#that is NOT what George is writing

[antigoneikk]

[nemo-draco]

Having thoughts about Doey being not simply an amalgamation of Jack, Kevin, and Matthew with clear lines and control, but one being born out of that unwilling and traumatic ordeal. He has traits from each, some scant memories and sensory experiences from Before, but now he's not them, he's Him, and now he has to live with that. That three kids went into making him who he is, and they're kind of present but not, and now he's Doey, but who is Doey but this horrible start, this compounded pain and misery that still is trying desperately to be good. But is that his desire, or is it one of the boys? Will he ever get out from under that shadow, could he ever be forgiven for the terrible things that happened to make him or because he was new and confused and didn't know better?

He tries to be cheerful, because that's what's needed and sometimes even in hell there are kids being kids, doing silly stuff and cracking jokes, but it's hard to square with, because Something Horrible happened and...he's the only one left standing. The scientists aren't there, Harley's gone after Playtime falls. Who is there left to blame but himself?

Anyway, my AUs have some fun stuff going on.

[ilynpilled]

we dont talk enough about how fucking funny it is that in the show jaime does straight up casually tell qyburn that he saved the population of kings landing to epically own him. thats so fucking funny actually like what the hell do u mean???

[melrosing]

ppl do laugh at the idea that the JB Harrenhal tub scene is maybe influenced by GRRM having met his own future wife in a sauna and like ok if that was the only instance but like. Jon and Ygritte?? weird that it’s happened twice

[torchlitinthedesert]

There’s something very strange about Paul’s usual “how John and I started writing” narrative. Here’s how he likes to describe it:

Me and John knowing each other, the fact that both of us independently had already started to write little songs... I said to him, “What’s your hobby?” I said, “I like songwriting,” and he said, “Oh, so do I.” You know, no one I’d ever met had ever said that as a reply. And we said, “Well, why don’t you play me yours and I’ll play you mine.” GQ, 2020

It’s my impression that this is now in the rotation of Paul Stories - I think he says it in McCartney 3,2,1, and in other interviews. Is it true? The earliest accounts contradict it:

“Paul’s first public performance, as a member of the Quarrymen, was at a dance… later on, after the dance, he played a couple of tunes to John he had written himself. Since he’d started playing the guitar, he had tried to make up a few of his own little tunes. The first tune he played to John that evening was called ‘I Lost My Little Girl’. Not to be outdone, John immediately started making up his own tunes.”

Hunter Davies, The Beatles, 1968

“‘I learned a lot from Paul. He taught me quite a lot of guitar really. He knew more about how to play than I did and he showed me a lot of chords. I’d been playing the guitar like a banjo so I had to learn it again. I didn’t write much material early on, less than Paul, because he was quite competent on guitar. I started to write after Paul did a song he’d written.’”

John Lennon to Ray Connolly, unpublished interview, 1970*

"He used to write songs before I even started writing songs."

John Lennon, St Regis interview, 1971

*[The Connolly quote is weaker as a source, because was published after John’s death (and he quotes it slightly differently: “I started to write after Paul did a song he’d written” is in Connolly’s John biography, but not in the version in his collected Beatle journalism). But it fits with the other accounts.]

Still, Paul’s version might have some truth in it. Mark Lewisohn cites a couple of 1971 interviews where John remembers trying to write a calypso song, tapping into a brief craze of spring 1957. I don’t know if he finished it, or told anyone about it. None of the Quarrymen mention it, while Pete Shotton told Bob Spitz that John was “floored” when Paul first played him one of his own songs. But the calypso story does make “so do I” seem more possible.

It’s still surprising that Paul wants to frame it this way. He’d be justified in pointing out that songwriting was his innovation, something he brought to the band. By any measure, he’s the one who started it: when he met John, he’d already written the melody of When I'm 64, plus Suicide and I Lost My Little Girl. And he was always prolific. As John told David Sheff, talking about I’ll Follow The Sun, “he had a lot of stuff”, “written almost before the Beatles, I think.” He was the one pushing to do their own material, whether that’s talking it up to music promoters or suggesting In Spite of All The Danger at their first amateur recording session. (To me, that suggests that Lennon-McCartney was established later than they tended to admit. In Spite of All The Danger, recorded in 1958, has George as cowriter; if Paul had written anything with John, I bet that's what he'd have suggested they record. And if John on his own had written something that was ready to record, they’d definitely have picked that. )

In the 1950s, writing your own material was groundbreaking: it’s part of the huge cultural shift into the 1960s. There were hundreds of skiffle/rock’n’roll bands in Liverpool, but it’s genuinely possible that Paul was the only songwriter among them. Why isn’t that the story he wants to tell?

When Paul started defending his legacy in the late 1980s, he was fighting against specific distortions. First, that he was the middle-of-the-road conservative one - which is why he lays out his avant garde credentials. So you’d think he’d want to remind everybody that he wrote songs first. But second, he’s up against the idea that he and John didn’t love each other, that they didn’t write together, that Lennon-McCartney was a myth. Paul is a rock star, with an ego to match; he’s not given to downplaying himself. But he wants the partnership more than he wants precedence, even more than he wants credit for innovation.

And he always did. Remember the story about John sharing half his chocolate bar? Paul joined the band, and shared half his songs.

He didn’t need to: he was already writing alone. If he wanted help, George was more musically accomplished, and would have been a more logical choice for a songwriting partner. But it's John whose attention and praise Paul needed, John who had the authority to say they’d play Paul’s songs, John who needed to feel like the most important person in the band. Becoming Lennon-McCartney formalises all of that. And Paul is still true to it.

Across decades, Paul has been consistent about promoting their partnership as a partnership, regardless of who did what. (This isn’t true of John, who by the late 1960s was eager to break down who wrote which song, which lyric, which middle eight.) After working with George Martin on the string arrangement for Yesterday, Paul signed the score: “"Yesterday" by Paul McCartney John Lennon George Martin Esq and Mozart.” Even as a joke, you don’t separate Lennon and McCartney. Ken Mansfield asked Paul why songs were “Lennon-McCartney” when John hadn’t been there for the writing process:

And Paul said: “John and I are so close to each other, we’ve been through so much together, we understand each other so much, our relationship is so deep, that when we’re songwriting,” he said, “even if I’m 6,000 miles away, I can be working on something and I can hear John over my shoulder going, ‘No, no, no, that’s not gonna work; why don’t we do this?’ Or ‘Hey, I like this.’” He said, “So, in essence, to me, we’re songwriting together even if we’re not together.”

Ken was asking about Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, not realising that John was there for that one: they worked on it in India. But rather than giving a practical answer, Paul chooses to frame the partnership as a profound connection. (Of course there are other times Paul insists on or overstates his contribution, or gets petty about who did what. He’s human, and he’s an egomaniac. But always, always within the framework that this was a partnership.)

Fundamentally, he’s loyal to Lennon-McCartney. “So do I” matters more to him than going first. It might not be literally true, but it's the emotional truth that he needs.

[tsarjozinzbazin]

*SLAMS DEBIT CARD WITH A NEGATIVE BALANCE ON IT* 💥💳💥💳💥💳💥💳💥 MOR COLD LIEUTENANTS PEASE

OKOK SORRY 🙏🙏🙏

this is what they look like to me sorry (Ned is a porcupine)

[hollcwboy]

playing around with @elena-illustration ‘s kisscrew on this fine snowy night

[harrenhals]

it’s always funny to me how both the fandom and the actual book treat jace and sara snow like the most unlikely thing ever to happen. because a young royal man with a noble reputation bonded to a magical animal has never married a woman far below his station to preserve her virtue in canon. how far fetched. how nonsensical. and as we all know, targaryen princes have never broken their vows to another woman and ran off with a northern girl. preposterous. insane. would never happen.

[edwinisms]

on my third rewatch and just got through ep 3 and man. the devlin house is such a strong fucking episode. like quality-wise. acting-wise. plot-wise. etc. that’s not to say the first two episodes weren’t strong, but the devlin house hits noticeably harder and hits different. like it’s the precise turning point episode where you realize oh. this show isn’t just gonna be campy with a dash of angst. we’re addressing some serious heavy ass trauma. and not just magical unreal trauma either like. just straight up abuse. and the boy who’s been unserious and silly this whole time isn’t just like that for shallow comic relief reasons. there is so much more there lurking under the surface. oh man it’s good

[loverrhoe]

oldie but a goldie

[beetle-baguette]

In my John Lennon era (I have a bandaid on my finger)

[pwryyynce]

still cant choose whats the funniest part of this scene: dementus' "everyone is saying it’s MY fault!😭" or jack's "yeah.. whatever, just shut up already🙄" expression

[bisexual-biohazard5]

Just some random scenario I thought of. What if Fred didn't die and Percy didn't reconnect with the family?

Percy was sitting by the fireplace, enveloped in it's warmth when he felt someone tap his shoulder. He turned to see Fred and George looking sheepish and a pleading glint in their eyes.

Fred first spoke, "Say Percy, how good at you with- uhh... legal things?" There was a slight uneasy and stressed look in their body language.

Percy paused as the worst case scenarios came into his head, "Who got arrested?!"

The twins looked surprised and shared an amused loom before explaining, this time George spoke, "No no. No one's arrested. We just-...need help with laws...and legal registration..."

Laws and legel registrations? Oh yeah, the joke shop the twins were trying to set up. Percy relaxed for a second, glaring at them for scraing him, though it was mostly payful. Of course they didn't know anything about the law system and the documents they needed to sign. Percy sighed and sat down with them.

Over the next few hours, he went through the things they needed, making a list of the documents and laws they needed to research and the process on how to get a permit.

Occassionally, Molly would pop in and they would pretend to playfully bicker and continue working when she left. The twins would never admit it at the time but they were afraid that their mother would be disappointed at them for planning to drop out of school and starting their own business. What if they failed? What if it didn't work? But through their stress and anxiety, Percy stayed there for them and offered reassurance and help.

Then came the arguement and Percy left, he packed his things and cut all ties. He was gone.

They couldn't see it at the time but it wasn't just his fault. It was their parents fault for not approaching the arguement with a calm behaviour. It was their fault for leaving Percy out and it was Percy's fault for not reaching out. They were all in the fault. None of them were innocent. In the heat of their moment, all they could think of was themselves as emotions flooded their senses and blinded their logic.

Years later, George and Fred remembered those moments, how the stress and worry lifted from their shoulders as Percy guided them through everything. They owned Percy one for that. But now, Percy wasn't there. He hadn't reconnected after the war but they still remembered him as their joke shop became successful and their products gained attraction. They really should talk to him one day and set their problems aside. One day, hopefully.

[atopvisenyashill]

since i’m rhaegar posting i do think it’s likely that “being in love” will be part of the story just the same as george likes to refer to dany & drogo as a romance. i think george likes these kind of,,,,romantic abusive situations where a young girl will fall in love with a man who is older & obviously harmful to her because he likes to explore the sort of mindset you’d have to be in to force yourself to fall in love in that case.

but the same way that the line about “she had just turned 14” is there to freak you out for a REASON, the same way Sansa loves “Petyr” but doesn’t enjoy “Littlefinger”, I think that Rhaegar is going to have several motivations as to why he makes off with Lyanna and they won’t be particularly romantic! I think they will be prophecy related, and deeply disturbing, and I think by the time Ned finds Lyanna in the Tower of Joy, her opinion on this and on Rhaegar will have changed significantly! And regardless of how the characters feel about each other,,,,,,,this is still a horrific and terrible thing that Rhaegar does to Lyanna and his “love” for her does not matter to me when it winds up getting her killed! Love is not an excuse!!

[rubythecrimsonwriter]

@inexplicifics 's most recently published chapter in Like Stones in a Running Stream has a single stanza written for one of Jaskier's songs that is so vividly well written that i could hear the melodies that i grew up with almost immediately. Im not particularly talented with instruments beyond banging a hand to the rhythm and my voice is occasionally nonexistent on my bad days but i had to. Blame the former theater kid that is a much younger with less scar tissue in their lungs me.

(A side note. The background noises are me making coffee. I wasn't prepared to be recorded at the time lol.)

The lord swore up, the lord swore down, the lord swore far and near / that not an elf in Ghelibol would come to harm that year / the lord he swore and blustered so and this is why he died: / the lord of Ghelibol that burned, he lied, he lied, he lied.

[ringosmistress]