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its extremely important to read widely and deeply in a variety of genres. read obscure self published shit that only 4 people have read. read culturally relevant works of literature that have helped shape the canon. read horror. read women's lit. read historical fiction and comedies and nonfiction and hentai and poetry and science fiction and fantasy and mysteries and romance and good things and bad things and things u hate and things you love and things you COULD like if only the author changed x y and z and things which are beautiful but not meant for you.

doing all of this reading will lay a groundwork of rich complexity in your heart. so that you can write really good porn

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Anakin actually was a good Jedi

Anakin´s emotional breakdown didn´t come as a result of him being irrational about his situation or being unable to understand the Jedi Order principles or for being nascissit or selfish. In fact in both movies and TCW Anakin shows he understands pretty well what they meant, he knows interpretations of the jedi code and knows enough of Yoda sayings to explain them to Ahsoka in a way she can put them in practice for her own training despite him being quite young and just barely out of being a padawan himself.

He cared for the people he rescued, he genuinely wanted to do good for the galaxy, he protected his troops to the best of his hability, he trained citizens to defend themselves when he knew neither he or the Republic could help them, he trained Ahsoka to become the best Jedi she could be ignoring all his conflictive feelings towards the Jedi Order in favor of her well being, he trained her to survive wars and live on her own, he used pictures to comunicate with new races he meet, he built threepio to be able to better to this to help Padme after his mother died, he was loyal to death to the Republic and the Jedi and he was ready to die with his fellow padawan or master during every mission he went to.

Anakin wasn´t a bad Jedi and his confictive feelings for the Jedi Order were valid, They gave him plently of reasons to doubt them and used him for their own ends just as they did with other padawans like Ahsoka.

The problem is that the Order for their own structure would always see him as an outsider, and worse, someone barely accepted for the use they could take from him as a sith killer but never fully accepted or trusted. That was the problem imo.

Even Obi-Wan, who learned to care for Anakin as a person, still saw him first and foremost as an extension for his care of what Qui-Gon wanted, Anakin becoming the chosen one so the moment Anakin fell he was discarded and Anakin/Vader understood this even before falling to the darkside.

Many fans say this was Anakin´s own fault because his feelings were irrational but that´s false, Anakin´s fault were his actions but those actions came as a result of a tremendous amount of trauma and being treated like less than a person and more like a means to an end by the Order. They were not overly malicious but they were neglegecful with Anakin both on his physical and emotional security when left alone with Palpatine because they always saw him as someone who had to prove himself to them as if he was a fully adult stranger who wanted to force his way with them instead of the trusting child they got.

Being angry at the republic ignoring slavery as a former slave is rational.

Being dissapointed both the Jedi and the Republic ignore the slaves situation while still trying to be loyal to them and do his part because he was raised to see it as his duty is rational.

Being afraid for his mother after leaving her still as a slave while being banned from seeing her is rational.

Having a first mental breakdown over her torture and death wasn´t irrational it´s completely rational.

Feeling enourmous guilt for his actions at the tusken camp and his mother´s death to the point he is willing to tear appart every oppenent the Jedi Order and the republic put in front of him is a natural reaction to untreated trauma, it wasn´t his fault his trauma was used to the benefice of the war and they just piled on him even more responsibilities, deaths and trauma.

Anakin wasn´t some pompus kid who wanted privileges, he just wanted what every human being wants, to be free and his loved ones safe but he was raised in an Order who saw his mother as an attachment and isolated him from her so from their pov Anakin was in the wrong but this doesn´t mean Anakin was irrational. He was just reacting to that kind of treatment despite being told HE was never enough and his personal value to the Jedi Order was his usefulness to them, not him on his own, he didn´t have value on his own to them and that knowledge burned on Anakin until he lost his mind.

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it's interesting that the whole "____ was just a teenage girl" who was "rightfully crashing out" line of thinking is so prevalent in some of the current pjo discourse, but people will get genuinely mad at you when you point out that, well -- percy was also just a teenager who watched his friend die a couple hours ago and then learned about (what was thought to be) his own impending death soon after. this isn't even the first time where, in a percy vs other character dispute, the other party in question gets the luxury of the "they're just a child" defense. so was percy. why was it okay for every other character in the books to crash out (especially when percy was the target of their ire), but he was painted as the bad guy by the narrative for not being perfectly selfless and forbearant at all times? why did he always have to be the adult in the room and take responsibility for other people and their feelings? why was everyone else, during their lowest moments, given grace for being a child, for being traumatized, for whatever, but never percy himself? like actually let's talk about it.

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book jon snow come back to me... i love that you're selfless and kind and you stand up for what's right but you're ALSO resentful and amibitious and entitled and sassy. you're desperate for love and belonging but ALSO stubborn and self-isolating and think you have to do it all alone. you're merciful and compassionate and just but ALSO preferential and vengeful. you have a strict honor code and sense of morality that will even drive you to be cruel in the face of a greater good but ALSO you will leave everything at the drop of a hat for the ones you love. you're good and right and loyal and it eats you alive. walk it off bitch i need you back!!!

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im so much more interested in a hoo that lets Percy keep the status and power he'd left off with in the Last Olympian and explores how he grapples with that instead of immediately forcing him back into the role of the underdog at the expanse of his prior development. Let the fact that he alone has the title the "Savior of Olympus" mean something. Let the fact that he is the sole survivor of the great prophecy mean something. Let the Curse of Achilles mean something. Let us see how it's a curse and how it could warp his sense of self. Let Percy be on a completely different playing field than the rest of the seven (or even the other children of the big three at this point) and show us how it alienates him.

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percy’s face card so lethal they had to make him a scapegoat with suicidal tendencies and insecurity issues

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I think Percy Jackson and Will Solace were friends before, during and after The Last Olympian

Warning: this post has absolutely zero right to be as long, as it ended up being, and is, at times, quite chaotic and not as well structured as I would like it to be.

A take that I’ve seen in this fandom in the past few months, both on TikTok, and on Tumblr, is that Will and Percy have a strained relationship after the battle of Manhattan, and specifically, after Michael Yew died during the battle at the Williamsburg bridge.

Now, I understand that Michael's death adds complexity to their relationship, and that it offers a lot of potential for angst, especially in terms of creating a tragic connection between Will and Nico. I'm not trying to invalidate that interpretation of Will. Since he’s a minor character in the original series, everyone naturally has their own take on him and his emotions. So, this is not a claim to the truth, this is simply me providing a different interpretation, in which Percy and Will have a more positive relationship, because I absolutely adore the possibility of their friendship.

(Considering the fact, that Will had very little screen time in The Last Olympian, this will involve a lot of speculation, and comes obviously from a biased view, even if I try to mostly base my interpretation on the text, that we do have about him.)

There are four aspects I want to primarily focus on:

The relationship Percy and Will might have had before the battle of Manhattan

The incident at the Williamsburg bridge & the circumstances surrounding Michael Yew’s death

Will’s characterization shortly after that incident

Will’s possible view of Percy during and after The Last Olympian

The relationship Percy and Will might have had before the battle of Manhattan

Now, Will’s first appearance in the PJO universe was in the last Olympian. So, this point is obviously mostly speculation, and based more generally on the relationship Percy has with the rest of camp, and less on Will as an individual character.

But based on that, I personally think there are two facets to their relationship.

Will and Percy being friends

Percy being generally seen as a leader of Camp Half-Blood

Friends:

To understand the relationship Will and Percy have, I think it’s important to consider the dynamics in camp half-blood at the beginning of the last Olympian. This was a group of around 45- 50 kids and teenagers, who had no place else to go, who faced discrimination everywhere else in the world, who already lost friends and siblings and who fought in at least one major battle together.

They grew up alongside each other, they fought together, they died alongside each other and they buried their friends together. They might have not always gotten along perfectly,, but it’s pretty safe to say, that they probably trusted each other more than anyone else in the world. There is a strong bond connecting all of them, Percy and Will included.  

Despite this, it’s obviously still possible, that Will and Percy had a more neutral relationship and didn’t interact much. That calling them friends would be a bit of a stretch, and that the only thing connecting them is this deep sense of comradery, which no matter how strong, didn’t accumulate to an actual friendship.

However, we do know, that Percy at least considers the rest of camp, Will included, his friends. He calls them that on multiple occasions all throughout The Last Olympian:  

As I looked at their faces—all these campers I'd known for so many summers—a nagging voice whispered in my mind: One of them is a spy. But I couldn't dwell on that. They were my friends. I needed them. (The last Olympian, chapter 9)

She wore the same kind of simple brown dress as she had before, but she was a grown woman now. I bowed. "Lady Hestia." My friends followed my example. (The last Olympian, Chapter 9)

I turned to my friends. They looked stunned and scared, and I couldn't blame them. (The last Olympian, Chapter 10)

I could have stabbed it, but I hesitated. This is not Mrs. O'Leary, I reminded myself. This is an untamed monster. It will kill me and all my friends. (The last Olympian, Chapter 11)

Too many of our friends lay wounded in the streets. Too many were missing. (The last Olympian, Chapter 15)

I looked at Pandora's jar, and for the first time I had an urge to open it. Hope seemed pretty useless to me right now. So many of my friends were dead. (The last Olympian, Chapter 17)

Grover and I cared for the wounded, and once the sky bridge re-formed, we greeted our friends who had survived. (The last Olympian, Chapter 20)

I thought about my friends from camp: Charles Beckendorf, Michael Yew, Silena Beauregard, so many others who were now dead. (The last Olympian, Chapter 20)

I specifically want to focus on this quote, which takes place during the battle at the Williamsburg bridge:

"Retreat!" I told my friends. "I'll hold them.'" (The Last Olympian, Chapter 11)

Here, he specifically addresses the Apollo cabin. No one else is present except for them, Percy, and Annabeth.

Obviously, we don’t have Will’s POV, but I personally see no reason to think this friendship wasn’t mutual.

Leader:

I’m going to keep this point rather short, because there is not much room for debate about the fact, that Percy was seen as a leader at the time ‘The Last Olympian’ takes place. He has accomplished a lot of incredible feats, and no one disagreed with him leading them during the battle of Manhattan. So, Will probably saw him the same way.

"But you're our leader." He smiled. "I am your trainer, your teacher. That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy. You are the leader." I wanted to protest, but everybody was looking at me expectantly, even Annabeth. (The last Olympian, chapter 9)

The battle at the Williamsburg bridge

Now, to focus on the battle at the Williamsburg bridge, and especially Will’s POV during it. This was certainly an emotionally charged situation. A popular interpretation here is, like I said, that Will’s and Percy’s relationship would become strained after this battle, and more specifically after Michael’s death.  I actually argue that the opposite is true. I think, that Will's opinion of Percy improved after this battle.

Let me explain.

Will was, I think, around 13 or 14 years old during the battle of Manhattan and probably terrified.

(Please take his age with a grain of salt. I have this information from the fan wiki, which likes to be wrong at times and on top of that, we can never truly trust Rick Riordan’s timelines and character ages.)

It was his first battle in that book. And a really bad one at that.   Will was at the Williamsburg bridge together with the rest of his cabin, and they were completely overwhelmed. Roughly 10 campers were up against an army of 200 monsters. They didn’t have their flying chariot. They had already shot most of their arrows. Hope was dwindling and at least one Apollo camper had already gotten killed by a hellhound.

Then, in their hour of greatest need, Percy and Annabeth arrived.  

I really want to try to get into Will’s head here, and think about what kind of impression Percy must have made on him during this battle.  

There are two aspects, which I think are really important to consider:

The first one is the fact that Percy always fought at the front lines, and even told the Apollo cabin on multiple occasions to stand back, while he faced the enemy alone or only with Annabeth.

The first thing Percy did when he arrived at the battle was to tell Michael to form a defensive line, while he fought alone against the minotaur, and then later against 199 enemy monsters (. I'll distract the monsters. You group up here. Move the sleeping mortals out of the way. Then you can start picking off monsters while I keep them focused on me. (The Lats Olympian, Chapter 11)

Later, when Kronos arrived, Percy told them again to retreat, while he and Annabeth held off Kronos, and his guards, consisting of around 40 demigods and 20 monsters (The Titan lord's men drew their swords and charged. The hooves of their skeletal horses thundered against the pavement. Our archers shot a volley, bringing down several of the enemy, but they just kept riding. "Retreat!" I told my friends. "I'll hold them.' (The Last Olympian, Chapter 11))

Because Percy did this, and risked his own life, no other Apollo camper died on that bridge, aside from Michael. He saved the entire cabin with that strategy, and seeing Percy face the enemy army alone must have really invigorated a sense of trust in him from Will and his half-siblings.

The second aspect, would be Percy’s fighting abilities

I don’t think I can reiterate enough how absolutely insane, Percy must have seem like to his fellow campers in this battle alone.

He easily,and I mean easily, defeated the minotaur

Because we have already seen Percy kill the minotaur when he was 12, and because we see how fast he defeated him now, it’s easy to forget that that beast is still the minotaur. One of the most dangerous monsters in greek mythology, which has already killed several other halfbloods at this point in time, and probably also at least one Apollo camper. (Tied around the base of each blade were lots of bead necklaces. I realized they were Camp Half-Blood beads—necklaces taken from defeated demigods. (The Last Olympian, chapter 11)

He fights 199 monsters, and demolishes them without receiving a single scratch

I sliced through armor like it was made of paper. Snake women exploded. Hellhounds melted to shadow. I slashed and stabbed and whirled, and I might have even laughed once or twice—a crazy laugh that scared me as much as it did my enemies. (The Last Olympian, chapter 11)

He goes toe-to-toe against Kronos himself

He dismounted, his scythe glistening in the dawn light. "I'll settle for another dead demigod." I met his first strike with Riptide. The impact shook the entire bridge, but I held my ground. Kronos's smile wavered. With a yell, I kicked his legs out from under him. His scythe skittered across the pavement. (The Last Olympian, Chapter 11)

He destroys the bridge, forcing the enemy to retreat

I stabbed Riptide into the bridge. The magic blade sank to its hilt in asphalt. Salt water shot from the crack like I'd hit a geyser. I pulled out my blade and the fissure grew. The bridge shook and began to crumble. Chunks the size of houses fell into the East River. Kronos's demigods cried out in alarm and scrambled backward. Some were knocked off their feet. Within a few seconds, a fifty foot chasm opened in the Williamsburg Bridge between Kronos and me. (The Last Olympian, Chapter 11)

I think the psychological effects of seeing Percy in action here are really underrated. Before this moment, Will probably started to believe they had no chance of winning the war. But this battle marks a turning point. Yes, the titan army had a huge advantage in numbers, legendary monsters like the Minotaur, and actual titans on their side. But in this battle, Will and the other campers must have realized what it really meant, that they had Percy Jackson. That they had someone who could go toe to toe with the strongest of the titan army and come out victorious. Someone who would come when they called for help. Someone who seemed impossible to kill.

However, afterwards, this whole fight gets overshadowed by Michael’s death.

Michael’s death:

Obviously, Will grieved for Michael. He’d already lost Lee the summer before, and who knows how many other half-siblings. Seeing his brother die in such a way could definitely lead to resentment, no matter how unfair that resentment might be. However, the key word here is could. It's important to consider the context of this scene. One point that often gets overlooked is that Will also saw Percy’s reaction to Michael’s death—and everything leading up to it.

He heard Michael tell Percy to break the bridge. ("Percy, the bridge!" he called. "It's already weak!"(…) "Break it!" Michael yelled. "Use your powers!" (The Last Olympian, Chapter 11))

He heard Percy yell at Michael to get out, before following through with his plan (The remaining Apollo campers had almost made it to the end of the bridge, except for Michael Yew, who was perched on one of the suspensions cables a few yards away from me, His last arrow was notched in his bow. "Michael, go!" I screamed. (The Last Olympian, Chapter 11))

He saw Percy search the wreckage of the bridge for Michaels body afterwards (I turned to thank Michael Yew, but the words died in my throat. Twenty feet away, a bow lay in the street. Its owner was nowhere to be seen. "No!" I searched the wreckage on my side of the bridge.( The Last Olympian, Chapter 11))

He heard him scream out in pain after not finding Michael. (Nothing. I yelled in anger and frustration. The sound carried forever in the morning stillness. The Last Olympian, Chapter 11)

He heard Percy tell the rest of his cabin to continue searching for Michael, despite the fact, that they could be needed in other battles, for the slim chance, that Michael could still be saved, or at least buried properly (I grabbed Will Solace from the Apollo cabin and told the rest of his siblings to keep searching for Michael Yew. The Last Olympian, Chapter 12)

Obviously, it’s still possible, for Will to blame Percy. Grief makes people act irrationally. Especially kids, who are already traumatized and fighting in a war.  However, Will’s actions and characterization afterwards make me personally doubt that.

Will’s characterization afterwards:

Shortly, after Michael’s death, Percy and Will drive together to their base to save Annabeth’s life. This is how Will acted once they arrived:

Will and I pushed through a crowd of Athena kids. Will unwrapped Annabeth's bandages to examine the wound, and I wanted to faint (…) Will Solace exhaled with relief. "It's not so bad, Annabeth. A few more minutes and we would've been in trouble, but the venom hasn't gotten past the shoulder yet. Just lie still. Somebody hand me some nectar." I grabbed a canteen. Will cleaned out the wound with the godly drink while I held Annabeth's hand. "Ow," she said. "Ow, ow!" She gripped my fingers so tight they turned purple, but she stayed still, like Will asked. Silena muttered words of encouragement. Will put some silver paste over the wound and hummed words in Ancient Greek—a hymn to Apollo. (The Last Olympian, Chapter 12)

From this bit, we can say that Will seems completely focused on healing Annabeth. He doesn’t bring up the battle or Michael, and he doesn’t react in any way badly to Percy. He simply tries his best to save Annabeth’s life.

I especially want to focus on this little sentence:

“Will Solace exhaled in relief. “It’s not so bad Annabeth.”

This sentence shows us, that Will himself was worried about Annabeth. That Will wanted to heal Annabeth.  He wasn’t some paralysed, poor kid, whom Percy forced to leave his siblings behind and heal Annabeth. He was a healer, who pushed down his own emotions to prioritize helping and healing his fellow campers, and who consciously decided to focus on the battle and problems at hand, and deal with his grief later.

His behavior afterwards supports this characterization. Even after he made sure, Annabeth survived (and completely exhausted himself with that effort, might I add), Will continued to focus on how to best treat his fellow campers.  

The healing must've taken a lot of his energy. He looked almost as pale as Annabeth. "That should do it," he said. "But we're going to need some mortal supplies." He grabbed a piece of hotel stationery, jotted down some notes, and handed it to one of the Athena guys. "There's a Duane Reade on Fifth. Normally I would never steal—" "I would," Travis volunteered. Will glared at him. "Leave cash or drachmas to pay, whatever you've got, but this is an emergency. I've got a feeling we're going to have a lot more people to treat. (The Last Olympian, Chapter 12)

Aside from that, I would also like to shortly consider Will’s POV regarding Percy during the rest of the war.

I imagine that for a healer, like Will, who saw one injured demigod after another, seeing Percy completely uninjured, fighting and fighting and fighting, killing hundreds of monsters all on his own, barely allowing himself to take a break, while attacking a drakon, and fighting enemies like Hyperion, must have been like a beacon of hope in a way. Like a reminder, that they could actually win. That he wouldn’t lose all of his friends. A sign to not give up.

Percy’s promise from the gods:

Another thing, which I think is quite consequential to consider to judge the relationship between Percy and Will, is Percy’s demand from the gods.

I could see Will becoming bitter, had Percy wished for something for himself after they had won the war. If Percy had become a god, while the rest of camp received no prize whatsoever and if the death of his siblings had meant nothing in the long run, I could see Will starting to resent him.  

However, Percy wished for nothing, which solely benefitted himself. Annabeth received the chance to redesign Olympus, Grover became a lord of the wild, Tyson received a weapon, but Percy received nothing like that. The only thing he wanted was the reassurance that the war, Will has lost so many of his siblings on, and which had forced him to grow up so fast, could never repeat itself. The reassurance, that Lee’s and Michael’s and everyone else’s sacrifice was not in vain.

No one can tell me that this did not mean a lot to Will and only strengthened their relationship to each other.

 Post The Last Olympian:

My last point is this moment from the beginning of the lost hero:

“Annabeth!” A guy with a bow and quiver on his back pushed through the crowd. “I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!” “Will, I’m sorry,” Annabeth sighed. “I’ll get it fixed, I promise.” Will scowled at his broken chariot. Then he sized up Piper, Leo, and Jason. “These are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why haven’t they been claimed already?” “Claimed?” Leo asked. Before Annabeth could explain, Will said, “Any sign of Percy?”  (The Lost Hero, chapter 3)

Will was the first person to ask about Percy out of everyone else present and didn’t even wait for Annabeth to answer Leo’s previous question.  That doesn’t really sound like a person asking about a guy he resents, or feels neutral about. To me at least, it sounds like a guy who is worried about a friend.

That’s at least my interpretation of their relationship, up until this moment. (Though again, I am quite biased, because, I really love their friendship potential)

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i get why padme/palpatine parallelism stuff is not as popular but imo it is crucial to understanding anakin to know he sees them similarly. it's part of why he trusts palpatine with padme's life so unquestioningly

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The Hero with No Fear

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maybe MAYBE the reason padmé didn't fall for obi wan is because he was a 35 year old overly religious guy who came into her home and consistently dismissed her worries, didn't understand why she might want privacy in HER BEDROOM and talked shit about her and her job in HER OWN HOME. all in the span of a few hours. maybe.

(i'm still at it with the aotc posting btw)

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thinking again about my headcanon that the male vikings of berk traditionally don't braid their own hair and how stoick in flashbacks always has his beard in one big braid versus present stoick with his many little braids and how valka likely braided it in one mass and maybe he had some sister or cousin take care of it after she was gone and then at some point hiccup probably wanted to try braiding it for him instead but his little hands were too tiny to handle all of that hair and maybe stoick was about to tell him it was alright but then little baby hiccup figured out he could just make a bunch of smaller braids instead and they kept up this ritual forever after and maybe by the time hiccup was a teenager he realized he was probably capable of making a single larger braid but he kept doing the smaller braids because it was an excuse to spend more time with his dad doing something he was good at without getting into trouble and stoick probably also realized the little braids weren't really necessary anymore but he didn't say anything because it was an excuse for his son to voluntarily touch him and maybe by the time the first movie came around it was maybe the only time they really spent together in the same room without arguing and stoick would sit there as hiccup slowly and carefully made each tiny braid and neither of them would say a word throughout the entire process but the silence between them would be filled with all of the times a younger hiccup would babble about his day as he braided his daddy's beard and get annoyed when stoick tried to respond because "when you open your mouth it moves your jaw and that makes the braiding harder hold still please" and neither of them ever wanted the present moment to end but eventually hiccup would tie off the last braid and say something like "that should be it" and get up to walk away and maybe stoick would stand up and say "thanks hiccup, you, uh, stay out of trouble" and then as soon as hiccup would leave the room stoick would berate himself for not saying something more encouraging while hiccup would head to his room or the forge convinced his dad thinks that the only thing his father thinks he's good for is braiding and

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It is canon that at some point, while Hiccup was still in a coma, Gobber went through his room and workshop to find the schematics for Toothless's tail. I cannot imagine that Stoick did not join him.

What must it have felt like, seeing all of Hiccup's drawings and models of Toothless? There is so much to unpack about what they would have thought.

They must have been struck by how little Hiccup hid his things (a canon detail!), because Hiccup knew they didn't care enough to notice. He left drawings of Toothless out ON HIS DESK and never worried about it.

Can you imagine? Your child loves something so deeply that it has become intrinsic to who they are, and you know they knew you would hate that thing if you found out, and you realize that they felt like they didn't even really need to hide it because you never looked at them enough to notice. And they were right.

And, also, Stoick and Gobber must have appreciated for the first time how incredible Hiccup's inventions are. Gobber had to break down the tail schematics to recreate it, which meant he had to fully confront how the tail control mechanism was light-years beyond any other piece of technology on the island.

They would have found, too, Hiccup's first few attempts at the tail. They would have been confronted with the fact that when given the space to test things, to try things and iron out the flaws, Hiccup is a genius. All those old inventions that almost worked but malfunctioned in some way? Yeah, if the village hadn't stopped Hiccup, if they had let him take notes and try again, those inventions probably would have worked.

Can you imagine what they felt, realizing how badly they had stifled and mistreated Hiccup? Realizing that if they had given him space to be himself, he would have been creating miracles his entire life?

ALSO, Stoick and Gobber must have truly understood for the first time how deeply Hiccup cared for Toothless. Hiccup made technical drawings for the tailfin, yes. But he also canonically drew a lot of art of Toothless just. Being Toothless. In the Live Action he even made a wooden carving with articulated wings! It is so evident from his space how much he loved Toothless. What do you think Stoick felt, seeing that, knowing how he himself treated Toothless after the arena fight?

There is just so much that comes from that small detail of Gobber making a new tailfin, and I desperately want, like, a novella from Stoick and Gobber's POV of that time period.

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rereading Jon Snow ADWD chapters always hits like a ton of bricks theyre SOO GOOD AHHHHH THEY'RE SO GOOD THEY'RE WHY THIS BOOK IS SO GOOOOOD

GRRM i need you to know i never subscribed to ADWD slander i saw the vision the Moment i read the prologue.

Castle Black in JON I: "A bleak and forlorn place in the pale dawn light. My command, Jon Snow reflected ruefully, as much a ruin as it is a stronghold."

Castle Black in JON XII: "Lights now shone through windows where Jon Snow had never seen lights shine before. [...] Outside the barracks he came across a dozen men pelting one another with snow. Playing, Jon thought in astonishment, grown men playing like children."

Like. This is the series, this is the point. All men must die, Jon Snow, but tonight we'll live. Now that you've reached across and opened the gate and gave them halls and hearths for no reason other than they're men, and you guard the realms of men – we'll live.

The way ADWD weaves in these arcs of sheer triumph when the overall trajectory is darkness and misery is just so masterful. Like with Theon, he objectively is still in a very bad spot in the end, but compared to where his chapters started? He got away, he flew, and now he knows his name. It's a very private, personal triumph while Jon's is overarching, historic, political, he filled the empty halls, he garrisoned the abandoned castles, he joined Alys and Sigorn's hands.

So yeah Jon might be dead in the end of this book but like. There will be a second life, worthy of any king, and also he opened the gate.

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reverse gatekeeping. I am on my knees begging people to engage with the source material

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"I'm sorry, Padmé. I'm sorry. I know I've been...difficult to deal with. I just—I feel like I'm in free fall. Free fall in the dark. I don't know which way is up. I don't know where I'll be when I land. Or crash." He frowned against his fingers, squeezing his eyes more tightly shut to make sure no tears leaked out. "I think it's going to be a crash."

revenge of the sith (2005) dir. george lucas + fire walk with me (1992) dir. david lynch

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Before I get to that, I’m firstly so ashamed I FORGOT about the CANONICAL NAME Krogan gives Hiccup of “Archiapalegan Idol.”

Archipalegan Idol: Is he a Crush or a Crisis? Reports indicate that the saviour of mankind has once again destroyed a port full of ships

That said, I think Astrid’s soc-med would be just what you stated. Healthy lifestyle tips and axe throwing tutorials.

She does try to start a cooking show and it runs successfully for a while until she realises people only watch it to take shots everytime she fucks up the recipe and sets the counter on fire. She eventually settles on a self-defence youtube channel with far far far more success

you guys I’m having so much fun😭😭

[v-a-l]

I’m in alignment with OP that he’d be a social media ghost. He has an account with a good number of followers but everyone thinks it’s fake cause he never posts. A good portion of the population genuinely believes that he’s so camera shy because he’s a runaway God and doesn’t want Heimdall to find him.

However he finally braves it out one day and posts a deeply passionate essay about how dragons are wonderful and intelligent and empathetic and do not deserve to be hunted (he also inserts a picture of himself and toothless holding the dragon eye) and it breaks the internet. Ofc no one cares about the essay and are too busy admiring his tousled brown hair

He never posts again.

Seventeen years later it’s still the most well liked picture in history until Astrid posts once of herself and Hiccup with Zephyr.

you guys I’m having so much fun😭😭