#anti stark family stans

[pixiecactus]

i just know that arya stark will absolutely love the concept of "found family", i mean, she was actually forming her own pack in acok and asos before things went from shitty to absolute shit!

[fromtheseventhhell]

Why is it always people who don't even like Arya trying to police how we speak about her? They clearly don't read her chapters and couldn't come up with five things they like about her to save their lives, yet they're always worrying about what we have to say. They really can't stand that we don't view her as a one-dimensional prop for another character 🥴

[daenerysies]

“alicent making homophobic remarks the night of laena’s funeral isn’t cool considering laenor was shown to be heavily grieving his sister and didn’t deserve to be attacked during it (not to mention it was an obvious ploy on alicent’s part to divert attention from her committing literal treason).”

“b-bUT WHAT ABOUT DAEMON AND RHAENYRA FUCKING-“

i’m not gonna lie i don’t particularly care that they had sex that night. was it disrespectful? for sure. did it harm anyone for them to do it? it, in fact, did not. two consenting adults having sex away from prying eyes and keeping to themselves < an entitled boy purposely calling a girl at her mother’s funeral (whom he had never interacted with before) a pig and ridiculing her grief. laena’s storyline was cut short because the writers decided she wasn’t important enough to make into a proper character that isn’t at the mercy of other characters (it’s something i’m forever going to be salty about, daemon and rhaenyra loved her with all their hearts and were absolutely devastated when she passed) but out of those two scenarios who do you think she would be more upset with?

the people who bring this up in retaliation cannot handle alicent taking any criticism whatsoever. in all honesty i wouldn’t even care if her fans would just say ‘yeah, it was shitty. don’t really care though.’ it would at least save me the time of reading think piece after think piece on why alicent deserved to get her lick back against rhaenyra for her lot in life (caused by otto and viserys) by focusing on her pain rather than her son’s. these are the same people who try to claim that most of rhaenyra’s children and step children secretly hate her, due to wanting ‘complex and nuanced relationships’ to occur (they actually also can’t handle that rhaenyra was a great mom all around to all of her kids, and that maybe they need to be focusing those feelings on the green kids with their parents instead). let’s be serious for just one moment: it makes more sense that the children who were neglected by one parent and abused by the other having complicated familial feelings than children who were (for the most part) raised in a relatively stable and loving environment.

[yennefer-of-dragonstone]

I keep thinking about people saying because Sansa is observing how not to rule from Cersei and Littlefinger, she'll be a ruler, and I don't really get it?

She's cut off from warg magic because Lady is dead, she doesn't have a relationship with the smallfolk/othered people like Dany, Arya, or Jon, she seems to still be classist.

So what is the point of her, do you think? How does she get to be a queen from here if that's her endgame? If it isn't her endgame, what happens to her?

[ifandomus]

Some people: “Do you ever think about how sad it is that Bucky can't make amends to Tony? So there is one name on his amends list that he can't ever cross off. But maybe he can try to make amends to Tony’s family?”

Me:

[melodymidway]

Me: *blocks any Rhaegar × Lyanna related content because they disgust me*

Me: *looks for content dedicated to Elia and her children*

Pinterest: It's R+L time, enjoy!

[decolonize-the-left]

Project 25. The Heritage Foundation.

It's behind every single anti-lgbt law pushed the last year. They are why Roe v Wade was overturned. They are successful, well funded, and a massive threat.

What you can do is educate yourself and others about it. Get to know your enemy. Protest. Wear pride pins. Put out your flags. Show solidarity. We are ALL under attack by this white supremacist christo-fascist group.

Remember when 2020 had kpop stans organizing on twitter and gen z using tik tok to make Trump meets flop while white vets made themselves frontline walls at BLM protests that were organized to handle shit like kettling thanks to their amazing black organizers? Remember how people actually Showed up to those protests for awhile?

We need that cross-generational Fuck The System energy again. Not just for a summer this time. This needs to go passed the election.

They're playing a long game and so do we.

Get inspired.

Their goals include saving the children and traditional family, and "to lay the groundwork for a White House more friendly to the right."

This translates to destroying the EPA, disability rights, and criminalizing being LGBT. Also to overthrow the US government, as stated in their manifesto.

They want to replace our democracy with a theocracy. No Republican in office was elected without their approval.

They're the kind of right that makes being LGBT punishable by death. That makes it a crime just to exist where others can see you. They want librarians who work in libraries that make LGBT books accessible to be registered sex offenders. They want you prosecuted and even specify that no mercy should be shown to people the "left" likes (ex: immigrants, black people, etc)

That's the extreme right who's been manipulating our laws.

And they plan to make things a lot worse within the first 180 days a Republican is elected president.

Source

If you don't have plans coming up.... Start organizing them. We will be okay if we work together.

We will be okay if we work together.

If we have each other, we'll be okay. We have to rely on each other. You have to be reliable. You, person reading this, have to show up. That's how this works.

I have your back if you have mine. Do not leave me to the wolves and I won't leave you.

[lurkingshan]

On Boston and Brian Kinney

I’ve seen a lot of folks in the Only Friends tag recently making connections between the show and Queer as Folk, both US and UK versions, which makes sense because QaF is a clear reference for the show, both visually and thematically, and we know Jojo likes to reference western media in his work. One parallel folks are drawing is not tracking for me, however, so I am jumping in the wayback machine and putting on my old QaF stan hat to talk to y’all about Brian Kinney, and why Boston is actually nothing like him. Tagging @bengiyo and @neuroticbookworm who talked this through with me and also @slayerkitty because I saw you were contemplating this connection between the two characters.

So, first, why are people making this comparison? It really boils down to one thing: Brian and Boston are both sluts. That’s… pretty much it. They both like sex and prefer to have it with many different partners, and neither has much use for monogamy. But this is pretty much where their similarities end. 

So let’s remind ourselves who Brian Kinney is: a kind of fantasy of a hot, rich, self-actualized gay man with unmatched sexual prowess and a surface level flippancy masking a heart of gold. Brian is an adult man with a thriving career and money that he earned for himself after leaving his abusive and homophobic family (who would eventually explicitly reject him because of his sexuality). As a result, he is defiant in his commitment to live his life as loudly and queerly as possible—which includes a dedication to fucking and sucking, public sex, and a rejection of heteronormative constructs like monogamy.

Brian has a very clear moral code he lives by, even if it’s not one most can relate to. He decides to have a son with his (lesbian) best friend because part of him wants to believe in a better future and build a family of his own. He is extremely loyal to his found family even as he’s a jerk to their face most of the time, and he is always working behind the scenes to protect them even as he often hurts their feelings with his glib remarks and shitty behavior. Despite his disdain for monogamy, he never actually tries to destroy any of his friends’ happy relationships (in fact, he tries to sacrifice his own friendship with Michael to ensure he stays with his boyfriend).

Brian has a sense of responsibility to others and often takes on the blame for things he didn’t even do, which is why he takes baby gay Justin to Debbie and ensures he is cared for even as he tries to dissuade Justin from getting attached to him, and why he cares for Justin in the aftermath of his bashing. He cares deeply about his community, to the point where he pours his money into protecting the local gay scene, literally bankrupts himself to stop an anti-gay politician from winning an election, and gives up a dream job to stay put in Pittsburgh and help rebuild the community after a hate crime.

Brian is unflinchingly honest and he avoids making promises because once he does, he knows he will absolutely keep them—he takes his commitments seriously and he always does what he says he will. When he falls in love, he does not abandon his core values but he is willing to make some compromises. And he hides his better self and often wallows in self-destructive behavior because he feels deeply unworthy of love, which goes back to the intergenerational trauma he experienced as a child in an abusive home and the parental rejection he felt due to his sexuality. 

Boston, by contrast, is a character who feels more rooted in reality. He’s a pampered rich kid who is indulged in his hobbies and who already has a life plan laid out for him and paid for by his daddy. He likes to sleep around mostly because it’s fun, and because he knows his life here is temporary so he doesn’t see any point in getting attached to people. In stark contrast to Brian’s out and proud and fuck you if you have a problem with it brand of politics, he is still trying to hide who he is in service of his father’s political career, even if he’s pretty sloppy about it (see him fucking Top in a car with giant windows parked in the driveway at a house party).

Boston’s moral code is fungible and ever-changing to fit his circumstances—boy is a hypocrite (see his opinions about people filming and photographing him even as he does the same to others constantly). He has no loyalty and no qualms about hurting and betraying his friends, and actively tries to destroy their relationships for sport or as a means to get what he wants. He does not feel responsible for anyone and often lies and ducks accountability for the things he does. He does not care about his community at all, and in fact already has a NYC escape hatch in his back pocket for when he inevitably burns his bridges. He is not as honest as Brian and sends a lot of mixed messages to keep people guessing and on the hook.

Rather than hurting people by being brutally honest as Brian does, Boston plays psychological games and manipulates his friends and lovers, and he seems to take twisted pleasure in blowing up their happiness. We haven’t seen him make a promise or fall in love, and while there are some signs that he may have some sort of inferiority complex at play (with Mew in particular), his motives are not tied to any past trauma. Boston is just a messy bitch who loves chaos and doesn’t really care who gets hurt as long as he gets what he wants and stays entertained. Where Brian is literally a superhero to his loved ones, Boston is just a very flawed human being. 

But Shan, I hear you saying, I thought you liked Boston! I do, besties, I do. He’s a fantastic character and a very real kind of person many of us encounter in our 20s. Because that’s the thing: Boston is so young. He hasn’t developed any sense of responsibility to others or any understanding of the importance of queer community, and he has never had to take care of himself, which is perhaps the biggest difference between him and Brian. Brian has lived independently for more than a decade when we meet him in QaF, whereas Boston is a spoiled rich kid who has barely lived. Brian is a fully realized adult and his more nuanced characterization is a reflection of that; Boston is actually a pretty basic chaotic drama queen who will grow up eventually. 

TL;DR: Aside from being promiscuous, Boston has very little in common with Brian Kinney. He is more a reflection of a very real kind of person you will meet on the scene in queer communities than an homage to a larger than life fictional QaF character. And while OF is absolutely referencing some of the themes and values and stylistic flourishes of QaF, it is not making direct parallels to its characters. 

[pessimisticpigeonsworld]

Blood Purity and the ASOIAF Fandom

I find it very ironic how Targaryen antis scream about "blood purity" then turn around and support and play into blood purity themselves. Specifically I'm talking about Stark stans and stansas/jonsas.

The Starks canonically prefer to marry with Northern houses, in other words: other First Men. This tradition gives them a rather small gene pool, meaning that incest is pretty much a necessity for them to carry it on. Uncle-niece, aunt-nephew, and cousin weddings were all allowable, and cousin weddings were rather commonplace.

What all that means is that the Starks practice blood purity. Yes, it's different from how the Targaryens did it, but the only differences are that the Valyrians allowed brother-sister marriages and there are only two other Valyrian houses to marry. The Celtigars barely even count, due to how little Valyrian blood is left in them. Both the Starks and Targaryens did marry outside their preferred gene pools. However, that fact doesn't negate that they both practice blood purity.

Stark stans who condemn the Targaryens for marrying to preserve their Valyrian blood are hypocrites. The Starks prefer to marry other First Men and allow certain forms of close incest, if they had as few options as the Targaryens did, they would probably change their views on brother-sister marriages.

Stansas tend to follow the same patterns as Stark stans. They ignore Stark incest and talk about "super special Stark genes" in an almost cult-like fashion. Stansas will go on and on about how the Starks are very special and their (specifically Sansa's) blood is the key to saving the world. Now, there is magic blood in ASOIAF, and the Starks are the one of the families with this. However, the sheer hypocrisy of Stansas and Stark stans to embrace and cheer on this fact for the Starks while simultaneously despising the Targaryens for the same fact is interesting.

Jonsas, who are all stansas just to be clear, are probably the most hypocritical in this group. Jonsa shippers will espouse both anti-incest and anti-blood purity arguments, especially in regards to the Targaryens. However, at the same time, they will write posts about how the incest between Jon and Sansa wouldn't be wrong and how Stark blood is superior. Just like the Stark stans and stansas, they are unironically supporting Stark blood purity. All three of these groups will also write about how the Targaryen bloodline needs to be wiped out.

So basically: Stark stans, stansas, and jonsas all not only support Stark blood purity, but also the eradication of Valyrian blood in Westeros. The hypocrisy is riveting.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/740136068340482048/the-funniest-dni-i-ever-encountered-in-all-my-12?source=share

As a House Martell stan, it's been interesting to watch the evolution of that particular corner of the ASOIAF fandom over the years. For a while, because they were less present on the show (and their actual focus on the show was pretty bungled), they were mostly the favorites of superfans who'd read the books and therefore were deeply devoted to the whole ASOIAF universe, and given how much that means memorizing various types of Targaryen incest over the years, were almost never antis. A lot of people were also drawn to that they were the ~sexy, liberated house, as well as there being a fair number of POC who identified with some of the few non-white people in those books who were actually fully-realized characters (in the books, not so much in the show). IME it was usually people who were also shipping a lot of the other popular "problematic" ships in the fandom like Jaime/Cersei and Sansa/Petyr Baelish.

Then, at some point - particularly after the show ended and the fandom shrunk a lot - it got infected with a bunch of people writing long essays about how Daenerys and the entire Targaryen family were inherently "white supremacist" (previously, it had been more common for POC and other fans who focused on anti-racism to stan Daenerys, and point out that what the final season did with her was some white bullshit that tried to conflate killing oppressors like slavers with killing poor downtrodden people) and there ended up being a fandom fight between those people who saw the Targaryens as the more racist house or the Starks, but they all stanned Martells but in a very shallow sort of way just because they were the POC house. It's also worth nothing that Dorne has equal primogeniture - women can inherit, and in the books it's Doran's eldest daughter, Arianne, who is his heir, even though he has two younger sons - and it also is more accepting of LGBTQ+ people and bastards and general "sex outside of marriage" than most of the rest of Westeros, so it attracts a lot of people who are into them for that reason. I mean, I like them for that reason among others, but of course that's going to be a magnet to people who want to prove that they're extra special progressive for stanning them over like, the Lannisters.

Also, probably worth noting, the people in the second group were generally younger. Book-centric fans generally tend to be older IME in ASOIAF fandom. I feel like whenever a fandom is younger, there's more likely to be more anti behavior.

Anyway it was very weird to get back into ASOIAF when I read Fire and Blood and then when House of the Dragon started airing, and feeling like "my corner" of the fandom had become completely unrecognizable in my absence.

Also, I suspect it's probably drawing in some people who just really like Pedro Pascal. (It was better when it was drawing in the Alexander Siddig stans from DS9 fandom, snerk. Although even that fandom has had an obnoxious influx of younger purity-policing virtue-signalling types discovering it these days, writing stupid discourse about how Garak/Garashir is problematic and people should instead ship characters who don't like each other that much and don't interact much one-on-one because the combinations of them are more progressive or something.... sigh! Anyway, probably not helped by the fact that Game of Thrones completely wasted him, even though his character was one of the best ones in the books and a big one that drew me into loving House Martell. He would've been great as book!Doran, but alas....)

I'm also going to say that as others have pointed out, I'll always be mystified by the fact that ASOIAF even HAS antis. If you're that opposed to incest, age-disparate relationships, violence, etc. anything controversial, how can you stan the actual canon of that show? Or the books, which arguably have even more rape and incest and ephebephilia going on. It just seems like you'd have to have a very adversarial relationship with canon to a point that I just don't understand why you don't pick another fandom. Of course, it's probably really just that antis are hypocrites.

--

Hypocrites, yes. But also drawn to material that they're not comfortable being drawn to. The younger they are, the more the cognitive dissonance makes them act out.

I don't condone it, but I do understand it.

[sayruq]

One 'critique' that Sansa antis/some shippers love to say regarding her show ending is that 'I don't even know why the Stansas are happy with her ending because she's all alone in Winterfell without her siblings.' First of all, when were they even together for it to be such a big deal they are now apart? Second of all, had none of the events in ASOIAF occurred and the Starks were a regular noble family - Sansa, along with Arya, was always going to be betrothed to a nobleman somewhere in one of the Southern kingdoms or maybe to one of her father's Northern bannerman. Basically, no matter what, she was going to leave home by 16-18 anyway once she got married and go live with her husband as....literally all noble ladies did???? Bran wanted to go off and be a knight. Jon would have gone to the Wall or gotten a holdfast and been married off had he chosen that. Literally only Rob, as the heir, would have stayed behind with his future wife and kids. So this whole 'she was left by herself all alone' criticism is hilarious to me. There is literally no universe where all the Starks would somehow magically all live together at Winterfell with their spouses and future kids as if it was some weird Westeros Brady Bunch. That's literally not how it works lol. This is all cope from stans of characters who are bitter about their faves' endings and hated that Sansa became Queen so they are grasping at straws. It's so fucking transparent. Also, Sansa will have ladies in waiting, the house staff at Winterfell, guests and lords who visit, etc. This fiction that she is sitting on some cold throne day in and out without any significant social interaction is bizarre lmao.

They were always going to go their separate ways no matter who ended up on the throne.

And I'm sorry, you have to be stupid not to understand why Queen Sansa, finally safe and secure in her own home and being embraced by her own people as a ruler, is a happy ending. Imo it's the least bittersweet ending of the show. Sansa was a naive, idealistic child who was taken prisoner and endured hell before escaping only to be almost murdered by her aunt, imprisoned again and tortured in her own home. She escaped, defeated her rapist, took down her creepy uncle who caused her so much suffering, and became a ruler in her own right who gained the respect and the admiration of not just the North but also the Vale.

That ending scene had the most set up of everything that happened in s8. The truth is not every Stark was there for all the important parts of Sansa's arc. Jon was there for the beating Ramsay part and the beginning of Sansa as Lady of Winterfell but he obvious couldn't be in Winterfell during her coronation. Regardless he gave his endorsement. Arya was there when the Northerners turned to Sansa in Jon's absence and when Littlefinger died but not the parts before, during or even after that. Regardless, she gave her endorsement. Bran.... man I'm still angry with what they made Bran into but Sansa got his endorsement too. Would their presence in such a pivotal moment have been nice? Yes but the scene was still triumphant without them and they got to wrap up their stories at the same time too.

Tldr Sansa's coronation kicked ass

[testingcheats0n]

Batfam stans be like "what if we made the kids 'funny'" and then turn them into the meanest little assholes Bruce Wayne has ever spent money and time on- and there are a lot of shitstains in Gotham, you know? And then have the audacity to say that Batman wouldn't clap back and fucking destroy their bloodlines ten generations back because he has never been a doormat no matter the iteration.

Idk the weird hate-boner, veiled-dislike, revenge-porn-but-lowkey-for-appearances, I-want-to-have-my-cake-and-eat-it-too headcanons of this fandom piss me off. It makes no sense to me. Just say you hate Batman, never mention him again in relation to the batfam (bc it's obvious you hate him so the tag turns into a crosstag bc you actually ment anti-bruce wayne- just say you hate him jesus) and move on, don't fucking Tony Stark and the Avengers post Civil war it. It's tacky, it's cringy, it's gross, especially when you like... idk erase the abusive version of batman you're obviously attacking to try and ducktape the family dynamic. ESPECIALLY when you make his trauma responses the butt of every batfam member's joke, because haha trauma funny except when it happens to me. Am I making sense? Idk. Ppl make the batfam members extremely dislikeable and self-centric, pile on all their issues on bruce as if he's not the sole reason they're sane/alive/not suffering/with a home/etc., emasculate batman and call it humor when it's actually a bunch of insensitive jokes that border on ableism/victimblaming. Fair when it's fair, everyone have their sense of humor and coping strats and all, but don't make fun of trauma victims for any reason? Your experience is not really a justification, especially when it can hurt others? I just think that making fun of someone (fictional or not) for seeing their parents die is not on man...

[agentrouka-blog]

George even mentioned that he created Sansa because the Starks were too happy as a family. She was designed to be the black sheep amongst the Starks and you are criticising Robb. Last time I checked George said Sansa is one of the parties responsible for Ned's death. At the end of day Sansa is Martin's creation. He knows about her more than any anti or a stan would. I also love how you bring up Martin's quotes when it comes to other characters like Tyrion, Jaime or Theon but when it comes to Sansa you act as if George doesn't know his own character. Atleast have some consistency.

You're very adorable, trying to lecture me on consistency and selective quote application when you just revealed that you haven't ever read the first book in depth enough to even understand the sequence of events.

By all means, come back and tell me with a proper timeline at which point Sansa had any influence to change the events of Ned's arrest. I'll wait. For a long time, no doubt.

I mean, by all means, please keep prioritising random, often contradictory interview quotes over the actual text of the series. I'm sure it won't lead you astray in your expectations for future plot development.

Have a lovely Sunday, anon.

[fromtheseventhhell]

I don't want to imply only Arya antis think she'll go to the Riverlands first lol I'm pretty sure us Arya stans came up with the theory she'll reunite with Lady Stoneheart and give her the gift of mercy in the first place. Unfortunately though there are a lot of people whose speculation for Arya starts and ends at her killing people and disappearing off the face of the earth or realizing "revenge is bad" and then doing absolutely nothing afterwards. Though one thing I've seen very common with Arya antis is the idea that she'll effectually never reunite with any of her family members or identify as Arya going forward, either staying in the shadows or dying nameless or faceless without anyone recognizing her. That's a bit that worries me somewhat with her returning to the Riverlands first thing. Most Arya fans do expect her to be crowned by Lady Stoneheart and lead the BWB and Nymeria's pack up north but a lot of speculation from non-Arya fans ends up similar to Arya's reunion with Sansa and Bran in season 7; out of the loop, out of place, her journey treated as boring compared to the others, underwhelming reunions, conveniently out of the picture long enough so she can't ruin relationships that otherwise wouldn't happen with her present, secondary to Sansa.

One thing I think gets overlooked is how close Braavos is to Westeros. I've seen a lot of people act like Sansa in the Vale is a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Wall while treating Braavos like it's as far away as Meereen but they're actually about the same distance away. Braavos does appear to be perfectly placed if his original intent was for Arya to end up somewhere in the North, whether at the Wall, White Harbor, or even Hardhome.

But mostly I reject the idea that Arya will end up secondary to her brothers if she goes North. I have faith in GRRM loving Arya too much to ever treat her the way the show did in seasons 7 and 8. I think she has a role to play in the North considering how much of the Northern plots in ADWD are tied together with the "Arya"-Ramsay marriage and Jeyne. Stansas ASOIAF fans really believe that Jeyne will have absolutely no intersection with the person she's impersonating despite GRRM spelling it out that she's almost guaranteed to sail to Braavos for safety. It makes absolutely no sense to believe Jeyne would go to Braavos and never even encounter Arya. We also know GRRM intended for the Stark direwolves to go against Ramsay's hounds at some point in the future of which there's about nine named ones so far. Sounds like Ramsay will find out what wolves to do dogs ;) That may be enough to overwhelm Ghost or Shaggydog even if together but even a fraction of Nymeria's pack going north with her could handle them. I also refuse to believe Lady Stoneheart will die again before encountering a resurrected Jon. There's been rumors she and her men have been seen disappearing into the Neck which did lead to in book speculation the BWB has some contact with the Crannogmen. Arya can also be a bridge between Bran and Jon if GRRM keeps the estrangement between them.

And I really want Roose to find out he was in fact careless with a prize of great worth by not realizing he had the real Arya Stark under his nose in Harrenhal as his cupbearer lol. It'd be a shame if he died before finding out. But I do agree that she could go to either location and GRRM could make it work. I seem to remember jokes about GRRM being stuck because there are too many locations he wants her to be in lol.

I didn't think you were implying that, I just wanted to clarify that there were valid reasons for her heading to the riverlands and that I agree that some people only theorize that because they view the North as the most important location so they ignore her connections to it. I agree with a lot of your points and it's very frustrating that Arya's arc gets reduced so much because people refuse to see her as an important character. A majority of the theories surrounding her are the barest bones and people only expect her to leave the faceless men, kill [x] character, and then fuck off in a boat while her siblings (i.e. Sansa) carry the bulk of the Northern plot. The reality is that Arya's arc is difficult to predict because she has so many plot setups. There is an entire arc in Braavos waiting to play out, she has connections to the Northern plot, and she has plenty to do in the Riverlands. Arya is one of George's favorite characters and he's spent a lot of time developing her for a reason, so safe to say that whatever route he ends up taking it's going to be well-written and respectful to her character.

[an-shu]

Eclipse Disclaimer

I feel I need to put this out because of an AO3 comment from who I suspect is the same person past chapters that thought the Eclipse fic was going to align with their cookie cutter shape of Kara and Lena. It’s an exploration on the complexities of Kara being a human vs. Kryptonian as a last child of what she believed an extinct race and culture, with memories of a society on a highly advanced Krypton that strove for perfection in every way—a society, if you were paying attention, was heavily implied (like almost explicitly) throughout in my fic to be respected or feared, to colonize and look down upon others they deemed primitive or not as equal to their intellect and technology. By extension, it’s also Rao-imbued Supergirl struggling to figure out humanity as a newborn deity, one that is supposed to be perfect and godly and so exacting it’s inhuman and unsettling. It’s also an exploration of Lena's struggles against her dark side and the unhealthy relationships she experienced in her childhood that pushed attention on and kept attention from a child, where she was also expected to be perfect and achieve a greatness that required her to channel the Luthor family xenophobia and cutthroat cruelty, to use money and education as a means of disseminating anti-alien rhetoric to displace and genocide an entire demographic off the face of the Earth.

It’s a Kara and Lena who don't perfectly communicate and resolve what they're feeling in a single paragraph. This is them with the hard feelings that come and go as they're processed—emotions are fickle, people are conflicted, and in the heat of heightened moments they say, think, and do things they regret, like self-pity, holding grudges, rationalizing an action or behavior they know is wrong, and continuing to do so some time or long after being slapped in the face with their decisions. These are behaviors Kara and Lena exhibited even after the same problems resurfaced in different ways where they stumbled, faltered, recovered, made the same mistake however more, and eventually grew past them that's exhibited throughout the show.

They're heroes, but they're not incapable of being narrow-minded and bigoted in the comics and show, and they like many are shown quick to defend themselves when their characters and what they stand for are critiqued—what makes them different and good is that they're able to compartmentalize and tamp down those snappy judgements they made in the moment or as time passes, a maturity that's faster for Kara than Lena.

This fic shows trauma and difficult recovery, perfection and imperfection, humanity and humanness, religion and being god-like, assimilation and integration as an immigrant that's a stark dichotomy between two very different survivors, the "palatibility" of heroes, and a great deal more the show couldn't and/or wouldn't address when it was trying to flesh out like six different characters. Of course, many of these topics parallel racism. Perhaps this isn’t immediately discernible to a fandom that, I presume, is mostly yt women who stan a wlw couple who are also yt women, but there will be moments you might not be comfortable with the very real issues the show failed to portray dealing with xenophobia/racism. And to that I say make yourself uncomfortable. Because how American BIPOC perceive and portray media is actually vastly different than how yt consumers see things.

[horizon-verizon]

It's always funny how most greens claim not to care about bloodlines yet they keep praying Condal will leave Jaehaera alive at the end of the show and make her the mother of Aegon's children in show!canon so therefore their favorites' line has some relevance. Sure, Jaehaera was innocent and didn't deserve to die but let's face it, everything that happened to her happened thanks to her family's hubris and desire for power. At the end of it, she couldn't even be named queen regnant because her own side fought against a woman's right to inherit. On the top of that, she's then killed by another green loyalist, Unwin Peake, who wanted his own daughter to become queen. It's a very fitting conclusion to the greens' storyline and a proper end to Aegon II's line who himself wanted to end Rhaenyra's line, let's not forget that (can't they see the irony here?).

But there's more and this thing is even more insane: they also believe Alys and Aemond's bastard son is going to play some big role or will have some relevance in the future. Apparently, they're fine with bastards as long as they belong to their side! They actually theorize that Aemond's son founded house Whent, making him the ancestor of Catelyn Tully and the Stark kids. Why would GRRM even do this??? What would be the point of the Starks having Aemond's blood? Now some of them genuinely think that would justify Arya killing the Night's King and Bran becoming king (because they would have Targ blood) but that's crazy and stupid. GRRM's ending will also be different than what D&D did in the show. All of this is very laughable considering many of the same people are also Targ antis. They hate the Targaryens yet they stan Aemond (and Aegon II) and wouldn't mind the Starks having secret Targaryen blood because it would belong to Aemond. Let's face it, the best case scenario for both that kid and Alys is for them to disappear and never be heard of again, maybe he grew up to be an adult and had lowborn descendants of his own, maybe not, but he certainly did not found house Whent, that makes no sense and there's no support for this in the books. Alicent's line is gone and done for.

Summarizing a lot of points made huh?

"GRRM's ending will also be different than what D&D did in the show."

I wonder if he will continue to make Arya kill an Other (there is no Night King in canon). I already disapprove of Bran becoming king, but I do like the idea of Arya killing some Others.

Back to Aemond. Alys Rivers openly claimed the boy next to her was Aemond's son, yet we hear nothing more about them and no man came out and claimed he was the son of Aemond Targaryen.

So where is this kid? Either:

he died after that incident from any number of things

he lived but after Alys protected Harrenhal -> they left never to be heard from again and she never told him about Aemond

OR he was just a random kid she used and left be after the whole thing was done

If she publicly claimed her son was Aemond's, she probably would have also told this kid who he was. In the second possibility, this son never knows who Aemond was to him, therefore he could never found his own house, or in this case House Whent. And in the first, he would have had to advertise--even a little--his parentage to even form and solidify said house.

Even if they are a bastard, one needs to prove (in case the need should arise) they have some sort of familial tie to a noble house to even be considered a minor noble house. Jon Waters, bastard son of Eleana Targaryen and Alyn Oakenfist, was the father of the man who changed his last name to "Longwaters" and founded the minor noble house of Longwaters. To keep that nobility (however minor it may be), it would work better for that founder and the later members of the house favor to not keep the identity of their founder's ancestors a secret and advertise it as much as possible if a monarch can't oversee that.

Without revealing Aemond and the parentage, no minor house to form. And it's not likely that--if the boy survived past childhood and was Alys and Aemond's child--that the reveal himself without having a sense of his own safety, and it certainly wasn't the time for him to do so when Aegon III was king and Unwin Peake was his Hand. Even so, Aegon was not a bastard, while this kid would be. So Aegon has a better claim to the throne. What would the point be, to a thinking child like this one?