#i used to think of that song as a Martian song but now i think it fits strollonso a lot better

[skitskatdacat63]

Oh my god....Strollonso are so "The Boy With The Thorn in His Side" coded

[saturns7moon]

ASTRO OBSERVATIONS P2 ٩(˘◡˘)۶

hihi everybodyyyyy, astro observations p2, let’s gooo 😋.

personally!!! i’ve seen that a lot of venusian influence within a family can show instances of having health issues linked back to sweet foods. like for example, my taurus mother is a pre-diabetic, and she’s told me that it generally runs throughout our family. i don’t have diabetes but i’ve noticed how me and my siblings have a really bad sweet tooth. eating too many sweets makes my (7H taurus moon and mars, sidereal libra sun and rising) tooth ache, the youngest (taurus rising, sidereal pisces stellium) has been scolded a lot for eating way too much sugar as well. same as i, lol.

now question for my fellow taurus placements. how do u feel about cooking? are you good at it?

i’m crying, right after i wrote this, i was scrolling on tiktok and there’s this video of this woman, meg deangelis, who says that one thing that she can never understand is when people say they can’t cook, and she’s basically saying how it baffles her. i had an inkling, so i searched up her chart and she’s a taurus sun and aries venus 😭. taurus people are commonly stereotyped to liking food a lot, which makes sense since taurus is the more down-to-earth side of venus, and venus is about comforts, and taureans find comfort in food! aries is ruled by mars, aka planet of war and what-not, and i’ve found that aries placements mixed alongside taurus placements love to cook in the kitchen because the kitchen is known to hold sharp cutlery in there, which commonly used whilst cooking.

i was listening to criminal by britney spears earlier today, and i swear that song is so so 7H mars coded. like falling for someone that isn’t the best of the best or people being against who you love like. i still can’t word it properly, but if you’re a libra rising/taurus rising/7H mars (scorpio/aries/venusian mars can count as well depending on aspects!!) please listen to the song (specifically whilst watching the music video🧍🏾‍♀️) or read the lyrics and tell me you understand what i’m talking bout 😭. like i know y’all would get it 😭‼️

^ also “why try” by ariana grande feels the exact same to me toooo omg.

having an afflicted 3H, 7H and 11H is literally my villain origin story. like it’s either i have no friends, i get bullied/outcasted or i go through the WORST friendship breakups ever like oooooh whoever has it out for me did a good job bro 🤧🤥.

(i have a 3H capricorn chiron, 7H moon and mars, virgo rules my 11H, and my mercury (sagittarius) is afflicted, i was never gonna win bro 😭)

a mutual of mine on twitter said something that i completely agree with, and it’s basically saying how having any ill feelings towards someone like, for example what she talking about, beauty can really damage ur venus personally. like, people who are severely racist for example, do y’all see how they age or look so ugly because they were berating how other people look specifically. or people who hate on women are just naturally nasty to be around. they don’t have to be physically ugly (they usually are tho) but you can tell by how they treat women what rewards and punishments they receive in life.

does that make sense? let me know guys 😭.

i absolutely love when i have my venus return/when venus is in capricorn because i feel so so pretty which makes so much sense considering in sidereal astrology i’m a libra rising ruled by my sagittarius venus, like i love all things venus, and when venus is in capricorn/sidereal sagittarius, i feel so good. which makes a lot of sense on why i don’t really care for or feel irritated when mars returns to taurus (or sidereal aries) because aside from the fact that i never really related to being martian ruled, my natal mars is literally retrograde, so yeah mars returns are not my favourites at ALL 😭.

(actually i take it back it’s not that i feel irritated? i just don’t think anything significant happens to me during my mars returns. i probably need to go check personally in my own time, but yeah. i just backtracked since in both my tropical and sidereal chart, i’m martian and venusian either way 😭.)

what’s ur favourite planetary return?

“bedtime story” by frank ocean (unreleased!!) is the most scorpio venus ass song i’ve ever heard in my life…i love it so so much sigh. the poetic, angsty, yearning that a scorpio conjures up because who could honestly be better at being so deeply consumed by emotions than scorpio? (many many other signs but it’s not about them rn!!)

yknow a while back i did a part one for sos the album by sza as the signs, and i haven’t made a part two but would y’all like another part!? or would you like me to do this with other albums? let me know pls 🧍🏾‍♀️.

this is probably common knowledge amongst other astrologers, but i definitely believe that virgos, specifically the risings, are so mean to their selves is because their 12H is ruled by the sun, and whilst the 12H is the shadow side of ourselves that we choose to hide from, as much as they would like to hide, virgos have their shadow side constantly in their face as the sun shines so hard on everything they aren’t ready to touch or aren’t ready to see. whether it’s their selves personally or others around them, there’s an underlying sense of dread that they live with because they know that no matter where they run, their mind will always remind them of what they choose to hide underneath, which results in the fear that people/society (scorpio 3H) will see the absolute worst of who they truly believe they are, and judge them ruthlessly for it (aquarius 6H).

one thing i’ve noticed is whilst saturn in pisces has been transiting my 5H, is the romantic side of my life has been lacking so much 😭. like coming april would make a year since i last had a crush on someone, which is funny to me since i used to crush on ppl so often. however, it makes sense since saturns main themes are about structure, discipline and what you want to create in the long-term, and i’ve noticed that i don’t just want to even have small crushes or what not on others because not everyone meets my standards (structure) and i want my first relationship with someone to mean something and to become something (long-term plans involving relationships) and nobody around me has given me that, so the lack in my love life is mainly just because i’m sticking to my standards and they haven’t been met yet 🤷🏾‍♀️. saturns job is to make you understand what you truly want and what you don’t want or what isn’t benefiting you, and since saturn had gone direct back in november, i’ve definitely been noticing this, especially since we’re in a saturnian season rn (aquarius) and valentine’s day just passed lmao. so just to give an example or help you understand how saturn has been impacting you, let’s say saturn is trainsiting your 9H and you’re in education, maybe you’re realising the course that you’re on isn’t for you, or your long-term plans just don’t mesh well with what your studying for yknow or you could realise how you’ve started building more around your education in regards to what you want in place for you in the future.i’m also using that example since saturn is currently trining my 9H and i’ve realised university is definitely not what i want to go through with after i graduate college tbh.

thinking about how majority of my planets are in my 1H-7H axis (1H sun and jupiter, 7H moon and mars) and how i genuinely can have the choice to create multiple identities 😭. to explain, when i was born, my mum gave me three names. mae, lola and the last one i don’t wanna disclose lmao, but i saw a tweet a while back talking about how your name(s) can definitely link back to your birth chart, and remembering this again makes me love astrology a whole lot more tbh.

(actually i lied i have 4 different names, but that name is very very close/similar to my younger sisters name as well and i can never tell the bloody difference 😭, but y’all get my yapping.)

feeling tired or like u can’t be bothered to do shit???? the moon is most likely void of course or your mars/moon is negatively aspecting (square, opposite, conjunct) transit mars/moon. when the moon is void of course, it’s basically just a period of time (usually less than a day i believe) when the moon is literally like not aspecting anything in the sky, so she’s wandering around until she transitions into another sign. usually astrologers say that during this time, it’s difficult for ppl to make plans or have any motivation to do anything as ppl are less likely to make solid decisions about anything in general, to summarise, it makes ppl lazy 🤥!!

having 1H synastry with anyone depending on the planet is so interesting to watch from an outside perspective, because you can either see two people adore one another’s energy or be completely revolted by one another. like for example my best friend has my younger sisters aquarius stellium in her 1H and it’s hilarious to me how much those two dislike each other, and then not too long ago my best friend told me how my sister reminded her a lot of herself at my siblings current age and it just clicked for me lmao.

i’ve noticed that people with a mix of aries, gemini with a small dash of water in their chart have such a hard time processing their emotions or are just very abrasive when it comes to their emotions, putting practicality over emotions most of the time, leaving people to perceive them as quite emotionally stunted or selfish to be honest. i’ve noticed that it’s commonly believed that these types of people don’t really care for others as much as people care for them, leaving a lot of miscommunication within these relationships, especially if the other person is water heavy compared to them.

hi yes this is long overdue, i’m very very sorry, i just lost motivation to continue with my stuff and life unfortunately has been a mess to keep up with! i’m not gonna promise anything new cus knowing me i’ll probably dip for awhile again, but hopefully you all liked these observations and pls leave ur thoughts and opinions in the replies, i always enjoy hearing what you guys have to say :)

okay bye bye, lots of love, lola <3.

[in1-nutshell]

Can I request Artemis, M'gam, Robin, and Aqualad reacting to to DCpool destroying a wave of enemy robots while dancing to Bye Bye Bye?

That song was living rent free in my head for MONTHS when I went to go see it.

Hope you enjoy!

Artemis, Aqualad, M'gann and Robin react to DCpool doing the 'Bye, Bye, Bye Dance'

SFW, Platonic, Mention of injury, Mutant reader

YOUNG JUSTICE

As usual the covert mission was a bust and now the team was fighting for their lives.

Well, everyone else was fighting for their lives, DC was having the time of his life.

Pat of the team had been splintered off all across the warehouse where the enemy robots were housed.

DC found himself surrounded by the biggest group of robots.

DC has both his katanas out before looking at the audience. DC: “Oh I think you know what am about to do with these wannabe Terminators. Same thing Wade did to those TVA ski mask looking pricks.” He gets into a running position. DC: “This is for Logan and Wade!”

Artemis and Robin were in one of the building’s security rooms when they saw DCpool surrounded by the robots.

 Artemis is about to call in for backup for DC when Robin tells her to stop and watch.

It. Is. BRUTAL.

The way their teammate was dispatching the robots with extreme efficiency and ruthlessness was scary… and graceful?

They swear they can hear music in the background.

Both make mental notes to ask DC about his prior training before joining the team.

Artemis squints closer to the screen. Artemis: “Is he—Is he dancing?” Robin: “I think he is?” DC grabs a metal ‘femur’ of one of the bots’ exoskeletons and throws it into the bots chest. The oil splattering on the ground and face. Both heroes wince. Suddenly the camera falls next to DC, who just picks it up and holds it if he were taking a selfie… with the offline robot. Robin: “Oh that’s just wrong.” DC kisses the temple of the bot before chucking the camera to go back into the fray. Artemis: “Super wrong.”

Aqualad and Miss Martian are the unlucky ones to be in the same room as DCpool and the robots.

They are fairing well as a pair against the bots.

Barely, but doing all right.

M’gann is worried about DC handling the bots by himself.

Aqualad tries to move closer to where DCpool is to see what he could help with.

Both Atlantean and Martian are in shock seeing how well he is doing.

VERY well…

M’gann gets a bit sick seeing how brutal DC is getting rid of the enemy.

Kaldur knows he is going to need to talk to him about… this when everyone gets back to the cave.

Wait—was he dancing!?

M’gann: “I don’t think he needs any help.” Both of them watch DC uses one bot’s head to bash another bots head in. Oil and wires fly everywhere. Kaldur: “I don’t think so.” DC looks their way. DC: “Heads up!” He kicks the head over to Kaldur, who dodges just in time to hit another robot from behind. DC: “WOAH! Is this fun or what!” Kaldur: “DCpool I do not think—wait why is there music? How is there music here?” DCpool shrugs. DC: “Never question the power of fighting songs Nemo.”

[seaofreverie]

Sparkstember Day 10: Whomp That Sucker (Where's My Girl)

A good time!!! That's the first thing I associate with this album. It's one of the earlier ones I've heard too and I was certainly a big fan of it from the very start. Not only that, but I think it was a bit of a groundbreaking point in my experience as a new Sparks fan, since I was trying to figure out where to go next and this was a good plunge somewhere in the midst of it all that proved that no matter where you go, you're going to get something special! And after a couple more months (I mean, it's been a bit over a year since that first listen already! How time flies) it still holds up in my personal rankings. Soooo well. Definitely very special to me!

I think it's safe to say by now that between the pair of Whomp and Angst I'll always stay partial to Whomp. The latter seems to be much more popular among fans, and I can understand that, but something about Whomp speaks to me much more. Both are fun, energetic new-wavey albums, still in the realm of rock but with some cool use of synths that would soon become even more important and a core element of the music. Still though, I think Whomp is more PURE fun - between many hilarious lyrics and the overall playful and lighthearted nature of it, I don't think it's possible to listen to this one and not feel even a little bit happier afterwards.

I especially love the whole atmosphere of it, what I call the spacey / sparkly synth, that gives it a little bit of an outer space feel, much moreso than the actual album called In Outer Space (but i'd better not get ahead of myself yet when it comes to that one, lol). This album really feels sparkly and even glittery to me in a weird way, and unexplainably, this all reminds me of like, sweets and chocolates like those cosmic brownies or daim candy?? That's what this album would taste like to me! Sweet and a little extra and always a good little treat. Damn, and now I want to try a cosmic brownie.

Favourite songs (and other highlights):

I don't even have that many personal favourites from this album even though I really really love it as a whole!! I guess it's a bit of a Propaganda situation, where there isn't that many super big standouts compared to the rest of the tracks, they're all just very cool and I mostly don't have that much to say about them individually, they're all just!! So fun!! (I mean, ok, Suzie Safety might be the only one here that I don't care about all that much. I'm sorry, Suzie.) So this is more of a Moments list than anything

I Married A Martian: mostly I'm just incredibly charmed by the story here

Where's My Girl: AARGHHH!!! WAAUUGHGH!!! I LOVE THIS SONG!!!! SO MUCH!!!! The closest I can come to describing the feeling here is something like... song you heard a couple times when you were very young, enough that you remember how it goes when you hear it again, but can't recall it on the spot otherwise, and you forget about the song's existence until you hear it again after all those years and are hit by the biggest wave of nostalgia and longing for the past that you've ever experienced in your life. All that despite me never hearing this song until last year. Or is there just something I'm not aware of... Anyway, this was one of those rare and treasured moments of THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR!! *MY* MUSIC!! Needless to say, this song stayed on repeat countless of times and I will never get over how awesome this guitar solo is. And again, the spacey synth!!

Upstairs: upstAAAAAAirs!!! upstAAAAAAirs!!!

Don't Shoot Me: big fan of the whole thing but I'm especially charmed by the little high-pitched "shoot!"s and such in the background, and "WHO'S HEEE???"

The Willys: the song itself isn't even my fav but the PHYSICALLY! MENTALLY! MORALLY! part is always very chuckle-worthy. That's the wondrous humour I'm talking about here

That's Not Nastassia: Sparks songs with uncomfortably long endings my beloved... can also be pretty hilarious under the right circumstances (like listening to the vinyl of this album with my dad and watching his reaction). And can't forget how cool the transition into the last song is

[giogio1998]

Just wanted to share my art evolution when it comes to drawing the JLI in the DC bombshell universe:

2017:

Very first time I saw the statues and fell in love with the vintage art style and the careers they had related to their powers so I decided that Bea and Tora could work with food bc hot and cold would make sense. Terrible outfit choices tho but I love the concept and the tattoos.

2018:

BonillaKord shipper from day one I guess LOL, the outfits are much better, love the concept and I’m obsessed with the sunset lighting and the diner set.

Later 2018:

Booster was hired !!! lol, from early on I had the DC themed diner called “Bruce’s diner” and u can tell by the “B” on the French fries holder. Very cute love the uniforms and Ted’s Tattoos

2019:

This is what I thought their statues could look like, it’s very pin up inspired, the hair and outfits are much more fitting to the bombshells universe and I think it’s cute. Before I used to draw on an old IPad using my finger as a pen and this was a very early photoshop art. Love that Bea has Ted’s number on her arm.

2022:

The whole gang is here, wanted to add Bruce as the boss and Martian to the mix, I love drawing Martian as green pets and it has become my thing I guess lol. Love the couples and love booster slacking.

2024:

The newest one, my favorite by far, now everyone has the same uniform and the concept for this is that Batman came in the morning before opening to check on his employees and they snapped a picture instead of getting to work.

That’s all, I really wish they would have made statues or figurines of Bea and Tora I would sell my house to have those, but unfortunately all we got are this illustrations, at least they are cute tho. Hope you enjoy this post 💖

Btw if you want to get the vibes from this post, this is the song that I think of when I look at those drawings 👇🏻

[shukraastro]

Hi Shukra,

I am very impressed how you interpret the looks of Jungkook's fs in this post

https://www.tumblr.com/shukraastro/769692114014633984/hello-shukraastro-based-on-how-you-analysed-jks

When you mentioned the tattoos for rahu and say that the 9th house is the spouses shoulders arms hands and fingers this is exactly the places where Jungkook has all of his tattoos. Can this point out that his spouse also has a very prominent 9th house with rahu in it? In another post you also said his black sun and and eye tattoo are a big give away related to sun and rahu and something with chitra??

I'm very curious could you explain this a little bit more? Is there also a way to analyse tattoos specifically?

I'm sorry if I ask too many questions. It's just that you give so many clues and then you sort of shy away and make us even more curious about it.

I wished I had your brain😭 (this is something which Jungkook always says to one of his members) but girl I really wished I had your brain. The way you connect things is just unbelievable. Keep it up💪🏼

Tattoos is a very intersting topic. You can dig so deep into each and every tattoo. With Jungkook he has his entire arm tattooed, which is ruled by the 3rd house. So his spouse must have a busy 9th house connecting the themes and symbolism with her planets and Nakshatras also with an activation of the 8th house. The 8th house rules over scarring/piercing the skin/spilling blood, Clair Nakti has released a video on this topic.

My very high guesses are that his spouse has a Sun and Rahu Chitra because he had a tiger (animal yoni of Chitra) tattoo and covered it with a black Sun (Solar Eclipse). Why do I think it's Chitra and not Vishakha since they both have the tiger as animal yoni? First of all his tiger tattoo representsed the Korean peninsula so it had a reference to his land and Chitra is ruled by Mars which is the incicator of land. Secondly, because of his red eye tattoo which gives us another repeating pattern but pointing at the theme of Chitra. The red eye is another theme of Sun-Rahu eclipse and he covered it with a tattoo by the song reference "Bullet Proof". The phrase itself shows the theme of the martian Nakshatra Chitra, crafting and perfecting weapons. Further more his mandala like patterns show more the mercurian and venusian side of Chitra. His birth flower tattoo the Tiger Lily with the phrase "Please love me", carries another reference to the themes of Chitra and Libra (Venus - love and flowers) and the tiger yoni. The clouds imagery as well as the 3 stripes from the South Korean flag (representing heaven) could have a connection to Swati, Swati is all about the sky/heaven which he got covered with a snake (Swati's ruler Rahu). So she could very likely have Sun-Rahu in Chitra and another planet in Swati. It could be Venus because if we look further into his other tattoos he has a note key and a microphone, which are linked with his love for music and singing. Which again are themes of Swati, because Swati represents the musicical sounds that are carried through the air. Now I think there could be two more planets involved in this for the other tattoos. His clock tattoo and his bull tattoo with the latin numbers as well as the 7 behind his ear and the letters and + signs on his hand give very strong Mercury and Hasta themes. The bull can be seen as the buffalo yoni of Hasta, Swati has a buffalo yoni as well but it doesn't explain the belonging latin numbers, therefore Hasta makes more sense. The analogue clock tattoo which represents time is a very mercurial theme, because it carries numbers and takes skilled craftsmanship. Also Hasta is connected to anything that is golden. The hand gesture tattoo with a geometrical shape in the background also show another mercurial Hasta theme, Hasta is represented by the hand. The letters, date, plus crosses, emoji and Army symbol (geometric shape) are more themes of Mercury and Hasta. As for the remaining two tattoos, the golden mask and Moon I see another link. The theatrical golden mask with red bands shares traits of Hasta and the creatively performing traits of Purva Phalguni. Hasta's lord is the Moon, if she could likely have a Purva Phalguni Moon, in this case the moon tattoo would also make sense with a Swati Venus. Because Purva Phalguni's lord is Venus. A Purva Phalguni Moon and it's lord Venus in Swati in her 9th house (his 3rd house) would then put a moon at the very top of his entire arm along with the clouds surrounding it. And while a Sun-Rahu eclipse placed in Chitra would hold the lower degrees a black Sun tattoo would be positioned much lower than the Moon. The crown and purple heart symbol on his hand could be as well linked with the Purva Phalguni and Venus (royalty and love). Purva Phalguni's color is red and with the venusian coloring from Swati's influence it would explain the purple color.

This is how I would read his tattoos with examples of possible placements in his FS chart. My theory is she has a busy 9th house in Libra and an 8th house placement in Virgo with a 7th house placement in Leo. Activating Nakshatras like Chitra, Swati, Hasta and Purva phalguni in her big 6 because the themes and symbolisms of these Nakshatra's are very clear in his tattoos.

And again, take this with a grain of salt.

Have a nice day. 🌺

[aurorawest]

I finished The Mars House last night and have been trying to gather my thoughts beyond ADJFAWEHDHA; and AHHHHHHHH. Let's see how this works out.

In a lot of ways this is a pretty typical Natasha Pulley book, which makes you love complicated people who have done bad things, possibly for good reasons and possibly not. The love interest is to all appearances a xenophobic nationalist, but you better believe I loved Gale pretty much immediately.

In other ways this book is different from her past work—obviously there's the far future setting, but it's pretty clear that Pulley wanted to Say Something about gender with The Mars House. This book is a response to and shots fired at the terf ideology and it is not at all subtle about it. And of course, it's a Natasha Pulley book, so there's still empathy for the far-future Martian terfs.

So I would definitely call it the most...political? of her books, which for me was not at all a bad thing. It has everything that I love about Pulley novels—her gorgeous use of language, her ability to wring beauty and pathos out of the small and ordinary, the gay pining, the morally dubious main characters. I've seen reviews say both that the science is ridiculous and that the book is hard science fiction, and I would come down on the side of the science probably being a bit ridiculous, since it's definitely not hard science fiction (lol at the reviewers who are throwing that term around and not knowing what it means). I actually have no idea if the science is plausible or not and I honestly don't care, because that's really not the point of the book.

Anyway, now I'm just going to list things. Doing a read more for spoilers! And I'm not joking, I'm going to spoil the whole book under here so really, if you haven't read it and you care about that, don't keep reading.

The worldbuilding was so good. I mean, this is one of Pulley's strengths, but I had wondered how it would stack up in a sci fi novel versus her historical fiction. As usual, everything was so visceral and textured. Tharsis and Songshu feel like real places I could visit.

THE MAMMOTHS OMG OMG. When they decided to ask the mammoths for help pulling up the gravity train, I almost jumped up from the couch yelling (I would have, but I couldn't disturb my cat who was on my legs). The entire idea of communicating with mammoths and studying mammoth society almost made me cry. Having spent even a tiny amount of time around elephants in the wild, all of that rang 100% plausible. And true in my heart.

I need a sequel where River and January go to Alpha Centauri to talk to the aliens that the Penglai mission is going to find there.

I'M ABOUT TO SPOIL THE ENTIRE BOOK SO DON'T READ ANYMORE IF YOU DON'T WANT THAT.

Speaking of River, yeah I guessed that "Aubrey" was actually River. The clues were well done and I felt smug when I was right.

But!! I actually thought River knew more than they did! A literal chill went up my back when River revealed they had NO IDEA AUBREY WAS LITERALLY IN THEIR ROOM WITH THEM.

The scene in River's bathtub had me screaming crying throwing up.

Is Natasha Pulley working through something re: waifish orphans? I knew Yuan was going to end up being adopted into House Song within pages of their (his?) introduction.

I love that we never find out if River is biologically male or female. I love that January says it doesn't matter and he means that and never tells us.

Speaking of gender abolition, can I have that please for myself.

All of the animals were, as always, a delight. Shoutout to the puffin at the beginning who we never see again, as well as Shuppiluliuma in her basket.

The ancient Mediterranean references littered through this book (see above) were also a delight.

When you think about it, both of Aubrey's consorts fell for River, and that's funny.

The flashes of love between River and Aubrey were devastating.

The haptic implants are a dystopian nightmare and absolutely a realistic prediction of where we're going to end up.

Mori and Daughter!!

[oumaheroes]

I'm gonna send you a few, lol. But if you hate the ideas you can just delete them, np. #1: Matt's old iPod from 2008 is full of Nickelback music and Alfred tries to tease him for it. But Matt isn't ashamed bc Nickelback is great and y'all are haters.

I'm not sure this counts as fluff, Anon, but I hope you enjoy a real quick drabble of some bros being bros

Characters: America, Canada

.....................

‘Move.’

‘What?’

‘Move.’

‘Jeez, snippy much,’ Alfred sat up from where he was sprawled along the entire length of Matthew’s sofa and instead twisted to prop his feet on the coffee table, ‘Where are your manners, boy?’

‘Dad doesn’t sound like that.’

‘And who said that was supposed to be the old grump?’

‘The terrible English accent you just did?’

‘Damn. Guess my inner dick head voice is English.’

Matthew sighed and placed the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table, where it stayed for merely a second before Alfred grabbed it up, ‘That’s not funny.’

‘Then why’d you smile?’

‘I didn’t smile.’

‘Aw, got gas then?’

Matthew somehow refrained from punching his brother on the arm and flopped heavily down next to him.

‘Woah woah woah, watch the landing there, Rocky.’

Matthew grabbed a handful of popcorn and popped a kernel into his mouth, ‘So what’d you pick next?’

‘The Martian.’

Matthew groaned.

‘Hey! What’s wrong with that?’

‘It’s terrible.’

‘No it isn’t? What’s wrong with you.’

‘Al, it’s a shit story.’

Alfred gave an exaggerated gasp and held a hand to his chest, ‘It is an awesome story, number one. Number two, people who have an iPod full of Nickelback don’t get an opinion on what’s shit and what’s not.’

‘How do you know what’s on my iPod?’

‘You left it at mine and I looked.’

Matthew blinked, ‘When? I don’t even use an iPod anymore.’

‘I dunno like... ten years ago?’

Matthew was thrown, ‘Wha... what’s that got to do with anything?’

‘You’ve got shit taste.’

Alfred gave him a sympathetic look and clucked his tongue, ‘I know it’s hard to accept, don’t worry. We can talk about something else.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with Nickleback.’

'So you still listen to them, then?'

'And?'

‘They’ve done some great songs.’

‘Sure they have.’

‘What are you, a walking naughties meme?’

Alfred shovelled a handful of popcorn into his mouth and dug around in the sofa cushions for the remote, ‘They’re bad.’

‘Tell me why they’re bad.’

‘They’re corny.’

‘And how are they corny?’

‘I dunno, they just are.’

‘You’re corny.’

‘Yeah.’ Alfred gave him a dazzling grin, ‘And even I think they’re bad.’

Matthew huffed and grabbed another handful of popcorn from the bowl, ‘Well, I like them.’

‘And I like The Martian.’ Alfred flicked a popcorn at his cheek, ‘Now shut up and turn turn the lights off.’

‘I’m picking the next one.’

‘If you can stay awake.’

‘I’m staying awake just to make you watch some French surrealism.’

‘Ugh.’

[13thdoctorplease]

to be loved is to be known.

(13th doctor x river song)

Her eyes have a childish sparkle that hides centuries of experience. She is smiling, enchanted like a little girl opening a Christmas gift, and River doesn't need anything else to know that that woman is hers.

The whole area is surrounded. The skeleton, recently uncovered, is lying on the ground, ready for River to kneel beside it to collect materials and sketch the portrait in her study notebook, but a blonde woman and her three companions step in front and start the job first.

From afar, River sees her, blowing her bangs to try to get the hair out of her eyes, and resists the urge to approach, to laugh while holding that beautiful face and kissing her on the mouth, tucking the strands behind her ear.

Her colleagues, friends, her family or however long they've been traveling together, are a few steps away, looking horrified at the form on the ground: the fossils of a Martian red-lizard, big and ugly just as they were in life. Of course, the Doctor finds it beautiful.

River thinks she's beautiful too.

She has never seen this face, this joyful expression and those curious eyes, but River always knows. She lets the other archaeologists and researchers tire of trying to keep the Doctor away, waits until the area is empty, and approaches with slow steps and a smile on her lips.

"I thought you might like this." She tosses her notebook onto the Doctor's lap, the page about the lizard open and the research information enumerated.

The Doctor always knows. She doesn't need to lift her eyes or be startled; she hears that voice, picks up the notebook, and runs her fingers over the beautiful handwriting she has long since memorized every letter of.

"I didn't know you'd seen one of these up close." The Doctor responds.

"Always the spoilers, right, sweetie?" River kneels beside her, a hand on her thigh, and the Doctor finally looks at her.

Oh, those eyes. So old and yet so young. River can't resist and raises her fingers to touch her cheek. "New face?"

The Doctor smiles and nods.

"I've had it for a few weeks now. Hard to get used to." To demonstrate, she pushes her hair back and huffs when it falls back into place. River laughs and pulls a hair tie from her wrist to help her keep it in place.

The Doctor looks over her shoulder, searching for her friends who are still waiting by the fence, and shouts, "Look, it was just a matter of tying it!"

The only girl in the group responds, "I told you so, you just didn't want to listen to me!"

The Doctor affectionately rolls her eyes and turns back to River. They say at the same time.

"I never listen."

"You never listen."

And they laugh together.

They get up and follow the team back to the TARDIS calmly, ignoring the strange looks they're given, wondering who the woman who suddenly stuck to the Doctor is. River closes the door as soon as Ryan enters and leans against the outside of the TARDIS, leaving her and the Doctor alone.

"You knew it was me even without seeing this face before?" The Doctor approaches and rests a hand on the blue wood, next to River's shoulder.

"Do you think I wouldn't recognize my wife?" River retorts, hands finding the Doctor's hips and pulling her closer. The Doctor thinks for a second.

"Wife. I like that."

"I know." River kisses her.

[yfmconfessions2]

If the YFM members were in an apocalypse/Dead Rising/Resident Evil type situation (yes this might be sad and long sorry friends)

I like to think they were having a concert when the outbreak happened. Like Puff in the middle of a song goes “C’MON, GUYS! LETS GO CRAZY!” to the audience only for them to erupt in horrified screams as a literal wave of zombies bust in through the walls like the Kool Aid Man. The YFM van was tragically destroyed in the process (RIP)

Obviously the band said “hell no” and ran the fuck out of there. Puff insisted they set up camp near a hospital because of the amount of “resources”… despite most of the outbreak happening there… and half the med equipment being useless because they don’t know how to use it… and that everything in that hospital could be contaminated

Even though they’ve been friends since at least fourth grade, an apocalypse isn’t exactly good for friendships. Arguments insue over a lot of stuff—food, water, gas for the generator, who goes out to get the food, water and gas, you get it. They still are good friends and they do care for each other, but the stress from the whole apocalypse thing really puts a damper on their mood

Benatar still writes little songs in his notebook that he miraculously saved while they were dipping the fuck out. The whole band still makes music in their spare time; hell, sometimes they can be as loud as they want!

Sometimes a group of survivors come by and trade resources (y’know, with money being completely obsolete and such). DeeJay’s the one who does the negotiating and stuff because Puff Puff causes fights with them half the time and Axel and Benatar are socially illiterate

Axel dies first—like, almost a week after the apocalypse starts—because he decided to Fuck Around And Find Out with the zombies. One of them started approaching him and his dumbass thought he could take it on only for him to get completely devoured like a Ritz cracker

Our favourite martians keep Axel’s Viking hat as a little keepsake and set it up by the campfire. It almost feels like he’s still here

Puff dies second from the virus that caused the outbreak. He consumed or came into contact with a contaminated object/person (most likely a contaminated bandage on an opened wound or something) and because the symptoms didn’t happen the second he got infected he acted all smug about it. It didn’t go well

DeeJay was the one to kill Puff before he could infect him or Benatar. That was a very Not Fun day

DeeJay and Benatar hang on for a while. Now that two people were gone, they don’t have to acquire as much food. Still, it feels so much more empty with Puff and Axel gone

Benatar does little crafts to keep him occupied. He becomes very fond of sewing and drawing in particular

DeeJay managed to find some old comic books while looking for some food. It reminds him of his childhood, and it just so happens to be the only form of entertainment available

Unfortunately, DeeJay dies third during a trade gone wrong. There was a disagreement over the exchange and one of the rival groups cancelled his life subscription in a fit of rage and basically mugged him

Benatar surprisingly lasts the longest of them all. He doesn’t go outside much unless he’s looking for resources, he doesn’t use too much at once and doesn’t really fuck with anyone. He managed to last a few years before the military found him and took him to a bunker

yeah 😐👍

I WAS LITERALLY LIKE "OH THIS IS COOL" UNTIL THEY STARTED DYING AND THEN I WENT "😭😭😭😭"

[skitskatdacat63]

i for one am very interested in any other smiths songs you've associated with f1 drivers 👀

Oh god thank you for asking...sorry this took so long! I'll list the songs, but as with most things, I had to deliberate, so under the cut is my horrifically long explanations if you're curious!!

Obligatory: "The Boy With The Thorn in His Side"(x) - Strollonso

"You've Got Everything Now"(x) - Martian from Mark's POV

"These Things Take Time"(x) - Brocedes or Martian from Nico/Mark's POV

"Handsome Devil"(x) - drivers in fireproofs

"What Difference Does It Make"(x) - Martian from Seb's POV

"Back To The Old House"(x) - Mark's relationship with RBR and Seb

"Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want"(x) - Mark

"Sweet and Tender Hooligan"(x) - Max

You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby"(x) - Jenson, Mark & Nico

"Bigmouth Strikes Again"(x) - Martian from Mark's POV

Honorary mention: "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get"(x) - Martian from Seb's POV

So as with all things, I needed to be comprehensive and overly detailed with this. Ill try and hold back from doing too much full song analysis, but I'll quote lyrics and explain why I associate what with who! Tbh I mostly just associate Smiths songs with Martian because I think their music is often really good at capturing the bitterness of a relationship falling apart or love so intense that it's violent, both which I think are very Martian

"You've Got Everything Now" - Martian

To me this is my de facto Martian song, I think about it constantly, I'll probably make a post with it sometime. It's just such a bitter song that's to me about a relationship falling apart. I view it from Mark's perspective.

"As merry as the days were long//I was right and you were wrong." Very petty, very bitter!!

"But you've got everything now//you've got everything now//and what a terrible mess I've made of my life." 2013 vibes, him being fed up with it all, particularly with Seb winning everything.

"You are your mother's only son//and you're a desperate one" Haha think of Christian as the mother in this situation. Golden boy vibes! Seb's utter desperation to win!

"A friendship sadly lost?//Well this is true...and yet it's false, oh//But did I ever tell you, by the way?//I never did like your face" Again that resentment and bitterness that made him act petty and childish

"I just want to be tied...oh ...to the back of your car" yayyyyy racing, why can't it be me in your position, in your car, etc etc

"These Things Take Time" - Brocedes or Martian

I used to think of this as only a Martian song but now it kinda makes me think of Brocedes. (To me)It's very much about one person in a friendship/relationship getting more successful and leaving the other behind.

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the sacred Wunderkind" Seb! Golden Boy! Lewis! Rookie of the Century!

"But I can't believe you'd ever care//and this is why you will never care//But these things take time//And I know I'm the most inept that ever stepped" Like, you're so above it all that you couldn't care for little old me. Just the feeling of inferiority

"But you know where you came from//You know where you're going//And you know where you belong" Mark/Nico feeling sometimes as odds with their teams as they felt their teammate was the clear favorite who was getting preferential treatment

"Oh the alcoholic afternoons//When we sat in your room//They meant more to me than any living thing on earth//They had more worth//Than any living thing on earth" Okay this is the verse that made me think of Brocedes. Their karting years and how much time they spent with each other.

"Vivid and in your prime//You will leave me behind//you will leave me behind" THE THESIS!!!! THIS LYRIC HAUNTS ME ON THE DAILY!! IT IS MY MARTIAN THESIS!!!

"Handsome Devil"

Okay so this song is just kinda jokey and surprisingly horny for The Smiths, but its where my brain goes every time I see drivers in fireproofs...especially Seb...it's pretty self explanatory if you listen to it

"You handsome devil//oh, you handsome devil." As I said: self explanatory

"Let me get my hands//On your mammary glands." HAHAHAHA these lyrics still make me laugh, so horny

"What Difference Does It Make?" - Martian

It reminds me of this one Martian fic(x) Again, a relationship deteriorating. How Seb's utter commitment and devotion to winning at all costs caused conflict between them and ultimately led to their relationship falling apart. Mark thinking he'd be seen as the Number One due to his seniority, and then being faced with Seb's no holds barred racing! I guess it's kind've how Mark never seemed to be capable of being as happy for Seb winning as Seb was for Mark. They're both at fault for the same reasons though tbh. But from Seb's perspective this time

"For we have been through hell and high tide//I think I can rely on you//And yet you start to recoil//Heavy words are so lightly thrown//But still I'd leap in front of a bullet for you" Teammates :( They keep fighting but can't stay mad at each other forever

"So what difference does it make?//It makes none//But now you have gone//And you must be looking very old tonight." Like, why are you being such a baby, why does this have to change our relationship off the track too, why can't you just accept this about me, don't you know I need to win?

"Well I'm still fond of you, oh-ho-oh." This can be both. Even if they had bad moments, they always seemed to be able to at least partially reconcile

"Back to The Old House" - Mark & Martian

Goddddd this song is just Mark's relationship with RBR, and particularly in its relation to Seb, and how he felt post-retirement. Like I can't even really pick lyrics because the whole entire song fits so well! I would love to make a web weave with this

"I would rather not go//Back to the old house//I would rather not go//Back to the old house//There's too many bad memories//Too many memories there" Mark's relationship with RBR in terms immediate post-retirement. How it got toxic by the end. The "old house" is so RBR coded for any ex-Red Bull driver tbh

"When you cycled by//Here began all my dreams//The saddest thing I've ever seen//And you never knew//How much I really liked you//Because I never even told you//Oh, and I meant to//Are you still there or have you moved away?//Or have you moved away?" Again, being teammates made their relationship toxic, and they work much better together as people outside of that! Seb thinking Mark hates him :( And then "have you moved away?" HE MOVED AWAY FROM THE OLD HOUSE, HE MOVED TO FERRARI

"Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" - Mark

This song makes me think of how arduous his career was, especially with how all those records that Hulk has now, were at one point his. Especially after watching the 2009 British GP, just that palpable relief of finally getting his first win. And then also 2010 WDC vibes, finally properly being involved in the fight. Please just let him get what he wants, this time! I dont need to analyze the lyrics for this, just listen to it and tell me it doesn't remind you of Mark!!

"Sweet and and Tender Hooligan" - Max

Hahaha this song reminds me of his first couple seasons and just the whole "Mad Max" thing. And just how RBR, particularly Christian, have to defend their boy!! Their sweet and tender hooligan!! I think I could make a web weave of this one as well haha, just with how other drivers, like Nico, talked about how much a menace he was.

"He was a sweet and tender hooligan, hooligan//He said he'd never, never do it again//And of course he won't, oh, not until the next time" LITERALLY HIM!! Like with his insane overtakes and aggressive driving

"Poor old man, he had an accident with a three-bar fire//But that's okay, because he wasn't very happy anyways." Makes me think of my fav Max radio, when he overtakes Kimi and says "See you fucking later, son" The utter gall!! What a hooligan!!

"Jury, you've heard every word, so before you decide//Would you look into those "Mother Me" eyes?//I love you for you, my love, you, my love." Mother Hen Christian defending his teenage menace

"You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby" - Jenson, Nico & Mark

Tbh fits any driver who had a long career and struggled for so long to get that first win/WDC. I would love to make a post with this song!!!

"If you're wondering why//All the love that you long for eludes you//And people are rude and cruel to you" Toxic fans and pundits you know :( like everyone saying they won't make it in F1 and that they'll never win, etc

You just haven't earned it yet, baby//You just haven't earned it, son//You just haven't earned it yet, baby//You must suffer and cry for a longer time//You just haven't earned it yet, baby//And I'm telling you now" THE THESIS OF F1 HONESTLY LIKE PLEASEEEE

"Today I am remembering the time//When they pulled me back//And held me down//And looked me in the eyes and said//You just haven't earned it yet, baby//You just haven't earned it, my son" Team principals I guess, it reminds me of Flavio hating Jense and calling him a useless playboy who'd never make it

"Bigmouth Strikes Again" - Martian

Foot? In mouth. This is one of the songs I was thinking of when I said love so intense that it feels violent. I am so obsessed with the opening verse, I love the whole song but that first verse....:

"Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking//When I said I'd like to smash every tooth//In your head//Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking//When I said by rights you should be//Bludgeoned in your bed." Normal comments one makes to their little twink bastard teammate

"The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" - Martian

Not Smiths, but Smiths adjacent. I'm trying to make a Martian playlist and this was the first song so I felt like I had to include it. It just reminds me of any of those posts about twink menace Seb ruining Mark's life LOL, just a very bratty and pushy song, I think it fits RBR Seb's somewhat Stockholm relationship with Mark

"The more you ignore me//The closer I get//You're wasting your time." You're not getting rid of me as your teammate no matter what hehehe, you're stuck with me!

"I am now//A central part//Of your mind's landscape//Whether you care//Or do not//Yeah, I've made up your mind" This lyric makes me laugh every time, the "Ive made up your mind", it always gets me. That's so pushy bratty Seb, like, yes I will get my way whether you like it or not

"I will creep//Into your thoughts//Like a bad debt//That you can't pay//Take the easy way//And give in." Absolutely canon that Seb lived in Mark's thoughts rent free, he took up proper residence!! Anyways this whole song fits, it's so cheeky!! And a little unhinged....

[sunlitsorrows]

12/18/24 Currently Reading:

Time to Orbit Unknown by Derin Edala (digital)

Paperback: When the Body Says No by Gabor Maté (paperback)

.

Current Fixations/Fandoms/Favorites:

Arthuriana | The Batfam | Elementary | The Murderbot Diaries | Watership Down | 11th & 12th Era Doctor Who | Tattooine: Amavikka

.

Current Original Writing Project Tags

(all my writing will be tagged sunny writes)

Fantasy/Fable/Fairytale: TBW -> now TGW

Martian Western King Arthur: TCC

Lost In Space Opera: STJ/TSJ

Pirate Adventures: TPQ

.

About Me

(formerly A Handful of Rest)

A friend started calling me Sunny the other day(year), and while I don’t feel like it’s a terribly accurate description of my personality it gives me such joy when I hear her call me I find myself quite liking it anyway, so! Hello! I’m Sunny! Does it carbon date me to say welcome to my twisted mind?

Blog

This is a Personal/Writrblr/Scrapbook blog, a lot of cottagecore and dark cottagecore with the occasional goblinposting, I like mystery serials and period dramas, more sci-fi than fantasy but I am a sucker for fairytales/fables; poetry and song lyrics, funnies, flowers, pretty bugs, etc. Most everything goes in the queue.

No DNIs, I don’t vett other folks’ blogs to see whether or not their ideology aligns with my own, and I prefer to block tags instead of people, but if you consistently re/blog things I find personally upsetting I will probably unfollow you eventually—it’s nothing personal, this blog is my happy place/break from IRL, and I’m SUPPOSED to be keeping my stress levels down.

(No, screaming/crying/sobbing over fictional characters doesn’t count it’s a cathartic release my blood pressure graphs say so.)

.

Tagging

Tumblr Tags are more of a filing system than anything else; I try to tag things by… “who might like to see this, what tag might they use to look for it?” “who might not want to see this, what tag might they use to block it?” and “how can I find this on my blog later?”

Please feel free to me know if you need anything tagged a specific way for blocking purposes.

.

My Writing

My writing will all be tagged “sunny writes”, but it’s mostly thinking out loud/rambling/worldbuilding/occasionally a poem. Someday I’ll post something for like… actual story reader reading, but I’ve gotten feedback (from a real life actual editor no less) my writing might actually be publishable if I can just finish something, and… you know. A little extra grocery money might be nice. And the motivation to finish something so the potential enjoyer can read all of it seems to be helping me not give up/wander off to the next idea.

But the random ideas gotta go somewhere! So they’re going here! 🙃

.

[alex-a-fans]

BTTF Year-End Tag Game!

AAA THANK YOU @cheriboms AND @bttf-dork FOR TAGGING ME!!

This year:

How many times would you guess you watched the first back to the future movie?

Too many times to count...

Did you get any sweet bttf merch? If so, what!

Yes! BTTF Playmobil advent calendar and an off-brand Funko pop Doc!

How many cans of Pepsi Free did you chug this year?

Pepsi free? None. Normal Pepsi on the other hand.... Over 50 cans for sure.

What was a favorite bttf fanfic you read this year?

There were so many good ones, but if I had to choose... I choose 3!

Oh, How the World has Changed by @itsthemorph I just love the idea of Clara in 1985, even if it's only one chapter, I am sure the other parts will be great :)

June of Doom: let the Suffering Begin by @unknooooow. Now these ones are dark. They have become my Roman Empire, so I think about it once every few days. But again, I love angst, especially realistic. :)

Double Visions by @daryfromthefuture. While there were many good ones this one stuck out due to it having the talk of Citizen Brown (the not-so-silly doc). And it's also very touching and captures the friendship spirit greatly!

A favorite bttf fanart you saw this year? (please give us a link, not a screencap/repost!)

AGAIN MANY GOOD ONES.

this one by @future-boi LITTLE MARTY LITTLE MARTY

this one by @maxintime Cause Browns my beloved <3

this one by @bttf-dork (do u have any idea how long it took for me to find it, I thought I imagined it) THE COLORS, THE SHAPES AAA.

This one by @cheriboms The silly, the goofy, the little Baby Emmett (I WILL EAT THE FANART)

Did you create any bttf fanart or fanfic? If you did, what one(s) are you proudest of?

My time to shine :) /j

I am especially proud of June of Doom chapter 11 (Better known as Doc Has a Stroke literally). It took me two months to write, and it is still the longest one chapter I ever wrote (3k words). Also! I am afraid of hospitals and blood, so I have no idea how I wrote it. Also believe it or not, it was inspired by the animated series...

One more writing project I am proud of is Alteration. It is not because of how much I wrote, but how much I am still planning, and how many Ideas I have for it. I have every single detail planned :)

With art it's a bit more tricky. Since I am not THAT proud of any of them, but BTTF 2 end scene redraw is still one of my favs :)

How many times were you late for school this year?

At least three times, due to reasons outside of my control. But I hate being late.

Did you watch any other movies/tv shows with BTTF actors in them?

My Favourite Martian (1999) Where Lloyd plays an Alien. I watched it because of my silly alien doc au. And I had an amazing angst idea out of it (I wrote it for June of Doom)

That is about it...

Was there a memorable moment you heard a Huey Lewis song this year?

In the car. My parents are tired of me ranting about BTTF so Imagine me (not a singer) scream-singing Back In Time. :DDD

How many times did you fall down this year?

Honestly, either I didn't. Or I did too many times to count. Cause I don't remember

Did you get to see BTTF: The Musical? What was your experience like!

No...

How many times did your mom retell the story of how she and your father met?

Not many, maybe once.

If you could describe your year in a BTTF quote, which one would it be?

This one is the toughest.

It will either be "I repeat, Verne, this is a fool's errand." "Does that mean you're coming?" I always tagged along when I knew my friend was making a dumb decision.

Or “Why do we have to cut these things so damn close?”

⚡️LIGHTNING ROUND⚡️ Did you get to: go on any trains, skate on a skateboard, ride a horse, drive a Delorean, run in the rain, go to a dance, hang up a clock, play the guitar, pull an all-nighter, read science fiction, or drive thru Burger King this year?

To the dance, I even went as Marty McFly. (Even if it was 80' themed I did not win, they did not get the joke :(

Your future is whatever you make it! So what are you going to make of this coming year?

More art. Even more angsty fanfiction :)

I am tagging @unknooooow and I believe everyone else has been tagged. Maybe @jayisnotdrawing @bri-to-the-future @brinkle-brackle and @bentothefuturee @pine-killer55

Game by: @mjf-af

[innytoes]

3+ sentences for Willex + astronauts au please and thank you <3

(I know you said astronauts but my brain immediately went: The Martian AU)

Alex wasn't quite sure which would be worse: being stranded on Mars alone, or being stranded on Mars with your crush. Since he was currently living the second option, and it was torture.

Of course, it was much better than being alone. Probably. He would have probably freaked out and died if he was alone. But Willie had patched the leak in his suit with duct tape, and dragged him back to the Hub, and nursed him back to health.

They'd worked together to figure out how to survive on Mars. Alex had rigged up the solar panels so they had electricity. Willie had done the awful job of terraforming Mars, which was a nice way of saying 'using poop to grow potatoes'. Luckily, Alex was their communication specialist, so they managed to get a message back to Earth, a 'hey bee-tee-dubs, you left two of your astronauts on Mars, can you send an Uber?' message.

He was a little worried about Julie, Luke, and Reggie, though. How were they doing, knowing they left behind two of their best friends? Thinking they were dead? Had ground control been able to contact them yet? Was leaving your friends' bodies on Mars better or worse than leaving your alive friends-

"You're pacing again," Willie said, coming out of the plastic-covered Potato Farm in the middle of the Hub. You actually kind of got used to the smell, so he didn't even wince. "If you want to get your steps in, I have a way better way to do cardio." He waggled his eyebrows at Alex, and Alex flushed.

Maybe being stranded alone would have been better than this torture.

Or, the torture that was...

"Let's go girls!"

Alex groaned. "Not Reggie's country playlist again!" he whined. He was so sick of Shania Twain. But they'd fried Luke's laptop and his extensive music library on the first day they tried to go outside the Hub. Turned out laptops didn't do well on the surface of Mars. Whoops. So now all they had left was Reggie's extensive country playlists.

"Come on, Hotdog, dance with me," Willie said, taking Alex' hand, shimmying his shoulders a little. It was hard to say no to him and his infectious grin, and sooner or later, they were dancing around the Hub, hollering along with Shania Twain, twirling each other.

Willie's laugh was beautiful, and for a moment, he forgot they were trapped on a desolate planet. At night, when the plastic and duct tape where they fixed section three clattered in the wind, and he crawled into Willie's bed, he didn't feel scared they were going to die at any second anymore. When he had to wolf down another potato, Willie's funny stories distracted him from thinking too much about how he now hated the taste of potatoes.

How could he ever think it was better to be out here alone than with Willie?

The song ended with Alex dipping Willie dramatically, and when he pulled him back up, he pulled him closer, pressing a kiss to his lips. Willie made a little surprised noise, but before Alex could pull away, his arms wrapped around his neck and he deepened the kiss.

Turned out the best way to be stranded on Mars was not with your crush, but with your boyfriend.

[stormcloudrising]

Daenerys Targaryen, Martians, Eatable Ants and the Influence of The War of The Worlds on ASOIAF Part 3

January 18, 2023

©Michael Komarck for the 2009 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar

It’s been a long time coming, but here we are. After almost 4 years, I have finally completed my essay series on the influence of H.G Wells, The War of the Worlds (TWOTW) on A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF). Before you begin, I should say that if you have not already done so, go back and first read parts one and two in the order they were written. This way, you get a better feel for the scope of what Martin has done in integrating TWOTW into his magnum opus.

In part one, I proposed that the Targaryens and their dragons represent the Martian invaders from Wells’ classic story and showed the numerous ways Martin compares them to visitors from the red planet. Then in part two, I dived deep into ants…how Wells and Martin used them in the same metaphoric way in their stories and what this might indicate about the future arc of Daenerys Targaryen. 

Now in the final chapter, I take a closer look at how the Targaryen words fire and blood reverberate as deeply in TWOTW as it does in ASOIAF…pointing towards the conflagration that both the Martians and dragons will bring to the world. I also provide my theory on the location of Dany’s house with the red door and what it truly means to her and the in-world characters. Finally, I briefly discuss the clues in TWOTW that echo ones about Euron Greyjoy in ASOIAF and what they might potentially suggest about the convergence of his story with Dany’s. And so, let’s jump right in.

Fire and Blood and the Targaryen colors of red and black are not just motifs in ASOIAF. They are also layered throughout TWOTW. There is an overabundance of comparisons of the Targaryens and their dragons to the Martians in the text of ASOIAF. On the dragon side, this is especially true with Balerion and Drogon and their black fire. George plainly shows how it represents his version of Wells’ Martian’s Black Smoke.

As I noted in the post I made after the publication of part one of this essay series, George refers to Mars as the Blood and Fire planet, and wrote a long introduction for an anthology of Mars stories he edited where he discussed his lifelong fascination with the planet and its influence on him and and other writers of the genre. 

Interestingly enough, he more recently mentioned in a blog post from March 2022 that he’s thinking of calling part two of F&B, Blood and Fire. This further supports my thesis that he has written the Targs as the Martians invaders of the story. ASOIAF is in a way, the story he says that he’s always wanted to write about Martians and the storied planet of Mars.

THE MARTIAN LANDSCAPE AND ASOIAF

As is the case in ASOIAF, the Targaryen words of Fire & Blood, and the colors of red and black are major motifs in TWOTW. From the beginning of the novel, Wells makes it clear that the Martians like George’s dragons were bringing a firestorm to the earth.

The storm burst upon us six years ago now. As Mars approached opposition, Lavelle of Java4 set the wires of the astronomical exchange palpitating with the amazing intelligence of a huge outbreak of incandescent gas upon the planet. It had occurred towards midnight of the twelfth; and the spectroscope, to which he had at once resorted, indicated a mass of flaming gas, chiefly hydrogen, moving with an enormous velocity towards this earth. This jet of fire had become invisible about a quarter past twelve. He compared it to a colossal puff of flame suddenly and violently squirted out of the planet, “as flaming gases rushed out of a gun.”

A singularly appropriate phrase it proved.

The War of the Worlds: The Eve of the War

I discussed many of the direct comparisons between the Targs and the Martians by George in part one. These include how the Martians’ cylinder like space ships were first thought to be meteors just like the Qarthian myth suggest was the case with the dragons of Planetos; the cylinders symbolically serving as eggs from which Martians are born on earth and how the crusted metal of their ship is described like the metallic scales on a dragon egg; the plethora of comparisons of both the Martians, Targs and their dragons to snakes; how both the dragons and Martians’ heat ray are described as swords above the world; the association of both to pits; and of course, the ants, the ants, the ants.  

Elen11/Getty Images

Both Wells and George play with the idea blackness of space as a primordial sea. This is an idea that’s at the heart of many of the world’s myths and has been used by other fantasy and science fiction authors on numerous occasions.

Near it in the field, I remember, were three faint points of light, three telescopic stars infinitely remote, and all around it was the unfathomable darkness of empty space. You know how that blackness looks on a frosty starlight night. In a telescope it seems far profounder. And invisible to me because it was so remote and small, flying swiftly and steadily towards me across that incredible distance, drawing nearer every minute by so many thousands of miles, came the Thing they were sending us, the Thing that was to bring so much struggle and calamity and death to the earth.

The War of the Worlds: The Eve of the War

As the unnamed narrator looks through the telescope, it’s as if he is looking at the cosmic ocean, which is a theme that George plays with throughout ASOIAF regarding the weirwoods and being ‘under the sea.’ However, we are not here to discuss the primordial sea, but rather the emphasis put on red and black in both Wells and George’s work. 

There is the blackness of space reference in the passage above, which the narrator is viewing at night from a night black observatory. There is the moving black mark on the cylinder that alerts Ogilvy to the fact that it is being opened from the inside.

And then he perceived that, very slowly, the circular top of the cylinder was rotating on its body. It was such a gradual movement that he discovered it only through noticing that a black mark that had been near him five minutes ago was now at the other side of the circumference. Even then he scarcely understood what this indicated, until he heard a muffled grating sound and saw the black mark jerk forward an inch or so. Then the Thing came upon him in a flash. The cylinder was artificial—hollow—with an end that screwed out! Something within the cylinder was unscrewing the top!

The War of the Worlds: The Falling Star

There is how Wells describes the crowd standing around the pit where the Martians were about to be born.

WHEN I RETURNED to the common the sun was setting. Scattered groups were hurrying from the direction of Woking, and one or two persons were returning. The crowd about the pit had increased, and stood out black against the lemon yellow of the sky—a couple of hundred people, perhaps.

The War of the Worlds: The Cylinder Opens

The sky turning yellow is a harbinger. A yellow sky means that a storm is brewing. This seems an apt metaphor considering what occurred on the sand dunes of Horsell Common. 

Another way black is used as an important symbol is how Wells compares people to black ants as they flee from the Martians. I described the symbolic importance this in detail and how Martin uses them in the same metaphoric manner in his story, as well as what it implies about Dany’s future arc in the last chapter and so I will not do so again here. 

There is also the black machine the Martians’ travel in from which they dispense their heat ray. Not surprisingly, the narrator describes it as a sword from above just as Xaro Xhoan Daxos describes Dany’s dragons.

It was sweeping round swiftly and steadily, this flaming death, this invisible, inevitable sword of heat. I perceived it coming towards me by the flashing bushes it touched, and was too astounded and stupefied to stir. I heard the crackle of fire in the sand pits and the sudden squeal of a horse that was as suddenly stilled. Then it was as if an invisible yet intensely heated finger were drawn through the heather between me and the Martians, and all along a curving line beyond the sand pits the dark ground smoked and crackled. Something fell with a crash far away to the left where the road from Woking station opens out on the common. Forthwith the hissing and humming ceased, and the black, domelike object sank slowly out of sight into the pit.

The War of the Worlds: The Heat Ray

However, the most important black motif I want to discuss is the Martian black smoke. This is most heavily crystallized in ASOIAF with Balerion the Black Dread, Drogon, and their black fire. Their fire, which produces black smoke is the symbolic stand-in for the Martian black smoke.

And from this paper my brother read that catastrophic despatch of the Commander-in-Chief:

“The Martians are able to discharge enormous clouds of a black and poisonous vapour by means of rockets. They have smothered our batteries, destroyed Richmond, Kingston, and Wimbledon, and are advancing slowly towards London, destroying everything on the way. It is impossible to stop them. There is no safety from the Black Smoke but in instant flight.

“Black Smoke!” the voices cried. “Fire!”

The bells of the neighbouring church made a jangling tumult…”

The War of the Worlds: In London

Credit: by Brendan Perkins via Lonesome Crow on DeviantArt

Note the ringing of the bells echo in response to the call of fire. We know that bells will have an important role to play in Jon Connington’s arc, and it likely will not be good news for the people. Bells also play a role in Dany’s arc in the books via the bells the Dothraki wear in their hair. This is especially important tool of fear for the Khals like Drogo.

Dany braided his hair and slid the silver rings onto his mustache and hung his bells one by one. So many bells, gold and silver and bronze. Bells so his enemies would hear him coming and grow weak with fear.

A Game of Thrones, Daenerys X

In real life whether via the church bells of distant eras, or the more recent past of bells on fire trucks, the clanging instruments have alerted the populace that there was a fire in their midst.

On the show, like was the case with the Martians in TWOTW, bells herald the start of Dany’s fiery destruction of Kings Landing. Will something similar happen in the books after the Khaleesi becomes the “stallion who mounts the world?” Only time will tell.

As Balerion and Drogon discharge their black flame onto cities and the populace, the Martians do the same. Only, they discharge their heat ray and black smoke from their walking tripods and flying machines via rockets. Whether via the dragons or the Martian machines, the powerful force of fire and smoke have similar results when used against people…immediate death. 

Now here is an extremely interesting detail. The description of the Martian black smoke eerily mirrors the description of Drogon’s fire. In fact, except for a couple of words, it’s almost exactly the same.

In front was a quiet, sunny landscape, a wheat field ahead on either side of the road, and the Maybury Inn with its swinging sign. I saw the doctor’s cart ahead of me. At the bottom of the hill I turned my head to look at the hillside I was leaving. Thick streamers of black smoke shot with threads of red fire were driving up into the still air, and throwing dark shadows upon the green treetops eastward.”

The War of the Worlds: The Fighting Begins

And now here is a description of Drogon’s fire.

Above them all the dragon turned, dark against the sun. His scales were black, his eyes and horns and spinal plates blood red. Ever the largest of her three, in the wild Drogon had grown larger still. His wings stretched twenty feet from tip to tip, black as jet. He flapped them once as he swept back above the sands, and the sound was like a clap of thunder. The boar raised his head, snorting … and flame engulfed him, black fire shot with red.

ADWD, Daenerys IX

The Martians’ black smoke is shot through with red fire, while Drogon’s black fire is shot through with red. When you consider all the many other ways George compares the dragons to the Martians, the similarities in the description of these two fiery characteristics cannot be mere happenstance. It’s a deliberate comparison on George’s part. 

The Martian black smoke poisons all living things it touches, while Drogon’s fire destroys everything it burns. For all practical purposes, the two are the same and both results in ashes.

And all being quiet throughout the afternoon, we started about five o’clock, as I should judge, along the blackened road to Sunbury.

In Sunbury, and at intervals along the road, were dead bodies lying in contorted attitudes, horses as well as men, overturned carts and luggage, all covered thickly with black dust. That pall of cindery powder made me think of what I had read of the destruction of Pompeii.

The War of the Worlds: Under Foot

I mentioned in part two that the description of this scene reads very much like what we saw on the show of Kings Landing after it was burnt by Dany, and what we will likely see in next book after she burns much of Essos. Also, while the black smoke is separate from the Martian heat ray, the two are often used as one.

The Martians’ black smoke is poisonous, but dragon fire likely has a similar effect on burnt cities in the immediate aftermath of its fiery destruction. Residents in such locations would find it very difficult to breath and if they lived in modern times, many would later be diagnosed with cancer, as with the case of those who lived in the downtown area of New York City after 9/11. Basically, if not resulting in immediate death, the aftereffects of fire from Balerion, Drogon and the other dragons is like a slow poison.

The Targaryen House sword carried by Aegon the Conqueror is name Blackfyre, which mirrors the description of Drogon’s flame. We have not yet seen Blackfyre on the page and have not been given a detail description of its color. 

Although we can assume it is like the dark grey of House Starks Valyrian sword Ice and other such blades, I suspect that Blackfyre will be even darker…closer to black as the name implies with threads of red…Targaryen colors. It will be the total opposite to the milk glass color of Dawn, a sword the future wielder of Blackfyre seems destined to meet across the battlefield.  

So now that we’ve talk about the symbolic importance of black as a motif in both books, and why Balerion and Drogon’s fire are meant to mirror the Martians’ black smoke, let’s move on to red. We will begin in the Red Waste, George’s version of the Martian landscape through which Dany travels to Qarth.

Like the meteor that herald the arrival and birth of the Martians on earth, one does the same for the birth of Dany’s dragon at the edge of the Red Waste. Dany took this as a portent from the gods and led her followers after the red comet through the waste.

The Dothraki named the comet shierak qiya, the Bleeding Star. The old men muttered that it omened ill, but Daenerys Targaryen had seen it first on the night she had burned Khal Drogo, the night her dragons had awakened. It is the herald of my coming, she told herself as she gazed up into the night sky with wonder in her heart. The gods have sent it to show me the way.

Yet when she put the thought into words, her handmaid Doreah quailed. “That way lies the red lands, Khaleesi. A grim place and terrible, the riders say.”

“The way the comet points is the way we must go,” Dany insisted … though in truth, it was the only way open to her.”

ACOK, Daenerys I

Much of what Wells speculated about the red planet…so called because of the color of the dust that layers it surface, and what scientists of the time proposed have since proven to be incorrect. However, one thing that remains constant from then to today is that of Mars is a dry, sandy red waste whose seas have dried up. Here is Wells’ version of the planet.

The secular cooling that must someday overtake our planet has already gone far indeed with our neighbour. Its physical condition is still largely a mystery, but we know now that even in its equatorial region the midday temperature barely approaches that of our coldest winter. Its air is much more attenuated than ours, its oceans have shrunk until they cover but a third of its surface, and as its slow seasons change huge snowcaps gather and melt about either pole and periodically inundate its temperate zones. That last stage of exhaustion, which to us is still incredibly remote, has become a present-day problem for the inhabitants of Mars.

The War of the Worlds: The Eve of War

The Bonneville Crater on Mars NASA/JPL/Cornell University

And here is George’s version of the Martian landscape.

 There was little forage in the red waste, and less water. It was a sere and desolate land of low hills and barren windswept plains. The rivers they crossed were dry as dead men’s bones. Their mounts subsisted on the tough brown devilgrass that grew in clumps at the base of rocks and dead trees. Dany sent outriders ranging ahead of the column, but they found neither wells nor springs, only bitter pools, shallow and stagnant, shrinking in the hot sun. The deeper they rode into the waste, the smaller the pools became, while the distance between them grew. If there were gods in this trackless wilderness of stone and sand and red clay, they were hard dry gods, deaf to prayers for rain.

ACOK, Daenerys I

George’s red waste is dry and desolate but more like the real Mars than Wells whose telescopic instruments were not as technologically as advance as the ones today. However, the two are pretty close. George’s red waste, like Wells’ Mars, has little to no water, and what it does have is undrinkable. Nonetheless, the desperate travelers have no other choice but to drink it. The land is also filled with fiery dragon like symbolism with the sun beating down and the extra hot water smelling of brimstone. 

The next pool they found was scalding hot and stinking of brimstone, but their skins were almost empty. The Dothraki cooled the water in jars and pots and drank it tepid. The taste was no less foul, but water was water, and all of them thirsted. Dany looked at the horizon with despair. They had lost a third of their number, and still the waste stretched before them, bleak and red and endless.

ACOK, Daenerys I

While, initially, they refused to eat because their meat was not charred, after Dany figured out this was the problem, her dragons ate and thrived. Unliked her followers.

Yet even as her dragons prospered, her khalasar withered and died. Around them the land turned ever more desolate. Even devilgrass grew scant; horses dropped in their tracks, leaving so few that some of her people must trudge along on foot. Doreah took a fever and grew worse with every league they crossed. Her lips and hands broke with blood blisters, her hair came out in clumps, and one evenfall she lacked the strength to mount her horse. Jhogo said they must leave her or bind her to her saddle, but Dany remembered a night on the Dothraki sea, when the Lysene girl had taught her secrets so that Drogo might love her more. She gave Doreah water from her own skin, cooled her brow with a damp cloth, and held her hand until she died, shivering. Only then would she permit the khalasar to press on.

ACOK, Daenerys I

Doreah, the handmaiden who warned Dany against crossing the red waste is one of the earliest of Dany’s followers to die, but Dany’s dragons are getting stronger. This makes symbolic sense as the dragons are the Martians of the story, and thus should thrived in the place of their birth. But of course, like the Martian invaders, their food and water supply are depleting and so they need another source of nourishment.

The Red Weed by Mechagen_Deviant Art_

The Martians bring with them a red weed that pretty much overtakes the landscape. It’s not clear whether they deliberately planted the weed or if it accidentally hatched a ride on their cylinders, got into the earth ecosystem and then proliferated.

And speaking of the differences between the life on Mars and terrestrial life, I may allude here to the curious suggestions of the red weed.

Apparently the vegetable kingdom in Mars, instead of having green for a dominant colour, is of a vivid blood-red tint. At any rate, the seeds which the Martians (intentionally or accidentally) brought with them gave rise in all cases to red-coloured growths. Only that known popularly as the red weed, however, gained any footing in competition with terrestrial forms. The red creeper was quite a transitory growth, and few people have seen it growing. For a time, however, the red weed grew with astonishing vigour and luxuriance. It “spread up the sides of the pit by the third or fourth day of our imprisonment, and its cactus-like branches formed a carmine fringe to the edges of our triangular window. And afterwards I found it broadcast throughout the country, and especially wherever there was a stream of water.”

 The War of the Worlds: What We Saw from the Ruined House

As he has woven the story of the Martians so indelibly into Dany’s arc of ASOIAF, one would expect that George has also included something like the iconic red weed in his story and that it would be associated with Dany. And low and behold, he has done just that as Jorah describes to Dany how the Dothraki Sea looks at certain times of the year.

It was a sea, Dany thought. Past here, there were no hills, no mountains, no trees nor cities nor roads, only the endless grasses, the tall blades rippling like waves when the winds blew. "It's so green," she said.

"Here and now," Ser Jorah agreed. "You ought to see it when it blooms, all dark red flowers from horizon to horizon, like a sea of blood. Come the dry season, and the world turns the color of old bronze.

 A Game of thrones, Daenerys III

It’s funny that George, describes the dark red flowers of his story like a sea of blood because Wells does something similar in his. He doesn’t specifically call it a sea, but he associates it with blood in a different way.

My first action coming to this water was, of course, to slake my thirst. I drank a great deal of it and, moved by an impulse, gnawed some fronds of red weed; but they were watery, and had a sickly, metallic taste.

The War of the Worlds: The Work of Fifteen Days

Blood of course tastes metallic because of its iron rich hemoglobin content, and so when Wells describes the red weed as tasting like metal, he wants you to think of blood.

Blood is another way that red as a motif plays an important role in the story. Like the many references to fire and black smoke from Martian weapons, Wells has numerous scenes where blood is heavily featured throughout the text. 

The narrator often comes across the aftereffects of bloody scenes; people are often shown injured or getting into fights where they bleed; or in a blood rage as they fight each other for the scraps of survival. It’s to show that underneath the humans are not that different from the Martians.  

However, it’s also to highlight the main reason the Martian’s came to earth. They invaded because they were looking for a new food source. Just like Dany and her followers in the Red Waste, theirs was depleted on Mars. And they found it in human blood.

They did not eat, much less digest. Instead, they took the fresh living blood of other creatures, and injected it into their own veins. I have myself seen this being done, as I shall mention in its place. But, squeamish as I may seem, I cannot bring myself to describe what I could not endure even to continue watching. Let it suffice to say, blood obtained from a still living animal, in most cases from a human being, was run directly by means of a little pipette into the recipient canal….

The War of the Worlds: What We Saw from the Ruined House

Red also appears in some trees the narrator encounters. There is a that while much smaller in nature than the Wall in ASOIAF, the narrator finds difficult to cross.  When he does, he encounters some trees that are overgrown by the Martian red weed that has overtaken the land. The description of the trees as he walks underneath them can’t help but make one think of the weirwoods.

In the direction away from the pit I saw, beyond a red-covered wall, a patch of garden ground unburied. This gave me a hint, and I went knee-deep, and sometimes neck-deep, in the red weed. The density of the weed gave me a reassuring sense of hiding.

The wall was some six feet high, and when I attempted to clamber it I found I could not lift my feet to the crest. So I went along by the side of it, and came to a corner and a rockwork that enabled me to get to the top, and tumble into the garden I coveted. 

Here I found some young onions, a couple of gladiolus bulbs, and a quantity of immature carrots, all of which I secured, and, scrambling over a ruined wall, went on my way through scarlet and crimson trees towards Kew—it was like walking through an avenue of gigantic blood-drops—possessed with two ideas: to get more food, and to limp, as soon and as far as my strength permitted, out of this accursed unearthly region of the pit.

The War of the Worlds: The Work of Fifteen Days

As I said, red is one of the most important motifs in TWOTW, and it is meant to signify danger from the Martians. It usually heralds their arrival or indicates their presence in the vicinity. There is the fire and blood, and red weed that I’ve already discussed, but red also appears symbolically in lights. 

OF RED DOORS AND LEMON TREES

When the announcement is made that the Martians have arrived in London, a red light shines in from outside on to the ceiling of the room of the narrator’s brother. A couple of times, the narrator also sees red searchlights and a red glow in the vicinity where the Martians are located. Red is a warning both in TWOTW and in ASOIAF, which brings me to Dany’s red door.

Credit: Tiziano Baracchi. © Fantasy Flight Games...via Deviant Art

All that Daenerys wanted back was the big house with the red door, the lemon tree outside her window, the childhood she had never known.

A Game of Thrones, Daenerys I    

For Dany, this house with the red door represents a lost childhood and a time when she was happy. The longing to find this house with the red door is palpable throughout her arc. However, while on this surface, this seems like simply the dream of a lost and hurt child, I think that it and its color represent more. 

As with Wells use of red in his story and George’s use of it in the house color of the Targaryen, I think Dany’s door being red is a warning to the reader to beware…that there is more to this symbolism than meets the eye. On a Watsonian level, Dany’s red door is also a warning to her about the danger she represents to the world of Planetos. Let’s dig in.

A few years ago, I wrote a thread on Twitter where I broke down what I think Dany’s red door means. I still hold to this theory and so I’ll copy and paste here with just a few minor corrections.

Why did George make the symbol of Dany's quest for home a red door? Well, aside from symbolically using red as a similar motif as Wells in TWOTW, I think it ties into the biblical story of the Passover. It’s the story of the world’s first known symbolic red door and you can read about it below.

I should mention that I'm Episcopalian and the red door on our church is what made me associate Dany's door with the religious aspect of the biblical Passover. Red doors are also used on most Catholic Churches. 

Red on church doors is supposed to represent a place of sanctuary. However, this is often not the case. The church and its priest not providing sanctuary is also a theme in TWOTW, but that’s a topic for another essay. My point is that George is a lapse Catholic and I’m sure he’s aware of the symbolism behind red doors and that institutional religion is often not a sanctuary.

Keeping the story of the Passover you just read in mind, what might it symbolically imply about Dany's arc and her quest for the red door? And why did dream turn into a nightmare the one time in the story she made it behind the door.

She could smell home, she could see it, there, just beyond that door, green fields and great stone houses and arms to keep her warm, there. She threw open the door.

“… the dragon …”

And saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. “The last dragon,” Ser Jorah’s voice whispered faintly. “The last, the last.” Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own.

After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars.

She woke to the taste of ashes.

A Game of Thrones, Daenerys IX

Note George’s consistent use of black with red fire to echo both the Martian black smoke and Drogon’s flame. Based on the biblical scripture, to make it behind the red door is to be protected from the Lord's vengeance. He sent the angel of death during the night to kill all the first born of Egypt...be they people or animals. Only his people who obeyed his command to mark their door with the blood of a lamb no older than a year were protected when the angel of death came. The angel passed them over. The red door in this instance thus symbolizes protection. 

However, not in the case of Dany. The protection of the red door is not available to her. And sadly, it probably never was. At least it won’t if Quaithe has her way. She emphasizes it in this and other dreams that she sends the dragon queen. Dany is the angel of death who does not belong behind the red door with the populace.

The only time Dany makes it behind the door, it occurs in her dreams, and it becomes a nightmare. She opens Rhaegar’s helm and sees not her brother, but herself. This should be a happy moment. She’s made it to home and behind the red door, where she is supposed to be safe, but of course, it’s not. 

She is the angel of death and thus her being behind the red door indicates that she is a threat to the humans. Thus, her dream becomes a nightmare that foreshadows her future arc. It’s why she wakes to the taste of ashes.

 But it was not the plains Dany saw then. It was King's Landing and the great Red Keep that Aegon the Conqueror had built. It was Dragonstone where she had been born. In her mind's eye they burned with a thousand lights, a fire blazing in every window. In her mind's eye, all the doors were red.

A Game of Thrones, Daenerys III

On the surface, longing for Kings Landing is just that, a longing for the home of her recent ancestors...a place she can call home. However, underneath, it maybe foreshadowing something much darker...potentially her burning of Kings Landing as on the show.

Dany’s red door and her "wake the dragon dream" have always been a signpost indicating where her story was going. The red door was never about home for her. Sadly, it’s just the opposite. 

Dany thinks of herself as a god when flying Drogon in her last chapter of ADWD and so in a way, she is also the Lord sending the angel of death...in this case, Drogon among the populace. 

By the way, George writes Drogon as "passing over" but Dany called him back to use him to bring the Dothraki to heel. Left alone to run wild, Drogon would have killed animals and some humans but for food only. It is in Dany’s hands, as was the case with past Targaryens and dragon lords that the beasts become weapons of mass destruction.

Thrice that day she caught sight of Drogon. Once he was so far off that he might have been an eagle, slipping in and out of distant clouds, but Dany knew the look of him by now, even when he was no more than a speck. The second time he passed before the sun, his black wings spread, and the world darkened. The last time he flew right above her, so close she could hear the sound of his wings.

A Dance with Dragons, Daenerys X

Later in the chapter after hearing Quaithe voice again in the stars, she decides to follow the shadowbinder’s advice and accept her dragon heritage.

DanceOfDragons_by_ertacaltinoz_DeviantArt

Dany watched him go. When the sound of his hooves had faded away to silence, she began to shout. She called until her voice was hoarse … and Drogon came, snorting plumes of smoke. The grass bowed down before him. Dany leapt onto his back. She stank of blood and sweat and fear, but none of that mattered. “To go forward I must go back,” she said. Her bare legs tightened around the dragon’s neck. She kicked him, and Drogon threw himself into the sky. Her whip was gone, so she used her hands and feet and turned him north by east, the way the scout had gone. Drogon went willingly enough; perhaps he smelled the rider’s fear.

A Dance with Dragons - Daenerys X

Dany calls Drogon back to her and claims her dragon identity and he recognizes this change. Thus, she no longer needs a whip to control him. He now goes where she wants.

So, if Dany’s red door is meant to be seen as a warning, is it real or just a symbolic figment of her imagination. I think the answer is yes, it is real, but it also potentially a figment. What do I mean? Well, let’s first determine where the house with the red door is located. 

I’m going to be as short as possible in this section as this chapter is already overlong. The topic of the red door probably deserves its own essay, but I don’t have the time to write it. There are also a couple of other important points about the influence of TWOTW on the story that I want to get to…including a brief discussion of Euron.

For years, the location of the house with the red door has been a hot topic of conversation in the fandom because, Dany says the house was in Braavos. The confusion arises because in her memory, Dany also remembers a lemon tree growing outside her window. The problem with this memory is that lemon trees and trees in general do not grow in the stone city of Braavos. I’m not going to go into the reasons why as most anyone who has read the books already know the answer, but the basic reason is a lack of irrigated water.

Some sides of the fandom have proposed that yes, Dany was raised in Braavos…at the Palace of the Sealord. He is rich and is said by Syrio Florel among others to have exotic creatures walking the grounds of his estate. Thus, if anyone resident could be said to be able to afford to have an irrigated system to channel water from the canals, it would be the Sealord. Thus, maybe it’s possible that Dany is remembering a house on the Sealord’s estate. Or maybe not.

Doran Martell also tells his daughter Arianne that she was promised to Dany’s brother Viserys as bride. An agreement signed and witness by Oberyn for House Martell and the Sealord as representative for Viserys. There seems to be no reason for Doran to lie about this story, and it fits with his tendency to play the long game. The Sealord also never leaves Braavos, and so, if such a pact was signed, it must have happened in that city and Dany and Viserys must have resided there. If not, why would the Sealord bear witness. This also supports the theory that Dany is remembering the Sealord’s house. But then again, maybe not.

Another popular option proposed by fans is that Dany was hidden away and raised in Dorne and that’s where the pact was signed. After all, it’s established on multiple ocassions in the text that Dorne is where lemon trees grow. It’s mentioned so often that I see it as one of George’s shiny apples. And by that, I mean that he hides the truth in plain sight and then by sleight of hand, makes the reader look in another direction. There are a lot of shiny apples in the text, and one day, I may write an essay about them.

I say that Dorne and the lemon trees that grow there are a shiny apple because I think that Dany was raised exactly where she says she was…in Braavos. Only, I don’t think that it was at the Sealord’s Palace. If not there, the question then becomes where? 

Well, I think that the answer can be found in Dany’s dreams and the one constant other than Jorah, and her Dothraki khalasar that have been with her throughout her story thus far…Quaithe, the shadowbinder from Asshai. Quaithe is not always there with Dany in person, but her presence is always felt. 

In AGOT, the stars whisper to Dany during her wake the dragon dream as I showed in the passage I posted above. We don’t know then that it’s Quaithe but we start getting an inkling that she will have an important role to play in Dany’s story when she shows up in person in A Clash of Kings.

The woman in the lacquered wooden mask said in the Common Tongue of the Seven Kingdoms, "I am Quaithe of the Shadow. We come seeking dragons."

"Seek no more," Daenerys Targaryen told them. "You have found them."

______

Last of the three seekers to depart was Quaithe the shadowbinder. From her Dany received only a warning. "Beware," the woman in the red lacquer mask said.

"Of whom?"

"Of all. They shall come day and night to see the wonder that has been born again into the world, and when they see they shall lust. For dragons are fire made flesh, and fire is power."

When Quaithe too was gone, Ser Jorah said, "She speaks truly, my queen . . . though I like her no more than the others."

A Clash of Kings, Daenerys II

Quaithe turns up again a little later in ACOK, this time with a warning and a bit of cryptic advice for Dany.

“The woman took a step backward. “You must leave this city soon, Daenerys Targaryen, or you will never be permitted to leave it at all.”

Dany’s wrist still tingled where Quaithe had touched her. “Where would you have me go?” she asked.

“To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.”

Asshai, Dany thought.

A Clash of Kings, Daenerys III

By the way, I think that Quaithe’s riddle is another of George’s shiny apple, and I’ll discuss why if I ever write that essay on the topic. 

Dany next has an encounter with Quaithe in A Storm of Sword, only this time she is not there in person, but instead communicates with Dany via a glass candle and again peppers her with the cryptic riddle.

She woke suddenly in the darkness of her cabin, still flush with triumph. Balerion seemed to wake with her, and she heard the faint creak of wood, water lapping against the hull, a footfall on the deck above her head. And something else.

Someone was in the cabin with her.

“Irri? Jhiqui? Where are you?” Her handmaids did not respond. It was too black to see, but she could hear them breathing. “Jorah, is that you?”

“They sleep,” a woman said. “They all sleep.” The voice was very close. “Even dragons must sleep.”

She is standing over me. “Who’s there?” Dany peered into the darkness. She thought she could see a shadow, the faintest outline of a shape. “What do you want to me?”

“Remember. To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.”

“Quaithe?” Dany sprung from the bed and threw open the door. Pale yellow lantern light flooded the cabin, and Irri and Jhiqui sat up sleepily. 

A Storm of Swords, Daenerys III

She next has two encounters with Quaithe is in ADWD.

 “They sleep,” came the answer.

 A woman stood under the persimmon tree, clad in a hooded robe that brushed the grass. Beneath the hood, her face seemed hard and shiny. She is wearing a mask, Dany knew, a wooden mask finished in dark red lacquer. “Quaithe? Am I dreaming?” She pinched her ear and winced at the pain. “I dreamt of you on Balerion, when first we came to Astapor.”

            “You did not dream. Then or now.”

            “What are you doing here? How did you get past my guards?”

            “I came another way. Your guards never saw me.”

            “If I call out, they will kill you.”

            “They will swear to you that I am not here.”

            “Are you here?”

            “No. Hear me, Daenerys Targaryen. The glass candles are burning.

________

“If you have some warning for me, speak plainly. What do you want of me, Quaithe?”

Moonlight shone in the woman’s eyes. “To show you the way.”

 A Dance with Dragon, Daenerys II

 Does it seem as if Quaithe wants Dany to trust only her? It does to me.

Dany’s final encounter with Quaithe happens in her last chapter of ADWD. And it is here that we get confirmation that she has always been the whisperer of stars in Dany’s dreams.

 She dreamed. All her cares fell away from her, and all her pains as well, and she seemed to float upward into the sky. She was flying once again, spinning, laughing, dancing, as the stars wheeled around her and whispered secrets in her ear. "To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward, you must go back. To touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow."

"Quaithe?" Dany called. "Where are you, Quaithe?"

Then she saw. Her mask is made of starlight.

"Remember who you are, Daenerys," the stars whispered in a woman's voice. "The dragons know. Do you?"

A Dance with Dragons, Daenerys X

Dany perceives Quaithe as speaking to her via the stars, whispering as it were. Thus, we realize that when the stars whispered to her during her wake the dragon dream back in A Game of Thrones, it was likely Quaithe at that time as well, communicating with Dany via a glass candle.

"What feeds the flame?" asked Sam.

"What feeds a dragon's fire?" Marwyn seated himself upon a stool. "All Valyrian sorcery was rooted in blood or fire. The sorcerers of the Freehold could see across mountains, seas, and deserts with one of these glass candles. They could enter a man's dreams and give him visions, and speak to one another half a world apart, seated before their candles. Do you think that might be useful, Slayer?" 

"We would have no more need of ravens."

A Feast for Crows, Sam V

I fully expect to discover that Marwyn knows Quaithe. After all, we know from Miri Maz Duur that he was in Asshai. He is the one who taught her about the human body. I suspect that Quaithe in turn taught Marwyn, and a lot more than just the secrets of the body. After all, Quaithe is a shadowbinder from Asshai, where dragons are said to come from and which others in the fandom have proposed, may have been the ancient capital of the Great Empire of the Dawn. A theory that I endorse.

In Dany’s “wake the dragon” dream, Quaithe sends her a vision of her ancestors. Why?

Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. "Faster," they cried, "faster, faster." She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. "Faster!" the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward. A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew.

A Game of Thrones, Daenerys IX

George gave us a bit more history on these ancient Targaryen ancestors when he dropped this ditty in TWOIAF history book.

Dominion over mankind then passed to his eldest son, who was known as the Pearl Emperor and ruled for a thousand years. The Jade Emperor, the Tourmaline Emperor, the Onyx Emperor, the Topaz Emperor, and the Opal Emperor followed in turn, each reigning for centuries...yet every reign was shorter and more troubled than the one preceding it, for wild men and baleful beasts pressed at the borders of the Great Empire, lesser kings grew prideful and rebellious, and the common people gave themselves over to avarice, envy, lust, murder, incest, gluttony, and sloth.

When the daughter of the Opal Emperor succeeded him as the Amethyst Empress, her envious younger brother cast her down and slew her, proclaiming himself the Bloodstone Emperor and beginning a reign of terror. He practiced dark arts, torture, and necromancy, enslaved his people, took a tiger-woman for his bride, feasted on human flesh, and cast down the true gods to worship a black stone that had fallen from the sky. (Many scholars count the Bloodstone Emperor as the first High Priest of the sinister Church of Starry Wisdom, which persists to this day in many port cities throughout the known world).

The World of Ice and Fire, The Bones – Beyond YiTi

Based on the similarity in the descriptions of the ancient people from the GEOTD to the ancestors in Dany’s vision, the fandom, I think correctly assumed that they are one and the same. I propose that their appearance in Dany’s vision isn’t just about a generic ancestral line, but rather to clue us in that Targaryen genetic blood line can be traced all the way back to the Bloodstone Emperor. 

In fact, I think that the Blackfyre is the first Valyrian steel blade. It’s the red “sword of heroes” Melisandre constantly references, and its heritage can be traced all the way back to the Bloodstone Emperor. The blood of the Amethyst Empress or Nissa Nissa, if you want to call her that went into the forging of that sword. There is more to it than just the forging of the sword as it also had to do with the BE’s attempt to gain access to the weirwoods, but I think that Blackfyre is his sword, and it has been passed down through the Targaryen line since then.

All the dark arts referenced in the history books are still practiced in the Shadowlands from where Quaithe hails. Quaithe whispering to Dany through the stars, strongly suggests as others have proposed that she is a member of the Church of Starry Wisdom originally started by the BE. I also think that the church has been keeping a close on and watching over the Targs through the many generations since the height of the GEOTD, and it was a member of the church who sent the dreams to Daenys the Dreamer about the coming fall of Valyria. 

I would not be surprised to discover that the church was somehow involved with what happened in Valyria.  I think that their goal is again to attempt the deepest of the dark arts, and Dany is the unknowing guinea pig to help Quaithe and other senior members of the church achieve their goals.

Also, Dany’s ability to hear the whispering through the stars, suggests that she may have been unknowingly exposed to the church’s trainings. And I don’t mean that she’s literally hearing thoughts through the stars. It’s about symbolism and her knowing to associate Quaithe with them. 

Therefore, I proposed that the house with the red door she remembers, is the Church of Starry Wisdom in Braavos. The red door is either the entrance door or on a building on the church’s estate. It was there that Dany picked up some unknowing little knowledge about scrying to the stars…maybe even by using a glass candle.

Church of Starry Wisdom by Cyprus-1 - Deviant Art

As I stated up thread, red doors are often associated with churches. However, we don’t know the color of the one on the door of the COSW in Braavos. The only reference we have to it in the text is from Arya when she walks by as Blind Beth. 

As she made her way past the temples, she could hear the acolytes of the Cult of Starry Wisdom atop their scrying tower, singing to the evening stars. 

A Dance with Dragons, The Blind Girl

The door to the church could be red. We don’t know. However, I don’t think that it is. I think that the red door that Dany remembers is an interior one…behind the main entrance.

She was walking down a long hall beneath high stone arches. She could not look behind her, must not look behind her. There was a door ahead of her, tiny with distance, but even from afar, she saw that it was painted red. She walked faster, and her bare feet left bloody footprints on the stone.

A Game of Thrones, Daenerys IX

Halls are interior walkways and so the fact that she is in one with stone arches suggests that she is in some type of courtyard and the red door of her memory opens out from there. This still leaves the question of the lemon tree, which after all, do not grow in Braavos.

If she did stay in Braavos and there are no lemon trees in the city, then how do we explain the mystery. My answer is that while I think that Dany stayed at the Church of Starry Wisdom while in Braavos, the lemon tree, and quite possibly the house with the red door are things of the past that Dany viewed through a glass candle, possibly even from as far back as ancient Asshai when it was a robust seafaring port city. After all, we don’t yet know the full magical aspects of the candles.

Another explanation for the missing lemon tree and red door is that the two are simply metaphors and George is playing with the idea of the golden apples from the Garden of Hesperides. There are many myths of the golden apples in many different cultures including Greek where they play into the myths of Hercules, Hera, Atlanta, and Paris of Troy and the Trojan War. There is even an Irish myth of the golden apple branch.

In the Hercules myth, the golden apples grown in the Garden of Hesperides, sacred to Hera. The apples and the garden were guarded by the dragon Ladon. Modern scholars think that the golden apples were actually a citrus fruit...either an orange or a lemon. George might be playing with the idea of them being lemons.

I mention this of course because of the dragon connection but also because the apples in most of the myths, granted immortality or access to the underworld, a theme which is strongly at play in ASOIAF. 

George also seems to be playing with the idea of the golden apples in the ancient myth of one of the daughters of Garth Greenhand, Rowan Gold-Tree...

who was so bereft when her lover left her for a rich rival that she wrapped an apple in her golden hair, planted it upon a hill, and grew a tree whose bark and leaves and fruit were gleaming yellow gold, and to whose daughters the Rowans of Goldengrove trace their roots.

The World of Ice and Fire, The Reach: Garth Greenhand

The thing is that if George is symbolically playing with this idea and Dany is supposed to be the dragon guarding the red door...possibly a symbolic access point to the underworld, she abandoned or was force to abandon her post, and so we will have to see what that potentially means.

And there you have it. My theory about Dany’s possible explanations for Danys infamous red door with the lemon tree outside the window.  Tinfoil? Possibly…only maybe not.

I’ve discussed in this and the previous two chapters the many ways in which George compares his dragons to Wells’ Martians. However, there is one other comparison that Wells makes in his story that George echoes in his that I want to mention. Only this time, the comparison is not to Dany and her dragons but to another character.

OF DANY AND EURON

And so, I will wind things down and leave you with these final passages and how they play into the arc of this character from ASOIAF. First, we will again briefly revisit the red weed and black smoke.

Panjin Red Beach marsh landscape_World Atlas

At Putney, as I afterwards saw, the bridge was almost lost in a tangle of this weed, and at Richmond, too, the Thames water poured in a broad and shallow stream across the meadows of Hampton and Twickenham. As the water spread the weed followed them, until the ruined villas of the Thames valley were for a time lost in this red swamp, whose margin I explored, and much of the desolation the Martians had caused was concealed.”

 The War of the Worlds: The Work of Fifteen Days

________

“About one o’clock in the afternoon the thinning remnant of a cloud of the black vapour appeared between the arches of Blackfriars Bridge. At that the Pool became a scene of mad confusion, fighting, and collision, and for some time a multitude of boats and barges jammed in the northern arch of the Tower Bridge, and the sailors and lightermen had to fight savagely against the people who swarmed upon them from the riverfront. People were actually clambering down the piers of the bridge from above.

When, an hour later, a Martian appeared beyond the Clock Tower and waded down the river, nothing but wreckage floated above Limehouse.”

The War of the Worlds: The Thunder Child

______

A Martian fighting-machine battling with HMS Thunder Child. (Corréa, 1906)

“About a couple of miles out lay an ironclad, very low in the water, almost, to my brother’s perception, like a water-logged ship. This was the ram Thunder Child. It was the only warship in sight, but far away to the right over the smooth surface of the sea—for that day there was a dead calm—lay a serpent of black smoke to mark the next ironclads of the Channel Fleet, which hovered in an extended line, steam up and “ready for action, across the Thames estuary during the course of the Martian conquest, vigilant and yet powerless to prevent it.”

The War of the Worlds: The Exodus from London

Consider now this conversation between Jon and Melisandre.

"We've had a raven from Ser Denys Mallister at the Shadow Tower," Jon Snow told her. "His men have seen fires in the mountains on the far side of the Gorge. Wildlings massing, Ser Denys believes. He thinks they are going to try to force the Bridge of Skulls again."

"Some may." Could the skulls in her vision have signified this bridge? Somehow Melisandre did not think so. "If it comes, that attack will be no more than a diversion. I saw towers by the sea, submerged beneath a black and bloody tide. That is where the heaviest blow will fall."

A Dance with Dragons - Melisandre I

In the excerpt from TWOTW, we see that the bloody tide of the Martian red weed literally causes the Thames to flood London, which at the time was the premier English city of learning. London with its famous Tower Bridge and its two towers. We also see that the black smoke and fires from the Martian Heat Ray are destroying the British Fleet. 

Juxtaposed those passages with Melisandre vision from ASOIAF. Mels has a vision of a symbolic bloody tide submerging towers by the sea. Her bloody tide echoes that of the red weed and black smoke flooding London and its countryside. 

In ASOIAF, all evidence suggests that George’s version of the bloody tide will be caused by Euron as he and the Ironfleet attack Oldtown, the premier city of learning in Westeros and home to two major towers…the Hightower and the Citadel. Poor Quentyn famously broke down this theory in his Eldritch Apocalypse essay. 

The rivers will be red with blood after the Ironborn attack, and any of the Redwyne fleet that were not previously destroyed, and or others put into play by Tyrells or Hightowers will be as defenseless against the Ironfleet as the British Navy is shown to be against the Martians. 

There is also the potential for a real flood if shards of meteors hit planetos as has been proposed by Lucifer Means Lightbringer. This echoes the flooding caused by the Martians because as I discussed in part one, the Martian cylinders were at first thought to be meteors. 

The bloody tide is not the only comparison George makes in his story to Euron and the events in The War of the Worlds.

Illustration from original edition of  HG Wells’s War of the Worlds, Public Domain

“Once a leash of thin black whips, like the arms of an octopus, flashed across the sunset and was immediately withdrawn, and afterwards a thin rod rose up, joint by joint, bearing at its apex a circular disk that spun with a wobbling motion. What could be going on there?”

The War of the Worlds: The Heat Ray

_______

“I talked with these soldiers for a time; I told them of my sight of the Martians on the previous evening. None of them had seen the Martians, and they had but the vaguest ideas of them, so that they plied me with questions.

“ ’Ain’t they got any necks, then?” said a third, abruptly—a little, contemplative, dark man, smoking a pipe.”

“I repeated my description.

“Octopuses,” said he, “that’s what I calls ’em. Talk about fishers of men—fighters of fish it is this time!”

The War of the Worlds: The Fighting Begins

Although this next excerpt has not yet officially appeared on the page, we learn about from George’s reading of an excerpt of The Winds of Winter at a convention, which fans such as Poor Quentyn and others recorded, transcribed, and shared with the rest of the fandom. Thanks guys!

The dreams were even worse the second time. 

He saw the longships of the Ironborn adrift and burning on a boiling blood­-red sea. He saw his brother on the Iron Throne again, but Euron was no longer human. He seemed more squid than man, a monster fathered by a kraken of the deep, his face a mass of writhing tentacles. Beside him stood a shadow in woman’s form, long and tall and terrible, her hands alive with pale white fire. Dwarves capered for their amusement, male and female, naked and misshapen, locked in carnal embrace, biting and tearing at each other as Euron and his mate laughed and laughed and laughed...

The Martians are compared to octopuses while Aeron views Euron as looking like a squid. Pretty much the same thing.

And what about the woman whose hands are alive with pale white fire. There has been much discussion in the fandom over who the woman might be with suggestions ranging from Dany to Cersei, to even Viserion as the dragon’s fire is pale white. As it is said that dragons can be both sexes, this theory assumes that Viserion is currently female.

Like dragons, the Martian’s have no discernable sex. However, unlike dragons who lay eggs, their procreation method seems to mimic that of flowers.

In the next place, wonderful as it seems in a sexual world, the Martians were absolutely without sex, and therefore without any of the tumultuous emotions that arise from that difference among men. A young Martian, there can now be no dispute, was really born upon earth during the war, and it was found attached to its parent, partially budded off, just as young lilybulbs bud off, or like the young animals in the fresh-water polyp.

The War of the Worlds: What We Saw from the Ruined House

I for one think the woman with hands with pale white flame is meant to represent Dany. While there is no female Martian, as I’ve discussed, the Targs and their dragons are heavily compared to the alien invaders and their fiery black smoke. And like the Martians, they bring fire and blood. Funnily enough, while there is no figure of a woman involved, there is a scene in TWOTW makes one think of the Euron excerpt. We get a hint that the woman with Euron is Dany in another of Melisandre’s memory of her vision.

“Visions danced before her, gold and scarlet, flickering, forming and melting and dissolving into one another, shapes strange and terrifying and seductive. She saw the eyeless faces again, staring out at her from sockets weeping blood. Then the towers by the sea, crumbling as the dark tide came sweeping over them, rising from the depths. Shadows in the shape of skulls, skulls that turned to mist, bodies locked together in lust, writhing and rolling and clawing. Through curtains of fire great winged shadows wheeled against a hard blue sky.”

A Dance with Dragons, Melisandre I

I’m not sure about the symbolic implication of the white fire in either instance, but the one with Euron does show George being consistent in echoing events in TWOTW. Let’s look at the passage in question.

The air was full of sound, a deafening and confusing conflict of noises—the clangorous din of the Martians, the crash of falling houses, the thud of trees, fences, sheds flashing into flame, and the crackling and roaring of fire. Dense black smoke was leaping up to mingle with the steam from the river, and as the Heat-Ray went to and fro over Weybridge its impact was marked by flashes of incandescent white, that gave place at once to a smoky dance of lurid flames. The nearer houses still stood intact, awaiting their fate, shadowy, faint, and pallid in the steam, with the fire behind them going to and fro.

The War of the Worlds

Dany represents the incandescent white fire, or in George’s parlay, the woman with hands of pale white fire.

Also, as I briefly discussed here, George has associated both Dany and Euron with storms for a reason. It gives them something in common and we the readers should wonder about this commonality. We should also ponder what might happen if these two storms merge and possibly generate a Fujiwhara Effect. 

So, we come to the end of this series, that’s been 4 years in the writing. What are your thoughts? What do you think George writing Dany, the Targs and Euron like Martian Invaders will mean? Finally, what do you think of my red door theory…tinfoil? All thoughts welcome.

And yes, I will finish the Florian and Jonquil, and Dragon vs the Wolf series.  I promise.

If you didn’t take my advice and read this chapter before reading the first two, you can go back and read them at the links below. 

The War of the Worlds is a pretty short book…about 300 pages, and so if you want to read it for yourself to see other comparisons I didn’t include…and there are more, prices for the Apple e-book starts as low as $2.99. Or if you prefer a listen, check out the dulcet sounds of Robert from In Deep Geek as he reads the entire book on his second YouTube channel, The Well Told Tale. 

PART ONE

PART TWO

GRRM’s ESSAY ON MARS 

No doubt I will re-read and find numerous typos that I will have to go back to fix but here it is. Thanks for reading.

ETA 1/26/23...As expected, I found a few typos, which I fixed. I also added some sections header and a second quote from Melisandre’s visions pertaining to Dany and Euron.

[sparkleplatypuswriter]

3, 14, 15 for the FAM asks!

Oh gosh. I was in my grief bubble so hard that I didn't get to this, but I think I can now!

3. Favourite use of music SO. MANY. The two that really stick out are "Black Hole Sun" during that fast-forward to the Mars launches in 3.03, and, of course "Everything in its right place" at the end of 3.10 because: THAT REVEAL. Also it just had such perfect early aughts energy, bringing us to that time with its low-vibe electronica when the 70s, 80s, and 90s jams all really had a rock vibe. Side note: it would be nice to have more songs featuring women on this show (and all shows; this is not a FAM-only problem). 14. Moments that make you go "HOLY SHIT" the most Well, since the finale, I can say my biggest holy shit moment from a character perspective was Dani being shot. I couldn't even. I balled, hard.

From a more, story-arc perspective, I really think Gordo and Tracy not making it was... stunning. It really had an Apollo-13/they're-going-to-science-their-way-out-of-it vibe and then, it did not end that way. It gutted me but also just, made such narrative completion sense. 15. Wild mass guessing for season 5 Will Tyler for president with special advisor Ellen Waverly! Kelly finds Martian life. Dev forges a revolution and forms an Independent Mars Nation. Aleida takes Margo in, and they all live happily ever after <3