#most likely that will not happen and they will make microaggressions

[cripplecharacters]

How to Support People with Facial Differences - the Face Equality Week 2024 Special

[large text: How to Support People with Facial Differences - the Face Equality Week 2024 Special]

Today is the 13th of May, which means that the Face Equality Week has just started. This year's theme is “My Face is a Masterpiece” which is probably my favorite sentence ever said about having a facial difference. Huge fan, should be used way more often in my opinion.

Because of this occasion, I would like to share some thoughts about Face Equality that I think are rather entry-level, i.e. you don't need to know much to execute these, but you can still support us.

Stop the stare.

I know it's fun to stare - or so I guess, at least - but maybe you shouldn't. Next time you see someone who has a scar or who's face does not move the same way as yours, just mind your business. We can tell when you're “discreetly” looking.

Don't call us deformed. 

Knowing how the people you're trying to support actually call themselves should be an absolute first step, but most people still fail here. Most of us don't appreciate being called “deformed”. I certainly don't. Say “facial difference”, or “disfigurement” if you must. It's 2024. Leave “deformed” to medical reports from the 70s.

No more “What happened?!”s.

If you aren't a doctor, there's a high-to-100% chance that it's none of your business. It's cool that you're curious - keep it to yourself.

Stop insinuating that we are ugly.

“Support people who are ugly!” isn't very supportive. I would say, not in the slightest. Say “people who don't fit the current beauty standards” if that's what you mean. 

Or, to go with this year's theme, “people whose faces are masterpieces” : )

Use critical thinking online.

Is the reaction photo actually funny, or is it just a person with a craniofacial condition? Is the meme actually a meme, or is it just making fun of a person with a facial disfigurement? Is body-shaming suddenly hilarious to you when the person shamed has strabismus? 

If the entire punchline is “lol they have a disability xd”, it's ableism. Plain and simple.

To go with the point above - your joke is probably not funny.

We get it! You can't help telling us how "you're going to hell for laughing" (which yeah, probably) and how we remind you of the ugliest character you have ever seen. I guarantee you that we heard it, and that you are behaving like an edgy middle schooler who hasn't "found out" yet. It's boring and annoying. Also ableist, but you're aware of that already if you're saying that you're going to hell.

Stop with the goddamn trigger warnings. 

We aren't “body horror”, we aren't “gore”, we aren't something that you need to advise your viewers to use their discretion over. Every “graphic footage: child with neurofibromatosis” and “#tw burn scar” is a sign of ableism and disfiguremisia. People with facial differences deserve to be seen. Ableds can survive seeing a person without a nose.

Do a basic reading on what disfiguremisia is.

New word! And an important one. It's a brand of ableism that intersects with more or less everything, and it means discrimination and hatred of people with facial differences/disfigurements. The bullying, harassment, endless name-calling, and microaggressions are all results of disfiguremisia. The ways in which everything is harder for us isn't some unchangeable rule of how the world works, it's just an extremely prevalent type of discrimination.

Understand that we are people.

I know, revolutionary - and yet impossible for so many people to get. We can be a visual representation of evil when it's necessary, we can be a feel-good inspirational story on a morning talk-show, but not much else, it seems. In reality, we are complex, we have our own lives, we can be happy and sad and have the same exact joys and worries that you have.

Hey, artists - facial differences don't make you evil.

Title stolen from a great essay by Lise Deguire (link). When's the last time you saw a positive character with a facial difference that wasn't inspiration porn? I mean a character that's not edgy, full of angst, a murderer, or a villain. Based on what you see in the media, you'd think that having a scar renders you evil on the spot, but in reality it just makes you loathe how artists apparently think you are like. It's boring, it's overdone, it's ableism. Stop doing this, and start noticing when it's being done. Point it out if your friend is writing their new villain to be an evil burn survivor. This kind of portrayal needed to stop ages ago, but tomorrow will be a great time as well.

Before you reply with “I've never seen this” - Darth Vader, Lion King’s Scar (subtle name, great thing to teach kids!), Freddy Krueger, Voldemort, we could be here forever. You're just not paying attention.

Pay attention to where we are not included.

As discussed, there are some places where you see us all the time. But where do you not see us?

Advertisements (unless it's for a scar-removal cream, of course). Fashion shows. Magazine covers. Romance movies where we are the main character.

We deserve to see ourselves in what's around us in the same way able-bodied people do. Trying to make it seem like we don't exist - that's deliberate. 

Interact with our art.

We draw, write, sing, act in movies, we do everything. Support us in the most tangible way - leave us a nice comment, read our books, listen to our songs. Watch movies where actual people with facial differences star, not pseudoinspirational stories about how “being disfigured is ok” where they shove an able-bodied actor into a full face prosthetic just to not have an actor with a disfigurement on set.

Include us.

As this year's Face Equality Week calls for, include us. In art, in movies, in books, in your life. Show us as positive people who are valuable, who are a part of your community - I guarantee that we are in every one that's out there. The world is hostile and unwelcoming to people with facial differences - be the change, wherever you are.

I know that it is different from the usual posts I make, but I hope it was somewhat educational. I just like to use every occasion that I can to force Face Equality into people's heads. To make this at least a bit about writing to keep the blog's theme, I will say that if you want to write about us, you need to care about us in real life as well. Otherwise, it's pointless and, as representation, genuinely worthless.

Below the readmore are some links/resources that you can click to educate yourself further. A lot of them lead to Face Equality International because they have just about everything you should know. If you want to be a better ally to people with facial differences, I heavily recommend them.

#MyFaceIsAMasterpiece

mod Sasza

https://faceequalityinternational.org/2023/04/why-i-will-not-hide/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/disability-is-diversity/202111/hidden-community-the-movement-face-equality

https://faceequalityinternational.org/2022/05/facial-differences-in-the-media/

https://faceequalityinternational.org/2023/04/advertising-excludes-women-with-faces-like-mine/

https://www.phoenix-society.org/resources/burn-community-bookshelf

https://faceequalityinternational.org/about-fei/international-face-equality-week/

https://faceequalityinternational.org/2023/04/hidden-from-view-women-with-facial-differences-in-the-media/

https://www.phoenix-society.org/resources/i-dont-see-your-scars

Thanks for actually clicking the readmore

[drdemonprince]

A real masterclass from Captain Awkward on the art of navigating competing agendas within a passive-aggressive friendgroup without losing your head. Every word of this needs to be read and internalized by so many people, but here are the highlights:

People often call me diplomatic, and it’s true, but not in the way they mean. Diplomacy isn’t just about being good at de-escalation, peace-keeping, compromise, or finding palatable ways to deliver hard truths. Diplomacy is about understanding power and leveraging what power you have in negotiations, which sometimes includes strategically escalating conflicts or letting them play out. You most likely don’t have the power to fix your friends’ hearts or make your group chats all run smooth, and I don’t have any magic scripts up my sleeve that will guarantee that you can, but it doesn’t mean you have no power in the situation. It’s there, just, I suspect that it’s not where you’re looking for it.

There’s this persistent idea that the *only* right way to respond to shitty interpersonal behavior is to empathize deeply with the shitty person, figure out precisely why they are being like that, and use your own compassion to create a teachable moment that fosters greater self-awareness that results in eventual behavioral change from the inside out, and anything less constitutes a failure of *your* patience & empathy. That’s where the notion that saying any version of “Hey, can you knock it off right now with the housewarming party planning?” would be “rude” and “unhelpful” comes from. If somebody’s being Rude, you’re supposed to Polite at them so hard that they Learn An Important Lesson, Eventually. A couple problems with that: What good does this do for the targets of shitty behavior? What happens if the shitty people never learn? What happens if they learn, but it’s exactly the wrong lesson? “I can be as shitty as I want, and people must be polite to me at all costs, and if they fail to tolerate my bad behavior with perfect grace, it makes them even worse than me and everything becomes actually their fault? Sweet!” What do you win if you successfully erase your anger and annoyance from all of your closest friendships and present only the most accommodating, peace-making parts of yourself? The answer to #1 is “nothing much” and the answer to #2-#4 about what happens and what you “win” is More Shitty Behavior, All The Time, Basically Forever because you’ve robbed yourself of the tools for actually addressing it, tools like, “healthy expressions of authentic emotions” and “meaningful consequences.” My pitch to you is basically, what if we changed the order of operations for dealing with someone whose behavior is out of pocket? What if we administered consequences first, and let the epiphanies sort themselves out later? If people get rapid negative feedback every time they do or say something shitty, maybe they’ll learn to think and feel differently over time, but that slow internal work is none of your business. If people wanna be assholes, they’ll need to do it somewhere else. If they want to hang out with you, there are limits on acceptable behavior.

[plaidos]

just another transmisogyny story: I’m a tme butch in community with a lot of transfemmes, and even in pretty welcoming radical spaces holy shit are the microaggressions constant. I’ve seen a girl and her cis boyfriend both try to speak in a meeting, and a tme nb (who I know for a fact has a crush on her!) literally said “oh his hand was up first” when uhhh no, it clearly was not. and he started to go ahead anyway!!! like just TEXTBOOK sexism in a space that thinks it’s so far past that shit, because they can’t recognize that it’s now reserved for trans women.

anyway I said something in that moment and have been trying to make sure she and others get support and credit for their work, but FUCK. and I’m sure I’m not picking up on a lot of the dynamics!

it’s even worse than just textbook sexism because you’ll find that most of these people come down harder on trans girls specifically because they think we’re “over focused” in the trans community and are “relatively privileged” and like, as you pointed out, this is even extended to cis men!!! like, there’s no location on planet earth where a cis guy needs to be defended against a trans woman talking over him even if it was happening 😭

[warblogs17282]

So, with the confirmation that Sallie May is appearing in Sinsmas (The next month is supposed to be 'this month' btw), I got to thinking about what that detail could potentially imply, and so far what I'm come up with is that the episode might contain a family reunion of sorts for Millie, and if so, the family reunion most likely takes place in the Wrath Ring as well.

Which got me to thinking about Stolas' unique relationship with the Wrath Ring, especially considering that Stolas lost all of his powers and such in Mastermind.

I do understand that it is very unlikely that we'll be seeing Stolas go into the Wrath Ring next episode, but it's still an interesting topic that I want to discuss a little more here, and I also hope that the show goes over the topic sometime as well while Stolas isn't a prince.

We all know that Stolas' unique relationship with the Wrath Ring stems from the fact that he hosts the the harvest moon festival every year, with him having hosted it for an unknown amount of years at this point.

Now, a line I want you to keep in mind as I head into the next part is "I feel quite safe at the Harvest Festival. It's the same every year.", as it's going to be relevant to my next talking point.

As Stolas starts the harvest moon festival with his speech, the shot moves to showcase multiple annoyed imps, which makes complete sense considering there's definitely a few microaggressions in Stolas' speech during this part, with the main example of this I can think of is the fact that Stolas literally opens with 'Greetings, tiny Wrath Ring imps.', and this is where the part about it being 'the same every year.' comes into play, because it has me wondering just how many times Stolas has called the Wrath Ring imps 'tiny' and such before.

So already we can already establish a reasonable motive for the Wrath Ring imps to hold a grudge against Stolas in specific.

And well, based on the fact that the imps in the pride ring were just throwing shit at Stolas left, right and centre, it's safe to say that imps in general already hold a significant grudge and just general hatred towards demon royalty.

So, considering that the imps in the Wrath Ring have an additional, more so personal reason to hold a grudge against Stolas in particular, I can only imagine that they'd behave so much worse to Stolas now that he's been stripped of his title.

Plus, considering that Stolas 100% hasn't been in any self-defense classes or been in an actual hand-to-hand fight before, and that the Wrath Ring's culture and such seems to be based around 'muscle', aka, strength and the likes, meaning that the people who were born and raised in the Wrath Ring are very likely to be more so physically strong and adept at hand-to-hand fights. Stolas would 100% lose in an one-on-one physical fight against the average Wrath Ring imp if one or more of them decided to engage Stolas in a physical fight, which considering what I've mentioned before this paragraph, it seems like it would be more likely to happen than in the Pride Ring for example.

So all in all, now that Stolas has lost his title of prince, I hope the show takes it as an opportunity to explore Stolas' relationship with the Wrath Ring a little more, because it really seems like an interesting topic with a lot of potential to it.

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Ok so I can't screenshot so I'm putting this in the asks but people are talking about netanyahu because he's getting the attention right now. And that's because he's genociding Gaza right now and nothing else of that scale happened since. So of course he's the it girl rn.

Like I wholeheartedly agree with you, we shouldn't be saying people "deserve to die", I just want to point out that I don't like it whenever people go "but why are people talking about this figure (who's getting all the attention right now) and not these other figures? (Who aren't getting attention)"

But TLDR netanyahu's doing some fuck shit that's getting reported on so obviously he's getting talked about the most generally.

To bring it back to the original conversation, people were talking about Putin when the Russo Ukraine war was going on. I saw people get excited at the idea that he might have cancer when that lump on his face showed up. Putin was the it girl and now it's netanyahu.

Look I'm sure you don't mean it this way, but the original comment I was responding to was antisemitic and your comments excusing it are microaggressions.

[Original post for reference]

There are a few things going on here:

1. People are giving a hugely disproportionate amount of attention to Israel's military response to the October 7th massacre in Gaza because they are antisemitic. There have been plenty of humanitarian crises affecting Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt, yet the world literally only cares about them if they can use it as a cudgel against Jews. Obviously it's a humanitarian crisis and it deserves attention, and Israel deserves scrutiny and accountability for its actions. But the laser focus on Israel and only Israel belies the true motivation.

2. There are numerous other humanitarian crises happening right now that affect substantially more people, and which are unquestionably genocide. Can you name them? Can you tell me the relevant major players by name? Can you tell me the number of people murdered? Why or why not?

3. Specifically naming Bibi out of every possible vile human one could name, to me, specifically, a Jew - that's extra sus. Taken in combination with the previous points? Yeah, it's antisemitic.

4. The genocide of Ukraine by Russia is still ongoing, and ignorance about it is leading to dwindling support to such an extent that Ukrainians are having to ration bullets to defend themselves with. This one isn't meant as a scold, by the way — the plight of Ukraine is getting intentionally buried. Please don't stop talking about Ukraine, they need all the help they can get.

[And in b4 someone thinks I'm trying to say you shouldn't pay attention to what is happening in Gaza: please DO keep paying attention to Gaza and keep holding Bibi's feet to the fire. He's awful, his policies are awful, and he's encouraging the absolute worst members of Israeli society for his own selfish reasons. The people of Gaza are going through hell and need our help. Just please, for the love of G-d fact check things first and make sure you're not "supporting Palestine" by being antisemitic. Also make sure you are holding Hamas responsible for its part in the humanitarian crisis.]

[tumblingxelian]

CRWBY & the White Fang - To Critique or Compliment?

There's no denying that when discussions of RWBY's quality come up, the specter of the White Fang, Blake & Faunus plot lines will almost inevitably rear their head.

So, I wanted to take some time to analyze my own critiques of CRWBY;s handling of these subjects, which thee writers themselves have said they found fault in regarding their work.

But, to also outline what I think was done well and address some common complains that I see, as I think there is a much more nuanced discussion that could be happening here.

With that in mind, lets begin:

My issues lie in the Execution:

CRWBY simply don't have the budget or time to give this topic the necessary breathing room to be handled with as much nuance as it needs; which at times can lead to a subject not being explore sufficiently, or a bit like in Mistral, a seemingly easy solution being applied to a complex issue. 

While I understood the logic of having Sienna supplanted as she was, and the tragedy of her death. The loss of her character and a more active counterweight to Ghira's pacifism has weakened a lot of the stronger aspects of their writing on this topic.

The plot of the series while allowing for the exploration of some of the themes at play means that in universe, characters need to logically prioritize the apocalypse witch over other matters sometimes.

My Praise is in the details:  

Faunus bigotry varies from regions to regions & country to country, in Vale it's heavily rooted in microaggressions, harassments and presumptions of guilt. In Mistrals its not only legalized to discriminate against Faunus, but there are outright lynch mobs. Meanwhile in Atlas it is blended with heavy doses of classism and the impoverished of Mantle are placed against the impoverished Faunus in the crater. 

The writers consistently acknowledge that this is a complicated issue, not in the sense of "Ooh poor bigot has a reason to be that way" but in the sense of "Fighting for a better world is hard, complicated work, where there is no a neat and tidy ending, or simple solution." Which is frankly far more realistic than I see in a lot of media that want to cap off stories with "& then bigotry was solved!" 

While Ghira has been returned to a prominent role, he outright respected Sienna Khan, and acknowledged the faults in his all too passive approached in the past. It also seems that thematically Blake is the one being set up to eventually take the reigns of the movement and seek out a path between easily exploitable militarism and all too self effacing pacificism.

Counters to Common Complaints: 

The White Fang are presented as faceless mooks -  This is indeed an issue in Volumes 1 through 3, however, it is also one CRWBY course corrected on, and I'd note Blake is also meant to be our primary window into the White Fang. What's more, the radicalization of the White Fang took time, with Sienna's era notably having actually seen genuine progress for Faunus, before Adam ended it in fire and blood.

What's more, if we look at resistance movements like the real world IRA, we will see that they too can start out using moderated violence, only to be co opted by self serving despots who harm their own people as well as others, so their shift is not exactly unrealistic.

Making a victim like Adam a villain is in poor taste -  A questionable claim as I think that is all down to execution and he's hardly the only character like that, & there's many others who overcame similar issues, so tis hardly "Abuse makes you evil."

But more to the point, given how a lot of people who have dealt with abusive stalkers, including those who weaponized their own history of abuse or trauma for sympathy said he was the most realistic portrayal of an abuser they've seen, I think there's a great deal of merit to his portrayal.

I would also note that the philosophical stance, "X person was a victim and therefore cannot be bad" is a poor and rather problematic idea. Because there is no demographic of person that makes one incapable of causing harm. Plus, Adam's life and death is still framed as a tragedy, despite all the harm he did, his life still had innate worth even to the people he hurt most.

(Well, the one's still alive anyway XD)

The White Fang being antagonists is corporate/military apologia -  I already addressed most of this above, but I wanted to re-center it because I had some interesting thoughts to share. Specifically how in another show this would be true, but it's not true in RWBY.

Because in most shows where the freedom fighters/terrorists are villainized, the institutions they target are propped up and defended, where its claimed, even if they are "flawed" they are "better", "Necessary", or more "well meaning" than the rebels.

Not true in RWBY

The SDC is every bit as bad as it's advertised, and Jac outright enables the villains in a selfish bid for power to protect his own wealth. Ironwood, who in other shows would be the "Good military man" type, reveals himself to be a craven coward and despot.

Ironwood and Adam's character songs even hit on the same themes of egotism and entitlement. Adam's is angrier & Ironwood's more grandiose because of their respective life experience, but they are men cut from a very similar cloth & playing similar roles amongst their peers and in the wider narrative.

Blake was originally a street kid, her being a princess is bad- That's not true in both cases and I appreciate CRWBY subverting the tired trope of "Violent minority girl gets saved and civilized by nice Caucasian girls" the post below goes into more detail on that: https://www.tumblr.com/kkglinka/176246425849/rwby-racial-trope-inversion?source=share 

Conclusion:

Ultimately, RWBY grew beyond, explored or outright subverted a lot of the usual issues that come attached with these complaints and had a lot more nuanced stuff to say on the subjects they tackled.

Even with their issues in tackling these subjects, I feel that there is much more interesting stuff to talk about than a lot of what I usually see come up when this subject comes around, which is a shame.

There's room to acknowledge where there were flaws without tearing down the entire concept, or glossing over what was done well, I think.

[creatingblackcharacters]

hello!! (and welcome back!!!!)

i have a question about how to properly write a scene in a fanfiction i have

so, it's a zombie apocalypse thing, and theres some level of fantasy racism against a white character. he gets turned into a zombie and then turns back, and everyone is pretty wary of him sometimes, but for the most part they just kill zombies and dont actually have an issue with HIM, but he considers it wrong to kill ANY zombies (which i fully disagree with as a zombie media enthusiast, they literally kill people)

so, i'm going to have one of those scenes where the white character goes to the Black character with 'oh, you could NEVER understand how this feels!', EXCEPT, the plan is that the Black character (Juliet, and the white guy is her boyfriend Romeo) gets kind of angry after hearing him say this to her all the time and pretty much goes 'Romeo, i'm a Black woman'

i was wondering how to properly write this scene, and to show that Romeo is completely in the wrong for acting like Juliet wouldn't understand the racism she's been going through her whole life (because i am SURE that some people would think 'wow thats so fucked up of Juliet to be mad at him when hes just talking about his experience')

in reality i don't think Romeo would do this but disappointingly he somehow ended up like that in the series because i write it with someone else. but i feel that this scene would be important to include even though i would honestly like to completely change so much of what we've done with Romeo's character

thank you!

Of course you would name your characters Romeo and Juliet lmao. Okay so admittedly this will be biased because I am stunned at the audacity of your co-writer for putting you in this situation. But there are two things I personally would do, maybe both, maybe one or the other:

1) remember how I've said before that the mark of a genuine ally is how they respond to being approached with their racism? If you think this is an unironic reflection if your co-writer's beliefs, you need to stop and tell them that you are uncomfortable. Period. I'm not going to sit here and roleplay microaggressions. No. And if they don't want to change, then I would simply no longer write this story. Just because they want to write racism and call it romantic doesn't mean that you have to participate.

2) if you want to commit to the bit, you can always show what would actually happen in this situation with a Black character with self respect, which is Juliet dumping him. 😊👍🏾 I can't imagine being in the zombie apocalypse and letting somebody be racist during. I don't have time for that. and I'm already making time for a romance? With a zombie? That treats me microaggressively? Nah. I could be doing anything else at the moment. Survival is key, I risked it, and you think that's how you'll do me? Unacceptable. Let them write out of that one 🤣 no happily ever after without a genuine apology and reflection 🤣

Jokes aside (well, theyre not really jokes) you're asking how to reflect the Black woman's experience with racism in your story. And if that's not something you're confident in writing, something that you've studied, read, listened to, and have a grasp on, I wouldn't do it at all. In addition to how this story is supposed to be a romance (I assume, given the names) racism isn't romantic. Hiring a Black sensitivity reader could be key at this moment as well.

As I have said before, I'm always iffy on fantasy racism anyway, because it usually reveals that people don't actually understand what real world racism is and how it functions. I don't know how well you and your co-writer have written this story. But if your white zombie Romeo really is experiencing "zombie racism", then it stands to reason that he should be able to recognize racism when it's in front of him, and he should be checked for that.

[for-ships-that-never-sail]

Okay Y'ALL I saw Episode 5 today and these are the thoughts I jotted down while watching it (PART 2 OF 2)

Please don’t read below the cut if you are avoiding spoilers until you get to watch it yourself 

And FYI some of these may not have any context, but I guess it won’t matter cause you’ll have context in 7ish hours anyway (also sorry about how long all my thoughts and feelings are lol)

Awh Kate you’re so pretty - kinda weird to see her so chill though - she was so stressed all of season 2 that seeing her so serene is throwing me off tbh - I am so happy for you though my love

Also her outfit that looks like a sari is soooo gorgeous I WANTTTT

Love the cinnamon biscuits vs fruit jellies bit

Portia ma'am please listen to Varley FFS

lol I hope they did in fact fuck again like she wanted

Ugly crying at MY MESSSSSS

PARIS? oufff I love how comfortable she is, just casual teasing chit chats with bestie

“Undefended”? Charlotte needs a different hobby pleaseeee

LOLLLLL when did Penelope learn to do her hair and makeup by herself???? Cause there’s no fucking way she would’ve looked THAT fucking good after alllll of that lol

We were going to be KNIGHTS!! OMG sweet babiessss

“as much as I do” I can’t even blame anyone for anything they’ve done or said so far tbh 

This is such nuanced writing — I understand exactly where pretty much everyone is coming from and that’s really nice tbh 

Omg they really do want Cressida to marry a dinosaur 

WTF Cressida you do you girl fuck shit up for Penelope I don’t even care do whatever you have to do and go all out and save yourself cause no one else will I’m so sorry you were ever put in this position  

We have been acting uncouth AS OF LATE??? as of late????!? Omggg Portia girl pleaseeeee you had ONE job and you’re just gonna pass the buck to your daughters instead? STAHP own up to your shit cause you knowwww they bully her because youuu bullied her and the gall to say this is just happening LATELY on top lmao 

Though like in her eyes I always do see remorse too - I think she just lacks courage to ever really own up to everything in full because she’s just so guarded 

Honestly this is such stellar acting 

And also like, Penelope, most of you is your mom my girl - your brains, your overthinking, your inability to just say Yuh I done fucked up my bad lol 

Greg’s hat

Yesssss lord Kent find you some Bridgerton besties 

I actually do love Portia - yeah she’s been a colossal dick of a mom to Pen but as complex women go, I get her - If she makes amends with Pen for them daily microaggressions and general abuse one day, for real for real, she’d be really great 

Omg Mama B and Lady D are such big shippers - wish they didn’t fully cut out the Lady D stuff from the books though le sigh 

Eloise has a point - I agree - she had lotsss of alone time to say it - I understand Pens fear completely, but she must realize that her saying this is still soooo much better than him having to find out on his own - and there is no way he wouldn't - and he’d be more hurt by that part than the actual LW part I think and honestly Eloise is right about her being involved in that painful deception too, I wouldn’t want my own brother to feel betrayed by me like that either, given how often he wished LW ill out loud - and the longer Pen stays quiet the more guilty Eloise becomes as a sister too - If anything her not immediately snitching makes her moreee team Pen than team Colin - this is still a lowkey loyalty to Pen for sure - I think I may have issued this same ultimatum under these conditions too

Omggg JOHNNNNNN stop he’s having a panic attack why did Fran put him on the spot like thissss????

“As you rightly mocked me last season” lolllll

Awh Colin and the toast 

Eloise should nottttt have done her second toast - now THAT part was uncalled for, but I guess they want to keep the stress levels high 

Lmao Kate to the rescue 

I loveeeee how close they are sitting in public - but like… does nooooo one else see this??? Hips glued together? Hands holding??? Just out in the open?? No one thinks this is insanely intimate for a newly engaged couple of the ton??? Even if it’s a love match? None of the older women are clocking this and saying 1. Sit the fuck apart 2. Did yall fuck already cause yall look like you fucked and we don’t even have a wedding date set yet??? Are you not going to even ask for a special license?? You just want her to pop a baby before she technically should and cause more drama?? Like who is in charge of all these fools?? Mama B what is you doing??? Do you not think Colin is being a nasty girl with his wife-to-be?? lol

Lol Anthony I love you, you competitive lil bitch 

Lmaooooo Eloise and Penelope being the smartest bitches of the ton YESSSS

Portia trying to show where Pen's brain comes from lol

Muddy boots panic again 

LMFAOOOOOOO Mama B your face is going a mile a minute right now listening to the muddy boots

"I saw straight away" OH MY FROHN you will end me one day

Pen get your shit together pls grab a brown paper bag or smthn 

Oooohhhhh fuck I get itttttt

Cressida girl my bad I get ittttttt sooooo much more - I didn’t fully understand her thought process behind what we already knew she was gonna do until just nowwww - they really set it up for her well - girl needed an exit and everyone fully offered her one - I have no issues with this at all tbh 

Omg omg this is the most chaotic midnight strike of all time like 6 different things happened at the same time???? 

Well that was some good old fashioned Bridgerton CHAOS Hope y'all enjoyed it too!!!! LESS THAN 8 HOURS TO GOOOOOOOOOO

[ravi-is-my-beloved]

What’s your stance on the many POC that are huge Tommy fans, because he has a surprising amount of them. Do you think they’re in the wrong for enjoying him?

I don't think they're in the wrong for enjoying him, it's their choice to think he's changed and grown off-screen. I don't personally think he's changed and grown (I think he hasn't grown, he just has recognized that times changed and people higher up than him usually won't tolerate him being vocal about his thoughts), but you can think he's changed and not actively brush off/diminish what he has done in the past.

And that part is the part that bothers me. Of course, this is not a generalization of all of the Tommy fans, but this is what I see from the most vocal ones.

The problem comes when they try to say he wasn't an active participant in the bigotry (he started it in Chimney Begins) and they try to say he has canonically apologized in the Begins episodes and has canonically reported Gerrard in Hen Begins. All of that is not canon, but they use it to defend Tommy and say that all of the antis are just trying to say whatever because we don't like the ship.

There's also a rhetoric the people of color who like Tommy/Bucktommy push which is "Oh, the antis have never experienced racism in the workplace because no person of color would ever tolerate/be friendly with someone who's still racist." Which a) it erases the fact that there are people of color who don't like Tommy because of his problematic past, and b) it pushes the narrative that there's not people of color who choose to keep their head down.

We see Chimney keep his head down and not be as bold as Hen is in standing up for herself in his Begins episode. And yes, part of it was because speaking up against bigotry even in 2005 was not really normalized, but that still doesn't mean people of color don't still just keep their head down because they know it's not worth it to stand up for themselves. I've seen my mother be polite to her coworkers who ostracize her and use microaggressions against her just like what happened to Chimney.

Firefighting is a dangerous job, one where you need your coworker to like you so that they have your back, you can't just go making an enemy out of them. Sure, you can be bold, stand up for yourself, and have the outcome be good (like it was for Hen), but more often than not, it's not worth it in that line of work.

And just because you wouldn't tolerate a coworker who's still racist, doesn't mean that all people of color think the same way. We all deal with racism in different ways and some people just decide it's better to not fight it in the workplace.

So TLDR: No, the fans who are people of color who like Tommy aren't in the wrong, but how they react to other people of color who don't like Tommy and how they help push the narrative that every anti Tommy fan is white and doesn't know what they're talking about when it comes to the racism in the fandom is wrong.

[snake-and-mouse]

Regarding the issues surrounding the Kindergarten Mafia discord server, a large fandom server mostly dedicated to the kinnporsche fandom. It is an issue that encompasses multiple events and many other people have been hurt who I do not want to speak for, so this will not be the full picture, just a part of my part. If anyone reads this and has questions, they can reach out to me.

I am Will/Logan, also known as Sweet-William in fanfic circles, and I am not making this post because I have a vendetta, or to be malicious, as some of my previous actions have been called by the moderators of the server. I am making it because I have the right to speak on my experiences (as others I hope will speak up and share theirs, now that they know they are not alone), and because I want to warn people so what happened to me does not happen to them.

I am also making this post because @accal1a aka Hann the admin of the server has refused to delete content created by myself and many of my friends from the server, all of who left because they like me felt unsafe. The original request was sent by proxy as Hann has me blocked, and though they said they would unblock me so we could discuss it, they never did. As a writer I take it seriously when my work, and also details of my personal life, are taken. When I even offered to go through and delete it all myself if temporarily given access to the server, my messages were completely ignored.

The server is not a safe place for people of colour. It is not a place safe from racism, or xenophobia, and its leadership has historically been and continues to this day, to perpetuate racism in fandom spaces and shelter people who have hurt others with no real repercussions, accountability, or transparency.

The original issue was the result of this conversation between myself and Rachael, one of the moderators. I earlier stepped into a conversation where several microaggressions occurred regarding native american culture. As a Native, it was my right to speak up.

After this conversation I was urged to bring the issue directly to Hann, and from there the issues spiralled out of control. Hann originally was very supportive, and we became what I thought to be close friends. They made many reassurances Rachael would be held accountable, and changes would be made to the server to make it a safer place for pocs.

Rachael was never actually held accountable. Even when it came to light she had messaged me to issue the warning while lying to the rest of the mod team that she had "checked in on me" to see if I was alright after the incident. This was not the only time she secretly issued warnings to people, usually to defend her friends.

She was "demoted" but in actuality, the entire mod team was restructured and she simply was not on the top rung. Over the next two months many things happened, most of which are not my story to tell, and then it came to light Rachael had even further lied and never issued any warning or otherwise spoke to the person originally being racist in a mod capacity, this person being her friend, and refused to show what messages she did actially send.

To avoid any punishment she tried to "step down" as a mod before a choice could be made. And this was allowed. She was allowed to step down and continue to be in the server with no one knowing the actual story or that she couldn't be trusted and had abused her position.

After an incredibly vague statement was posted by the mod team regarding Rachael no longer being a mod, I broke and posted the conversation publicly and laid out the actual events. This was met with an overwhelming negative backlash, where it became clear to me this was a community where I was not safe, and any poc speaking up and calling for accountability would be seen as malicious and rocking the boat unnecessarily, while the moderators just watched on in silence.

The few moderators who were advocating for the poc server members were promptly fired, and though at one point a timeline vaguely outlining the events was posted, it and all evidence of what happened to me has since been deleted. And while Rachael originally left saying I was obviously trying to run her off the server, she has already returned at the urging of Hann.

Protecting people of colour and standing up to racism and xenophobia was never a priority in the kingergarten mafia server. And now that Hann has escalated to stealing work from people of colour that they have absolutely no right to, I am speaking up.

Respect us, be an ally, or face the consequences of what your community looks like with us gone.

[cripplecharacters]

Alright, I'm just gonna bite the bullet. Worst that can happen is I make a fool of myself. I've been working on superhero stories, versions of the same universe since I was in 8th grade and what I want more than anything is to modernize superheroes, create a world where they act for all people's social good and take representation to the highest level I can think of. From your position of expertise, what can I do with the creation of disabled characters that would buck the trend, do some good, and show a good side. The non-prosthetic and non-corrected for disability rep in the genre is basically nil, I have no ideas and nothing to draw on. I guess I just wanna know what disabled audiences might like to see for once in their lives.

Hello!

Disabled superheroes are awesome. There's really few of them but the ones that we do have are often really important to us - you can look at the reactions to Sun-Spider being first introduced to the Spiderverse, back then I couldn't open my fridge without seeing that one panel where she explicitly says she has hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos.

Here are a few suggestions of what I'd like to see in the superhero genre:

Superheroes with facial differences. Comics love to use us for their ugly disfigured evil villains but not much else unfortunately. I'd kill for a superman type hero who saves people with a smile and a facial difference on his face. Especially for superhero stories that are geared towards kids and teens, we just desperately need something to help with shifting the public perception of people with facial differences from "evil and ugly" to "people that can be awesome". A hero with burn scars, with Treacher Collins syndrome, Bell's palsy, neurofibromatosis... anything.

Superheroes who use disability aids (and still need them when doing their job). Sun-Spider is an awesome example, she swings from her crutches and has a spider wheelchair. That's cool as hell. But even a less in-your-face aid would be great. A superhero flying above the city with her ankle-foot orthoses visible would go really hard. Also, superheroes who are concerned on how much these things cost and try their best to make sure they're still functional while they save the city.

Heroes with different causes of their disabilities. The vast majority of morally good disabled characters were involved in An Accident or some sort of Attack that disabled them. That's not bad or wrong at all, but I think in media is kind of oversaturated with this specific portrayal when a lot of people have progressive or congenital conditions. We need more stories that show those who were born disabled as heroes equal to those who were born abled and spent most of their lives abled. Superheroes with cerebral palsy, chromosomal disorders, congenital rubella, achondroplasia, all the disabilities that tend to get ignored despite so many people having them. Same for really common chronic illnesses, diabetes or COPD are criminally underrepresented.

Disabled superheroes that aren't saints because of their disability. This is the whole "disabled person can do no wrong" trope that appears sometimes. I'm mentioning it since superheroes are more "perfect" than most characters in other genres, so try to not make it so the disabled ones can do no wrong. Disabled people can still make mistakes that are their fault, make poor decisions, or just simply be angry sometimes.

When there's no active superhero action going on, show the normal human parts of the disabled experience. Depending on the demographic you're writing for it would be different things, but there are some fairly universal concepts like inaccessibility, microaggressions, or just boring things like the prosthetic leg no longer fitting well after the character gained some weight. If your characters are from the US, don't be afraid to mention that their insulin costs are barely affordable with their superhero pay. Show how the common everyday kind of ableism affect them when they're in civilian mode. This will make it much more authentic to disabled readers.

These are my suggestions, and I hope they are helpful. My last advice is to have multiple disabled characters, and in different roles. Maybe a character with ALS can no longer do superhero fighting, but he can still be a wonderful parent. Maybe the character with Usher syndrome is more interested in the hero than being a hero themselves (disabled heroes in relationships!). Maybe the character with phocomelia can't be a hero yet because she's six, but she can train hard to be one when she's older. Keep it varied, have them come from different life situations and have different goals just like abled characters do.

I hope this helps,

mod Sasza

[commsroom]

eiffel's problem is that he sees every injustice as an interpersonal issue. he doesn't understand how his flippancy or apparent leniency towards hilbert might look to hera; in his mind, it doesn't contradict his support for her. to eiffel, it seems obvious - he is also one of hilbert's victims, hera is his friend, of course he's completely on her side - but he fails to fully grasp how the stakes are different for her.

ep 19: "you need to stop treating this like a joke, officer eiffel." / "hey, i'm the person for whom the joke tolls." / "i get you're scared he put something inside you. but i hope you haven't forgotten emergency code alpha victor. he put that in me." and ep 51: "they're just jokes! they don't really mean anything." / "see, eiffel, you get to have that. they can be 'just jokes' for you because you're... well, you. but we don't get that."

the issue in shut up and listen is eiffel's repeated, if unintentional, microaggressions, but it's also his general use of dark humor as a coping mechanism - jokes he feels justified in making because of how the subjects of those jokes have impacted him. eiffel sincerely believes in treating people equally, but his idea of 'equal treatment' can be idealistic and naive. he has an awareness of interpersonal harm, but he's lived most of his life without ever being confronted with the reality of structural harm - being pre-judged and othered and having his life devalued on the basis of outside categorization.

but the thing about that is that it has happened to him, too. eiffel is an addict, and a convict, and marked as from a lower socioeconomic class than minkowski or lovelace, and those things are the reasons goddard futuristics was able to buy him as prison labor and - without his consent - consider him expendable for medical experimentation. none of that is a coincidence, but he doesn't see the systems at work, only his own actions and regrets. which he then equivocates to the worst actions of people who don't share his sense of morality or guilt.

eiffel's ability to recognize and bring out the humanity in the people around him is one of his best qualities, but... on the basis of his identity, he's been able to live a life where he conceptualizes himself as the default person, and that's been reinforced by the pop culture he loves so much. that's a massive blind spot. he assumes everyone navigates the world in a similar way, and so, on some level, he sees everyone around him as an extension of or a reflection of himself. if evil is always personal, then it can always be reasoned with.

[daylightaftertherain]

s3 thoughts in no specific order bc I'm trying to not start crying rn

- TYE INTIMACY WE'VE GOTTEN BETQEEN THEM AND THE LITTLE HUGS AND TOUCHES AND KISSES

despite everything that's still happening I'm so grateful for all of that because they've come so far from kissing in a dark hallway and at the very least they got to be a normal couple for little moments

- sara and her arc with her dad and I'm so glad we got more on their relationship but the way it fell apart was so heartbreaking??? and it did feel like it was coming but GOD did I feel for both of them

- erik!! and finally bc we as a fandom have known he was not perfect and he wasn't the best person, but for wille to realize that and because of something he went through as well was just so fucling painful, but I think really really needed, and I think it's one of my favorite arcs jist based off first watch

- felice addressing all the little microaggressions and sifderneces and struggles she goes through was SO important and I'm glad this season finally started talking about how kids outside of the status quo even in hillerska feel, and they did her character much better justice this time around

- august and nils were actually one of the most interesting parts of s3 and I liked how they handled their past with the initiation but also just august's character. he's still flawed as all fuck and a massive asshole but I did empathize w him, and him and boris's convo was rlly necessary to his character

- idk I feel like all of wilmon's conversations and attempts at communication have been very choppy and unfinished, and I'm really really hoping they do get a chance to have a sit down and talk things through, because there still so much they haven't figured out with each other

- omar and edvin's acting was on POINT thus season I genuinely am so emotional over how they portrayed the heartbreak and confusion their characters went through ;;;;;

- linda finally getting some fleshing out and we see a fuller picture of the eriksson's dynamic, and simon finally relying on them more and expressing some of his frustrations with always being the strong one like oh my god

- kristina and wille's final fight was probably one of the most interesting and heartbreaking, but I'm glad it happened and there were many points that wille needed to make. I'm praying they figure themselves out in episode 6 and talk things through. I do feel for kristina though and the parallel between her and wille dealing with how to deal with erik's presence is so heartbreaking

- some discussions about the monarchy and the system! honestly there was no way to develop that plotline fully given it's the last season and they still only have six episodes, but I am grateful for what we got

-for now just waiting for episode 6 (PLEASE let it be longer) and for everything to tie up before my final thoughts

[ros-sauce]

Tumblr ate the ask before I could get to it, but here are my two cents on why viewing a transfem-coded character as Not That is Not a neutral act. Other people have worded this better than me, but I can't find their posts, so my janky explanation will have to do. Discourse post ahead, check the tags and scroll away if any of the things I mention will make you upset, let's go

I recognize that a person's beliefs regarding fiction aren't 1:1 with reality; like, someone who writes about murder is 99.99% likely to not actually be a murderer. But there are times that beliefs regarding fiction and reality do come a little closer together, and this is most present when it comes to prejudices.

An example I can think of, of the overlap between these beliefs, is... If someone uses racist stereotypes when writing a character of a certain race, it's fairly likely that they also hold this belief about that race in real life. Reading that racist depiction, too, can affect real life people's thoughts. Because marginalized people are already subject to a lot of stereotypes by other sources in real life, the presence of those stereotypes in fiction reinforces a belief that the reader has already heard. Since the reader presumably enjoys and respects what they're reading, the thought "Oh, the author thinks x race is like this too, maybe there's merit to that belief." can reasonably follow. And thus, their opinion of x race is worsened, and this opinion can then influence their actions towards actual real life people of that race.

It's also worth noting that the person being stereotyped will feel hurt by the stereotype. If a person of x race sees how unkindly this person writes about someone like them, they're obviously not going to feel excellent about that.

That was a lot of talk that didn't relate to transgenderism, for a post that is about transgenderism, so now here's the part about transgenderism.

Misgendering and degendering are, as we know, tragically very prevalent in the world. Many folks do not like trans people, and invalidate their identity. From what I've seen and heard, transfems are especially affected by this. The majority of transfem people I know have spoken about how they're often incorrectly they/themmed by people around them, even if these people are aware that they/them isn't in that person's pronoun set. More well-known than this degendering is aggressive misgendering. "That's a man in a dress", "that's a pervert who wants to peep in women's bathrooms", etc etc. A lot of people in the world do Not want to recognize trans women as women. They will do anything other than recognize trans women as women, from comparatively small microaggressions to violent aggression-aggressions.

Basically, "trans women aren't women" is a popular prejudice. So, when someone says "Despite the subtext that categorizes this character as a trans woman, that is not a trans woman.", the "Oh, the person I respect believes in this popular thing? Maybe there's merit to it, then" response can happen. And then those people become more likely to be biased against trans women in real life.

The feelings aspect also comes in here. Transfem Mizuki fans don't feel very good when people are like "this character who's just like you isn't a woman."

With the main point out of the way, now I'm going to reply to the other parts of the ask! Which I'm hoping I'm remembering right. Sorry if you didn't ask me these things at all.

How is headcanoning a trans character as Not That any different from headcanoning a cis character as Not That?

I think the difference is that there isn't a violent stereotype being reinforced. That's not to say that stereotypes aren't reinforced when cis characters are headcanoned as trans; they definitely do exist. People love to look at canonically-cis-girl characters with short hair or masc clothing and say "that character is transmasc."

But! Stereotypes like that, like "boys have short hair", don't really further the existence of hate. I'm not saying they're perfectly pure and good stereotypes!! Obviously there are girls with short hair who get harassed over looking masculine. But I can't say that that form of harassment is anywhere near the severity of the harassment marginalized groups face.

Why did you start shit with someone on the internet? What do you gain from that?

If you believe I did a Bad Thing by starting shit, I'm not going to disagree with that! Part of why I instigated that was just that I was mad. That's definitely nowhere near the Top 10 Most Mature Things I've Done In My Life.

I would also like to defend myself a little bit, though! I feel like, by making that piece, that artist was entering a conversation. I was entering the same conversation, albeit viciously. I think entering a conversation means opening yourself to other viewpoints, even if people who hold them are mean about it. If someone decides to be harsh to me about what I said, I obviously won't enjoy it, but I will recognize that I signed up for it.

As for what I gain from that: Lowering the artist's reach, hopefully. If people rescind their internet clout, or analyze that piece and notice that it supports something they might not want to (refer to how large the trans flag is on her as opposed to the "crossdresser" note, which is so small that it escaped some viewers' notice), then it won't go quite as far in the algorithm. And the prejudice present in the work won't get as many eyes. Maybe it will have slightly less of an effect on the real world!

[chicagofires]

a good rant to start the morning because i have thoughts about something

i think it’s insane when people who hate stella say “we should be allowed to dislike stella without being called racist or misogynistic!” and it’s like… in theory they’re right! disliking a female character or a POC doesn’t inherently make you misogynistic or racist! if you have valid criticisms toward them that’s obviously fine and no one would be mad at you for it except there’s no such thing as a valid criticism against stella because she’s perfect. but the issue arises when your “criticisms” are actually just microaggressions😭. because what do you mean you hate stella because she’s “aggressive” or “bossy” or “too masculine”. just things that would never be said about a man or a white person. and you hate her for these things to the point that you PUBLICALLY post that you want her to brutally die in a fire… weirdo behavior

i know we say this all the time but it bears repeating: stella would never in a million years get away with half the stuff the white men on the show do. kelly severide would hate seeing how people spew hate toward his wife while worshipping him despite the objectively worse things he’s done

and let’s talk about how the two most widely loved women on the show- brett and shay- also happen to be the only white women to be series regulars (until novak came at least). and the most widely hated female series regulars (stella and gabby) happen to be the WOC who have been on the show the longest. not only is that alarming in and of itself, but i also find it interesting that, unlike stella and gabby, shay and brett were never firefighters. on the show at least, paramedicine is portrayed more as a “woman’s job” and firefighting more as a “man’s job” and therefore paramedics might be “less threatening” in the eyes of misogynists. maybe i’m wrong but that seems like a red flag. plus like brett is super traditionally feminine and cutesy and sweet. and shay frankly wasn’t around long enough for people to stop liking her. i am by no means saying if you like brett and/or shay you’re racist or misogynistic. obviously that’s not true. but it is an alarming pattern i see in stella haters

so yeah… if we call you racist or misogynistic for hating stella kidd it’s because you probably just are…

[presidenthades]

Here’s the behind-the-scenes for Lavender Ch. 6!

Usual disclaimer that these thoughts aren’t necessarily canonical to the fic verse until/unless I write them into the actual story.

Aegon’s undercover adventures are some of my favorite things to write. If this chapter weren’t monstrously long, I would’ve written a lot more about what exactly Aegon did while sleuthing. Editing for concision is painful. 🥲

Aemond being terrible at going undercover is another of my favorite things to write ahahaha.

In the books, Dorne is very ethnically diverse. You have salty Dornish like the Martells who tend to live near the coast, sandy Dornish who live in the desert, and stony Dornish in the mountains who look and act more like Andals than like the Rhoynar. So it’s possible for Aegon to pass as a stony Dornishman (the term isn’t coined until later in the timeline, so I don’t use it in the text) as long as he doesn’t draw too much attention.

Originally I was going to make Aliandra extremely flirty with Aegon, to the point that she brazenly crosses the line of propriety. Then I realized that would play into the “promiscuous sex-centered Dornish” trope that’s prevalent in fandom, so I backtracked. I also looked critically at how Aliandra is described in F&B. Although I usually think the “unreliable narrator” part of the Dance is exaggerated, I think it is plausible (and probable) that in-world maesters would not write about Aliandra, a foreign Dornishwoman, in a sympathetic light. She’s depicted as coming onto Alyn Velaryon, who is depicted as being brave and noble and true to Baela. But Alyn is a serial cheater, so if something happened between him and Aliandra, I doubt he was totally innocent. So instead of making Aliandra a homewrecker, I just made her flirty and a bit boy-crazy for Valyrian men. She’s a rebellious 16yo, so I think her doing the medieval equivalent of putting up band posters of her family’s ancestral enemy tracks. 😂

S1 Mysaria joins the spymaster business as a way to make money off of rich people willing to pay for her info. In this verse, she gets so good at it that she has a few of Viserys’s personal servants on her payroll, hence her ability to find out about the journal etc. Of course Larys doesn’t like this, because a) she’s infringing on his turf and b) if she knows about his scheming with Viserys, she might tell someone. He acts against her after the moon tea, so she has to flee quickly and ends up in Dorne. But she has limited resources and she gets sick (something like tuberculosis), so she grows desperate enough to broker a deal with Aegon. She’s realized she can’t return to KL as long as Viserys (and Larys) is in charge, so she hopes allying with Aegon will give her a fighting chance.

“It may shock you to hear this, but I don’t know every YiTish who lives in King’s Landing.” This was my wry little joke about the IRL microaggression where people sometimes say, “Oh you’re [insert racial/ethnic minority]? Do you know [insert name of person also in that racial/ethnic minority]?” Aegon wasn’t really asking that; it was a ruse to see if she’s lying about Myranda. But I imagine Mysaria gets asked about all the YiTish people in KL a lot. To be fair, the YiTish community in KL is probably very small in this era, but it’s not like they have social media to keep tabs on each other.

“Old men, young men, rich men, poor men, hale men, crippled men.” It’s not a coincidence that Mysaria mentioned the last one re: “tempting even the most calculating man to act unwisely” around Jace.

Larys’s spies have orders to stop Aegon and Mysaria at all costs from spreading news about the plot against Aegon. When they realize Aegon and Mysaria have found each other, the spies take advantage of the Dornish people’s anger about the Targs and foment further unrest. Larys also has spies inside Sunspear, who are the reason it’s so easy for the mob to infiltrate the castle.

Mysaria’s parting message about Aegon being “Lord Protector of the Realm” rather than just the Highborns is another foreshadowing of Aegon the Smallfolk King. Also, even though she’s been on the run, she’s heard bits and pieces about the Smallfolk in KL favoring Aegon, which contributes to her decision to ally with him.

Qoren is barely a character in this fic, but he is yet another example of one of the themes in this story: parents are (or should be) willing to sacrifice everything for their children. His only scene is him giving himself up to the rioters to buy his kids time to escape.

The assailant is of course on Larys’s payroll (lack of tongue is the big giveaway). He also uses show!Jace’s trick at Driftmark of throwing sand in Aemond’s face to temporarily blind him.

Sunfyre is the MVP, carrying five people in his saddle. Bro needs a back massage after this.

Vhagar and the Martells’ face-off makes me cackle. They are all definitely remembering the first Dornish War.

One of Viserys’s first journal entries is about being “pissed about something Daemon did in a brothel.” This is of course a reference to the S1E4 brothel scene with Rhaenyra. In this universe, Otto doesn’t immediately tattle to Viserys about it. Instead Otto leverages the information to persuade Viserys that he can’t keep Rhaenyra as heir.

Viserys really loved Lyonel Strong. Larys takes advantage by pretending his Lyonel 2.0, which helps win Viserys’s favor. Larys also hands over a supposed copy of Daenys’s Dreams and Portents, left behind by Queen Rhaena at Harrenhal. Is this a real copy? It could be! Some of the prophecies are very prescient from an IRL reader’s POV, particularly about the false Aegon (the alleged Aegon VI in the books who’s probably actually a Blackfyre, sponsored by the Golden Company) and the mother of dragons (Daenerys, obviously).

I’m of the belief that prophecies in fiction are best utilized to make things WORSE, not better. So here, Viserys’s obsession with TPTWP almost wrecks his own family, when all he needed to do was nothing and things would be fine on their own.

Aegon casually demanding Dornish subservience on a whim is so on brand for him. 😭 He has a good instinct for when opportunities arise for him to seize. The problem, as highlighted in this chapter, is he doesn’t always want to seize those opportunities. He would rather be selfish and go home to Jace. But she’s his conscience now, and he thinks she would want him to secure Dorne. (TBH she would want that; most people would not foresee Viserys disinheriting Aegon for it.)

Otto would 10000% have come up with the best PR campaign of the century if he was able to see the Dornish treaty first.

We don’t get a canon description of Rhaenys and Visenya’s crowns, so I took thematic liberties. Aegon ends up giving Rhaenys’s crown to Jace, so I wanted it to be something suitable for Jace. The OG Targ trio had a Velaryon mother, so I figured Rhaenys may have decided to honor their mother with her crown.

Ravens are trained by maesters in Oldtown, and then they’re cared for by maesters. Sunspear has a maester, but Dorne and the Reach are such historical enemies that I can’t imagine maesters/ravens being prevalent in Dorne before Dorne joins the Seven Kingdoms. So it’s hard for Aegon to receive news from KL before he returns to Sunspear.

Aegon intentionally used Jace’s handkerchief as a white flag to her father and grandmother because symbolism. Who says he isn’t a politician!

Viserys never tells Aegon about the song of ice and fire because he doesn’t really want Aegon as his heir. But him only mentioning Rhaenyra as “mother of dragons” in his journal shows that he never particularly wanted her as heir either; it was all a means to fulfill the prophecy.

When Aegon offers to make Rhaenyra his Hand, she plays with some of the roses in the room because she’s thinking about what Jace would want. 🌹 Also, I feel like Rhaenyra would genuinely be happiest living an independent life. She doesn’t want the throne because she wants to rule, she wants it because it’s validation that her father loves her. So Rhaenyra doesn’t immediately accept Aegon’s offer; she doesn’t actually want to rule as Hand.

“I am not so precious to him.” Rhaenyra plays with the Daemon necklace when she says this, so “him” doesn’t necessarily mean Corlys.

Aegon doesn’t trust Viserys (for good reason) so he refuses to go into the Red Keep where anything could happen to him. Instead, our Smallfolk King insists on having everything happen in the open, to be judged by the people. Also, witnesses are a good safety measure.

“Kings must place the greater good above our own wants. We all must make sacrifices for the sake of the realm.” Viserys doesn’t actually exemplify what he preaches—but Aegon does in the very next moment, when he offers to give up his claim.

“I do not hate you.” Viserys genuinely believes this, though he can’t bring himself to say he loves Aegon. He didn’t condone Larys sending the assassin after Aegon—but Viserys didn’t ask Larys for details either, so he’s not a paragon of fatherly virtue. As long as Viserys keeps his hands clean, he can claim innocence.

As one commenter said, “Daemon jumpscare!” Daemon has haunted the narrative thus far, but he hasn’t really been a character in this fic. As readers know, Daemon never has a chance to cause trouble in Lavender…but maybe in a sequel. 👀

Aegon’s efforts with the walkway project and general willingness to hang out with the plebs pay off this chapter. I love the scene where all the Smallfolk give him little gifts to try to make him feel better. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s the best they can afford to give away, which says a lot. Compare this to Aegon’s highborn “friends” who don’t even reply to his messages…

Rhaenyra is baffled by how much the Smallfolk love Aegon because, as evidenced by S1E4, she’s never been one to mingle with Smallfolk.

Jace hears about the party that Aegon is throwing on his dad’s front lawn and decides to help him out. People love free food, so she sends Gyles to stir up the crowd in Aegon’s favor some more.

Alicent has a small scene where she holds Aegon’s hands and stares as if counting his fingers. This is a reference to how lots of newborn parents like to count their babies’ fingers and toes.

Jace sees Gyles and Ronnel every day when they serve her pies, so she’s able to plot with them without attracting suspicion. Aegon’s friendship with the Smallfolk leads to Viserys’s downfall. So poetic.

Hippocras is a spiced wine that book!Viserys enjoys drinking. It was also believed to have aphrodisiac qualities. There’s the unspoken implication in this chapter that when Viserys drinks hippocras, he usually asks Alicent to come over for a sleepover. 💀 Jace knows this. Usually Jace would sympathize with Alicent, but right now Jace is thinking,“Alicent, Aegon is your son, please stop crying for 5 minutes and DO SOMETHING to save him.” Now that Jace has her own son, she is a bit more brutal about pushing Alicent to make sacrifices for her children. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jace actively arranged for Viserys to be served hippocras… 👀

At the very end of this chapter, Alicent FINALLY gets her Green Dress moment in this universe. She’s stopped dressing in black as if she’s in pseudo-mourning. Now she’s waging war against Viserys, and boy is she efficient at it. She’s described as being in disarray and dressing less modestly because she seduced Viserys, waited for him to fall asleep, then held a pillow over his face. But Alicent is very religious, so she feels guilty AF about it and has a breakdown in public.

See Chapter 7 commentary here.