#it’s very stagnant

[yzuposts]

You’re telling me that the gods moved alongside the West and their form of government NEVER evolved?

[ruporas]

new year! [id in alt]

[slasherflicks999]

more kate!

yes nina did make her that little purple bracelet and she wears it 24/7 bc she loves her girlfriend ninakate nation i got u guys

i also forgot her scar in that fullbody FUCK why do i end up forgetting a little detail like that in every drawing i do help

[eyrri]

little Kitten Burst doodles because i love it and think about it a lot

pspspspspspspsps play kitten burst

[cryptid-aac]

New crazy fucking bitch for your blocklists who thinks every single person who survived Katrina actually doesn't exist and seriously thinks being affected by a hurricane wouldn't give you an upper respiratory illness

(like, do they seriously think that Katrina cough is an actual illness and not just the specific name for the thousands of upper respiratory infections that was caused by surviving Katrina)

[heretherebedork]

I just want to see Joke not be the one blamed for everything. I just wanna see Joke loved and appreciated and not watch him fall apart because he doesn't believe he can be loved or is worth being loved. I want to see him know he's worth loving and being loved and not just crushed instantly every time he tries to help, crushed and wrong and the betrayer every time he tries to save Jack from what the rest of the world is trying to do to him. I want to see Jack remember why he forgave Joke and when Joke forgave Tattoo and when Joke forgave his dad and I want to see Jack grow because of Joke not just the other way around.

Joke has to prove himself and prove himself and prove himself and he never, ever gets to rest or stop or just be because it's a constant fight to prove himself every second and every day.

[mfdragon]

Wanted to work on my colouring, so I did a limited colour palette thing 👌🏻

[curioscurio]

Just started generic vyvanse and wow. No wonder it changed lives. They say it lasts more than 4 to 6 hours and then it DOES? Most adhd meds I've tried will wear off in 4 or 5 hours, so I'd often have to take another dose later in the day, but this shit keeps me going for a good 10-13 hours!

(This is just my experience! I'm just a guy I'm not a doctor disclaimer so uh don't take my word as law lol)

[slushiepizza]

if it's not obvious already, i headcanon that there's something severely wrong with guy that's masked with his upbeat personality

[callmehere-iwillappear]

umm. i'm a day late but here's this anyway? i saw this and uh. couldn't resist. happy one year since the rise movie (and also sorry)

also donnie's full rant vv

"Nardo I know your WHOLE THING is making poor taste badly timed + unfunny jokes but respectfully WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU I am not saying "cowabummer" '''''for the bit''''' holy SHIT can we NOT DO THIS???"

[vaguely-concerned]

ingellvar rook who, the first time they and varric reach the coast on their hunt for solas, just gazes out over the seemingly endless expanse of water with wide wondering eyes. when varric finally looks at them questioningly they're like 'sorry, it's just -- I've read about it, of course, but I've, uh. I've never seen the ocean before.' and varric's eyes soften as he tells them to take all the time they need (trust me, kid, it isn't going anywhere)

it must be kind of sweet for the other companions to get to introduce the mourn watchers to things from outside the necropolis/nevarra and seeing their spellbound reactions though. emmrich's happy notes about new plants the others have introduced him to my beloved

[ariadne-mouse]

I feel fandom would get along a lot better if there was mutual understanding that liking a character, agreeing with a character, and thinking the character is well constructed/executed are all separate (if often overlapping) positions, each with their separate tastes and subjectivities. Also: character portrayals are intended to make the audience feel things; this is separate from (if often overlapping with) analyzing/appreciating their actions and role in the story.

[throwawayasoiafaccount]

magic in asoiaf is genetic. and that is intresting. and the fact that grrm doesn’t shy away from the implications of this makes me love asoiaf even more.

because it’s very understandable that these people who could ride dragons would see themselves as more gods than men. it’s understandable that the practice of sibling-sibling incest would become common in order to keep this ability in the family/to not lose said ability. it’s also understandable that these people would see their race as superior because they are able to do these things that others could not.

it also makes complete sense that this human civilization collapsed in a horrific magical event due to their own hubris because they saw themselves as gods when they were always only men.

and that is peak world building.

some more peak world building is that the noble houses of westeros also clearly gained power and held onto their power through the use of their magical abilities inherited from their ancestors.

a godlike existence like Garth the Green being the ancestor of all the oldest and most noble of the reach houses makes perfect sense for this world!and it also makes sense that the lords without this ancestry are discriminated against in this region that still holds onto the values their society cultivated in the past in order to maintain their magical superiority, even though most of these noble and old houses no longer exhibit these abilities.

and it also makes sense that these people no longer have access to these abilities as they no longer practice the religion that was centered around these powers; plus their blood is simply diluted at this point as these houses have married into a different ethnic group so often that the magical gene just doesn’t surface anymore.

but the fact that it still matters if you can trace your ancestry back to Garth the Green? peak! peak! peak!

george does such an excellent job showcasing the stagnation of westerosi society here because why should it matter if you’re connected to this magic guy if magic is no longer commonplace? however, it also makes total sense that the ruling class of the reach still harps on and on about this as it’s how they maintain the status quo and differentiate themselves from those they consider lesser now that they no longer have access to magic themselves.

and this is also why it’s very important that the Starks still retain the blood of the first men. because the first men interbred with the children of the forest and other elder races, which is what gave these humans these powers. it’s also worth noting that before the direwolves connected with the Stark children, none of our current Starks were able to awaken their abilities by themselves, which shows that even now they are very far removed from their ancestor who’s genetic makeup gave this bloodline these abilities. and it makes sense that the Starks experienced this slow magical decline because magic itself was declining in the world after the doom of valyria.

another reason for this decline is because Andal culture started heavily influencing the North and slowly changed the way magic was perceived. so now in the present, a warg/skinchanger/greenseer has become something to fear being because that’d make you different and therefore puts your life at risk, which means that there’s now practically no safe environment to cultivate these abilities and no secure way to pass down any knowledge you do have about said abilities.

i can’t help but be reminded about how Jon Snow has rejected his nature and how that has led to the stagnation of his abilities, and then i think about Arya and Bran and how their new environments have led to an astonishing growth in their abilities, which shows that it’s not just genetics that matter, environment is also just as, if not more, important.

i bring all of this up because magic being genetic in asoiaf is not as problematic as people try to make it out as. in real life, sometimes people just have genetic gifts. some people can become olympians, and some people are disabled. some people are born 10 times smarter than the average human, and some people believe that covering their faces in lemon juice would turn them invisible. that is reality. and in this universe, some people have access to magic and some don’t, and it’s all based on genetics. it’s unfair! and that makes it realistic.

not everyone gets to ride dragons and not everyone gets to travel back in time, and that grounds asoiaf, which is what grrm was going for.

and how these societies have organized themselves in response to these genetic abilities and the dangers they pose makes absolute sense. on one hand we have the valyrian freehold, which was a magic hotspot and the people who lived there used magic to propel their society to new heights, and on the other hand we have the seven kingdoms that demonize anyone too different, and all magic practitioners are different from normal humans.

and the fact that george decided to go this route with asoiaf is so juicy to me cause:

we have characters like Varamyr and Euron who use their abilities to commit great evils and we know that their powers have influenced the way they see and interact with others. on the other hand we have characters like Dany who use their abilities to fight against evil violent institutions. and through characters like her we learn how vulnerable fledgling magic practitioners/characters with these abilities are to these older and more dangerous institutions and individuals who are perfectly aware about the knowledge gap between them and these younger characters and know exactly how to exploit them.

so, while it’s understandable that the fandom is uncomfy with the practices and values that grrm has written about, this isn’t bad world building by any means. it’s logical and well thought out. and i truly enjoy that grrm doesn’t shy away from writing about the more worrying aspects and implications of magic being a matter of genetics. i also like how the seven kingdoms and the valyrian freehold are kinda extremes on the matter of magic and how this is/was detrimental to both of these societies and at the individual level. a horrific magical firey doom is not any better nor any worse than a slow drawn out icey decline.

imo, what is important to remember is that in the world of asoiaf, people with magic are the ones who are discriminated against (bc most POV characters are in Westeros and magic is a no no there). so they are the ones who are in danger if they out themselves as magic users. now, it is true that some societies are more tolerant (Qarth is a great example of this and Valyria before the doom was likely the most tolerant to have ever existed in this world), but as of now most societies simply aren’t. remember jojens warning? he didn’t pull that out of his ass. bran would’ve been in a lot of danger if he came out and told the wrong people about his dreams/abilities. also, jon’s assassination may have been partly motivated by the mutineers fear of wargs. this is the life-threatening danger magic practitioners are in for simply existing in an intolerant society.

tbh the reason i typed all this up is because it’s very annoying when people try to ignore the reality, which is that the dragonbond depends on genetics. now, i’m sure there are other ways to ride a dragon, as dragons are magical animals so of course there may be a one in a million chance of a dragon allowing some rando to ride it, but this doesn’t change the fact that there is such a thing as a genetic ability that gives these certain humans the ability to form a connection with a dragon.

(another example that i can’t help but remember is that melisandre was able to get ghosts approval by using some of her tricks. of course there could be other reasons for ghost to have done this, but the most likely reason is that ghost simply fell for melisandre’s trick and this influenced how jon saw mel. but this doesn’t change the fact that melisandre will never have the kind of bond jon and ghost have because melisandre is not a warg. this is also another example of how vulnerable fledgling magic practitioners are to older ones.)

so, sorry not sorry that george decided to create a realistic representation of what a society would look like if only certain bloodlines were able to ride dragons <\3.

[windup-dragoon]

trying new techniques to get out of this funk

[incomingalbatross]

@thatscarletflycatcher @brambleberrycottage I would love to talk more about Cranford, but I've been having trouble coming up with anything more eloquent than "it's Good." Because it IS.

I'm really glad it seemed to be a hit with our book club (mainly composed of my family + one other). Multiple people mentioned specifically that for a while they felt like it wasn't going anywhere in particular (which was fine) but then it DID! I think everyone, rightfully, loved Miss Matty. There were also a lot of laughs about the funny parts of the book, especially the hosting/manners-related humor.

Personally I had a pretty good idea of the book's virtues going in (which may be why I had a hard time coming up with commentary - you guys know all this already! I heard it here first! :P). But I loved the pathos and the humor and... really, the tenderness for little, quiet lives, that can acknowledge their ridiculousness and obscurity and seeming futility but still paint them with love and dignity.

The quiet tragedies are heartbreaking - but so are the kindnesses. These ladies are all absurd sometimes - because they're human. It's just. It's very much about human dignity and goodness and the worth of every human life even at its pettiest.

[mic-check-stims]

Day 13: Make a board based on a character you kin/relate to

This one was the compromise result of the fucking headspace court case we used to settle on a character (I The Headmate Who Runs 90% Of The Blog don't do much kinning nowadays). None of us kin kisara but she has traits everyone usually flocks to when updating their kin list

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