#builtfromabrokenheart

[mc-critical]

Say that you are a writer for MC and gulnihal was never sent away. What storyline/arc would you have for her in the rest of the seasons? Her character had so much potential, it felt like a waste when she left.

Alright, I got inspired, so I'm going to answer this both ways: what would happen with Gülnihal if her storyline in the rest of the show remained intact and what would I do with her if it didn't. (to be fair, I'm fine with her leaving, because she deserves much better than being in this toxic harem and I'm happy she got out of it and had it better than most of the main cast, hopefully living with a guy she loves, but the way it was executed indeed left a lot to be desired.)

If what happened to her before was the same, she would go back to her duties after she recovered from the events in E23. She would learn about Leo's death pretty quickly and she wouldn't want to leave Hürrem alone in such a moment of loss. She would be there for her in her trauma and both of them would often lament on the past in these early days after his death. Gülnihal would be very protective of her then and wouldn't let anyone get to her.

Gülnihal would definitely help raise Hürrem's children. She would witness their growth. She would have a very strong bond with all of them, but especially Mehmet, Mihrimah and (eventually) Cihangir. When they discover Cihangir's sickness, she would take care of him a lot. When she sees Selim and Bayezid argue, she would scold them. The children would also have a big attachment to her, similarly to Esma, and they would view her as their second mother, sharing stuff with her they would hide from Hürrem otherwise. Gülnihal would be the first one to know about Mihrimah breaking Hürrem's crown and would help find a way out of the situation. She would know about Bayezid secretly going on the campaign in S03, since she would suspect it given Bayezid's issues and Cihangir would tell her later on before they let Hürrem know, too. The children just would trust her that much. She would also support Selim very much when he is little.

I would certainly give Gülnihal a subplot with Sümbül. That little thing was heading towards something in the show and it would be a missed opportunity not to flesh it out, right? She would grow to have some appreciation of him and the way he cheers the harem up and would eventually learn how he feels about her, but they both know it wouldn't be possible in such environment. Still, they would remain good friends and she would take his side more often than not against Gül Aga. She, like Nigar and Daye, would try her best to stop the continuous banter between them, visiting them in her spare time to calm down from all the tension in the harem or when she or Hürrem want to get something from Şeker Aga.

I would give Gülnihal more relationships besides Hürrem, since she would be staying for later seasons. In contrast to Hürrem, Gülnihal would be rather well-liked by the concubines, because of the compassionate and conflict-averse personality she would retain. She would get along well with Esma, because of the care they both give to the children and their similar kind-hearted nature. I would give her a friendship with Nigar, with Nigar having a soft spot for her and Gülnihal sharing her own worries with her. She would also be on good terms with Afife and Gülfem later on. That also goes to Isabella and Firuze, despite of the way Hürrem feels for them.

Gülnihal would adapt to the intrigue of her environment, although she still wouldn't want to take part in it. I see her having more of a mentor role and being a voice of reason in all this. When more and more things start to happen in the castle, she would always be out there, visiting the old palace or the sanjacks of Hürrem's sons, usually by her own wish. She would frequently go to Sümbül's "coffee stand" in S04 and they both would drink coffee together before she comes back to the castle. She would grieve for Mehmet and would go investigate for his killer, but without results. While understanding them because of her own attachment to Mehmet and the children, she wouldn't be exactly fond of S04 Hürrem's actions and would warn her about going too far.

She would slowly detach from the system after everyone she loved would be gone one after another. I would still have her get married to someone she loves or retire to the old palace in the end, because there isn't much that could keep her in the harem. She isn't such a person and I don't see her becoming one, either.

**********************************************

Admittedly, I would principally like to make some changes to her storyline that was present in the show, since it's then her potential shone the most, but got brushed off just like that soon after.

First off, I wouldn't have her forgive Hürrem that quickly after her burning her face. That whole thing set the stage for a pretty interesting conflict between two friends that previously and otherwise were there for each other and relied on each other, but all it was ultimately about was the writers showing the ways Hürrem has already internalized the toxic behaviors the system had been feeding her with. That isn't an inherently bad thing at all, on the contrary, I really liked seeing that writing-wise, because it fits very well thematically. But the focus of the conflict was clearly on Hürrem, not on Gülnihal- Gülnihal's stance and sentiments were put aside except from a few scenes and that was a bummer. Even before her face was burned, we saw her happily wear her fur, ruminate once or twice about her new position and that was it. I would leave the swifter buildup of the conflict, because it's what made the culmination more impactful, but I would give a little more time and space for Gülnihal to get used to this new position and understandably want more. I would capitalize more on Hürrem and Gülnihal drifting away from one another, with their friendship being put to the test in this way. After we reach the payoff, a reconciliation between them would happen more slowly throughout the series, it wouldn't have been put behind after two episodes and then brought back again when Hürrem was going in exile with Gülnihal having already forgiven her. I would have extended Gülnihal's dilemma on whether to continue being Hürrem's friend or not. To wonder whether she would be willing to live such cruel life, but to gradually realize that there's not truly a way for her to get out of it. (since she won't be sent away in the future.) She would become more of an impartial figure in the harem, since she wouldn't be totally okay with picking clear sides after what she has experienced. That doesn't mean she would cease supporting Hürrem completely - I see Gülnihal becoming someone who would be against injustice the moment she sees it, so she wouldn't leave Hürrem alone when there is injustice against her. But nothing between them would be the same again. Suspicion would always be on the back of her mind.

The relationships Gülnihal would have besides Hürrem would be there and fleshed out just as much. First the concubines would be good to Gülnihal more out of pity for her condition, but when problems would arise and she would help out, they would begin appreciating her for what she is. I would also give her a friendship with Ayşe Hatun and I would have them support each other and suspect Sadika together. Both of them needed more positive relationships, honestly. Ayşe and the support of the concubines would help Gülnihal to recover and begin anew. When Ayşe is killed, Gülnihal would get a more active role in discovering her killer- at first, she would believe it was Hürrem, because she knows firsthand what she could do in cases like these, but upon further investigation, would find out it was someone else and then would go visit Hürrem in the exile. After Ayşe's death, the friendships with Afife, Gülfem, Esma and Nigar would be intact, with Nigar also complimenting her how well she keeps stuff together and Gülnihal telling her of anything wrong she finds in the harem.

I would totally remove the "Gülşah stabs Gülnihal" plot. Not only does it lead to nothing much in the end, since Mahidevran and Gülşah's dynamic remained the same after two episodes of S02 (but the problems I have with that are a completely different story), but it also did nothing for Gülnihal, since it didn't have much to do with her leaving either, when she seemed to be recovering and her departure was off-screen, after a time-skip. She was only used as Plot Armor and to prop that ultimately filler plot up. That said, I would have Gülnihal be a little irritated with Gülşah overall, because of all the trouble she causes and maybe a little rivalry between them, too. (Gülşah would still screw up in the end of the season, because of "rift build-up between Mahi and Gülşah that is pretty much wasted until E58", but not in regards to Gülnihal.)

The more I think about it, the things with her that would remain the same as they are when her plot is left intact, except for the fact that she wouldn't be aware of what actually happened to Leo, she would only occasionally visit Hürrem and she would be more involved in the workings of the harem and maybe even become a kalfa for a little bit (after Daye and before Afife, of course), trying all in her power to make it a better place. She would want to show everyone her compassion and sense of justice. She would uncover Sadika's mission. She would be involved in Leo's diary drama and keep it to herself at first, but when it's found assure Daye that Hürrem has nothing to do with it.

[aegonbeingfakeisracist]

I love a6 but its unfair how he has more connections to the rhoynish culture than his martell family members. This is why it should have been rhaenys instead.

It was certainly a choice to have Arianne and Quentyn so disconnected from that heritage. It’s not that it’s unrealistic from a modern perspective, at all, but when it comes to the specific context of the story, where all people can recite very detailed stories from their family history and they are extremely proud of the impressive feats of their ancestors, to have Arianne and Quentyn take such an academic view on the Rhoynar, rather than having any kind of emotional connection, is questionable. It’s especially egregious in Quentyn’s case.

Arianne can at least provide Myrcella with an explanation - Nymeria burning her ships, the orphans of the Greenblood mourning, the songs to Mother Rhoyne. Quentyn literally looks at the Rhoyne and does not think about his ancestors. His reaction to the dragons has no connection to his forebears’ experiences. Arianne at least identifies strongly with Princess Nymeria and so there’s a theme present in her chapters about leadership and women in power that’s couched in Martell family history. But Arianne, too, is disconnected. She explains the Rhoynar on Garin’s behalf. She thinks of and admires her country’s national heroine, but never really in terms of how she led her people to safety and brought elements of their culture into Dorne. This is despite the fact that Arianne is in a unique position among her family members in terms of what framing her story in terms of her cultural heritage could yield. On a surface level, yeah, because she’s a woman from a family descended from a legendary female figure and where the balance of power has historically been led by women, but there’s much more to it. 

Think about the Rhoynish legends of the Long Night - their story doesn’t involve a sword ending it but a negotiator. Just as Nymeria won her people a home through negotiating for an alliance with Mors Martell, by leaving Ny Sar instead of fighting, the Rhoynish story of what ended the Long Night was a diplomat. That’s Arianne’s entire thing - she’s good with people. She likes people. Every success she has is a result of her talking to people and convincing them to see her way. This makes her unique amongst her family, because who else do we see with that skillset? Not Oberyn, who prefers to act, physically fighting the Mountain with his spear. Not Quentyn, who fails in his negotiations with Daenerys. Not even Doran, who for all his similarities with Arianne lies. But Arianne, whose manipulations don’t involve lying, who doesn’t fight physically, who succeeds when she sets out to convince people to side with her. It would be so cool for this to be tied with an actual cultural connection to the Rhoyne.

I’m not sure I agree about the Aegon thing. Certainly, if it can only be one character with that connection, I’d want it to be Arianne every day of the week. And I definitely agree that it would have been more powerful for Rhaenys to have lived. However, I don’t think I agree that this specifically is one of the reasons that’s true. Aegon is every bit as Dornish as Rhaenys is, even though he resembles their father moreso than their mother. He deserves to have this connection to his maternal heritage. And I think it would be a not-great choice for the emphasis being on Dornish-looking Rhaenys having more of a connection to her mother’s heritage than her brother when she is the elder. As compelling as her potential struggle with this conflict could be and as much as it could be very interesting for her to want to lean into the side of her family that embraces her in a way that her grandfather never did,  Rhaenys also has more reason to lean into the idea of being a Targaryen than either Aegon or Daenerys - she was a Targaryen princess in real terms. She actually lived in Westeros. Aerys sneered at her, but Rhaella loved her. If handled delicately, the idea of her clinging to her Targaryen heritage and eventually forging an identity that is both Martell and Targaryen, or even ultimately renouncing what’s Targaryen in favour of what’s Martell, could be powerful. But it’s iffy to have Rhaenys, the Targaryen princess with a better claim to the throne than Daenerys and actual firsthand experience with being a Targaryen, be more heavily associated with the other side of her family than her white passing half brother, you know? He may not look it, but it’s his, too.

The issue really to me is Arianne and Quentyn. Because with Rhaenys and Aegon, it would be a kind of gross point no matter which of them it was - the Targaryens get more of a connection to Rhoynish culture than the Martells??? They should get that connection. But Arianne and Quentyn should also have that.

[sayruq]

Somebody needs to make a fanfic where aegon is the evil person the fandom tries to portray him as but except he's always winning and getting away with everything

i will literally kill for this

[elia-martell-creative-fest]

do modern aus count for the "elia lives" day? ignore the last ask i made a typo 🙊

yes they count. tbh that schedule isn’t strict, you can follow it if you want. 

[samwpmarleau]

builtfromabrokenheart replied to your post: Rhaella x Doran The men come to her in ash smeared...

Amazing!��

thank you!

[mc-critical]

Do you think MC hurrem, before the bayezid and selim conflict of course, ever considered that the traditional fratricide could possibly happen amongst her sons? Mustafa hypothetically killing her sons if he became sultan is constantly used as a reason for why she had to get rid of him but how could multiple princes having the same mother resolve any potential conflict for the throne? Sorry idk if what i said makes sense

Don't worry at all, I understood you perfectly! ^^

No, I don't think MC Hürrem considered that possibility as strongly before the inevitable occured.

First off, her adaption to the harem was a slow and gradual process and she certainly didn't become aware of all the rules, all the sudden. (as when she was surprised that Mustafa was getting his own harem before the sanjack) She knew enough to set a goal in her mind from the first episode, but didn't get to see the full picture until she went through fulfilling that goal step by step and saw an obstacle that would be impossible to ignore. She was so focused on the path to survive, she brushed off the cost of said path in the first place.

It's true that in the beginning, there wasn't a reason for her to consider possible ongoing rivalry or fratricide between her sons. Nigar told her that she would rule the world if she gives the Sultan a child and when she becomes aware of the competition in the harem, what would make her prevail over them all, guided by her desire to make SS only hers and maintain power, for she would stop undergoing the same trauma and disrespect all over again? More children! We could argue that, throughout season 1, she views having more children as a privilege - not only does it secure more her position as a favorite, but it makes her gain advantage and power over her rival in this game. Notice how she boasts about the possibility alone in front of Mahidevran in both E06 and E11! ("It will be a boy. Then it will be a boy again. Then it will be a boy again and again..."; "I will give birth to many princes, but you won't even give birth to a girl.") These lines could be an attempt of assertion and a mask of vulnerability and insecurity, in a way, but this is far from the only thing going on. Not just the children, but the princes specifically are capilatized on, because bearing one is considered an honor in this harem and for every pregnancy, Hürrem expresses an almost firm confidence that it will be, without a doubt, a prince. The whole system in the show, sadly enough, encourages that whoever has more sons is more powerful and will get everyone else out of their way eventually, without shining a light on the more grim implications and what the mothers will possibly have to go through with their many sons, to the point it simply leaves them to find this out by themselves. It puts the princes in idealized superiority that is one of the first things Hürrem gets used to and that's why she was initially taken aback when Mihrimah was born instead of another prince she wanted so much. By that point, she had no time to consider eventual conflicts or fratricide because of her (initial) upper hand.

The higher stakes were kept under wraps in the series itself, too, because of its Cerebus Syndrome nature that lets you endear with the characters at first in lighter, more mainly interpersonal situations and then move to the wider scale of the historical themes, having them grow as people and political players and realize the bigger context along with the evolution of the narrative. That is coupled with the children's ages, for the small age, to me, was presented as a symbol of innocence. There's this prevailing trend in Hürrem's character during season 2 where she kept saying that Mustafa is too little for doing certain stuff (like going to a campaign, to a province, etc.) and that, I think, is telling enough of the amount of awareness she had for an eventual conflict between her sons. That was a general theme of the show, too, because both Mahidevran and Hürrem held no ill will against the other's children when they were small, as seen by them taking care of them during the janissary rebellion and Mahidevran saving Mehmet in E16. The children themselves weren't a priority of eradication for them back then and when they were little, they were something worth protecting as a mother's value, not tools to be moulded for the future battle for the throne. When their mothers find a common ground in this aspect, would a conflict between children of one and the same mother be possible? Only when they grow up, awareness comes to the surface, bacause by the time they're still small, they're harmless and innocent. (handicapped by SS's words to Mustafa in E46: "As you grow up, the innocence between us disappears, my Mustafa.") Even Hürrem set herself against Mustafa only by E38 and she didn't want his death until then. Knowing this, could she predict that something could go wrong between her own sons, no less? Doesn't she have other stuff to do until she reaches that point? Isn't she too busy in forging her own survival path and not think as much about her children before they grow up?

Then again, Hürrem has shown to be capable of anything to always remain in SS's good graces both because she is devoted to him and for her own goals. The princes play a part in this, because they have to gain the padişah's support first and foremost and that simply cannot be done through quarrels. Hürrem may have grown wise to this, with the many cases of her ordering the children to go away once a conflict of any kind ensues and especially, always telling them throughout season 3 not to fight with each other, not even because of her, and stressing that family is the most important thing. She may have wanted their childhoods to be as peaceful as possible, rendering them (except Mihrimah) oblivious to what she's gone through, which gave them a sense of naivety in the process. And while that naivety turned out to be a double-edged sword (as we saw with Mehmet fully believing Illyas and Cihangir believing in SS's promise that he won't sacrifice Mustafa), it could've been a way for Hürrem to make sure that her children in general would always seek a consensus and look good in front of the sultan. That didn't end up being the case. Despite of these possible measures of hers, I doubt she got fully aware of the possibility, precisely because of her set goals. Even though the dismissal of Selim and Bayezid's conflict became a main arc of Hürrem's in S04, there were also hints of this in S02, shown by E53: "Such a sun will rise that that sun will only rise for me and my children." Her fixation on Mustafa as the single pivotal moment of her life fight is a huge character flaw of hers almost right from the moment she began to see him as a threat and even from her first attempt, as we see by the quote above, she thinks that by eliminating him, it would be all over, assuringly discarding everything else afterwards. And Selim and Bayezid were already arguing by that episode and it only escalated further since then, because of her ignorance as a part of the whole issue.

It's even questionable whether she has ever thought that, maybe there is more work to be done after Mustafa, because Hürrem's fixation became more predominant as the series progressed, in conjunction with the evergrowing Selim and Bayezid conflict. It was already so prevalent by S04 that Hürrem went as far as to blame Mustafa for the first big scandal between them in E112 and Mihrimah had to remind her of their rivalry-slowly-turning-to-enmity's very existence in the first half of the season that is there in spite of who Hürrem thinks is the bigger problem. She didn't give it the significant attention it deserved when they were little and I, for one, believe that she had to investigate more when Selim set Bayezid's arrow up for failure around E91/92 and not scold only Bayezid, for it only heightened his resentment for Selim. She didn't think of it as something that big to deal with, it was probably a problem they would fix by themselves for good measure, because they're still children after all, aren't they? But a resentment of a child could only continue to live on, especially in such a time period, so if Hürrem, knowing how paranoid she could be and how much she tried to evade everything that could oppose her success, predicted the future mass of the conflict, wouldn't she do something more, wouldn't she nullify it? It's a given that she can't be next to them in every single minute of the day, but the possible outcome itself just screams for tiiiny bit more involvement on her part. The earlier you interfere, the earlier would stop the obstacle in its entirety. Hürrem is smart enough to know this, so the logical thing is that she didn't fully take all that into account. She couldn't, and possibly didn't, want to predict this as a mother.

The very realization of the actual massive power of Selim and Bayezid's enmity and her newfound inability to interfere almost at all to it came as such a surprise for her. She not only completely miscalculated, but it broke her heart into pieces. She didn't see coming any conflict of the like, because if she did, even before the whole fiasco happened, early into S01-2, she would never let it reach such extremes. And the realization hit her in such an unexpected way that she wanted to escape the shock that she had to choose and try to solve things as she has always had, doing things that should've been done such a long time ago. Would she be so helpless when she finally came to terms with the following fratricide, if she saw it coming before the conflict even started?

In summary: Hürrem didn't think of something like this at all early on and when it happened, she did see the roots, but could never, not even in her dreams, imagine the devastating results.

Though yeah, could a conflict between sons of the same mother fully be resolved in circumstances like these? I very much doubt it. Even if the mother removed the tension between them, there are other factors we shouldn't forget (I refer to SS's reign in particular): they are sons of the same mother, but they're still candidates for the throne, hence they're rivals and both the people and the padişah will have to pick a favourite. No matter how impartial a sultan seems to be, he does end up picking sides eventually - whether it's about the province one is sent in, when they're sent in it, how often does he visit them, what in them does he approve or disprove of or how competent they are in his eyes. It's inevitable for them to live in absolute peace in an environment that would sooner or later cause them to fight until one's absolute and total failure.

[mc-critical]

I've been thinking about Gulnihal and i know somebody already said this (i think it was you?) but its very telling how mc hurrem's first immoral action was against her and not mahi,ibrahim,etc. People really dont talk about it much. I also feel gulnihal was wasted she had much opportunity but then i kinda understand why because that would be an entire new can of worms. I saw a post say they should have made raziye mahi's daughter but also she could been made gulnihal's daughter it would have given hurrem a new maybe temporary antagonist instead of the isabella plot.

Hürrem's first immoral action being towards Gülnihal was said by Joanna in this awesome and detailed post. And it's totally true: in a parallel to Mahidevran beating/poisoning Hürrem, she herself did a very similar thing because her supposed best friend dared to go to SS's chamber. Okay, it's understandable why this is widely considered as a personal betrayal for Hürrem, even if we count the fact that she couldn't simply refuse to go there if she were called, but again, was burning her face truly necessary? Wasn't this a tad too far for a person you were friends with before then? Did this girl deserve such harsh "punishment"? Maybe ignore her, not trust her again even, but this? There is no way I can justify it. Besides, Gülnihal has the right to have an ambition for a higher place in the harem, just like Hürrem and all the other girls there. It is what's expected of everyone in this environment and Gülnihal doesn't deserve to be derided for it, especially not when that is her "biggest sin".

This action of Hürrem's certainly sets one thing straight - she's willing to commit to her life-long goal, no matter who or what stands in her way. She isn't against having friends or making alliances in the harem, and at one point she tries hard to earn everyone's trust, following Nigar's advice, but she wants these friends and alliances to commit as well, to be next to her at every step of the way. But when they do the littlest suspicious action, the tiniest mistake, she gets as cautious as ever towards them. I feel the motto of Hürrem's character is: "Pressure made me who I am." Her experiences in the harem have led to paranoia and constant fear that something bad would happen to her, so she's willing to do anything to lower them. If she considers that one friend of hers poses a threat of sorts, she would go against them. In short words, she went through trauma, but she learned almost effortlessly to inflict that exact same trauma on others.

I agree that Gülnihal deserved better from the show. She is so nice and sweet and after that arc of hers ended she became relegated to a more background role than a full-on supporting character. I would've loved to see more done with her and more conflict between her and Hürrem, more doubt on Gülnihal's part. I know that her being supportive and loyal to her friend is the point of her characterization and perhaps the writers didn't want to break the status-quo in that regard, but say, her not willing to forgive and deciding to leave on her own terms and have that explored and shown to us in its finest detail would be much more satisfying to me.

And that said, the way she actually got out of the show is my biggest problem with her writing that unfortunately, goes beyond her, too. Her ultimate fate is perfectly serviceable in isolation - she got married to a guy and ultimately got out of the toxic harem, a much better ending than nearly the whole main cast! I don't even mind all that much that it happened off-screen during a time-skip and we learned about it in the simplest way possible only after it IN THEORY: but it fails so much IN PRACTICE because of the writers' lacking attempt to set it up beforehand with Gülşah's attempt on Gülnihal's life. Episode 23, as a whole, is filled with drama that is intended as a big deal, but solely turns out to be retroactively unnecessary: I would get it if Gülnihal's stabbing triggered them to marry her off, but it truly didn't when you think about it, because, in the context of the narrative, they could've done this particular exit with Gülnihal anyway! They could've freely pulled it off without that whole drama, since the time-skip is in the next season and is in no way tied up to the events of E23. And in the season finale she seemed to be recovering with absolutely no hints given that she would go somewhere else, let alone marry. This sounds like a nitpick, I know, but what empowers this problem even further is that all of Gülşah's doings in E23 themselves are brushed off almost entirely later. E23 is the climax of Mahidevran's mini-arc in S01 about her constant claims that she isn't a killer and refusal to take away Hurrem's life, which make her object Gülşah's desire to end everything for good. This particular thing has been built-up from as early as E16 and it would be normal for it to reach its culmination. And yet, when Gülşah goes fully against Mahidevran's orders and Mahidevran beats her to death, all of which seems to affect the whole castle and Mahidevran breaks down in denial of what she did, it's as if all this is forgotten, not 3-4 episodes later. Two scenes aside, Mahidevran still trusts her unreservedly and there're no long term consequences for the whole thing, which makes it all pointless filler as a result and I feel that extends to Gülnihal, as well. It's almost like the writers drew themselves into a corner about this situation and the following aftermath of Leo's death and since they couldn't focus on every important thing at once, there was no time for Gülnihal left and simply threw the easiest, most convenient solution they could. It still baffles me to this day.

Gülnihal being a temporary antagonist to Hürrem's isn't a bad idea at all and I would love to see that in the remainder of S01B, but honestly not during the episodes of the Isabella arc. {I would also discard this arc entirely, if I were writing the show (because it's just such a tonal mess), but I would instead focus on Hürrem finding more allies like Gül Aga in the harem and delve deeper into her traumatic reactions to Leo's death and spend more time building up what should've been built-up all that time we wasted on Isabella: Mahidevran falling out of love with Süleiman. That's one of my core problems with E55, because despite of the events before her going in Edirne, the only thing it did is make this whole thing a plot-twist (that, by the way, could render Mahidevran hypocritical in the context of the episode) when it really wasn't, but that's a post for another day and excuse me for the ranting.} I personally would also like Raziye to be Mahidevran's daughter, because of her "false second pregnancy" Gülşah spread the rumor of in S01, but then again, her relationship with Mustafa could lose a little of its screentime then and that screentime is precious, because they really had such a well-written and human relationship. And I'm judging this as an alternative we have from what ended up really happening with Raziye, which was the weakest link of S04 to me and honestly, anything would be better than that. I wouldn't mind if Gülnihal had a daughter and if that daughter were Raziye. Then we would see her dynamic with Hürrem in a new and interesting light and it would've spiced up the narrative a little for sure. Temporary rivalry between them and especially, one after what Hürrem did to her, would've been amazing, I won't lie.

[sayruq]

You're aegon vi and you have full control of dorne, reach and stormlands. Aegon, being the ambitious person he is, says that he will spend 100 days in each of the kingdoms and try to fix most of their problems in that time span. (so like 100 days in dorne fixing dorne's problems, 100 days in the reach fixing the reach's problems, 100 days in stormlands fixing their problems). What laws/bills/programs/projects/constructions would you create for the 3 kingdoms in that time span? like for example, investing in a water system for dorne, improving the reach's infrastructure etc

the reach

if randyll tarly is one of my ‘friends from the reach,’ i’ll reward him with highgarden and name him lord paramount.

i’ll authorise the building of watch towers along the coast to prevent an invasion from the sea like the one euron carried out. this will take a long time to complete and will be financed with the reacher houses.

if this is happening post euron, obviously i will discuss the building of a new citadel. i’ll ask the lords in the 3 kingdoms to send books and scrolls so that they can be copied and those copies can be stored in the new citadel.

it will have to be built on neutral land so that no one family can control it, allowing the institute to run independently.

we’ll buy up the harvest the reach is not using on loan so i can feed people during the harsh winter that has already began. this is post war so the war coffers are probably closer to being empty than full and the lannisters drained the treasury so taking the food on loan only way besides taking another loan from the iron bank which is a possibility i will consider once i start collecting taxes since rebuilding after i have won will be expensive 

stormlands

my main focus will be dealing with all the empty castles and distributing some of the food to the kingdom’s granaries for the winter

many stormlords have died, others have sworn oaths to the lannisters and the rest are in the north. 

so at first the only castles i take and give to someone else is those that belong to dead lords esp those who fought against me. i have to reward loyal vassals after all. the golden company support me because they want their lands back. i’ll award land to some of the captains but not all, the stormlands is one kingdom and i don’t want to completely alienate the natives. 

for the lords that switched from the lannisters, i could execute them since their loyalty isn’t 100% guaranteed but that would be evil and make people hate me so i’ll pardon those who will recognise me as their king and i’ll send to the wall those who are for some reason loyal to the lannisters. i would imagine i’ll be sending no one.

for the final group, i’ll send ravens and people to reach out to them, offering them pardons and their castles back if they recognise me as their king. then i will wait since it can take a long time to get a response. in the meanwhile i’ll occupy their castles

while i wait, i’ll speak to the stormlords about the changes that kingdoms need. the ones that are most urgent will be carried out during my stay- rebuilding granaries, repairing castles, etc. 

i’ll also hold petitions from the smallfolk in each kingdom while i tour the kingdoms

dorne

dorne hasn’t been touched by war but they fought with me so i reward them with marriages. i’ll betroth myself to arianne :) and i’ll arrange marriages with lords and knights in the reach and the stormlands in order to end the historical rivalry between the 3 kingdoms. this way i’ll have ties to all 3 kingdoms through marriage.

this will at least make them trading partners. dorne trades mainly with essos but i don’t think forming strong trade ties with westerosi kingdoms will hurt

next i’ll focus on irrigation for dorne. this will be a long project and it will involve rivers from the reach and the stormlands.

after i’ve conquered all of westeros, i can pass laws for absolute primogeniture which i’m sure won’t get much push back as it will prevent many houses from going extinct.

[aegonbeingfakeisracist]

You're aegon vi and you have full control of dorne, reach and stormlands. Aegon, being the ambitious person he is, says that he will spend 100 days in each of the kingdoms and try to fix most of their problems in that time span. (so like 100 days in dorne fixing dorne's problems, 100 days in the reach fixing the reach's problems, 100 days in stormlands fixing their problems). What laws/bills/programs/projects/constructions would you create for the 3 kingdoms in that time span? like for example, investing in a water system for dorne, improving the reach's infrastructure etc

Oh, my god, I love this.

The first thing that comes to mind is aqueducts in Dorne. Specifically the underground kind, to minimize evaporation, like the qanats in Iran (which predated Roman aqueducts). That would provide a source of drinking water and allow for irrigation further inland, so food production can be increased. Since Dorne’s current level of production is seemingly enough to meet needs, a significant portion of this additional produce can be preserved for emergencies. This leads to a necessary system of food preservation and distribution. These should exist in all the kingdoms under my command - a centralized place to preserve and store food from which all sides of the kingdom can be reached relatively quickly when it comes time to disperse the food. A portion of this should be earmarked not for famine, but for delivering monthly deliveries to the people that cannot afford food, similar to how Roman citizens were eligible for subsidized or free grain.

Next is education, very important. I would start by opening satellite campuses for the Citadel in Dorne and the Stormlands - Weeping Town and Planky Town are probably good locations, especially because they’re port towns. I’d hire some of those skilled Myrish lens makers to work out of these satellite campuses and make glasses, first for the people that have trouble seeing in the schools themselves, then in the surrounding towns. As someone whose world is ridiculously blurry when I’m not wearing glasses, I can only assume people would be delighted with me upon being able to see clearly thanks to people I’ve hired. I would also open a school specifically devoted to teaching women midwifery. This one would probably be in Dorne, where there would be less pushback, and perhaps staffed by some of the orphans of the Greenblood, given how Garin’s mother is purportedly the best midwife in Westeros. There are way too many women are dying in child birth! Clearly people are being taught wrong! This could evolve into educating women in other areas from which they’re generally barred. If the first educators are orphans of the Greenblood, medicine could be big - and probably better than the “let’s cure people by sticking leeches on them and poisoning them” approach.

These additional education centres, along with, perhaps, the Faith, could be used to run literacy programs to teach the smallfolk to read. I would then enact civil service exams, such as in ancient China, to enable some level of social mobility and ensure that the bureaucracy is being handled by capable, qualified people. This could be a good option for people that study at the Citadel, but for whatever reason, don’t complete a maester’s chain. I would prevent the lords from revolting against me and assassinating me for this suggestion by framing it as something they could do with their extra sons that doesn’t involve those sons renouncing their family ties.

Baelor the Blessed ruled for a decade. Despite the fact the lords didn’t like him, he was so immensely popular that no one rebelled. How? Because the Faith and the smallfolk adored him. The greater opportunities for education and increased support to keep them fed would hopefully make them somewhat favourable to me. I would try to increase that by passing concrete laws to punish the lords that refuse to protect their smallfolk. By declaring that, should a lord fail to live up to his responsibilities by a clearly defined set of standards, their lands and title will pass to someone else in their family, people would have an increased motivation to behave.

Onto economics! You know what’s weird? That Westeros doesn’t have a national bank. They need one. This probably isn’t the best time, but you know what, go big or go home. I would not only open a central bank, but I would move away from the gold standard, because having an economy based on a commodity where one family, hated by pretty much everyone else, controls the mines and you have the power to change that is nonsensical. Bonus points: it would really hurt the Lannisters, and frankly, that sounds fun, those guys all suck.

This is quite a bit of work to do in a single year. So in order to not be like Aerys with lots of plans and no follow through, I’ll leave the list at this plus a strategy for increasing support for all my plans - appeal to the women. Lots of women would be in positions of power right now, what with so many men off with Stannis or dead because of all the war that’s been going on. If I, AKA Aegon VI, remind them of my Dornish mom and the possibility of the equal succession in her homeland spreading north...I think I could muster a solid support bloc!

[aegonbeingfakeisracist]

Do you know any good programming books to read? Im not taking a CS class this semester so i need something to feel the void!!!

Ooh, yes, for sure - it obviously depends on what specifically you're looking for, because there are so many areas you could focus on, but here are a few recommendations that I think you'll like. If you want some on a more specific topic, let me know, and I'll see what I can find for you!

1. Algorithmic Puzzles by Anany and Maria Levitin

This one is good because it's fun. 😁 It helps you develop a structured approach to problem solving and algorithm troubleshooting through questions that are game like. So instead of the boring old implementations without context, here you have the problem and work from there. It's also good because algorithms are important no matter what field of computer science you're most interested in!

2. Python Machine Learning by Wei-Meng Lee

If you're interested in data science and machine learning, but haven't done much of it before, this is a good choice - it provides a very good introduction to the topic, with lots of examples. If you have some experience with the topic already, it's a good reference, but you might be better off going with something more in depth.

3. Deep Learning by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio, and Aaron Courvill

This one is very technical, with a lot of math and in depth explanations of the different tools, concepts, and algorithms. I wouldn't recommend it just yet if you're totally new to this type of CS, but it's really interesting with a lot of cool stuff.

4. Release It! Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software by Michael T Nygard

One of the things that made me really nervous after graduating and starting work was the seemingly enormous difference between the kind of things I learned in a classroom setting and the applications of computer science in the real world - like, what I did was heavily algorithm and console-application based, which is certainly important, but it struck me as wildly different from the kind of web and mobile application, GUI things that is what's commonly seen by end users. So this was a good book that I thought was helpful for understanding the full scope of what goes into production software.

5. Test Driven Development by Kent Beck

I know it sounds cheesy, but much to my annoyance, TDD and writing tests before writing code actually is very helpful for me - it helps me maintain focus on what specifically I'm trying to do, and even more importantly, the tests can serve as pretty good documentation later. So maybe give this a try.

I think these five are probably good to start with? If you're more interested in a different area of programming, or want more technical recommendations or anything, let me know, I can definitely find you some different recs depending on what you're interested in!

[sayruq]

One thing that makes martell stans different is that the martell bnfs are willing to listen to smaller known martell fans and change their opinions i.e aegon's legitimacy, arianne twow predictions, etc. I have noticed how the consensus on those topics changed with us but not in other parts of the fandom

yeah, we really listen to each other and accept each other’s headcanons no matter how wild. there is no official accepted ships or theories. we don’t make fun of someone’s ideas. we don’t have fights, don’t put down other characters or even pit them against each other. i don’t want to jinx us but we’re the best fandom

[sayruq]

Imagine, we get aegon's coronation in arianne's pov and the chapter is titled "The Kingmaker"

omg that would be so amazing. you ate that

[aegonbeingfakeisracist]

You made your rhaenys post like so long ago sksksj and you still have people mad over it. You know a fandom is falling apart when they start getting angry over old shit

Seriously. Like...dude. Who gets this mad about a months old post about a minor character that they supposedly don’t care about either way? Forgive me, but I’ve been resisting the urge to unblock some of these losers and yell at them for a while, so I’m going to go on a hopefully quick rant about the following stupid replies:

These idiots go out of their way all the damn time to completely miss the point. I never said literally any of the bullshit they accuse me of, and beyond that, they’re proving my point with every word of this. THIS IS ABOUT RHAENYS NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU LOSERS. But if you insist about making it about Dany, “people...want Dany to die so Rhaenys can live” - fuck, you idiots, Rhaenys literally did die for Dany’s story to work. “A poorly masked hate campaign” - they vastly overestimate the amount I care about Dany. As I said in the post itself, I don’t care enough to hate her. This is about Rhaenys. How dare I want this popular series to be less disgusting, right? The response to criticism cannot be, “Go read something else and stooooooop being meee-e-e-an”! I do read fantasy by authors of colour. That does not exempt fantasy by white authors - especially enormously popular fantasy - from being criticized for racist choices and conforming to disgusting patterns while being praised as ~deconstructions. There are many elements of A Song of Ice and Fire that I like and praise! All I ever do is talk about how much I adore Arianne! I have so many thoughts on Arya, Sansa, Edmure, Cersei, Brienne, Jaime, and so many more. Far from “hat[ing] all the main characters”, I love and am fascinated by many of them. What I hate is the structure of Dany’s story. But these people just hate any kind of nuance, and so they can’t stand that.

Also, I wish I could slap everyone that keeps saying this War of the Roses thing. That has literally nothing to do with the criticism, stop bringing it up as if it means something.

[sayruq]

Another sansa and elia parallel: having the worst political antagonists. For elia, she had aerys and tywin. For sansa, she has joff,petyr, cersei, and most possibly daenerys 👀 i ate that💗

they are so similar

[aegonbeingfakeisracist]

Remember how you said that all the DLC has a man that romanticizes them like some mythical figure except for elia? Me and azullarks theorized that aegon could be that guy for elia. He lost her at a young age, he was told that she basically saved his life, he's most likely heard about how good of a person she was, etc. It would make so much sense for aegon to view her in that way, out of trauma ofc.

🥺🥺🥺🥺 Oh, man, Aegon as the not-depressed version of Aegon III is such a cool image. All I want is for him to love and want to hear about his mom, I just...I need this.

[sayruq]

I might sound a little delu but an idea just came up to my head. You know how a6 and sansa have strong ass parallels?? People see it as foreshadowing of them marrying but actually it could foreshadow them being the endgame rulers (sansa in north, a6 with the rest of the kingdoms) it would make so much sense for them having similar paths. Just like sansa, A6 is hated by the fandom bc of his introduction. I'm starting to think george did that on purpose. But if I'm wrong, bran will be a6's successor so we win either way.Period I ate that💅🏽

omg your mind. it’s too powerful.