#willayork

[phosphorescent-naidheachd]

@willayork replied to your post:

b/c he's boring, has been given no storyline that he actually engages in, everything happens around him, and sometimes in spite of him, and he doesn't seem to care. It's actually the same issue with Dany where IDK if it's shit writing or shit acting (or prob) where the character doesn't seem to EVer. Express. An. Emotion AND there's been not much progression for Bran, at the very least the audience has seen Jon and Dany do things but Bran just goes along with Meera&Jojen

(Which is not to say that I disagree b/c I DO but for people who've only seen the show & aren't aware of a) the things left out and b) the larger world GRRM wrote... I get it)

Yeah, GOT has really struggled with letting Bran show feelings or have any interiority at all starting around, idk, Season 4ish and on? (...Which, come to think of it, is around the time Dany stopped being allowed to show emotions regularly too. Huh.) I haven’t seen any of IHW’s oeuvre outside of GOT, but from his performance in earlier seasons (think about excited bb!Bran scrambling the walls of WF, or Bran’s reaction to Rodrik Cassel’s death), I’m inclined to lay most of the blame for Bran’s emotionlessness with the directors and writers rather than the actor. 

Eh, I agree and disagree as far as Bran not being seen to do anything on the show. If nothing else, there were those two Very Dramatic Scenes where he warged into poor Hodor. And while his vision sequences weren’t centered around Bran himself---their primary purpose was to provide the audience with exposition dumps, and the show never seriously tried to mask that lol---the very fact that he’s (as far as I recall) the only still-living character on the show to have seen visions ought to say something about his narrative importance. But you’re right to say that he definitely hasn’t been a proactive character, and he hasn’t seemed to care about anything happening in his own storyline for several seasons now. 

Add in the fact that GOT has done, at best, an extremely uneven job at showing Bran’s progressing journeys, and I can 1000% see where a casual viewer could walk away with the impression that he isn’t crucial to the show’s endgame. Miss a couple of key episodes---or just let them recede in your memory---and Bran’s significance isn’t terribly obvious in comparison to Jon and Dany’s. But that’s the key here---casual viewers. And your average casual viewer isn’t going to be posting their fan theories on actual GOT threads, complete with show quotes, y’know?

But this is mainly just me being grumpy lol. I do mainly understand how a show-only fan might get the impression that Jon and Dany are the only characters who matter in the Battle for the Dawn, and I don’t look down on them for that... it’s just this (seemingly) sudden surge of fans who feel this way that baffles me. But to be fair, it’s entirely possible that there were fans who made posts like this in previous years that I never saw, and it’s also very possible that there are fans who believed this in years past but only recently got around to posting about it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

[rejectedprincesses]

Hey- I live ~45 min from Vassar college (&work even closer) I have no idea how one "checks the records" but if you want me to go look & see if she was valedictorian I'd be happy to do so

Aw, thank you! That’s not necessary, but it’s very sweet of you to offer.

Honestly - and this is where I diverge from outlets like @missedinhistory or @askhistorians - this is an example of a place where, to me, that point is not overly important. Let me explain:

RP is me trying to illustrate, with words and pictures, a historical (or occasionally mythical) tale. I am not trying to provide the official record. That’s much better left to the precision of historians, of people who cross all Ts and dot all Is.

My goal is to tell a story, and to make a case that said story should be remembered and celebrated. I know I’m not going to get every detail right. I tried to do so for about two years and drove myself crazy in the process.

In the context of storytelling, saying Sutematsu was valedictorian is shorthand for “she was a very good student” - that’s the information being conveyed. I can just as easily reword to say she got to speak in front of her class at graduation and the same point is conveyed. Whether she was the smartest is largely irrelevant to the point I’m trying to make.

It’s like playing a piece of music and one note is just slightly off, to the point where only a handful of people can pick up on it. It’s like getting someone’s eye color or dominant hand wrong - unless it’s at the crux of their story, I’m sorry to say it’s not getting my full attention. I’ve got too much music to play and I need to keep going.

I understand and respect those details are important to some, and I’m super glad said people exist. They write amazing books with amazing insight, and I attempt to do their work (and their subjects) justice with my summaries and illustrations. It is entirely understandable that said population would care so much and look over my work with such a fine-tooth comb.

Where I take issue is when that level of note-perfect precision is demanded of everyone who’d engage with the material. It is entirely understandable that historians would take umbrage at inaccuracies. Hell, I get furious at bullshit like Braveheart or 300: Rise of an Empire. I even get that some historians can take one or two off notes as grounds to dismiss my entire body of work. I find it a harsh conclusion, but that’s their informed prerogative. 

My frustration lies in instances where a historian will declare, to people who cannot themselves hear the off notes, that my work is atonal and worthless - and that by virtue of their training, this conclusion is the only worthwhile one. That getting a minor point wrong puts me on the same footing as Disney’s Pocahontas. 

To me, it’s a derivation of the Internet’s favorite game, Perfect or Hitler - it’s the game where you’re perfect…. or you’re Hitler. It’s the game where everyone loses.

Anyways, that’s my take on it. Your mileage may vary, and that’s okay. I’m doing my best and that’s all I can do.

[stonefreeak]

willayork replied to your post: saturnineaqua: imanes: zanabism: ...

He watched a TV show ‘last night’ about BAD THINGS b/c refugees in sweden. HE watched it. On TV. Last night.

....... I’m just... gonna put my face in my hands and scream for a bit, aight?

He’s making up terrorist attacks to further his hateful, grotesque agenda and... he saw it on TV?! 

[phosphorescent-naidheachd]

 @willayork replied to your post:

But, but where is the fic?

To quote my tags on the post:

#yes yes i know the likelihood of the mountain leaving elia alive is almost nonexistent... shhhh #also i'm probably never going to write this fic b/c if i follow the concept through to its natural conclusion #then the fic will either end in a targ restoration (likely w/ viserys on the throne) or in tragedy... or both #and frankly neither of those endings appeals to me #tho i suppose the inevitable fight against the Others could change the former? #drat it if i don't love the premise of this fic despite all of that

;-)

I have too many far-too-slowly-moving WIPs at the moment to start a new one anyways. That said, if I were to write such a fic, it would include:

Elia reminiscing about Rhaella, who also Deserved Better(TM) from canon

Elia finding a way to make bb!Viserys and bb!Daenerys’ childhood less traumatic. IDK if she’d be able to take them in herself---if she did that, King Robert would assume that the Martells planned on eventually launching a war to reseat a Targaryen on the Iron Throne (and LBH, he probably wouldn’t be wrong in his fears) and react very poorly to such a thing---but she’d subtly send some funds with a few trusted, discreet minor nobles and/or servants in their direction. So if/when Willem Darry died, at least the kids wouldn’t be out on the streets begging.

Elia getting to be bitter about her husband’s shitty choices

Elia getting to be bitter about Lyanna while also pitying her

Elia interacting with her siblings!!!

Elia interacting with her nieces, nephews, and assorted other family members!!!

Elia reminiscing about her mother (who really deserves a canonical name, GRRM, just saying)

Elia thinking about Ashara and dealing with her tragic end

Elia reminiscing about her Uncle Lewyn and dealing with his death

Elia grieving and raging and feeling guilt about being unable to prevent her children’s brutal deaths

ALL the nightmares about Aerys and Gregor Clegane

Elia dealing with major depression and PTSD, and slowly and imperfectly going through the healing process

Elia having extremely tangled, ugly, complicated feelings about the Rebellion and its main players

Lots of internal and external Dornish politics

Elia reuniting with old friends and making new ones

Elia eventually getting to fall in love with someone who appreciates her and loves her back

The consequences of Tywin’s brutalities coming home to roost a lot sooner than they did in canon

Anything further than that, I can’t say, partially because we know so little about canon!Elia. For instance, we know that Elia was “kind and clever, with a gentle heart and a sweet wit”, but that doesn’t tell us if she would want revenge against the Lannister-Baratheon-Stark-Tully contingent or if she would she lean more towards Ellaria Sand’s perspective on matters. Revenge aside, if given the (admittedly unfair) choice between true justice and peace, which would she pick? It feels reductive to place her solely in either category, and I doubt her desires would remain static over the years; either way, that’s something that I’d have to decide and develop over the course of the story. 

Similarly, while Elia living would change some things, there are many others that it absolutely wouldn’t change. The disaster-in-the-making that is the Baratheon-Lannister marriage and the Lannister twincest are two such events that wouldn’t be changed. Ditto to Littlefinger’s ambition, obsession with Catelyn,  and deep-rooted desire for revenge against Hoster Tully and the Starks. Ditto to the oncoming threat of the Others. And so on. A lot of the smaller stuff, though, is open to debate, especially once the Ripple Effect takes hold. So that’s something I’d have to sketch out before starting the story, and continue to develop as the story---and thus the changes---gradually grew larger.

And---well, you get the picture lol.

[phosphorescent-naidheachd]

 @willayork​ replied to your post:

(Also: Emilia Clarke does not (cannot?) *emote* is it's very, very hard to imply that Danerys is actually having emotions beyond her written dialogue)

LOL, that too. But to be fair, she can emote! Not as well as say, Lena Headey, but she can do it, as can be seen at select points throughout the show. She just... doesn’t emote most of the time. I’m not sure if it’s bad directing, or what. Maybe she and/or the directors think ‘no expression and/or variation of inflection = badass’ or something? 

I mean, I get it, her character is a woman in a position of power in a misogynistic society, so when she’s acting as the queen in public, she can’t appear particularly emotional, especially in any fashion that could be interpreted as ‘weak’. But EC and the directors need to figure out a way for her to get that message across to the audience and show thoughts/emotions beyond her written dialogue. (They also need to write her better material.)

[phosphorescent-naidheachd]

@mswyrr​ replied to your post:

i was thankful for this scene bc it balanced out the romance content in terms of not making dany’s entire “vulnerable/thoughtful” side about romance - politics are also important! i’m sure she plans on designating an heir a la the romans or w/e

^^^

1000% agreed. That was one of my nitpicks with last week’s ep, so I was glad to have this scene as a partial antidote. That said...

@willayork​ replied to your post:

THANK YOU. She’s gonna win back the kingdom for the Targaryen line. Of which she’s the last one? Soooooo. THen what Dany????

^^^

Yeah, I’m just... *scratches head*

How has this not come up before?? I mean, I understand this hasn’t been her top priority -- ditto to those of her advisors who are privy to her ostensible barrenness -- but it should still rank among the top twenty.

It’s kind of super important.

This is the sort of thing she should have some plans for, at least, even if they’re tentative and subject to change as her position in Westeros changes.

Not to mention: if you’re the sort of person who sets out to conquer a continent predominantly because your forebears ruled it, that implies that you care about this little thing we like to call ‘legacy’. It’s the same story if you’re the sort of person who wants to make the world a better place -- as Tyrion pointed out, these things take time and are seriously aided by smooth transitions of power. *sighs*

Dany is young and she’s been incredibly busy (and gone through a lot of emotional shit), so it’s understandable that she hasn’t thought too deeply about what will happen to her work once she’s dead. But at the same time, it strikes me as vaguely irresponsible behavior from someone in a position of hereditary power. 

Maybe she has the succession written in a private will or something and she just doesn’t feel like sharing the info with Tyrion at this point? Which, hey, can’t say I’d completely blame her. 

I don’t know, it’s an interesting... not plot hole, precisely, but, seeming omission? And one that’s been bugging me for a while.

(Of course, the Doylist answer is probably Because Jon Exists, but... *rolls eyes*)

[captainnaustralia]

Based on your fanfiction I assumed you were a very cool person that I definitely wanted to be friends with. And also that you *weren't* a crazy axe-murderer and that it was safe to meet you in person :D

What a relief 😂😂

[captainnaustralia]

sidekick gets seduced by the villain 1000000%

I'm already working on it 😈

I'm excited to work on it honestly! I have COVID right now so I've not got a lot else going on, thought this could be a fun way to relax while I'm recovering

(also hi, hello, how are you??)