Are yyou team green or black? And why?
team green, though I'm not in support of every green character (namely Otto though my opinion of him is complicated. I also have opinions on Aegon and his characterization that makes it even more complicated)
[I have only read bits and pieces of the book, so my opinion is based almost solely on the show. keep this in mind]
I'm team green for 3 big reasons. they're more complex, thought not perfect by any means, more morally "right", and are simply more my vibe when it comes to characters. now this is very simplified and not at all nuanced, so stick with me for a minute.
Firstly, they're more complex. the greens have very deep, detailed, and nuanced lives and stories that lead to them being very complex characters that can't be put into a box. Alicent was a child bride who had lost her mother young became a mother young and suffered at the hands of power and men all her life. her children were affected by this and the world they were forced to grow up in throughout their lives. even individually her kids are drastically different; aegon the child who was forced into a life he did not want and suffered due to his father neglect and mother pain. Helaena who was never understood and grew up treated like an oddity. Aemond who was never seen to his full potential, always ignored or looked over, angry throughout his life. each of them has strengths and weaknesses, flaws and benefits, they're imperfect but never completely horrid. they're also never simplified (not entirely, even when the plot and writers seek to simplify them) to the point that they put on a moral pedestal or made straight evil (i'd even argue that the attempts of the writer to oversimplify them as evil and in the wrong makes them 10x more fascinating). I find TB characters tended to miss the mark on that, always put in the moral light, not even allowed a moment to reflect on their actions, lives, or positions in any nuanced or meaningful way, so they always just feel dull. they're also out on a moral highground that they can never be budged from, which makes them harder to like and honestly, really boring. they get away with everything instead of being emotionally and morally nuanced.
secondly, they're more morally "right". I will never say that any of the greens are perfect, they are far from it (with the exception of Helaena and her kids, who have done literally nothing to anyone, but I digress). what I will say, 9/10 times there is some level of reasoning that has some level of reasoning. Alicent always tries to do whats best for everyone, all throughout the series she tried to do best by the court, the king, her children, the realm, and Rhaenyra. did she always succeed? no, but she always tried and her mistakes were almost always honest. I will say she held resentment towards Rhaenya, but honestly, I can't blame her. Rhaenyra's lies and behavior hurt Alicent over and over again so for her to be angry is expected.when it came to succession, Alicent backed Rhaenyra until it was made clear she and Daemon would be a threat to her children's lives and even than she held mercy for Rhaenyra. Aegon's drinking can be blamed on the abuse and neglect he suffered at Viserys, Otto, and Alicent's (though the abuse and neglect from his mother is insanely different and nuanced. she perpetuated her pain onto him because she couldn't heal herself. so I hesitate to call it abuse, cause its so much more complicated than that) hands. though nothing will justify his rape of Dyana, I personally think it was a bad add in on the writers part, and leave it at that. Aemonds rage after years of being ignored doesn't entirely justify what he did to luke, but he had reason for his cruelty after years of Luke (and jace tbh) being cruel just because they could. TB characters tend to do terrible things in response to either A. nothing B. their own terrible things. Daemon kills who he wants when he feels like it, even for stating facts. Rhaneyra will lie and hurt those around her to protect her bastard children. both of them conspire to protect themselves and allow themselves to be wed, really just cause. while there are times they have their reasons, its a lot less of the time, and typically the backing to their actions, is they were trying to unbury themselves from within their own graves. (to preface, I don't care about rhaenyra sleeping around, it doesn't bother me, but its the fact that she will hurt everyone around her to protect her lies, allowing a child to be maimed and people to be murdered)
thirdly, they're my vibe. I like morally complex character, who are, to be frank, pathetic. I like characters with complex trauma's and issues, who aren't perfect people but its not entirely their fault. I would much rather watch a whole show about alicent, a child bride who tries so hard to be a good wife, queen, and mother while not prepared for any such role. Aegon who is a boy with severe mommy and daddy issues, a drinking problem, a flawed past, and constantly wet eyes. Helaena an ignored girl who has suffered for no better reason then her family. and Aemond, a boy who was tormented, bullied, maimed, and made stronger by it at the cost of his compassion and emotional stability - over a nepo baby who was coddled by her father, her murderous husband with a knack for unneeded violence, and her similarly coddled children (the show boiled them down to this, in my opinion). one is simply more up my alley than the other. I want character that need to be dissected, who have suffered, who hurt me to look at.
also, team black created almost all of their own problems. seeing as the main source of contention had to do with Rhaenyra's kids being bastards, which was Rhaenyra's problem, which she caused, and kept digging and digging that grave (faking Laenors death just so she could marry daemon, turning the blame on aemond when luke maimed him furthering the divide amongst the house, trying to wed Helaena to Jace putting her in danger, trying to take the driftmark throne and killing Vaemond for a claim her sons did not have, etc,) till viserys's death, earns her a lot less pity from me. at the end of the day, her being a woman was only a needle in a haystack worth of problems she caused herself that hurt her claim. if she had just strived to create to connection with ancient and her kids, and didn't make herself look like a threat to everyone who lessened her claim (which alicents kids would be the first people to be taken out) alicent would have backed like she had all season and there would have been no war, maybe conflict, but no war.
theres also the effect of the fans on my opinion. I have faced more cruelty, terrible media analysis, and outright ableism/misogny/(blood and sexual based) purist ideology/etc. from the TB fans then I have ever witness by TG fans. TB fans have ruined almost all of the TB characters for me in more ways than I can count, so I will say I am very biased.
thats why I'm team green. as a whole they are simply more appealing, their stories are more interesting, demand more attention to detail and emotional understanding, and from my point of view were the "right" side to be on in the war (the war was wrong on both sides, but my chips lie in the favour of the greens).
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Genuine thought as a fellow trans dude, I’ve seen a lot of (obviously non-serious) questions on other blogs about characters’ genitals such as “how does it look like?” and similar, and I think we all know & understand that such questions are extremely inappropriate to ask and (I hope) no one would actually go around asking these questions irl. Idk, I think we should treat trans characters just like cis ones, without any special “precautions”, so to normalise them and not make cis people treat them like fragile boxes, a thing which happens to a lot of us irl. Hope this doesn’t come off as an attack or anything lol.
no worries, i didn't take this as an attack at all. i actually agree with you, that's why i mentioned feeling conflicted about it and also mentioned that i've changed my stance on how i felt about handling Noel and Clementine in game and in explicit intimate scenes.
however, for me the problem comes from the fact that people... don't ask these kinds of questions about cis characters? i suppose people do get cheeky "who is the biggest 🤪" asks but i would hardly compare the two. to be a bit crude, no one is going to be asking if a cis character has a dick or not, or "what does it look like". of course it's natural for people to be curious, and i honestly encourage the open discussion and am happy to see trans bodies being talked about more in a positive way, but not everyone is going to be comfortable with it due to the inescapable transphobia online and in the community. sending me that kind of ask is like sending out an invitation for a debate or a discussion that i don't necessarily want to have. i also just don't think people should default to asking a random IF author on tumblr dot com to describe what bottom growth looks like.
and with most of these asks typically coming from someone who is anonymous, i have no way of truly knowing what the tone is, what their intentions are or why this is being asked - is it another trans person? or maybe someone who is just genuinely curious? or, more likely in my experience, is it someone who is going to immediately follow up this message with something transphobic after i answer? do i want to roll the dice and find out?
so while i agree with what you're saying, it's important to consider the context and the reality we live in. the IF community is not kind to trans people or trans characters. and as a trans person, my first priority is protecting myself and my mental health. so what i mean when i say "precautions," is that those precautions are for me, because i've had to deal with transphobic harassment here for years now, and i try to mitigate it as much as i can. it's also for my personal comfort - again, to be blunt, i'm simply just not comfortable discussing a trans character's genitals with anonymous strangers on the internet. it makes me feel vulnerable.
also i do want to say i didn't mean for any of that to come across as a dig at other authors - if you're comfortable answering those kinds of questions, that's really only something you can decide for yourself. like i said, this is just coming from my own experiences in IF and for my own personal comfort - i have previously talked a lot about trans stuff and gender and sexuality here, when i'm feeling up to it, but it is something that is very draining for me and can also be very upsetting.
basically: i do agree that it's important not to other trans characters or treat them any differently than cis characters, but i also think there are ways to do it that don't require me answering invasive questions or questions that i don't feel comfortable with as a real life trans person, you know what i mean?
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(quick clarification: this post is specifically about neurodivergent transmeds refusing to use people's neos out of an apparent disrespect and using their neurodivergence as an excuse to legitimately be mean. feel free to add more stuff onto this in the replies!)
hey guys don't mean to be queer on main but i think people using their neurodivergency as an excuse to misgender people isn't ok actually.
i've seen stories of quite a few people who use the fact that they have ADHD (or some other condition that may cause memory issues) and can't remember things well as an excuse to "forget" someone's neopronouns, even after being asked by that person multiple times to refer to them with those pronouns. this isn't ok on so many levels.
first of all, i think it's incredibly guilt-trippy to make someone feel bad about accidentally being ableist by expressing themselves, when in reality, they haven't done anything wrong at all. using funky and obscure pronouns is not ableist in any way just because some people might have issues remembering them, and i think the take that neopronouns are ableist, especially for that reason, is an incredibly ridiculous and purely situational excuse to be mean.
that's like if someone told you their name, and then you got mad at them for using that name because you struggle to remember it and you demanded them to use a name that's easier and more convenient for you to use, rather than the name that the other person feels comfortable with. that's not an accommodation, that's just being an asshole.
second of all, some neurodivergent people (such as autistic people for example) struggle with change and complex concepts like language and pronouns. it's hard to get used to using neopronouns or someone changing their pronouns sometimes, especially when it happens for the first time because you're so used to it. however. finding change hard is NOT an excuse to misgender someone for your own comfort. someone's deeply personal identity should not be the cost of your own convenience, and refusing to acknowledge and respect that identity by not doing the bare minimum that is using their pronouns is incredibly close-minded and harmful.
third of all, the way someone chooses to express themselves is literally none of your business. someone uses pronouns that are confusing and seem grammatically incorrect to you? none of your business. someone's using "stereotypical" pronouns that "make the queer/autistic community look silly"? not your problem. we're all a little silly.
if you're neurodivergent and you find neopronouns, or any pronouns, difficult to remember or understand, here are some tips you can try instead of being mean:
make a fun little chart of people's names, their pronouns and how to pronounce them (ex. Name | Pronouns | Pronounce)! colour code them, use stickers and drawings, anything that will help you remember which pronouns someone uses. stuff like whiteboards and docs can work well for people who frequently change their pronouns or have a lot of them. making the chart fun, personalised and memorable can help a lot with memory issues for a lot of people.
try practising saying or typing their pronouns, whether that's in the mirror or in group chats. there's some really good pronoun dressing room websites that help illustrate how to use more obscure pronouns in conversation.
feel free to ask people! if you can, ask them what their pronouns are and how to pronounce them. i'm sure they will not be mad and will gladly help you learn :) (though please remember to not out someone and their pronouns if they are in an unsafe place. make sure they feel comfortable first before asking/telling someone about their pronouns because some spaces can be really bigoted and unsafe unfortunately.)
make a character that has neopronouns! making an OC that you get attached to can help you familiarise yourself with the concept and referring to that character frequently with their pronouns!
hopefully this is helpful. if you end up seeing anyone in the neurodivergent community use their neurodivergence and an excuse to misgender someone, please block them and don't start an argument. bigotry will not be tolerated in this community or on my blog.
disclaimer: this post is NOT saying that having memory issues/issues with change makes you a bad person, nor does it make you intentionally ignorant and rude. this post is specifically about people who willfully refuse to respect and use someone's correct pronouns on the basis that they're neurodivergent and find them confusing, and choose to intentionally misgender people for their own comfort/convenience.
edit: also!! i should add that this post isn't saying that nd people who legitimately find neopronouns as a concept difficult to grasp (such as people with learning disabilities) are bad people either! that was something i didn't think of when writing this because this post is more about neurodivergent transmeds/transphobes i've seen in the queer and nd communities specifically, but yeah!! i think accommodations absolutely should be made if a neurodivergent person finds themselves having communication difficulties related to neopronouns because some disabled people actually cannot use them. for extra clarification i have added a disclaimer at the beginning of this post. (thanks to @zolf for pointing this out in the notes)
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