#fig propagation

[bigmeatpete69420]

I am overjoyed with how this fig clone is looking about 2 years into propagation

It almost even looks like it has a few mini figs

[slinkyslugs]

Things in Progress:

I've been good about keeping myself busy inside this winter! I've also got more plants than last year, which makes me happy (although my potted basil still got too cold and died)

Some little creatures I'm making, with whimsy in spades. I've got a craft fair coming up that I feel unprepared for...

The fig cuttings are doing well and finally growing new leaves after they all fell off! I had layered these branches last fall/summer while attached to the mother plant, and cut them off in Oct/Nov sometime. The big plant dies off every winter when it gets cold, so hopefully these will have a head start and mayhaps find a better location near a warm wall.

I also have tried my hand at sewing a wool hood (liripipe medieval hood) which I think is really neat. I need to add toggles to hold the front closed and decorative leaves around the bottom, but it's wearable! I'll have to make another for my partner at some point.

They made a snide comment that I'm just making a medieval monk costume with all my fashion choices recently... And they're so right. Come Halloween we'll see if the pieces come together.

[orticasimpatica]

Ortica Simpatica, Metal birds

[thehouseplantshop]

Check out our fertilizer guide for a deep dive into the world of feeding your houseplants 🪴

[dragonmons]

my bday treat to myself with the very little money i have left after paying my half of the mortgage was four 1-gal jars to work towards getting mourning geckos. i love those little girls so fuckin much and if i dont start keeping reptiles soon i will pass away

[cselandscapearchitect]

Book Review: 'Indoor Green: Living with Plants' by Bree Claffey

A book dedicated to enhancing the beauty and tranquility of our personal spaces with the nurturing power of plants, ‘Indoor Green: Living with Plants’ by Bree Claffey, is a treasure trove of inspiration and practical wisdom. Indoor Green: Living with Plants’ by Bree Claffey Claffey, the owner of the renowned Melbourne-based plant store ‘Mr. Kitly,’ has a clear love for the living world, and it…

[euclideggnog]

For no reason in particular, thinking about assigning each Look Outside party member a Plant.

Rat Baby Thing- just a lil tiny sprout! Who knows what it’ll grow into!

Joel- Mint, for its rapid propagation… and because tooth paste is minty

Sam: stuck on either a fern, spiral succulent, or maybe an orchid or various reasons… unsure yet

Dan: Still unsure but something that needs a lot of attention to thrive, like a fig leaf or zebra plant or something?

Leigh: Venus Fly Trap. Need I even explain.

Ernest: haven’t got to know him that well yet so all that comes to mind is a tumbleweed, since he seems to be a drifter judging from some of his stories and his reaction to the trucker game.

Xaria and Monty: I mean, obviously they need to be something spiky or thorny, right? They’re too punk not to be. Specifically I feel like Monty is one of those little squat round cacti and Xaria is one of those much taller skinny ones, the kind you keep in the same pot. Do not separate.

Roaches: Well. He’s made up of pests, so it only makes sense he’d be a “pest” plant to me, so he’s gotta be some kind of common weed… maybe dandelion for the fact that when they seed their flower turns into a million little seeds in one big puffball… like a million little cockroaches in a trench coat. Kinda. Not really.

Papineau: Hmm… I feel he’d need to be a big hardy plant for sure… and maybe some kind of air purifier? Rubber plant maybe? Like. Like the rubber gloves you put on while cleaning. Yeah. Definitely not pulling ideas out of my ass on this one prommy.

Morton: never got him to join my party so I don’t know a lot about him rip. I know he’s surprisingly good at crosswords tho? Gonna go with crabgrass, a weed that’s hard to remove. And

If anyone has any better suggestions please feel free be sure I’m still a bit stumped over some of these.

[serpentface]

UPDATED IMPERIAL WARDIN FOOD POST

(Note that many foods aren’t 1:1 with real world equivalents but will be labeled with their real world equivalent if it’s Basically the same thing in form/taste).

STAPLE DIETARY BASICS:

Maize is the most important staple grain throughout the majority of the region (and much of the northern hemisphere in general). It has been cultivated here for about two thousand years and some wild teosintes are native (can be found on both sides of the Mouth seaway), though it was not domesticated here and Probably originates close to modern-day Bur.

The main maize type grown here is comparable to field corn. It has a taste and texture resembling choclo, being starchy and somewhat chewy (the kernels are not as large though). Most strains are hybridized with wild teosintes, though mostly not by intentional cross breeding. Maize is usually consumed in nixtamalized form using lime. This is habitual, both as a matter of providing better nutrition and better taste, and plain corn tastes a bit unusual to the palate (though is used in some sweet preparations). Corn smut fungus is also intentionally allowed to propagate and is widely eaten, though consumption of fungi is otherwise rare.

Barley is a close second, and has been present in the region longer than maize. The landrace here is particularly hardy and tolerant of poor, dry soils, and it can be grown further from the alluvial soil that maize thrives best in. It has a lower yield compared to maize, however. This strain is a winter barley requiring periods of cold after planting to grow. This makes it valuable as a staple, being potentially the first crop ready in any given year (depending on conditions it might be harvested a few months before maize), though it does not fare well in sustained freezing temperatures and may fail in a bad winter. Some summer barley types are present but grown at a more limited scale; it's unclear whether these represent two separate introductions or a novel mutation.

Two types of yam are widely grown and very important to the diet, referred to as the red yam (regarded as the best in flavor, but more delicate) and the white yam (regarded as poorer, but a significantly hardier crop that can be grown throughout most of the year). Both are mild starchy root vegetables (not sweet potato), though the red yam has a richer flavor and is subtly sweet. Both are cultivars of the same plant, which may have been domesticated in this region.

Lentils and legumes are the other core cultivated part of the diet. Chickpeas and cowpeas are most widely grown, and often comprise the majority of protein in a person’s diet. The mung bean is a relatively recent crop adopted in trade, and is primarily grown in the wetter northwest.

Potentially available grains/fruits/vegetables/etc (regionally varies, not including some misc edible wild greens):

Rice, cabbage, lettuce, onions, garlic, chili peppers, peas, olives, koli (cactus-like fruiting plant), camiche (tree with edible seeds, seedpods, leaves, and flowers), stone pine, dates, anuje palm (produces edible sap), pistachio, figs, nara (lime-like orange citrus), melon (a mildly sweet, cucumbery variant with edible seeds), apples, pomegranates, breadroot (wild plant comparable to prairie turnip), dirruca (similar to an autumn olive), groundcherries, acorns, amaranth, wild mustard, and maga (root vegetable with a potato-y texture and cabbage-y taste).

Of these, cabbage (more specifically a cabbage-esque brassica cultivar, it's a little different), onions, garlic, chilis, olives (mostly in the form of olive oil), camiche, and koli are the most important staples.

Potentially available spices/herbs/flavorings (some native/long-naturalized, many originally obtained via trade and native grown, some exclusively imported):

Cumin, saffron, wild saffron, coriander, thyme, sesame, poppy seeds, sumac, chilis, a couple wild mints and sages, rose, hyssop, turmeric, ginger, and firebug (a small insect that can be dried and crushed to impart red coloration, though imparts very little flavor), bode (an aromatic wild plant used similarly to bay leaf).

Livestock:

Cattle are of utmost importance as livestock. They provide milk, blood, meat, leather, bone, dung for fertilizer and fuel, and labor. Aside from the obvious dairy, blood drawn carefully from live cattle is a common part of the diet (mostly used for sausages and soups), though actual slaughter occurs rarely as cattle are tremendously more valuable alive than dead. Bull testes are eaten fairly frequently as a byproduct of gelding, and are considered superior to those harvested from a slaughtered bull.

Horses produce milk, meat, fertilizer, and textiles. All horse types here show dual-purpose selection for wool and milk, their meat is of secondary importance. Horses are slaughtered more frequently than cattle, however, as they mature more quickly and breed more prolifically (usually giving birth to two foals at a time).

Fowl can be kept for eggs and meat. Domesticated chickens and ducks are widely kept, and the tarne pheasant was first domesticated here. Some wild ducks/geese and ibis are kept in semi-tame contexts to be easily harvested for meat and eggs.

Khait are rarely eaten (or milked for that matter) in the Wardi cultural sphere, though there are no outright proscriptions against their consumption in general. Their main utility is as mounts and beasts of burden, and slaughter is usually an act of desperation or an opportunistic use of an already dying animal.

Among the Wardinae or 'south Wardi' population, the salutachin dog type is kept for meat, which is a matter of minor cultural differences surrounding of taboos against eating animals considered 'scavengers' (a label applied subjectively) or potential maneaters. The name basically means ‘yam dog’, referring to their exclusively vegetarian diet of mostly yams/maize/barley. They're considered a delicacy and eaten mostly for weddings.

Chul aren't kept at very large scales (as they provide little while alive, save for manure) but are still present in many villages as a source of meat that is almost entirely self-sufficient and can essentially be fed on garbage. Scavenger taboos are not applied to their meat in spite of their notable propensity for scavenging (this is at least partly on the basis of them being hoofed animals), though their meat isn't particularly favored either (outside of just-weaned calves, which are considered delicious).

Beekeeping is a common practice, often as an extension of fruit farming. Bees are kept in clay pot hives and mostly utilized for honey and wax. Bee larvae are sometimes eaten after honey is harvested, but are but considered to be a 'peasant food'. Insects are otherwise extremely rare in the diet and only tend to be eaten out of desperation, though it's common to get some minor victories out of destructive locust swarms by eating them (still considered peasant food).

Alcohol:

The techniques for distillation are not present here, though alcohol content derived from high-sugar ferments can get fairly high. Most alcohol is fermented with naturally occurring wild yeasts and fungus on the surface of the fruits/grain rather than actively introduced yeasts, thus can produce highly variable results from batch to batch.

-Wine is consumed mixed on a near-daily basis, usually with water (though more fancy preparations may use rosewater or un-fermented fruit juice). Consumption of unmixed wine is usually reserved for semi-special occasions. Grapes are not grown here and all wines derive from other fruits, with date wine being the basic standard. Other fruit wines are common (kolis fruit being most popular and practical), and wines based on the fermentation of camiche flowers (with dried dates or honey to supplement) are traditional and part of mid-spring holidays. Most vinegars are made from further fermentation of wine.

-Grain-based ales made with barley are most common, though maize (or a combination of the two) is also utilized, as are a few wild grass seeds. The traditional ale style here uses malted grains which are dried before fermentation, with higher quality ales being dried and smoked over wood (camiche, apple, and oak being 'best quality'). A distinction is made between 'smoked ales' (selectively wood-smoked), 'dung ales' (refers to malts dried (not smoked) over standard dung fuel fires, though is sometimes a tongue in cheek description for any low-quality/cheaply made ale), and sun ales (sun-dried malts).

-Mead tends to be the highest ABV beverage consumed recreationally. The style of honey harvest introduces beeswax/bees/larvae into the ferment, which can result in a higher alcohol yield (due to the wax floating to the top and creating a more anaerobic environment late in fermentation). Mead is generally consumed watered down like wine, sometimes with milk/whey and often spiced. The same word is sometimes used to describe alcoholic beverages made with anuje palm syrup (usually distinguished as 'mead' and 'anuje mead'), though the two forms vary in taste substantially.

-Amenwematse: A special high ABV mead-ish drink made by fermenting maize, loads of honey, and a paste of boiled herbs + tobacco. It's considered essentially different from other alcoholic drinks via its ritualized production, and its consumption is reserved exclusively for religious purposes. It is used to assist in inducing trance states/gaining mental fortitude (and lowering inhibitions) for rites, particularly in cases in which one must be transformed (such as Odonii or Etadinii taking on the aspects of animals) and/or must undergo a harrowing task (such as being a teenage bullfighter who needs to bring down a wild bull aurochs with a small knife, and knows dying in the process is considered an acceptable outcome). It is intended to produce a mild altered state without actually dulling the mind or becoming inebriated (it's forbidden for non-ceremonial use and tastes pretty damn bad anyway, if you want to get plastered you just drink plain old unmixed mead or wine).

Fishing:

Most of the contemporary sedentary population is clustered around the coasts and rivers, and fish may provide most dietary protein in these contexts. Oily fish tend to be favored over whitefish overall, though the latter are preferred for soups. Shellfish are widely harvested and may play a major role in coastal commoner diets; they tend to be considered a low class food but lack the stigma of 'peasant/famine foods'. Spearhunting large marine reptiles is done by some coastal communities on a subsistence basis, but has no major industry surrounding it. Adult yotici (known to be kinda freaky and smart but not known to be sapient beings) are sometimes spearfished, though are among fish eaten with caution due to a potential for ciguatera poisoning.

Hunting:

Sport hunting is a pastime for nobility, but subsistence hunting is often important to the diet of inland pastoralists and is an opportunistic source of meat for agricultural peasants who will very rarely get to eat their own livestock.

Hare, rabbit, several gamebirds, gazelle, aurochs, buffalo, anara (semiquatic rodent), and nechoi (piglike animal) are the most common targets. Crocodiles tend to be culturally exempt from food taboos around eating maneaters (in spite of killing and eating the most humans of any predator by a LONG SHOT; these taboos mostly apply to non-hoofed mammals and birds, or to singular animals known or suspected to have actually eaten a person) and are often actively hunted for food and to reduce populations near settlements. A type of softshell turtle and a couple species of snakes are considered delicacies.

Preparations:

Meat:

Most meats are smoked and salted, though largely as a matter of practicality for preservation rather than taste (fresh meats are generally preferred when possible). There is an overall cultural revulsion towards consuming raw meat/fish, though consumption of some raw seafood is common in Wardinized Jazaiti subcultures and in Erubinnos (the latter owing to the practice being brought by Yuroma-speaking migrants). Most organ meats are readily consumed, with the liver in particular being seen as a delicacy among most animals. Meat from the head (including brain and tongue), shanks, and feet of an animal gets 'offal' status and is considered peasant food (often quite literally, being the share allotted to peasants after slaughter). Taboos exist against eating the heart of any animal outside of very specific ritual purposes; this organ is expected to be respectfully discarded (doing so appeases the animal's spirit, not doing so can get you cursed by it).

Swallows:

Swallows are a dietary staple and essentially used as utensils. They’re composed of cooked grains/starches that have been strained of most liquid, pounded into a soft doughy texture, and shaped into balls. These are served with most meals and used to scoop up food by hand, and are usually unseasoned. Most swallows are made from yams, though maga, thick mashes of cooked grain, beans, or a mix of ingredients are also used opportunistically.

Bread:

Most breads are unleavened flatbread. A very simple maize flatbread is shaped into small, thick discs and fried in oil (olive or sesame) and eaten on its own or with other meal components placed atop it (this is common as a street food in urban settings). A type of very large barley flatbread is made from dough mixed with olive oil or rendered fat and cooked on a griddle (usually a stone) and usually used as a food delivery mechanism in group settings, with pieces being torn off to scoop up the rest of a meal. Higher quality leavened breads are made by actively acquiring yeast via soaking bran in wine, but in practice barley dough is often just allowed to sit out and leaven naturally via airborne+its own yeasts.

Non-dairy/alcohol ferments:

-Peledyo: fish sauce made by fermenting partial/whole fish bodies with salt and water (usually at a ratio of 25% salt 75% fish). Similar sauces made with oysters/shrimp/etc are also referred to as peledyo (if maybe specified as 'oyster peledyo' or etc). The most ancient _ traditional form is made with freshwater fish and has a distinct flavor from that made with oily marine fishes, though the former is mostly homemade and the latter is mass produced. This is a dietary staple and often used in favor of salt alone to season dishes and sauces.

-The solid portion of the peledyo ferment is also consumed, usually as the base of a meal rather than as a seasoning. It is mostly eaten as a porridge stirred with grain, or worked into a soup. This fish paste is traditionally colored red via firebug, and will have a whitish-grayish color on its own that is considered a bit unpleasant.

-One food item is made from mashed cooked grains that have been fermented in whey, shaped into little balls, and dried. These are most commonly eaten in soups or on their own as snacks, and have a strong cheesy-umami flavor.

-Wainyotago: a fermentation of maize or barley dough that is usually eaten as a porridge, sometimes on its own or as a swallow. The name itself literally derives from 'rotten barley', though is applied to maize doughs as well (and is not technically rotten).

-Bean paste: a fermentation of beans (chickpeas or cowpeas), often mixed with sesame or melon seeds. It's kept as a more preservable form of cooked beans and often eaten on bread, and considered somewhat of an acquired taste (often very strongly flavored and a little slimy).

-Corn sauce: a dark salty sauce made from fermented maize, similar in taste to soy sauce. This is a staple in the Burri sphere and less regularly consumed here (where peledyo is generally preferred for salt+umami flavoring), though is more common deep inland where fish sauces are less accessible.

Dairy

Dairy is massively important to the diet, and rates of lactose intolerance are low in populations native here. Most people eat dairy products on a daily basis. It is usually consumed in more preservable states as yogurts, kefir, and cheeses, though plain raw milk is used for drinks and is the absolute standard offering of libation in religious practice.

Cheese: Several styles of cheese are made, mostly from the milk of cattle (horsemilk is less favored for cheese (though its easier to produce cheese with it than the milk of irl horses)). A simple paneer type cheese is made with cow or horsemilk curdled with an acid (vinegar or nara fruit is most common), which is often eaten in soups. A soft cow milk rennet cheese is eaten similarly, most notably as a big glob in the middle of a pepper/onion soup. Hard cheeses are less favored overall, though are still produced for their preservability (often mixed with herbs). Moldy cheeses (with the exception of the rind) are culturally considered to be repugnant.

Kefir: forms of kefir appear to have developed independently west of the Blackmane mountains and are an ancient part of the diet. It's especially favored in the winter, when the weather may be cold enough to allow it to chill before consumption. It is usually fermented overnight in skin bags and served as a drink in several styles, sweetened with honey or anuje, salted, or spiced. A horsemilk variant is slightly preferred over cow milk for its stronger taste, and has a (very low) alcohol content due to the milk's larger quantity of sugars.

Yogurt: a type of yogurt-like ferment is usually made from cow milk. It is eaten as-is, or further strained and salted for a more preservable product, or alternatively churned to produce butter (this is a rare practice). It is rarely eaten on its own and is mostly used as a base for sauces. The most standard form of spicy sauce in Wardi cuisine is a mix of yogurt, cumin, garlic, and chilis (of varying capsaicin content), often colored red or gold with firebug/saffron and sometimes acidified with vinegar or nara juice.

DINING:

Most meals are eaten by hand, and spoons are the only utensils used (and even then mostly used for the process of cooking; soups are typically sipped from the bowl). Full meals are taken seated on the floor around low-lying tables from which the food is served, while informal snacking and drinking is done seated on chairs or couches. Small basins of water are used to rinse the hands as needed throughout the meal.

There are two formal mealtimes in a given day, being a breakfast and dinner (anything in between is snacking). These are ideally social occasions and should be held with every member of the household present. Both will be fairly substantial meals, with dinners being the largest. There is no hard distinction between 'breakfast foods' and 'dinner foods', though the accompaniments are distinct, with breakfasts usually being taken with kefir or tea and dinner being taken with wine. Sweets or fruits are usually eaten between savory courses in fancier meals, though for the average person (who does not regularly experience multi-course meals) they're usually served alongside dinner or as midday snacks. Dinners are often had fairly late (~7-8pm) and intended to be the closing part of each day, to be held after one has finished all work and bathed and just before going to bed.

A full meal will usually be placed in the center of the table. At the most basic, it will generally consist of a main dish, swallows or bread to eat it with, and mixed wine (just water if times are tough). In a household setting, the male head of house is served first, followed by his wife, followed by any sons/other men and then daughters/other women (this too going by generation). If guests are present, etiquette requires the hosts to serve them first, but for the guests to not start eating until the head of household has taken his first bite. It's customary to save some of your swallow/bread for last so that you can scoop up any remaining sauce from your plate, as it's somewhat rude to leave one's plate unclean (especially as a guest). When possible, pipe with tobacco or broülje is often passed around to everyone present after dinner (in part considered to aid in digestion).

[milkweedman]

Yeah, not shocking. I'm not sure if I'm an incredibly bad Polaroid photographer or if these things are just supposed to be stupidly hard, but this is how a lot of them turn out.

This is the last one I took, of my windowsill, which I like although I really wish you could make out the plants.

The same view, with my phone camera.

...part of the problem could be that Polaroids color film sucks so bad and is also the only option.

Me (incredibly photosensitive of late): surely finally remembering to take a polaroid of one of my houseplants during the daytime won't take more than a minute or two and won't cause any problems for my eyes which are already behaving very poorly today

Me after spending 20 minutes trying to get an angle that I can actually take a picture from, having been beaming light directly into one eye this entire time: oh...

[bigmeatpete69420]

My fig clone I'm quite proud of you can see the old versus new growth this is I think 6 months

[noosphe-re]

FIG. 2: Chronological structure of Gödel’s universe. In this xyt-diagram a possible timelike worldline is depicted. A traveler T could move on this curve, propagating in his own local future at any given point. Beyond the horizon (gray cylinder) he travels into the past of an observer located at the origin. The worldline itself is a CTC, because the traveler departs from and returns to the origin at the same coordinate time t. For an observer at the origin, coordinate time and proper time coincide. The figure illustrates Gödel’s original idea to prove that there exist CTCs through every point in spacetime [1]. (Grave, Frank et al. “The Gödel universe: Exact geometrical optics and analytical investigations on motion.” Physical Review D 80 (2009): 103002.)

[balkanradfem]

Today I found out there's a way to propagate fruit trees that is superior both to grafting and cutting, and I am both mad that I didn't know this before, and crazy excited about trying it out, it's almost like plant magic!

The name of it is Marcotting. It's a great way to save old fruit varieties that are dying! Or if you just have a tree you want a clone of.

So this is what you do. You pick a fruit tree that you want to clone, and you pick a healthy branch, take a knife, and peel a bit of the bark off, only about 1-2cm. Then you take a plastic bag, tape it so it's fastened under the cut, fill it with wet soil, and then tape it again, above the cut. What you did was make sure that the part of the peeled bark is completely surrounded by soil.

You leave that soil bag on the tree for 2 months.

And it will grow roots in there.

Once it grows roots, you can cut that branch off, and plant it. It will grow like a new tree, 100% the same genes, same species, 100% giving you the same fruit.

I'm so insanely excited to try this, most cuttings just die for me, and all trees from seeds either need to be grafted, or will be giving some wild produce, but this is a simple way to gain any fruit tree that you can get away with putting a little bag of soil on for a few months. The varieties that are usually easily propagated this way are citrus, fig, mulberry, and lychee. It takes 6 months for an apple tree to get roots like this!

Here's a link where you can read more about it, and a video where you can see it being done! Go forth and plant those fruit trees. Future generations will prosper from your effort.

[suratan-zir]

why pay for something like monstera or ficus, when you can buy a single fig from a supermarket and propagate the seeds? 🤡

and it grew these giant leaves in winter, without any grow lights??

my husband says (jokingly) that they're fugly, but I don't care, I love my figs the way they are

i had more but our cat ate them and puked them out

[thehouseplantshop]

Alocasia Plant Care Guide - Care, Propagation, Lighting, Humidity, Temperature & More! | The Houseplant Shop

[backjustforberena]

Hi! It's me again (⁠◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕⁠✿⁠)

Has anyone asked you about "the poetry of her first shots in Harrenhal vs THIS"? Cause I will.

And just gonna include the screenshot of your tags because fucking hell, they need to be immortalized or something.

So, this has been languishing in my inbox for a good while because I really wanted to just sit and think but then also type it out on my laptop as opposed to doing it on my mobile. It's very specific that these are the shots that I picked to compare and that I personally find the most poetic: the moment when she receives the news that she will not be Queen and the moment where she knows she's turning back to fight against Vhagar, rather than fleeing.

I like those shots, as opposed to either the first or last we see of them in those scenes or sequences. The two close-ups of her where all we have to do is look in her eyes as the path in front of her becomes clear - for better or worse. Because I think they work best at contrasting with one another and truly demonstrating Rhaenys's arc and Rhaenys's fight, and her interaction with the broader theme of women under the patriarchal system of Westeros that the show likes to propagate.

Now, when I'm comparing things like this, my mind instinctively goes to parallels, opposites and really simple, bullet points of just what it makes me think of. I'll do that for this, and give a brief explanation on some of them and hopefully that's something you'll find interesting. A lot are going to be very similar to one another and it all comes together.

Life Sentence vs Death Sentence = both are sacrificial.

Both of these events in Rhaenys's life are monumental. They are moments of no return. What Rhaenys receives at Harrenhal is a life sentence to be something discarded. She will never be Queen and that isn't a fleeting fact or momentary experience. It's something that not only will she always have to live with but also something that changes how she lives: The Queen Who Never Was.

She makes choices based on the fact that she was not chosen as Queen and the Great Council creates wounds and walls and a distance to her paternal house that is, for the most part, never repaired. She was kept at a distance, she wore blue, she played the part. She is sentenced to be that sacrifice in order to keep the peace. Because discarding her meant peace and her inaction also meant peace. We can debate on how much was her choice - the verdict wasn't but how she conducted herself afterwards was, even if her choices were limited. She chose life within the moment of death: she chose survival at the cost of her dream.

The choice to go against Vhagar is also a sentence. It's a crucible moment. But, by and large, it's a death sentence - there's a limited chance of survival for her and Rhaenys knows that. She sacrifices herself for the realm once again. She turns around because she is giving everything she's got into taking down Aemond. She fights for a future. She chooses the dream at the cost of her survival.

I think there's also something in the heaviness and weight of that life sentence vs what her death ultimately comes to mean and feel like for her, which is light and peace. To go from one extreme to another is a heck of a life and a heck of a journey.

Surrender vs Fight

This is a pretty easy comparison to grasp. As touched on above, Harrenhal is a moment of surrender. Whereas Rook's Rest is literally a battle and she's choosing the battle. She's choosing the fight and she's choosing not to surrender this time. Not just in terms of the opportunity for war, but not surrendering to the idea of a woman sitting on the Iron Throne and the belief that she has that it not only will come to pass but should come to pass.

I love that we have this visual difference of her in her Targaryen colours but one is her dress and her ornate look that's regal and serene. She's frozen, she's a figure. And then we have her last look which is also in Targaryen colours but it's armour. She's a fighter. You can't ignore her. There's no turning away and no backing down this time.. It's like she's found something in herself.

Passive vs Active

One of the things that I love about Rhaenys's arc is we go from passive to active. We go from her at arm's length to being totally essential and totally central. We go from this shrewd, careful tightrope that she was toeing throughout Season 1 to someone who is running a lot of the show on Dragonstone and who is very clear in her allegiances. To go through what she did on Harrenhal was to be passive and she continued to be passive for a long time. She continued to choose the sidelines.

Going against Vhagar, and for that to be her own choice, on top of the fact that it was her choice to go to Rook's Rest in the first place, is massive for a woman who, when we first met her, felt constricted by the society around her, and condemned, and unworthy. A woman who would rather swallow her pride than draw attention, for fear of consequence; someone who is an overt player of the political game. This is the most consequential act - the biggest statement that she can make (fighting for her kin, defending a castle, doing the right thing as she sees it, honouring what is in her heart etc etc), and she does it, and she does it without fear and knowing the consequences.

And so this links again with surrendering to the patriarchal judgement or fighting against it. And it's about more than that, it's about Rhaenys actually being able to act or feeling able to act. Having that ability to choose for herself.

Imprisonment vs Freedom (also dark vs light)

In Episode 09 of Season 1, we have the metaphor of prisons with windows and the idea of freedom. This is a part of, be it small or large, all of the female characters' lives. It's present in Rhaenys. She's been ignored, abandoned, imprisoned, overlooked, sidelined, rejected. She's gone along with and promoted the system that denied her because that was the order of things. And to try and go against that, to her, was to only lead to pain and failure. That's what she was taught by Harrenhal. That was the lasting lesson. She was imprisoned and so a lot of her journey is finding her way to a place where she can be free, can exercise freedom and have freedom and just... be enlightened. See the possibilities and fight for it.

Dragons are associated with freedom. And that's so keenly the case with Meleys, who, of course, was Rhaenys's original ticket to freedom in Episode 09. Claiming her and escaping her was of paramount importance: she was literal freedom and it signalled an independence that Rhaenys possesses, in contrast to Alicent at that point.

The dark vs light is a big visual one and, honestly, it's the one that I keep coming back to when I just look at the shots. With these two shots, we have Rhaenys stuck, powerless, in a dark castle, reduced by the men around her, to being on dragonback, with the right cause, and the ability to do something about it.

We have her on the ground vs in the air. The cage of the man-made world around her (the castle, the court, the Great Council) to the freedom of the open air and a choice before her.

To be "in the light", to be "enlightened", to be "above" or "flying free" or to be anywhere within the realm of that type of terminology is gorgeous when we compare it to the frustrated and painful position she was forced into in Episode 01. To me, it's beautiful. And it's also spiritual.

Against Instinct vs Going With Her Heart

In the first shot, Rhaenys is going against everything she wants to do. We know, from Eve Best in BTS interviews, that Rhaenys's ultimate wish when hearing that verdict was to get on her dragon, burst through the ceiling and say "f*** you all". What we have in Harrenhal is, firstly, something going against Rhaenys's potential (her birthright to become a Queen), but also going against her instinct (she doesn't grab her dragon and tell them all to hang themselves), going against any sense of reaction (she remains composed, she doesn't storm off, she just takes it even though it's devastating). It's an alienating situation and she CANNOT, from its construction, do what she wants to do or change events. She can't fight the injustice, can't alter the verdict.

Comparing that to Rook's Rest, she's going with her heart. She's not indulging in her most violent impulses: it's not out of revenge or out of anger. It's instead, just what she feels she needs to do. And she's able to do it. It's about her honour. It's feeling something in her gut and being able to act on it. And there's no pressure, no audience, no force either way.

Rhaenys does what she believes should be done, this time. To change the outcome. To seek to rectify the mistake: the problem started with her. She goes back in because, for once, it's simple.

Also, to tie in with the previous point: Harrenhal being something that locked away a part of her. And Rook's Rest being something that used that part of her. Whether that's just her skill or grace or Targaryen-ness or the clarity of thought, or what, you can decide on that yourself. But it's there.

The idea of a "Queen Who Never Was"

Another part of Rhaenys's character that is with us from when we meet her to after her death is the moniker of "The Queen Who Never Was", and the legacy of that and the meaning of it. Its origins are the first shot: it comes from the Great Council, from Harrenhal. It's shameful and dangerous and it's used against her and it angers her: it's a mockery - it's hammering home her rejection, what she will never be, what she wasn't good enough to be (They denied you, Princess Rhaenys. “The Queen Who Never Was.”) and with her Targaryen colours, again, and the disappointment on her face, that is the first embodiment of that.

But it is not the last. THIS is the last. This is Rhaenys as "The Queen Who Never Was". The woman wearing red armour, aboard her dragon, fighting as hard as she could and taking on the largest dragon in Westeros with no fear, after she could have fled. An honourable, strong and courageous woman.

The woman in Harrenhal is not her legacy. The woman on dragonback is. This is the Rhaenys that Baela speaks of when she talks of "The Queen Who Never was" (She was a Targaryen princess. “The Queen Who Never Was.” And she flew to Rook’s Rest of her own will. In defence of her kin).

This is the woman that Corlys had carved - for she wears her armour on the ship that has her name, not her dress. The crown is not there as something she is never allowed to wear. She holds it tight, protectively, to her chest.

With this act, Rhaenys rewrote her story. With it, she lived up to her true potential and her nature. She showed her mettle. It became about what she should have been, and the qualities that would have made her a good Queen, rather than about what she never got to be, and the rejection they dealt her.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for getting back into gardening?

There’s a story to this I swear I swear.

So. My friend got introduced to the game Omori! I’ve been a fan since it was in development and have been slowly trying to convince them to play the game to have brainrot with me.

And, like many people, my friend grew to love the character Basil when they played it. He’s a shy, sweet boy who loves plants.

My friend has now entirely changed themselves and acts as if they are pretending to be Basil in real life. They bought new outfits that mimic the ones he wears, they’ve suddenly started growing plants, etc. it’s very strange.

This is totally fine may I add! Baffling, but it’s not hurting anyone and I am actually very happy for them if this is genuinely how they want to express themselves. What is not okay is how they’re… trying to stop me enjoying gardening..?

I love plants and after a longwinded medical issue, I’m feeling less shitty I’m back into it actively. I have a thriving aloe vera with babies, cacti, succulents, a fig tree, apple tree, pear tree, herbs, raspberry bush, blackberry bush, loganberry bush, tomatoes, potatoes, etc etc. you get the picture. I really love plants! And I decided since I’ve been feeling better, hey, why not plant some new stuff too? So I’ve got some sprouts of various plants growing.

As I enjoy plants and they also do, I figured it’s a good common thing to bond over! I thought since they were a beginner I could help them when they got stuck or needed advice. So I’ve been talking to them a lot about their plants, offering some stuff to them when I harvest it, like strawberries and raspberries and apples, etc. and also being a generally open person if they need advice.

I have discovered over the past month or three that it seems my friend can not keep a plant alive to save his own skin. It’s okay, he’s new to it, plants die, it’s life. But when I offer some help (eg: “take some of my flower food, it will really help you get more blossoms when the time comes,” “you need to prune this part, it’s dead and it will spread to the rest of the plant”) he acts like I’m speaking down to him or insulting him. And he keeps killing plants.

Eventually I actually got upset with the amount of plants he was killing. They are living things and deserve a fighting chance, just like any person or animal does. There is no reason not to treat a spider plant with the same care you would a tree. So I was like hey if you want I can help you set up a watering schedule / help you find out which plants need more shade or more sun and stuff so you can keep them alive longer and he just blew up at me. I’m talking like screaming that he knew what he was doing and it’s NORMAL for plants to die and i “didn’t even care about plants until [I] started so why are you copying?!” It threw me for a loop and actually made me cry because you know… I don’t like getting yelled at lmao. After I cried a little bit I told him that I wasn’t going to talk to him until he apologises for treating me like that because it was uncalled for and really hurtful, I was only trying to help him with his hobby so we could talk about plants together and maybe share some propagated sprouts or something when his plants were old enough. He complained about me online for about a week but no one really listened because it’s very common knowledge I’ve been gardening since I was literally about four years old. He’s since stopped complaining about it but still refuses to apologise.

I’m worried that I might have been an asshole by offering my advice and help? I never pushed it onto him or anything, just offered helpful tidbits and gave him some plant food once, but he might have taken it in a different way than how I meant it.

AITA?

~🌿

What are these acronyms?