person! person!!!!!! @richinomega3 - Tumblr Blog

Huge shout to my friend from an undergraduate philosophy program who started working out every single day, not for health benefits or to become conventionally attractive or whatever, but because -- and this is a direct quote -- he was concerned that otherwise he might "become lost in the world of signs and forget the things they signify". I have thought about this every single time that I've worked out since.

a-thread-of-green

The reason why God was so involved in human affairs a long time ago but then noped out after Jesus is because God is going through the same motions for every animal species: making a covenant, giving commandments, and sending down his own child to die in the form of that species. I know this because I felt an odd urge to swallow a mouse yesterday and, when I questioned it, I received a vision from God saying that He was on mice right now, and the mouse I was about to swallow was the mouse-equivalent of Jonah. Tomorrow I'm supposed to spit him out in a den of sinful mice so that he can squeak to word of God at them. I wish that little guy the best.

richyjerimovich

SUPRIYA GANESH as DR. SAMIRA MOHAN THE PITT, 1.12 "6:00 P.M."

richyjerimovich

SUPRIYA GANESH as DR. SAMIRA MOHAN THE PITT, 1.12 "6:00 P.M."

edithhead

The Fall (2006) dir. Tarsem Singh

Costume design by Eiko Ishioka

dark-rx-deactivated20250608

89words

“I love kissing. If I could kiss all day, I would. I can’t stop thinking about kissing. I like kissing more than sex because there’s no end to it. You can kiss forever. You can kiss yourself into oblivion. You can kiss all over the body. You can kiss yourself to sleep. And when you wake up, you can’t stop thinking about kissing. Dammit, I can’t get anything done because I’m so busy thinking about kissing. Kissing is madness! But it’s absolute paradise, if you can find a good kisser.”

— Sufjan Stevens

freshgalaxycheesecake

"Happy photos of people reading Neil in the bath"

"Neil. Nakedness. Books. Bubbles. Baths." This is the blurb of a 2012 blog dedicated to reading Neil Gaiman's books in a bubble bath, taking a photo and sending it to the blog for Neil to appreciate. No, I'm not kidding.

I just discovered this and ugh. At the speed of the internet, indeed. This man couldn't wait long enough, for people to send him photos of them reading in a bathtub. On that blog there's photos of what looks in all effects, minors. Who thought this was a good idea? A 50 years old man reblogging photos of fans in bathtubs, almost all of them young women. The more I learn of this man, the more disgusted I become. Apparently a fan took the initiative: I wonder if it was actually a fan.

I don't feel comfortable putting the direct link to that blog, but it's still visible, I'm not inventing anything. Neil Gaiman was definitely monitoring the blog, because he reblogged and put a like on some of the most "explicit" ones.

"I bet he did".

As I said, a 50 years old man was actively liking and reblogging photos of his young female fans, naked in bathtubs. Some of them look way too young for comfort, that's why I censored them: even if it makes little sense since they're still on that blog, it still felt right.

As of February 2024, no one still saw it as weird, included Neil "Simpler Times" Gaiman. It's been under our noses this whole time.

heritageposts

nowhere on the blog does it say you have to be an adult to submit photos either. not that i'd trust the student (how old?) running this to reliably verify the age of the submissions they were getting anyway, but still... how did gaiman not see an obvious problem here?

like it's incredibly creepy to be soliciting nudes from his fans regardless of their age — and that is what he's doing here, even if it is technically happening through a third party — but the fact that there isn't even a mild 'no minors' disclaimer on the blog he's plugging, and that gaiman, a man then in his 50s, still chose to emphasize that it's totally okay for fans to submit pictures of themselves naked?

i'm not sure 'creepy' really covers it

mirrormaelstrom

danlous

Ignoring the real possibility he intentionally let himself be caught from the little we know so far Luigi Mangione's case is a fascinating combination of astonishing brilliance and confusing stupidity. This young man plans and executes his assassination and escape with such a meticulous care and calmness that it's suspected that he's a professional hitman. He comes up with Riddler-sque moves like writing his manifesto poetically on the bullets and leaving his backpack behind full of Monopoly money. He carefully wears a mask to avoid being identified but removes it because a woman who was checking him into the hostel was flirting with him and wanted to see his smile. He still manages to escape the most surveilled city in the country in the midst of ongoing national manhunt only to get caught in the middle of bumfuck nowhere Pennsylvania while eating at the McDonalds. Because for some reason he had the same clothes and mask as in New York and was carrying the same gun and suppressor. And when the cops detained him he showed them the same fake id he used in New York. And oh yeah he's a frat bro gym rat who has a masters degree in computer science from Penn but reads stupid self-help books about being on the grind and is 'anti-woke' while being bisexual suffering from anxiety and wanting to end oppressive capitalism. Not even god himself could invent a person like this

synchodai

HBO's Continued Insistence on Dumbing Down Westerosi Politics

So there have been countless thinkpieces already on how GOT simplified the feudalist politics of Westeros (by giving a lowborn sellsword lordship over The Reach, by having no consequences for destroying the Sept of Baelor, etc.), but I haven't seen a lot of people talking about that for House of the Dragon.

The worst being that the show presupposes that Rhaenyra is the lawful heir when the books showed there are plenty of lawful arguments why she wouldn't be.

Mind you that I've been enjoying the show a lot so far. This is just to vent out my frustration with the writers' failure to fully engage with the values and protocols of the Middle Age-inspired setting. The show seems uninterested in laws of the Realm in a story ostensibly about politics, save for when they're using it as an excuse to amplify depictions of sex and violence.

Blacks vs Greens wasn't a matter of misunderstanding of who each side thought Viserys wanted on the throne. It was the Targaryens' belief of their absolute authority clashing with the Realm's established traditions. Everyone always knew who Viserys chose as heir. In Fire and Blood, Grand Maester Orwyle said as much when he was parleying with Rhaenyra on behalf of the Greens.

Rhaenyra heard his terms in stony silence, then asked Orwyle if he remembered her father, King Viserys. "Of course, Your Grace," the maester answered. "Perhaps you can tell us who he named as his heir and successor," the queen said, her crown upon her head. "You, Your Grace," Orwyle replied. And Rhaenyra nodded and said, "With your own tongue you admit I am your lawful queen. Why do you serve my half-brother, the pretender?" Munkun tells us that Orwyle gave a long and erudite reply, citing the Andal law and the Great Council of 101. Mushroom claims he stammered and voided his bladder. Whichever is true, his answer did not satisfy Princess Rhaenyra.

(For non-F&B readers: Munkun is the Grand Maester who served Aegon III, the king who came after this civil war. Munkun's book, The Dance of the Dragons, A True Telling, is one of Fire and Blood's source texts. Mushroom is the King Landing court jester from Viserys I to Aegon III's reign. One is a source written with academic rigor but is secondhand at best. The other is a firsthand eyewitness account but is from a literal fool who will take every chance to make things more scandalous and sexual to please the crowd.)

In House of the Dragon, they replaced Orwyle with Otto and Orwyle's discussion of legal precedent with Otto handing Rhaenyra a book page from Alicent. It's quite evident here that the writers, much like Mushroom, thought a discussion on the actual laws of the Realm were negligible in this story about a succession war.

Even Alicent made no pretense that Viserys chose Rhaenyra over her children and I have no idea why the HBO writers decided to make her mistakenly think otherwise. Maybe they thought a queen regent pushing her son to take the throne over another woman made her appear unsympathetic as a character, but if anything, this only makes show!Alicent less politically savvy and more delusional than her book counterpart, fully believing an addled king's vague muttering on his deathbed was sufficient grounds to change heirs last minute.

Book!Alicent following Andal laws instead of her husband's wishes makes sense given her Andal upbringing, her devotion to the Faith of the Seven which enforces said laws, and her desire to protect her children from Rhaenyra given that Rhaenyra has shown she's not above murdering family (see: Laenor).

In the books, there was a long discussion between the former king's council on who should succeed Viserys.

Here are the arguments for Rhaenyra:

Rhaenyra was older than her brothers and had more Targaryen blood

the late king had chosen her as his successor, that he had repeatedly refused to alter the succession despite the pleadings of Queen Alicent and her greens

hundreds of lords and landed knights had done obeisance to the princess in 105 AC, and sworn solemn oaths to defend her rights.

Here are the arguments for Aegon II:

many of the lords who had sworn to defend the succession of Princess Rhaenyra were long dead [...]

Ironrod, the master of laws, cited the Great Council of 101 and the Old King’s choice of Baelon rather than Rhaenys in 92

the hallowed Andal tradition wherein the rights of a trueborn son always came before the rights of a mere daughter

Ser Otto reminded them that Rhaenyra’s husband was none other than Prince Daemon, and “we all know that one’s nature. Make no mistake, should Rhaenyra ever sit the Iron Throne, it will be Lord Flea Bottom who rules us, a king consort as cruel and unforgiving as Maegor ever was [...]”

Should the princess reign [...] Jacaerys Velaryon would rule after her. “Seven save this realm if we seat a bastard on the Iron Throne.”

Once again, the show chose to cut out this long political discussion. Instead, the council had already made up their mind and decided to stage a coup (when in their perspectives from the books, it would definitely not be a coup).

For all their marketing how two sides are equally grey, HotD is actively delegitimizing Aegon II. The strongest argument for him is how his claim follows the laws of the Realm, but the show doesn't care about the laws of the Realm. They didn't even cast a master of laws.

Instead, the show focuses on Viserys's relationship with his daughter and the mysticism of the Targaryen bloodline. In doing so, they emphasize Rhaenyra's strongest arguments for succession — that she's more of a Targaryen than her half-brother and that her father prefered her.

And what for? Because in our modern-day, we don't have male-prefered inheritance and people can only imagine misogyny as the only injustice here? What about the injustice of a monarch exercising absolute control, thinking that his "superior" heritage makes him above the established laws of the native people?

This is not to say Aegon II is unquestionably the heir. Precedence isn't the end-all-be-all of succession.

But this is to say that the show removed the political nuance of why people are questioning in the first place. By glossing over the boring bits of social world-building and historical precedents in favor of salacious scandals and shoehorning a magical prophecy justifying the Targaryens' right to rule, they follow in the steps of the fool Mushroom instead of Fire and Blood as a whole.

mailka

There are also several things I noticed after having that discussion a few times:

1. People don't get what customary law and common law are and how they work, especially in medieval settings (and I don't think GRRM gets it either) and are constantly parroting "traditions aren't laws" as some sort of gotcha

2. People are parroting "King's word is law" with no critical thinking or understanding how feudal kingship works. They also seem to believe Westeros is an absolute monarchy of 17th century France.

3. People don't understand the difference between "legal" and "moral" which is just sad. Everytime you try to talk about TG legal arguments you get "the killed people!1!1!!!" as if that's the point

4. The show does all of the above going as far as having Aemond call it usurpation

the-loststone

The Targaryen blood purity and more dragon blood idea is the dumbest thing ever and I'm so mad they don't address it. Interfamilial marriage was never about keeping Targaryen blood pure and making them closer to the dragon. That is a convenient excuse.

It's about keeping dragons in one family. So that dragons aren't in every corner of the kingdom. You don't want more people being able to claim dragons and coveting the throne.

That's the whole problem about Rhaenys. She is a dragon rider, and she's a Velaryon. That makes the Velaryon's threats when before they were just sea lords. And any marriage with the Vale or the Baratheons were calculated risks with people who weren't dragon riders. Aemma wasn't a dragon rider. And even then, they were immediately married back into the mainline.

I mean, this is a whole thing in normal nonfantasy history. Either you keep your sisters close and unmarried, or you marry them yourself.

It upsets me that they don't address this, and instead put so much stock into this idea of Targaryen supremacy and blood magic. The show doesn't address how much the maesters and the faith are confused and disgusted by it. And even a lot of Targaryens weren't into it and saw through it, while there were many, like Daemon, who wholeheartedly bought into their own exceptionalism.

At this point, I'm glad that Arya was the one who killed the Night King just to make their theory about their 'chosen one destiny' complete bull. But I'm petty like that.

synchodai

This is my biggest disappointment with the show — that they seem to be wholesale pushing the concept of Targaryen exceptionalism by shoehorning Aegon I having a prophetic divine mandate.

It's a fantasy story so it's not unlikely that Targaryens do have magic genes. But the chaos of the Dance showed that the Targaryens aren't exceptional. Non-Valyrians, bastards, and lowborn people can control dragons just as well, if not better, than royal Targaryens. If this bastard dragonseed also has a dragon, why not crown him instead if he's offering us more rights and protection?

Rhaenys herself, with her Velaryon last name and non-Valyrian features (in the book), was a threat to the concept of Targaryen exceptionalism. Jaehaerys had worked so hard to sell the Doctrine of Exceptionalism to the Faith, of couse he would prefer Baelon over her regardless of gender.

Because the Targaryens aren't held up on a pedestal because of masculinity or patriarchal values — it's always been about "the blood of Old Valyria." The books do well to problematize and explore this through Danaerys's journey and the many, many people calling out their eugenicist practices.

Aegon V himself, having spent time with the smallfolk in Dunk and Egg, thought the Doctrine of Exceptionalism was bull. Exceptionalism spread these myths that Targaryens couldn't get sick or be burned by fire, that they themselves were as powerful and special as dragons — and he knew that wasn't true. He knew that without the raw power of actual dragons, a Targaryen was a human being like anyone else.

But HotD, on the other hand, is just accepting Exceptionalism wholesale. Of course a Targaryen should rule because of a magic prophecy. Of course Rhaenyra is the true queen because of the divine/magical mandate she inherited through her purer blood. Of course the king's word must be taken as absolute regardless of how it goes against other institutions because.....that's just how feudalist monarchies work, right?

(Spoiler: They don't. Most medieval European rulers' legitimacy and right to rule comes from the endorsement of the Church, the power of their armies, or the support of their vassals (who can give them armies and endorse them). A royal lineage by itself doesn't mean crud without any of these things. They could just replace you with another noble family that the Church can give their divine mandate to.)

Of course, we'll always have viewers and readers who uncritically accept the Targ's inherent exceptionalism because the fantasy genre is filled with super-special, unquestionably noble "true" kings chosen by magic/god/ladies in lakes. People have been conditioned by centuries of nationalist epics, religion, and pop culture to love that sort of thing. The narrative that some are entitled to rule over others due to some inherited superiority is ingrained into human history through colonialism, imperialism, and all the other -isms, and there's just no escaping it.

But what I love about A Song of Ice and Fire is how it pushes back against this trope. It shows the reality of a what a magical royal bloodline would look like: resorting to incest to keep their power to themselves, their empire and family cannabilizing itself, and desperately using the glory of a long-gone, imagined past to justify their rule.

I'm hoping that once the show focuses more on the dragonseeds, we get more perspectives being critical of the Targaryen dynasty. But I do think it's going the right direction with giving time to the smallfolk and emphasizing the food shortage (the Dance is followed by a 5-year winter where most of fields have been burned and men of working age were killed in battle). Praying for more Team Smallfolk rhetoric (let's go, Lady Misery!) on the show.

asoftspotforangels

some of my favorite woven tapestries, by Cecilia Blomberg:

Point Defiance Steps

Mates

Rising Tides

Vashon Steps

willgrahamscock

I cannot believe there's absolutely no way to watch free shows and movies anymore, there are too many paid streaming platforms and pirating websites have viruses and ads preventing you from watching it uninterrupted((.)) id rather follow the rules and purchase media moving forward because it is too inconvenient. Seriously, free and no ads or viruses with 1080p streaming is DEAD.

part-time-zombie

Exactly! It's freaking annoying when I want to watch movies but I would have to subscribe to like 24 different services . Just to watch the shows that I like.

someones-here-for-sure

Oh and wouldn’t it be nice for cartoons? Just anything animated. I just wanna stream things without getting conned. Must I be cartoonless forever?

tinypaperwindmill

i like using streaming apps but there are waaaay too many and they're all stealing my data .i wish there was a secure and organized way to have millions of shows and movies available one one app. but alas. we've truly gone full circle back to cable + now it spies on you. its a real shame. i dont want to fill my device storage with tons of boring and stupid cash grabs.

mostro-rotto

cryoverkiltmilk

"This is my weird son. He can't climb for shit, but he is handsome and strong."

cryoverkiltmilk

#cats be like#is anybody adopt that#and don't wait for an answer

stalker-among-the-stars

Everything that isn't food is a cat from the perspective of a cat. Cats can look upon the true form of eldritch monstrosities and keep their sanity. They'd just see another cat. A fucking weird-looking cat, but a cat nonetheless.