#hotd 263

[hayley-on-the-daily]

[mswyrr]

One of the most important bits of dialogue in hotd is from Viserys in 1x01:

"The idea that we control the dragons is an illusion. They're a power man should never have trifled with. One that brought Valyria its doom. If we don't mind our own histories, it will do the same to us."

This is a man who bonded with Balerion, The Black Dread, the oldest dragon who had actually hatched in Old Valyria. This was the same dragon who flew Princess Aerea, a 12-year-old girl who bonded with him, back to Valyria against her will - sickening and killing her in the process (Fire & Blood, p 263). The little girl was away from her home at the time and probably feeling "I want to go home" but what Balerion did with that feeling killed her. His will was strong and his memory was *deep*.

Viserys only rode him one time, his inaugural flight, and then never again. IMO he experienced something bonding with that ancient beast that--in addition to studying the family's history and Valyrian lore--convinced him of the danger and fundamentally uncontrollable nature of dragons.

It is totally in keeping with canon events that Vhagar, in the current timeline the most ancient dragon alive--a dragon who drank deep of bloodshed and war with Visenya during the Conquest and *likes* war--translated Aemond's anger at Lucerys into murder of the boy and his small dragon. It is perfectly in keeping with what the show has been saying since episode 1.

An ancient, powerful and wilful dragon overcoming the will of its rider is *literally canon*. Princess Aerea must have been terrified during the whole, long flight to Valyria, and yet all her protests couldn't stop the dragon she'd bonded to.

I would also say that the Valyrians turned magical creatures, dragons, into weapons of warfare - that the dragons, in that sense, represent war. And the show is imo fundamentally antiwar - so here war is something you cannot control. GRRM has said the dragons are "nukes," which fits with this reading:

“Dragons are the nuclear deterrent, and only [Daenerys Targaryen, one of the series’ heroines] has them, which in some ways makes her the most powerful person in the world,” Martin said in 2011. “But is that sufficient? These are the kind of issues I’m trying to explore. The United States right now has the ability to destroy the world with our nuclear arsenal, but that doesn’t mean we can achieve specific geopolitical goals. Power is more subtle than that. You can have the power to destroy, but it doesn’t give you the power to reform, or improve, or build.” (source)

War and nukes - you cannot aim them only at the guilty, only at those you hate; you cannot prevent them from consuming the innocent as well. They a raging fire that consumes, that is all. And so, on that level, I just adore what they're doing and how it all fits together.

Aemond's domestic violence fits too - boys go to war thinking it will be honorable and manly and they'll protect "their women" but instead come home and hurt those very women. This thing burns and burns until it is exhausted, and it doesn't stay contained, not within you or outside you. "So it goes," to steal a phrase from antiwar writer Kurt Vonnegut.

The reason I keep coming back to my antiwar reading of the show is that things that people dismiss as "bad" or mock actually come together beautifully if you don't expect to war to be glorious and masterful and heroic. If you take the text seriously, in terms of what the dragons are metaphorically and what characters have outright said about their fundamentally uncontrollable nature. The lore supports what Vhagar did! That she could overcome a teenaged human's will with her century old bloodlust.

[justinalovee]

2024 Tumblr Top 10

1. 880 notes - Feb 2 2024

2. 536 notes - Sep 24 2024

Q:

3. 319 notes - Mar 30 2024

4. 263 notes - Sep 22 2024

5. 195 notes - Nov 25 2024

6. 37 notes - Mar 17 2024

7. 15 notes - Apr 22 2024

Am I surprised to see there is racial hate happening in the HOTD fandom? Nope. Last year, not long after I started posting HOTD...

8. 13 notes - Oct 7 2024

So I've just gone to post a Rhaenyra one-shot (request), which came into my inbox a while ago, and the person who sent the...

9. 11 notes - Sep 22 2024

I’ve recently been on a hiatus, however I will have a few different updates coming soon! • Aegon x reader x Helaena - morning...

10. 5 notes - Jun 20 2024

Came back from some time away from tumblr to be spoiled by so many fics to catch up on by my besties @starogeorgina and @topazy

Created by TumblrTop10

[horizon-verizon]

Some actors have issues wearing colored contact lenses which is valid but I get the feeling that the people involved with adapting the asoiaf books into got and hotd never even bothered trying purple lenses.

They didn't care about what the Purple Eyes mean in the grand scheme of things and made the choice to make their valyrian characters just look like normal blonde people.

It's both sad and annoying.

There's so much emphasis on colors and visuals and imagery in the books and its so upsetting that the people involved with adapting that into an actual visual medium chose to give us this ugly, desaturated world.

Where's the Color? Where's the Symbolism? Where are the Purple Eyes!?

Anon is referring to this POST.

I could sacrifice contacts for actors, but is it actually that difficult to change eye color in post? Anyway, you don't even have to tell me about your frustrations, I feel you anon.

Example: The Tyroshi and Darrio Naharis, usually color their hair in bright colors....where is his blue hair?!

Tyroshi dyers soon learned to produce scarlet, crimson, and deep indigo dyes as well by varying the diet of the snails. Later centuries saw them devise dyes of a hundred other shades and hues, some naturally and some through alchemy. Brightly colored garments won the favor of lords and princes the world over, and the dyes that produced them all came from Tyrosh. The city grew rich, and with wealth came ostentation. Tyroshi delight in flamboyant display, and men and women both delight in dyeing their hair in garish and unnatural colors. (AWoIaF p.263)

[fulviavincit]

I posted 4,039 times in 2022

That's 1,446 more posts than 2021!

777 posts created (19%)

3,262 posts reblogged (81%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@cages-boxes-hunters-foxes

@brownbicon

@slaygentford

@manforsale

@wolfhalls

I tagged 3,623 of my posts in 2022

Only 10% of my posts had no tags

#.txt - 773 posts

#ofmd - 263 posts

#asked - 175 posts

#taika waititi - 137 posts

#taylor swift - 96 posts

#hotd - 71 posts

#wwdits - 58 posts

#peaky blinders - 44 posts

#asoiaf - 35 posts

#the mummy - 30 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#they did the world’s most perfect casting and then turned her into that?? idk who that is but it’s not my babygirl. i’m spitting i’m clawing

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Taylor’s in a no-win situation. If the previously sold tickets were to be voided like some fans are asking for, people who purchased from third parties have lost out and scalpers will have been paid and refunded, earning likely more than 10x the original amount. If she goes ahead with the tour as-is, there will be big gaps where scalpers bought up groups of seats which is disheartening to see as a performer and a complete waste of resources for the venues. If she comes back online and announces a Rep style approach for the remaining tickets and rest of the tour, the people who got their tickets in the presales will have paid way more than everyone else and will ask why she didn’t do that in the first place. The scalping also makes it impossible to know what the actual fan demand is for these shows, do they need to consider more dates? Change the ticket options for future shows? Do fans actually want those VIP packages or was that their only option? All of these things are being placed on her despite it being a huge group of professionals’ JOB to organise big events and ensure it’s a positive experience for the artist and the fans so people aren’t so put off they don’t bother trying again. If she says fuck it and pushes the rest of the tour back until she can be sure it won’t happen every time, I’d understand.

I think what is also so frustrating is that the Reputation boost/verified fan system worked so well that it was considered the future of touring, and then Ticketmaster refused to do it again because they didn’t make the right profit. They function as a monopoly precisely by allowing scalpers and bots to purchase blocks of tickets and charging exorbitant fees - they always have and their profits have only increased with the dynamic pricing! Taylor can’t back out because there is nowhere else to sell tickets and she’s invested too much money and manpower in the tour already. I do suspect that she will release a press statement in the next few days once her legal team have figured out a way for her to criticise ticketmaster without opening herself up to lawsuits, but overall yes - she has no option but to soldier onwards and hope that by her next tour the anti-trust laws will have kicked in. It’s so disappointing for fans, I just hope no one is caught in the resale trap. No entertainer is worth $1000 a ticket and being ripped off and scammed taints the whole experience.

50 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

#4

See the full post

105 notes - Posted June 29, 2022

#3

he literally said fuck thor fuck the $100 mil budget and fuck disney specifically ❤️

158 notes - Posted June 22, 2022

#2

elvira…i’m speechless

168 notes - Posted September 12, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

they lost focus and had a consensual workplace relationship

342 notes - Posted September 30, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →