#due to personal reasons i will now kill dani in cold blood

[nctura]

[sheikah]

My thoughts on Friki’s 8.01 leak

Ok so first and foremost I just want to say that this information is received second and even thirdhand. I do not speak Spanish and did not watch Friki’s video. As it was playing @adecila was kind enough to translate for @muttpeeta who was kind enough to chat with me. My bff @dracarysqueen was also feeding me some info (thanks my love!) and I read a somewhat broken English and at times unclear translation here. It gives you a gist of the video and I’m grateful to u/hang_the_dj2 for making it.  Edit: Here is @adecila‘s leak translation so that you guys can draw your own conclusions without my salt about these revelations haha. Her translation is the undisputed best and I didn’t see it prior to writing this post, though my response is still the same!

One of the first things I read about the leak was the bit about Gendry/Arya. Essentially Gendry makes a weapon to Arya’s specifications. He calls her “m’lady” purposely to fluster her. There is “sexual tension” between Arya and Gendry. HELLO??? I can’t fucking wait. This is going to take over as like the whole world’s GoT OTP lol calling it now <3 

Arya apparently also reunites with the Hound. My takeaway from that bit of the translation is that Sandor mentions something about how Arya didn’t go through with killing him, and I guess he’s grateful for that now? That part was a bit unclear to me in the translation I read. 

Arya also reunites with Jon (!!!!!) where they share a tender hug, compare weapons with one another, and generally have a sweet and positive interaction. Arya is wary of telling Jon that she’s a Faceless Man, and Jon asks Arya to try and talk Sansa into coming around re: Dany. It is obvious that Sansa dislikes or distrusts Dany and Jon is troubled by this and asks for Arya’s help. I’ve heard from one person that Jon also asks Arya to talk to Dany herself. I’m really pleased by the prospect of this because I knew that Arya would support Jon no matter what, and that that support would extend to Dany since they’re obviously in love. 

Speaking of, Friki did make note of the fact that Jonerys is obvious to everyone else: Davos, Tyrion, Varys, etc. Sansa can see it too and asks Jon point blank if he bent the knee out of love or if he did it to save the North. Apparently Jon is extremely taken aback that she would ask this question. We aren’t told more about this moment but I’m guessing Jon is offended that she would ever think he would do something as serious as swearing fealty to Dany simply because of his romantic feelings, and not with the best interests of his home and family at heart. I’ll be interested to see how that conversation ends.

Also, I realize we all already knew this (and have been knowing this literally forever) but these revelations all completely disprove political!Jon. Yeah, it was already disproven by the scripts and basically everything else about canon but this is just another nail in the coffin. Jon having apparently private conversations with both Sansa and Arya about his love for Dany pretty much solidifies that he isn’t secretly playing her in the interest of Stark supremacy or independence. 

That independence, though, is something that is still important to the Northern lords. Lyanna Mormont is outspoken in her disapproval of Dany as queen. She notes that they chose Jon as king, not Dany. Again, we knew this was coming, but I’m stricken again by how silly this is. It’s literally the end of the world. Can this discussion not wait?

Anyway, the Northern lords are not a fan of Dany and it is obvious. Apparently Dany attempts to ingratiate herself to Sansa. Something along the lines of her telling Sansa the North is beautiful. I guess this isn’t successful given the bit about Jon talking to Arya about how much Sansa dislikes Dany.

The Northern lords also tell Jon and Dany soon after their arrival at Winterfell that the Night King has turned Viserion into a wight and is riding him. Dany is distraught by this information and encourages Jon to ride Rhaegal already, in episode 1, BEFORE he finds out about being a Targaryen. They do this to try and get an edge over the Night King. 

Jon does ride Rhaegal while Dany rides Drogon, it’s a great time, and they have a pretty passionate makeout session afterward lol. Friki specifically said this was a good episode for Jonerys scenes. I obviously love this bit of info and think it’s hot and exactly what I want for them both. Who wouldn’t get turned on by riding a dragon with Dany???? (also, lol at how accurate @muttpeeta‘s fic is!!!!) My only wish is that the dragon riding happened after the reveal. I just think it would be a more significant acceptance of his identity for Jon to reach this milestone after discovering he’s a Targaryen. At the same time, I like this because it shows how much Dany loves and trusts him already. Before learning he’s a Targ, before learning he has a claim to the IT, she is already willing to share everything with Jon--even her “children.”

Also at Winterfell, Dany and Jorah break the news to Sam about the death of Randyll and Dickon. This is the part I really don’t like, so I apologize in advance for the rant here. So Dany shares this information and Sam is unbothered by the death of his father. Good. We expected that. He is, however, perturbed by the death of Dickon. While he thanks Dany for sharing the information with him, he is upset and apparently leaves to seek out Bran for more insight. Bran stresses that it isn’t important and that Jon needs to know the truth of his parentage. So Sam leaves Bran and finds Jon in the crypts. 

The first thing Sam shares with Jon, though, has nothing to do with Jon or his parentage. Sam finds Jon to tell him that Dany killed Randyll and Dickon. Jon, understandably, isn’t really phased. There are more important things to worry about, and Jon points out that not only do they need Dany, Dany is the queen. This is the moment when Sam drops the bomb. He tells Jon the truth of his parentage. Jon is shocked and denies it. Sam pushes further and tells him that Dany doesn’t have to be the queen because Jon is the king. 

This is the part that really, really bothers me. A lot. I knew there would be friction about Jon’s parentage. I knew there would be friction about Jon’s claim to the Iron Throne. What I didn’t expect was for the Tarly deaths to be brought up again (literally they brought these unimportant characters back in s7 just to kill them, just to cast doubt on Dany’s decision-making by her male advisers) in the same breath as Jon’s parentage reveal. These things are not of equal importance. The world is literally ending and we’re supposed to be worried about Dany’s judgment again? And to say she “killed” Randyll and Dickon is silly anyway. Let’s not forget: Dany didn’t break into Horn Hill with a dagger and kill Sam’s unsuspecting family in their sleep. Sam’s family betrayed Olenna Tyrell, sacked the Reach, wiped out the entirety of House Tyrell leaving no survivors at Highgarden, and allowed their liege Lady to be murdered in cold blood by Jaime Lannister. Dany retaliated on behalf of her slain allies and even offered mercy to the Tarlys if ony they’d swear allegiance to her instead. They refused, and died for their crimes. Why is this still being discussed? I genuinely don’t understand. 

By comparison, the Umbers and Karstarks betrayed their liege and were killed, but that act was seen as so egregious that Sansa suggested (and was supported in this suggestion by many Northerners) that even the descendants of the traitors be rooted out of their homes in retaliation for treachery. So why is Dany’s righteous vengeance on traitors still an issue? Why?

The episode apparently ends with Sam telling Jon that he is the heir. Again, I understand that. Westeros is built on male-preference primogeniture. Jon’s claim could trump Dany’s (for multiple reasons) and Sam and others would see that and likely push Jon to see it. The natural extension of that argument would be to suggest that Jon and Dany marry and unite their claims. Instead, Sam is possibly (again, we just had one brief video and multiple translations and interpretations of this video. I’m not sure exactly what Sam said) encouraging Jon to press his claim as king because 1. he has a potentially better claim and 2. because Sam might not believe Dany is an ideal queen due to the Tarly execution after the loot train battle. 

I just hate this. I find it massively OOC for Sam to use the huge moment of Jon’s parentage reveal to air his grievances about something Dany did. I find it massively OOC for Sam to be so concerned about Dickon in the first place, especially now. We have not been shown a positive Sam/Dickon relationship in canon, and Dickon was aware of Randyll’s abuse of Sam--he witnessed it firsthand--and did nothing to protect Sam or stand up to his father. On the contrary, Dickon loved and looked up to the brutal Randyll enough to willingly die at his side. This was not a man who was overly concerned about Sam, or vice versa. But now, suddenly, Sam loves his little brother enough to complain to Jon about Dickon’s death in a way that disparages Dany? Additionally, Sam is one of the few people at Winterfell who knows exactly how big of a threat the Night King and the White Walkers are, and we’re supposed to believe his main concern right now is what happened to Dickon? We’re also supposed to believe that Sam, Jon’s best friend, would think he could talk Jon into being king of the 7K, despite Jon’s multiple explicit statements about how much he abhors ruling?

So we’re going to have a delightful week between episodes 1 and 2 during which the antis compose dissertation-length dark!Dany meta like crazy. We have to suffer under what I consider to be a very poorly manufactured conflict that was written just for petty drama. I literally spent the day today at a conference on Women’s Leadership and one of the key topics discussed was how women with true power are seen as threatening and have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously. Glad to see Game of Thrones doing literally nothing to challenge that idea where Dany is concerned. 

Moving on. 

We also apparently learn that Theon saves Yara early on, early enough to be back at Winterfell in time for the Battle of Winterfell. I’m thrilled as a shameless Yara fangirl :)

In King’s Landing Cersei receives word of the Night King and wight!Viserion. She also sees that the Golden Company arrives but not with the force she expected. Apparently they were supposed to have elephants, and they don’t? She’s angry about this, but still sleeps with Euron as payment for delivering her army. I also read somewhere that back at Winterfell, Tyrion is aware that Cersei has commissioned the GC and that she plans to use them against the North instead of as aid against the Night King. This is interesting considering Friki’s other leak involving some treachery by Tyrion later in the season.

Overall, the episode sounds compelling at least and I’m excited about Gendrya, a Jon/Arya reunion, Jonerys getting horny from riding dragons together lol, and Yara living. But Sansa still being a constant voice of opposition for Jon, and the petty Jon/Dany/Sam conflict is really unsettling to me and I’ve very tired of hearing about Randyll and Dickon Tarly. 

[cherryredblack]

Okay I promised I would post this but I kept forgetting

Here it is! My comparison of The Adventure Zone Amnesty characters and Homestuck characters (under a readmore cuz its really long lmao)!!

Duck Newton and Dave Strider-

forced into the role of a hero that they reject due to personal reasons (duck believing hes not really supposed to be the chosen and dave bc of his bros abuse and how he looked up to him as a “hero”)

also compare ducks “im just a regular dude” speech to daves “dave of guy” speech

also are heavily headcanoned as trans due to their stories seeming to be a metaphor for being trans (duck lives as a regular guy his whole life before realizing hes not a “regular” guy v daves problems with trying to live up to an impossible standard of masculinity set by his bro thats a #transthing)

honorable mention- cant lie for shit, sword

Indrid Cold and Karkat Vantas-

hide a very important part of themselves bc of fear of harm or death that would come as a result of it (mothman v mutant blood)

also have regrets that come from not being able to do anything in times of death even as they tried to stop it (point pleasant v gamzee vriska and eridan), leading them to be reclusive and only trust a few people or even nobody

honorable mention-red gay, obsession with a famous male celebrity (ryan gosling v troll will smith), alien, part insect

Aubrey Little and Rose Lalonde-

mothers death was a catalyst in powers coming to light

meets a girl and impresses her with magic (i dont have much for this sorry :pensive: )

Dani and Kanaya Maryam

meet girl with magic powers, fall in love

vampire

can pretend to be sensible but shes like >:3c inside (i also dont have much for this :thumbs_down:

ill do ships now because ned and boyds kinda go into that anyway and also neds is really complicated to write out lol

Indruck v Davekat: the story of a man who tried to save the world but failed and a man who didnt want to save the world but had to

Idk how indruck actually started out but i can imagine it was bc someone saw an interesting dynamic and ran with it

thats what happened with davekat too iirc!

it started as a crackship bc they didnt get along at first and were “fighting” over terezi

but then it got popular

and then they were friends, etc etc

Rosemary v Vampfire

one of the first actually canon relationships (rather than just crushes or flirting)

girl meets alien girl

human girl has magic??

source of magic also connected to alien girl (doc scratch v sylvain [possibly])

alien girl is also VAMPIRE lesbian alien girl

its cute and good and we need more

also theres a connection with aubrey and kanaya as well, to connect aubreys sylvan magic

important heirloom passed down from mother figure right before/after her death

heirloom is lost/destroyed

must find a way to recreate/find heirloom as a part of characters story

ok. now the complicated one. this will be messy and probably hard to understand but its coming from my head so it was gonna be anyway

Ned Chicane and Vriska Serket (also Boyd Mosche and Terezi Pyrope)

they both did nothing wrong ON PURPOSE

we’ll get into that

they both go on heists with a partner in crime (boyd v terezi)

causes harm to partner in some way (ned leaves boyd to get caught, vriska causes terezi to go blind)

partner gets their revenge later (boyd takes all of neds stuff, terezi literally stabs vriska in the back)

sees partner dead, causes them to go after villain (in vriskas case this happens before shes stabbed but a) time stuff, b) she lets it happen so terezi doesnt die)

thats all for ned and boyd, what about the rest? ok.

causes character to die/be hunted after (aradia v barclay) by their apparent counterpart (sollux v stern)

ned doesnt delete the video and agent stern comes to town v vriska is coerced into mindcontrolling sollux

BUT WAIT

ned didnt post the video

ned didnt show agent stern the video

vriska was still coerced by someone to second hand kill aradia

WHO DID IT??

kirby=doc scratch

kirby posts the video and shows it to stern in full (was it already cut down to erase barclay changing?? i dont remember)

doc scratch manipulates vriska into sending sollux to kill aradia

they both get blamed and get full responsibility pushed onto them for it evn though a) ned didnt know kirby did that and b) vriska was a child

THATS WHY NEITHER OF THEM DID ANYTHING WRONG ON PURPOSE. ITS NOT THEIR FAULTS BUT THEY STILL GET THE BLAME PUSHED ONTO THEM

also thacker=gamzee, billy=mayor, jake coolice=nobody because hes too wonderful to be compared to anyone in homestuck and also i love him, pigeon=nepeta (pete=equius?)

if you read all this ur a real one. yes i am an intellectual thank you.

[birdsy-purplefishes]

I have MANY thoughts and feelings about Midsommar.

Okay I saw Midsommar last night and it was an experience. So this post is probably going to be long and rambling and it is definitely 100% for-sure going to contain some spoilers. I’m gonna put a whole lot of it behind a Read More.

First, though, I want to say that while I thought this film was great it is definitely one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. I went into it knowing almost nothing--and honestly I wouldn’t have been prepared even if I had read spoilers--and that was the ideal way to see it for me but there are many triggering things and some very problematic things in this film. I’m gonna try to be vague as possible but you might not not to watch this one if anything from the following list is something you can’t handle. That said: I am very easily disturbed by a lot of things and I found that this film was so bizarre that I never really felt like I couldn’t finish it. It’s... kind of weirdly selective about which gruesome stuff it shows and what it doesn’t. The most terrifying things to me were implied things and I didn’t realize them until after it had ended. Somehow... miraculously... this film didn’t come across as gore/torture-p*rn to me. So Trigger Warning / Content Warnings for this movie: Violence, blood, gore, horrible suffering. Sex, nudity. Mental illness and stigmatization/perpetuation of harmful myths about mentally ill people. Suicide. Ableism. Racism. A rape scene that I think most people didn’t even realize was a rape scene because it’s bizarre and left somewhat ambiguous. Emetophobia triggers. Body horror. A whole lot of drugs. Squicky grossout stuff. Emotional, psychological, and religious abuse. 

There’s probably other stuff I forgot. Basically everything horrible is in this movie. It was definitely worth it but it’s a hard watch.

Okay, now for spoilery stuff.

The backstory shown in the first few minutes is incredibly disturbing. Dani’s bipolar sister murders their parents and kills herself. It’s graphic. It’s disturbing. It definitely portrays suicide in a negative light, which is pretty much good, but: can horror movies stop perpetuating myths about mentally ill people?! This stuff is damaging! It makes mentally ill people out to be monsters and then ignorant people treat them worse. It makes mentally ill people feel like there isn’t any hope for them! This part sucked a lot. The only interpretation of this that isn’t awful is the fan theory that there are clues in the background that suggest that the cult may have actually framed Dani’s sister but that’s kind of a stretch. None of the other foreshadowing in the film is as subtle as the supposed hints that the cult fabricated the whole thing so I doubt it.

The foreshadowing is actually super obvious. It’s the typical horror film where the characters have no idea what’s going on & you’re like “DUDE GET OUT OF THERE!” the whole time. People on the subreddit are pointing out all kinds of foreshadowing and even the tapestry at the beginning shows you who all of the characters are and like 90% of the story.

Dani’s boyfriend, Christian, sucks. His friends suck. There’s a lot of macho bullshit and they’re just cold and dismissive. And the boyfriend’s a manipulative little leech. You hate him so much! I found myself hoping that she’d kill them all except maybe the cute friendly Swede. Basically the entire movie he’s gaslighting and dismissing her and his friends talk shit about her constantly. It’s the typical “oh, women are irrational and over sensitive” macho bullshit. Like to the extent that all of them know about the murder-suicide of her entire family but none of them try to fucking shield her from seeing the suicide ritual. Not even the guys who know damn well what it is going into it!

The fact that they’re all anthropology majors and they go into it with a sense of cold detachment and an insistence on cultural relativism (or utter obliviousness) and it makes them total assholes wasn’t lost on me and I’m glad that someone went into detail: https://slate.com/culture/2019/07/midsommar-graduate-students-villains-ari-aster.html 

The bros say something about him dumping her and finding somebody who “actually likes sex” and there’s a lot of interpretations to that, none of which are less than horrible. Like does he try to pressure her into doing stuff she doesn’t want to? Probably! Like whether she has emotional or physical sexual dysfunction isn’t discussed and that’s kind of brilliant because even if she does have issues it’s not her fault at all and the dudes are g a r b a g e for even suggesting it.

The cute friendly Swedish dude (Pelle) who was the only one to be kind to Dani at all was actually the worst manipulator of all! He’s totally luring her in! He’s love-bombing and manipulating her! He literally “draws” her in. He does some forced-teaming shared-trauma bullshit. I gotta say though: I fell for it! I wanted her to dump the guy for him! I’m almost surprised that she didn’t fall for it. I think it’s more due to the fact that she’s traumatized and grieving than anything.

The most disturbing thing about the guy, though, is that I can’t decide if he does all of this because he’s evil or because he’s genuinely a true believer and believes with all his heart that he’s doing good things. That will haunt me forever tbh. Just... always watch out for guys who want to “save” you. They are the scariest fucking abusers.

The whole cult is love-bombing her, actually. The whole film is like Cult Tactics 101. They find a vulnerable young woman who’s lost everything. She doesn’t feel a sense of love and belonging anywhere. She has no support system unless you count her garbage basically-sociopathic-but-aloof boyfriend who really doesn’t count. Pelle hand-selected her because she’s the ideal cult brainwashing candidate. He’s seen firsthand just how much shit she takes from Christian and how she’s constantly falling for his gaslighting and tolerating him mistreating her. I was actually kind of disturbed at how many women I saw online reacting to the cult saying it was empowering or matriarchal. It’s not at all! The first elder we see leading things is female but the ones handling the book and enforcing the rules are men. I can only recall two women elders who do much of anything and they’re both just prominent parts of ceremonies. They’re announcers/performers. They’re definitely complicit but the men are behind the scenes controlling it. And look at the sex ritual! There’s no real emphasis on female pleasure and it’s all being a good little brood mare. It’s a performance. And small babies are kept away from their mothers to be raised communally. They send the mothers away from their babies! Even the May Queen role sucks if you think about it for even a second. The whole “we’re a family” thing is just creepy as hell. There’s even a lot of foreshadowing to it that I missed, like the guy who greets her shaking the mens’ hands but saying “welcome home” to her. Said guy also calls his traditional garb “girly” when Dani compliments it, btw! And of course the division of labor is patriarchal. The clothing is patriarchal too.

The mental health ableism stuff is bad but there’s ableism based on physical disability as well. Arguably it’s supposed to condemn the cult for fetishizing disabled people and promoting incest to deliberately create disabled people but... it still comes across as “look at this deformed kid” and it’s fucked up.

I can’t tell if the movie is trying to show us that the cult is racist or if the movie itself is racist. They kill off the three non-white outsiders pretty quick. Was that classic horror movie “the black guy dies first” bullshit or was that supposed to be like “look, these seemingly peaceful and loving people are xenophobic and racist and there’s a reason why all of them are super duper white despite bringing in outsiders”. Like I came out of the film definitely convinced that it’s no coincidence that the blue-eyed blonde chick gets singled out as special by these people.

It made me really uncomfortable to realize that the sex ritual is technically a rape scene. We get clues that Christian goes into it voluntarily to some extent, sure. When he knows that girl (and she does look like a young girl!) is trying to seduce him we don’t really see his reaction but he doesn’t seem to refuse outright. He seems ambivalent until he's offered the drugs but then he hears that they’ll make him lose his inhibitions, looks at the girl, and gulps the liquid. He saw it as an excuse to get away with cheating and he took it. But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s drugged when he actually agrees to the sex. He’s tripping the whole time. He’s being pressured and prodded and even literally physically manipulated. He’s out of it. The girl seems kind of out of it too. It’s really fucked up. But like it’s so weird and you’re so mad at him for everything shitty he’s done to Dani that you’re just like what?! But when you think about the fact that he’s drugged and you see the way he’s horrified after he realizes what he’s done... it’s horrific. He was violated.

I like that we see just how viscerally traumatic it is to be cheated on. Dani vomits, collapses and wails. And our sympathies are with her.

The cultists imitation of their members’ suffering is actually deeply disturbing and a huge aspect of the love-bombing thing, especially for Dani. She goes from being barely held by her expressionless piece-of-shit boyfriend while she wails to having a whole bunch of women replicate and act out her suffering. They do this too at the botched suicide and the final scene. They even kind of do it when she fails to eat the fish. It kind of looks communal and empathetic but it’s a feigned empathy. It’s another way that people in the cult lose their own personal identities. Nothing is yours there! Not even your suffering is yours.

To be honest... I went to see this film ‘cause a lot of the reactions to it were women gleefully enjoying seeing a shitty boyfriend suffer a horrible fate. I’m always down for misandry and cinematography! BUT... this was just excessive. The boyfriend is a total bastard. He did kinda need to die tbh. But he basically gets tortured to death. It’s made pretty explicitly clear that it’s horrific. They make no effort to mercy kill him like they did to the elderly guy whose jump failed to kill him. And like... the actor even gets it. The guy’s a scumbag and he doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself. He even backstabs Chidi From The Good Place! But what happened to him is just awful.

The director and the lead actor actually disagree about the ending! Ari Aster says that Dani knows what she’s doing when she condemns Christian to die. Florence Pugh says she’s out of it.

I say it doesn’t actually matter whether Dani chose to kill Christian or not or what her motive was. Honestly it might have been a mercy killing given the state that he was in! Like maybe it was revenge for her and maybe the cult did it to make her feel empowered but it sucks being forced to choose who lives and dies. It sucks that some creepy cultist basically stole her man. It’s the whole “a pedestal is the same as a cage” thing for sure.

Last thing I can think of for now: I’m very surprised and more than a little distressed at all the people--especially women--who see this as a happy ending for Dani. Sure, it’s kind of a dark fairy tale revenge fantasy. But she’s objectively worse off than she is at the beginning of the film! She’s brainwashed and trapped! Like... I forgot where I read this now but basically Aster says that she goes from with one gaslighter to being with an entire cult of gaslighters! What do you think is gonna happen to her in the future?! She’s gonna have to live with her dead boyfriend’s baby that he had with some rando chick if that fertility ritual worked! She’s gonna have to live in a shitty commune. She’s gonna have PTSD 5ever from everything that happened. It’s honestly a tragic and horrible ending.

I’m... still processing this. I know I’m gonna end up adding to this. Feel free to chime in and discuss it with me! This movie was just Intense. BONUS LINKSPAM: Good Takes And Shit!

https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2474518/jordan-peele-says-midsommar-has-the-most-atrociously-disturbing-imagery-hes-ever-seen

https://themuse.jezebel.com/boy-problems-whos-got-em-midsommar-does-1835878652

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alisonwillmore/midsommar-ari-aster-florence-pugh

https://www.vulture.com/2019/07/the-end-of-midsommar-ari-asters-last-minutes-explained.html

https://www.vulture.com/2019/07/the-end-of-midsommar-ari-asters-last-minutes-explained.html

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/03/738422258/midsommar-shines-a-solstice-nightmare-unfolds-in-broad-daylight

EDIT: Also!!! This film?! Somehow is a comedy! It’s funny as fuck and I’m definitely going to hell for laughing!

[shazyloren]

The Room: Chapter 21 - The Champions

Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/12710496/chapters/30294486

--------

Daenerys felt sick to her stomach.

It was quarter to six on Halloween evening and there was a hive of activity in the hall. All the schools were once again gathered following the welcome feast the night before and this time, the air was laced with a poisonous rivalry. Students from all schools were talking down at each other, claiming their school would wipe the floor with theirs. All daenerys could think of as she and Missandei sat together, trying to ignore the chatter, was that she'd possibly been the world's biggest idiot.

At least Snow was good at Defence, he'd got them out of that situation easier than you could say Salazar Slytherin, but Daenerys, will successful in other areas, was scared for the first time about the competition. Sure she'd been nervous, she knew she lacked in that particular area but now, only a few minutes out from the champions being chosen she was beginning to think she might throw up her breakfast.

To make matters worse, Joffrey Baratheon was going around telling everyone to kill her if they got the chance while in the arena if she was chosen. She'd ignored him, and thankfully none of the other students who entered were listening to him either, but she thought if she heard his bitch mouth talk anymore shit about her she was gonna throw a bat bogey hex his way. She was good at those, quite fabulous actually.

She didn't want to be so obvious with him however, she was in Slytherin after all, even if in all her years of being here she'd never felt less like one than in her final year. She'd lost her cunning edge, her calculating brain had become docile and she'd even given up hexing people - save the odd one at Jon on prefet duty. She knew it was just the pressure of everything that's happened with her mum's passing that she's become so empty. She also knew that in time she would become her old self again, but it was time to change and give the chance to have a normal life after all of it.

If that was even possible.

"Red headed bitch, wouldn't be able to beat me in a duel if she tried" Daenerys heard Joffrey's voice sound out with a couple of his mates snickering with him. Daenerys found ehr hands balling into fists as he described his attack on the Stark sisters he'd performed in the charms corridor the other day. "And that bitch sister of hers, hexed her in the hall the other day, stinging curse. Nasty little brat she is"

She'd heard all about it, they were suppose to be meeting Jon so he could help them with their homework. He'd told her that on Head duties. He'd turned up to one of their many meetings the past few days with his hands shaking and his eyes seeing red. Dany hadn't even needed to probe him for further details due to his shouting voice that started before she even said hello.

Joffrey was snickering and the two girls in question were sat on the other side of the school together with Robb on one side and Jon on the other. Theon sat in front of them with Jon's Hufflepuff friend Gendry. They were all glaring at Joffrey who didn't seemed phased by them. He just kept going into detail about how Arya had tried to fight back by biting his ankles.

"Joffrey, be quiet" Daenerys sighed. The silence that rang along the Slytherin table was palpable.

"Excuse me?" He walked towards her menacingly. "What did you say?"

"I said be quiet" Daenerys was unphased by his menacing prowling. He was about as threatening as a puppy in a wooly coat. The Sand twins were snickering, trying to hold their giggles in. Joffrey sent them glares and they shut up sharpish. "It's not nice to pick on people younger than you - nevermind that they're girls too"

Daenerys eye caught Jon's for the briefest of moments, a fleeting exchange of worry as he surveyed the situation. Daenerys looked Joffrey up and down, he was skinny, scrawny even, and so pale. How he had any sway over the descent students in Slytherin house she did not know, but it must be something to do with the money and favours he'd be sitting on from his rich parents.

"Listen, inbred witch-" Joffrey started.

"So original" Daenerys sighed. She stood up with her bag and signalled for Missandei to follow her, she didn't fancy leaving her with this lot. They'd rip her to pieces and she wouldn't be able to fight back. She turned towards him for one final exit line. "Come back to me when you've got an insult you've actually thought of yourself"

She began to walk over to where Jon and his family were sat, Missandei in tow. "You can't talk to me like that, I'm a Baratheon!"

"And I'm a Targaryen" She warned him, a small spark of fire in her fingertips as her heated blood flowed through her veins. Underneath all the pain, her tenacity was still there, still fighting to keep her afloat and not be weighed down. "Speak to me in a manner that degrades my family again and I'll be sending you to yours in a matchbox!"

She stormed away then so he couldn't say anymore and plonked herself next to Jon while Missandei sat the other side of her. There wasn't time to explain herself however as the Headmasters from all three schools filled the hall with an eerie silence as they walked down the middle of the tables, Professor Lannister leading the way. The clock stuck six and everyone's intake of breath could be heard.

And then, as silent as a feather landing on a soft pillow. Daenerys felt her breakfast threaten to come up once more, the taste of bacon still present in her mouth as Lady Melisandre and Headmaster Baratheon took to their seats. Professor Lannister waked up to his podium, cleaning it a little. This gave Daenerys a few seconds to look at Jon, a single drop of sweat had formed on his forehead and he looked paler than she'd ever seen him.

It was almost reassuring to know he was feeling as riddled with fear and nerves as she was. If one of them were chosen then she'd be forced to ask for help from him in defence (not that she'd tell anyone else that - working with her four year long rival wasn't an announcement to make the papers). He may ask her for potions help, it was a known fact she was the best at potions in the school besides Professor Lewin himself so he may come to her for the same reasons she'd go to him.

It all reminded her of their patrol the evening before, when she'd stupidly let it be known that he was the first person to ever kiss her. His had said it all, surprise and amusement. She wasn't happy that her inability to produce a meaningful relationship with someone enough to kiss them was amusing to him. Of course, she gave him some leeway for not knowing that she isn't comfortable with people touching her. But he'd still annoyed her.

Of course, he hadn't said a word to anyone because it would go around school quicker than you could say Bertie Botts and it'd be another thing added to the list of things people would laugh at her for. She had decided however not to let any of it bother her, their words didn't hurt anymore. She'd hit the bottom with such a crash and fall that nothing affected her anymore. It was just another thing to add to the shitpile as she kept saying to herself.

"Students, local and from afar" Professor Lannister started his speech. The ceremony was about to get underway and they hadn't even eaten. Usually it was tradition to have the feast and then call the names out after desert. Daenerys thought this way was going to cause more issues but she overheard Theon saying at least it will be out of people's systems by curfew and there won't be any stragglers talking predictions. So eating after the announcement it was then.

"Today, the goblet of fire will tell us who our three champions will be" There was a generous clap that echoed around the room. "Yes, exciting. The Goblet of Fire is a magical binding contract; if you are chosen, you must compete in the three tasks. The prize, one thousand five hundred galleons, is a life changing amount of money. If we do not have any late editions to the cup, let the ceremony commence"

He took the age line down on the cup so he could step through safely and work on the enchantment that stops it from accepting any more names. The room was silent besides his small muttering of the charm. Jon turned to face daenerys, she could feel his eyes on her but she refused to say anything. Everyone in this hall will not be the same after today's ceremony. She found courage however in the reason she entered in the first place. To stop others from making that sacrifice, to make the school realise she cared for them and she'd fight for the school's name.

As Professor Lannisters words ended,, she drew on these thoughts and found that she was forcing herself to smile. To not appear as nervous to those who could be chosen or she could be representing. She was completely ridden with angst and tension however, and the drumming of Jon's fingers on his own thigh she could see below the table suggested that he too was about to lose the plot.

"Time for our Beauxbatons champion" His voice was sharp and clear throughout the room. the flames in the goblet turned from Blue to red as it spat out a piece of parchment that looked like two joined together. No one else seemed to have noticed this until Professor Lannister was holding it in his small hands. His face paled as he stared at the parchment. "It's given me two names... there's two names on this piece of parchment"

He scanned the crowd to gage the reaction from the students. Everyone was wide eyes and whispering, shocked hissing and gasps of excitement tingled through the room like an warmth that spread across cold skin. Lady Melisandre stood in her seat, eyes dark in their colour, now red instead of blue. She was a changeling, a Metamorphmagus. her entire face was piercing into Daenerys very being, an angry she did not feel from other people.

"How can it chose two?" She demanded to know.

Professor Lannister had no reply. He did not know, so he just read out the names. "Irri Dothrak" There was a cheer from Beauxbatons table as a small but fiesty looking woman with tanned skin and a pixie haircut stood and walked towards the front. The other houses gave a respectful clap. "Greyworm"

Daenerys had heard about the infamous Greyworm. He was a muggleborn who's prowess as a melee combat fighter was going around school. He could throw a punch. Apparently he was really good at creating different weapons through magic and had been a popular hope to represent Beauxbatons in the tournament. He stood up, a tall man with gorgeous brown skin that popped in the candlelight of the great hall. He looked sturdy and muscular and so much so even Missandei sat next to Daenerys was looking with interest.

"Our Beauxbatons champions, if you'd like to go to the trophy room with your head mistress where you will await further instruction" Professor Lannister was rubbing his head, a weird occurrence that he could not explain. Someone had to have tampered with it to cause this to happen. Just like the last time the tournament was held. She felt like gloating to him, telling him that she told him the tournament was a bad idea. But her argument to that had gone out of the window when she entered. "Time for our Durmstrang champion to be chosen"

The flames that were ice blue grew and turned red once again to spit out a piece of parchment with a name on it. Once again, it was two pieces of parchment together and it had spit two names out to be the Durmstrang champions. "Daario Naharis" A tall but muscular white boy stood, his hair slicked back and a blue flower on his uniform. He winked at several girls as he passed them by on his way to the front. Daenerys screwed her face up. He was a bit of a pretty man for her liking, he thought as much too. "Doreah Qarth"

Another skinny and small girl stood up and walked to the front. Her hair was in dreads and her eyes were a hazy blue. She skipped with joy as a respectable clap once again sounded out. She hadn't heard anything about this girl, but she did not look like she'd just been told she was participating in a deadly tournament. Instead, she looked like she'd won a date with the lead singer of Free Cities. Stannis Baratheon stood up then and took his two champions into the trophy room to await instruction of what to do next.

This left everyone in the hall on the edge of their seats over who the Hogwarts champions would be. It was bound to be two people, the other two schools had enjoyed double champions chosen so Daenerys wasn't holding out that Hogwarts wasn't going to be in the same boat. Professor Lannister didn't even say anything, he just clicked his fingers and watched as two pieces of parchment joint together once again was spit out of the raging flames before fluttering down and landing in his hands.

He looked at the names and sighed. Jon breathed in deeply all while Daenerys caught the eye of Jessica Flint, a fellow student who entered. Professor Lannister opened his lips, a deep sigh fell from them once more before he spoke. "My heads"

Shit.