#and how can i exist knowing my cousin who has not even considered the fact that he is gay despite being very obviously gay

[king-sassy08]

Did you hear? Texas just banned porn.

Did you hear the "offensive to minors" content bill that stipulated an age verification to access adult content or content deemed harmful or offensive to minors was passed??? Now you have to verify your age to view such content, which can be used to restrict minor access to LGBT resources, sexual health information, and anything else the government deems "offensive or harmful."

And also in a SHOCKING turn of events, Pornhub made itself and its two subsidiary companies unavailable in Texas, calling the bill haphazard and ineffective in protecting minors and actually harmful because it forces minors to interact with potentially harmful sites and denies access to other potentially useful sites. They also said it's an invasion of privacy and a violation of 1st amendment rights.

In order to access adult content in Texas now, it would need to be done by inputting your government ID numbers to prove you're an adult (and allowing the government to know what sites you're accessing, further watchdog activity) OR verify using 3rd party systems (by verifying your debts, student loans, education, job status, tax information, mortgage information to verify you're an adult), which opens the door for information to be sold to other third parties and can potentially expose all of your private life to outsiders.

Putting aside the porn thing, not out of a sense of moral righteousness, but because that is a whole different can of worms to dissect the way banning porn is awful for everyone. Putting that aside, how is this going to affect teens, children, closeted people?

To have zero access to LGBT resources that will be deemed offensive to minors? Goodbye Trevor Project. Goodbye resources on sexual health, what STDs are, and everything of the like. STDs and STIs will increase, health complications from such issues and from potential pregnancy complications (how do you have safe sex if you're not even sure what that means?).

Banning information will not guarantee people stop looking for it or needing it! Instead, they will get WRONG information from friends and other potentially misleading sources, and feel helpless when they have no way to figure out what is going on in their lives. People don't stop needing information because they can't find it. They just suffer because they can't find it.

You may not like Texas, but PLEASE, for the love of God, there are children here. They need your help. Don't turn your back on us. Don't forget the way you learned about sexual health online when your school wouldn't talk about it, or the way you watched that first porn and said, "fuck, I think I'm gay." Cast your gaze towards Texas! I'm begging you to have a little heart.

[freakenomenon]

Hi friend :] I want to understand Ellen as a character better and you seem to have a good grasp on her, so could I ask about your ideas for her? No pressure though either !

YOURE ASKING ME ABOUT MY IDEAS FOR ELLEN?? IVE WAITED YEARS FOR SOMEONE TO ASK ME ABOUT MY IDEAS FOR ELLEN!!! /REF .. AGAIN

OKAY to start off. the biggest thing i noticed about her in particular that is pointed out better in the manual than it is displayed in the game is the fact she would rather run away or ignore a problem than actually deal with it and heal. and if you combine this with the fact she usually reacts to ( and CONFUSES ) her own fear with anger. or hostility.

stating herself that she hates crying because she knows she doesnt feel "sad" ,, she just wants to kicks someones ass. which is probably a trauma response. considering she grew up in a rather unsafe neighborhood, which resulted in the death of her brother and cousin. IM JUST RESTATING CANON HERE BUT MY POINT IS.

i feel like if in the game they reeled in the part of her character that is very clearly avoidant, distant and even frequently disassociative. they'd have. a character.

alongside the fact that it's implied she very clearly cannot grasp the concept of not being able to handle something. she's overcome almost everything in her life, but the moment she can't understand another humans feelings. or why another human would treat her the way. most of the people in her life have.

she's more familiar with algorithms than people after all. not to mention that nimdok ( ugh. ) says that ellen is honest to the point of being offensive. first of all fucking. Jesus autistic much. secondly this could also be due to her isolating herself and feeling more at home with her work and electronics than she is with people. a computer is easily fixable if she ends up fucking something up.

its not like you can remove a rom chip on a person and reprogram it to not feel insulted if you tell them they look like they have a dirty microwave. that is probably an oversimplification of my thoughts on that part, but you get the point.

now. to. just. get this part of her character out of the way. just. warning for mentions of rape , miscarriages and other nasty things ahead.

i am not saying that in the situation where someone were to rewrite the game. you have to completely remove the aspect of her being a victim of rape. i simply just think it could've been approached in a better way. as I've stated many times. personally i don't even know where to start with rewriting this aspect of her character??? the most i have is replacing the maintenance man with someone she might have known. just to add more to what I have. maybe a boss or coworker she was close with who exploited their position above her both in the workplace and within the more obvious racial bias of society at the time. using it against her as an excuse to break her boundaries, break down her defenses, and eventually take advantage of her. something like that. just so it has more of an impact on her as a whole, and make her relationship with intimacy and relationships with humans , platonic or not. more strained. having to scratch and fight with the core of her being that wants. and deserves proper intimacy and general care. to keep herself safe. to prevent herself from being violated like that again. her vulnerability is what caused her to end up in that spot. she cant let that happen again. she cant be a hopeless victim again. not again.

yknow because thats how trauma works. it actually effects the victims life in ways other than just ending up with fucked up trigger and a fucked up phobia. wow.

now to the other part of this. I'm. going to be so honest. I would just scrap the miscarriage stuff and the existence of eddie as a whole.

it's so meaningless and minuscule in her character that i bet my pinky toe that half the fandom would look at you like you just said something TED levels of crazy if you brought it up without further grueling context.

.. that's. actually all I've got for now if you trim off me just asking to further establish aspects of her character that i think are interesting. if you've got any questions ill be more than happy to answer! <3

[little-box-of-autism]

My Opinion on Spider

@peachycrime asked for this, so....

Anyways, buckle up because I ain't gonna hold back, and I'm going to be as brutal as winter in Nunavut.

Let's start off with the obvious;

Spider is sixteen years old.

He is a child, and as such, should not be expected to be held to the same standards as an adult.

But more over - and I know some might disagree with me on this - Spider is a child that was neglected and thus abused because neglect is abuse, and I'm not touching on the shit with Neytiri just yet.

The clearest example of Spider's neglect is the scene where Spider is running from Hell's Gate, the first one we see him as a kid rather than a toddler or teenager. Spider is at best seven in this scene, and yet he is allowed to run into the Pandoran jungle (because from the comics and other sources, we know that while the Omatikaya is close to Hell's Gate, it isn't beside it) unattended despite the fact that the jungle is dangerous even to an adult na'vi, let alone a human child who could feasibly die just by tripping over a rock and falling in a way that could damage or dislodge his mask, which he relies on to breathe.

If Spider had fallen, if his mask had been damaged or dislodged, there was no one there to help him.

There is a wooded area near my house that is filled with trails and is generally considered pretty safe, but I still wouldn't let my seven-year cousins (who don't rely on a mask to breathe) run around in there unattended.

Already Spider's hair is beginning to mat (they are mats, not dreads) and there is no way that the adults weren't aware of it, which means they allowed it.

Now let's get onto some other things I've noticed throughout the movie (and the comics, though I'm mostly focusing on the movie.)

"Stray Cat" is what Jake refers to Spider as, and I don't know if this may just be me, and my ASD, but I find calling/comparing a child to a stray cat to be dehumanizing, and maybe it's purposeful because it's a lot easier to ignore the neglect of a "stray cat" then a child.

Spider from the moment he is captured is very aware of the fact that there will be no attempt to save him which is devastating because even with the knowledge that a rescue from Bridgehead is improbable, the clear lack of hope in Spider is very telling in how he views his worth and value.

Jake, someone who was in the military and worked for the RDA, however briefly, would be aware, at least to some degree, of what would be done to Spider in order to get information, and he does not actually express any concern for Spider's wellbeing or safety, only thinking about what Spider could possibly tell the RDA.

Despite how close the younger three Sully kids are to Spider, they never express any worry or concern for Spider openly in front of their parents. Do I think that they were worried about Spider? Yes, but I do also think they knew they couldn't express this concern in front of their parents, specifically Neytiri.

The only adult who shows any real concern for Spider during the vast majority of the movie is Quaritch despite him technically having the least reason for why he should be concerned for Spider. As Quaritch states, he isn't the same Miles Quaritch that was Spider's father, and unlike Jake, Norm, Neytiri, or Max, he didn't watch Spider grow up. His connection to Spider is minimal in comparison to other adults in Spider's life, and yet he is the one who shows Spider the most care.

Now onto the matter of Neytiri, I can understand her reasons and I can empathize with her trauma, but she is an adult who is punishing a child who has not done anything to her besides exist. We wouldn't condone this in real life and to me, trying to excuse her actions is troubling to me because of the message it sends to people that have gone through something similar. You can still empathize with Neytiri and the trauma she suffered while acknowledging that her actions towards Spider are wrong. Trauma is a reason, but it isn't an excuse and as an adult, it is on Neytiri, not Spider, to manage her trauma.

We also have to consider how her actions affect her relationships with her children, specifically Kiri and Lo'ak.

Kiri is the most obvious, she and Spider share a very close bond that is displayed both in the comics and in the movies, and Kiri has argued with Neytiri over her treatment of Spider. This obviously would put a level of strain on their mother-daughter relationship, especially when you take into account that Kiri often feels 'othered' and considers Spider to be one of the few people who not only understands her but also does not judge or think differently of her.

With Lo'ak it's more nuanced but Neytiri's constant hatred towards Spider due to him being a 'demon' very likely has an effect on Lo'ak who already clearly has issues with his 'demon' blood that sets him apart from other na'vi.

In the end (because I need to end this somewhere before it just becomes a never ending rant) Spider is a child who was neglected and abused for who his father is, and his action of saving Quaritch is completely understandable in light of the fact that Quaritch is the first adult who took care of Spider and had - in Spider's eyes - saved him from death twice now.

One last time I want to make one thing clear;

Spider said "don't hurt her."

Kiri said "don't kill him."

And I cannot shake the fact that at that moment Kiri genuinely believed that her mother was capable of killing her best friend and was pleading for Spider's life.

If that doesn't bother you deeply, then I don't think you are ready for these types of discussions.

Now I am open to discussing my opinion in a mature conversation, but I will not tolerate dramatics nor will I entertain blatant ignorance. If you cannot engage in discussions with at least some level of maturity and willingness to understand different perspectives, don't engage at all.

[kingmagnificoofrosas]

They love you - they would do anything for you!

Words mean nothing if there's no action to prove them true!

The whole statement from the "evil book" - mind you- "bound for all eternity, nothing can break or bind the evil" is a capital B big fat lie!

A dear anon has already mentioned this before here on my blog through an ask. The gullibility of Amaya and the rest of the people of rosas almost hurts. Of course an evil book would tell you there is no way to get out of the dark!

Disney isn't the first and only one who has been spreading the message of "True love breaks evey curse and true love overcomes all. And darkness can never be greater than the light."

From the christian perspective, it's more than clear that everything said by the evil book isn't trustworthy as far as salvation goes! Evil isn't stronger than the good and never will be!

It's also intersting to note that the evil force (green evil magic) is potrayed as this shadow entity 👇🏼

Also, why trust the words of something that literally does nothing but evil and harm?

Even if we look at the whole Magnifico situation purely objectively, like my cousins daughter, not through the lense of faith and leaving the knowledge of trauma aside, the "He's a villain now and can't be saved" is utter nonsense!

The first half of the movie we are told and shown Magnifico's true intentions. His ambitions and desires. We saw him being genuine all the way. He's always been honest and kind. He never lied, played or manipultated anyone and even further explained multiple times how he feels and why he does what he does. And then we are shown "the book" the big bad thing that will defenitly do harm and take posession of Magnifico should he use it!

That's the information! If Magnifico uses the book, he will be "controlled" by the evil from this book! This is what even Amaya said! Plain and clear.

Also, geeky side fact to the orgins of the book : Magnifico didn't get the book himself, nor did he built the evil lair where he later on created his staff. From the art book we know that he found both the book and the evil lair during the renovations. [ He's built his castle on top of an already existing building ] That means, Magnifico didn't even go to pursue such a book. He found it and kept it. Cause we already know why - trauma rooted fear, anxiety, paranoia.

If someone is controlled/posessed by something, it's more than clear that the person isn't at fault for the actions done by the evil in them! Just look at the insane difference!

Oh yeah ... I know a posession by evil if I see one. And in this case, we had the facts served on a silver tray. It's not even a guessing game.

The only thing we can hold Magnifico accountable for is the fact he did reach for the book. But then again, we also need to consider WHY he did. Reason - his trauma! He was terrified!

If the book hadn't been there, believe me, this poor man would have had the worst mental breakdown and we would have probably found him huddled together on the ground suffering out his panic attack.

People don't understand the merry go round of thoughts a traumatized person has. And the emotions that come with it. In a situation as intense as Magnifico's we do have a domino effect. Or a wildfire-effect. One tiny spark on dry grass will eventually lead to a big fire. He was already triggered and highly stressed out, and severly traumatized people oftentimes aren't able to make the best decissions - or decissions at all.

If I think about it - if I had suffered a trauma as intense as Magnifico, already more than burdened with anxiety, fear and paranoia, and then something happens that triggers me immensely, I spend an entire night feverishly searching for an answer or solution, no sleep, no food, immense stress…. on top of that, no one in the entire kingdom that truly understands me ... Boy, I'd probably freak out and snap too.

The most support he's gotten during his spiral of misery was a pat to the shoulder. Not one single hug, no truly comforting words, a gentle stroke over his cheek, a kiss, truly loving words. That poor man got nothing!

Btw this is a quote from my cousins daughter. And she told it to my face randomly before I could even say anything! She said "You know, Magnifico isn't bad. The book is. He only wanted to protect everyone but the book made him evil. Bad book!"

And if that wasn't already enough, her younger brother watched the movie as well and then also randomly told me, "Bad book!" Furthermore - I wheezed and cried of laughter, because 1. I didn't expect this and 2. it was absolutely brilliant! - The daughter sat at the table and was drawing again, and then she told me, "The movie ... the magician and the bad book ..." The title she gave WISH! She made Magnifico the protagonist and the evil book the villain! Exactly right!

Anyway, then it happens, everyone KNOWS Magnifico is "controlled/posessed" and yet all of the sudden he himself is the evil? What??

In the past ten decades, disney had always done a fantastic job in displaying true evil and the - true love always wins - message. Even with quite recent movies such as Tangled, Frozen, Encanto etc. We've been introduced to the trauma topic and that "antagonists" can and should be saved.

I mean, I'm absolutely glad that we got Magnifico the way we got him, but I'm enraged about the toxic stance toward trauma.

If I'm looking at what disney did in the tangled series with Varian and Cassandra, who both had a short time period where they've been pushed down the "villain" road by trauma and by the hurt of not feeling valued, seen, heard or treated right and how this got resolved, I can only shake my head at what disney did in Wish.

Cassandra as much as Varian in fact- especially Cassandra- threatened the whole kingdom and also strived to hurt Rapunzel more than just once.

And she wasn't directly posessed by evil but heavily manipulated and blinded by it. All her "Evil actions" were completelty on her! And Rapunzel stressed that no matter what, she'll never give up on Cassandra. Why? Because she truly loved her! Because she knew that this evil wasn't who she truly is.

Rapunzel said "Even when I look at you now, after all that's happened, no matter what we've done to each other, I still see that look in your eyes. You're my best friend, Cassandra, and I will never give up on you!"

Can you imagine what could have been if Amaya and all the citizens of Rosas would have had that attitude towards Magnifico? Truly loving him for who he is and not only seeing him as a source for favours? They all simply didn't care! If they had, they wouldn't have given up on him as quick as the snap of a finger.

So we've seen antagonists and semi-villains getting redeemed before and we've seen the "True love conquers all" more than enough, and now, especially with Magnifico, disney and some ignorant haters want to tell us that this isn't what could have happened to Magnifico too?

It's ridiculous!

And the citizens of Corona forgave both Cassandra and Varian!

Now, once more, the "book" said - nothing can bind the evil magic! Yet this is exactly what happened after the people of Rosas unified and sang! The lights glowing in their chests is actually symbolic for their hearts unifying! It was immediately stronger than the hold of the evil magic, even though the book said, it's untouchable!

The evil magic was bound, "star" was set free and Magnifico pulled into the curse realm. You cannot tell me if they all had done the same thing with the goal in their hearts to free and save Magnifico, that they wouldn't have succeeded.

[horizon-verizon]

Wills do in fact exist in the world of Westeros. And more specifically they’ve been plot points in regards to chosen heirs. Robb Stark has an entire debate with Catelyn about choosing his heir. Sansa is ostensibly his heir with Bran and Rickon considered deceased. And yet Robb and Catelyn believe they can skip over Sansa by naming another heir. Why would they believe this possible if there isn’t precedent for a King choosing his heirs ?

“Young, and a king,” he said. “A king must have an heir. If I should die in my next battle, the kingdom must not die with me. By law Sansa is next in line of succession, so Winterfell and the north would pass to her.” His mouth tightened. “To her, and her lord husband. Tyrion Lannister. I cannot allow that. I will not allow that. That dwarf must never have the north.” 

“No,” Catelyn agreed. “You must name another heir, until such time as Jeyne gives you a son.” She considered a moment. “Your father’s father had no siblings, but his father had a sister who married a younger son of Lord Raymar Royce, of the junior branch. They had three daughters, all of whom wed Vale lordlings. A Waynwood and a Corbray, for certain. The youngest... it might have been a Templeton, but...”

“Arya’s gone, the same as Bran and Rickon, and they’ll kill Sansa too once the dwarf gets a child from her. Jon is the only brother that remains to me. Should I die without issue, I want him to succeed me as King in the North. I had hoped you would support my choice.”

We also know that even lords can also seemingly choose their heirs and even have stipulations for those heirs. Why ? Because it’s actually a plot point in The Sworn Sword. Rohanne Webber (Tywin Lannister’s paternal grandmother) is her father’s named heir but there’s a stipulation, she has to be married or she will lose her rights to inheritance and it will instead go to her cousin Wendell Webber:

“Her lord father’s will demands it. Lord Wyman wanted grandsons to carry on his line. When he sickened he tried to wed her to the Longinch, so he might die knowing that she had a strong man to protect her, but Rohanne refused to have him. His lordship took his vengeance in his will. If she remains unwed on the second anniversary of her father’s passing, Coldmoat and its lands pass to his cousin Wendell.”

How is that a possible stipulation that Rohanne takes extremely seriously if not for the fact that inheritance is not clear cut and can be overridden by a will ? And this evidences further that a Lord or King can choose their own heirs.

Maegor disinherited Jaehaerys and made Rhaena’s daughter, Aerea, his heir.

Jaehaerys went against Andal inheritance tradition to pick Baelon over Rhaenys.

The lords at the Great Council doubled down on that decision by picking Viserys over Laenor which Jaehaerys upheld.

Aegon III’s regents pick Rhaena as his heir over Baela, despite the fact that Baela is the elder twin, because she’s too willful and wild and won’t accept a marriage pact they made for her.

Jeyne Arryn picks a distant cousin to be her heir instead of a closer relative with more traditional claim, the King’s regents back her decision.

Aerys II picked Viserys to be his heir when Rhaegar’s son Aegon was the traditional choice.

Doran Martell planned to make his son Quentyn his heir because he wanted his daughter Arianna to be queen conosrt of the Seven Kingdoms, she doesn’t know this and just assumes he’s pick Quentyn over her.

Walder Frey talks about picking his unborn son as his heir over his dozen or so adult sons.

Rodrick Harlaw offers to make Asha his heir to stop her from participating in the Kingsmoot.

Stannis offered to make Renly his heir instead of Shireen.

You will love this video by the former ozymalek, anon (now they are Youtube and Tiktok's "PhoenixAshes"). It basically speaks of exactly what you emphasize for Westeros--how heir voluntary designation was a real thing in real medieval Europe.

[sleeplesssmoll]

Theory time!

Narrator guy and the one who is causing the storm are vertin's parents.

Now this theory was already circulating for a while but I have some extra things to say.

Now let's get the easy one out of the way, vertin mother being the one who causes the storm, this theory does hold some degree of sense, as we know vertin's mother was a strong arcanist (she might not be but for my theory we will assume so) as she was pretty famous among foundation's higher ups and you won't get that kind of fame without some heavy power.

There is also the fact of vertin's immunity to the storm, we know vertin's immunity comes naturally to her as even the foundation didn't know about it, we also know that arcane skills can be passed down through family lineage, so that would explain vertin's immunity.

Now if we move onto the narrator, why do we think he is vertin's father?...idk he sounds like a 50 year old alcoholic dad I guess? At least that's where most people came from, but I can provide some evidence for it

Firstly why does a random ass guy (we know he isn't vertin's imagination as he said "we will meet") goes to vertin's head and talk and lore expo to her? There must be some connection between the two that vertin doesn't know, and the way he talks to her is just like a old dad who absolutely doesn't wanna deal with their children, at least that's the impression he give to me

Then who is vertin's father/narrator? I think he was...an old foundation member. Might even be a higher up, ok your confused but let me cook.

I don't think the guy is omniscient yet he knows so much especially about the foundation, he knows how the foundation handles things and knows many of the higher ups, he knows about the family who works with the foundation

So I think vertin's father was a foundation member (might even be a higher up) who got swept by the storm when it first hit, when the foundation lost many of its staff and higher ups.

Now unto my biggest evidence why I think this is true...vertin is special (no shit Sherlock) she is special with the way she was taken to the SPDM, from what we saw SPDM takes children around the age of 4-* as too young and they wouldn't able raise them quickly, too old and they can't brainwash them

But vertin was different, by headmaster himself, vertin was taken when she was only a month old so she must have a special condition that forced SPDM to take her in, like maybe idk being the daughter of one of the higher ups of the foundation, or being the daughter of the person who is causing the storm.

(I had some other things in my mind but I kinda forgot, but yeah there is much evidence that could support this theory.)

Narrator guy is one of the games biggest mysteries for real. If he really was Vertin's dad, that would be fricken hilarious honestly. I agree with the 50year alcoholic description but he always struck me as a drunk uncle type lmao. Although, like you mentioned he knows way too much to be sidelined as an offbeat character.

I also agree that Vertin's parents had something to do with the Foundation considering Constantine knew her mother. The fact she was taken in at just a month old also implies the Foundation already knew she existed and didn't have to hunt her down like the others. She has a connection to the Foundation through her mother or to the person who enrolled her to SPDM.

Sometimes, I wonder if it's possible for Vertin to have other family like aunts, cousins, etc. Hell, she could have a secret older sibling we don't know about who came before her. This is all wild stuff that would change the trajectory of the game, but it's not impossible. It's just food for thought for now but next update is story update! Can't wait to make more theories again!

[freckliedan]

real talk then-if gender is made up than aren't we all on some level both conforming and defying gender?

i mean, yes and no? man i'm going to get lengthy with this one again. WAIT SIKE. (not fully sike, but imagine this easily twice as long and now you know why i said sike). i was four paragraphs in and remembered the 'no such thing as fish' gender post which expresses those 4 paragraphs way more concisely than I can.

we all know what a fish is even though there's no single universally applicable definition of fish. the same is true of gender. because it is impossible to define with any type of specifics, it is impossible to get a 100% in conforming to gender.

so like. there's a window of tolerence. because man and woman are such broad categories, successful & more complete conformity to a binary gender doesn't mean getting it right all the time. it means displaying nonconformity rarely enough that it's understood as an exception to your usual behavior, sometimes even an exception that further reinforces your status as correctly gender compliant.

so, the closest it gets to a yes is the fact that yes, most people perform gender in ways that are both conforming to and out of alignment with the way that their gender is defined by the collective.

but even in that scenario i have to say most people, because intersex people exist! and different intersex conditions result in development of different primary and secondary sex traits so there's no universal intersex experience but like. some of us never had the option of fitting into either binary/sex gender category to start with.

& the other reason that's a "most people" is because there are plenty of nonbinary people whose gender expression categorically removes us from passing effectively as either gender.

there's no gender FOR me to conform to. if i tried performing womanhood like my sister or manhood like my cousins both options would come across as draglike. i'm not the only person living life like this, either—that's what makes an all statement like yours inaccurate/impossible.

& the other reason for my no in my original yes and no? that's largely something that comes down to semantics for me. not everyone intentionally defies gender, though everyone does definitely fail to conform to gender at times.

wearing makeup is a common form of gender conformity for women. in this example, not wearing makeup is unintentional nonconformity, whether it's because you can't afford it, or were running late and didn't have time, or because you're disabled and lack the motor control to apply it, etc etc. for a woman to choose not to ever wear makeup because of a refusal to opt in is gender defiance.

defiance isn't passive, it's active.

(of makeup: i said common form of gender conformity, because there's definitely contexts in which excess displays of femininity are not rewarded. i'm not expressing this well as it's the middle of the night but @drdemonprince has an excellent article i reccomend reading & is someone whose work i reccomend in general).

the umbrella of gender nonconformity covers both unintentional nonconformity and active defiance, when it's used in discussions. it's a useful umbrella, because it's important to be able to discuss the way gender nonconformity is responded to by those who uphold cishetero patriarchal ideals of gender. because they're not going to ask whether or not it comes from a place of defiance before treating people differently for our gender failures.

(i've used the phrase gender failure multiple times tonight. i can pinpoint the exact reason i use that phrase! the book gender failure by ivan coyote & rae spoon, which i read last year after top surgery. i consider myself someone who has failed at gender, and that's something i think of myself with love and pride).

so: a little bit yes, but mostly no. to say yes feels reductive, but to resoundingly say no to your ask is unfair, considering how long it took me to explain my thoughts in detail, & how much of that no is tied up in semantic disagreement.

[nesiacha]

Hi! ~ Since you are the only person, that I know of, who has read biographies about Billaud, would you explain me what happened with him to make he own slaves? Most importantly, did he really actually own some or was the whole thing misinterpreted? Because I personally find it hard to believe someone would forsake his ideals to that point, but who knows what passes through people's mind... He wouldn't be the only one to betray the core values of the revolution; still, it's not something I would have expected from someone like him.

Hello to you too!

Unfortunately, my response might not fully satisfy you, or only partially. As I mentioned in my post, I am waiting until I can acquire Arthur Conte's book Billaud Varennes to better prepare his defense, which I will publish at that time. I hope you understand why my response will be brief. It is easy to defend Billaud Varennes' career, and one can even defend his actions on the 9th of Thermidor. What is difficult is his owning slaves.

Billaud Varennes and Collot d'Herbois were condemned to "la guillotine séche," which means deportation (ironically, Barère managed to escape—what a surprise, I say sarcastically). However, according to reports, neither man opposed this, showing their courage and adherence to the law despite all the criticisms leveled against them (I’ve revealed part of my defense for Collot; and I can’t believe I’m giving a compliment to Collot, it’s horrible).

Initially, the beginning was very difficult, as one might expect (Billaud almost died of illness, Collot did die from it). Subsequently, the conditions of their detention were eased (in fact, the relaxation occurred during Collot's lifetime with Jeannet-Oudin, a cousin of Danton, according to Billaud Varennes' memoirs).

Later, due to this relaxation, he settled as a farmer, and he, who had been for the abolition of slavery, reversed his stance and bought slaves and sold them. It seems he got along poorly with his slaves except for Virginie ( alias Brigitte who will follow him everywhere) . Yes unforgivable betrayal, disapointment, I won’t defend on this, and I am agree with all users in Tumblr who mentionned it, he got even friend slavers ... Here is how he presented her to his father in a letter: "I must tell you that I have had, with me, for eight years, a housekeeper to whom I owe the prolongation of my sad existence, through the incredible care she has taken of me during the frequent and acute illnesses I have experienced here when I was in absolute abandonment and destitution. So, as soon as the return of slavery occurred, I bought her, paid in cash, and immediately gave her freedom. Therefore, I do not presume that my family will find it wrong, after the precious services this girl has rendered me and continues to render daily, through the order and economy she maintains in my house and the supervision and good conduct she ensures among my negroes, that I try to save her from misery, in case she should lose me, by guaranteeing her the enjoyment of the property here that I can dispose of, and which rightly belongs to her, having at least as much contributed as I did, through her work, to earning it..." Furthermore, Billaud Varennes bequeathed everything to her. However, I read somewhere that he bought her when she was a child, and other Tumblr users have mentioned this too. Apparently, she lived until 1874, which supports this thesis. I hope he didn’t force her like Napoleon did with Marie Walewska... I am waiting to get the book Billaud Varennes by Arthur Conte because I think I will have more details on Brigitte (I know it’s another era, but I found it weird that Danton married Louise Gely given her young age, and weird too in some ways, the relationship between Camille and Lucile Desmoulins, especially considering that Camille had a platonic love for Annette Duplessis).

Nevertheless, it is important to highlight that Billaud Varennes refused Napoleon's pardon. Yes, it may seem insignificant to some, but for me, it means a lot. It took courage and conviction, especially since correspondence between his family and him was difficult due to the distance. I want to highlight a letter from Nicolas Billaud in 1800: "My only wish before dying is to be able to embrace him once more and to see you all reunited. God willing, before that time, I will have that satisfaction. I am sure that, in this circumstance, you will make all necessary steps to make this happen." and from Henriette-Suzanne Billaud: "I desire, like your father, to embrace you before dying." How many of us would set aside our convictions and accept the pardon of a military dictator just to see our parents one last time? Or simply to see the homeland where we grew up? Not many, and I don’t blame them (after all, Félix Le Peletier, a revolutionary I admire, accepted Napoleon’s pardon after being deported by him, and we can hardly blame him). Then he settled in Haiti and even became an advisor to Alexandre Pétion. Haiti, this land where slaves fought to be free (even though Pétion is very controversial, first allying with the French, then only after Toussaint’s deportation, joining nationalist forces; there are still controversies about him, so I will refrain from arguing about a character I don’t know well). His accommodation was apparently a two-room hut; this shows he was still rightly considered competent and that he lived his last years with disinterest. In fact, he decided to die at his laundress's house, accompanied by Brigitte in a poor cabin, and died peacefully. I like to think that in some way, after renouncing his ideals on slavery, he somehow reconciled with them at the end.

There is a repellent effect of his exile compared to Napoleon’s. The beginning was very violent and harsh for Billaud, who accepted it as a legalist, did not escape even though it was tough, and his exile is seen as a bit more unjust, especially since they wanted to make him a scapegoat like Tinville, Robespierre, Saint-Just by the worst opportunists such as Fouché, Barras, Tallien... Apart from slavery (and maybe for serving Pétion, who apparently suspended the Constitution), he remained true to his convictions and finally died in poverty but very surrounded, free in the company of people he appreciated. He resumed politics as a counselor at the end in his life.

Napoleon’s initial exile was very easy; just look at Elba. Then, since he was not a legalist (euphemism), he returned for the Hundred Days, which would be more catastrophic in the long run for France (for once, I agreed with Germaine de Staël). Then he was deported to Saint Helena, with much less freedom (logically, conditions are always toughened for someone who has escaped, but I say he benefited from a clemency he did not grant to his opponents, the slaves who were atrociously killed, the deportations,etc, so ultimately he is very lucky in my eyes), and he no longer had a political voice. In fact, there were only a few loyalists left; he died much less surrounded (and I don’t blame Marie Louise for moving on with her life and refusing to join him). He, who had a taste for luxury, must have felt the difference, even if it was preferable to that of a peasant. No need to decipher the moral of this story if there is one.

Moreover, between a Billaud Varennes even at his worst regarding slavery (or Danton or even Collot) and Napoleon, it is clear that I would not choose Napoleon. Napoleon unlike the propaganda said is a man with bloody methods (just looking at Jaffa,Haiti, Guadeloupe,etc) just like the worst revolutionnary like Fouché in 17993-1794, and he is a dictator.

Sorry for the long paragraph; I cannot say everything about Billaud Varennes since I have used up much of my defense that I am building for him, but I hope this will suffice (at least I haven't exhausted his defense before deportation and even some points about Collot). I hope you will all forgive me! But maybe it will change when I will finally the book write by Arthur Conte.

P.S : I translate the letter in english but we all know that it is in French.

Sources :

www.amis-robespierre.org

Collot d’Herbois légendes noires et révolution- Michel Biard

Mémoires inédits et correspondance accompagnés de notices biographiques sur Billaud-Varenne et Collot -d’Herbois par Alfred Bégis ( à prendre avec modération)

Jacques Guilaine Billaud Varennes

For the affirmation that Camille Desmoulins love in a platonic way Annette Duplessis, see Hervé Leuwers Camille Desmoulins or in one of his videos on Camille and Lucile Desmoulins in Youtube.

At least it is a better exercise for prepare the difficult defense of someone like Billaud Varennes after his deportation :) with these everyone could correct me if I said a wrong thing before the final defense :)

[aspd-culture]

Hey this is kind of a silly question but I figured I'd ask it anyway. I know pwASPD can feel fear but what are the limitations of that? This is mostly about myself because I'm questioning if I have ASPD and I'm really afraid of heights, in my case I think it has more to do with a lack of control than anything else but I'm not sure. Anyway I hope your well.

No worries, with a disorder with this little legitimate, unbiased research, I don't know that many silly questions exist, and yours is definitely legitimate.

In general, I would say there is not a cap to how much/how intense fear can be for someone with ASPD, any more than there is for anyone else. In fact, because pwASPD nearly always have it caused by some amount of trauma, and PTSD causes responses like anxiety and hypervigilance, I'd argue many pwASPD may feel fear more frequently and more intensely than untraumatized prosocials.

PwASPD can have blunted emotions, but that isn't always the case, and when it is, which emotions are blunted is entirely individual. For me, the main emotions that were blunted are sadness (the genuine, not depression one), contentedness, and affection. All 3 of these are emotions I *do* feel, but to a lower degree than most. They become extremely blunted during flares to the point where it feels as though I am incapable of feeling them, and then they come back.

I've heard of pwASPD who feel all "negative" emptions very intensely with "positive" ones being blunted, and I've heard the opposite where they almost feel numbed to fear, sadness, etc. because those are their natural state of being and have been for so many years, but when they are given genuine reason to feel happy/excited/etc. they feel that very, very intensely. Any combination thereof is possible, and it's also common for a pwASPD to not deal with any emotional blunting or nearly all emotions blunted.

The only emotions I've seen any contention about being able to be blunted are anger and its cousins (jealousy, frustration, etc.) and boredom. Because these are noted in associated features to be fairly intense for pwASPD, some say it isn't possible for those to be blunted. In my personal opinion, I don't think that's the case, or else those would be listed in criteria. Even criteria dom't all get met by every pwASPD, and when dealing with personality disorders, it isn't very rational to say for certain that an associated feature has to be present in everyone with that disorder.

Personality disorders exist on a spectrum in a similar way to autism because both affect a person's entire life. Every thought, action, etc. are influenced to some degree by personity disorders for those of us who have them; that's just the nature of PDs. When you're dealing with a range of symptoms that are *that* wide, you can bet that thete will be heavy variation between pw that disorder.

A fear of heights definitely does not mean you can't have ASPD or vice versa. That's considered an overactive survival instinct, which pwASPD still definitely are capable of having. In fact, many ASPD symptoms are direct results of unstable survival instincts. In some ways, we disregard our safety, yet our reactions to social situations and other people are a direct attempt by our brain to survive in a world we were taught was dangerous early on. So whilst there isn't a fear I think would exclude any person from having ASPD, this one in particular actually makes a lot of sense for someone with ASPD to struggle with.

I hope this helps!/gen

Plain text below the cut:

No worries, with a disorder with this little legitimate, unbiased research, I don't know that many silly questions exist, and yours is definitely legitimate.

In general, I would say there is not a cap to how much/how intense fear can be for someone with ASPD, any more than there is for anyone else. In fact, because pwASPD nearly always have it caused by some amount of trauma, and PTSD causes responses like anxiety and hypervigilance, I'd argue many pwASPD may feel fear more frequently and more intensely than untraumatized prosocials.

PwASPD can have blunted emotions, but that isn't always the case, and when it is, which emotions are blunted is entirely individual. For me, the main emotions that were blunted are sadness (the genuine, not depression one), contentedness, and affection. All 3 of these are emotions I *do* feel, but to a lower degree than most. They become extremely blunted during flares to the point where it feels as though I am incapable of feeling them, and then they come back.

I've heard of pwASPD who feel all "negative" emptions very intensely with "positive" ones being blunted, and I've heard the opposite where they almost feel numbed to fear, sadness, etc. because those are their natural state of being and have been for so many years, but when they are given genuine reason to feel happy/excited/etc. they feel that very, very intensely. Any combination thereof is possible, and it's also common for a pwASPD to not deal with any emotional blunting or nearly all emotions blunted.

The only emotions I've seen any contention about being able to be blunted are anger and its cousins (jealousy, frustration, etc.) and boredom. Because these are noted in associated features to be fairly intense for pwASPD, some say it isn't possible for those to be blunted. In my personal opinion, I don't think that's the case, or else those would be listed in criteria. Even criteria dom't all get met by every pwASPD, and when dealing with personality disorders, it isn't very rational to say for certain that an associated feature has to be present in everyone with that disorder.

Personality disorders exist on a spectrum in a similar way to autism because both affect a person's entire life. Every thought, action, etc. are influenced to some degree by personity disorders for those of us who have them; that's just the nature of PDs. When you're dealing with a range of symptoms that are *that* wide, you can bet that thete will be heavy variation between pw that disorder.

A fear of heights definitely does not mean you can't have ASPD or vice versa. That's considered an overactive survival instinct, which pwASPD still definitely are capable of having. In fact, many ASPD symptoms are direct results of unstable survival instincts. In some ways, we disregard our safety, yet our reactions to social situations and other people are a direct attempt by our brain to survive in a world we were taught was dangerous early on. So whilst there isn't a fear I think would exclude any person from having ASPD, this one in particular actually makes a lot of sense for someone with ASPD to struggle with.

I hope this helps!/gen

[nerves-nebula]

ok i finished Lolita, here's my rambling notes which are really more about me & my reactions than the book. I stopped taking as many notes the further in I went.

the forward for this is so funny. we got someone in universe telling us that the things this guy says are absurd and you should NOT fall for his bullshit, because he is NOT a gentleman.

Approx 24 minutes in he proposes the idea of the nymphette. 9-14

its fascinating the way he constructs this other sect of being, this third sex, this nymphet. the way he calls them demons, as if it's their fault, as if it could never be a problem with him.

gets mad that some guys entire fuckin house burns down so he cant ogle his daughters. what an asshole.

Negro/Negress Count (i updated this every time the word negro is used. i just think its funny, its like a drinking game for me. at least black people exist in this world lmao): 7

(about quote #6) the way he talks about Mrs Haze (and in fact most women and girls) as though he is so handsome that he literally cannot stop them from entangling him in an affair is fascinating. Man cannot hold himself responsible for anything.

ok so he's just met dolores and this isnt really a product of the book, but the narrator does a REALLY god job with HH. genuinely just a really good performance. he reads the cadence of HH's flowery writing so well, he emotes so well. its great.

of course this overwritten little creep would write down all his thoughts in a little book. just like he's doing now. at least he's consistent?

so much damn interpretation huh. he's always like "I know she wanted me to kiss her i could tell she was waiting for it" MY GUY.

wait when does this take place was it really normal to marry your first cousin in the midwest in the 1950s?

the way he describes her being not entirely innocent as a warning sign, as some great evil that would trap him, is fascinating. because she is not what he thought an innocent little girl should be, he pushes a bit of the responsibility off of himself and onto her. she's not a child, she's a dangerous nymphet who pulls him in and traps him in her impropriety. despite him literally (thinking he was) drugging her (in an attempt to keep her from knowing what hes doing) he STILL blames her for enticing him. still considers her a fae creature. i hate him. i love this book.

it is truly kind of fascinating how he makes it sound like their trip wasn't all that bad and just offhandedly mentions horrific stuff like the rate at which she sexually abused her, or how Dolores cried herself to sleep every night when she thought he was asleep, and how she almost never seemed to actually be happy. and yet he'll go on and on about all the things they got to see, and how much money this whole kidnapping roadtrip cost him.

the fact that he now has to just straight up pay her, and she's clearly not enjoying anything is so !!! and then he has the NERVE to steal her money back while she's away !! the money she's probably trying to save up to get away from him !! do you guys know what thats like?? when the money youve carefully saved just.. disappears?? good god.

oh ok so he KNOWS she might try to run away if she has too much money. cool cool normal.

i do like this school parent teacher meeting thing thats basically laying out that it's very clear dolores has issues around sex. like this is somehow so clearly an issue that they called him in about it. Ough.

love his indigence at Lo saying that he tried to molest her back before he married her mother (more or less true, and i would even say he succeeded that one time) and that he murdered her mother (a reasonable assumption on her part)

Mans just said he can shed torrents of tears thru his dick. He’s unnecessarily crude for someone so poetic and I love that part of his character tbh.

So he just slapped her and it’s fascinating how clearly abusive he is even from his own softened retelling. Like he doesn’t phrase it like this, but every action he takes is to isolate and control her.

i know he sucks shit but him leaving Rita is especially cruel to me. there was no need to leave her behind with only a note. no amount of calling a woman "sweet" or his "poor little thing" makes up for how absolutely disposable they all are to him. he admits that he needed her, that her company kept him from having breakdowns that would send him to a hospital, and he still just leaves her behind forever. when he knows thats what she was scared of most.

i aint even know about Clare Quilty. huh!

i am enjoying his sad walk through his "smothered memories" like yeah man. you suck and you fucked up everything and you do deserve to feel bad about your active ignorance (i like that he brought up the memory of rescinding that one promise because that was one instance i was really stuck on. like she has nothing man, and it's silly to you but it's everything to her)

y'know im still not entirely sure what Pentapod Monster means

Quotes:

he is not a gentleman

But how his heart beat when, among the innocent throng,he espied a demon child, "enfant charmante et fourbe," dim eyes, bright lips, ten years in jail if you only show her you are looking at her.

I was naive as only a pervert can be (lol)

nymphets do not occur in polar regions (oh my god shut upp)

the reader will regret to learn that soon after my return to civilization I had another bout with insanity (I absolutely do not regret it my wonderful narrator <3)

I was perfectly aware that if by any wild chance I became her lodger, she would methodically proceed to do in regard to me what taking a lodger probably meant to her all along, and I would again be enmeshed in one of those tedious affairs I knew so well.

To keep her happy, I had to present her with an illustrated catalogue of them, all nicely differentiated, according to the rules of those American ads where schoolchildren are pictured in a subtle ratio of races, with one--only one, but as cute as they make them--chocolate-colored round-eyed little lad, almost in the very middle of the front row.(I just find this quote interesting because it makes a point that there would only ever be at most one black kid. not sure what to make of it but i did enjoy that)

It was she who seduced me. (SHUT UP)

the body of some immortal demon disguised as a female child. (SHUT UPPPPP!!)

Used French only when she was a very good little girl. (I’m attacking you with my teeth and claws. I love this book.)

[carnivalls]

18 & 28 from the ‘weirdly specific’ asks for juve (bc i want to study and observe her) and oreste (bc you haven’t posted about him much but i still desire to Know Facts)

implying juve wouldn't be studying and observing you right back... interesting.

18. Who do they love truly, 100% unconditionally (if anyone)?

this question is... complicated, for juve. not least because she's so certain she understands feelings like love, while also being completely serrated from her own, while also thinking that her complete understanding of feelings like love is why she's actually so serrated from her own. there are layers happening here and juve is my favorite low empathy onion.

but also, for what it's worth. since she was about fifteen, juve has been wearing her girlfriend (term used questionably here, since they were girlfriends in all but name, but specifics do tend to matter to juve) safini's form and presenting as her to the wider world, attempting to overwrite and 'fix' the existing story in which she killed herself. she's stepped into safi's life and, in her own mind, kept it going past its ending point, trying to help her now in a way safini 'wouldn't let her' while alive. like sure, safi messed up by ruining her story like that so soon, but juve will make it all right now!

and juve can offhandedly tell herself that she's doing this as a favor to safini, or as a fuck you to safini's 'narrow minded' view of her situation, or whatever other dismissive excuse she likes, but the fact also remains that she has spent about three years now preferring to cosplay as her dead girlfriend rather than grieve her. and i don't know if that's love, but i do think that juve's feelings for safi went a little deeper than even (or especially) she cared to admit, and scorn and substitution are... much easier ways of dealing with All That, for her.

oreste is also complicated, but for different reasons– he spent so much of his adolescence trying to gaslight himself into feeling unconditional love for another (survival tactic) (adopted into being his physically volatile quarantined cousin's emotionally incestuous throw pillow) that right now he's actually trying to be weaned off of offering it. instead, he's being made to work on cultivating his sense of individuality, or just Anything Other Than A Fawn Response regarding his interpersonal relations (with juve's very kind, if unasked for, help).

so, if asked this question, oreste would automatically say well, he loves kai– but he'd already be checking to see that kai was in earshot to hear him saying it, and the smile would not entirely reach his eyes. because it's either that or 'get thrown across the room with the force of a star exploding because kai doesn't know how to regulate his emotions (which are reflected into his magic) and his mother has decided keeping him happy and giving him anything he wants (which includes oreste) is more important than teaching him how to handle disappointment in a non destructive manner.' and after a certain point in repeating your lines, and having your head cracked against a wall when you're not convincing enough, well. it's easier to condition yourself into believing that you mean it as well. or the situation becomes just a little too unbearable to live with.

28. What do they tell people they want? What do they really want?

juve tells people what she largely considers the truth– she wants to help them. she wants to make them the best versions of themselves, and she wants to be the one supervising each step of the process. she wants to give them suitable character arcs, and be able to step into their shoes by the time they cross the finish line.

and honestly, it's not too far off from what she really wants, if a little more altruistic and less neurodivergent than reality. fundamentally, juve wants to be in control, and she wants people to make sense. it's hard for her to connect with people as equals because they're not her, and they dont behave as she would, and juve knows this but on some subconscious level she also can't understand it. because people are messy and unpredictable and strange and juve isn't. juve makes sense.

so juve would rather take the people in her life and boil them down to a few choice traits, motivations, flaws– she'd rather force them into summarizable boxes, and flatten them into palatability. and, as a skinshifter who primarily uses her magic to interact with the world around her, juve thus figures she can understand people best by becoming them, and again making them make sense by putting them back on track with satisfying and logical arcs (fun fact: it is this exact mentality that blows up in her face regarding hess, when she miscalculates the best way of getting her to open up) (she also miscalculates how okay people are with being treated as psychological dolls) (play stupid games win stupid prizes).

essentially juve is a neurodivergent author stuck as a character in a story. and unfortunately for her there's no fourth wall break that gets her out of this one, but rather just respect for the narrative confines. smth smth the narrative here is not a narrative but life itself (while also on a meta level being a narrative) (just play with me in this 2:50 am space)

oreste meanwhile hits on a similar but opposite vein to this notion: if asked what he wants, he'll pause, stare like he expects a trap door to open under his feet at any moment, and awkwardly say he wants whatever the other person wants. oreste is someone who has been so beaten into submission that he now struggles to exist outside of caring for others' desires, leaving his own shoved down somewhere far away from where he can reach.

so, what are his own? again, tricky, since oreste is so detached from them– but honestly? i think he just wants a nice life. a very basic, nice life, away from his current gothic nightmare. a wife, maybe. kids, someday. to stop feeling kai's eyes on the back of his neck even after seven years have passed away from him. maybe the attention of kai's aloof but very pretty and funny (dyke) twin sister. just stuff like that.

[finitevariety]

Gregory, the Scrivener

I am a rather elderly man. The nature of my employment for the last thirty years has brought me into more than ordinary contact with what would seem a boring and somewhat unnecessary set of men, of whom as yet nothing that I know of has been written—I mean the executive assistants, or the lackeys. The scriveners, if you will. I have known very many of them, professionally and privately, and if I pleased could fill your ears with tedious, leaden stories of an incompetence so profound as to be almost certainly malicious. In that, Gregory was not special. 

But I waive the biographies of all other assistants for a few passages in said Gregory’s life, who was an assistant among the strangest I ever saw.

While of other assistants I might write the complete life, of Gregory nothing of that sort can be done. I know some facts. He appeared at first oviform, I am told, with a head upon which features clustered together as though for warmth. He hatched into a tall and hunching cousin who lurked around snack tables and game consoles with a full backpack and truculent air. Then—something, a rise and a fall, or perhaps a failure to launch at all. Either way, our Gregory soon found himself festooned with fur and floppy ears. But this new dog would not learn tricks, and so he came to me. That no materials exist for a full and satisfactory biography of this man is an irreparable loss to literature. 

The rest of what I know, I gained by virtue of my own astonished eyes. Yet before I introduce this bestretched scrivener it behooves me to explain myself, my business, and my surroundings—because this, if nothing else, provides context for Gregory. 

Firstly and foremostly, then, my captive ears: I am a man who, from his frozen youth upwards, has been filled with ambition. Do not mistake me. Today, I do not regard this trait with much fondness. Ambition that o'erleaps itself is simply cowardice: it is a neverending flight from now to a future one has not even bothered to define. For many years, I played a sort of game with myself in which I focused so entirely on the next waypoint as to ignore the ongoing climb. I convinced myself that the escape from the Midwest was all I needed. I convinced myself that, once this had been achieved, I could then rest. Then, of course, I had to obtain a career to make that escape real—and, from then, some security. If I lost my job, what was to stop me falling out of the city altogether? And, once said security were achieved, how should I protect that? Marriages fail, after all, but children mingle two people forever, and ensure—

I have strayed. Apologies. Like I said, I am an elderly man. Suffice to say that my environs were as full of handholds as hazards. Waystar Royco was a turbulent, anxious ecosystem that its apex predator influenced the way a foot might influence a puddle. My ambition, at Waystar, was as much as ever commingled with survival—and was it therefore ambition at all?  Indeed, many who knew me considered me an eminently safe man, at least then.

[palestickyprinces]

on my hands and knees begging for a family tree (or multiple ones!!) for your original hotd/asoiaf characters...

anon your hand in marriage immediately. how did you know about my one true passion. reveal yourself in my dms within three days else you'll start to cough

some of these are way more in depth because i. well. i only just made some (cough the tullys and martells cough) while others i worked for a day or two on. the targaryen ones look weird bc this site doesnt like incest (or even when two siblings marry another set of siblings). i will put it under a read more lest it take 5 days to scroll past

me looking at anon

we're just gonna go in order of how i have them saved el oh el. also i was gonna link the trees but then realized anyone can edit them and i dont trust people not to fuck up my hard work so now you have to suffer my shitty screenshots. sorry

Maryce Redwyne

(ignore the fact it links to aemond, its just how the site works) now this one is a little weird bc i never fully committed to when it takes place in her canon so some people are dead who shouldnt be some people arent dead who should be etc... also daeron doesn't exist here cuz uhhh. well. i just never put him in.

this verse is also the ones my ocs vaerra targaryen and alyssa targaryen (of pentos), but i ended up removing them since its really maryce's story and i didnt want to include them for like two appearances worth of time

you may notice she has a child who's formerly gone entirely unmentioned...

Lorea Baratheon

this one is straightforward its just the canon family tree plus lorea. i have various other ocs and possible cousins in mind for her story but i dont think any are included in this. however i did go insane adding practically the entire lannister and baratheon/targaryen family trees theres like 60+ people in this one

House Errol

never mentioned these guys (because i forgot they existed) but theyre fairly important players in lorea's story, she runs into the kingswood after (spoiler!) her mom tries to 🗡 her and ends up at haystack hall. sebastion ends up agreeing to let her stay, then as the war continues is the one to push her to claim the throne. totally not because he wants to be her hand and marry his son to her. who would ever do that.

House Mallister

theres a couple more piper cousins/siblings in law on the other side lyman but thats fine. lyman has a wife named lynette swann and i never decided if his name would remain lyman. also i forgot to ever name one of elinor's brothers in law oops

after the hashtag scandal of elinor having a bastard baby her mom gets her brother lucas to marry his son to elinor and elinor is shipped off to pinkmaiden forever. sad!

Ellyn Hightower + Daemion & Alyssa

considering daemion didnt even have his own tag until like yesterday i dont think i ever shared that he's criston's son so. spoiler! theres nothing like giving your affair baby nearly the same name as your husband ❤️ also daeron is again not here. sorry. would be funny to include him just for the sake of the recent headcanons about criston being his daddy tho. when ur cousin is also ur brother and its not even from the incest side of the family

(im not actually doing that. daeron will probably just not be included. unless i really like him when s3 comes out in a decade)

all the stuff to the side is just canon targ bullshit i added

House Tully

these crop weird on tumblr oops. click on em to see it better. i made alys larys's sister bc i just thought being tortured by ur sister in law is funnier than aunt etc. i considered naming zoe and elmo's dad ernie

House Martell

alia and aelyx are twins <3 i did not add all of daeron's various descendants or ancestors because frankly theres kind of a lot of them and again this site hates incest and it starts looking funny real quick. given more time i mightve added them and the great bastards and all but this is what you get for now

maron said their first kid could have a targy name since they'd be a martell either way so daenerys insisted he give the second one a dornish name and then with the twins they just followed their previous pattern of girl gets dornish boy gets targy. these guys are arguably the happiest family of ocs i got

maron had a paramour before wedding daenerys and he sent her away before the marriage because he knew daenerys would take offense to it, and he didn't want to risk the still fairly new targ-martell alliance, or risk angering daeron, which could theoretically pose a risk to maron's own sister. the family's one real conflict is that the paramour has a son who later shows up claiming he's maron's REAL oldest child and that aeron is actually a blackfyre. thankfully the dornish are not stupid and basically just go ????? before kicking the kid out. well actually a lot more happens than just that but yk how it is. that plotline is also only barely existant. i havent even read a knight of the seven kingdoms yet

if you actually read all this then YAYYYYY come be my friend pls. or just send me more asks about my ocs. i love answering questions and talking for way too long i NEED more asks

[goodqueenaly]

What happened to Lady Shella Whent? Was she still alive when Harrenhal was given to Janos Slynt, and later Petyr Baelish? Did Lannister regime formally disinherit her? Did she give any support to Robb, or the Tully's before that? Later, someone (can't remember who) says she died? Was it of old/natural causes or did the Lannisters kill her off?

Not a lot of firm information. Kevan Lannister reports ahead of the battle of the Green Fork that "Lady Whent yielded Harrenhal for want of men to defend it". Lady Whent is also among those aristocrats whom Joffrey summons to do homage to him at the end of AGOT, although this may or may not mean that the Lannister-Baratheon regime in King's Landing knew that Lady Whent was still alive, much less where she was living at the time; indeed, in this same court session Joffrey also grants Harrenhal to Janos Slynt, necessarily dispossessing Shella Whent of her own castle and title (and thereby removing the very reason she would have a feudal responsibility to do homage to the (would-be) Lord of the Seven Kingdoms). Shella is already long gone by the time Arya gets to Harrenhal, as she reports Lady Whent as "fled" (when thinking about how Shella had "used only the lower thirds of two of the five towers, and let the rest go to ruin" during her former existence as Riverrun's bannerman). We get no other sense of Shella Whent through the rest of the series (apart from Donnel Haigh's scornful question to the disguised Sandor as to whether Shella Whent "think[s] she can buy Harrenhal back with a horse"), save when Littlefinger mentions casually that "Lady Whent's died as well, I hear" (though the WOIAF app specifies that her death occurred "not long after the Red Wedding"). Likewise, the only mention we get of any kind of Whent-related service to the Stark-Tully cause during the War of the Five Kings is the presence of Ser Willis Wode, a bannerman to Harrenhal, with Catelyn during her journey through the Vale.

My guess - and this is only a guess - is that following the yielding of Harrenhal to Tywin's forces, Shella Whent left her castle voluntarily - to live with whatever in-laws/cousins she might have still had (interestingly, though, not the Tullys, whose aunt she might have been), to go into exile in Essos, to find a motherhouse or other (supposedly) safe and neutral dwelling to live out her days, or for some other reason we can't know. Shella would already have been old by Westerosi standards by 298/299 AC: if she was the mother of the "fair maid" of Harrenhal (who, by her description, I would guess was probably born no later than the mid to late 260s), and thus probably also the maid's brothers, then Shella was probably at least in her 50s or 60s by the time of the main series - not the oldest any character has ever been, but certainly not young (in a world where, for example, Jaehaerys I the "Old King" died at 69 and Barristan Selmy considers himself old at approximately 63). Even if she did not already suffer from health problems - thanks to age and/or a lifelong dwelling at Harrenhal (which may have negatively affected the healths of her kinswomen Sarya and Wynafrei and her servant Pia) - Shella may have wanted to avoid living as a female prisoner of a Lannister army, perhaps fully aware of what had happened under Tywin's watch during the Sack of King's Landing (and aware that her kinsmen had been closely associated with the Targaryens during Robert's Rebellion, a fact which Shella may have thought would not help her win friends among Tywin's men). I would guess that she died somewhere specific (rather than, say, along the road), given that Littlefinger seems to have heard about her death, but whether that was at a family seat, in a motherhouse, or in a city or town is wildly unclear.

Whatever the specific manner, time, and place of her death, Shella Whent's fate reflects considerable tragedy and tragic irony. She who had ruled over Harrenhal (even if publicly only as consort) during the height of its glory at its great tourney - her fair daughter and her strong sons on display in front of virtually the entire world - ended her days dispossessed and alone, away (perhaps far away) from the only home she had ever known. She who had been looked to by Arya as a possible genteel savior - with Arya dreaming that she "could reveal herself to Lady Whent", whose "knights would escort her home and keep her safe" and who "would even help the crying girl" - herself died as a lone woman, fled from knights and unable to help herself, much less anyone else. She who had been a friend to the Watch could not avail herself of its protection once she had suffered her last reversal of fortune, thanks to her gender. Where Rhaena Targaryen had once looked to Harrenhal as a final resting place from her wanderings, once she had lost her family, friends, and loves, Shella Whent had been forced to wander out into Westeros to an unknown fate once she herself had lost everything.

[smilingformoney]

✨Trivia time✨

Just for fun here are some fun facts about plotlines, both abandoned ones and ones that made it in

Plotlines that have always been in my head since Abbie popped into existence in my head 12 years ago

Abbie is Snape’s Gryffindor daughter in the same year as Harry who is friends with Draco

Snape doesn’t know about Abbie until she starts Hogwarts

Her name has always been Abbie/Abigail

She gets attacked by Lucius at the Department of Mysteries, though this was going to be for different reasons and in a slightly different way

Plotlines that were rotating in my head 12 years ago but never came to be because either they didn’t fit the story anymore or they were just stupid

Abbie’s mother was called Suzie/Suzanne and she was a one-night stand

Abbie had a muggle step-father

Suzie’s father was Tom Riddle, making Abbie a parselmouth

Suzie’s mother was also a one-night stand and Tom/Voldy didn’t know about her

This one’s a doozy: After Snape died, Abbie found the only way to save him was to go back in time. But she couldn’t go back in time but she did discover that time is cyclical so she became immortal and lived so long that the universe died and reformed around her. By the time she came back around again, she was trillions of years old and basically a god. But her memory was still human, so she could only remember a few hundred years at a time, meaning she’d forgotten all about her father and was doomed to live an eternal cycle, knowing there was something she was meant to do, some purpose to her immortality, but she’d forgotten it long ago. (Copyright me if I ever take this and turn it into some actual fantasy story)

Plotlines that I thought of while writing and/or initially intended to include before I started but they didn’t come to be

Abbie dies after saving Snape (might do an AU oneshot of this one day if I feel like breaking everyone’s hearts)

Abbie and Draco were going to be romantic until I realised she was gay

Sephy finds out she’s the product of Abraxas Malfoy’s affair with a muggle servant. Might also write an AU of this eventually. Canned because it felt too Eastenders-y + it would have made Abbie and Draco cousins (not that purebloods care about that) + I prefer Sephy coming from nowhere

Post war, James and Lily come back to life. Purely based on my desire to rub Sev and Sephy’s relationship in their faces, however I hate the Somehow Palpatine Returned trope and believe the moment death becomes impermanent in a story it loses all meaning (*stares hard at Supernatural and Moffat-era Doctor Who*) so in the bin it goes

I considered how far Abbie and Draco’s fake relationship was going to go and even considered them having to consummate and her getting pregnant but I decided not to go that far because I didn’t feel comfortable writing either Abbie or Draco in that position

Plotlines that weren’t my intention going in but happened because the story has a will of its own and I am but its teller

Abbie being gay

Abbie and Neville being besties

The arranged marriage

Snape and Sephy’s whole romance

Abbie and Snape’s kind of unhealthily codependent relationship. Originally he was going to be cold and distant like we see in earlier chapters for pretty much the entire time and he wasn’t going to admit he loved her until he was dying.

(Basically, I vastly underestimated Snape’s ability to love them)

Plotlines I regret/could have done better

Persephone and the dark magic book, I feel I should have done it better and built up to it more and had the consequences last longer

Teen Sev and Sephy by the lake, I should have just had them kissing or something. My horny mind made them shag but I should have kept their original virginity stories intact.

[hyperactivewhore]

How do you think the Mikaelsons would react if Hope had a kid (let’s just say hypothetically, in the very distant future in which she wanted a child). Do you think that they would push to be in the kid’s life - even though they kinda abandoned Hope. Do you think that since Hope had failed to live up to their expectations they would then look to Hope’s child to now fix/redeem their family? And I also wonder if Hope would even allow the Mikaelsons to be close to her kid - because despite popular opinion, Hope does love her family but also isn’t very close to them (particularly Rebekah - who I think Hope holds a lot of anger towards).

I think Rebekah’s reaction would likely be the most complicated. I really wish the show explored Rebekah’s desires to be a mother more. She’s a very interesting character - and her wanting to be a mother is very complex aspect of her. Honestly, I think that she would make a terrible mother. She has this fantasy in her head about what a mother is that’s not realistic at all. I think what she really wants is a baby to adore and take care of - not an actual child with their own sense of self and personality. That being said, I do see her being jealous, bitter, and resentful of Hope, if Hope did have a child. And I also think that she was likely jealous of Freya when Freya had her baby. But I also wonder if she (and the rest of her siblings) now expects Freya’s son to redeem the Mikaelson family since Hope had failed?

Please don’t take this as me bashing Rebekah. I really do like her as a character, but truthfully, she would be an awful mother (and considering all the lives she destroyed and all the innocents she killed, I don’t think she deserves to be a mother or to live out her totally unrealistic dreams of being human). Again, I do like her and she’s my favorite Mikaelson (right after Hope and Marcel).

I imagine that by the time Hope wanted/had a child, then her cousin, Nik, would be already all grown up: the cousin that would turn out to be completely fucked up because Freya would be a shitty parent, and the Mikaelson aren't a stable family.

I mean, once they saw Nik couldn't fix their family I can certainly see them dumping him at school like they did with Hope, occasionally checking in once in a while to make sure he still breathes - I don't know what to think of Keelin, to be honest. She wanted kids, but only because of Freya, and considering her relationship with her is stockholm syndrome it's just weird to think about this whole situation. Hope and Nik would be really close in my headcanon, and they would probably chose to ghost their relatives because they're shitty family members.

I just can't see Hope actually staying in contact with her family, and if she does it would be out of respect to her father and also because they're the only people she has, but they obviously don't really care that much about her and Hope had been all on her own for what: two, three years? And they also didn't even give a damn about the fact that she jumped into Malivore and was completely erased from existence: Freya came into scene, gave her a quick hug and then vanished once more.

But either way, we all know how obssesed Freya and Rebekah are with babies, so they would 100% want to be a part of the life Hope's kid would have. Marcel would probably want to be present too, but not just for the baby, also because Hope is his little sister and that kid would be his niece/nephew, and who knows about Kol? The thing he wanted the most was to be away from his toxic family, he may check on them once in a while but if he didn't have a solid relationship with her, his brother's daughter, he surely wouldn't have it with her kid.

Elijah would, of course. I don't think he would have started with the whole "this kid will be our redemption" again, because he realized his mistake with Hope and he apologized. Hope and Elijah were already rekindling their relationship by the end of season five and I do imagine they would have a good relationship if he had lived, probably because Hope would have latched on to him considering he was the only person around.

I do think that Klaus and Hayley would love their grandchild, though. The thing Hayley wanted the most for Hope was for her to grow up normal, to get married and probably have kids, so she would be probably fine with her getting pregnant. I'm not too sure about Klaus, though, because we all know he's jealous and possessive but I can't actually see him hating his grandchild, perhaps he would throw a fit because someone had sex with Hope (lol) but I can see him growing a soft spot for her kid.

I share your opinion about Rebekah being a bad mother, to be honest, and I don't think she even actually wants to be a mother, but that's another talk for another day. She would be an awful mom to any kid, just look at the way she talked about Hayley once she died! It was so out of place: "I was jealous when I saw her with Hope. I was jealous when she got married. I guess I'm even jealous that she's dead." Yeah no, Rebekah is forever stuck at the age of seventeen, how would she react once her child grew up older than her? Would she start being bitter, jealous because everyone around her is more emotionally mature? It's just weird, I definitely think she was jealous of Hope for the fact that she could procreate and don't even get me started on how Freya and her told her she could maybe get pregnant when her humanity was off, as if that was the most important thing in her mind at the moment.

And don't worry, bashing a character doesn't necessarily mean you hate them: I talk shit about the Mikaelson 24/7 and they're kinda my comfort characters, but pointing out their obvious flaws isn't a bad thing in my opinion.