Poor Ghost Girl - aka Time Travelling Bunny

A Song of Ice and Fire (not GoT), Dark, Halt and Catch Fire, Succession, Buffy, The Hunger Games, The Americans, BoJack Horseman, The Leftovers, Babylon Berlin,  The Haunting of..., Normal People, Black Sails, Barry, AoS, Harley Quinn, The 100 seasons 1-6. Forever a fan of Clarke Griffin and Bellamy Blake. Will always despise JRoth and his monstrous 2020 creation, Jarke Riffin.

[travllingbunny]

Master post: my gifsets, meta etc.

Because stuff you’ve put effort in can get lost in faraway corners of your blog.

There’s more meta here because I’ve only figured out how to make gifsets lately. This is still not an exhaustive list, there’s a lot of older meta (especially not-The 100 related) I will try to find and add later, especially tons of A Song of Ice and Fire and (anti) GoT meta.

A Song of Ice and Fire/GoT/House of the Dragon

Analysis of the House of the Dragons opening credits - and the way they depict the Targaryen bloodlines up to the timeline of the show

Dance of the Dragons - seeds of the story: mentions of the Dance in the 5 main A Song of Ice and Fire books (1996-2011) - how it all started and developed before GRRM came up with the fully story that was published as The Princess and the Queen (2013), The Rogue Prince, The World of Ice & Fire (2014) and Fire & Blood (2018) and finally got adapted into House of the Dragon.

Thoughts on HotD playing with/referencing the Aegon the Unworthy/Naerys/Aemon the Dragonknight dynamic and rumors from the books

Daenerys, the fandom and double standards - this old post from a few years ago was mostly about the book fandom’s antis and their sexist double standards in judging Dany vs some of the male characters. It really blew up later, especially with how season 8 treated Dany and how the showrunners tried to retcon her. Some more comments on counterarguments including the “poor slavers” argument

Jon’s real name is... wait for it... Jon

my view on whether it’s “wrong” to ship Jon/Dany and how much it is or isn’t incest (which sums up my views on “incest ships” in general)

an answer to some black-and-white thoughts on Jaime Lannister

For my anti-GoT rants and reblogs of rants going back to season 5, see https://travllingbunny.tumblr.com/tagged/anti-got

Dark

Gifsets

These are very angsty and dark (no pun intended) and full of season 3 spoilers, so I’ll just give these code names for the sake of all those that are still watching or will watch this show.

Light

Shadow

Martha’s room (new gifset!)

Memes

Nothing like funny memes about a dark angsty show. It’s amazing how well Dark goes with The Onion headlines.

Dark + text posts

Dark + The Onion headlines:

Part 1 (Season 1 - 1x01-1x06)

Part 2 (Season 1 - 1x09-1x10)

Part 3 (Season 2 - 2x01-2x02)

Part 4 (Season 2 - 2x03-2x06)

Part 5 (Season 2 - 2x07-2x08)

Part 6 (Season 3 - 3x01-3x04)

Part 7 (Season 3 - 3x05-3x08)

Meta

Aleksander’s backtory is actually pretty clear

My views on Agnes

On some of the often misunderstood (IMO) season 3 storylines, including my thoughts on SPOILER’s motivations + additional comments in conversation with @hadrianvonpaulus, who made some good points)

Why Hannah Kahwald is such a unique character

Halt and Catch Fire

Halt and Catch Fire - the most underrated show ever? (my recommendation of the show if you haven’t seen it + if you have, see my headcanons of what happened to the characters after the series finale)

Gifsets

One time Cameron wanted to hurt Joe, and one time she wanted to heal him 

“What can I say? Kid’s in love” (2x07)

Memes

Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss, mansplain, manipulate, manwhore, malewife

HCF characters as Internet memes: Underly Attached Wife and Tough Luck Tom

Halt and Catch Fire + text posts: 

Season 1, part 1

Season 1, part 2

Season 1, part 3

Season 2, part 1

Season 2, part 2

Seasons 1-2, bonus

Season 3, part 1

Season 3, part 2

Season 3, part 3

Season 3, part 4 (Cameron mid-season special)

Season 3, part 5

Season 3 part 6

Season 3 part 7

HCF + Reductress headlines: seasons 1-3

other HCF memes:

Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss…HCF character alignment

HCF characters as Internet memes: Underly Attached Wife and Tough Luck Tom (spoilers up to the end  of season 3)

Agents of SHIELD

Gifsets

1x08 The Well / 1x20 Nothing Personal parallel

Reviews/meta

I wish I had continued with these, but I didn’t have the time and stopped during season 1. I believe this was a rewatch between seasons 5 and 6, so these include spoilers up to season 5.

1x01 The Pilot (reblog of @weareagentsofnothing‘s review with my additional thoughts and comments)

1x02 0.8-4

1x03 The Asset

1x04 Eye Spy

1x05 Girl in the Flower Dress

1x06 FZZT

1x07 The Hub

+ comments

reblog of  @valentinaonthemoon rewatch review of 1x21 Ragtag with a few additional thoughts about SHIELD and Hydra

reblog of @weareagentsofnothing‘ review of 3x17 Singularity with my comments

Other AoS stuff

Daisy is not a Mary Sue nor did she ‘take over the show” 

The 100

Gifsets

Favourite Group/Location: Clarke’s mindspace (Day 4 of  #TakeBackThe100 fandom event)

Favorite Quote(s) (Day 5 of  #TakeBackThe100)

Favorite underrated/underrepresented character: Maya Vie (Day 6 of #TakeBackThe100) 

Favorite Underrated/Underrepresented Relationship: Octavia Blake/Charmaine Diyoza (Day 6 of  #TakeBackThe100)

Analyses (with a lot of images and some videos)

The 100 6x07 Nevermind: costumes, sets and props

Clarke Griffin’s memories and images in her mindspace (episodes 6x06. 6x07 and 6x10)

Clarke’s drawings in season 5 and 6 of The 100

Planets in the season 7 opening credits  and additional info and screenshots after 7x04 (This was back when I still took season 7 seriously and had hopes for it. LMAO)

Meta

Over the last six months, some 80% of my blog have been rants about The 100′s horrible final season.  You can find all of them under the #anti The 100 season 7 tag. 

(including the Shortest and most succint post I've ever made about The 100 finale)

Meta I made before the show self-destructed:

Reviews

Season 1 - rewatch

1x01 Pilot 1x02 Earth Skills  and a bit of discussion about how we felt about the characters during the first watch 1x03 Earth Kills 1x04 Murphy’s Law 1x05 Twilight’s Last Gleaming 1x06 His Sister’s Keeper 1x07 Contents Under Pressure 1x08 Day Trip 1x09 Unity Day 1x10 I Am Become Death 1x11 The Calm 1x12/1x13 We Are Grounders (Part 1&Part 2) and season overview

Season 2 - rewatch

Overview 2x01 The 48 2x02 Inclement Weather 2x03 Reapercussions 2x04 Many Happy Returns 2x05 Human Trials 2x06 Fog of War 2x07 Long into an Abyss 2x08 Spacewalker 2x09 Remember Me 2x10 Survival of the Fittest 2x11 Coup de Grâce 2x12 Rubicon 2x13 Resurrection 2x14 Bodyguard of Lies 2x15 Blood Must Have Blood, Part One 2x16 Blood Must Have Blood, Part Two

Season 3 - rewatch

Overview

Episodes 3x01-3x02

Episodes 3x03-3x05

Episodes 3x06-3x10

Episodes 3x11-3x16

Season 4 - rewatch

4x01 Echoes 4x02 Heavy Lies the Crown 4x03 Four Horsemen 4x04 A Lie Guarded 4x05 Tinder Box 4x06 We Will Rise 4x07 Gimme Shelter 4x08 God Complex 4x09 DNR 4x10 Die All, Die Merrily 4x11 The Other Side 4x12 The Chosen 4x13 Praimfaya Season 4 and the greyest morality ever (meta mostly relating to The Chosen - which was originally meant to be a part of it)

Season 5 - rewatch

5x01 Eden

5x02 Red Queen

5x03 Sleeping Giants

5x04 Pandora’s Box

5x05 Shifting Sands

(I wrote these during the hiatus mid-season 7... and then I lost any desire to continue writing any The 100 reviews after 7x13 aired)

Season 6 (reviews posted weekly during the season)

6x01 Sanctum 6x02 Red Sun Rising 6x03 Children of Gabriel 6x04 The Face Behind the Glass 6x05 The Gospel of Josephine 6x06 Memento Mori   6x07 Nevermind 6x08 The Old Man and the Anomaly 6x09 What You Take With You

6x10 Matryoshka 6x11 Ashes to Ashes 6x12 Adjustment Protocol 6x13 The Blood of Sanctum

Season 7  (reviews posted weekly during the season)

7x01 From the Ashes

7x02 The Garden

7x03 False Gods

7x04 Hesperides

7x05 Welcome to Bardo

7x06 Nakara

7x07 The Queen’s Gambit

+ My authentic live reaction to 7x07 The Queen’s Gambit

7x08 Anaconda

7x09 The Flock

7x10 A Little Sacrifice

7x11 Etherea and some additional thoughts about Bellamy’s experience in the cave

7x12 The Stranger

Various

Clarke’s Commander of Death nickname

Clarke’s relationship with Finn

Clarke’s relationship with Lexa and the follow-up post about Lexa herself and the Commanders in Grounder culture

Semi-humorous summary of The 100

Reply to falafel14′s meta about Maya Vie

Why Charles Pike doesn’t deserve all the hate

About Bellamy’s decisions in season 5 regarding Madi and the Flame

Favorite episodes

Could Bellarke have confessed their feelings for each other in the season 4 finale?

About the show’s portrayal (or lack of it) of Clarke’s grieving for Wells

The writers are bad at math: time dilation inconsistencies between season 6 and season 7

Some questions and answers about the plot of season 7

Fanon vs canon: a comedic post about the popular fanon versions of The 100 characters (the replies and reblogs with comments to this post are also well worth reading, particularly @kizo2703‘s summary of two fanon versions of Raven)

Speculation

The 100 Final Season Speculations (general speculation posted after the end of season 6)

The 100 speculation: Anomaly Stone, Eligius 3, Second Dawn (posted after 7x02) and speculation: part  2

Where is Bellamy? and more on time dilation possibilities and Etherea again

Other shows/franchises

Tribes of Europa season 1 - review

Black Widow impressions/very brief film review

If these Buffyverse characters had a child together... (something fun for fans of Buffy, Angel, Agents of SHIELD, Dollhouse and/or Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog)

General meta

What even is “Draco in Leather Pants”? - this old post was me getting snarky and fed up with people bringing up this ‘trope’ as I’ve come to think it’s mostly, at best, an excuse for fandom w*nk/attacks on fans who dare to like characters they don’t, and at worst, another exercise in sexism in fandom. Many of the replies and reblog-comments I got are pretty great, too - see the discussion here.

A long, rambling answer to a ship tag game

[rise-my-angel]

Alicent Hightower being mad that the first thing Rhaenyra did as Queen was behead Alicents father, when two days ago she agreed to the terms that the first thing Rhaenyra would do as Queen would be to behead Alicents son.

[travllingbunny]

This writing choice was so laughable after the lobotomization the writers had performed on Alicent.

They cannot keep characters consistent even two od three episodes apart.

[novaursa]

I've seen show glazers claim that because book!rhaenyra is a cartoon villain in a sense, that show rhaenyra is more nuanced and complex and....idk how to feel about that. yes, book!rhaenyra is kinda cartoony but then also claiming show!rhae is more "complex" ?? idk I'd argue she's even more cartoony on the show than in the book

First of all, book!Rhaenyra is not a villain, so that claim is already ridiculous. Anyone saying that has missed the basic point of the Dance, which is fucking impressive considering the book is not exactly subtle about everyone being awful in different ways.

Show!Rhaenyra is not “more complex” to me. She’s a hollowed-out victim of patriarchy whose main personality trait is being wronged while men act around her. Book!Rhaenyra had ambition, entitlement, grief, rage, pride, political motive, and actual agency.

So why are people even pretending this is an upgrade?

[novaursa]

being an autistic person, the infantilisation of Helaena is disrespectful to see

as if she is not able to feel or think anything?

being autistic does not mean dumb. its also lowk offensive that no mom feels sad for their dead child other than Rhaenira and Rhaenys

why cant Helaena grieve for Jaehaerys the way rhaenyra is? the little boy was murdered infront of her but we barely got a proper scene of her

now she is talking about chickens 😭 its disrespectful as heck. i would rather not have any representation than be reped by ableist writing

This is what happens when writers change a character’s entire personality, do no proper research, and clearly don’t care about the character beyond checking off a representation box.

I agree with you, anon. What they did with Helaena is insulting.

If entertainment media can’t handle representation with care, then they should leave it alone.

[rise-my-angel]

The way helaena’s writing is both ableist and misogynist makes me so angry. She is used as mouth piece of Hess Condal to validate snotty rhaenyra and her ’good’ sons🙄

The melancholy depth that grrm praised about show helaena in first 2 episodes of season 2 is gone. ATP she is used as neurodivergent plot device by the most ableist writers in the world

9.9/10 Hess & Condal are doing this to spite george rr martin and his butterflies post

I got unexpectedly worked up this episode about how Helaena is being treated. In the book she (and Alicent) are seen by the people as a kind and beloved Queen. In the show she is cold and disconnected. In the book she offers up her own life to spare her children. In the show that doesnt happen. In the book she is heavily traumatized by her sons death to the point Alicent has to take primary charge of Maelors care because Helaena cant do it anymore. In the show she loves her children but hardly even acts like she remembers her sons brutal murder and one could forgive for thinking she's forgotten it completely.

And now, as Rhaenyra and Daemon march on Kings Landing, the people responsible for everything horrible thats happened to Heleana and her family approach, she has no feelings about abandoning the city and letting Rhaenyra and Daemon have what they murdered her baby boy for.

She is treated like a dumb child when she's a fully grown woman, and she doesn't want anything that might possibly conflict with who the show wants us to think Rhaenyra is.

She would remember Rhaenyras sons as the bastard boys who ganged up on her brother and crippled him for life. Not as nice boys. By nice you mean Jace danced with her once? Not enough, show. Her son is dead and she wouldn't remember that once dance with Jace over Rhaenyra and Daemon did to her son son, and what Lucerys did to her brother.

I wanted Heleana to be so much more because I really loved the added detail in the show that she is a dreamer. I thought on top of what happens in the book, that would make her tragic life and death so much more powerful if she could see it all coming but still couldn't stop it.

Instead she is nothing more then a prop for Alicent to talk at, to justify this ridiculous notion that any of these people would see Rhaenyra as anything other then their enemy.

I just got so fed up with how she's being treated. She's a character with personality and wants and fears and trauma. Not a baby to be led around by the hand to do whatever other characters need her to do for their own development.

[bananonbinary]

i just saw the tag “canon complicit” instead of “canon compliant” and im laughing its like “canon is a criminal act that i unfortunately support with this fic”

[quillingmesoftly]

The Three Grades:

Canon Compliant: “This fic goes along with canon.” (Because I like it? Because I’m too tired to disagree by writing my own fic? Who knows? The author may or may not tell us.)

Canon Compatible: “Listen, I know it ISN’T canon, but think of it as Microsoft Office for Mac, it’s COMPATIBLE with canon, and that counts.”

Canon Complicit: “I have not died a hero, so I have become an accessory to the Villainy of Canon.”

[faustandfurious]

Canon Compatible is a great term for when your fic is Probably Not What Tolkien Would Have Wanted but it doesn’t really contradict anything in canon either

[quillingmesoftly]

#you can install this fic without canon crashing and that’s what matters

[travllingbunny]

I mean...sometimes canon really is a criminal act. I'm sure everyone can think of some example.

[closethedoorandcomehere]

639: Drunkcast 5.0b (repost) | Close the Door: Game of Thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire Podcast

Spoilers, profanity, Jaime x Brienne. Enjoy this Drunkcast repost from 2016! Could Brienne handle apple pie moonshine? Should Jaime pawn his

Close The Door And Come Here - Drunkcast 5.0b (repost)

Enjoy this Drunkcast repost from 2016! Could Brienne handle apple pie moonshine? Should Jaime pawn his golden hand to build the frock-frack shack? Robert + Ned = Gendry? Clutch your earphones as we have a Pro-JB-Baby vs Anti-JB-Baby rumble, a serious Brienne x Tyrion debate, ponder whether Qyburn is the Dr. Nick of Westeros, and fix each other up with ASOIAF characters. 

[travllingbunny]

Hyle Hunt will definitely stay alive long enough at least to meet Jaime, so Jaime could get a chance to call him "Kyle Kunt".

Isn't Ser Pounce a good 😺? Bronn needs to adopt Balerion

[buffycaps]

Rest in peace to the incredible Anthony Stewart Head (20th February 1954 - 1st June 2026)

RUPERT GILES in BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (1997-2003)

[evidently-endless]

being offered ai at every turn

[hazemsuhail]

If this page suddenly goes silent one day, know that my brother Samer didn’t make it. I will never forget those who saw him suffering from severe bombing injuries, lacking his vital medications, yet chose silence and kept scrolling.

[hazemsuhail]

I feel completely shattered and deeply ashamed begging strangers for help every single day. This endless nightmare has stripped us of everything, forcing me to sacrifice even my own dignity just to keep my brother and my family alive.

[hazemsuhail]

​I want nothing from this world except to see Samer healthy and free of pain, and to save my family from this slow death. Please donate so we can afford his essential psychiatric and medical treatments before it’s too late.

Please Please donate GoFundMe

[hazemsuhail]

I swear these donations are our only way out. Please keep supporting us to save my brother Samer. 🙏

[mintflavoredcookie]

vetted by gazavetters, the number is #75 !!!!

[hazemsuhail]

Samer is slipping away, and we cannot fight this alone. Every single second matters now as his condition worsens without treatment. Please, don't look away, your support is his only chance to survive this nightmare.

[posting-for-help]

Verified!

GazaVetters

[travllingbunny]

Mandela Effect fanon in the ASOIAF fandom

I've noticed that there are a number of things that the A Song of Ice and Fire/GoT/HotD/AKOTSK fandom has accepted as canon and seem convinced that those things come from/are mentioned in the books, when in fact they do not appear in any of the books at all. There are probably more, but these are some I've noticed:

Jace was trying to save his two youngest brothers when he died in the Battle of the Gullet - Let's start with the newest one. I think the HotD version of the battle is dumb, from Jace locking up Rhaenyra, to Rhaena's whole disastrous subplot. But book!Jace was definitely not trying to save his brothers in that battle, since Viserys had already been abducted, and Aegon had returned to Dragonstone, after Rhaenyra had sent them away. It was those events, in fact, that alerted her and Jace to the Triarchy's involvement, resulting in the Battle of the Gullet.

The Starks were always known for their honor. - There is no mention of "honorable" (or dishonorable) being noted as a particular trait of the Starks prior to Ned. Ned Stark was widely reputed as honorable, which is not the same thing.

Rhaegar was a twink. - Rhaegar is never described as slender or skinny, he is just noted to have been tall and had long, slender fingers.

All or most Targaryen men are built like twinks. - This one clearly came from people wanting all Targ men to look like Harry Lloyd. Thin or skinny build has never been noted as a prevalent Targaryen trait. Some Targaryen men were described as slender (Aenys I) or very thin (Baelor the Blessed) or spindly (Aerys I), but others were described as strong and broad-shouldered (Aegon the Conqueror), athletic and fit (Daeron the Rogue Prince, Daemon Blackfyre) or even very strong, wide and beefy (Maegor, Maekar). Others were described as plump (Viserys, and presumably Aegon II, as he is said to have looked like his father) or became very overweight (Aegon the Unworthy). And Daeron the Good was described as basically average looking and not very well built (round shoulders, spindly legs, a belly - though note than this description comes from the time when he was in his 40s, so the belly isn't that surprising).

Baelor Breakspear is dark skinned in the books. - I understand that people have for years imagined actors of color playing him and drawn fanart where he has noticeably darker skin than his brothers or the average Westerosi. But that does not mean that he is canonically noted to have a skin tone any darker than Maekar, or anyone else present at the tourney at Ashford - because he is not. Dunk only notes his dark hair, and mentions it to Egg, who points out he gets that from his Dornish mother. You'd think that, if his skin tone was noticeably darker than Maekar's, Dunk would have noticed that, especially since he met them at the same time and was describing them one after the other. (Later in TWOIAF, it's said that many did no trust Baelor because of his Dornish origin and his dark hair and eyes, but there is again no mention of skin tone.) Don't get me wrong, if Bertie Carvel hadn't been so perfect for the role, it would've been cool to have an actor of color playing him. But it is not whitewashing (as opposed to e.g. Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, explicitly described as a man of color) and you could say the exact same thing about Maekar - who has the same mother and father as Baelor, so it' doesn't strike me as logical to insist on that only for Baelor and not Maekar, too.

Alicent Hightower wanted to marry Viserys I in the books because of her ambition to be queen. - There is no such mention or indication in Fire & Blood.

Rhaenyra was extremely overweight. - In F&B, she is said to have gained some weight and become softer, plumper round the middle after her pregnancies. Originally, GRRM described her - not in canon writings - as a plump girl (like her father), but he changed that description in The Princess and the Queen/The Rogue Prince and Fire & Blood to her only gaining weight as an adult. But at no point is she said to have looked like Aegon the Unworthy (as some supposedly "book accurate" fanart works make her look).

Aemond chose the youngest Baratheon girl to be his betrothed. - I don't think this one is very popular, but I've seen it pop up a few times. This one does sort of come from both book and the show, but mixes them up. In F&B, Floris is the youngest, but we have no idea which of the girls Aemond chose. In the show, we know he chose Floris only because the HBO website said so, but we also have no indication of the girls' relative ages (and they all seem to be played by adult actresses.)

Melisandre is 400 years old - Ah, one of the most popular ones. She certainly has extended her natural lifespan and is very old. As far as I know, this came from an interview with Carice Van Houten about the show version of the character. But there is no canon mention of her exact age. I very much doubt that GRRM would tell D&D that Mel is 400 years old - a random yet oddly specific number. Especially since this number narrows down the possibilities for expanding on her origin, which GRRM has hinted at being from Westeros and probably the Riverlands, by having her real name be "Melony", a Westerosi name that appears in the Riverlands (Melony Piper from F&B). As far as we know, there was nothing that special happening in Westeros - in terms of known events - 100 years BC. (OTOH, if Mel were to be 300 years old or younger, GRRM could tie her birth and whatever circumstances led to her being sold as a slave in Essos with some of the events in Fire and Blood/Blood and Fire.)

Alys Rivers is 400 years old. - This one is particularly baffling, because it's completely made up, but is extremely widespread in the fandom. In F&B, Alys is speculated to be either around 40+ (by sources other than Mushroom) or at least 60+ (by Mushroom, who assigns all sorts of magical and mystical powers to her, while Eustace thinks she was just a woods witch, which are not that uncommon in Westeros). There is no indication that she was 100 or close to that, let alone 400. Mushroom claims she makes herself look younger by bathing in the blood of virgins, but this would also be said later of 20-something Shiera and 16-year old Dany - and even Mushroom doesn't, as far as we know, claim she has extended her natural lifespan. This fanon must have originated from the Melisandre thing (see above) and people wanting Alys to be like Mel, or even to be Mel. ... But that's far from the only Alys Rivers Mandela Effect fanon. Buckle up!

Alys Rivers looks like a teenager. - Quite a number of people insisted on that. She is actually only said to have looked young for her age (40+). (Or whatever Maester Gyldayn and the other guys who were writing this down thought a 40 year old woman normally looks like. Mind you, Gyldayn is the guy who claimed SharraArryn's beauty had faded because of her advanced age of 37.)

People were doubting that Alys's son was really Aemond's. - There is zero indication of that. She is noted to have been pregnant, and after she presents the boy, even the Kingsguard guy who mocks and insults her (and gets killed for it by her and/or her followers) doubted only that the boy was trueborn, calling him "bastard whelp of a kinslayer and a milk cow".

Alys Rivers sacrificed her and Aemond's son (?!) - this one is just bizarre. Only HotD Twitter could come up with that. I assume this is an extension of this weird projection of Melisandre that the fandom keeps doing. There is no rumor, even by Mushroom, that Alys ever sacrificed any living children, hers or anyone else's. This is likely a Broken Telephone version of the rumor that her earlier stillbirths were caused by her supposed pact with the devil (something that was also rumored of Rohanne Webber in TSS; BTW Rohanne actually did not have stillbirths but had a son she gave birth at 13 who only lived 5 days, and a daughter who died when she was 1 year old). This one is even weirder because Alys canonically was ruling Harrenhal in the name of her son and claimed her was the true king of Westeros.

There are probably more!

[travllingbunny]

House of the Dragon is such a feminist show that all the female characters in it either need to be on Rhaenyra's side in some way (even in such contrived ways as Alys and Helaena telling Daemon in his visions that Rhaenyra is the chosen one, or whatever), because on HotD, a woman ruler = feminism; or they are portrayed as bad, pathetic and misguided.

It's so feminist how they keep feeding into the misogyny of its fandom by offering them female characters to hate and blame (justifiably or not) for the deaths of boys and young men. It has happened twice already.

It was extremely weird how they tacked on the Alicent/Criston sex scene at the end of 2x01, right after Blood and Cheese, as if they both wanted to even further downplay the murder of a young boy and trauma caused to his mother and distract from it, but also tell the audience: "See, Alicent having consensual sex for pleasure for the first time in her life kind of contributed to the children not being properly protected!" and give the misogynistic stans more fuel to trash her - this time, switching from "ha ha she's never had an orgasm" victim-blaming to slut-shaming.

And now they've cut an amazing female character of color and from the lower class who would have made Rhaenyra look bad (while Nettles was on Rhaenyra's side, Rhaenyra turned against her), and instead we got this really awful subplot with Rhaena, who is made to look whiney and egotistical and act reckless and stupid, so she could be made unintentionally responsible for Jace's death, giving Rhaenyra a more understandable reason to turn against her. (Especially as Rhaena disobeyed Rhaenyra and abandoned the care of her youngest sons that was entrusted to her.) They're practically giving Rhaena on the platter to the fandom to hate, and it's even more messed up since they are doing this to a black female character and making responsible for a white male character's death. (Yeah yeah, of course being black or white is not a thing in-universe, and Rhaena would not be seen as black by people in=universe; but it obviously very different with the audience.)

But it may be even worse when other female characters are made to support Rhaenyra and end up being nothing more than her cheerleaders, because they tend to lose all personality (Mysaria., Alicent since the season 2 finale, kind of Helaena - I mean "kind of" as in "kind of supporting Rhaenyra, through prophecy) or are never even allowed one (Baela). I shudder to think what they'll do with Alys Rivers, a character who had such potential to be really interesting no matter how you interpret F&B. At this point it seems they've chosen the most boring possible interpretation, where she is basically fanon!Bloodraven, with unlimited powers but fully committed to just making the Prophecy work.

Bizarrely, they have taken Jeyne Arryn, the one female character in F&B who is in position of power and definitely supports Rhaenyra for reasons that make perfect sense for that character - and made her kind of anti-Rhaenyra, which makes me fear that she is going to be blamed for Viserys' abduction (if that happens) and then have some sort of penitent change of heart, where she realizes that supporting Rhaenyra is the Right Thing To Do, rather than supporting Rhaenyra from the start because it bolsters her own rule as a woman who has a cousin who tried to challenge her rule.

(The characterization of Rhaenyra herself - or lack of it - is a whole other problem, but very connected to this one.)

[eve2057]

Ormund saying about targs that they are a savage race, while he is literally raising a targ nephew and fighting for the targ king.

Condal you are truly a moron, hope you never touch asoiaf projects again

[ayrennaranaaldmeri]

Lmao imagine getting to adapt Fire and Blood a book with the canon character that exists to challenge Targaryen exceptionalism bc she casually domesticated a dragon like it was any feral animal while having physical features that are blatantly not valyrian(tm) and just erasing her and giving her story to a...Targaryen.

[travllingbunny]

I can't decide if it's less or more ridiculous that they've taken her story and made it the exact opposite.

Instead of an impoverished smallfolk orphan girl domesticating a dragon by being smart and resourceful and offering the dragon food to establish a relationship, proving that it can be done without "special blood", and becoming an important figure in the civil war, we get a whiney Targaryen princess stumble onto a dragon, get domesticated by the dragon, who liked her presumably just because of her Valyrian blood, and proceed to act dumb and make a mess out of everything.

[travllingbunny]

They cut Nettles for that?!

It took 2 seasons for HotD to reach that point GoT reached in S5, where I'm following out of curiosity "What dumb s*** are they gonna come up with next?", the characters are either being dumb AF or inconsistent, I can't bring myself to care about any of them, and I don't see what point all this is supposed to have, other than delivering spectacle. Which I guess works for some, but the battle felt strangely unexciting to me.

The difference between HotD and GoT is that I'm not attached to GRRM's story as it's not a real narrative like ASOIAF but pseudo-history. And GRRM's plot has issues, so I'm not bothered by it being changed per se. But, just like GoT, the changes they're making are exceptionally stupid, and they're wasting so much potential. The potential that the show showed in season 1, when it was really good, and when I actually loved it.

Now I don't even recognise some of the characters, like Alicent.

Meanwhile, while I understand that they want to bring in magic unlike GoT, which tried to downplay it (which was not fully possible, as ASOIAF is full of magic driven plotlines... ironically, unlike the story of the Dance, which barely has any, if any, aside from dragons), their inclusion of magic and prophecy is so unsubtle and devoid of ambiguity it's hilarious.

In 2x08 we had Helaena as a spoiler machine, now Alys Rivers is teleporting or astral projecting to long distances (?!) to tell people what to do, and announcing "I'm a witch". LMAO

Speaking of unsubtle, I can't believe Condal used a full u changed famous Elizabeth I quote - out of context - for Rhaenyra's dialogue. So unserious. Elizabeth I famously used that in her pre-battle speech to her troops. It was propaganda, a part of her public persona. Condal thought he did something by making Rhaenyra say that in private.

Unfortunately, I expect season 3 to get even worse., because I've seen the trailers, with such gems as

(SPOILER)

Ormund Hightower sounding like the Shepherd for some reason, denouncing the Targaryens and their dragons as demonic...?! What?? You are fighting to put your Targaryen cousin on the throne, my guy, and you are fighting alongside another Targaryen cousin and his dragon, who's right there with your army! This feels like the script is being written by HotD Twitter. (No, that's not a compliment. It is definitely not a compliment,)

[unhappytogekiss]

a new reality tv show called So you think you can write Doctor Who

twelve episodes, twelve contestants - a mix of annoying middle aged sci fi authors, fan fic authors and random people off the street

a variety of against the clock writing tasks, big finish scripts, ability to interact with actors without shouting at them and challenges where you have no budget or doctor for an episode

judged by solely by christopher eccleston

this is how you find the new doctor who showrunner

[travllingbunny]

Hello fam,

I have bad news for you all. :'(

My dear tomcat Maza (which means Cuddly), the oldest of my three cats and second oldest of my seven pets (I suppose I should now keep saying I have two cats and six pets all in all), died last night, at home, just as it was becoming clear that he undergoing a kidney failure (as the results of his blood and urine analyses later showed, finally arriving today). It was too late to save him at that point (though another vet at another clinic could have done it a month before, if he had done his job properly, but there's no point of thinking about it now, except as a precaution for my surviving cats and dogs).

On 1 August, it will be 13 years since I found him in the park, walking my oldest dog Žuća, or rather, since Maza, then a 7 weeks old abandoned kitten, found us, running through the park and trying to get people's attention.

In the meantime, the super cute tiny kitten grew into a big, beautiful cat, and aside from Žuća (whom he always loved), he gained several more adopted siblings - three more dogs and two cats who have survived him, and two tiny kittens who were too ill or too young and didn't live more than a few days after I adopted them and tried to save them.

He was not that old and probably could have lived a few years more, but these almost-13 years were still wonderful, especially the last few, with a giant family unit of multiple cats and dogs.

Rest in peace, sweetie!

tagging @jeanie205 @kizo2703 @ninappon @carrieeve @togetherkru @immortalpramheda @natassakar @roguetwelve @erikiara80 @bookwormforalways @astridandoddsandends @okmcintyre @sometimesrosy @pendragaryen @moreflowersthanweeds @writetheniteaway @lee-em-dee