#i'm going to populat it then

[local-diavolo-anon]

remember that Nahittore sketch i colored and posted some time ago? yeah so, i made more and just never shared them

the little colored one is the first i made with the markers i got

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

Is there anything support the populat interpretation that old valriya and valryians in general are more feminist, and progressive than the rest in Asoiaf?

Anon, thank you! I've been wanting to address this for awhile, so I'm going to actually answer this really fully, with as many receipts as I can provide (this ended up being more of an essay than I intended, but hopefully it helps)

I think there's in fact plenty of evidence to suggest that Valyria and the Valyrians in general were anything but progressive. Valyria was an expansive empire with a robust slave trade that practiced incest based on the idea of blood supremacy/blood purity. All of these things are absolutely antithetical to progressivism. There is no way any empire practicing slavery can ever be called progressive. Now, the Targaryens of Dragonstone have since given up the practice of slavery, but they certainly still believe in the supremacy of Valyrian blood.

And I'll see the argument, well what's wrong with believing your blood is special if your blood really is special and magic? Which is just-- if anyone catches themselves thinking this, and you sincerely believe that GRRM intended to create a magically superior master race of hot blondes who deserve to rule over all other backwards races by virtue of their superior breeding which is reinforced through brother-sister incest, and you've convinced yourself this represents progressive values, then you might want to step away from the computer for a bit and do a bit of self reflection.

And remember-- what is special about this special blood? It gives the bearers the ability to wield sentient weapons of mass destruction. It's also likely, according to the most popular theories, the result of blood magic involving human sacrifice. So there is a terrible price to pay for this so-called supremacy. Would any of us line up to be sacrificed to the Fourteen Flames so that the Valyrians can have nukes?

And if you are tempted by the idea that a woman who rides a dragon must inherently have some sort of power-- that is true. A woman who rides a dragon is more powerful than a woman who does not ride a dragon, and in some cases, more powerful than a man who does not ride a dragon, but that does not make her more powerful than a man who also rides a dragon. Dragonriding remained a carefully guarded privilege, and Targaryen women who might otherwise become dragonriders were routinely denied the privilege (despite the oft repeated "you cannot steal a dragon," when Saera Targaryen attempted to claim a dragon from the dragonpit, she was thrown into a cell for the attempted "theft,"words used by Jaehaerys). The dragonkeepers were established explicitly to keep anyone, even those of Targaryen blood, from taking them without permission. Any "liberation" that she has achieved is an illusion. What she has gained is the ability to enact violence upon others who are less privileged, and this ability does not save her from being the victim of gender based violence herself.

Politically speaking, it is also true that Valyria was a "freehold," in that they did not have a hereditary monarchy, but instead had a political structure akin to Ancient Athens (which was itself democratic, but not at all progressive or feminist). Landholding citizens could vote on laws and on temporary leaders, Archons. Were any of the lords freeholder women? We don't know. If we take Volantis as an example, the free city that seems to consider itself the successor to Valyria, the party of merchants, the elephants, had several female leaders three hundred years ago, but the party of the aristocracy, the tigers, the party made up of Valyrian Old Blood nobility, has never had a female leader. Lys, the other free city, is known for it's pleasure houses, which mainly employ women kidnapped into sexual slavery (as well as some young men). It is ruled by a group of magisters, who are chosen from among the wealthiest and noblest men in the city, not women. There does not seem to be a tradition of female leadership among Valyrians, and that's reflected by Aegon I himself, who becomes king, rather than his older sister-wife, Visenya. And although there have been girls named heir, temporarily, among the pre-Dance Targaryens, none were named heir above a trueborn brother aside from Rhaenyra, a choice that sparked a civil war. In this sense, the Targaryens are no different from the rest of Westeros.

As for feminism or sexual liberation, there's just no evidence to support it. We know that polygamy was not common, but it was also not entirely unheard of, but incest, to keep the bloodlines "pure," was common. Incest and polygamy are certainly sexual taboos, both in the real world and in Westeros, that the Valyrians violated, but the violation of sexual taboos is not automatically sexually liberated or feminist. Polygamy, when it is exclusively practiced by men and polyandry is forbidden (and we have no examples of Valyrian women taking multiple husbands, outside of fanfic), is often abusive to young women. Incest leads to an erosion of family relationships and abusive grooming situations are inevitable. King Jaehaerys' daughters are an excellent case study, and the stories of Saera and Viserra are particularly heartbreaking. Both women were punished severely for "sexual liberation," Viserra for getting drunk and slipping into her brother Baelon's bed at age fifteen, in an attempt to avoid an unwanted marriage to an old man. She was not punished because she was sister attempting to sleep with a brother, but because she was the wrong sister. Her mother, the queen had already chosen another sister for Baelon, and believed her own teenage daughter was seducing her brother for nefarious reasons. As a sister, Viserra should have been able to look to her brother for protection, but as the product of an incestuous family, Viserra could only conceive of that protection in terms of giving herself over to him sexually.

Beyond that, sexual slavery was also common in ancient Valyria, a practice that persisted in Lys and Volantis, with women (and young men) trafficked from other conquered and raided nations. Any culture that is built on a foundation of slavery and which considers sexual slavery to be normal and permissible, is a culture of normalized rape. Not feminist, not progressive.

I think we get the picture! so where did this idea that Valyrians are more progressive come from? I think there are two reasons. One, the fandom has a bit of a tendency to imagine Valyrians and their traditions in opposition to Westerosi Sevenism, and if Sevenism is fantasy Catholicism, and the fantasy Catholics also hate the Valyrian ways, they must hate them because those annoying uptight religious freaks just hate everything fun and cool, right? They hate revealing clothing, hate pornographic tapestries, hate sex outside of marriage, hate bastards. So being on Sevenism's shit-list must be a mark of honor, a sign of progressive values? But it's such a surface level reading, and a real misunderstanding of the medieval Catholic church, and a conflating of that church with the later Puritan values that many of us in the Anglosphere associate with being "devout." For most of European history, the Catholic church was simply The Church, and the church was, ironically, where you would find the material actions which most closely align with modern progressive values. The church cared for lepers, provided educations for women, took care of orphans, and fed the poor. In GRRM's world, which is admittedly more secular than the actual medieval world, Sevenism nevertheless has basically the same function, feeding the poor instead of, you know, enslaving them.

Finally, I blame the shows. While Valyrians weren't a progressive culture, Daenerys Targaryen herself held relatively progressive individual values by a medieval metric. She is a slavery abolitionist, she elevates women within her ranks, and she takes control of her own sexuality (after breaking free from her Targaryen brother). But Daenerys wasn't raised as a Targaryen. She grew up an orphan in exile, hearing stories of her illustrious ancestors from her brother, who of the two did absorb a bit of that culture, and is not coincidentally, fucked up, abusive, and misogynistic. He feels a sexual ownership over his sister, arranges a marriage for her, and even after her marriage, feels entitled to make decisions on her behalf. It is only after breaking away from Viserys that Dany comes into her own values. Having once been a mere object without agency of her own, she determines to save others from that fate and becomes an abolitionist. But because Game of Thrones gave viewers very little exposure to Targaryens aside from Daenerys, House Targaryen, in the eyes of most show watchers, is most closely associated with Dany and her freedom-fighter values. And as for Rhaenyra in House of the Dragon, being a female heir does not make her feminist or progressive, although it is tempting to view her that way when she is juxtaposed against Aegon II. Her "sexual liberation" was a lesson given to her by her uncle Daemon, a man who had an express interest in "liberating" her so that she would sleep with him, it was not a value she was raised with. In fact, she was very nearly disinherited for it, and was forced into a marriage with a gay man as a result of said "liberation." She had no interest in changing succession laws to allow absolute primogeniture, no interest in changing laws or norms around bastardy despite having bastards; she simply viewed herself as an exception. Rhaenyra's entire justification for her claim is not the desire to uplift women, bring peace and stability to Westeros, or even to keep her brother off the throne, it is simply that she believes she deserves it because her father is the king and he told her she could have it, despite all tradition and norms, and in spite of the near certain succession crisis it will cause. Whether she is right or wrong, absolutism is not progressive.

And let me just say, none of this means that you can't enjoy the Valyrians or think that they're fun or be a fan of house Targaryen. This insistence that Targaryens are the progressive, feminist (read: morally good) house seems by connected to the need of some fans to make their favorite characters unproblematic. If the Valyrians are "bad," does that make you a bad person for enjoying them? Of course not. But let's stop the moral grandstanding about the "feminist" and "progressive" Valyrians in a series that is an analogue for medieval feudalism. Neither of those things can exist under the systems in place in Westeros, nor could they have existed in the slavery based empire of conquest that was old Valyria.

[spacedustpan]

How do I find the Stacker/Herc content I'm looking for????

The ship names aren't coming up with anything uhg.

They weren't the Most Populat pairing but they were doing ok. Where did it all go?

[the-firebird69]

So we're at the bases and the max are clearing out their own warlock and some will act that are coming on and they're infighting and foreigners in us are moving in so these guys start digging with our son and having stuck at lastly Park and think they're going to get something from being overt and calling an idiots right next to him so terminating them as they are called and getting all of them and tracing down other pockets and boy is it annoying there's huge grapes groups fighting and then is these idiots screwing around with them but really big groups are doing it and eliminating them in the process and they're getting very ornery and don't realize it 100%, and sometimes they do but not enough to stop and they have no willpower for it. We are in 4000 bases and that's how many bases they took over they're not just American bases or any military base of size globally and we are anticipating a lot more resistance within the bases and a lot more fun that probably won't be that long not it won't be maybe a week or two before they're all emptied out and they drop the cars and they opt for going for the ships might even be less time. Today they are going for the big ship in Canada and most of them are heading out and boy wouldn't answer my show these people are the biggest slobs to have ever seen they're getting annihilated and they can't tell how many people are getting hit and they just keep pulling the stupid s*** it is amazing amazing how awful they are. And it makes us consumed with hatred so seeking them out there's already huge battle groups attacking enclaves of theirs and Bedouin communities and they're doing it all day and all night but really is only thousands of them and spaceships are joining them so we're going to use false flag.

-the clone armies are down more and they had seven bases now they have six and they're formidable foe but everybody is getting up on them and they of course will invite afterwards there's going to be a fight here shortly and it's over what they're doing to our son and he's not pleased we've had several reports that they are messy with him constantly and it's true you can see them doing it and it is sickening so we will take them apart shortly. Are The fleets for dwindling of the clones there were 300 million Black ships this morning now there are 200 million and there are 250 million stone ships no it's 300 million and now there are 250 million and they're dwindling their empire force is now 250 million there's more fleets that are heading out that way and they're refueling tankers and it is a huge Armada and this could knock them out permanently and then they will extinguish all of the morlock fleets and them on the ground once Tommy F and his sweets are gone these people are too much of an aggravation that's what they say and they're going after them pretty hard already with troops and they will attack shortly it's a giant Force and it is forming up now.

-I know several other news stories I will announce them once he's back at the apartment to save the phone battery

Thor Freya

Goid

Hera

Olympus there is a severe attack on the morlock occurring in the South and the West and the max have pushed past Mississippi into Louisiana and according them off and annihilating them they're not allowing them to evacuate they're going to push into Arizona and New Mexico today I'm in the other side they're in Nevada and they will meet in New Mexico and go to Texas it'll probably happen today tonight and part of tomorrow morning and they will be vacated from that entire area and once they are they're going to start on Georgia and it's the McDonald's doing it and the max are coming from behind and they are taking over from them is extremely violent and there's tons of death and the max are going to incur a severe damage on themselves but they have to they feel and they're going to do it in New England and the Midwest and upper Midwestern evacuating to the South and out to St Laurent another half the population two more evacuations and the Midwest and upper Midwest will be empty the time is running out on this kind of harassment

Olympus

[hallowedblock07]

Messiah

Were I to sit at the back of a church, 

A whole pew to myself, my thoughts, and I,

Could I look at the cross at the front of the room

And know that is where the Messiah was left to die?

His sacrifice is a faint memory

From immortals and Gods of old,

No one nowadays truly knows

The exact words he spoke, the stories he told.

The Bible is written by Believers,

By those worshipping everything he was,

Or, everything he could have been for them;

A holy innocent caught in avarice-soaked claws.

Their names were written and recorded,

Millions named after the twelve.

Jesus could have been arrogant and proud,

But that’s in a past into which we can never delve.

So, Messiah and Lord,

Who watches us from his Fathers side,

Were you pious and pure or hubristic and loved?

Why did you end up on that cross where you died?

[rpsocsandcanonohmy]

Well. Maybe it couldn't hurt....

"I think I'm feeling a bit paranoid lately. Dean wants to go out hunting now that Sam's doing better. But I am not exactly a populat angel and I fear what might happen if I'm found."

It's time for Esmer's first nightly meeting with the angel inhabiting Sam's body. Samnis sound sleep for the night, even if his body looked quite awake.

"Hello, Mesmerize. You wanted to speak with me?'

Esmer smiled gently and nodded, leading the "angel" to a plush love seat down in the library.

"I do. How are you?"

[xanderwithanx]

This fucking wine mom ass response.

Lets break this down

Schizomom's main point: "Delusions are a symptom of a mental illness, not an intellectual or moral failing."

Hairintheaironthebiway, if you break it down, says: "It doesn't make any sense that you claim delusions are just a symptom of mental illness, because I think theyre an intellectual failing, and thus, asssuming my belief is true, every belief any mentally ill person has is a delusion, including this one! Haha, I'm clever, and everyone agrees with me"

Which falls apart when you hear what my THERAPIST told me yesterday regarding my delusions and my guilt over having them.

She said something like, "you wouldnt say someone having delusions from a fever is stupid for having them; you would say they have a fever. And their fever wouldnt mean they couldnt say the sky was blue and the grass was green"

and if you, a well person, don't believe us schizos when we say the sky is blue and the grass is green, then it's not that godamn hard to check.

So by that doctor's "check" validating the first argument and eroding your own, it seems that you must concede that not everything a mentally ill person says is automatically delusion, and thus that weight should be given to our voices.

Everyone does NOT in fact agree with you, as your use of "we" implies, only the misinformed.

Unless you know better than a doctor that is-are you going to claim that?

Because, who knows the symptoms better than both a patient experiencing them, and a doctor working with the patient? Certaintly not a stranger on the internet making smarmy comments about how shes intellectually superior to sick people, in an ever growing quest for internet populatity posts

-love, a schizo who's thinking about being a lawyer one day

EDIT: i was railing agains that one post out of context, but put in the context of hairintheaironthebiway's blog, it has a different meaning. I'm sorry if this came off as harsh, but MAN its annoying taken out of the blog's context, you know?

Your delusions don’t make you stupid

Delusions arent a sign of intelligence

Believing in a delusion doesn’t make you an idiot