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pinkwhalepjs · 11 months

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I LOVE that the collapse of several character relationships this episode comes down to class at the heart of things. The three who were born small folk have infinitely less agency in their own lives. They rise and fall at the whims of the powerful people they serve.

Amangeaux may see Karna as a daughter figure but as she begs her to let her go Karna can clearly see that her biological son is infinitely more important to Amangeaux than Karna could ever be. Amangeaux doesn’t want to play at being queen anymore and it is Karna who must suffer for it. She then attaches herself to Senator Ariana Gemelli and then again to Delissandro. She is dependent on them and lives ultimately at their whim. She may even love Deli but she must know that their relationship can never truly be one of equals. It is part of the tragedy of her character that she seems to always to some extent yearn for those she serves, admiring and caring for them in a way that is unlikely to be returned in full. And even more so that she seems an unwilling servant of the Hungry One who takes of her flesh in return for power and continued life. Unfortunately a good parallel for her relationships to her fellow mortals.

And this is what breaks apart Collin and Deli too. Collin was born to live in fear of what high born can do to those who cross them. He poignantly rebukes Deli that he does not doubt he will be a great leader of the Meatlands, but he is no leader Collin would swear to. He is a cruel and uncaring lord like the rest. He cares not for the innocent he condemns to death on his road to glory. Collin returns to the home of the man he killed because this life matters to him and he knows it does not to Delissandro even though he took it for his sake. Collin grows sick of being an instrument in the same sort of uncaring violence that killed his own family. He leaves behind the blades he swore in service to Delissandro. His anger is much quieter than Deli’s blusterous rage. It feels more directed at himself than at Deli. How could he have deluded himself into seeing this man as a friend and equal all these years? A man who doesn’t even know who he is after all those years by his side.

Raphaniel is the most scattered and broken because he began to think of himself as no longer a member of the small folk. But he forgot that he lives and dies at the mercy of his superiors still and that which is given him can just as easily if not far more easily be taken away. To gain power takes a lifetime but to lose it takes an instant. He scrambles again and again until it destroys his mind and body to gain some foothold of power or at least some sense that he serves some higher purpose but is met at every turn with empty sound. He was born cursed with visions of something terrible beyond but finds perhaps more horrible than the sense that there is something special wrong with him alone is the growing sense in his old age that his life and acts may in the end be meaningless entirely and when he dies he will leave behind just as little mark as any other poor born radish.

#the ravening war #dimension 20 #if you love asoiaf watch this season #I really love it #kind of got possessed here #colin provolone #karna solara #bishop raphaniel charlock #bishop no more #thane delissandro katzon #lady amangeaux epicée du peche

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daenerystargaryen06 · 2 months

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I saw a comment on another post about how fans of Daenerys (and those who also support TB) cannot accept criticism of Daenerys' character and go overboard with our love for her.

This statement is entirely false. Daenerys fans do entirely accept Daenerys' flaws and criticism to her character- so long as the criticism is done properly and makes sense. We only go against criticism when said criticism entirely misconstrues Daenerys' character in a false and gross way. Bending the text of the books or even early seasons of the show as an excuse to "criticize" Daenerys is obviously going to be ignored because it presents an entirely false narrative. The ones who do this mainly are Daenerys antis/Sansa stans/Jonsa stans. Most critical points/metas they make against her can be disproven (and have been many times) by reading the text of the books and analyzing Daenerys' show scenes early season before her character became entirely ruined by s8.

Daenerys fans do accept criticism of Daenerys and we do acknowledge her flaws. But the difference is that those who do criticize her often tend to paint her out to be 'evil' or the main villain for ASOIAF/GoT, when she isn't. Daenerys, like every other character in the ASOIAF series, is a gray character. Us fans see and know this. But Daenerys antis only look at her through a lens of black-and-white, which is an issue of itself, considering she isn't meant to be viewed that way. The reason why us Dany fans/stans go against criticism of Dany so much is because it's often wrong and entirely out of proportion, in which we make counter points/arguments backed up with actual textual evidence from the books or scenes from the show. The criticism against Daenerys isn't just critically analyzing her as a character, it's blatant hate and often misconstrued to paint her in a light that makes her seem worse than she is.

When we look in the world and setting of ASOIAF/GoT, Daenerys' actions are just like any other character in that world, only not as extreme, and when she makes the decisions she does within the books she questions the choices she's made and thinks heavily over them.

When you look at the men of ASOIAF and GoT, their actions are in line with/far worse than what Daenerys has done. Tywin has eradicated an entire house, slaughtered countless people, treated his son with disdain for being born a dwarf, etc. Robb executed a man for going against his orders. Jon killed a child (despite the child having taken part in his murder- it was still a child) and is much darker in the books. Tyrion has fantasies of violence towards Cersei, expects Sansa (a child) to want him when they're wed, etc. Robert nearly slaughtered and eradicated an entire House, laughed over dead bodies of children, r*ped Cersei often when drunk, etc. Ned executed a deserter of the Night's Watch. And we all know how terrible Euron and Ramsay are in the books/show.

And yet Daenerys receives more hate than these men over her actions, is viewed more critically, and is 'criticized' far more than said men. Which is unfortunately driven by misogyny. The difference between Daenerys and the men of ASOIAF is the fact that she is a woman. If she were a man, I doubt her actions would be so heavily analyzed and torn into by antis. Anyone could say that isn't true- and yet, it's evident in the way Daenerys is heavily hated and discussed most over compared to anyone else who has done far worse compared to her.

It's not the fact that we don't accept criticism over Daenerys. It's the fact that us fans have to always constantly defend her over hate that is unjustified to her character. Is it even so wrong that we show love and support to her character anyway? I'm sure everyone else does that for their own favorite characters as well and deny criticism to them often if the criticism is actual bullshit over a valid critical and neutral analysis. Why is it so wrong for us fans to do so?

A blog I will always recommend that actually does amazing metas character analysis- @rainhadaenerys.

#daenerys defence squad #daenerys stormborn #daenerys targaryen #daenerys targeryan #daenerys appreciation #mother of dragons #pro daenerys targaryen #breaker of chains #khaleesi #team daenerys #queen daenerys #anti daenerys antis #yes you can have criticism for a character #but when it's misconstrued and the text is used in a false manner- is it really even valid?#this is the same as people who say they like Daenerys but then say she's gonna be a villain and go crazy #bffr #a song of ice and fire #asoif/got

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toskarin · 4 months

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i am just gonna assume you've read asoiaf. who's your favourite character from it?

for a while I was saying I had fallen off keeping up with the series and therefore wasn't really "current" on it, but then it was pointed out that grrm also had fallen off keeping up with the series around the same time, so I'm actually cutting edge

uh. preemptive clarification I didn't really watch game of thrones. like I watched the first season and kind of skimmed topics about it for a few more seasons, and then apparently it did some things to some characters, and then it apparently became Peter Jackson's The Hobbit With Sex. so this is about the books

I like rhaegar. he feels just a little out of place in the setting, like he's wandered in from a kunqu performance and hasn't fully realised where he is. he's playing into what he thinks are genre tropes without realising that they're all death flags and he's in love with this beautiful romantic narrative (which exists only in his head)

which, you know, inevitably leads to him being killed by a living narrative that's grown a mouth full of jagged teeth

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ser-zoras · 6 months

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How POV Characters In ASOIAF Feel About Halloween

Ned - likes Halloween for the sake of the kids, but you cannot tell me this man wouldn't do a dramatic performance in which one of the direwolves eats him. Also for his children's benefit of course, but he enjoys it.

Cat - the mom who hands out healthy snacks. She probably has a very corny sweater with a ghost pun on it.

Dany - she is also an ugly Halloween sweater person. She also would have a matching costume with all of her dragons. Probably a bat.

Tyrion - he might take Tommen and Myrcella trick or treating, but that would be the extent of his involvement. Maybe he reads some Stephen King to get in the feeling of the season.

Jon - emulates the older brother in Hocus Pocus. He takes Arya around and as the cool emo brother, he's legally obligated to be miserable the whole time. He secretly loves it.

Bran - really good at freaking everybody out. A little too good.

Sansa - allegedly hates Halloween. She stays inside, yes, but because she is watching every single Jordan Peele movie and scaring herself shitless. She has seen Us twelve times. This has not made her any more normal about it.

Arya - is dressed as a werewolf. She insists on crawling on all fours the entire night. She also howls about every five minutes.

Melisandre - is literally that person who everyone compliments on their costume despite the total absence of a costume. She is doing witchery, but she will leave out a bowl of candy anyway.

Sam - using the occasion as an excuse to make a full cosplay. He won't be wearing it anywhere, but he enjoys the creative process.

Cersei - watching a Saw marathon and taking diligent notes.

Asha and Theon - Asha has convinced Theon to toilet paper someone's house. She will leave him there and call the cops herself. He will be bailed out three hours later, claiming that he's learned his lesson. This is the the third year in a row this has happened.

Brienne - let her carve a pumpkin PLEASE

#ned stark #catelyn stark #daenerys targaryen #tyrion lannister #jon snow #bran stark #sansa stark #arya stark #melisandre #samwell tarly #cersei lannister #asha greyjoy #theon greyjoy #brienne of tarth #briennergy if you will #my posts #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #valyrianscrolls

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esther-dot · 1 year

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Saw you have recommend the fic "The Thawing of Winter" and omg that's one of my favorite fanfic ever! I think it's the one which started my love for Jon x Alayne.

By the way, if it's not a bother, do you know any Jonsa fanfic similar to "A Winter's Tale"? It's a bookverse fic, canon divergence, kind of book 6+7, so it's very far from the usual canon divergence fics based on the show only. If you have any other recommendation where the plots around season 7+8 are ignored/there's no Jon going to Dragonstone and all that, it would be great too. I find those plots exhausting after the show 😂

I actually don't really distinguish between GoT and ASOIAF fic when reading, so I'm not the best at book verse recs, but these are book verse fics on my tbr and I think they're the kind of thing you're looking for:

Winter in My Blood 39k

Beasts of Seasons 70k, incomplete

Like winter we are cruel 100k

What Lies Beneath Her Skin 100k

A Knight's Watch 670k

The Wolves of Winter 137k, incomplete

I'll also add that @cappymightwrite writes book verse fic (their AO3) and once posted a book verse rec list, @jonisawarg has a book verse fic rec list as well.

Happy reading, anon!

#jonsa #jonsa fic #dot chat

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olderthannetfic · 3 months

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https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/740136068340482048/the-funniest-dni-i-ever-encountered-in-all-my-12?source=share

As a House Martell stan, it's been interesting to watch the evolution of that particular corner of the ASOIAF fandom over the years. For a while, because they were less present on the show (and their actual focus on the show was pretty bungled), they were mostly the favorites of superfans who'd read the books and therefore were deeply devoted to the whole ASOIAF universe, and given how much that means memorizing various types of Targaryen incest over the years, were almost never antis. A lot of people were also drawn to that they were the ~sexy, liberated house, as well as there being a fair number of POC who identified with some of the few non-white people in those books who were actually fully-realized characters (in the books, not so much in the show). IME it was usually people who were also shipping a lot of the other popular "problematic" ships in the fandom like Jaime/Cersei and Sansa/Petyr Baelish.

Then, at some point - particularly after the show ended and the fandom shrunk a lot - it got infected with a bunch of people writing long essays about how Daenerys and the entire Targaryen family were inherently "white supremacist" (previously, it had been more common for POC and other fans who focused on anti-racism to stan Daenerys, and point out that what the final season did with her was some white bullshit that tried to conflate killing oppressors like slavers with killing poor downtrodden people) and there ended up being a fandom fight between those people who saw the Targaryens as the more racist house or the Starks, but they all stanned Martells but in a very shallow sort of way just because they were the POC house. It's also worth nothing that Dorne has equal primogeniture - women can inherit, and in the books it's Doran's eldest daughter, Arianne, who is his heir, even though he has two younger sons - and it also is more accepting of LGBTQ+ people and bastards and general "sex outside of marriage" than most of the rest of Westeros, so it attracts a lot of people who are into them for that reason. I mean, I like them for that reason among others, but of course that's going to be a magnet to people who want to prove that they're extra special progressive for stanning them over like, the Lannisters.

Also, probably worth noting, the people in the second group were generally younger. Book-centric fans generally tend to be older IME in ASOIAF fandom. I feel like whenever a fandom is younger, there's more likely to be more anti behavior.

Anyway it was very weird to get back into ASOIAF when I read Fire and Blood and then when House of the Dragon started airing, and feeling like "my corner" of the fandom had become completely unrecognizable in my absence.

Also, I suspect it's probably drawing in some people who just really like Pedro Pascal. (It was better when it was drawing in the Alexander Siddig stans from DS9 fandom, snerk. Although even that fandom has had an obnoxious influx of younger purity-policing virtue-signalling types discovering it these days, writing stupid discourse about how Garak/Garashir is problematic and people should instead ship characters who don't like each other that much and don't interact much one-on-one because the combinations of them are more progressive or something.... sigh! Anyway, probably not helped by the fact that Game of Thrones completely wasted him, even though his character was one of the best ones in the books and a big one that drew me into loving House Martell. He would've been great as book!Doran, but alas....)

I'm also going to say that as others have pointed out, I'll always be mystified by the fact that ASOIAF even HAS antis. If you're that opposed to incest, age-disparate relationships, violence, etc. anything controversial, how can you stan the actual canon of that show? Or the books, which arguably have even more rape and incest and ephebephilia going on. It just seems like you'd have to have a very adversarial relationship with canon to a point that I just don't understand why you don't pick another fandom. Of course, it's probably really just that antis are hypocrites.

Hypocrites, yes. But also drawn to material that they're not comfortable being drawn to. The younger they are, the more the cognitive dissonance makes them act out.

I don't condone it, but I do understand it.

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bohemian-nights · 1 month

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I’d like to in advance apologize for ranting it just seems to me that you may be one of the few people who actually like Nettles 😊. So I’m not gonna lie I was expecting more from the trailer(s). I mean I knew I wasn’t gonna get to see Nettles (I genuinely am obsessed with the idea of her being the only non-Valyrian dragonrider, I’m equally obsessed with stories in general when people (especially women) live in a society that usually counts them out or that they’re very low in the food chain in to becoming powerful + gaining agency and respect, and it heals my inner black girl when I see black women in fantasy) (anything to be honest because it seems as though we’re always done wrong either by narrative or fandom) (I’m also not opposed to her being a “witch” because if done properly it could be done in an interesting thing and tie into the magic that was used in the beginning to tie dragons to people) (though knowing this fandom they’d probably start coming up with their special “takes” about how she tricked/ r/ped Daemon into being with her 🙄 and will block you if you point out that’s the same thing they praise Alys Rivers for allegedly doing (I say allegedly because that’s awful and truly horrific and I hope neither Nettles or Alys are shown doing this) (speaking of Nettles and Daemon….🫠 lol I don’t really like Daemon (I’m 50/50 on book!Daemon mostly because I don’t get to know what he’s thinking which created a disconnect and I don’t like show!Daemon at all. He did a lot for a little in my opinion, and because I don’t know his thought process he just kinda comes off as a bit of a c*nt just to be one because it makes him “edgy” and a “bad boy” and while I don’t find Matt Smith unattractive he’s not exactly what I consider to be such a panty dropper that I can like Daemon) the age gap and power dynamic also raised both my eye brows but at the end of the day it’s fantasy, so different rules apply, and most importantly despite the discourse over certain (platonic, romantic, or sexual) aspects of their relationship it’s very clear that the two cared/loved one another) (anyway 🤞🏾 we’ll get her next season) but it seemed as though for the Team Green and Team Black trailers they just showed the same scenes in different order. And while there’s a lot more dragon action going on, it doesn’t feel like dialogue from different scenes forming a compelling trailer it feels as though multiple characters are just narrating I don’t know maybe I’m reaching. And personally I’m neither Team Green or Team Black but I still liked Team Green’s trailer more especially when Aegon (looking completely unhinged) said “to war then.” I don’t know I just remember thinking “he looks crazy as shit” lol. In general I’m kinda 50/50 with HOTD. I watched the first season because I like fantasy shows and at that point I had just finished up GOT and was getting started on the books. So having no prior knowledge to how it was gonna go it was entertaining enough. Then I read Fire and Blood (which interestingly enough I didn’t know was a history book….🫠) and was really invested in how they were going to adapt the actual Dance and I feel like I’m just getting into the ASOIAF fandom (steered clear of it back in the day because it seemed too unhinged) but it seems completely unhinged, misogynistic, racist, and really odd when it comes to the subject of blood purity.

Aww thank you and I don’t mind the ranting.

The Nettles fandom is extremely small, and I'm off in my little corner of said fandom because I think I’m the only Nettles fan who genuinely loves Daemon(which is fun).

He is a lot though and their relationship is somewhat problematic, but yeah you have to keep in mind that this is all just fantasy. And you can’t forget that Daemon does care for her and he is the one who saves her. The good ultimately outweighs the bad in their relationship.

That being said, Nettles is a fantastic character in her own right and deserves all of her props. And yeah it’s nice to see a Black girl in the medieval fantasy genre, but irregardless of race, she falls into my favorite category of characters for women.

Been through a lot, people doubt them, and yet they still overcome and get their happily ever after, sign me up 🙌🏽

As far as the witch thing goes, it could be interesting, but I find it cliché and ultimately demeaning and limiting. Not only because of the situation with Daemon(turning her into some Jezebel is a no-go), but it also takes away from her claiming of Sheepstealer. Instead of her wit she has to have used magic because there is no way someone like her could claim a dragon.

That would ruin the essence of a character that is supposed to show that it’s not our blood or some supernatural superpower that makes us, it’s us.

Honestly, I don’t think that the show will go this way with her character since they’ve already faced backlash for what they did with Laena, Rhaena, and Baela back in season 1. Playing into another trope with a Black-ish woman(voodoo mama Jezebel) will only make them look all the more like the racist jackasses they are.

Now for the trailer and upcoming season, It doesn’t spark any excitement within me. The show as a whole is just kinda meh(and the lack of Nettles isn’t helping).

HOTD is a far cry from the early days of GOT(which followed much more closely to the books). There is the issue that the show is based on historical text, but not everything in that was a lie like the show is trying to claim.

I don’t like the blatant whitewashing being done and then claiming they’re championing diversity and female empowerment while treating all their Black, particularly the Black-ish female characters, like shit.

Lastly there is the fandom. While racism and misogynoir are not limited to the HOTD fandom these fans really do act batshit insane.

I can’t take anybody who claims that a Black character should be cut because there are already enough Black people on the show then starts crying when they get called out for their racism and claiming they are being wrongly accused seriously.

And of course, we can’t forget the ones trying to save Nettles from the evil white man—while completely ignoring the one who tries to turn her into a hate crime statistic for the sake of the sisterhood…

(That is all I can say without being metaphorically stoned for not pushing Nettles under the bus for a racist white woman who tried to kill her so I'll leave it there, feminism am I right).

As I have said before, if I wasn’t already here I’d take one look at this hellhole, and a running I’d go, but alas. I am unfortunately invested in this circus so here I am 🤷��‍♀️

#bnasks #bnask #nettles #house of the dragon #anti hotd #yes I’m still bitching about this but until Nettles is on my screen I will continue to bitch about things🤷🏽‍♀️#dettles #daemon targaryen x nettles

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kiefbowl · 7 months

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I love that you love GoT/ASoIF media and I look forward to your hot takes about season 2 whenever that comes out. Yeah yeah GRRM is a dirty old man *jerk off hand motion* but let me watch my stories, you shits.

I hate GOT, but yes I love the books. Do you mean HOTD? I thought HOTD was great. Im nervous about season 2 bc the fan reaction was sooooo bizarre at times I’m really worried they’ll be swayed especially wrt to Rhaenyra and Daemon. I think the show successfully set up Daemon rightfully as the villain, but because it didn’t feature powerpoint presentations during the scenes with someone explaining things like subtext and character blocking ppl were I guess like he’s so dreamy and then we’re shocked that Daemon showed his true colors in the finale by choking Rhaenyra in anger when she pulled rank. it was frustrating reading people’s opinions.

I don’t think GRRM is a dirty old man jerk off motion, sorry ladies. That doesn’t mean I think he’s some ~male feminist icon, either, that’s ridiculous. I will say I find the ASOIAF books get more porny as they go on, but in like specific weird instances. I haven’t read them in a second so I would need to search the passages to show what I mean and I’m just not doing that today.

I’m not interested in hearing how I’m wrong by people who haven’t read the books. If people have read the books and disagree with me, I welcome that discussion. But it’s so clear when people haven’t read the books and will just say made up shit they’re way too confident in.

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kazz-brekker · 2 years

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hotd episode 8 thoughts

boy! this family really never can have a funky good time together without something happening, can they? (i say as a distraction from my immense emotional pain)

rhaenys you may never have been queen of westeros but you are queen to ME.

really liked the bits of daemon and rhaenyra’s life married that we got to see and how comfortable they were with each other. hbo, i’m just saying, but it’s not too late to abandon this whole “adapting the dance of the dragons” idea and just do a 5 season sitcom about the dragonstone household.

wow alicent really has become the westerosi equivalent of a christian housewife but also with girlboss ambitions.

the scenes with the dying viserys made me so sad. rhaenyra trying to talk to her father but he’s too incoherent to understand … introducing him to the grandkids … daemon helping him climb the iron throne … god it really got to me see how much they care about him and how much he was hurting :(

baby aegon iii and viserys ii were really cute though!

no … alicent … please don’t uphold the patriarchy and become complicity in the oppression of women … don’t continue the cycle of abuse begun by others that you now perpetuate…

i am impressed by how quickly this show made my opinion on aegon ii go from “annoying yet entertaining” to “die in a hole you rat bastard.”

congrats to daemon and rhaenyra (and rhaenys!) for raising some much better-adjusted teenagers, definitely liked what we saw of the older versions of the kids.

adult aemond is an absolute menace and i am going to enjoy every single second of his screen time.

jesus christ rhaenyra it’s been SIX YEARS and you still haven’t told rhaenys and corlys their son isn’t dead? please get on that! did love that those two had another scene together at last, though.

the scene where viserys dragged himself to court to sit judgement over the inheritance case was pretty powerful.

damn vaemond velaryon was kind of an ambitious asshole but he really didn’t deserve to die like that. kind of love that daemon was like “talk shit about my wife and you get a sword to the face” though, very in character.

those 30 seconds at the dinner party where everyone was getting along were so bittersweet, it did such a good job of establishing that the whole impending tragedy COULD have been averted if things went differently.

viserys really did need to put his foot down more often and be a stronger king, but it’s also so sad that he just wants his family to get along and love each other and it’s just not going to happen.

helaena honey i am going to rescue you and your ominous prophecies from your terrible husband, you deserve so much better.

the fact that viserys left the room and things immediately went to shit and the younger generation got into a fistfight was peak black comedy, not gonna lie.

the dramatic pause before aemond finished his “strong boys” toast … yeah i love him.

mentally chanting kiss! kiss! kiss! at rhaenyra and alicent as if this could someone how avert all the impending doom.

god, that last scene with alicent and viserys was so good and i am obsessed with how viserys’s obsession with prophecy and the future of his house is actually what dooms it.

PEAK asoiaf vibes to have the prophecy that was supposed to be the duty of the house instead lead to its downfall!

i’m really going to miss paddy considine as viserys, he brought so much depth and complexity to a character who was pretty flat in the book.

i know this whole show has been building up to the dance of the dragons but ohhhhh man am i not ready to see things actually begin in earnest now that the king is dead.

if anyone needs me i will be sitting here trying to process the hour of television i just watched!

#pie says stuff #pie watches hotd #hotd #house of the dragon #hotd spoilers #rhaenyra targaryen #daemon targaryen #viserys targaryen #alicent hightower #aegon ii targaryen #aemond targaryen #rhaenys targaryen #vaemond velaryon #helaena targaryen

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sweetestpopcorn · 1 year

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on what side does Rhaebae have her mole?

Hi there :)

Right side <3

If you are wondering where the beauty mark near her eye idea came from, it's not an idea of mine. I first saw Rhaenyra with a beauty mark near her eye on some artwork done for the extra of... I believe season 4 of a certain show we don't talk about anymore, where they explained the Dance.

Curiously, that video was also a rather amusing AU of "What if Daemon was the father of the "Velaryon" princes?" Because...

Look at Daemon's nose X'D now look at Luke and Jace's 😂 Look at Daemon and Jace's expressions!!!! I don't know who did the animation, but clearly they were a Daemyra shipper.

PS: This animation curiously also gave me the idea of making Daemon's eyes a pale lilac and Rhaenyra's a darker purple. It's not very obvious due to the lack of quality, but Daemon's eyes were a pale lilac/violet, and Rhaenyra's appear much darker.

Later on, years later, I also saw the same beauty mark near Rhaenyra's eye in the illustrations that Naomimakesart used to make of asoiaf Rhaenyra, which I absolutely loved with all my heart, so I decided to keep this. I honestly love it so much I just can't imagine Rhaenyra without it. Such an elegant detail for the Realm's Delight 🥰 who was doing it like her? Exactly. No one.

Alicent do keep trying ❤️

Naomi, however, unlike in the artwork above, drew Rhaenyra's beauty mark on the right side, so I kept it on the right side as well. Her version of asoiaf Daemon and Rhaenyra remains my favourite to this day I think. Just love how she draws them, so much that I even commissioned her to drew an amazing piece for the Blacks & the Greens which you can find here of Rhaenyra and Daemon's Black Wedding, which has enough drama and deaths to make even the dothraki raise an eyebrow of "Hum... not too shabby but could use more deaths." - you wouldn't know from the illustration though XD

So, every time I had to describe on which side Rhaenyra's beauty mark was, I just opened one of Naomi's illustrations XD Don't trust me to never have made a mistake though 😂 she on the other hand consistently made it on the right so the Lord has spoken and it is on the right.

By the way if you haven't, leave Naomi a like for this beautiful illustration <3 her old asoiaf illustrations are amongst some of the best I have seen. I am eternally grateful for the joy and inspiration they gave <3

Those of us who were on her patreon between 2019-2020... UGH! We were SPOILED! SPOILED! There was no better time to be a Daemyra shipper, and we got THREE NSFW illustrations of them! Can we go back? Please? PLEASE?!

This was such a funny ask! Thank you!

PPS: If any of you want an actual faithful account of the Dance (if only much summarised) and you don't want to read, you can watch this video on youtube, it's called "The Dance of the Dragons by Shireen, Viserys and others". That moment when D&D did a better job with the Dance than R*an and co 🤡 let's be honest though, literal children would do a better job.

#rhaenyra targaryen #canon rhaenyra targaryen #daemon targaryen #canon daemon targaryen #the rogue prince #the princess and the queen #fire and blood #house targaryen #pre asoiaf #daemyra #canon daemyra #daemon x rhaenyra #popcorn answers #this one was so fun!

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annes-andromeda · 2 years

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Haven’t posted anything GOT related in a while since that god awful finale, but since HOTD came out and I’ve been watching it, it honestly baffles how people can think that the Targaryens are the heroes of the story when:

The fact that House Targaryen’s origins literally parallel that of the opening dialogue of Avatar (the four nations lived in harmony but everything changed when the fire nation attacked/the kingdoms of Westeros were independent until Aegon and his sisters came in and conquered them)

The fact that Aegon melting the swords of his fallen enemies to create the Iron Throne is reminiscent of Sauron from Lord of the Rings creating the One Ring in the fiery pits of Mordor. Not only that, but the fact that GRRM himself has paralleled the IT to the OR (they’re both objects of power that corrupts anyone who wields them).

Also how ironic that the volcano the One Ring was created and destroyed in is called Mount Doom, when Old Valyria was destroyed by a massive volcanic eruption. And what was the catastrophe called? The Doom.

The fact that in many medieval/fantasy stories, dragons are depicted as the beasts the knight must slay to save the princess locked away in the tower or, in the case of LOTR, greedy monsters who stow away treasure and will leave nothing but ashes in their wake (“I am fire. I am death”)

This might be a reach, but the fact that the Targaryen sigil is similar to another famous three-headed dragon known as Ghidorah; a sadistic, malicious kaiju who rather than kill for survival, kills for enjoyment and is the embodiment of death and destruction.

The fact that the colors of House Targaryen are colors often used for villains/antagonists. Plenty of animated villains from Disney use this color combination and, again with the LOTR parallels (ironic considering GRRM takes much inspiration from the works of Tolkien), the land of Mordor is a region of black soil with flowing, red lava.

The fact that the main element associated with House Targaryen is fire, which is one of the elements in the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ title. Not only is it the opposite of the associated element of House Stark (ice), but also the fact that the first book/first season starts with the return of the White Walkers and ends with the return of the dragons, aka The Song of Ice and Fire, aka The Threat of the White Walkers and the Dragons.

The fact that GRRM has stated that “Fire consumes, but cold preserves”, which is in line with his words about the Starks being the heart/heroes of the story, and how the reason why Westeros’ monarchy is so flawed is because the Targaryens depended on the dragons to keep everyone in line, aka they relied on the dragons as their main source of power and without them they fell apart:

Well, the Starks are certainly the center of the story, when it begins… But, the Starks are the center of the book…

To me, the Starks are heroes…

The Kingdom was unified with dragons, so the Targaryen’s flaw was to create an absolute monarchy highly dependent on them… So, without dragons it took a sneeze, a wildly incompetent and megalomaniac king, a love struck prince, a brutal civil war, a dissolute king that didn’t really know what to do with the throne and then chaos.

Im just saying, the Targaryens have all these villainous parallels (amongst many more of which I probably forgot) but somehow they’re the true heroes/protagonists??

I’m not saying you can’t enjoy them. Who doesn’t love a good villain? But while many of the characters in GOT/ASOIAF are morally grey, including the Targaryens, ultimately many members of that family were horrible rulers who were nothing but cruel, entitled, and indifferent towards those around them.

In conclusion:

House Targaryen: making their problems everyone else’s problems since 2 BC.

#game of thrones #house of the dragon #anti targaryen #anti targ restoration #anti targ stans #pro stark #pro house stark

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thephantomcasebook · 18 days

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If you could choose a period of GOT for HBO to adapt, what would it be?

They're already doing it with "Dunk and Egg". The Dunk and Egg stories are my favorite thing that GRRM has ever wrote. When I sold all my GOT stuff after Season 8 my hardcover of "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" was one of the only things I kept - a long with my lucky Cersei funkopop.

I would love to see the Blackfyre Rebellion and the in depth look at the characters and clashes. When I was big into ASoIaF, the Blackfyre Rebellion and that time period was my favorite thing to read and watch videos on. I'd way prefer that than "Aegon's Conquest" which I have zero interest in.

I'm well established of not being a big fan of Dragons. They're too OP and it makes the military engagements way too superfluous. There's not strategy, no finesse, no outsmarting anyone. That's half the reason that I love studying and reading Military History. The Chess board of it all.

#A Song of Ice and Fire #Dunk and Egg #House of the Dragon #Game of Thrones #Blackfyre Rebellion

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katsu-curry835 · 3 months

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So you're thinking about reading A Song of Ice and Fire...

Now, it's come to my attention that there are some people out there who are contemplating reading George RR Martin's masterpiece of a series A Song of Ice and Fire, also known as the Game of Thrones books, but they haven't actually picked them up for various reasons. I'm here to convince you why you should read them, and why your concerns aren't justified (some of them are, we will get to that.)

This post is for people who have contemplated reading the books and need an extra push to actually going and buying them. This is your sign to start reading this series if you haven't already. You will not regret it, it's exquisitely written.

I've seen the show, I don't need to read the books.

Oh lord.

The show and the books do diverge quite extensively, especially as they both go on. Book 1 of ASoIaF and season 1 of GoT are pretty much scene for scene the same story, with, however, big differences in plot after that. Body counts are different, character motivations and arcs are different, and even certain major events have very noticeable changes from book to show. Needless to say you will not be getting the same experience by any means if you were to read the books.

But that's pretty obvious, right? Obviously you know the two are different; all adaptations are different. So what's better about the books?

Well, for starters, the books don't have a trash fire ending (yes I know what you're thinking, see concern 5.) The later seasons of GoT were terrible, it must be said. Yet there is not a single moment in the ASoIaF series that I would call bad, especially compared to the final two seasons of the show.

Secondly, the books and the show both have bombastic plots and intricate character arcs that are easy to get invested in. But the books have something the show doesn't: banger prose. I was one of the people who watched the show before reading the books and I was blown away by just how much better these characters that I already loved were because I got to see inside their heads with their internal monologues. This is a series that really lends itself to deep character introspection. And Martin is an excellent prose writer, make no mistake. This, I feel, is often left out when we're talking GoT. Yes, Martin's plots and characters are amazing. But the sheer quality of quotable lines from his work that aren't in the dialogue and absolute zingers from his internal monologues make this more than worth it.

The books are more than their own thing and are, in my opinion, the optimal way to experience the series. The show is easier to consume, but the books are more in depth. They stand apart from the show as the superior telling of the story, and it definitely helps that the people doing the writing of the show were incompetent. If it wasn't clear, David and Dan were not the geniuses behind seasons 1-4 of GoT, it was George RR Martin. The reason it was such good television, was because it was an adaptation of even better source material.

2. The books are really long and complicated, they feel like they'd be quite difficult to read.

There is some truth to this notion; this is not Baby's First Epic Fantasy Novel. This ain't a light read; it's pretty dense with information. That being said, I don't read to much fiction myself and I found it pretty easy to digest.

Here's the deal, if you go into this series intimidated by all the lore and the size of the books, you're almost setting yourself up for failure. My advice is to pretend that you don't know how 'complicated' it gets. Because being complicated is only a problem if you can't understand what's happening because of its complexity.

From my experience at school (this is relevant I swear), I have found that the best teachers are the people who able to explain complex concepts in a way that makes it seem obvious or simple. And I began to notice this when I started to recount what I had learned from my teachers to other people and came to the conclusion that I did not know how much I was learning. I knew more than I thought. Then I noticed a similar phenomenon when I started explaining stories I really enjoyed. I told the story to my friends, and I realized that there was way more that I needed to explain than I assumed. A good writer is a good teacher: they make the complicated seem simple, and make the long seem short. And George RR Martin is a fucking brilliant teacher.

You will fly through these books quicker than you expect, and you will pick up more information than you know you are picking up. The fact of the matter is, they're well written. If you pay attention, you won't be confused.

3. I've heard the series gets really violent and sexually explicit. There's a lot of guts and gore and scenes of assault and violence against women. How bad does it get?

Obviously I cannot tell you personally whether the series is too shocking or visceral for you, since I don't know your individual tastes. People's mileage will vary with this sort of thing. But there are two things I want to say about this.

Firstly, the show has given this series a bad rap in this regard. There are plenty of scenes in the show that have way more blood 'n' boobs than the books did in those equivalent moments. Scenes will fade to black or be referred to off screen in the books where the show takes great pains to show you everything. This is because of the marketing around the show at the time as some sort of 'this isn't you're typical fantasy for nerds, this has blood and tits. This is sexy fantasy, not like lord of the rings!!1!' The show runners relied on this sentiment to make you uncomfortable because that was part of the point. So they embellished. However, I don't want to convince you that this is a light read. There are descriptions of blood and there are some rape scenes from the perspective of the woman being raped, and that can get pretty harrowing.

But this brings me to my second point: books aren't a visual medium. Maybe this is personal thing, but reading a description of a murder, no matter how evocative and disgusting, will never be the same as someone being stabbed in front of you on your screen, it just won't. There are particularly bloody or uncomfortable scenes in the show (the Red Wedding, Oberyn Martell vs The Mountain, that Sansa scene with Ramsay and Theon) that I struggle to rewatch because every human has a tendency to get a little squeamish at moments like that. But reading them/their equivalents in the books doesn't feel as bad, because it's ink on a page, it's words. And as fans of the series will tell you, words are wind.

That being said, if you think a viscerally described sexual assault, rape or murder will be too much for you, or if you cannot handle depictions of those things in general, it's with great sadness that I should recommend you don't read these books. The violence and rape isn't gratuitous, but it does happen, and frankly these books should have a trigger warning in the front covers.

4. The series is problematic

Yeah, uh, a little bit.

No piece of media is ever going to be ideologically pure and it's unreasonable to expect that. As alluded to in the last section, there's some pretty heavy stuff in this series and the line between depiction and glorification/normalization is blurry here. But I'm going to stop you there because if we had that discussion we would be here all day. When people say 'this is problematic' what they usually mean is that the way something is done has some form of unintentional (or maybe even intentional) bigotry baked into it. And there is some of that here.

The way women's bodies are described can be a little weird. There are scenes where Martin will describe a female child as having 'small, tender breasts,' and it's like 'um... sir what is this?' Generally, though, that Martin describes the women in this is supposed to have a point. It could've been done less strangely, though.

Drogo's relationship to Daenerys is v e r y strange when you consider that Drogo is 30 something and Dany is 13 at the start of the series. Yet we as the audience appear to be asked to root for them. Very gross, George.

I'm sure I missed something, I'm not super deep into this discourse and this was just the stuff that I, someone who is not and has never been a woman, has noticed. But there is substance to this criticism, the weird misogyny in the way Martin writes women's bodies is non trivial.

BUT, I can excuse it because outside of this, ASoIaF has some of the most brilliantly written female characters in any media ever. Their motives are complex, they all embody different kinds of femininity and womanhood, and they're all strong, in their own way. Martin is excellent at writing characters regardless of gender, and this series has some excellent women in it.

5. But the series might never be finished!

This is the big one, really, and this is the concern, along with concern number 3, is the one I understand the most.

If you're unfamiliar, George RR Martin has gone on record saying that he plans to release seven books in his series, although if he thinks his characters outgrow that, he will change it to be more books. For now, though, he seems to be sticking to seven. He has released five novels so far... and the last one was released in 2011. Martin is 75 years old. At the pace he is currently writing, we probably will not get book 7 before he dies. And if we do get book 7, it likely won't be written entirely by him, and therefore will not feel like an appropriate conclusion to many.

This puts some people off and I completely understand why. All I can tell you is why I don't mind.

Currently, the five ASoIaF novels that were released are the best literature I have ever read hands down. The first three novels form a semi completed arc of their own, so some can view them as their own self contained story. For me personally, the 1,7 million total words Martin has already written are enough, because they fuck so hard.

If I didn't address a concern you have about reading these books, please just ask, I'd be more than happy to talk about it. Otherwise, thank you for reading!

#asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #reading #books #book recommendations #in this essay i will #yes i know these are already popular books #i just want someone to talk about them with #fantasy #game of thrones

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maester-cressen · 11 months

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hey saw your reblog on the Jon Event Post. I am curious what do you think is the relation between Jon and the song 'the last of the giants'?

Hey anon! Thank you for the patience with this ask!

I started writing a response, but it got SO LONG that I decided I will keep the answer here brief and write a longer meta as soon as irl things stop bothering me.

Basically, I believe that some songs in ASOIAF were created by GRRM to fit specific characters – and the text supports that by presenting the song either exclusively or mostly on the POV of said characters.

For example, think about Seasons of My Love. This is a song that GRRM created with Tyrion in mind and he shows that to us by making this song very present in Tyrion's narrative. It's through Tyrion's POV that we learn the lyrics of the song. Tyrion's wife Tysha is shown to have sung this song a lot – and Tysha is a very important presence in Tyrion's story. Seasons of My Love is a song about romance, that's "sad if you understand the lyrics". The lyrics are tied in to Tyrion's wishes (to have a woman that loves him) and can have more than one interpretation of what they mean for Tyrion's future.

When it comes to Last of the Giants, it's a song that was exclusively sang on Jon's POV in ASOS by members of the free folk, who have invaluable presences in Jon's arc. His first love is Ygritte, a woman who sings this song and tells him off when he doesn't grasp the meaning of its lyrics. Another singer is Tormund Giantsbane, who later on becomes friends and political allies with Jon.

Said lyrics are a crucial part of his arc too. The song is about how the titular giants lost their lands to "small folk", who killed them day and night, who exploited the resources, who isolated them from the rest of the world, who don't care about eradicating cultures. It's not hard to understand that this song not only applies to giants, but to the free folk, the children of the forest and to any other marginalized cultures. GRRM is very much a "everyone needs to come together" type of guy, and he uses Jon's relationship with the free folk as one of the main arguments of that belief.

On top of that, the presence of the song at that exact moment in the text (Jon II ASOS) marks a turning point for the free folk. Prior to that chapter, Jon's opinion of the free folk matched that of other people from the rest of Westeros, including the Night's Watch. They were enemies, brutes, cruel raiders, people they had to isolate, someone he had to pretend to be friends and later betray. After that, however, he begins spending time with the free folk and comes to genuinely care for them. He falls in love, makes friends, learns about their culture, realizes they are people just like him and his Night's Watch brothers. When he betrays them, he does it with a lot more regrets. When Ygritte dies, he mourns her, burns her in the customs of the free folk, remembers her. When he becomes Lord Commander, one of his most poignant moves is to bring the free folk to the Wall.

The humanization of the free folk is a crucial part of ASOIAF's narrative because it's a book written by George "We Need To Come Together As Humans" Martin, and the author deliberatily chooses Jon's POV as the main source of that humanization (with important presence of Samwell's POV too!). Why? Because Jon is a hero. Because Jon understands the importance of unity, of abandoning prejudices, of humanizing folks that have been dehumanized.

#jon snow #books #a song of ice and fire #valyrianscrolls #bruna & her asks #anonymous #should i tag asoiafcanonjonsnow? idk lol #this is LONG and the meta will be even longer because I cannot shut up about asoiaf #apologies for any english mistakes... or any incoherences... thinking is HardTM

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