dreamfyre's saddle @queenstark - Tumblr Blog

like I don’t know if you guys understand. look at this. this is literally the first thing that happens in the movie it’s the first scene. if i was in a theater watching this in 1953 I would be blushing like a maniac

you can watch pickup on south street for free here.

its actually one of my favorite noirs it’s SUPER brechtian. thelma ritter gives one of if not her best performance in this movie. she’s phenomenal. worth it just for her imo

#movies

filmtvdiary-blog

MARIE ANTOINETTE (2006) dir.: Sofia Coppola

possession

Jennifer’s Body (2009) Black Swan (2010) Gone Girl (2014) The Witch (2014) The Neon Demon (2016) The Love Witch (2016) Suspiria (2018) Hereditary (2018) X (2022)

#real

optional

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON S01E08 | The Lord of the Tides

#if ryan had been brave enough he would have made them scissor right there #house of the dragon

borgialucrezia

“Alexander took the greatest pleasure in making the arrangements for setting up his daughter’s establishment. Her happiness—or, what to him was the same thing, her greatness meant much to him. He loved her passionately, superlatively." — Lucretia Borgia according to original documents and correspondence of her day (Ferdinand Gregorovius)

#the borgias

gettingscrazy

DEMI MOORE as ELISABETH SPARKLE THE SUBSTANCE (2024) dir. Coralie Fargeat

#demi moore im getting you that oscar myself #the substance

mysterious-secret-garden

Errol Le Cain - illustration of ‘Thorn Rose’, a version of Sleeping Beauty.

#art

helaemondcore

Maiden Mother Crone

marisatomay

It’s not just that grown adults knocking on 30 and above only read books written for middle schoolers it’s they also want everyone else to clap and cheer for them like why is it so essential for them that I am happy about that

marisatomay

No babe it’s so cool and hot that you always insist that fantasy books written to meet a 4th graders’ comprehension skills have more complex themes and a greater sense of praxis than anything written for adults

bbygirl-aemond

okay now that i've slept on this episode (and watched the behind the scenes) i want to talk more about this idea of rhaenyra as a cult leader who has completely drunk her own kool-aid. it's an a+ development for her character and i truly hope the writers continue to lean into it further.

hotd has built up this idea of dragons being a conduit for the divine from the very beginning of season one, when viserys and rhaenyra talk about how the targaryen's perceived proximity to the gods comes via their control of dragons. earlier in season two we also heard the smallfolk describe the dragons as invulnerable gods during the parading of meleys's head. this is a deliberate narrative that the targaryens have cultivated (as jace pointed out) to provide themselves with a divine mandate to justify their rule.

this idea of the dragons as a divine mandate is beginning to intersect with the conqueror's dream for rhaenyra in a fascinating way. rhaenyra has always placed more importance on the conqueror's dream than, say, daemon or jace, but this episode goes much further, and is full of rhaenyra talking about being given signs and instructions from the gods. i think addam claiming seasmoke was a transformation for her- she was smiling and had this look of near elation once he claimed her as queen. i think she genuinely believes that the gods broke the rules of dragon claiming in order to give her a loyal dragon rider right when she needed one.

we see this same elated smile again when she successfully brings vermithor to heel. each of these little moments is something she takes as confirmation that she's being aided by the gods. this is why she is so convinced that the dragon seeds who claim vermithor and silverwing will be loyal to her- she has convinced herself that all of this is the gods signaling to her and that they will bring her loyal dragon riders the way they brought her addam. the dragon tamers point out what rhaenyra is not willing to acknowledge; these are not true signs from the gods, but things that rhaenyra herself is reading into and arranging for herself. she is seeing what she wants to see. and this will be proven true when hugh and ulf betray rhaenyra, likely due to rhaenyra's own actions in locking the dragonseeds in to die. they were not loyal believers sent from the gods to serve her; they were just men, and she's given them the fantasy equivalent of nuclear missiles.

a large part of this belief in divine validation is definitely due to rhaenyra's own deep seated insecurity due to viserys neglecting her in her childhood and her small council not taking her seriously enough, but i also think this is a coping mechanism on rhaenyra's part. she has no choice but to lean into this war as fully as she can now, to describe herself as helpless in the wake of what the gods have set before her, because she needs her losses to mean something. she needs visenya's death and luke's death to mean something. she needs the loss of her relationship with alicent to mean something.

but in doing this, she is already beginning to push others away from her. she has lost the support of the dragon tamers, and she has also pushed away jace; when he confronted her about a valid concern about how this would make his own ascension even more fraught, she just parroted more of that divine mandate nonsense back to him, which he is clearly not buying. i'll be curious to see how much deeper she falls into this cultish spiral and how much more it costs her.