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lady-phasma · 1 year

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Phazzie could you please explain the appeal of Aemond? In great detail please and thanks

I can and I would be honored! I have been saving this one until I could really dig into it. Thanks for your patience, anon.

I'll start with the hair and get it out of the way. Targaryen hair. Now that's done we can move on to why Aemond is such an appealing character for so many in the HotD fandom.

Aemond doesn't have very much screen time and that makes him a bit mysterious. It also makes him fun for fic writers because there is so much blank space to fill in until the next season. You asked for "great detail" so I think the best place to start is with younger Aemond because that part of his character sets a solid foundation for aged-up Aemond who is the primary focus of the Aemond stans.

This kid is complex! Not going into controversies about bullying or whether his actions were justified, objectively Aemond was designed to be more than a one-dimensional character. Your question wasn't about why people hate him but I have to mention that his claiming of Vhagar is the point where fans seem to begin to disagree. However, that such a moment can be so divisive is evidence that it is crucial to his character development.

Back to his appeal. Until this decision is made Aemond is a kind of privileged underdog. He shows disappointment that he was not expected to fulfill any princely duties as his brother is. He is pushed aside as a second son. He isn't a true underdog because, well, he's a Targaryen prince but he has been given a hurdle that is perceived by other characters to be a major disadvantage: he does not have a dragon. For Targaryen royalty that's an embarrassment as well. We all know about the Pink Dread but it's deeper than that.

He makes a rash decision to claim Vhagar at the first opportunity. He's a kid, they act before they think. But he succeeds. Vhagar allows this princeling to ride her. I may not be a good judge of character but dragons are, they know if the rider has the mettle it takes to ride them.

So here's this kid, who lacks for nothing but a dragon, and he finally gets one... under the most inconsiderate circumstances possible. Yup, at Laena's funeral. Kids aren't smart or thoughtful as a rule. Regardless of the 'why's and placing blame, little dude ends up losing an eye by the hand of his nephew Lucerys. Now Westeros is no longer his oyster. A damaged prince, a "cripple" as Bran Stark puts it, and a second son who will have even less duty placed upon him. He's still not to be pitied and he is still privileged beyond imagining, but now his complexity becomes more interesting.

Let's jump ahead. What makes this bizarre, cocky, one-eyed price so likable? Especially when about half of aged-up Aemond's screen time is sass and being rude and literally shoving people. All of that, that's what.

Aemond's appeal is his lack of fucks. He has none to give. He lost them all with his eye. Yes, he loves his mother, honors his father, brother, and sister (don't come at me I'm sure he loves them too). He also worked hard to make sure that he could be arrogant. He didn't wake up a badass. He strove for it. He earned his cockiness. He doesn't give a shit about tourneys because tournaments are for pretty knights who wear armor and ask for favors. He needs no armor, he even discards his shield and still bests a man wielding a morning star. He antagonizes his nephews immediately because he is hyper-aware of his surroundings and planned his words carefully to instill the most insecurity in them as possible.

You might be asking 'how on earth is that appealing?' Well, because the average viewer has to give fucks, day in and day out. His air of superiority is something very few people can get away with without alienating everyone around them. This is why fiction is fun. He is superior and he knows it.

He has no plans to overthrow his brother for the crown but this man knows, and I mean knows, that he is better suited to be king. He knows he is better at everything. Is he right? That's irrelevant for most fans. This grandiosity is sexy. Not only in a sexual attraction kind of way. It's gravitas.

Yet all of that comes from this thin, graceful, precise young man with only one eye. Can you see the juxtaposition, the contradiction, that has been set up for this character? He is, by Westerosi standards, a broken thing. He inhabits a nebulous space, a space not yet concretized by the series, that requires nothing from him while also requiring everything from him.

On top of all of this is a fierce need to rectify what he sees as injustices. He is an ass when he makes his 'strong' pun, as princes can be. He isn't a lovely, compassionate person who rises above, takes the 'high road,' or 'turns the other cheek.' That is appealing as well because it's not how viewers get to navigate their own world. They have to bite their tongues and be the better person. Aemond doesn't have to at all.

To wrap up this monster answer, I want to skip to Storm's End and no, not the chomp, a bit before that. Viewers see Aemond as this rakish, cavalier, sexy Targaryen but I have my doubts that he is viewed that way in the narrative. Lord Borros's daughter isn't fanning herself and melting into a puddle at his feet. He might have Targaryen hair (you knew I couldn't mention it only once) but he is not at all "traditionally" handsome, not as he could have been perhaps, again by Westerosi standards, if he had not lost his eye.

Viewers see him as extremely sexy, again that gravitas as much as his appearance, but aren't frightened of him. The fourth wall protects the viewers from the frightening aspects of Aemond's personality, shields them. And that is the space from which all the appeal emerges. I think I've done pretty well so far to not say "I like this or that" about Aemond. I'm going to do it now. I find him appealing because he is unpredictable. I could very well be frightened of him. I'm not special. I only have a special viewpoint: from behind the fourth wall. His unpredictability makes him interesting (like claiming Vhagar at a funeral) and it makes him a bit dangerous. Of course I think he is beautiful, but that's not the je ne sais quoi of him. What Aemond does that few characters in HotD seem to be doing is making viewers genuinely curious. How that curiosity is expressed is as varied as the fans. Some hate him because he is enigmatic, others love him and project their needs onto him, some want him to be one-dimensional and perhaps evil, and nearly all of them wait with bated breath to find out what he will do next.

#aemond #aemond one eye #aemond targaryen #prince aemond targaryen #asked and answered #hotd #house of the dragon #Targaryen hair is a sexuality #no teams just a crazy dragon soap opera that i am obsessed with #vhagar #ewan mitchell

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aces-and-kings · 10 months

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🖍️ CRAYON - what advice would you give to them? (All, because this seems like a fun thought exercise. :P)

[Brutal. Bru. tal. But indeed, fun. Let's do it! Under the cut due to length.]

. Thor: He is not the only man you're ever going to love. I know it hurts. I know you feel like you're not worth loving, that every time you try and do the right thing, that things start looking up for you, something goes wrong. You've taken more than any of my other oc and you're tired. Believe me, I get it, but it will get better. You will meet someone again someday and things will work out like they're supposed to. Hang in there buddy. And maaaybe if you want or something idk, cut back on the smoking. Just a suggestion.

. Seven: You can keep running. You can keep fucking up knowing that you're destroying everything good in your life every time it appears. You can keep feeling like a monster if that's what you like. Who am I to stop you, right? But, here's something to consider. You could... do some good with your abilities? Atone for the wrong you've done. I get that you feel beyond saving but you're not. Telling you to just stop doing bad won't help though, so just food for thought. One day someone is going to wake you up and I'd hate to be the skeletons in your closet the day you open that door, but you'll be alright.

. Alex: Welcome to the life of 90% of role-players cupcake. We read the grand adventures, we don't often go on them. Certainly not like in your world. Listen though, your bookshop is really important. You give people a place to rest, a place free of the outside world's chaos and for those, like you, like me, who can't go on some dragon slaying, saving, what have you grand journey, you provide the doorway to such experiences through books. So keep smiling, ay? You never know who's looking and just might find it captivating.

. Nikolai: I don't even know where to start with you buttercup. That's a dangerous game you're playing, putting all your eggs into someone else's basket. I mean I won't judge, because I get it. People can grow attached to pets, friends, partners etc. but if you don't find something of yourself to love and enjoy apart from your obsession with Sindri, a lot of shit out of your control is going to affect you negatively. Also you need to let that guy you're not into go. It's not right to string someone along just cause you'd rather avoid hurting their feelings. In doing that you're still hurting someone, it'll just be Sindri instead.

. Ravka: It's okay to just be yourself. For all the tranquility and self-discipline, for all the kindness and courageousness that makes up who you are, you are awfully ashamed of being Hrothgar. Yes, it does make you vastly different, and you probably feel caught between the world of beast and man. I can imagine how that leaves you feeling alone, and I'm sorry for that. At the end of the day though, you are who you are buddy. And that's going to be enough for the right people, or it isn't and they aren't.

. Grey: Hi, big fan. You amuse me a lot more than I let on to people. Unsolicited advice though? Stop hiding. You're Garlean, so what? A lot of people are. Your family had a history of raining horror down upon other nations, but you never willingly walked that path. You did what you felt you had to. That's called surviving my dude and you're forgiven for it. Perhaps not by all, but by me if no one else. You do not have to flash gil and lavish luxuries on people to be appreciated. And Seven is a horrible option for additional help but good job asking for some! I apologize Thor is being such a... Thor right now. Good luck and p.s. maybe grow the hair back out. I know you're digging this whole Red vibe atm, you want to honor him, I get it. Do you. Just a suggestion.

Thanks @hydaelyns-bitch, this was... cathartic and odd but indeed fun. lol

#asks #thorstyr helbwilfsyn #greyson evandrus #ravka kirigan #nikolai cross #alexander hawthorne #seven sato #4th wall break

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anneangel · 2 years

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Hi! Are you a fan of both the Hobbit book and movie trilogy?

Hello. First, I apologize for taking so long to see your question. I don't log in that often and it's really unexpected to come across questions. I hope can answer you as you imagine, and preferred to start with the simplest question.

Yes, I like both, the book and the movie trilogy. This answer should shock a lot of people, but I'm particularly the type of person who likes to see the bright side of things, instead of pointing out only negative.

Any reader of any literary genre and of any author in general will say that the books are better, no matter how well adapted. It's rare see a literary story it be better in adapting, there is even, but it's not common for that to happen, lol. So saying that the book is better doesn't mean anything too much (this is already general consensus, I'll be really surprised if someone tells me "don't read the book, the adaptation is better" lol).

Criticizing the movie saying that the book is better is not even a criticism, it's a comparison. And it's an unfair comparison. If want to criticize the film, point out points in the film that are bad, rather than comparing content from different media.

Books≠films are different 'media', that's why the content is called ADAPTATION and will always undergo changes to fit its referent media.

We usually call a "good adaptation" the one that least distorts the content of the book, so based on that we say whether the movie was "good or bad" (but come on, we have to stop saying it's bad just because it was different).

Having distortions is just ONE of the CRITERIA to say if it was good or bad, it can't be the only element to judge the movie as a whole.

In general, I didn't like the films because of their excessive length, too long plot that gets tedious in some specific moments of the plot, excess of CGI and scenes without much notion (ork attack BEFORE Rivendell and with Radagst coming from Mirkwood helping them, really? and this is just an example, this whole scene doesn't make sense. Like so many others), comedy where I think it shouldn't have (escape from the Misty Mountains), too much action at all times unnecessary and invented scenes with little depth, and then yes: the plot distortions in relation to the book were a bit irritating, I could spend several paragraphs saying what in these "inventions" irritated me (but that's just one of my criteria).

There are things I prefer in the book (most things) There are things I prefer in movies (dwarves, for example, they are useless in the book and in the movie they had too much purpose. It ends up being a point that I like, at times, and I dislike at others, like reviving Azog just to give Thorin some plot, I found it very irritating. LOL). (Dol Guldur is another point I liked, since in the book there is only ONE line in the end to summarizing this - apart from the appendices in Lord of the Rings).

I would say the first movie was good (with some scenes I hated). The second I liked a little less (but I still found it interesting. I didn't like Beorn characterization and takes, nor the Lake-city, nor that dragon chase into the mountain where they tried to throw gold at him, of all things - seriously, throw gold at a fire dragon that is fascinated by gold? if it was water, at least , forges have water. there are even more distortions and ridiculous inventions in this movie. But I found it possible to ignore the points that irritated me, and enjoy what I thought was cool). The third disappointed me (I didn't like MOST things, but there are still a few scenes there that i go back to view again).

Anyway, let me stop and get straight to the point, or I'll be here forever. LOL.

The movie trilogy was watchable! I don't like to hate him just because had points that I didn't like. I loved the cast, soundtrack, characterization, costumes and setting, and I like a lot of scenes and takes, I'm always reviewing something from those movies. And that's enough for me to rewatch when I feel like it.

I think that's it, I hope I didn't bore you!! And thank you for asking me this question, it was nice and fun to answer.

#the hobbit #bilbo baggins

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thedragoncreators123 · 1 year

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I had this tumblr for an while and just abandoned it like I do with all my stuff...

Anyways, welcome to dragon Kingdom! a world of mysterious things, chaos all across the land, but it's worth it trust me on that.

Thy as we always say, "a world without dragons is no world at all"

It is complicated at first but once you get used to your land, I bet you'll be wanting to make your own dragon as well. And yes, I did say 'yours' because this world was not made just for me, It was made for you. For dragon lovers, monsters, creatures, of all and any kind. It is for the fulfillment of your imagination that has no limits

Speaking of no limits!

There's bone dragons, moonlight dragons, wolf dragons, Ender dragons, screaming dragons, even dragons with no heads!! The possibilities are endless

But you may have come across a common question: how did this all come to be?

Well I'm here to answer that! The DragonCreators are whom speak.

Sarah/Alex, sister and brother (and yes we still argue till this day) scientists. Both 24 years old. We were given the task to make a custom creature by are old boss but we made other things as well.. or at least tried to. Fortunately, failure did not last long, and people saw are creation. They weren't very fond of it but the bone Dragon (the first ever breed) flew up into the air and lit up it's bones amazing the crowd.

We got rich you could say, and made more dragons and an whole kingdom for more to come! But don't mistake us for greedy people, ones who only care about the dollars rolling in. We are way more than that. We'd rather lose all are money than lose the dragons. Because we believe that creatures like these are special, they serve a purpose not only in your heart but in society itself. Without them, the WORD meaning would have no meaning, your life's, the gods that you worship upon, would have no existence at all.

And yes we hear the rumors, we listen to are fans, day and night, we hear your cries that "dragons are evil" but that is not true. Rather then judging a whole of something, why not judge the individual thing? That's like saying that all humans are monsters just because one is a serial killer, but that's not true, right? So why treat something different just because it may not look like you, sound like you, or whatever the case may be.

Without Dragons nothing would be possible, not even as simple as living. They've been hear before, just in different forms. They still roam their earth today. Yes, their earth. Because we share. Dragons and humans share.

#dragon #au #fantasy #fandom #creative #creature #creation #monster #creepy #dark #original art #original species

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braceletofteeth · 2 years

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3, 7, 8, 20, 22, 27, 53? c:

Woah, thank you!!! I had fun doing these.

3. Do you drink the milk out of the bowl when the cereal is gone?

Yes. I'm usually not much of a milk fan, but the cereal leaves a nice taste behind, so is no torture.

7. Have you ever donated blood?

A few times, yes.

Before I did it, it was a dream of mine. A mark of independence. My parents wouldn't allow me to do it when I had 16/17 (it is a legal requirement here), so I used to think that, when I donated, I'd finally be a real adult, with free will (that was really important to me back then).

And I still love the experience. People at the donating center are very nice, and whenever I go there to donate I'm allowed to eat a cheese I adore but can't afford. The soup afterwards is very good, too.

During the extraction, there is a lot of time to think, so I usually imagine my favorite characters talking to me, to pass the time. In the last two times, Jongwoo was there with Moonjo (*whispers* Moonjo thinks going there is a waste of time and blood, but Jongwoo is always on my side, which I suspect is just to be against Moonjo).

8. Do you nap regularly?

Unless I haven't slept at night, I don't take naps.

20. Are you a good swimmer?

I can swim well enough, but I'm not the athletic type, so I get tired quickly.

22. Did you ever skip class in school?

Yes, usually to read books in some deserted street or to go to a internet café, when I had the money.

I don't judge the me back then, though. The times I skipped school, it was because I really couldn't handle it anymore.

27. Do you believe in Astrology?

No, I think I never had...? Although, between you and me... I have no problem in telling people about my chinese zodiac sign, since a dragon sounds pretty cool :) (it probably doesn't really represent me at all, but still).

53. How many languages do you speak?

I'm (more or less) fluent in portuguese, english, and spanish.

I have this long-term plan to learn all five Romance languages (portuguese, spanish, italian, french, and romanian). I kind of abandoned italian for some time, but I'm dedicated to french at the moment. Romanian is really hard, but it gets less hard when people tell me there is only one place in the world where I'll be able to use it, and I'll probably never set foot there. I learn it out of spite. One day, speaking romanian will save my life. I just know it will.

I'm also very, very slowly learning the korean alphabet, and the signs of the brazilian sign language (and I wish I could say it's just because I'm a mindful person, but it's a mandatory part of my degree, so I have no choice—which is a good thing, because I can't afford to postpone it like I do with other languages).

#answered #I can barely speak the languages I already know but if I could I'd learn all languages no exceptions made

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snowfianna · 4 years

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Fable IV rant:

I'm so pumped up for the 23rd because everything has led me to believe that Fable 4 will be announced this year and the game's existence has been confirmed for a while anyway it's just a matter of time of when will Fable 4 show itself. It's a badly kept secret tbh.

So to those who don't mind a big rant or wish to add on to my rant- here we go!

Can you imagine how good the graphics would be for this game, we've all seen modern games, surely, and they're all bloody fantastic looking. Fable Legends is technically the most recent Fable game despite it being a free to play online game

and that it's cancelled

but it also had a gorgeous look to it all! And the character models did great justice to the concept art and honestly that has my hopes real high because I love the concept art of Fable, specifically from Mike McCarthy, so exaggerated and recognisable- yet in all the games I can confidently say they did not do justice to his character design, specifically for Reaver. Sure, he looks stunning in the third game, but not quite what he looks like in his concept art sadly.

But also, since Fable was made in Unreal Engine (I'm pretty sure at least) we've seen examples of what can be done in Unreal Engine now and it's absolutely breath taking!

If you haven't seen here are some examples and they're so life-like.

Moving on from graphics!

Since Playground Games is behind the development of Fable 4, they would be spectacular at an open spaced world, judging from the Forza games.

I always loved the open world feature added to Fable, it made things more adventurous and you could do so many things that weren't at all related to the main quest to progress the story and it was just thrilling to see there were other things going on! I'd love to just have my dog companion running through fields, fighting enemies left and right and finding buried treasure or forgotten chests.

Run into strangers who request aid in something silly or rather serious and it would be up to you with how you go about the quest or if you even accept it to get renown or gold. Cause a massacre in towns and villages, running off with low morality and plentiful loot- oh one could fantasise of this all day.

Story, characters, writing and voices.

Fable has always had a fun environment of fantasy and a rather good story (despite the curse of mundane or pathetic boss fights in which I hope Fable 4 breaks this cycle) but the one thing that's always kept me on my feet in the games is the writing and the characters. It always just tried not to take itself too seriously, throwing in absurd quests that probably requires cheese or a really weird-looking outfit. It always kept my attention rather than just pure edge and seriousness of life or death.

The characters are a given, the writing done for them all is perfect in my eyes, I love hearing the variations of how characters of NPCs interacted (enough so that I even bought two of the Fable books written by Peter David). Despite Fable 3 not being the greatest at it's time, I found myself absolutely enjoy the characters for how they were- I even cried over Walter's death because it genuinely felt like I lost somebody pretty close (RIP Walter🙏). The writing and the chosen voice actors were superb and I'd love more of it.

I hope this time we can receive a full story instead of how Fable 2 and 3 were where plenty of plot points and such were cut out due to time constraints- thanks Microsoft, very cool. I'm still in anguish when listening to the Developer's Diary 3 of Fable 3 hearing lines that were just never said in the final product and it was definitely not just additional lines that weren't required as it seemed to mention entirely different things that weren't in the game; i.e. Reaver talks about his pirates in Bloodstone and how he misses them- in the final product he never mentions it and it's even shown that he's tried to completely bury his pirate past for whatever reason.

The pacing in Fable 3 was rather strange too, it felt like the revolution should've lasted longer.

Another hope of mine is to have choices that aren't so painfully black-and-white because it's very obvious which is the good or bad option to a scenario- personally for me I'd like to be morally grey rather than pure good or pure evil.

They better have kept the mechanic of your actions affecting your appearance too to the point where you grow horns and get cracked magma-like skin or this slight glow and aura around you and this flawless skin. It kind of died down in Fable 3, only looking more tired or have completely black eyes and the good- eh yeah not much I can say for when you're good. Purity and corruption seemed to also vanish in Fable 3 (at least I think) since you couldn't really change prices of the homes you were renting out, unless I've been a big goof who didn't arrange the rent prices in the game because I didn't know how.

Combat

Combat in all the games was rather straight forward, especially in Fable 2 and 3 where everything was just easy to beat or you could get overpowered around the start of the game. I'd hope the combat improves greatly this time and even bring back real consequences to dying instead of immediate revival with some lost experience and a scar. We need more serious consequences to your actions (this can be applied to all decisions rather than just if you die in a battle) even if it's just having to reload the last checkpoint. Makes things more challenging this way.

Another thing is to make boss fights less repetitive and simple- sure I can forgive it if the boss is from around the start but if they had phases you had to keep ontop of and didn't rely on summoning a bajillion other enemies to strike you, I'd be ever so grateful.

And if there's other characters fighting along side you, I'd hope they'd genuinely be helpful and keep up to speed with the player. I'm sure the AI in the past was the problem for this as AI wasn't at its best during that time so characters fighting by you didn't do too much or just did whatever that wasn't helpful. Now though, AI has improved immensely (I mean look at The Last Of Us 2, the AI is👌) and due to this, I'm sure characters would make battles more fun and the characters be more involved with the fight and even story.

Mana should be brought back as well, in Fable 2 and 3 mana just ceased to exist so you could just endlessly and repeatedly use the same spells and it just gave you too much power and the enemies barely stood a chance.

We need challenges people- CHALLENGES!

Medieval times? Yes.

I love Medieval fantasy and as much as I like the Victorian era too, I didn't think it quite suited Fable, as fascinating as it was to see fantasy turn industrial, it kind of took away from the Fable feel that I so crave. If they have indeed brought the game back to medieval times it means more creatures and enemies are back rather than driven away or limited to the same handful of enemies.

We can all also agree the guns were overpowered, though I did like receiving the Red Dragon late in Fable 2 to absolutely mow down enemies, it was satisfying to say the least. However, guns were far too powerful for the game, so I demand the bows and crossbows back thank you very much- or even throwing knives- I'll take what I'm given.

I'd love to see more of the natural landscape rather than towns or buildings that took over once entirely natural areas (Millfields/Bowerlake). However, I won't object to ruins of old buildings taken over by nature.

Skeptical with Playground Games? Don't be.

Are you worried that Playground Games wouldn't do justice to Fable since it's not Lionhead Studios? Don't be, it's been noted that Playground Games has hired several ex-lionhead workers and plenty other skillful workers to ensure we get the best product. I have high hopes and expectations for Fable 4 even if it's developed under a different studio, I've seen great things from them and I will believe they'll deliver us only the best.

Side note to all this

I will crash and burn if I don't see a crumb of Reaver or Jack of Blades in Fable 4- I don't know how true any rumours are of Fable 4 with time travelling and Jack returning, but we'll just have to see. Reaver still remains as my absolute favourite character of all time and I'd love to see more of him, even see him before he was 'Reaver'.

Jack too, more of his lore is stated elsewhere rather than in the game itself and I'd love to see it all be brought into light and really expand on his lore and make it known- rather than have ever-loving Fable fans like me dig around for these rather delicious bits of canon information.

That's my big rant, feel free to share your thoughts and what you'd look forward to!

Have some accidental art leaks from a Playground Game concept artist- believed to be for Fable 4👀

#fable #fable 2 #fable 3 #fable 4 #rant #honestly if you read this you have my respect #ramble

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