Thinking About How One Of The Most Important Motifs In Dany’s Childhood Memories Is A Seemingly Nonexistent

Brynden Rivers

“How many eyes does Lord Bloodraven have? the riddle ran. A thousand eyes, and one”

I love the idea that the 15th Doctor is one of the incarnations totally willing to manipulate his friends and companions, but he does it THROUGH laughs and smiles and charm, so much so that he barely even registers that that’s what he’s doing. Upbeat darkness.

Of course, “silly Doctor hiding a manipulative streak” is hardly new, but there’s a specific difference between, say, 7 using silliness to trick enemies but manipulating Ace more overtly, and 15 trying to manipulate Belinda, his potential new companion, USING his charm. It’s a (relatively) new angle on the Doctor’s manipulative behavior. I’m not gonna say it’s NEVER been done before (thousands of stories across several mediums over 60 years, I’m sure it’s cropped up), but this is the most overt example of the Doc using this specific manipulation tactic to my mind.

Belinda, having been the victim of a (clumsy) attempt at manipulation by Alan in the past, recognizes it right away and calls the Doc out, and he still doesn’t let the smile drop until he recognizes he isn’t gonna charm his way out of the situation.

And he KNOWS she’s right. But it almost makes him mad that she recognizes it too. You can see it on his face. He wants to argue back. But he knows she’s right, so he doesn’t.

the emotion i just experienced is kind of indescribable

another random post because apparently I can't go to sleep if I don't make delusional theories on the internet

anyways

Dark has pretty much shown us that in it, love transcends universes. That's kinda the focal point of the series, I guess? Anyways². We can see this specifically with Peter and Bernadette as well, and they are the pair I'll be focusing on for the purposes of this post.

We see them end up together at some point/have some sort of relationship in all the three universes, with a shift in Bernadette's gender presentation.

Eva's world: "Benjamin" is completely closeted and presents as male. I think we only see him like once and that time he's in the church talking to Peter. Then Charlotte arrives and they stop talking and it's all very awkward. It's not stated if they had anything going on there but just. Watch the scene and tell me it isn't terribly awkward.

Adam's world: Bernadette is out of the closet as a trans woman, but hasn't yet reached the transition goals she hoped for. She's with Peter, sort of.

Origin world: we see Bernadette as a more well-adjusted person, and just in general recognized and accepted by the people around her for who she is. And she ends up with Peter.

Peter kinda loves her in every universe, in the end. Even if we don't get the full picture a lot of the time, they're still secondary characters. But I don't think he just ends up with her because she's trans and he's gay and in denial. That would make sense if you only looked at Adam's or Eva's world, but that isn't what we're doing here. Basically, I think love in Dark doesn't just transcend universes, but gender as well.

all this to say if Sonja and Martha met they'd be lesbians and if Jonas and Marek met they'd be gay. And it's not about orientation. Just. Doomed by the narrative but they'd still love each other in any form I think

We need to do the same level of "abandon this completely" to neil gaiman as we did (and should continue to do) to jkr. Im serious. If i catch you buying more sandman comics or a different good omens copy you dont need or more of the graveyard book or coraline i will lose it. The man is a rapist. Full stop, all caps RAPIST. He doesnt deserve more money. The pratchett estate wont die out if u stop buying good omens. Theres plenty of authors who probably write leagues better than him and arent evil predators. He needs to die penniless and obscure.

jeanscottwarren as challengers

Free TMA desktop

Well, hello, everyone!

I finally finished my TMA inspired desktop design! (I will never set my own deadlines again in my life ☠️).

You may have noticed that the wallpaper changed a little bit from the sketch stage to the final stage. Somewhere along the way, I realized that the original design didn't match my vision, so I decided to start from scratch 😅. I am very happy with the final result and I hope you will like it too. (I think I will eventually finish the original design if I get inspired).

Thank you all for the nice words and comments! 💚💚💚 They motivated me not to abandon the whole thing. I'm very happy to know that I'm not the only one who liked the idea of a TMA style desktop so much.

I plan to make a couple more sets of wallpapers and icons based on other characters and fears in the future. (But definitely not in the next month hahaha).

I will be very grateful if you want to support me and my work with a penny. My Ko-fi

Icons and wallpapers you can download here.

Thanks again for your support!

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), poem 85 from “The Gardener”, 1914 Translated by the author from the original Bengali. New York: The Macmillan Company.

Just completely obsessed with Sansa as the quintessential Arthurian damsel and Jon as her valiant knight. Sansa says true heroes don’t harm magic beasts….

In the songs, the knights never killed magical beasts, they just went up to them and touched them and did them no harm […] - Sansa III, AGoT

And Jon saved the direwolves; even sacrificing himself in the process:

“It be a mercy to kill them,” Hullen said. Bran looked to his lord father for rescue, but got only a frown, a furrowed brow. “Hullen speaks truly, son. Better a swift death than a hard one from cold and starvation.” “No!” He could feel tears welling in his eyes, and he looked away. He did not want to cry in front of his father. […]. “Lord Stark,” Jon said. It was strange to hear him call Father that, so formal. Bran looked at him with desperate hope. “There are five pups,” he told Father. “Three male, two female.” - Bran I, AGoT

Sansa thinks that true heroes dispatch of evil knights:

Frog-faced Lord Slynt sat at the end of the council table wearing a black velvet doublet and a shiny cloth-of-gold cape, nodding with approval every time the king pronounced a sentence. Sansa stared hard at his ugly face, remembering how he had thrown down her father for Ser Ilyn to behead, wishing she could hurt him, wishing that some hero would throw him down and cut off his head. - Sansa VI, AGoT

And well….

“I will not hang him,” said Jon. “Bring him here.” “Oh, Seven save us,” he heard Bowen Marsh cry out. The smile that Lord Janos Slynt smiled then had all the sweetness of rancid butter. Until Jon said, “Edd, fetch me a block,” and unsheathed Longclaw. - Jon II, ADWD

And Sansa looks for the truest of heroes to rescue the damsel:

She shouted for Ser Dontos, for her brothers, for her dead father and her dead wolf, for gallant Ser Loras who had given her a red rose once, but none of them came. She called for the heroes from the songs, for Florian and Ser Ryam Redwyne and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, but no one heard. - Sansa IV, ACoK

And Jon is not just one, but TWO:

Every morning they had trained together, since they were big enough to walk; Snow and Stark, spinning and slashing about the wards of Winterfell, shouting and laughing, sometimes crying when there was no one else to see. They were not little boys when they fought, but knights and mighty heroes. “I’m Prince Aemon the Dragonknight,” Jon would call out, and Robb would shout back, “Well, I’m Florian the Fool.” Or Robb would say, “I’m the Young Dragon,” and Jon would reply, “I’m Ser Ryam Redwyne.” - Jon XII, ASoS

It’s all so perfect

The power couple