#or 'expy'

[worldofteyvat]

MAVUIKA ❖ Ignition Teaser: A Name Forged in Flames

[branwinged]

why is there so much anti dragon sentiment in the asoiaf fandom?

i was going to leave this at "fifteen years with no book and two divisive adaptations results in way too much inane discourse". but instead i'm going to talk about metaphors.

i've noticed a desire for neat, didactical, metaphorical readings for everything that makes people uncomfortable about these books. and discomfort with a topic is something i understand, but it cannot be resolved by forcing a reading on the text which may align with your personal or political views, but is actually misconstruing the text. in asoiaf, this usually centres around the targaryens because the incest, the dragons, their alleged magical bloodline, the lost mythic empire, and that someone from their line is prophesied to quite literally save the world - are all divisive story elements. people have correctly identified that despite the power fantasy of their conceptualisation, martin is not writing them as merely self indulgent, aspirational figures, but they've also overcorrected that into 'actually every element of their characterisation reveals one true didactic intent'. so, every instance of incest must be a metaphor for auto cannibalism, the dragons are only a nuke metaphor, the sense of superiority is a stand-in for supremacist ideology etc.

and the thing is, yes martin has sometimes used these elements as such. the dance is a story about the family self cannibalising itself, in part, as a consequence of the institutionalised incest, since under that practice every claimant to the throne was obviously going to be a close family member, which led to all the kinslaying. and the dragons historically have been used to maintain the hegemony of the crown through the threat of terrible, magical violence. this is true. but it's also not all he has to say on the topic. this is one idea he's exploring among a lot of other (often contradictory) ideas. yes, their habit of forgoing exogamous marriage alliances forced them into a precarious position post-dance once they lost their dragons and there is a point being made here about their dynastic decline. but at the same time, egg's failed attempts to forcibly marry his sons (one of whom was gay) out of the family is also saying something about both arranged exogamous westerosi and endogamous targaryen marriages being materially oppressive in almost the exact same ways, and that simply pivoting to the former wouldn't have saved them because the real enemy is westerosi feudal patriarchy, the system under which daughters are exchanged for securing political (or dragon) power and all second sons are subordinate to the first. that in a way, everyone is eating their young. someone very much into the 'all incest as auto cannibalism' metaphor is ignoring this, the way someone who only thinks of dragons as nukes is ignoring the very obvious reworking of them as a symbol of change and freedom in dany's storyline. and this is the problem at hand. the thing about metaphors is that they work up to a certain extent, but often people treat them as the only acceptable reading of a text, instead of something that is in conversation with a lot of other ideas simultaneously being explored by the story. all this leads to, is the flattening of a complex story into a reductive, didactic message of their preference. and, of course, to reduce every fantasy element in these books to simply an analogue for some real world topic, is to take the fantasy intrigue out of the fantasy series.

[clannfearrunt]

thanks @justanothersquidblog for the inspiration, we are setting this blue eyes white dragon on the palette duel disk

[zephyrine-gale]

adamlyle but that one aventurine cutscene oopsie

[clouvu]

Acorn x Wobin thoughts on the brain rn

[cheriafreya]

Nicole ♡

[guardevoir]

Why is it that I, haver of no patience, endurance, object permanence, or general good sense, am also so terminally attracted to gigantic mammoth projects that nobody with two braincells to rub together would want to attempt?

(also, why is that project I'm rotating in my mind like a well-done blorbo never the stuff I'm supposed to be working on? I literally have a whole fucking masters thesis to write, about a topic I actually like (and which I will talk about at length if anyone asks, hint hint))

Anyway.

I can spin, crochet, knit (badly) and weave (in three, soon to be four, different flavors). I've sewn things before. I've been severely eyeing nålbinding for a while and actually do have a needle for it.

I am mightily tempted, positively entranced, by the idea of making a whole outfit by hand. Spinning, potentially dyeing, making it into clothes, the whole deal. Bottoms, top, layering for warmth, accessories, all handmade completely from scratch. It would be the project of a lifetime. It would take a lifetime.

The only thing keeping me safe right now is that wool directly on the skin doesn't sound like a great time because even if it ain't itchy, it would be kind of a pain to wash, I don't trust myself to spin a cotton or linen yarn that's both fine and sturdy enough to weave with, and I think a crocheted base layer would be too bulky.

(Also I'd probably have to deal with the Vague Dysphoria of skirt, because I am *not* sewing pants, but I'd do it for the aesthetic. Also, Secret Pants might be a fun third option)

But dear fucking lord, the lure of the "Strange Temporally Displaced Pasture Gremlin"-Core outfit is strong.

[turtleblogatlast]

I unironically love how blatantly late 80’s early 90’s all the brothers’ styles are in “The Clothes Don’t Make the Turtle” because like…of course those are their styles! The majority of the media they grew up adoring is heavily influenced by that time period, so it makes perfect sense that they all took inspiration from it. It’s honestly super cute to see, they’re such kids I swear.

[clockcower]

Hey is anyone else getting increasingly worried about sampos ties/mentions of HI3? Like he's appearing in the crossover event and as far as I can tell at least 3 of the curios from his pop-up shop event are herrscher references - herrscher of wind can "create the ideal fluid", which day 1s curio claims to let you control. herrscher of sentience's core was turned into a feather that could do a ton of mental manipulation stuff, which day 5s curio looks so, so similar to. The first herrscher of reason, before our welt yang, was welt Joyce. And joyce had a scarf that looked suspiciously like the weird infinity representing the 7th days curio. And his hair was that deep blue.

Combined with that one trailer featuring welt yang in front of the mech, all the belobog characters that are references to HI3 characters, and the really weird dialogue from the pop up shop? I have a lot of half baked theories, and if any of them are true then mr yangs gonna have a real bad time in 2.7

[ramshacklerumble]

Ooh~ A theme park~? Count me in. I’ve been a good little student and ANYTHING has to be better than rotting in class bored out of my skull.

Groovification: [LOCKED]

Set Home: What are you standing around for?

Switch Look: Oh, is THAT how it’s gonna be?

Home Transition One: Hm~ I can get behind this kind of clothing on a day-to-day basis. I’ll have my people do something about the fabric, though.

Home Transition Two: What on earth is a corndog? It sounds like something you’d wanna ward off, not eat.

Home Transition Three: I’m looking forward to this show. Believe it or not, I don’t perform in front of others all that often. Tragic, I know.

Home, after Login: I finally went on that roller coaster Ace kept yammering about and I just managed to throw up a barrier before we hit the water. Bet the little jerk probably didn’t count on me knowing a thing or two about waterfalls.

Tap Home 1: I think I’m gonna have one of these built in my palace. I need to think of a name– Oh, I know! Cusi-topia. Mm, no…

Tap Home 2: I don’t like video games, but Kalim and I found a rhythm stage game and it was WAY fun. I could stay there for hours.

Tap Home 3: I don’t get why people get all hissy because I don’t wait in line. What? Like it’s my fault they’re peons?

Tap Home 4: Vil and René were all buddy-buddy coming out of the pool hall…weird. I have dance class with them and I’ve seen snowcaps warmer than whatever they usually have going on.

Tap Home 5: *Gasp* O-Oh, this is just…a stupid plush prize Jack didn’t want, so he gave it to me. !!!…I’m not gonna throw it away!

Tap Home, Groovification: [LOCKED]

DUO with SSR Wén Xiáng

Xiáng: I can see their weak spots! I’ve got this! | Cusi: No, sit down. I’ll handle this!

tag list:

@cyanide-latte @inmateofthemind @tixdixl @winterweary @thehollowwriter @jovieinramshackle

@theleechyskrunkly @skriblee-ksk @boopshoops @the-trinket-witch @twistedwonderlandshenanigans @kimikitti

@felix-cant-ski @nightwingshero @water-writings @beneathsakurashade (dm to be added)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

It's the 6 month anniversary of this blog! Check out these cool bugs I found.

(EDIT: Check out this amazing fanart by thecornermushroom!)

Part 2 - Part 3

[brawlmetaknight]

alright it's been 2 years, we need more theories about why morpho's sword turns into galaxia for this move

[branwinged]

a lot of targaryen takes sound like people making up some guys to get mad at. it gets a little tiring, the way they're imagined as uniquely awful within the text. i'm not certain we were meant to interpret them as the worst of westerosi nobility, simply that, being westeros' reigning house means they are afforded special narrative spotlight and scrutiny. if we had as much specific information on the history of the kings of winter or lords of winterfell, it would look much the same in terms of frequency of despotic rulers and dynastic conflicts. in the present timeline almost every noble house is in the process of unraveling, that's a theme with the lannisters, the tullys, the greyjoys, the baratheons, and the rest. the decline of house tully can be traced directly back to hoster forcing his teenage daughter through a dangerous abortion and then trading her as a political bargaining chip. it all goes back and back, tyrion thought, to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. <- dynastic decline and intergenerational violence is an overarching series theme. like. "targaryens were always destined to die" is not really saying anything other than you think they're all ontologically evil i guess. and yeah about the dragons and the incest. well. i think the endogamy has more to do with concentrating dragon power within the family and less with the notion of 'valyrian supremacy'? i may regret saying this since i haven't read fire & blood cover to cover, but how is the sentiment behind “the blood of the dragon” materially different than “there must always be a stark in winterfell”? i don't know! they ALL believe in the inherent superiority of their bloodlines that's just how it works under feudalism where inheritance is secured through primogeniture.

[picaroroboto]

One of the takes I've seen about Sphene is that her kindness is just a front and an act for her being evil - well she does attempt to kill a lot of people, but that kind personality is still not a lie, she is super good-hearted through and through and also capable of incredible ruthlessness if she believes it's for the good of her people, those things are not mutually exclusive. Would someone who secretly had a nasty personality and was only faking nice delete her own conscience and kind memories to make sure they wouldn't get in the way of her goal?

I wonder if some of the difficulties in fan interpretations come from her gender, being a female antagonist carries it's whole set of issues different from male antagonists. Yotsuyu's story, the story of a vengeful, unrepentant female villain, was not handled very well; while Meteion and Sphene, who are portrayed as emotional, tragic villains, still get some vitriolic hate.

Let's not forget that even though their personalities and everything else are completely different, Sphene is a sort of Emet-Selch "lite", with similar motivations of destroying other worlds to bring back her dead. If you like Emet but won't give Sphene the time of day, think about why - is it because her personality is more simple than his, or have you written her off as shallow because she's a woman in a frilly dress?

[kojiarakiartworks]

April 2021 JAPAN NIIGATA HOKURIKU EXPY KUROSAKI SA

© KOJI ARAKI Art Works

Daily life and every small thing is the gate to the universe ：）

[sp00ky9]

All these new xianzhou characters but where is my girl fu hua 😭😭😭