fuck you jroth

30s. white. queer. she/her.

[visenyaism]

80s misogyny saved the Star Wars galaxy because Darth Vader wasted all his time and effort trying to convince his starry-eyed gayboy empath son to become an evil space fascist when if anyone had any point asked his daughter “hey do you ever just want to KILL these people” she would’ve been shooing lightning out of her hands to prove a point in like 10 minutes

[boundwithpurple]

i just don’t think alicent is fundamentally opposed to violence or war. she is practical about having to use violence to advance a goal, and does it herself - she just has unacceptable limits that she hits, like rhaenyra’s murder or sending helaena to war against her will. but tellingly, in both cases she orders violence or accedes to violence to achieve the goal she herself seeks. she tries to stop one instance of violence unacceptable to herself, but must permit other kinds of violence to occur to do so. to save rhaenyra and her family in 1.09 she has larys burn down mysaria’s spy operation, and though the show is a bit frustratingly vague on this, it seems clear that this is done with the intent of killing the people who work for mysaria - just destroying the building wouldn’t achieve much. she agrees to aegon’s murder in 2.08 to save helaena. i think she experiences significant distress at both acts. she has an abhorrence of violence that is a thread throughout the show, from her anxiety at the bloodshed at the tourney in 1.01 to her horror at the violence of her own outburst in 1.07. but she does do them, and accept she has to do them, to acquire the (often limited) power to achieve her specific ends…which is exactly what she’s telling rhaenyra she’ll have to do in all we’ve gotten of her s3 so far!

she is a power player in a very violent political system that she has survived for a long time in, and regardless of her ambivalence, i just do not see the figure criston’s partial and sexist view conjures - a woman too tender and good to confront violence as a reality, and therefore unfitting to head a government prosecuting a war. it’s equally telling her moments of resistance, of using power for herself rather than others, are centered around the love of women, and work against the goals of the men who try to control her. but it can’t really undo the patriarchal power structure, as it is often posited to do via a richean lesbian continuum kind of framework - she has to work within it, always. none of alicent’s relationships with women can ever be extricated from hierarchies of power or said to be working against it in any neat way, at least so far. alicent saves rhaenyra’s life, but the only way she can do that is by seeking and affirming power for aegon. it doesn’t disrupt monarchal power, it actually affirms it, while working to strip rhaenyra of power. she later capitulates to rhaenyra for helaena, but it entails affirming rhaenyra’s pursuit of power, because safety for helaena is dependent on rhaenyra gaining power. these female bonds do not have any straightforward, inherent political purpose or function. they always affirm power as much as they disturb it, they might redistribute it or fight specific unacceptable ends, but they are too tied up in this system for it to ever fundamentally disrupt it. but that has great meaning to me! life is often not made up of radical acts or breaks, which most of us have few real opportunities for, but a more complex negotiation of accommodations and resistances that can still profoundly shape lives.

[orcboxer]

honestly "oracle that nobody believes" is such a solid trope. imagine trying to convince anybody in 2006 what the next two decades was gonna look like

[curioscurio]

If you were able to vote in 2016 this is actually what it felt like trying to tell your family about why donald trump would not make a good president

[i-am-a-fish]

you're so pretty. like, you're absolutely gorgeous. have you thought about tidying your room slightly to temporarily but significantly increase your quality of life? you are so beautiful

[sun-moon-talia]

batman is one of those characters where i can read one of his comics and think “man. what a great guy. despite all his paranoia and obsessive tendencies he has a deep love for humanity that pushes him to make the world a better place. i don’t understand why so many people hate him.” and then i read another one of his comics and i think he should die in a glue trap

[wizzard890]

I think perhaps the only way in which queer people have achieved true parity with straight people is that queer romantasy is just as bad.

[rederiswrites]

There really really ought to be a book about how the staple crops of different civilizations shape and influence those civilizations, and I really want to read it.

[alexseanchai]

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky and A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage (three are alcohol, three have caffeine) are not quite that, but may still be of interest?

[rederiswrites]

I read Salt back in the day and it's so so good, second the rec. I have heard of 6 Glasses and not read it but I am sure I would probably love it. Gotta see if the library has it. Thank you!

[pandorasquillandquotes]

Gonna throw Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert in the ring here! You'll never see the modern world the same way again.

[vaspider]

A Short History Of The World According To Sheep by Sally Coulthard blew my mind. So many things are tied to wool and sheep and weaving and so many words and phrases are tied to wool, people have no idea.

Example words which come from textiles/weaving, if not specifically wool (go look them up!): subtle, shoddy, tabby, Brazil, rocket, twit, warped, going batty, on tenterhooks, text...

[foxofninetales]

I'll throw in a rec for Pickled, Potted, and Canned by Sue Shephard - a very interesting look at food preservation and how the availability of different types of food preservation shaped cultures and cuisines.

[electronsprotonscroutons]

Sweetness and Power is this but for the topic of sugar

[magneticdeclination]

The Lost Supper: Searching for the Future of Food in the Flavors of the Past might also be up your alley. It's about "forgotten" foods and staples. They talk about different types of wheat, sauces, veggies, etc and a little about the cultures from whence they come

[doctornerdington]

Also: Much Depends on Dinner by Margaret Visser. One of my favourite books.

[bitchwhoyoukiddin]

DO I HAVE A SERIES FOR YOU. University of California Press has a gift for you and it is a 80+ book series on food studies. There are even some that are open access (legally free), but the rest are in libraries.

I also highly recommend Frostbite by Nicola Twilley. It’s about the impact refrigeration has had/is having on food preservation and culture, globally. It was one of my favorite books of this last year.

[calystarose]

Also, The Rice Theory of Culture https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1172&context=orpc By Thomas Talhelm

[ariaste]

Can't believe no one's mentioned Consider the Fork yet, which is about how environment/resources shape our ways of eating, which shapes both our culture and our concepts of politeness. So interesting, really recommend!

[great-art-and-a-purple-tongue]

Seven Flowers and How They Shaped Our World by Jennifer Potter

It isn't so much about edible plants as it is about decorative ones, but I think it fits the theme of this growing list enough for me to add it.

[timballisto]

Episode #137 of the History of China podcast is explicitly just about innovative cultivation practices of rice during the Northern Song dynasty and how it allowed the population to explode by creating food surplus

[targetedknowledge]

[fallout-lou-begas]

[jerreeeeeee]

not every mutual fits neatly into an archetypal medievalism but there are some mutuals that im like yeah addressing you as “my liege” would come strangely naturally

[jerreeeeeee]

what mutual is prev

my liege lord

my loyal knight

my wise wizard

my evil advisor

my brother in arms

my lady muse

my wild mermaid friend

my fellow alchemist

my dashing rapscallion

my monstrous foe

Remaining time: 2 days 22 hours

[emily-e-draws]

this platform sure is decayed

[timballisto]

actually I don't think my dogs will ever lose. I think they will keep winning forever

[thememedaddy]

[visenyaism]

The Well of Eternity is actually a mix of vodka and red bull, which sort of justifies Queen Azshara’s behavior

[warcraftheritageposts]

Warcraft Heritage Post

[timballisto]

actually I don't think my dogs will ever lose. I think they will keep winning forever

[frankensaint]

My dogs arent losing and neither am I

[thecindercrow]

Widow's Bay 1.05 What To Expect On Your Trip

[superdoctorpotter-head]

[uberfluss]

first 5 faceless emojis are how your summers gonna go

[thesebonesbite]

Magnus Archives fan I see

[partywithponies]

THIS IS SO FUNNY I'M SORRY