#Jon would be a mess and make it everybody's problem

[ghostly-bat]

If Jon ever died I think Damian would be able to heal a little and move on. Well he ever love another again? Most likely not and if he did he'd be constantly comparing them to Jon, it would never feel right or the same.

He refuses even at the thought of using the Lazarus Pit on Jon knowing it's effects. It'd be all the more painful.

I don't think he'd blame anybody either because he always knew that there was a possibility, a very small possibility but a possibility nonetheless. (Yes Jon is basically indestructible but his own dad died once before) It'd surprised him, shock him.

But he knows Jon would want him to move on, to be happy even if it's not with him. All Jon ever cares about is Damian's happiness.

So yeah I think Damian would move on and heal as much as he can from the loss.

Jon on the other hand would be absolutely destroyed if Damian ever died. He'd blame himself for not being fast enough, probably blame his own dad for not being able to save Damian either because "dad! You're superman! You save people all the time! Why couldn't you save him..." He'd completely shut down and isolate, he'd beg Damian's family to use the Lazarus Pit but they refuse knowing the effects, Jon goes so far as to seek Talia and Ra's himself but they also refuse. He contemplates fighting them for it but he can't cus he knows Damian would be mad at him if he did. Plus Damian's family is one of the few things he has that's tied to Damian. He can't hurt them, even if he so badly wants to.

He'd most likely lose his faith in humanity. He'd resent absolutely everyone. Does he still hero? He tries to in beginning, knows that Damian would also want him to move on, to not lose his faith in people, that his death was never on Jon's hands or anybody's but his own.

But Jon can't help it, he's angry all the time, dismissive, reckless, quick to lash out. Gets to the point were the people around him try to talk some sense into him, tell him that this is not what Damian would have wanted. But Jon doesn't listen nor does he care cus to him everyone let Damian die that day. Himself included.

He basically could become what batman feared superman would become. Out of control and unpredictable.

[martinblackwoodhater]

I’m confused you’re chill with Gertrude dismembering and sacrificing people, Jon preforming unconsentual surgery, and all this other stuff but MARTIN is going too far?? I mean weird hill to die on imo 🤷😭

like everyone else gets the “well it’s a horror show they can be a bit messed up as a treat” treatment and Martin is held to the standard of like a real person? eh you do you but that’s a bit silly

also saying 172 wasn’t a stressful situation when it’s literally the apocalypse is wildddd

Martin's so fucking boring is the problem and all his fans are the most annoying people in the world is the other problem.

like gertrude made decisions and stuck to them and some of them were very difficult decisions and some are ones that we can recognise as an audience that she shouldn't have done, but that's what makes her a more interesting character and also like i just think she's cool because yeah she IS cool. and i mean yeah jon's little surgery on melanie was probably a low point and i agree that she should've had more control in that situation but he's still got completely understandable motives to his flaws and that's understood by the fandom and he's interesting enough and i just like him and also like literally everyone hates him at that point in his life if i made a hate account for him id just be piling on to that poor man and he's been through enough tbh.

which is to say that, no, while im not particularly on the side of the individual actions listed there, like i appreciate their characters and the larger picture and the reason they may have acted the way they did. with martin, however, it's just his character to the core that pisses me off and the weird just like everything he does and especially how he's been somehow projected onto enough by the fandom that they've managed to competely turn him into something entirely different just so they can kin him more comfortably.

and my point about 172 was that it wasn't a stressful enough situation or environment to justify his actions because he was in absolutely no need to rush anything (no concept of time because apocalypse!) and therefore he very clearly was not panicked and was instead acting rationally and in a way that he justified to himself when he hit john, meaning that it was an action that i don't consider redeemable in what's supposed to be a portrayal of a semi-healthy relationship (as in it's meant to be like "good/positive relationship between the individuals despite the situation" kinda thing rather than directly a portrayal of a more toxic relationship between john and martin directly). like yes, the apocalypse is stressful, (tho martin has it better than lowkey anyone else in the world rn), but by this point he's had time to be thinking rationally when he was physically hitting his boyfriend, and there was nothing in the situation that would indicate higher stress than normal or would really justify his actions to me (yes, i appreciate the whole Web thing but what im saying is he had time to think, and he thought, and he still hit jon when there was no real reason to).

i just don't see this as the absurd take you're making it out to be when i can't see martin as likable enough for this glazing in the first place - like he's mean to everybody, especially jon by the end, and he just doesn't come across as likable to anyone except the people that want to relate to him (because they've got like issues with their mother and like get lonely sometimes or whatever) or people that think him being needlessly mean is a like crazy character change to be all like badass and cool or whatever. like he's literally just mean when there's no reason to be, and just because he's in a bad situation doesn't mean i have to like him, because we never really see him as anything except whiney or mean

[billconrad]

Bad Book Reviews

    I read two or more hours daily and write a review for almost every book. Most of the books I choose are pretty good, but occasionally, I come across a stinker. When I do read something subpar, I never write an uncomplimentary review. The main reason is karma. Bad things immediately happen to me when I send out harmful waves. Another reason is my personality does not like publicly criticizing people. The world is hostile enough without my help. Finally, I felt the sting of a bad review, which is especially painful when the criticism is valid.

    We would only have good reviews if everybody followed my bonkers moral code. Yeah, it’s not going to happen. There will always be the urge to spread hate; a negative experience leads to people venting.

    Another reason is that there are hundreds of books/movies/TV shows to experience, and when I find one I do not like, I stop reading/watching. Life is too short to waste time on something awful. So I do not get too invested in a bad book. What about paying for a movie in a theater? Yes, I am thinking about Stealth and Thin Red Line. Four hours of my life that I will not get back. I wrote a bad blockbuster review for those moves, but that company is gone, and my review went into the void of surplus hard drives.

    Let’s examine a recent book I started to read that had significant issues: The Mammoth Book of True War Stories by Jon Lewis. I made it to page 20. It had a bland writing style, boring stories, glaring errors, and the formatting was all over the place. However, the more significant problem was that the “War Stories” were battle descriptions with a random name tacked on. I was expecting a personal account as told directly by the soldier.

    I chose to read this book to enjoy several war stories like the ones my Uncle Al told me from this time in Vietnam. Here is one I remember: He was driving along a dirt road, came across kids making faces, hit a land mine, and went flying. Afterward, the kids laughed, which confirmed they knew about the mine. My uncle swung his rifle around and pointed it at them. The kids looked scared to death, and at the last moment, he decided not to shoot.

    An earth-shattering story? No. Does this story contain a plot? Not really, but it was a perfect story because Al shared it with me. That is the kind of personal connection I expected out of the book, and it failed at every level.

    Should I have blasted the Mammoth Book with a scorching bad review? At least give it one star. In my younger days, I would have written an angry, misspelled mess and sent it to every corner of the internet. I am no longer that person and have remained silent. I read the book reviews for this article, and they confirmed my negative opinion. A helpful precaution that I did not follow: Check the reviews before paying for a book.

    There is a flip side to my philosophy. How will people know if a book is terrible when people like me do not leave negative reviews? I have read bad reviews of fantastic books and excellent reviews of worthless junk. People will always tell it like it is or are delusional.

    I will admit to leaving three out of five-star reviews like: “While the writing had significant issues, the story was excellent.” Is there hope for a one-star review? If authors keep writing Mammoth Books of Worthless Junk, you bet!

    You’re the best -Bill

    January 04, 2025

    Hey book lovers, I published four. Please check them out:

    Interviewing Immortality. A dramatic first-person psychological thriller that weaves a tale of intrigue, suspense, and self-confrontation.

    Pushed to the Edge of Survival. A drama, romance, and science fiction story about two unlikely people surviving a shipwreck and living with the consequences.

    Cable Ties. A slow-burn political thriller that reflects the realities of modern intelligence, law enforcement, department cooperation, and international politics.

    Saving Immortality. Continuing in the first-person psychological thriller genre, James Kimble searches for his former captor to answer his life’s questions.

    These books are available in soft-cover on Amazon and eBook format everywhere.

[lycanlovingvampyre]

MAG 179 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: cutting the French tamarisk in my garden.

JON: "Sorry." BASIRA: "You apologise too much." Hmm, I wonder why Jon would have this feeling that he always has to apologize...

JON: [Chuckling] "Martin says the same thing." BASIRA: [Chuckling] "Like he’s any better." Hmm, I wonder why Martin would have this feeling as well...  (Guess what, abuse and trauma can do such things.)

JON: "What happened?" MARTIN: "I-I thought you were about to fire." BASIRA: "So you gasped, just in case?" Martin is so funny xD

I remember immediately noticing that the Daisy-munching-sounds stopped when Basira and Jon got into that argument on my first listen.

I can't quite figure out what happened when Daisy is already close to Jon (when Jon tells Basira to take the shot, but Martin tells her not to cause she'll hit Jon) but before she bit his leg... What kind of struggle happened there? I'm pretty sure this had to be envisioned in some way or shape to properly figure out what everybody would be saying and what sounds we're hearing.

Also, with the distorted growls and super distorted voice I always imagined Daisy's appearance similar to that fucking horrifying bear in Annihilation. Something that is similar distorted like her voice.

[GUNSHOT] [SNARLING] [TWO MORE GUNSHOTS] Ah, there's the three gunshots Alex messed up in MAG 158 XD

JON: "Is it… Is it awful that I wish she’d recognised me?" No, it's not. It's like he says. They were friends there near the end. They shared the suffering of starving, shared the feeling of nobody understanding their situation...

JON: "I didn’t think to check. Just, sort of, assumed it was safe." MARTIN: "That’s a pretty big assumption, Jon." Tbf it's justified. Until now there has never been anything out there which could have hurt Jon. Trevor could have hurt Martin, could have even killed him if he was still a Hunter. Well, Jon got away this time and I guess from now on hed be keeping a better eye out for this.

JON: “Hmmm. Apparently. I mean, I know it sounds strange, but it… it felt right for Daisy to be able to hurt me.” MARTIN: “Dream logic again?” JON: “Mmm. The… resonances from our relationship before the change carried over and –” Interesting post which got dug up because of a mag a day today. Also reblogged it today, but I’m repeat myself here: That does make sense and it works very well with MAG 200. Jon also says it to Martin, “It has to be you”.

BASIRA: "No. You go on. I’ll make my own way to London." MARTIN: "What? No, don’t be daft, it’s not a problem for us to wait while you deal with this." BASIRA: "Please. Just go. …" MARTIN: "Wait, seriously?" Martin didn't learn anything from last episode. Basira likes to deal with stuff on her own and in silence.

MARTIN: "We’re not doing this." BASIRA: [softly] "Martin. Please." I know, Martin's intentions are good and it's his caregiver thing, but he got to stop assuming what's best for him in a situation like this is best for everyone else as well. It's already hard and it's so energy-draining fighting off other people you don't want to respect your way to grief on top of it.

@a-mag-a-day

[thlayli-ra]

A silly little thing I wrote after that Instagram post;

*Deleted*

Pairing - Cm Punk/AJ Lee/Dax Harwood/Brody King/Jade Cargill/Danhausen/Max Caster/MJF

Rated - Teen and up

Warnings - Language

Summary - All of Punk's wives react to his controversial story on Instagram

'Can't believe this is happening again. Thinking of you. x' - Dax

'Wow, that really blew up, huh?' - Brody

'I mean, I know you said you're That Bitch but did you have to be THAT bitch?' - Jade

'Does Pepsi Phil not want to come back and see Danhausen?' - Danhausen

'... sooo, does this mean I get to keep Max? ✂️' - Max

Punk scrolled through the multiple messages on his phone with a sigh. He gave Larry's head a scratch, the small dog snoozing soundly in his lap. Getting grey and long in the tooth, just like him. Hearing someone enter the room, he looked up sheepishly as AJ walked in.

'I thought I'd find you here,' she said softly, sitting down beside him on their home gym floor. There was a smell of fresh sweat hanging in the air and his brow was beading. He always worked out when he was feeling stressed.

'Take it, you've seen the post?' Punk muttered as he placed his phone down beside him.

'Kinda hard to miss it. Here,' she passed him a glass of water, which he gratefully accepted, taking a long sip. 'What did I tell you about using your Instagram account like your Twitter account?'

'It was that fucking Meltzer again, spreading these fucking lies,' Punk bit back. 'I was only trying to defend myself.'

'While you were still angry,' AJ pointed out. 'We spoke about this after that whole incident last year. Take a breath, calm yourself then deal with the-'

'I did!' Punk argued, getting defensive.

'I saw you writing that post in bed at 4am this morning!'

'I deleted it!'

'Yeah, by the time everybody had already seen it!'

Punk squirmed, pouting sulkily. 'It just pisses me off. I can't let these things go, alright? I've always been this way.'

AJ smiled wearily, cuddling into her husband's side and leaning her head on his warm shoulder. 'I know. It's one of those things I love about you... even if it drives me insane.'

Punk huffed a small laugh. AJ spied the subtle break-through and kept going.

'I love everything about you - we all do! You're sweet and funny and generous. Passionate and driven. We even love all those... less pleasant parts of you like that extremely short fuse of yours.' A smile ghosted his lips and he placed his tattooed arm around her, pulled her in close. 'The problem is nobody else knows you like I do, like we do. All they see are these snippets that you post online and that makes up the whole picture in their mind of who you are. They don't see the complex, messy person behind the character. The guy who still doubts himself constantly, who's so afraid of seeming weak that he lashes out whenever he feels threatened.'

Punk chewed the inside of his cheek thoughtfully, tattooed fingers drumming the floor. Silence shrouded the pair for an uncomfortably long time. 'I've really messed up, haven't I?'

AJ didn't answer straight away, thinking it through carefully. 'Maybe not. You did delete it, after all.'

'I just... don't want this to be over yet,' Punk tilted his head up, staring into the bright lights above him. 'I've finally reconnected with this thing I just love and I don't want to leave it again.'

'I know, I came back to find a full-size wrestling ring in our garage, remember?' she rolled her eyes fondly. 'It'll blow over, stuff like this always does these days. They'll move onto the next controversy soon enough.' She looked over to him with a pout. 'Just wish you would patch things up with Jon. I don't want to strike another name off our Christmas card list.'

'You don't even send out Christmas cards,' Punk protested.

'Yeah, but I could.'

The pair locked eyes, smiling warmly. 'Thanks, Ape' Punk said, kissing her sweetly on the lips. 'You always know what to say.'

'I'm here for you. Always. Now come get some sleep.'

'Sounds good. Let me just get my stuff.'

As Punk hopped up to grab his things from the gym floor, his phone began to ring. AJ picked it up and checked the caller ID. 'Urgh! Your boyfriend's calling'

'Which one?'

'The annoying one.'

Punk groaned. 'Let it go to voicemail.'

'He's called fifteen times already. You'd better call him back.'

'Ok, fine!' Retrieving his phone from AJ, she gave him one last kiss and said she'd meet him in bed when he was done. Punk pursed his lips in reply as he hit the call button on his phone. It was answered immediately.

'Hey Max...'

'WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING THIS TO ME????!!!!!!'

[agentrouka-blog]

not entirely sure what the fandom's consensus is re: the wall at the end of the books but… there might be need for a watch at the end of the books just like there was a need for a watch when the ww were defeated the first time? the way i see it, the song of ice and fire is cyclical, motives and stories repeat again and again, so the ww might not get defeated-defeated but only banished for another couple thousand years, hence, while the watch might temporarily disband, there'd still be use for a watch (and because now everybody has seen WHY they are there, their reputation would be restored & joining would once again be considered an honourable deed)

(though i do think that jorah joining jon & tormund at the end of the show would've been weird and awkward and straight up confusing because that was jon's "happy" ending as part of a group of people who respect & welcome him (at least in got!verse) and i don't think he exchanged even a single line of dialogue with jorah?)

(Oh, but in the show Jon tried to hand Longclaw back to Jorah, because it's the Mormont ancestral sword, and Jorah gave it back, for Jon and his future children. You know, one of the misdirections to make people believe in boat baby. During that clever wight hunt trip. Because Jon wouldn't hand it to Lyanna Mormont who made him king. Only to the guy who went on the run for selling poachers into slavery. Quality television.)

If the books do go into the direction of a cyclical threat, I would find it vaguely more credible for Jorah to take the black, though the character has never shown an ounce of integrity and would seem like a bad omen for the new start of the Watch. And the Watch already descended into a misguided mess that forgot its purpose the last time around, so why would they just press the Repeat Button?

But I am inclined to believe that the "problem" of the Others, the wonky seasons and access to high level blood magic and the permeable line between life and death is going to be resolved for good. Mostly because I think it's going to (have to) be some kind of metaphor for the same kinds of issues we've already seen explored on a smaller scale. Destructive power as a compensation for pain and grief. It's what the dragons are. It's what almost every villain is motivated by. It's present in historical examples like Garin's Curse. It's part of the story of the Children and the First Men. It's embedded in blood magic.

This has to be the dark origin of the Starks, to me, and this has to be the example where giving up that power is writ large. How else is a little boy like Bran, who's disability he was "compensated" for with immense magical power, tied to exploring the magical history of House Stark, going to be the center of the solution? The solution being a primarily physical struggle between humans and zombies seems to veer right past GRRM's anti war message back to the idea of righteous mass violence. So the climactic solution needs to be ideological and personal - and thematically meaningful.

Another temporary solution prone to erosion and confusion over time (like the Wall and the Watch) seems downright pointless to me in that specific context. You don't need the Wall and the Watch to keep the problem of human error around. Removing them does drag it down to earth for good. There will always be the danger of the war, but in-universe it would exist in the shadow of an example of negotiation and mutual concessions saving the world from apocalypse. (Like the Pact between Children and First Men, but larger.)

That's just my reading of the concept though.

[tomhollandnet]

With upcoming roles in not just in “Cherry,” the British star is also currently filming the still-untitled “Spider-Man” sequel from director Jon Watts. Holland opens up about preparing for his role as a soldier turned drug addict and then turned bank robber, along with what we can expect from the new superhero movie next year, which he calls “the most ambitious standalone superhero movie ever made.” Finally, he touches upon getting an itch for directing and how his dream role is to play James Bond and work with Maggie Smith. Listen to the podcast below!

Why did you choose “Cherry” for your first project following the MCU films?

Tom Holland: I don’t really know why now. I would have accepted this job; whoever it was, it’s the gift that keeps on giving. And I got to work with the Russos [Anthony and Joe] again. People that I really respect and I look up to and admire their work. The subject matter is really important. I think we’re doing a service to society by shining the light on a problem that is happening on everybody’s doorstep, which is substance abuse, overmedicating people, and not treating PTSD in the correct way. And also, it was a challenge. I love a challenge. I love pushing myself. Hard work is good work. So it was a bit of a no-brainer, this film, and I can’t imagine there was any way in which I would have turned it down and walked away.

As a former child actor, was there a particular film that really inspired you to get into this business?

Holland: That’s a good question. There are definitely films that I’ve watched as a young kid where I’ve gone “Wow, I would love to be able to play a character like that.” I was 11 when I first went on stage for “Billy Elliot,” and I was too young to think about the future of my career. I never decided to become an actor. It’s just something that happened to my life. It happened to me, and I just never stopped. I was just really lucky that I was able to continue doing it for as long as I have been doing it. Working with Naomi Watts on “The Impossible” was the time where I realized that this was something that I could do for a living. The first time I was like, “Oh, wow, I could actually maybe be an actor.”

Is there a film or performance that’s your favorite of all-time?

Holland: “Primal Fear” for me is one of my all-time favorite performances from Edward Norton. I think he is just picture-perfect, and there is not anything about his performance that you could tweak to make it better. So that’s a film I’ve to continue to learn from.

What was it like working with your co-star Ciara Bravo on “Cherry?”

Holland: Let me start by saying what a pleasure it was to work with her and get to know her. She’s an amazing actress, and the film wouldn’t be half the film without the performance that she gives. I remember I wasn’t at all involved in the casting process of Emily’s character. And I remember The Russos sent me Ciara’s audition tape two or three months before we started production. And for the first time in my career, I was so intimidated. I saw her tape, and I was like, “Oh, she’s like, too good,” and I need to do more work, because she’s going to act me off the screen, and no one’s going to want to follow my character. I thought the Russos were going to be like, “fuck you, Tom Holland, we’re rewriting the film with her now.”

I was so intimidated, and we were so lucky that she was so confident. You can only imagine she’s a young actress. She’s working with the two biggest directors, arguably of all time at the moment, and, and she’s working on this really difficult film with the tricky subject matter. She was so confident, brave, talented, and unselfish in the way that she went about making the film.

How did you prepare your unnamed character in “Cherry” in terms of meeting with addicts or veterans?

Holland: We did quite a lot of research. We spent a lot of time at the VA in Cleveland, and we were interviewing veterans who were suffering from PTSD and substance abuse and trying to seek help. It was an amazing process because it really showed me that therapy works. That these men and women were healing, and they were getting better. We met people at the beginning of their treatment, and they were really closed off, and they weren’t quite comfortable enough to share the stories.

We had people in the middle of their treatment who were getting to that stage where they were willing to open up. So some of them didn’t want to open up to a 24-year-old actor making a movie. Then the people at the end of their treatment who have made peace with their decisions and their mistakes were able to own it. They would tell us the stories and almost tell them proudly. I think one of the big problems in our society is that if you say to someone, “I’m going to rehab,” immediately the reaction is like, “Oh my god, that must mean that you’re really messed up.”

But what the reaction should be is, “Congratulations…that’s amazing. I’m really proud of you that you’re seeking help and that you’ve recognized that you’re in trouble.” I’m hoping that this film can do that for some people. And that, we can maybe stop some kids from falling into this trap of addiction in the future.

After working so much with The Russo Brothers, are you getting an itch to direct in the future?

Holland: Yes, absolutely. I’ve been trying to scratch that itch for a really long time. And my younger brother Harry and I have been writing a script together. We managed to acquire the rights to a book series that we loved as kids. So we’ve been sort of chipping away at that. I now have so much more respect for writers because it’s so difficult, man. I mean, trying to put something on the page is really, really quite difficult. I’d love to direct one day. We’re not rushing anything because I think the project we’re working on is amazing and can be quite powerful. So we want to make sure we get it right. But hopefully, within the next five years, you’ll see Harry and I sitting in the director’s chairs shouting action.

Can you tell us anything about the upcoming “Spider-Man” movie that you’re filming?

Holland: Obviously, I can’t really say anything.

You can tell us what happens at the end, right?

Holland: [pauses] What’s funny is like, I nearly told you then. You were so close to getting what you want.

I can say that it’s the most ambitious standalone superhero movie ever made. You sit down, read the script, and see what they’re trying to do, and they’re succeeding. It’s really impressive. I’ve never seen a standalone superhero movie quite like it. And I’m just, you know, again, that lucky little shit who happens to be Spider-Man in it. We got a lot more shooting to do. We started before Christmas and shot for like seven weeks. We stopped for the Christmas break, and then we’re starting again. I’m just as excited as everyone else to see it, let alone be a part of it.

What’s a role from a book or a series that you would really like to play?

Holland: I’ve got two roles coming up that I’m playing in the next few years that I’m really excited about, but I can’t talk about them yet. But I mean, ultimately, as a young British lad who loves cinema, I’d love to be James Bond. So, you know, I’m just putting that out there. I look pretty good in a suit.

What actress are you dying to work but haven’t as of yet?

Holland: I really want to work with Maggie Smith. I love her. She’s so like English and just seems so sweet. I’d really love to work with Maggie Smith.

You’re eying the “Downton Abbey” universe now I see.

[davidmann95]

now that it's over, thoughts on Bendis' Superman as a whole?

pretenderoftheeast said: So, thoughts on Bendis' Superman and Action Comics' tenure altogether and separately now that it's over?

Anonymous said: Best and Worst things about Bendis' Superman run

Anonymous said: Now that it is over, what are your thoughts on Bendis' runs on Superman and Action Comics as a whole?

Anonymous said: Retrospective thoughts on Bendis' Superman as a whole now that it's, I guess, done?

Anonymous said: Hey so since Bendis’ Superman stuff seems to be done, what did you think of the run as a whole?

I decided to hold off a bit on writing on this one, if only so that I could reread the Action Comics side of it since Superman stood out in my memory a lot more. But now I have, and as we’re heading into a bold new era of Superman (and it’s coming in fast - just since I made my Superman in 2021 predictions we’ve gotten Ed Pinsent finally reprinting his legendary bootleg Silver Age Superman, Steve Orlando announcing his Superman analogue book Project Patron, an official shonen Superman redesign for RWBY/Justice League, PKJ’s Super-debut turning out far better than I ever expected, Superman & Lois’s first proper trailer largely taking people pleasantly by surprise, and my learning that there’s a Sylvester Stallone Old Man Superman analogue movie titled Samaritan coming out this summer) we’re ready to take a look back with at least a touch of perspective. I’ll lead with complaints, so everybody who’s been waiting for me to say that Bendis on Superman was Bad, Actually, savor this because it’s as close as you’ll get.

The Bad

* I hate to say it, but rereading that side of the run there’s no two ways about it: the structure of Action Comics as a whole is a mess. It baffled me from day one that it was the more acclaimed of the two books for so long - I guess people are hardwired at this point to think of ‘street’ stuff as where Bendis is supposed to be - because it was immediately clear that Superman had a well-defined story he wanted to tell, while Action was the usual Bendis off-the-cuff improvisation. It’s barely even a story in the same way, and it’s certainly not the ‘Metropolis crime book’ people took it as: it’s 28 issues of Superman and his supporting cast stuffed a pinball machine with the Red Cloud pinging off of each other as we wait to see who falls in the hole at the bottom, and partway through Leviathan and the Legion of Doom and 90s Superboy are tossed into the mix to keep it going a little longer. On an issue-to-issue basis it’s frequently really good, but the core plot of the book is *maybe* six issues stretched out over two and a half years.

* I’ve gone into this some before, but structure-wise Unity Saga also has problems: Phantom Planet rules but either it needed to be cut or the back half needed to be a year all its own in order to accommodate the scale of what it’s attempting. It’s got an interstellar civil war leading into the formation of the United Planets, family drama, Rogol Zaar’s whole deal, and Jon’s coming of age, and I’d say only that last one is really properly served. Even Jon forming the United Planets, while contextually somewhat justified in terms of 1. The situation being so far gone he’s the only one who’d even think in those terms, 2. Things being bad enough that these assorted galactic powers would be willing to try it, and 3. Him having the S on his chest to sell it, isn’t at all built up to within the run itself.

* Rogol Zaar sucks. He’s made up of nothing but interesting ideas - he’s an ersatz warrior ‘superman’ of a bygone age of empires up against the new model, he’s the sins of Krypton as a conservative superpower come home to roost, he’s while not outright said to be definitely Superman’s tragic half-brother and the culmination of everything this run does with Jor-El - but none of them manifest on the page, he’s just a big punchy dude with a dumb design who screams about how you should take him seriously because he’s totally the one who blew up Krypton. Even a killer redesign by Ryan Sook for Legion of Superheroes can’t fix that. There are lots of bad villains with good ideas who are redeemed with time and further effort, but I can’t imagine Zaar getting that TLC to become a fraction of whatever Bendis envisioned him as.

* The second year of Action Comics, after establishing itself in its first as one of the most consistently gorgeous books on the stands, leads with Szymon Kudranski’s weak output and then concludes with John Romita Jr. turning in some career-worst work. The latter is particularly egregious because for that first year Bendis writes a really collected, gentle Superman so him getting pushed into being more aggressive should have an impact, but Romita draws such a craggy rough-looking Superman in the first place that it mutes any sort of shock value.

 * WE NEVER LEARN WHAT’S UP WITH LEONE’S CAR, WHAT THE HELL. You don’t just DROP THAT IN THERE and then NEVER FOLLOW UP.

The Good

* Superman got his real clothes back after 7 truly ridiculous years.

* Bendis fundamentally gets Clark’s voice in a way unlike almost any other writer - even all-around better writers of the character almost never approach how spot-on he is with having Superman speak and act exactly how Superman should.

* Supporting cast front and center! He writes a dynamite Lois, Perry, and Jimmy (even if many of Lois’s more out-there decisions in the run don’t end up retroactively justified the way you’d hope), Ma and Pa are more fun than they’ve been in decades in their brief appearances, he manages to turn having Jor-El in the mix into a positive, and the Daily Planet as a whole has an incredibly distinctive vibe to it like never before that I hope is taken as a baseline going forward.

* The non-Rogol Zaar baddies? All ruled. Invisible Mafia and Red Cloud are both brilliant ideas executed solidly if overextended. Zod as Kryptonian Vegeta, Mongul as a generational perpetual bastard engine primed to be incapable of self-reflection, and Ultraman as “what if Irredeemable but he’d never been a good guy and also he was a Jersey mobster” are the best versions of those characters by numberless light-eons. Lex is on-point in his sparse appearances. Xanadoth as a mystical cosmic monster older than time who still talks like a Bendis character is however unintentionally a hoot. The alt-universe Parasite is a more intimidating Doomsday than Doomsday ever was. And Synmar as an alien culture’s attempt at creating their own Superman and messing up the formula when they make him a soldier can and should be a legitimate major ongoing villain coming out of this run.

* Pretty much all the art other than what I mentioned already. Fabok does a good job bookending The Man of Steel and Ivan Reis does the work of his career anchoring Superman (special props to Reis as well for drawing the first ever non-Steve Rude interesting-looking take on Metropolis), and meanwhile you’ve got Jim Lee, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Doc Shaner, Steve Rude, Kevin Maguire, Adam Hughes, Patrick Gleason, Yanick Paquette, Ryan Sook, Brandon Peterson, and David Lafuente doing their own parts.

* Closely related to the art, all the little flourishes with the powers. Super-speed having a consistent visual with the background coloring changing, Clark internally putting numbers to the degrees of force behind his punches and what situations which numbers are appropriate for, ‘skidding to a halt’ mid-flight before crashing through a window, the shonen-ass major throwdowns as portrayed by Reis, how his super-hearing is handled as a prevalent element. Lots of clever bits that added flavor to what he does.

* While Unity Saga has problems, the whole of what Bendis does in Superman as a means of forward momentum for Clark and his world is excellent. The sort of three-act structure of: 

** Clark is led to question his place in things over the course of a few adventures

** Involvement in the larger cosmos and the impact it has had through and on his family makes him realize the answer to his questions is that he needs to step up in a bigger way because there’s no benevolent larger universe to welcome Earth with open arms, nor a cosmic precedent for everything turning out for the best without some help

** As a consequence of the lessons learned by this change in the status quo Clark is inspired to make his own personal change in revealing his identity (with Mythological basically being an epilogue showcasing a ‘standard’ standalone Superman adventure while simultaneously highlighting his new status quo and how it fits in as a summing-up of Bendis’s take)

…does a great job of shepherding through ideas that lend a lot of forward momentum to Superman of the kind he hasn’t seen in a long time. Not perfect, but far lesser stories with far lesser ambitions have made huge impacts, so I’d certainly hope at least some of this sticks around even if, say, regardless of any retcons to the main line there are always going to be stories with Clark as a disguise and Jon as a kid. Oh, speaking of whom,

* KISS MY ASS, EVERYTHING WITH JON KENT RULED

Ahem. Probably a less confrontational way of putting that.

Do I think there was more gas in the tank for Jon as a kid? Totally, making him likeable and viable was the one really good thing the Rebirth era accomplished for Superman and I expect we’ll continue seeing more of it in the future one way or another. But whether or not him being aged up was Bendis’s decision, or working with marching orders to set up the eventually-(kinda-)discarded 5G, the coming of age narrative here is fire. He keeps the essential Clark Kent kindness and bit of Lois Lane cheekiness that reminds you he’s still their kid, which is a combination Bendis is basically precision-crafted to write, but his trials by fire give him a background entirely unlike the by-the-numbers “and here’s how Superman’s great kid grew up to be a great superhero too” narrative you’d expect while still arriving at that endpoint. If superheroes live and die by metaphors then Jon in here is what it means to grow up written as large as possible: leaving home for the first time (and seeming to shoot up overnight!), getting into the muck of how the real world works, being beaten down by authority wearing faces you’ve been taught to trust, scrambling to get through with the whole world against you, and in the end getting through by learning to rely on your own strength while keeping your soul intact and your head held high, and even managing to speak some truth to power. It gives him a well-defined life story with room to go back to and explore the intricacies of each leg of for decades to come in a way Superman hasn’t had since the original Crisis - someone someday is going to write a The Life & Times Of The Son Of Superman miniseries and it’s going to be one of the greats - and negates any question that he’s earned his stature as the heir apparent.

* Coming out of this, Superman’s world is fascinating. He’s out but rather than giving up his day-to-day life he’s openly spending part of his life as CLARK KENT: SUPER-REPORTER and part of his job on the cape-and-tights side of things is now KAL-EL: SUPER-SPACE-DIPLOMAT, Lois Lane coruns a foundation helping people whose personal continuities have been fucked over by Crisis shenanigans, Jimmy Olsen owns the Daily Planet but is still doing Jimmy Olsen stuff because that’s how he gets his kicks, and Jon Kent is going to college in the future. I’m not anywhere near naïve enough to think that’s how things are going to be forever, or shortsighted enough to think there’s no value left in the traditional setups, but god I hope these developments stick around for a long, long time to come and potentially become the new ‘normal’ as far as the ongoing shared universe stuff goes, because it all feels like the right and promising next steps to take for the lives of these characters. However it got here, for all the pluses and minuses along the way even if I maintain the former very much outweighed the latter as a reading experience, Bendis has a lot to be proud of if that’s the legacy he leaves on these titles.

* The recap pages at the desks!

[thebookwormfairy]

Daminette/Maribat Fairy Tail OVA

So this is my final part of my Fairy Tail Au. This will be like a bonus section just extra little snippets that didn't make it to the main story so it will be shorter than my other parts. Enjoy

Part 1

Part 2

Sometime around when Marinette first joined

Marinette: So Barry is a speed mage, Arther in a Water mage that can turn his body INTO water, Diana is an equip mage, and Clark is a Fire God-slayer like Jon.

Damian: That's right

Marinette: So what type of magic does your dad have?

Damian: Oh he doesn't have magic, just a bunch of gadgets

‐——————-----------——

Damian following Marinette around

Damian: Watch out Angel

Damian lifts Marinette up by her waist to avoid Wally running by

Marinette smiling: Thanks Damian

Damian blushing: No problem

------------------------

Sometime before the opening ceremony on the Grand Magic Games

Wally speeding by Team Hatchlings: LUCKY!!!

Wally sped towards a pink hair girl dressed in all black, engulfing her in a hug before kissing her

Marinette: Who's that?

Jon: That's Wally's girlfriend, Jinx.

Damian: They've been together a few years now, but she's part of a different guild so they don't get to see eachother as much as they would like

Marinette: That's so romantic

The younger members of the guild watch as Wally zips away only to return a few seconds later with a red rose

-----------------------

After Team Hatchlings First Offical Mission with 2 blocks of town destroyed

Jon: Oh man we really made really made a mess this time

Damian sighing: I guess we can say goodbye to the reward this time

Marinette: Actually I have something that can help

Damian and Jon give her A hopeful look

Marinette: Open gat of Creation, Tikki!

Tikki: What do you need Marinette?

Marinette: We need to fix some damage

Tikki: Right away, Miraculous Ladybug!!

As Tikki cast her magic thousands of ladybugs appeared and wherever they passed the damaged was fixed

Damian hugging Marinette: Way to go Angel

Jon joining in on the hug: You are never leaving us

Marinette laughs and hugs her boys back

She can tell that she is going to stay with these two

----------------------------------

After Team Adrien's first mission without Marinette

Nino: Oh wow dudes we really cause some damaged

Half the town was destroyed

Alya: It's okay Marinette will take care of it like always. It's the only thing she's good for

Lila laughing: You're so right Alya

Lila and Alya high fived eachother

Adrien: Guys did you forget? Marinette left the team

Alya: Oh no that's right

Lila: Then who's going to clean all this up

The mayor of the town walkd up to the 4 glaring

Mayor: You four are and you won't be getting the reward either

Lila: That's not fair! You can't do that!

Mayor: YOU CAUSED MORE DAMAGED THEN THE DARK WIZARD YOU CAUGHT! EITHER YOU FIX OUR TOWN OR WE CALL THE GRAND MAGIC COUNCIL!!!

The four nodded their heads terrified

They got straight to work and finished about 4 weeks later

They returned to the guild late, tired, and with no money

--------------------------

A couple of months after Marinette joined Damian and Jon

Marinette: Do you guys think we need a team name?

Damian: What did you mean, Angel?

Marinette: I mean the Masters call their team The Justice League, that's how they got the guild name. Dick, Kori, Rachel, Garfield, and Victor are the Teen Titans. And Tim, Wally Megan, Connor, Kaldur, and Artemis are Young Justice. So shouldn't we have a name as well

Jon: You're right we should have a name! But what should it be

Marinette: My last team was called Team Adrien

Damian: How narcissistic. No we need a better name.

Dickwalking up to the younger kids: What are you guys talking about?

Damian: We're trying to think up a team name

Dick: But you guys already a team way

Jon confused: No we don't

Tim joining in: Yes you do

Marinette: What is it?

Jason also joining in: Team Hatchling!

Damian glaring: That is NOT our team name

Dick: It's not? Everybody calls you that

Jon: No they don't

Dragon Slayers besides Damian: Yes we do

Rest of the guild: Yes we do

Guild Masters: Yes we do

Jason: It's because you're the youngest and so cute

Jason look down at the two glaring boys and the wide eyed Marinette

Jason: Well at least Pixie Pop is

Marinette: Well I guess we have our team name

-------------------------------------

After the Grand Magic Games

Marinette running into the guild

Marinette: GUYS! GUESS WHAT I WAS CHOSEN TO DO A INTERVIEW WITH SORCERER'S WEEKLY!

The girl of the guild surrounded Marinette congratulationing her and talking over the details

Stephine: Congratulations Marinette! I guess you finally made it

Kori: That is a great honor Marinette!

Damian: What?

Marinette: Apparently I'm also going to be the center fold

Barbra: Way to go Starlight. When is it?

Damian: What?

Marinette: Next week at the beach

Dick: Way to go Stardust!

Damian: WHAT?

Damian was ignored throughout the whole conversation

Everybody knew he was just being possessive of his mate

Damian and Jon were going to follow Marinette to her interview to make sure nothing happened to her

Damian also dragged his brothers along under the guise of back up but really he was hoping they would be their rowady selves and ruin the photoshoot

Which backfired greatly

Marinette wore a off the shoulder blue crop top and a pair of jean shorts

It wasn't as revealing as most center fold out fits but it still made Damian's blood boil with jealousy

Somehow through their antics Dick was dragged into the photos aswell

They were doing a kinda siblings photoshoot with Dick swing Marinette around

Photographer: That's it act like you just got a big bowl of your mama's spaghetti

Damian glares at Jon

Jon: What?

Damian: Your mom is the owner and top reporter of Sorcerer's Weekly call her and make them stop

Jon just laughed at his friends antic shaking his head

Louis is the one who suggest Marinette for this no way would she stop it

When the article came out it wasn't as bad as Damian thought

Sure there was a lot of cute and some saucy pictures of Marinette, but there was also a lot of her and Dick playing around

And there was one of her kissing Damian on the cheek as he glared at the camera.

Jon is the only person who knew Damian requested that they send a copy of that picture to him

And if Damian can help 9t Jon will be the ONLY person who will ever know

A week later Jason found out and told everyone

@loysydark

@mikantsume

@doli09

@krissykat0207

@czgamz

@myazael

@renscorpio

@mochinek0

@daminett4life

@kuroko26

@vixen-uchiha

@goawayi-mreading

@fusser90

@queen-of-the-trash-planet-tm

[qrovidcore]

hey what’s up tumblr i’ve now seen hbo’s watchmen all the way through Three Fucking Times and i very well may go for a fourth if given an excuse whoops and apparently i can’t stop thinking about Laurie’s joke in She Was Killed By Space Junk, no i’m not the first person to analyze this and i’m sure i won’t be the last but i sure do have some Thoughts^TM,  so here’s some meta let’s go.

major spoilers ahead for the entire series:

Hey, it’s me again. I’ve got a joke. Stop me if you’ve heard this one. There’s this guy, he’s a bricklayer. He’s really good at it. He’s a real master of his craft. Because he’s precise. Every brick has its place. Anyway this guy has a daughter and he’s gonna teach her to be a bricklayer because after all, all a man has is his legacy. So dad decides to build a barbecue in the backyard. He does the math. He figures out exactly what he needs and he shows the daughter how to do everything. Step by step. And when he finishes, it’s a beauty. It’s a perfect barbecue. Just the way he drew it in blueprints. Only one problem. There’s a brick left over. One single brick. The guy freaks out. He must have done something wrong. He’s gonna have to start all over again. So he picks up his sledgehammer to knock the thing to pieces and his daughter suddenly says ‘daddy wait! I have an idea.’ She picks up the orphan brick and throws it up into the air as high as she can. And then…shit. Messed it up.

Okay forget that joke. Can I tell you another one?

As I said, I’m not the first to break down that Laurie is referring to specific people who have an influence on the story, there’s plenty of meta posts online that’ll say the same thing. I just think this is a Really Clever way to introduce us to her, to the major players in this story, and to the events from the comic that are going to end up being referenced. Anyhow, the bricklayer here is The Comedian. Laurie’s father. I’ll get back to this and how it connects later, but given that one of Watchmen’s major themes is the concept of legacy - who carries it and how, and what happens when that legacy is painful - this is a neat little hook into that idea. Laurie’s dad’s legacy. What she’s done with it, what she’s going to do with it, how she feels about it. Again, coming back to that.

Okay. Forget the brick. New joke. Three heroes die and they all show up at the pearly gates. God’s there and he’s going to decide what their eternal fate shall be: heaven or hell. Our first hero is dressed up like a big owl. God says to him “I gifted you the ability to make fantastic inventions. What did you do with this amazing talent?” Owl guy says “I made this really awesome flying ship and lots of cool outfits and weapons so I could bring peace to the city.” God asks, “So how many people did you kill?” Owl guy seems offended. He says “Zero. I didn’t take a single life.” God frowns. “Sorry owl guy, your heart’s in the right place but you’re just too soft.” God snaps his fingers and the hero goes to hell.

I'm not super into the comic so it took me a while to get that she's referencing Nite Owl. I think this is strange since he doesn't appear in the show himself, whereas everyone else she talks about does, but I suppose it gives a more rounded-out view of the different approaches to heroism, and what exactly constitutes it, and also ties in another one of the original Minutemen. They did cut this over her arrest of Mr. Shadow in the bank, which makes me wonder about his role and why he appeared, and I still find it strange that this part of the joke wasn't about someone who had more of a presence in the show. (Though that being said, DC making fun of Batman, their own big-ticket character? 10/10 thank you for this).

Where was I? The pearly gates await our next hero in line for Almighty judgment. Our hero number two is confident he can game this out because that’s his God-given talent: smarts. Some might even say he’s the smartest man in the world. “So what did you do with that big brain I gave you?” asks God. “As a matter of fact, I saved humanity, ”says Smarty Pants. “Well how’d you do that,” asks God.” “Well I dropped a giant alien squid on New York and everybody was so afraid of it they stopped being afraid of each other.” “OK,” says God. “How many people did you kill?” Smarty Pants smiles. “Three million, give or take. But you can’t make an omelet without breaking a couple of eggs. “Christ,” God says. “You’re a fucking monster.”  “Am not,” says Smarty Pants. God snaps his fingers and our hero goes to hell.

GOD YES PLEASE DRAG OZYMANDIAS. GET THIS FUCKER’S ASS. Though the line that’s sticking out to me here is “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a couple of eggs.” Watchmen’s got an egg motif - and that’s an entire post on its own - and wow this is a place to drop it. I find it interesting that it’s given to Adrien here. Especially since it comes back later, when Will tells Angela that that’s what Jon said in justification of giving his life to stop the 7th K/Cyclops and Trieu. Eggs are used for a lot of things, but this line ties the motif solidly to a value of life here - how Adrien is the way he is because he refuses to value other peoples’, and maybe how Jon is the way he is because, when you can see the future laid out before you and live knowing how you’re going to die, how do you learn to value your own?

Okay. We’re down to the nitty gritty now. One hero left. God cracks his knuckles ready to administer the final reckoning. Now Hero Number 3 is pretty much a god himself. So for the sake of telling them apart, he’s blue and he likes to stroll around with his dick hanging out. He can teleport, he can see into the future, he blows shit up. He’s got actual superpowers. Regular God asks Blue God what have you done with these gifts?” Blue God says “I fell in love with a woman, I walked across the sun, and then I fell in love with another woman. I won the Vietnam War. But mostly I just stopped giving a shit about humanity.” God sighs. “Do I even need to ask how many people you’ve killed?” Blue guy shrugs. “A live body and a dead body have the same number of particles so it doesn’t matter. And it doesn’t matter how I answer your question because I know you’re sending me to hell.” “How do you know that?” asks God. Blue God sounds very sad when he softly says “Because I’m already there.” And so, a mere piston in the inevitable of time and space God does what he did and will do. He snaps his fingers and the hero goes to hell.

And now, we’ve got Jon. Dr. Manhattan. It's a neat moment of insight into his actions, motives, and how those are perceived by others (namely Laurie), and it's a nice thread of introduction to his previous actions to drop for audiences who haven't read the comics (actually, I can make this point about Adrien’s part of the joke too). Especially because most of what we get of Jon in-show is his relationship with Angela, his entire character arc really revolves around her and we don't see him portrayed as the contentious, unfeeling figure the world sees him as. So this sort of contrast between him as a figure and him as a person is very telling, doubly so coming from someone who it's clear knew him. And I really appreciate that there’s just as much stiffness as there is warmth to the Jon we the audience see - he’s kind, he’s loving, but he’s also very matter-of-fact and deterministic, and that bit of characterization really spans the gap between these two versions of him.

And so it’s been a long day at the pearly gates. All the heroes have gone to hell. His work done, God’s packing up to go home and then he notices someone waiting. But it’s not a hero, it’s just a woman. “Where did you come from?” asks God. “Oh I was just standing behind those other guys the whole time, you just didn’t see me.” “Did I give you a talent,” God asks. “No, none to speak of,” says the woman.  God gives her a good long look. “I’m so sorry. I’m embarrassed. Seriously, this almost never happens but I don’t know who you are.” And the woman looks at God and she quietly says “I’m the little girl who threw the brick in the air.” And a sound from above, something falling: the brick. God looks up but it’s too late. He never saw it coming. It hits him so hard, his brains shoot out his nose. Game over. He’s dead. And where does God go when he dies? He goes to hell. 

Into some Thoughts^TM that I haven’t seen anyone theorize yet(?): I think God is meant to be Lady Trieu, and even if Laurie wouldn’t know this yet that’s some brilliant fucking foreshadowing. It's not as exact, but enough parallels are there that I think they're purposeful. It makes Trieu out as the ultimate judge of everyone - and in a way, she is. She sees herself as the most deserving of power of everyone, and it's her who kills Dr. Manhattan - sends him to hell, you could say, and he knows she's going to do it. It also hints at how she's going to die too, crushed by her machine falling from the sky like the brick, because she didn't expect anyone would be capable of stopping her. And where does God go when he dies? He goes to hell. Trieu isn't ultimately above the others, and she's subject to their justice as they are to hers. 

Fitting too that Laurie is involved with the plan to stop Trieu, since, as I said I’d come back to, the girl who threw the brick is Laurie herself. Her depiction of herself in this way is representative, perhaps, of Laure's own feelings on vigilantism and what justice is, and that she's the force that's going to bring down these overblown personalities and their many incorrect uses of their abilities. Given this, it's interesting to think how the "failed" joke at the beginning connects, given that Laurie's dad is the bricklayer, and he's definitely... not a good person, or at least not in this continuity. But I wonder if it's indicative of what Laurie mentions about her parents training her up to do vigilante stuff (especially since she’s based in part(?) on a member of the Minutemen from the comic), and how she feels about her father and his work. If the brick is symbolic of his work as a vigilante, is Laurie throwing the brick in the air, and ultimately taking down the threat at the top, meant to indicate how she sees herself using what she learned from him, or - maybe and - a disrespect for his work based on her justified hatred of him?

Roll on snare drum. Curtains. Good joke. 

[aegonbeingfakeisracist]

Say Lorch and Clegane get the wrong room and can't find Elia and her children. Jon Arryn has Aegon sent to the Wall, Elia is held hostage for a year and returned to Dorne. Rhaenys is held to marry Robert's heir. What then?

As you’ve pointed out before, the path to a permanent peace goes through them (sorry. That was one of the things I meant to respond to a while ago, but stuff piled up and then I couldn’t find it). It’s definitely true. With Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon alive, tensions with Dorne would be much less likely to spark out of control. But some of Robert’s fundamental flaws as both a man and a king make me suspect that he’d mess this up, too. And there are so many ways it could go wrong.

The first point is Ned. If the children live, then he and Robert don’t have their brief falling out, and he presumably holds onto his idea of Robert as a good man, which could go very poorly. There are two main ways that could go:

He believes in Robert’s ethics and doesn’t hide Jon’s parentage; he and Robert have a huge fight over it but no one dies because while Robert has absolutely sanctioned child murder, I don’t think he’d be able to actually do it himself; Ned goes North and probably doesn’t reconcile with Robert; Robert’s reign goes even worse.

He keeps the secret because of his promise to Lyanna, even though he doesn’t think Robert is a child murderer, and things stay reasonably close to canon, except with the Starks probably having more presence in court and Ned perhaps being able to rein in some of Robert’s worse impulses.

My guess is the second is more likely.

Robert probably still marries Cersei, because he doesn’t especially care, there’s not many other options, and I can’t picture anyone objecting too much in a world with living Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon. However, I doubt the Lannisters as a family would have as much influence as they do in canon. Elia would presumably have a lot of power in Dorne, as well as connections to different houses outside of it that could advance the Dornish position. If she remarries, it’s presumably to a second son that enables her to remain in Sunspear. I can also see her using her outside connections to help arrange a good match for Arianne, who would also have a way better relationship with Doran in this universe because there’s no reason she’d be stripped of her inheritance.

Due to how I suspect Dragonstone would remain a Targaryen seat through Rhaenys, it wouldn’t go to Stannis, meaning Stannis would probably get Storm’s End while Renly would not get his own seat. That would remove one source of Stannis’s resentment. It might even out by how Robert might ship Rhaenys off to him to deal with, which he’d probably not be too pleased with. Rhaenys grows up at Storm’s End, it’s awkward for everybody, Stannis gets mad at Robert for not dealing with his own problems, all those tensions still exist.

While the Martell anger would not be nearly as strong as in canon, I can still picture them deeply unhappy with this state of affairs - Rhaenys being a glorified hostage through which the Baratheons cement their grasp on both the throne and Dragonstone, instead of being allowed to grow up in Dorne with the Martells (which I think is what you mean by held?);  Aegon being sent to a penal colony, instead of the Citadel or the Faith, for someone else’s crimes. As a caring, ethical man, Doran wouldn’t act on this anger...but I think the events that happen later would push him to do so.

I’m solidly sure that no matter what, the incest would come out and there’d be a civil war. Given that in this situation, Stannis would hold Storm’s End, Renly wouldn’t have the backing to make a claim. If we assume Cersei’s children are the same as in canon, Joffrey is about six years younger than Rhaenys, so at this point, he would still be a minor, but Rhaenys would not be. Since she would technically not be a hostage, Dragonstone is officially her seat, and she’s been of age for over a year, it’s possible that when it all breaks out, she’s there. It probably seems like a weird thing to allow a hostage to do, but when Sansa was a hostage during the war, Margaery took her hawking outside the city, and the Tyrells weren’t stopped from taking her to Highgarden by Cersei refusing, but by the Lannisters marrying her to Tyrion and thus making it pointless. So it seems pretty reasonable to me that adult Rhaenys, before the war, would be allowed to go to her own seat, especially because that seat is so close to King’s Landing. It’s probably not likely, but since it’s not returning her to her family, I can see it happening. If not, she’s at either King’s Landing or Storm’s End when the war breaks out. The first one would be extremely unpleasant for her, and she’d basically end up in Sansa’s position...or Elia’s. The Martells might end up blackmailed into fighting again. I can imagine that being what pushes them into rebelling. or plotting vengeance against the Lannisters.

But if Rhaenys at Dragonstone instead, the lords of Crackclaw Point would probably suddenly become a lot more relevant - not only did they back Rhaenyra, indicating a willingness to support a woman, Dick Crabb claims they’re “good dragon men”, even seventeen-ish years after the end of the Targaryen dynasty, so one can probably safely assume that they’d back Rhaenys in whatever she wants to do. Just what that is is hard to say, but with them, Dorne, and probably a fair chunk of the rest of the Crownlands on her side, she’d have a pretty significant power bloc behind her. 

Viserys and Dany probably still follow the same path as in canon. They’d have even less support in Westeros, but it probably doesn’t matter all that much to Viserys, because he was kind of delusional about that to begin with. I don’t know what’s most likely to go on with Aegon. Timelines are not my strong suit and I have no idea what is considered an appropriate age for what. But Jon Arryn presumably couldn’t send an infant to the Wall, so he’d have had to be somewhere for a few years. So when the war breaks out, he’d be sixteen or seventeen, right? Which seems to me about the age one would be sent to the Wall, given that the age of majority is sixteen. It’s possible he’d have already been sent there a long time ago, given that the youngest ever Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch was ten, but it’s also possible he's only been there for a short time. In which case I can imagine a fair amount of resentment - he’s been sent to a penal colony when he hasn’t done anything; the only reason he’s there is his name; and while he might have started to get used to it, it undoubtedly seems - and is - a harsh and unfair sentence. If he’s been there for maybe a year, met with Aemon, started to get used to it over there, before the news of the war breaks...well, he’s presumably just stuck waiting for news of the family he barely knows with a lot of internal conflict.

His contact with his mother and maternal family would have been extremely limited, but I don’t think it’s impossible - though it is unlikely - that he and Rhaenys had more communication. Robert might have just dumped them both on Stannis and they were raised together for a bit. In that situation, Aegon might feel very much like Jon does in canon and want to desert for the sake of helping the sister he has some relationship with. Or perhaps Robert sent the sibling that more closely resembled Rhaegar to Stannis, where Robert didn’t have to look at him, while keeping Rhaenys in King’s Landing as Jon Arryn and Lysa’s charge. In that situation, I can see Aegon and Rhaenys maybe exchanging a few letters, but not knowing each other at all, in which case Aegon would probably feel concern and wish he knew her, but not very strongly. Since he’s at the Wall this whole time, he’d have no impact on anything going on.

So...I don’t really know. I’m just babbling. I guess my main argument is that basic events - incest babies, civil war - would still happen, but Dorne would be less furious; Rhaenys would have a significant bloc supporting whatever decision she makes, which would probably be secession; and Aegon would be hanging out at the Wall very much not dead.

[22drunkb]

Some thoughts about Bran Stark

Okay, so--not to butt in and trample around, as someone who never read the books and stopped watching the show sometime around season 3--but the thing is, I feel like the ending has finally allowed me to understand exactly what it was that turned me off Game of Thrones, which I never quite did put my finger on till now, and I want to at least write it out once. (Ironically, this has made me like the story better, though not its execution.) To attempt a spoiler-free summary: I’m going to be thinking about the thematic structure of the story and why that should make certain things make sense, and how they came to not make sense anyway.

The thing is, thematically and structurally, Bran ending up king makes absolute and perfect sense. It’s just that they didn’t write the story in line with the structure they were given. The problem with the show is--and always has been--that the writers don’t actually understand what “subverting fantasy tropes” means or could look like, and they don’t care about it in any meaningful way. What they care about is doing big, bloodthirsty, quasi-historical fiction with a lot of nudity. (See: the Civil War show they wanted to do.) And Bran’s whole situation only makes sense (or would have made sense, if executed properly) in the context of high fantasy.

Keeping in mind that complicating high fantasy tropes was an important part of what Martin reportedly set out to do, each of the Stark kids (the story’s backbone) had a clear thematic purpose. Each of them a) was a take on a trope, b) had a clear character trajectory that would allow that take on the trope to be developed while functioning as a working character arc, and c) through that trope-inflected arc, could allow the audience a window into specific part of the society (i.e., they supported the worldbuilding), which in turn allowed the further development of these takes on the tropes by giving them specific, appropriate settings and side characters to bounce off of. This is to say that GRRM did a good job setting himself up to do “trope subversion” in a way that would comment on the things he wanted to comment on, function as part of a larger world and story, and help support a plot that would be in harmony with all of the above. This is one very solid approach to character design. To be clear, despite this paragraph being about characters, I’m talking about themes--it has nothing to do with their personalities or whatever. This is about what ideas come together in the concept of each character and therefore how each character’s story develops the ideas.

A good reason to approach character design in this way is if you have set out to subvert, complicate, comment on, or otherwise mess with genre tropes. To do so, the characters have to themselves be tropes, or at least be designed in close relation to tropes, in order to derange them. So like, just to take the simplest two examples:

Robb: The Prince. Firstborn, shining favorite, destined to inherit. Set up (normally) to avenge his father, restore order to his kingdom, and go home. Bungles it entirely by seeking true love; meanwhile, in the course of his story we learn about the regional politics of the North, the politics of alliances by marriage and kinship, etc. Narratively, his failure allows the entire political and military situation to get infinitely more clusterfucked. All of those pieces fit together well thematically.

What is being subverted here is the prince’s marital destiny. We have loads of fairy and fantasy stories about prince and prince-types for whom pursuing true love just happens to be convenient (they can marry whoever they want), or whose pursuits of love are rescued by fate (his true love turns out to be his promised princess all along! She’s secretly a magical being of some sort, and that trumps betrothal agreements! The one he was originally supposed to marry died or decided to marry someone else! etc). This is totally kosher in traditional high fantasy (or in the folklore that the genre draws on) because it’s an expression of the harmony of the story-world; the characters go through their trials and adventures and end with a resolution in the form of marriage that announces that all is as it should be. What it looks like GRRM set out to do is ask what happens when people still follow those rules and the rules aren’t in harmony with the world they live in.

In particular, the entire thing points square at the fact that princes are political animals. It seems to me that Robb’s story was meant to say, well, actually, sometimes people with power just have to marry people they don’t love as a condition of being powerful (which comes up constantly throughout the whole show). After Ned and Catlyn, basically every “true love” couple is dysfunctional, incestuous (Cersei and Jaime, Daenerys and John), and/or gets narratively stomped on, as far as I’m aware. (Did Sam and Gilly make it? If so, I think that’s allowed because they’re commoners.) Ironically, Ned and Catlyn set Robb up to fuck up by modeling one of these convenient political-and-true-love marriages. He thought he was supposed to be allowed to have it all. He was wrong. The end. Next. But the show seemed to expect me to feel that the outcome was unjust and tragique for Their Love, when all that was unjust and tragique about it was that Robb was idiot enough to bring the consequences of his actions on his entire group of followers. That is the point. That his status has to constrain his behavior, and when it doesn’t it has consequences for others. The status itself is what’s being problematized.

Jon: The Secret Heir. Second-oldest, bastard-born, treated with contempt. In relation to the family, literally a supplementary person. Set up (normally) to be rediscovered as the true heir to the throne and end up as king (moving from the margins to the center; getting the acceptance he couldn’t have as a bastard). The twist is the “true” dynasty he represents is composed of inbred lunatics, and his potential access to the throne goes not only via that bloodline but via repeating their tradition of incest. Dovetailing nicely with that, he was set up from the start as less wanting access to the kinship system than wanting to be free of it, so instead of becoming king by virtue of being a Targaryen, he stops the reinstatement of the Targaryen line altogether. Meanwhile, for most of his story, as a “supplementary person” he gives the audience a view into a lot of corners of Westeros that are concerned with what is excluded from Westeros: the Night’s Watch, the Wildlings, and indeed the White Walkers.

Again, all of that lines up together well. It’s part of the larger derailment of the blood-as-destiny notion of a “true” king, heir, ruling dynasty, etc. (I think the main reason GRRM goes so hard on the incest, not to mention having not one but THREE bastard characters, is in service of this; it also means Jon’s character arc of wanting out of the bloodline system fits into the thematic structure. See? Everything ties together neatly.) But I mean. We all know the character was not executed well.

And so on. I could do the same for Sansa and all the rest of them. (Sansa and Arya are probably the two most successful executions of what their character designs set them up to do; it’s not a coincidence those are the characters whose stories people seem to be happiest with.) But the thing is, a lot of these tropes, while certainly common in high fantasy, are also found in lots of other genres. Chosen Ones and Unexpectedly Eligible Chosen Ones and Princesses and Warrior Maidens (whether in literal forms or not) show up all over the place. The fact that these aren’t strictly fantasy archetypes perhaps means they were less prone to being mishandled. Bran, though. Bran belongs firmly and only in high fantasy. He is, literally, supposed to be a magic priest-king. A take on the Fisher King, even (I’ll explain about that later). And his story was weighted toward the end because of what it seems like Martin was trying to do more broadly, meaning it was much more on the showrunners to do it right.

High fantasy is always trying in some way to engage with ~the numinous~, which is to say the sort of never-explainable mystery and magic of the world. Magic in high fantasy is usually closely tied to deep time, the land, nature, or the metaphysical. Ancient beings, lost secrets, nature spirits, hidden realms, that sort of thing. It’s part of the genre’s inheritance from the mythology and folklore it’s all based on, which had a much more enchanted, vitalist view of the world than we generally do now. (In a way, that’s the purpose for high fantasy’s existence as a modern genre--keeping some access to that.) What Martin set the whole story up to do was question the tropes that often go along with the genre by making the setting one in which almost everybody has forgotten about all the magic and mystical knowledge that is in their history. Westeros is an extreme, historicized take on the Shire, basically. (”English pastoralism you say? I’ll see you and raise you the English Civil War” -- George R.R. Martin, presumably.) They have no notion of what’s really out there and what’s really possible in the world, and have quite comfortably isolated themselves in a situation where they need not remember. As a result, the social institutions that were developed long ago in relation to the ancient magics and knowledges become, instead, just social norms that can be manipulated, distorted, and played out in a much more historical-fiction kind of fashion, which gives Martin lots of room to point out that, say, ironclad patriarchal bloodlines cause problems. (That is, if you take away any magical justification, by virtue of connection to the land or the spirit realm or what have you, for the right to rule, then you stop having to have your One True Kings also be good people. It allows him to pull apart the different pieces of that trope and suggest that their being connected in the first place is questionable. Which it is! He’s right and he should say it!)

But the magic has to come back at some point, or else it’s really not high fantasy. And it seems like what he wanted to do was have all these elements from outside Westeros--the White Walkers, that god whose name I’ve forgotten, and Daenerys with her dragons--converge on it such that the characters would have to go back to their deep history and call those things back up in order to deal with the real world they live in (instead of the wealthy political bubble of all the scheming) and thus get to a point where they could actually change their system for the better. You can think of it as a very elaborate deus ex machina in a way, except the deus ex machina isn’t Daenerys showing up with dragons to fight the White Walkers or Arya having trained (again, outside Westeros, for the record) just the right way for killing the Night King. It’s all of these external forces forcing the characters in Westeros to get their fucking shit together. Otherwise there’s really no resolution to the war, in a high fantasy version of the story. It’s just historical fiction with some weird bells and whistles. Without a need to go back and figure out whatever the First Men were up to, there’s no incentive to go back to the numinous. That he intended for sure that some version of a return of the numinous end up being a big part of the climax is reinforced for me by the fact that the Starks--again, the backbone of the whole story--are set up as being unusually in touch with this mystic/magical heritage (the old gods, the crypt, the godswood) and unusually faithful to the traditional ways. They were introduced that way for a reason.

So where does Bran come in. The thing is that Bran is literally named after the mythic founding king of Westeros, Bran the Builder. The other thing is that both of those Brans are clearly named after Bran the Blessed, a literal mythic god-king from Welsh mythology whose name means crow (but who for various reasons also often gets associated with ravens, which in turn are commonly associated with transcendent knowledge, magic, etc; it’s a long story). So you have a younger member of the story’s key Stark family, already closer to the sources of magic and mystery than most. You name him after the founder of Westeros who lived in a time of magic, traffic with other beings, and great building works and other inherited accomplishments for which the associated knowledge has since been lost, etc. You have him gain mystical abilities to transfer his consciousness to other bodies, or through time (absolutely typical Mystic Powers). You have him even take on a special priestly status passed down from the era of magic by leaving Westeros to hang out with other kinds of magical beings, which means he is now explicitly named both Bran and Raven.

OBVIOUSLY this kid is supposed to be king. He’s going to restore the realm to a situation in which the ruler, the realm, its various life forces and nature spirits, and the metaphysical are all connected to one another and, in a sense, present in the same body (which is the kind of genuine mythological shit high fantasy is always drawing on). But the writers then just sat around and did nothing with him for years on end until whoops hey he’s king now. Of course no one thinks it makes any sense!! It’s fucking malpractice!!!!

If you go to the GOT Wiki and just read Bran’s page, everything makes sense and lines up well in terms of a list of events. (Although it’s really notable how short the entry from s8 is, and how everything it lists is things that happen to Bran, pretty much.) There is a progression that makes sense. But from what I understand--this was certainly the situation when I stopped watching--nothing was ever done to suggest that any of this mattered. The Three-Eyed Raven, the forest spirits, the magics and so on--it was treated at most as a backstory machine. It had no connection to or effect on the rest of the story, so far as I can tell. The fact that none of this played into the battle with the White Walkers at all is flatly insane. The thing I most remember people saying about Bran after that episode wasn’t even “Why didn’t he use X or Y that he learned in the forest?” but “Why was he there?” which just goes to show how completely and utterly bungled this entire piece of the narrative was. Like, if your high fantasy story is making its audience ask “Why would the story put the one character with the greatest knowledge of ancient magics and powers at the scene of a battle against an all-but-forgotten ancient threat,” then I’m sorry, it has gone fully off the rails, and not just in its most recent season. That’s not subversion, it’s just fully dropping the ball.

You know what would make sense as a lead-in to Bran becoming king? Oh, his performing some spectacular feat of insight, magic, strategy, or all three at the battle that no one else could have pulled off because no one else had his background or powers. Even after years of screwing this part of the story over, that could at least have bothered to make a case for why any of it mattered to the rest of the story. It would not have been very subversive, but when you’ve fucked up this royally you don’t get to be precious about your radikal innovative approach, Davids. I can’t believe Peter Dinklage had to sit there and make a bullshit speech about storytelling, when a decently-handled story would have made it seem natural and self-evident by then (you can still have surprises along the way!) that Bran should be king.

Anyway, in closing: part of the reason I checked out when I did was that I felt like they weren’t doing the things I thought they should do as the story developed. Genuinely, one key part of that was that they seemed to be doing absolutely nothing with Bran, which was baffling to me because it seemed obvious to me he was set up to be an incredibly important character. At the time, I thought they were going somewhere close to this with Bran but just taking way too long at it for some reason. What’s now clear is that the showrunners didn’t understand what they should have been doing with him. (Everybody who was taken aback by this outcome is not a fool for not seeing this. They were, quite reasonably, following the narrative cues they were given along the way, all of which said “Bran doesn’t matter.” It’s maybe clearer to me because I stopped watching.) And what that now makes clear, in my opinion, is that they never really understood what Martin was trying to do by “subverting fantasy tropes”; that in fact they didn’t really understand the genre, let alone what subverting it entailed. Which is exactly what bothered me about it even years after I stopped watching, but couldn’t put my finger on--until, ironically, they proved me right about Bran.

[renlyisright]

Season 7 Episode 7 - Hey, We Won at Scheming, Who Would Have Guessed

Welp, I finished the master’s thesis before I finished the show. I can’t exactly say that I have grown up with these characters because most of them have stopped growing up for death-related reasons. Well, there’s the Stark kids who are still alive, and their careers are all on up-swing.

In this final episode of the season, we visit the ruins of the dragon pit, and they make me wonder just how large it must have been when the dragons were still super large.

The truce meeting is about to start, but Daenerys has brought her army to stand near King’s Landing, just in case. Both the Unsullied and the Dothraki. Euron’s massive fleet is protecting the Blackwater, against Daenerys’ fleet of… five ships.

The negotiators are allowed entrance, and are brought to the third hill of King’s Landing, and the one tourist attraction we haven’t seen yet, the Dragon Pit. Which is a big place, but sadly a ruin. Being a large pile of already-cut stone right in the city with no current use never helps any historical building, those stones can be put to a much better use.

As this meeting includes almost everyone of any importance, and also some sidekicks, there’s more reunions. Tyrion says that he missed Bronn. Bronn seems to have his business in order, bringing Cersei’s enemies to her and thinking of retiring with his reward if the negotiation ends with heads on spikes. But if Daenerys wins in the end...

Everyone arrives to the arena, and the Hound begins the game by threatening the Mountain. There’s clearly a duel being set up between these two death-cheaters, but as at any time either of them can be killed by, well, anything, I’m not holding my breath for a super smackdown between them.

Daenerys arrives fashionably late, and brings her two dragons to the dragon pit, and… how big exactly this place must have been in the beginning? Drogon’s wings almost cover the middle of the arena by themselves.

As Daenerys, Jon and Tyrion predicted, their enemies just laugh about the matter before seeing the evidence. After that, they present a bit of theater, as Cersei later reveals. Euron proclaims that he’s moving his fleet to the Iron Islands, away from the Dead, and Cersei gives a practised speech of accepting the truce.

So did they have intel of the evidence, or did Cersei make plans for the low-odds-event that the thing she has ridiculed every time it has come up is actually true. If so, that’s remarkably good planning, from her.

The showing of the evidence was quite a show, Jon used the one wight they had in great detail for everyone to see. Qyburn was especially interested… well, he has practised getting one almost dead man up and running, so searching this body for any clues for advancing the scientific understanding of life and death must intrigue him… Let’s hope he doesn’t create a new White Walker in the middle of the Red Keep.

Cersei asks Jon to promise to go back to the North and stay there. Jon can’t promise that, so the negotiation ends, just like that. Tyrion and Daenerys say that Jon should have just lied and not been so Neddy. But just because others do something universally agreed to be bad, it doesn’t mean you should too. Anyway, Cersei walks out and Tyrion goes to speak to him alone, as he matters the least if he gets killed.

But he doesn’t, even after coaxing Cersei to kill him for what he did. Cersei is too shocked to give the word, and it could also be that she simply can’t give people what they ask from her, it’s completely unnatural to her. She blames Tyrion for killing Tywin, which opened them for their enemies and brought about the dead of the rest of the kids. The legacy of Tywin Lannister… you know, if the only thing keeping everyone from attacking your family is their fear of you, that does not a good legacy make. The legacy of Ned Stark was the North supporting first Robb and then Jon out of respect to him, the legacy of Tywin Lannister was everyone piling up on the Lannisters once he was out of the way.

The result of Cersei and Tyrion’s discussion is that Cersei proclaims to join them in the fight against the Dead, while expecting nothing good to come to herself for that decision. Yes, what did we speak about lying just now?

Speaking of Ned Stark’s legacy, Jon and Theon talk about it. Theon betrayed his memory, but, as Jon says, he was more of a father to Theon than Balon ever was. And so they can use that bond to reconcile, and Jon can encourage Theon to take charge and take the lead of Yara’s men.

Symbolism, Theon is starting to change his weaknesses into strengths. This is symbolised by allowing the Ironborn he is fighting to kick him to the nuts, to no effect. Yes, this is symbolism speaking.

The man says to Theon “Stay down, or I’ll kill you”. When Theon has the upper hand, he bashes his head in with a rock for that mercy. I would say that the Ironborn have a specifically violent way to solve disputes, but… nope. Not specifically, not at all. But Theon gets to be the leader of the pride, and gets to go against the Ramsay-placeholder enemy to confront his trauma. Someone should invent better therapy methods.

In Winterfell, the winter continues to fall from the sky. Littlefinger tries to chaos things up, but his time’s up. There’s no room for him anymore in this new magical and thriller-pace world.

I read A Dance With Dragons last winter, and while I liked most of it, like the writing style, the characters, seeing more of non-royals, and the new locales, the ending was a disappointment. Or rather, that there wasn’t an ending. There’s more books to go (and I hope to get to read them), but this one just… stopped when the page count went over 1000. It had the same problem as the fourth one, people spent a lot of time going from one place to another, so that when they arrived the book was almost over (or in Victarion’s case, it was over), and the end result was just a list of cliffhangers. Like, imagine ending A Clash of Kings just before Blackwater, or last season before the Battle of the Bastards. It felt like the arc of the book was incomplete, and I wasn’t given a reason to care about the new side plots, like which of them will actually matter and which just padded the book until it had to end early?

The funny thing of course is that this show has now the opposite problem of jumping from one set piece to another without build-up or showing of the journey. And when you can’t keep up with this new world, you lose the game of thrones.

Littlefinger schemes a wedge between Sansa and Arya. He doesn’t want a trained assassin in the same castle as he is, now that he has supported Sansa to ladyship and is perhaps looking for a way to make her a queen as well… that was his weakness, stick to just getting power and you’d have much easier job, but no, you have to include getting a specific woman into your plans and that’s when you make mistakes. But it doesn’t matter anymore what he schemes, as magic has entered Winterfell.

Bran can cheat. He can see the past, and apparently can see exactly where and when he wants. So he traced Littlefinger’s steps, and found out all his betrayals. Many of them Sansa already knew, so the rest mustn’t have come as a shock. So the Starks, who value honesty and honor, now can see if they are betrayed or lied to. Once Jon gets to Winterfell, Bran can tell him what Cersei said after they left. Political intrigue, a corner block and most of the wall of the show, has suddenly become useless. The Littlefingers of the world can’t scheme anymore against the Starks. They have Won At Scheming.

The dagger, the dagger, is revealed to be originally Petyr’s. As I said earlier, the only way the revelation could matter anymore would be if it was someone’s who is still living, or someone’s whom we’d never think to order Bran’s assassination. And here we are, it was the Chaos Man. I’m not sure if the dates add up, how did he know of Bran’s fall so that he could hire the assassin, when he was in King’s Landing at the time? Maybe he wasn’t? And why use his own expensive dagger and lie that it was Tyrion’s, when a simple Lannister knife would have worked much better?

In the book the answer was different. Tyrion figured out that it was Joffrey, who stole his father’s dagger and gave it to the assassin. He never confirmed it with anyone, and anyway Joffrey died moments later. I can fully well believe it from Joffrey. But it’s been so long since Joffrey died that at this point one more evil deed to his name wouldn’t mean much. So the culprit is now Littlefinger, and wow, listing all his schemes like that tells how without him the status quo would likely be just where it was in the beginning. He has a lot of blood on his hands. Daenerys and the Dead would still be wild cards, though.

And so the king of the ash heap, Petyr Baelish, dies in the dark main hall of Winterfell, in the middle of the mess he’s spent years to create, without achieving his goals, without any allies and with absolutely nobody going to miss him.

As I have said, for being such a dark and gritty show, the villains don’t get any better ends than those who try to do better, and their legacies are usually worse.

Speaking of both the villains and those who try to do better, Cersei informs Jaime that nope, we are not going anywhere, she used the neat trick called lying. Euron went to get mercenaries with elephants (ooh!) from Essos.

This is enough for Jaime, who storms away, after telling Cersei to have the Mountain kill him for it if she so desires. In the end, she doesn’t, even after threatening him with that. But after listening to her lie and cheat for years, Jaime just says “I don’t believe you” and leaves. See, consequences.

Poor Cersei, losing everyone’s trust and being entirely alone at the end of the episode. Only her massive armies to keep her on the throne. Which is a funny thing, now that I think about it. She has managed to antagonize everybody, but because she has killed everyone in King’s Landing who has criticized her, she gets to still rule, because there is no one else in the city to take the crown from her. She’s taking advantage of the fact that no new important characters are going to be introduced at this point. Euron was the last one, in the season 6 of 8, and even he feels like he exists only as a mid boss so Daenerys’ invasion isn’t too easy, to be killed once fleets don’t matter anymore.

Of course Cersei takes advantage of the fact that her enemies are scary. New Targaryen invasion, with the Dothraki and Unsullied. Nothing like the good old rulers we have here in Westeros, who may blow up the most holy building on the continent to escape a trial and kill the servants of the main religion, but are at least… from the same continent?

It’s still weird that the Seven is the main religion, when it has been the most useless one in actual action. Did they ever do anything? When the Old Gods were driven from the South, were the Seven doing anything to support their believers? Well, did the Old Gods? Does the Drowned God? Well, if Euron’s fleet’s speed is a boon from the Drowned God, that would explain a lot.

The winter comes to King’s Landing as well. Snow will be next season’s color. Along with darkness, but if the scenery gets any darker I won’t see anything on screen.

A song of fire: Sam arrives at Winterfell, safe and sound. He must have found out about his father and brother on the way, but it’s not mentioned. He meets with Bran, and by giving him a hint of where to look, Bran sees the wedding of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. So they were legally married, and their child, Jon, is not a bastard, but the legal heir to the Throne, Aegon Targaryen. Boom. And there’s him and Daenerys being all Targaryeny.

Bigger thing than the heir business, is that Rhaegar is no longer sullied by the rape, which is the main thing he is remembered for. “He was a noble and great knight from the stories, a great prince, and a rapist whose horribleness brought about the rebellion.” But was that lie better than the truth? Or did someone, last generation’s Littlefinger, spin the story for the worst so a proper war could get started?

Anyway, has Daenerys fought all her battles so that she can give the throne to the rightful heir, who is not her, the Breaker of Chains?

A song of ice: Sansa and Arya talk, and remember their father’s words of working together: The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Legacy.

In the Eastwatch-by-the-sea, bad things happen. A dragon is a nuke option, and the Night King uses it gladly. Its power seems to be enough to destroy the Wall and remove the spells as well. And so the dead march to the lands beyond the Wall, bringing a new night with them.

After all the hype of the Wall, it couldn’t even put up a fight when the dead finally arrived. Beric Dondarrion and Tormund try to run to safety, and I can’t see if they succeed. But I’d presume that there would be a clearer shot if they died. And, well, we are talking of Beric Dondarrion here. He could always play dead.

But guess who from the Night Watch survived the apocalyptic event of the onslaught of the dead and the destruction of the Wall? And did it just by not being where the attack happened? My favourite watchman, Dolorous Edd. How does he do it?

By the way, Night Watch, Long Night, Night King, connecting these took too long for me.

[fedonciadale]

I can’t figure out how anyone in the South would willingly accept Bran as king if the North participates in burning/sacking KL. It’s one thing if it’s a right by conquest deal, but the show has Bran being chosen. Yet, wouldn’t the North, and the Starks, be viewed with suspicion/hostility for harboring a hidden Targaryen (Jon) and siding with a Targaryen conqueror (Dany) who ruthlessly murders half (or more) of KL’s population? (Not anti Bran! I’m just trying to understand the implied endgame!)

Hi there!

You do address a big problem there : the war crimes committed by the Northerners which we actually saw on screen and which were never punished. Neither the Northerners nor the Unsullied got a trial for the Sack of King's Landing. It was just Jon who was punished for killing the rightful Queen when she was neither a Queen nor rightful, but a conqueror and tyrant....

Iirc at least in the books it is understood that the commander of the army in question is responsible. The Lannister soldiers sacked King's Landing during Robert's Rebellion but Tywin never was held accountable. It was just that the people in KL hated him afterwards. It might be one of the reasons why the Tyrells are praised for the relief of King's Landing when Stannis attacked and not the Lannisters who did more.

So, I would say it depends on who was seen to be the Commander of the troops? If it was Dany, she is dead, if it was Greyworm he has KL under his thumb, if it was Jon, he actually gets a trial, just not for the crime he was an accomplice to, but for the act of liberation that saved the remains of King's Landing... - which makes no sense.

To make some sense you have to argue that a) Bran managed to distance himself sufficiently from his cousin b) that despite Varys' letters nobody knew about RLJ and probably everybody just saw Jon as another bloody bastard or c) that the Lords just did not care for the thousands of victims.... The last one even has some backing in canon with Sam being laughed at!

Actually, I think that choosing Edmure Tully would have made more sense. He is a friend of the Smallfolk, was not involved in the whole mess and has ties to the Eyrie and to Winterfell and no ties to Targs.

If you look at real medieval royal elections Edmure would have been the likeliest candidate. Sorry, not sorry.

I have said it before, in a 'realistic' medieval setting Bran's election makes no sense. His election would make sense in a world which is powered by magic, where magic is respected, where wise wizards are seen as natural leaders or in short in a world that definitely is not Westeros...

Anyway, I hated that they all brushed over the war crimes. Jon should have killed Dany for the victims, it should have been the killing of a tyrant. And everyone involved in the crimes - including Tyrion - should have been held accountable. Or if not, it should have been addressed that the Unsullied held them all at gunpoint.

Alas! Men like Cregan Stark would have been needed, but instead we got this sorry excuse for a great council....

Thanks for the ask!

[wrestlingisfake]

The New Beginning in Osaka preview

Tetsuya Naito vs. KENTA - Naito is defending both the IWGP heavyweight and IWGP intercontinental championships.  He became a double champion on January 5, but before he could fully celebrate his big moment at the Tokyo Dome, Kenta blindsided him to ruin everything.  That doesn’t seem so sacrilegious from my perspective as an American fan, but the Japanese fans seem to really really despise Kenta, so I guess it works.

Naito is hardly the first person to hold two major-league championships at the same time, but it feels like it’s been a long time since a double champion put both titles at stake in the same match.  (The last time I clearly remember was Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe at TNA Hard Justice 2007.)  Since New Japan has actually made both titles feel very important, the significance of winning them both at once has not been lost in the storyline.  The question of whether Kenta truly “earned” this opportunity (since he’s coming off losing the NEVER title and was basically rewarded for beating up Naito) keeps coming up.

I’ve been watching these two in the tag matches they’ve had during the current tour, and I’m noticing that the action is pretty dull.  Kenta has really stepped up the mindgames of slowing down the pace to frustrate his opponent and the audience.  The problem is that Jay White (Kenta’s frequent partner and Naito’s last big opponent) does the same general stuff, and Naito is still doing it from back when he was a total heel.  I’m hoping this doesn’t become a slog like Naito vs. White, but signs are not promising.

It wouldn’t be totally ridiculous to put one of the top titles on Kenta.  But giving him both of them, right now, at the expense of Naito’s long-awaited push, coming off of him ruining Naito’s big moment, might be insane.  I can see Naito dropping one of his championships down the line, but if he’s going to lose both of them in a single match, it needs to be a lot bigger than this.  Naito will almost certainly retain.

Jon Moxley vs. Minoru Suzuki - Moxley’s IWGP United States title is on the line.  He regained the title on January 4 and successfully defended it on January 5, but then Suzuki suddenly appeared to issue a challenge.  Suzuki went on to pin Moxley on February 1, to cement his right to go after the championship.

On January 15, AEW ran an angle where Chris Jericho “stabbed” Moxley’s right eye, to build to their AEW championship match on February 29.  Moxley has been wearing bandages and/or an eyepatch over his right eye ever since.  For some reason I was surprised he used the eyepatch in his recent New Japan appearances.  I guess that’s because I thought the idea of fighting Minoru Suzuki with only one good eye is suicidal.  I suppose it’s no different than New Japan wrestlers competing with one shoulder heavily taped up.  But Suzuki projects the feel of being a legit fighter, which forces me to think about how Moxley would never be cleared for this fight if it weren’t totally fake.  

Logically, Suzuki should target the eye, get Moxley to the ground, and just grind his knuckle into the eye socket until the referee stops the match and awards him the title.  However, we’ve already seen them face off in a couple of tag matches on this tour, and they’ve mostly just done the same spots they’d do if the eyepatch wasn’t there.  Maybe they’re saving all that psychology for this show.  But I think it’s going to be tough to maintain Suzuki’s credibility as a sadistic shootfighter if he doesn’t at least pretend to shoot on the eye, and then it’d be tough to maintain the credibility of the match if he doesn’t win.  I suppose Moxley could overcome all the odds, but I’ve convinced myself that he shouldn’t.

Hiromu Takahashi vs. Ryu Lee - This is Takahashi’s first defense of the IWGP junior heavyweight championship since he regained the title on January 4.  Lee, as Dragon Lee in Ring of Honor, is the current ROH television champion, but that title is not at stake.  Interestingly, Takahashi is a member of Los Ingobernables de Japon, an official spinoff of Rush’s stable in CMLL, while Lee is a member of La Faccion Ingobernable, which Rush started in ROH after CMLL fired him.  New Japan has alliances with ROH and CMLL, so I’ve been real curious if/how they acknowledge that.

Obviously the story here is that this is the first meeting between these two since July 7, 2018, when Takahashi suffered a devastating neck injury from a botched dragon driver by Lee.  Hiromu managed to finish the match and retain the junior title, but he collapsed backstage and spent over a year recovering.  As soon as Takahashi recaptured the title, he requested Lee as his first challenger.

That last encounter in the Cow Palace would have been one of the best matches I’d ever seen, if I didn’t have to deduct points for “wondered if one guy died for a minute.”  Based on their history together, you’d figure Takahashi and Lee will pull out all the stops and have another wild intense flippy match.  Based on how worried everyone has been for the past 19 months, though, you’d expect them to gear down a little, especially against each other.  But it’s pro wrestling, and I’m pretty sure they’re counting on the audience being terrified of another accident, and they’re going to work a close call or two to scare us.  (Here’s a dragon driver spot from 2017, if you want to see the move done correctly, so you’ll know when to be afraid.)

I have mixed feelings on this one, because I’m not sure I want to see these two scare me to death, but they kinda have to do this rematch and I’d like to get it over with.  Assuming all goes well, it should be very good.  It’s just, well, we already know things might not go well.  I kinda have to pick Hiromu to retain, seeing as he already beat this guy with a broken neck.

Jay White vs. SANADA - I’ve forgotten if there was any particular reason these two are fighting.  As I recall Bullet Club faces LIJ on January 6 and White targeted Sanada for some reason. 

White obviously wants back into the heavyweight title picture, but the story is that he’s graciously tabled that so Kenta can chase Naito.  On the other hand, the story with LIJ is that they’re all a bit jealous of Naito winning two titles, and he wants them to keep him on his toes.  (As it happens, Sanada is currently the only man in LIJ without a championship, and there aren’t a lot of titles he can go after without challenging his buddies.)  They haven’t said the winner of this match will be the #1 contender for the winner of Kenta-Naito, but it would not shock me if that happens.

White’s whole deal is that he’s a prick that doesn’t care about having a fun match, and Sanada’s whole deal is that he always looks like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world.  So I’m not sure this combination is going to be all that exciting.  If Sanada does all his cool moves and dismantle’s White’s array of heel shenanigans, that’ll be great.  If he just falls for all the shenanigans like every other face (“oh, Gedo is standing on the apron, so I’d better completely ignore Jay while I see what that’s about”), I’m going to get pretty bored.

A win for Sanada would be a big push that would shake up the topcard, so I’m pretty sure Jay wins.

Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. & Taichi - We already saw Okada vs. Taichi and Sabre vs. Ospreay earlier in this tour, so this is sort of a last look at those feuds.  (Although Ospreay has already secured a rematch with Sabre at a RevPro show next week.)  I’m sure the announcers will put over what a valiant effort Taichi gave in his loss to Okada, because New Japan is determiend to push him without putting him over anybody.  I’m thinking Okada will just pin Taichi again.

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi - These guys are just back from the US tour, where the Guerillas of Destiny (Tonga and Loa) won the IWGP heavyweight tag team title from Robinson and Finlay.  Tanahashi and Ibushi seemed to be trying to get in line for a tag title shot, but things got messed up when Ibushi had to miss the whole US tour.  Ibushi has been suffering from Mallory-Weiss syndrome, and while he could be ready to return for this show, there’s no guarantee of that.  Assuming Ibushi makes it to this match, I can easily see him or Tana pinning one of the tag champs.  Otherwise, they’ll probably just punt and have the other team win.

SHO & YOH vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) won the IWGP junior heavyweight title on January 5, but then El Desperado pinned Sho the next day, so his team earned a title match.  The heels worked over Sho’s left knee on February 5 and 6, so that looks to be a major factor going into the match.  This is something like the 300th time these teams have faced one another, and I’m pretty sick of it.  I could see the champs making the heroic babyface comeback to retain, but then again if they dropped the title they’d make sense chasing the junior singles title or the NEVER openweight belt.  The only thing I’m sure of, though, is that they’ll never let this feud die.

Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare - Nakanishi is set to retire on a February 22 show, so this is one of his final matches.  Everybody else in this match are guys who regularly team with and/or against Nakanishi in the undercard.  They’ve got all the oldest guys on Nakanishi’s side, so that suggests the other team will get the win.

[starringemiliaclarke]

Emilia Clarke on Game of Thrones finale's shock twist: 'I stand by Daenerys'

Emilia Clarke read a paragraph in the final script for Game of Thrones.

She read it again and again. Seven times, she says, she read the words that revealed the devastating fate of Daenerys Targaryen, a character she’s portrayed on the HBO global phenomenon for nearly a decade.

“What, what, what, WHAT!?” the actress recalls thinking. “Because it comes out of f—king nowhere. I’m flabbergasted. Absolutely never saw that coming.”

It was October 2017. The actress had recently completed filming Solo: A Star Wars Story and had just returned to London following a brief vacation. She electronically received the scripts the moment she landed at Heathrow and recalls that she “completely flipped out,” turned to her traveling companion and said, “‘Oh my god! I gotta go! I gotta go!’ And they’re like, ‘You gotta get your bags!’”

Once at home, the actress prepared herself. “I got myself situated,” she says. “I got my cup of tea. I had to physically prepare the space and then begin reading them.”

Clarke swiped through pages: Daenerys arrives at Winterfell and Sansa doesn’t like her. She discovers Jon Snow is the true heir to the Iron Throne and isn’t thrilled. She fights in the battle against the Night King and survives, but loses longtime friend and protector Ser Jorah Mormont. Then her other close friend and advisor Missandei dies too. Varys betrays her. Jon Snow pulls away. Having lost half her army, two dragons, and nearly everybody she cares about, Daenerys goes full Tagaryen to win: She attacks King’s Landing and kills … thousands of civilians? Daenerys’ longtime conquest achieved, she meets with Jon Snow in the Red Keep throne room and … and then … then he …

“I cried,” Clarke says. “And I went for a walk. I walked out of the house and took my keys and phone and walked back with blisters on my feet. I didn’t come back for five hours. I’m like, ‘How am I going to do this?’”

Sitting next to Clarke on the flight, as it so happens, was Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow. Harington deliberately hadn’t yet read the scripts so he could experience the story for the first time with all his castmates. Clarke, positively bursting with wanting to talk about her storyline, found the flight maddening. “This literally sums up Kit and I’s friendship,” she says, and sputtered: “Boy! Would you? Seriously? You’re just not?…”

At the table read, Clarke sat across from Harington so she could “watch him compute all of this.” When they got to their final scene together, recalls Harington, “I looked at Emilia and there was a moment of me realizing, ‘No, no…’”

And Clarke nodded back, sadly, ‘Yes…’

“He was crying,” Clarke says. “And then it was kind of great him not having read it.”

The main story driver of Game of Thrones’ final season is the evolution of Daenerys Targaryen from one of the show’s most-loved heroes into a destroyer of cities and would-be dictator. Author George R.R. Martin calls his saga “A Song of Ice and Fire.” Jon Snow is the stable, immovable ice of Winterfell; Daenerys the conquering, unpredictable fire of Dragonstone. After years apart, they came together in season 7. The duo fell in love, help saved the realm from a world-annihilating supernatural threat and, in the series finale, their coupling is destroyed — Daenerys perishes, while a devastated Jon Snow is banished to rejoin the Night’s Watch.

Was this ending Martin’s original plan? The author told showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss the intended conclusion to his unfinished novels years ago but, since then, the HBO version has made several narrative detours. The showrunners are not giving interviews about episode 6 (and told EW they plan to spend the finale offline — “drunk and far away from the Internet” as Benioff put it).

Regardless of the final season’s narrative’s origin, the Thrones writers have planned Dany’s fate for years and have foreshadowed the dark turn in the storyline. In previous seasons, producers would sometimes ask Clarke to play a scene a bit different than what she expected for a seemingly heroic character. “There’s a number of times I’ve been like: ‘Why are you giving me that note?’” Clarke says. “So yes, this has made me look back at all the notes I’ve ever had.”

After Episode 5, “The Bells,” the reaction to Dany’s “Mad Queen” turn has been explosive and frequently negative. Some critics insist Daenerys doesn’t have the capacity for such monumental evil and the twist is an example of female characters being mishandled on the series. Others say Dany’s unstable sociopathic tendencies were indeed established, but the final season moved too fast and flubbed its execution.

For Clarke, the final season arc required mapping out a series of turning points. Dany’s attack on King’s Landing might have seemed abrupt, but from the beginning of the season Daenerys has reacted with increasing anger, desperation and coldness to one setback after another, shifting the Mother of Dragons into new emotional territory that would ultimately lead to her destruction.

Sitting in her dressing room on the set of Thrones last spring, Clarke broke down Daenerys’ entire season 8 internal journey leading up to the apocalyptic King’s Landing firebombing in a single breathless monologue.

“She genuinely starts with the best intentions and truly hopes there isn’t going to be something scuttling her greatest plans,” she says. “The problem is [the Starks] don’t like her and she sees it. She goes, ‘Okay, one chance.’ She gives them that chance and it doesn’t work and she’s too far to turn around. She’s made her bed, she’s laying in it. It’s done. And that’s the thing. I don’t think she realizes until it happens — the real effect of their reactions on her is: ‘I don’t give a s—t.’ This is my whole existence. Since birth! She literally was brought into this world going, ‘Run!’ These f—kers have f—ked everything up, and now it’s, ‘You’re our only hope.’ There’s so much she’s taken on in her duty in life to rectify, so much she’s seen and witnessed and been through and lost and suffered and hurt. Suddenly these people are turning around and saying, ‘We don’t accept you.’ But she’s too far down the line. She’s killed so many people already. I can’t turn this ship around. It’s too much. One by one, you see all these strings being cut. And there’s just this last thread she’s holding onto: There’s this boy. And she thinks, ‘He loves me, and I think that’s enough.’ But is it enough? Is it? And it’s just that hope and wishing that finally there is someone who accepts her for everything she is and … he f—king doesn’t.”

And losing Missandei? “There’s a number of turning points you see for Daenerys in the season, but that’s the biggest break. There’s nothing I will not do after losing Missandei and seeing the sacrifice she was prepared to make for her. That breaks her completely. There’s nothing left to making a tough choice.”

Executing Varys for treason? “She f—king warned him last season. We love Varys. I love [actor Conleth Hill]. But he changes his colors as many times as he wants. She needs to know the people who are supporting her regardless. That was my only option, essentially, is what I mean.”

Burying Cersei Lannister under the collapse of the Red Keep? “With Cersei, it’s a complete no-brainer. Lady’s a crazy motherf—ker. She’s going down.”

Yet Clarke also had another, more personal reaction to Dany’s meltdown. “I have my own feelings [about the storyline] and it’s peppered with my feelings about myself,” she admits. “It’s gotten to that point now where you read [comments about] the character you [have to remind yourself], ‘They’re not talking about you, Emilia, they’re talking about the character.”

Like many actors who have played the same role for a long time, Clarke identifies with her character and has put much of herself into the role. She believes in Daenerys’ confidence, idealism and past acts of compassion. As the actress wrote in a New Yorkeressay in March, she played the Breaker of Chains through some life-threatening personal hardships, secretly enduring two brain aneurysms during her early years on the show. “You go on set and play a badass and you walk through fire and that became the thing that saved me from considering my own mortality,” she wrote. Clarke has drawn strength from Daenerys and infused Daenerys with her strength.

“I genuinely did this, and it’s embarrassing and I’m going to admit it to you,” Clarke says. “I called my mom and—“ Clarke shifts into a tearful voice to perform the conversation as she reenacts the call: “I read the scripts and I don’t want to tell you what happens but can you just talk me off this ledge? It really messed me up.’ And then I asked my mom and brother really weird questions. They were like: ‘What are you asking us this for? What do you mean do I think Daenerys is a good person? Why are you asking us that question? Why do you care what people think of Daenerys? Are you okay?’”

“And I’m all: ‘I’m fine! … But is there anything Daenerys could do that would make you hate her?’”

During EW’s visit to Northern Ireland last March, I took a walk with co-executive producer Bryan Cogman into the dark woods near the production camp. It was around midnight and bitterly cold. Our boots scrunched on the muddy gravel and the bustling sounds of crew activity from the set slowly receded into the distance.

“Emilia has been threading that needle beautifully this season,” Cogman says. “It’s the hardest job anybody has on this show.”

As we pass crew members our voices cautiously go silent. While Dany’s Mad Queen arc was known by all, her death in the finale was a secret even among many who work on the show. Killing Daenerys was a massive and difficult move. On a show that’s introduced dozens of distinctive breakout characters, Daenerys is arguably the most easily identifiable and iconic. She is T-shirts and coffee mugs and posters and bobbleheads and memes and the name of hundreds of kids around the world with GoTfan parents; a fearless figure of female empowerment.

“I still don’t know how I feel about a lot of what happens this season and I helped write it,” Cogman says. “It’s emotionally very challenging. It’s designed to not feel good. That said, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The best drama is the type you have to think about. There’s a dangerous tendency right now to make art and popular culture to feel safe for everybody and make everybody feel okay when watching and I don’t believe in that. The show is messy and grey and that’s where it’s always lived — from Jaime pushing a little boy out the window to Ned Stark’s death to the Red Wedding. This is the kind of story that’s meant to unsettle you and challenge you and make you think and question. I think that was George’s intent and what David and Dan wanted to do. However you feel about the final episodes of this show I don’t think anybody will ever accuse us of taking the easy way out.”

I point out Daenerys’ final season arc shifts the entire series, or at least her role in it. Upon rewatch, every Daenerys scene will now be viewed differently; the story of the rise of a villain more than a hero.

“Yes, although I don’t know if she’s a villain,” Cogman says. “This is a tragedy. She’s a tragic figure in a very Shakespearean and Greek sense. When Jon asks Tyrion [in the finale] if they were wrong and Tyrion says, ‘Ask me again in 10 years,’ I think that’s valid.”

Tyrion actor Peter Dinklage says the showrunners on set compared Dany’s dragon-bombing of King’s Landing to the U.S. dropping nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki to decisively end World War II in 1945. “That’s what war is,” Dinklage says. “Did we make the right choices in war? How much longer would [WWII] have gone on if we didn’t make horrible decisions? We love Daenerys. All the fans love Daenerys, and she’s doing these things for the greater good. ‘The greater good’ has been in the headlines lately… when freeing everyone for the greater good you’re going to hurt some innocents along the way, unfortunately.”

Gwendoline Christie, who plays Brienne of Tarth, adds there’s another political lesson to be learned in the final season as well. “The signs have actually always been there,” Christie says of Daenerys. “And they’ve been there in ways we felt at the time were just mistakes or controversial. At this time, it’s important to question true motives. This show has always been about power and, more than ever, it’s an interesting illustration that people in pursuit of power can come in many different forms and we need to question everything.” 

Killing Daenerys also forever changes Jon Snow, leading to his circular fate: returning to serve the rest of his life at The Wall. Harington spoke about the show’s finale in a production tent on the season 8 set, his voice so cautiously low a recorder could barely pick him up. Harington explained he avoids talking about the death scene on the set, and he and Clarke came up with a secret hand signal to refer to it — touching a fist to their heart.

“I think it’s going to divide,” Harington says of the finale’s fan reaction. “But if you track her story all the way back, she does some terrible things. She crucifies people. She burns people alive. This has been building. So, we have to say to the audience: ‘You’re in denial about this woman as well. You knew something was wrong. You’re culpable, you cheered her on.’”

Harington adds he worries the final two episodes will be accused of being sexist, an ongoing criticism of GoT that has recently resurfaced perhaps more pointedly than ever before. “One of my worries with this is we have Cersei and Dany, two leading women, who fall,” he says. “The justification is: Just because they’re women, why should they be the goodies? They’re the most interesting characters in the show. And that’s what Thrones has always done. You can’t just say the strong women are going to end up the good people. Dany is not a good person. It’s going to open up discussion but there’s nothing done in this show that isn’t truthful to the characters. And when have you ever seen a woman play a dictator?”

There’s plenty of tragedy for Jon as well, he points out. “This is the second woman he’s fallen in love with who dies in his arms and he cradles her in the same way,” Harington notes. “That’s an awful thing. In some ways, Jon did the same thing to [his Wildling lover] Ygritte by training the boy who kills her. This destroys Jon to do this.”

Back in Clarke’s dressing room, the actress is preparing to film one of her final scenes on the series. Understandably, she can’t quite bring herself to feel sorry for Jon Snow.

“Um, he just doesn’t like women does he?” Clarke quips. “He keeps f—king killing them. No. If I were to put myself in his shoes I’m not sure what else he could have done aside from … oh, I dunno, maybe having a discussion with me about it? Ask my opinion? Warn me? It’s like being in the middle of a phone call with your boyfriend and they just hang up and never call you again. ‘Oh, this great thing happened to me at work today —hello?’ And that was 9 years ago…”

Clarke’s phone call metaphor is characteristically witty, and the actress has given some fascinating insight about the season as a whole. But nothing yet quite feels like the bottom, the blunt truth of how she feels about Daenerys’ fate.

“You’re about to ask if me — as Emilia — disagreed with her at any point,” Clarke intuits. “It was a f—king struggle reading the scripts. What I was taught at drama school — and if you print this there will be drama school teachers going ‘that’s bulls—t,’ but here we go: I was told that your character is right. Your character makes a choice and you need to be right with that. An actor should never be afraid to look ugly. We have uglier sides to ourselves. And after 10 years of working on this show, it’s logical. Where else can she go? I tried to think what the ending will be. It’s not like she’s suddenly going to go, ‘Okay, I’m gonna put a kettle on and put cookies in the oven and we’ll just sit down and have a lovely time and pop a few kids out.’ That was never going to happen. She’s a Targaryen.”

“I thought she was going to die,” she continues. “I feel very taken care of as a character in that sense. It’s a very beautiful and touching ending. Hopefully, what you’ll see in that last moment as she’s dying is: There’s the vulnerability — there’s the little girl you met in season 1. See? She’s right there. And now, she’s not there anymore…”

A crew member comes for Clarke and she stands up. It’s time for her to go. Clarke begins to walk away, turns around, breaks away from the staffer, and comes back.

There’s one last thing she wants you to know.

“But having said all of the things I’ve just said…” Clarke says. “I stand by Daenerys. I stand by her! I can’t not.”

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Emilia Clarke on Game of Thrones finale’s shock twist: ‘I stand by Daenerys’ was originally published on Enchanting Emilia Clarke | Est 2012