#like he groomed multiple teenage girls

[klaviergavinwiki]

maybe this is a rancid take but i'm watching quiet on set and like drake bell has like publicly made fun of women/young girls who he has abused horrifically physically sexually and emotionally and like i understand the cycle of abuse and all that but i don't want to see him platformed for his abuse story when he did everything he could to make sure his own victims didn't have a voice

[thelittlegirlinwonderland]

What I'd Change about MHA

firstly, i'd put monoma in 1-a. i'd replace sato b/c i hate his character design and does he even do anything?

i'd make aizawa more of a stoic, scary looking guy but he just wants what's best for these kids. he doesn't lie to them or use ruses but he tends to push more and seems like a hardass to prepare them for the cutthroat life of heroics

i'd flesh out the characters more, their backstories, why they want to be heroes. i'd also build their relationships more. give them time to bond, spend time together outside of school without a disaster happening. filler type stuff

i like most of the plot up until the war arc, so i'd probably keep it, changing small things like stain. i think i'd make stain a former hero, like lady nagant, who saw corruption in his field and decided to handle it in the most extreme way. i would either get rid of stain attacking tensei or have it be a 'wrong place, wrong time' scenario where tensei found stain attempting to kill a different hero and wouldn't leave(similar to midoriya running in to save tenya)

ofa is one of the things about the og that annoys me. firstly, more than 9 users. probably 11-13. if it's supposed to be 2-3 hundred years since quirks, 9 doesn't make sense. especially since the first 3 were all around the same age and most of them died young. i'd also have more diverse users and quirks. i hate fa jin and gearshift, and danger sense and smokescreen don't make sense. blackwhip and float are great quirks. expand on the users' pasts as well. why were they chosen? what did they do with the quirk when they had it? also more izuku/vestige scenes. no random bakugou look alike user

i'd change a lot of the villain's stories. i'd change toga to actually be a victim of the system instead of just a blood-crazed lunatic. she was starved and didn't understand her cravings until she snapped and accidentally killed a classmate. from there, she's treated like a monster and pushed into the league who help her get the blood she needs which calms her down significantly. no wanting to become the people she loves and creepy harrasment of izuku and ochaco. just make her a scared teenage girl with no one else to go

as for shigaraki, when afo gets arrested show a slow change in his thought process, behavior, and lifestyle as he adjusts to life without the man who had been grooming and abusing him his entire life. make him realize afo isn't a helpful sensei but rather manipulating him. have him grow and reject afo and his ideas. have him start forming his own ideas of how he wants to change society

dabi is a tough one. i think i'd make him ostracized from his entire family. he had the quirk but not the body or mind for heroics. enji rejects him, rei can't stand his ambition, natsuo and fuyumi don't have anything in common and so he pushes them away, shoto is the masterpiece. this makes him more sullen and closed off. i'd have him run away instead of nearly dying and being save by afo. when he finds the league, he starts to open up more and develops more of a personality in this new family.

i wouldn't make kurogiri oboro. i think i'd scrap oboro as a whole. kurogiri is still a nomu but he has no ties to any heroes.

i'd have more people die in the war. more important heroes like all might, miruko, edgeshot, jeanist etc. bakugo stays dead, it's a tragedy that even someone as strong as him can't always win. maybe parents, friends, past classmates of the students because this is a war, collateral is going to happen. gran torino also should've died.

izuku: -make izuku's hair slowly turn white after he gets ofa so by the end it is completely white. this can be due to stress, having multiple quirks, getting a quirk when he didn't have one, etc. -all for one is his dad. this can explain why izuku can wield all of the past users' quirks, he's built to have multiple. now, this doesn't make afo a good person suddenly. he's still the man who groomed tenko and killed countless. maybe he just makes kids every now and then to get/make new quirks. it's just a game to him, he doesn't care about izuku or inko but it give izuku more personal stakes. -lean into izuku's analysis and intelligence more. -make monoma part of his friend group and have them bond over quirk analysis. -i think i'd make Mic his tutor. like how aizawa saw shinsou and decided to train him, mic sees izuku and his destructive quirk and decides to do something about it.

[thesuntookgoodcareofme]

Been seeing a lot of discussion on rgu and race(and racism) recently which I think it's great. I plan to do a coherent little analisys on it some (not near) time, but for now, there's this thing that has been on my brain since my first watch;

About Akio, that has all control overs Ohtori being a brown man, and Anthy being the sufferer of all oppression not only for being a girl, but also clearly different in the academy for being brown (suffering with what can really be interpreted as racism, because of the constant sexualization, objectification and villifying of her). It's a contrast between the two siblings that has to do i'd say with the inherent links of types of prejudice: misoginy, racism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism go ideologically and systemically hand in hand.

Anthy is a brown girl that endured the thousand swords of humanitys hatred, prejudice. She carries with herself the open wound of all the girls under patriarchy, but not just this, she is vulnerable. A trafficked brown queer teenage girl victim of systemical abuse. And although the anime 'focus' its themes on gender, still, we can clearly pick up on multiple adding interpretations of Anthy as the representation of girls of marginalized groups.

Akio is not vulnerable, as he is an adult, an authority figure, the patriarch (and almost its god, when he paints himself as Dios) of ohtoris system, the academys Headmaster. But he is a brown man that, as we know, is also a marginalized group. And Akio, despite his positions as both teorically Dios and symbolically Lucifer, is also inserted in his own system. He is not the owner of Ohtori, and pardon me if I mix up the titles and positions names i'm vry tired, he's being a substitute to the actual guy, Kanaes father. So, even in this position so high of authority, we can see that even he has to play his own game and fall beneath someone with more power than him. Because that's how hierarchies and patriarchy works. And it makes me remember of when we see his and Anthys backstories:

So now, the part I've been thinking about since ever:

The place where Anthy and Akio stay is a wooden cabin with hay, which is similar to the ones that were built in america in the beggining of colonization. I apologize deeply, but I forgot about the name of the structure and the name of the article that discussed Anthy being brown, but I'll link it if I find it again. Anthy wears this very humble red cloth, that is indubtly more simple than Dios and the peoples clothing. It shows the beggining of ostracization. Dios clothing is white and similar to a tuxedo like the crowd is wearing, and anthys is red just like the rosebride dress.

For me, that seems to show us how the man and woman gender hierarchy is a colonizer idea.

Anthy dresses in a piece of cloth of the same colour of her bridal dress, because her as a brown girl is not a princess, not worth of value, a witch, and only valuable as an man serving object. And Akio, being now categorized as a man, even though he'a a child, dresses in a white tuxedo similar to the ones worn by grooms. He's higher in the hierarchy, but still used. And when Anthy helps her brother herself, despite being the lowest in the worlds hierarchy, the crowd attacks her and it consolidates the system that Akio knows dives fully into, as the master, but also not unharmed; at least from when he was a kid.

[punkeropercyjackson]

Tim Drake is genuinely such a good character.He's such a positive role model for traumatized teenage boys because he's not idealized or a power fantasy.Tim's dad is rich,sure,but he's neither cartoonishly abusive nor the perfect angel,he's just kinda........there.I firmly believe Jack Drake was a bad parent but that was out of stupidity,not active malice although he was definitely hostile and neglectful often enough that he qualifies as abusive at least passively.Tim's part of the dead moms club and he loves and misses Janet so much.He's got ego problems and no manners or class and is downright mean but he also has so much boundless kindness and optimism and hope and extends his hand and everything he can offer to everyone,everybody,anyone who needs it and he gets so upset when he thinks he could've done more no matter the circumstances.He has troubled taking care of himself to the point he developed narcolepsy and he's skapunk because he's a skateboarder and a Green Day fan and mouths off to authority figures and even commits crimes all the time both heroic and mudane and respects women contrary to what fanon tells you and his favorite food is pizza with canadian bacon and he's a lifelong Nightwing fanboy and he's undiagnosed audhd anxious/teen trans boy-coded and he's bisexual and has pulled so many people without even trying most of the time and was just being a dumbass kid with no idea how to do date but has insane rizz too and he has goth energy without even dressing it and his best friends are a punk trans girl named Wendy with grooming trauma who chose her name after a 90s girl power show protagonist but also after Wendy from Peter Pan,a short kiddy chaos weirdboygirl who's her boyfriend and has a complex family situation and a greek bruh butch dating an ex-child star femme lesbian in their friend group who kissed Tim once out of nowhere back in her comphet phase and he's been sa'd multiple times in ways that're so normilzed they're not recognized as sa so he dosen't even know he's a survivor.He's not flawless by any means but it's not his fault because so many adults in his life screwed him over and treated him like shit and didn't give him what he needed and he's not toxic or abusive or a fuckboy,he's just a normal traumatized 17 year old trying his best and that makes him inherently lovable.Tim Drake you mean so much to me little dude and triffling ass Jaybird uwu fuckers could never make hate you.'Nobody cares about Tim Drake!!!'I CARE ABOUT TIM DRAKE BITCH,I CARE!!!!!HE'S MY LITTLE BROTHER

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Social media has been abuzz with details of Donald Trump's relationship with the late notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but while the pair knew each other for decades, there are no new revelations in the so-called Epstein Files released this year.

Misleading and sensational claims about Trump and Epstein have percolated online this week, circulating on Reddit and TikTok. On X, the hashtag #TrumpPedoFiles trended throughout Wednesday, according to the website Trends24.in, which tracks the platform. The claims got a boost this week from Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California.

"Something I’ve heard that doesn’t seem to be being covered are the Epstein files. These files were released. Donald Trump is sort of all over this. There are pictures of him with Jeffrey Epstein. He’s taken multiple plane flights with Epstein, with young girls aboard. He’s in call logs with Epstein,” Lieu told reporters Tuesday, urging them to look into the "highly disturbing" allegations.

"It shows that Donald Trump is unfit for office," Lieu said.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded Thursday by calling Lieu a "loser who continues to beclown himself. He has let Trump Derangement Syndrome rot his brain."

WHAT ARE THE 'EPSTEIN FILES'?

Jeffrey Epstein was a New York and Florida-based financier who was awaiting trial on one count of sex trafficking and one count of sex trafficking conspiracy in 2019 when officials said he died by suicide in his jail cell. The indictment in his case alleged that he sought out minors, some as young as 14, from at least 2002 through 2005 and paid them hundreds of dollars in cash for sex at either his Manhattan townhouse or his estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

The "Epstein files," as Lieu referred to them, is a bit of a misnomer. The files and documents involving Epstein and his alleged accomplices are spread out across various state and federal investigations, numerous lawsuits by victims, and the criminal trial of Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

There has been no new information linking Epstein to Trump in years at this point.

Lieu shrugged off questions about the accuracy of his characterization in a brief interview Thursday with NBC News, saying people should "just Google" the links between the two. "Look at all the Epstein files, whether it was released three years ago, two years ago, it doesn’t really matter when it’s released," he said.

HOW DID TRUMP AND EPSTEIN KNOW EACH OTHER?

Trump was at one point friends with Epstein. “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York magazine in 2002, before there were any public allegations of wrongdoing against multimillionaire money manager. “He’s a lot of fun to be with," Trump said then. "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."

A November 1992 clip from the NBC archives showed the two socializing at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, pointing out women on the dance floor. Trump is seen gesturing to one woman and appears to say to Epstein, “Look at her, back there. … She’s hot.” Epstein reacted with a smile and a nod. Trump then said something into Epstein’s ear that caused him to double over with laughter.

The footage was shot by NBC for Faith Daniels’ talk show, “A Closer Look,” and NBC News republished it in 2019, while Trump was president and Epstein was awaiting trial.

Trump was also photographed with Epstein at an event at Mar-a-Lago in 2000, along with future first lady Melania Knauss and Maxwell, who's now serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and grooming teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.

After Epstein’s arrest, Trump, who was president at the time, distanced himself from the disgraced financier. “I was not a fan,” he told reporters at a July 2019 news conference. “I had a falling out with him a long time ago.”

Trump had warmer words for Maxwell after her arrest in 2020. “I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly,” Trump said.

“I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach, and I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well, whatever it is,” he added.

Testifying at Maxwell’s 2021 trial in New York City, a woman identified by the pseudonym Jane said that she met the future president in the 1990s at Mar-a-Lago, his resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Jane didn’t allege any improper behavior by Trump and didn’t go into further detail about why she was at the resort.

Another Epstein victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, said she was 15 and working at Mar-a-Lago as a locker room attendant when she was “recruited” by Maxwell. She’s testified that she’d met Trump but never witnessed him doing anything untoward.

What new information about Epstein was just released?

Grand jury records relating to the state investigation into Epstein in Florida in 2006 were made public on July 1. None of the newly released records involved Trump.

The state investigation contained an Epstein address book and a telephone message pad that were made public to NBC News and other news organizations over the past 10 years that did refer to Trump. It does not say why Trump was in those records. Trump was not implicated in the state investigation as having any sexual conduct with women associated with Epstein or with any allegations of illegal sexual conduct.

DID TRUMP FLY ON EPSTEIN'S PLANE?

"I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island,” Trump said in a social media post in January.

Flight logs released in 2021 as part of Maxwell’s trial, however, indicated Trump flew on the plane seven times. The logs don't include the ages of the passengers, despite Lieu's assertion there were "young girls aboard." The logs indicate that on one of the trips between New York and Florida he was accompanied by his then-wife Marla Maples and their daughter, Tiffany, and another listed his son Eric as a passenger.

According to the logs, others who flew on Epstein's plane included former President Bill Clinton, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Britain's Prince Andrew and actor Kevin Spacey.

WAS TRUMP EVER ACCUSED OF ANY WRONGDOING RELATED TO EPSTEIN?

Ahead of the 2016 general election, a woman who went by the name of “Katie Johnson” filed a suit naming Trump and Epstein as co-defendants. She claimed that Trump had raped her in the 1990s at a party at Epstein’s New York home. The case went nowhere: A federal judge dismissed the case, and then the woman dropped her lawsuit two different times — all in 2016.

Other documents unsealed in January relating to a defamation suit against Maxwell included allegations involving Trump that first became public in 2019.

Sarah Ransome claimed in emails to a New York Post columnist in 2016 that Trump, Bill Clinton and others were involved in Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking scheme. She'd claimed to have videos of some of the participants. Ransome recanted the allegations in a follow-up email to the columnist. The New Yorker reported on the emails in 2019.

Trump spokesman Cheung said in January that “these baseless accusations have been fully retracted because they are simply false and have no merit.”

WHAT HAS TRUMP SAID ABOUT THE 'EPSTEIN FILES'?

Trump was asked in an interview on "Fox & Friends Weekend" last month whether he'd "declassify the Epstein files" if he was re-elected, and indicated he had concerns about doing so.

He initially said, "Yeah, I would," before hedging. "I guess I would. I think that less so because you don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there, because it’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would," Trump said.

TRUMP'S EPSTEIN CONSPIRACY THEORY

Referring to Epstein's death, Trump told the show, "It’d be interesting to find out what happened there, because that was a weird situation."

Trump had previously sounded off on the conspiracy theories about the death. Officials in Trump's Justice Department said Epstein had hanged himself.

Asked by Tucker Carlson last year if he thought it was possible Epstein was killed, Trump said: “Oh, sure. I think it’s possible. I mean, I don’t really believe — I think he probably committed suicide. He had a life with beautiful homes and beautiful everything and all of a sudden he’s incarcerated and not doing very well. I would say that he did. But there are those people — there are many people. I think you’re one of them. Many people who think he was killed. He knew a lot on a lot of people.”

[hateaintwinning]

Unwelcome-ozian is an abuser

Here is a check list of common abuse tactics and Unwelcome ozian's perfect score. Reminder as of writing this the victim is a teenage girl, and was 15 when she began chatting with nwo.

Emotional abuse:

Silent treatment - refusal to communicate.

Gas lighting - playing victim after coercing a teenage girl to tell him more and then ghosting her. He implied he didn't want anything to do with her publicly after privately pushing her to talk to him .

Blame shifting / victim blaming - calling the girl obsessed after he manipulated her and trauma bonded her to them by love bombing and alternating between validating and ignoring her. Ignoring her for weeks and months after asking for updates, and then talking to them for 3 days, promising to read everything, then back to ignoring them despite her pleas to be acknowledged. Then using this trauma to further gas light and harm her by painting her as the aggressor.

Intentionally humiliating a teenage girl - putting her on blast, along with her deep personal traumas and thoughts, intimate details, and identifying information to his follows and the entire internet.

Manipulation:

Calculating - not responding to use the victim's emotional upset against her instead of asking her to stop. Using his followers to dox and humiliate her.

Hypocrisy - wanting others to respect his boundaries while violating other people's boundaries. Wanting others to compasionately consider his condition and mental emotional state while ignoring that of others, or better yet using it to insult and dismiss them.

Excuses - using sympathy for his trauma to avoid responsibility. Avoiding criticism (and growth) by acting as though anyone who takes issues with his behavior are trying to silence him, which is a disgrace to all that is being silenced, and further hypocrisy because he is the one who dismisses and silences so many other survivors.

Threats - saying he will post the (dox) stalkers papers again to another website multiple times after staff removed the content for violating community guidelines. Possibly suggesting he may sue the victim.

Stalking / hoovering - admitting to monitoring the victim's accounts, and saving their posts.

Validation/ supply - the people he is the warmest to are teenage girls who validate and adore him. I say this after speaking to many users. He gets a supply of validation and attention online and likely uses this justify himself and or soothe his extremely low self worth.

Lack of empthy - Cruelty and vengeance in his response. Not caring about the trauma he may have been inflicting or the long term damage to his young victim. Score keeping by looking for payback with a malicious attack on his victims reputation.

Lack of remorse - no accountability or acknowledgement of the pain and damages he inflicts. Instead of changing or growing for the better, this is a pattern continuing to develop and escalate.

Grooming:

Inappropriate boundaries - setting no boundaries on what the teenage girl can say or talk about with him one on one. This intimacy was wildly inappropriate.

Breaking boundaries - pushing her to continue when she wanted to stop.

Inappropriate displays of sexuality - responding to her and encouraging her after she calls him "Daddy", says "I love you", and "another part of me think you could never resist reading what I send you" directly after talking about experiencing sexual feelings. He replied saying he will not reject her

I don't like the pop psychology demonization of NPD, but Unwelcome-ozian himself explained there is a category of abuse specifically classified as 'narcissistic abuse', and this fits his behavior the best. Pedophilic narcissistic abuse.

[thundersyst3m]

HAPPY SUGAR LIFE SPOILERS

.

My favorite activity is seeing people get into HSL and go "Noo guys, Satou and Shio's relationship is like a sibling one in Satou's head, she's just confused!"

Nah man, is romantic love, its disgusting as hell, the manga want to trick you into cheering for something gross by making the protagonist a super cute girl, and you're falling for It like a little dummy,

HSL (manga) is supposed to make you uncomfortable, its supposed to challenge your moral,

HAPPY SUGAR LIFE IS NOT A YURI, HAPPY SUGAR LIFE IS A PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR ABOUT GROOMING AN ABUSED CHILD, ITS A MANGA ABOUT DIFFERENT KINDS OF ABUSE AND GROOMING, WE GET MULTIPLE EXAMPLES!!!

Satou herself is only 16 and goes through many weird situations with adults, Mitsuboshi gets abused at work by his female boss (he's also a teenager like Satou!!), ITS ABOUT THE DISGUSTING NATURE OF GROOMING AND CHILD ABUSE!!!

[dear-space-cadet]

posting about Franz is very fun however I have to compartmentalize all the Alex DM/grooming stuff in order to do it and it’s hard. I haven’t talked about this on here before but Alex was in my DMs and the DMs of multiple other teenage girls between 2014ish and 2019ish before he was in a public relationship w Clara. I think he’s basically stopped since then, at least that I know of. he cut me off in particular when I was 18 and I didn’t realize anything was wrong with our relationship until I was 20. but yeah he would treat us like pseudo-daughters, pseudo-girlfriends in a very platonic sense that only becomes weird when you take it out of that vacuum. like he was asking teenage girls for advice and he held a LOT over our heads (like threatening not to talk to us anymore if we told anyone).

here’s something I wrote about it two years ago

I hope he figures his shit out bc he has a nasty habit of manipulating and using people with less power than him through some sort of weird charming quality he has. idk.

After I posted about it on Twitter in 2023 I got DMs from SO MANY (5 or 6) other girls who went thru the same thing with him. I got a DM from a sex worker and I’m not going to go into detail but basically, she said my post about him concerned her a lot bc he used the same language he used with me (wanting to protect me, seeing me as so much younger than him, etc) in a sexual way while they were hooking up. Alex blocked me on Twitter for a while but unblocked after people started talking about for a bit it in summer 2023. He knows what he did.

But in the purely fandom sense I love Franz Ferdinand and always will. I really just have to separate public!Alex, 2004!Alex, FANON!Alex etc from what I know about him. That’s why I’m doing a video essay on Franz blurring the lines of fandom, friendship, and inappropriate relationships with fans anyway. Blah blah tldr Alex weird

Also this is all likely related to the Steckrube lyric but I don’t want to think about it bc although I was a teenager and probably not concealing my identity enough, he probably knows I wrote itao LMFAO

[cryinginthefkncorner]

Look, i know I’m about to kick a wasps nest, but I need to say it.

I don’t really care for fandom shipping discourse, I don’t take Sides religiously as both have good points, and ultimately I’m just anti-censorship…

…but that doesn’t mean I think the pro side is all right and the anti side is all wrong

Both sides harass the shit out of each other, both sides extremists are bad and need to go touch grass

But y’all also need nuance in these discussions your having

Because let me tell you, as someone who was groomed by multiple predators (one would go on to abuse me Irl for 7 years of my life btw, starting when I was a tween) because of fandom, the pro side of the debate has made it quite clear that they don’t actually care to understand the ramifications of the type of abuse I went through, or to actually listen to survivors of CSA who’s abuse occurred through fandom.

The pro side will be quick to point fingers at adults of kids in fandom, but the adults in charge of me were told by therapists I was seeing at the time that I was “being a normal tween” for believing I wanted to be in a relationship with an adult at 13/14. That I was “over dramatic and should be responsible for what happened” at the hands of this adult when I disclosed the first time about the abuse. I also got in trouble for the evidence of the grooming that was found by my parents, instead of them realizing I was being targeted by a creep.

Part of this was because I was a lonely, bullied, and ostracized kid.

It’s almost like sexual predators bank on adults failing to act and blaming young girls for the abuse. It’s almost like they’re right when they tell young girls that no one will believe them when they disclose. The pro side proves this too by how they justify their romanticization by pointing fingers at parents “not parenting kids” as if they can never do anything wrong, or miss the signs.

My parents missed the signs because they assumed a teenager (who was 17-18 when he started abusing 13 year old me) could not be a pedophile. They were happy their daughter “had finally found someone to talk to” because my own peers hated me and bullied me every chance they got at that age. To the point where I was actively suicidal for years.

All of this grooming happened because I dared to interact with the MLP fandom at 13. And trust me that fandom was filled with pedos at the peak of its popularity. Like I said multiple full grown men groomed and RPG’d in a sexual way with me, even after I disclosed my age. Because I dared to like pastel colored pony’s and I wrote some (PG-13) fanfic, and drew some fanart.

And trust me, I saw the romanticization of my own abuse in that fandom, and seeing it being defended still is disconcerting.

Like, an actual survivor saying “hey, please don’t portray the abuse that ruined my fucking life as a good thing please” shouldn’t make y’all so fucking mad. But it does. And it’s fucking weird.

I’m not going to name call or anything, won’t even tell you what you can or can’t post but just know I’m one of those people where if you are posting that crap and I stumble upon it, or are vocally defending your right to romanticize it, that I’m silently judging you.

And I’m just going to block you if you try to defend it on this post.

I’d say that if you want to avoid drama maybe just get a fucking sensitivity reader if your discussing CSA, and aren’t trying to romanticize it. But apparently sensitivity readers are just “enforcing censorship” or whatever so I know I’m just talking to the equivalent of a brick wall.

Before you bring up not reading this stuff- I don’t, I’m just kinda sick of a real problem in fandom being dismissed and victims being blamed for their abuse

Before you bring up Lolita as a “gotcha” defense- I have reading comprehension abilities, evidenced by how I have a minor in creative writing (which btw involves a metric fuck-ton of reading and discerning meaning and intentions of the author from those readings) Lolita was not defending predators, it’s meaning was twisted by people who want to defend grooming and csa, and since I can tell the difference between condemnation and romanticization, I’m sure a lot of people who share my opinions also can as well. Not everyone with “anti” opinions is uneducated like you think they are, some of us are just expressing why we have limits and why we find certain portrayal distasteful. If you think I’m still wrong i reccomend going back and reading the prologue in Lolita that you obviously skipped.

Before you say I’m advocating for censorship- I’m not, I’m just saying you don’t get to shout at abuse victims who were affected through fandom to shut up. Write insensitive portrayals of traumatizing shit, and then get upset when someone tells you your portrayal is making the traumatizing shit look like it’s a-okay. If you post something on this vein be prepared for someone to say that what you wrote is portraying harmful stereotypes (ie that CSA isn’t harmful if an often repeated myth, it’s akin to saying rape victims were “asking for it” because they were drunk).

Also I’ve never harassed anyone about this in my life, in fact the people who defend romanticization of my abuse are usually just blocked on site, because I just don’t want to deal with the shit-stirring that occurs.

And finally for those who think this is me being against harm reduction- I’m not against harm reduction, maybe these thing are harm reduction for awhile, but eventually, just like alcohol or painkillers, these little fanfic stories aren’t going to be enough for would-be predators forever. They will build up a tolerance where imagination and text isn’t enough anymore, and that’s when they start to actually do the real illegal shit.

If you have reading comprehension you’ll realize I’m am not saying fiction=reality, but to spell it out more clearly, the fiction isn’t making them offend, the inability for the fiction to be enough to get them off is what leads them to offend. It’s like someone who can’t get oxy turning to heroin out of desperation.

When the harm reduction doesn’t work anymore, is it really reducing harm, especially when the stuff they now turn to is the illegal stuff they were supposedly trying to “avoid” in the first place.

Anyway, that’s my thoughts on this shit, I’m tired of seeing it debated or people with the same trauma being told to shut up because the truth is inconvenient. I needed to just get it out.

Anyone who openly defends this crap in the notes or reblogs will be blocked.

[partywithponies]

Thoughts on the book "Love Lessons" by Jacqueline Wilson?

Complicated. It's well written. It's very readable and the characters all have very distinct voices and personalities. And I get what Jacky was going for. The way she explained it in interviews was that it wasn't supposed to be realistic, it was supposed to be a schoolgirl fantasy for teenage girls who fancied their teacher, an unrealistic fantasy where he does like her back to be explored in the safety of an unrealistic novel. Like I get where she was coming from, I don't think she had bad intentions.

But it just didn't land that way, did it. It just comes across that this abused child got groomed and then blamed for it, which then gives the reader the idea that if this happens to them, it is their fault. And that's pretty bad.

And like, Jacky knows that too. The amount of more recent JW books that feature an older man in a position of authority like a teacher being portrayed as weird about pretty girls in their care and being portrayed as unambiguously in the wrong for that, not to mention Baby Love features a whole multiple page author's note at the end about consent and how even if the teen girls in the book felt like they consented or like they were the ones who "corrupted" the respectable adult men they slept with, they were the child and the blame lies solely on the shoulders of the older man, no matter what the common opinion of the time was in the era the book is set, it was still wrong then and it's still wrong now.

And that's why Jacqueline Wilson is my favourite author! She proves time and again that she's willing to listen and learn and admit to her mistakes and change her viewpoints. Right down to the fact that even though books like Take A Good Look or Sleepovers were fair for their day and better portrayals of disabled caracters than featured in most kids books at the time, Jacky still looks at them from a modern perspective, learns from actual disabled fans she meets, and says "not good enough though, is it?" and then writes books like Katy and The Best Sleepover In The World. She's a genuinely nice person, and the way she actively takes criticism and feedback from the actual young people she meets, incorporates it into her future books, and then gives these children and young people a shoutout in the author's notes of the new books in question is something I don't see from literally any other author of her level of fame and success. JKR could never. Enid Blyton could never.

[scumashling]

Things Himeno from Chainsaw Man has in common with real life groomers I've encountered.

CW: mentions of SA, grooming, abuse, addiction, suicide

Himeno is extremely charming and witty individual

Himeno is well liked and respected in her peer group

Himeno is a very attractive woman, and people do not perceive her as threatening

Himeno has a reputation for being a Fun Girl

Himeno cares deeply for the people she considers her found family

Himeno identifies as “having a few screws loose” and likes people who are the same

Life has left Himeno with a lot of scars of both the physical and mental variety

Himeno is a high functioning alcoholic who binge drinks to cope with her trauma and every day stress alike

Himeno has had to put too many friends in the ground

Himeno is here for a good time and not a long time

Himeno doesn't feel in control of her life

Himeno is lonely, and spreads her addictions to others to feel less alone

Himeno feels like she's living on borrowed time

Himeno has touched a lot of lives in a positive ways and people like her because she's been good to them

Himeno is an adult who hangs out with multiple teenagers

Himeno is not violent,

Himeno is not harmless

Himeno behaves in a more sexually aggressive manner when when intoxicated

Himeno is a deeply broken adult trying to fill the gaping void in her soul with the attention of a child

When Himeno gets wasted and kisses a minor, her friends think its funny

Denji's friends do not protect him from Himeno because they have also been groomed

Himeno genuinely likes and enjoys Denji’s company

Part of reason Himeno likes Denji is because she knows he finds her very attractive

Himeno’s victim has been violently abused in the past

Himeno’s victim often doesn’t say no because people don’t listen when he does

Himeno dislikes a worse, more malicious sexual predator

Himeno does not want to hurt Denji. She still does.

Himeno does not think of herself as a predatory or manipulative person. She still is.

Himeno would say “I'm not a groomer, I'm just a loser.”

Himeno assaults a minor at her home when they are both drunk

After Himeno assaults him, Denji sleeps on the floor instead of her bed

Himeno does not remember the assault

Himeno apologizes to Denji when she sobers up and they stay friends

Himeno chocks the assault up to a drunk mistake, and her victim doesn't contradict her

Himeno's victim bears no ill will towards her

When Himeno kills herself, it leaves good people in ruins

[presidenthades]

I am doing very minor revisions of Daemon’s Handbook (mostly formatting and continuity errors), and I wanted to do some behind-the-scenes commentary before too much time passes and I forget my original thoughts. Here’s Chapter 7!

(Note that these commentaries aren’t canon to the verse until/unless the author writes them into the series. I might change my mind on a few points later, but these are the thoughts I had while writing.)

If I had to pick a favorite chapter to write, it’s this one. It’s the first post-time skip chapter, so we get to behold all the children (now young adults) in full horny mood.

Also, Alyssa develops a personality, and BOY is it a personality. I originally planned to make her a female version of Aegon III, who is very quiet, but it occurred to me that a hellion would be more fun (and torturous for Daemon, which is the real goal in this fic).

Aegon and Aemond are supposed to return directly to King’s Landing and wait with their family to receive the Dragonstone party, but Aegon decided he couldn’t wait to see Jace again and Aemond only required mild convincing to go along. And yes, the boys took a bath first in some river so they look nice and groomed~

One of Jace’s biggest character quirks is anxiety. She has ALL the anxiety. Comes with being an eldest sibling and second in line for the throne. I don’t consider her shallow, but she perceives her appearance as an important part of her political and social toolkit because the society they live in puts a lot of stock in appearances, especially women’s. So she’s finicky about looking the right part for every occasion. (Also she wants to look nice for her husband whom she hasn’t seen in three years, nothing wrong with that.)

I made Luce a knitter, partly because I’m a knitter and I like incorporating my interests, and partly because I wanted to give her a textile craft that wasn’t embroidery. I hope I’m not being too biased when I say that in this era, knitted products (like socks) are more useful than embroidered products (like fancy handkerchiefs). The practical value of knitting, and it being an acceptable craft for ladies even if it’s not as popular as embroidery, seemed fitting for Luce, who isn’t super conventional but also not a complete rebel. I also really like the imagery of her sending flowery socks to the Stepstones for Aegon and Aemond and Grandpa Corlys to wear.

Daemon is fit for his age, but he’s in his 40s and he’s got a lot of old battle wounds, so chasing around toddlers is fairly strenuous. Also, toddlers are FAST. Alyssa is closer to three than two, and she’s spent her entire life trying to keep up with her older sisters, so she’s got a fairly good sense of balance and isn’t stumbling around as much.

“Pretty girl” is 100% Aegon’s pet name for Jace, and I’m using it gratuitously in one of the sequel fics, which is Jace and Aegon-centric. (I’ll have an update soon on what I’m writing next, but I’ve decided to break down the epic longfic idea into multiple, more manageable mid-length fics.)

Aemond thinks Alyssa is spooked by his eyepatch and scar at first, but she’s actually falling in love at first sight. 😂 She’s got heterochromia so she probably *likes* that his eyes aren’t symmetrical either.

Aegon and Aemond are no longer afraid of Daemon! They’ve seen a lot of shit in the Stepstones, so their middle-aged uncle seems like less of a big deal now. Poor Daemon.

Aegon and Aemond are currently 18 and 16, so I made their stomachs black holes like most teenaged boys. They also have been eating a lot of rations at the Stepstones, even as royal princes, so a “plain” meal at Dragonstone seems awesome.

I have nothing to say about the melons, except that I’m very sorry for Lucera 🥲

Idk why but there’s something about Jace being very dutiful and proper that attracts messy rebels like Aegon and Baela. Opposites attracting, maybe? Kinda like how Luce is on the wilder side but Aemond is super put-together. I’ve thought about a crackish scenario where Viserys messes things up (as usual) and betroths Jace/Aemond and Luce/Aegon. I think Jace and Aemond would get bored with each other while Luce and Aegon might accidentally kill each other.

Jace and Aegon know their siblings are being stupid about their feelings for each other. Jace tries not to meddle (she doesn’t like it when Daemon meddles so she resists the urge), and Aegon makes fun of Aemond in the half-hearted hope it’ll goad Aemond into doing something.

I like to imagine that Luce eventually invents double-entry accounting in this universe. I also think she’s a big fan of the abacus, which is a more visual way of keeping track of numbers. She also likes charts and graphs in general.

The three dragonglass daggers that Luce orders from the blacksmith are for her, Jace, and Joff. (Luce loves all her sisters, but she has a special place in her heart for the three of them who are full-blooded sisters.) Purple for Jace (royal color for the future queen), green for Luce (like the sea and Velaryon colors), red for Joff (Targaryen color, nice and bloody). She isn’t expecting her sisters to use them as weapons; she wanted to make a gesture before Jace’s official wedding, since it marks a huge change in their lives.

I keep describing Luce and Aemond’s relationship in this fic as Pride and Prejudice-esque, and I stand by it. Miscommunication, ego issues, awkward flirting, a failed first proposal. One commenter described Daemon as the anti-Mrs Bennet, trying his best NOT to let the girls marry. 😂 And if we keep the analogy going, Clement Celtigar is Mr Collins while Otto is the closest thing we have to Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

I established in the beginning that Daemon is very bad with feelings. This scene where he tries to comfort Baela is part of his character arc and emotional growth, but he stumbles a few times more before the end of the fic.

I am very pleased that so many readers pinpointed Joff/Daeron as black cat and golden retriever energy, because I was definitely going for that. Daeron spews a lot of word vomit in his one line of dialogue, but you might notice he mentions “I got that thing you really wanted.” See the final scene in Chapter 11 for “that thing.” 👀

Jace is making PR a priority in her reign (and before her reign). She’s observed how loyal the Dragonstone smallfolk are to the Targaryens and wants to spread that loyalty to the realm’s smallfolk in general. This is why she and Aegon do the flight into the city, and why she has her Princess Diana moment on the way to the wedding.

Chapter 8 commentary here

[horizon-verizon]

https://www.tumblr.com/wishesofeternity/699562103667851264/daemon-targaryen-rant-incoming-warning-its

curious of your thoughts about this post?

Disclaimers: None of this means you have to like Daemon or approve any of his earlier actions or think he's a good person--bc that was never the argument.

And this post will also be long. There's so much to address, and there's a character limit, so I might miss some or summarize too much.

A)

Them:

Daemon Targaryen, like every other character, possesses the capacity for good and evil and the ability to choose. But morally? Daemon was a child groomer and a pedophile who had physical relations with his teenage niece and a 17-year old girl (he was 50 at the time), and enjoyed sampling young virgins at brothels.

So the quote that they pull, firstly, is this:

“Over the centuries, House Targaryen has produced both great men and monsters. Prince Daemon was both. In his day there was not a man so admired, so beloved, and so reviled in all Westeros. He was made of light and darkness in equal parts. To some he was a hero, to others the blackest of villains.”

And I'll just say that this is written by a character in-world, Gyldayn. It's valuable to keep reminding ourselves that this is a maester who is compiling sources to try to get pictures of who these people were so we can consider how the narrative is being framed. Let's get into it:

1)

Daemon didn't fuck Nettles.

2)

He was however, likely to have been including virgins in his use of sex workers at brothels. I doubt that he only went to brothels for virgins with a Valyrian look, there's no evidence of that. Gross, bc buying sex work itself is already problematic [post abt Mysaria and sex work]. Add deflowering peasant girls maybe as young as 15? yeah...smh

So I would still concede a bit here. Definitely the "darkness" of his past and the "darkness" part of his character.

3)

I've gone back and forth with how we label what he was doing with Rhaenyra after he came back form the Stepstones. Can you put some labels on it, bc under scrutiny there are flaws.

When we think of grooming, we consider it as the older person trying to get the younger psychologically detached from their support system by convincing them that they can only rely on them...and unfortunately, I'd say that of all the people Rhaenyra had then, Daemon was the person who actually was there for her more than any other in her entire life (except maybe Aemma). And I really think he entered KL with the intent to marry Rhaenyra, not to use her up in a similar way that show!Viserys does Alicent. The issue with Dameyra people have is whether or not Daemon married her just to be her consort and rule through her, when by the evidence of F&B, he never tried to overpower her and willfully became her political subordinate similar to how he still followed most and the more important of Viserys' orders (sending Mysaria away the that was literally his first child). A groomer wouldn't tolerate such a gap in power relations.

Rhaenyra didn't follow his advice concerning the Rosby & Stokeworth debacle; his was a kinda suitable compromise even as it shunted the Rosby and Stokeworth girls and I am making commentary on how Daemon tried to plan according for Rhaenyra's future. Daemon might have showed his displeasure, but here and in all their years of marriage, he never seemed to try to overpower her directions until the very last And in that last moment, I suspect that Nettles was either a surrogate daughter or his actual bio daughter.

(I explain about Viserys multiple times, but people can start HERE.)

A difference here is how the relations helped Rhaenrya vs Alicent; Rhaenyra, for better or worse, was Viserys' heir whereas Alicent was a Hightower lady from a second son who could have had any man and still live a better life and has had no other benefit to anyone other than her father, house, herself, and Viserys.

Rhaenyra needed a husband and heirs to be more assured in her queenship role, which in turn could have provided that precedent of female rulership for other women and girls. And quite simply put, the court knowing Laenor had no interest in women presented a glaring problem for the paternity of Rhaenyra' heirs and gave more ammo to her enemies. Yes the Velaryons have their fleet Rhaenyra could use, but a marriage pact with Laena's kids to Rhaenyra's PLUS Princess Rhaenys' relations to Rhaenyra, Viserys, & Daemon had some way of allying Corlys' ambitions to Rhaenyra. It's highly doubtful bk!Rhaenys would just go green, even if Corlys wanted to and neither Baela nor Rhaena existed bc the greens are just more tied to the Hightowers.

Like yes, Daemon giving the gifts to Rhaenyra and spending time with her and making fun of Alicent and her kids for Rhaenrya's amusement--with the knowledge that it didn't come with his pure intentions but partly because he wanted to become her consort--comes across as dangerous for a young girl like Rhaenyra and is certainly has cunning in it. HE also knew that Viserys wouldn't like that Daemon was partly giving such attentions to marry her bc he knows Viserys (stupidly, I might add, again, refer to the post abt Viserys) doesn't trust Daemon to actually work towards the family or really his own political interests, so we can't say that it is exactly Daemon courting her. I also suspect him of being jealous of Daemon, bk or show, bc of their history and what I said about Viserys' insecuriites in the linked post.

To officially "court" someone, their parents or guardians would have to allow the interactions. [again, refer to the linked reblog abt Viserys]. Simultaneously:

Rhaenyra was already being arranged to get married at her age of 15, and by Westerosi larger patriarchal structure she was eligible for marriage even not by being 16, bc exceptions are made for girls in ways they aren't for boys; it's not totally conducive to use her age to something to discourage Daemon from pursuing her IN THIS PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCE or this world and in their traditions....which is why I hate real-world modern AUs for ASoIaF characters....her interactions with Daemon before Viserys found out, therefore, arguably display her having more "choice" than otherwise, even though we'd have to now examine how Daemon's specific actions, words, diction, etc. [WHICH WE DON'T HAVE BC THIS SGYLADYN DOESN'T HAVE ACCESS TO SUCH!] are unambiguously him deceiving Rhaenyra, how much are gray-room manipulation, and see how much "choice" Rhaenyra really has and it still wouldn't be the end-all-be all bc of the world they all live in

Viserys would have never let Daemon marry her for the wrong reasons. I don't think Daemon went in with the mind of taking advantage so much as unofficially "court" Rhaenyra in the absence of the permission he'd never obtain to force Viserys' hand. And because of this circumstance limiting both Rhaenyra and Daemon's actions, the whole thing slides into an area of where the already questionable practice of courtship and age gap relations that Westeros already has

One of the best interpretations of Daemon's interactions with Rhaenyra at this time and what I describe are written in sweetestpopcorn's fanfic The Blacks and the Greens HERE. Their Daemon is an asshole who manipulates there. He also becomes, as in canon, devoted to her herself and her cause to become queen, so he willingly serves to be, again, her political subordinate in a way that groomers can't and never can be.

B)

Them:

He was a warmonger and war criminal who began a conquest of the Stepstones, taking all but two islands, ensuring that the people there "learned to fear" his dragon, before abandoning the entire thing because he got bored.

This is what "warmonger" means:

a person who encourages or advocates aggression towards other countries or groups

The Triarchy, or the Kingdom of the Three Daughters (Lys, Myr, Tyrosh), did not manage to keep the pirates they would eventually enable out of this critical piece of land between Essos and Westeros. Traders were getting assaulted and girls were getting kidnapped and trafficked. In the show, Corlys appealed to the crown for years and both bk/show!Viserys ignored the situation in the Stepstones for a long time ("A Question of Succession"):

Yes, Daemon saw in the Stepstones an opportunity to make a name for himself as what is valued in men in this system. But he certainly provoke or encourage the wars' existence because the fighting began 10 yrs before he ever even approached Corlys. There is also no evidence of him manipulating the situation where the fighting actually stopped and it began again due to any action on his part. There simply was a resurgence of enemies to fight.

If they are defining him as a warmonger because he doesn't care too much about stopping fighting or has a bloodlust for it, that's neither what that word means nor is it pathological as they seem to imply it of him. Again this is a feudal world....that rules that the "best" sort of man is a warrior who wins battles. How do young men and boys make names for themselves? By fighting in battles and winning most if not all of the, showing physical and military "prowess". Even Jaehaerys honed his physical skills at 14-15 to prove to others he was a fit king AND tried to get his son Vaegon out of his books and learn more swordsmanship through Baelon. Jaehaerys subscribed much into that warrior-male ideology as most people in their circles did. Rogar sought glory in battle as a way to fix up his reputation from trying to usurp Jaehaerys. Orys Baratheon sought to re-position himself as useful to Aegon I through battling more Dornish. So Daemon's hardly unique enough for his using battle and war to build his reputation or having that desire to use war to advance himself, esp when he knows he's good at it.

This doesn't mean that he is a good person or that we should default back to feudal times or kill people. It means that the OP has a distorted view of Daemon and makes him uniquely evil when he hardly is. If anything, he's in this weird middle area of having that "respect" and having nothing substantial in terms of power on his own besides Caraxes, being good at this one soceity-valued thing, and being related to Viserys or Rhaenyra. So he rather took an opportunity that Viserys left open.

His efforts at the Stepstones actually brought the Stepstones more (if not totally) into Westeros' political hegemony and overall relative "peace" for a time until the new war the greens began ruined it. And unlike Rogar, who died in Dorne and stubbornly refused to go back to his home (bc he didn't want to really face what he did to Alyssa Velaryon AND the "humiliation" of Rhaena's confronting and threatening him), Daemon "tires" of the Stepstones & marries Laena to settle down ("A Question of Succession"):

I mean, if U.S. soldiers cite being "tired" of being away from home, why can't we also assume Daemon was in a similar place? He's been at the Stepstones for more than 5 years, including the time he was exiled afterwhatever happened b/t him and Rhaenrya in 111. I don't see how this perosn thought he left bc "he got bored" when it's still war...you are going to get reasonably tired of being in a battle no matter how good you are at it. Especially when you're also trying to maintain control of an island or two when the larger authority, the government (in this case Viserys and the council) does not send materials for those fortifications. To take HotD at face value, or "Watsonianly, "HotD!Daemon goes off on his own bc Viserys has just now decided to send reinforcements when he could have done so way before but refused to, again, stupidly and pridefully. So Daemon wanted to make a personal point to Viserys as well as a broader one. "Doyistly", or to criticize HotD, that whole situation of Daemon going off on his own was dumb even as it was thrilling: he couldn't have avoided all those arrows or traversed the field all by himself like that. I doubt that bk!Daemon would have done it that way.

And in the show, Alicent presses that he actually hurry up and put an end to the war not "for the realm"'s most vunerable's peace [once again, those kidnapped girls and the traders], but bc it's costing the crown money. She says as much in the 6th episode. Refusing to do as Rhaenrya suggests and build some fortifications to keep the Stepstones as they want them and even ensure future protection and eventually reduce the fighting to almost nil. Alicent's concern was not for people's lives or safety but for money and to maintain a picture of control. Viserys, too. But I digress.

Finally, we see Daemon at the black council saying they shouldn't go to war until they absolutely had to and actually had the soldiers an d support they needed. That dragons are a last resort & he agrees with Rhaenyra "surprisingly" ("The Blacks and the Greens"):

All belies this idea of him being a crazy warmonger with no restraint.

Let's just say that Daemon is definitively a war criminal. Would he be so unique in that? I don't see how Otto, Aegon the Elder, Criston Cole, Aemond, Daeron, the Hightowers, even Alicent, are all "war criminals". Daeron--Bitterbridge and those battle-damaged refugees, the raped people, Lady Caswell's end. Aemond: the Strongs, Alys Rivers, and the burning of the riverlands. And yet OP, again, makes Daemon out to be the instigator of many things....[below]

C)

Them:

He was a child murderer responsible for the brutal murder of a 6-year old boy and the threat of rape to a 6-year old girl. He encouraged the continuation of the Dance and vengeance against his enemies, dismissing his Hand's proposal for peace. He had the selfishness of Aegon IV, the brutality of Maegor, and the tyranny of Aerys II. And that’s just scratching the surface of the things he did, both before and during the Dance.

...Aemond was a child murderer in killing Luke, which prompted Daemon's reaction. Daemon didn't begin that. Again, I speak to this idea that Daemon instigates. No, he responds.

He didn't threaten any rape of a 6 year old, Cheese was quite clearly trying to hurry Helaena up and threaten that. That shows Cheese's character, not Daemon.

Now, that Daemon at all arranged for a murder of a child? Yes, horrible, which shows he's never bene a good person. (As if there was a great and consistent argument people used to say he was?) This is different from him instigating things or causing the war. No, Aemond did that by killing Luke unprovoked. And before people bring up the eye, I already wrote about that HERE, HERE and HERE. Even if I didn't, it had been years, Aemond made as if he was cool with it....so why did he run after teen-Luke or (bk) allow himself to be so triggered by Maris Baratheon's words about his manhood to go for straight up physical intimidation and murder?!

By "his Hand", I'm assuming they are saying HotD!Daemon refused Aegon the Elder's Hand--Otto--'s terms for peace.

Not only was it that in the bk, Rhaenyra refused the terms the green council sent Grand Maester Orwyle to deliver to her (her big speech about his not being a loyal maester/subject -- HotD removes/reduces Rhaenyra's fascinating assertion of power through calling out others' trying to redefine her worthiness as heir)...

This is Otto and Daemon in that last episode.

We need to remember that Otto is just as willing to risk a war if it gets him what he wants. He made that choice as soon as he pimped his daughter out to Viserys and kept insisting that Rhaenyra's position was defaulted once Aegon was born, as he says in this own. He is and never was willing to stave off a war. He is the one to insiste that Rhenyra is not even a "true" heir despite the fact that Viserys, time and time again, reinforced her position PUBLICLY. Otto explicitly says Rhaenyra is not the true heir. He was never about "protecting" anyone, much less the peasants who'd be caught up in this war.

So, again, I find it strange OP missed that and says Daemon is at fault for the war bc of a supposed bloodthirstiness for war and violence itself...when the man even backs off from Otto by Rhaenyra's order of "No" in that scene. Yes he was preparing the castle in case the greens attacked it as they coronated Aegon...wouldn't most of us one we hear news of a someone depowering or usurping the person we are tasked to protect?! Daemon is rather responding to what happening, which is Rhaenyra being usurped and pressing for her rights to the throne as Otto is trying to assert Aegon's right to the throne. Why is Otto figured as this righteous seeker of "order" and "peace" and not someone enabling an event where Rhaenyra is losing a thing due to her gender...esp since Otto is both the guy who suggested her appointment as heir in the first place AND the guy who explicitly said to Alicent that the reason he did so/and is plotting against her is bc she is a woman?!

He had the selfishness of Aegon IV, the brutality of Maegor, and the tyranny of Aerys II

He can't have any sort of "tyranny" if he's not the ruler or final authority of anything...so...

He's certainly self centered and only thinks about his own family's needs or desires. However, to say he's equal to Aegon IV, who willfully and purposefully and consciously set up a situation where a war could happen just to spite his son, wife, and brother out of pure jealousy is disingenuous. Aegon IV betrayed his own family; Daemon died for his family. And again, he canonically allowed himself to be subordinate to Rhaenyra. Can we really say Aegon IV is the same, when he rapes his sister after she explictly told him she didn't want to have sex with him anymore, threw away his various mistresses and daughters for new mistresses, neglected most of his kids?

As for being as "brutal" as Maegor...yeah, he wasn't opposed to torture and he, again, was no stranger nor repulsed or against using violence. He was brutal.

However unlike Maegor who tortured two of his wives and raped another (Rhaena), Daemon doesn't flagrantly use torture against those who--again--haven't already presented themselves as critical enemies. Alys Harroway was completely innocent even if she had had affairs bc she didn't endanger Maegor's life. Tyanna was unequivocally evil and carried out Alys' gruesome murder, even though she absolutely was being sidelined for not giving Maegor heirs--having to become "useful" to him otherwise [which is another discussion about class and misogyny in those spaces]. And she would have done so to the others if she had the chance. Tyland Lannister, though? He was hiding the secrets of the stolen royal treasury. (Aegon stole the throne, the greens moved funds that never should have been in their possession, and they did it specifically so they could diminish Rhaenyra's ability to really establish herself at KL in their absence. Which explicitly shows us that they aren't "legitimate" rulers bc Rhaenyra had still been alive and someone they had to get rid of. So yes the funds were stolen.)

So Daemon's brutality is of a different quality than Maegor's; the slight but very important difference between them is that Maegor hurt those closest to him while Daemon never stooped low, that far nor ever looked for a fight that wasn't there already.

D)

I think there is also a conflation of grey morality with unpredictability. Daemon was unpredictable, with his sudden elopements and kickstarting of wars and general mercuriality. The moral complexity of this, however, depends on his motives, and none of his are particularly complicated or difficult to morally pin down: he is primarily and consistently motivated by self-interest. If they happen to benefit others, it’s purely coincidental, and always secondary. Unpredictability does not automatically make someone morally grey, and it certainly doesn’t with Daemon. [...] If the narrative had leaned into his awfulness, he could have potentially been a fun villain.

I believe that once we realize that the "greyness" of Daemon stems from his insistence to put his family before his own search for power as a man about his being "good" to people not-his family, the greyness works. Because much of the Dance was also about defending the family you think or you really are defending. HotD!Alicent (and for some people, bk!Alicent, too) thinks she is protecting her kids from people using Rhaenyra and harming her kids (lying to herself)...but she really troggers a war that will end with ALL her kids dead and only 4 of 7 of Daemon and Rhaenyra's surviving. A war that lead to many sacks, the Riverlands burning the Strongs going extinct. All because Otto wanted more power and Viserys was an idiot and Jaehaerys was a misogynist and Aerys was stupid and Aegon I didn't take a chance.

Daemon of HotD explicitly says to Otto that he doesn't trust his sons with Aegon, the "drunken usurper cunt of a king"....and he was right to. If the show continues to make Aegon as he was in the bk, Aegon will threaten to mutilate Aegon III, castrate him, etc. so that Rhaenyra's line "must end". Aegon explicitly says as much in his conversation to Alicent abt how to stave off Rhaneyra's supporters.

'I rather think Daemon is one of the most predictable characters of this story. What is "unpredictable" is that because he doesn't try to be a "good" knight or typical protector or try to make people "love" him as Viserys does; or try to flatter others, he's "unpredictable" to those people who would have wanted him to be more like what Loras Tyrell puts out. And that sentiment, that reputation he built as being that more "shameless" bleeds through various tellings of his actions, esp with him & Nettles [refer to the very first link abt Nettles I have above].

There is a morality in how one treats one's family, as I implied through my comparison to Maegor. I also think of Jaehaerys and his treatment of Rhaena, Alysanne, his daughters, how he handled his succession, etc. Jaehaerys--through his abusiveness and sidelining of important, critical women around him--sets up the Dance. Yet many in the fandom think of him as an absolutely good king instead of a relatively good one. And through Jaehaerys and Aegon Iv and the rest, we see how protecting your family and valuing them above their roles contributes tot he overall stability of a dynasty's grasp on power bc all these sidelined women were able to politically contribute...but were sidelined and forced to make separate lives for themselves.

As I said, Daemon is motivated in part by legacy...as much as Visenya was with Maegor. But again, he didn't die at the Gods Eye for selfish ambition...otherwise he would have never allowed himself to die in the first place and even hand Nettles over. Even if he had been just sleeping with her, what would stop him from being totally selfish and handing her over to be killed similar to how several lords abandon their mistresses or one night stands? do we think that Tywin Lannister would advocate or try to help out Shea if she were to ever get into trouble? Sacrifice himself or disobey an order form another force/authority for here to live?!

Daemon was never going to be a villain, bc villains are characters who are amoral antagonists to the protagonist. "Villain" is a specific literary/media term, it's not a term you apply whatsoever just because the person is evil. Even protagonists can be amoral or eveil (Dorian Grey). But Daemon is actually one of the protagonists. The greens are the antagonists; they usurped the actual, main protagonists, Rhaenyra, and Daemon is on the protagonist's side. Once again, who loses more? The greens or the blacks? Whose line ends? Who has their last member (Jaehaera) killed in a manner similar to how Alicent became Viserys' queen consort? The greens. (Unwin Peake had Jaehaera killed to make way for his own daughter to marry Aegon III...Otto may not have killed Aemma or had her killed, but he & Alicent certainly was looking for power through a nonTarg Queen consort). Everuone is certainly punished for the war...but the greens lose utterly and didn't accomplish what they set out to do, which was to establish their own line of rulers.

It's like with Macbeth, who got to be king. But one of his killed adversaries and the scion of the past king he murdered--actually got to propagate the next line of kings. I also have to remind everyone that when Corlys said that Aegon the Elder should name Aegon the Younger as his heir, Alicent got pissed...showing that she and the greens banked on growing their own Targ line...so yeah this matters ("The Sad, Short Reign of Aegon II"):

No one ever said that unpredictability = moral greyness. The moral greyness was that he was a good dad and only cared about protecting his family in a way that many people even now would just think about protecting those close to them.

E)

Perhaps the most damning aspect of this blatant favoritism is how Daemon is turned into the essential protagonist of the Dance of the Dragons.

This line contradicts what the OP said about him being a villain...what gives?

Like I already said, villains in a story are antagonists, never the protagonist! Out of the story, amongst those discussing, we can maybe say that a protagonist is a "villain" in the nonliterary and colloquial sense but these should not erase/overpower the basic structure of the story being told. (if they are "villains" to your own personal set of values, that makes sense. but not for the story written)

And no, he's not the essential protagonist, he's one of them. Rhaenyra is rather the protagonist. The story is about a woman usurped of her throne and position because others took advantage of her being a woman and being the first female heir apparent that was actually intended to be Queen. The question of female rulership (and agency) is the center of the Dance alongside what the "price for power" is, which contextualizes Dany's own struggles from being a woman AND ruler. Learning how to be a better sort of ruler in the face of societies that already say she can never be so because if her gender AND the result of this Dance war that lead to more Targaryen women losing power the more it became embedded in Andal patriarchal culture for the dynasty's grip on power. Rhaneyra's foils are Aegon and his mother, Alicent. "Princess an the Queen"? And Aegon is the model for the Targaryen male royal who exemplifies all the unusual allowances this society gives to men while women like Rhaenyra are subjugated or condemned for doing mush less or simply things no one can say are immoral but somehow trouble the men's grip on power. Which is why Daemon is more of a positive force in her life than a negative and is "morally grey", bc he subordinates himself for her. Again, he fights for her and has his legacy through her winning. Rhaenyra's son Aegon derives his claim through her, not Aegon the Elder nor though Daemon ("Lineages and Family Tree"):

G)

His wives are all overshadowed by him and primarily defined by their relationship with him. Rhea Royce is an unfeatured non-entity who exists solely for him to hate, and conveniently dies in time for him to remarry. Laena is a beautiful, fiery, perfect companion who dies tragically young and in a conveniently gendered manner, once again in time for him to remarry. Rhaenyra is sidelined and eclipsed in her own war and her own story in favor of him. Nor should we forget his lovers: more time is spent describing Nettles and Mysaria’s relationships with Daemon than actually telling us more about them as individuals. Once he’s out of the picture for good, the former completely retreats from civilization, and the latter is gruesomely murdered by his enemies. Once again, all I can say is: Convenient.

Once again, Nettles was never his lover.

If you feel Daemon is more "interesting" than Rhaenyra, that's your own thing. However, again, Rhaenyra is the true center of the Dance, not Daemon. This is the basic structure & purpose of the narrative. Ignore the stupid dudebros. It is the rumors and Mysaria's deciding Rhaenyra that Nettles is Daemon's lover that springboards' Rhaenyra's fall. After Daemon dies, she still lives and has her own tragic end that has its own commentary on women in power and femicide.

For the story of Rhaenyra targeting Nettles to work, it has to be true that DaemonxNettles was never a thing...bc Rhaenyra became paranoid of betrayals after Ulf and Hugh defected and destroyed Tumbleton PLUS her grief from her two sons getting killed before she landed on KL.

Also, again, I very much doubt that he struck up an affair with Mysaria when they landed. Once again, this is a book written by a maester who was not there. Septon Eustace--who hates Rhaenyra...oh look more proof that it's all abt Rhaenyra--says that Daemon slept with Mysaria...he also says that Rhaenyra cut herself on the throne while wearing full armor and tries to say that this indicated she would never be a good ruler...Even f she had cut her palm, us as readers have to remember that even Aegon I was cut. Aegon IV, however, was never reported to be cut. Arguably one of the worst rulers Westeros ever had. This was a superstition, it was a chair made out of swords....come on, now! And if Mysaria were sleeping with Daemon, why would she choose to have him killed?! Especially when she stood to gain so much more from his being alive than dead as the their mistress of whispers? Rhaenyra was also very possessive of Daemon and more likely saw Mysaria as not trustworthy (without the context of Mysaria working for her) as she did Laena those years past. Proven by how she acted with Nettles. I doubt that she would allow Daemon to sleep with Mysaria without going crazy and putting a stop to it so Septon Eusatce can have more to write gleefully about.

What narrative purpose would Rhea Royce serve? What would she do for this purpose of the Dance but to be as she was--a minor character whose marriage to a specific Targ rather shows Jaehaerys and Alysanne bungling marriage alliances? If F&B doesn't give Rhea as much attention as it does Rhaneyra or Laena or Rhaneys or Alicent, it's because the story isn't about these "lesser" lords and ladies who are not there to not build up the central character's characterizations. that's how stories work. But perhaps more importantly, Gyldayn is writing F&B as its onw historical volume. F&B is a work against female rulership. Rhea being so used and so poorly matched with Daemon AND both Alysanne and Viserys' refusal to have this marriage annulled emphasizes the pattern of shallowly-described/de-personed women (like Ceryse Hightower, Alys Harroway, Jeyne Westerling____Yandel of AWoIaF--Barbra Bracken and Bethany Blackwood, Serenei of Lys, etc) are all because their authors--and those who related the tales to various people for the author to write into their histories--are uninterested in them bc they were women made into wombs. Rhea had no other political purpose but to tie Daemon down. That's Jaehaerys, Alysanne, and whoever was responsible for Rhea's faults. And again, it's meant to show us that Andal patriarchy-Targ monarchy paradigm that vicitmizes and suboridnates women.

Similar can be said of Laena, but because she cam from a much more important, wealthier family and was a dragonrider where she's allowed to express herself AND was best friends with Rhaenyra...there was no way she wouldn't have had soem more relative attention than the other women OP listed (except Rhaenyra). Laena was another supporting character, not a main one. And she also dies so Rhaneyra and Daemon will have Aegon III, from which we will have Dany, ASoIaF's savior. Just as Laenor and Harwin had to be removed somehow (Laenor through death bc there was no such thing as divorce) so Rhaenyra will marry Daemon and give us Dany.

Not to say that Laena's death was morally justified nor that it wasn't in a gendered manner...it's that it has a specific purpose in terms of ASoIaF's themes and structure. It's part of a larger commentary than what we just see in front of our eyes in this moment of HotD being the present ASoIaF project everyone's watching now. Basically, I'm saying: yeah, that's the whole point.

Should GRRM have reduced the number of women dying by childbirth? Maybe. Idk, there's a theory out there that I like where the maesters are the ones who stopped the Targ women, including Laena, from having more children or surviving childbirth. Not Alysanne because Jaehaerys was clearly the "dominant" of the two and they both more or less were pretty integrated into Andal patriarchy and supported the Faith, who the maesters have shared interests with. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Let's put it this way: if we say that if you impose childbirthing on 15-17 year olds (Rhaenys and Jocelyn Baratheon were both 16 at marriage; Rhaenyra 17; Alyssa Velaryon 14; Alyssa Targaryen 15; Helaena 13; *Laena 23) AND we see that on average Westerosi noblewomen marry at around 16-19 and start getting pregnant not long after, then why is it that the Targ women (except Alysanne) keep having under 3 kids and/or dying of childirth? But, again, I'll say this is a theory. It could very well be this AND the Westerosi practice of marrying noble girls off & having kids too young. Which is part of the allure of ASoIaF, but that's another thing.

H)

Narratively, the Greens suffer the most from this. All of them are caricatures meant to oppose the Blacks rather than individual characters in their own right

Easy; bc they started the war, their goals were simple, this is a book written by a guy who wasn't there, Alicent and Otto clearly raised their kids to see the blacks as their enemy bc they said the throne was their patriarchal birthright.

...Daemon compared to his nephew, Aemond Targaryen. Both of them are clearly meant to be narrative parallels: second sons, dangerous swordsmen, the heavy-hitting wildcards of the war, one of them claiming Visenya’s dragon and the other one possessing Visenya’s sword. Both of them committed heinous atrocities on equal proportion, the only difference being that Daemon lived longer and thus had the time to commit more. Yet the way they are portrayed could not be more different: Aemond is rightfully depicted as war criminal and a murderer, and is both one-dimensional and over-the-top in his awfulness; Daemon, on the other hand, has far more pagetime, is explored in far more detail, and has all his crimes contextualized as part of his glorified and non-existent “grey morality”. (And while this is not a direct criticism, it’s also a little weird that while Aemond is justifiably called Kinslayer, Daemon is not, despite the fact that he was responsible the death of his young grand-nephew, a suspect for the death of his good-brother, and the eventual killer of Aemond himself.) The narrative rightfully condemns one while painting the other as someone who was “made of light and darkness in equal parts”. The bias is very, very evident.

That's because Daemon is older and grows out of that fighting for glory's sake that Aemond is still in BUT unlike Daemon, Aemond--bc again he was raised by the ambitious greens who are basing their cause on reinforcing patriarchal privilege, Aemond was...unlikely to get where Daemon was bc he was still in that place of "proving himself" a "true" Targaryen warrior. Because he was raised to think a lot less of his own sister and see her as a threat to his own masculinity and power (similar to how Jaehaerys I will see Rhaena), he is that sexist and misogynist. IDK, I rather think he's very much like many men even today.

Daemon never burned down "civilians" just because he was angry and wanted to draw out an enemy. Nor did he have a sex slave. Mysaria, though a sex worker, was not a slave. Alys Rivers was a war prize, thus a sex slave. One that was made into a war prize by Aemond's own doing. Just bc the line seems thin, doesn't mean it's not there nor substantial. Aemond abandoned Alicent & Helaena and refused to go down south with Criston Cole because ("Rhaenyra Triumphant"):

If he had taken Cole's advice, they could have rejoined Aegon and gotten rid of the Winter Wolves...oh well.

Returning to harming civilians yeah, Daemon swept through KL castrating and cutting people's hands off. In terms of sheer scale, no, this still isn't "equal" to Aemond's burning down the Riverlands, killing all the Strongs, etc.

Finally, just as Aegon serves as Rhaneyra's literary foil to emphasize her being the morally & politically better of the two, Daemon's foil is Aemond. As Robert Baratheon was Rhaegar's.

I)

(I’d also like to point out that a 50-year old man challenging his barely 20-year old nephew and winning against him is nowhere near as glorious or awe-inspiring as the book or its fans make it out to seem, but is in fact one of the most pathetically embarrassing things I've ever read about. I also don’t think it was realistic at all, and would have made more symbolic and literal sense for both of them to mutually kill the other. But that would result in GRRM’s favourite character getting the equal end of the stick for once, which is probably why it didn't happen)

...Aemond wanted that battle? He hungered for it?!

Most of All, and before anything else: the reasons why Daemon is considered the winner of his battle with Aemond despite both dying is that:

of the two, it is Daemon who succeeds in his intentions for this battle: to keep Aemond from being a threat to Rhaenrya & their family....Aemond went into battle believing he had a sliver of chance at survival AND winning--he risked it all for his own personal sense of glory and power...and he didn't get what he wanted

Daemon, unlike Aemond, never faltered or hesitates in his plans or intent or the trajectory before nor during the actual battle and its' pretty clear how in sync he was with Caraxes (written and explained below)---it belies a level of self control that we do not see in Aemond

Yes, absolutely this uncle & nephew trying to destroy each other in is terrible by their relations; their battle was one of the conflicts within the war that represented an element of one of the overall tragedies, which was the Targaryens splitting into competing factions and not only losing most of those they loved but also destroying several communities while they were at i for power. However, this doesn't erase the fact that once again, even when we make Aemond and any green more "complicated" and not caricatures...the fact of the matter is that the greens were in the wrong for beginning the war with their insistence on male primogeniture...bc the principles behind their reasons So Daemon is the more admired party precisely because he's defending the person the wrong has bene done to AND destroying the very person who triggered this war in the first place. That's the first layer to the excitement of this scene that dude-bros would probably never appreciate, and I think that because some people do not really think about the implications of many stories about F&B and discrimination even against noblewomen in Westeros (because they take it from granted), many of them end up being so neutral or taking the anti-Rhaenyra/black tone of the narrative as it is instead of examining how and why it's written, section by section. So they also miss the point about how the Targs assimilated into Andal patriarchy and sexism and women losing more and more power and agency and it becoming more and justified, leading to the Dance. And it's bc people do not look at the Dance nor the entire book feministly or at least with a woman-centered lens, they ended up not really engaging with the stories. Putting it all off as "unreliable" on time when they are questioned as to why they think certain things happened despite yada, yada....and then going on to make arguments about characters as if they understand them, read them, and/or have lived in that world alongside them. Again, issue d they claim that we can't understand the characters or th0ier true motives and don't bother to understand how Gyldayn wrote the book for a particular purpose...and then go on the claim that he/the book is telling all truths.

Another layer/reason why it is as glorified as it was was because, as this OP mentions, it was expected for Daemon to lose since Aemond had Vhagar. He new he'd lose his life...but he went in anyway with no backup bc Aemond was one of Rhaenrya's--again, Rhaenyra at center--biggest opps and she had a better chance of winning without him in the picture. Plus, this is the same guy who killed a 14 year old Daemon raised as his own for more than 10 years in the book and 6 in the show. Once again, unprovoked. Does it matter that he was 20 to Daemon's 49 when he killed Luke when he was 19 and Luke was 14? When Aemond pushes a 3 year old Joffrey when he was 10 in his way to get to Vhagar? that he beats up his younger nephews and cousins. Yet somehow many fans say "he had to" or they say he was "cool" and praise him for it?!

And this is not as criticized as much as people saying Daemon "unrealistically" kills his nephew....

Also, I already wrote a post comparing Jaehaerys I v Braxton Beesbury to Daemon v Aemond HERE. It goes into the "realism" of an older dude against a younger one. Excerpt:

Caraxes also making sure he stays connected to Vhagar so Daemon can do his thing

We have to pay attention to the language of the battle. there is a synchronicity b/t Caraxes and Daemon that Aemond lacked with Vhagar AND may clue us in on the Targs and how they view/interact/bond with their dragons ("Rhaenyra Triumphant"):

Caraxes dove down upon Vhagar with a piercing shriek that was heard a dozen miles away, cloaked by the glare of the setting sun on Prince Aemond’s blind side. The Blood Wyrm slammed into the older dragon with terrible force. [...] Locked together, the dragons tumbled toward the lake. The Blood Wyrm’s jaws closed about Vhagar’s neck, her black teeth sinking deep into the flesh of the larger dragon. Even as Vhagar’s claws raked her belly open and Vhagar’s own teeth ripped away a wing, Caraxes bit deeper, worrying at the wound as the lake rushed up below them with terrible speed. And it was then, the tales tell us, that Prince Daemon Targaryen swung a leg over his saddle and leapt from one dragon to the other.

Despite them both falling, Caraxes remains gripping Vhagar and having to know of the danger, Caraxes still holds Vhagar. Daemon won't let Aemond go; Caraxes won't let Vhagar go. Vhagar is trying to get Caraxes off her; Aemond is trying to get his chains off him to escape Daemon. Caraxes is holding onto Vhagar so Aemond cannot escape from Daemon and Daemon has a stable edge over Aemond to plunge Dark sister into Aemond's head. They see to work together and take their final turns to eliminate this threat. These are all why this passage--for all the stuff about how we nor even the few witnesses there (Alys Rivers and some fisherman) can't possibly know it definitely happened this way--is so important, impresses people. It also needed to be there bc the alternative--a mere summary of Daemon killing Aemond and people finding the sword/bodies--is comparatively more boring. (Daemon at Harrenhal, waiting for Aemond, as set up for the narrative value of their deaths)

Why didn't GRRM treat Luke's death the same, with as much detail? Luke had no substantial degree of advantage over Aemond as Daemon did. They were not even close to being on any "equal" or footing? Luke had no chance; the moment was meat to highlight how little chance he had, how much of a victim he was. It wasn't a battle--it was just ordinary murder and served to make Aemond one of the critical the instigator of the war. What would it add/reveal?

Even if he "accidentally" killed Luke, he still decided to fly after him and "teach him a lesson", provoked into killing for glory or proving a point alone even at the cost of endangering his folks at home. It doesn't matter, really, whether he meant to murder him or not. It began the war--the end. What would a details of a victim's murder (in the context of a historical text) do for the story that the murder itself doesn't already? Or corresponding advantages vs disadvantages that Aemond and Daemon had?

Whereas Daemon's killing Aemond has many layers about:

him

dragon bonds

Rhaenyra

the sides' motives and deterioration into the state they were in, of which I already described

I'll say this about HotD!Aemond "accidentally" killing Luke; it may provide a a layer of Aemond deciding at every turn to dig more into his heels about destroying the blacks because then he won't have to justify his errors and wrongs if he just wins. thus his stupidity during the war, esp the one with Cole going south and him staying behind...perhaps he will think he's "making up" for that mistake...idk.

And we know that Daemon managed to get Aemond through the eye bc the text explicitly states that people found said sword in Aemon's eye when he was left there, still tied to Vhagar at the bottom of the lake at the Gods Eye ("Rhaenyra Triumphant"):

Sometimes, in fiction, what seem to be smaller concessions of logic are simply fun and/or have a larger purpose and/or supply basis for something bigger and have ther own valid "logic" that is critical to other themes. This is one of those times.

You may not like GRRM's writing of Daemon and you may hate Daemon no matter what...but to make interpretation errors because of that dislike and allowing that dislike to color how you see what's actually written doesn't make for a sound literary critique. There are fair critiques of how GRRM writes his female vs male characters, especially Tyrion, Shea, the constant childbirth death...Daemon being, say, the "center" of the Dance is certainly not one of them. You have rather bought into some of the propaganda and rumor mongering prevalent that is meant to degrade Rhaenyra. Which I guess make F&B so good; it accomplished what it set out to do.

[stifiyeiyx]

Evangelion fandom is dying! Good.

Evangelion fandom is fucked up, like how can they find 14 years old children with multiple traumas and mental illness attractive?

Let take for exemple Asuka,

(for the people who didn't watch evangelion yet this post is full up of spoiler but anyway nobody use Tumbler now so it doesn't really matter)

Asuka a teenage girl having to fight angels to protect humanity via an Eva, she has mommy issues, daddy issues, she try to act though so people would like her so she can be less insecure.

Exemple: Asuka call Shinji an idiot and act violent toward him so he will give her affection

You'll probably saying "What a well writted female character she is!"

Well you're right she a good and a rentable character, the ways she act is the reflect of her trauma BUT Evangelion fans(yandereDev is one of them, lol) only see her as "waifu" they oversexualise anime characters who represent children, I don't care if you have waifu, I'm just saying that Evangelion fandom should take more attention to her complex character instead of her body and they also should accept that shinji is a good realistic character, just imagine, you're a 14 years old boy, you were lonely all your life, your dad was absent and suddenly one day your dad told you "Get in the fucking Eva and kill those angels that will make go through the worst pain." How would you react? If you said you'll fight the angels, you're a liar, you act like shinji, trying to run away.

Now let talk about Misato.

I wonder how would react if Misato was a guy and Shinji a girl, people will no longer say "Omg Misato you can groom me anytime😍." They'll be more like "Ew... what the fuck?! A grown ass man kiss a 14 years old girl having a massive mental breakdown?!"

If you're an Evangelion fans and you relate to everything I said earlier (the oversexualisation of children etc...) Please go lick a tree touch some grass I swear it won't hurt, go talk to real people go take a shower go brush your teeth and delete twitter from your phone, take a break from Internet and anime and enjoy real life, go make so friends, find yourself a hobby, a job, try do to some sport, study for your future if you're a student do anything you want but just make something up! You can't spend all of your time jerking on "loli" doing this will hurt you more than having a real life.

[saintsenara]

Hey! If you are still doing the Work In Progress ask game, I’m curious about what you plan for “Mightier Than Any Wizard Living” ?

thank you very much, anon, for selecting mightier than any wizard living from the work-in-progress list!

this is something of an epic undertaking, since it's the whole story - 1926 to 1998 [and into the afterlife beyond] - with one difference: a female voldemort.

i'll be frank that i don't usually go out of my way to read stories which [binary - because it's always a binary swap] genderswap characters, because i think it's rarely done as interestingly as it could be. genderswapping in this fandom is primarily a shipping device, overwhelmingly used to render slash pairings more "palatable" by either making them het or making them wlw, and with the genderswapped character often turned into an exaggerated feminine stereotype [something which, as i've said before, also happens in slash writing which equates sexual dynamics with personality types and bottoms with submissives].

which is to say, harriet potter is almost exclusively tiny, fragile, submissive, and desperate to be bred by whichever romantic partner the story's pairing her with.

although there's another side to this - genderswapping characters to make them edgier or more glamorous. mary marvolo riddle* is a dark, sexy femme fatale. who always appears to look a surprising amount like bellatrix...

but I've seen far less genderswapping which takes a look at the wider implications - for the stations of canon; for wizarding society - of characters who are canonically [understood to be] men being written as women instead.

for example, harry is a public symbol of defiance and resistance. would the same be true of the girl-who-lived?

how would siria and regina black understand their relationship to their family and lineage?

does veronica weasley still feel least loved by the mother who craved a daughter?

what does fudge's relationship with dumbledore and lucius malfoy look like if she's cornelia? how do we read snape's treatment of pupils if she's severine? if betty crouch sends her own daughter to azkaban, how do the wizarding public react?

and how does the state respond to a terrorist kingpin who's not a king at all...?

at the minute, all writing this does is bring up more and more questions... does the canonical deprivation of voldemort's childhood look more sinister if we think about it happening to a little girl, and why? what changes in the way voldemort's first meeting with dumbledore can be read if the headmaster isn't meeting tom, 'his handsome father in miniature'? does she still hate her face and her name and her father? do slughorn's interactions with the teenage voldemort seem less avuncular and much more creepy? do hepzibah smith's seem less?

can a young half-blood woman, with no money to speak of, in the 1940s - even if she's immortal, a murderer multiple times over, and the most talented pupil hogwarts has ever seen - reject the social norms of marriage and children which never seem to trouble the canonical voldemort? how does it feel to know your mother died in childbirth when you possess the requisite anatomy for the same thing to happen to you? is a female voldemort's loss of beauty perceived differently from the male one's?

do the death eaters obey her? how is their dynamic different from their canonical relationship with voldemort? is bellatrix still her favourite? would disaffected young men like snape - desperate to associate with someone who could give them power - want to join her organisation? would men who believe profoundly in bloodlines and lineage be willing to serve a woman? does the ministry take her seriously as a threat? is her violence considered to be more of an aberration, something that women simply don't do?

how does she groom ginny? does harry still think of her as 'a friend he had when he was small'? does wormtail go looking for her?

the list is endless.

the only thing i'm really set on with this is that it's structured as an investigation into voldemort's life which is being pieced together beyond the grave by a dumbledore who finds heaven far duller than he imagined. the chapters are a combination of witness statements, letters, documents and so on, giving all sorts of characters - of whom my favourite to write, by far, has been an adder with a penchant for quoting beowulf - the chance to give their view on the mystery.

the only person we don't hear directly from? voldemort herself. obviously she was never going to cooperate when dumbledore came knocking, was she?

[*eagle-eyed readers will have spotted that mary marvolo riddle does not rearrange to 'i am lady voldemort'. this is because i couldn't be bothered to come up with an anagram, because i'm not a cringe teenage edgelord. she'll live.]

[hypeonmovies]

Priscilla

⭐️ 1/2

Am I missing something? That’s what repeatedly went through my mind during the two hour bore that was Sofia Coppolla’s Priscilla. Coppola means well, but the uneven story and stale performances distract from what could have been an interesting character study of a teenage girl groomed into being a rockstar’s “perfect” wife.

The film starts off well enough with actress Cailee Spaeny portraying a 15 year old Priscilla, bored by the life she’s living on her father’s army base. That is until she’s approached by an officer who invites her to join he and his wife at a party. It’s at this party that she meets Jacob Elordi’s obnoxiously tall Elvis Presley. Elvis spends about 5 minutes talking to her before they take a liking to each other and Spaeny does well portraying a naive teen enamored by Presley and excited by the attention he’s giving her. The age difference is not lost on the audience especially when she has to ask her parents whenever she wants to see him to which her mother often exclaims, “Why can’t he find a girl his own age?”

Spaeny does excel in her performance as a teenage Priscilla experiencing her first love, but the performance doesn’t grow along with her age and the story progression falters once Priscilla moves into Graceland. The transitions from one scene to another are quick and sloppy and years go by without much of an explanation. One moment Priscilla is graduating high school in Tennessee and the next, it’s years later in LA and Elvis is spouting religious rhetoric to a room full of female fans. Characters are mentioned, but not fully fleshed. Important figures in both of their lives become nothing more than background actors. There were multiple times where I felt lucky to have seen Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic, so I had some idea of what was happening in certain time periods.

It’s understood that Priscilla has to grow up quickly once moving to Graceland despite still being a teenager. However, Spaeny’s performance never excels past that of a 15 year old girl. There’s no sense of progression or growth. Up until the end, even in scenes where she’s arguing with Elordi’s Elvis, it’s as if she’s fighting with her father, not her husband. Jacob Elordi tries hard with his portrayal of Elvis. He recently stated in an interview that he only knew of Elvis through a scene in “Lilo & Stitch” prior to playing him and based on his performance, I believe it. He plays him as if he’s portraying him at a Halloween party and it’s clear that the amount of research put into Austin Butler’s portrayal wasn’t done this time around. Elordi’s portrayal was also hindered by the fact that Coppola was unable to use any of Elvis’s real music in the film.

Unfortunately, the performances and unbalanced storytelling turn this into a dull biopic. I found myself grateful that it wasn’t another three hour one. Overall, the film is able to show how the grooming of Priscilla at such a young age as well as the mental and physical abuse she endured negatively affected her and her marriage, but at what cost to the audience?