Vavafle

#extradirty

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if i look back, i am lost
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@hylialeia
Vavafle
Slumbering Power
Yes, you've successfully dodged allegations of monarchism by having the heroic princess decide to abolish the monarchy and institute representative democracy in the last five minutes of the game. Bravo.
Now give us the sequel where every prospective heir in a thousand-mile radius comes out of the woodwork claiming she's not allowed to do that and her actions should simply be construed as abdication, five different people declare themselves King, the nation plunges into civil war, and the ex-princess has to ninja around murdering all of her would-be successors in order to make the transition stick.
do you think the reason people are harder on daenerys than jon is because her characterization is more ambitious? so much of jon's arc is learning how to follow before he can lead (getting a whole Youre Not All That speech from Donal Noye) meanwhile Dany's pretty gunho about being blood of the dragon once Viserys is gone.
I think it's misogyny.
not trying to be flippant, I know there's nuance. we all have personal preferences, partiality to differences in POV voices, interests that draw us to unique storylines, settings, character arcs, etc. I certainly prefer the handling of the Free Folk in Jon's chapters to the Dothraki in Dany's, and personally find the Orientalism and racism in the Essos-based storylines (which belong almost solely to Daenerys) glaring detractions. but what you're describing here - being harder on the female fantasy protagonist for being "more ambitious" (and thus more frustrating/annoying), while liking the male fantasy protagonist who acts as her parallel - isn't a preference that exists in a vacuum.
both Daenerys and Jon are GRRM's responses to the chosen one archetype. it's part of the reason their core characters and narratives are so similar, and why we could spend all day outlining their parallels. but their respective relationships to the Chosen One trope itself are unique, and I don't think gender is irrelevant to that conversation. it informs it.
Jon's character is all about dismantling. yes, he learns to follow before he learns to lead. he is almost immediately stripped of all self-importance in his first few chapters. he's forced to let go of childish notions of individual valor and work with (and for) others. his most iconic refrain is you know nothing. even the supposed source of his hidden specialness, his secret parentage, is a more likely to take him off the path of heroism than inspire him to continue down it. from beginning to end, Jon's story takes the idea of a chosen one and interrogates it, peels it back layer by layer. it's a good deconstruction because we've already seen a hundred chosen ones where that status was never questioned.
this doesn't apply to Daenerys. Dany's story is about subversion; it takes the mantle of chosen fantasy hero so often given to a martial man, bound by duty and the greater good, destined for greatness, and gives it to a young girl longing for home. she doesn't have a character arc where she learns how to follow and take orders, because why would she? when we meet her, she is frightened, powerless, physically and sexually abused by her brother, and forced into a marriage with a man twice her age. Jon might be outcast from his society's titles by bastardy, but he has an amount of safety and familial love that Daenerys - despite having a legitimate bloodline and royal title - has never known. they're in inverse positions, and so Dany's arc is the inverse of Jon's. her refrain isn't you know nothing, it's if I look back, I am lost.
and again, these characters don't exist in a vacuum. there's a reason it feels novel and satisfying for the young male hero to serve and learn humility, to abandon ambitions of glory and work with those around him. and there's a reason it would be borderline insulting to put Daenerys through the same arc. this isn't about not allowing Dany to learn or grow (she certainly shares Jon's arc when it comes to working toward a greater good, and is currently GRRM's standing example of "ruling is hard"). this is about addressing why people think Daenerys, whose character revolves so much around agency and power and how best to use those things for good, needs to be humbled and less ambitious in order to become palatable.
that said, reading this in good faith: I understand where this sentiment comes from, particularly looking at ADWD. for all GRRM's worldbuilding strengths, the racism comes out in full force in the portrayal of Essos, and we never get anything like Jon's growing understanding of the Free Folk's culture. portraying other slave rebellions and revolutionaries should have been a big part of Dany's chapters and could have challenged her in really productive ways... but the Orientalism was never an intentional blindspot for the character; it's the author's biases at play.
anyways, I'm still so angry over that Deadline article about Disney nuking Ncuti Gatwa's era of Doctor Who because of "woke" (not even kidding), because they received "overwhelming" feedback that the show was "too woke" for international audiences. It will never not piss me the fuck off how woke was/is literally aave for being politically aware that's been so co-opted by white establishment conservatives that this bastardised co-opted colonised concept of "woke" is now weaponised against Black people, people of colour and other marginalised people to justify casting us down and out. A literal fuckinf alien was played by a Black gay actor and old white people lost their shit and now a 60 yr old show is basically dead because some white people hated they weren't being directly pandered to. I'm never not gonna be pissed the fuck OFF
Hey, people in the comments who said I was wrong about the show being dead because I could see the writing on the wall months ago....well, now there's the official announcement. I really hope that no one ever forgets that Doctor Who was cancelled because of anti-Blackness, racism, and corporate greed.
The crazy part about pain is that it actually hurts alot
all movies are for children because the moving image is inherently juvenile. to be entertained by it even moreso
Staring for two hours at a painting doesn't make you deep.
i can stare for up to 7 hours actually
it's in times like these you have to be grateful not to be on asoiaftwt
[the most low energy you have ever seen me] we’re about to go crazy mode
if we put aside all personal preferences and character stan wars and are honest with ourselves there just isn't any way to do "evil mad villain daenerys" without it being a painfully insulting conservative fantasy of misogynistic tripe. I am all for examining the impacts, horrors, necessity, and nature of violence through a subversion of a traditional fantasy story (what if aragorn was a 15 year old girl and also ruling was hard and fuck you I do want to know her tax policy, etc etc). what I am not interested in is the same anti-revolutionary pro-status quo MCU-esque handwringing disguised as yet another faux-deep "really makes you think 🤔🤔🤔" thinkpiece that I've already seen a thousand times. game of thrones the tv show already gave us the pathetic crazy infertile woman spurned and killed by her love interest when she got too emotional and wanted to end slavery Too Much storyline and I don't know if you remember but it was infamously bad. so it's wild to me that people still think that's not only the way it will but apparently should go. forget the looming narrative threat of cold lifeless apathy in horrific ice zombie form that's been built up for 5 books, that's small potatoes. the Real villain is the teen sexual abuse survivor doomed to go mad because of a family history of mental illness. I am very progressive
do not fear for me. the fire is mine.
prints + merch + c0mms open
are bots making communities now??? some of the ones i get recommended feel like it
like the admin of this one is deactivated and at least 95% of the members are bots
can you imagine you wake up one day in a dark room chained to a radiator with your phone at 1% and you unlock it and find that you've been added to this community
The first thing you do in that situation is open Tumblr?
Where the hell else would I post about being chained to a radiator, fucking Bluesky?
got told I didn't deserve to be gay because I thought lady gaga wrote money money money by abba. sorry men I am no longer attracted to you as of today. sorry abba sorry gaga sorry women sorry world
bee boo ba ba.....
this is becoming a really beautiful post
TUESDAY AGAIN NO PROBLEM