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[reneewalkersknives]

way back in GtN, during Gideon&Babs' duel, specific mention is made to Naberius' proportions physically. Specifically that he was shorter than Gideon, with LONG long arms -- aka the perfect sport fencing build: a relatively small target (clavicle to sacrum, arms exception) combined with a long reach, will very efficiently prevent anyone from being able to touch you in a proper duel. and I'm thinking abt Ianthe "we'd fix him" the First and how Babs HAD to be the best with absolutley no room for anything less and I'm thinking about his physical proportions being perfect and like. the Third House definitely did that to him. very sinister. much to think about.

[reneewalkersknives]

The point about the permeability of the soul is at least in part that we cannot separate love and consumption. You almost always can’t say ‘this is because of the soul juices mingling’ vs ‘this is one of the horrors of love’ and that’s the point.

Is Naberius haunting Ianthe because they grew up together, because they were trained to be two halves of the same whole, because she knew him inside out and there’s a love in that, however violent? Or is it because she’s been using him like a battery and a hand-puppet and a computer program and now he’s threaded up through her. She can’t know! She doesn’t want to know, she refuses to look.

Did Gideon v1 become more militaristic after Pyrhha’s death through osmosis? Or was it because he loved her and trusted her and his first thought in a crisis was What Would Pyrrha Do. Did he love Wake because their programming got jumbled or was it because he met a awful redhead and thought oh, my best friend would have been so stupid for you, she would have been such a wreck…

Did John make the earth angry or did the earth fill John with anger or was it both? Did the love come first or the fury? Does Mercy love her god because Cristabel did or does she do it for the sake of Cristabel? The lyctors all view themselves as living memorials to the dead, of course they’d voice the dead’s thoughts, act out their habits and carry on their infuriating quirks. How else do you remember? You can’t peel apart the analogy and make it all magic or all mundane because soul-permeability coexists with the everyday manacles of affection.

[reneewalkersknives]

sansa and tyrion's marriage is interesting from tyrion's perspective. he is canny enough to understand that she is only saying things to please and mollify him, but he also genuinely thinks that she is "so dutiful" that she would tell him what she prays for in her frequent visits to the sept (and he thinks she's excessively pious). as the reader we know she's praying for lannister annihilation and would never admit this out loud, but tyrion doesn't seem to really... get that sansa hates him and his family. even after everything, the multiple beatings, being terrorized by joffrey, the entire forced marriage, THE MURDER OF HER DEAR BELOVED DAD - he has a perception of her as a simple dutiful girl whose inner world consists of piety and supplication. that her prayers are a form of resistance and escape doesn't occur to him. he also exercises a very similar lack of understanding with shae - he thinks she's angry with him bc she lost her jewels and silks, not bc she is scared of her unstable position.

[reneewalkersknives]

one thing I "love" about acok discussion is when someone gets mad at Renly for usurping Stannis' rights as Robert's heir. like!!! Stannis is only heir because Robert was a usurper in the first place! If anything Renly is trying to set a new Baratheon tradition (stealing someone's throne they shouldn't have anyway

and this is why renly is the realest of all for realizing that ALL monarchs are stealing a throne that they shouldn’t have anyways and so legitimacy is irrelevant. if he gets to the throne his claim is legitimate. if the people (especially the wealthiest and most powerful nobility) think he looks like a king then his claim is made legitimate. people mock renly for thinking he could become king far as he is from the throne but the renly-tyrell alliance was literally team bread and circuses and that really can be all that matters!!!

[reneewalkersknives]

one egregious thing the game of thrones show misses out on is that the stark kids are CONSTANTLY thinking abt each other!! there isn’t like a single POV chapter from any of them where they don’t long for their siblings!! Jon wants to have a son and name him Robb!! Bran wants to be a bird so him and his siblings can live in a nest together!! Sansa prays for her siblings every night and makes the Winterfell castle and then gets upset bc there’s no one to throw snow at!! Needle IS Jon!! Arya’s list is her own prayer for her siblings, she doesn’t care that Joffrey is dead bc Robb is too!! Every single one of them believes that their big brother will come to save them!! there’s sm love and tenderness there and GOT missed out on lots of it bc it tries too hard for the grimdark angle without realising that the center of the stark’s story is their love for each other. anyways.

[reneewalkersknives]

The Emperor Undying and His Saints.

[reneewalkersknives]

sometimes the oversimplified queer readings of classic texts by gen Z gays frustrate me so much because you know they are not actually looking to make meaningful literary discourse at all. some of the essays and meta I read by students and lit enthusiasts here are really good, but most of them are just like "haha ophelia is hamlet's beard and getting cuckolded 🤪🤪🤪" or "omg this female character is a LESBIAN because she shows dissatisfaction with the oppressive Victorian institution of marriage!!" the worst of this has happened to Greek classic texts and Greek mythology/history in general, esp The Iliad: aka The Madeline Miller syndrome of thinking you're revolutionizing literature by saying "achilles was kind of a bisexual icon!" without reflecting AT ALL on Homeric misogyny and how it affected the portrayal of his female characters, including Helen, Briseis and- yes. yes! - the goddess Hera. Everything needs to be made Gay™ not in a way of queer art or nuanced discussions of gender and sexuality, not in the way, say, Carmen Maria Machado reads Carmilla or Kalynn Bayron reads Jekyll and Hyde, but in a uwu quirky-banter-found-family nauseatingly YA manner.

[reneewalkersknives]

Also PLEASE tell me what you voted. Fascinated by what people learn from fan-posts

[reneewalkersknives]

The passage of time and the frailties that accompany it have provided me perspective. And I suspect the same might be for you, as well.

[reneewalkersknives]

the thing about historical fiction where the characters have extremely modern attitudes to everything and appear to have psychic access to the most up to date tumblr discourse in the year of the book’s publication is like. why are you even writing historical fiction if you aren’t interested in what people thought and felt and believed in the specific social context of that time and place

if you have contempt for people in the past don’t write about them! write a modern story set at a costume party or a historical reenactment or something lol

[reneewalkersknives]

about your tags, i havent watched black sails but im nosy, how does flint end up living?

Hi, that’s a loaded question as whether he DOES actually live is up for debate. Basically a famously unreliable narrator, storyteller and liar, John Silver tells a “nice” story abt how he betrayed him but didn’t kill him and in fact reunited him with his “dead” lover in an English prison/labour camp. Problem with this happy ending is that flint’s character (and a lot of the story as a whole really) is centered around fighting against English rule. Flint is a radical who dedicated his life to harming and overthrowing the empire/ colonial rule, as he was branded a “monster” and betrayed by his father figure (an English navy man) for being gay and in a relationship with his “dead” lover.

He was exiled for that crime which then led to him becoming a pirate to seek revenge which eventually leads to him becoming a radical figure and connecting with other radicals. The last we’re 100% sure we see of flint is Silver betraying him and pointing a gun at him. Silver tells Madi,the woman he loves and another radical leader whom he betrayed that flint got a happy ending at the prison camp and his lover (who has been firmly dead since years before the show even took started) was miraculously alive.

Personally I like to believe that Silver just killed Flint (as fucked up as it sounds, I know) bc I believe flint living out the rest of his life betrayed, trapped under English rule and punishment is a much bigger tragedy than his death would be and I think flint would be happier to be dead than alive in a labour camp. It sounds bad I know but when u watch the show he is very passionate in his hatred for England, his refusal to apologise or be pardoned by them, his determination to overthrow them and get revenge and I don’t think even getting his dead lover back could ever change that. (Probably the Irish in me speaking too lol)

Anyways one of the biggest themes of the show is storytelling, lying and performing to create certain narratives and mythos. In the final episode of show one of the main characters (whom is obsessed w creating his own legacy) states “a story is true, a story is untrue, as time extends it matters less and less. The stories we want to believe, those are the ones that survive” which is basically confirmation that both interpretations of flint’s ending are valid and it allows you to choose your personal favourite:)

Sorry this was so long winded lol I just have a LOT of black sails thoughts

[reneewalkersknives]

"nothing is inevitable here" girl ur literally in a tragedy your fate is written in a book from 1882 AND u have a muppets adaptation

[reneewalkersknives]

James Flint world’s greatest orator everybody

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[reneewalkersknives]

fuck it flint tuned in freestyle

[reneewalkersknives]

[reneewalkersknives]

Arthur Dayne is not anyones secret dad or the final puzzle piece of a grand conspiracy. Arthur Dayne is a metaphor for how the ideal for a brave chivalric knight can really only exist in the form of a man who has been dead for a decade already, and that brave knight stood by while Rhaella and Lyanna were abused the men he served because his code of honor demanded turning a blind eye to the suffering caused by his liege lords immorality. And that ultimately he was killed by the power of a kid who loved his sister and was willing to destroy dynasties to keep her and her son safe.