#it's anti monarchy

[atopvisenyashill]

What Rhaella and Aerys were genderbent? Cause it seems unlikely that a male Rhaella would ever be friends with Tywin Lannister or make him his hand while female Aerys probably wouldn't be friends with Joanna or the Princess of Dorne. And I doubt Rhaella was at all obsessed with blood purity like Aerys was so Steffon and Cassana likely live, and a male Rhaella would most likely be a much more benevolent king than Aerys was and would not tolerate Rhaegar treating Elia so poorly and would be furious with the whole Lyanna thing.

okay huge caveat here that i am an angry working class anarchist at my core. but the thing you gotta understand is that

the prophecy still exists that the heir comes from aerys and rhaella's line

even second born, a male rhaella lives a wildly different and INFINITELY more privileged life than normal rhaella

a female aerys is not gonna be allowed to do the shit male aerys does

Female Aerys would absolutely still be friends with Joanna - yeah yeah Joanna was considered the ~love in Tywin, but Tywin is simply not gonna fall in love with a woman with no backbone, look at his own daughter and his sister for examples. Joanna was likely just as full of herself and probably still plenty cruel as a woman was possibly allowed to be. Loreza/Princess of Dorne might be a stretch due to Aerys' racism but a) we don't know why Loreza became lady to the Queen and b) Aerys was smart enough to realize that Dorne was politically useful even if he was racist about it, that's why Elia married Rhaegar (or one of the reasons anyway). Not a stretch to say girl Aerys has them both as ladies, which puts Elia and Tywin in boy Rhaella's circles. MAYBE however, you switch out Loreza for a Celtigar or a Tarth lady since they also have Valyrian blood.

But barring all that - even with a slightly more even temper and a less extreme reaction to Duskendale, a male Rhaella is born believing he is practically a god amongst men, that a prophecied hero will be born from his line, and that he is entitled to and owed his sister's body. That will do a number on ANYONE especially if he's being pushed by his much more paranoid sister into doing stupid shit. I think a male Rhaella is likely to be a very middling type ruler on par with like, the Viserys' or Jaehaerys II. Not bad, not good, just kinda there. And since even our great Aegon the Unlikely couldn't keep his brats in line, it seems unlikely Rhaella will keep Rhaegar in line. If BOTH of them are obsessed with the prophecy? Bad news. Even if Rhaella disapproves of Rhaegar kidnapping the daughter of a Lord Paramount, she is NOT about to declare the crown prince a traitor. Look at the way Viserys II dealt with Aegon IV literally attempting to rape Naerys to death.

I'm not saying Rhaella is a bad person, but Rhaella is very much informed by her suffering, her gender, and her circumstances. Ultimately, Rhaella decides to crown Viserys in lieu of brokering a deal with the Rebels. So ultimately, a Rhaella without a history of being abused on the basis of her gender is likely to act like any other monarch would when faced with a Rebellion no matter how valid - crush it! She's not gonna burn Rickard and Brandon alive, but when faced with the decision of choosing between her lords or her heir and the very sanctity of the crown to be able to do what it wants, she's gonna choose the crown. The rebellion is probably less of a violent conflict under her, but my money is on a lot of unrest - and no way in FUCK are Robert, Brandon, and Rickard gonna follow Rhaegar after he made off with and forcibly impregnated Lyanna. I truly don't think the Rebellion can be avoided; put off for a while maybe, turned into a less violent conflict. But ultimately the Lords - and even some of the smallfolk! - are sick of the Targaryens and their weird ass ways. Aegon IV and Daeron II actively tried to make things better and several wars started over this. That's just how monarchies are - eventually, those bitches get their heads chopped off and its a miracle it doesn't happen sooner.

[kropotkindersurprise]

October 21, 2024 - Lidia Thorpe, an Aboriginal member of Australia's parliament told King Charles some truths as he was giving a speech in Canberra. [video]

[ayeforscotland]

‘King’ Charles is in Australia and has just had the end of his speech interrupted by Senator Lidia Thorpe who shouted “You are not our King, this is not your land” and demanded he apologise for the atrocities the British empire committed in Australia.

[mwagneto]

[theiconicmeghanmarkle]

You are not my King! This is not your land! You committed genocide against out people. Senator Lidia Thorpe to Charles

[cookinguptales]

I MEAN but wouldn't that be an incredible isekai series??

a modern princess whose job is basically just being a beautiful figurehead

grows bored with her vapid role in life and withdraws from society, riddled with ennui

only to fall into a fantasy realm where princesses have real political power

as well as important responsibilities that her subjects depend upon

and at first it's a comedy of errors as she realizes that none of her training prepared her for this

but then she grows as a person and applies herself to learning how to guide and guard this kingdom

and becomes the powerful and just princess she was always meant to be

...so I guess apparently my new favorite conspiracy theory is that kate's shoujo manga just underwent a MASSIVE genre switch.

[morrigan-le-faye]

Imagine waiting that long to become King and then almost immediately getting cancer

[the-highgaryen-council]

Notice how Alicent and Mysaria didn't need a tree to believe Rhaenyra should be queen

[marinette-buginette]

Kiyi is not a Princess - A Look At the Fire Nation's Line of Succession

It's not even that much about Kiyi. But the creators seemingly got so lost in the sauce that their ideas about how absolutist monarchies work are as good as taken out of Disney movies now. So, let's set the record straight.

The Fire Nation line of succession

When it comes to royal lines, there were multiple elements that went into setting the line of succession: descent, sex, legitimacy, religion etc. For the Fire Nation, the ones we have 100% confirmed are descent and legitimacy (this last one seen with the Camellia-Peony War, where Chaejin was excluded from the succession because he was born out of wedlock). I would have gone on a whim to say sex counts as well, however, it is a bit foggy. In the Reckoning of Roku, it is mentioned that Firelord Taiso believed Zeisan (Sozin's younger sister) would have been a more competent ruler but could never become Fire Lord due to being a nonbender (I didn't actually read the book, so if someone who did wants to pitch in with the exact wording, please feel free to). This implies that being a Firebender is a requirement, but being a woman isn't. However, it also implies that Taiso would have been fine with ignoring the descent part (Sozin was older) if he deemed fit. Skipping the firstborn in favour of the second one isn't unheard of when it comes to succession so sure. And he is the absolute monarch, if he wants to pass papers to change the line of succession, he can. It is unclear to me if there is any power in place to veto or block a Fire Lord's ruling on any matter so for all we know, if he wanted, he could have. Plus, the fact that Ozai got crowned over Iroh because it was 'Azulon's dying wish'. For the religion part, it seems like the Fire Sages have to perform the coronation and acknowledge the monarch.

So to make it more digestible, the line of succession (while Azulon was still alive) is: Iroh → Lu Ten (firstborn of the heir) → Ozai → Zuko → Azula. With Lu Ten dead, Iroh MIA (at the time) then we have Ozai → Zuko → Azula. When Iroh came back, he gets added at the end of this line of succession. I am a bit unclear on Iroh in current times because it looks to me like he rescinded his role in the line of succession altogether with deciding to live in Ba Sing Se and letting politically inexperienced Zuko rule instead of taking over for a few years to create some stability.

Right now, we have Fire Lord Zuko and his heir presumptive (aka an heir that can be displaced if the monarch has children) Azula. Unless he wrote a decree to take her out of the line of succession — which would require a lot more brain cells than the writers are willing to give Zuko, not that he had a lot of them when it came to politics to begin with —then she's next in line. It doesn't matter how much anyone wants it or not, if Zuko drops dead tomorrow, Azula gets the throne.

Now, onto the other matter.

How does one become a Princess?

Option 1: You marry into the royal family. For example, Ursa was styled as a Princess, as she married Prince Ozai.

Option 2: You're born in a royal line. For example, Azula is a Princess because her father is a Prince, her grandfather, at the time of her birth, was the ruling monarch of the Fire Nation etc.

Bonus Option it's complicated: Royals had a habit of having children out of wedlock sometimes. Said children, if acknowledged, could be granted titles (Count of X, Dutchess of Y etc.) . Getting acknowledged and a title does not automatically put you in the line of succession, though. For example, Firelord Chaeryu was forced to acknowledge Chaejin and avoid dishonoring his noble mother and her house, but he excluded Chaejin from the royal family.

So Kiyi is not a Princess. Simple as that. Neither of her parents are of the royal line.

Could she become a Princess?

Well, this gets interesting.

Let's start with the fact that Kiyi got a pretty bad deal in a class-based monarchical society.

First thing, while her mother is a noble, her father is a commoner. Even if Ursa's family became destitute after Roku's death because of political reasons, it does not change the fact that she is still nobility unless Sozin revoked Rina's title, which I am not 100% sure he did. We don't know anything about Jinzuk besides the fact that he was the magistrate of Hira'a. While magistrates do not have to be part of the nobility, they can be. He could have been a second/third/fourth son of a small noble family with limited power/resources, given the position he was given was in a place like Hira'a, which is what I am inclining towards. He could have also been just some guy, but someone appointed him, and as a rule of thumb, you don't just go into the street and pick a random person to appoint to an administrative and leadership role, even if it's a small town. Given that Azulon was set on Ozai marrying Ursa because she was Roku's granddaughter, whether or not Jinzuk was a noble, it doesn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. However, in Kiyi's case, it does if Zuko wants to give her a title. It's more stigma than anything because people can be given nobility titles for specific services to the crown etc. But this is not her only issue. Which leads me to...

Second thing, Kiyi is a bastard. Which, in my opinion, would hold even more stigma than her father not being a noble. Ursa never divorced Ozai. As far as we know, polygamist marriages aren't a thing in the Fire Nation, so her marriage to Ikem/Noren is invalid. Could she be granted a divorce retroactively by the Fire Sages? Actually, yeah. Because Zuko named Shyu as High Sage, which was like the one sound political move he ever did tbh. We don't see what the Fire Nation's stance on divorce is, but given that Shyu is a Zuko loyalist, he'd probably grant Ursa retroactive divorce from Ozai. I am not a legal expert, however, as far as I know, retroactive decisions tend to be reserved for correcting a mistake or omission in the written record. She was still married to Ozai when she went and married Ikem. Though technically, she married him under a fake identity (and so did he), which might make the marriage void regardless in the eyes of the law. Idk how Spirit involvement affects legal matters in the world of Avatar, but as things stand right now, unless we pretzel-twist ourselves to make excuses, Kiyi is born outside of legitimate wedlock.

Now, Zuko might not care. In fact, he probably doesn't. He could still give Kiyi a title, including that of Princess. It was not uncommon for illegitimate relatives of rulers to be offered roles/titles once acknowledged. The real question is if he would put her in the line of succession. Kiyi has no business being there because she does not have royal blood.

Could Zuko do whatever he wants, give her the title of Princess and shove her in the line of succession while taking Azula out of it for good measure? Sure, he can. He'd probably love that, in fact. But that leaves two things open.

One, nobility would not take kindly to a bastard child of a commoner with no royal blood being in the line of succession. If we also add the angle of taking Azula out of it, it would just increase their ire. There is already a long list of why the nobility is probably angry at Zuko (and should attempt to assassinate him a lot more than they do), but I think this one in particular has other implications. There might be nobles who are neutral about Zuko. Shamelessly discarding societal norms on a whim might make their perspective swing towards negative. It could make him lose goodwill he might have or potential allies.

Two, it will make the commoners wonder. If this random girl, raised as a peasant, with a commoner father, born out of wedlock, can be put in the line of succession just like that — while discarding a princess of the blood if we are at it — then… is the royal line not that special? The whole premise of a monarchy is that the monarch and their descendants have the divine right to rule. Being part of that bloodline gives you the right to rule. So if that can be discarded, if that bloodline is not all that important… should Zuko be Firelord? And most importantly, does the Fire Nation really need a monarch at all?

Kiyi is not a princess, and for the well-being of Zuko's reign — which is already barely holding together — he better not make her one.

[earthyleo]

HBO: Otto and Alicent Hightower are awful, they planned the downfall of House Targaryen and caused a civil war that killed off all the dragons and almost made the Targaryens extinct as well 😭😭

[itsdefinitely]

this needs to be their dynamic please you don’t understand

[politicalprocrastinator]

no but like imagine introducing female thematic parallels to anakin and obi wan - sisters divided by one's utmost loyalty to strict ideological duty and one's belief that you can never fix things from the inside because the system is broken and instead of writing something nuanced about how political violence has gendered implications you decide to immediately kill one of those characters off because you're a lazy loser who thinks women that don't carry weapons are boring

[whateverthought]

Fabien Frankel seems so nice, its a shame he plays a Brown Man on the opposite side of White Feminism

[ayeforscotland]

1. Piñata at lunch break

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

Techno-Libertarian Monarchy written by “Mencius Moldbug” aka Curtis Yarvin. These computer tech nerds think they can code their way out of the world’s problems by returning to Feudalism. Their writings are juvenile fantasies and they are not peer reviewed because they are just ludicrous dystopian garbage.

Yet these people believe themselves savant level genius and have fooled not only the poorly educated but billionaire oligarchs like Peter Thiel. These oligarchs are so insulated by wealth they believe their own press releases just like the MAGA cultists orbiting Trump’s ample rump. They talk of floating cities beyond the reach of international law and creating feudal nations in places like Greenland and Panama where lesser tech nerds will volunteer to be serfs in an economy based on crypto.

This anti-democratic set of beliefs has taken deep root in the minds of deluded oligarchs and more recent technocratic oligarchs. These people who once pulled the strings behind the scenes now openly manipulate politicians with large donations. They have total ownership over the Republican Party and the right-wing media. They tell their therapists they are descended from the pharaohs and kings of old and that the rest of us are not even people but drones to serve their every need.

[serenfloras]

happy november everyone! we as a society should give her highness princess nefertari vivi of alabasta a gun she deserves it