wanted to mind-control him had all seen and taken pictures of his soulmark, he'd never wear anything that risked exposing it again. Like. Ever.

Possibly he'd just live and die in a wetsuit. Or coveralls. Overalls. Or just–whatever. Something like that.

. . . come to think of it, Superboy's costume is all one piece, isn't it.

Cadmus is full of assholes, Tim decides as he confirms his booking, then gets up to throw together a go-bag. He has no plan whatsoever, but whatever; it's a twelve-hour flight. He's gonna have time to think something up.

One go-through with airport security and a twelve-hour flight later, Tim has not thought anything up.

Dammit.

#timkon #tim drake #kon el #dc robin #superboy #anonymous #rinfic #long post #wip: kidnapping your soulmate for fun and profit

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agentrouka-blog · 6 months

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Do you think ‘Game of Thrones’ intended to build toward a romantic relationship between Jon and Sansa, or were Kit and Sophie’s on screen chemistry just that good? If the showrunners abandoned a Jonsa storyline, what is your theory as to why they did so?

I do think there was 100% intentional effort by various professionals that went into building romantic imagery around Jon and Sansa. Writing, lighting, costuming, the way they staged their interactions, dialogue choices - and the ton of visual parallels borrowed from other romantic couples in the series (Ned and Cat, Cersei and Jaime, Gilly and Sam, Robb and Talisa...) - that kind of stuff doesn't just happen accidentally because two actors have chemistry.

(In the same way, intentional choices went into undercutting and subverting romantic imagery between Jon and Daenerys. The "bad chemistry" is not accidental, either.)

As to why they abandoned a plan that still has archeological traces well into Season 8, I can't credibly guess. Probably a mix of things, partly a sudden unwillingness to invest the time into a pseudo-incest angsty romance that would heavily center Jon and Sansa and take away time from important things like Bronn, an imposed unwillingness to properly build Dany's villain arc to serve as a counter-weight in favor of giving the "romantic lead" plotline to Dany to camouflage her villain reveal. Who knows. Bad choices were made early down the line cutting things, and the puzzle pieces they had left they weren't willing or able to assemble into a balanced storyline that by then depended heavily on catering to fan favorite Dany.

#anti game of thrones #jonsa #anti daenerys targaryen #anti jonerys #<- for filtering #rouka ask

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galaxofmuses · 4 months

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Who Are You In This Haunted House Story?

The Eldest

Knowledge is your curse. You carry a burden heavier than anyone your age should should even be able to conceptualize, let alone feel the ache and heft of. It weighs down your steps, deadens your eyes, depletes your faith. You know that the mistakes of adults are not without consequences, no matter how they pretend nothing went wrong at all. They see that you’re different now, but they don’t yet realize how much. They tell you comforting lies, not knowing that the truth is your only god now. Nothing will ever be okay again and you’re so very tired of pretending otherwise.

The Mother

You pour everything you have left into those you love. Desperately, frantically you try to fix what is broken, but the cracks spread faster than you can mend. If only you can hold everyone together, then things might just be okay! However, you only have two hands and all anyone seems to do is pull away. Everyone is different now, even you, and pretending not to see it isn’t making anything better. You see the signs of things going wrong, of what is but should not be, and you try to warn them. You love with every fiber of your being, but try as you might, you cannot make them understand. They don’t listen, no one ever listens.

Tagged by: Just stole it from @epitomees

Tagging: ANYONE!

#Hoshiyo's Gameplay #gilly's theories #:: headcanon ::#// so my female oc and my nonbinary oc got very accurate results and Im a cry holy shit...#:: Dash Games; Gonna take five ::

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atopvisenyashill · 7 days

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THE HISTORY OF MARRIAGE ALLIANCES BETWEEN HOUSE VELARYON AND THE SUMMER ISLANDERS OF ESSOS

The more I think about Corlys and the Dragon Twins as characters, the more I really like the change to book canon that their heritage isn't quite so strictly Valyrian. They seem to be this middle ground between the Celtigars, who imo likely "went native" very quickly, and the Targaryens, who, ya know, *gestures at that mess* because they seem to have more Valyrian marriages and their Valyrian heritage is taken more seriously than the Celtigars.

I settled on this idea that being a house of seafarers, they often intermarry with various Essosi nobles and that’s part of why ~the blood of valyria~ is still strong with them despite not partaking in incestuous marriages; like Larra Rogare or Serenei of Lys, many Essosi do have Valyrian looks and Valyrian heritage and the Velaryons are in a position as adventurers to meet and fall in love with these nobles.

One thing I noticed about the Summer Islands is that they seem to have a healthy diaspora, not just in King’s Landing but in Braavos - Arya mentions Bellegere Otherys still resembling a Summer Islander despite it being several generations since Bellegere Otherys the First. It also seems like there’s Summer Islanders that live long term in Braavos; there's 50 Summer Islanders in the Golden Company, Arya mentions seeing many Summer Islanders, and Sam and Gilly travel on a boat crewed largely by Summer Islanders. This all makes sense world building wise - they're a culture of seafarers and we usually see them at large hubs like King's Landing and Braavos.

So really, folding show canon Corlys into book canon is incredibly easy when you think about the high number of Summer Islanders at port cities. My thought here is - Corlys is a proud man and very insistent on how he built his own fortune, both in the show and in the books. I thought of the type of parents he could have had and settled on a man who becomes angered at the comments he and his mother get for being darker skinned and Essosi/Summer Islander and deciding to just double down by marrying a rich Braavosi Summer Islander. So first Daemon meets a Sumemr Isles princess on his own travels, Salata Xam, and falls in love, then Corwyn, like Corlys, attempts to build a fortune through his own accomplishments, including his marriage to the rich Sarissa Jaedosys, and passes that stubborn streak onto his son.

Then, similar to how Sybell uses her new connections to get her brother some land (though he’s still kinda fucked there lol), and the Lyseni Spring, the House of Jaedosys ("jaedos" means "summer" in Valyrian, so while the family is Braavosi and has considered themselves Braavosi for some time, their house name is a reference to their origins in the Summer Isles) uses their new connection in Westeros to build their own fortunes up as well. Corwyn’s (canon) brother, Victor marries a cousin of Sarissa's, Doreah Jaedosys. In canon, Daemon and Corwyn have several children - Daemon’s names here are all canon (AND he has some daughters), and Corwyn has an unknown amount of kids. I think this explains why there’s so many Black Velaryons - there’s just like, a shitton of Velaryon cousins right now!

So once I established Corlys and his brothers as being mostly Summer Island descent, from there I moved onto who is likely a descendant of the Dragon Twins (and Corlys). For Rhaena’s many daughters, I thought of Targaryen names that sounded Andal-ish/Reacher-ish and Andal names that sounded Targaryen-ish; there's a pattern in the Reach of using the more religious-affiliated Targaryen names as Reacher names (Aemon, Aegon, and Baelor have all come up!) so I think at least part of this is Rhaena's influence. I decided on Alyssa, Leyla, Victaria, Aelora, Denyse, and Rhaella.

I also combined this with my “Elaena marries Baela’s grandson” theory, which I feel makes a lot of sense - not only the Penrose-Valyrian connection and story implications, but notably the name “Laena” is a Velaryon name. I think if Ronnel’s mother was also a Laena, and both of them were half Velaryon, this little bond between them of choosing a Velaryon name for their first born daughter feels very sweet and romantic even. PLUS, if a Targaryen descended girl marries into another house, I can see people wanting to show that off every once in a while through a name. This is why Rhaena’s girls marry a Costayne and a Hightower!

Then I started thinking about the timeline and what was happening politically as all these descendants of Corlys start marrying. Given that the Tarlys were staunch supporters of Rhaenyra, I can see Rhaena wanting to reward that, and Garmund agreeing due to them being a powerful Reacher house. Since there is mention of the Blackfyre Rebellion ~pitting brother against brother~ and the Costaynes sided with Daemon, I thought having a Hightower-Targaryen involved in that mess would be thematically fun; either Aelora sides against her husband or Aelora marries a Costayne that sides against the main branch. Either way, when the rebellion is over, Daeron punishes the main branch Costaynes by taking most of their lands and giving it to Aelora and her daughters. As for Denyse, I thought it would make sense, once again, for her to turn back to the Braavosi Sumer Islanders for a husband; a First Sword of Braavos, perhaps, who use Hightower grey and a pink dragon to represent Denyse's heritage in their sigil.

Also Alyssa Hightower was originally supposed to marry Leo Hightower (Lady Sam and Lyonel's oldest son) but when she found out Leyla was in love with him, she committed herself to the Faith. Why? Because I think that's absolutely hilarious. Septa Alyssa is making Daemon roll over his grave lmao.

#valyrianscrolls #the summer isles #house velaryon #dragon twins #corlys velaryon #baela targaryen #rhaena targaryen #i guess alyn is here too but i will hold his cheating against him forever sorry #rani graphics #anyways self indulgent family trees: a series of edits by me lmao

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breach-of-conduct · 1 month

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RIPTIDE THEORY TIME- spoilers for ep 114 below the cut

K so ive been relistening to 114 in periods of like 45 minutes over the last few days (cause i am too tired/busy to listen to it in one sitting.)

Once i got to the gilly gets crucified part i go huh. What're they using all the triton for? So hear me out.

The navy isn't wasteful. At least to me it doesn't feel like they are, especially in regards to stuff like this. They have a (presumably) whole leviathan skeleton, but it doesn't have any flesh. We know that when Gil gets taken he loses skin and some flesh. We also know the navy is trying to build an artificial leviathan. We know they had more triton in thier fucked up butchers shop.

So, what if the navy is using triton to rebuild the leviathan. We have some idea that triton are connected to leviathans (you've probably seen Gil is a leviathan theories somewhere) and the navy tried other races, but in the episode there's more mention of tritons.

Law of equal exchange and all that, means to create something you need to have matter to create it with. To create a LIVING leviathan, you would need organic matter. What if they tried using anyone, but found that only triton works.

This also plays into another theory ive seen (and think holds water) that the navy has replaced a lot of triton in thier black ops program. But they have to use the rest somewhere right? Only seems fair.

#Welcome to my fucked up idea let me know what y'all think #Jrwi #Jrwi riptide #just roll with it riptide

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racefortheironthrone · 6 months

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Do you think that the baby swap actually happened? I prefer the theory that the baby swap did not actually happen, and that Aegon is the son of Illyrio and Sera (posited as a female-line Blackyre) - the baby swap does not explain why Elia would choose to protect the swapped baby with her life while leaving Rhaenys alone, nor Illyrio’s extreme fondness for the boy.

For almost a decade now, I've been an advocate of the double-swap theory, which I think does the best job of reconciling the actions of both Varys and Illyrio.

That being said, I think there are two perfectly cromulent explanations for Elia's actions in this theory: the first possibility is that Elia didn't realize that a baby swap happened very shortly before her death, and the second is that she did know, and that (just like Gilly in AFFC/ADWD) she was willing to endure suffering in order to ensure that her son would live.

#asoiaf #asoiaf meta #the double-swap theory #varys #illyrio

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goodqueenaly · 7 months

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I’ve never come up with an entirely perfect working theory on Coldhands, but the one I lean toward most is that Coldhands is - somehow - an “ordinary” wight (to the extent the word can be used) whom Bloodraven has skinchanged into, effectively taking over from the Others' control of him, and is using as his agent, so to speak, outside the cave of the children of the forest. Whether or not this sort of skinchanging is even possible, I have no idea - but I gravitate toward this idea because I could see Bloodraven using, and justifying the use of, such a being to achieve his ends. As a wight, Coldhands would presumably raise no suspicions among other wights, and perhaps not the Others either - a useful cover for one who had to travel across many hostile miles between the Wall and the cave (and indeed, when Coldhands shows up to save Sam and Gilly, there doesn't seem to be any indication that the wights are going to attack him). Supernatural agents serving as his spies or as part of his spy network is of course nothing new for Bloodraven, given his actions in his political life: even if the stories Dunk remembers that Bloodraven “could change his face, put on the likeness of a one-eyed dog, even turn into a mist” and command “gaunt gray wolves [to hunt] down his foes” and “carrion crows [to spy] for him and [whisper] secrets in his ear” were not all completely true (though some, I think, undoubtedly were), Bloodraven was certainly willing to use a glamour to disguise himself as a hedge knight at the tourney at Whitewalls. From fabricating an identity, and face, to garb himself as another person, Bloodraven has, perhaps, progressed to taking over another person (or at least, their body) entirely, projecting himself into the world as he no longer physically can.

More to the point, I like the way that Coldhands as a skinchanged wight controlled by Bloodraven might in a way represent Bloodraven himself (beyond merely serving as his agent). Like Bloodraven, Coldhands is a Night’s Watch ranger, both complete with tattered old blacks that once reflected their Night's Watch membership, seemingly dead “long ago” but in fact alive (or as much as either can be deemed alive, anyway). Coldhands is, like Bloodraven, a figure both sustained and bound by supernatural power. As Bloodraven has “lived beyond his mortal span” thanks to the weirwoods’ magic, so Coldhands, though killed long before his encounters with Sam and Bran, walks and talks like a living being; however, just as Brynden is fated sooner rather than later to “[go] into the trees” completely, to remain permanently in the cave and join that lineage of greenseers on their weirwood seats, so Coldhands is restricted to the wilds beyond the Wall, permitted neither to cross the Wall’s boundaries nor to enter the children’s warded cave. Coldhands no more hesitates to serve Bran, the Reeds, and Hodor the physical flesh of Night’s Watch deserters, despite the horror of cannibalism, than Bloodraven hesitated to serve Daeron II and Aegon V, metaphorically, the flesh of Daemon Blackfyre and his sons and Aenys Blackfyre, respectively, despite the proscriptions against kinslaying and violating guest right (albeit perhaps with some personal qualms for Bloodraven to the former). In the sort of amusing twist Bloodraven himself might appreciate, the man who once spoke with the king’s voice as Hand now perhaps almost literally has another speak with his voice while he himself sits on a mystical throne. Too, as Bloodraven had once appeared to Dunk looking like “a living corpse” as the former rode through King’s Landing, so now a real living corpse, just as pale, would represent Bloodraven as he rode across the lands beyond the Wall.

What I like about this idea as well is the way in which it adds to the nuance and ethical questions surrounding Bloodraven and the magic he uses. To be clear, I think Bloodraven does care about saving the world: the literally superhuman effort put in to shepherding Bran to becoming his greenseer successor is I believe indicative of this aim. Nevertheless, by skinchanging into a raised wight, Bloodraven may be approaching something close to the rather more nefarious magic employed by the Others; if the very evil of the Others is in their enslaving the reanimated dead for the purposes of destruction, how moral or immoral is Bloodraven’s similar use of a wight, albeit for ultimately positive (or intended to be positive) ends? This potential willingness to take over a human body through magical means, with all the accompanying implications for and discussions on the morality of the actor in question, echoes not only in Varamyr’s disturbing Prologue (with his attempts to seize Thistle) but even in the otherwise very sympathetic Bran and his forcible takeover of Hodor, especially in non-survival or unintentional situations. Obviously, I do not think Bran is malicious or evil, much less on the level of monstrous Varamyr, but I do think the author wants readers to recognize the horror implicit here - through the Others, through these circumstances with Bran, and through, perhaps, Bloodraven’s control of Coldhands (hence the chilling self-identification of Coldhands as “your monster, Brandon Stark).

#asoiaf meta #coldhands

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