#tbc tag

[batshit-auspol]

New Zealand's trade minister everyone

[benevolenterrancy]

✧Not My Art!✧

This was all drawn by @clj-art-blog for my "lay your wager (down to sleep)" series and I honestly can't stop fawning over them? They're so pretty? And feels so visceral? The emotions in them all just sweep me away, seriously the body language is something else ;^; Thank you so much for putting so much love into drawing something inspired by my writing this is insanely cool????

Anyway, she has very kindly given me permission to post her pictures so I can force other people to also look at them and admire them 人´∀｀)

[borrelia]

can everyone look at beautiful knuckles images with me. please please please. @frostios made a beautiful knuckles image of him enjoying a picnic lunch of ants and grapes and worms for me* can we please all look at KNUCKLES!!!!!!

[transmasccofee]

really hes an icon

[1tbls]

kim's liberal ass being like "we can fix police corruption by simply reorganizing and changing the points system :)" sir 😔 fucking shakes him. sir.

like when he says he doesn't believe in anything but the RCM he really fucking means it. including this almost naive faith in its ultimate good. actually, this makes his past dolorianism/moralism much easier to imagine.

makes me wonder about "the only people who actually call themselves liberals are mouth-foaming reactionaries" in relation to younger kim, how he describes his younger self as a moralist. and even in-game how weirdly belligerent he becomes towards mañana, defensive when accused of ultraliberalism. kim..... kim my man how fucking bad were you as a 20-something. i feel like in the game we only get to see the tip of the iceberg.

[kkupttown]

the loveliest gay dogs of all time commission I got from @indesomniac :3

[transsexualhollyleaf]

this was fun to do

[conniewoof]

So I really like the latest TBCBTQ chapter…

https://archiveofourown.org/works/59797198/chapters/162998314

@lilpippo ((sorry ik I tagged u on twt “>,>

[rogdona]

[efverse]

"...i don't need you of all pokemon, to pretend to care about me."

"..."

[pigeonclaw]

All done! I tried not to use anybody more than once but some repeats were just unavoidable. If I reread the entire series again right now, I'm sure some of these would change, but here's who I thought of.

My reasons and a blank template under the cut.

Berryheart & Sunbeam: I was so stressed reading about them lol. But I appreciated how complex their relationship was, especially on Sunbeam's side. Berryheart loved her kids, and she hurt her kids quite badly because she thought she was doing the right thing. And that was a tough thing for Sunbeam to cope with. It's not a positive relationship but it is compelling, and I enjoyed that!

The Three: This is more for Lionblaze and Jayfeather (mainly since we've had more time with the two of them) but it would be wrong to leave Hollyleaf out! Most siblings in this series have some sort of strife between them, and these three have had their moments too, but they cared deeply about each other.

Rootspring & Shadowsight: I liked their friendship in TBC. Particularly I liked how insecure they both were, but how they admired each other for the very traits they were insecure about. It was sweet. Perhaps they should kiss.

Tree & Rootspring: This is largely just because Tree is the most supportive dad ever. I like that he stuck by Rootspring and helped him get Bramblestar's message out while still keeping his secret -- even though it was really inconvenient, his son's feelings mattered to him. I like that as soon as trouble came, he was ready to pack up and get his family out of the Clans, but he listened to their wishes and stayed and supported them.

Nightheart & Frostdawn: Their friendship was very sweet in Thunder. I love how Nightheart supported Frostpaw when she was at her lowest point, and how Frostpaw learned to rely on him, which helped her start trusting others again.

Brightheart & Cloudtail: A classic old pairing. I guess I'm a sucker for stories of one character being terribly wounded and at the worst point in their life and then another character supporting them through it and them bonding. Whether that's platonic (like Nightheart & Frostdawn) or romantic like Brightheart & Cloudtail, I'm a fan.

Tawnypelt & Birchfeather: I probably don't need to explain this one since everybody's talking about it. But Tawnypelt's support of Birchfeather when his own parents refuse to acknowledge him is sweet.

Fireheart & Cinderpaw: It's been a while since I last read the first arc, but I remember enjoying these two as both mentor and apprentice and as friends. Nothing too deep here, they were just fun to read about.

Sunbeam & Lightleap: It's a shame their friendship broke down so early into ASC. I enjoy a ship between someone who's calm and sensible and someone who would commit arson on a dare. They could balance each other out, or they could stress each other out. Either way would be interesting to read about!

Please talk to me about your favorite relationships of various types as well! I always enjoy hearing what kinds of characters, tropes, etc appeal to other people.

Here's the blank template!

[artaintfartwarriors]

[thewingedwolf]

trinity should have just sat on the benzos thing for a few shifts, you can’t level an accusation like that after 7 hours even if you ARE correct. benzos addiction is no joke but like, u gotta at least frame it differently, less accusatory!

[gemini-queen42]

HEY LADS FUN FACT: I've been reading To Shape A Dragon's Breath and i love it dearly And I must recommend it!♡♡

[Some (mild?) spoilers under the break]

LITERALLY The only reason I didnt squeal is bcuz i was in class.

BUT SCRAMING!!! OMFG!!! OMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!!!

HELLO hi yes I've been AWFULLY invested in Anequs & Libertys relationship... ouggh...

The amount of HEARTS I annotated on just these 2 pages....sorry i lomv them...

Like literally Anequs's FIRST thought about Liberty... and when they next meet?? Ouugh???♡♡

Some more misc lil moments of theirs i annotated. Sorry these aren't taken with full readability but I can't retake them rn so 😭😭

[the-indigo-symphony]

I know it's a response to current events, but I kind of miss when the system community was talking more about how our system origins and structures work for us. Not just that our origins exist, but specifically sharing information about our experiences and building upon theories and discussing research that, even when not specifically about systems, could be related. I have lots of posts in my drafts about this sort of thing, but it's a little hard to work up any motivation to look for answers about how these things work when there's so much denial that things can work this way; it just feels like we're all in this limbo of waiting for the rainy season to be over so we can get back to our construction sites. Like. Idk. I hate bringing up syscourse on this blog (even though this is mostly just referencing it) but does anyone else miss when we were talking more about exploring who we are and how these things might work than just... trying to keep ourselves afloat? Banding together over slogans? Not that coming together as a community is bad, obviously, it's just that it feels a little stifling when we used to do a lot more adventuring; something done out of survival and not out of community. I feel like the recent AMA for the tulpamancy study is a step back in that direction I'm looking for but. Rn I just miss the mix of criticism of the current psych field(s) and the genuine interest in looking for what does work that used to be more common. Or maybe nostalgia has gotten me overestimating just how common that sort of thing was. Idk, I was thinking about how it feels like it used to be more common for someone around here to go "hey, here's this text about autism that might be especially relevant to autigenic systems" or for someone to say "hey, here's this analysis about a historical figure who might have been plural based on their work and words". I miss that, I hope we can get back to that sort of post/thing being commonplace soon

[atopvisenyashill]

Why do you think Jaehaerys sexually assaulted his own daughter?( I'm genuinely curious)

I have two dedicated tags to this if you want to dig in a bit more - "gael and the bard" and the newly added "jaehaerys the cruel" tags, with this meta here being the kind of jumping off point into that whole theory/analysis. gael and the bard is more focused on gael targaryen herself and the mystery surrounding her pregnancy and suicide; there's a lot of bael the bard imagery surrounding her, being called the winter princess, gael being one letter off from bael, the father of her baby noted to have been a singer, and her status as like, an eternal maiden because of her relationship with alysanne. the jaehaerys the cruel moniker is just a reference to maegor the cruel - i think the play between maegor being outwardly monstrous and jaehaerys being privately monstrous is very interesting! but also it's not like a fun tag name lol so i might change it, haven't decided yet!

but i guess to break down my thought process here - i have never liked that man lmaoooo, i am an og jaehaerys hater. my lil journey here is, i read this series in high school, roughly around the winter of 2012, but i didn't read twoiaf when it came out in 2014, i read that just before i started this blog, so like....idk 2 years ago, roughly, but i was Aware Of Its Existence (they didn't have it at school, the library was kind of far, and it felt like a stupidly expensive book to ask for at the time). i had kinda skimmed over the short stories the princess & the queen and the rogue prince (don't ask me when they came out, icr), and had read all the twow preview chapters so it wasn't like i wasn't up on all the asoiaf world stuff, i just hadn't been able to get my hands on twoiaf, which I do think impacted my view of jaehaerys because the thing is...i just didn't understand the jaehaerys appeal. i won't get into the wanky aspects of fandom (i mean i will if someone asks but idk if you care lol), but i would say in the like 2010-2014 era the fandom was p staunchly and loudly pro targaryen, and not just in a "i love the rot" way but in a "they are the promised heroes" type of way and i never jived with it. i did not enjoy the vast majority of dany's chapters on my first read, nor did i enjoy this weird "well if you like the starks you're a NORMIE" takes that i was constantly seeing, and the sansa v arya war was insane (i'm blocked and have blocked just so many people lol).

i say all that because everyone was UP jaehaerys' ass. i won't name names but i remember a common rebuttal to the "well george is kinda critiquing incest-in-fantasy here and i'm not sure this series is going to end with an incestuous targ restoration" stance was "well if incest is so bad why do jaehaerys and alysanne exist huh? check AND mate incest hater" and it was like............alright, so this is a fandom of deeply unserious people who like to think they are the Expert On Themes instead of just another schmuck with a blog like everyone else. it was just a very condescending tone, always, and it turned me off the targs but especially turned me off jaehaerys.

and it was also like....but what has he done to be so beloved in this fandom??? again, this is pre twoiaf, and then post-twoiaf but pre f&b, so all we know about this dude is that he was called the conciliator because he pardoned the people who sided with maegor, he "protected the faith", he married his sister who gave the watch the gift, he abolished prima noctus, he built a dirt road, he was besties with barth. okay? i always thought the move with the gift was annoying and goofy behavior & i feel very vindicated on being right there esp if aegon’s dream was real, and i’ve always thought the marriages for his kids were kinda weird once we got those in twoiaf and WHAT DO YOU KNOW. like, pre twoiaf everyone was hyping him up as this great king, this paragon of valyrian supremacy, oh he’s so smart and politically minded but he’s not overly cruel, and it was like. we know little about this man in his day to day life though. we know damn well whatever good robert did as king was largely jon arryn's influence so Why are we pretending like just because jaehaerys passed a few good laws it means HE was the one responsible for those ideas (and again I WAS RIGHT). is what he’s doing even that good??

AND THEN FIRE AND BLOOD CAME OUT. and everyone was crying screaming throwing up about how stupid he is, how cruel he is, how weird he is about his daughters, and then people started saying “well you’re being unfair if you don’t like him because-“ i don’t give a shit because i’m validated for not liking that man’s vibes thanks!!!! like…yeah he IS a paragon of targaryen supremacy and this is not a good thing! and especially when you factor in how often the patriarchs of the series have these deeply rooted, very disturbing flaws, i thought the backlash to f&b re: “he ruined jae & aly!” so silly. of COURSE he was weird about his daughters, he eloped with his 12 year old sister and when confronted over it basically said “i do what i want fuck you” that’s not romantic it’s INSANE BEHAVIOR and i’ll stand on that forever!!! marrying your siblings is deranged and idgaf about what magic or political reasoning they have ESPECIALLY when jaehaerys himself refuses a valyrian marriage several times over when it makes more political sense to go that route (in both his own marriage and in the marriages of his grandchildren).

so! i always thought he was boring and weird, then f&b came out and i was vindicated. the thing is, as i read, i guess i was also like. but what is the fuckijg POINT of this guy! he dominates the f&b narrative when there’s way more interesting characters, he has no redeeming qualities, every good thing he does is usually overshadowed by his reasoning being heinous and disturbing, but this book is pushing this idea that he’s the good one, he’s the blueprint, so is it JUST an exploration of like, what ~being a good person~ really means and how reputations & history are very malleable depending on who is recording it??

And then i really started to dig into Saera. Her isolation, her drinking, her sexually tormenting the court fool, the way jaehaerys is always giving her gifts and "indulging" her, the way she's brought before the throne instead of in a private room because what she did is considered like, treasonous basically (what she did being, of course, having sex without her father's permission, lmao!), her very hysterical confrontation with her parents, Jonquil Darke forcing her to watch her boyfriend be murdered, Jaehaerys' insistence on refusing to forgive her and calling her a whore, and of course this weird exchange:

“What have you done?” the king said, when at last the princess ran out of words. “Seven save us, what have you done? Have you given one of these boys your maidenhead? Tell me true.” “True?” said Saera. It was in that moment, with that word, that the contempt came out. “No. I gave it to all three. They all think they were the first. Boys are such silly fools.”

"They all think they were the first." they all think it. i don't think any of those three boys were the first - i think she'd lost her virginity well before she started fooling around with them and when I first read that part my first thought was "I think Jaehaerys knows damn well who she lost her virginity to" and I started spiraling from there.

I decided to do a write up of Jaehaerys Being Deeply Weird Towards His Girls and while there's some things I would change - in particular, I think I'd add more to the Alyssa, Viserra, and Gael sections - there's a reason that the Saera section in particular seemed to really spark off a lot of conversation (not to toot my own horn here lmao) and that reason, imo, is that a lot of people read about what happened between Saera and jaehaerys and go "now what in the goddamn hell is THAT about." Saera more than any of Jaehaerys' kids is imo the canary in the coal mine, so to speak - whatever George intended with F&B, I do think he meant for us to look at the way Jaehaerys talks about Saera and go "this guy has some fucking ISSUES." I don't know that he meant for it to go all the way up to "Jaehaerys is molesting his own kids" route but I do fully believe he meant something in that realm of "Jaaehaerys is cruel to a sexually abusive point to his children" the same way that like, Tywin and Cersei sexually abuse Tyrion but don't outright rape him themselves. I think Jaehaerys was always meant to be aman who is remembered fondly but was an absolute monster in his private life, in contrast to both the kings he succeeded (maegor and aenys) and as a point of comparison to our "modern day" patriarchs who have their own hang ups surrounding their daughters in Tywin, Doran, Ned, Robert, Jon, and Hoster.