#yeah jon get it right

[mylifeingotham]

[atopvisenyashill]

i get to a certain extent when people push back at some anti targ stuff with “that’s a feudal system that’s how every house works” the problem here is that the incest and the dragons makes it worse.

i think you can draw a lot of parallels between baelon & ned and the way they fail their younger sisters, but crucially, lyanna does not show up in ned’s bed naked when asking for help the way viserra does. there’s a level of horror there that is much more severe when it comes to “women being nothing but wombs” when you are acting as a womb for your brother and when the only way you know how to ask for help is by attempting to seduce your older brother, instead of simply asking. yes plenty of husbands feel entitled to their wive’s loyalties, bodies, and wombs and plenty of old dudes marry much younger women but i Do in fact think there is something much more sinister about lysa realizing she’s been done wrong by hoster & jon and raging against them while miserably trapped in marriage and daemon spending literal decades grooming his infant niece into believing she will only be safe from harm if she turns from all others and relies solely on him for protection.

yes, stannis and renly react with extreme violence when faced with insecurity over being the younger brother in someone else’s shadow and stannis does a fair amount of damage to king’s landing…and yet what he does pales in comparison to aemond’s campaign of mass slaughter in the riverlands atop vhagar. yes, robb makes his grief over losing ned the problem of every lowborn person in the riverlands but aegon & visenya committ what i would argue is an indiscriminate and genocidal campaign of destruction (think ancient civilization genocides like rome against carthage) during the dragon’s wroth over their grief from losing rhaenys.

like, i keep seeing this “the only difference between the rest of the houses is the dragons and incest” but those are huge differences that impact the way their family works on a fundamental level. i think there is a level of horror to naerys desperately begging for a normal relationship with aegon only for him to continue raping children into her until she dies that is not present in similar marriages on the basis of “this is her fucking brother.” the entire system is feudal but the way the feudal system works in this specific family, because of their dragons and incest, brings the entire system to this natural, horrific endpoint and that’s the entire point of this whole family!

[ultfreakme]

I got desperate for Jay content and ended up reading the damijon fics with Jay, and like they clearly want Jay to be the bad guy. But they somehow write him as being even cooler than in canon! A lot of fics have him riding a motorbike(love how damijon shippers and not have just decided he's a motorbike guy), he's the leader of The Revolutionaries now apparently, and most of these fics have Jon cheating on Jay physically, emotionally, or both ways so now I'm just mad at Jon.

Like, slay King, if Jon can't appreciate all that it's his loss. I am having an fun time if i just focus on the Jay of it all like who is this rizz-filled man who is apparently a threat to the Justice League???????? Actual Jay stans make him a bit of a loser

[throwawayasoiafaccount]

magic in asoiaf is genetic. and that is intresting. and the fact that grrm doesn’t shy away from the implications of this makes me love asoiaf even more.

because it’s very understandable that these people who could ride dragons would see themselves as more gods than men. it’s understandable that the practice of sibling-sibling incest would become common in order to keep this ability in the family/to not lose said ability. it’s also understandable that these people would see their race as superior because they are able to do these things that others could not.

it also makes complete sense that this human civilization collapsed in a horrific magical event due to their own hubris because they saw themselves as gods when they were always only men.

and that is peak world building.

some more peak world building is that the noble houses of westeros also clearly gained power and held onto their power through the use of their magical abilities inherited from their ancestors.

a godlike existence like Garth the Green being the ancestor of all the oldest and most noble of the reach houses makes perfect sense for this world!and it also makes sense that the lords without this ancestry are discriminated against in this region that still holds onto the values their society cultivated in the past in order to maintain their magical superiority, even though most of these noble and old houses no longer exhibit these abilities.

and it also makes sense that these people no longer have access to these abilities as they no longer practice the religion that was centered around these powers; plus their blood is simply diluted at this point as these houses have married into a different ethnic group so often that the magical gene just doesn’t surface anymore.

but the fact that it still matters if you can trace your ancestry back to Garth the Green? peak! peak! peak!

george does such an excellent job showcasing the stagnation of westerosi society here because why should it matter if you’re connected to this magic guy if magic is no longer commonplace? however, it also makes total sense that the ruling class of the reach still harps on and on about this as it’s how they maintain the status quo and differentiate themselves from those they consider lesser now that they no longer have access to magic themselves.

and this is also why it’s very important that the Starks still retain the blood of the first men. because the first men interbred with the children of the forest and other elder races, which is what gave these humans these powers. it’s also worth noting that before the direwolves connected with the Stark children, none of our current Starks were able to awaken their abilities by themselves, which shows that even now they are very far removed from their ancestor who’s genetic makeup gave this bloodline these abilities. and it makes sense that the Starks experienced this slow magical decline because magic itself was declining in the world after the doom of valyria.

another reason for this decline is because Andal culture started heavily influencing the North and slowly changed the way magic was perceived. so now in the present, a warg/skinchanger/greenseer has become something to fear being because that’d make you different and therefore puts your life at risk, which means that there’s now practically no safe environment to cultivate these abilities and no secure way to pass down any knowledge you do have about said abilities.

i can’t help but be reminded about how Jon Snow has rejected his nature and how that has led to the stagnation of his abilities, and then i think about Arya and Bran and how their new environments have led to an astonishing growth in their abilities, which shows that it’s not just genetics that matter, environment is also just as, if not more, important.

i bring all of this up because magic being genetic in asoiaf is not as problematic as people try to make it out as. in real life, sometimes people just have genetic gifts. some people can become olympians, and some people are disabled. some people are born 10 times smarter than the average human, and some people believe that covering their faces in lemon juice would turn them invisible. that is reality. and in this universe, some people have access to magic and some don’t, and it’s all based on genetics. it’s unfair! and that makes it realistic.

not everyone gets to ride dragons and not everyone gets to travel back in time, and that grounds asoiaf, which is what grrm was going for.

and how these societies have organized themselves in response to these genetic abilities and the dangers they pose makes absolute sense. on one hand we have the valyrian freehold, which was a magic hotspot and the people who lived there used magic to propel their society to new heights, and on the other hand we have the seven kingdoms that demonize anyone too different, and all magic practitioners are different from normal humans.

and the fact that george decided to go this route with asoiaf is so juicy to me cause:

we have characters like Varamyr and Euron who use their abilities to commit great evils and we know that their powers have influenced the way they see and interact with others. on the other hand we have characters like Dany who use their abilities to fight against evil violent institutions. and through characters like her we learn how vulnerable fledgling magic practitioners/characters with these abilities are to these older and more dangerous institutions and individuals who are perfectly aware about the knowledge gap between them and these younger characters and know exactly how to exploit them.

so, while it’s understandable that the fandom is uncomfy with the practices and values that grrm has written about, this isn’t bad world building by any means. it’s logical and well thought out. and i truly enjoy that grrm doesn’t shy away from writing about the more worrying aspects and implications of magic being a matter of genetics. i also like how the seven kingdoms and the valyrian freehold are kinda extremes on the matter of magic and how this is/was detrimental to both of these societies and at the individual level. a horrific magical firey doom is not any better nor any worse than a slow drawn out icey decline.

imo, what is important to remember is that in the world of asoiaf, people with magic are the ones who are discriminated against (bc most POV characters are in Westeros and magic is a no no there). so they are the ones who are in danger if they out themselves as magic users. now, it is true that some societies are more tolerant (Qarth is a great example of this and Valyria before the doom was likely the most tolerant to have ever existed in this world), but as of now most societies simply aren’t. remember jojens warning? he didn’t pull that out of his ass. bran would’ve been in a lot of danger if he came out and told the wrong people about his dreams/abilities. also, jon’s assassination may have been partly motivated by the mutineers fear of wargs. this is the life-threatening danger magic practitioners are in for simply existing in an intolerant society.

tbh the reason i typed all this up is because it’s very annoying when people try to ignore the reality, which is that the dragonbond depends on genetics. now, i’m sure there are other ways to ride a dragon, as dragons are magical animals so of course there may be a one in a million chance of a dragon allowing some rando to ride it, but this doesn’t change the fact that there is such a thing as a genetic ability that gives these certain humans the ability to form a connection with a dragon.

(another example that i can’t help but remember is that melisandre was able to get ghosts approval by using some of her tricks. of course there could be other reasons for ghost to have done this, but the most likely reason is that ghost simply fell for melisandre’s trick and this influenced how jon saw mel. but this doesn’t change the fact that melisandre will never have the kind of bond jon and ghost have because melisandre is not a warg. this is also another example of how vulnerable fledgling magic practitioners are to older ones.)

so, sorry not sorry that george decided to create a realistic representation of what a society would look like if only certain bloodlines were able to ride dragons <\3.

[cirrus-grey]

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck the goddamn music-

I don't know the name for the technique but there's this thing that was in there that's the string players, like, tapping the instrument with the bow to create a more percussive sound and normally I wouldn't think too much of it but I swear to god it sounded like creeping spider legs. During the case set at Hill Top Road. With the very obvious references to the Buried and the Stranger and all the rest. Which dropped about a hundred Achives references including Jon's fucking name???

I have always respected the soundscaping they do at Rusty Quill but they're really going above and beyond for this show.

[nerdy-hyperfixations]

It's hard being someone who does genuinely get infuriated with Ford's actions and acknowledges a lot of his flaws and the people he hurt, while also liking (and relating) to his character enough that I would like him to have nice things sometimes and don't believe he's satan

[untimelyambition]

so obsessed with the end of cinderella’s castle when they finally let bryce charles riff her fucking lungs out hatchet town style

[navree]

people doing this whole "look at how rhaenys acted with corlys's bastard son vs how catelyn acted with jon snow" to demonize one or the other is weird because, like, maybe it's just me, but i think that catelyn and rhaenys had different reactions because they're different people in different situations.

[an-aura-about-you]

you ever stop and think to yourself, "damn, Melanie King didn't deserve none of that shit. she had every right to throw hands."

[trees-to-meet-you]

And THIS little autism creature went to the market, and THIS little autism creature got hyperfixated on the Magnus archives again,

[fellpyrean]

I said I love writing corruption & Jon and I am not lying. A little snac.

Baby Jon makes a new friend. (touches of post-canon) 1100 words.

___________

Jon has always seen weird things. Too much, he thinks sometimes. Like he’s in one of those bad stories, the ones he doesn’t like to read because they make part of him feel bad, like he can imagine it if he just lets himself - like he could maybe imagine what it’s like to dance on a puppet’s strings, to feel hot, hungry breaths and the snap of sharp teeth on his neck, like he knows the shadows can reach up from under a bed and just make someone be gone. 

He’s seen the shadows dance. 

He’s seen a man walk into the fog on the dock and never come back. 

He’s seen a person who wasn’t pull on their skin like a glove and wiggle the plastic below and knew if he hadn’t darted off and hid when he did, that those wrong wrong fingers would have dragged him away. He heard them laugh. He smelled them when they walked by, something sharp and bright in their hand, heard their hollow voice speak words he knew but shouldn’t and when he came home, gran didn’t believe him. 

She said it was a costume. 

She said the spiders couldn’t sing or eat people and neither could books and eyes in pictures can’t really watch him. 

She lies a lot. 

He doesn’t think she means anything bad by it, but he knows it’s all true and he sees it all right there, every day, but nobody else does. The mirror thinks it’s funny. Jon doesn’t like the mirror much. It’s a bad friend. 

… But it’s still a friend. Jon doesn’t have a lot of those. 

He sees too much and he scares people. Not the things he sees, though. The mirror isn’t afraid of him. The spiders aren’t either. 

And… not the moth. 

He’s not seen it before. It sits on his windowsill, big as his hand and so fluffy and fat it reminds him of a puppy. It’s not really a moth. He can’t see the truth of it because the truth is just too big, but he can hear the song in the gentle jitter of its wings and knows it has too many voices for one moth. It sits and it sits and Jon watches it. 

Just watches. 

It smells too sweet, like a warm, happy home a-and his stomach turns even if he doesn’t know why. 

Being home is a bad thing, maybe. 

But the moth doesn’t move. It just sits and sings and Jon… relaxes. 

When it rains, he holds his breath and reaches around and above it to close the window and it steps forward like a lazy cat, like its little clawed feet can’t possibly carry its ponderous weight and Jon can’t stop his giggling. Its antennae twitch like big fluffy ferns in a breeze and its song trills like a laugh and its wings flutter like it’s having fun and. And Jon thinks maybe, it wants to be his friend, too. 

The rain patters against the old, empty house - gran would be back before dinner, Jon knew, but he misses before - and Jon holds his book in his lap. It tap-taps against the windows, plunks on the rooftop, splashes and ripples in the puddles in the garden. And. 

He cocks his head. 

There’s something else. 

Under the puddles. Down in the dirt, he hears a quiet, gentle song. Muffled, but happy. Moist and full and wriggling in the dark; in tunnels and tunnels, a million more voices in unison, working working working. A stranger song waits under the bushes in the wet corners of the yard - like strings and pipes in a great big web, waiting and waiting for their chance to come up and sprout and Jon gasps as he sees cottony white mushrooms pop up from the earth. Knows there are so many more, singing their own songs and just waiting waiting, loving. 

They are all so strange and different and so full, full of love. 

His eyes open in tears he doesn’t understand and he sees the moth. 

It’s singing. Its wings flutter, powdery soft as it sits on the corner of his book, and he can hear it. 

We would love you, it says, in words that shift and writhe and purr. 

All you ever wanted was to be loved. To not be left alone. 

We would always be there for you, it murmurs.

It is fat and heavy, its abdomen swollen and furred. And Jon knows how heavy it must really be. How full, how cold. 

How it longs for a home. 

(He misses home, too.)

Jon’s chest hurts. He knows his face is probably a mess, and he hiccups into his arm as he tries to scrub it clean on a sleeve. 

He doesn’t like to be alone. 

He does want friends. Friends who would listen when he sees weird things and love him even if he’s weird - and he must be, because isn’t it only the weird things that like him? 

The moth places a delicate claw on his hand. 

It still smells kind of bad. Like old potpourri, maybe, in a dusty old dish. 

We would love you the way your patron never could have. Know you and love you as you are. 

Isn’t that what you want? 

It’s heavy on his hand. Its little claws scratch at his skin, poke so gently as it looks up at him with those dark, dark eyes. 

We would be a home, all of us, together. 

There’s a knock at the door. 

It’s not his bedroom door, it’s no door in his house, but somewhere else, and it jolts him out of the song. Something is watching him. Watching him so hard he thinks maybe he missed a picture, but no. They’re all turned away, but he still feels it. 

The moth wobbles on his hand as he sucks in a breath and places it gently, slowly back on the windowsill. Its song still twines between the raindrops. Still whispers and crawls beneath the leaves, slithers in the warm wet. 

It’s the sound of love. 

Jon lets out a shaky, wibbly breath and tries not to wipe off his hand on his pants as he smiles at the big, fat moth. 

“I can’t be a home for you,” he says. More words crowd up on his tongue, struggling to burst out, but he swallows them down. 

The weight of being watched lays heavy across his shoulders. He doesn’t know how good it can listen, but he knows it can see what he does so he tucks his hands in his pockets. 

And he speaks in a voice almost as small as its smallest song. 

“Not yet.” 

(He doesn’t want to be alone. 

Not again. 

He is too small to hold them. But he can still hear their love. Each iridescent note, spun in buzzing, wonderful voices, dripping so sweetly upon his tongue.

He would gladly drown in their promises. 

After all, he laughs, cold and aching, wouldn’t it be better this way? To be devoured by something that loves him?) 

[fissions-chips]

A good concept for the sort of body distortion I picture with Imposter Costa is Mr. Bloom from DC Comics:

That sort of stretched-out, sharp silhouette. Limbs way, way too long and a body strangely twisted.

[sideblogdotjpeg]

im so glad youre getting into naddpod i love it so fucking much. i love seeing ur d20 artwork and posts in general so seeing u get into naddpod is very !!! :D

!!! THANK YOU!! and YEAH i am soo slowly and steadily making my way through the bahumia campaign and i am IN LOVE. band of boobs my beloved

[cult-of-the-eye]

not a question but: Penelope Garcia and Martin Blackwood would get on SPECTACULARLY. just thought you’d appreciate the thought. also, Derek Morgan and Tim Stoker would hit it off, Spencer Reid and Jon Sims would either like each other or completely detest each other. Sasha James and Emily Prentiss or JJ would get along pretty well, too.

i hope this make sense and that you see ✨the vision✨

OH THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I JOINED TUMBLR

[curfewplugs]

Wait while we're on the topic of Aimee Mann's Whatever. It's chock full of wonderful songs but Jon Brion's outlandish and fake deep production choices (production accidents?) almost ruin the whole thing. This was his first production gig and not only does it show, but it really seems like he didn't practice at all beforehand, like this was his practice, like he's experimenting to see how much pointless layering, how many bells and whistles and "hoo hoo ha!"s he can shove in the mix. Not to mention the mixes are inexcusably messy! Really listen and you find all kinds of random shit left in, like he was trying out an idea, didn't like it, but forgot to make sure he removed 100% of it. If I'm in the right mood it can come off as camp at best but most of the time I'm yearning to hear these songs competently produced and more stripped back.

[idunnodudeijustwokeup]

Adding my own tags bc honestly that was like half the post

I want a buddy cop style comic, but it is just Dick and Donna trying to keep their younger siblings and teammates out of trouble while trying to figure out which Wonder Twin Roy, Wally, Kori and Garth is in love with.

Every couple of issues are focused on a different group of siblings, teammates and potential core titans love interest, but every time you think one of the wonder twins are about to get the girl/guy they get blue balled by having to go save someone else. The other twin is laughing at them from the other side of the room while starting up the Zeta-beam.

They save the world like 5 different times and save thousands of lives but their banter the entire time is just them making fun of each other and their crushes.