Porcelain. Ivory. Steel.

I trust the signs so I may find my way to you. This is mostly an ASOIAF blog, but don’t ask me anything serious about these books. Sarcasm and dry humor are my only shields.

[persephryne]

One thing we don’t talk about enough with Wake Up Dead Man is the ending. The very end. When Father Jud redecorates the church.

When he arrives, Monsignor tells him that the church is bare of all ornaments to remember the sin of the harlot whore. This is the first time we (unknowingly) hear of Grace, and it’s by explaining to us not an action of grace, but a punishment. It’s a warning to anyone who comes to the church. It says « You will not be forgiven. This church does not forgive and it does not forget, and it won’t allow you to forgive and forget either. ».

But at the end, the church is beautifully decorated, it’s glowing from the inside, there’ are flowers and a cross above the altar. It’s not just because now Father Jud can do what he wants, and he wants to make it pretty and welcoming. It’s forgiveness. For Grace. It is finally grace for Grace, and it comes from Father, from the Church. It says « You can finally rest in peace, you can finally move on, this church will move on. ». Grace is finally forgiven, and it’s also a way of saying that everyone who comes to this place, will be.

And by placing Eve’s Apple in place of the Christ’s heart, I believe Father Jud forgives all of the family. Not simply Grace, but her father and Monsignor too. They died for it, and now it’s with the Christ, safely protected. They are too.

[kosmogrl]

let’s all quit our jobs and just go on walks

[thelaughingtree]

something i would love the wider fandom to internalise is that while ASOIAF takes inspiration from historical medieval texts, it is not a medieval text (nor is it necessarily an accurate imitation of one), and is in fact for a modern audience. to apply a feminist reading to ASOIAF is not to 'modernise' it, since these books were written largely in the 90s/00s. in fact, i'd go as far as to argue ASOIAF expects you to sympathise with characters who seek to change social conditions so that they are granted freedoms to love and work and live as they wish regardless of gender (and to a lesser degree class), expecting the audience to view these gendered expectations as unfair. a lot of ASOIAF's interesting work with gender comes in through contrasting audience assumptions of what is 'right', with the blatantly unfair oppressive conditions of Westeros, and providing insight and invoking sympathy to a range of characters who are navigating the unfair and seemingly unchangeable gender norms enforced on them, while pulling on the audience's knowledge that things can change and need not be as oppressive or patriarchal as they are in text.

[thelaughingtree]

"X should have just sucked it up and married Y" "Z should have had legitimate children instead of bastards"

arranged marriage between westerosi nobility a) places a great deal of pressure on participants, particularly women, to have children to cement familial ties and alliances and b) does not have a concept of marital rape. in the worst case scenario, a woman marries someone cruel, is raped repeatedly, until she gives birth and dies. men, having material power (land, soldiers, wealth, etc.) fare better, but there is still the expectation of children, which can lead to coercion and rape. acceptance/rejection of westerosi marriage norms is thus intrinsically linked to issues of both sexual consent reproductive rights (or rather, lack thereof).

i think we should keep this in mind whenever we call characters 'selfish' or 'childish' for rejecting their marriages. if we're doing serious analysis, we should avoid treating the text like a game of Crusader Kings that we want to minmax, especially since the theme of 'love vs. duty' invites us to actively interrogate the cost of doing one's duty.

[7pleiades7]

The Death of Orpheus (La Mort d'Orphée), (Details), (1866), by Émile Lévy (French, 1826 –1890), oil on canvas, 206 cm (81.1 in) x 133 cm (52.3 in), Musée d'Orsay, Paris

[twinktorturer]

the best thing a man can be is gay and suicidal and miserable and utterly unlikable and unpleasant to be around and prone to addiction and abused and traumatized and not breaking the cycle and

[traumatized-tiefling]

[porcyworld]

furiously searching online "what do animals do out in a rainstorm" while it's raining

[porcyworld]

nobody worry too much because they all produce various oils and have different densities of fur to keep them dry and warm as well as seek out shelter under thick vegetation

[beachesgetpeaches]

the thing about Psych is that in spite of the existence of actual genius (Shawn Spencer) there is actually no crime solving with just the actual genius in the manner where it kind of happens for other shows (or at least that's what I recall)

I think Psych is more like a Shawn and Gus show even if Shawn is the sort of "main character" but really Shawn wouldn't be solving crimes without Gus, he even goes to him start of show, and that is just facts. Because for all of Shawn's great eyesight and super-skills Gus provides the encyclopaedia level knowledge.

idk I just think thats cool and also find a better written character than Burton Guster I dare youuu

[energyprison]

Having a job is an awesome way to stay hydrated because you get so bored you start drinking water just for a little excitement

[thememedaddy]

[batrachised]

love the phrase "but I digress." yes I temporarily got lost in the moors I wander in my mind but don't worry I'm self-aware about it

[lunamothghost]

Me when the themes and motifs connect in my brain

[alysmond]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON | Season 3, Episode 4, "Tumbleton"

[nyxqueen97]

sansa 🤝 jaime : being one of the most well written characters because george locked tf in

[tourfilm]

living under a rock is so fun i love watching a movie that’s been famous for decades and being like wow this is so good.. did you guys know about this

[sierrabravoecho]

Paternity test result is negative

[snippets-from-my-mind]

My Favorite Snippets from A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers

"I am made of metal and numbers; you are made of water and genes. But we are each something more than that. And we can't define what that something more is b y simply our raw components." - pg 75

"So the paradox is that the ecosystem as a whole needs its participants to act with restraint in order to avoid collapse, but the participants themselves have no inbuilt mechanism to encourage such behavior." - pg 96

"I think there's something beautiful about being lucky enough to witness a thing on its way out." - pg 99

"You will struggle to understand that human constructs are carved out and overlaid, that these are the places that are the in-between, not the other way around." - pg 110

"Without constructs, you will unravel few mysteries. Without knowledge of these mysteries, your constructs will fail. These pursuits are what make us, but without comfort, you will lack the strength to sustain either." - pg 135

“You’re an animal, Sibling Dex. You are not separate or other. You’re an animal. And animals have no purpose. Nothing has a purpose. The world simply is... You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live. That is all most animals do." - pg 138

"Do you not find consciousness alone to be the most exhilarating thing? Here we are, in this incomprehensibly large universe, on this one tiny moon around this one incidental planet, and in all the time this entire scenario has existed, every component has been recycled over and over and over again into infinitely incredible configurations, and sometimes, those configurations are special enough to be able to see the world around them. You and I—we're just atoms that arranged themselves the right way, and we can understand that about ourselves. Is that not amazing?" - pg 140