#odds of genetics

[cowboythewizard726]

THE TOUDEN SIBLINGS, THE TOUDEN SIBLINGS!!!!1!!!11!!!!!2!1!!! REJOICE REJOICE EVERYONE GATHER AROUND THE TOUDEN SIBLINGS OH HEAVENLY TOUDEN SIBLINGS!!!!!!1!!!!!!1!!!!11!!

TOUDENS TOUDENS TOUDENS!!!!!!! YEAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mewvore]

I couldn't make this up if I tried

[muselexum]

( waking up one morning after 18 months of hiatus and finally getting the spark™ to freshen up ur rp blog )

[throwawayasoiafaccount]

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

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

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

and that is peak world building.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[courcgecus]

She finished a small shed for additional storage, as soon it would be harvest. All by herself! She is proud, looking at it - it seems secure and even visually pleasing!

[skunkes]

No idea if this has been asked before, is Al a mix of any specific breeds of horse/cow? (feel free to correct me on the mix part I think i saw it mentioned before in a comic but idk if that was updated!) I just like the intricacies of ungulate breeds is all!

Not specifically or in a realistic way!

Al is a Holstein and his mom is a Palomino horse. I have had trouble with drawing beards my whole life which is why i always ignore redesigning his dad, so I haven't gotten as far as deciding what kind of cow he would be and if it would be related to the final outcome of Cow Al

[thisisntreaver]

you know what I've always wondered? if being a hero is genetic, and heroes have extra strength and vitality and shit, what in the world could have happened to sparrow and roses parents? do you have any fun theories?

So I've always been in the camp of something similar to what we see at the end of the perfect world quest. Like i know its a test, but it seems to be digging into Sparrow's subconscious. With how they and Rose are having their perfect day, but the parents aren't there to me has always indicated that either the memories of their parents so blurry they can't visualize them like they can rose, or they're supressed for some reason.

Then when they leave, like their parents did that morning before they woke up, and are greeted with corpses. The wiki says thats meant to represent the death Sparrows journey has brought into the world, but I think it could very well be attributed to how the parents died.

Likely caught unaware while leaving to go and make money to keep their children fed and cared for-maybe not necessarily as farmers, they could have lived in Bowerstone and just had regular jobs- and killed, could have been bandits, could have been nicky the nick names crew. But if they weren't ready, or were unarmed, they could have been overwhelmed, especially if we go with the idea that the Hero of Southcliff is their father, because their story takes place 50ish years before 2, so they'd be aging and no longer in their prime.

I've also always liked the idea that sparrow may have actually seen the deaths, or at least the immediate aftermath, leading to them suppressing a lot of their childhood,- and that also being why during the begining and in her diary rose doesn't mention them at all-but while on the precipice of death themselves these memories get brought back up, just like how when you leave the scream Rose lets out is the same as when Lucien shot her.

[spaceoddeity]

so many theories about what Verm is but we all know for sure they're one thing: traumatized

obligatory psa: go read @earth2068 trust me bro

[esterigermaine]

We know the concept of albinism exists for at least Drow, but I wonder if it exists for other DnD races as well.

What I am trying to say is do you think Astarion has ever (or would be willing to) tried to pass himself off as an Elf with albinism?

[thepandalion]

something something "character who is born into privilege but through circumstances relating to their birth has to suffer a pain they're helpless to preventing, and yet they don't stop trying to prevent the pain even knowing they cannot"

[molagboop]

I just think it would be fun to make Raven Beak smooch Samus' other dads.

[i-love-love]

I would love to get just. The most comprehensive medical work up of all time. Run every test it’s possible to run on every conceivable part/system/function of the human body. Full psych battery. I want to know e v e r y t h i n g going on in here. I wanna know which of these things are related. Wanna find out what secrets my meatsack is hiding. I just think it would be so cool to have a 100% complete picture of how my own body works yknow

[lemonofthevalley]

still thinking about how my NP said I don't actually have adhd it's just anxiety that makes me avoid doing school work (I did not ONCE mention issues with schoolwork to her nor have I actually had any anxiety about doing/turning in schoolwork, only social anxiety about group projects and presentations)

[thebrideofreanimator]

i’m bored what if i made a silent film cast for repo

[bahoreal]

evolution is so fucked up like. every single mutation is random, animals dont decide "damn id like a longer neck" one of a herd suddenly gets a slightly longer neck due to a random genetic mutation (that in mammals occurs at an average rate of 2.2 × 10−9 per base pair per year. thats 0.000000002.2 mutations a year. "per base pair" makes it confusing but basically for every cell which has dna and replicates, for each of those base pairs, there is us a 2.2 × 10-9 chance of that base pair being different in the new cell) and for it to be passed on it cant be a somatic mutation (mutation in any cell that isnt a reproductive cell) it has to be a mutation that occurs during reproduction/crossing over or a mutation during production of new gametes (reproductive cells) AND it has to be a mutation that directly affects an exon (coding region of a gene, there are parts of genes called "introns" which are removed before the mRNA coding a protein starts to code that protein so a mutation in an intron does nothing) AND it has to be a significant enough benefit (or coincide with another generational event like a bottleneck) for that trait to spread to every single animal in the species (most mutations are neutral or negative). and there are other barriers like transposons (which can sometimes aid bigger evolutionary trait changes by inserting themselves into a region of a gene that would. e.g., suppress a protein coding region so suddenly that region is coding for a protein) AND genetic redundancy (organisms have multiple copies of the important genes so if one gets knocked out by a transposon or a scientist the organism can still grow and live) like. things still evolve???? in positive ways???? i cant express how wild that is to me. evolution.

[jayjamjary]

Tummy hurt from poor eating decisions. I cannot be trusted with open bag of candy, I will eat that shit until it's gone because I zone out and it just ends up in my mouth as I do other things. Do not give me bag of candy.