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pinkandpurple360 · 19 days

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I’ve wanted to ask, if you were the writer and you (unfortunately) had to make Stolitz cannon, how would you have rewritten it? Starting from ep 1 season 1? Or in general how would you have rewritten Stolas?

Hi anon!

Oh well the first thing I would do…massive tone change. It would definitely not be this deep melodrama of angst and betrayal, but far more lighthearted. And comedic. Spoilers they don’t end up star crossed monogamous married soulmates, not even close. They’d be close friends with a strong bond. Who may occasionally sleep together if they feel like it. And with other people. That’s basically as deep as it gets in the romance department. But that’s exactly how they like it, in fact both surprised that the other doesn’t demand more than that. I’d also have it be that stolas gets one focussed episode per season. His only song is ‘We* will be okay’ to Octavia.

First off, stolas and Blitzø make a trade with the grimoire, but one that is not sexual in nature. He completely allowed Blitzø to steal the book, finding his clumsy breaking and entering method very entertaining. He was just that bored. The ruckus blitzø, a “clown” disguised assassin in truth, caused at octavias birthday party made him laugh for the first time in several centuries (yes in this version he’s ancient and immortal) so he simply looked the other way when the theft occurred. “Sir! This imp has your grimoire in his possession!” “Say do we have anything stronger than this wine? I cant think on a sober mind. Fetch me some absinthe if you please?” “But sir!” “Absinthe! Unless you are doubting me?”

In my version stolas is the precautionary heir himself. And Via is her child self. This is why stolas is so negligent to his duties, he’s nothing but a figurehead. Symbolic. He knows how unimportant he truly is. Both parents love Via, but find it hard to connect with her because of her circumstances as the “extra” precaution and their arranged marriage. In my version at the start stolas still has his kind side, but is arrogant, afraid to show that side, and he is misogynistic towards his wife who is always “upset for no reason” I think stolas’ plain inability to read the room or people’s feelings pretty funny, so I’m keeping it in. He says things like “I’m sorry…that you think I owe you an apology Stella” she threatens to hire a hitman but doesn’t have the heart to go through with it. Ah but neither of them are violent towards the imps. Because. Ew? My version of Stella is actually a person. She gets enraged, abuses alcohol, suffers post partum depression. It takes some time before she and stolas become on good terms again. They decide to separate amicably in the end, their bickering having no real bite behind it and just becoming banter.

Plot: Stolas allows Blitzø to use the Grimoire, in exchange for offing a specific demon in hell or human target on earth, once a month. He also returns the grimoire for when Stolas needs it for a ceremony, so that nobody can suspect it’s misuse. This is in secret, training him for the ultimate target of all, Paimon. So that stolas can reach the throne and have a reason to exist in his own view. Nobody can suspect the innocent stolas of targeting his father whom he “loves” dearly. You never know if his moments of kindness or madness are a facade or if they’re real. He’d have a lot of references to Hamlet in my version. The occasional sex is nothing but a cover story for Blitzo coming over, sometimes stolas oversells the cover story. It becomes real once the two of them get a bit too carried away after celebrating one of their hits going perfectly.

In my mind stolas is completely insane but in an eccentric way. Strikers assassination attempt was a complete ruse, the one who hired him was none other than stolas himself to test Blitzøs skills and to introduce him to angelic weaponry. Yes he hired a hitman on himself. Stella was a red herring. In a tragic sense he knows he could have died but values his own life so little, that he wouldn’t mind. “I just wanted to see what would happen” is his explanation. Blitzø gets angry with him over this, for messing with/scaring him, and reminds him that even though he doesn’t love stolas that way, he still has a daughter who would cry over him. This inspires stolas to actually start trying to form a connection with Via. This is an aside but I find the accelerated aging trope fascinating (think Jake the dogs kids or Renesmee from twilight) so Octavia ages twice as fast as a human would before it pauses around 21. Stolas takes her to LooLoo land at 17 because she was literally 8 years old like, 4 years ago. That’s why it’s so difficult to parent someone like that. And why he and Stella still baby her, they can’t keep up with her rapid maturing. But stolas refuses to hire a full time nanny, he wants to do it himself. His own ‘father’ was his imp butler, when this butler died of old age it really effected him. He doesn’t want that for via.

With Blitzø, they form a bond built on mutual trust, push and pull, fun, empathy, occasional lust, but the fun is at the heart of it. Stolas is extremely ignorant about sexual innuendo, and Blitzø is very flagrant about it but stolas never knows what the hell he’s taking about. So blitzø has to challenge himself to use non raunchy humour. This is one of the many ways they start to change eachother.

Polyamory ✨ tragically, stolas knows this cant be a forever relationship, he doesn’t want to give up immortality, and he knows Blitzø would never want to be a consort. Stolas doesn’t even want that either. He thinks marriage is stupid nonsense. Him and Stella are swingers as is custom in Goetia families (a secret custom that is). And Blitzø is in love with more than one person. Having hate filled spicy trysts with Striker, an on and off again relationship with Verosika, and an unspoken thing with his friend fizzarolli, the court jester, that’s currently platonic but more intimate than any other relationship (aka terrifying).

Stolas says this mans bombastic love life is better than any telenovela and gives him plenty of material for erotic novels. (I’ll admit the romance novel author idea is a clever one I had a similar idea)

I think my stolas version is demi sexual and possibly aromantic. I just find it more interesting that way. Another idea I had was stolas as a dusty librarian who blitzø is in unrequited love with. This version of stolas is completely aroace, sex repulsed and all. Giving them a tragic angle and some fun conflict. They find each other fascinating, the flirting is only one way, and stolas helps Blitzø find someone right for him. (Spoilers it’s fizz because you know me) I just find it so much cuter if Blitzø is the one who is the real hopeless romantic and even though stolas doesn’t have romantic urges outside the fiction he enjoys, he finds it fascinating from an outside perspective. Maybe even subvert the ‘repressed’ angle to say stolas was repressing his asexuality to make people like Stella and Blitzø happy.

And yeah, twist! Paimon is executed during the revolution. Stolas abdicates as they move toward a democracy. His kind nature and changed ways allow him to actually be elected by the hellborn, giving him all his wealth and power back..causing him to have learned absolutely nothing and still being a spoiled brat but!! at least not a deeply racist one 😔 but please don’t use the word impish in your next novel owl boy.

That was so fun!!!

#helluva boss critical #stolitz critical #helluva boss rewrite

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theofficialpresidentofmars · 7 days

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ok so I made my plans about somehow making some sort of Hamlet AU out of ATLA clear before I even began watching the show, but what I didn’t anticipate, was how easy the show was going to make it for me.

I don’t know if I have to tag atla spoilers because the show came out in 2005? but erm spoilers I suppose. to be completely honest i’m only on S3 E13 so this is subject to change, just throwing out ideas rn

Like there’s literally conspiracy leading to murder (apparently even poisoning, i’m not sure of the specifics) of the current head of power in order to gain control of the throne RIGHT THERE IN THE SHOW. It’s almost too easy. The only thing that could possibly make it easier would be if Iroh’s son were still alive and they’d gone for an already ascended Iroh instead of grandpappy Azulon. But even still.

So the story as far as I could see it would have it play out in a similar way to the actual show, with Ozai murdering Azulon for the throne. Considering the Danish throne in Hamlet is an elective one, if we opt for that side of things, Ozai would win public favour due to Iroh being in no condition to lead. Alternatively, we could just stick to canon, considering Ozai ends up with the throne either way.

I think the biggest changes that immediately arise are:

- Zuko’s probably not thaaat sad about Azulon. Which is fine. Rather than this revenge tragedy being about a fall from grace, it’s almost more a tragic inevitably. Zuko doesn’t start off as down in the dumps but that’s okay, because in terms of how far down he has to go morally, he’s still got a big headstart

- Zuko’s probably less annoyed at both his parents. This is a timeline in which Zuko was never sent to capture the Avatar to restore his honour, which means it’s quite possible the infamous Agni Kai never happened at all. Regardless, I will find some way to work his iconic scar into the story, whether that be beforehand, during his capture and send off in Act 4, or the final duel in Act 5. I will, however, have to find some reason for him to be slightly more annoyed at his father than in the original story (where the disapproval of his father just made him more desperate). Perhaps this time he fought back in the Agni Kai, and while still emerging scarred, was not exiled. Maybe he never spoke out at all, and simply disapproves of his father’s blatant favouritism of his sister. I may discuss this later on, but the key point is that he needs to be believably motivated to kill his own father, which he was not originally.

- Also, Zuko’s probably not that pissed at his mother for committing incest because… she didn’t really do that. Whatsoever. He’ll probably end up pissed at her eventually for sticking with his father or even in finding out her accessory to the crime (although perhaps holding off from the same revenge if her motives were different to Ozai’s), but the point is that there’ll be a removed layer of depth in terms of their relationship in comparison to the original. So no misogynistic Zuko, which while it might be a nay for story detail, is a yay for feminism.

Anyway, so the story starts off the same as usual, probably around the spring of the original series. There’s also a good chance that I’ll get Azulon’s whole poisoning deal to happen a little closer to the actual series, purely for pacing’s sake. Anyway, Firelord Ozai is again blatantly favouring his daughter over his crown prince son, and Azusa asks if she can go back to the Earth Kingdom to continue taking over it, which Ozai agrees to. So Zuko’s left alone in the castle to wander with his thoughts.

The second big set of problems that arise are that Zuko doesn’t have very many friends. Which is a bit of an issue in terms of figuring out a Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. I’ve got Mai down for Ophelia, so there’s a good chance by process of elimination that Ty Lee’s going to end up as Rosencrantz. Either way, for now, we’ll just leave that basket case alone and talk about when he gets on the roof to talk to ghosts.

Anyway, so yada yada yada, Zuko gets sent to talk to a spirit that looks like his late grandfather. Spirit shows up, claims to be the guy, and asks Zuko to avenge him. He spares no detail to the crown prince about his bloody murder, the vicious betrayal that took his life, and claims it brought dishonour upon Ozai’s family line. He tells Zuko that Ozai is already past the point of no return, but as the crown prince and the next firelord, Azulon says there is still a chance for his own redemption. If Zuko wants to redeem himself in order to claim his rightful place on the throne, he must avenge Azulon, and restore his honour.

If we want to use Ozai’s favouritism towards Azula as a way to turn Zuko against him, Ozai can also mention how it was his, and then Iroh’s destiny to ascend to the throne and take the mantle of the firelord. But clearly, Ozai has no problem going against fate in order to change who the throne is going to. It may be Zuko’s destiny now, but again, if Ozai did it once, he might do it again. Azula is a better fit, and if Zuko doesn’t take care of him first, Ozai might be tempted to take things into his own hands again.

Anyway, the point is Zuko’s head gets filled with all the restore-his-honour stuff about avenging his grandfather for the throne. But he knows that spirits aren’t always what they seem, and also this is like, his dad, so he’s a little hesitant at first. And naturally, his first thought is that he needs to gather information, so he puts on a little bit of an antic disposition.

Now it should be said, for all intents and purposes, I see no reason why the Avatar storyline couldn’t be more or less going on in the background. A couple of changes, yes, but it’s not like we’re strangers to those at this point. The point is, instead of Fortinbras, the ever impending doom on the Fire Nation will be the Avatar or something.

Mai, whom Zuko has been dating a little more closely due to not being on a ship in the South Pole somewhere, notices that he’s been acting a little strange. Iroh, who’s still hanging around the palace, wonders if it’s possibly the symptoms of love sickness, and decides to investigate. He talks to Zuko, but the prince, not having spent a large amount of time in close proximity to his uncle and his mysterious proverbs and therefore without the same affections for him, dismisses his words and misreads his uncle as a doddering old man.

Ty Lee (or whomever) also get sent to spy on him, but Zuko (having grown up with Azula for a sister), is paranoid, and catches on straight away. She brings him news of a troupe of travelling actors, whom she met during her tour with the circus, who are in town, and Zuko hatches a plan.

Meanwhile, Iroh and Ursa try again to see if Zuko has been bit by the love bug by sending Mai in to talk to him personally, to return his gifts (as he’s been sort of slacking in the boyfriend department recently) and to see how he reacts. As they spy, they catch him pondering aloud to himself. Instead of ‘to be or not to be’, a thoughtful soliloquy on life, death, and the question of why doesn’t everybody just kill themselves, Zuko wonders aloud about honour, destiny, and balance. How they tie into one another, what fate has in store for him, why he should have so much compared to the average man. What destiny means if it can be so easily changed and imposed. Where honour comes from, who decides how it is earned. And mostly, about the concept of balance, in the royal family, in the Four Nations and the hundred year war, in the Avatar and what he represents, and in himself. It’s super deep and thoughtful, and I’m not writing any of it down.

Anyway, and then Mai comes in, and Zuko, all hopped up on paranoia and daddy and sister issues and people being sent to spy on him, accuses her of not loving him and going behind his back. He totally yells at her a bunch about it, and Ursa and Iroh are left with the realisation that whatever he’s being plagued by, it’s not love.

The actors then come and perform a rendition (on Zuko’s command) of the events leading to and of Azulon’s demise and it… leaves much to be desired. Regardless, it gets the job done, and Ozai runs away.

Zuko finds him somewhere, and has the opportunity to kill him, and you can tell this is one of the bits that I haven’t quite figured out just yet, but for whatever reason doesn’t because it wouldn’t be honourable, or something.

Ursa calls Zuko into her chambers, worried about him, and Zuko snaps at her, yelling at her for supporting Ozai and her part in the conspiracy. She calls for help, and someone behind the curtain calls for help, and Zuko realises he’s being spied on. Without thinking very hard about it, he assumes it’s Ozai, and slices up the arras. Ursa freaks out, and Zuko freaks out too, but upon inspection of the body, it turns out instead of killing his treacherous father Ozai, he’s accidentally just gone and killed beloved Uncle Iroh.

And I know what you must be thinking. ‘Blasphemy! Iroh can’t be killed. He’s way too cool.’ and while I’d agree under normal circumstances, this actually serves as a really good point of no return for Zuko that parallels that of the original play, because this is where the nail gets hammered in that this really isn’t our Zuko anymore. This Zuko didn’t spend three years alongside a good influence that would eventually lead him to go down a better path, this Zuko continued to grow up in Fire Nation walls. And even with the pre-existing compassion and capacity to change for the better in his heart, the one person who would have seen it come to fruition is now dead. This is a turning point that symbolises that whatever person Zuko could have become, the one he did in the original series, is now forever lost.

Anyway, so after yelling at and then crying with his mother for a bit (despite everything, he was still always her favourite. which isn’t hard when Azula’s your other child), and then seeing some more spirit action, and then crying some more, Zuko hides the body and runs. He doesn’t get very far, as he’s captured and taken to Ozai, who’s furious with him. Zuko refuses to answer any of his questions in a straight manner, and is sent off to the colonies to ‘cool down’. He is to be assisted by Ty Lee, and potentially co.

On his way out from the Fire Nation, Zuko spots a gathering of Water Tribe and various Earth Kingdom ships, and reasons that the Avatar must be planning to invade the Fire Nation at some point. He examines the likelihood of it working, and what he’s clearly willing to risk.

Later on, during the boat ride, unable to sleep, Zuko sneaks into Ty Lee’s cabin and steals the letter she’s been entrusted to give the militia in charge of the colony they’re headed to upon their arrival. He opens and reads it, and to his shock, it’s an order to carry out his immediate execution upon their receiving of the letter. He finds the necessary materials, and forges a second letter that instead orders the deaths of the bearers of the letter, and seals it with the signet ring of the Fire Nation royalty. Hours later, the ship is attacked by pirates and Zuko escapes onto their vessel, capturing it and directing it back towards the Fire Nation.

Azula comes back from the Earth Kingdom to find Iroh dead, her brother missing, and Mai with her mind on the edge. She’s annoyed at Zuko for reducing her friend to this state, and even more so when Mai ends up losing herself to it. So when Ozai recieves a message from his son announcing his return and suggests to Azula that they get revenge on her brother, she’s more than happy to help out.

Zuko arrives back in the Fire Nation, and during his trek back to the castle, upon seeing the graves being dug for the Fire Nation soldiers lost to the war, ponders again about the nature of balance and honour, this time in a classic life/death way. He has a frustrating conversation with a particularly witty gravedigger, and then spies a funeral taking place. He notices members of his family there, and realising it’s for Mai, crashes the funeral, and jumps into her grave. Azula jumps after him, and the two begin to fight as the accuse the other of not loving Mai enough. They’re pried apart, and Ozai reminds Azula to save her energy for their duel.

Zuko is invited to a duel, and in my mind this can go one of two ways:

- Either it’s the classic Agni Kai, which Zuko challenges Azula to during the fight in the graveyard, and she readily accepts, scheduling it for the day after, or

- Zuko is inviting to a sword fighting duel with his sister during the eclipse, which he readily accepts, as he’s willing to show off in the one field he might be able to properly beat her in.

If the sword fight route is taken, it happens much in the same way as the original play, with the poisoned blade and cup. Both get poisoned in the exchange of swords, Zuko takes the opportunity to finish his father, and they all pretty much end up dying during the eclipse.

If the Agni Kai route is taken, it happens right before the eclipse, and the poisoned cup is prepared again just in case (which Ursa ends up drinking). The fatal move ends up happening when Azula shoots lighting at Zuko, who redirects it, but doesn’t let the energy travel in the proper direction and instead lets it travel through his heart (due to him never being taught in this timeline), leading to him managing to redirect it back at his sister, wounding her fatally, but also stopping his heart in the process. When Azula is happy to reveal Ozai’s involvement due to her bitterness at her own impending demise, Ozai tries to stop Zuko, but the eclipse has just started, and Zuko uses his swords again to finish off the job before succumbing.

As this does happen during the eclipse, moments after the royal family dies, the Avatar and the ground force invasion team take the castle, arriving to the dismal sight. With the Firelord out of the way, the tide of the war is easily turned and it finds a peaceful ending at the hands of the Avatar.

In this timeline, the Avatar never really knew Zuko, but with the knowledge of his lineage, wonders if there was ever a world in which they were friends. He considers as well, how despite Zuko’s actions being largely violent, negative, and a product of his Fire Nation upbringing, they ended up bringing good, peace, and light to the world in the greater picture of things. Zuko’s destiny seemed to be determined by his heritage: his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. But just as much as one side had an effect on his destiny and where the prince would end up, the other side would have one just as great.

Zuko would live and die by the law and nature of the Fire Nation, but he would also be the one to bring balance to the world.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #zuko #atla zuko #prince zuko #hamlet #hamletposting #shakespeare

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insufferableprotagonistpoll · 3 months

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Round 3

Propaganda why Marinette Dupain-Cheng is insufferable:

She easily gets away with bad, stalkerish behavior, it always feels like she can ‘do no wrong’ unless the show wants us to pity her, and the show writers want us to think she is a quirky and socially awkward girl when throughout the series we see her be friends with basically everyone in Paris with many connections to high up places.

I get she has social anxiety but the way she goes about stalking Adrien is kind of the worst like she even has creep shots of him hanging in her room? That’s weird. I think Adrien’s going through enough without having to deal with the main character being his stalker lol. I know they’re (spoilers) at this point but in the beginning it was so sus

In the newest season, Marinette hides the fact that Hawkmoth was Adrien’s dad. This leads to the bastard getting a statue and honored as a hero after his death. Adrien now never gets to know the fact that his abusive and neglectful father was the one trying to kill him and is instead proud of him.

Her crush on Adrien is like a black hole for her character. Things she’s done because of it:

1) stolen property

2) ruined dates

3) humiliated other characters

4) has a chart of Adrien’s daily schedule for the next year in her room (this is stalking)

5) broke into his room and sniffed his pillow (also a crime)

6) sniffed, took the hair from, and tried to kiss what she thought was a wax statue of Adrien

7) convinced her parents to let her go to China. Why? Not because she wants to connect with her mother’s heritage, not even because she’s a budding fashion designer and Shanghai is considered a fashion hotspot. It’s because Adrien was there.

I started the show, watched one episode, and never tried again. I simply do not vibe with her.

shes annoyinng anf shes a stalker

I love fanon miraculous but by god she has got to stop obsessively stalking her crush and generally making a ton of other terrible decisions. I’d submit Adrien too but he’s more of a deuteragonist

More propaganda

Anti propaganda

Propaganda why Aelin Ashryver Galathynius is insufferable:

Your basic Mary Sue. Styled as the incredibly cool best-assassin in the land at only 18, she nevertheless is constantly snuck up upon, distracted by pretty boys, and possesses not an ounce of wit. In a competition between murderers and thieves to win a place as the King's Champion, she sees a bag of chocolates on her bed that she didn't put there and immediately starts eating it and gushing about how much she adores chocolate - nevermind that they just had a trial involving poison, which several of her competitors are adept at. She's always right, and other characters exist just to tell her how awesome and beautiful and wonderful she is. And then she turns out to be a super special magical fey princess!

I generally don't believe that a Mary Sue is a bad thing, but the only thing I remember about this book was how she had been in prison for years but was super young but was also still the most super-specialest assassin. And she kept reading when she should have been training or sleeping. Like, girl, this is not final exams where you can stay up all night and then roll into class in your pajamas and still squeak out a C. It's supposed to be life and death. Her character traits didn't make her relatable, they made her a moron

Heir to a kingdom plus turquoise eyes plus best assassin in the world plus protagonist centered morality

Anti propaganda

Propaganda why Dean Winchester is insufferable:

Really mean to Cas (called him a child, zero respect for him, calls him family and casts him out when the angels are looking for him), and an absolute dick to Jack (threatening to kill him CONSTANTLY)

>Was a misogynist (loved to call women skanks, bitches, hoes)

>Used gay as an insult multiple time during the show's run (idc if he's gay an homophobic, that's still insulting)

>Beat up his brother for being possessed

>Beat up his brother for losing his soul (not his brother's fault)

>Used dubious consent to get his brother possessed in a different unrelated possession incident after possession was being used (badly...this is supernatural after all) as a metaphor for SA

>Threatened to murder his brother when he was hallucinating (yay we aren't ableist)

>Locked a child up in a box

>Threatened to kill the child he locked up in a box

>Made a creepy, sexual comment about a barely-legal high school girl

>Got the woman and kid he was living with memory-wiped

misogynistic scumbag. theres also a few different times that dean finds teenagers sexy with the most recent and prominent example that i can recall being the scooby doo crossover episode in season 13 where hes super into daphne who in the version they chose for the episode is 15-16 and is interacting with her as if shes a real person cause they got magicked into the episode. he treats everyone around him like shit and the only time the narrative agrees that thats a bad thing is when he has the mark of cain put on him and hes acting no differently than he does usually its just now acknowledged that hes treating others like shit. ive been rewatching the show for shits and giggles with a friend and wow he really does not treat anyone well but i wanna focus on how he treats sam for a second cause dude's hobby seems to be ignoring what his brother wants and lying to sam about doing stuff that directly concerns him the demon blood and souless things are reasonable cause those were both Bad for sam but theyre still part of a wider pattern and the most prominent example of this being when dean tricks sam into letting gadreel possess him and actually gaslights sam about it with the whole ordeal ending when its revealed gadreel lied about who he was and while possessing sam murders a friend of theirs. his voice is just also stupid as fuck im sorry this is just petty but he just sounds like hes trying so hard to be gruff n intimidating but he just sounds like a kid pretending to be batman

Dean’s list of sins is crazy long because of how long the show ran, but the key thing for me is that post-locking Sam in the bunker (season 4 I think?), I just can’t enjoy their relationship anymore. I normally love their sibling dynamic, but Dean’s ultimate worst past-the-point-of-no-return moment for me was demonizing (pun intended) his little brother for being “addicted” to demon blood, which only happened because of a series of events that were either Dean’s or someone else’s fault, not Sam’s. I also really dislike how the fandom treats Dean like this angel (pun intended) who has done no wrong and even tries to justify the MULTIPLE times he’s beaten up and otherwise abused his little brother. Canon Dean is like the polar opposite of fanon Dean: he’s homophobic and racist (jokes about a Black man being sexually assaulted in prison), misogynistic (take a shot every time he calls a woman a slur and you’ll die of alcohol poisoning), and abusive.

#marinette dupain cheng #mlb marinette #miraculous ladybug #mlb #aelin ashryver galathynius #aelin galathynius #celaena sardothien #throne of glass #dean winchester #supernatural #supernatural dean #insufferable protagonist poll #insufferable protagonist tournament #tournament poll

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rotationalsymmetry · 1 month

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Gonna write a bit of ATLA meta about Uncle Iroh.

Since I saw a post that rubbed me the wrong way, but in the opposite of the way posts about Iroh usually rub me the wrong way, so I'll need a bit of a lead up to explain why both approaches are wrong. Spoilers ahead.

When people look back on a story, they tend to compress it in their minds, as though everything happened all at once. People have a static image of Camelot that includes both Merlin and Lancelot, even though they were never both at Camelot at the same time.

And I think when people look back at Avatar: The Last Airbender, they look at it knowing that Zuko joins the Gaang in the end, and knowing that, they forget how Zuko looks and what Zuko does at the start of the story. Because Zuko is a pretty unambiguous classic cartoon villain at the start of the story.

He's substantially more powerful than the protagonists (look at how easily he bats Sokka out of the way.) His goals are in direct opposition to the protagonists' goals, and if he is successful it will be disastrous to both them and the world. And like most cartoon villains, he's personally a dick: he's constantly angry/impatient, he lashes out, his introduction isn't quite like Azula's where she tells the ship's captain that she expects him to be more afraid of her than the tides, but he does treat the lives of his crew as disposable in an early episode, when there's a storm. (He gets better at the end of the episode, call that foreshadowing.) He's even got a scar on his face, in the long tradition of physically disfigured villains.

And once you've watched the whole show once, sure, it's hard to see him that way. And you can point to some signs that he was going to come around -- he didn't kill anyone (that we know of), when Aang let himself be captured in exchange for Zuko leaving the village alone, he did leave it alone, rather than backing out on his promise once he could. But so what? Plenty of unrepentant villains have a sense of honor and will keep their word, makes for interesting stories.

The point I'm trying to make is: there is only so much one show can do, only so much story they can get in to one story. And in that finite amount of story, they spent a TON of time showing the audience that no matter how much of a villain someone looks to be at first, that villain is still a person.

And they also spend a lot of time showing other people are people. Random Earth Kingdom civilians like Haru. Random Earth Kingdom guerilla fighters like Jet. When we get to the Northern Water Tribe, we find a bunch of people who are just people: old men who are set in their misogynistic ways but maybe can be coaxed into changing, young men who are kind of jerks (but who still don't deserve to die at the hands of an invasive force), young women torn between their own desires and their sense of duty, people people people. And when we get flashbacks to the Air Nomads, they're people: some more serious, some more fun and flighty, just people. And when we get to the Fire Nation, they're just people.

So let's look at the rest of the Fire Nation royal family. Azula's a sympathetic villain: she's scary, she's dangerous, she does appalling things, we see her suffering and the show gives us enough information about her and her family's dynamics, the way their father played them off against each other, to see why she did what she did. Azula ends the story in a situation similar to the one where Zuko is at the start: Zuko starts having lost everything and nearly everyone who ever mattered to him; Azula ends having lost everything and everyone. And we don't see that with Ozai, all we get of a potentially softer side of Ozai is a picture of him as a small child, but it's a short story and there's only so much time and it's not really about Ozai, and surely we can infer that there is something like Azula's story in his, something going on where to him his actions made sense.

Something going on where if you had Ozai's life, his background, his circumstances, his worldview, maybe you would act the same.

What I mean is, Zuko did not become a person because he stopped being a villain. His personhood was there when he was a villain, and was still there when he joined the heroes. And Azula's personhood and her villainhood can coexist. And Ozai's villainhood and personhood, with a little extrapolation, can coexist.

And Iroh. The Dragon of the West, the general of the great siege of Ba Sing Se. He's one person. He doesn't need to be split, either you ignore the harm he did or you decide that the harm he did means he must suffer for it, must be punished for it. He can be a person, and a person who did harm, and a person who did harm for reasons that made sense to him at the time, this is all one thing, it is all there in the story, not all of it is there for Iroh because it is not Iroh's story, but if you look at Zuko's story and Azula's and Chit Sang (guy at the boiling rock they tried to escape with) and Jet and Jeong Jeong and Hama and Yon Rha and Hei Bai, and how things went down with Aang in the Avatar Day episode (ie the town that wanted to punish him for a very old murder that the Avatar did, and they were in the wrong for that even though the Avatar did kill the person they said the Avatar killed) and what happened in The Great Divide (ie that ultimately it didn't matter who was at fault) it's all there in other parts of the story, you can extrapolate.

Iroh doesn't need to be punished, not by anyone else and not by himself in the form of feeling agonized over the harm he caused (much as I love angst in fiction.) Nobody needs to be punished; suffering is bad, causing more suffering does not make other people's suffering less. And he doesn't need to be innocent and pure to not deserve punishment. He's not innocent. He did a lot of harm. We can infer that he caused that harm for reasons that made sense to him at the time, whether they make sense to him in retrospect or not and whether he actually did have better options under the circumstances, which he may well not have. We're all people. We're all people. We're all people.

Like it or not, agree with it or not, ATLA is about forgiveness, about not seeking revenge, about not increasing the amount of suffering in the world by taking an eye for an eye. The story did not punish Zuko for having started on the wrong side, even though he started out as a stereotypical cartoon villain and he would have caused unspeakable devastation to the world if he'd succeeded at his initial goal. And it would not punish Iroh for what he did. And anyone looking for either a way to completely exonerate Iroh -- pretend he has never done anything harmful in his life -- or to criticize the show for not having him punished for his wrongdoing, has completely missed the central theme of the show.

Which is not separate from any imperialism/colonialism is bad messaging you want to draw from it. The show is not claiming colonialism is bad because it sides specifically with the Water Tribe or with everyone-but-the-Fire-Nation. It's against colonialism because...colonialism is bad...for people. Who have inherent value, whose lives have inherent value, whose lives do not stop having inherent value when they harm other people. It's one message.

#atla meta #zuko #uncle iroh #atla spoilers #here I am being a pacifist on main again #aang's refusal to take Ozai's life was not tacked on at the end #it's consistent theming throughout

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docholligay · 4 months

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Wintering by Peter Geye

The absolute best moment of this book:

“History and memory aren’t the same thing.” “How are they different? “History doesn’t abide acts of the imagination but memories depend on it. And memories are as much what we’ve forgotten as what we recall. History cannot be forgotten” (as a history girlie, I don't even AGREE, but I love love the ideas in that and definitely find them worth engaging with)

Trying to think of what I would say about this book that's not spoilery, and isn't quite as dismissive as I think I could sound about it. Because there are a lot of redeeming qualities in this book. But, at core, it's what I'm going to very reductively call, "A book for your 60 year old dad" It's a bildungsroman about mustache twirling evil in a small town, the seduction and purity of nature but especially survivalism against the elements, and realizing your parents don't know what the fuck they're doing.

Doc, uh, don't you love the purity of survival against the elements? Well, yes, I am your 60 year old dad also, and I can have a LOT of fun with a fuckin...Call of the Wild moment. Join me in spoiler town for the rest

I think the issue is not, "Learning what sort of man you are up against the freezing winter on the border between Minnesota and Canada." I think those things are in fact very clarifying. But. There has to be more to carry the book, and a lot of what resonates with the author doesn't resonate with me.

Geye makes a big deal out of Harry, Gus' father. I called it a bildungsroman and I guess it is but as I'm sitting here, I think it's actually more about Harry and Gus' reactions to Harry, even after he's fucking dead, then it is about Gus himself. I could tell you everything about Harry only a handful of things about Gus. It's about Harry and how Harry is a great guy and comes from a long line of good men who were involved with shitty women, but don't worry Berit waited for him until his wife left because he was so great and she knew from the outset it was only him for her. Which is actually a larger problem with this novel: Women are bitches or dogs. But I am not going to be harsh enough to call it misogynist because the flat characters are nearly everyone who isn't Harry, so at that point its just a blind spot.

Speaking of, my GOD, what a mustache twirling villain. To the point of, I shit you not, pushing his disabled war hero brother into the open hole of a cliff fall. That is not a joke I made, that is me recounting the tale to you.

So, why don't you say the story is awful, full stop? Because when its focused on the nature, and the winter, and the fact that Harry has clearly imagined this wintering as a vehicle for revenge more than anything, and that he has endangered his son in order to try and get his moment with Charlie, that nothing else about this fucking mattered, it has moments of brilliance. The lack of planning and an end, the map made up of imagined lakes and rivers out of a romantic sense of exploration, the mercy of nature and the borderlands against its harshness, the moose eaten by wolves because they were tangled into each others' horns from a fight. (But of course despite what would have been brilliant foreshadowing, Harry can't die here)

Harry is so great that he doesn't even die when he dies, he wanders off into the winter woods and they do not find his body I am not making a joke I am not joking.

#Doc reads

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mzminola · 2 years

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So follow-up thought to the Cass vs Jason Battle for the Cowl What If:

Once the battle is over, Cass is now Batman. That was always a given. She’s taking over in a situation where Bruce is presumed dead, Oracle & the Birds of Prey are mostly off doing their own thing, Dick is Nightwing, Tim is Robin, Stephanie is still Spoiler for now, and Damian is choosing between staying in Gotham with the Bats or leaving with his mother and presumably returning to the League of Assassins.

Cass & Damian together is a good set-up for the story to explore concepts of upbringing, personal agency, loyalty to a person vs loyalty to an idea, and people’s ability to change.

In canon, Dick!Batman decided to take Robin from Tim and give the mantle to Damian, with his stated reasons being that he’s uncomfortable having a Robin he views as an equal, and he thinks Damian needs it.

Cass!Batman is not going to do that.

Firstly: In this era of continuity, Dick set the Robin mantle aside and became Nightwing, and the problem (aside from all the reasons why he left) was Bruce giving Robin to Jason without asking. Not from having Robin taken. And this was about a decade ago in-universe. Cass had the experience of Bruce taking the Batgirl mantle from her while she was active in the role, with pretty much no explanation, within a couple years of BftC. She’s not going to take Robin away from Tim.

Secondly, and where we really dig into the themes: Cass and Dick have fairly different life experiences that are going to lead them to different views of what Damian needs, and what about himself Damian is responsible for.

Cassandra and Damian were both raised in the League of Assassins. Damian within the main bases surrounded by lots of people, Cass in an isolated base with her dad bringing people in for short periods of time.

Cass, at age eight, killed one man and decided to never do that again.

Damian at age ten, has killed multiple people and only stops because his dad told him to.

Cass is loyal to the idea of Batman. The Bat represents ideals Cass already held, and gave her a practical model and support network to uphold them.

Damian is loyal to Bruce. He’s at a point in his life where he wants to get to know and learn from his father, and as far as I can tell in canon decided that with Bruce dead, learning from his senior-most student, Dick Grayson, is as close as he’s going to get.

Cass likely has sympathy for Damian and understands his fears, but she’s never going to take his upbringing as an excuse for his actions. She’s not going to take it as a reason to go easy on him. She’s never going to say “He doesn’t know better.”

Because she was also raised to be a killer, and chose otherwise.

At a younger age than Damian is now.

Why would she think he needs extra help learning right from wrong? Why would she think he needs incentives for ‘good’ behavior?

At the same time, she’s never going to give up on him. More than anyone else, Cass is going to have unshaking faith that Damian can change. Cass’s Batgirl run’s biggest theme was people’s ability and choice to change. The idea that no matter what wrongs you have done before, you can always choose to stop, choose to do better.

Whether Damian sticks around…if this were a contemporary story he’d probably decide to learn from Cass for the same reasons he decided to learn from Dick. She’s a student of his father.

If this was the Preboot era writing though? That version of Damian was misogynistic as hell. He didn’t even respect his own mother half the time. He would not want to learn from Cass. He’d either decide to learn from Nightwing, or go back to the League.

It’s definitely a more interesting story where he decides to learn from Cass, because otherwise it’s just a couple pages of discussion and then they split up. Him sticking around is what’s needed to explore these themes rather than just passingly mention them, and also?

It be a chance for Cass to see where the League upbringing has influenced her aside from killing by seeing pieces of herself reflected in Damian’s mindset and behaviors.

#Cassandra Cain #Damian Wayne #Batman #BatCass AU #Batfam #DC #possibly also #comics meta #agency is a big theme with Cass #including how a character responds to things OUTSIDE their control #Cass couldn't control how she was raised #she couldn't control the psychic accident that rewrote parts of her brain #Batgirl 2000 #focused on how IMPORTANT Cass's choices when she DOES agency are #and I think those themes would be good for stories about Damian too

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ya-world-challenge · 5 months

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Book Review: The Conqueror's Saga by Kiersten White (🇷🇴 Romania)

[image 1: book trilogy covers: And I Darken, Now I Rise, Bright We Burn. On each cover a spear slashes through an object: a flower, a necklace, a pomegranate; image 2: map showing modern Romania; image 3: the view from Poenari castle in Romania - the walls of a stone fortress drop away to a steep mountainous landscape covered in green; source: wikimedia]

And I Darken; Now I Rise; Bright We Burn

Author: Kiersten White

YA World Challenge for 🇷🇴 Romania

I've seen some criticism of this series by Romanian reviewers, one of which is Lada's name (which I agree is odd), and others that are to be expected when you take a national hero (Vlad the Impaler), gender-flip him, and write him in love with the leader of an empire that oppressed your nation for centuries. So it's important to acknowledge this series as pure fiction. It did have me flipping through Wikipedias of the the real historical characters mentioned, many of whom I had never learned about before.

While much of the series (1 and 2 especially) take place in the Ottoman Empire (modern Turkey), the series follows the point of view of two siblings from Wallachia, a historical region of the modern state of Romania.

Review

Lada and her brother Radu are left as hostages of the Ottoman Empire as children to keep their father "loyal" as a vassal. I loved Lada's character from the beginning: strong-willed, possessive, brutal even as a child, and "ugly". The character-building was expert and the way the author weaves relationships and motivations in a complex tapestry, against a backdrop of a rich world.

And I Darken builds the siblings' relationship with the future sultan Mehmed, setting up that messy love triangle, and a scheme to get Mehmed on the throne. While Radu falls for Islam, Lada is never not wholly dedicated to Wallachia.

With Now I Rise, oh lord, the gay angst!... dear Radu. With Lada gone off to find support for her kingdom, Radu is left with his angst. We see the battle of Constantinople, and interconnected politics around Eastern Europe as Lada raises her army and searches for allies.

Bright We Burn, and Lada is ready to go full-on Impaler. The action was great, until... the entire climax and ending. I felt the finale really cheated Lada and did not serve her character. I didn't feel that book 3 lived up to its title. (And god, what a cringe epilogue!)

I have such mixed feelings about this series because it is incredibly well-written and engaging throughout, with an epic world and depth of character. But I dislike the ending the more I think about it. Without spoilers, I can just say that I think the whole feminist theme built up through the book fell apart in the end.

Books 1-2 I would have rated 4.5 stars, but Book 3 ultimately pulled the rating down.

Other reps: #muslim #gay #m/f #lesbian side characters #orthodox christian

Genres: #alternate history #drama #romance #adventure #war

★ ★ ★ 3 stars

SPOILER rant under the cut:

In Book 2, the gunpowder lady said something to Radu - that Lada would be the type to go out with fire. With a title called Bright We Burn, I fully expected to see Lada going down as brightly and destructively as a meteorite, taking herself out with everything. What a disappointment.

The ending and Lada's forced 'submission' to Radu, by him taking away every last thing she had, under the guise of *compassion*, quite rankled me. It took away all the independence of her character that the series had built up from the beginning, and replaced it with nothing.

And. The. Kid. That epilogue. No, just no. I hate that such a promising series had to end with the cisheteronormative notion that "you must bear progeny to have a legacy". Fuck that. It completely threw away everything that Lada was just to have this "oh cute she acts like her mother" moment. 🤮 That and Radu vandalizing the church floor with his weak, misogynist scratchings.

It could have been so much better.

#book review #ya world challenge #romania #and i darken #now i rise #bright we burn #historical medieval to 19th century #historical fiction #romance #drama #adventure #war #alternate history #m/f #gay #lesbian #muslim #orthodox christian

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thesweetnessofspring · 6 months

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What's your opinion of President Snow as a character in THG trilogy? Was he a great villain?

* Spoiler for TBOSAS *

After reading the novel, what's your opinion about Coriolanus Snow 'transformation' in the end?

Was it his nature or the way he was nurtured that led him to become the character we know?

Thank you :)

@curiousnonny

Even though Snow was physically in the novels very little, he's still a major presence through his threats and surveillance. He's just the president in the first book, but come the start of Catching Fire he's playing games with Katniss and attempting to maintain control but failing. He's very realistically written as a villain who takes and accepts calculated losses--he isn't wanting to "destroy the world" but his method of maintaining order causes at least 95% of the rest of the population to suffer so the minority can be comfortable and a minority of the minority living lavishly and greedily (not unlike the world now...)

Personally, I think that if children are given a basic level of physical and emotional safety, they grow up into decent people. Yes, even people with *insert disorder here* even though it may take more work and self-awareness for them. So I think the majority of Snow's trajectory comes from nurture, not nature. Some people like to point out that "from page one" Coriolanus is thinking elitist, misogynistic, thoughts and therefore it's by his nature he's bad. However, these are all factors in Coriolanus's life up until page one of TBOSAS:

His father was a cruel man.

His mother was kind, and died with her new baby during an attack during the war

His father died

He endured starvation (to the point it affected his growth) and saw another adult resort to cannibalism to survive

Has grown up being told he's a Snow and therefore one of the best families in the world and yet-

Struggles to find food even ten years after the war, clothing, and has to lie and cover it up

Is in an elitist social circle that looks down on not just the lower classes, but others in that social circle

Was raised during a time of wartime patriotism and propaganda, including Capitol superiority and dehumanizing the districts, which is further supported at home with Grandma'am.

Wealth, war, and entitlement corrupted Coriolanus from who he might have been. Some people like to point out that Sejanus or Lucy Gray could have been a turning point for him, yet so much had already riddled his mind and influenced him. Not only his elite status, but the adults in his life. Grandma'am with her Capitol superiority, Dr. Gaul with her mentorship, Dean Highbottom with his antagonism, even Strabo with his attempts to become Capitol and use Coriolanus as an adopted son, who he wished his own son had been like. Others argue that Tigris wasn't like Coriolanus, yet while she had compassion for Lucy Gray, she didn't take action to stop the Games because she, too, was just trying to survive. Nor did she receive the same attention and grooming as Coriolanus did, both from the Grandma'am (who declared Coriolanus would be president one day) and Dr. Gaul. Additionally, as far as we know, Tigris was a stylist in the Games up to Katniss having memories of her. It's possible she was part of the rebellion from the beginning, yet Plutarch seems to be the Capitol instigator of the rebellion, so she came under it later in life, though when we're not sure. All that to say--she did participate in and benefit from the Capitol lifestyle and Snow name, too. We don't know what led her to turn things around herself, though I suspect there was some kind of "nurture" she received on top of her nature.

Obviously Snow still had his choices that he made and there were glimmers of a possibility to turn himself around. And part of him, no matter what, would have likely had issues with control and his own pride, but the circumstances around him really encouraged these nasty elements of his personality and fostered them into the dictator we know in the original trilogy, while very little supported any encouragement toward social justice.

#tbosas #coriolanus snow #curiousnonny #the hunger games

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miraculouscriticismshub · 10 months

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MLB twitter be like :

SEASON 5 spoilers ahead 🛑🛑🛑

MLB twitter fandom : Chloe being 14 isn't an excuse to stage a coup in Revolution or any other crimes she committed. Her becoming a dictator and bullying people is unforgivable . She is beyond redemption and will never mature or become a better person in the future because she is a heartless spoiled brat ! Stop blaming Audrey for abandoning her because nobody wants to have someone like Chloe as their daughter. Her mother abandoning her ( which is Chloe's fault) doesn't excuse her for being an entitled witch. Andre had every right to disown her and replace her with Zoe because Chloe is SATAN !! Chloe's finally leaving Paris ? , MLB NATION WE WON !!! She deserves to be sent off to live with her abusive mother because she is an irredeemable racist monster. She's useless , utterly useless and should DIE IN HELL ! Anyone who feels a bit bad for her is mentally insane and deserves to DIE !! 🔪🔪🔪

Also MLB twitter fandom : Felix is only fourteen , still an innocent child. He's still so young and has his whole life ahead of him. A lot can change from teenage years to adulthood and Felix still has a lot to learn . This poor baby was traumatized so much by his Father that he will never be the same. He deserves to be excused for SA, Stalking and Kidnapping because he's a socially awkward cinnamon roll who's been sheltered for most of his life which is Colt's doing therefore Colt is to blame for everything because he is the ANTI-CHRIST !! This innocent little boy just wanted his freedom and only committed genocide to save his cousin and Kagami from the "evil humans". Can you really blame him for what he did ? Felix's killing spree will forever be ICONIC and his song was such a SLAY !! In this house , we STAN FELIX AND SUPPORT GENOCIDE !!! He keeps his Miraculous and joins the team in the end ?, Fathom Nation WE WON !!! Hope he lives happily ever after with Kagami and receives an apology from Ladybug because Felix is Jesus Christ reincarnated and can do no wrong !!

Hypocrisy at it's finest 🤦🤦🤦

The double standards and Misogyny this fanbase has towards the female characters irritates me so much. 😠😠😠

( Side note : This is not a post defending Chloe's actions or hating on Felix, this is just a fun joke shedding some light on how Hypocritical and Misogynistic the Twitter side of the fandom is. Not all of MLB twitter but most of them are like this. If you want to know more about my thoughst on this , check out my post " Felix and Chloe , two sides of the same coin " . This is just My opinions, feel free to disagree , please stay respectful.)

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scalamore · 10 months

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(Spoiler Details) - Being a woman

It's easy to miss as a weekly reader, but there's been a lot more focus on the women of this empire in the recent chapters: with focus on Riche, Countess Lemille, Eva, Aunt Amelia, and even Lari herself.

From previous chapters (including Ch 36, which has the most info), it's been mentioned over and over that the Vellnelni Empire is very misogynistic, women have no power of their own, Noblewomen are expected to just bear children and stay at home, they're owned by the men in the family father/brother/husband, discouraged from being independent etc. We see through the women how they respond to living in such a society:

Riche - As a daughter of a Marquis, she's very limited in everything she does. She wishes for freedom: to travel, and to love and marry (Lehan). She lives and breathes being a "Perfect Noblewoman" for her family. That's all she knows - ettiquete, manners, being the perfect wife for whomever her family chooses her to marry. In the end, she never is able to go against her family's wishes, and presumably marries someone whom she doesn't love, and live a bitter life. She will never be able to be free or speak her mind. (But her future could change under RupeLali's leadership, up to reader interpretation in Vol 6)

As to why she couldn't marry or tell Lehan her feelings? Despite being southern nobles, House Gorten and House Belois were part of different factions, as well as the obvious fact that House Belois were traitors. House Gorten was THIS close to being traitors as well, but the Marquis was smart enough to choose to join Rupert's faction instead of the unyielding Count. She stays bratty and bitchy to the end.

Amelia - She renounced her ties to House Belois because she chose to stay with Grand Duke Ventibolt, but is still referred to as "Lady Belois". House Belois would never allow her to be a mistress instead of an actual wife. She wants power, and to her, the best way is through a powerful man: Ventibolt. She sees nothing wrong with using her body for pleasure to seduce him, and it's effective. The original text is actually pretty upfront and graphic in its details: She's described as a mistress/prostitute/whore who gladly sleeps with Ventibolt and satisfies all his desires - and enjoys degrading herself during that intimacy or literally licking his feet if he wishes. She dresses provocatively, with decorations, tight corsets, low-cut dresses - she's essentially a sexy slut, and is proud of it. To Amelia, her happiness is if she achieves power, and she will GLADLY use the one thing she owns - her body - to achieve it. Ventibolt knows this, as he sets the password as SLUT. Rupert does well - he calls her a prostitute/mistress/whore when Lari first mentions her. She's not ashamed to degrade herself like that.

Countess Lemille - Another ambitious woman, who does whatever she can to achieve power. She's more proactive - getting rid of the incompetent men of the family. But she wants more she wants to seduce a Marquis and become a Marchioness. She has enjoyed being the Queen's aide but knows her time is up when Rupert ascends the throne. We see her sleeping with a Marquis she has no affection for, but she uses her body to seduce him to give her the information she needed and records he may have that may give her information about Lari. She doesn't like him, she doesn't like his touch, but she has nothing else as a tool except herself. Again, even with a title of her own, she knows that she can't hold on to powerso she uses her body to seduce others for that information. It's just a means of an end for her.

Eva - We all know that even with the title of "Empress", the highest position a female could have in the Empire, she was essentially a sex slave, who suffered sexual, mental, and physical abuse during her whole time in Vellnelni because the Crazy Emperor was just an obsessive, possessive freak who just lusted after her body the whole time. As the ultimate power, no one could say no to him. An extreme in domestic violence, which no one tried to stop.

Lari - In TL1, like Riche, she was raised to be the "perfect noble lady", alongside being a very impassive, ignorant, doormat with no thoughts or opinions of her own. In TL2, because she was not bound by House Belois' figurative cage, she was allowed the freedom to grow and mature to be her own person. in TL1, all she wanted to just play her role as a noblewoman and marry a hopefully nice man, but in TL2, she's ok with staying single, or possibly marry someone whom she shared a mutual love with. Nobles rarely marry for love, so she accepted that if she was single, that's ok too. But Lari knows very well her privilege comes from being under Rupert's protection in TL2. She lives comfortably at the palace, and no strange men approach her with hidden intentions. Because if she was truly on her own, like Amelia or Lemille, then that's what she will inevitably have to use: her own body to survive. Again, this was mentioned at the start, when Lari first tells Rupert she'll be on his side (Ch 33), she has nothing except herself to offer him, and if he wants he can sell her off to a pervert and be essentially a sex slave if Rupert wants her to be one. To Lari, selling herself is worth it to save her precious people. It sucks that in that society, woman have such limited options and so many have to resort to selling themselves like that for their survival or moving up in the world.

Another bittersweet thing: By this time, around Chapter 105, Rupert is very much obviously in love with Lari, to the point where he's really holding back his urges to touch her at every chance, he really wants to kiss her, and even grab and sleep with her too. But despite him wanting to be intimate with her, he's absolutely stuck because he's convinced she still hates/fears him, and he can't get ahead of himself because she's nice to him - he thinks she's just a lovable, kind person who's even nice to HIM, and there's nothing special she feels for him. As much as he wants to touch her, he thinks that the moment he does, she'll resent him forever and never laugh and smile in front of him again. Not to mention, as the Crown Prince/Emperor, he can do whatever he wants - he can force himself on her, but again, that's not something he can do because by doing so, he'll ruin Lari - her bodily autonomy, her happiness, her fragile trust in him, her identity and sense of self (Ch 86, 99, and estimated chapter 110). In any case, he's stuck, where any wrong action will cause her to hate him more, which is something he can't bear. Because his wish now is for Lari to continue to be happy, smiling and saying how the wildflowers are nice. As a result, in TL2, Rupert is the ultimate protector of Lari's happiness, and he won't let any strange men (or even himself), come near her with perverted intentions ^^; Aaaa I love this world building so much.. it's so... consistent...

#your majesty please spare me this time #rupelali #manhwa #rofan #otome isekai

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mokkkki · 3 months

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SWTE A1 C14 - 5 Winners, 2 Losers

He knows that this is the right decision because Remus told him it was, he knows that this is the right decision because his father told him it was; the two people that love him most in this universe encouraging him to stop running from his destiny has all but ensured that he would rather die at the hands of the storm than seek shelter.

Welcome to another Winners and Losers, this time of Chapter 14, also known as the beginning of the end of Act I. Sirius is preparing to secure his legacy, Narcissa is preparing to sabotage it, and as usual, Regulus is several steps ahead, hellbent on stopping plans that haven't been made yet. As I am sure you are all aware, or at least, will be aware when Chapter 15 comes out, in this chapter there are so many moving pieces that it's almost impossible to categorize the true winners and losers, especially because they're all sitting on secrets that will become clear in time, so this categorization is dependent, not on what the characters know and are doing behind the scenes, but how they APPEAR in this chapter. If that makes sense? I swear I'm not trying to be pseudointellectual douche with my self-indulgent fic!!

Anyways, without further ado, here are our 5 winners and 2 losers from "Diamonds I"! Spoilers below the cut.

Winner: Bellatrix Black

Organized a kickass gala? Check. Served absolute cvnt with her outfit? Check. Stayed out of drama like an unproblematic queen? Check!

Winner: Narcissa Black (soon to be Malfoy!)

Probably the biggest winner of this chapter to be completely transparent. I'm sure we're all aware of how misogynistic Orion is by now to recognize just how big of an advantage getting married gives Narcissa (recognizing, of course, that Sirius' wife and kids are not "up to par" and that the same applies to Regulus, minus the wife part). Congratulations to our Ice Queen for always self-preserving! Can't wait to see why she really married Lucius!

Winner: Sirius Black

He has his father and his crazy werewolf boyfriend completely supporting his quest for kingdom. Meanwhile, Marlene remains a beacon of unconditional support, which he will really really need soon enough! Also, he lowkey kind of owned Regulus. Like absolutely destroyed him. And Lucius, too. Problematic king! Let's hope it all doesn't get ripped away from him like we all know it will be!

Winner, thinks he's a loser, is a paranoid, prejudiced, abusive, narcissistic dystopian chauvinist and I hate him: Orion Black

Yeah, okay, his favorite niece got engaged and he's preparing to give away the company and the gala is going well and the BECNY probably raised hundreds of millions- whatever. Do I really have to talk about him? Like, I'm sure we all hate him, right? We'd rather move on to better characters?

Winner: Lucius Malfoy

Speaking of better characters: Lucius! The Ken (affectionate) (slightly derogatory) to Narcissa's Barbie. Sure, Sirius spelled him to injury, but he can handle it- he is about to marry into one of the most prestigious wizarding families ever, and his outfit was absolutely incredible. If I was an artist, I would so draw his little pink suit. He's kind of my favorite ICL.

Loser: Regulus Black

So, his outfit kind of devoured, but he's being iced out by his cousins, and his brother laughed in his face. He says he's preparing to destroy their father, but historically, how have Orion's enemies fared? He's David trying to beat Goliath- without the slingshot. If he's true to his word and determined to "get" Orion, it's going to be a long, difficult, and devastating road.

Loser: Marlene McKinnon

Not much to say here except for the fact that sure, she looked beautiful, but she just seemed to be constantly sidelined by Sirius. I wonder how long her patience can last, I guess?

read chapter 14 here!

#winners and losers #winners and losers act 1 #swte #fanfic #jegulus #wolfstar #regulus black #sirius black #narcissa black #narcissa malfoy #lucius malfoy #orion black #marlene mckinnon #bellatrix black #bellatrix lestrange

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dexadin · 1 year

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hi! i saw your rb of the response to your strahdyana post where you mentioned in the tags that your strahd is trans masc, and i was wondering if you could talk a little more abt that? i'm a trans masc dm preparing to run cos for some friends and i've thought about idea before but it's so validating to hear it from someone else too! how did you decide on it, & how has it affected how you run/characterize him?

sometimes i sit on an ask for a month because i want to think of a good answer and then i come back to it like damn… their campaign's over fr…..but hopefully this will be of some help!!

so truthfully, I sat on this ask for so long because I was trying to put into words how my Strahd's transmasculinity affects him and could only think of concrete evidence of his transness coming up when the party gets a really good bit going. Not jokes about Strahd being a trans man, of course, but jokes that are only funny when A. Strahd is trans and B. almost all of the party is trans both ic and ooc (you may be familiar with our 'down with cis carriage' meme).

a lot of reflection with @runekept and reading of strahd metaanalysis from the CoS reddit has led me to believe that my idea of strahd actually is deeply affected by his (and my) transmasculinity. To start out, this interpretation does rely on at least some amount of passive transphobia and historically outdated gender roles. Obviously, games where trans people are immediately accepted and able to transition without any social barriers or difficulty are great, but I typically play games with a player-approved amount of social barriers because we find it cathartic, so that's where I'm coming from.

Below the cut is a lot of me playing 4D gender chess with Strahd von Zarovich, spoilers for Strahd's backstory below!

I've talked before about how I think that Strahd works best when his desire to possess Tatyana, and the metaphor for his vampirism, is a desperate attempt to cling to his bygone youth, something he was fiercely jealous of Sergei about. I think this is an interesting and humanizing angle to take any Strahd, but I think that this is particularly compelling with a trans Strahd. It shifts his desire away from vanity and entitlement, and highlights his struggle to live up to the standards of masculinity set by his neglectful father in wartime. Like, if you're trans and are in the community, you know or know of a trans guy just like that: a guy who does misogynistic, even homophobic and transphobic things in the name of being 'macho', things that he feels will earn him conditional respect in the eyes of cis male society. In doing so, he may or may not earn that conditional respect, but he does lose the respect and companionship of people who would have otherwise supported him and shared in his experiences. Strahd read so easily and so clearly to me as That Guy, and of 3/4 of my players being trans, I thought it'd be fun to interpret Strahd as trans.

In "I, Strahd," we learn that the oldest son of a family is destined for military greatness, and the youngest to be a healer. Of course, this is a lot of pressure to put on any young man, but imagine the pressure that put on baby transmasc Strahd! In transitioning, he is not just becoming a man, but the Oldest Son, a role that requires skill and violence and training. His parents are relying on him to protect their country and conquer new lands. The internalized message he learns is that for him, masculinity and respect is equal to conquest. He makes his entire identity being a war general for his parents' kingdom, and spends his entire young adult life battling for and conquering Barovia. He throws away any chance he had to make friends or find love in his formative years because it was too dangerous for a military man to let himself be swayed by emotion. By the time his young brother Sergei comes by, with all his youth and all the gentleness and charm of a cleric, Strahd is a battleworn man well into his 40s. When Tatyana chooses Sergei over Strahd, Strahd perceives it as being not necessarily because Sergei is cisgender, but specifically because of the youth, the gentleness, the humanity that Sergei posesses-- qualities that Strahd surrendered in lieu of earning respect and masculinity.

In Strahd's warped vision, everything is about conquest. He is incapable of valuing people beyond the concept of loss and victory. Having love, having a wife, is a marker of masculinity that he believes he "earned." He believes he should have "won" Tatyana because he worked so hard to be a man. This sense of conquest is also seen with his coterie of brides. They're a bunch of people he took on romantically to emulate his desire To Have a Wife without having any true attachment to them beyond being the trophies of masculinity that he believes he is entitled to. He continues to pursue Tatyana (regardless of whether you play Strahd as actually romantically interested in her) because to him, she is a prize that is always just beyond his grasp. If he had played the game a little bit better, if he had been a bit more the man his father wanted him to be, maybe he could have her. So he keeps playing the game, cursed to lose her forever, because the game was never real. His goal of being a 'real man' would never be attainable in his own eyes. Strahd cannot win.

I don't know if any of this is immediately apparent when I play him. But it gives him a bit of depth when you're considering his reactions to the party. In ATSBB, his pursuit of Vanya (an explicitly trans character) is made richer when you consider Strahd's own relationship to gender. In @runekept's word's. their relationship has "an agonizingly tragic edge of you're like me, you understand me, we understand each other in a way no one else can because we're both different and that means I cannot let you go." It is this desperate pursuit to cling onto something he feels only missed because of his dedication to Winning Masculinity. Strahd is the portrait of a man who led himself to ruin because of how badly he craved approval that he would never get where he sought it, but he could have gotten easily if he'd looked anywhere else. He lost his chance to be a human in his pursuit of being his father's son. This makes him no less evil, but makes him pitiful--a picture perfect gothic villain.

I hope that any of this was even mildly coherent. Unfortunately, the times I notice Strahd being trans most is when we say that Strahd could fix Vallaki if he outlawed being cisgender. Feel free to let me know if there's anything you think I missed and I will try to answer in a more timely manner LOL

#dexadin answers #thanks for the ask!!#strahd #curse of strahd #dnd #dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #tatyana cos #sergei cos #atsbb #dungeon master #dm tips

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hermanunworthy · 1 year

Text

!DNDADS S2 EP34 SPOILERS!

here are my thoughts on the new episode!!! this time im actually writing them out in real time. ive been so so excited for this one

- no normal fact damn. thats okay though will i support

- oh god are they doing this w their comedy personas.

- IM SO NERVOUS FOR THIS STRANGER I CAN ONLY IMAGINE HOW SHES FEELING ABOUT THIS LMAO

- i love how tori didnt even get an introduction to scam it was just like oh yeah theres a guy here named scam likely

- LINK JUST SHOWING GARFIELD ON HIS PHONE lincoln li wilson bless ur soul

- somehow the audio quality of link being on a microphone extra loud makes this so funny

- istg the moment hermie has a line im gonna scream and jump up and down

- ANTHONYS IN FUCKING JOKER MAKEUP????

- THE COMPLETE SILENCE AFTER THE PLANES JOKE.

- i literally forgot that disney movies have anime remakes now in dndads i was so confused for a sec WAIT TORI DOESNT KNOW THIS OMFG IMAGINE HER CONFUSION

- WAS NOT EXPECTING THE SUDDEN TAYLOR ANGST HE WAS SCARED ABOUT HIS MOM DYING AS A KID??? ARE U JOKING??

- honestly though i think taylor opening up like this through comedy makes sense

- link is so supportive of taylor awwww

- BETH MAY PREPARING MISOGYNISTIC JOKES WHILE EXPECTING TO PERFORM FOR A MAN HELPP

- NORMAL IS LAST OH GOD

- OH GOD HES TRAUMADUMPING TOO

- i think its so funny and ironic how scary is the only one who doesnt drop lore about her family in her set

- OHHHH MY GOD THE CHAPARRAL ROAST. OH YEAH. I LOVE THE DIRECTION WILLS GOING W THIS (NORMAL DOESNT GET MAD HE GETS EVEN)

- HERMIE SAID A SINGLE WORD I REPEAT HE GOT ONE WORD IN FOLKS

- WILL IS SO GOOD AT THIS. GOD

- HERMIEEEE

- THE WAY MY FACE FUCKING FELL WHEN HE STARTED DIRECTLY ROASTING HERMIE. OH NO

- "im sensitive about that :[" MY LITTLE GUYYYYY NO

- NOOOOO NORMAL WHAT ARE U DOING THIS IS SO MEAANN THIS IS TOO FAR

- HERMIE IS CRYING???? OMFG NO

- NORMAL TOLD HERMIE HE LIKES HIM!!!!!

- will campos is carrying this entire episode

- GOTHCLEATS????

- IM LESS THAN HALFWAY THROUGH THE EPISODE AND I AM ALREADY LOSING MY GODDAMN MIND

- hermies up now i am so fucking scared. this episode is NOT going the direction i thought it would omfg (not complaining at all im just in shock)

- *applauds hermie along w tori* (I CANT BELIEVE ANTHONY IS DOING THIS W JOKER MAKEUP)

- HE JUST HAS DC JOKES.

- thanks for the existential crisis/aging/suicide jokes hermie i really needed that on my bday 😅😅 /s

- IS HERMIE OKAY????? THERE WAS SM TO UNPACK THERE. I CANT DO THIS

- "im saying were all thinking about how i would be better off dead" IM KILLING MYSELFFFF

- nobody hmu ever again /j i am never going to stop thinking about the fact that hermie is canonically suicidal

- TORI SCORED LINCOLN HIGHER THAN TAYLOR LMAO

- HERMIE LOST.

- i had to take a big ol break just to process that shit. fuck. this is somehow making me even more insane hermie brained wtf

- HERMIE IS TELLING THEM TO JUST KILL SCAM???

- THE FACT THAT I JUST DID A DRAWING OF SCAM AND HERMIE WHOLESOME FATHER SON BONDING BEFORE THIS EPISODE. GOD

- "u dont like me, u idiot" 😦

- MY FUCKINGGGFG FACE RN. I. I

- NORMAL IS TALKING ABOUT MARRIAGE WTF

- IM LITERALLYYY GETTINF OAKWORTHY CONFESSION SCENE. ON MY BDAY.

- HERMIE DIDNT DO IT FOR HIS SCHOOL???

- HE. HE. HE DID ALL OF THIS FOR HIS DAD. HES LITERALLY JUST LIKE ME FR.

- WHAT THE ACTUAL FUUUUCK. OAKWORTHY NATION. WE ARENT REALLY WINNING BUT HOLY FUCKING SHIT

- THIS IS LIKE WHEN GLENN WAS SAYING THE ONLY THING LEFT FOR HIM IS TO KILL HIS DAD THIS IS SO UPSETTING

- ANTHONY ASKING IF NORMAL ACTUALLY GENUINELY LIKES HERMIE. I CANT DO THIS

- GUYS WE GOT AN ANCHOR BREAKING W LOVE BC OF OAKWORTHY. JUST LIKE WE WANTED

- will campos really holding on strong for us. normal is gonna fix hermie if its the last thing he does ig

- THE BABY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON WAS STEWIE????

- THERES STILL LIKE ANOTHER HALF HOUR LEFT I FEEL SICK

- NICKYS BACK i wasnt expecting him this episode yippee

- THEYRE IN SPACE. AND HERMIE IS THERE. THIS IS THE PERFECT EPISODE FOR ME

- im being so serious guys when i say i think this may be my fave episode of the whole season so far it is boggling my mind and smashing my heart to pieces and im loving it

- "u can be polygamous in space" there are so many good lines this episode

- I LOVE HOW EXCITED BETH IS ABOUT THE TELEBANGLE

- i also love whenever freddie talks about sciencey mathy stuff that i dont understand

- ARE THEY SERIOUSLY ALL MARRYING EACH OTHER??? IS THIS REALLY WHATS HAPPENING???? HELPP

- SCARY SIGNED AS TERRY. W A HEART. YALL.

- THIS EPISODE IS A FUCKING FEVER DREAM I SWEAR

holy fucking shit. what a rollercoaster. so yeah guys i think that was my fave episode of the season wow. what a bday gift to me. herman unworthy is just like me fr. i am going to take an eternity to recover from this.

#dndads #dndads spoilers #dndads s2 spoilers #siren says

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ankoku-jin · 1 year

Text

CoS Shenanigans, Vallaki Edition

Canon: Some people in Barovia behave oddly or have a flat affect because they don't actually have souls (bizarre, grossly ableist)

My players, who are entirely queer and ND: Barovia just has a higher rate of neurodivergency, possibly enhanced by the relative isolation of the population over hundreds of years (plausible, doesn't make people with clearly ND characteristics out to be soulless and evil)

Party Conclusion: Strahd von Zarovich has major autistic swag. His special interests are tactical warfare, necromancy, and bats. He's also bisexual and grey-romantic (hilarious, relatable, entirely plausible according to I, Strahd)

(CoS Vallaki spoilers under the cut)

Canon: Gadof Blinsky's obsession with making creepy toys causes him to be a social outcast in Vallaki. The DM is instructed to play him with an outrageously bad parody of an Eastern European accent. (...I probably don't even have to say how this is Bad tbh)

My Party: This man is also clearly autistic, and his creepy goth toys are the best thing ever. He now has eight new friends. We're going to buy half his stock and hand out toys to the children of Vallaki. (Also they believe he should be played by Jack Black, and I agree.)

---

Canon: Victor Vallakovich is an evil murdering incel necromancer, and Stella Wachter is so frail of mind that his rejection of the marriage proposal between their families made her go completely insane (also ableist, misogynistic)

Me, the DM: Victor Vallakovich is a miserable 20-something gay goth kid desperate to escape his father's rampant stupidity, as well as a self-taught mage with dangerous gaps in his knowledge. (Also, the party instantly fell in love with his six skeleton cats.) In a misguided attempt to hex and sabotage the whole marriage deal, he accidentally placed a curse on Stella herself, causing her delusion that she herself is a cat. Oops.

---

Canon: Lady Fiona Wachter is an evil old power-hungry bitch (ageist, misogynistic)

My Party: Lady Wachter has clearly put a lot of pressure on herself to restore the power she sees as her birthright, alongside dealing with the grief of losing her husband. She's also correct that Lord Strahd is the lawful ruler of the land, and going against him is treason. (It's still creepy that she has her dead husband magically preserved in her bedroom tho, and the demon-cult thing is sus as hell)

Milan Lyudmilovich, Hexblood raised by a Hag: She's much easier to deal with than Mother was, tbh. Also we should tell her that Lord Strahd doesn't look kindly on that Osybus nonsense.

#this playthrough sure is a wild ride lol #CoS #curse of strahd #CoS spoilers #curse of strahd spoilers #D&D #milan lyudmilovich

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arabian-bloodstream · 2 years

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I’m worried about daemon’s portrayal of being a father. I was very optimistic because the leaks were saying he was a good dad and could do no wrong but unfortunately that’s not entirely true. It broke my heart when one of them said he ignores her. Do you think the show runners are making daemon extremely unlikeable intentionally or is this accurate to his character? It would be extremely shitty if he’s a good father to rhaenrya’s kids but not his own. Because so far if they make him a deadbeat father and plus him “killing laenor” next episode I fear EVERYONE is going to hate him 😭

Oh, I don't think we have to worry at all about this. I read some takes that I thought really laid it out quite clearly what is going on. This was the best one, in my opinion. The money quotes:

He has a closer connection with Baela, but in my opinion it is not because of the dragon but because she remembers both him and Rhaenyra - similarities from when she was younger. The fact is Daemon is not Daemon. He is lost, displaced and without his essence, which makes him. He pretends. He dwells on books and books, can barely look at Laena and shows himself to be an absent father. Which proves that he lies when he says he doesn’t miss Westeros. For the only ones he truly loved are Viserys and Rhaenyra. [...] That’s why they cut his scene with his daughters, in my opinion. It wouldn’t make sense for him to have a sudden change in behavior with them if he still doesn’t feel himself. He tried, he still tries. But you can’t go back to what it was if what makes you feel complete is so far away

I agree with this. I think it makes perfect sense. Especially the bolded part. Once Daemon returns to King's Landing, returns to Rhaenrya (and even Viserys). Once he returns to Dragonstone, and, thus to HIMSELF, to Daemon Targaryen, we will see a Daemon who embraces the Targaryens that are all of his family, including not only Baela Targaryen, but also Raena Targaryen.

In episode 06, Daemon just couldn't connect to Raena because the only part of her that connected to him was her Targaryen self, and Daemon could not connect to that part of himself because to do so caused him too much pain. It was wrong of him; it was selfish and wrong, wrong, wrong. But Daemon is not the best of men, we already know this.

He *could* connect to Baela because Baela was a dragonrider, and that was something--the only thing--that Daemon had still retained of his Targaryen self. And so he could connect with Baela on that level. Once he returns to Westeros, to Dragonstone, to Viserys, to Rhaenrya, to his Targaryen self, he will connect with the Targaryen in Raena.

At least that is what I think. And that is why I think we didn't get that connection in episode 06. I could be wrong. I don't know because I haven't seen episode 07 yet. I tend to try and *not* pre-judge (and certainly not be negative or even overtly positive about) an episode I haven't seen yet. Leaks, spoilers, etc. do NOT tell the full story. The episode itself does.

And certainly, Fire & Blood is NOT telling the story. It is subjective. It is based on biased accounts from misogynistic after the fact peeps who had their own agenda, and collated a century later from another biased account who edited it from ALL OF THOSE many accounts. It is not an objective telling of facts. Period. End of.

Finally, we don't know that Daemon "kills" Laenor. He may; he may not. And if he does… :shrugs: We'll come to that bridge when we cross it. Again, I'm not going to pre-judge Daemon based on something I haven't seen. I don't know what is going to happen, if it's going to happen, and if it does what, how, why, the circumstances of it.

Daemon is not being written as "the evil bad guy." Daemon is being written as a grey, sometimes dark grey, character. He is complex, conflicted, and he loves deeply. He is our amoral anti-hero. But he is certainly not someone that viewers are supposed to hate. He gets the big, bad-ass battle scenes (see, end of episode 03). He gets the quips. He gets the bad-ass entrances. He is half of the OTP of the show (Daemon/Rhaenrya). He gets sweet soft moments (with Viserys, with Rhaenrya, with -- yes, he did -- Laena).

Daemon is NOT the character that viewers are supposed to hate.

Now, I can only hazard my guess on what will come, and I generally don't like to go too far into the guessing because I have not seen the episode and speculation often leads to disappointment. I like to let the episodes speak for themselves. I can say that based on what we've seen so far, I have faith that it will be good. That it will work with the story we've been given thus far. That Daemon will be awesome. And that I am freaking stoked!

#daemon targaryen #daddy daemon #hotd spoilers #hotd 1x06 #hotd 1x07 #hotd is the true story #f&b is fake news ya'll #I will keep beating this drum don't care

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