#he was given Asha because they just kind of hoped they could give their son a pony and that would cancel out letting his tutors raise him

[shark-wrangler]

like there are SWs out there that Baras had to work to get his claws in, and some he couldn't at all, but twenty-something just-out-of-the-academy Kalarros was like shooting fish in a barrel.

[astradrifting]

GRRM really created so many parallels and foreshadow using the DoD characters that honestly we could just figure the asoiaf ending by analyzing it. My favorite is the Aegon III-D@ny parallels, the fact that one of his closest allies was a face-scarred Master of coin Lannister who ended as Hand to Bran' parallel character just make it so obvious its funny.

Oh my god I didn’t even realise Tyland Lannister was initially on the greens’ side! I’m not super fond of Tyrion ending up as Hand, but you’re right that it’s so obviously meant to reference him. There’s so many parallels that it’s a little crazy. I don’t want to say that the second Dance will end exactly as the first did, it’d be a little too neat if history repeated entirely, but you can see so many echoes of it even in the show’s bastardised ending.

“The broken, shattered realm suffered for a while yet, but the Dance of the Dragons was done. Now what awaited the realm was the False Dawn, the Hour of the Wolf, the rule of the regents, and the Broken King.”

(TWOIAF, Aegon II)

I’m not sure what the False Dawn is going to parallel to, it refers to the period of time after Aegon II’s death but before Lord Stark got to King’s Landing, when people thought that peace had finally come. It kind of brings to mind the War for the Dawn, though personally I think that the threat of the Others will be resolved before the Dance is over. The Hour of the Wolf is obviously about House Stark’s rise back to power, and the Broken King is Bran - though if he actually becomes known as Bran the Broken I might end up committing violence ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. 

The parts about Lord Corlys Velaryon are why I’m so hopeful that Jon’s book ending will be completely different from the show’s. He’s arrested for Aegon II’s death by Cregan Stark, even though Cregan had previously declared for Rhaenyra, because as TWOIAF puts it, “to kill a cruel and unjust king in lawful battle was one thing. But foul murder, and the use of poison, was a betrayal against the very gods who had anointed him.”

Corlys didn’t deny his guilt, and expressed no regret. “What I did, I did for the good of the realm. I would do the same again. The madness had to end.”

Cregan Stark declared him to be guilty of murder, regicide, and high treason, and he was sentenced to execution. But many spoke in his defence, even people who had fought against him in the Dance. Baela and Rhaena Targaryen, Corlys’ granddaughters and Aegon III’s half-sisters, convinced Aegon to issue an edict pardoning Lord Velaryon, which Alysanne Blackwood then convinced Cregan to let stand. Lord Velaryon was pardoned and even restored to his offices and honours, made one of the king’s regents and given a place on the small council.

Corlys’ words definitely could be Jon’s as well, a much more in-character declaration post-D@ny’s death than the drivel GoT tried to feed us. I was worried for a bit that this would be how Tyrion is let off scot-free, but Baela and Rhaena, who were vital to his release, are such obvious Arya and Sansa stand-ins, and they’re certainly not going to expend any effort in helping Tyrion. So Corlys’ circumstances more likely lays the groundwork for how Jon will be freed and remain in political power, while Tyland frankly inexplicably becoming Aegon III’s Hand after he was in favour of brutally killing him parallels Tyrion managing to fail up, as a way of reconciling the old regime with the new one.

This makes Tyrion becoming Hand more palatable IMO. Either Jon and Tyrion both should have been punished or neither should have been punished, not the travesty where Tyrion gets everything he’s ever wanted while Jon is exiled to a Watch with no purpose and a Wall that’s already half-collapsed, so what exactly can it protect against? I suppose they were afraid of seemingly rewarding Jon for killing d@ny, especially if pol!Jon had been revealed, but most people noticed how nonsensical his ending was, and it just led to ‘Bloodraven/Bran is the real villain’ takes anyway.

(Side note: Asha/Yara basically still being loyal to D at the end annoys me so much, and made no sense. Jon did more to help save her by giving Theon that pep talk than D@ny did. Maybe it was a leftover from her taking Victarion’s role in the story, but in no reasonable world is anyone going to listen to the Ironborn who brought the Fire threat over in the first place.)

Of course Tyland Lannister isn’t actually Hand for long, given that he dies barely two years later from Winter Fever, feared and hated, alone except for a maester and King Aegon. It might be an indication that Tyrion will face a similar fate, that he’ll die after he’s seemingly won, exactly what he threatened Cersei with:

“A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you'll know the debt is paid."

(ACOK, Tyrion XII)

So that I can stop talking about Tyrion, here’s some facts about Rhaena and Baela that are obviously meant to reference Sansa and Arya, so much so that it feels a little bit like GRRM is winking and going “See what I did there? Huh? Huh? Did you see??”:

- their descriptions: “Rhaena was slender and graceful; Baela was lean and quick; Rhaena loved to dance; Baela lived to ride...” + “Baela was wild and willful”, “more boyish than ladylike”, and kept her hair cropped short as a boy’s

- Rhaena spent most of the Dance in the Vale, where she lived in relative comfort as the ward of Lady Jeyne Arryn. Baela was a dragonrider and so moved between Dragonstone and Driftmark, but was captured on Dragonstone when Aegon II descended upon it

- Rhaena was favoured to be queen after her brother, considered more qualified than her wild sister

- Baela liked to spend time with “unsuitable companions” she would bring to the Red Keep - including a comely juggler, a blacksmith’s apprentice whose muscles she admired (!!!), a legless beggar, a pair of twin girls from a brothel, an entire troupe of mummers once

- After her brother’s regents tried to marry her to a lord 40 years older than her, Baela escaped the Red Keep by climbing out of a window, trading clothes with a washerwoman, then walking right out of the front gate. She ran away to Driftmark and married her supposed cousin (though more likely he was her half-uncle), the legitimised bastard Alyn Velaryon, which might have had me worried about j0nrya if Alyn weren’t best known for being a daring sailor who went on many voyages, including sailing the Sunset Sea, until he was finally lost at sea during Aegon IV’s reign. Alyn’s mother was also called Mouse, for being “small, quick, and always underfoot.”

- another fun fact about Alyn: he’s a bad haggler, and had to agree to a high ransom and many concessions in order to get Prince Viserys returned to Westeros. This automatically disqualifies him as a Jon stand-in, because as we all know, Jon Snow can haggle like the best of fishwives.

- My absolutely favourite detail that has my jonsa heart singing - Rhaena was more dutiful than her sister and would have married a man that the king and council chose, saying that as long as he was “kind and gentle and noble, I know that I shall love him.” She was able to marry her first choice, whom the regents didn’t immediately approve of but that they ultimately accepted  - Ser Corwyn Corbray, the brother of the Lord Protector of the Realm, a second son (!) whose late father had gifted him the Valyrian steel sword Lady Forlorn (!!!)

And as a treat for @istumpysk, some similarities between Rickon and Viserys II!

- the youngest child of their family

- separated from their older brother after they were forced to flee their home, trying to get to safety while their other brothers and mother were at war

- worshipped their oldest (half-)brothers, but were closer to the brother nearest their age

- spends the war stuck on an island, populated by people closely linked to their family’s origins - Skagosi are descended mostly from the First Men, while Viserys was on Lys, where the blood of Old Valyria still runs strong

- sought by/held hostage by a powerful and wealthy family, who will treat them well but whose intentions are dubious

- will be brought back from exile by an upjumped bastard/commoner from a port town who was raised to lordship and became their monarch’s chief admiral

- after they are returned, long after the wars and crises, is happily welcomed as the heir to their older brother’s throne (shhhhh just let me have this, let the baby live)

Thanks for the ask!

[agentrouka-blog]

what do you think about obara?

Hi there!

Obara would be my third favorite Sand Snake after Sarella and Elia.

Obara Sand always walked too fast. She is chasing after something she can never catch, the prince had told his daughter once, in the captain's hearing. (AFFC, The Captain of Guards)

My goodness, what could it be?

Oh, right. Her mother. Her identity. Her sense of self.

She is the reason I can never ever truly like Oberyn.

“I am the whore's whelp, or had you forgotten?" (AFFC, The Captain of Guards)

No matter how heartbreaking Oberyn’s determination to get justice for Elia’s murder, I can never forgive him for this.

"The day my father came to claim me, my mother did not wish for me to go. 'She is a girl,' she said, 'and I do not think that she is yours. I had a thousand other men.' He tossed his spear at my feet and gave my mother the back of his hand across the face, so she began to weep. 'Girl or boy, we fight our battles,' he said, 'but the gods let us choose our weapons.' He pointed to the spear, then to my mother's tears, and I picked up the spear. 'I told you she was mine,' my father said, and took me. My mother drank herself to death within the year. They say that she was weeping as she died." Obara edged closer to the prince in his chair. "Let me use the spear; I ask no more."

(AFFC, The Captain of Guards)

Oberyn not only suddenly came to take her away from her mother. He did not come to offer her a “better life”, or do his duty to her as her father.

He made her choose.

He demonstrated an absolutely despicable abuse of power. He shows up out of the blue after presumably no contact and no support, assaults and humiliates her mother, a woman already on the very edge of society, and then makes Obara choose between this distorted image of victimized weakness, and his own power. Female tears vs. his phallic symbol. It’s a false dichotomy, the birth place of “not like other girls”, of internalized misogyny, of self-hatred.

She cannot have both. She cannot love both. She must disdain one to reap any benefit from the other. It is a horrifying violation. He erases half of her identity by dragging it through the dirt and creating a clear distinction between himself and his offer, and the woman who has been Obara’s caretaker all her life up to then. Her own mother. Her own sex.

We know that the young red-haired prostitute died trying to save her daughter, little Barra, while Robert had not lifted a finger to support them, and only had scorn for the girl’s choice of name. Was she weak?

Even her mother’s grief and desperate end is turned into a weapon against Obara, instead of proof of her mother’s love, it is proof of her mother’s supposed worthlessness. She must hate her mother because to stop would be to recognize that her father, her sole source of security in the world, was a monster to do this. She must cling to this phallic symbol of a weapon because Oberyn tainted all alternatives. The whore’s whelp she calls herself, spitting on her mother every time.

When she arrives at Sunspear to confront Doran about Oberyn’s death, she asks for troops and permission to sack Oldtown. Her hometown. For the wealth of the Hightowers, supposedly, but somehow her first instinct upon the news of her father’s demise is to attack the place she herself came from, her mother’s city. Begging to use the spear.

Perhaps it is the only way she knows how to express her pain, as Oberyn stole her tears. Self-destruction.

Even Nymeria understands there is a personal motive outside of Oberyn’s death.

“Obara would have me go to war.”

Nym laughed. “Yes, she wants to set the torch to Oldtown. She hates that city as much as our little sister loves it.” (AFFC, The Captain of Guards)

Obara is the only one of the elder Sand Snakes for whom GRRM constructs this kind of look back at her "acquisition" into the royal family, and I sincerely doubt that it is accidental. It is the one that matters, the one that is the most illustrative.

Nymeria has her noble Volantene mother’s beauty and bearing.

Tyene is said to carry her mother’s innocent appearance, and received a religious education at least thorough enough to enable her to “ingratiate herself” with the new high septon. It is, of course, a cynical facade.

Sarella proudly practices the marksmanship of the Summer Islanders of her mother’s heritage.

But Elia and Obara both show the real cracks that counter this hazy facade of the fierce Eight Sand Snakes, liberal Oberyn‘s loyal and independent daughters. They are all an extravagant self-indulgence on Oberyn’s part, created wherever he went and then picked up like a shiny tourist trinket. They all must revolve around him, the reflections of Oberyn in the looking glass of their mothers.

No," Elia broke in. "You're the one they'll want to ransom. You're the heir to Dorne, I'm just a bastard girl. Your father would give a chest of gold for you. My father's dead." (TWOW, Arianne II)

Elia, bless her, has her mother to lean on and still she keenly feels the legal reality of her position. Obara does not even have that. 

Sarella out of all the elder Sand Snakes, seems to be the most emotionally independent. She is the only one NOT around all the others in Dorne, and while she follows her father’s footsteps in Oldtown, she practices her mother‘s traditional archery and emphasizes her.

Alleras smiled back at him. "I only buy for friends. And I am no lord's son, I've told you that. My mother was a trader." (AFFC, Prologue)

This healthier balance, this valuing regard for her mother’s heritage (unlike Tyene's pretense) is what makes Sarella truly remarkable to me. She is not hot-headed nor does she seem to be boiling with a thinly veiled fury. She does not seem to advocate for murder, but we see her muse about feeding the people. She is serene, like the black swans on the Godseye, like the swanships, with a steady hand and a sure intention. Whatever exactly that intention may be. Ironically, sexism forces Sarella into a masculine role, as well. But it is a deliberate mask, elegantly worn. Freely worn. Unlike Obara's struggle.

The character in whom I see most parallels with Obara Sand is Jon Snow in his current iteration.

Ned, well-meaning though he may have been, robbed Jon of half of his identity and left him with an image that is considered tainted by the world around him. His mother is as inaccassible as Obara’s mother, emotionally, though for different reasons. Their father’s choices left both of them emotionally crippled to a degree. One mother was erased by silence, rendered invisible. The other, worse, was erased by violent and verbal degradation.

Consequently, it is Obara we see the most seemingly “unhinged”, when she is introduced, the most overtly violent, the most “unfeminine”. This is not an expression of personal taste, nor a handy mask. It is a grim adherence to the choice she was offered.

She is almost thirty, and came to Dorne almost two decades earlier, well before Elia’s murder.

"It has been twenty years, or near enough to make no matter.” (AFFC, The Captain of Guards)

She was somewhere between Sansa’s and Arya’s current age when Elia was killed. Does she perceive the contradiction in Oberyn living for vengeance for Elia, when he treated her own mother not so very very differently? He did not kill her truly, but he erased her just the same, with a violent contempt. A "weak woman", with only tears for weapons, her child ripped from her.

If Obara sees it, she is not letting on. She craves violence. She craves an expression of power to put something where tears might have their place. The way she was taught.

Of course, it would be boring if that is where it was truly headed. Much like Aegon and Jon, much also like Asha Greyjoy who adapted to an extremely male-dominated society, Obara would probably benefit from turning away from her father's looming shadow to a certain degree. I have some hope that GRRM will make room to explore it.

Obara is given a quest of justice and distraction: Darkstar. "Beard him in his den", as Arianne travels to "beard the dragon".

Your Speculation here (by @sayruq) is extremely interesting, placing Obara in the line of defense of peaceful children at the watergardens. The same children she had dismissed earlier, like the child she was not allowed to be. Wielding that spear not for vengeance or self-glorification but in the way it should be wielded: to defend those soft weak things that are precious.

I really hope this is where it's headed, and I really hope she will find her peace in that role.

[celestianstars]

The Blacker the Berry the Sweeter the Juice (Ch.1)

Viktor Drago x Asha Creed (Black Female OC)

Summary: Asha Creed isn’t a stranger to the boxing world and isn’t keen on the attitude displayed by many men in the sport either, but when she meets Viktor Drago, suddenly her interest has never been more piqued

Based off this request. Thank you for this idea anon!

Warnings: none just slight tension and fluff this chapter

Word Count: 2,694

Note: This takes place at the end of Creed II and right after!

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Asha could hear the muffled rumble of excited fans in the stadium, waiting for the fight to begin. 

She was a confident woman, knowing and trusting in herself and her abilities but the few minutes leading up to the walk out always spiked her nerves.

“You’re one of the best upcoming MMA fighters out there and you’re a Creed, place your fear behind you.” the words of her coach echoed in the back of her mind as everyone cleared the room and let her have a moment of quiet. 

Usually she wouldn’t bother even looking at her phone during these moments but her brother, halfway across the country was about to enter the ring too. 

It made her nervous. This rematch with the Drago kid made her stomach churn as she pictured how bruised and mangled Adonis had been in the hospital after the first fight. 

It broke her heart to see him like that. She told him not to take the fight in the first place, reasoning that everyone knew what had happened between Apollo and Ivan and the world would forgive him for not seeking vengeance in the ring. 

But Donnie had his mind made up from the start and nothing was gonna change that. 

The last thing she sent him was a good luck message and an I love you and she prayed things were going well. She wasn’t sure if she could handle him being injured so badly again, especially now that he had a daughter. 

Exactly one minute till she would be walking out into the ring and she needed to push all this aside and stay focused. 

She sent Bianca a final message to let her know how things went and pushed her phone away to take a couple deep breaths. 

She had her own match to win. 

---

It had only lasted three rounds before she’d delivered a knockout punch and sent her opponent straight to the ground. 

Relieved and feeling very confident, Asha eagerly finished all the interviews with various sports channels and hurriedly made her way back to the locker rooms to see what had become of Donnie. 

He’d won, thank god.

“They should be playing highlights by now.” she whispered to herself as she turned on the tv in the locker room. 

She could tell he was fighting with something different in his technique. He was sharper, more adapted to fighting someone as brute as Viktor, and the changes paid off. She grinned at how well her brother wore the belt. 

Highlights of the fight began playing and she would by lying if she said she wasn’t glued to the screen watching the two men trade jabs. 

She was in awe watching such a big man fall to the floor twice, struggling to get up the second time. Her attention shifted away from her brother and onto Viktor, now hanging onto the ropes. 

He wasn’t looking towards Ivan or the rest of his team but rather towards the crowd and suddenly the reason why clicked into place for Asha. He was looking for his mother in the crowd, no doubt she showed up to the fight. 

Given the history between their families, Asha had taken it upon herself to do a little research on Viktor and Ivan and discovered that his mother had left them when he was a boy and Ivan was forced out of Russia as a disgrace, leaving him to raise his son in Kiev. 

She followed his line of sight and saw empty seats, a kind of sadness for Viktor coming over her. His mother had left again. 

Yet, he still pulled himself up off the ropes to continue the fight. There was no way he was going to win, he was just punching with no strategy now, desperate and probably hurt in too many ways to count. 

The highlight reel then flashed to Ivan throwing in the towel, effectively stopping the fight which made her gasp in surprise. She hadn’t expected that from him. Ivan seemed like the kind of man that would keep pushing his son to the limits to obtain a victory but not this time. She was grateful.

It seemed like the longer it went on, the more reckless and hurt Viktor became and for both him and her brothers sake, she was glad the fight was stopped. 

While she was happy and excited for Donnie and his win, she couldn’t help but watch Viktor in the background, noticing how he kept pushing his father away every time he tried reaching out. 

There was that odd sadness for him again. He was drained and emotional and hurt and she didn’t need to hear what they were saying to see that. He seemed lost. 

Asha was past viewing the Drago family as bad people for what happened with her dad but she couldn’t help but feel like she was in the wrong for hoping that Viktor could find some comfort because he looked like a scared little boy.  

She shouldn’t be thinking about him like that, should she? She couldn’t. She’d get it out of her head in no time. 

Two Months Later 

After a mini vacation, Asha was back to training and that meant early mornings getting ready for the gym and making sure her dog, Jet was fed before she left. 

The pitbull was like a child to her and she would much rather stay in bed a few extra hours to snuggle with him but hitting punching bags and sparring with her coach was calling her name. 

Like usual at this early hour, the gym that had become a second home to her was alive with the sounds of her coach instructing some of the other athletes already there. Without fail, all their heads turned to eye her as she walked in. 

She was aware half of them wanted to get in her pants and she’d have to turn down more than a couple advances before she left for the day since none of them could take a hint. 

Though she was an MMA fighter, boxers still ran in her circle of acquaintances. Her brother was probably one of the only boxers she could stand, but the rest tested her on the daily. Always so cocky and obnoxious and none of them were after her for a committed relationship either, that was one thing she was sure of. 

It was a tragic realization for her that fighters were her type and the following year of trying it out with a few of them had left her heartbroken and slightly more cynical than she had been before, so now they were just completely off the table for her. 

No way in hell was she gonna let one of them get close to her again. 

---

“Hey uh, Ash? You haven’t texted me back about getting dinner this weekend. You still down?” Eric came striding over to her. 

He was one of the worst ones. Persistent and dumb as a bag of rocks. 

“Hey uh, don’t call me Ash, it’s Asha, you don’t know me like that. Second, I don’t wanna have dinner with you, I never did and told you that when you first asked, did you forget?” she arched an eyebrow at him and began wrapping up her fists with padding. 

“Ah come on, don’t be like that. You seem like you haven’t gotten some good dick in awhile, let me take care of that for you.” 

The amount of self control she possessed every day not to knock out one of these fools was beyond her. 

“Whether I’m getting dick or not doesn’t concern you so delete my number and don’t talk to me ever again or I’m gonna fuck up your face. Don’t try me, Eric you’ve seen me in the cage.” giving her best smile she flipped him off and grabbed her gym bag to move to a different, more peaceful spot.

She was aware she came off as mean to most people, especially to men, but in all honesty she was glad. It was more of a defense mechanism than anything else really, her actual personality was more kind and soft but in this business, being tough on the outside was a better look to have and a better way to protect yourself from being hurt. 

Being an “Ice Queen” was proving to be effective so far so why let her defenses come down? She was too stubborn to do that. 

As she cleared her head of thoughts on her lonely, frustrating love life, or lack thereof, she focused on getting warmed up. 

She enjoyed this process almost more than actual training. Just laying on the floor, stretching her limbs, feeling the ground beneath her, feeling focused as she practiced stances and did basic exercises to get her body prepared. 

This was really her element, the thing that made her feel calm and good about herself. And the sounds of people working and improving around her only motivated her. 

But of course, things just couldn’t go her way without interruption for once. There was always something. 

“Hey, what the fuck does he think he’s doing trying to train here?” Asha was pulled from her focus at the sound of her concerned coach walking towards her. 

She looked at him in confusion before looking out towards the front entrance of the gym, nearly choking on her own spit when she saw the big, hulking figure of Viktor Drago in the gym’s tiny door-frame. 

He stood still but looked slightly alarmed, like he wasn’t aware of who’s gym he’d just stepped into. 

“That’s a good question actually, care to answer, Drago?” Asha crossed her arms, slowly walking in a line straight for him. 

Viktor had so many thoughts racing through his mind he barely caught her question. 

He was kicking himself for being so stupid and forgetting that Rocky and fighters in his circle frequented this gym but it was the only one within a few miles that was open this early. And then second, he was speechless at realizing who the woman stalking towards him was. Adonis’ sister. 

He’d never seen her in person before but now that he was staring her right in the face he was left scrambling. She was stunning. 

Her hair was pulled back in a sleek ponytail and her crossed arms showed off the toned muscle she had, and the expression on her face was hardened and suspicious of him but nonetheless she was beautiful. He couldn’t believe he was feeling this way, especially about a Creed. 

“Sorry...I can leave if this is problem.” he cleared his throat, beginning to back away. 

“Yeah you should leave, we don’t want you here-” her coach began to speak up but Asha cut him off. 

“Stop! You can stay, actually. No hard feelings from me.” her voice felt timid at first but she found her footing, blinking rapidly as she found that holding eye contact with the 6’4 giant was becoming difficult. 

She wasn’t even sure why she did it but she was being honest. There were no hard feelings towards him. She held no grudge and frankly it was exhausting trying to find reasons to dislike him when she had none. 

Viktor was surprised. He had been in contact with her brother quite frequently since their last fight, a kind of distant and awkward friendship building between them but he knew that didn’t just make everything ok. There was still a lot of baggage between their families. 

He thought she might yell at him, threaten him or kick him out, he had put her brother in the hospital once before, he would understand why she was angry with him stepping foot in her gym but she wasn’t. She actually looked like she wanted him to stay. 

“No hard feelings from me.” rang through his mind as he ignored the looks of disdain from the other athletes and found a spot to set his gym bag down. 

He still hated how he’d forgotten that this was basically the Creed’s gym. Ivan had warned him, told him to just wait till another gym opened for the day but he had a restless night and woke up tired and forgetful and with Ivan gone scouting potential fights, he figured some of his itch to be reckless seeped into his otherwise controlled routine. 

Asha wanted to take back her acceptance of Viktor staying to train here, of course, he just had to set his stuff down next to where she was gonna try and resume her warm up. 

She hated that she kinda liked that he’d chosen to be next to her whether he was aware of it or not. 

It wasn’t like she was trying to appear sympathetic to him but something in her just seemed to melt at his presence. She could just feel this heavy sadness and loneliness radiating off him and she understood it, it mirrored some of the heaviness in her own heart. 

And then there was the way he carried himself. Like a gentle giant, not at all like the other boxers she was accustomed to meeting who were too egocentric and self centered to be around. 

He was quiet and very different from the rest, like she could read all his emotions but still knew nothing about him at the same time. It made her curious. 

Viktor’s heart skipped a beat as she began working on the punching bag not even a few feet from where he stood. He felt restless, distracted even. 

What was it about her that made him feel so jittery? He couldn’t quite place it but maybe it was how she didn’t seem afraid of him. 

Everyone he came into contact with was afraid of him but not her. She held her head high when she had spoken to him and even now that he caught her glancing at him, she remained strong and almost unimpressed. 

Viktor was sure she had to feel conflicted, why else would she look so stern with him but let him stay and train? Like she wanted to hate him but couldn’t. 

He’d made up his mind right then and there as he watched the bag wobble from her hits that he should keep his distance from her. It would be better that way, avoid any conflict or weird feelings. 

At the same time, Asha was thinking the exact same thing. Stay away from Viktor Drago. Stop glancing at him, stop thinking about him, just avoid him. 

---

Ten minutes later and she’d already fucked up her plan to stay away. 

Upon hearing that her usual sparring partner was out sick and her coach was in the middle of something with another fighter, she whipped around to find Viktor wiping sweat from his brow. 

“Hey, um I could use a sparring partner, Drago. Think you can help me out?” she cringed inwardly. What was she thinking?

Viktor could feel his hands go cold. She was speaking to him again, only softer this time. He liked her voice. 

He could say no, he could leave and end this whole tension filled encounter but his feet kept him planted in place. 

“Yes. I’ll do it. And...just call me Viktor, it’s ok.” he wasn’t aware of how close she’d gotten until he was looking down at her shorter height. 

“Thanks, I appreciate it, Viktor. You can call me Asha.” 

Asha. Another beautiful thing about her, her name. 

He needed to stop thinking that way but the thoughts kept coming and he wasn’t exactly sure he wanted them to stop. 

He was so caught up in a daze about her that without warning he felt her twist his arm and pull, his back hitting the mat beneath them with a loud thud. Asha had pinned a man nearly three times her size in an arm bar within seconds and he couldn’t do a thing but blink in surprise. 

What they said about her was true. She could kick some ass and was very good at doing so. 

Viktor decided that he liked Asha even more now. She could hold her own.

---

I’m so excited for where I wanna take this story! Let me know what you think, please! And like always, thank you for reading my work!

Also Ryan Destiny is who I picture as Asha but please feel free to imagine her as yourself!!

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[stilwaterskeeter]

Rewriting Saints Row IV

Hi this is my absolute least favorite game of the series and I kind of hate it! But here I am regardless putting my time and efforts into making an entire post dedicated to what I like and (in my opinions) how to fix the parts I don’t like...

This is also written to match by SRTT post rather than the base canon for the games! Which literally changes nothing but Johnny is already known to be alive before this game, so yknow...

This is also a HUGE post whoops

And again, this is just for fun. Don’t like it? Don’t interact with it. I’m not forcing you to read this. That being said, I do like discussing this kind of stuff so I totally up if you wanna just talk about alternatives or how you think things would play out and stuff

Plot/Story Specific Changes:

President’s Cabinet:

Fuck Keith David! Get him out of here! Leave sir! Go back to your movies!

Johnny Gat is our new Vice President because we know regardless of his skill at the matter, The Boss would make him his VP

This also gives Ben King a lot more reason to hold it against The Boss that he isn’t the VP, because at least before Keith David was a likable actor and had his own skillset for the role. Now it’s Johnny fucking Gat who has all the diplomatic and political tact of a shoe

The Boss’ dream isn’t some stupid 50s sitcom, that was so dumb, hardehar 50s is so nice and polite my ass

I think shit like meeting Julius, the boat explosion, Dex’s attempt to kill them, Magarac Statue blowing up even if they tried to go there, Johnny bleeding out after the fight with Jyunichi, and probably much more are better suited pieces to a much larger much more intimidating and genuine nightmare sim that would have broken The Boss inevitably

All the times they almost died because they weren’t quick enough, all the times they just barely saved their friends? A lot scarier than “oh noes I cawn’t kiww anybodwy uwu” crap

Zinyak doesn't really destroy the Earth

First of all: I don’t think he’d waste so many potential assets over the folly of one idiot

Second of all: The man’s supposed to be like a genius of sorts? So I find it ridiculous that he doesn’t have the ability to hide the fact that Earth is Actually Totally Fine from an idiot like The Boss

Third of all: To avoid Kinzie being oh so smart and debunking Zinyak’s scheme- She’s absolutely distraught when the Earth blew up and surprisingly caught up in her emotions, a pretty new thing for her. So I think it’s plausible she would bee too caught up in the moment to do much and afterwards is too caught up trying to help The Boss find and rescue what they believe is the last hopes for humanity

Kinzie doesn’t save anyone before The Boss, she goes straight for The Boss and before trying to go to Earth, they rescue Johnny Gat

Kinzie was prepared prior to saving The Boss with a few locations already in mind that she found as she was looking for them

One of which obvs ended up being Johnny

Another of which is a Surprise Prison that will help us later

All she knows is that it’s definitely based from Stilwater in ye olden days (first game, not actually ye olden days lmao) so she was assuming it was definitely either The Boss or Johnny

(Spoiler it’s Lin)

Additionally: The sim we do activities and hang out in isn’t Steelport. It should have been Stilwater and you know it.

After the Earth is “destroyed” and The Boss needs to go back into the sim and start recruiting people, Johnny steps in a lot when discussing who to save next

Sorry Matt, your rescue is getting pushed back a little

Johnny’s very adamant about not saving Matt first, “We are not saving that little goth punk whatever kid before we save our girl and Pierce. I don’t give a fuck that you’re president, I’m impeaching you, we’re saving Shaundi next. Not Matt.”

Shaundi’s nightmare sim stays relatively the same, but maybe polish up the writing better

I like her nightmare and the angle, but the writing just felt very,,,awkward to me?

She was supposed to be hung up on feeling helpless and the fact that she felt that because she was always “the damsel” and in need of protection, that Johnny was gone

But the writing kind of just skimmed over that

Then they save Pierce because, yeah, they give him a lot of shit, but he’s one of Johnny and The Boss and Shaundi’s closest friends and Johnny’s already made it clear they’re not saving anyone else until they got both Shaundi and Pierce back

Then you have the 3 rescues that you pick the order for

Asha

Ben

Matt

Then comes the replacement for Johnny’s canon rescue; It’s Lin’s Rescue Now

Kinzie isn’t sure who it really could be because they already have The Boss and Johnny, and they’ve already identified which sim is Ben’s

She asks Pierce and Shaundi for help trying to identify the sim while Johnny and The Boss are fuckin around in the sim

Neither of them have a clue who it could be

But both of them recognize the invading gang members in the sim as Westside Rollerz members so they recommend asking Johnny and The Boss about it

Johnny and The Boss have a moment of “Holy fucking shit, there’s no way” “It couldn’t be her, could it?” all the while the rest of the crew is just like “Any day now, who couldn’t it be?”

Lin’s nightmare sim is the events following up to her kidnapping and then the moments before Zinyak got her when she was in the process of drowing

A street race where some shithead Roller sabotaged Lin’s car so she had to forfeit midrace and then some guys kidnap her

I was figuring you’d be racing to catch up to her and then the race ends for you when she has to pullover

And then a brief cutscene of her trying to fight of some Rollerz goons while The Boss is locked in their car and can’t get out no matter how hard they try to break the window or bust it open

Then a followup cutscene Lin and Sharp arguing about The Playa not arriving to her rescue

“It appears to me like your little friend won’t be joining us. Oh well, we’ll take care of them soon enough. For now, just you will have to do.”

“Could your head be any further up your ass? Get on with it already, I’m getting bored here.”

And a short line from The Boss like, “What an asshole, jokes on him I wasted that son of a bitch years ago. And I’m not leaving without Lin this time.”

The last part is a timed boss battle with Sharp

Kinzie’s trying to do her tech thing and find a workaround to save Lin from drowning while The Boss fends off Sharp and miscellaneous goons

After Lin’s rescued and Sharp is dead, she steals the gun from The Boss in a cutscene and empties it into Sharp

“I have been waiting too fucking long to do that.”

There’s a brief reunion scene between her and The Boss

“Man, you don’t know how glad I am to see you.”

“Oh. My. God. You can fucking talk, that’s almost as crazy as the fact I’ve been living in this hellhole for years....You look good, did you do something to your hair?”

“You have no idea, Lin. You’ve missed a lot.”

“Nothing we can’t talk about over a beer after we get out of here. Speaking of, you got a plan for that or-?”

Kinzie chimes in, “I do.”

Kinzie isn’t the one who defends Matt when he says the mission is a bad idea because that was dumb and out of character, agree with him maybe, but not defend him

Instead of Keith’s betrayal/loyalty mission/whatever; We get Lin going into the simulation on her own to try and save Donnie after having Matt find his sim for her when The Boss pushes off saving Donnie as something to do later since Donnie’s not exactly useful in a mission like saving the universe and destroying Zinyak

“How do you even know he’s not dead? What makes you think Zinyak even abducted him?”

“Because I know he’s still alive, and Matt found him.”

“Look, we’ll take care of this after we end Zinyak. There’s no cars for him to rig or information to leak to us with these guys.”

“There’s gotta be a fucking reason he got abducted, playa. He’s worth saving.”

Johnny chimes in, “We’re not saving your stupid boyfriend right now, Lin. We have bigger fucking problems to deal with.”

It just progresses into a whole fight and the others are kind of just like....”Holy shit....there’s three of them now.” until Ben King steps in and tells them to all shut the fuck up

“Listen, Lin. We’re going to get your boy, but we aren’t doing it now. It’ll be the first thing after we kick Zinyak’s ass.”

The Boss chimes in, “Who said anything about the f-”

“I said...it’ll be the first thing we do, got it?”

Donnie’s nightmare sim is The Boss attacking his garage but Lin never shows up and instead he gets “killed” and then it’s The Boss harassing him and attacking him to get him to rig the Brotherhood vehicles and for the location of Carlos and Maero threatening him and ultimately “killing” him as well and then repeat

Bet The Boss kind of feels a little bad about always picking on him now, huh

Lin is at least, she feels guilty about setting up the raid on Donnie’s garage in SR1 and then just feels really pissed off about The Boss going after him more in SR2

Eventually The Boss shows up to help and with some hacking skills(TM) is given their superpowers and Lin is given powers as well to save Donnie

Obviously he can’t believe Lin is fucking ALIVE let alone just SAVED his ass

“Y-You’re alive? But Mr.Sharp killed you! A-And I let him! They found your body in the river and-....where the hell have you been for so long?”

“Listen, Donnie, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Are you sure? Because Earth got invaded by aliens and I’ve been dying repeatedly everyday since.”

“Shit, yeah. That son of a bitch, Zinyak, saved my ass from drowning back in Stilwater. This asshole over her saved me from that.”

“I bet their to blame for all this! It’s always their fault! Ultor, STAG, Gangstas in Space, Cyrus Temple, they’re the fucking president now can you believe that?”

The Boss chimes in, “I’m standing right fucking here! And for your information, I happen to be an excellent president!”

“Now’s really not the time, playa.”

And also that The Boss also SAVED him

“I thought you fucking hated me, I can’t believe you just did that.”

“Yeah, well, don’t get your panties in a twist, I’m only here for Lin.”

“Oh.”

Okay I lied, Zinyak DOES destroy the Earth for realsies

But only towards the end of the game, like following up to the boss battle

He reveals like 

“Oh, it seems you haven’t learned your lesson then. I suppose I’ll have to really blow up your pitiful little planet then? Such a shame really, humanity could have been quite useful to the Zin Empire, but one must cut’s one’s losses sometimes. Their certainly not worth the trouble your putting me through here.”

This gives him time however to have abducted more people, including like Oleg, Viola, Donnie, etc etc etc

Fuck the Enter the Dominatrix DLC

Yeah it’s funny and all but like, where’s something actually interesting and additional to the game?

Replace it with DLC where you rescue like Viola and Oleg and stuff instead

Viola’s nightmare obviously would have to do with being stuck working for Killbane and probably have a boss battle where you fight simbane after he tries to kill Viola as well after having killed her sister

Oleg has a few options I think but the most appealing idea to me is a nightmare about him trying (and failing repeatedly) to escape the KGB

Character Specific Changes:

There really isn’t much to be put here shockingly

Maybe I’m the only one who thinks this but I think they should have expanded on the jokey romances more

I’m not talkin’ like full on bioware romances, just yknow maybe a little more than a single repeatable scene that varies from being shockingly indepth (Johnny) to just a fucking joke (Kinzie)

Maybe like add in a decision for a difference between just like casual sex or an actual romance with the characters

If you pick an actual romance then there’s random little banter lines about it when you have homies and maybe a few lines in some cutscenes or smth, nothing huge

Like say, you have Pierce and Shaundi as homies with you:

Romance Shaundi:

P: It’s about damn time someone did something

S: What are you talking about?

P: Uh, you and The Boss? Duh

S: Oh my god, shut up

P: Took ya’ long enough...y'all only been eye fucking each other as long as I can remember

S: Shut up, Pierce!

P: Chill! I’m happy for you, girl! Don’t attack me!

Romance Pierce:

S: So...you and The Boss, huh?

P: I already don’t like where this is going

S: I’m just surprised is all, you’ve been into them since like day one

P: No. I haven’t.

S: [snorts] Yeah, right. You used to get so upset when-

P: Shut up! They’re standing right there!

Or uh Pierce and Johnny:

Romance Pierce:

J: Hey, man, I’m proud of you for finally tellin’ The Boss how you feel

P: Wh- I didn’t- I’m not the one who-

J: But if you ever even think  about hurting them [cocks gun] I won’t hesitate to put a cap in your ass

P: Man, calm down. I ain’t gonna do shit, jesus

J: [laughs] I’m just messin’ with you, Pierce. I’m not gonna shoot you.....Unless...

P: This is why I don’t tell you things, Gat! What the hell, man?!

Romance Johnny:

P: I can’t believe you and The Boss weren’t already fucking

J: Me neither

P: Didn’t you ever...yknow...like wonder? You never even thought about it?

J: Oh, no. I thought about it plenty. I wasn’t about to be the one to say somethin’ though

P: Did we finally find something Johnny Gat is scared of?

J: Fuck no, man, just after what happened with Eesh-

P: So...you were scared?”

J: No!

Lin getting to know everyone is a very big thing, like she’s suddenly surrounded by new people and everyone but Johnny and The Boss from before her abduction are dead

She gets along really well with Shaundi, Johnny (duh), Ben King, Asha, and Donnie (duh)

She gets along pretty damn well with Pierce too but it’s a pretty similar teasing relationship as Shaundi and Pierce and she gives him a hard time a lot

He gripes about how he has to deal with 2 Shaundis and Lin now a lot

She and Asha are pretty different but also pretty similar, they’re both really stubborn and dedicated to what they deem their “duties” but Lin still likes to let loose and have fun a lot more than Asha

A lot of their interactions consist of Lin trying to convince Asha to just let loose “a little” and have some fun

Asha for the most part wouldn’t ever really admit that she likes Lin but if pushed she’d definitely say something like “I definitely respect her. Maybe the Saints wouldn’t be as ridiculous and out of control if she was never taken from them before.”

Also because again you can pry wlw Lin from my cold dead hands we get this exchange:

“You know...you remind me a lot of one of my exes.”

“That’s...nice.”

“Stubborn, pretty, law-abiding, all work no play-”

“Is there a point to this?”

“Not really, I just keep thinking about it.”

“I see...and what happened to them?”

“She broke up with me for some prick named Blake...[laughs] So I broke his nose next time I saw him. Detention for a month, but definitely worth it to see her face.”

“No wonder The President likes you...”

She also gets along with Matt pretty well, having gone to him to find Donnie instead of Kinzie, although that was simply because she figured Matt would keep quiet about it and not tell The Boss, as well as Kinzie was already doing 101 things for The Boss at the time

She really doesn’t understand the whole Nyteblade thing but vampires are kind of cool she guesses and also it’s not like there’s a ton of shows or books left to entertain herself with, at least with Nyteblade, Matt’s got the memory of an elephant and probably totally recreates a ton of the episodes and key scenes because he is Absolutely That Guy first of all

She ends up getting pretty into it but if you ask about it she’ll shrug it off as simply because it’s “the only show left to watch”

Lin also remarks with Shaundi how she reminds her a lot of herself

“You know, I used to be some fun loving party girl myself.”

“Really? What happened?”

“Los Carnales and Julius fucking Little. Couldn’t go five feet out of my house without some assholes doing a drive-by or starting gang wars.”

“Oh...”

“Had to step up if I wanted it to stop, we see how well that turned out.”

“...Yeah....”

Alternatively to the nightmare sim swap I listed earlier...Johnny Gat would be The Boss’ husband in the 50s nightmare sim for sure

Kinzie definitely brings that up to Johnny if they’re both homies, especially if you romanced Johnny

Matt Miller and Donnie friendship when-

Turns out Donnie’s also a fan of Nyteblade

And Matt liked the Feed Dogs’ admittedly short lived time of activity

They both geek out of dumb shit and also talk about how fuckin scary The Boss can be and how lucky they are as some of the few remaining living members of gangs that The Boss fucking demolished

CID gets a lil more establishment

aka I mean he gets like a lil hologram of what he used to look like before becoming an AI in the zin system when he’s in the sim so he can hold guns and run around with you as a homie

also cut the whole thing of him trying to bargain with The Boss for “a woman” because that entire segment was weird and uncomfortable

[fangirlinghard-spoilerson]

Every one of my theories about the  ending for The Queen of Nothing point to Jude killing: Or Madoc; Or Cardan; Or Talyn.

“I curse you,” Valerian whispers. “I curse you. Three times, I curse you. As you've murdered me, may your hands always be stained with blood. May death be your only companion. May you-"

[TCP, TWK, TLS, TWK Deleted scenes SPOILERS]

Ok, when the TQN's sinopse got out, I changed my mind. I am being dramatic, I thought, TFOTA will end just fine. And then the cover got out and I panicked again. Now, let's panic together.

Why Madoc?

There is a possibility that Madoc forces Jude to choose. After the coronation cerimone in TCP's chap. 20 Madoc began to talking with Talyn and Jude about chose your family over pretty boys. In TWK he asks if Jude will really chose Cardan over the family many times - directly and indirectly.

TCP, Chap 23 (This is me translating my book Pt-br to English, then it may be different from a book in the original language.)

"And if your sister is right and you know where Prince Cardan is, give it to me. [...] It's charming in a way, and it's also smart, but nothing worth protecting."

TWK, Chap 7

“Oh, I’m angry, daughter, but I am also curious.” He makes a dismissive gesture toward the Palace of Elfhame. “Is this really what you wanted? Him?”

TWK Chap 27

“You would really choose that over your own family?” he sneers, his gaze going to Cardan before cutting back to me.

Madoc is the one how rase her. Educated her. The father is a representation of whom we must overcome in the quest to become adults.

Madoc to Jude, Chap. 21, TWK:

“At last, I finally understand. Orlagh and the Undersea we will vanquish together. But when they are gone, it will be us staring across a chessboard at each other. And when I best you, I will make sure I do it as thoroughly as I would any opponent who has shown themselves to be my equal.”

Madoc  don’t accept very well be defeated by her.  I don’t think he wants to be overcome by his daughter. Sometimes I think, that he will never accept. That he will always continue try to overcome her.

TWK deleted scenes - Madoc POV:

I do not think He wants to be overcome by His daughter. Sometimes I think, that he will never accept. That he will always continue try to overcome her.

Why Cardan?

Madoc, about Cardan, in TWK:

“Do you know why Eldred had no interest in his youngest son? Baphen saw ill fortune in his stars from the moment of his birth.”

Lady Acha, to Jude, in TWK:

“A There was a hag who came across Madoc’s land when your mother was pregnant with Vivienne. The hag was given to prophecy and divined futures in eggshells. And do you know what the hag said? That Eva’s child was destined to be a greater weapon than Justin could ever forge .” 

Ill fortune was seen in Cardan stars the day he was born. Something that made Dain throw away - for outside the castle - Cardan, made Lady Asha don’t see value in take cary her son or conquer his affection, made Eldred let all this happen to Cardan and see his like a failuer.

TWK, Chap 26

“When my father sent me away, at first I tried to prove that I was nothing like he thought me. But when that didn’t work, I tried to be exactly what he believed I was instead. If he thought I was bad, I would be worse. If he thought I was cruel, I would be horrifying. I would live down to his every expectation."

So I believed this ill fortune was something like Cardan is not supoused to be High King or the Greenbriars will end or Elfhames kindom will fall. 

Cardan in TWK Delet Scenes:

And a hag once said the Eva’s baby will be the greater weapon Justin ever forge. So it’s Jude or Talyn. Not Vivi.  Maybe it’s Jude. She is the protagonist. She is the sister we see like a warior.

I talked about this in this post: ‘The Wicked King: Spoilers, Conclusions and Teory’ But I will talk a little more.

Eva probably dropped Madoc and pretended to be dead because she thought Vivi would be a weapon and Madoc would use their daughter - Madoc created Oak and was going to use him, so Eva was probably right - But when she tried to escape the prophecy, she made the prophecy come true. Justin ‘forge’ Jude e Taryn. They are Eva’s baby. 

Balekin said to Madoc about Eva be still alive because he knew about the prophecy.  I think he and Lady Asha were close (maybe that's why he welcomed Cardan into his house). Lady Asha was Eva ‘friend’, maybe she was there when the hag said the profecy.

When Jude opened her door and see Madoc asked “Whose child is that? Yours? His?” and Eva replied “No one’s. She is no one’s child.”

Eva didn’t want to say that Jude was her child with Justin.

Madoc adopted the twins not just because of honor and responsibility, he wanted to use them.

Madoc insist that Jude return to his side, maybe because he believe that Jude is the great  weapon.

Oriana never felt comfortable in letting Oak with Jude, maybe she knew that Jude can be dangerous for Faerie princes or for the Greennbriars.

And, Jude’s personal feelings and thoughts.

TCP

“I am going to keep on defying you. I am going to shame you with my defiance. You remind me that I am a mere mortal and you are a prince of Faerie. Well, let me remind you that means you have much to lose and I have nothing. You may win in the end, you may ensorcell me and hurt me and humiliate me, but I will make sure you lose everything I can take from you on the way down. I promise you this is the least of what I can do.” 

TCP, Jude to the boy who she liked a little.

“If you hurt me, I wouldn't cry. I would hurt you back.”

Why Talyn?

For this theory is essential that the reader know and believe the second theory is true. While the reader is thinking Jude is the great weapon, They are distracted like in a magic trick.

Taryn could be the great weapon

TLS

Madoc wanted to teach at least one of us his trade—the art of war. I am sure he hoped for Vivi. But it was you who wanted to learn. You who had the real affinity. You who kept at it when he knocked you down. You used to say that I was good. That I learned the moves easily. But I didn’t want to know them. I hated the idea I might have to know them.

It is said in TLS and, I think also in TCP, that Taryn has always learned more easily than Jude to how to handle weapons. But Taryn had no interest and Jude wanted to get close to Madoc, to be loved by him. So Taryn might be the great weapon.

But we also have to think about whether the great weapon needs to be a good fighter or whether it's not just prejudice on our part.

Taryn is dangerous even though she is a figure of passivity.

If Taylin will be the fall of Cardan. Once more time Jude have to choose betewn her family and Cardan. (Usually I would be against choose the boy, but Jude's family really sucks, so...)

Taryn is Jude’s nemesis. Nemesis are sometimes represented by us. They have our face, but they are our worst version. You're your worst enemy kind of thing. (Watch scott pilgrim vs the world, if you do not believe me.)

TWK, Chap 4, Jude about Taryn:

She is a mirror, reflecting someone I could have been but am not.

Talyn is someone who Jude could have been if she had made diferent choices. They are not the same. They had the same fear, but different solutions. The twins are afraid to never find a place in Fairy in the beginning of TFOTA.

TLS

We’d been raised like the children of the Gentry, but we weren’t. We were mortals and we had no fixed future in Faerie. You were wondering about your place here, just like I was.

So, they are the same.

But diferently, because when Jude had Cardan under her power in TCP, chap 25, and she thought about kill him, she thought:

If I kill him, I won't have to feel like this anymore. [...] This is weakness, to put fear above ambition, above family, above love, but it feels good. 

But in TCP, chap , Cardan’s group - I’m not callling they friends -  throw the twins in the river, Taryn choose her fear over support her sister.

TLS

“Twin sister,” Cardan said, turning to me. “I have a most generous offer for you. Climb up the bank and kiss me on both my cheeks. Once that’s done, so long as you don’t defend your sister by word or deed, I won’t hold you accountable for her defiance. Now, isn’t that a good bargain?” 

When Taryn left The Evil Quartet to infer Jude's life, Taryn choose her fear over support Jude.

When Taryn proposed to Locke after Locke had play with Jude, Taryn choose her fear over support Jude again.

So Defeat Talyn is choose herself over her sister way of thinking, and is defeat what is worst in herself, defeat the one she do not want be.

I'll come to a conclusion about Jude killing or not someone she really loves after read The Modern Faerie Tales.  Maybe she does not have to kill anyone, only to defeat.

[fefgrg]

he'd gotten young singers into the "winner's circle"

I should never see him alone. There was a look of despair in them; I shall never forget that terrible legjobb kutyaruha esőkabát look. I was overcome by horror, too. But they were permitted to see none of them, and were put into a carriage and driven immediately to the slave-prison at Alexandria, where, about two o’clock at night, they found themselves in the same forlorn old room in which they had begun their term of captivity!. He swindled him out and out, and got hold of his money. The old man, of course, had some legal documents to prove that nike air max 97 brown women the prince had had the money from him. Don't weep for Shelton, though. He beat Stefani out for Reagan James, a preternaturally poised 15 year old from Burleson, Texas, Kelly Clarkson's hometown, who sang a haunting rendition of "Give Me Love." Stefani praised James' "God given gift," but Shelton reminded her that he'd gotten young singers into the "winner's circle" before and told her she had a "floaty thing" going on vocally that was unlike anything heard previously on the show. And since Williams hadn't pushed his button for the aspiring R singer, the country coach got the girl. They are all here, and they are angry. He thought of the crypts and those missing swords.. The sign of the Harpy was left beside the bodies, chalked on the pavement or scratched into a wall. There’s a priest in the village there; though I don’t know whether there is or not. I ought to have made inquiries, but I’ve not had time. Jhiqui and Irri would be waiting atop her pyramid back in Meereen, she told herself. “Would that we were ravens,” Justin Massey said on the fourth day of the march, the day the snow began to fall. Only a few small flurries at first. 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[lady-alayne]

Game of Thrones: An Angry Recap

Season 7 Episode 3: The Queen's Justice

(a little late this week, as I moved to another country yesterday, but next week I'll be on time)

Dragonstone:

It turns out when Melisandre resurrected Jon Snow, she also gave him the power of super speed. Remember when entire episodes were dedicated to a person traveling? Ah, good times. OH AND REMEMBER HOW ARYA IS NOT IN THIS EPISODE BECAUSE SHE IS CURRENTLY TRAVELING A DISTANCE ABOUT ONE THIRD OF THE DISTANCE JON AND DAVOS HAVE TRAVELED OVERNIGHT?!?!?!?! This show doesn't even have continuity in one single episode, let alone over the course of several seasons. Gah.

Speaking of continuity! Davos is super mad  a little distraught  kind of pissed  — I don't know. What exactly is Davos? His sons died in the Battle of the Blackwater, and Tyrion not only fought on the other side, he was responsible for the wildfire plot... But YOLO, I guess? Team Dany and the power of love, y'all.

Missandei, who, as we learn, is the Queen's Most Trusted Advisor (on the gender of high Valyrian nouns), smartly dodges Davos's attempt at small talk and keeps her cards close to her chest, not mentioning her slave background. As the team makes their way up to the castle a dragon flies overhead dramatically, and the CGI budget for this episode is blown. This is why we can't have direwolves, people. RIP Shaggy and Summer.

And then it happens, the moment we have all been waiting for: Jon meets Dany for the first time! After an, I must begrudgingly admit, funny introduction scene (go Davos!), the two royals talk. Unfortunatley they don't really hit it off, as Jon refuses to bend the knee and call her queen, even though the last King in the North, Torrhen Stark, totally swore fealty to House Targaryen for, like, ever. Everyone agrees. Seriously??? WHAT WAS ROBB STARK???? BARISTA IN THE NORTH??? JON YOUR BROTHER OR COUSIN OR WHATEVER DID NOT DIE FOR YOU TO STAND THERE AND TELL EVERYONE “Uh, yes, Torrhen was the last King in the North.”

Jon then gloomily recites his House words – Winter is coming – and adds that this time Winter comes with some friends, who are looking forward to killing everyone. Dany does not believe him. And why would she? She has never experienced anything supernatural! Except when she used bloodmagic to save her husband's life. Or when she did not burn. Or when he dragons were born. Or that whole Qarth business. Or the second time she did not burn. But yeah other than that, nothing much supernatural going on in her life.

Davos then breaks into a passionate monologue he copy/pasted from reddit about Jon and why he's awesome, but is stopped before he can talk about the Jon dying and coming back to life bit. Apparently resurrected people are looked down upon in Westeros? I wonder if Jon and Ser Gregor are pen pals, they could probably really support each other during these times.

Dany is not moved though, and breaks into the “My rape and abuse have only made me stronger”  monologue (TM). NO. NO. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. D&D, you fucking straight white men. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND PURE STOP PORTRAYING RAPE AND SEXUALIZED ABUSE AND EXPOLITATION AS THE ULTIMATE AND ONLY WAY FOR WOMEN TO GROW. I CAN'T ENDURE THIS BULLSHIT ANY LONGER. I CAN'T. SEVEN SAVE ME. NO. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

I have to say though, I find it very strange that Dany so openly speaks about her rape, given how she later fell in love with her rapist and he became her Sun and Stars and everything. One would assume that a) Dany doesn't mention it or b) D&D logic dictates that it's not rape, because, um, consent after the fact or something. But oh well, anything that makes us remember GoT has rape! Whoa!

***

Meanwhile, on a dramatic cliff, Melisande and Varys don't like each other. Mel is fearing Jon and Davos wouldn't be too happy to see her because of “terrible mistakes” she made. I assume she was talking about Shireen here? Don't worry, Mel! If Davos has forgiven Tyrion for the Battle of the Blackwater, I'm sure he won't hold the burning of an innocent child against you.

Varys wants Mel to go far away, which she has already announced she would. But Varys doesn't really believe her... Psychological warfare, I guess? “Oh, Mel, Volantis is SO BEAUTIFUL! It's always sunny and the people are happy and it always smells so good! I hope you won't leave this sad, grey, pathetic fortress that reminds you of your sad, sad history with Stannis to go there! It would make me really sad if you left us, by the way, the next plane leaves at five. Also, if you come back you will probably die.”

“That works for me,” responds Melisandre in true badassery, “because I have to die here, anyway. And so do you! Mel out!” And she leaves him speechless. Way to shut up the haters, Mel! You're my new heroine.

***

A few hours/days/weeks (who can tell? Time has lost all meaning) later, Jon is moping about kind of being Dany's prisoner. Tyrion swoops in and once more saves the day by REMINDING Jon that he should ask Dany for the Dragonglass, even though Tyrion himself did not know about the Dragonglass. But that's Tyrion, he knows everything, he's the awesomest person ever, and his quips look super good on a T-Shirt, so the writers favor him above all else. Let the wanking over Tyrion continue.

So Jon asks Dany for the Dragonglass, who tells him to get to work. Wait, did Dany expect Jon to mine all by himself? Possibly while singing a funny song? He is not a Disney character, Dany!

King's Landing:

Euron brings Cersei her gift—Asha, Ellaria, and Ellaria's daughter (Ellorio? Alleria? Airalle? Why bother with names at this point). The people of King's Landing stand all over the city and cheer, which makes me wonder how they knew Euron was coming. Was this a scheduled event? Like, “Next Tuesday: Return of the prisoners. Bring your own rotten fruit. Standing room only. / Next Friday: The Fleabottom Book Club Reads the Seven-Pointed Star.”

While delivering his gift, Euron does not fail to remind us that Cersei is a woman and may therefore be penetrated in all holes because... that's what women are there for? SERIOUSLY??? I CAN'T WITH THIS SHOW. STOP IT WITH THE OBJECTIFICATION OF WOMEN. NO ONE WANTS TO SEE THAT. UUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH.

Cersei has an evil plan all hatched and ready, and kills Ellaria's daughter in the same way Ellaria killed Cersei's daughter. You have to hand it to her, Cersei's got style. At least she did not bake Ellaria's daughter into a pie. Probably because she does not know that trick with the butter!

That scene was my favorite scene in the episode though. Lena Heady and Indira Varma are brilliant actresses; Cersei's sick pleasure in all of this was vivid and scary, and Ellaria's desperate struggle moved me to tears.

I feel myself rooting for Cersei more and more with each episode. She's a really, really bad person, but she's SO GOOD at being bad. She's probably the only person who truly enjoys herself at the moment, and for that she has my respect.

Winterfell:

Sansa is ruling the North like a true badass, and she's good at it! That, or she's mediocre at best, and everyone else is just reall, REALLY stupid. A maester who does not know the longest winter in the last 100 years?????? Seriously?!?!?! And an armorer who does not know how to insulate breastplates??? In what world would an armorer not know how to insulate breastplates, but Sansa Stark knows? WHERE WOULD SHE HAVE LEARNED?!?!?! She never showed the slightest interest in warfare while she was growing up, and then she moved to King's Landing, where I doubt she had long discussions with armorers, and even if, they probably would not have told her about insulation because, you know, King's Landing is not in the North??? And I cannot imagine Ramsay let Sansa learn about breastplates and stuff while he wasn't raping her. GRRRR!!! I get that D&D want to make Sansa badass and smart and give her agency and YAAAASSS QUEEN FINALLY, but come on, they don't find ways to make Sansa look smart without making everyone super dumb?

Apparently not, because Sansa also knows AS MUCH, IF NOT MORE about Cersei as Petyr, A MAN WHO HAS LIVED IN THE CAPITAL FOR 10+ YEARS AND WHO IS ONE OF THE SMARTEST MEN IN THE SHOW (until he miraculously became stupid in season 5 and really, really stupid in season 7).

But there's a glimmer of old Littlefinger still in him, and he treats us to one of his “Always be scheming” monologues. I can only hope HE is scheming as well, but then he would be smarter than D&D together, so that probably can't be.

And then we have Stark Reunion #2, and Bran is back, and he is..... super creepy??? “Hey sister, you were really hot the night you were raped,” he tells Sansa, who suddenly remembers she has to do something. “What do you have to do?” Bran calls after her, and Sansa responds, “Uh, leave.”

Let's hope those two will warm up a bit.

The Citadel:

ARE YOU KIDDING ME. SAM HAS HEALED JORAH COMPLETELY AND IT TOOK HIM LIKE ONE NIGHT???????????????????? AND THEN JORAH IS FREE TO GO?!?!?!?!?! THEY DON'T WANT TO KEEP HIM TO, YOU KNOW, OBSERVE HIM OR WAIT IF THE GREYSCALE WILL COME BACK????????

WHAT EVEN WAS THE POINT OF JORAH HAVING GREYSCALE IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?!?!?!?

AND IT REALLY WAS THAT SIMPLE?!?!?!?!?!? JUST SCRAPE OFF THE SKIN?!?!?!?! IN THOUSANDS OF YEARS, NO ONE FOUND THIS SIMPLE AND INSTANTLY SUCCESSFUL PROCEDURE WORTH REVISITING AND IMPROVING UPON?!?!?!?!?!?!

“Dear patient, you have greyscale. I have good news and bad news! The good news is, there is a cure! The bad news is, it's a bit dangerous, and no one really wants to risk it, so we won't cure you. Off to the stone men with you! Bye!”

Casterly Rock/Highgarden:

To finally get even with his Dad, Tyrion has the Unsullied take Casterly Rock, which TYWIN BUILT???????? So.... who were the CASTERLYS, then??? Tywin's favorite piano teacher growing up???

We also learn that Tyrion BUILT THE SEWERS, which means he had maximum 10 years to design an intricate system, hew it into stone, and shuttle his prostitutes through. That sounds super plausible. Grey Worm and ten good men (TM) use those sewers then to take the rock. Remember when Ramsay needed twenty good men (TM) to burn Stannis' camp? Does that mean Tyrion is twice as smart as Ramsay?

But, oh no, almost no one is there, because Jaime took all the Lannisters (does that include Ed Sheeran) and took Highgarden, which was easy because THE HOUSE OF LORAS TYRELL,THE  WARDENS OF THE SOUTH, AND THE RULERS OF THE REACH, THE HOUSE THAT WON THE BATTLE OF THE BLACKWATER, aren't good fighters. OH GOD. I can feel my brain cells dying in protest.

Jaime and Olenna have one last battle of words before Olenna drinks poison to save herself from this crap. I understand you, Olenna, I understand you. And another really awesome character is gone to make more room for Emilia Clarke and her stilted monologues. Do you have any more of that poison, Olenna?

[nehapatel64]

From fringes to core of #KRPKAB episode 286

    There is a lot I have been saying or wanting to say regarding everything that happened since Dev came to Bose house. Episode 286 was the one that inspired me to write a full-fledged meta in the first place. Since I would have to practically write a book if I covered Dev’s entire visit, I’m going to break apart this episode and branch out to past and future episodes where I see fit. It won’t cover everything I want to say, but it will take care of plenty.

Scene 1: Devakshi confrontation

The episode started with a volatile confrontation between Dev and Sonakshi, which was fairly true to their current characters. The conversation started with Sona’s noteworthy observation that, even though Dev is against Sona speaking ill about his mother, he knew all her words were about Ishwari. We have seen since the beginning of the leap that a part of Dev always knew that the reason Sona left the house was Ishwari, and that Sona was greatly suffering in that home. He has outwardly mentioned it to his mom in an earlier leap episode that Sona’s other option from leaving him was to suffer in Dixit house. However, both still manage to call bluff or sideline each other’s open confessions. Neither Dev nor Sonakshi see any chance of reconciliation or have any hopes that the other will understand their problem. Experience taught Sona that she should not expect Dev to be an understanding significant other, no matter how good he could be as a father or son. Sona leaving with such finality 7 years ago taught Dev that there was no chance she was going to take him back. It’s very easy to see why Sona left the house but more difficult to see why Dev never tried to get her back. Dev was so used to Sona’s unconditional love and understanding, and he took it for granted. This was the first time in Dev’s life that someone hadn’t put the obligation of everyone on him but rather made him her everything. She was a woman who Dev admired for her strength to achieve everything and face all difficulties. That’s why when the moment came that she realized she had tried way too hard and couldn’t take it anymore, Dev couldn’t understand why his wife had reached her maximum. (P.S @moredottedlines, I refrained so hard from inserting my stupid credit card reference here). On the eve of the break up, Dev begged her to forgive and forget, thinking it was the easiest thing to do. What is stuck in his mind is her response that she said she never could, that she threw her mangalsutra in the fire and said we are over. There was such finality in this moment that really attributes to why Dev didn’t go back for her and still blames her for giving up even now.  I’m not saying that he couldn’t have tried. I just see what could have prevented him. We saw a flashback of the night after Sona left where Dev blamed both Ishwari and Sona for the demise of their relationship, and we were left wondering why Sona came into the picture then. The current leap episodes have given some more clarity to that. Fast-forwarding 7 years, we see that Dev is preventing Sona from speaking ill about Ishwari despite agreeing that both women, along with him, were to blame on different levels. Dev’s intention in telling Sona not to speak like that about his mother was not because he doesn’t know it, but because he feels others don’t have a right to say these things about his family. As we saw before with giving Vicky a job, Dev had a hard time accepting this new person into the rest of this blood related family. He loved her immensely, but couldn’t understand in what way her importance should extend to the family. The difference between then and now is Dev actually no longer has such an obligation to Sona, even if he was capable of involving her.

     We also saw within this same conversation that Dev sacrificed his own reputation to save Saurabh and Ronita’s marriage, and that he couldn’t believe this wasn’t the same “obvious solution” that Sona had come to. This incident was proof that Dev doesn’t just channel his selflessness towards Ishwari or Dixits but for any loved one- even if it’s Saurabh. This got me thinking that Dev Dixit had the potential to excel in every role had their families been something better. He had no problem or bias in upholding individual relationships or loving Sona, but wasn’t able to maintain the very difficult ties that bound his separate relationships together. Now we see that, while Dev’s main concern is saving Saurabh, Sona’s concern was Dev should have told the truth. Sonakshi was always a strong (headstrong even), independent woman, but only started making a true showcase of this identity when being warm to unappreciative people killed her from within. She was someone who was used to excelling at whatever she tried and would do anything to achieve what she wants- whether it was being a perfect daughter, perfect nutritionist or perfect bahu. It’s important here that Dev pointed out that she’s putting a HUGE emphasis on Dev telling the “truth” without caring about the consequences on her brother. Dev has always been someone who would easily do this for his family, and old Sona would have accepted this too and understood it almost as well as Asha does. But this Sona has been disappointed and lied to so many times that the idea of anyone hiding anything angers her to the core. It doesn’t matter to her if Dev’s intentions were good or if Saurabh’s heart will be broken. She is tired of looking at good intention rather than good outcome. She is tired of seeing relationships being built on lies. It’s not just the pain of the past but also the seven years in between that have made her like this. As Dev likes to put it, she’s the obodro version of Dev Dixit. To Dev, that means someone who is curt, rude, hasty and doesn’t enjoy herself. To me, an obodro Dev is someone who has remaining bitterness from a plethora of struggles but still has the cleanest heart. The fact that Dev keeps using this term in a negative connotation is also an indicator to how he felt about himself before Sona entered his life. We know that Sona has brought Dev’s inner kindness and childishness to the surface. He’s aware that his personality changed for the better with Sona’s presence but can’t imagine why his absence in her life has reversed the process for her. Part of that could be because Sona is the one who said they are over.  It’s hard to sympathize with someone when you think they made a completely conscious decision to take you out of their life. As I said earlier, Dev has started to understand in the last 7 years why Sona was so unhappy with the Dixit family. However, he fails to see why that means she couldn’t work it out with him. He wanted Sona to fight for their marriage, and she wanted him to fight for her. Dev is thinking, “I couldn’t change my family, but you let something like that break us.” Sona is thinking, “You couldn’t change your family and that was a huge thing that broke us.” Both of them have to pass an entirely new journey to learn why neither of those things is as easy as it seems. All these things are what lead Sona to the point of wanting honesty from Dev now even if at the expense of Saurabh’s marriage. This emphasis on brutal honestly is something Sona has passed on to Soha too. Soha has repeated many time that she never lies, and that might actually be one reason why Sona trusts her to be in some right state of mind at any given time.  

Scene 2: Jatin and Sona phone conversation     

     The idea of being like obodro Dev makes Sona so worked up that she has to call Jatin for confirmation and consolation. It’s not just that Sona would hate to be like Dev but the idea that Dev claims to pity her for it. Dev’s sympathy is exactly what she has been running from for the past 7 years. She has worked years to completely free herself from any need, desire or dependency on Dev Dixit, especially after his challenge that she failed as a wife and more. Coming to the call itself- let me just say this “Ami tomake” entry is far more endearing than “iss duniya main do tarah ke log”! The fact that they can even say that without it being romantic is a true testament to their friendship. In this conversation, we see how both these men have preconceptions about Sona that lead to contrasting, but very one sided, opinions about her. Jatin was there during Sona hardships and is well aware that these are the circumstances that have changed her. Throughout this conversation we notice that Jatin’s entire focus is on how Sona has positively changed through her hardships while Dev’s focus in the prior conversation was the burden of a hard shell and cold heart. Deep down, both men know there was once a completely different Sona that has changed for better AND worse. It’s that, while Dev misses the Sona he fell in love with, Jatin knows what created the Sona that’s changed. Dev told Sona what is true but in a negative connotation that she doesn’t want to hear. Jatin is telling Sona what is ALSO true but only exactly what she wants to hear. Neither showed her the other side of the coin. I agree that Jatin overall understands both Dev and Sona better than they (want to) understand each other. But this conversation, along with many of his other scenes indicate that Jatin’s approach to making Sona see her right path won’t be to make her realize the bad in her but to make her see the good in Dev. Dev unknowingly used this approach by proving himself as a good father. However, he won’t be outwardly doing it until he’s motivated to justify himself. The same goes for Sona. 

Scene 3: Asha and Dev Conversation on Sona, robbery and more.  

     Dev himself spelled out in this scene what I’ve already said a thousand times. Neither Dev nor Sona are in this family for each other. They have no hopes of sorting their own problems and reconciling. They are doing what they are doing only for Soha. They fight because situations bring them against each other. They fight because no matter how hard they try, they can’t ignore each other’s presence. But for both of them, the idea of staying in this resentment, idea of not forgiving but definitely putting on a façade of forgetting is far easier than the possibility that they will have to suffer from the same disaster again. I see this as a situation of did the chicken before the egg or vice versa? On one hand, they don’t really sort their problems peacefully because they see no purpose or desire. On the other hand you have to wonder how they will ever find the desire to reconcile if they don’t talk things through? The answer is that their daily situations will make this happen. We’re already seeing in Bose house that a large amount of focus is being placed on Dev’s interactions with the other members of the house besides Sona. On the other hand, the conversations between Dev and Sona are remaining fairly unprogressive and immature. While this is a method that takes a lot of patience, it also makes sense that things get sorted in some form or another with the family before Dev and Sona even express desire to figure themselves out. Through Asha, we see the mother that Dev needed to be a better person but never had. While Ishwari picked favorites, Asha remains a mother Switzerland. Asha understands both Sona and Dev and reprimands whoever is needed, wherever it’s needed. While Ishwari wanted Dev to be dependent on her, Asha demands they learn to sort their problems like adults (even if she gives them child-like punishment). Unlike Ishwari and Bijoy, Asha is willing to accept the other half of Devakshi for Soha’s sake if not anything else. My favorite thing about Asha right now is her intolerance for the immaturity. CVs scripting this into the episode show the scenes were written to shape family dynamics more than Devakshi ones. We are supposed to hate how Devakshi handle each other, because it’s forcing Bose family to interact with Dev more than they expected to. 

Scene 4: Bijoy taunts Dev on the robbery     

     The exact balance to Asha in Bose house is Bijoy. Bijoy irritates Dev repeatedly throughout Dev’s time here, 99% of the time without Dev initiating it. At one point, he made a taunt to Ishwari and Golu for their mere presence and treats Golu rudely later at Saurabh’s haldi for his association with the Dixits. Despite very stark differences between Bijoy and Ishwari, Bijoy is serving a similar taste of medicine to Dev that Sona had to suffer with Ishwari. Dev is never able to satisfy or appease Bijoy the way Sona could never satisfy Ishwari. Bijoy provokes Dev not just if he has done something at that time but for whom he is to Sona. Ishwari did the same to Sona. Sona didn’t say anything to Ishwari, because she thought she could win the whole family over if she tried hard enough. She felt an obligation to succeed at any cost- not just because she was married to Dev but also because Sonakshi Bose Dixit never fails -even if it’s at the expense of her self-respect. Dev, on the other hand, does not hold back when it comes to Bijoy. That’s not because he’s a worse person than Sona but because he knows no level of “trying hard enough” is going to win Bijoy at this point in their relationship. There is nothing advantageous here about losing self-respect, especially after you’ve already been tolerating it for several days. He claims that he just needs to survive these few days with Bijoy for Soha’s sake. This dynamic was another one, just like Dev and Sona’s that was slathered in immaturity and making no positive progress. However, the drunken confrontation between the two men in the later episode changed that. It was such a scene that seemed anticlimactic, as both men decided reconciliation was hopeless and that it’s best to fake it. However, just the fact that Bijoy was able to discuss the true roots of his hatred was a huge step forward from his behavior and a big eye opener to Dev for his. The tears in Dev’s eyes during Bijoy’s confession showed not only Dev’s inner guilt for what he had done to the Bose family but a newfound empathy with Bijoy’s pain. There is a clear regret in Dev’s face that comes, not from hurting Sona, but from making a father ache like this for his daughter. Unfortunately, and realistically, this moment isn’t enough to make all well between Bijoy and Dev. Dev outwardly expresses what we suspected from his behavior all along; he doesn’t think Bijoy can move on. Bijoy in no time agrees, and Dev is left saying, if for no other reason, forgive and forget because it’s been 7 years. If Dev had any intention of making amends with Sona, he would not use “time” as a reason to move forward. But he doesn’t, and neither does she. 

Scene 5: Ishwari’s Nightmare

     Ishwari says at the end of the nightmare, “Aakhir jis baat ka darr tha, wohi hua na Dev?” Even in her subconscious, Ishwari indirectly blames Sona for the fact that Soha wanted to move to a separate house. Ishwari still feels Dev will prioritize Sona. Sona thinks Dev will prioritize Ishwari. In reality, Dev is trying to prioritize no one but Soha. @archanasean brought up a good point once that, does this nightmare indicate that Ishwari won’t even spare Soha from her insecurities? That’s the trigger that made me realize that even in this nightmare, the actual blame is indirectly being placed on Sona still. We already know that Ishwari is super determined to undo everything Sona has made Soha. As a grandmother with a history of raising dependent children, she doesn’t see the appeal in a child who has full-fledged independence. For any vice she finds in Soha, it’s going to somehow go to Sona. Which is why I’m hoping for a future event in which Ish can’t even deny Sona’s upbringing did some good.  

Scene 6: Golu and Sona discussing Devakshi and their friends      

     Golu has been taught everything is Sona’s fault. Soha has been taught everything is Dev’s. Bijoy and Ishwari’s bias for their children was emphasized through Golu and Soha. Both parents wear blinders when it comes to their children. The main difference between Bijoy and Ishwari is that Bijoy has other sensible family members to help him find the balance and stop him when he is going too far. Plus, Bijoy has insecurity but not possessiveness. He fears Dev’s involvement in Sona and Soha’s life and fails to have a global perspective because of this reverence of his daughter and lack of knowledge on who Dev really is. We know of Bijoy’s bias towards Sona since day one, which was once jokingly reflected as Sona vs. Saurabh. His inability to understand Dev comes from never living with him and having several misunderstandings to worsen the situation. Ishwari, who was was unable to trust Sona despite living with her and being her patient, can’t say the same. Ishwari has both insecurity and possessiveness. The part Ishwari won’t admit is that she thinks Dev’s priorities will again change from his family to Sona. She feels she’s worthless if she’s not everything Dev needs. Without a husband, without a job, without any sort of independence, she is nothing if she’s not Dev ki maa. Yet it’s also true that part of Ishwari’s paranoia is from genuine concern that Sona will re-enter Dev’s life and leave him to shatter all over again. This is why she consistently brings up Elena as the sister who didn’t give up on them and is so taken aback and excited to see Dev even slightly happy again. Sona’s story about the person she was forced to be friends with was a great parallel to Devakshi. It showed that, deep down, Soha understood that fixing relationships is a long and gradual process and can’t be forced. She brought up how her teacher forcing her to fix her friendship with that girl ended up breaking them in less than 24 hours. Soha understands that forcing into geographic proximity doesn’t fix everything. In fact, the close space might make it worse. Soha’s stubbornness (may I say inherited from her parents) was never supposed to work. It was supposed to be a stupid decision that Devakshi impulsively listened to as the “single mother” and the “new parent” so that all these other relationship dynamics discussed earlier take place. Too bad this friendship story didn’t hit Soha earlier in the excitement of having her new father! I’m glad Devakshi stopped catering to such zidd and Soha herself is starting to show immense maturity again.

Scene 7: Ishwari vs. Sona    

     There is a genuine side of Ishwari that is against Sona coming back from fear that she will leave and make Dev become something he isn’t. This is the aspect of Ishwari that is relatable to any parent. We see the same happen with Ronita’s mom, who I find to be something in between Ishwari and Bijoy. Similar to Bijoy, Ronita’s mom is insecure about how her daughter will be treated in the new family. Similar to Ishwari, her insecurity is not just based on a general worry of her daughter living with strangers but also on one specific threat to power: Sonakshi. There is a genuine side of Ishwari then there is the side that makes her tell Sona in this scene that Dev still “worships her”. It’s not even true, but who cares as long as Sonakshi thinks mama is in charge (and maybe she’s still trying to convince herself it’s true?). This was a good parallel to show that insecurity can occur without deep pasts and unique bonds – those are just components that made Dev and Ishwari’s situation go to an extreme. Ishwari never came out of her extremity, and Dev, despite knowing it existed, couldn’t figure out how to permanently fix it. Dev couldn’t explain his complex mother-son relationship to Sona when she was begging for it, and he said it was too difficult to explain so quickly. That is understandable. Problem is he barely even tried to give it in small doses later on, and she was never able to understand because of this. That’s why up to the end of their marriage, Sona claimed balancing wife and mom isn’t that hard if you try, and Dev kept insisting that’s not the case. It’s not just Sona couldn’t understand him but that he never gave her the full opportunity to do so. This is one of several situations where one thinks he/she had the much easier solution over the other. No doubt, different situations are more in favor of Dev or in favor of Sona. It’s part of their journey to make almost every part of their life consistently easier for both.

Scene 8: The mess before Asha the savior     

     What Dev said about Ishwari offering to let them stay in separate homes is not only important but brilliantly timed with Ishwari’s nightmare about Dev and Sona living seperately with Soha. We know Ishwari was not suggesting this from the heart, and Dev in saying this now is him holding on to the fact that Ishwari asked despite knowing he might say yes. I’ve said in the past too that Ish has a way of saying the most accurate things with the worst intentions. This was one of those moments. She had a fair point that moving away could have helped Devakshi’s marriage. However, she’s also raised Dev with ideals and family mentality to NEVER do that. I don’t see this scene as Dev thought changing houses would have fixed all their problems. I see it that Dev thought their relationship could have been saved by some circumstance- any circumstance- had both sides of the family been respectively supportive. Dev was right saying that marriage was between two families and that the parents actually broke down their kids’ moral through their behavior rather than building it. Of course Ishwari is no Asha, and her offer to let them live apart is nothing compared to the issues she created in the first place. But it means more than anything to Dev that Ishwari offered something even resembling a saving grace while Bijoy encouraged Sona to not give Dev another chance. Dev isn’t denying that they had many problems with difficult solutions. He’s focusing in on the question of...but who gave them a second chance? Who encouraged them to work it out when they needed it the most? Bijoy has given Dev several chances- but as a FIL, but those were chances to fix his and Bijoy’s relationship. Right now, he’s only thinking of who was throwing him a life vest when his most important bond was in jeopardy. What Dev fails to understand is that Sona had reached a breaking point in their relationship where no one, not even her father, could have convinced her to try further (rightfully so).     

     Dev and Sona were being big babies in this fight. Sona pulling her “my house and single mom” card again, Dev pulling his powerful man card all had to come to a quick halt. This fight brought out a lot about Devakshi but also their perception of their parents. Sona, despite having no idea what Bijoy actually said to Dev, jumped on Dev from the bit she heard. This was just like she did the first time he yelled at Bijoy for Ishwari and Golu. Once again, Sona’s resentment and jumping to conclusions comes from a place of the past. Dev is guilty of the same. They can be peaceful in the moment for Soha, for Saurabh’s wedding, for society – but until they realize where they or their own parents are wrong, this pattern will persist.

[janiedean]

genderbend throbb fic: when I count my blessings and you’re mind for always

I was having my customary ‘I need to post old fic’ Saturday. I found this thing I wrote years ago which was basically ‘genderbend where Theon was born female and it means she and Robb can get married before Shit Goes Down’ and that I never posted and since I need to put something else on ao3 later and I don’t wanna spam I’m just posting it here. bye. 

when I count my blessings and you’re mine for always, robb/fem!theon, very light r for very light sexual content, TOTAL CANON DIVERGENCE AND RIDICULOUS FLUFF, 4,5k; except that Robb Stark, other than having a face that is too honorable for his own fucking good, doesn’t know a bad idea when it hits him in the face, and the moment he had brought her head down and kissed her slowly, with a lot more skill than someone without much experience had the right, and as if he really, really meant it, she hadn’t been able to stop.

It wasn’t supposed to go like this.

It’s not like it’s news – nothing in Theon’s life has ever gone the way things are usually supposed to, starting from the moment her father, who had been hoping for a third son, had decided to give her a boy’s name anyway. Which had meant endless taunting from her brothers, amusement from her sister and a whole lot of misery from everyone else, no matter that her father picked the name. Add that her mother always seemed to favor her because she was the youngest, and you have a recipe for disaster.

 Then her father started a rebellion (and Theon doesn’t forget that in order to get some minor’s lord alliance Balon Greyjoy had promised him her hand, but that stopped being her problem the moment the war was lost), and then her brothers had died and Ned Stark wasn’t going to leave without a hostage.

 Not many people know that the only reason Theon actually volunteered before anyone could make that choice is that she knew, deep down, that her father wouldn’t have picked Asha, who as things are had the best claim. It was – well. It’s not like Theon had wanted it, fuck no, but as it was, if she chose it, at least she’d be spared herself the sight of her father not choosing her without even thinking about it, and maybe it would have been seen as some kind of brave choice and they wouldn’t have forgotten about her after a week.

 She might have been nine, but she wasn’t stupid. She was the youngest, and she wasn’t a man, and it was no mystery about who had their father’s favor, between her and Asha. So she went with Ned Stark. If it had gone the way it was supposed to, at least her father would have looked at her as if he was at least a bit proud, but Theon doesn’t think he was. He didn’t even look particularly sad either.

 Then, if things had gone the way they were supposed to, the moment she arrived at Winterfell – well. No, the coldness from both Ned Stark and his lady wife was more or less expected. Anyway, if they had gone according to plans, she’d have ended up spending most of her time with a septa, in company of Lord Stark’s eldest daughter (who, other than being a lot younger than her, never warmed up to her anyway, and Theon thinks that her name being what it is didn’t help much). She hadn’t expected that they’d let her wear the breeches and tunic that were the only kind of garment in her meager pack of belongings, or that they’d let her take sword lessons if she asked – it’s not as if she had had many, but she had done it sometimes with Asha and she certainly liked it better than playing music. Or singing.

 (Sewing was all right and she hadn’t minded it, but she hadn’t ever tried to put too much enthusiasm in it, given how her father seemed to favor Asha when it came to the way a daughter of his should behave, and Asha didn’t have much time for sewing in the first place.)

 Anyway, it hadn’t gone like that. What happened was Robb Stark. Who, when they first met, had just turned eight and who, when they were introduced, couldn’t stop saying that he found it so incredibly strange-but-in-the-good-way that she didn’t have a boy’s name. And who apparently was sincerely interested in – well, at least talking to her without it being out of courtesy. It’s not like she had that many friends on Pyke, or as if her own brothers and sister paid her that much attention, and so she hadn’t really thought it out when she told him that she’d have rather spent her time shooting arrows with them in the training yard than sitting through singing lessons with Sansa. And then Robb had looked at her, said that it would be a nice thing if he and his brother could have someone else to train with, and two days later she was taking archery lessons in the yard with both Robb and his bastard brother (who, according to Theon, brooded too much for being seven, but then again she was lucky enough to be allowed in the yard and to be spared half of the proper lady training – complaining about having to do it with someone named Snow wasn’t on her agenda).

 Then it happened that when the novelty of having someone new around wasn’t there anymore, Robb didn’t get tired of her presence or anything equally stupid, which Theon wouldn’t have bet on. But – well. As far as she can remember, there wasn’t a moment since they met when Robb treated her differently from what he’d have treated his brothers or sisters, and fine, he’s been the only one, but it still was more than she had at home. Which is why, the moment she got her moon blood three years later, she hadn’t gone to find a septa or Lady Stark, but Robb, who had been graceful enough not to ask her why she’d tell him.

 Now, if things had gone the way they usually do, Ned Stark would have written to her father and they probably would have start arranging marriages by raven or something like that.

 That first part happened, except that Asha was the one answering and saying that she had read the letter before her father did, and that it wasn’t the right moment to break the news, and that anyway she would have been more suited to deal with the entire problem if there was the need. Theon hadn’t thought that Ned Stark would have accepted that decision, except that he did and no marriage was arranged for the moment.

 Now, from then to this particular moment, Theon hasn’t exactly been a septa. She isn’t an idiot, and she’s been careful to keep her maidenhead as whole as it was supposed to be, but it’s not as if you need to go there to have some fun if you wish to. Which is why, when she fell into a bed with Robb Stark, she definitely knew what she was doing more than he ever could.

 (Theon isn’t ever going to tell him about that time when she and Snow had gone in a corner inside the stables during a feast where Snow wasn’t welcome due to his surname and where she wasn’t welcomed at the main table. She had given Snow a handjob that had made his knees weak. And she can testify that Snow’s mouth is good when put in the right place. But other than him, she’s been with enough men until now, and a few women because why shouldn’t she have tried, having the chance. Robb has kissed Jeyne Poole once, and then has probably just enjoyed the company of his right hand at most. So yes, Theon would have known a lot more about fucking than Robb ever could.)

 There’s also another variable, in this entire things don’t go the way they should in her life: she had never planned to actually like Robb Stark, she hadn’t ever planned to like him enough to have daydreams about giving him that fucking, despicable maidenhead and she had never planned to act on it. It’s – well. She knew that she wasn’t supposed to like any of these people, and she knew that Ned Stark would have killed her if her father stepped out of line, and it’s not like anyone else except Robb cared much about her one way or the other, but – but she couldn’t help liking what she’s been seeing for years. Ned Stark and his wife certainly don’t play the good parents to her, but they’re better to their children than her own father ever was to her, and between all six of said children there’s mostly affection. Certainly not the mutual disinterest between her and Asha and the mutual disliking between her and her now deceased brothers, of whom she can’t recall one decent memory if she spends one hour trying to find one.  It’s not her place, but she’s thought sometimes that she’d like for it to be. And she had realized that she wasn’t much better than Sansa (who spends her time talking about the day some handsome knight will marry her, and it makes Theon want to puke because seriously, who needs handsome knights when you can put an arrow in someone’s neck if you need to defend yourself?) when she thought that maybe Robb would like her enough to put a cloak on her shoulders.

 And that was a ridiculous notion, because Robb is Ned Stark’s firstborn and from a purely logical point of view, it would be a waste to marry him to the youngest daughter of a defeated king who’s spent half of her life as a hostage, who’s absolutely not what passes for a proper lady (fine, maybe the part where she could most probably sew herself a great wedding coat might count, but along with enjoying wearing beautiful gowns when she has the chance to, it’s about the one thing that makes her a semblance of a proper lady) and who doesn’t go out of her way to hide that while she’s technically a maiden, she’s most definitely no pure virginal flower.

 As if. If things had gone the way they were supposed to, she’d still be technically a maiden.

 Except that they didn’t, because she had never entertained the notion that Robb might actually like her back.

 It had started the moment they got a raven from Asha saying that some minor Ironborn lord (who at least is, according to Asha, young, handsome and definitely nicer than whoever Theon’s father had picked the first time) seems to be interested in her hand if and when she comes back, and apparently their father’s health isn’t at its best and it’s not like he’s ever going to start another war.

 So it had continued with Ned Stark telling Theon to consider her choices, which really meant you can’t do better than this, not to mention that there aren’t many ladies around Westeros that aren’t married at eighteen, and she had ended up in Robb’s room saying that it was ridiculous and she felt as if she was some sack of potatoes that you can ship wherever you want when it’s needed. Robb had told her not to be ridiculous, she was worth more than that anyway, and she had snorted and told him that he was the only person in Winterfell of that opinion, and then Robb had kissed her and then moved back as if it burned, his cheeks as red as his hair, or almost, and Theon had almost thought she had been dreaming the entire thing.

 Then Robb had started blathering about being sorry and it wasn’t really honorable of him but she should have the right to choose whoever she wanted to be with and something else very embarrassing and then it had ended with Theon on top of him, her mouth slammed against his, and she had told him that they shouldn’t go forward and that it was a very bad idea.

 Except that Robb Stark, other than having a face that is too honorable for his own fucking good, doesn’t know a bad idea when it hits him in the face, and the moment he had brought her head down and kissed her slowly, with a lot more skill than someone without much experience had the right, and as if he really, really meant it, she hadn’t been able to stop. The last coherent thing she had thought before stopping altogether had been that there was no one else she’d have wanted to go the whole way with, and then she had put her hard-earned skills to good use. And she had found out that Robb was quick on the uptake, which hadn’t been a bad thing at all.

 Back to the current moment: sadly it’s morning, and they’re both awake, and there’s blood on the sheets, and Robb is looking at her as if he’s mortified.

 Now, she thinks, things will go the way they’re supposed to. She takes a breath and figures that she should just say it first.

 “I’ll go find some moon tea,” she says, and she hates that her voice comes out strangled instead of calm.

 “Wait – wait a second there.” Robb grabs her wrist and pulls her back into the bed, looking at her with those damned stupid honorable blue eyes of his. He looks down at the stain on the sheet, than back at her.

 “If I tell you that I thought – that I thought you already – I mean, I didn’t –”

 “Stark, it’s what everyone assumes. Don’t worry, I’m not going to be offended. And well, technically it’s true. I just was careful about that, but it’s not like it matters. It’s just some fucking blood. I won’t miss it.”

 “But – hells, I’m sorry. Now I –”

 “Don’t start on the whole spoiling a noble maiden tirade, all right? On the Iron Islands they’re less strict about that sort of thing. I’ll just accept that offer and tell him I broke it while riding a horse.”

 “But – fuck, wait a second! No one said you have to do it.”

 Theon snorts. “And what do you propose for an alternative? Everyone’s going to find out. But it’s fine. I mean, it’s – it’s better that it was you.”

 “And why?” Robb’s voice sounds strangely hopeful now. What?

 “Stark, shut it. I wouldn’t have let you gone the whole way if I hadn’t wanted it. I wasn’t paying you a favor.”

 “I have an alternative,” Robb says then, and he sounds a lot more sure.

 “What?”

 “Well. I spoiled you, technically.”

 “So?”

 Robb rolls his eyes. “Come on, don’t be an idiot. What do you think should happen now, if things went as they should?”

 Saying that hearing it sounds like having an ice bucket thrown over her head is… well. Accurate.

 “Wait. Wait. You’re saying that you want to marry me? No. No, don’t even go there. I’m not – you can do a whole fucking lot better.”

 “What if I don’t want to do a whole fucking lot better?”

 “You – you what?”

 Robb sighs and moves closer, and he’s looking at her in some kind of fond way that Theon doesn’t know what to do with it.

 “I suppose you should know that I’ve been asking my father why would that be such a bad thing if I married you for… well, since I was fourteen. Probably.”

 “You didn’t.”

 “I did. And he kept on saying it was a bad idea and brought up a lot of diplomatic issues that I can’t even remember, but that’s not the point. On one side I was sure that if he broke that kind of news to you, you’d have hated me. Because – well. I’d have decided for you. But – believe me, if I had to marry you out of honor, I wouldn’t be the one to complain.”

 Theon isn’t sure that she’s understanding right any of this.

 And then Robb brings a hand up to her face and touches a loose strand of dark hair, and gods but the way he’s looking at her, it’s something that would make Sansa’s songs look unrealistic.

 “You can’t mean it,” she says, but she doesn’t sound as convinced as she should.

 “Why not? Is that so hard a notion to grasp? Actually, don’t answer that. Just answer another question. Do you not want for this marriage to happen? If you don’t, then – I guess you can walk out of here, get your moon tea and we’ll never talk about it again. But if you do – then just say it.”

 The way things go, Theon Greyjoy being married to Robb Stark would be the most ridiculous notion in the seven kingdoms.

 Apparently, she’s too weak to do what she knows would be the proper thing.

 “Stark, you bloody – do you think there is someone else I’d want to marry?”

 Before he can answer, there’s a knock on the door. Theon barely manages to grab a sheet and cover herself before Arya and Jon, out of everyone, find them in the most fucking compromising position ever, and there’s no way to hide the blood on the sheets.

 Jon is quick to put a hand in front of Arya’s eyes, but by now the damage is done.

 “Robb, just one question.” He sounds as broody as he usually does, but it’s obvious that he’s trying not to laugh. “What do you plan to do about this?”

 “We’re getting married,” Robb replies without missing a beat.

 That’s when the madness begins.

 But Theon doesn’t know it yet.

 --

 Thankfully Robb speaks alone to their parents, and apparently he’s managed to convince them that no, Theon hadn’t done that on purpose, it was the both of them. Good.

 Then the real madness starts.

 First Sansa starts cooing over her in a way she never did when they were younger, and apparently she is helping her sew her cloak because she absolutely wants to? And that’s not even the weirdest thing that happens.

 The weirdest thing that happens is Asha storming into Winterfell some time after she sends a raven saying that if it’s how it is, then fine, marriage it shall be, some two weeks before the wedding.

 No, actually, that’s the third-weirdest thing.

 The second-weirdest is Asha bringing her some place without anyone else around and asking her if it’s what she really wants.

 “What – why?”

 “Oh, come on. Who knows if they’re forcing you or something like that.”

 “Fuck, no. Believe me, they aren’t.”

 “But – why him? You could have had any lord back home if you wanted. Well, looking at you, if you ever came back they’d probably stop bothering me for my hand and start asking for yours, which would be a bloody relief.”

 Theon sighs and shakes her head. In ten years, Asha has gone from not-exactly-remarkable to beautiful, no doubt about it, but she does have a certain roughness about her that might be off-putting for anyone who wasn’t born on the Iron Islands. Or who doesn’t appreciate rough hands with palms full of scars and blisters.

 “Asha, I know it’s not what you want or what our father would have wanted, but – oh, fuck, just let it go. I want this. If it had to be someone, then I’d have wanted him anyway. It’s – complicated, all right? Just take it for what it is. But believe me, no one is forcing me to do anything.”

 Asha takes a good look at her and gives her a curt nod and thankfully doesn’t ever bring up the issue.

 The weirdest thing is when she decides she has to supervise things along with whoever else named themselves to the task because she isn’t letting stuff in the hands of northmen, and it ends up with her, Sansa and Lady Stark arguing about what dress should she wear.

 Theon thinks that it’s some kind of nightmare. Asha is saying that it doesn’t have to be frilly or full of lace or in any way overdone, Ironborn women don’t know what to do with frills, and it should be grey. Sansa is horrified at the prospect because grey is a color for a septa, not a bride, and she says it should be golden or at least yellow and it should be embroidered like this and like that and of course there should be lace. Lady Stark keeps on saying that something in the middle would be preferable and that it should be white, and Theon wants to laugh in her face because seriously, white?

 She’s almost tempted to say that she’s going to wear fucking breeches even if she had admittedly enjoyed the idea of wearing a nice gown for the day, when Snow rescues her telling her that it’s sword training time.

 --

 Then, that evening, Robb tells her to come to his room. Sansa, Lady Stark and Asha are still arguing about the gown.

 “I can’t do this,” Theon says when they’re out of hearing reach. “Fuck, at least you’d think they’d ask for my opinion, wouldn’t they?”

 “Well, I wouldn’t want to be you,” Robb chuckles before opening the door and letting her in.

 “So,” he says as he opens a chest in the corner, “I had sort of thought the dress diatribe could happen. At least between Sansa and my mother – I hadn’t taken your sister into account, but that’s not the problem. And from what I see, none of them is getting it half-right. So I just – took a look around and found a thing.”

 “You – you ordered me a gown?”

 “No. I found one I thought you might like around the place, if you do you can just change it around or sew a new one similar and solve the problem already.”

 He drapes a dress over the bed and Theon moves closer so that she can look at it.

 And – it’s gorgeous. No other way to put it. The cloth is a dark green wool, and wherever there’s some embroidering, it’s done in silver, but for the rest it’s thankfully lace-free. And the colors wouldn’t clash with either Stark or Greyjoy cloak. She can see at once that it won’t fit her, but she’s entirely fine with reworking it.

 “That’s – you can go tell our sisters and your mother to stop arguing. I’m fine with this one. If they find me some good wool I can just do sew it all over again, and if your sister wants to help we’d probably finish sooner.”

 “Oh. Good. I have to thank Arya for that.”

 “Arya?”

 “She said that it was ridiculous that they’d argue over colors when it’s obvious that this would look good on you. Don’t even try to ask me how she knew.”

 Scratch it, that’s the fucking weirdest thing that’s happened since she accepted Robb’s proposal.

 --

 Somehow, they manage to arrive at the wedding day without any of their respective relatives killing each other.

 Now, maidens walking towards the altar are usually walked by their father.

 But as stated, Theon’s life is a succession of things that don’t go the way they should, and that’s why she finds herself in her dark green gown, her dark hair falling over her shoulders in neat curls and a Greyjoy cloak that Sansa ended up sewing because she had to worry about the gown, walking towards the godswood with her sister on her side. Her sister who is, by the way, dressed entirely in black leather and wearing breeches.

 She has a feeling people will talk about this wedding for the centuries to come.

 And then she forgets about the weirdness of the situation when she sees Robb waiting for her in front of the heart tree. He’s all dressed in pale gray, and his hair is the only touch of color in the entire place (along with his siblings’ and his mother’s, but they’re on the side and they’re not what Theon cares about), Jon Snow is behind him holding another cloak and Robb is smiling at her so sweetly that she doesn’t even know if she’s dreaming this. She manages not to trip into her dress for some kind of very lucky chance, and she swallows when she gets in front of the altar and Robb takes her hands.

 She can barely hear herself as she swears to be faithful and dutiful and a lot of other things that everyone knows she won’t be (well, faithful is one that she resolves she’ll keep, but the rest is the standard vow and the things proper ladies swear aren’t the things she would), and her heart is beating so hard by the time Robb speaks that she can barely hear him as well. He’s saying stuff about swearing in front of the gods that he’ll be all the things that she said before (except that in his case they’ll all be probably true), and then his hands are on the clasp on her cloak. She gives him a soft nod and it falls to the ground.

 Not that she misses it.

 And then oh gods Robb grabs the gray cloak from Jon and drapes it around her shoulders, with such care that she thinks she’ll go crazy if he doesn’t just close that damned clasp. And then he finally, finally does it and shit, no one who gets married because of an accidental spoiling should look this happy.

 Her heart is still beating so fast that it seems to break out of her ribcage, and that’s when she decides that she doesn’t really care if their audience learns that neither of them is doing this out of duty.

 And so she puts her hand on the sides of his face and kisses him soundly, and then his arms are around her back and what is he lifting her up since when he could do that and they’re probably making the septon die of a heart attack since everyone can see that they’re both using their tongue, but Theon can’t care less.

 --

 During the next handful of hours, she drinks more than a bride should (technically, but who cares) while her sister proceeds on drinking Greatjon Umber under the table (that was scary); she dances with Robb first, then with Ned Stark and gods if that isn’t embarrassing, then with Jon (a lot less embarrassing), and when she ends up paired with Dacey Mormont for some reason she doesn’t try to get out of it and neither does Dacey, and then she ends up with Robb again and by then everyone is calling for the bedding.

At least no one reminds that there’s no need, since that happened before, but there are no protests. It’s not even fun – the men grabbing her do strip her indeed, but the moment someone tries to make a tasteless joke and says that he hopes Robb Stark still likes the taste of her cunt now, and she answers that he wishes he knew how a woman’s cunt tastes, they don’t try to do better than that anymore.

 Pity, but what can you do.

 And then she’s in Robb’s room again, wearing just her smallclothes, and so is Robb, and the moment they look at each other she can’t help breaking into a laughing fit. He follows suit, the two of them falling over the bed without doing anything other than touching, and when it’s over, she has to take a deep breath before speaking.

 “So,” she says, “what should we do on this fine wedding night that we have already consummated?”

 He snorts, running a hand through her hair again. “If you don’t want to do anything, we don’t have to.”

 She shakes her head – one day she’ll teach him not to be so damned honorable all the time.

 So she takes another breath and moves so that she’s straddling him, putting her hands on his shoulders. “Did I ever say that I was against consuming it again? If I had wanted to abstain I’d have become a septa.”

 At that, Robb just laughs in her face, totally unable to keep it in, and she laughs along with him, and she thinks that well, her life hasn’t gone the way it was supposed to, but as things are, she thinks she likes it better this way.

 End.

[fereldentrashbag]

For @yansurnummu who has been really kind to me and is probably my fairy godparent. In order to thank him, i’ve written something about his oc, Asha, and Serana. If you have the time, i suggest checking out his arts because it’s really pretty, and also the writing because damn son...i did and it was really good!! Also, he’s just really great so go and look at their stuff anyway uwu

Anyway, i hope you enjoy this :)

- - -

Serana watches. She does a lot of that, watching and waiting. Sometimes she even sees. She watches the moons cresting the sky, semi full. It makes them seem like two lidded eyes, stalking her every breath. She is not the only one who watches. For the first time in all her long memory, her moments are quiet. Not silent, as they were in the centuries she spent shut away from greedy, paternal fingers. But quiet, serene. Beneath her gaze, the sea stirs in whispered swells, looking ghostly in the moonlight.

She muses, the only silent amongst all the quiet, that the peace brings with it a sense of sorrow. Regret. An unformed desire to know what her life would have been – could have been – in a lighter world. She thinks of her childhood, and wonders if it was ever real – if she really had one. Her memories are shrouded in pretence and shadow. And she is tired of darkness. An interesting thing, an unfortunate thing, to be immortal and exhausted. It is not only the sea that is haunted.   

Serana is being watched. Not by moons, or the pale spirits in the sea. But by a life, a being warm in presence and memory. They come towards her, hands crossed over their chest in a pose that indicates a general contempt for the world and all its failings. And suddenly, in the darkness, there is a spark. A heartbeat flutters where it had grown dormant. The mourning in the stillness ebbs away, replaced by a questioning intimacy.

Two sets of hands rest on the balcony railing, knuckles growing cold in the night. Until they reach their hand across, fingers brushing softly over Serana’s skin, and leave a trail of fire in their wake. She likes to burn, she almost says, she likes the burning. And then she burns at her waist, where their hand now is placed. And she burns, too, on her shoulder where their chin has come to rest. But she burns most of all, deep inside. It is a burning like sunlight, golden and bright.

“Asha.” She sighs their name into the night, and then feels their breath across her cheek when they smile.

“I wondered what you were looking at, here all alone.” They say, pulling her tight against their chest.

“Memories.” Serana tells them. But she has forgotten, now, what it was that haunted her so.

“And now?” Their lips are pressed against her neck when they ask.

“I…” She wants to say more, but there is breath tumbling from between from her mouth when their lips have given way to teeth, teasing softly. They give her a moment to find her scattered thoughts; her discarded words, “It was lonely in the peacefulness.”

“Then come away from it. You can have less of it.” They turn her around to face them, lifting her chin with an elegant finger.

“And more of you?” Serana does not plead, but she would.

“Oh, yes. More of me. All of me.” They can see it, the shadows that still hold Serana. And so they hold her tighter than shadows ever could. “Come inside, Serana. There is nothing more for you to find here. And Garan is wearing that ridiculous red leather abomination we lied to him about.”

Serana laughs, quiet forgotten. New memories are being forged. They will not tinge the stillness with sorrow. In time, the darkness will be wreathed with smiles and not regret.

[lightholme]

 Once upon a time,  A village burned.  Ever since Prometheus passed along the idea of making fire to a caveman somewhere at the dawn of civilization, human beings have enjoyed burning things. It started with wood, moved on to your neighbor’s wood, and then the natural progression was to set fire to your neighbor as well. Prometheus would have rolled in his grave if he’d ever been allowed to die. But this fairy tale takes place before the Catholic Church had gotten its world renowned reputation for burning people in all sorts of ingenious and incredibly creative ways, when the concept was still on the cutting edge of brutality and not something that happened on a day to day basis. Burning villages was still an avant-garde art-form that only the most cultured artists of the era had tried their hand at. The most talented among these was a man named Atilla the Hun, who had reached the forefront of his field slowly and methodically. Like most fools, what he lacked in talent he made up for with endless practice and quite admirable tenacity. Through sheer force of will a man who is inept at a task may slowly become a master.   But that is not the point of this fairy tale. This fairy tale follows in the same classical tradition as the immortal and universally hallowed morality tales of the great Greek storyteller Aesop. It is a homage, if you will. Which is to say that its message is about as subtle as a brick flying out of the back of a truck and near instantly pulverizing your skull so completely that when the paramedics finally show up to scrape your lifeless husk out of your 1973 Oldsmobile Omega, the grizzled 20-year veteran paramedic actually gags a little.  This is one of those kinds of fairy tales.  Once upon a time,  A village burned.  A young man stumbles from the ruins. He is covered in ash, and the softly moaning wind blows his soot stained shawl up against the side of his body, revealing his hollow chest and the bones of his rib-cage. If you’re having a hard time picturing this, imagine him looking a bit like like a certain coyote who’d blown himself up chasing a roadrunner, but admittedly it’s a lot less comedic considering the boy’s circumstances, which are as follows:  Two days before, he had gone out into the wilds alone on his first hunt. This was the right of passage into manhood for this particular village, in which when a boy reached the age of thirteen, all of the older men in the tribe forced him to go out into the nearby forest alone covered in nothing but what amounted to a tattered sack. Sometimes they gave them a stick, too. He had three days to kill an animal of some sort, preferably a big one that tasted good, then bring it back so the village could throw a big party and eat whatever the boy caught. After this set of arbitrary conditions had been met, the boy was thought to have become a man, and everyone congratulated him for slaughtering the animal and not getting killed after they had all abandoned him in the woods. It was a sort of proto college fraternity hazing ritual, basically. The French anthropologist who first studied this practice, Arnold van Gennep, christened it “rite de passage” and so ever since anthropologists have called this the “The Rites of Passage Tradition”, but everybody else calls it “Fucking Stupid.”   But it was tradition, and an important one at that, and as with so many traditions they only look silly from the outside. They are like dreams. For the duration of the dream, the fantastical becomes real. You fly, you read minds, your teeth fall out of your skull, your clothes fall off while giving a 4th grade book report, or you can suddenly freeze and reverse time to fix the errors of the past. Then you awaken, and you look back and see that all that you had seen was fantasy. And yet for a moment it felt real. When you look back upon these dreams, do they not have the same texture as real memories? They feel the same, and the only way to discern the dream from the real is by noticing that dreams do not follow the rules of the real world. People do not fly, you cannot read minds, you cannot freeze time or reverse the past. So the dream is easy to spot, the dream rules are different than those you have experienced for most of your life. Some men live whole lives in dreams, and culture is one of them, a kind of mass hallucination which follows our own invented dream rules, realities that we weave in careful needle strokes, webs of the mind to hide us from  the misguided terror that we live in a cold and uncaring universe. Which is a shame, really,  because the universe is full of wonders beyond imagining. Of all the creatures in the world, only mankind has invented “boring”. Reality is insufficient. We are made of stardust forged in fiery crucibles in the heart of stars, given life and consciousness by the unseen hand of a thousand thousand coincidences. Billions of past events stretching eons led you to this very moment, and had but one of them been changed, you would not be here at all. Yet you are, somehow, against all odds. Is that not enough, in and of itself? Life is miraculous enough as it is, grander than any dream we could ever build for ourselves. Go and dream other dreams, and better.   But if the boy realized this, there would be no story to tell. We should take care not to belittle or look down upon the the cultural dreams of others, no matter how silly they seem to us. They are real so long as there are those to dream them. And so,  On the second day of his rite de passage, the boy returned with a promising deer only to discover every single person that he had ever known was dead. If you actually took the time to trace the modern Gregorian calendar all the way back to when the boy came back to find that everybody and everything that he’d ever known was on fire, you would find that it in fact occurred on a Monday, which anybody probably could have guessed anyway, since it’s without a doubt the worst day of the entire week.  He did not stay in his village long after he returned. Ashes offer little solace to the living. He only stayed long enough to take a broken sword from what was left of his home. He didn’t bother gathering any food; he didn’t plan on traveling much. This was because the young man had decided to kill himself. The village had been his home his entire life. He was born there, and he had once expected to live a long life, start a family, and eventually die there surrounded by friends and loved ones. That was obviously off the table now.   So he walked away from the life he had dreamed of, and from all the people who he had loved who were now nothing more than ash billowing in the wind. Dust to dust. What were their names? What were their hopes, their dreams? Ask the nameless billions who passed from this world without anything in their wake but dust and echoes: what is your story? Their silence is your answer.  Like many suicidal people, the boy also developed a certain inexplicable taste for irony and the macabre. The shattered sword he carried had been passed down from father to son for generations. He supposed now that since his father and brothers were dead that it now belonged to him. His plan was to travel far enough away from his old home so that he could no longer see the flames and billowing smoke rising from what was left of the village, and then take his broken sword from its sheath and slit his throat. There was a cliff outside the village, and for a time he stumbled toward it slowly like a zombie from a bad horror film, but he never got there. He kept looking back on the life that was behind him, and each time the fires in the distance reflected in his eyes. Eventually he stopped and sat on a rock, and sadly watched as his future slowly turned to ash. It would be a disservice, I think, to call what he felt sadness. Nor would it be accurate to call it the mind-numbing torturous emptiness that sucks at a person’s chest like an open wound, which we name despair. It was a kind of peace, maybe, but not the kind which gives us grace in times of trouble. If there were any word to describe it, perhaps it would be resignation. Yet even that is a disservice to the countless millions that have died by their own hand. Who can say what is in the mind of a person who is about to take his own life? They silenced their own voices before they could tell us their stories– their thoughts, whatever they might have been— are gone now forever, hidden from us as though behind the reflective sheen of a darkly tinted two-way mirror: from the outside looking in, impossible to understand, and from the inside looking out, impossible to explain.  But don’t worry. The boy did not die. Well, he did eventually, of course, but not like that. This isn’t some horribly-ending German fairy tale, after all, but an American one. It’s right there in the title.  The sun would soon set in the west. The boy took his sword from its sheath and placed it alongside his throat. The steel was as cold as something that’s really cold, and a drip of blood slowly began to pool at its point.  “Evenin’, traveler. I think I know you.”    The young man spun wildly towards the source of the voice. He was especially quick to move the blade from his neck. Human beings still have a shred of modesty burned into them, even when they are about to kill themselves. The sword fell to the ground almost instantly in a quick jerking motion of his arm, a thoughtless reflex action, like the legs twitching on a dead cricket, and he assumed a position and posture that insisted wordlessly that “Oh. Hey. I had just been standing around with a sword next to my neck.” and that people doing this particular activity were as common as sneezing or starting inane  conversations about the weather. He’d just been thinking, that’s all. Sword? No, I hadn’t had a sword held to my neck. You must have seen me at a bad angle, and gee, isn’t it nice out today?  “It’s harder to kill yourself with someone watching, y'know. Makes people feel ashamed, because something in them knows it ain’t right.”   The young man stared at the the new arrival in disbelief. Anybody living today would have recognized what was standing before him as quickly as they would recognize the Coca Cola logo. Here is what the boy saw:  The stranger wore a white button up shirt, and a rugged brown leather vest, with a sort of cloak thrown over it to protect him from the elements. He wore blue denim jeans. His boots were of an odd design. They were tall, brown, the tips were pointed, and there were odd circular metal rings hanging off the back of them which were ringed with spikes. He wore a belt that had a sheathe for some kind of weapon on his right and left leg, but they were not swords. Instead of having a straight handle like that of a sword, these had a strange curved handle made out of wood. Behind the man, the sun setting in the west  gleamed off the blue steel of the two weapons he wore on either hip.  Most importantly, he wore a hat the likes of which the boy had never seen before. It had a wide brim that circled the man’s entire head.  “Howdy,” the mysterious stranger said. For some reason he was squinting so hard that he looked like somebody who was staring straight into the sun, even though the sun was at his back. It was the sort of weather-worn face you couldn’t ever imagine having smiled. "Who’re you?“  The squinting man shrugged casually, and a brown cylindrical object suddenly appeared in his hand.  He put it in the side of his mouth, and lazily walked over toward where the boy was sitting alone on the rock. The boy wasn’t frightened by this. He was in a place beyond fear now. He wasn’t even afraid when the mysterious stranger sat down next to him, reached into his pocket for a small box, made a quick flicking motion, and fire appeared in his hand as if by magic. He lit the tip of the thing in his mouth with his magic fire, took a deep breath. After a moment he breathed out a cloud of smoke with a sigh that sounded like it was weary with the weight of a thousand troubles and a long and profoundly annoying 62 year Hollywood career.  "Are you a god?” the boy asked.  The man sat there for a long while before replying, seeming to ponder this as he stared off into the distance. The sun was getting lower now.  “‘I 'aint no god. I only been here just as long as people have been around to think me.” His voice was as rough and gravelly as asphalt. He took another long drag of his cigar, exhaled. “Kid, y'know, each drag burns different, but in the final moment, they all become wind.”  The boy told him he didn’t understand.  The stranger nodded toward the broken sword on the ground, which had only so recently been up against the boy’s throat. “That 'aint no way to die.”  The boy shook his head. “I don’t have anything left. Why not do it?”  At this, the stranger took the cigar from his mouth and gestured toward the setting sun and the burning village in the distance.  “Kid, you been lookin’ at the wrong thing out there.”  The boy looked. He saw the life he had thought was his future burning. But then he saw something else, beyond, further in the distance. It was smoke, but not from the burning village. They were campfires, thousands and thousands of them.“  "That’s them,” said the stranger, “the ones that burned your village. They’re out there waiting for you to go fight them.”  The boy looked down at his scrawny body. “But if I do that, I’ll die.”  The stranger took another long drag from his cigar, exhaled, and watched the smoke as it billowed away into nothingness. “Like I said kid, in the final moment, they all become wind.”  This time the boy understood. He picked up his shattered sword and stood up. Before he could start walking toward the horde amassed on the horizon, the stranger put a hand on his shoulder. “Figure I’ll go out there with ya’, and besides, think you could use a horse.”   The stranger worked his magic again, and two horses were there so quickly it felt that they’d been there all along, just out of sight. He and the boy mounted up on the horses and turned them toward the fires of the army in the distance.  “Better to go out like this”, said the mysterious stranger to the boy, “and keep on fighting, for the rest of our lives.”  “For the rest of our lives,” the boy agreed.  And so they rode off into the sunset together, and they kept on fighting, for the rest of their lives.

[travisandersondatingblog]

Are STDs Stigmatized on TV?

“You are what you eat.” You know the phrase. If you consume massive amounts of donuts, you will become a literal donut. Just kidding, you know what we mean though. If you eat well, you will live well. The same can be said for what you’re feeding your brain, i.e. your media consumption. Propaganda is a real thing Y’all, and we’re here to talk about it.

We’re here to talk about the way media intake affects our brains. Captain Planet taught us to care for the environment, Full House taught us to always do the right thing, and modern television has taught us that STDs do not exist outside of a punchline.

We first must ask the question:

Do STDs Even Exist in the Television World?

In some shows, yes. STDs are an actual topic of conversation, but it is oh so rare. We see TV characters get it on pretty regularly. A lot of times, this can be the climax (pun intended) of the show. Some may say that television has gotten a bit too steamy. We, on the other hand, are all for normalizing and destigmatizing sexual health. So… we don’t really care what you’re doing per se, we just want you to be doing it safely and in an open/informed way.

In 2017, fans pointed out that the popular HBO show Insecure did not do the best job at showing its characters’ decisions when it came to safe sex. There was no pause for any kind of discussion about sexual status or protection before engaging in casual sex.

Prentice Penny, showrunner of Insecure, responded to the criticism on Twitter saying, “I really hope people can watch #InsecureHBO without asking if they use condoms. In the writer’s room, we always assume they do.” He goes on to say, “I guess because we are a TV show and it’s fictional. And there’s a lot of things we don’t show but people assume it anyway. We are not a PSA, documentary, non-profit organization. I’m done discussing this.”

It doesn’t necessarily fall on one show’s shoulders to spread public awareness on any issue that their fans seem to be interested in. Equally, even though no show portrays every single time that someone burps or flushes the toilet, it’s not like we assume that they literally never do these things. However, it is concerning how few storylines, in general, include anything to do with safe sex at all.

Does Television Talk About Safe Sex?

The best example of a show that loves sex but hates talking about safe sex, may be Game of Thrones.

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Westeros obviously isn’t a real place, but there certainly seems to be lots of sexy time, and there don’t seem to be any repercussions outside of the occasional pregnancy and penis removal. This is especially weird because aren’t the GoT writers trying to kill off characters at every chance possible anyways? Apparently there have been subtle implications of condoms being used, however, condoms don’t protect from all STDs, and there weren’t exactly convenience stores on every corner of those long journeys, so our bet is they either had to pack them and lug them around across the countryside, or simply do without.

So anyway, yeah, in 2017, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill did a study which analyzed a sample of popular television programs and found that 0.02 percent of sex scenes feature any kind of conversation around contraception. That’s kind of crazy right?

But don’t All Sexually Active Adults Use Condoms?

A national health report released by the CDC in 2017 revealed that only about one-third of those who are sexually active in the U.S. use condoms. While that may seem like a dismal statistic, it’s actually pretty high compared to the .02 percent of times that condoms were featured on screen surrounding sexual activity. But just imagine how many more people would be encouraged to wear condoms if they witnessed their favorite characters doing the same! Now, this is not to say that television should be a moral compass for your personal life, but we do subconsciously pick up what we digitally consume. We want to be like our TV idols. I think we’ve all gone to our hair salon at one point or the other, stating that we want to look like Rachel from Friends. In the words of my ever-so-wise hairdresser, “We can cut your hair like that, but your face will still look the same.”

What’s the Big Deal?

So I know what you’re probably thinking at this point, “Well STDcheck.com, STDs aren’t really that common, so what is even the point of showing them on tv?” We’re glad you asked.

The CDC estimates at least 20 million new cases of STIs occur per year, and ASHA (American Sexual Health Association) measures that one in two sexually active individuals will contract an STI by the age of 25. The estimated total direct cost of STIs to the U.S. is about $16 billion. That’s right: It costs us money to have STIs!

And how much does it cost to show our favorite TV characters talking about safe sex? Nada. Zilch. Nothing. Taking this route could easily reduce the growing rates of STDs and could save the U.S. literally billions of dollars.

Are TV characters immune to STDs?

All TV characters must be immune to sexually transmitted diseases, as we’ve established that they don’t use protection (unless you’re really sticking to your guns that we should all just assume they use protection).

But yes, back to the question, everyone in the TV world is immune. Let’s go through three examples.

Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother was said to have dated a total of 200 women by the fourth season of the show, with five seasons after that, it’s reasonable to believe that number went up drastically. While it should be noted that he actually does use a lot of condoms, these do not always protect against STDs. Being as experienced as he is, you’d really think he’d have some sort of conversation with his numerous lovers about his status.

Jerry Seinfeld from Seinfeld was said to have dated 73 women throughout the course of the show. There is an episode with a condom mishap for George, but their main concern is pregnancy! You would think that Jerry would be a little more knowledgeable, and warn his friends of the other dangers of not having safe sex.

Don Freaking Draper from Mad Men. Obviously, he had lots of sex, right? He (officially) slept with a total of 17 women throughout the course of the show, but we feel that there may have been more. A lot of this sex was super spontaneous, like, he had just met them. In the 50’s/60’s there definitely wasn’t as much awareness surrounding safe sex, so the show could technically have just been being historically accurate. Side note, Betty Draper does get lung cancer from smoking all the time, so there are some health consequences in the Mad Men world. Just nothing in the nether regions.

Notice anything missing in this list? Oh yeah, women! We had a hard time finding a super sexually active female TV character to add to this list. Maybe because women aren’t usually written as players? Or sexually active? Never to fear, we have a few femme fatales to discuss, but we’re saving them for last.

TV Shows That Do Talk About STDs, Get it Wrong

Yes, now we’re getting to the brass tacks of the matter. When TV does discuss STDs, it is incredibly misinformed! Again we’ve got three stellar examples of misinformation being spread when it comes to STDs.

Girls is a TV show that’s all about destigmatizing all kinds of things when it comes to women’s reproductive health. They even talk about peeing after sex to avoid UTIs! The “protagonist” of the show, Hannah, is tested for HPV. This is strange, as most women under 30 are encouraged to screen for cervical cancer using a Pap test instead of testing for HPV.  She tests positive for HPV and is extremely distraught. She exclaims that she will now need her cervix “scraped out,” though this is not a medical treatment for HPV at all, in fact, there is no treatment for HPV. Hannah accuses her boyfriend of giving it to her, and he informs her that he was tested the week before and that he’s clean. Funny enough, there is no form of HPV testing for men.

Michael Scott of The Office is well known for blowing things wildly out of proportion. Upon the development of a cold sore in The Office episode, “Sex Ed,” Michael calls all of his former lovers to inform them that he has herpes and to find who gave it to him. Dwight Schrute encourages Michael to seek revenge from whoever transferred the disease. The entire episode is written with the viewpoint that Michael is acting ridiculously. One of his ex-girlfriends even states, “you don’t have herpes, it’s just a cold sore.” Obviously, Michael should have been tested to be sure that he even had herpes or HSV. Herpes can lie dormant for years, and it can be contracted by even receiving a kiss from a relative as a child. To assume that one of Michael’s ex-girlfriends must have given it to him was just silly, and let’s not even talk about seeking revenge (We’ll save that for another blog post). “Just a cold sore” is herpes. Herpes is very common and really not that big of a deal. Doctors often discourage getting tested unless you show symptoms because the emotional trauma is said to often be of higher impact than physical.

Dr. Gregory House of the TV show, House, is a pretty quirky dude. He deals with an assortment of abnormal medical conditions throughout the show. In one particular episode called “Clueless,” he diagnoses a man with herpes and informs the man that his wife is cheating on him with their son’s karate teacher. House has never met the wife or the karate teacher. So, the couple comes back to House and demands to know which one cheated, the wife stating that she has never slept with the karate teacher. House explains that herpes can also be transferred through the use of infected toilet seats. The husband accepts this as a resolution, but the wife says that it’s not possible, and is still in disbelief. House proclaims the husband the cheater, as only a cheater would believe such a thing, and view it as an easy out.

So we’re clear herpes can not be spread by a toilet seat, but it’s also most certainly NOT only spread by cheaters! This is one of the biggest lies that television has spread regarding STDs. When a TV character contracts an STD, it is often because they did something wrong. Anyone can contract an STD, and it does not necessarily make you a cheater if you are in a long-term monogamous relationship. Many STDs can be transmitted outside of sex.

Does TV Ever Get it Right?

We all know the age-old phrase, “when in doubt, look to the Golden Girls.” Just kidding, we just made that up, but it’s actually pretty true.

Betty White’s character, Rose, receives a letter in the episode “72-hours” where she is informed that she may have contracted HIV from a blood transfusion six years prior during gallbladder surgery. It takes 72 hours for her to receive results, and during those 72 hours, she gets a glimpse at what life with HIV may be like. Sophia, the oldest of the Golden Girls begins to avoid using Rose’s bathroom, or even any of the dishes that she’s ever used. Blanche consoles Rose, stating, “ AIDS is not a bad person’s disease, Rose. It is not God punishing people for their sins.” Sophia conceded, “I know intellectually there’s no way I can catch it, but now that it’s so close to home, it’s scary.”

In the end, all four of the golden girls visit the hospital together for support. Rose is given the clear and ultimately does not have HIV, but the episode reinforces the idea that HIV is not just a “gay disease” and that it can truly happen to anyone.

This episode aired in 1990, when there was still a great deal of stigma surrounding people with HIV and Aids. So, who’s really more woke, a show made in 1990 or modern television? Either way, just remember that TV is not real life. Just because your favorite character doesn’t get tested, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t! It’s important to be aware of your status. If you aren’t, get tested today!

The post Are STDs Stigmatized on TV? appeared first on STD Exposed - Sexual Health Blog.

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[motivations-world]

15 Moral Stories for Kids

15 Moral Stories for Kids

In today's era, with busy schedules and ubiquitous technology, we entertain and entertained our children on the Internet. However, there is nothing like spending quality time with your little one with stories and passing on some knowledge along the way.

You want to tell your son a story with moral values. Here are some Fun and funny short moral stories for kids.

1. Needle tree

Once upon a time, two brothers lived on the edge of a forest. The older brother used to say a lot about his younger brother and he used to eat all the food and take away all his good clothes. One day, the older brother went to the forest to look for firewood to sell in the market. When he was going to cut trees from one tree to another, he fell on a magic tree. The tree said, "Oh, sir, please do not cut my branches, if you spell me, then I'll give you my golden apple." The older brother accepted, but he was frustrated by the amount of apple the tree gave him. Greed attacked him and he threatened that if the tree did not give it to him and the apple, it would cut off the whole trunk, whereas the magic tree filled the older brother with hundreds of small needles. The older brother lay on the ground and He cried in pain as soon as he reached the horizon of the sun.

The younger brother worried and went in search of his older brother. They found him with hundreds of needles on his skin. He approached his brother and carefully removed all the needles of love. After finishing, the older brother apologized for having a bad behavior with him and promised to be better. The tree saw a change in the heart of an older brother and gave them all the golden apples they could need.

Moral of the story

It is important to be good and kind because you will always be rewarded.

2. Count wisely

Akbar once asked a question in his court, who surprised everyone. When everyone tried to find the answer, Birbal said and asked what was going on. And then they asked him the question.

"How many crows are there in the city?"

Birbal immediately smiled, went to see Akbar and announced that his answer to the questions was twenty-one thousand five hundred and twenty-three. When asked how he knew the answer, Birbal replied, "Ask your people to count the number of crows, if there are more, then the relatives of the crows will come out to receive them from outside the city. his relatives out of town. "Satisfied with his response, Akbar gave Birbal a chain of ruby and pearl.

Moral of the story

An explanation for your answer is as important as answering.

3. The child that wolf cried.

Once there was a boy whose father told him one day that he was old enough to care for the sheep. Every day he had to take the sheep to the grass fields and he had to inspect them when they grazed to form a strong sheep with thick wool. The boy was sad though. I wanted to run and play, I do not see boring sheep. Then, he decided to have a little fun. She "Wolf! Wolf!" He screamed until the whole city escaped to scare the wolf away from the stones until he could not eat sheep. As soon as they saw that there was no wolf, they whispered in a low voice, how the children were wasting their time and were scaring them when they did the next day, the boy shouted again: "Wolf! Wolf! Running to destroy the Wolves While the boy laughed at that fear, the villagers left, some angrier than others. On the third day, when the boy climbed a small hill, he suddenly saw a wolf attacking his sheep. He cried as hard as he could, "Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!" But the villagers thought he was trying to deceive them again and they did not come to save the sheep ... the boy lost three sheep that day because the wolf had cried many times.

Moral of the story

Do not create stories to attract attention, because nobody will help you when you really need it.

4. Golden touch

It was the story of a very greedy rich man who went to meet a fairy. The fairy hair was trapped in some branches of the trees. Feeling that he had the opportunity to earn even more money, he made a wish in exchange for helping Angel. He said: "Everything you touch must become gold," and your thanks were given by the grateful angel. The greedy man shouted at his house to tell his wife and daughter about his new blessings, while he touched the stones and pebbles and turned them into gold. Once she went home, her daughter hastened to congratulate her. As soon as she reached down to take her in her arms, she became a golden idol. He realized his madness and spent the rest of his days looking for a fairy to overcome his desire.

Moral of the story

There will always be incarnations.

5. The milk and its bucket.

Patti Milk med had finished feeding her cow and she had two buckets full of fresh and creamy milk. They put both cubes on a stick and went to the market to sell their milk cubes. On the way, he began to think about all the milk in his buckets and all the money he got for it. "Once I get the money, I'll buy a chicken," he thought. "The poultry will lay eggs and I will get more chickens, they will all be eggs and I can sell them more money, then I will buy a house on the hill and I will envy everyone in the village, they will ask me to sell a poultry farm, but I shot the head and Denial that way, he said, Patti, the milkman shook his head and dropped his buckets. The milk Patty fell to the ground.

Moral of the story

Do not count chickens before they are born.

6. When misfortune comes

It's a story about how people deal with difficult situations. Asha's father placed an egg, potato and tea leaves in boiling water with three different containers. He asked Asha to see his glasses for ten minutes. After ten minutes, he asked Asha to peel the potatoes, peel the eggs and the tea leaves. Hope was shocked. Her father explains: "Each of these items was in the same position of being in boiling water, to see how they reacted in different ways, the potatoes are now soft, the egg is now rigid and the tea is water We are all like these objects, when you make bad calls, we answer as they do: are you now a potato, an egg or tea leaves?

Moral of the story

We can choose how to react to any difficult situation.

7. Gray Rose

Once upon a time, a rose was very proud of its beautiful appearance. His only disappointment was growing up next to an ugly cactus. Every day, Gulab insulted the cacti in his presence while the cactus remained silent. All the other garden plants tried to understand the rose, but she was very impressed by her beauty. In the summer, the wells were dry in the garden and there was no water for the plants. The rose felt faded He saw a sparrow sticking to its beak in the cactus to drink water. Although embarrassed, she asked Cactus if she could drink water too. The kind of cactus agreed and both spent the summer as friends.

Moral of the story

Never leave anyone in the way they see it.

8. The story of the pencil.

Raj was upset because he had failed his English test. His grandmother sat with him and gave him a pencil. Raj, nervous, looked at her grandmother and told her that after her performance at the trial, she was not worth the pencil. Her grandmother explained, "You can learn a lot with this pencil because it looks like you." You feel pain, just as you have experienced the pain of not doing well on your exam, but it will help you become a better student. As all the good things that come from the pencils come from you, you will also have the strength to overcome this obstacle and, after all, as soon as the pencil leaves its mark on a surface, you will leave your mark on what you choose. Raj consoled himself immediately and promised to do better.

Moral of the story

We all have the strength we want to be.

9. Crystal ball

Nasir found a crystal ball behind a banyan in his garden. When the tree grew, he made a wish, he thought, but could not think of anything he wanted. That's why he kept the crystal ball in his bag and waited for his decision to decide. The days passed without fasting, but his best friend saw them watching the crystal ball. He stole it from Nasser and showed it to everyone in town. They used to say all the palaces and sleep, but they could not ask for more than one wish. In the end, everyone was angry because nobody could do anything. They were very sad and decided to ask Nasir for help. Nasir wanted everything to be normal because before that the villagers try to fulfill their greed. The palaces and the gold are gone and the villagers are happy again.

Moral of the story

Do not get the happiness of wealth and happiness.

10. A lot of sticks

Three neighbors had problems with their crops. In the three areas, there were crops that were fading with parasites. Each day I tried several ideas to help their cultures. First, he tried to use a scarecrow, the other used pesticides and the third placed a fence on his farm, which has no advantage. One day, Gram Pradhan called three farmers and passed them on. He gave them a stick and told them to break the sticks. Farmers could easily break them. Then he gave them a package of three bars and asked them to break it. This time the farmers had problems breaking the sticks. The head of the village said: "When you work alone, you are strong together." The farmers gathered their resources and got rid of the pests in their fields.

Moral of the story

The union is power.

11. Glass of milk

One day, when he left home after school, Hari fell unconscious and realized that his mother was not going to prepare food at home. He despaired and went from house to house to ask for food. Finally, a girl gave him a big glass of milk. When he tried to pay him, he refused and sent it. Years later, the girl, who became an adult woman, became seriously ill and there was no one to fix it. Finally, he went to a large hospital with the largest doctor in the city. The doctor spent months cleaning the woman until she was cured. The woman was happy, but she was also worried about not paying the bill. When the hospital billed him, he opened it and read: "Absolutely, with a glass of milk."

Moral of the story

A good deed is never done without reward.

12. Fox and grapefruit

Once, a fox was very hungry and went looking for food. He searched everywhere, but he could not find anything he could not eat. Finally, with his stomach, he fell on the wall of a farmer. At the top of the wall were the biggest and juicy grapes the fox had ever seen. The rich purple color indicated to the fox that he was ready to eat. The fox jumped up to catch the grapes in his mouth but failed. He tried again and again failed. They tried once more but failed each time. In the end, the fox decided to go home all the time: "I'm sure the grapes were sour anyway."

Moral of the story

It's easy to hate what you can not have.

13. Ant and Grasshopper

There were two best friends, an ant, and a grasshopper. The mower liked to rest all day and play the guitar. However, the ant worked hard all day. He gathered food all over the garden while the grasshopper rested, played the guitar, or slept. The grasshopper asked Ant to take a break every day, but the ant refused and continued her work. Soon the cold has arrived. The day and the night have become cold and very few creatures have come out. The grasshopper could not eat food and was always hungry. However, the ant had enough food to end up all winter without worry.

Moral of the story

Make the grass while the sun is shining.

14. Wet pants

Ajay was a little boy who loved his school and his classmates. One day, while sitting on his desk, he suddenly felt that he had wet his pants. Mohit, Ajay did not know what to do or what to say because he knew everyone in the class would make fun of him for wetting his pants. He sat on his desk praying for help. In the initiation class, water was used to take water from a jar to give water to the plants. When he reached Ajay's office, he suddenly slipped and threw the contents of the pot on his lap. Everyone rushed to help Ajay. The teacher resumed the initiation and gave Ajay extra money. At the end of the day, Ajay meets Diksha on the bus. He asked, "You did it on purpose, did not you?" Diksha replied, "I also wet my pants."

Moral of the story

Help others to need it.

15. Bear and two friends.

Two best friends were walking on a lonely and dangerous road through the jungle. When the sun started to fall, they were scared, but they kissed. Suddenly, he saw a bear on his way. One of the boys climbed to the nearest tree and climbed into the heartbeat. The other boy did not know how to climb the trees alone, so he pretended to be dead and lay on the ground. The bear approached the boy and sniffed around his head. Thinking that the child was dead, the bear went on. The boy on the tree went down and asked his friend what the bear whispered in his ear. He replied, "Do not trust your friends who do not like you."

Moral of the story

A friend in need is a friend indeed Conclusion: With these moral values, this news will tell your children a valuable lesson while helping them spend quality time with them. The next time you want to entertain children, stories about ethics are always a good option.

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