babi.

[amethistempress]

hadn't been here for a while! daenerys sketch/study/idk?

[theoptia]

Hélène Cixous, from The Laugh of the Medusa

Text ID: Woman must write her self: must write about women and bring women to writing, from which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies ... Writing is for you, you are for you; your body is yours, take it.

[amethistempress]

daenora velaryon doddle.

[eriexplosion]

Love me a character that goes "Don't just internalize your trauma. Externalize it. Make your trauma everyone else's problem. Murder some guys about it maybe. And whatever you do, never ever stop being interpersonally unpleasant to be around."

Give me a bitch that sucks and I'm all over them.

[arthur-lesters-right-arm]

Yeah sure I'll sexualize that fictional man, it's 5 o'clock somewhere

[triangleguy]

liking a female character who is a terrible person is always scary in terms of interacting with fandom because its almost always either "ouhh her life was so hard i feel so bad for her she didnt deserve any of that its not her fault shes so mean" or "oh my god shes such an annoying bitch i cant stand her"

[gingerhastoomanyobsessions]

Things that actually happen in hunchback of notre dame, in no particular order

The book mostly is told from the POV of Pierre, a self-insert who is failed author and, I cannot stress this enough, utterly pathetic 

Quasimodo damaged his hearing as a teenager from years of bell ringing and now uses sign language whenever he can

There is a scene where Quasimodo and a fellow deaf guy have to have a conversation without using sign language because they’re in a courtroom and the jury doesn’t know sign. It goes about as well as you’d expect 

Frollo has a little brother, Jehan, who he raised after their parents died. Jehan is now a frat bro in college whose hobbies consist of getting drunk and being mean to Quasimodo. In his first scene Jehan complains about college DEI because an Italian guy got a scholarship he wanted. 

Esmeralda is accused of witchcraft because she taught her pet goat Djali how to do math

Djali may or may not be sapient. He can and does imitate human mannerisms to make fun of people on purpose. He does this while on trial. 

Yes. They tried the goat for witchcraft, too. 

Pierre writes a whole play riding on the pun of dolphin/Dauphin. Nobody likes it. 

Frollo is an alchemist and has a secret mad science lab where he writes on the walls

Jehan literally pulls a “buy my silence” and frollo gives him money to make him shut up

There’s a trio of catty girls who bully Esmeralda like it’s Mean Girls

Quasimodo and Frollo literally have Cryptid Status— Parisians circulate rumors that Quasimodo is either a familiar, a homunculus, or the result of demonic mpreg, and that Frollo is a wizard with wizard powers and/or a ghost

There is a little old woman who lives in a hole and shouts slurs at people. She has a tragic backstory. 

There is a homicidal con man/king of thieves named Clopin Troillefou (surname translation: The Fool of Fear) who deserves tumblr sexymanhood.

Pierre learns how to carry chairs with his teeth 

There’s an entire chapter dedicated to the layout of the streets of Paris in painstaking detail

There’s another chapter that is a rant about interior design 

Esmeralda and Pierre get platonically married due to Clopin’s murderous shenanigans. Pierre tries to make a move in her but ends up being more emotionally attached to Djali the goat than to her. I think that should be grounds for divorce

There is a scene where Pierre has to choose between helping Esmeralda escape or helping Djali. He picks Djali. 

Frollo hides from his own brother by laying face down in mud and playing dead. Somehow this works 

There is a Plot Significant Tiny Shoe. A Tiny Shoe Chekhov’s Gun. And Victor Hugo will not stop telling you just how Tiny this shoe is. 

There’s a soap opera style plot twist that involves a false accusation of cannibalism and the woman in the hole who shouts slurs

Quasimodo makes up a stupid little song that doesn’t even rhyme to confess his love to Esmeralda, who remains oblivious

He then attempts to demonstrate his affection via convoluted metaphors that involve props. She doesn’t get it. Boy please say what you mean

Frollo pulls the classic discord groomer tactic of threatening self-harm if Esmeralda doesn’t give in. 

Jehan rolls up to a party/rescue mission scheming session in Clopin’s secret hideout in full plate armor (how did he get that???), drunk off his ass, and acts like he owns the place. Everyone finds this so ridiculous that they just let him

Hugo goes on and on about how innocent and naive Esmeralda is but then casually reveals that Esmeralda carries a dagger on her person at all times to fend off assault. When Frollo attacks her and Quasi intervenes, she takes Quasi’s knife and almost kills Frollo (fair!) but he flees. She contains multitudes?

Frollo has a psychotic breakdown in the middle of a field surrounded by chickens and hallucinates skeletons everywhere 

For the first half of the book Esmeralda is like 70% sure Frollo is a ghost, not helped by his aforementioned Cryptid Status

Jehan eats a moldy piece of cheese off the ground 

Frollo tries to send Pierre on a suicide mission in drag. Pierre objects to the suicide part but not the drag part  

Clopin’s preferred weapon is a scythe, he’s very good at using it, and he sings when he fights. Again: sexyman potential. 

Victor Hugo has a foot fetish. I initially dismissed it as Frollo having a foot fetish until Victor Hugo included a foot fetish torture scene without any Frollo in it. So I can only conclude that the foot fetish is authorial in nature. Unfortunately the foot scenes are important to the plot. 

Frollo is canonically 36, he just aged like shit and is bald. The narrator will not stop telling you just how bald he is.

Despite being in full plate armor, Jehan gets splatted like a bug

Almost every named character dies. Djali the goat lives. 

[kibbychan]

for those who aren't aware, jamaica is about to experience its worst storm in history with a catagory 5 hurricane for at least a full day. i only ask that you keep jamaica in your thoughts, and if you have a bit of spare money, contribute some money to families, because they are absolutely gonna get destroyed

[librarycards]

Donate to Support Jamaica: Hurricane Melissa Relief, organized by Brittany Wolfe

The Greater Fort Lauderdale Diaper Bank is urgently responding to the devasta… Brittany Wolfe needs your support for Support Jamaica: Hurric

Greater Fort Lauderdale Diaper Bank (many of whose employees have roots in Jamaica) is collecting monetary and (if nearby) physical donations.

[myrish-lace-and-sandsilk]

Melisandre, Gucci FW18

[kirkwallguy]

creating characters who are terrible people and examining how they benefit from being terrible and why they act the way they do is way more cathartic than a fantasy world that completely blocks off the option to make immoral / bad choices

[robobrat]

"why does it have to always be about knights?" because there's nothing hotter than a hulking mass of metal who could kill me with a flick of his wrist but instead gets on his knees and trembles as he restrains himself from begging for my touch. i'm not going to get that from some fur trader or councilor, am i?

[bighound-littlebird]

Sansa, probably.

[punkrockismyreligion]

How does one hate a country, or love one? […] I know people, I know towns, farms, hills and rivers and rocks, I know how the sun at sunset in autumn falls on the side of a certain plowland in the hills; but what is the sense of giving a boundary to all that, of giving it a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply?

— Ursula K. Le Guin – The Left Hand of Darkness (1969, p. 212)

[thoughtportal]

[everayy]

i understand being uncomfortable with rhaelya’s age gap but i’ve seen people mention it’d be so easy to just make lyanna a tad older in order for their story to be a proper romance. but i personally think the whole point is that it’s not meant to be easy. the story that’s being told asks for a sacrifice and, beyond lyanna’s life, the price being paid is that of the reader’s comfort. it’s not particularly palatable because it’s not supposed to be. it’d weaken the story if rhaegar wasn’t made less flattering by his relationship with lyanna (not only because of her age, but what it means to the family he left behind, and why he is pursuing someone new in the first place). grrm constantly plays with notions of mortality and how “the person you may hate so much is someone else’s beloved child”, taking that away from such a core event in the story that ties and tells so much and at the same time so little is asking asoiaf to be less authentic. rhaegar (good) x robert (evil) is an objectively less interesting story than two men fighting for their idea of a woman (in truth, just a girl) who doesn’t exist, because neither of them really knows her, and that said strength struggle ultimately tears her apart. so we meet both the robert who means the world to ned and the one who raped cersei. we meet both the rhaegar who wants to save the realm from aerys’ reign and the one who sacrificed elia’s safety—for an affair with a much younger girl (which is really just abuse).

[gracelyns]

x

[ilynpilled]

​name 3 children jaime tried and failed to kill

[everayy]

No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre but it's just the Lannister siblings

[everayy]

TYRION: Prove it. Prove it was no dream. It’s what one does, and nothing else, that shows the stuff one's made of.

JAIME: I died too soon. I wasn't allowed time to - to do my deeds.

TYRION: One always dies too soon - or too late. And yet one's whole life is complete at that moment, with a line drawn neatly under it, ready for the summing up. You are - your life, and nothing else.

——————————————————————————————————

JAIME: Well, now that we've broken the ice, do you really think I look like a torturer? And, by the way, how does one recognize torturers when one sees them? Evidently you've ideas on the subject.

TYRION: They look frightened.

JAIME: Frightened? But how ridiculous! Of whom should they be frightened? Of their victims?

TYRION: Laugh away, but I know what I'm talking about. I've often watched my face in the glass.

——————————————————————————————————

CERSEI: But we're going to —to hurt each other. You said it yourself.

TYRION: Do I look as if I wanted to hurt you?

CERSEI: One never can tell.

TYRION: Much more likely YOU'LL hurt ME. Still, what does it matter? If I've got to suffer, it may as well be at your hands, your pretty hands. Sit down. Come closer. Closer. Look into my eyes. What do you see?

CERSEI: Oh, I'm there! But so tiny I can't see myself properly.

TYRION: But I can. Every inch of you. Now ask me questions. I'll be as candid as any looking-glass.

——————————————————————————————————

JAIME: So it's a man you need?

CERSEI: Not any man. You.

JAIME: No humbug now. Any man would do your business. As I happen to be here, you want me. Right! Mind, I'm not your sort at all, really; I'm not a young nincompoop and I don't dance the tango.

CERSEI: I'll take you as you are. And perhaps I shall change you.

JAIME: I doubt it. I shan't pay much attention; I've other things to think about.

CERSEI: What things?

JAIME: They wouldn't interest you.

CERSEI: I'll sit on your sofa and wait for you to take some notice of me. I promise not to bother you at all.

TYRION: That's right, fawn on him, like the silly bitch you are. Grovel and cringe! And he hasn't even good looks to commend him!

CERSEI: Don't listen to him. He has no eyes, no ears. He's— nothing.

JAIME: I'll give you what I can. It doesn't amount to much. I shan't love you; I know you too well.

CERSEI: Do you want me, anyhow?

JAIME: Yes.

CERSEI: I ask no more.

[branwinged]

harrenhal, king's landing, and volantis are all metaphors for the same thing, that the structural injustices which led to the creation and maintenance of these places will eventually result in their collapse. harrenhal is a symbol of the worst of feudalism, i say 'worst' because the books do romanticise certain aspects of it, oathkeeping as fidelity is clearly intended to be beautiful and moving in brienne's storyline and "the north remembers" but what harren the black did was exploit the riverlands and the iron islands and employ slaves in its construction, thousands dead for one man's monument to power and dominion over others. it was a castle built on fear, not fealty. in a non magical sense, the curse of harrenhal is hubris. it was intended to be the height of feudual power because it was virtually impregnable - impervious to 'normal' medieval warfare, but ended up being destroyed by yet another king, this time in possession of a more fantastical means of power - dragonfire (the hubris theme is strong in the main series, the castle is awarded to scheming, ambitious, and amoral political players who either engineer their own downfall or are eventually pushed off the board by someone who can scheme better them).

but the thing that interests me is that the burning of harrenhal also positions the targaryens as capable of status quo upsetting, radical change. they can disrupt existing power structures because what are walls in front of a dragon? dragons fly. the visionary bit here is the unification of the realm, which is definitely framed as an admirable thing by the narrative because of the upcoming threat of the long night—what aegon invades westeros for. i don't think the targaryens are, like, evil for being conqueror kings, that's a disingenuous reading, but i do think this is a somewhat corrupt idea of 'unification' as it is primarily focused on the dynastic interests of this one family. because the other thing he did was make the iron throne, something that's currently the biggest obstacle to the possibility of the realm uniting in the face of a common enemy. it's significant that a fight over the throne is what kills their dragons, that's a very blunt way of saying that the the iron throne is what ultimately smothers their ability to enact any wider social change, by the end they weren't any different from the other houses. so king's landing is no longer a symbol of targaryen rule, both their dragons and their dynasty died there and any vision of radical change that they began the conquest with was consumed by the iron throne. kl as a whole is symbolic of the game of thrones, the city's geography is modeled after the iron throne with the king within the red keep on top of aegon's hill and the smallfolk left to rot at the bottom. and the inheritors of 'the game' are the lannisters, the ones who swindled the city and the throne from the targaryens. tywin continues aerys's legacy of violence, aerys would burn a city out of 'madness', tywin would do it out of pragmatism ("Lord Tywin would not have bothered with a search. He would have burned that town and every living creature in it"), so it makes sense for tywin's philosophy, that of exploitative and dehumanising violence in the pursuit of power, to be the cause of its destruction. several posts have been made about why joncon and cersei are the ones haunted by the memory of tywin's crimes with reasons to want to emulate him, so i'm not going there, but i feel it's also really important for king's landing to go out because of purposeful grasping over the iron throne and without any dragonfire (even accidental) involved. king's landing is doomed in a very apocalyptic sense because 'the game' is unsustainable. nothing new will come out of the city's destruction and dany's use of fire is always transformative, she creates life out of death. wildfire only destroys.

the city dany will bring fire and blood to is volantis, not king's landing. volantis is the final remnant of the freehold's imperial legacy. a society built on systemic evil, on the backs of slaves cannot go on. the cyclical story here is obviously that of the dragons being redefined and redeemed as symbols of liberation after they historically helped the freehold perpetuate the evil of imperial expansion and slavery. i think the error lies in assuming dany has a personal connection to king's landing but she really doesn't. it used to be their seat and then the targaryens doomed themselves in westeros because of the iron throne. dany is not here to repeat those same mistakes. where she must go instead, is harrenhal. aegon burned it on the first day of his conquest, a conquest he began because of the prophecy of the prince that was promised. the castle is left in a half ruined state so it's not allowed to, like, die. the targaryens kept returning there and got involved in events that altered course of their rule forever - the council of 101 which led to the dying of the dragons and the tourney at harrenhal that led to their line almost ending. i think the narrative 'curse' at its heart is that the castle is the site of unfinished business. it was a result of excessive feudal violence and the conquest was supposed to lead to a different, better model of governance, i do think the targaryens came close to achieving that at certain points in their history because it was a reign of both splendour and horror, but they also ended up being responsible for the perpetuation of that very feudal violence in king's landing. as the last targaryen, dany's destiny lies in unifying and protecting the realm during the long night, this is what they survived the doom for. and i think to do that she has to go to this castle that's a place of both narrative beginnings and endings but also in stasis, and finish what her ancestors began—what aegon and rhaegar wished to achieve at harrenhal but couldn't, one too motivated by conquest and the other by prophecy. because only then will the curse break and the song end.