#they have reasons for being a bastard

[ro-bee]

Goat is the one to confort everyone

Confort chaos goat

ironically enough as much as i love goat to be some chaotic killing machine i also really like to think of them as this broken person that will calmly comfort lamb in vulnerable moments

mostly because they understand each others pain very well but also because my goat is a big sibling and they will always take care of the "small ones" they're really protective.

(not that i consider them like siblings , i don't lol)

[luminarai]

dog owners vs cat owners: the immortal gay edition

[arthursfuckinghat]

Whenever Arthur talks badly about himself in the mirror I always think about this one picture

[synesthete-sylke]

selkie smajor selkie smajor selkie smajor !!

the fact pirates!scott could've been secretly mer,,, please the angst would be so good

also scott as a chubby little seal would be so funny, he'd break into the kestrel's base to eat their snacks and to avoid being caught turn into a seal whenever someone walked by

imagine going to eat your 3am shredded cheese and you walk into your kitchen only to find a harbor seal covered in jam eating all of your pastries.

how did he get there? why is he eating that and not the fish? how did he open drawers with flippers? these are all questions scott will not answer!

[backpackingspace]

Do we think odysseus started pranking Athena and her temples at some point? Because I do. He argued that it was good for sneaking and evading training. And you know what Athena couldn't argue that. Her chasing odysseus across the island was good training.

[taryn40k]

He might be a xeno (unproven) and a prankster (off duty) but Lequin is a damn good Commissar!

[serpentface]

Question about Couya! Since she is a bastard what are the reasons about her being brought into the main family by her father. Was it genuine care for his child or a way to save face politically/socially? Is her birth mother alive? Do you think she would have had a better life growing up anywhere else?

This is in large part due to how cultural perceptions and legal punishment of adultery varies between male and female citizens, looped into the very strictly patrilineal kinship system.

By legal definition, the word for 'adultery' applies only to situations where a man has an affair with a married woman, or a married woman has an affair with any man. Other forms of affairs (eg a married man having an affair with an unmarried woman) are wrapped into a broader set of sexual misdemeanors and aren't often charged or punished in practice, and the punishments are comparatively minor (if an unwed woman's father pursues charges, the man in the affair is likely to just pay a fine). On a social level, extramaritial affairs in general are certainly not Approved of and seen as lowly and dishonorable, but the average response is significantly less harsh/more willing to entertain Nuance with men than with women.

In this society there's differentiated shades of bastardry depending on the contexts of the child's birth, as well as a distinction for 'nameless bastards' (has not been claimed by their biological father or maternal grandfather, or claimed in adoption).

a) A child born to an unmarried woman via an unmarried man: non-issue for father, potentially serious social harm for the woman (especially if she has never been married and expected virginal, much less severe as a widow or divorcee). The child will not be notably disadvantaged in of themselves (their status will depend more on whether they are claimed and thus provided the social security of a family patriarch), the father will experience no hard disadvantages in claiming them.

b) A child born to an unmarried woman via a married man: mild sexual misdemeanor for the father carrying levels of social shame, even more serious social harm for the woman (often framed as not just loose but a manipulative Seductress of a married man). The child might experience minor to moderate social disadvantages, the consequences of the father claiming them are purely social and will not typically be severe. (Couya is this)

c) A child born to a married woman via an unmarried or married man: both man and woman have committed a crime and can be severely punished. The biological father can technically claim the child but will be disincentivized from doing so. This is the form of bastardry most comparable to the conventional definition, in that it is heavily stigmatized and has effects on concerns of kinship and inheritance.

In addendum to this, if the adulterous wife's legal husband claims the child, this may be punishable if determined to be active concealment of adultery (which is also a crime), and has EXTREME social consequences either way. (Either you're a cuckold too stupid to notice that your wife has been skipping out on you, or you're a MEGAcuckold adultery-accessory willingly rearing another man's child after being horribly shamed by him).

(This is separate from adoption- a man who marries a woman with an unclaimed child after the fact (whether it was a product of adultery or just a general out of wedlock birth) and claims the child is an adoptive father, he is not concealing adultery or being cuckolded.)

A child born in an affair can be considered an heir to their biological fathers (descent and kinship is fully patrilineal and on a Basic level it doesn't matter who the mother is), and can very smoothly and legally be claimed when the affair was not considered criminal adultery. The concern on that front is social perception rather than material legal consequences or kinship issues.

Couya's birth mother was an unwed servant working as a housekeeper for her father Saizen, so the Crime of adultery did not take place. It would be considered a minor sexual misdemeanor, and the woman's father was not about to pursue charges against a nobleman who could Ruin him (and had also formally expressed that he would claim the child, which meant he would not be saddled with a nameless bastard granddaughter). So the concerns here were entirely social.

The affair might have started beforehand but the pregnancy that produced Couya occurred after his wife's third viable pregnancy ended in the premature birth of a underdeveloped boy deemed necessary to euthanize (and tbr would Not have survived either way). This was after Livya Haidamane had a couple early term miscarriages, two viable but very difficult pregnancies wherein one child was very weak and sickly for the first several years of life, and struggled to conceive every time. A lot of people are going to be at least a little sympathetic to a married man having an affair and claiming a bastard in this context. It's definitely ideal and practical to have more than two children, and his wife (while not outright infertile) clearly could not reliably bear healthy children. (The average response is going to be "Well he shouldn't have done it but like, I get it")

Couya being claimed by her father was a mix of genuine care and saving face. Initially it was MUCH more the latter than the former. Saizen made attempts to hide the servant's pregnancy and to keep his own wife out of sight during the late term (to prevent the baby appearing after his wife had been seen Extremely not pregnant). But there's some levels of care involved, he could very easily have fired the pregnant servant and had nothing to do with his bastard and she would have no recompense whatsoever. The choice to keep and claim the baby and ensure its entrance into the world bore as little social scrutiny as possible is an act of care for his own progeny.

This was Not an act of care for Couya's birth mother (beyond the fact that concealing her pregnancy would benefit her in hiding that she is not only Not a virgin prior to marriage but had a child). She probably would have been about 17-19 at the time and was fired a few months after giving birth, and most likely never saw Couya again after this point (if she did, it would most likely be in the context of seeing her as an adult Odonii in public and noting her to look Scarily familiar). She has an Okayish chance at still being alive, she'd be around 50 (and a person who survives the high infant mortality and birth casualty rates stands a good chance of hitting their 60s), though she could very well be a casualty of the drought+famine.

Whether or not Couya's life would have been better is kind of a mixed bag. She had an awful fucking childhood in large part because her adoptive mother Livya Haidamane hated her. (Livya was ultimately a pretty horrible person but not just like. An Evil Bitch. She had A Lot going on and Couya was a living breathing insult to her and reminder of like, every one of her dashed hopes and dreams). Couya is also autistic and presented very intense symptoms as a child in a society that is Not equipped for a mass-understanding and support of cognitive differences. But she still did have an immensely privileged life with profound physical/economic levels of security inaccessible to the vast majority of people in this region, including her birth mother. Saizen also actually Liked her and cared about her, he just wasn't a routine physical presence in any of his children's lives.

Had she been left with her biological mother, she would be in a very disadvantaged situation as a nameless bastard to an unwed mother. Her biological grandfather may or may not have been willing to claim her, and her mother would have great difficulties in finding a husband (which is ultimately necessary for the security of women in this society). I think her mother was a relatively kind person but not like, a perfect angel. She would probably have complicated feelings about her bastard daughter, especially one whose very existence materially disadvantages her and was very, very difficult as a child. So this probably would not have been a good situation for Couya either.

If you broaden the question to ANY other family completely divorced from the circumstances of her birth, yeah it definitely could have been better. But in her case it's like either "Life of grotesque socioeconomic privilege but in an abusive household" or "Life of profound socioeconomic disadvantages in a household that Probably wouldn't have been this abusive but certainly wouldn't be healthy". There wasn't really a good option for her.

[mangyraccooon]

I’ve seen the fandom take a bastard character and make them a poor little meow meow, twice now

Which isn’t a lot but it’s fucking disappointing.

[hanafubukki]

I’m laughing lolol he didn’t show up today again 🤣😆

Look look *hand on your shoulders*

I know many of my friends (yes me too in part) are disappointed that he didn’t show up again

But this is funny 😂😂😂

It reminds me of the time when I used to stay awake every night for the general lilia card reveal

And the one time he came?? Was when I was out with friends and I started getting pings from friends 😆😂

I literally fangirled screamed to my irl and online friends at the same time. Lmfaoo

This is soooo like him though?? He’s cheeky and he’s a tease. It’s expected. 💞💞

They probably don’t want to take the limelight away from the new cards they just announced yesterday. And I honestly see no reason to get angry over it.

We’ll most likely get it on Sunday/Monday (time zones are fickle lol and I don’t think they do updates on Fridays?? Unless that only monthly schedule related??)

The card will come and it will be there. The wait will be worth it. The bday date won’t change nor will the groovy revelation.

The way I see it. It’s less time between bday card reveal and the groovy being released. 🥰💞💚

[teatitty]

Was rereading the first Naruto chapter just to get some Iruka panels for a moot and wow I completely misremembered the Mizuki relationship. Iruka actually is entirely fucking friendless in the manga! Mizuki's backstory of being a fellow orphan and childhood friend of him is both a fanon and anime invention, in fact Mizuki only mentions Iruka's parents as having died to the fox, and it's somewhat implied that he was the only kid in his class to have lost anyone in that attack. Look how depressing he is here

This is also an interesting bit of lore I forgot about and I'm pretty sure this is bc it gets retconned at some point later so that everyone knew he was the jinchuuriki from the jump. This was also back when Iruka's adult age was given as 25 rather than 22, so this bit of lore was probably meant to imply he was one of the people who fought the fox, since he would've been 13 at the time [so a genin] instead of 10 as he was in current canon

Honestly the timeframe stuff even back in these early days was still very wonky and messy so I guess Kishimoto is consistent in one thing and its being bad at timelines and having to retcon a bunch of stuff lolol

[fromtheseventhhell]

I really hate how people act like Jon becoming King is him "usurping" his siblings when that's an unfair stigma that's followed him his entire life for being a bastard. It just blows my mind that people ignore Jon's own thoughts and wishes on the topic. Well, guess what? Robb named him as his heir, he will have a legitimate claim to Winterfell, and he will be part of discussions on who will rule. Even without that, it's very likely that some of his siblings would support him as King. I just hate how the conversation around him becoming King is framed as some big betrayal.

[hellisntreal]

a power of peace and healing//your bones run strong

I spent a very long time trying to work out a Stone design and I'm still not settled! I'm sure like my other humanizations of Fallen London entities, I'll come up with a few <3

[icewindandboringhorror]

sometimes looking at like Self Help Strategies lists for the symptoms I'm having is always just like:

thing that I already do

thing I have tried 10 times

thing I already do

thing that I don't have the money to do

thing I already do

thing I've been doing since I was 10yrs old to no avail

thing that is impossible given my situation

thing that doesn't apply to me

thing that I already do

thing I have already tried

hrmm, oh wait, maybe finally- OH, yeah.. okay. thing that I already do but it was just phrased slightly differently

thing I have already done

[cosmic-walkers]

You know, I do believe there were times during the interrogation where Stephen imagined the relationship he ‘could have had’ with Thomas. Perhaps, there were even points where he “forgot” that this was an interrogation that would ultimately end in Thomas’s death, and let his mind wander to old times.

Like times when they worked with Wolsey. This is probably not the first time he’s seen Thomas hold his own in a hot seat; there had to be times when they were younger, working under Wolsey, when he sat and enjoyed seeing Thomas use his lawyer jargon, and run circles and circles around young men who think they could best him. And I mean even after Wolsey died the books, until Stephen is sent to France, they have a decent on-and-off relationship where they work together and occasionally, would spend time together.

But, I just took notice of the way he was looking at Thomas during the interrogation, the way they caught each other’s eye once or twice and held their gaze for just…a moment, as if Stephen was going to see how Thomas could wiggle his way out of this hole. He was amused because he knew Thomas more than anyone in there, longer than anyone in there. There was a time they were friends, a time where an event like this - Thomas using his wit to outsmart people - was just a common thing between them, and Stephen was impressed. But of course, when Norfolk started talking, reality came crashing down and Stephen had to accept that, this fire he enjoyed so much from Thomas, would be put out in less than what? Forty-eight hours? His friend, his enemy, the man he had hated but respected, the man he had in a way been manipulated into hating, who annoyed him so much but also brought him some forms of amusement and excitement would be dead. And he’d never see him again. Thomas was the only one imo who could both handle Stephen and bring out a more complex side of Stephen.

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

Everyone arguing about Stannis, JonCon, Jaime, god forbid Jorah being the 1000th commander of the NW….when it will be Jon again 🌚

[ashtxeman]

nmt but i rank them based on soundtrack (ranking goes from top to bottom, left to right)