#the parallels are delicious

[viideo-kidd]

Sherlock "oopsie..there's a lie" Holmes 🤝 Jonathan "Helen...was that a lie?" Sims

[whitegownsandflowercrowns]

In Defense Of Alicent’s Choice (aka Blood & Cheese: Electric Boogaloo)

Someone had to do it. (Put below the cut because this is going to be a long one)

In case you somehow missed it, here’s a quick recap: after reconnecting with nature and probably narrowly avoiding a suicide attempt, Alicent goes to Rhaenyra to beg for peace. She agrees to Rhaenyra’s terms of opening up the gates of King’s Landing while Aemond, Criston, Daeron and Gwayne are away fighting. Rhaenyra accepts most of this, but insists upon one point: Aegon must be executed. A son for a son, and an end to any in King’s Landing who may challenge her claim. Alicent agrees.

In case you somehow missed it, this has pissed her fans off.

Her choice here has frequently been compared to her final scene in Season 1:

Where she steps in front of Aegon when Rhaenys and Meleys crash his coronation. While this gesture would have been pointless had Meleys breathed fire, it represented Alicent’s love for her son and her willingness to die for him. In the past week, you have probably seen this gif with some variation of “rip season 1 alicent hightower you would have hated season 2 alicent hightower” or “FUCK RYAN CONDAL.”

My main problem with these takes is that they ignore everything that has come before in Season 2.

Because Alicent loves Aegon. Of course she does. No matter what he’s done, she still loves him. But the Alicent of 2x08 is not the Alicent of 1x09, and not in a bad way.

Let’s recap Season 2 for Alicent. Her second son has murdered Rhaenyra’s second son, but it’s been 10 days (at least that’s what I remember them saying) and there’s been no retribution or demand for Aemond’s head. They should be safe. Therefore, she takes a lover in Criston Cole, and sees no risk in sneaking him into her chambers for an hour. After all, they’re not at war yet. Speaking of that war, she seems to be the only person at the Small Council advocating for peace. Everyone else wants war, but perhaps she can prevent it. She doesn’t want innocents to suffer, and she knows what Viserys told her - Aegon must be king. Surely Rhaenyra will come to see things her way eventually. But then, it turns out that all was not so well. Her daughter comes running into her chambers, clutching her granddaughter. Her grandson has been beheaded, her daughter forced to sacrifice him by assassins almost certainly sent by Rhaenyra and Daemon. War is inevitable. She grieves Jaehaerys, but his suffering was brief and is now over. Her daughter, on the other hand, has been launched into a lifetime of pain no one should know. She mourns for Helaena’s happiness and innocence. Had she not taken selfish pleasure in Criston, had he been manning his position, would Jaehaerys still be alive? She has failed Helaena. She blames herself and she blames Criston, and yet she has no one else. Her father (who refused to listen to her anyways) is gone, her sons are uncontrollable, and everyone else on the Small Council either looks down at her or uses her for their own gain. Then, Criston goes off to war, and she is left utterly alone.

Then a moment of grace arrives in the form of Rhaenyra. She is scared and she is angry, but she soon discovers that Rhaenyra wants peace just as much as she does. Finally! She will explain herself, and Rhaenyra will see things her way. The war will be ended, and all will be fixed. But no. Rhaenyra tells her the cold hard truth: Viserys was speaking of Aegon the Conqueror. Rhaenyra is the true heir to the Iron Throne. Why doesn’t Alicent accept this? Because that means everything was for nothing. Her abuse (I do believe that she is subconsciously aware of this) was for nothing. But more importantly? The pain that Helaena is in right now was for absolutely nothing. The trauma that Helaena endured was for absolutely nothing. If she thought that she had failed Helaena before, that is nothing compared to how she must be feeling at that moment. So she pushes it down. There’s been no mistake. There can’t be. If there was a mistake, if I pushed my family onto the throne for nothing, then I have failed Helaena on a scale I didn’t even think possible (this is what I imagine to be Alicent’s internal monologue, not necessarily my thoughts). There’s no choice but to allow the war to continue.

Now that she knows that Aegon was never meant to be king, she sees him as he is. She recognizes that there’s no point in even pretending to believe that he’s going to be a competent king. She still loves him, of course, but he was never meant to rule (I also think that scene is her projecting her own feelings of failure on him). And then he gets hurt. Badly, badly hurt. A level of hurt that he might die from. He might never be able to walk again. His ability to produce another male heir with anyone, let alone Helaena, has been destroyed. He might never be able to do his kingly duties again. In the eyes of Westeros, he is worthless. While I doubt Alicent would describe him in such harsh terms, she still has deep internalized ableism from growing up in Westeros. She may even be questioning if him dying in battle would have been kinder.

And then there’s Aemond. Aemond, who has returned from battle without a scratch, Aemond who all too happily takes his brother’s place, Aemond who almost immediately kicks her off the Small Council, Aemond who is so prideful. While I don’t think she knows in the same way Helaena does, there must at least be a voice in the back of her mind whispering “was he the one who burned Aegon?” Either way, he is uncontrollable, and he has certainly grown accustomed to power.

Now left with only “domestic pursuits,” Alicent takes Helaena to the sept. To pray for those they’ve lost, to absolve herself of her guilt, to relieve her anxieties. But that trip does not occur in peace. The smallfolk are hungry, and they are angry. They see the representation of wealth and excess right before them, just after having been fed by their enemies, and they riot. What do the crowds want? Do they just want to throw fish? Do they want to harm them? Do they want to kill them? Will she fail her daughter again? They escape, but not before a guard permanently disables a man in front of them. Now the royal family is cutting off hands for barely even touching their queens? If the crowd was angry before, they’re furious now. They manage to escape, but Helaena could have been seriously harmed. She could have failed her once more.

So she escapes. Goes out, away from King’s Landing, far away from the angry crowds and the politics and the eternal risk of an invasion of the city by Rhaenyra’s forces. And while she’s out there, she realizes that escape is the only way to protect her daughter. Helaena and Jaehaera will always be at risk in King’s Landing, but if they can escape, they could be safe. She has failed Helaena so many times, this is what she owes her.

And so she goes back, suggests escape to Helaena. Then, Aemond comes in, demanding that Helaena ride Dreamfyre to battle. Helaena does not want to do this. Between Aemond grabbing Helaena and the atrocities he committed at Sharp Point, she must know on some level, conscious or subconscious, what he did to Aegon. She still loves him, but she can no longer trust him. Nor can she trust him not to fail Helaena. She must plan an escape.

So she goes to Rhaenyra. While Rhaenyra does judge her for Criston, she does seem willing to accept her terms. She may finally be free. But no. Rhaenyra insists that if she is to take King’s Landing, Aegon must be executed. A son for a son, and an end to the only person in King’s Landing that can challenge her claim. She tells Alicent that she can’t do everything she’s done, then happily run off with no consequences. Alicent may as well be in the same room that Helaena was, a knife to her throat, Aegon and Helaena sleeping peacefully, forced to point one out.

Because now she can’t just run off. She’s given Rhaenyra valuable information about when King’s Landing will be largely undefended. If Helaena had been defiant and said “I’m not giving up my son,” it wouldn’t have mattered. Blood and Cheese likely would have just killed both of the twins, because that way they’ll definitely get Jaehaerys. If Alicent is defiant in this moment and says “no, I’m not giving up my son,” it doesn’t matter. Rhaenyra is still going to invade King’s Landing. How could she not, when such an opportunity presents itself? And if she succeeds in that scenario (she has more dragons, she likely has a larger army ready to go to KL, the smallfolk’s support is heading towards Rhaenyra) Aegon will still be executed. But what of Helaena? Will Rhaenyra harm Helaena out of revenge on Alicent? Will she be killed during the invasion? Will Alicent lost half of her children (and her only remaining grandchild?) She has failed Helaena so many times before. She will not fail Helaena again. So she does the only thing she can do. She points at Aegon with tears in her eyes, grabs Helaena, and runs.

I also think it’s worth reminding ourselves of this scene:

Similarly to how Helaena has seen visions of Blood & Cheese probably her whole life, Alicent has known since she was eighteen that her choices were between Aegon ruling and the deaths of her children. (And of course, Driftmark only reaffirmed this). She’s been in denial about it for as long as possible, because she does still love Rhaenyra on some level, but in that scene, Rhaenyra confirms this prophecy of sorts.

“She’ll have to put your children to the sword […] Either you prepare Aegon to rule or you cleave to Rhaenyra and pray for her mercy.” She gave Aegon the throne, and now as far as she knows he’s on his deathbed. Now her only choice is to cleave to Rhaenyra, and being allowed to save Helaena is the closest thing she’ll get to mercy. So of course she agrees to sacrifice Aegon. She can’t do anything else.

[fumifooms]

Thistle struggling to reconcile Mithrun saying Delgal’s dead with the illusion he’s been living, cracks forming on memories of a time Delgal refused soup from him.

Thistle in "Delgal’s" arms, refusing soup because he no longer feels needs.

Eating is the privilege of the living

We were supposed to have dinner together

[menelaus-blue]

thinking a lot right now how kabru’s fascination/obsession with humans makes him such a ruthless fighter against them in the same way that laios is so effective against monsters because he studies up on them endlessly

[atadsilly]

Thought that occurred to me.

[cenvast]

"Toshiro Is Sexist," "Toshiro Owns Slaves": What's Really Going on With This Guy?

I've seen a lot of debate on whether or not Toshiro is problematic because he's a slave owner or because he's sexist in the context of his crush on Falin. While I do want to examine his relationship to Falin, I'd like to take a few steps back and unpack his upbringing first. We'll dive into the gender and class dynamics he was raised with and how it impacts his behavior in the main storyline.

Like all people, Toshiro is shaped by the environment he grew up in. Toshitsugu, Toshiro's father and the head of the Nakamoto clan, is the most impactful model of authority and manhood in his life. Toshiro does recognize some of his father's flaws and tries to avoid replicating them. But whether or not he emulates or subverts his father's behavior, Toshitsugu is often the starting point for Toshiro's treatment of others, particularly marginalized people.

The Nakamoto clan exists under a patriarchal hierarchy with Toshitsugu at the top. As noted by @fumifooms in their Nakamoto household post, his wife has more authority than Maizuru. She's able to ban Maizuru from parts of their residence, but despite disliking his infidelity, she can't divorce him or stop him from cheating on her. Their marriage is not an equal partnership.

On an interpersonal level, Toshitsugu and Maizuru also have a fraught relationship. While she does seem to care for him, she's often frustrated by his thoughtless behavior.

For example, he drunkenly buys Izutsumi for her — without considering how she'll have to raise this child — and invades her room in the middle of the night. When he cryptically says, "It's all my fault," she replies, "I can think of a lot of things that are your fault." She calls him an "idiot" and "believes that [Toshiro] will grow up to be a better clan leader than his father," implying that she takes issue with Toshitsugu's leadership.

Because Maizuru and Toshitsugu are described as being "in an intimate relationship" and "seem[ing] to be lovers," Maizuru appears to be a consensual participant. Still, this doesn't negate the large power imbalance between them as a male noble clan leader and his female retainer. This imbalance introduces an insidious undertone to Maizuru's frustration with Toshitsugu. Like Toshiro's mother, Maizuru doesn't have the agency to do as she pleases in their relationship; he has the ultimate authority. For instance, she doesn't seem to want to raise Izutsumi, but she has to anyway.

While Maizuru's role as Toshitsugu's mistress is significant, she's also the Nakamoto clan's teacher and Toshiro's primary maternal figure. She cares deeply for Toshiro: tailing him, feeding him, and taking responsibility even for his actions as an adult. While it might seem sweet that she cares for him like a son at first, Maizuru was notably fifteen years old at the time of his birth. In the extra comic below, he's six years old and has already been in her care for some time. Even if we're being generous and assuming that she didn't start raising him until he was six, she was still only twenty-one at the time she was parenting her boss/lover's child with another woman.

Maizuru's roles as mistress and maternal figure, in addition to her role as retainer, demonstrate the intersection between gendered and class oppression in the Nakamoto household. Despite her original role being a retainer trained in espionage, Toshitsugu presses her into performing gendered labor for him and eventually, Toshiro. She's expected to be Toshitsugu's lover, perform emotional labor for him as his confidant, care for his child, and carry out domestic tasks like cooking. She says, "Even during missions, I was often dragged into the kitchen." If she was a male servant, I doubt she would have been expected to perform these additional tasks. She can't avoid these tasks either, stating that her "own feelings don't factor into it."

Toshitsugu disregards his wife's and Maizuru's desires and emotions to serve his own interests. Because he has societal power over them as a nobleman and in Maizuru's case, her master, neither woman can escape their position in the household hierarchy.

As a result, Toshiro grew up within a structure where men and male nobility, in particular, wield the most societal power. The hierarchical nature of his household and society discourages everyone, including him as a clan leader's eldest son, from questioning and disrupting the existing hierarchy.

The other Nakamoto household members also internalize its sexist, classist power dynamics.

For example, Hien expects that she and Toshiro will replicate the uneven dynamics of the previous generation, regardless of her personal feelings. She sees her and Toshiro's relationship as paralleling Maizuru and Toshitsugu's relationship; she is the closest woman to Toshiro and his retainer, so she's shocked when Toshiro doesn't attempt to begin an intimate relationship with her. Notably, she doesn't have actual feelings for him. Her expectations are centered around the household's precedent of placing emotional, sexual, domestic, and child-rearing labor onto the female servants without any regard for their personal desires.

Hien also probably knows that her position in the household will improve if she is Toshiro's lover because she's seen it improve Maizuru's position. However, the fact that being the future clan leader's lover is the closest proximity she, as a female servant, has to power further reveals the gendered, class-based oppression she and the other women live under.

It's important to note that the Nakamoto clan bought Benichidori, Izutsumi, and Inutade as slaves, so they have less power and agency than Maizuru and Hien. The clan further dehumanizes Izutsumi and Inutade as demi-humans; their enslavement contains an additional layer of racialization.

Toshiro isn't oblivious to the gendered, class, and racial power dynamics of his household. He tries to distance himself from participating in its exploitative power structure. He walls himself off from Hien, who he's known since childhood, to avoid replicating his father's behavior and making his servant into his lover. He disapproves of his father's enslavement of Izutsumi and Inutade, and he lets Izutsumi go when she runs away in the Dungeon.

But does any of this absolve him of his complicity in his household's sexist, classist power dynamics and racialized slavery?

The short answer is absolutely not.

Despite his distaste for his father's exploitation of his servants and slaves, Toshiro still uses them. He refers to his party as "his retainers," and he has them fight and perform domestic tasks for him. You could argue that Toshiro doesn't like to and thus, doesn't regularly use his servants and slaves. In the context of him asking his retainers to help him rescue Falin, Maizuru says, "The only time he ever made any sort of personal request was for this task." But it shouldn't matter whether exploitation is a regular occurrence or not for it to be considered harmful. Toshiro asking Maizuru to cook him a meal still constitutes asking his female servant to perform gendered labor for him. He's also very accustomed to her grooming and dressing him.

Maizuru sees feeding, washing, and even advising Toshiro romantically as fulfilling Toshitsugu's orders to care for his son. They aren't fulfilling a "personal request." But just because her labor has been deemed expected and thereby devalued doesn't mean that it isn't labor or that she isn't performing it.

Maizuru's dynamic with Toshiro is also complicated by her role as his maternal figure. She loves him and wants to take care of him, and she doesn't have a choice in the matter. During Toshiro's childhood, the onus was on Toshitsugu to cease exploiting his lover and release her from servitude, but Toshiro is now an adult man. Seeing as how Maizuru defers to his wishes and calls him "Young Master," they still have a power imbalance that he's passively maintaining. Ideally, he would not ask anything of her until he has the authority to release her from servitude.

Throughout the story, Toshiro acts as if he has no agency and quietly disapproving of his father's actions absolves him of his participation in maintaining oppressive dynamics. While his father still ranks higher than him, he's essentially his father's heir. He has much more power than Maizuru, the highest-ranked servant. At the very least, he could leave his slave-owning household.

Unfortunately, his refusal to confront injustice is consistent with his character's major flaw: he does not express his opinions, desires, or needs. While this character trait obviously hurts his friendships, it also furthers his complicity in the injustices his household runs on.

Toshiro's relationship with eating food — the prevailing metaphor of the series — also parallels his relationship with confronting injustice. Maizuru mentions that he was a sickly child, so the act of eating may have been physically uncomfortable for him. As an adult, his refusal to eat crops up during his rescue attempt of Falin. Denying himself food might have been punishment for not accomplishing important tasks like rescuing Falin and/or a way to maintain control over something in his life when he felt like he'd lost control over the rest of it, again in the context of losing Falin. (Note: I suggest reading this post on Toshiro's disordered eating by @malaierba.)

But he cannot and does not avoid consuming food forever.

Similarly, Toshiro keeps his distance from his retainers and tries not to use them until the Falin situation occurs. His efforts to avoid exploiting his retainers amount to inaction — things he doesn't ask of them or do to them. But his inaction does nothing to dismantle the existing hierarchy that places his retainers under his authority, denies them agency, and often marginalizes them as not only servants or slaves but as women, and he ends up using them as servants and slaves anyways.

Returning to the narrative's themes of consumption, Toshiro cannot avoid eating just as he cannot avoid perpetuating the exploitative system of his household. The Nakamoto clan consumes the labor and personhood of those lower in the hierarchy. The retainers' labor as spies and domestic servants is the foundation of the clan's existence. Thus, the clan consumes their labor to sustain itself.

Within this hierarchy, the retainers' personhood is also consumed and erased. As Izutsumi describes, they are given different names and stripped of their agency to reject orders or leave. Maizuru and Hien also say their feelings are irrelevant in the context of Toshitsugu's and Toshiro's wants and needs. Both women are expected to comply with whatever is most beneficial and comfortable for the noblemen. Clearly, despite Toshiro's detachment from his household's functions, these social structures remain in place and harm the women under him.

Although we know the Nakamoto clan has male retainers, the choice to highlight the female retainers seems intentional. We're asked to interrogate how not only being a servant or a slave in a noble household impacts a person's life and agency, but how being a woman intersects with being a member of some of the lowest social classes.

Toshiro only distances himself from his father's behaviors of infidelity and exploitation so long as it doesn't take Toshiro out of his comfort zone. He doesn't free his slaves. He's far too comfortable with his female retainers performing domestic labor for him, and he barely acknowledges their efforts; they're shocked when he thanks them for helping him save Falin. He hasn't unpacked his sexist (or classist or racist) biases because he perpetuates his household's oppressive hierarchy throughout the narrative. Considering all of this, he inevitably brings this baggage to his interactions with Falin.

Falin is presumably one of the first women he's had extended contact with that isn't his relative or his family's servant. Because of his trauma surrounding his father and Maizuru sleeping together, he understandably falls for a woman as disconnected as possible from his father and his clan. He seems to genuinely like Falin, respects her boundaries, and graciously accepts her rejection. His behavior towards her is overall kind and unproblematic.

But if Falin had gone with him, she would've likely been devalued and sidelined like the other women of the Nakamoto household. No matter how much he loves Falin, simply loving her cannot replace the difficult work of unlearning his sexism. Love, of course, can and should be accompanied by that work, but by the close of the narrative, we gain little indication that Toshiro acknowledges or seeks to end his part in exploiting and devaluing women and other marginalized people.

A spark of hope does exist. Toshiro expressing his feelings to Laios and Falin suggests that his time away from home has encouraged him to speak up more. Breaking his habit of avoidance may be the first step towards acknowledging his complicity in systems of injustice and moving towards dismantling them.

Special thanks to my very smart friend @atialeague for bringing up Toshitsugu's relationship with Maizuru and the replication of dynamics of consumption and class! <3

[galedekarios]

bonus:

[voidfishing]

normal siblings

[rainbow-sunshine-unicorn]

No but is anyone else thinking about the trajectory from

the bane of my existence and object of all my desires

to

my ravishing wife and soon to be mother of my child

[secriden]

oh man bison's guilt when he has to confess his part in the whole scheme to fadel was palpable.

because bison had his reasons, he was backed into a corner, nearly suffocating under his mother's rules and fadel's rigidity, and desperate for any semblance of a life he could call his own.

and he meant well! part of it was that he genuinely was doing it for love of his brother!! and he didn't mean for it to get so out of hand.

but its too late now to say he's sorry. its too late now to try to fix this. because his precious person already got hurt.

but wait...

doesn't this...

...kind of sound...

...oddly familiar?

(and this is why you can see the threads of forgiveness already shimmering in the distance.)

[usertoxicyaoi]

"Every time I possessed someone, I lost half my lifespan, but I couldn't help it. Just like craving sweet poison, I kept possessing others."

FANGS OF FORTUNE (2024). EPISODE TWENTY NINE.

[tellmegoodbye]

I know we're all attached to it, but I think the loft was always supposed to be a temporary stepping stone and not a forever home, evidenced by the way TK and Carlos often refer to it as "the loft" and not home. They're going to find a new home for their growing family, and this time, they're going to do it together.

[fumifooms]

Rin, smiling, and nagging

Rinsha Fana’s character is summarized in a couple facts thrown here and there. Because she worries for him, she follows Kabru to help his cause and protect him, and to nag him. She’s a grumpy angry tsundere, but it seems not only rooted in her attitude but on a deep rooted physical level, to the point where any intense emotion she feels will make her frown and scowl even if it’s genuine joy. Her childhood was half spent ostracized in the tallman community her family lived in and half with the elves, where she’s said to have been treated like an animal.

We don’t know how she was raised exactly or who it even was, but knowing she was "treated like an animal" by the elves taking care of her…

Elves are shown to have a highly hierarchical society, not only with their concern with status such as nobility and the purity of bloodlines but also reflected by its social culture imo. They have high society and etiquette, upmost devotion to the queen, very role-oriented, like cogs in a machine, and as such, it’s a bit skewed since most of what we see of the elves is in a military context with military people but they seem to value having emotions under lock and key to be efficient and not bring dishonor, Flamela is an interesting character on this. Don’t be a bother and do your job until you’re called on, fulfill your role, everything else is extra at best inconvenient at worst.

Personally I do think the canaries kept Rin, it’d make sense that whichever canaries got stuck with the job at the headquarters would be barebones with her and treat her like an ‘impounded article’, they couldn’t find another place for her and this way they can get her report on the events whenever she can speak again in however many years, and this way it makes sense that she could keep in touch with Kabru too. They’re used to prisoners, not kids. Being raised in a military context rather than at some orphanage would shape her further.

All of this to say…

She’d already seen the world’s harshness to those who don’t conform in her hometown, but with the elves? Her disdain for those who had formal education at a magic school?

Wouldn’t she become very concerned with proving she is not an animal, proving that she’s smart and skilled in her own right on her own merit, even without schooling. And to do this she nitpicks and nitpicks, because even being pristine isn’t enough to be respected, but at least it’s not giving others reasons to disrespect and dehumanize her. Learning to school her emotions, to scowl as a defense mechanism because anything else makes her vulnerable, because they don’t care about her as a person with feelings, because showing other expressions was dangerous or punished in some way: because it was fit in or don’t fit in and that’s the difference between having your house burnt down and being tolerated, between getting her food or having her questions answered and being yelled at to shut up… Because all her life she’s been surviving in hostile social environments and at the mercy of others, but unlike Kabru she doesn’t become a people pleaser but becomes very self-reliant and wary of socializing.

So she nitpicks and nitpicks and nags, because she’s worried. Because flaws are dangerous. So she has a hard time smiling and laughing, because it’s dangerous to allow yourself to feel safe in being authentic.

It would be nice…

Is my red, red enough? I'm waiting for your teeth at my throat. It’s only good manners. -Stephanie Valente 

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

Of the 30 drabbles I posted over the span of November, by far the most popular one is the little bit of Aylin and Karlach getting ready to Doomguy it up in the hells, and I just need everyone to know this is them, to me.

[valinoar]

sansa pleading for people she cares about to be spared by the cruelty of punishment (lady and jeyne) because they’re good and don’t deserve it is such a heartbreaking example of her philosophy, because it should be this way! it shouldn’t be the innocents that suffer and yet….

[doctorsiren]

Dadskall chat got me to start watching Dungeon Meshi

They’re all autistic