Support my campaign for Gif-maker overlord.

Ich liebe Titten.

[philomaela]

I understand that it's a conceit of the book to be an unreliable history book and so there's only so much the author could do within those constraints. But I do think if GRRM was wanting to send the message that "Nettles absolutely is not Valyrian" as like the "real" story within Fire and Blood... he maybe should have done something different? Like... I understand why people in Fire and Blood aren't convinced (in universe racism and classism) and I don't think you have to assume she actually is Daemon's daughter, but in general to me it seems like the book is presenting absence of evidence as evidence of absence. And if it is, it's really weird to have to just be like... okay fine!

I suppose I'm going off of a couple pieces from the book:

Her having Targaryen ancestry does not mean that one of her parents had to be a Targaryen. The books states that "seeds and sons of seeds" made their homes on dragonstone and it's nevery actually clarified what the exact lineage of Hugh or Ulf (two other dragonseeds) was. They might not be illegitimate children of House Targaryen as much as they are descended from ones.

Addam is hinted at truly being Corlys Velaryon's son, if he is that means that the previous intermarriages between Velaryon and Targaryen was enough for Addam to have sufficient Targaryen ancestry to ease things along, rather than if his father was Laenor who had been a dragonrider himself.

Nettles was born in Spicetown on Driftmark... you know... the seat of House Velaryon... hey totally off topic, I wonder what the illegitimate children of House Velaryons are called... seahorse seeds?

The books gives us quite a few dragonriders (The Velaryon boys and Rhaenys) of House Targaryen who don't have Targaryen looks.

Nettles tames a dragon differently than the others... but she's also the only one who tames a wild dragon, all the rest tame dragons who had been previously ridden and were seemingly socialized and raised around humans from birth. Alyn Velaryon, who has the same level of "dragon blood" as Addam Velaryon almost died when trying to tame Sheepstealer the "traditional" way after all.

And it sucks because I'm pretty sure she's not meant to be Valyrian, not because of anything the book does with it but just because I'm pretty sure that's more interesting from a lore/world building perspective to give an indication of how people who don't have "dragon blood" can tame dragons. BUT I genuinely think that the way he indicated it seems like... very fucking flimsy?? But also how do you do it better in a world without 23andme lmfao. But also like IDK, at the end of the day maybe it doesn't actually matter for Nettles's story either way, so it's chill.

[philomaela]

What are perfume sales like in an A/B/O world? Must be a really niche market.

[philomaela]

oh shit lowkey I just tried reading some A/B/O to get perfume (or well scent note) recommendations and it actually is pretty fun.

[philomaela]

What are perfume sales like in an A/B/O world? Must be a really niche market.

[philomaela]

I don't rewatch TLK often, but when I do, it's the episode where Uhtred fails to take bebbanburg.

[philomaela]

I can't hate Fuchsia's death because of the father-daughter of it all. Let me lose myself and go cold and dead inside like papa, let me be consumed by the emptiness because I've lost my ability to cope like papa. The first time Fuchsia truly feels like a daughter is when her father is going mad because his madness, for a moment at least, breaks down the barriers between them. Meanwhile Fuchsia's own despair forms a barrier between her and Titus and in both their cases it comes from feeling too much, it's all too much, she knows she loves Titus but she can't feel it. They both don't want to live but neither are they intentionally trying to die... but still they succumb.

[philomaela]

They told Grace that he would be "remembered as a hero", even though it was a lie. But then Rocky made that lie into a truth, he made Grace a hero by offering him friendship and empathy and recognizing him as someone of value who was worth saving. Grace found someone to be brave for, because he found someone who was brave for him.

[philomaela]

project hail mary was like "what if you were alone and had no one to love you or care about you but then you went to space and found your soulmate who was a rock alien" and yeah I cried tbh.

[philomaela]

The thing about Those About to Die is that there is clearly a much more competent, tightly written and boring show hidden inside of it.... and then there's an even messier, clumsier and more interesting show hidden inside of that. But somehow they split the difference and made something that was less than the sum of its parts.

[ciqqy]

I will lock in tomorrow like nobody has ever locked in before

[ciqqy]

[philomaela]

(spoilers for the book "The Queen of Last Hopes")

Something that has happened as a result of my venturing into Ricardian fiction (and just fiction about Richard III in general) is that I've found there's actually some really nice historical fiction that imagines romantic love between Edward of Lancaster and Anne Neville. Like I was fully crying while reading their scenes in The Queen of Last Hopes (which is from the perspective of Margaret of Anjou and not actually Ricardian at all) and they have like a couple chapters together and the majority of it is very... evenly toned. Like it's not overly romantic but there's something very touching and human about their interactions. And it's legit funny too! Like they have a whole scene where Anne is showing Edward the graves of her ancestors at Tewkesbury and he's teasing her about how terribly they all died and it's both funny and quite sad given what's about to happen (and what has happened). And then the night before the battle, she tells Edward how she's grown to like him very much and he wants to ask if she loves him but is too scared to hear her say no because at the end of the day they're both quite young and in a very difficult situation. And then after he dies....

He turned his attention to Anne, who had knelt beside Edwards body and was fingering the shroud as though to pull it back. "Please don't look, your grace." Anne nodded and laid her cheek against Edward's. "We shall meet in Paradise, my love," she whispered. "It may be a long time before we see each other there. But we shall meet again, and then I shall tell you that I did love you, only that I was shy of saying so." She kissed him, then rose with the abbot's help. He led her away, weeping afresh...

And yeah, tears, full tears for me there. I just found it so affecting.

[philomaela]

I don't know if I can say this coherently but I've noticed that there's is sometimes an overlap of people being annoyed at calling things like Dante's Inferno or other older reinterpretations of classics "fanfiction" but then calling modern reinterpretations of different classics and myths "fanfiction" as an insult and IDK I just feel strongly that if you do the former you cannot do the latter and still make a salient point. Well I guess you can try but only if your idea is that "fanfiction = bad writing" and if THAT'S the only point you're making then I think we can admit that calling Dante's Inferno "fanfiction" is actually not that deep or big a deal. Because I feel that "not fanfiction is when thing is good and fanfiction is when thing is bad" is also a pretty lame way to look at these works and not actually anymore "respectful" to the work itself and to the art of reinterpretation than attempting to connect them to the legacy of fan culture? Which is funny because I don't even agree with it! I don't think you can call a lot of these things fanfiction lol (although I do think lines are a lot greyer than people would think in either direction) and you especially would have a hard time connecting it to modern fan culture.

[robertfagden]

actually im doing really well except for the fact that everything makes me sad and the things that dont make me sad make me angry. but other than that im fine

[philomaela]

Would love an alternate storyline where it is Steerpike who escapes Gormenghast and ventures out, only to immediately get stomped by the outside world that is far less complacent and willing to put up with him. Sorry Steerpike, but your Machiavellian scheming is only subtle within the confines of Gormenghast, with subjects who are far too beaten down to actually put up a fight or even care all that much. Good luck trying that shit anywhere else.

[philomaela]

Listen does Dead Rat by Mervyn Peake make me want to cry and cry for hours, yes of course it does! But what about The Trouble With Geraniums, where is the love for that poem that ALSO makes me want to die but for entirely different reasons??

[philomaela]

More people need to start adapting the... less well regarded Shakespeare plays into films and just doing whatever the fuck they want with them. Don't get me wrong I'm excited to watch the new Hamlet film with Riz Ahmed but you know what would be super cool (to me and only me) is an adaptation of The Two Gentlemen of Verona that kills Proteus and Valentine :) I just think that'd be neat!

[philomaela]

oh what is happening... the notes thing is retroactive???

[philomaela]

I don't mean this as a complaint, but I was rewatching some old tv shows/movies set in the Roman Empire and it just made me realize that no matter what angle they come at it from, the work is always super constrained by modern conceptions of sexuality. It's honestly fascinating, how much it tries to say that XYZ is different while grounding it to make it the same.

[philomaela]

I suppose this is true for ALL historical periods that frequently get adapted into fiction actually. Like it's very obvious with Rome because you have so many works that follow similar lines. But it exists everywhere I think.

Indian films and tv shows dealing with basically any time in the pre-british raj period is largely unable to fully reckon with the concepts of harems and polygamy in general without forcing it into the framework of monogamous marriage and romantic love. And I'm not saying romantic love (both monogamous and not) didn't exist in those times, that'd be insane. But it's also true that people would have probably interacted with those concepts differently based on the world they were in and films are just not interested in examining that and I feel like it's the same for Rome and probably a bunch of other stuff.