#and that's just not book daemon

[dastardlydaemon]

idk daemon and his rep in this fandom tho. falls into two things. one half the ppl hate him because he's apparently a groomer (which he isn't since he was hardly around rhaenyra as much since he was fighting in the stepstones) and that also makes him pedo (then you must be talking about show daemon and the brothel scene and that's just =.=) and the other camp are he's oh just another maegor which is what??? you must be copying otto :0

[atopvisenyashill]

Thoughts on the Alysanne is Maegor's daughter AU? I feel like it has some interesting potential, and it vastly recontextualizes different parts of Jaehaehae (I do not like him sjsjsjs) and Alysanne's relationship (such as Jaehaehae's treatment of their daughters) but I wanna hear what you think about it!

I’ve touched on this a bit before but since you actually want to hear my thoughts, allow me to present to you my Jaehaerys Is The Goddamn Worst, And Alysanne Annoys Me Too: An Essay lmao but my answer is basically “yeah all of what you just said.”

I think it makes Alysanne much more palatable (to me) as a character because as she stands, she just fixates on forcing her daughters through these fucked up marriages at too young an age bc it traumatized her to be married and pregnant at 15 too but she’d never admit that being a willing participant in her own kidnapping by her brother-husband was the single worst thing that ever happened to her, and because Alysanne doesn’t want to admit it (and Jaehaerys would never see it as wrong or a mistake) F&B really shies away from delving into the fact that Alysanne is as deranged of a mother as Cersei is. So as she stands, she’s very flat to me because she’s presented very flatly and inconsistently. She’s so in love with Jaehaerys, she’s maritally raped by Jaehaerys, she’s a loving and doting mother, she forces her daughters into marriages when they’re the same too young age she was, she accuses her teenage girls of being scheming whores then gets angry when her husband accuses their teenage girls of being scheming whores, and worst of all we are just told “Maegelle tells them to make up so they do” so we don’t know why Alysanne gets over all of this. What is the point of riding a dragon when you never use that dragon to protect your daughters from unwanted teen marriages? We’re just not given a good enough justification for why her behavior is so weird and frustrating towards her daughters.

Make her Maegor’s daughter though…most of her behavior as an adult makes more sense. Like a worse version of Rhaenyra’s childhood almost - a father desperate for a son, but lowkey obsessed with his daughter, who makes all his hang ups about his parents the problems of every woman around him, except Maegor is out here blood sacrificing and torturing and starting wars and forcing babies on wives he discards quickly and brutally. Then here comes Jaehaerys on a white horse green dragon to save her from the horror her life has become, and he loves her so much he runs away with her even though Alyssa says they shouldn’t marry because people won’t like it. And they have beautiful children, and a beautiful marriage, and build a beautiful kingdom.

Then her pregnancies start getting dangerous. Gaemon, then Valerion, die. Alysanne thinks of the shriveled up mutants she called brothers, if Maegor’s taint has passed to her. Her perfect husband ignores her no, and forces Gael on her. Alysanne remembers that he said nothing to Rogar when Alyssa died, merely wept. Then her daughters start to die. Daella, Alyssa, Viserra, all within a few years. Then Jaehaerys makes Saera watch as he murders her boyfriend, calls her a whore, and says Alysanne cannot follow Saera to Lys. Alysanne thinks of Maegor torturing the Harroways over Alys’ presumed infidelity. Jaehaerys says he’s sorry, and her daughter badgers her into forgiving him, and she remembers how she helped Jaehaerys badger Alyssa into forgiving Rogar. Not two years later, Jaehaerys passes over Rhaenys. Alysanne thinks of how she was never enough for her father, how she felt so superior to Rhaena banished to Dragonstone and resented by Aerea, yet there she is dragging Gael away from court because she can’t stand to be with Jaehaerys. How her father was surrounded by dead women and dead babies and how Jaehaerys is surrounded by his own dead daughters, but surely she did the right thing, surely Maegor was worse, surely the realm is better off? Is he right to pass over Rhaenys? Is she enabling a man just as monstrous as her father? She will never decide, because Maegelle will guilt her about keeping Gael isolated at Dragonstone, and Alysanne will do as she’s told, just like Rhaena, and Alyssa, and Jeyne, Elinor, Ceryse, Alys, and Tyanna, just like every one of her daughters.

I do get why Alysanne is Alyssa & Aenys’ and not Maegor’s. The weird Targ babies, the line not descending from Visenya, Jaehaerys and Alysanne being held up as the perfect Targaryen couple specifically because they are brother and sister and dragon riders. I do even think canon Alysanne is likely traumatized by her time as a hostage on Dragonstone, and the ensuing war, and the trauma bond that caused with Jaehaerys, and it makes her idolize Jaehaerys, and then he isolates her at Dragonstone so he can swiftly and safely marry, groom, and knock her up. It’s not like,,,, a fun time, and it’s enough to make anyone crazy and weird about their daughters, but I think having her father be Maegor makes Alysanne herself much deeper because it gives her, as the most beloved Targaryen queen, a blood tie to the most hated Targaryen king, and a marriage to the most beloved Targaryen king. It fits better with a lot of the themes of the main series (again, imo) - forcing the spotlight on the outsiders to see how the affect the story from behind the scenes. The fall of Aegon’s sons, and The Long Reign, not told from the PoV or to serve the PoV of any of the kings or princes, but of the queen that tied them all together.

[fragileheartbeats]

Me: Rhaenyra wasn't a good queen. She was cruel, stupid, spoiled and a coward.

TB: No she wasn't!!! You're the one who think she only had a personality trait!!! She wasn't a simple and one-dimensional character!!!

Five minutes later

Me: It's amazing how Aegon's character developed during the war. He fought and survived. He showed his courage, determination, strength and intelligence.

TB: But he was a rapist!!!

Me: 😐😑😐

[bohemian-nights]

Unpopular Opinion: Every time a black female character (especially if this black female character is dark skinned) enters into a relationship with the popular fan-favorite white male character usually one of three things happen a. the black female character is now headcanoned as a lesbian (never bisexual or queer or anything that would leave the character with the possibility of still entering into a relationship with a man) b. white male character is now shipped with other popular fan-favorite white male character/other white female character (the popular fan-favorite white male character is usually headcanoned to be bisexual and when he is, shipped with a woman that woman is always white) or c. black female character (and sometimes their actresses) is now being talked about as if they are the devil himself.

Wanting characters to explore their sexuality is fine but I always find it odd how this always happens when one member of the relationship is a black/blackish woman. *forgot to mention the suddenly polyamorous relationship the three (black female, white male and white male/woman) characters are now without a doubt in*

Anon you spoke nothing, but facts right here 🙌🏽

(The only thing I’d add is that they don’t just do this when the woman in question is with a white man, see Namor and Shuri and the backlash some shippers got for shipping them).

You aren’t the only one who has been noticing this trend.

I say trend loosely because really just a new stereotype to add to the bunch😒

It would be one thing if it was a want for actual representation, but every time now like clockwork. as soon as they see a Black woman who looks like she’s going to have a romantic arc with said popular fandom man, boom she must be gay😑

Hell, it’s getting so bad that these shows/movies are automatically just writing their Black women characters in that way.

If people can’t see how this can be harmful/dangerous, that’s cool, but anytime you want to paint all of a group a certain way and won’t show them in any other setting, that’s how you end up birthing new stereotypes.

This isn’t creating diversity. It’s limiting it(once again).

It’s so all or nothing with our media representation. Black women don’t want to be shown as one thing(which seems to go right over most people’s heads).

We just want the same opportunities as everybody else and not to be put into one or two narrow boxes of acceptable characterization that doesn’t threaten the status quo(aka you can't have Black women looking desirable especially not when there is an available white woman right there next to her).

[lovl3igh]

"it's not story about goodies and baddies so don't choose sides" yeah, I get it, both sides did terrible things but rhaenyra targaryen was the rightful heir and would be so much better ruler than aegon so excuse me but I will serve my queen

[itsmeimcathy]

Viserys' only issue against daemon and rhaenyra together is because they're too chaotic for their own good lmao. they have the same blood they are basically the same person they are RECKLESS and UNHINGED and every time they're in the same room together they exacerbate my ulcers--

poor man has no qualms about them being related he's just afraid they're gonna destroy the palace with their sexual energy or something

[tactax-art]

[dulcewrites]

would love to see your thoughts on vaemond like I’m trembling with anticipation

He’s just…. Tragic to me. I actually like the idea of him being Corlys’ brother versus his nephew (like in the book) because of the parallel it sets up with the other brother duos we get.

I would have to go back and check, but I don’t think an actual date was given for when their parents die. For corwyn, their father, it ranges from like 60-90 AC or something. Corlys was born in the 50s so they probably grew up like Viserys and Daemon - without their parents. There is a really interesting through line between these second sons that we see (Daemon, vaemond, and Aemond). I know he isn’t character of real significance compared to the other two, but it would have been cool to see him navigate that. Especially since Corlys, his older brother and house leader, is constantly seeking validation in other forms (despite creating the house’s wealth basically himself). I would think Vaemond would have been those on some of those voyages Corlys took. He was there for the stepstones; even criticizes Daemon during it lmao and petitioned for help from Viserys. So, we get the sense he’s not a huge fan of some of the Targs. It also makes me wonder how he felt about rhaenys since he was fine publicly contesting her and corlys’ wishes. It gives off the vibe that vaemond was there for his brother through it all… till their house was in peril.

Idk just imagine it’s you and your brother against the world. He goes off and marries a dragon rider (probably under the guise of thinking he would be king consort or at the very least acquire more power through having dragon riding velaryons), and then said older brother essentially never gets over not getting the crown in the family. It leads not only the detriment of your house, but also your relationship with him - it cost you your life when you point out the obvious. Then in the afterlife you have to watch your house crash and burn for supporting the women you said they shouldn’t. TRAGIC!

I don’t like that they made him call Rhaenyra a whore. I don’t like that Daemon got his Gary Stu moment. Vaemond getting slain and then ate by a dragon in the book (and the cutting out of the silent fives tongues like Viserys threatened) was supposed to be a sign of how cruel Rhaenyra and Daemon can be. That Rhaenyra even after putting herself in the hole, was willing to claw and fight for the crown. As well as how far Viserys had let the lie go on. It was not his house up in the air so he didn’t care… till it was 🤷🏽‍♀️

[sunsetzer]

Does anyone else get the impression that the whole point of Episode Ardyn was to reveal that the real villain of ffxv was Bahamut all along or is it just me

[eternallovers65]

Rhaenyra and Daemon this and that, but tbh I need to kiss in the mouth whoever thought that rhaenyra and alicent should also have this much sexual tension around them because there's no hotter troupe than former friends/lovers to enemies

[xsignedmsriss]

I really wish Laena could've been Vhagar's last rider because the next one...

[multicolour-ink]

For the Daemon AU, can you give a glimpse of what it feels like when the brothers hold/touch each other's Daemons?

Dæmon AU

I'm very glad you asked this question ^^

In order to explain how I go about this idea in my AU, I will need to go into how it is dealt with in the source material; there will be some spoilers

In His Dark Materials, the purpose of dæmons is to be a person's soul. As such, it is a forbidden act to touch another's dæmon, as you are putting physical harm on their very spiritual nature. We see throughout the series that when it is done to another person it causes them great harm and distress.

In the last book, Lyra (the main character) and her companion, Will, have fallen in love, and find out after that they can touch each other's dæmons without feeling any pain, but instead a joy and an intimacy that they have never felt before. They are then left wondering afterwards if "any lovers before them had made this blissful discovery".

So from this, it seems to be implied that only lovers can touch and hold each other's dæmons. Which (to me at least) I never really felt like that was the whole story. We never see any platonic relations try the same thing, and (as of the time I am writing this) the author has not gone into any more detail about it. I always assumed from when I first read the books, that the touch signified a great bond of trust, and that was it.

However, given that the books do delve into more mature topics than most children's books - such as sexuality, growing up, and many religious themes - it's understandable why the touching of Lyra and Will's dæmons was used for this specific scene.

But, seeing as my AU does not reference these topics in any way (rather just takes a concept I enjoyed and puts it in a verse that already has fantastical elements) I wanted to change up the significance of the way dæmons are handled. In this AU, touching one's dæmon is a sign of great trust, no matter romantically or platonically. However, many people don't even trust this philosophy. In the time frame of when the AU takes place, many centuries have passed, and stories and superstitions have caused people to perceive touching one's dæmon as a taboo. An act that is believed to destroy a person's nature. So they don't do it.

That doesn't mean that other's have tried it. Many, including Mia and Pio, have got curious and attempted to see what the touch was like, but never went through with it out of fear.

Platonically, Pio and his brothers even got close to touching each other's dæmons when they were kids! But one of the younger brothers got hurt, and Pio (as the older brother) realised that this taboo must be real, and swore that neither of them or the rest of the family could do so again.

Mario and Luigi on the other hand, were already born with this trust. Their bond as brother's meant that the link between them, this link of trust and platonic love, was entwined forever in their souls, and they would never have a problem touching each other's dæmons.

Unfortunately, on the day they were caught by their mother...the brother's were told that this act could lead to them potentially hurting each other. Unwilling to let that happen, and wanting to keep the other safe, they refused to ever interact with each other's dæmons; but in doing so, they unintentionally closed off part of the trust/link that had been born with them, and thus caused a strained rift to grow between them (even if they couldn't fully sense it).

But to answer your question as to how the bros felt to hold/touch each other's dæmons; in short - warm. It always felt like holding the other's dæmon was like holding another piece of themselves. A soft caress deep inside them that was comforting. You can imagine how it felt to have that bond reawakened again, when all was said and done!

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

24 in 2024

i haven't seen any of these floating around yet, so i thought i'd get one started! here are 24 books i want to read in 2024 (and a bonus readerly goal):

Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives by Sarah Williams Goldhagen

Obsolescence: An Architectural History by Daniel M. Abramson

Offended Sensibilities by Alisa Ganieva

The Night, The Night by Rodrigo Blanco Calderón

Dayswork by Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel

Dawn by Sevgi Soysal

Trashlands by Alison Stine

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

How to be Eaten by Maria Adelmann

The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories edited by Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang

The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown

Black Tide by KC Jones

A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys

The Ambergris Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer

The Great Cities Duology by NK Jemisin

The Spider and her Demons by sydney khoo

A Shining by Jon Fosse

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology edited by Vince A Liaguno and Rena Mason

Self-Portrait with Nothing by Aimee Pokwatka

Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin

Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places to Land by Malcolm Devlin

Always North by Vicki Jarrett

At the Edge of the Woods by Masatsugu Ono

Bonus Readerly Goal: i'm gonna try REALLY hard to only buy a book after i read five (5), this year (pre-orders DNI). gotta get that backlist under control SOMEhow, right??

notes on the color-coding: the green books are Just Because books (with a couple little red riding hood adjacent retellings in there, which is writing-project-related). a few of these came in a translation subscription box, and i am Interested in Architecture, and i'd love to read more of both this year.

the blue ones are bookmarked for nano prep (i wanna write something fucked up about space this year, i think, it's still cooking). i know it's early for that, but The Vibes™ have to marinate for a while. will probably add some haunted house books to this part of the list!

lastly, the purple ones are driscoll adjacent! filling my words well with related vibes worked well, this year, and i want to do that again next year. since i read through the entirety of my previous ~driscoll vibes~ stack last year, i've been restocking it, so most of these are very recently purchased.

(please note that all this color-coding/explanatory text is absolutely optional and Extra™, if you want to play--you can add it if you'd like, but by no means feel Obligated To Do So lol)

tagging @asexualbookbird, @six-of-ravens/@sixofravens-reads, @agardenandlibrary, @freckles-and-books, and anyone else who wants to play!

[earthyleo]

me, having to unfollow the matt smith tag because although i love the actor he is currently playing the role of the most disgusting character i have ever seen in a piece of fictional media:

[navree]

"Who was really behind blood and cheese?"

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLuRCbUQ/

In this video on TikTok, the creator claims that Daemon couldn't possibly be behind blood and cheese because he's not a "schemer." 🙄

Oh yeah I saw people talking about that on Twitter and it's dumb as Hell. Like, for one, no Otto's not going to do it because killing one of only two heirs to the throne and driving his granddaughter to madness to the point where she can't create any more is much more of a problem than any good PR would be a solution. Just because Otto decided to capitalize on a grotesque situation as best he could doesn't mean he orchestrated it. Not to mention, Otto's canon characterization, as expressed not only in the show but also behind the scenes by the writers and Rhys himself, is as someone who loves his family. His problem is that he's not good at verbalizing it (Rhys said something to the effect of Otto not having the language available to tell Alicent "I love you and I'm scared for you" even if that's how he feels) which doesn't allow it to be verbally expressed, and he also values power and advancement too much. So he places it over the love he has for his family, chiefly Alicent, who he clearly adores as his child, and it causes him to grievously hurt his family in spite of his love for them, like setting up Alicent to be groomed and sold off into marriage to Viserys despite the damage it will cause.

And yeah, Daemon isn't a schemer, but you know what he is? Violent. Violent and cruel and uncaring towards the suffering of others. Show Daemon isn't a schemer, but he is someone who bashed his wife's head in because he wanted to murder her for the crime of him not liking her. Show Daemon isn't a schemer, but he did fabricate an entire plot that could have resulted in Mysaria being killed without even taking her wants and needs into consideration. Show Daemon isn't a schemer, but he is the kind of man who takes teenage girls to brothels to ruin them and then leaves them there with their clothes off at the mercy of rapists and murderers and no way to get back home. Show Daemon isn't a schemer, but he is a father who neglects his older children and shows no care or concern for their wellbeing or emotional needs. Show Daemon isn't a schemer, but he is someone who giggles at his wife's funeral in front of her family and responds to his brother's attempt at conciliation with personal insults. Show Daemon isn't a schemer, but he is a husband who put hands on his wife and throttled her when she hit on a sore nerve and he wanted to lash out. Daemon's involvement in Blood and Cheese doesn't require scheming. It requires him having contacts in King's Landing, which is likely given his time living there, and it involves his propensity for significant violence against anyone he wants it done to and his disregard towards early anyone who isn't himself. So him hiring people to kill a child and telling them to be as merciless as possible about it? Yeah, that tracks with Daemon as he's portrayed on this show. That tracks really well.

Anyway funny how Team Black stans were all about 'and we'll support them in their war crimes era!' about Daemyra but now that the war crimes are approaching and we're about to watch baby murder and threatening to rape a child and mentally torturing Helaena and Alicent on an HD screen, now there's theories that make no sense. Blood and Cheese is, at minimum, Daemon's fault, not anyone on Team Black, and it's high time his fans at least follow his own lead and own it.

[dulcewrites]

It’s the year of our lord 2023, and people are still acting as if a small, grossly insinuated single paragraph in f&b translates to rhaenicent’s story somehow being taken from laenyra (or whatever it’s called) and given to Alicent and Rhaenyra.

We can all agree to the notion that Laena, all of the black girls/women on the show really, got the short end of the stick. No need to dispute or argue that because it’s just a fact. So, don’t take this as me saying I didn’t want more laena. But the idea that Laena’s story would’ve been more fleshed out as the ‘third’ in a throuple with her first cousin and old ass second cousin is hilarious to me. As if the character development would come through her being in a relationship with the people that marry immediately after she tragically dies. Not seeing her claim vhagar, not finding out how she, grown up with two daughters of her own now, really felt about her parents pimping her out when she was 12, no real scenes between her and laenor as adults. Hell, not even just her and Rhaenyra as adults, since this is apparently about wlw representation that was ‘taken from them’. But her relationship with *checks notes* Rhaenyra and daemon.

Mind you, the people that say they care about laena and her lack of development are the same ones that were cheering about those leaks (which more than likely could’ve been fake knowing how much this fandom likes making shit for the sake of it) depicting daemon possibly cheating on laena with a man. Pushing aside the cheating/disrespecting his wife to call him a ‘bi icon’ lmao.

Oh and this isn’t even touching how people pretend to care about Baela and Rhaena. They are more worried about how that leads back to Daemon’s characterization than how those girls are surrounded by people who undermine their best interest at every turn