#not to mention btw shes not even actually the person shes claiming to be while sleeping with him which is also weird but im not his parent

[nicklukenelson]

Can we pretty please acknowledge how creepy the logan x Kendall plotline is for a second? That is a 25 year old sleeping with a barely legal adult. Under false pretenses ! Weird as hell.

[amiti-art]

Cyrene, Apollo and Ares (and how it was actually only Cyrene and Apollo and Wikipedia is not always a reliable source)

Some of you might know the myth in which Apollo's lover - Cyrene met Ares and had a son named Diomedes (NOT the same guy as Diomedes from Iliad) with him.

Except... she didn't.

When I was researching Cyrene some time ago I realised that her article on Theoi (great source btw) doesn't mention Ares at all. I didn't pay that much attention to this back then, after all, most of the myths have many versions so I assumed that the one with Ares is just less popular one.

I was more preoccupied with the fact that Idmon who I always thought to be Apollo and Cyrene's son was not actually always listed as theirs and had like 5 different variants of parentage.

Let's start with Cyrene's children and why Wikipedia should not be used as a primary source.

Her Personal Information Section on Wikipedia lists 3 children: Aristaeus, Autuchus and Idmon. Later in the Family section it's said that she also had Diomedes with Ares.

For the life of me I could not find anything about Autuchus in the ancient sources BUT I found that Anthocus (which is kinda similar) was the title of Aristaeus and was sometimes mistaken for another son of the pair.

So likely it is the same mistake.

Aristaeus is also the one who is almost always said to be son of Apollo and Cyrene and both of his parents appear in his myths.

Idmon like I said had many different sets of parents: Apollo and Cyrene, Abas and Cyrene, Apollo and Asteria (NOT the sister of Leto), Apollo and Antianeira, Apollo and Abas (one is bio father, the other is foster father, I think????). He also doesn't have an article on Theoi so reserch on him is going to be a nightmer. 🙃

And now Diomedes

Wikipedia says this

But does not link any source for this story

What's more: there are sources describing Apollo changing Cyrene into a Nymph and they also don't mention Ares AT ALL. They are also written in a way that suggest that changing her into a Nymph was one of the first things Apollo did after meeting her.

This doesn't add up with this Ares thing at all.

So where did the Wikipedia article got this Cyrene-fighting-Ares story from? Well, I decided to look into edits history and this section was actually deleted a few months ago with this comment.

My honest reaction to this information: 😐

And then the section was revived for some reason.

But you know when it was first added? 2 years ago.

When did Rick's book about Greek heroes came out? 8 years ago.

So right now Cyrene's Wikipedia article is misleading and contains information from a RETELLING stated as facts.

The only thing I could find that was linking Cyrene with Ares was this:

and it doesn't even say if this is the same Cyrene. It could be, but we have to remember that in the myths there were like 14 dudes named Abas (and 5 named Idmon while we're at it.)

+this is a very late source compared to all the other Cyrene's myths.

Other source claims that Diomedes' mother was Asterie

I personaly think those are two different Cyrenes and here's why:

• Cyrene (Apollo's lover) when introduced in the myth is usually accompanied either by her parentage or by some other characteristic like "sheparderss" "huntress" "archeress" "lion slayer" and so on. Cyrene from Ares' myth has nothing to her name which makes me think she was just some random women.

• Non of Cyrene's own myths ever mention Ares (or I couldn't find any), while Apollo is mentioned often.

• Apollo's Cyrene was Thessalian and Diomedes (and therefor his mother likely as well) was Thracian

• There is literally nothing I could find that would suggest that Apollo's Cyrene and Cyrene from Ares myth are the same and since there are many characters in the mythology with the same names (again 14 Abas') labeling these two as one is irrational (Diomedes himself shares the name with one of the Iliad's characters).

Anyway, lesson for today: be careful while reading Wikipedia and always check the sources.

This kinda scares me tbh because how many more of those articles treat retellings as actual sources and were added by fans of the said retellings?

I hope somebody will fix this article because wtf

[myfairkatiecat]

Not to be rude but I think it's quite silly to say OP's religious beliefs are irrelevant, and cannot be referenced, because they are not explicitly mentioned in the post being reblogged, when op has stated directly that they are homophobic because of their religious beliefs, and the post being reblogged is being accused of homophobia. Like, if some guy made a post saying "I think no women should be able to have jobs because that makes them less dependent on men and therefore I can't get a girlfriend", then made a separate post saying "Media nowadays glorifies women having jobs too much!! Stay at home mothers need more representation!!!" I think it would be extremely relevant in that situation to say, "Ok, this guy has clearly stated biases in this conversation, which calls into question whether this post is REALLY just about representation in media or whether it's indicative of OP's real life agenda." (Not trying to conflate religion with being an incel here btw, just giving an example of another time when knowing more information about the source of the post changes the way you might interpret it.)

The person reblogging that post didn't just say "OP's username is religious so I'm going to read this as homophobic!!!", they linked a specific post in which OP directly stated "My religion prevents me from accepting LGBT people, and I use my religious texts to justify why being LGBT is wrong." How is that not relevant context for their post griping about how fandom makes everything gay?

Ooh, let’s work within your hypothetical!

Some guy is being misogynistic on their blog but then makes a valid post about how stay at home mother’s don’t get enough representation in media.

If the post that says “stay at home mothers should get more representation!” says absolutely nothing about how women actually shouldn’t ever get jobs, then it’s a good post about the validity of mothers we choose to stay at home and how they deserve more representation in the media! There is therefore nothing wrong with reblogging and agreeing with the post, and going into the reblogs of that post to tell everyone “how hard is it for you to just look at their url and blog and realize they say other stuff that you DON’T agree with?” would be kinda rude.

Reblogging a post boosts the signal on what was said in that post. It doesn’t subscribe you to that person’s entire belief system.

Furthermore, the original poster, Gracie, says very very little about that topic on her blog to keep from offending anyone. I’ve never seen her try to force her beliefs onto anyone. She’s super respectful while also believing, as her religion states, that her God is the one true God. This is a belief claim about a system that would therefore according to her beliefs apply to everyone, but she isn’t forcing anyone to agree with her. The post that was cited in that reblog in which Gracie says explicitly her beliefs regarding the LGBT community and scripture was in a response to an ask that was sent to her. She didn’t even volunteer the information, someone asked her for it, and she replied honestly. I have never seen Gracie be anything but respectful, and if you knew her, you’d know she’s super kind and never would want anyone to feel invalidated or uncomfortable because of something she posts.

No one, including Gracie, is forcing you to agree with her religious beliefs. If they make you uncomfortable, I highly recommend not scrolling through a Christian blog. When people are reblogging her post, they aren’t even necessarily saying they agree with everything she’s ever posted. That topic is entirely separate. If you want to converse civilly with Gracie about why she believes what she believes, I recommend being respectful to her. If you’d rather ignore her all together, I point you towards the block button.

If somebody’s religion or belief system makes you uncomfortable enough that you don’t want to engage with any of their content, that’s your choice, but the people in the reblogs aren’t being “dumb” for not “checking who the source is,” they’re just saying they agree with the post they agree with.

Imagine agreeing with a post you agree with! Novel concept.

In short, posts are independent pieces of text. Reblogging a post doesn’t say anything except “I agree with this piece of text and want to share it.” If that piece of text doesn’t say anything about OP’s religion, then their religion isn’t relevant to the post. It’s as simple as that.

I hope you have a blessed day <3

[genericpuff]

I was reading your essay on "fat" rep in LO and as woman who is overweight, maybe not but definitely chubby/pudgy and often getting shit for it by my family... Do we ever see Persephone with a not-flat stomach? Even just a little protruding, not necessarily round. Or a double chin? I know fat looks different on different people, but... To me that seems like a pretty obvious way for an artist to show their character is meant as fat rep. If Rachel actually wanted that, I mean.

There are definitely times Rachel tries to draw her "fat" but it feels so tone deaf because it's still just like... as I've mentioned in my essay about it, it's "Hollywood fat", i.e. the kind of belly pouch fat that many women have that's often painted as ugly even though it's very commonplace to have (because no person is entirely flat! we're humans, not planks of wood!) The problem is if you try to quantify as little amount of fat as possible as "fat representation", you can't really call it fat representation because it only represents people on the lower end of the spectrum of fat. Here's an example of what I mean when I tried to find that one specific image example I was thinking of that I had seen ages ago lmao (this isn't the one I was thinking of but it gets the same point across):

Yes, cartoon stylization is a thing, but watch out for the folks who say they can't draw fat people because "it wouldn't suit my style", it falls into the same type of excuse camp as Tim Burton saying black people wouldn't suit the "aesthetic" of his films. They actually could draw fat characters in their style, it's more likely they just don't want to (but don't want to admit to that).

And honestly, if someone just wants to stick to drawing characters of a specific race, body type, etc. that they're familiar with, that's not a crime in and of itself IMO, but don't claim that your work is representation for a group when it's really only carrying the bare minimum or if you're just forcing it for the sake of seeming progressive. That's pretty much where LO falls, its "fat representation" only represents the bare minimum of fat that doesn't apply to the people who are looking for legitimate fat rep in media. Sure, there will be people who will still connect with that body type, especially for people who have stretch marks or belly pouches, but can it really be called 'fat rep' on the whole when it's not going to connect with the people who are genuinely fat? I'm someone who's gone through weight gain and struggled with body image, while I can totally relate to the type of body Persephone has where she (sometimes) has a muffin top and cellulite on her legs, that doesn't make her "fat representation" as a whole because she doesn't represent the women who are genuinely fat beyond chubbiness or being "not flat".

All that aside, the only indications of Persephone being 'fat' are the odd panel where Rachel gives her a belly or "stretch marks" (tbh they look less like stretch marks and more like scars from a bear attack lol):

But then she'll also draw Persephone with a straight up bodybuilder torso and have her say outloud that she's "small-medium":

It all feels very tone deaf because it's Rachel trying to have her cake and eat it too - she wants to draw Persephone as her usual small cinnamon roll self who can be infantilized and fetishized by the men around her (which Rachel loves to write and draw btw) BUT she also wants to try and take credit for Persephone being "fat rep" so whenever she remembers to do so, she'll throw in her laziest attempts at making Persephone seem "fat" but really she's just the Hollywood version of "fat" by having a belly pouch and stretch marks that many women of varying sizes have regardless of weight changes. We can't even assume that she may have been fat at one point and lost the weight (leading to the stretch marks) because we've seen Persephone in basically all stages of her life from childhood to adulthood. She's always been itty bitty and her entire personality and relationship with Hades is written around that.

[3liza]

joey mellen wrote bore hole, hughes wrote mechanism of brainbloodvolume (i did not know there were two of these guys lol)

i know! those photos are alternately attributed to either of them, i still dont know who actually is in the photo because they were all white englishmen the same age.

and there were THREE. these guys were their own little trepanation cult polycule for a while in the 60s and 70s. as usual the woman, (Countess) Amanda Feilding (sic), is the one who gets forgotten, even though shes the one who made the actual gore movie of herself drilling a hole in her head for real: Heartbeat in the Brain (1970), which is considered "lost media" by that kind of person but i dont think it's actually lost, it was screened in 2011 and i think the fact that its about someone drilling a hole in their face is lending the footage more mystique than it actually possesses. looking for citations for this post is the first time ive heard it referred to as "lost", i dont think media is "lost media" just because it isnt on youtube but whatever

anyway Feilding ran for parliament several times. "Feilding ran for British Parliament twice, in 1979 and 1983, on the platform 'Trepanation for the National Health' with the intention of advocating research into its potential benefits; she advocated the provision of the procedure by the National Health Service.[3]" her parents were second cousins btw the english peerage is so fucked up it is unbelievable

she has spent her post-trepanation life advocating for drug policy reform, which is based, but unfortunately her son is also in politics and is a tory piece of shit

i have a Special Interest in trepanation and will probably eventually get it done somehow, i just have a feeling of fate about it or maybe dysmorphia. reading about idiopathic intermittent intercranial hypertension and hypoperfusion recently sounded real familiar. doctors dont like to talk about this stuff though, to them everything inside your skull is a schroedinger's cat that is assumed to be completely fine and normal until you prove to them via feats of strength that you have a Brain Problem of some kind, which heretofore is forbidden from mention

edit: trepanation doesnt actually do anything to your brain unless you have a pressure issue and the hole will just heal over anyway and reseal your brain, none of the Bore Hole claims or beliefs are anything except placebo

to people other than wumblr, who i assume has already read it: Bore Hole is an EXCELLENT book and will act as a fast and easy history lesson on how the counterculture boomers actually lived. their economy was unbelievable, americans and english used to be able to just "go to india" and hang out, things just did not cost a lot of money for a while there and this has permanently altered the part of their brain that makes cost calculations

[markantonys]

while i'm on the subject of trakand speculation, i'm going to properly lay out my theory that moiraine won't be related to them in the show.

the show is very good at planning ahead. since s2 introduced elayne and they knew s3 would introduce the rest of the family, the s2 damodred family plotline would've been an absolutely perfect opportunity to set up moiraine's connection to the trakands (numerous occasions where she or anvaere could've mentioned having a now-dead brother, or there could've been a little boy included in the young sisters portrait). since that didn't happen and s2 very very strongly implied it was only ever the 2 sisters and their 2 parents, it makes me suspect that connection has been axed.

per a leak from the actor's cv, it seems galad is named galad trakand in the show. this could certainly just be a change made to group him more explicitly with the trakand family without removing his damodred heritage, but it could also indicate that his dad was not a damodred in showverse.

the only thing their dad being a damodred matters for that i can think of is that it gives elayne a claim on the cairhienin throne. but the show could easily just say their dad was from a different cairhienin noble family, and depending on how many seasons it gets, elayne claiming the sun throne may get axed as a plot point altogether and so this may be irrelvant.

let's be real, moiraine being their aunt is a funny piece of trivia but it does not matter in the books at all. it just doesn't. and the show going "oh moiraine's their aunt btw" but not doing anything with that information - that just raises too many unnecessary questions and curiosities, especially since moiraine is a bigger character in the show than in the books so we'd naturally want to see her spending time with elayne if it was revealed they were aunt and niece. so imo, the show has 2 choices: 1) keep her as their aunt but actually do something with it (not the best use of time, and tricky to squeeze in since s3 is likely moiraine's last for a while and she won't have much opportunity to interact with elayne, gawyn, or galad) or 2) just make her not their aunt.

they could say that their dad was a damodred but just a more distant relative rather than moiraine's brother (although s2's whole Fallen House vibes did make it seem like moiraine, anvaere, and barthanes are the only damodreds left), or they could say he was a cairhienin noble from a different house, or they could say he was an andoran noble. but i'm not going to bank on him being closely related to moiraine in showverse. (now, there is the alleged s2 gawyn audition script that referred to an aunt that ruined his life, but considering that not a single line from that script, let alone gawyn himself, came even close to being in s2, i'm taking the whole thing with a massive block of salt lmao)

then, what about galad and rand's family connection? this one, i could go either way on.

i would put it in the same bucket where, for me personally, i think the show should only include it if they can do actually something with it in a way the books didn't, or else they should cut it. and i can see strong arguments for cutting it - the show's already on such a condensed schedule compared to the books that it might not be wise to allocate time to delving into a rand-galad brother relationship that isn't important even in the books; rand's love life is already unusual and ~controversial~ enough without getting into "he's dating his half-brother's half-sister" territory; galad's overall story hinges on his relationships with elayne, gawyn, and morgase and so that is where his family-related screentime should be focused; galad and rand's relationship is never relevant to rand's story and is only relevant to galad's very briefly during the last battle and in a way that's easily cut (it feels more like sanderson cramming it in out of obligation to try and make the relationship relevant, rather than that the relationship actually IS relevant).

my hot take is that the only reason so many readers care about rand and galad being brothers and want the show to get into it is because they love those two characters, but hate elayne and gawyn, and thus they subconsciously lend more importance to rand-galad than is merited, sometimes to the point of placing that relationship over galad's other sibling relationships. but if you actually look at the story, it's the galad-elayne-gawyn relationship that's crucial; galad-rand doesn't matter for jack shit. so i can very easily see the show cutting it and i don't think anything would be broken by this. just say that tigraine was unmarried & childless when she went to the waste, and that galad's bio mom was some other andoran noblewoman (or even morgase herself to really simplify the family tree, though him being her stepson is something i WOULD be kinda sad to lose because it's a very sweet relationship and we don't often get to see positive stepparent/stepchild relationships in media).

okay where was i. anyway, i won't say that i strongly predict the rand-galad connection WILL be cut, or that i would be upset if it was left in and touched upon in more detail than the books did (i wouldn't be upset at all!). the show HAS historically been good at making more of some emotional beats or connections than the books did. for example, i could see them keeping the whole galad-tigraine-rand backstory & connections intact, and using the fact that his bio mom abandoned him to flesh out galad's character and explain why he is the way he is, in a similar way to how nynaeve's parents' deaths went from "just briefly mentioned and never seems to affect her" in the books to "major formative event in her childhood that explicitly shapes who she is as an adult" in the show (yeah you can argue that galad's backstory shaped him in the books, but that idea is barely in the text from what i remember because he truly does spend just about all his time & energy dwelling on his stepfamily). so it really is just a question of "will the show choose to streamline things by cutting an extraneous connection that isn't important in the books" or "will the show choose to take an extraneous connection that isn't important in the books and make it important", and that's hard to guess at because there have been plenty of examples of both approaches in the show so far.

so time will tell on the rand-galad connection! but i do feel fairly confident in predicting that the moiraine-trakands connection will be cut. but am still prepared to put on my clown shoes once 3x01 has a scene of elayne being like "oh hey aunt moiraine" jkdjfg

[ca-suffit]

neilcfreak hasn't been seen in the fandom in a *long* time, so kind of fucking weird and obvious that nalyra gets a bait ask (which she knows is a bait ask) saying it *must* be bullying that caused it and listing every way neil was a good person. where tf has neilcfreak been much in the last year? besides a few months ago when she was trying to cover up for white fandom. nobody cares about u girl, nobody is rly sending these asks about u except ur own friends (or u lol).

anyway who wants neilcfreak's racist receipts :)

last year, ao3 was getting called out for never following up with their promises made in the wake of BLM 2020 to better protect users against racist harassment. neil and a black user commented on the same post, the black user replying to neil's comment u can see above of "if u don't like it make ur own site lol."

this white user (futureevilscientist) then random af pulled the asks out and tagged the black user at the start of the post to talk all this shit AT them fsr?

then later, neil shows up herself.

this is the part u cannot *cannot* say is not racist. neil is directly replying to a reblog of *someone else's main post* and placing full blame for a "call out post" on the *black* user.

she then pulls out her white jewish shit to speak over the main topic, which is racism / antiblackness.

playing oppression olympics can be done by any marginalized group but it usually works the best for white ppl because white ppl get the most sympathy when doing this (u want the most shining example, how often are we talking about white gay oppression in this fandom above racism / antiblackness, which is the *actual theme* of the show...or even gay oppression through a black pov, since u see louis experience that constantly. how much are we told that this show is rly about white gays and nothing else?). ppl assume whiteness is more innocent by default so will pile more on a black user for "being aggressive" towards a *white* jewish user without needing any proof. that's what neil was counting on here. she also then had a bizarre, loud breakdown on her account for extra assurance she'd be seen as "the real victim" (for making a stupidly racist comment in public). ohh yeah weaponize those white tears girl. she then "quit" tumblr for a while and when she came back, as mentioned in the linked post above, she had to again mention "drama" for good measure. "remember how I was bullied off this site u guys :("

white fandom was all over her dramatic distraction posts btw (nalyra commented on them too, so she is v aware this happened). v few people reached out to the black user or cared about the shit they were dealing with.

these white fandom ppl *never* have any receipts of bullying either, they just *say* it happens and flock to give hugs so it looks like lots of support is happening for a real "issue." but it's not real. everything they do is meant to manipulate u. this nalyra ask is still doing that.

when ur told what to think about someone or u can't find evidence of things happening beyond what anyone, even a group of ppl, *tells u* is happening then u need to rly remain suspicious of the reality of it.

these are asks that the black user got after this stuff happened. so now we've created a new issue from nothing and we're not talking about racism or how ur bullying a black user over literally nothing anymore. now it's suddenly all about poor neilcfreak and her white jewish identity and victimhood from a big, bad black fan. she's gotta make this all make her look like the real victim to cover up how embarrassed and stupid she felt for being called out on saying racist shit.

this is why white ppl need to understand these abusive techniques and get on ppl's ass when they pull this, not just leave it up to black and brown ppl to do. white fandom will cry all the white tears possible and claim ur talking over a white jewish person, being antisemitic. it's an attempt to emotionally manipulate u, keep talking (think of how often claims of antisemitism are used to shut down anyone being pro palestine, it's the same shit). this is racism. this is weaponizing an identity to cause harm to a black person cuz u were caught saying racist shit and want to deflect. if neilcfreak wasn't a huge racist she'd have *also* called this out and told ppl to stop doing this on her behalf. that would require her pulling her head out of her ass first tho and not sending these anons herself prbly.

I was looking for a different receipt to end on but found this instead, so let's talk about this too since we're here

here's neil after this shit went down, trying to make anne rice all kinds of marginalized identities so ppl can excuse her abusive shit too. she never said she was queer and she never identified as trans. u can't just label ppl shit because stuff they said sounds "close enough." she did enough harm as a cishet white woman can u all fuck off already with wanting to find more excuses for never wanting anyone to criticize this piece of shit.

good riddance, wretched bitch.

[mj-ackerman]

Sorry if you already made a post about it but what are your thoughts on the "Anya loves Loid more than Yor" thing? I personally don't agree with it at all. I think Anya does try harder with Loid because she knows about Strix but not necessarily because she loves him a lot more than Yor.

Hello, yes I already made a post about this but only on Twitter hehe.

Regarding my thoughts about the "Anya loves Loid more than Yor" thing, I don't agree with it AT ALL. I believe Anya loves them both equally, there's was no competition and it SHOULDN'T be a competition as to who she loves the most. Anya also said it herself, she loves both her mama and papa because they're fun to be together and gave them BOTH a 100 perfect score

She even said that she likes it the best when she can be together with the both of them.

That's why she likes and enjoys their little family "ootings" so much because it's the time where she can spend time with both her mama and papa together.

I also didn't like how the post claimed that Anya is much closer to Loid just because he was the one who adopted her because that's not entirely true. While it's true that it was Loid who got Anya out of the orphanage, Anya quickly got along with Yor the day she became her mama, she was even comfortable enough to ask her if she wants to hold hands with her, it's just that Yor's thoughts about how she broke Yuri's ribs from hugging too tightly had scared her.

I also didn't like how OP reduced Yor's role and made it sounds like she was only chosen by Anya because of the fact that she was aware that Loid was looking for a wife when it wasn't the case. She chose Yor to be her mother because the idea of having a spy father and an assassin mother excites her. She was entertained by the thought of what adventures a spy and an assassin could bring in her life.

She loves head pats - Why yes, she do loves head pats, especially head pats from her papa because it's the only genuine sign of affection that he could afford to give her as of the moment.

And yes, Anya does try harder with Loid but it's not because she loves him more than she loves Yor. It's because she thinks that she gotta do her best and try harder in order to keep Loid and have him stay with her, with their family.

Anya doesn't really have to try hard for Yor's affection or to put an act to impress her because she knows very well that her mama will accept her and love her no matter what but it's different for Loid. While she's also aware that despite Twilight's cold demeanor, he's actually a big softie for her, she doesn't really understand what he feels about her because right now he's in a lot of denial. She even canonically questioned whether Loid loves/cares for her or not.

But with Yor, she already had that security to the point where she immediately even became her safe place, but again, she loves them both EQUALLY, it's just that for that reasons I mentioned, she gotta try harder for Loid.

I love the user's post & metas, they give good insights and character analysis and I do think it's not their intention to start a discourse regarding this matter, they were simply giving their opinion about it, it's just that the way they worded it was really bad. I think if they didn't said "Not even close" or had put the unnecessary add up of "there's a reason why anya let yor holds her hand but it's loid who hold and hug her" (I was disappointed by that statement because that's not true AT ALL, and for the record Loid haven't hug Anya yet, picking her up and holding her doesn't count as a hug btw) I think people wouldn't react the way they did.

It's actually fine if people likes Loid more than Yor, there's nothing wrong with that. I just hope whenever they praise him or build him up to be as a good father figure, they wouldn't need to tear Yor down, because it's really sad to see Loid being praised of doing the same things that Yor is also doing but she's being hated for it or they don't think it's something admirable because it's something expected of her because she's a mother and wife :/

[bimtheory]

I've recently done something I never thought I would, I've gotten in anime. I think the innocent girl next door bimbo act is a style that works best for gaining power while not being perceived as a threat. I'm studying it more and learning how to adopt it in my daily life and interactions. I love your perspective and ideas so I wanted to ask your thoughts on this and on the innocent girl next door act.

I have to be honest, I'm not overly familiar with the "girl next door" archetype because, to me, the girl next door is everything a bimbo isn't. But that's really just a preference, bimbos aren't that cut and dry. Just yesterday I was considering making a post about the basic bimbo types because I tried watching Jersey Shore and it made me realize that when we talk about intelligence, well, lack of intelligence -- there are pretty consistent forms it comes in. People get REALLY hung up on the intelligence loss aspect of bimbofication and claim "bimbos don't need to be dumb" but its all about one's personal perception of what "dumb" is. Chances are whatever alternative they suggest in place of intelligence loss is something that can also be read as "dumb".

Excuse me for going off on a tangent here but I'm going to continue. I also almost made this point on the main blog several months ago using My Little Pony characters as examples but I kept debating the... ethics? of that. Anyway, I'm gonna do it now.

Let's begin with Twilight Sparkle (These will be very loose examples btw). You may think "how could a character who's whole thing is being an egghead bookworm represent a lack of intelligence?" Very easily actually. A character like Twilight's stupidity would come in the form of the Absent-Minded Professor archetype. Basically, picture a bimbo who's very competent or intelligent but also a total klutz. We can have a bimbo character who's technically smart but express a sense and perception of stupidity by making them clumsy, oblivious, and socially unaware.

Then you have Fluttershy, who would probably fall more into the innocent girl next door type as you've described. A Fluttershy type bimbo would be perceived as unintelligent through being docile, passive, meek, (I personally prefer these words to just "submissive") or gullible. But she could still technically be smart.

Rarity... kind of goes without saying. A "lack of intelligence" would be expressed through perceived superficiality, an interest in glamorous and feminine things. This is literally the plot of Legally Blonde. Rarity and Elle are girly and glamorous but also kind and intelligent. Of course you could also make this type of bimbo much more vapid and uncaring, even cruel, and get the more trophy wife-gold digger social media influencer type of bimbo. Again, there are A LOT of different bimbo types. Moving on.

Pinkie Pie. Pinkie would represent probably the most common and popular type of bimbo. Silly, giggly, bubbly, hedonistic. Of course, this doesn't mean the character would actually have to be "dumb" in a technical sense, and Pinkie definitely isn't.

Now... Rainbow Dash. With her and AJ being the tomboys of the group there's bound to be a bit of overlap but I'd argue the perception of stupidity tied to RD would be that of a meathead jock. You don't see bimbos like this often, if ever, but it'd be the type of bimbo that's very brash. While a Pinkie type bimbo would probably exhibit eager playfulness an RD-style bimbo might be more aggressive in her pursuits. Her "stupidity" would be expressed through recklessness, cockiness, and probably like crass vulgarity.

And finally, Applejack. While I mentioned there being overlap between her and an RD-style bimbo it may be more accurate to say an Applejack style bimbo would have more in common with the Fluttershy-style in that the Apple-bimbo would appear stupid via a lack of pretension. Sort of the "Farmer's Daughter" type, there's a traditional aspect to it. The Applejack style bimbo would be marked by simplicity above all, the most likely to settle down and be a housewife. There's also possibly the connotation of being and ignorance stemming from small-town seclusion, refusal to change, or a refusal to question things. Consider the episodes:

Applebuck Season

Look Before You Sleep

Bridle Gossip

Over a Barrel

Made in Manehattan

Applejack's Day Off

The Cart Before the Ponies

Honest Apple

Sincerest apologies for the very long detour, anon. Like I was saying, I'm not familiar enough with the "Girl Next Door" archetype to truly comment, maybe not familiar enough with anime either because it took me forever to come up with even one example -- Orihime Inoue from Bleach, and I can't think of anyone else. But it does seem like something to consider and definitely look more into, if you're comfortable sending another message I'd love to know specifically what anime you've been watching and what characters you had in mind. Also curious as to how you plan on employing these tactics IRL. It does strike me, now that I'm winding down, that by "gaining power" you may be referring to like Emmet Till shit, performing innocence and vulnerability to get men be very protective of you.

[fromtheboundlesssea]

HotD Season 2 Episode 5 Live Watch Thoughts

I feel like if we find out parts of this season was written by AI, I would not be surprised.

Lannister soldiers I can use for edits later. ✌🏻

Ooooo LIONS

Are those men from Tarth?

The actor does a decent job of mimicking season 1 Jaime’s slight tone.

Love how we have Aegon actively seeking and even listening to Alicent’s advice while Aegon instantly silences and ignores her.

“Your father knew this” the man IGNORED them until YOU asked him to, Alicent.

“As you well know.” Yeah, Aemond, why didn’t you stop that.

Aemond, Criston is the only person there to have actually fought Daemon, and actually win.

I like that her children still refer to her as “mother” even in public.

I like that we are blocked from Aemond’s emotion when he is in side profile with the eyepatch.

I wish we had Aemond actually feeling bad about Jaehaerys, because we got nothing of that in the show.

I personally feel they have been avenged and he still does not feel like he has enough to the point where he does not mourn his trueborn nephew.

Are we going to have Corlys call Rhaenyra out like he does in the book? Apparently not he put on the pin.

Did the actor who played Corlys loose weight or are his clothes less bulky?

Here is Lord Commander Westerling? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to have Rhaenyra lean on him rather than this random Kingsguard that has only really shown up as a major-ish character this season.

Are they making up Targaryen offspring? Making up a Targaryen princess? Would this man’s grandmother’s grandmother have even been a princess? They weren’t crowned, what, six generations ago?

Honestly, the Dragonseed stuff was risky anyway, but they are making it sound truly stupid.

Onto Daemon’s A24 movie? Will we see Rhea? Anyone want to bet?

Oh? He’s going to see Viserys?

“You can’t possibly still be angry about this.” HIS SON DIED AND HE HAD MURDERED HIS WIFE! MY DUDE?!?!?!?

Vague Rhea mention at least?

And don’t what? Name Rhaenyra heir or send you away?

Saving Hodor flashbacks tbh

Daemon is truly losing it.

And why is he not blaming Alys? Who is arguably the weirdest person in the keep besides him?

And Simon Strong is so freaking chill.

Is Daemon leaving? Oh? Oh?

Ah. The weirwood tree.

Alys is the most consistently written character and it is so ridiculous.

“She never even wanted it.” She didn’t care to learn either.

“Viserys never wanted it himself” really? He could have thrown his lot with Rhaenys then and not set his claim forward.

Also, not gonna lie, I have never pronounced Alys as *Alice* in my head.

So dragon singing or something is a thing? Why can’t we hear Tom sing in the show? He has a band doesn’t he?

Also, we never knew why Daemon was doing what he was doing last season when he was singing?

Are they going to make up Dragonseed like they did Targaryen family members?

Also, why isn’t the woman dragonkeeper bald too? Wouldn’t bring bald be wise or did Ryan & Co also not like the idea of bald women.

Seasmoke is gorgeous btw.

Ah, so she lost a very loyal Kingsguard for this. Great. I would have ended the search for Dragonseed there tbh. It’s not wise to lose allies.

Corlys, did you ever think that perhaps your bastard kid you have ignored for years would be happy to serve beside you? Wow. You’re as bad as Viserys when it comes to thinking your kids you’ve ignored would be happy to follow your orders.

Addam is so freaking fine.

And Dyanna. Someone theorized that’s where we get Gaemon Palehair with the brothel woman.

Feasts? Ah. It’s the stupid rumors. Love that the woman turned so quickly on Aemond.

“Never while our smallfolk went without.” Ummmmm. He had a whole hunt when there was the possibility of invasion.

Oh? So you want to be feared Rhaenyra? Where was this after your son died? Where was this when you had a chance to take Alicent?

The characterization is so slow.

MEN? Did more happen?

Is the riot when Rhaenyra has King’s Landing? Or was that Green propaganda?

“This becomes you.”

Darksister was a woman’s sword and would work better for a woman.

Why are we getting more Hugh and his family getting all this characterization when you can have Nettles or even give Addam more characterization. You know, someone who was actually loyal to their precious Rhaenyra even when SHE turned on them.

And who cares about the Gullet? Have the Lannisters bring in food from the Reach? Do Ryan & Co not realize the Hightowers are in the Reach?

AEGON WAKES!

I love how relieved Orwyl is about Aegon.

UGH. I DON’T LIKE BODY HORROR STUFF.

Tom still good looking despite the scars.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have Helaena or Alicent to step in?

And F you Aemond. His characterization is becoming so cartoonish and 1-dimensional.

RHAENA

*sigh* so they will replace nettles. Can’t they just have it be Morning instead?

And that baby dragon’s CGI blending into the real background is not great.

And Rhaena holding a dragon toy 😭

That shot of Rhaena is beautiful.

Is Jeyne Arryn actually going to have more to do? Can’t she teach Rhaena about being a lady of a grand keep?

Will they have Rhaena be at fault for Aegon and Viserys being lost?

And so Alyn dies/cuts his hair?

How ironic that Alyn will become lord eventually.

I really do wish Addam had silver hair.

Also, couldn’t people assume they are another Velaryon’s bastards?

Only half-way done and I am still bored.

“I am tired of being protected.” And what about your protection of your son?

*sigh* are they going to allow Helaena to fight too?

Will Rhaenyra still be sorry that Alicent and Helaena were caught in the crosshairs this time when she is the one to do it or no?

Oh, so they are going to have Rhaenyra sending aide to King’s Landing 🙄 Will they turn on her faster when she can’t give them food anymore and SHE is the one to throw lavish parties, or is that going to be Green propaganda as well. Meaning it will be propaganda the Blacks used on the Greens as an uno reverse?

And Alicent sitting beside Aegon. 🥲

“What will he be if he lives?” Alive?

So they do remember the Reach.

Maester Orwyle is the VIP.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” 🥲

Love the hair up look!

Lol Gwayne clocks it. Lol

“You were always his favorite.” Interesting.

Daeron mentioned!

I love the mix of joy and sadness in Alicent’s eyes when she hears about Daeron 😭

Gwayne telling Alicent she did her best! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 Not denying her faults, but not blaming her entirely. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

And Criston waiting to leave until she acknowledges him.

Helaena!!!!

The stupid dog 🙄

Also???? I thought the gates would have been closed to the water? Why couldn’t people have left through the water then?

HOW ARE WE STILL AT 26 MINUTES LEFT?!?!?

“The Queens” 🥲

You just got food. And now you’re flinging it.

Oh? Alicent had a cut like Rhaenyra now?

And Larys denying Aegon his pain meds.

I really do wish that Larys wasn’t so obviously a bad guy because this conversation could be viewed as more genuine.

So was Alys blamed for Larys?

Goodwill version of the Tyrion/Jon conversation in season 1 of GoT 😒

So they could get Aemma’s actress back for this?

Honestly, this whole thing feels like an Anime arc where Daemon gets a redemption. Or Daemon going through the Bad Place to get to the Good Place.

Did Alys kill Glover?

I guess so.

Again, instead of Hugh and the other Dragonseed, I would have preferred to spend time focusing on Alyn.

Also hate they didn’t just kill Laenor in season 1. It would have added to Rhaenyra’s character tbh and would have given her an interesting dynamic between herself and her elder 3 children.

He questions them because Daemon is the only one seemingly doing anything after HIS BROTHER WAS MURDERED.

I heard rumors that Mysaria and Rhaenyra would have a romantic plot line and I hope the heck not. Because imagine getting together with the girl whose lookalikes you gave to Daemon to bed.

I think Mysaria is being honest or deceitful to gain Rhaenyra’s favor, which does not do well for the writers because she truly is not a well written character. She is just there and does not actually have any impact unless the story needs it.

My eyes are ROLLING in the back of my head.

Rhaenyra, a woman just told you about her sexual trauma and you start making it sexual.

This is because fans were pissed about Missandei not taking over the bedfellow role of D I am sure of it. And I absolutely hate it. It makes it seem like Rhaenyra is incapable of having adult relationships unless they are parental or sexual/romantic. 🙄

This was, once more a bad episode.

Promo Thoughts

So Jace is changing his opinion now?

Again. The show is just… bad.

[opinated-user]

Lily really is out here like: believe all victims! And by all I mean me and the people I currently like! But especially me! But also don't pay to much attention to what I'm saying and please forget everything instantly in case I need to change my story! Btw this person I previously claimed ran away with a pedophile as a minor (and was the one at fault for that) has actually never been molested ever! So I guess forget the pedo story! And ignore the fact that I also said if she was molested by me it would have been justified!

She is getting more despicable by the hour.

"nobody snuck up on their room to molest her while she was sleeping." cool. care to explain why did you wrote the entirety of Violate, CLO putting a lock to keep G away (which coincides with Courtney's story of how she dealt with you), and the story itself ends with CLO (the molested child) having to give an apology to G, the one who molested her? who someone could read as you wanting to create another narrative in which Courtney forgave you without you doing anything for it? you said that every reading a work has is there because the author wanted it there. why did you wanted to dramatize your sister finally stopping your molestation with a lock she had to buy and install herself? why was that important to you?

"they were the favorite who could do no wrong" so... that's why your parents have lied to the public about being no contact to her for more than 10 years? because she was their favorite? so favorite that your mom neglected to mention that she knew for a fact that your sister was alive because Courtney would harass her constantly? on her facebook your mom made it seem like she didn't even know what was happening with Courtney, meanwhile Courtney was contacting her and getting ignored. so favorite that it's why they told you the story of the "pedophile she ran away with"? remember, the same story you ran with the first time Courtney spoke up. that doesn't sound "she could get away with murder" kind of responses to me.

"they also have a history of lying to get her way." you too, LO. we have years worth of evidence and testimonies and witnesses and audio records for that one. to this day you still lie about writing Stockholm... a lie so badly put together, that even your own fans know is not true. they don't believe you anymore, LO. everytime you try to deny stockholm, they know you're lying. not to mention the lies around Patch, just to name an example, despite again the very tangible evidence that he provided. so we have someone you claim is a liar, but whose stories at least have been consistent and never escalated to include more morbid details for the sake of sensationalize it, and then we have you, someone who can't even keep the story of how she got an ugly trinket straight and has the internet full with proof of her many made up stories without ever even attempting to provide evidence herself. remember, LO: your fans already know you lie to them. they know. they even talk about it among themselves when you aren't watching. keep piling up those lies and maybe even them will get tired of making excuses for you. "they're a drugged up abusive psychopath..." remember when LO pretended to care about people called by others as narcissist for drama and call out everyone ableists for doing that? remember when she also tried to say that calling that was also more ableist harassment? so people with this disorder deserve compassion... but people with this other mental disorder (such as with addiction) don't. isn't it curious how ableism is something LO likes to weaponize against others the moment they call her out for something she did? the rest of her words can only be described as the rambling lashing out of an abuser applying her best DARVO as she can. it's also a barely veiled death threats, which are illegal as far i know. "you're a victim of anything" so you claim she didn't went through anything with Cameron now? LO, you don't like your brother either. he hasn't said nice things about you in the past either, so why are you defending him now...? oh, wait, he has children. children you can freely acess to as long you behive. is that, isn't it? the access to children is more important that dennouncing a rapist. throw your sister under the bus is more important than to do anything that could jeopardize your opportunity of being around more minors. you disgust me. "with imagined claims about my heritage" do i need to bring out the screenshot of LO stripping with a piece of literal cultural appropiation hanging from her topless body again? i'll if i have to. she's your immediate family, LO. if that is your "heritage", it's hers too. and unlike you, she kept in touch with her elders who are part of the Nation you never reached for or even care to talk to. because to you, it's not about a culture or even a community of people. it's about you getting what you want, as always. but being Cherokee or Indigenous is not just a fancy label to put online to seem more interesting to more ignorant white people. that's what your sister understands, that's what your aunt knows. the only who keeps being racist is you. do you all understand now why i don't bother with pitying LO anymore?

[anonymousredactedconfessions]

Since this is a safe space, I too have my confessions for the Summit Audio and other plot stuff as well. This is very long so bear with me

*drum roll 🥁🥁🥁🥁*

I am disappointed with Darlin's storyline! :DD

What the hell happened to character development? And can we please keep talking about how it's getting annoying when Darlin just stands there while everyone else just speaks for them? I've been waiting for so long for the moment where we get to see that Darlin' finally stopped hopping on the fight/defensive option immediately without thinking shit through.

Cuz I know damm well they were already planning on giving Alexis the business when they heard her voice. I was waiting on them to be more verbal and civil with their confrontation rather than jumping to "You know I've fought vampires before, right?" Like COME ONNN MAN

I agree with the other recent confessions in this blog cuz yeah, will they ever get the agency they deserve?? And what the hell was up with Porter coming in to "save the day" and Sam zipping back out of know where (btw where the hell have you been bro??). And even when Alexis left, Darlin still wasn't able to get a word in.

Does Darlin notice this too or are we never gonna get that moment where they finally snap and make people remember that they are an adult and can progress their life by making their own decisions. They don't always need someone for that and it takes away from their "independence".

Plus ( as much as I love my cowboy) woulda been more upset to Sam when he not only not listened to Darlin talk as they told him what bullshit she said to them and give them the reassurance they needed in that moment, mf started sayin shit like "she's a real person under there, I know it" because no way in hell would I believe that if the person we're talking about is proud of ASSAULTING a person she "claims to love" and also waited until the Monarchal Summit to confront Darlin where there's tons of people around to confront them like a pissy, jealous school girl.

Also I feel like Darlin and David's relationship hasn't been done well enough. Not even just them and David but just the pack in general. The smash tournaments and Solstice party's are cool but when are we actually gonna have a video where it's just the pack? No mates, Sam included and it's just the four of them? (i.e. David, Ash, Darlin, and Milo)

To me, it makes a lot of sense why Darlin felt out of place cuz they don't get mentioned a lot when they're not around, only when Sam is included in the conversation. It feels like they don't exist without their mate around so it's not fully Darlin's fault that they left and ended up in the wrong crowd.

And it's frustrating to see those chat group posts where it's supposed to be The Packs Mates Groupchat thingy but instead of Sam they put Darlin in. Or Sam is there but so is Darlin. Like huh??? Is Sam a part of the damm pack now???? All the more reason why I get Darlin' almost leaving the pack, they seem as someone who's forgettable.

Erik should at least give Darlin a nickname name or some code shit to address them without just having to say "my pack member" or "my partner", and (my least favorite) "Sam's mate". Just give them the nick name Tank like everyone else so you don't have to worry about addressing them by saying anything vague and unspecific.

Sorry but Darlin feels too much like a character than a listener to be written as someone who just stands there from the sidelines and watches as everyone speaks for them. I NEED them to be making a decision that continues the plot, not someone who made it for them. They deserve better as a character and I will die on that hill. BUT that's just me. Have a good day/night!

-💜🐺

.

[homemadegirlbossbattle]

ROUND 1 / SIDE A / POLL 12

Rita Barreau (@pixelpancake246 / @pixelsdoodles) vs. Benedetta Brandy (@vamp-galactica)

Rita Barreau info:

Description:

Rita is very tall, elusive and ephemeral in her beauty. She's shrouded in mystery, by her own choice and desire, but also how people remember her. She's long dead before her story starts.

She's kind of a Rose Quartz type. A horrible, manipulative and spoiled person driven by self-hatred. She goes through people to fill the void in her heart, fulfilling her longing for something she can't name by making them miserable.

She's dead, as previously mentioned. Has been dead for a while. Beforehand, she was engaged to a guy named Theo, and was the first guy she actually fell in love with. Mostly because when she tried to do her usual thing with him, she found that he was already so miserable that it intrigued her and caught her genuine attention.

She and him dated for a couple years before they got engaged. Half a year before they planned on getting married, they got into an accident. Rita didn't make it.

This sent Theo on a downward spiral, which had a ripple effect on basically every one they knew and would know. In the story, she exists as foggy, biased memories that paint her in all sorts of different lights.

Really, Rita has to be experienced rather than told about to truly get her. But I hope this suffices for a description of her (p.s. she's never done anything wrong soooo)

Crimes:

constantly lies to people around her emotionally manipulative regularly leads guys along and tosses them aside when she's done having fun causes her fiance to go insane (she died) breasted too boobily refuses to take accountability and shoves blame onto others even if she's obviously in the wrong

Other notes from the submitter:

she has… very big Rose symbolism associated with her, as in the flower. And her voice claim is Susan Egen as Rose Quartz. She's trans btw, and 6'3 with a 5'1 fiance.

now some assorted commentary from my friends, for consideration.

rita was so girlboss she had to die in order to pull strings from the afterlife bc she got too bored of not being omniscient - geo

tall. pretty. done nothing wrong ever. too sexy to die (died anyways.) too sexy to live (exists in a fugue state between the mortal coil and the afterlife in aus.) she’s like a spy minus the occupation. she’s the fridged woman others WISH they were. she’s everything. she is nothing and her absence is everything - al

I love when girls are the center of a story while being absent - kitty

Benedetta Brandy info:

Description: A vampiress who runs a glittering casino in Las Vegas. She’s fond of performance arts and gold, and anything lavish is sure to catch her eye. She has an EXPLOSIVE temper that is hard to subdue. The thing she misses most about being human is champagne. She acts like an untouchable goddess of debauchery, but is actually a very lonely person who wishes someone would want to be kind to her despite all her faults.

Crimes:

An ongoing string of murders, added to at least once a month when she inevitably loses her temper. Assault, on multiple occasions, for very minute reasons. Tax Fraud Identity Theft and Forgery (Murdered her sire and then forged his signature and will, signing over all of his property and money to herself.) Frequently lures humans to the bar for her vampire clientele to feed off of. Cheats at poker.

Other notes from the submitter: Ultimate losergirl

[horizon-verizon]

before ep1 dropped there were some reviews that mentioned how rhaenyra only had one line with 4 words in the episode that would cause something grand to happen.

Lots of people had speculated that it'd be "Lucerys shall be avenged", which would make her an accomplish to b&c.

I personally wouldn't have liked that direction because I think b&c is actually a great reason to create an argument between daemon & rhaenyra. Instead of the show's attempt of putting daemon's feelings in regards of viserys as an excuse for him to be an asshole to his wife.

On the other hand, the actual line "I want Aemond Targaryen" was so bad? Especially with the context of Rhaenyra finally having returned, she walks into her counsil with all people lined up, giving her the latest information and expecting orders. Only for her to just spit out this sentence and immediately walk out, abandoning them once more.

I KNOW she's grieving. I don't expect rhaenyra to go warrior mode (tho it's questionable choice to have depress without showing any rage to the general green party. Did Aegon even throw a feast for Aemond after he returned? I don't think we ever found out about it. But had it happened, dunno, yes, kill aemond but also it'd make sense to kinda want everyone who celebrated your son's death feel some sort of wrath), but it seems as if the show tries to put her in a position where the viewer can't help but feel frustration with her.

it also doesn't help that Daemon is the only own who wants to act (nevermind the idea of just going to king's landing with dragons is stupid). Which brings me to the next concern, in the preview teaser for ep2 rhaenyra is shown arguing with daemon, berating him that his actions (b&c I presume) have "weakened her claim tot he throne" which no? it hasn't? It has made her appear cruel but how does it "weaken" her claim? (which btw should be called birthright. Because viserys chose her himself. Claim implies her and Aegon being on an equal footing)

Also, I assume people know about Luke's murder? So while a cruel act, it could also be seen as an "eye for an eye". Then again, there's no single character referring aemond as a kinslayer - a title that tainted him. So who knows, maybe they'll bring it in future episodes or not at all.

All in all, the writing on rhaenyra is weird again. I know her having a small screentime and only uttering one sentence seem like grand because they finally allowed Emma to show some emotion. But on the long run, there was so much exposition throughout the entire episode, that having rhaenyra having the littlest dialogue she could possibly have comes off more as a way to justify the blacks having few scenes here and there while the focus being in the greens.

A)

There was an ask somewhere where someone berated bk1Rhaenyra for not punishing Daemon and I answered that she'd likely didn't want to prevent her armies from being raised, as Daemon does. I should have also mentioned that she really couldn't when he was already at Harrenhal away from Dragonstone when he & Mysaria or just him, or just Mysaria plotted B&C.

And by the time he comes back, it's to meet up w/her at KL to take the Red Keep and she still had uses for him. that and I think she'd just not think abt that after Jaecaerys died, the attempt on her life, and the possibility of B&C not going according to Daemon's plan to remove Aegon from the greens instead of Aemond, bc reminder: Aegon is the head/Aemond wanted to also be seen as a capable ruler and I doubt he'd forgo the chance of being king which would trouble the greens' paltry condition of unity, etc.

As you refer, still think he genuinely thought to kill one of Helaena's sons and not one of Alicent's because that matches Rhaenyra's and his own grief PLUS Rhaenyra's followers still fought for her after Jaehaerys' beheading, so....whatever Daemon-Mysaria did to enlist as many followers for Rhaenyra + Rhaenyra's own reputation (Realm's Delight, that tour in the riverlands) and maybe a few of them had enough ignorance to STILL follow Rhaenyra instead of stay neutral after Jaehaerys' death more likely than not was announced and told throughout the kingdoms at any level of horror/gore/detail 🤷🏾‍♂️. Says something abt this world, but point is that that within the same world many greens stans argue "Rhaenyra would have to kill her brothers bc there'd be rebellions", all this shows that even if she hadn't already said she wasn't going to kill any of her siblings at the beginning she had more people on her side than not.

rhaenyra is shown arguing with daemon, berating him that his actions (b&c I presume) have "weakened her claim tot he throne" which no? it hasn't? It has made her appear cruel but how does it "weaken" her claim? (which btw should be called birthright. Because viserys chose her himself. Claim implies her and Aegon being on an equal footing)

I agree, he didn't weaken much. You could maybe make the argument that he made her look bad, and she can express that she feared he cost her a few allies' enthusiasm to follow her bc of possible claims of kinslaying...It's not impossible that a small number of lords use this as reason to not follow her or look for ways to bow out during their fighting for her later. But that's very unlikely bc that is siply not how the dominant ethical values they live and grew up under would see this.

It's too easy for people to bring up it was an act to revenge for Lucerys' death and some of them would probably not feel like they could say much with such a blood debt also motivating them to act and "rebalance" the wrong done. Through some similar enough method. As what was that "eye for an eye" feudal-honor precedent that many greens stans flung in defense of Aemond killing Luke but unsuccessfully bc an eye =/- a whole person's life.

AND Aemond only really charged after Luke bc Maris goaded him by saying he was "sissy" for not doing so, so it wasn't necessarily for the eye but bc Luke "dared" to cost him an eye. Him, the "trueborn" male princeling. On top of being born of a woman "stealing" his and his brother's "birthright".

Jaehaerys' life is more "equivalent to the value of Lucerys' life.

Again, none of this is actually ethical, child death is horrendous. I'm saying that one cannot argue that in this world and in its society's feudal ethical system we cannot say that Daemon actually put her claim at jeopardy. Not bc B&C/the youth of the kid in question was so horrific and enough to turn any of them off from Rhaenrya, so Rhaenyra saying as much doesn't really make that much sense.

Not even Manfyrd Maidenpool cited B&C as reason for his later defection of self preservation!

B)

but it seems as if the show tries to put her in a position where the viewer can't help but feel frustration with her. it also doesn't help that Daemon is the only own who wants to act (nevermind the idea of just going to king's landing with dragons is stupid)

But can I tell you something crazy, anon? The original story has Rhaenyra more or less being of similar detachment that others have clocked as GRRM over-pathologizing a mother's grief to make her removed from the actual war efforts so men around her (who could also be grieving different people at different times but somehow also manage to be more involved in the planning themselves) other than delegation.

Don't get me wrong, delegation is obviously necessary. But he made it so that she isn't even a part of the KL takeover plans Jacaerys & Corlys had. He also could have had her recover herself enough to present the Dragonseed plan, similar to how there are many legends/true histories of women enlisting locals in those histiographies written by men.

Admittedly a lot of those stories are women who did so in the name of a male relative instead of in their own name...but GRRM could have done a tweak here the same way he tweaks Matilda's entire life to create Rhaenyra-the-character. He also could have had her and/or her ladies write down their thoughts, reasons, observations...some septa...or some pseudonym-having female historian in companion/contrast to Gyldayn AND/OR extend the timeline for Rhaenyra to recover and actually be more active during the war besides delegating tasks and deciding on compromises. So there have already been frustrations with Rhaenyra's character in terms of the displayed lesser seeming of competence in comparison to the men around her.

("Rhaenyra Triumphant")

Again, let me make myself clear. It's not that Rhaenyra was totally incompetent and that's why she doesn't deserve to rule OR be sympathized with in my eyes, bc:

LINK (Rosby & Stokeworth)

if there were other readily available candidates for the position, she'd likely have chosen someone else and not isolate another of her close-by-proximity allies during a unique and precarious situation; what's similar b/t them is that both Celtigars refused to the tax the surrounding nobles or give up some of his own AND unlike Edwell Celtigar, Bartimos Celtigar's taxes came more from a place of true necessity -- the state of the crown's ability to invest in anything for the entire city was already imbalanced from the greens stealing the royal treasury

she already showed she could rule when nothing terrible or stupid came from her actions to the poor smallfolk (nor any possible rich people) were rumored nor confirmed to have happened out of Dragonstone before the war, when she ruled it as active "Princess of Dragonstone...so even the claim that she's a bad ruler is more than likely false and all the decisions she does make later were under the context and pressures of having no money, rising discontent from the Shepherd, war, kinda being trapped in KL bc of the Hightower-Daeron/Aemond-Criston armies, etc....of which Jaehaerys not even had to deal with...Rogar, Alyssa, and even Rhaena were the ones who actually enabled him to obtain the throne even as Rogar was responsible for Edwell Celtigar's appointment as master of coin!!! Again, all POST-WAR -- Jaehaerys wouldn't have been able to be king at all w/o Alyssa and co. A teenage Jaehaerys delegated the task of re-raising funds to Rego Draz, he didn't do much--bc he was a teen and new but he could afford to bc he didn't have the pressure to immediately/asap raise funds as Rhaenyra did. The cash that Rogar was trying to raise & Rego later redressed was for the Dragonpit, not so much the entire city and not from a lack of treasury funds that were stolen.

there is peacetime rule vs wartime command, and wartime command often gets conflated w/peacetime rule bc yes a lot of war is strategy and prioritization and allocation of resources; however, there are different rules, conditions, pressures in these two separate contexts and people forget that often!!!

this society doesn't care for ability to rule as the end all be all determining who should rule unless it comes down to that person having most/all of the cards over most/everyone else [check out Shiera Blackwood and Argella Durrandon] -> "ability" gets conflated as overall ability to rule bc of this oversight even in Westeros itself and it should have been interrogated by F&B's readers but it hasn't and therefore we get people hating on Rhaenyra for these decisions than than they should...

Like you can be frustrated w/GRRM for giving her another loss without any memorable personal wins in sight, but that she made this decision (taxes, Rosby-Stokeworth vs Ulf-Hugh's rewards) at all shouldn't be seen as black-white-she-did-wrong I'd agree/relate. But I don't this is not the same as the former argument and it's much more complicated than that.

[mdhwrites]

From your previous ask, about Hunter: "It especially is good for kid's media because while the clone can struggle with the anxiety of it, their friends never have to actually be bad or discriminatory against them because the point is loving yourself for who you are and not who you were made to be."

Personally I think a story in which the clone's friends become mad/discriminatory after the reveal CAN work, on a condition.

If the clone's original is, in fact, their friend's friend, said friends have all the reasons to be mad/shocked at the clone for essentially taking their place***. The friends would not only have to confront an 'impostor', but also deal with the loss of their 'real' friend, meanwhile also needing to reassure the clone they're still valid as their own person (if they also weren't aware obviously).

All of these conflicting emotions can create some compelling narratives imho, and there's not a 'standard' resolution that makes it all go back to normal.

(Btw it's one of those 'what if' post-story aspects that fascinate me about a certain other animated show's finale)

*** Now that I mention it, there's Vee in TOH. Whose potential is thrown in the garbage in the same episode she gets revealed, since neither Camila nor Luz delve into how messed up it is that someone just took Luz's place, and nobody was too concerned about it

It is absolutely a compelling narrative! It's actually theoretically part of the anxiety that Fallout 4 specifically tries to address with its Synths plot. Robots and automatons who are made to be as close to perfect replicas to the original that only the functions specific to them being robots reveals what they are. Otherwise, they appear to entirely be the person you once knew and even cares about you the same way.

Evil clones or even hypnosis are also one episode concepts that plenty of kid's shows might do to shake things up and mess with the character's heads as suddenly one of them isn't acting in their best interest. Just as a fun fact: I actually did a short lived possession thing where Boscha was consumed by a helpful voice in her head. They pushed her to be nicer, make good even with those who treat her poorly and to also let Luz touch her because she specifically only let Amity do that. She was found out once she consumed Boscha entirely because she doesn't say the F word and in the story she was the only one allowed to say it.

Even the death of one you care about isn't new, either in what you described or in other variants. Many a fantasy villain, especially necromancers, have promised the return of loved ones to them in one way or another, with usually the heroes saying that the version they would create or bring back wouldn't be them or that they wouldn't accept them anymore because accepting the offer is inherently a betrayal of the deceased loved one's morals. Or hell, they DO take it and become a pawn until someone else makes them see reason.

Clones, replacement, etc. like that of characters just has a lot of possibility space which is why they're such a beloved trope that's been work shopped in so many ways. Those who consume more speculative fiction than me have probably WAY more angles and the like than I'm even bringing up here.

Now just to address each: I think Anne being a clone isn't as bad for many because it was effectively a revival. It's still Anne through and through after all so while sure, it's a cloned body, it's kind of implied to still have Anne's soul which makes sense with the Guardian's desire to have her take his position. Can that still have angst in and of itself? ABSOLUTELY. Just dealing with the existential crises of having died at all, or the terror that those around you might of ever having to see that again, is absolutely a thing and its own set of anxieties that would be true without the claim of Anne being a clone.

Meanwhile, Vee doesn't technically lose her potential in Yesterday's Lie. Luz finding her convenient is a good excuse for even the most cynical as to why she doesn't get mad at Vee. I of all people don't even consider it a mark against Luz because she had worried about her mom in the past in this regard so her being relieved that her mom hadn't spent months thinking she was dead is honestly just reasonable. Camila is... More complicated. For the fact that Vee and Camila are both side characters more than anything, I think keeping their relationship was honestly for the best. There's no reason to spend an entire episode making us sympathize with Vee only for her then to be tossed to the side or no longer have a home. Honestly, her potential was likely mostly kneecapped indeed by the shortening but also like... Her having to deal with Luz just stepping back into her place would have probably just been one episode anyways and end with everyone happy and okay with it, or claiming they need time but then being immediately fine anyways, because that's just how this show deals with the vast majority of its more complex issues. Anne holds a grudge against Hop Pop about the musical box longer than anyone holds a grudge in TOH. Well, except maybe Luz against herself.

But yeah, clones, bodysnatchers, etc. like that are just really neat because they deal with some really primordial fears we have as a species which makes their potential close to unlimited so long as you're willing to actually do something with them.

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[ssaalexblake]

How would you respond to claims that 13's run feels a bit dodgy by having a cop travel with them?

You know, the other day while generally browsing the internet I happened across somebody complaining about this war movie. They were angry it was glorifying soldiers. Were anti-military themselves in general. You know what I mean. The thing is, though, the literature course I did in school had an entire unit and exam on war literature and I've read the book upon which the movie was based on and it has stuck with me as an incredible critique of war, conscription and the military by portraying those things in fiction. I would never pick it up again, not because it was bad, but because it was rough to 17yo me, but I am happy I've read it and other pieces of literature like it. I am happy I was taught to analyse and contextualise media with a serious subject such as that.

Now, this isn't the exact same thing as this. The BBC would legit never allow their lead children's show to Explicitly portray any acab message, like, ever, lets be true to reality here. But also, I genuinely think there is a fair amount of that puritanical black and white thinking going on here on the riff of Yaz working for the police being an immediate strike against the show because people think that portraying something is automatically lauding it because uh, the content of the story does Not track with the idea they're saying cop work is good work.

I have seen (on this site and many others) people say over and over again the only good cops are either dead or have quit bc they realised it was a crock of shit. In which case, the question becomes;

Did y'all miss the part where Yaz quit?

Yaz is not a cop anymore. Yaz quit. Yaz is portrayed as thinking it's frustrating bc because the helping people thing she was supposed to be doing isn't happening and we're shown this from literally the get go, her very first scene, and from there is only seen as trying A) to get work where she's actually helping somebody and totally failing to get it and B) straight up trying to get out of going to work by actually forging paperwork. S/O to her for that bit of illegality btw. Love that for her. She does not end the series employed by the police. Yaz found an actual way to help people and chose to do That instead.

Yaz's career arc is 'disillusioned teen signs up to be cop, realises it's bullshit and there are actual ways to help people and quits to go do that instead' which is, if i'm not mistaken, what we want actual real life cops to realise about their life choices.

I get it's a tetchy subject bc acab, i agree, and I get and agree and wish that this stuff could be more explicitly portrayed as well bc i'm sick of media or execs being too cowardly to be bold about messaging, but the insinuation that this portrayed the cops as systematically helpful or useful by having Yaz start out as a cop? No. Would I have liked it to be more explicit? Well yes, duh, but I cannot emphasise how that was literally never gonna happen. I can however emphasise how ideas like Yaz, whose main goal is to help, quitting being a cop bc she wasn't helping anybody beamed into impressionable young minds do, in fact, take root though.

Like, having a plucky teen hero character go through an arc of helping people and them Ending a cop to carry on the good work is Vastly different to a plucky teen starting out a cop bc they think that's how they get to help people then quitting bc they realised that's not true. One of these things is pro cop, the other is not.

I also hasten to mention again that there is a genuine conversation here abt the dodgy-ness cops being used in mental health emergencies. I wrote this out about it [Here].

On a personal note on this score, I, much like Sonya have been forced to deal with cops throughout somebody else's mental health emergency when I never should have had to and it fucking sucked. What an unempathetic bunch of rats who clearly haven't even done a google search's worth of research on how to discuss these things, let alone give it the gravity it deserves. That my choices were either cops or somebody dying is a travesty. And maybe this story speaks to me more personally as somebody who has had this experience and wants to throw hands over it still over a decade later, but that lady did not help Yaz, Yaz helped herself after a measly pep talk and the woman obviously never bothered to keep tabs and see if Yaz was okay afterwards either. Ryan helped his mate. Graham spreads good mental health advice that benefits others. The hospital in Syria was dealing in mental heath care by professionals of the time. Cop lady convinced Yaz to go home, succeeded, and Yaz gave her the credit when it was Her who dug herself out of that pit and not anybody else.

Like, genuinely this whole thing sets me off angry. And I could critique the execution if I wanted to but the bottom line is i've not actually seen anything else even go slightly Near where this plot went and I genuinely think it was something that should be said. As I said, a decade later and I still want to throw hands.

So basically like, I get the discomfort, I do, I get not wanting to see it as well, but Yaz grew OUT of this. Not the other way around. Portrayal is not endorsement. I do not personally find this era difficult to parse but people seem either unwilling or unable to do so on literally every theme addressed in it, but I am just back to being that 17yo in an english lit class being taught how to examine things through the vehicle of anti-war stories, ones that people are actually nowadays mad at for glorifying war just because they portray it when this couldn't be farther from the truth, and I cannot help but relate the situations a bit.

I mean, I don't think it's a 10/10 and I would tweak, but I am aware you won't be finding anything as bold as blatant acab on dw in this geopolitical climate and since that's endemic literally everywhere i'm not gonna single out This show for it when at least its trying (watching classic who and the things they just openly say and portray is soooooo eye opening. TV of the 21st century has no spine in general.) But the portrayal of something does not imply that said thing is positive. If real cops ditching the badge on principle is a good thing that we want to continue, I fail to see how fake ones portraying that said same thing is bad.