#jon erasure

[uluthrek]

au in which robert, the starks and the lannisters play monopoly instead of going hunting and pushing each other‘s kids from towers.

tyrion implements a tax system to make things more interesting and fights cersei over the cat for a solid ten minutes.

around thirty minutes into the game, catelyn realizes that she has free will and stops paying taxes.

arya and sansa haggle over new york avenue, which ends up being bought by theon. this causes the two to completely cast aside their differences, ally and subsequently start doing everything in their power to make theon‘s life hell.

theon himself is quite severely stoned the entire time throughout.

ned enters horrendous debt pretty much immediately and, after two hours of being financially sucked dry by both cersei and his tax evader of a wife, decides to just place his figurine in jail and never leave.

jon, playing the dog, controls the railroads and makes jaime, playing the ship, go completely broke within minutes. being beaten by a bastard and officially the first to lose the game makes jaime so mad he spends the rest of the evening perched on the family‘s ancestral armchair eating flaming hot cheetos and stifling sobs.

cersei is holding onto her last two dollars and her one house in atlantic avenue like a maniac and evades taxes like it‘s an olympic sport. she claims ownership of kentucky avenue on the grounds that red is her house‘s color at least twice. after three hours, she‘s consumed enough vintage red to kill a large mammal and keeps quoting the art of war. fascinatingly enough, she never goes completely broke.

robert, just as broke and drunk as his wife but not nearly as ferocious, proposes marriage for tax advantages to bran, who is in possession of the boardwalk and lets him dangle on his proposition for two rounds before accepting and feeling like a benevolent god.

sansa sees this and immediately proposes to arya, who accepts, only for them to be sued by their mother for public indecency („you‘re siblings, jesus christ!“). arya argues that this is just a game and that one could argue that robert‘s and bran‘s marital alliance is just as if not even more inappropriate, considering that bran is seven and robert thirtyseven. sansa countersues her mother for tax evasion, who promises she‘ll drop her lawsuit if her daughters let her keep hoarding perverse amounts of wealth. „love wins!“ arya says, which causes jaime, still perched on the armchair but now eating old nan‘s home made whiskey truffles, to hysterically sob. cersei stares him down.

robb, in a rare moment of almost prophetic foresight, excuses himself one hour in and goes on a very, VERY long walk with grey wind.

tyrion, whose tax system has spectacularly backfired in his face, proposes marriage to catelyn, jon and cersei in rapid succession, who all turn him down. „i wish i was the monster you think i am. i wish i had enough poison for the whole pack of you. i would gladly give my life to watch you all swallow it.“ he screams before he leaves the table.

at that, joffrey, who has refused to participate and instead sits on the couch playing doom on his nintendo ds, starts hysterically laughing. tyrion turns on his heel and awards his nephew with the bitchslap of the century. this causes cersei to completely abandon the game and chase after him with a broom. catelyn makes sure that everyone is distracted by the lannister antics and then reaches across the table and bags cersei‘s money and properties.

with a heavy heart, myrcella trades arya and sansa one of her limited edition bayala schleich unicorns for park place.

at this point, the game is between the tycoons that are catelyn and jon, the bran-robert alliance, the arya-sansa-alliance, and ned, who is still in jail and watching ice hockey on his phone under the table. that is when catelyn hears rickon gagging and discovers that he, in the absence of tyrion, the self declared bank manager, has managed to eat all bank notes from the box.

rickon gets his stomach pumped, cersei and tyrion have both been arrested, theon is still stoned, arya, sansa and myrcella have wandered off to go play schleich horses, and jon remains at the table, alone, content, and quietly considering himself the winner.

[damnianalghulnotwayne]

we as a fandom have failed with the criminal lack of fanart of damian with his besties

[syndrossi]

oohhhh man whenever someone says something along the lines of resonant being slow i just want to take them gently by the hand and say "sweet summer child, you are not prepared"

[fromtheseventhhell]

for the ask game: 1

1. the character everyone gets wrong

This could be a hundred different characters, but I have to go with Arya. She has to be one of, if not THE, most misinterpreted characters in the series. Her fanon/show characterization is the most accepted version of her and a majority of theories about her use that as a basis. She gets reduced to nothing more than a revenge-obsessed bodyguard to her siblings. Arya is so much more complex and important than people in the fandom want to acknowledge.

[levaagrace]

Why isn’t there more Magnus Archives salt fics on AO3??? Why can’t I find the wildly ooc fics where it’s very clear that the writer is exaggerating the flaws of characters they hate and using that to bash them in a form a catharsis??? Why is this fandom so level-headed about treating all the main characters with respect??? Where is your rage??? Where is your bitterness???

[dclovesdanny]

Dc x Dp prompt

Dead serious prompt 1/4

Damian and Danny are pen pals.

For a school assignment, they had to exchange a minimum of 25 letters with a person from another school. Damian originally thought it was foolish but Pennyworth insisted, and his brothers’ teased him he couldn’t make any friends aside from Jon and Colin (stop the Colin erasure!!!) so now it was a matter of pride.

Danny didn’t like the pen pal plan, but he couldn’t afford to get a bad grade in Lancers class right now. Plus, Jazz was nagging him to make more friends, so kill two birds with one stone.

The two of them made friends fast(Damian was intrigued by talk of inter dimensional beings he could find no other proof of officially aside from some shabbily hidden acts that violated the meta rights act, and he wouldn’t have believed him if it wasn’t for the visit from Fenton’s dog (He wished he could keep him in the manor, but for now he would settle with pampering the dog whenever he visited.) He could admit that Fenton was … intriguing.)

(Danny liked Damian. He was funny, with a sharp sense of sarcasm and a strong love of animals. Cujo adored him. Damien also didn’t ask questions about things he didn’t want to talk about, and he reminded Danny of some ghosts with his talk of violence.)

However, their letters tended to be quite … unorthodox, with Cujo acting acting as a delivery dog. They had avoided sending letters during times when they would be around others, which is why Damian knew it was serious when Cujo came to him at breakfast, carrying a note in his mouth and radiating agitation, three days after their usual letters were exchanged.

Damian ignored the sounds from his family and unfolded the letter. After reading it, he ignored the shouts of his family and climbed onto Cujo’s back. ‘Take me to him.’ He ordered, and Cujo sped off, jumping as a portal opened and they entered. His siblings rushed after him but the portal closed before they could follow.

The letter was lying on the ground with shaky splotchy letters.

GIW went too far. Just got out. Help.

[macrolit]

The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.

As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.

NYT Article.

*************

Q: How many of the 100 have you read? Q: Which ones did you love/hate? Q: What's missing?

Here's the full list.

100. Tree of Smoke, Denis Johnson 99. How to Be Both, Ali Smith 98. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett 97. Men We Reaped, Jesmyn Ward 96. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Saidiya Hartman 95. Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel 94. On Beauty, Zadie Smith 93. Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel 92. The Days of Abandonment, Elena Ferrante 91. The Human Stain, Philip Roth 90. The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen 89. The Return, Hisham Matar 88. The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis 87. Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters 86. Frederick Douglass, David W. Blight 85. Pastoralia, George Saunders 84. The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee 83. When We Cease to Understand the World, Benjamin Labutat 82. Hurricane Season, Fernanda Melchor 81. Pulphead, John Jeremiah Sullivan 80. The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante 79. A Manual for Cleaning Women, Lucia Berlin 78. Septology, Jon Fosse 77. An American Marriage, Tayari Jones 76. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin 75. Exit West, Mohsin Hamid 74. Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout 73. The Passage of Power, Robert Caro 72. Secondhand Time, Svetlana Alexievich 71. The Copenhagen Trilogy, Tove Ditlevsen 70. All Aunt Hagar's Children, Edward P. Jones 69. The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander 68. The Friend, Sigrid Nunez 67. Far From the Tree, Andrew Solomon 66. We the Animals, Justin Torres 65. The Plot Against America, Philip Roth 64. The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai 63. Veronica, Mary Gaitskill 62. 10:04, Ben Lerner 61. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver 60. Heavy, Kiese Laymon 59. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides 58. Stay True, Hua Hsu 57. Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich 56. The Flamethrowers, Rachel Kushner 55. The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright 54. Tenth of December, George Saunders 53. Runaway, Alice Munro 52. Train Dreams, Denis Johnson 51. Life After Life, Kate Atkinson 50. Trust, Hernan Diaz 49. The Vegetarian, Han Kang 48. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi 47. A Mercy, Toni Morrison 46. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt 45. The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson 44. The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin 43. Postwar, Tony Judt 42. A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James 41. Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan 40. H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald 39. A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan 38. The Savage Detectives, Roberto Balano 37. The Years, Annie Ernaux 36. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates 35. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel 34. Citizen, Claudia Rankine 33. Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward 32. The Lines of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst 31. White Teeth, Zadie Smith 30. Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward 29. The Last Samurai, Helen DeWitt 28. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell 27. Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 26. Atonement, Ian McEwan 25. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 24. The Overstory, Richard Powers 23. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, Alice Munro 22. Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo 21. Evicted, Matthew Desmond 20. Erasure, Percival Everett 19. Say Nothing, Patrick Radden Keefe 18. Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders 17. The Sellout, Paul Beatty 16. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon 15. Pachinko, Min Jin Lee 14. Outline, Rachel Cusk 13. The Road, Cormac McCarthy 12. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion 11. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz 10. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson 9. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro 8. Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald 7. The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead 6. 2666, Roberto Bolano 5. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen 4. The Known World, Edward P. Jones 3. Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel 2. The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson 1. My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante

[fowlblue]

That Cube gets thrown out the window faster than one of his employees…

AU where actually, nothing had to actively be done to recoup the Cube, as the first time Spiro attempts to power it up back at the lab, this message appears and, for related reasons of unreasonable, unsubstantiated paranoia, the device is tossed out

[see-arcane]

The Magnus Protocol - First Shift, First Thoughts

-Hnnnnghhhh retro clunky analog noises Good

-I am swaddling these characters in so many blankets

-New Categories for Eerie Shit yes yes yes give me fresh ways to sort things

-Robo-voice Martin and Jon 'Norris and Chester' don't think I didn't catch how the crunchy audio filter faded out as you were getting into the storytelling rhythm, I SEE YOU MEANINGFUL SOUND SHIFT

-Jonathan Sims' voice: "Does anyone know what's up with the Magnus Institute?"

me: heeheehoohoo I wonder

-Oh fuck oh god oh no Red Canary got got nooooo

-So in this universe Gertrude did manage to roast the Magnus Institute and that resulted in the erasure of all the statements and recordings? Interesting implication

-Why is it not next Thursday yet?

[another-rpg-sideblog]

Elon Musk, the owner of the app formerly known as Twitter, is calling on Wizards of the Coast and its parent company Hasbro to "burn in hell" for the publication of Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons. On November 21st, former gaming executive turned culture warrior Mark Hern posted several passages from Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons on Twitter, criticizing the book for providing context about some of the misogyny and cultural insensitivity found in early rulebooks. These passages were pulled from the foreword written by Jon Peterson, one of the foremost historians about Dungeons & Dragons and who also collaborated with Wizards of the Coast on the book. Hern stated that these passages, along with the release of the new 2024 Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide for D&D's "40th anniversary" (it is actually D&D's 50th anniversary) both "erased and slandered" Gary Gygax and other creators of Dungeons & Dragons. In response, Musk wrote "Nobody, and I mean nobody, gets to trash E. Gary Gygax and the geniuses who created Dungeons & Dragons. What the [naughty word] is wrong with Hasbro and WoTC?? May they burn in hell." Musk had played Dungeons & Dragons at some point in his youth, but it's unclear when the last time he ever played the game. Nobody, and I mean nobody, gets to trash E. Gary Gygax and the geniuses who created Dungeons & Dragons. What the [xxxx] is wrong with Hasbro and WoTC?? May they burn in hell. - Elon Musk​ Notably, Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons contains countless correspondences and letters written by both Gygax and Dave Arneson, including annotated copies of early D&D rulesets. Most early D&D rules supplements as well as early Dragon magazines are also found in the book. It seems odd to contain one of the most extensive compliations of Gygax's work an "erasure," but it's unclear whether Hern or Musk actually read the book given the incorrect information about the anniversary. Additionally, Gygax and Arneson are both credited in the 2024 Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide. The exact credit reads: "Building on the original game created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and then developed by many others over the past 50 years." Wizards of the Coast also regularly collaborates with Gygax's youngest son Luke and is a participant at Gary Con, a convention held in Gygax's honor. The opening paragraph of the 2024 Player's Handbook is written by Jeremy Crawford and specifically lauds both Gygax and Arneson for making Dungeons & Dragons and contains an anecdote about Crawford meeting Gygax. Musk has increasingly leaned into culture war controversies in recent years, usually amplifying misinformation to suit his own political agenda.

[extensive thread on EN World]

[cinematic-phosphenes]

HoTD S2x01: A Son for a Son (I have thoughts and I'm keeping them here)

The Stark theme and Cregan doing his best Sean Bean accent have me nostalgic.

If getting conscripted to the Wall is an honour, then why does budget Jon Snow look unhappy about it?

No Sara Snow, okay. I’ll live with it. No Jace/Cregan (b)romance, not okay. Tumblr made me want it, only to be so denied by the showrunners.

Not more Targ colonialism erasure. "We colonised an entire continent to save the world, no really. And look, even the noble Starks agree with it!" is such a shit take, even if it's canon. I like the Targ characters, but let's not erase the original Aegon's colonial crimes.

Jace looks so pretty! Major glow up.

Dragonstone has a dragon hangar! Yay for worldbuilding!

Daemon calling Vhagar a hoary old bitch reminds me of this absolutely amazing Vhagar POV fanfic I read. (Soon the god's hoar by eldritcher on AO3) (The fic is spoiler-y for the rest of the Dance, jsyk.)

Yes, Rhaenys! Put Daemon in his place! Also, her dragon riding outfit!!!

Alyn, I see you doing an Egg by shaving your head.

Why in the hell does no one take Helaena’s visions seriously?! She’s right every time. (Can I blame ‘I had a dragon dream once’ Viserys for this? Because I want to blame Viserys for this. Look at the mess you left your kids in, Viserys! I hope Balerion bites your ass in the afterlife.)

And here we see the 'Our lives are in danger, so let's fuck about it' trope in action. I’ve heard a lot of Alicole hot takes. “Criston Cole is ‘unmanly’ for going down on a woman” is the absolute hottest of hot takes I’ve had the misfortune of encountering.

Otto giving Alicent and Criston Cole that look as they walk in. He knows what they’ve been doing.

Aegon grinning at his son like a fool. Aegon giving Jaehaerys attention and wanting him to learn how to rule even though he’s only six. Aegon trying to do better than deadbeat Viserys did. Aegon talking about pony rides in a way that suggests Jaehaerys often gets pony rides, possibly from Aegon himself. If you told me last season Aegon would somehow turn out to be the best father on this series ….. (Yes, I know that when it comes to being a dad the bar is in hell’s basement here. Yes, I know the way Aegon treats his illegitimate kids is horrific. I think there’s definitely been some retconning here and S2 Aegon is not the same character as S1 Aegon. They should have portrayed him this way from the start.)

Alicent wrote Rhaenyra letters to apologize for Luke's death and she's expecting a response?! Girl ....

My kingdom for a scene of the Greens finding out that Aemond killed Luke. My kingdom for a scene of Aemond deciding to just fully commit to the villain persona and lie to say he killed Luke intentionally. Such a missed opportunity.

Larys being an intimidating creep to Alicent again. He should go fall down some stairs.

Alicent scrubbing her skin raw. She is not okay. (I want to see Alicent cracking. Let Olivia Cooke act!)

Rhaenyra’s grief over Luke is heartbreaking. Emma D’Arcy is acting their heart out. And Syrax crying too, nooo.

Aegon walking in sync with his fratboy squad. You know they practised that entrance during one of their nightly seshes in the throne room.

Are they going to show the throne cutting Aegon?

“On further thought, I have decided ….” Aegon is hilarious.

It’s Hammer time!

Larys already angling for the Hand’s position. I know this guy is ambitious, but damn.

Just Alicent looking ethereal reading letters.

Mysaria’s accent has been toned down! (Why was Mysaria fleeing King’s Landing though? Maybe I’m missing something but I don’t get it?)

“We swore an oath to protect the whole of the royal family. So what were we to do when they turned against one another?” Jaime Lannister echoes.

"I want Aemond Targaryen." Chills. Rhaenyra only says four words all episode and it's these four words.

Jace trying to keep it together and be professional to give his report. Jace looking so much younger and more vulnerable when he’s back with his mother. I’m not crying, you’re crying.

Scenes with Rhaenyra at Luke’s funeral interspersed with scenes of Alicent paying tribute to the dead, including Luke. My heart. That empty space next to Alicent in the sept where Rhaenyra used to pray. They are an absence in each other’s lives.

Rhaena crying for her betrothed, nooo.

Why didn’t they have a dragon light Luke’s funeral pyre?

The return of the Daemon crime hoodie, now upgraded to a war crime hoodie.

Making it unclear if Daemon told B & C to go after another son if they can’t find Aemond or if B & C just went rogue – that’s a cop out by the writers. Unless it comes up again. EDIT: Daemon said 'a son for a son.' He was giving them carte blanche to go after another son if Aemond is MIA.

Daemon reluctantly admitting Aemond is a good fighter. I love to see it.

Why do I get the sense that Aemond also knows about Alicole?

“Rhaenyra is a cunning spider. Long ago she pulled Alicent into her web. Intoxicated her. It is not your mother’s fault.” “Her Grace speaks with two tongues. Alicent holds love for our enemy.” So they’re both obsessed and very much not over Rhaenyra. Do Alicent and Cole both think of Rhaenyra while being unholy together because it kinda seems like it?

Ewan Mitchell as Aemond is so mesmerizing. That man has presence.

Why the fuck has no one tried to map the secret tunnels into the Red Keep and close off the ones that allow randoms to sneak in/royal minors to sneak out?

The entire Kingsguard is in the throne room guarding Aegon? And they don’t stop the ‘rat catchers’ working at night? Even if the rat catchers were supposed to be there, I feel like it would still be protocol to stop and question them. Have none of these writers been pulled over by the cops for no reason/even slightly suspicious behaviour?

I think the build up to B & C should’ve focused on Helaena and her kids instead of B & C creeping around, arguing for no reason and committing gratuitous animal abuse. (That dog kicking scene looked so real, I watched the end credits for a disclaimer that no animals were harmed in the making of.) They could’ve shown Helaena getting the kids ready for bed, reading them a story, etc. They established a connection between Aegon and Jaehaerys pre B & C but none between Helaena and the kids before it happened. Lost opportunity.

B & C was very different than I expected before I was spoiled. I guess I see what the writers were going for with Helaena’s response to B & C. She’s dissociated rather than hysterical. She’s been painted as a character who’s distanced from the world around her in general, so perhaps this is an in-character trauma response for her. Plus you could see the absolute terror in Phia’s eyes. Helaena was terrified and traumatized. She was just quiet about it.

As for her just pointing out Jaehaerys instead of trying to bargain or plead more for his life … I guess it’s because they’re characterizing her as very literalist, straightforward and honest to a fault as part of her ‘strangeness’? So she just took B & C at their word and didn’t try to change their minds because after the necklace offer failed, she assumed they couldn’t be swayed and would definitely kill her and both kids like they threatened to if she didn’t point out Jaehaerys to them. As for not pointing to Jaehaera – that wouldn’t accomplish anything. If they didn’t check that they really had the boy, one of her kids would still be dead. If they checked and discovered she’d lied, they might kill both kids. She was a mother who didn’t want either of her kids to die but perceived she couldn’t do anything to save both of them, so she felt she had no choice but to point out Jaehaerys. And then she grabbed Jaehaera and got her to safety when she saw the chance. At least she could save one of them.

As for Helaena saying they killed ‘the boy’ instead of saying his name Jaehaerys – I don’t see that as her being insensitive and uncaring about her kid. I think she was just repeating B & C’s exact word use in her dissociated state. She was on auto pilot at that point.

I do get what the writers were going for … but it’s not going to translate well to most of the audience I don’t think. I see many people interpreting it as Helaena not caring about Jaehaerys and not trying hard enough to save him. “Why didn’t she offer up her own life like any mother would?” If a large part of the audience misinterprets or misunderstands a scene or a character’s intentions or motivations, then that’s a failure on the part of the writers IMO. I’m not upset they didn’t make B & C more graphic or violent in the physical or psychological sense. (In the book, their twisted mind games were just as horrific and brutal and every bit as violent as the physical violence). But I do think that scene could have been better executed in a different way. And including Maelor probably would have worked better to illustrate the horrific, inescapable situation Helaena found herself in between a rock and a hard place.

Where the fuck are the guards? In the throne room with Aegon? Sent away by Cole to hide the fact that he’s in the queen dowager’s bed? The Greens never considered infiltration or a stealth attack? They really got complacent because they have Vhagar guarding the city.

Alicent and Cole doing it in Rhaenyra’s old room, in Rhaenyra’s bed!! Are they both imagining they’re with Rhaenyra too?! Because this is giving … high levels of dysfunction. They’re both haunted by Rhaenyra

The only thing I’ll say about Alicole is that they really should have shown them getting together for the first time. When, how and why did that happen? Who instigated it? How did they both feel about it? Again the writers don’t show the motivations they had in mind for the characters, resulting in the viewers drawing different conclusions than they’re ‘supposed to’ and it works against the story. The interviews I’ve watched seem to say it’s consensual on both their parts. (I know there’s a power imbalance that makes it problematic, but I don’t think the writers see it that way.) Again, showing the start of their first sexual encounter would have been better writing (IMO) because it could have been used to illustrate consent.

The last thing I’ll say about Alicole (okay, so I wanted to say two things) is that showing it after B & C that way by having Helaena walk in on them cheapens B & C. The true shock and horror here is that a child was murdered in front of his mother. Why add the cheap shock value of someone walking in on their parent in flagarante?

All in all, okay episode, kind of weird. Looking forward to see what they do with the rest of the material.

[magpod-confessions]

I don’t think it’s bi erasure to head canon Jon as gay. The podcast never says he’s bisexual, it only says that he has an ex who is a woman and when we hear anything about their sex life it’s a secondhand comment from someone who actively dislikes Jon saying “He just doesn’t.”

Dating a woman does not mean you are attracted to women, and to deny that reality is both an oversimplification of sexuality and a denial of the experiences of many gay men, and I think it’s cruel to deride anyone who sees themselves in that story, or to tell them that their lived experiences erase the experiences of others. It’s a wild take.

The podcast never specifies either way. Author comments and speculation outside of the work itself is not canon. That’s not how canon works. If it is in some way clarified in the sequel/prequel/sidequel, then whatever happens is canon.

The beauty of head canon is that you can think whatever you like about the lines between the story, and that usually manifests as seeing something of yourself in the characters. Don’t take that away from gay men. I just think it’s so unnecessary.

.

[lagosbratzdoll]

On Daenerys, Colonisation and Race Discourse within the ASOIAF Fandom

This has been on my mind for a good long while and honestly, as much as I would like to leave discourse in the pits, it has been bugging me intermittently over the past few weeks.

Far too many of you get on here and call people who like the fictional dragon-riding family, neo-Nazis and that sentiment is so prevalent, that white people feel comfortable telling me a black woman that I am a neo-Nazi for rooting for Daenerys Targaryen. I am upholding neo-Nazi power fantasies for wanting to see a little girl live at the end of a story. I am a neo-Nazi for wanting to see the rape survivor have the family she aches for and children with the man (or men) she loves.

Then, those same people go on spiels about how the systemic erasure of those who sing the song of the earth and other old races is not colonialism. That their removal from their home is not displacement but an agreement between two equal parties. The fact that the only place where those who sing the song of the earth exist in the present timeline is north of the wall, surrounded by the bones of their dead, is not a travesty. That the expulsion of the old races from their home isn't that bad and should not be condemned. 

Instead, people argue, completely seriously, that the harm that the First Men and Andals have caused is centuries in the past, so essentially the slate has been wiped clean. The logical leaps that are required to arrive at such a boneheaded conclusion are truly mind-boggling, and those who make such arguments are not good people. 

I am unsure how one could read those books and come away with the impression that the old races do not mourn the loss of their home. I am unsure how one could read The Last of the Giants[1] and Ygritte’s reaction to both the song and Jon’s dismissal of the ethnic cleansing of the giants then believe that the old races and the free folk have moved past their displacement. 

In Westeros, from the Wall to the broken arm of Dorne, they all speak one language despite the fact they are all different ethnicities and they all landed on the shores at different times. That is not the case in Essos, we have been introduced to at least six languages and in A Dance with Dragons, Tyrion notes that the Valyrian spoken in the Free Cities has evolved into nine distinct dialects, and they are well on their way to becoming different languages.

How would a continent as large and diverse as Westeros maintain its hegemony over the people if not for forced assimilation, discriminatory practices and violence? The brutal repression required to keep one house in power for thousands of years is nothing to sniff at. The suppression required to keep the vast majority of Westeros worshipping one (or seven) gods. The systems in place ensure that language does not grow or evolve amongst the highborns at least.

Centuries before Aegon's Landing the maesters were the definitive educational authority and even now centuries after, nothing has changed. The grey rats still decide who learns what and when they learn it. There's one in every highborn home, all correspondence passes through them, they are the healers and the councillors.

The circular logic gets even more blockheaded when you factor in the fact that Daenerys is far from the only white character in the books. She is not the only character who wishes for home. She is not the only character who draws strength from her ancestors, her bloodline and her magical creatures. 

Cersei draws strength from her family’s iconography, and the Stark children (Jon included) all draw strength from their direwolves, their home and their blood. Sansa, Arya and Bran wish to return home and their home was built on the indiscriminate murder and displacement of the indigenous peoples. Their home is built on centuries of rape, murder, exclusionary practices and sexual slavery. 

However, if we give the nonsensical argument that time erases crimes air; the Starks, Lannisters and Tullys are warring to settle personal grievances in the present timeline. As a consequence of that war, thousands (a modest guesstimate) of small folk, minor nobles and even some major ones have been raped, tortured, maimed and killed.

Despite all this, no one writes meta after meta about how Sansa and her siblings must surely die for justice to be had for those who sing the song of the earth, the free folk, the giants and all the old races that fled beyond the wall.  

People write meta about Cersei and how she must die, but those are typically more misogynistic nature. They typically argue that she must die not for the “crime” of being Lannister, but for the “crime” of being Cersei and “ruining” Jamie. 

I would not mind criticisms of Dany and her peace-focused approach to ending slavery because the approach is naïve and she gives the slavers far too much ground. However, she is learning, growing and self-critiquing. At the end of A Dance with Dragons, she has decided to embrace fire and blood, her knight is breaking the false peace which is a necessary step forward.

What I find offensive is people saying that she should have planned better before she abolished slavery. And that the death, violence, and sickness that arises from her quest to eradicate slavery is somehow worse than the death, violence, and sickness that already existed in Slaver’s Bay. 

This argument often downplays the horrific conditions and suffering that exist(ed) under the slave system in Slaver's Bay. Such arguments are often in poor taste and prioritise the lives and comforts of the slavers more than the people they have enslaved.

I would not mind criticisms of Dany if people applied that same critique even-handedly. The same people who believe that Jon and Bran have done much to rectify the evil that their ancestors perpetuated believe that Dany has not done anything to right the wrongs of her ethnic kin. They praise them for the non-existent steps that they have taken, but in the same breath, they condemn Dany for not being able to immediately end the plague that is slavery. 

It is perfectly alright to not like fictional characters, no law requires you to like certain fictional characters over others. However, what is not right is making broad accusations about those who do, it is beyond the pale. It is disgusting, and annoying, and trivialises real-world issues to score cheap points against fictional characters.

Equating the survival of a teenage survivor to the restoration of a fascist house or neo-Nazi power fantasy when such designations do not exist in the world of ice and fire is strange behaviour. Saying that the teenage survivor will eventually be manipulated and raped (again) before ending up dead on her manipulator's blade is also strange behaviour. 

Dismissing the horrors of colonialism, especially when the text shows you that the involved parties are still affected by it, is not normal and often veers into real-world imperialism apologia. While criticism and analysis of characters and their actions are valid and even encouraged, it is essential that we do not resort to sweeping generalisations about other people and that we keep criticisms of characters grounded in the text. 

[1]  

Ooooooh, I am the last of the giants, my people are gone from the earth.

The last of the great mountain giants, who ruled all the world at my birth

Oh, the smallfolk have stolen my forests, they’ve stolen my rivers and hills.

And they’ve built a great wall through my valleys, and fished all the fish from my rills

In stone halls they burn their great fires, in stone halls they forge their sharp spears.

Whilst I walk alone in the mountains, with no true companion but tears.

They hunt me with dogs in the daylight, they hunt me with torches by night.

For these men who are small can never stand tall, whilst giants still walk in the light.

Oooooooh, I am the LAST of the giants, so learn well the words of my song.

For when I am gone the singing will fade, and the silence shall last long and long.

[fiaistired]

TMA things I literally cannot stop thinking about:

- original Elias Bouchard

- Sasha James and her subsequent erasure

- Tim and Jon’s ruined relationship and potential past friendship

- Tim, Jon and Sasha when they worked together in research

- the psychological and physical torture of being moisturized every day for a month. literally some of the most violation stuff i can imagine

[lastweeksshirttonight]

LEE'S FAQ!

Over the past nearly-two years, I've noticed that I get some questions about John's work asked repeatedly. That doesn't bother me - half of his prominent work is somewhat lost media, Tumblr's search is super fucked, and I always want to help anyone falling down the JO rabbit hole - but I realized that one central pinned post would be helpful! I'll keep this up to date as much as possible.

I know I have a lot of international followers, and if you have any knowledge of where to stream or find some of these items, please let me know and I'll update this post.

WHERE CAN I FIND...?

Anything really, I've just started going down this rabbit hole:

The John Oliver Masterlist is an incredible resource - while it hasn't been updated since about 2017 and has some broken links (especially in the LWT sections), it has functional links to every JO clip from The Daily Show, all the main segments of LWT through 2017, radio shows, and lots of other material. This was made by @johnoliverphotos and @ilovejohnoliver, and I'm eternally grateful for it.

The Department:

YouTuber Ben Jennings has the entire series on his channel.

Player FM has the series uploaded here as well.

The Bugle:

The Bugle Archive has all Times Online era episodes available to download. PLEASE DOWNLOAD THE EPISODES DIRECTLY; DO NOT STREAM FROM THIS SITE.

The Bugle is starting to upload Times Online era episodes to their official channels, which can be found here. They're up to ep 75 as of June 2024.

All post-Times Online episodes (starting with episode 179) are available on The Bugle's official channels.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart:

Paramount has axed the Daily Show archives online as of 6/26/24. It's absolutely gutting how little they give a shit about this program. Fuck them.

You're gonna have to sail the high seas to watch this. I'm sorry that this is the state of the US' most important comedy show of the 2000s. Since Paramount hasn't done shit with the old episodes for decades, I wouldn't hold your breath on it entering streaming.

Community:

In the US, this can be streamed on Peacock. Individual episodes can be purchased on YouTube, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime.

Worldwide, Community is now on Hulu.

Every season of Community is available on DVD and Blu-Ray.

John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show:

In the US, the whole show is on Paramount Plus and can be purchased through Amazon and Apple.

This show also got purged in the big Comedy Central erasure, but at least you can buy it still?? Shit silver lining, I know.

Back catalog episodes of Last Week Tonight:

You can buy back catalog episodes on YouTube and Amazon in the US.

The first through sixth seasons of LWT have been uploaded fully on their YouTube in the US, with plans to upload future seasons during breaks in the show's current episodes!

In certain areas outside of the US, LWT is now being uploaded in full on their YouTube channel as well.

HBO Max no longer has back catalog episodes because capitalism is fucking ridiculous, I pay monthly for this service entirely for this show and I can't even watch old news from 5 years ago

The Horne Section:

The whole series is on Taskmaster Supermax+, which should work everywhere except the UK.

In the UK, you can stream this through Channel 4.

Taskmaster:

I've been trying to will this into existence for multiple seasons, no one can stop me

BLOG-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

How did you get into John Oliver?

I answered this in too much detail in two posts, here and here.

Where is your icon from?

UPDATED: It was made by the lovely @stalebagels for me. She is wonderful <3

Is this blog a bit?/Do you really find this man attractive?

No, this is not an ironic bit, I really like John Oliver and find him genuinely hot. (Tbf, I get this question way more in person than online.)

[gaytventhusiast]

Labels, Asexuality, Aromanticism and Headcanon.

I need to just get this off my chest because it's a common trend I've noticed in a couple fandoms I'm in and I think it needs to be discussed. Of course I'm open to discussion on this. There's a chance I'm wrong.

Something about the way fandom treats s/x repulsed characters in media just sits with me bad. In multiple fandoms I've been in now, I've witnessed a clearly stated canonically s/x repulsed asexual character be put into 'intimate' situations under guise of a 's/x positive' interpretation. What bothers me, personally, is that these characters don't and would never. One example is with Jonathan Sims from The Magnus Archives. I have accidentally stumbled across explicit fics involving him before that are tagged 's/x positive asexual Jonathan Sims'. But the thing about him is that at no point in the podcast is he even mentioned to be asexual. In fact, the information you get about him is actually that he simply doesn't. That is all you know, that he doesn't, ever. And yet, due to the nuances of the asexual label and the fact that that description of Jon technically puts him under it, folks have been using those technicalities to put him into scenarios he never would enter into. As much as I hate to say it, it almost feels like there's a sort of s/x repulsed asexual erasure going on within the aspec community. And for context, this is coming from an aspec who is positive about that kind of intimacy. This is not just limited to asexuality either. I've also witnessed this happening to aromantic characters with fandom putting them in 'queer platonic relationships' that read as romantic ones. There is nothing wrong with enjoying a platonic pairing, in fact, I'm all for it. But time and time again I see sappy art with blushing or otherwise romantic undertones and I feel... just sort of weird about it. I understand where this all comes from. People have a desire to see themselves in characters and I respect that. But you can do that without the erasure of both asexuals and aromatics that simply do not. When it comes to being aro and/or ace, I recognise that, I, as someone who, although aspec, is still is open to relationships and 'intimacy', am far less scrutinised for it by society than those who aren't. And although sadly there is barely any representation in media for the kind of aspec I am, it doesn't mean that it feels okay to erase other asexual identities and their representation in the process. Summary: So this is all to say. It personally makes me uncomfortable when I see Repulsed Asexual and Aromatic characters turned pseudo-s/xual and romantic by the fans through the use of Label Nuances and Technicalities. (Note: This is not intended to be an attack on anyone personally. I simply think it's a much needed to be discussed topic that I've noticed happening more and more recently) On a more positive note: For anyone looking for aspec representation that involves a character who loves the idea of romance and has experienced giddy feelings in the past but comes to the realisation they might be aromantic through the help of an aroace friend, go listen to The Penumbra Podcast season 4 episode 'Rita Minute 4: 4Ever Love'. I've never felt so seen in terms of my sexuality before. It's an underrated gem of an aspec central minisode.