Modern Asoiaf Aus Are Interesting To Me Bc Seeing How They Reckon With Cersei And Jaime’s Whole….

oh yeah have i ever told yall of the academic war i have been an unwilling soilder in for the past two years

“Rhaenyra’s bastards’ father doesn’t matter because their claim goes through her line”

ok if that’s so then why did she not just say this in-universe to justify herself and shut everyone up instead of killing/torturing/maiming everyone that brought up the Strong rumors?

i don't think people actually realize how unsettling, degrading, and racist the depiction of criston cole has been thus far. the sheer white feminism of the showrunners 1) using him to give rhaenyra a sexual awakening moment and immediately turning him into a misogynistic brute to service her woke colonizer queen arc, 2) being completely unaware that this scene was actually rape, and 3) refusing to acknowledge the blatant abuse of power in order to push rhaenyra as the heroic queen?

rhaenyra instigated it. she blocked him from leaving the room. she ignored his request to stop. and then the next day she laughed at his clear discomfort. not only did he break his vows at her request, but in so doing also put him under threat of mutilation or execution. and she didn't give a shit because it doesn't affect her. this is his boss. this is the person who personally promoted his station in society. the person who pays him. the person who he must follow around and guard with his life until death. and people still act like they are on equal social footing, that he could've easily rejected her and continued his watch outside the door with no consequence? and even if he did feel comfortable enough to do that, she opened up that aspect of their relationship. merely putting him in the position to make the "choice" of either committing treason by sleeping with her or rejecting the most powerful woman in the seven kingdoms is a heinous abuse of power.

criston has been the butt of jokes for weeks now because he had the nerve to be disturbed at the prospect of rhaenyra using him sexually for the rest of his life. let me reiterate: his position requires being sworn for life. can you imagine if your lifelong boss suddenly and secretly decided to change the description of your labor to something completely different than what you were hired for? something that you can never discuss with anyone because you will be humiliated and executed by the state? and she doesn't even care about the potentially deadly consequences for you because she personally had a good time and can rely on her father to cover for her?

also, him being dornish in the show completely changes the optics. he is marginalized in this world. this is his livelihood. this is the only way he can promote his family. how does he know that she won't just fire him (or more likely have him killed) if he doesn't do what she wants? what choice does he have? and even though he was arguably attracted to her, there's a difference between being attracted to someone and being at their complete mercy to be fucked whenever they want for years, relying on their discretion and whims to keep you safe from execution.

rhaenyra is not entitled to sex with criston. criston is not wrong for being mad about that. she doesn't owe him what he asked for but it doesn't change the fact that she treated him in a dehumanizing way. the fact that people think rhaenyra is a person we should emulate and endorse as the leader of the seven kingdoms, the fact that people do not see her treatment of criston as a reflection of her views on people beneath her station is deranged.

i think i read a post of you that said western leftist can't write conservative religious women without reducing them to being brainwashed or insecure. as a western leftist I'm curious how you would have written alicent for hotd?

You mean how would I personally rewrite Alicent's character? Or how I would have liked to see GRRM's Alicent written in the show?

Either way; I'd say: Western leftists can't write a traditionally religious woman unless she's a hypocrite, brainwashed, or actively using religion to cope or to feel superior. They can't write a religious woman who genuinely and intellectually believes in and is devoted to her own religious conventions and ideals. And when they do - which is very rare - they always feel the need to attach a moral or intellectual judgment on her. She must always be "lesser". Unless she's pagan and they can co-opt her paganism to uplift their own "progressive" ideology 🙄

Anyways, I hated how they made Alicent cling to her faith as a means of "repentance" in the show. She should have clung to her faith as a means of resistance. Of claiming her identity and power back.

This will give the "Green Dress" moment and the "Where is duty? Where is sacrifice?" moment real meaning.

It's not that she can't sincerely believe in her religion and still subconsciously use it to heal her psychological and emotional wounds. It can happen. It's not mutually exclusive. But her ability to use her religion to heal should be originated from and motivated by her sincere belief in her religion.

The Faith of the Seven was always the hard and the soft power that kept the megalomanic, blood-supremacist Targs in check after they conquered Westeros. The Targs were forced to compromise and adapt to Westeros instead of forcing Westeros to be assimilated or fully subjected to Targ culture and religion.

Alicent's ambition should have reflected this spirit. Her need to have her son crowned as King should have been her own way to keep the Targs in more chains. To mold the Targ dynasty to benefit her and her children and Westeros as a whole.

What better way for an oppressed woman to feel liberated than to have the power to put her oppressors in chains? and to have the freedom to live by her own conventions and ideals without sacrificing her dignity and sanity?

I absolutely will die on this hill, access to fiction that makes your skin crawl and open discussion about it is the best way to keep that skin crawling fiction from happening in reality.

It doesn't matter if it is ~positively~ or negatively portrayed. If you censor it, we don't talk about it, then we can't protect against it.

No but imagine Aegon rocking up to the free bar at the funeral of some woman he’s never met, getting pissed, falling asleep outside in a ditch and coming round to find little bro is down an eye and they’ve got a new pet to feed. 💀

Aegon “What the fuck did I drink last night” Targaryen

The problem with having lesbian moms is you try to be super cool and cut all your hair off and buy a leather jacket and wear boots all the time and then you go to some event in your neighborhood and all these women three times your age start cooing “oh you look JUST like your mother when she was your age, my gosh what a blast from the past, oh I just love your hair”

what's the opposite of feeling sand slip through your fingers because I feel this poem more and more as time passes