Glennon Doyle, Untamed. Elizabeth Kate Russell, My Dark Vanessa. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were

nobody wants to write 6-8k heartwrenching introspective one shots that rehash the events of canon but insert romantic moments between characters that make the inevitable conclusions of canon even more painful anymore.... all they know is abo, modern au and lie

Ginger-ness

DOES ANYONE HERE KNOW WHAT VAN ECK'S PROBLEM IS??

A war being mutually destructive and devastating =/= both sides being equally in the wrong. The Dance progressed to a point that victory couldn't be anything but phyrric and the two factions came undone yet that doesn't preclude us from identifying the agressor and the victim. Who drove the realm to war by contesting the claim of the named heir, by explicitly going against the will of the monarch, by holding their coup in the dead of night and leaving the king's body to rot in order to preserve secrecy ? By murdering a prince under the peace banner, by allowing and applauding treachery and oathbreaking ? Intent matters. Acknowledging that conflicts aren't always a result of some inherent moral wrongness on both sides despite how the toll of war may deteriorate the participants also matters. The original will and motivation of the people involved is not made meaningless by the cost and evil of war. In the end, that's what's worth remembering.

Edit: Anon lifted @desaretaa’s twitter thread about this.

Exactly.

If that wasn’t enough, GRRM made it obvious in the story as the Greens' bloodline went extinct when Aegon II was killed, but not the Blacks'. Viserys II, son of Rhaenyra and Daemon, was succeeded by his son Aegon IV. Aegon IV was succeeded by his son Daeron II. Daeron II was succeeded by his son Aerys I. Aerys I was succeeded by his brother Maekar. Maekar was succeeded by his son Aegon V. Aegon V was succeeded by his son Jaeherys II. Jaeherys II was succeeded by his son Aerys II, who had a daughter with Rhaella named Daenerys Targaryen. Dany is Nyra’s descendant. It’s not a coincidence, there’s a message here guys about the fact Rhaenyra’s bloodline is still alive in the ASOIAF novels.

The two young lions of the Rock

“oh yes, i am very reasonable and normal about this subject!!”

*proceeds to mass reblog any related content*

“Oh, David,” Genya said, taking his hand. “You’ve never threatened to murder anyone for me before.” “Haven’t I?” he murmured distractedly, placed a kiss on her knuckles, and continued reading. (Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars CH 9)

rhaegar aegon rhaenys & elia in dorne

Daemon went to his death absolutely willingly.

After getting a letter from Rhaenyra stating she no longer trusted him. And then he went to prove his loyalty to her. A letter that took the joy from his eyes. A letter that Rhaenyra sends in response to paranoia driven by Mysaria that also leads to Addam Velaryon choosing to prove his loyalty too. I mean seriously do people even read that part of the book ?

So much of the pushback against Daemon’s love for Rhaenyra — and like I’m talking before the show; from the book — is people who just don’t want Rhaenyra to be loved in that way. They don’t want her to have a husband that put his loyalty to her above everything.

The “he didn’t want her” or “he cheated” narrative is never really about Daemon at least from what I’ve seen. It’s always about what that says about Rhaenyra and her “undesirability”.

Everything, even the whole 'Daemon loved Laena more' is about Rhaenyra. It's about Rhaenyra not being good enough for them, it's about Rhaenyra having flaws, it's about them hating her and not wanting her to be loved. They hate that Daemon loved her. They hate her because she is a woman with ambition and flaws and for that they want everyone to not put her first. It's all about misogyny.

"courtesy is a lady's armor" is what sansa repeats to herself in king's landing while she's being held hostage and is at the mercy of people who seek to use her as a political pawn for their own gains (the lannisters and the tyrells). it is not meant to be aspirational, it's a coping mechanism which she uses to make herself small and invisible to survive the mental and physical torment being heaped on her by a society which only recognises her value in the form of her reproductive capabilities and expects her to remain a docile object, not an active participant in her own life. and internalising such an ideal begins her loss of identity arc. presently she's sequestered in the vale, forced to leave behind her name and her home, to forget who she is. because that's what it does to you, hollowing yourself out to meet the expectations of feudal patriarchy until your will is broken. catelyn experiences it in a literal sense with stoneheart serving as a metaphor for this process. and obviously what is happening to sansa is not her fault, neither her nor catelyn are being criticised by the text for performing feminity, it's a criticism of the exploitation of young girls by westerosi society, something that is enforced and achieved and passed down through those songs about dutiful ladies awaiting gallant knights in their towers. the key here being that the version of heroism preached in those songs (able bodied, all men, all handsome - a definition which excludes bran, tyrion, sandor, brienne) and the role of women as passive agents is what's being questioned, not the notion of performing goodness in a broken world. sansa is right to be a dreamer, to be kind—that's what makes her a hero. but her arc is also about unlearning those harmful foundational myths of westerosi society.

🔥13 👀

13. worst blorboficiation

the fact that there is a “aegon ii targaryen is not a rapist” ao3 tag (he is canonically a rapist) with hundreds of works is pretty grim to me. i don’t mind the underlying phenomenon in isolation - just ignoring the fact a hot guy is a perpetrator of sexual violence because you are hot for him and want to write fic that’s enjoyable to you - like whatever, it’s not that serious even if i am not into it. but there is something deeply sinister in the fact that there is a whole like. fic culture about leeching that from the story and character and signaling that neutralization for comfort and pleasure. as far as i’m aware there isn’t an equivalent for any other character so that kind of wins.