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[minasmorghul]

Though much weakened by his ordeal, King Viserys soon resumed the rule. To celebrate his recovery, a feast was held on the first day of 127 AC. The princess and the queen were both commanded to attend, with all their children.

[minasmorghul]

"she's patriarchy-pilled" and why it doesn't apply to fictious pseudo-medieval women

a pretty common meta commentary leveled at certain female characters in ASOIAF is that you can divide the women of the setting into two groups.

the first group is full of strong feminist women who resist the patriarchy in all corners, and who refuse to submit to victimhood. the second group is full of placid, smug sheep, who enjoy being weak and condescended to by men.

reasons why this is bullshit:

comparisons between modern day 'trad wives' or 'red pilled women' who advocate for rejecting feminism and returning to lives of happy homemaking and female submission and fictional characters living in a pseudo medieval world just... don't work well.

Westeros has never had a feminist movement. there is no sense of 'getting back to tradition' because they are still living in a feudal patriarchy. while internalized misogyny can still be displayed in the books, and women certainly judge other women, these characters aren't actually 'rejecting their own freedom', because they quite literally have no choice in the matter.

for example, while a woman in 21st century America might willingly quit her job or drop out of school for a relationship with a man, a female character like Catelyn or Alicent or Cersei... isn't actually sacrificing hopes of a career or an education. they are being shunted down a path with little to no alternatives.

sometimes fans go "well, they could have run away! they could have joined the Faith?" how? with what money and resources? who is going to protect them on the road? how are they going to subvert the will of their fathers/brothers/etc?

don't get me wrong. there are absolutely unironic examples of internalized misogyny in ASOIAF. Cersei, for example, spends much of her time sneering at and degrading other women for being victims or weak-willed. HOWEVER, what many fans don't seem to grasp, is that being sexist towards other women doesn't magically make Cersei 'win' at the patriarchy. she herself is still abused, demeaned, and used as a political pawn, well into her tenure as Queen Regent.

in the endless battle of Sansa versus Arya stans, for example, Sansa stans will often claim that Arya is 'not a victim' and 'deserves less sympathy than Sansa', because Arya for a time is treated as a young boy and has training with a sword. yet this ignores the fact that Arya is still constantly threatened with or exposed to sexual violence, even while masquerading as a boy, and while she can defend herself in some instances, is far from this super-powered action chick on a 'fun road trip in the Riverlands'.

conversely, Arya stans will insinuate that Sansa 'deserves less sympathy than Arya' because 'being at court is what she always wanted' and 'the patriarchy favors her due to her self-serving, submissive ways'. yet this ignores the fact that while Sansa has more material privileges than Arya, being afforded regular meals, a soft place to sleep, and the veneer of civility, she is still regularly viciously abused by Joffrey and his Kingsguard, and ostracized and isolated from the rest of the court. Sansa's not winning any competition here.

to move on to Catelyn, many of Catelyn's proud 'antis' will claim that Catelyn is a woman who willingly and knowingly profits off the patriarchy while condemning women who do not fit that mold. yet while Catelyn and Arya's relationship is complex, we also see Catelyn treat Brienne and the Mormont women, all female warriors, with warmth and kindness, and there is an underlying current of resentment and anger in her chapters towards the men in her life, even though she is in many ways the 'ideal Westeros wife'.

finally, to dabble briefly in HOTD, Rhaenyra and Alicent's different reactions to the prospect of marriage and motherhood are often compared to triumph Rhaenyra's strong will and sense of rebellion. while Rhaenyra's determination to choose her own spouse and her disregard for the ridiculous notion of 'virginity' should be admired, she is also actively groomed by her uncle, a man thrice her age, and she ultimately does agree to an arranged marriage with Laenor.

meanwhile, Alicent is often derided by fans for 'allowing herself to be used as a pawn', yet this ignores the fact that Alicent is a 14/15 year old girl with no incomes or property of her own, who does not even have the threat of a dragon to demand respect. what was Alicent meant to do? kick and scream as she was dragged down the aisle? defy her father and the King, and be, best case scenario, permanently ostracized from court and her family for it? this sort of blatant victim-blaming dominates in the tumblr HOTD fandom.

in conclusion: to claim that women play no role in promulgating patriarchal and misogynistic views is silly.

women do play an active role in shaming and abusing other women, and this is often handed down from mothers to daughters. it allows patriarchs the veneer of genteel nature, in that the 'dirty work' of berating young girls for not conforming is passed off on mothers, sisters, and aunts.

however, in fandom discussions, the the woobification of male characters is so strong that we spend most of our time blaming women alone for patriarchal restrictions and values, as if it were something girls developed in their free time, purely for their own amusement.

to imply that a character in a fictional feudal patriarchy has the same range of choices and autonomy as modern day women do is absurd. the trad-wife movement is defined by its knowing, pseudo-intellectual rejection of second and third wave feminism. the entire point is to turn away from abortion, from birth control, from reproductive and LGBT rights, to leave behind women's suffrage, sex positivity, and criticism of gender roles.

but what do Westerosi women have to 'reject', exactly? they're not playing with the same full deck.

[minasmorghul]

and I hope you die I hope we both die

happy velaryontime’s day!!! @rhaemartell​

[minasmorghul]

“the lady sansa kept her lady jeyne close after their reunion in the first spring of the 300s. neither married and they are noted to have been close companions, even sharing chambers and a maid.”

in other words, they’re lesbians.

happy velaryontine’s day @minasmorghul ❤️❤️

[minasmorghul]

he'll scream and try to wash it off of his fingers but he'll never escape what he's made up of

[minasmorghul]

his sister liked to think of herself as lord tywin with teats, but she was wrong.

[minasmorghul]

heyyy Im absolutely in love with you genderbent starklings AU. Can u show us more about artos and his relationship with the rest of the starks🥺🥺🥺

Hi!!! I'm so glad you liked it!!!

So for Artos, I kind of had two varying ideas I think can both be explored to some degree and keep very true to how aspects of Arya play out in the books; but honestly I do think in a way, you can't 100% capture the Essence, so to speak, of Arya and Sansa without them being informed by them being a girls in a patriarchal feudal society.

On one hand, playing with Artos trying to embody Arya's gender-nonconformity would be a really interesting path to explore since usually in the books we think of Arya as presenting more masc, vs Sansa being more femme, ie. Arya's sense of alienation stems from her rejection of gender roles whereas in her eyes, Sansa embraces them so effortlessly.

So I think an Artos that is more interested in "feminine" pursuits, and maybe he has a genuine needle, so to speak and prefers to spend time with his mother and sisters as opposed to his father and Symeon and Theon, would be an interesting parallel to draw to Arya's gnc-ness. In this kind of path Artos is definitely a momma's boy through and through, which would probably draw a clearer parallel between Arya being very much similar to Catelyn in personality.

On the other hand, a stalwartly "Northerner" Artos compared to Symeon being squired with the Blackfish would be interesting too, because Symeon, to capture Sansa's brand of idealism and romanticism, her belief in chivalric romances, would need to narratively fulfill a role thematically equivalent to Sansa being the beautiful maiden of song-- Symeon now being the gallant knight.

Meanwhile, the northerners seem more stoic and practical, and Artos might seem cynical about Symeon's ambitions, and Symeon's insistence that life is beautiful or that laws are just or the likes. Symeon is definitely very much Ned's mini-me in that respect, but with Catelyn's sense of being courteously charming, whilst Artos has Catelyn's protective, almost hotheaded nature but with Ned's kind of seriousness in expression.

With Ned and his daughters we see him being somehow clumsily indulgent to them both, even if he does seem to understand Arya better on the surface level in that he hires a swordmaster to teach her (but still insisting that these are just "hobbies" she'll grow out of to eventually marry a lord and have children) whilst he seems totally out of his depth with Sansa. I think he might understand Artos and Symeon a bit more by virtue of being boys he can connect to on that regards.

I think a lot of what will inform Artos's dynamic with his siblings will be what his future path is considered to be as he's the spare to Symeon being the heir. Maybe the castellan or steward of Winterfell? In which case, his parents might betroth him to Jeyne Poole and encourage him to apprentice with Vayon. Maybe the Night's Watch?

I feel that Artos, like Arya has no real desire for like, extolling "traditional" forms of power/authority as regarded by polite society: he's a little unpolished, he's a little reckless, probably a wild wolf like Brandon and Lyanna. I don't think he and Symeon would be quite so antagonistic towards each other as Arya and Sansa are painted as being (both because I feel like their on-page interactions depict their relationship at the lowest point it's ever been due to outside influences and because fans really overblow it into accusations of child abuse and stuff). But I do think they're siblings who bicker a lot. Artos probably makes fun of Symeon with a fake voice and all, for being all puffed-up about becoming a knight, while Symeon is elbowing Artos because he's mouthing off in front of important guests.

With Jonelle, I think ironically Artos's dynamic really does depend on whether we follow Artos as having Arya's personality transplanted onto him directly, or we follow Arya's relationship to gender as part of his story arc. With Arya's personality, I think ironically Artos would be less close in a gender-swapped AU than Arya is with Jon in canon, mostly because as Jonelle is a girl and therefore far less of a threat to the claim of Catelyn's children on Winterfell, there's less of that sense of "oh well, my mom doesn't like him which makes him the perfect person to hang out with!!!" in Arya's kind of contrarian, very typical 9 year old way. Jonelle is no longer the outcast Jon is, while Artos might have a chip on his shoulder for all the reason 9 year olds do, but it's not the chip on Arya's shoulder that has to do with her anger over her inability to conform to gender roles.

Whereas an Artos who is also like Arya of canon gender non-conforming would spend more time with his mother and sisters. Catelyn might want him to pursue squirehood or spend more time with men-at-arms and soldiers, knowing the world would be cruel to him for being gnc. While Ned probably still sees Artos being able to spend time with the Septa and the ladies-in-waiting and his mother and sisters as being a "phase" he's interested in but will eventually grow out of.

Now I'm thinking of Artos as being a bit similar to Vaegon Targaryen in that he doesn't really embody the perfect warrior masculinity his older brothers project.

I rambled on for way too long about this with no sense of cohesion lol

[minasmorghul]

Here's what the art of Naruto/Naruto Shippuden looks like! I actually love his art style and this character (his name's Shikamaru Nara and he's one of my favorite characters).

(his English voice is amazing. He just sounds so cool!)

His fit in the second picture is so cool tbh.

[minasmorghul]

It's pretty good. You can watch it on Netflix (the first series where the main cast are kids) and Hulu (second series where the kids are older). I recommend reading the wiki, but mostly for the world building... But beware of spoilers.

(trying to explain the series is difficult, he retconned so much stuff and I'm not sure what's considered spoilers or not).

Oooh interesting!! I'll see if I can rope my little brothers into watching it with me, I think they might enjoy it too!

[minasmorghul]

I've been rewatching Naruto Shippuden and I completely forgot that there's a village with black people. And we're not drawn weird or anything, that actually made me quite happy.

There's a black character named Killer Bee and one of his quirks is he likes to rap, but he's terrible at it, and the author based that little quirk off of his friend and I think that's awesome (funny too).

Omg that sounds cool!!! I don't know much about Naruto, how is it?

[minasmorghul]

hi!! may i ask what movie/show the crystal ball gif is from in your malora hightower gifset? <3

Hi!! This is all from Rings of Power, the scene where Galadriel touches the Palantir in episode 4.

[minasmorghul]

malora hightower for @harrenhals

Happy Harlaween!!!

[minasmorghul]

sansa isnt a princess of the north 😬 she was dishinirited, she is lady lannister to them

if this isn't bait, which, I'm not sure this isn't

she not disinherited; jon was named heir ahead of sansa. at that point in time where robb made his will, he thought his younger brothers were dead, arya is missing and presumed dead, jon and sansa are his only family left, and sansa has just been forced to marry tyrion lannister. the will was a provisional one, meant to be temporary succession till the time that jeyne bore him a son, who would theoretically become his new heir.

as for sansa, the only two mentions of calling her "lady lannister" that I was able to find come from stannis, ie, a southerner, a man with a very vested interest in supplanting the lannister foothold on the seven kingdoms. certainly, few other people really acknowledge the marriage, especially in light of tyrion also going on the run.

[minasmorghul]

Just had a thought about the North. Do the people there have an accent? I feel like they should, since they're so closed off from Westeros. Like the further north you go, the harsher the accent is (the wildlings having the harshest and most noticeable accents, the dreadfort might be the second closest imo).

But wdyt? Do you hc the northern people to have an accent?

in the show they do have a northern accent based off sean bean's iirc but it kind of becomes less as the seasons go on ngl

I honestly think there should be much more of a difference made in the common tongue of all the regions of westeros.

[minasmorghul]

Yes, it's that! Thank you! (Also how have you been? I'm good, tired but good).

no probs!!!!! I am wayyy busy with school n stuff rn so tumblr's kind of a backburner for me rip but I'm less consistent with it than I ought to be tbh

[minasmorghul]

I also have a massive crush on daemon, which is so bizarre to me, especially since I never ever saw Matt in that way before. I think it's the white hair, it has to be the white hair! I'm sure of it! (Also thanks for the good luck. I named her Rhael, I pronounce it as "Rey-L")

ooh rhael is a pretty name! it reminds me a bit of bobby b, stannis, and renly's grandma, rhaelle!

[minasmorghul]

Got any good asoiaf fanfics to read? I remember finding one that had a female Bolton oc... But I can't find it. I think it was AO3 tho.

(I may or may not be making a Bolton descendant... I'm having trouble with their eye color tho, like, what even is ghost gray??)

would it happen to be @dwellordream's haunt/hunt? with donella bolton, daughter of roose and bethany? tbh I do recommend dwell's entire catalogue of fics it's chef's kiss