#if i see any slander

[silovsmenot]

Everything hurts.

[demonlayercake]

today we are hurting our own feelings

[nyracel]

deep diving into the episode three line from rhaenyra, “no one is here for me,” and how if the takeaway from that scene is that rhaenyra is a selfish brat you aren’t proficient enough to do anything past surface-level reading.

in episode one rhaenyra expresses to alicent that she hopes her father gets his son, “for as long as i can recall it’s all he’s wanted.” which leads us (the audience) to understand that while rhaenyra loves both of her parents she feels ostracized from her father (and mayhaps even her mother, to some extent, because of her constant pregnancies) due to his ‘need’ for a son to continue the targaryen dynasty. she is a daughter, only seen as valuable for her womb, which is evidenced that she knows about when talking to her mother. rhaenyra wishes to be a knight and ride off to battle and glory, with aemma giving her a gentle reality check on her lot in life. she does not want to serve the same purpose as her mother.

aemma dies near the end of the episode, with viserys ordering her butchered for the chance that his long-awaited male heir might live. this is a violent and gruesome scene, followed by rhaenyra not even being given the privilege of hearing her mother’s death first. she is instead relegated to members of the small council being alerted, even corlys and rhaenys learning about this before her, she is a silent member on the sidelines. she does not know the extent of what has happened, but she knows that something is wrong.

we have to think about how she learns of her mother’s fate. did otto tell her? did rhaenys? did viserys? did she see her mother’s body ripped open? did she see the bloody sheets left at the scene? was she allowed to hold baby baelon, considering he didn’t die immediately? was she there when he took his last breath? maybe it would bring her some comfort, she didn’t get to say goodbye to her mom. maybe she held him until he passed. did her father offer any explanation? we’ll never know, but these are all such heavy questions in regards to what she experienced that day. she’s fourteen, has spent her entire life watching her mother grieve dead baby after dead baby, losing little bits of herself in the process. it’s no wonder this was a traumatizing period for her, fueling her want (her need) to not be shackled down by marriage and childbirth.

even at her mother and brother’s funeral she isn’t allowed to just grieve, to just be. she has to hold her head high, she has to comfort her father, she has to order their corpses burned. was her father happy for the few hours he had a son? she wouldn’t know, she never will be that for him. how long does he spend wallowing is his self pity? he reprimands daemon for not being there for his niece, but where was he, her father? he banishes daemon, takes comfort from his daughter’s best friend. he finally comes to her, tells her of a great danger rising from the north; from my blood comes the prince that was promised, his will be the song of ice and fire. she hasn’t heard from him in days, a targaryen must be seated on the iron throne to unite the realm against the cold and the dark. her mother is dead, and he has wasted the years since she was born wanting a son. she is now enough, her mother never was.

it has now been six months since her mother's death (murder), and she has been heir the *entire* time. her father won't talk to her, she is still the cupbearer for the small council. lord corlys is angry about a war he says has cost him, the crown will not help. she suggests they use dragons, a show of force against their enemies. her father admonishes her, "it isn't that simple, rhaenyra." he allows the lords at the table to belittle her efforts. the only one appreciative is corlys, "at least the princess has a plan." otto says there are better uses for her talents, she has been heir to the iron throne for six months. she's been given the chance to choose a future kingsguard, she wants one with actual combat experience. the hand is exacerbated, she is firm in her decision. ser criston cole will be the replacement for ser ryam redwyne.

alicent has been visiting her father in his private chambers secretly, corlys wants his daughter to be the next queen. viserys begins openly courting lady laena of house velaryon. rhaenyra and alicent visit the sept, she expresses her worry, her mother has only dead for half a year. the lords seek to replace her, alicent convinces her that she cannot worry about the plots of lords and men, she is the heir, however. why shouldn't she worry? she misses her mother.

she meets with her father, he reassures her, "i loved your mother very much." she apologizes for speaking out of turn at the small council meeting, he tells her she will learn (will he be the one to teach her, though?) daemon has taken a dragon's egg and seized dragonstone, bringing news of his future marriage to lady mysaria. the king means to go himself to stop him, otto will not let him. daemon took baelon's egg. rhaenyra is angry. she reaches dragonstone just after otto's party, she knows they were about to come to blows. she confronts daemon, she is the reason he was disinherited. if he kills her, he'd be done with all this bother. daemon scoffs, walking away from her. he throws the egg whilst still retreating. rhaenyra smiles and leaves. her father is mad once he learns what she's done. she left without his permission, but she retrieved the egg and prevented bloodshed, he should be pleased with her efforts. otto would never have been able to accomplish what she did, he relents.

rhaenys lectures her about the order of things. the realm will never accept a woman ascending the iron throne, but it's different for her. her father is the king, rhaenys' father dies as a prince. her father made the lords of the realm swear obeisance to her, rhaenys never had such a thing. the lords chose viserys over rhaenys at the great council, viserys has not given them a choice. rhaenys is the the queen who never was, rhaenyra is the queen to be. when she is queen she will create a new order, rhaenys warns there will be war (unfortunately she is right).

another meeting takes place between father and daughter. he must take a new wife, someone to help propagate the targaryen line. they are vulerable, to easily ended. rhaenyra understands, it is his duty as king. obviously he will marry laena, the daughter of one of the most powerful houses in the realm and of pure valyrian stock, it is a fine match. alicent is still visiting her father in secret.

her father calls a small council meeting, he means to announce his next wife. rhaenyra is ready, she gave him her blessing (why is alicent here? she never has been before.) her father starts speaking, "i intend to marry... the lady alicent hightower." corlys is enraged, otto is pleased, alicent is anxious. rhaenyra was ready, it has all fallen apart. alicent is her best friend, that friendship dies before her very eyes. she runs from the room.

it has been two years. viserys and alicent are married, and they have a son, with one more baby on the way. the boy's name is aegon, it is his second birthday. he has past his infancy, the lords believe it is only a matter of time until the king names him heir, rhaenyra is well aware of this. the queen visits the godswood where rhaenyra sits. she overrides rhaenyra's authority, commanding the singer to leave. she states the king wishes for her to join them, he wants them to have fun as a family. they do not need her to celebrate his long-awaited son. it is the king's command, she leaves unhappily. alicent wishes for things to be different, rhaenyra knows they never can be.

together they all sit, traveling towards the kingswood. rhaenyra asks after alicent's well-being, viserys reminds her that she will be in this position sooner than late (the same position that killed her mother). "it isn't so bad, the days are long but aegon came quickly and without fuss." the queen states. rhaenyra is hurt, she tries not to show it. the king reminds her she has duties, rhaenyra retorts sarcastically. how long will these duties last, once her father names alicent's son as heir over her? her life will be forfeit before long. no one is here for her.

"no one is here for me." translates to "no one has been here for me. i’ve been alone and angry and terrified for years. i am my father’s heir, but what does that mean? what will it cost? you put me here. daemon put me here. alicent put me here. you have a son now, he outlived baelon and my other siblings. how long until i am cast aside again? made to be some petty lord's wife, made to be a broodmare until it kills me? i don't want to end up like my mother. this heirship is all i have. it will soon no longer be mine. i'm only seventeen. no one is here for me."

rhaenyra is never shown the same amount of grace as alicent for her strifes and anguish in life, for the fact that she too was a child from episodes one through five. rhaenyra might not have been a child bride, but she still spent her life being told she was never enough. she was not a boy, she could not be the heir, her father needed an heir. he kills her mother for it, he ignores her unless she can benefit him. he makes her believe that he will marry laena, only to blindside her by marrying alicent. she realizes alicent has been lying to her for months. her father continues to undermine her throughout the years. he names her heir to spite daemon, which she admits she knows about in episode two. he allows the lords to ignore her. it takes him two years to reassure her he won't replace her. rhaenyra is an angsty teen who has seemingly lost everything and has no support to counter that. she is not upset that no one showed up to a two-year-olds birthday party with her in mind, she is upset that her father continuously overlooks her, that he takes and takes and takes everything from her. he took her mother, he took daemon, he took alicent, he had a son. she has not been able to catch a break due to her father's selfishness. in all honesty, she should have acted out worse, maybe burn everything to the ground. viserys would deserve it, she was far too lenient with him.

[majosullivan]

Just your typical Sapphic/Achillean hostility

[rainofthetwilight]

just saw someone call arin selfish gn everyone

[maze-of-my-design]

Shuanns? Hello? Helloooo??? Anyone there????

+ an extra, why not?

[lucyshypemaster]

keefe was actually insane for this

[thisismyobsessionnow]

Bringing these back in a new post for reasons

[rosyjuly]

alex has never done anything wrong in his entire life,

[doccywhomst]

to all the ppl in my notes saying nine is their doctor..... you're so right. i'm so glad all that "skip nine" nonsense is dead and gone. keep up the good work. you're doing amazing sweetie

[smilesrobotlover]

Replaying phantom hourglass and I really don’t think it’s fair to characterize Linebeck as a coward. Like yeah he doesn’t want to go into the dungeons or the temple of the ocean king, but the temple of the ocean king sucks the life out of you, you see skeletons and spirits of people who died in there. He actually did go in there by himself and got trapped. Another thing to keep in mind is that he’s a normal person, he doesn’t fight and he prefers the laid back lifestyle. Now he does want treasure and that gets him motivated, but that treasure is also in a life threatening ghost ship that takes victims here and there. It makes sense that he’s nervous about that.

Another thing to keep in mind is that when you do fight monsters and bosses in the sea, he’s not scared at all. He tells you that there’s an enemy, he cheers you on, and even when you die he just kinda accepts his fate. He’s a competent and capable man on the sea, and you know that he knows what he’s doing. Also, as soon as you see the ghost ship after you get the second sea chart, he tells you to go straight ahead, to chase it down. Again, he’s motivated by Treasure, but he doesn’t hesitate to chase after the ghost ship.

Maybe as an adult he should go and help Link who is just a kid, but keep in mind that this is a video game and you don’t want your hand to be held the entire time playing. His role only seems to be sailing you around anyways, not traveling by your side like Ciela (I’d imagine it’d be different for a full grown man to be following you around, cuz most Zelda companions hide away while you’re playing)

Anyways, Linebeck is cowardly at times, but I wouldn’t characterize him as a coward. A greedy pathetic scoundrel, yeah, but not really a coward.

[papakhan]

tried to draw a scene from my Manny/Arcade fic idk if I quite captured what I wanted but Yayyyy confirmed bachelors!!

[swan2swan]

Thire: "You should probably go ahead and save yourself, General Yoda. We're expendable bodies made only to fight, after all."

Yoda:

[swallowtailcherry]

My son looks so soft. I want to pat 🥺❤️

[ganondoodle]

seeing posts about the damage that skyward sword did to the nuances of lore in zelda games (bc the whole thing with demise and hylia in canon really is the start of flattening the lore down to always be extremely black and white with no grey in between-)

and wholeheartedly agreeing but also thinking about how i have written the storyline in destiny and it putting a whole other context on it all and kinda wanting to know how other people think of seeing it that way when i just only got the first chapter done and its still just my cringy fanfiction and most people probably not being interested anyway (thats ok) and it not mattering anyway bc you can make up anything you want anyway so its got no impact on the lore anyway-

but also i cant help but feel like i need to defend demise in a way bc i KNOW his introduction did alot of damage to the lore but feel like its not really fair to pin it all on him as a character bc he also suffered from that one-note thing all games past skysw have, he also is a one note villain with no lore other than -is evil- and similarly dubious design decisions, but with even less characterization and even LESS screentime so naturally people dont like him or care about him at all bc after all he also negatively impacted the way more beloved villain (gan) and people not liking demise bc of everything is absolutely justified but i still feel sad about it bc he is my blorbo and somehow feel responsible for making him into an actual character with a background that isnt just -evil demon- and attempt to change how people feel about him but i would never butt in on someone elses post so i am wiritng it here instead

[melina-mellow]

"Superman is from Kansas, he would vote for Trump"

SUPERMAN LITERALLY BEATS THE SHIT OUT OF KKK MEMBERS HE WOULD NOT VOTE FOR ORANGE HITLER!