#hypocrite dragon

[patfr8]

If you hate someone, you do it until they give you a really really good reason to stop, but you don’t just start crying for one of this people that you also met like ten minutes ago. That’s being a hypocrite. Do not be like that

I’m looking at you Neuvillette. You bastard

[imjustmarcy]

Actually, your honor, he's forgiven for his crimes, he's a girldad 🤓☝🏻

[danyseastar]

continuously intertwining rhaenyra with alicent was fine in season one, where they were directly at odds with one another, but trying to paint alicent as sympathetic to rhaenyra’s plight while rhaenyra is at the funeral of the son who was murdered by alicent’s is asylum worthy.

rhaenyra is grieving, jacaerys is grieving, joffrey, daemon, baela, rhaena, rhaenys, corlys are all grieving; alicent is NOT. she doesn’t care about rhaenyra, or she wouldn’t have waged war against her, raised her children to view their sister as the enemy, and usurped her throne. she especially doesn’t give a shit about luke, the kid she wanted to maim in revenge years before and the boy she viewed as both beneath her and not even as a true loss because he wasn’t human in her eyes. she thinks aemond is justified in lashing out, because he never received an ‘apology’ (i wouldn’t apologize either if i was a seven year old who thought my brother was going to have his head bashed in).

honor and decency were thrown out the window last season when alicent’s cause started murdering innocents over preconceived slights that SHE, personally, laid the groundwork for, and luke’s death is the result of that. she might be upset about her coveted ‘peace’ no longer being an option, but she doesn’t care about rhaenyra, her dead child, or the anguish that she is suffering through currently. he’s just an easy out for her to claim penance from her utterly idiotic decisions that keep killing people.

[thereweredragonshere]

The girlfriends - Hark(left) and Prosper(right)

[local-loser-clown]

The gay reptiles at it again with traumatising the clown. It was Buggy's fault this time for asking, but he was just concerned

Buggy should know better at this point

[n-i-m-u-e]

luke:*tries to ask aemond on a date again* please, please, pleeeeaaaas! i swear... aemond:*through gritted teeth* gods, haven't i suffered enough already? i said no! luke: come on, uncle, i'm not going to let go until you say yes! i know how to be persistent- aemond:*holding on to the last of its strength* and still no! luke: why "no"? i already apologised and you said you forgave me! or was it a lie? aemond: merciful fuckING GODS! YOU'RE THIRTEEN, LUKE! THAT'S WHY! YOU'RE FUCKING THIRTEEN! luke: ... luke:*very offended* well i didn't realize you were so superstitious

[leupagus]

On Taash

I think one reason people keep pretending that Taash's character is badly-written is because they remind them of what they were like as a young adult: blunt, convinced that they were always right (and everyone else was stupid), and flailing around for an identity that didn't hurt. That often makes for an unpleasant person to be around, and someone who at times is even unlikable. But we never see the beam in our own eye while discussing the splinter in someone else's, so I think there's a certain degree of "well I certainly wouldn't yell at my mom like that!" (You would, honey. You would.)

IMO, Taash is one of the best-written companions in Veilguard precisely because they are thoughtless and callous and blow up at people for no reason at times. They're trying to figure their shit out! They got voluntold to work with the Veilguard without any warning, under a leader who's a complete stranger and alongside people she's never met and often has fundamental conflicts with. They've got an extraordinarily complicated relationship with their mom, who gave up her entire life and culture and place in the world out of love for them, but who withholds approval in a way that so many of us can relate to. They're confronting the wrongness of their old gender expression (woman), then embracing a new one (nonbinary) almost as soon as they learn about it—which is how a LOT of identity works, remember? Remember learning the term "trans" or "bisexual" or "genderfluid" and thinking oh shit that's me? It's relatable, but it's still uncomfortable as hell. Considering all that Taash has on their plate, including hiding a fundamental aspect of who they are (their dragonbreath), it's a wonder they're as stable as they are.

As for the conversations about their identity that people are claiming are "cringe" or "unrealistic"—my babies, I have listened to more people talk through their gender and sexuality journeys than you've had hot dinners, and let me tell you they often sound a LOT like Taash. That's not a bad thing! But it's like learning a new language—or heck, joining a new fandom—where you use the unfamiliar terms in clumsy ways and want to talk about it all the time, even to people who aren't fluent. (Taash talks about other shit too; yes, a lot of their quests touch on their gender, but a lot of them don't and frankly expecting someone who's only just figured themselves out to not talk about it is...kind of cruel. Of course Taash isn't a real person, but man I hope you people complaining about how often you have to "deal with" Taash's gender conversations don't have any friends who have trusted you with those conversations.)

Taash is extraordinary in so many ways—the way they talk to Spite directly like a kid who needs firm boundaries; the possible romance they have with [spoiler]; the nuanced and emotional way they talk about dragons; the way they care for birds and refugees and anyone else in their orbit, if they're allowed to. They are one of my favorite companions (although right now it's kind of a seven-way race between all of them), and I have snort-laughed at more of their lines than any other companion by a country mile.

It's just a shame that so many people saw a reflection of the more grating parts of their own personality and so decided that Taash is badly-written, instead of considering the possibility that they are simply badly-heard.

[albaharu]

dude that def hasn't let one bad experience color his whole world and it's very openminded

[secretly-an-automaton]

Zane: It is unwise to blindly follow mysterious messages.

…

Zane sixteen seasons ago: *follows a bird ‘because it danced’*

Zane literally six sentences prior: In retrospect, I should not have gone with them.

Zane, ten minutes later:

*pressing unknown buttons*

[the-hypocrisy]

Mainstream mob: "Blackwashing The Little Mermaid is fine, because it's a fictional creature...

BUT you can't whitewash Black Panther, cause his skin tone and origin are relevant to the plot "...

Also mainstream mob: "Blackwashing Snow WHITE is totally fine, tho." - Even if the setting is clearly ancient GERMANY, it's written by the Grimm brothers, who where German, and she's literally called Snow WHITE. LIKE IT'S PART OF THE ACTUAL PLOT...

"Oh, we can blackwash Hermione too, in the book her skin tone is never mentioned, even the author did not specify it".

THE GRIMM BROTHERS DID THO.

AND OMG I JUST DISCOVERED. "We can blackwash a VIKING CHARACTER. LIVING IN SCANDINAVIA. IN THE MOTHERFUCKING VIKING ERA. YES."

Just admit you have a double standard based on race (hate to tell you so, but it's still racism) and shut up. Please.

(Edit for the person who reblogged - Scandinavian is not a "race"... ofc the actors are not Scandinavian, but omg you KNOW what I'm talking about here, don't even pretend).

[kravchikfreak]

she's so tired of gren's censorship bullshit

as she should!

[themattress]

The Dragon Prince's Biggest Flaw

Now that I've finished Season 7 (the end of the Mystery of Aaravos arc and quite possibly the series if they don't get a three season renewal), I once again must reaffirm the biggest albatross around The Dragon Prince's neck. It's not the lore and worldbuilding so reliant on side material, or the never-ending Avatar: The Last Airbender references, or the inconsistent animation quality, or the tonal whiplashes, or the sketchy pacing that results from all seasons being only 9 episodes long. It's the fact that while most of the heroes are likable enough, their conflicts aren't as interesting or satisfying as the villains' at best, and their goals and beliefs are downright not preferable to the villains' at worst. And this season highlighted that again!

Callum doesn't end up going dark or dying despite all the build-up, Rayla gets closure with her biological parents and then gets to have her adoptive parents back and status back and doesn't end up needing to kill Callum, Ezran is pulled back from his tyrannical path by Aanya and forgives those he was angry at, Runaan is among those forgiven and gets to find out he didn't kill King Harrow after all, Soren doesn't have to find out troubling truths of his past or confront the mother who abandoned him or have to kill his sister, Terry keeps his innocence and doesn't have to be burdened by Claudia dying, Lujanne doesn't die, and Janai doesn't end up needing to make the hard choice of executing her brother. The only sacrifice made by a hero is by Zubela, who at least gets to be with her husband in death and tell her son she loves him before dying, with said son appearing to be just fine afterward. Ezran practically boasts about how nobody had to sacrifice anything in the end despite having prepared to!

Meanwhile, Claudia loses her innocence, her brother, much of her mental health, her leg, her biological father, her boyfriend, her adoptive father, and if I'm reading it right even her humanity. Viren gave up everything to atone for his sins and died a painful and lonely death as he reiterated that he's "a servant", as if his problem was that he didn't "know his place" and dared to want more rather than his actual heinous actions in the pursuit of what he thought was justified. Aaravos lost his biological daughter, spent countless years crying over it, spent countless more years imprisoned, and now he has been temporarily killed and separated from his adoptive daughter in the process. (Oh, and Karim was squished to death, but fuck that guy). The villains actually lose things, they actually have to make sacrifices to achieve what they want! This makes them more compelling than the heroes, even if their aims aren't always on the morally up and up...but this season screws up that caveat as well!

Not only is Aaravos' plan at worst something that will create hardships that are perfectly endurable, but at best it's something morally justified because it strips power from a cosmic order that we have been shown is corrupt, composed of self-righteous bigots who will execute a child for daring to share magic with a race they deem inferior and unworthy of it. While the heroes want to create a better world, their solution doesn't address the root causes for the problems in any meaningful way. It's supposed to be framed as them acknowledging the hurt but moving on from in rather than let it bind them to the past, but that only works with the Karim plotline. Aaravos not moving beyond his hurt isn't binding him to the past, it's making him fight for a future where such cosmic atrocities can't be inflicted again...and more to the point, it's making him fight for a reality where his child's unjust execution isn't rendered meaningless. He refuses to accept "bad shit happens and we all just have to move on" when the ones making the bad shit happen move on without paying a damn consequence for their actions. And he isn't even a hypocrite about it: he knows he's also doing bad shit, and that's why he plans to die at the end! He can be with his daughter and his victims can have justice.

Meanwhile, this season is full of heroes also doing bad shit that they justify as for the best, with the difference being they have no self-awareness about it and, as said before, pay no sacrifices for it. From Callum trying to use dark magic and commit the very kind of vile act Viren was demonized for, to Rayla betraying her allies by breaking a rightfully convicted criminal out of prison, to Ezran going full Oppenheimer with the creation of a dangerous new weapon....and, perhaps worst of all, Soren, Terry and co. magically disguising Lujanne as Claudia's long-lost mother in an attempt to trick her into standing down from helping Aaravos. Yes, to get her away from Aaravos they resorted to something far more underhanded and manipulative than anything Aaravos ever tried with her. Why should I root for these guys!?

Honestly, I think if there is one scene that perfectly encapsulates the problem, it's Terry's big Heel Face Turn moment. Aaravos tells Terry the whole dark truth with the explicit purpose of helping him grow and helping him and Claudia be a better couple by putting them on equal ground with one another. And the words he says to Terry in this scene are absolutely correct:

"The true heart is a gift of childhood. For a few wonder-filled years, we each have innocent eyes to experience the world's beauty, in a simple way. Terrestrius, you were lucky. You held that innocent want for longer than most. I have seen generations of humans and elves accept the darkness that lurks in all of us beside the light. There is no black and white, only shades of gray. We must all carry complexity. But please, believe me: that there is beauty in this burden. Your heart will be a little heavier, but now there will be no more half-truths, Terrestrius. We will do what must be done."

All of this is right! Note that Aaravos isn't saying you have to discard your inner child or the good qualities it grants you completely. He is simply saying the truth that you cannot stay in a childlike state of being forever, you must also be willing to acknowledge and accept the darker parts of the world, of human nature, of yourself. If not, you can't do what you must.

But rather than do that and work through things with Claudia, Terry totally backtracks on his pledge last season that he'll never leave her and will always stand with her, all because he is scared of having to grow up and lose his innocence, to take the black with the white and see things in shades of gray, to work toward something bigger than himself that requires him to step outside his comfort zone. And it all feels so phony and unjustified, for three reasons:

- 1. First of all, he killed a man. Does anybody else remember that? He killed Ibis from behind in his third appearance in order to protect Claudia. After that he helped take and hold Soren as a hostage, steal a map from a dragon's tooth, and actively assist in releasing Aaravos despite even his own apprehensions about it. Claudia killing Sir Sparklepuff didn't seem to phase him all that much either. So the notion that he still has his innocence in tact and hasn't lost it already feels like narrative gaslighting. The breaking point being Claudia lying to him and using him (even though just talking to her deeply about it would reveal that Aaravos told her to, since again his plan was to break his innocence once it served its purpose so that he and Claudia could be equals in a better relationship) makes him feel selfish, especially given that he knows about Claudia's abandonment issues and how it will feel if another loved one walks out on her, this time after having sworn not to do so and even staying with her after she left him specifically to avoid this scenario! I'm having trouble feeling sympathy for him here.

- 2. Secondly, even if we accept his decision to leave, why couldn't he just stay on his own and take care of the birds? I mean, he could have stayed with Aaravos and Claudia and just taken the birds with him, but if he really felt he needed to split, why join their enemies? Why go out of his way to side with the people working against Claudia just as Soren had done, once again making her feel betrayed in the process? The justification that he's doing it with the assurance that Claudia won't be harmed doesn't hold water, since one of his new buddies almost kills her later and then shortly after that Soren starts talking about how she's too far gone and may need to die. Did I mention that both of those happen after they try to deceive Claudia with a fake version of her long-lost mother? Which leads to the third and final point...

- 3. Yeah, instead of just going and finding his and Claudia's mother even if it made him uncomfortable, Soren, along with Terry, Corvus, Lujanne and Allen, decided to use a magic spell to disguise Lujanne as her and have her play out an emotional reunion with a vulnerable Claudia in order to manipulate her into leaving Aaravos. When leaving her, Terry said to Claudia "You didn't trust me to make my own choice! You used me! It's not how you treat someone you love...it's not how you treat any person! And if I let you treat me that way, I'm not sure I can really be me anymore!" Yet here he is, not trusting Claudia to make her own choice and using her despite loving her. Is THAT you, Terry? Or have you changed into someone you don't even like, which was your reasoning for not staying with Claudia? Either way, you've blown up your entire rationale. You're just as morally gray as Aaravos and Claudia, except unlike them you lack the maturity to own it, preferring to stay a man-child.

And that's the show's fatal flaw in a nutshell. It wants to be morally complex, except it also doesn't want the heroes to actually embrace their own moral complexity and suffer the consequences that comes with it, which ends up turning them into pious hypocrites who can't acknowledge their hypocrisy or that the villains might have a point with what they're seeking to achieve, who breeze through the show unscathed while the villains actually have to suffer for fighting for what they believe in. It wants to be Avatar: The Last Airbender, but instead it's as if Monk Gyatso was revealed to still be alive and reunited with Aang, if Katara got closure with her mother's spirit, if Yue attempted to sacrifice herself but then the problem is solved differently so she gets to live happily ever after with Sokka, or if Zuko got his scar healed....by Azula no less, who then still goes on to suffer a mental breakdown anyway. Actually, let me rephrase it: she suffers a mental breakdown after she gets scarred herself!

If a third arc happens, I'll watch it if I hear good things about it. But until then....

[imjustavenuxwithaboomerang]

idk if anyone needs to hear this but if you've forgiven rayla for being sent to kill the princes, you cannot turn around and yell at soren for the same thing

[unicoo]

The fact that there are people out there saying GRRM should shut up about HIS opinion on HIS story, when they always seem to give us their opinions even though we never asked is INFUCKINGSANE!! 💀

First y’all try arguing with the man who CREATED this work of FICTION. Trying to make him wrong about HIS OWN SHIT because YOU can’t handle being wrong or not having your OPINION be right & embraced by the masses is mental 😭

Now y’all are saying my guy George should just stfu & keep his opinion to himself……. Babe I’m going to hold your hand when I said this, take your own advice -We the people would greatly appreciate it 🙂

Also to say he was “unprofessional” when he really wasn’t is the most diabolical way to dick ride Ryan & Sara (who treat us like fucking idiots, let’s be real their writing is so bad & some y’all just eat it up with no complaints like the simpletons they think we are🫤) GRRM could’ve talked shit before the season came out or as it was coming out, that would be unprofessional. Instead he waited till the season was over & it marinated with us all, him included, before stating his thoughts. Y’all love to share y’all thoughts but hate whenever somebody who thinks differently than you says something…..🤨

Another thing PLEASE stop fucking saying he needs to go write the next books, or that he’s doing everything but writing the next books. He doesn’t owe y’all shit, especially after seeing the way y’all are acting right now at this very moment. Just a bunch of ungrateful miserable assholes who love spreading hate onto others 🤦‍♀️ If that man decides to never release those books it HIS RIGHT!!! Being an author and writer is not easy. Writing a book is not easy!! If you think it is, then how about you go & do it 🤔

Go on, wander over to a computer and write a best selling SERIES.

[alicentflorent]

People really hating on Alicent over her getting an abortion (or more likely using the equivalent to plan b) and some going as far to say that the use of moontea is “against her faith” like girlie what happened to a woman’s right to choose?

[cabbagege]

Really want to yap about Dellamorte' usual life.

Like cousins spent their time at the market (especially)? Illario forcing Lucanis to check his eyeliner? Them just gossiping about stuff? Pretending like they are normal people? (NOT throwing knives at each other, please. It's time to stop. I appreciate angst, but they had enough)

I'm at my lowest, knowing that they didn't actually had a 'family reunion' with all that Houses and Gods stuff. Just an hour for them uncomfortably sitting, trying to figure out what to say...

Still holding in mind the scene from Tevinter Nights, where Illario complaining about his formal dress.

'cause I remember that in-game banters Lucanis mentioned that they spent 8 hours at the market, because Illario was trying to find his 'perfect gloves' (I'm not crazy, right? This banter is actually exist, right??)

Want to believe that it was actually a revenge. Kinda "you made me stuck at the market for nothing. Now I'm gonna make you stuck at the market for nothing too, beach. Love you."

Still breathing for them to smile. Even if it's me being delusional.