#it's endgame George told me so

[rosaluxembae]

We should stop arguing about which character is most motherly or whether torturing kids is good actually or whatever and focus on the one stan war that matters. Jon Snow is a beet apologist and His Grace, Tommen of House Baratheon, the First of His Name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, and Lord of the Seven Kingdoms will bring him to justice 🙏

[colorfulmetaphors]

(An Attempt at) A Maul Masterlist

hello folks! after seeing multiple requests in the tag for recs for Maul content or help finding Maul stories, I decided to make a list trying to do both for everything I've found because it took me a lot of searching to figure out what's actually out there for this man. and the answer is a lot, actually. So, hoping this saves others the time and the struggle, here's all the Maul stuff i've found along with what I would rec and why:

Stuff specifically about Maul

Books:

Episode 1 Adventures 3: The Fury of Darth Maul by Ryder Windham | junior novella

As far as I'm aware, this is the first published work for Maul. It's a junior novel about Maul carrying out a mission for Sidious, and it can be accompanied by a game book for a choose-your-own adventure. The novel itself though, is one of my favorite Maul stories because it defines his characterization for me.

The Wrath of Darth Maul also by Ryder Windham | junior novel

Maul's og origin in Legends. I think it's a must-read. This book was published alongside Maul's revival in TCW and seeks to reconcile his Legends background with that character by gathering his previous lore into one cohesive story. It notably includes and expands upon the events of the following three items:

Star Wars Episode 1 Journal: Darth Maul by either Judy Blundell or Jude Watson | novella A story that offers some of Maul's narration on his upbringing and his training with Sidious. "Darth Maul: Restraint" by James Luceno | short story Published in the second edition of Shadow Hunter (listed below), this story details Maul's time at Orsis Academy, the relationships he's forming, and his run-in with Mother Talzin. Great for showing his inner-conflict and devotion to Sidious. "Darth Maul: Endgame" also by James Luceno | short story This one is published in the paperback 2012 edition of TPM novel by Terry Brooks. It's an introspective piece that takes place after Qui-Gon, Anakin, and Obi-Wan escape Maul's attack on Tatooine.

Darth Maul: Saboteur also ALSO by James Luceno | short story

Originally published as an ebook, this story was also published in Shadow Hunter. It follows Maul on one of his first missions as a true apprentice of Sidious and shows his characterization when he's just outside that restrictive control. I really like this one for the Drama and the Subtle Characterization tm

Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter by Michael Reaves | novel

One of the two blessed full novels for Maul. In it Maul is on a mission to hunt down a target and has a very early encounter with the Jedi. This one is great for characterization and narration; I have it fully marked up with highlights, sticky notes, and bookmarks.

Maul: Lockdown by Joe Schreiber | novel

The second blessed full novel. So. Much. Fun. Maul goes to jail! Takes part in cage fights! Chases birds! Reveals the depths of his anxiety and need for attachment! Mystery and gore! 10/10.

"An Unwilling Apprentice" by George Mann | short story, found in the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge edition of Myths and Fables

Maul's canon origin. Personally, I Do Not See It.

Stories of Jedi and Sith - "The Ghosts of Maul" by Michael Moreci | short story in the listed anthology

I highly recommend listening to the audio book for this one if you can. Sam Witwer narrates it and it's fantastic. Love hearing Maul wail in despair. (and also love a man being haunted by his past.)

The next two are unique because they're re-tellings of TCW episodes. I like seeing how different writers interpret those events so I like them, but I don't know if that counts as something folks would want to read for Maul.

The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark - "Dark Vengeance" by Rebecca Roanhorse | short story in the listed anthology This one recounts TCW "Brothers" and "Revenge." I don't remember much specifically from it, but I do remember it being told as if to a small child, and I thought that was neat. The Clone Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy by Jason Fry | junior novel Covers "Revival," "Eminence," "Shades of Reason," and "The Lawless." The author writes like they're obsessed with Maul's voice, and frankly, I don't blame them.

Comics:

Darth Maul (2000) by Ron Marz | comic series, 4 issues

Maul goes on yet another mission for Sidious (unsurprisingly, this is the basic plot of most of his Legends materials). Violence ensues. Maul is certified Cool.

The following two comics can both be found in the Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: Rise of the Sith Volume 1 and Star Wars Legends: Rise of the Sith Omnibus

Star Wars Tales 10 - "Nameless" by Christian Read | single comic, found in the listed issue, Star Wars Tales Volume 3, or the above 2 collections Maul is sent to kill a Jedi master. To do so and improve his prowess in combat, Maul constructs his infamous double-bladed lightsaber. Star Wars Tales 24 - "Marked" by Rob Williams | single comic, found in the listed issue, Star Wars Tales Volume 6, or the above 2 collections A comic about obedience and fear; Maul grapples with the thought that Sidious might take another apprentice.

The Clone Wars: The Sith Hunters by Henry Gilroy and Stephen Melching | graphic novella

It's very funny to me that this is considered Legends even though it features TCW Maul and Savage. This one takes place after TCW episode "Revenge" and I'm gonna be honest-- I don't remember a lot from this, but I do remember that it shows Maul's earliest days on Lotho Minor so that's sick luv u spidermaul 4 5ever.

Darth Maul -- Death Sentence by Tom Taylor | comic series, 4 issues; also found in Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Clone Wars Volume 2

Maul leads a revolution while trying to rescue his brother. The story takes place between The Sith Hunters and TCW season 5 "Revival," filling in some of what Maul and Savage were doing in that time.

Darth Maul (2017) by Cullen Bunn | comic series, 5 issues

Luke Ross and Nolan Woodard just get it okay. I love the way Maul looks in this series. In my head, this comic is the canon alternative to Shadow Hunter, where Maul confronts a Jedi early on, but the differences between his characterization in these two stores is the basis of my understanding of the difference between Legends Maul and canon Maul.

Age of Republic - Darth Maul by Jody Houser | single issue comic, found independently or in the collection Star Wars: Age of Republic - Villains

Maul goes on an (Sith ashes) acid trip while on a visit to Malachor with Sidious.

Darth Maul -- Son of Dathomir by Jeremy Barlow | comic series, 4 issues

This series is especially interesting to me because it's adapted from TCW season 6 scripts that weren't produced. It follows Maul as he's rescued by Death Watch after the conclusion of his arc in season 5, and shows his alliance with Talzin as they confront Sidious. I think it's great for fleshing out that relationship and that side of canon Maul's character.

Star Wars Adventures (2020) 3 - "Tales of Villainy: The Hostage" by Shane McCarthy and Michael Moreci | single comic, found in the listed issue or in Star Wars Adventures: The Light and the Dark

Maul allows himself to be captured in an attempt to bring another crime syndicate into the Shadow Collective. Is this one monumental? No. Am I unreasonably fond of it? Hell yeah. If you've seen that panel of Maul and Savage drinking at a diner, it's from this comic. Also has Maul in chains for those of yall that are into that.

Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader's Castle 1 - "The Horned Devil" by Cavan Scott | single comic found in the listed issue or in the collections Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader's Castle and Star Wars Adventures: Beware Vader's Castle

A "sPoOKy" story about Maul on Lotho Minor. Once again, luv u spidermaul 4 5ever. The cover art is fuckin sick.

Star Wars Visionaries - "Old Wounds" by Aaron McBride | single comic found in the listed graphic novel, in Star Wars Omnibus: Wild Space Volume 2, Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Empire Volume 4, and Star Wars Legends: The Empire Omnibus Volume 2

In this comic, Maul tracks Obi-Wan to Tatooine for revenge. Sounds familiar, but this was published in 2005, before Maul's revival in TCW. His design in that show, though, was based off of this comic, and his episodes in Rebels show a similar influence. I like this one because I think it's fun to see how his narrative was evolving as different writers took on the story, and to see the path from where he began in Legends up to his end.

Stuff Maul is in: (not specifically about him, but he makes an appearance)

Books:

Darth Plagueis by James Luceno | novel

Our man JL is back with more Maul... just not as the focus. If you're going to read one thing from this "Stuff Maul is in" list, let it be this one. Granted, it's a loooooooooong book, but it's really great for fleshing out the Plagueis and Sidious and Maul dynamic. Maul does have some sections of his own narration, but the best bit of this novel is seeing how Plagueis and Sidious see him. It also has some of his original Legends origin!

Queen's Peril by E.K. Johnston | novel

This book is about Padme! Who I love dearly, so I enjoyed reading it. Maul has a few sections of narration in it that show his canon headspace.

Comics:

The first set of these is a mental collection I like to call "Legends writers just Try Shit" and it's a bunch of different ways Maul was brought back before TCW.

Star Wars Tales 9 - "Resurrection" by Ron Marz | single comic found in the listed issue, in Star Wars Tales Volume 3, or in Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Empire Volume 8 The Maul in this one has been resurrected by a dark side cult to be the true apprentice to Sidious. The story is mostly about Vader, but his duel with Maul is cool. Star Wars Tales 17 - "Phantom Menaces" by Joe Casey | single comic found in the listed issue, in Star Wars Tales Volume 5, or in Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The New Republic Volume 5 While on a diplomatic mission, Luke Skywalker is attacked by a hologram of Maul and goes off to investigate. This is the one I use to bless my friends with the cursed knowledge of Maul's brain in a tank. Star Wars: Jedi Quest 1 by Ryder Windham | first comic in a series, also found in Star Wars Omnibus: Menace Revealed and Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Menace Revealed Volume 3 Truth be told, I have not read this one because I can't find it for free. In it, Maul is a training hologram? I think? For Anakin? idk. There's also a novel series by the same name and I got annoyed looking for what isn't really Maul anyway.

Star Wars: Republic (1998) 40 - "The Devaronian Version, Part 1" by John Ostrander | comic in a long ass series, but the one you want is found in the listed issue, Star Wars Omnibus: Quinlan Vos: Jedi in Darkness, or Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Menace Revealed Volume 3

I don't know what this is about even though I have read it; Maul is in it for like 3 panels; he gets called "nasty boy" and makes someone wet themselves in fright. Obviously core reading for the Maul experience.

Jedi Council: Acts of War by Randy Stradley | comic series, four issues by the listed name, or in Star Wars Omnibus: Rise of the Sith and Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: Rise of the Sith, Volume 1

Once again, I do not know what this is about because I have a very difficult time reading comics when Maul is not there. And in this series he's there for < 15 panels. But he looks pretty when he is there.

Obi-Wan -- A Jedi's Purpose 2 - "A Shadow Falls on the Padawan" by Christopher Cantwell | issue of a comic series

This comic includes a brief scene showing Obi-Wan remembering his and Maul's final battle on Tatooine and commenting on Maul's mental state. Makes me super emo.

And finally, encyclopedia-type stuff!: (not necessarily stories, but has neat info-- especially because they show what was considered canon at the time of their publication)

Darth Maul: Sith Apprentice by Jo Casey and Catherine Saunders | children's reader

Yes, you read that right. But this kid's book has fun information about Maul based on TPM. I especially like the image call-out for his "heavy action boots." It brings me joy.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: The Expanded Visual Dictionary by David West Reynolds and Jason Fry | what it says on the tin

The adult version of the above book. Shows the inside of Maul's lightsaber, which I love. Also still points out the heavy action boots. Clearly, they are a key component of the character.

And that's everything! There are some re-tellings of like, TPM, in novel or comic form but I was never super interested in those so I haven't read them.

If you know of something else please let me know! (Both so I can add it and so I can read it). Similarly, if you see any mistakes on the list, please tell me. It took me like 7 hours to type it up and check and cross-reference everything and some mistakes probably crept in there. If you're like me and you've gotten through (most of) this list, but still want More Maul, please check out my fic rec! There's a bunch of banger Maul fics there. Tagging @maul-my-heart. Hope you have fun in your reading!

[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

There was this thread on r/asoiaf the other day that was complaining about how ASOIAF stans seem to lose all creativity when it comes to theorizing about Dany’s endgame. The OP argued that people are so sure that Dany’s story can only end in death even though nothing is set in stone and the story would still be very good if she lived to the end.

Predictably, the comments in the thread proceeded to double down on why Dany is 100% “doomed” and marked for death, which is very funny because not only did they completely miss OP’s point, but they started citing statistics that I have personally never heard of. How can anyone except George R.R Martin know what is 100% Dany’s endgame? Are there some mathematic equations I need to be aware of? Can someone share with the class please…

See, I agree with that OP big time. It’s a bit annoying to go through fandom spaces and have to see the same old posts about how Dany is an instrument of death and so she needs to be put out at the end of the story. Others will try to argue that she will die a hero as a means of being a bit more charitable. It seems that everywhere I go, Dany’s endgame always ends in death. There really is an obvious lack of creativity when it comes to speculating about her endgame.

I have an issue with using death to define Dany’s story because she is so much more than that. People get so caught up in the “bride of fire” and “daughter of death” aspects that they forget about what Dany actually does. She goes around liberating people! Yes she brings death…to those who harm others and deserve it. She is not bringing death wholesale to innocent people but she is bringing death and destruction to corrupt institutions. That’s the whole point of her character. She is a liberator. She is a savior! She is a dragon and the dragon cleanses. To the slaves she is the Breaker of Chains. To those who have glimpsed of the coming Long Night, she is the Prince(ss) That Was Promised. To all, she represents hope for the future. Hope for life and liberation from death.

Dany gained so much power throughout her arc so far and she could have taken a ship straight to Westeros, but she used her new found abilities to free people from slavery; she chose to liberate them from death. Really, that’s how I view Dany’s campaign against slavery. Slaves aren’t treated as people; their humanity is discarded, they have no will, no future, no hope. It’s almost like a death of the person though they may not physically be dead. Then in comes Daenerys Targaryen, a young girl with nothing but her dragons and her compassion, who says to them “you may not matter to them but you matter to me and I will save you”. Where the slaves didn’t have free will before, Dany gives it to them. I’m remembering the unsullied who didn’t even have names but Dany gave them the ability to pick and choose their own; which seems like such a small act but means so much more because names are important in humanizing people. She represents new beginnings.

Dany’s crusade across Slaver’s Bay is a big deal. She didn’t have to do it but she did it anyway. There was no personal gain for her but she did it because she cares so deeply about people. And then she gets to Meereen and decides to stay there because her “children” need her. She cannot and will not abandon strangers to a fate of death. And the people know that.

I’m just thinking of this quote:

“I am no lady,” the widow replied, “just Vogarro’s whore. You want to be gone from here before the tigers come. Should you reach your queen, give her a message from the slaves of Old Volantis.” She touched the faded scar upon her wrinkled cheek, where her tears had been cut away. “Tell her we are waiting. Tell her to come soon.”

- Tyrion VII, ADWD

And this one too:

“I told you, I know our little queen […] this Mother of Dragons, this Breaker of Chains, is above all a rescuer. The girl who drowned the slaver cities in blood rather than leave strangers to their chains can scarcely abandon her own brother’s son in his hour of peril.”

- Tyrion VI, ADWD

These people have never even met Dany but to them, she is hope and freedom and life! She is salvation, and that’s the point. She has spent much of her arc fighting slavery which is in preparation for her ultimate destiny as a savior to defeat the Others. Because they not only bring death to the land but they also threaten to enslave humanity through death. However, they cannot triumph over the Breaker of Chains; the great savior that is Daenerys Targaryen! That’s what her story has been building up to. And it’s not that Dany is saving people and peacing out (e.g., dying in a sacrifice). The point is that she herself persevered. And because she persevered, her people will too. It’s that her constant survival ensures that of others.

Dany grew up penniless, homeless, hungry, and even started out as a 13 year old slave to Khal Drogo. She could have given up but she didn’t because through everything, she is resilient. She is determination and perseverance in the face of death. When she walked into that funeral pyre she could have died, but she lived and emerged as the Mother of Dragons - these dragons that have been instrumental in freeing slaves and will ultimately be important in the Other’s defeat. She “died” in that pyre and was “reborn”, and this rebirth is moving her closer to ensuring that the rest of her people overcome death as well.

That’s why it’s more thematically meaningful for Dany to survive the Long Night, in my opinion. She, more than anyone, represents what it means to constantly fight against the odds. She represents what it means to go through all the worst life can throw at you and then not only come out on top, but turn around and use her own survival to ensure that of others’. She has lived through so many trials and persevered; she is the very embodiment of what it means to survive. Because her survival means that where death could destroy, it didn’t. Instead, life prevailed.

If she survives the Long Night, she remains a constant symbol - a beacon if you will - of what’s to come which is better days. Those who are suffering can look to her and see how she went through hell and lived. This would go a long way in boosting morale especially in the aftermath of the Long Night. Because think about it, the people fought against the Others and overcame death, but now they have to survive what comes next. I think Dany is needed because she has already gone through this cycle and will not only be an important figurehead during the War for the Dawn, but she will also be important as the people try to find a will to live beyond death (winter and the Others).

The last book is called A Dream of Spring so I assume this means that it will still be winter - though the Long Night may be over. People will still be hungry, they will be homeless, and they will be tired. They will not know what comes next only that they have to move forward and survive through this new hardship. And you know who has personally experienced these things and knows what it’s like? Daenerys Targaryen! She has survived through it all. So imagine just how powerful it will be for those who survive the Long Night to look at young Daenerys and go, “you know what, I think we’ll get through this one too”. And it will be even more poignant for Dany to lead them to that rest and restoration. Because it’s not just the people who need rest after fighting for so long, Dany does too:

“It is such a long way,” she complained. “I was tired, Jorah. I was weary of war. I wanted to rest, to laugh, to plant trees and see them grow. I am only a young girl.”

- Dany X, ADWD

People take the “dragons plant no trees” part that comes after to assume that Dany will remain stagnant for the next two books and it really is a pity. Someone pointed out a while ago (and I cannot for the life of me remember who this was) that Dany tends to pivot at the end of each book. As she continues to grow and develop as a character, her plans and priorities change. So it’s a bit sad how people assume that she will constantly be in a state of warfare. Because at the moment, Dany’s didn’t isn’t over yet.

Her campaign in Essos must continue and she still has the Others to fight in Westeros. So for now, she cannot truly settle down to plant trees. But she has been learning! She tried to do that throughout ADWD and I don’t see why that learning arc will be discarded at the end of the story. Especially when we consider that few others have actually been learning to lead. The only other character who has is Jon Snow but funny enough, many in this fandom think that he too is doomed to die. I’m not sure why George R.R Martin would kill the two up-and-coming leaders in the story who best answer “what was Aragorn’s tax policy?”

Ultimately, when all is said and done and there are no more wars to fight, I think Dany will finally find her peace and will learn that dragons can plant trees and watch them grow. As all the other heroes in the story, she will probably come out of the Long Night battered and bruised, but everything will be okay because she will still be alive; just like that Bran scene at the end of ACOK, which to me is the very definition of bittersweet. A better ending for her in my opinion isn’t dying in the cold of winter, but rather living and healing and finding a way to build a house with a red door, even though she cannot return to the one she knew as a child. Not only that, she can also provide this house with a red door” for the homeless, beaten, and bruised who survive the Long Night. It’s certainly possible that Martin could write Dany’s death in a way that is poignant and beautiful, but my personal preference is that she lives because of what her survival means for the larger themes in the story.

This whole post has been so jumbled and I’ve rambled a bit but I hope it made sense in the end lol. But anyway….the point is, I’m 1000% Team Dany Must Live!

[marveltaughtmetoread]

I have one storytelling issue with Anakin killing the Tusken Raiders in Attack of the Clones (there is also a major issue with how the Tusken Raiders are treated throughout Star Wars especially in this scene which another creator explains better here but there is also a storytelling issue)

Anakin committing murder against the Tuskens should be treated with way more gravitas than it is

It's supposed to be the first step towards his fall to the dark side, where he gives into his anger and lets it rule him completely, to the destruction of an entire tribe, the problem is destroying an entire tribe is not a first step atrocity, it's an 'where in the endgame for his downfall now'

You can get away with more because of the setting of the story, the galaxy is wartorn, people we are supposed to see as the heroes have already had to kill to survive, making killing more acceptable, but the Jedi themselves are not supposed to kill (this isn't actually presented as an issue for other Jedi but we are told they aren't meant to kill so let's just move on) and this is because the Jedi are strong enough to end a fight without killing, so it's always a choice for them to kill, which is why it is such a big deal when Anakin is pressured to kill Count Dooku in Revenge of the Sith

This makes the Tusken Raiders massacre something worthy of a lot of Gravitas, not only has Anakin chosen to kill, he has chosen to slaughter everyone "the women and children too", it is a massacre and there should be no way to move past it

But the story doesn't treat it like that, the story treats it as if he had just made a slight slip, something he can come back from, immediately we get Padme silently hugging him, which humanises him and also implies that it's not that bad because Padme is shown to be quite a moral and upstanding character, and then the event is never mentioned again

Let me repeat, the massacring of an entire community is brushed past by the story

And then the next movie we see Anakin struggling with murdering Count Dooku, this doesn't work, sure Count Dooku hasn't killed someone as personal to him as his mother but Count Dooku is also someone who has been a thorn in Anakin's side for two entire movies, killing the Tuskens should have made him more willing to kill the Count so why has he become more moral rather than less

Killing the Tuskens wasn't a slip to the Dark Side it was a jump across a cavern he should never have been able to come back from but it's treated like a slip and it makes the story infuriating

Genocide against the Tusken Raiders happened way too early in the story for it to make sense considering how the story treats it, genocide is not something you can come back from but the story wants you to believe he can and then acts like the genocide of the Jedi is so much worse, no, he's already done it, yeah the Tuskens made it believable but the discrepancy in the treatment of the two genocides makes the story infuriating, it's genocide other way, why is only the Jedi's massacre treated as such

And Anakin didn't have to massacre an entire village to show he was slipping, we had already established that the Jedi are not allowed to kill and more importantly, the Jedi are not supposed to give into their emotions, him killing a person in anger should have been enough, him killing maybe two people in anger would have been enough but massacring an entire village should have been a 'he's never coming back, he has completely fallen to the dark side' moment like when he did it to the Jedi

And it just doesn't work, the only thing I can think of for why this scene exists in the form it does is poor storytelling, George Lucas didn't have a plan so he had the impactful scene of Anakin massacring a Tusken community and then low key retconned it in the next movie because he still had another movie to flesh out Anakin's fall, and it does also feel racist that the Tuskens who are based on non-white indigenous communities have their genocide treated so lightly when compared to the genocide of the Jedi

[sixstepsaway]

A little while ago I wrote a thing about fandom purity culture and OFMD's fandom, where I mostly talked about how I think a lot of it boils down to cultural Christianity, but I also dipped briefly into the parts of it that I think are just... capitalism.

I want to go back to that for a moment because I have been witnessing the funniest shit over on Twitter the last few days and I want to talk about it because it absolutely highlights, circles and underlines the capitalism bit for me

[tw for talk of fictional incest]

I'm sure you all know that House of the Dragon is out. I haven't watched it personally, but I did watch a lot of Game of Thrones (and the gross finale) when that was airing, and so I know what to expect from House of the Dragon: Incest.

If you don't know, somehow, HotD is based on the Targaryen family but years before the timeline of Game of Thrones. GoT (and the books, of course) established that the Targaryen family were very incestuous. They'd been marrying sisters to brothers for generations to keep their bloodlines pure.

(Now, whether that's to do with the fact they had dragon blood and they needed to keep that in the family blah blah or something else I am not sure, but it's a fact of what the family did.)

It's canon that Daenerys Targaryen's parents are siblings. She pursues a relationship in the final season of GoT with a man who turns out to be her nephew, and this bothers him a little and her not a single jot because... it's just? What her family's always done? It's also what other families in GoT have always done, including the Lannisters. It's not out of the norm for any of them and is a huge part of the books and show. Arguably it's more of a concern for Jon just because he didn't know he was from an incestuous royal family, so it wasn't really something he expected or anticipated in his life, or had to think about all that much.

Fandom has latched onto a pairing in HotD that is written as explicitly romantic and leading to an endgame for them: Daemon and Rhaenyra. House of the Dragon is leading them up to this. The books go into a lot of detail about what their relationship was like, and thusly what to expect from HotD (you can read about it here if you want) but the basics are that they will have a steamy love affair, try to be with other people, but eventually end up together, get married and have multiple children together (in fact, I believe Daenerys is a descendant of theirs? But I'm not positive).

So, to recap: HBO is proudly airing a TV show full of incest which 16-million+ people are watching weekly, George R R Martin wrote incest-full books that millions of people read that lead to this, and Ryan J. Condal created this show to air on HBO and wrote all these incestuous storylines, including making the Rhaenyra and Daemon relationship enticing enough that fandom has latched onto it.

And somehow, despite all of this, there are antis over on Twitter (and, I can only imagine, here as well) who are watching this show and then yelling... at fans, for enjoying it, writing fic about it, and making fanart about it.

One person was even complaining they only had to scroll a little to find 'incest fanart' in the House of the Dragon hashtag on Twitter and asking why people can't just be normal and not ship an uncle and his underage niece!

(Who isn't even going to stay underage in the show, mind, they're aging her up in an episode or two I believe.)

To me, this absolutely epitomizes what I was saying about capitalism in my essay about purity culture. HBO is fine. GRRM is fine. Ryan J. Condal is fine. Matt Smith who willingly signed up to play Daemon - a character who will engage in a sexual relationship with his niece - is fine.

Every person working the show who is earning money for it, who is getting paid to put this show out there, is fine. They're not doing anything wrong, you see. It's the ones who aren't getting paid who deserve death threats and being told they're awful people and normalizing incest and whatever the heck else.

Capitalism absolves. Doing it for free for a much smaller audience is the wrong here.

Now, to be clear: I don't think HBO or the writers or the actors are doing anything wrong lmao. I don't think it normalizes anything to make fun TV that includes that thing. It requires a lot more nuance and planning to normalize a taboo this strong.

What I'm saying is that these people have drunk the capitalism koolaid so deeply that they think that money makes things okay, that they act like writing incest or an age gap like Rhaenyra and Daemon's makes you a variety of terrible buzzwords (including ones beginning with P) and someone who should be taken out and shot or hate crimed, but only if you're writing it for fun and posting it on AO3, or drawing it and posting it on Twitter.

And sure, maybe they'll come argue that no! They don't think that! God! They think it's bad to air on HBO too!

...but, uh, they're watching it, is the thing. Lots of them are watching it. They're either watching it legally and contributing to the 16 million+ viewers, or they're pirating it, then talking about it and drumming up even more interest online. Either way, they're participating in its success.

So, yeah. Capitalism. They think it's okay as long as it's done Professionally and makes the participants money (even those who already have loads of money).

It's the poor, broke writers who do it because it's fun that are wrong and normalizing and fetishizing and sexualizing here!

Makes sense and isn't at all concerning...

(Also funny is that somehow someone drawing the characters or writing them together is the worst evil but the person who hired people to act it out and will surely have multiple actors act it out in softcore porn scenes isn't bad at all.)

[your-littlesecret]

VERY intrigued by "(georgierre x chalex but piarles x galex endgame) convite de casamento" 👀... could you share a bit more about that WIP, please? 😍

ooooh babyyy!!!! i could talk about this one forever!!!

some people on cc have heard vaguely about this but it’s based on a brazilian song that for me it just screams piarles called ‘convite de casamento’ and the whole story of the song is about childhood friends, a guy who doesn’t confess his love and he thinks it’s unrequited and then the girl he loves is set to get married and she sends him a wedding invitation but she writes on the back ‘i’m getting married but you should know the greatest love of my life is you’

so guess what????? imma make them suffer!!!!

it’s a small town and george, charles, pierre and alex are the inseparable childhood best friends group, even though they have their own preferences within and spend more time with one or another, it’s always the four of them.

pierre finds himself in love with his best friend when he’s a teenager but he doesn’t say anyyyyyything and bc of ~family business~ or smth charles and alex start dating. which, i mean, charles would prefer if it was pierre too, but since there’s no indication that pierre wants anything with him, he accepts it (he does love alex tho, just- not romantically, but he can live with it. he knows alex doesn’t love him like that either.)

so alex and charles are in a relationship and pierre and george are pining and they start spending more time just the two of them and eventually they start dating too

this goes on for years and the four of them pretend to be okay but truth be told, they are all miserable.

and then charles’ family (they are not too nice here, not until the end) pressure them and the get engaged

bla bla bla i’m already talking too much but don’t want to give much spoilers but pierre gets the wedding invitation and there’s charles’ handwriting telling him how pierre is the one he wishes he would be marrying

AND PIERRE DOES NOTHING ABOUT IT!!!!!!

and he says yes to be best man and on the night of the engagement dinner he doesn’t go and that’s when the families realize how miserable they all are and send charles after pierre and george to be with alex

(they stay good friends after and they laugh about alex and charles’ almost marriage at some point in the future)

i am not currently writing this one, i have a whole plot in my gdocs but i think this will be a looooong fic which means ill need time for it which- well, i need to find 24 extra hours on my week rn but i’ll get there at some point!!

[lawonderlandwriter]

Everything we know about the Jon Snow Show

Facts:

~ News about a Jon Snow spinoff was first broken by James Hibbered of The Hollywood Reporter, then subsequently confirmed by Emilia Clarke, and finally by George RR Martin himself.

~ The working title for the show is Snow (though this could definitely change, ex: GRRM wanted the ill fated show about the Long Night to be called The Long Night but the HBO official title was Blood Moon).

~ The writing / producing team for Snow is a crew put together by Kit Harington and the idea for the series was created by Kit.

~ Kit’s writing / producing crew visited GRRM in Santa Fe and are working with him / his writing and consulting team to “hammer out the show.”

~ Snow is not yet greenlit by HBO (that they’ve announced, at least), but is in the “script” stage of development, which includes an approved outline and treatment, notes, and multiple script drafts (though whether for a pilot or a whole season is unknown).

~ Lastly, goes without saying, HBO will be the network behind Snow.

Reasonable Assumptions:

~ Friend of Kit Harington and co-executive producer of the limited series Gunpowder, Daniel West, will likely be involved with the show.

~ Tandem news, Snow will likely be a limited series (West’s page on his agent’s website was briefly updated with an item for an unnamed limited series with HBO but it has since been deleted) (and not to toot my own horn but I had already long predicted that it would be a limited series so, yay me).

~ Brienne of Tarth actor Gwendoline Christie could be involved, as she has said she would love to play the character again and gave a “maybe” when asked point blank if she’d be involved in the Jon Snow spinoff. 

~ Lastly, could be something but could be nothing, but House of the Dragon co-showrunner, Miguel Sapochnik recently left the series after only being involved for a single season. With Sapochnik also being a friend of Kit Harington and Kit being an admirer of his work, it’s entirely possible he’s been poached by Kit for Snow.

Unhinged Dot Connecting:

(The tinfoil hat is screwed on tight for this section and the shipper goggles are ON so take all these predictions with a grain of salt). Keep reading line included cuz this gets LONG. 

~ We know Kit personally told Emilia about the Jon Snow spinoff. They’ve talked about this show together. Granted, it could have just been in the casual context, “Hey, I’m thinking about pitching a Jon Snow spinoff to GRRM, what do you think?” But arguably, it also could have been a lot more. For all we know / have been told, this is something Kit and Emilia have come up with together. Based on their individual thoughts of the final season and their desires for their characters’ endgames, it makes sense that they would ruminate on the S8 ending together and then come to the logical conclusion most of us had in response to watching that dumpster fire: it’s bullshit and it should be re-done. 

That Emilia was THE former cast member to officially confirm that the spinoff was real after the THR leak feels significant. Also, George’s Not-A-Blog was posted the same day that Emilia’s BBC interview came out (Gwen Christie’s Newsweek article also came out this same day, but was more framed from the perspective of it already being confirmed and just asking Gwen if she’d be involved, whereas Emilia’s was asking if it was true or not). All 3 confirmations of the show from people being previously involved in GOT coming out on the same day and exactly one week after the Hibbered article. I mean, I know I’ve got my tinfoil hat screwed on tight here but it really feels as if this was all... planned. 

~ Though she initially demurred in the BBC interview and said she was “done” playing Daenerys, Emilia has since backtracked. At the DIFLondon event, she was asked about playing Dany again in a sequel and allegedly said it would be “difficult” because she’s dead and “We don’t know where her body is.” She allegedly dropped the old “could come back as a white walker” chestnut. And she said she wants Dany to be with Jon, for them to work through their issues in family therapy (lol), and said that Dany is ultimately a hopeful character. 

So all her talk about Dany being dead, to me, is very reminiscent of Kit’s “I’m dead” routine following the GOT Season 5 finale. She absolutely knows that characters can come back from the dead in the ASOIAF universe which is probably why, after saying it’d be difficult to play her again with Dany being dead, she added “we don’t know where her body is” as an additional obstacle to her coming back to the character. 

But, of course, as we’ve all theorized about a thousand times, at the end of GOT, it very much seemed as if they were hinting at Drogon flying toward Volantis, where there’s a temple of the lord of light with red priests who could bring Dany back. 

Now, do I think D&D purposefully set up Drogon’s location to hint at Dany coming back for potential future spinoffs? Not really. I mean, it’s entirely possible they thought they could come back to the franchise a few years later but it’s also possible HBO asked them to leave that all ambiguous for the purpose of potential spinoffs, with or without their involvement (like Showtime did with the original Dexter series - the writers were forbidden from killing off Dexter). 

~ According to Maisie Williams, Kit was allegedly told back in Season 3 that he was going to be the one to kill the Night King.

This is such an odd rumor considering the character of the Night King doesn’t exist in the books and didn’t even appear in the show series until Season 4 (though Maisie could have gotten the seasons wrong). But, so far as canonical ASOIAF, Kit being told his could have been genuine. D&D learned from George the final fates of all the major characters around the time Season 3 was airing. So if George had told them Jon was involved / helped with stopping the White Walkers, they could have offhandedly passed that information on to Kit.

With House of the Dragon now shining a beacon on the Prince That Was Promised prophecy that D&D completely abandoned in Season 8, this could become a central plot point for Snow, especially if they’re going to rehash the White Walker plot with the old, “but they weren’t really defeated” trope.

At the end of GOT, Arya is headed west of Westeros and has Aegon’s prophecy-inscribed dagger with her, which could definitely prompt a return of Maisie Williams to the character in the spin-off.

Now, this absolutely does not mean that Dany can’t also be TPTWP. And according to the prophecy from the books about waking dragons from stone and Maester Aemon realizing it could be someone male or female, it actually makes more sense for it to be Dany. Going back to HOTD, with the Dance of Dragons ending with Rhaenyra being killed by her usurping male relative, it feels reasonable that they’d be setting up a Targaryen woman to be the savior of Westeros, not a man. 

At the very least, if Emilia is indeed coming back as a resurrected Daenerys, we can safely say this would be Dany’s redemption. There is NO WAY Emilia would agree to come back to the character if Kit’s grand spinoff idea was to turn her into the Night Queen or another kind of “big bad” for the show. If Dany comes back, she will be redeemed, she will be a hero, and she and Jon will be given another shot at love (true, they could die again in the end, but they’d likely die together as heroes). 

~ Speaking on House of the Dragon again, this is a show that they are rushing. There’s such a huge time skip in the middle of the show that they had to cast multiple actors to play the same characters to show them when they were young vs when they got older. And this isn’t an issue of waiting for actors to grow up so they can do sex scenes à la Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams. The younger versions of the characters cast were adult actors too. And there is certainly enough material on the Dance of Dragons to last a series at least as long as Game of Thrones. However, HOTD is being planned as only a three or four season show. 

Now, why on earth would HBO (and GRRM for that matter, as he was always in favor of having more seasons of GOT to flesh out the story more) only order a show for three or four seasons, when there is certainly enough material to run for at least as long as GOT did?

Well, if they are going to tie in the Jon Snow spinoff show with HOTD (and especially if the spinoff contains a Daenerys resurrection / redemption), it makes a whole lot of sense that they’d want to premiere Snow as HOTD is ending. Season 1 is already half way finished airing, which means it’s only got two or three to go. If Snow rides on the coattails of HOTD and follows directly after its run, we could get the spinoff on screen by as early as 2024.  

(As far as production and writing timelines for House of the Dragon, this could logistically make sense. Though Fire and Blood, the book on which HOTD is based, came out in 2018, and the series was ordered by HBO around October 2019, writing for the series only began around January 2020. George stated that Snow has been development almost as long as the possible shows for Ten Thousand Ships, 9 Voyages, and The Hedge Knight. And though those three potential spinoffs weren’t announced / leaked until early 2021, they’d have to have been in development / talks much earlier than that before news of their development finally got out).

Other silly tidbits:

~ When a fan explained to Kit the finer points of fandom shipping and that they believed Jon and Daenerys were “The Song of Ice and Fire,” he called it “brilliant” and said he “totally agreed.”

If HOTD was in the writing stage then and Snow was in very early development, Kit could definitely have been agreeing because he knew he was already creating a limited series spinoff based on that exact idea and had insights from GRRM about the true ending to ASOIAF. 

~ When Kit was asked whether or not he’d become a father in Season 8 (before the table read when he found out Jon and Dany’s ultimate fates in the show series) he certainly seemed fond of the idea. And, as has been relentlessly pointed out, the GOT 7x07 commentary with David Benioff, Dan Weiss, Kit Harington, and Lena Heady (not to mention the numerous references to “children” throughout Season 7) definitely seemed to hint that this would be the case for Season 8, and realistically could have been a planned plot scrapped by D&D in favor of Mad Queen Dany. But if it’s part of Dany and Jon’s book fates and is a plot favored by Kit, we could finally get a Targling at the end of Snow if Dany is indeed resurrected.

But what do you guys think? I’ve already predicted that Kit’s growing out the beard in preparation for beginning filming Snow, though it hasn’t been announced that the show is going to series yet. I doubt they would officially announce it before filming begins because it is such big news and HBO wouldn’t want paps trying to get photos of the set and spoil parts of the plot. Though if we get short-haired Emilia soon or blonde Emilia, I think we’ll be able to say with confidence that it’s happening. 

[esther-dot]

“The things he has told us time and again over the course of years that he told D&D? The things the fandom wants to believe are strictly their fuckery? Like say, Stannis burning Shireen, King Bran, Dark Dany?”

Can you share where George told us ‘time and again’ that he told D&D about Dark Dany? Because from what I know, the three things George RR Martin confirmed he’s told D&D were Stannis burning Shireen, King Bran and the Hodor moment. I don’t remember him saying anything about Daenerys’ ending, I’d be happy if you enlightened me, I’d love to see the interview/post.

Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t careful enough there! Martin has said many times over the course of years, that he has known his main endings and plot points for years/decades. He has also said he shared these with D&D, that he expected the show to have the same endgames, and before and after s8 he has spoken of how faithful an adaptation of ASOIAF Game of Thrones is. Obviously they have huge divergences, but I think those are in the how the endgame is reached, less the what. That’s the part of “he told us time and again” that I meant, not that I have heard him explicitly say, “Dany dies a villain.”

But, he did say this of the infamous Meereenese Blot Essays:

Then he went on to add that sometimes there's an essay or even a series of essays that "really gets it right". He specifically cited the difficulty he had with the Meereenese sections of ADwD, trying to figure out the POV, and he called it the "Meereenese Knot." He admitted being annoyed when some turned it into "the Meerenese Blot", but someone made a series of essays with that title. "I read those when someone pointed them out to me, and I was really pleased with them, because at least one guy got it. He got it completely, he knew exactly what I was trying to do there, and evidently I did it well enough for people who were paying attention." Of course, he added that some other essays depress him when people get everything wrong, and when people get everything wrong, well, whose fault is it? It could be his fault because he didn't write it well enough, but who knows? (link)

Here are some quotes from those essays:

But when you look past the unreliable narrator and POV-character bias, Martin’s aim becomes clear. The whole plotline is designed to maneuver Dany into a mental place where she’ll decide to sideline her concerns for innocent life, and take what she wants with fire and blood. Martin’s triumph is in handling this character development in such a natural and organic way. He gives Dany as much agency as he can — her hand is never truly forced by the Harpy or slavers. He presents her with incredibly difficult situations, places her core values into conflict, and makes her choose. Her choices first go one way — then another.

Now, the transformation is complete. The Dany we knew at the end of ASOS is gone. The one who reaches Westeros will be a very different person. The dragons are now unchained, and the gloves are off. (link)

and

In parts I-IV of this essay, I’ve laid out my main argument that Martin has designed Dany’s ADWD plotline quite deliberately to focus on her struggle within herself. She tries to be concerned for innocent life, and fears unleashing her violent impulses. Eventually, she sacrifices a great deal for peace, and achieves it. But she turns out to hate it, and in the end rejects it, in favor of “fire and blood.” 

and

In contrast to Daario, Martin tailors the traits of Hizdahr zo Loraq to represent the path of peace through political compromise. Dany’s feelings toward him are exactly how she ends up feeling toward the peace — like the peace, Hizdahr is unsatisfying, frustrating, not what Dany truly wants, and cannot make her happy — and instinctively, she wants war more. 

and

Dany’s sexual satisfaction is a metaphor — the reality of peace can’t truly satisfy Dany, only war can (link)

So, no, Mr Martin didn’t look into a camera and say, “Dark Dany is real and everyone who says so isn’t a hater or partaking in a ship war.” But I’m not sure how you read the essays and what he said about them and deny that’s the path she’s on?

I also think the way he regularly included “the major beats” in his discussion about endgames being the same in the show and books indicates the burning of KL was always in his mind, but even if he didn’t say so, I don’t think it’s a weird conclusion to come to. Not if you relate Dany entering a funeral pyre because she is blood of the dragon and emerging with her dragons to the later quotes about Aerys wanting to turn KL into a giant funeral pyre so that he could be a dragon. It’s just not much of a leap at all to realize, oh, the author is building to something here. (link)

My words could have been clearer, but I think Dark Dany is just like Stannis burning Shireen. It makes sense, it’s foreseeable, but fans like Stannis so they refuse to believe it without seeing the words on the page. Fine. But it doesn’t mean it wasn’t where Martin always intended to go. His quote about Feldman’s essays is from 2015.

The other Martin quote that seals the deal for me regarding Dark Dany is the fact that he called her a threat and compared her to the Others:

MARTIN: Well, of course, the two outlying ones — the things going on north of  the Wall, and then there is Targaryen on the other continent with her  dragons — are of course the ice and fire of the title, “A Song of Ice  and Fire.” The central stuff — the stuff that’s happening in the middle,  in King’s Landing, the capital of the seven kingdoms — is much more  based on historical events, historical fiction. It’s loosely drawn from  the Wars of the Roses and some of the other conflicts around the 100  Years’ War, although, of course, with a fantasy twist. You know, one of  the dynamics I started with, there was the sense of people being so  consumed by their petty struggles for power within the seven kingdoms,  within King’s Landing — who’s going to be king? Who’s going to be on the  Small Council? Who’s going to determine the policies? — that they’re  blind to the much greater and more dangerous threats that are happening  far away on the periphery of their kingdoms. (link)

I just don’t think he accidentally called her one of “the much greater and more dangerous threats” if in his mind she wasn’t, ya know, a threat to the people of Westeros. That quote is from 2014. There’s also the oft referenced the dragons are the nuclear deterrent quote which I can’t find the original source for at the moment, but I take the above as confirmation of what Dark Dany enthusiast have long argued. Martin reading this quote:

“the reality of peace can’t truly satisfy Dany, only war can”

and saying, He got it completely, he knew exactly what I was trying to do there…well, it feels like an answer to the Dark Dany question.

[kylekozmikdeluxo]

The Sorta-Kinda Thomas Creepypasta I Had In My Head at Age 6

Weird-ass story from childhood time...

Growing up, I was like obsessed... Almost religiously, with THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE. A whole franchise which of course needs no introduction.

Like most American kids growing up in the 1990s, I first caught that blue locomotive and his pals on a PBS show called SHINING TIME STATION. It was a live-action show about some kids visiting their local train station, and the 4 1/2-minute THOMAS episodes would be a show-within-that-show. Usually the episode would relate to what was going on in the train station. The tales were told by a little man named Mr. Conductor, portrayed by the series' first UK narrator Ringo Starr in the first season, and then later by comedian George Carlin.

I have memories of watching that show with my paternal grandfather, when I was about... 3? I remember observing "The trains have faces... But they don't have cowcatchers." My grandfather and I would often draw train locomotives together, too. He'd teach me about the little minute details and such. Right down to the spokes on the wheels. That's part of why I'm an artist.

Anyways, let's jump ahead a little... I was 5, I hadn't seen that show in a while. Maybe because of scheduling, maybe I just wasn't watching that channel back then. Maybe I was watching VHS tapes more than watching TV...

One day, in the summer of 1998, I was given a VHS tape of a few of the THOMAS episodes on their own. SHINING TIME STATION episodes were barely released on home media, only the individual Thomas stories, and tapes were usually random grab-bags of episodes from the show's first 3-4 seasons. That first tape I got consisted of seven episodes, all in UK airing order no less, from season one. It was "James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories".

Now at that age, I had remembered watching the "trains with faces but no cowcatchers" show with my grandfather. I also still had my ERTL die-cast toy of Edward with two coaches that I sometimes played with... So I was like "Sure, I remember Thomas. I'll watch this."

That's where it all went downhill, lol.

And by my birthday and Christmas of that year, I was getting all these VHSes of the show and toys and such. I fit the cliche of autistic kid who was **addicted** to Thomas, add in that I used to identify as male. So yeah, the autistic Thomas boy stereotype through and through right here.

For my birthday that year, one of the VHS tapes I got was "A Big Day for Thomas and Other Stories". It was a compilation of Season 1 episodes, all narrated by George Carlin. Carlin would re-narrate all of the Season 1 and 2 episodes previously done by Ringo...

This was a weird tape, to say the least. It was rather short, and it had some episodes out of order. For example, the episode 'Thomas Breaks the Rules' ('Thomas in Trouble' in the UK) was the 2nd episode on the tape... But the episode that directly proceeds it, 'Toby the Tram Engine' ('Toby and the Stout Gentleman' in the UK) was at the *end* of the tape. Like, that story goes right into the 'Breaks the Rules' story. That's how the continuity was in the early series, as it closely followed the original books - THE RAILWAY SERIES. So it was weirdly out of order. Like watching AVENGERS: ENDGAME first, and then a few movies later, watching AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.

Second... On old Thomas VHSes, each episode had a small intermission before and after. A sequence of the characters, and white boards in front of them with their names on them. Thomas fans often call these the "Nameboard" sequences. They'd be a few seconds long, with the Thomas theme playing over them. They'd end with an image of Sir Topham Hatt/The Fat Controller, with the text "Next Story Coming Up Soon!"

Usually that screen was silent, or had the last bars of the Thomas theme playing over it...

But for some reason, on the "Big Day for Thomas" VHS... There was the sound of a whistle at the end of the nameboard sequence leading up to the episode 'Trouble for Thomas' ('Thomas and the Trucks' in the UK). Not any of the characters' whistles, but a more realistic sounding one...

Now, as a weird kid who was *easily* thrown off by things... 6-year-old me in 1998 was freeeeaked out by this. Like, why was that weird-sounding whistle there? Why this ONE tape and not all my other ones? Who's was it? Was this some... Secret character?

I was aware of characters I hadn't seen in episodes before... Maybe it was one of them? When I looked at the ERTL die-cast models in the catalogues, I would scope out some characters... For some reason, I thought that whistle would belong to one of the narrow-gauge engine characters. Like Skarloey or Rheneas or Duncan or Duke... For some reason, that's what I thought back then. They looked like engines that would have that whistle, to me!

Now comes something different...

At my maternal grandparents' house, this book was in a drawer in the guest room, among other books:

(image above is from an etsy listing. credit where credit is due.)

I'm assuming it belonged to one of my cousins, who used to stay there a lot when he was really young... And like any kid, I looked through whatever picture book there was. Looking at this book today, I will say that I find a lot of Greg Hildebrandt's illustrations to be very pretty.

Also, it's kinda weird that I'm talking about Christmas in freakin' March, but here we are...

Anyways...

There was one illustration in that book that didn't quite sit right with me when I was little:

It had to have been those dead eyes, lol. How wide open they were, a black dot in a white circle, but on a wooden head and not a cartoon character...

The more I thought of it back then, the more it seemed like a Thomas character face... Albeit, a cursed one!

And I started conjuring up, in my mind, a secret Thomas character who had that off-sounding whistle heard on that *one VHS* volume. He had a face like that, and was darker-looking in his livery than the other engines. It's as if I was making my own Thomas creepypasta in my head, at age 6!! I don't recall drawing this engine though, he could've been an early OC for me!

Eventually, I'd find out that none of the engines had that whistle in the show... And that SHINING TIME STATION would return to TV in time for the release of the movie, THOMAS AND THE MAGIC RAILROAD. Some two years after I started getting into this show...

The whistle was from the show's George Carlin seasons. When he'd blow the whistle, it would go to the Thomas story. The same way Ringo Starr did in the show's first season, but his whistle had a different, higher-pitched noise. I had the SHINING TIME STATION Christmas episode on VHS, and that was with Ringo. So, back then, I didn't know that that whistle originated from SHINING TIME STATION.

But still, it was kinda cool that I was imagining this whole other Thomas character. A sorta more sinister and foreboding engine. Almost like a Sonic-dot-exe situation, that I thought up because I didn't like the sound of a random whistle that was nowhere to be heard in the show, that somehow got onto one part of a VHS volume I had, likely due to an editing error or something.

Some shadowy, creepy Nutcracker doll-faced engine lurking within the darker recesses of the show. Maybe if the tape deteriorated enough, you'd catch a glimpse of him amidst the fuzz... I imagined his nameboard, surrounded by thick dark grey smoke. For some reason, a name sounding like "Mico" coming up. Not at all the raccoon from Disney's POCAHONTAS, although "Nico" would be a good villain name for a cursed Thomas character.

And then the engine himself... just peering at me with those beady eyes as the shadowy smoke obscured just about everything else, during the night. It was like a gritty industrial setting more so than the roundhouse sheds...

The "Early Reel of 1983" ain't got nothin' on this one!

[finitefall]

People who think George is going to end Dany’s story the same as Rhaenyra’s really don’t get the *point* of him writing Fire and Blood to begin with, I don’t think.

Dany’s ending is being set up to be a *satisfying resolution* to the all of the rank systemic misogyny that women in the history of Westeros were subjected to. That’s literally the point. We’re being told the story of Rhaenyra for a reason, he’s not just telling us lore for the fun of it.

Like why do people think GRRM was focusing so heavily on stuff outside of the main series? For flavor? No, it’s because the injustice Rhaenyra faced (being usurped and then painted by westerosi history as a monster) is being *directly* contrasted with the justice Dany is bringing. That’s literally the whole point. George isn’t just making up characters for the sole purpose of making them suffer, he *does* have an endgame in mind for the themes he’s introducing…

While I do think he's exploring the universe and characters before the first ASOIAF novel for other reasons (it's interesting, for once), he does points out the misogyny Targaryen women have been victim of in Fire and Blood for a reason. People seem to not understand the difference between writing a story about misogyny and writing a story that's misogynistic, which is crazy.*** We also know House Targaryen is literally the only one he wrote a book about, which doesn't lead to believe he hates them - quite the opposite.

What's also interesting in the ASOIAF novels is that we first have a reference to Stannis in A Clash of Kings, Daenerys IV, with the Slayer of Lies prophecy. The first lie she must slay ("Glowing like sunset, a red sword was raised in the hand of a blue-eyed king who cast no shadow") is definitely Stannis being Azor Ahai reborn/TPTWP when it's actually her. And in A Storm of Swords, Davos IV, Stannis says that Rhaenyra "died a traitor's death for trying to usurp her brother's crown". Nyra being Dany's ancestor and the victim of misogyny, Stannis calling Rhaenyra the usurper (which isn't true) while believing he is the one when it's actually Dany is quite ironic and perhaps not a coincidence?

***It reminds me of a book that was victim of cancel culture before its release because a black man was wrongly accused by a white woman and arrested on her word alone. People who read an ARC of the book were screaming about how the story was racist, so everyone started to repeat how racist it was even those who hadn't read it.

[awanderingmuse-ficrec]

You were the one to teach me how to use knives (Merlin re-write Series)

Fandom: Merlin BBC

Author: Obsessedwithfanfiction, @turnsoutnoonewasexaggerating​

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Violence, Major Character Death

Word Count:  318,538

Pairings: Arwen, Mergana, Merthur, Gwencelot, Freylin

Characters: Merlin, Morgana, Arthur Pendragon, Gwen, Gaius, Uther Pendragon, Lancelot, Leon, Catrina, Aredian, Morgause, Freya, Kilgharrah, Mithian, Mordred, Trickler, George, Hunith, Alvarr, Elyan, Balinor

Tags: Some of these feature more in this part than others, If you're in it for Merlin/Arthur be prepared for a slowburn, None of these pairings are necessarily their endgame, We're still in the early days, Pairings are only ordered by when they first appear in the story, Endgame potential is still v much in the air, And will be updated as we go- no one panic, Fix-It, Season 2 onwards rewrite, If Merlin had told Morgana about magic but not that he had it, Lol I promise it makes sense, What if the Merlin writers were actually capable of continuity and emotional catharsis, Morgana doesn't just suddenly become evil, But neither is everything magically fixed knowing she has a friend in the castle, And everyone is in love with Merlin fight me, Merlin finds out about Balinor slightly earlier than canon, Even I don't know who's going to end up with who, Every character in this show has romantic tension with every other character, I'm just taking the romantic tension where it leads me, One day the title will make sense I promise, This part covers Nightmare Begins-Lady of the Lake Vol 2 but we're still on S2 because I cannot control myself, You defo need to read the first part to read this part don't jump in here, My continuous crusade to bring emotional catharsis to Merlin, Everyone is still in love with Merlin and everyone can still fight me, I have slightly more of a plan about who ends up with who but I can still be persuaded, by myself, Don't try and persuade me yourself lol, Still just taking that romantic tension that is between everyone wherever it leads me, But probably not any time soon, This part covers Sweet Dreams- The Last Dragonlord, Whoo boy here we go again, Season 2 onwards re-write, WE'RE FINALLY ON SEASON 3 BBY, Pls read the other parts first or this will make little sense, What if BBC's Merlin had emotional catharsis?, And consistency?, Wouldn't that be... Beautiful, Everyone is still in love with Merlin, Except Merlin, He is in a bit of a guilt phase, We're still following that tensionnnnn, Probs not in this part, Maybe the Next One, who knows certainly not me, Posts every other Friday atm

You were the one who taught me how to use knives: Vol 1

Merlin chose to save Mordred against the dragon's advice. He should have made the same choice for Morgana. In which Merlin is more than a little fed up of old men and old dragons telling him what to do, and gives Morgana some hope. Maybe it won't change the dark path she's destined to walk down... Or perhaps in doing so, Merlin saves all of Albion from her wrath. Featuring the emotional catharsis and continuity we were denied in canon and a systematic re-writing of what could have been

You were the one who taught me how to use knives: Vol 2

Merlin's trained Morgana in magic against Gaius & the dragon's advice, hasn't killed Mordred, and honestly thought he was doing a pretty good job of moving his destiny along. Then, he lost Freya. Has his faith in Arthur been shaken enough to make the prophecised Albion further away than ever? Featuring Merlin actually reacting to Arthur killing his beloved, Morgana realising that Merlin's role in keeping Arthur alive is even harder than she thought, and Arthur still trying to come to terms with his own opinions on magic- and his father

You were the one who taught me how to use knives: Vol 3

Merlin's lost his first love and his father in the space of a few months, and he's not sure how much more he's willing to let destiny take from him. But with that loss has come the unburdening of some of his secrets, and now with fewer distractions, he can't deny his relationship with Arthur is changing...

Arthur's between a rock and a hard place; between his childhood and what he's learnt as an adult, between being loyal and being just, between his father and Mer- the magical community. With a heavier burden placed on him from the king's more frequent bouts of insanity, he's bound to break under the pressure, but perhaps that's the only way to heal straight...

Morgana's magic's been revealed to everyone, but somehow she's got to find a way back into her position in Camelot's court if she ever wants to make a change. The problem is, Morgana's only ally now is her sister, and she doesn't know how much she can trust her...

Gwen's going to get her answers. No matter what.

[wildissylupus]

End Game Romantic Relationships

Hi, let's get into what my endgame relationships are for my Rewrite, how I change them, how they develop and why I chose them.

Before we get into any of the ships, the first thing I'm going to say is that none of the main five end up with each other. Meaning no Ronmione. The reason for this is because I wanted all the main five to end up with someone outside of the main friend group to me it makes more sense with what I have planned. Now let's get into the ships;

Hinny - Harry x Ginny

I kept these two being canon because I think the concept of they're love story is cute. I also am doing a rewrite of Cursed Child and I need the kids to exist. Seriously though I think these two would be good for each other and I'm going to lead up to them more. I basically make Harry have a crush on her as well so they're relationship is just mutual pining for awhile until Ginny has had enough and asks Harry out near the end of the fifth book.

Fremione - Fred x Hermione

Honestly considering the canon of the Cursed Child, I think Fred and Hermione are a better couple. Especially since Fred has always gotten along with Hermione. I think they're a better example of "opposites attract". Fred and Hermione get together in the fourth book after Hermione dumps Krum. They're relationship is more of a secret though cause of Molly's behaviour scared Hermione. The first people that were told were George, Neville and Percy.

Nuna - Neville x Luna

One, how could I not? Two, they deserved better. Neville and Luna flirt with each other and are the type of couple that are just "they were dating before it was official", they do become official after book five. Neville asks if she'd be his girlfriend and she responds with "I thought we were already dating?"

Blairon - Blaise x Ron

I needed to include ONE main Slytherin x Gryffindor ship in here. I specifically chose this one because it fits with the arc I have planned for Ron. Ron is very clique in my version of the story, often being hostile towards people who try and befriend his friends, especially Slytherins so him going from that to dating a Slytherin I think fits. There is also an arch for him being afraid to be a disappointment to his family and I think him dating Blaise would be a good ending to that arc as well. They start liking each other during they're time in Dumbledore's army, Blaise is the first one to flirt, he also invites Ron to Slughorn's party. They don't get together until after Hogwarts.

Drastoria - Draco x Astoria

Childhood Friends-Enemies-Friends-Lovers. That's it. Draco has always loved Astoria, he thought his crush on her went away but when they met again at Hogwarts it came back full force. Astoria took a while to start liking Draco, it only really happening it the seventh book. Astoria and Draco start being friends again during the fifth book, they get together during Astoria's last year at Hogwarts.

Some other ships that are going to be canon:

Sirius x Remus

Mary x Emmeline

Dorcus x Marlene

Peter x Sibill

Dumbledore x Grindelwald

Pansy x Daphne

Fleur x Tonks (One-sided)

Fleur x Bill

Bellatrix x Rita Skeeter

George x Angelina

(They're might be more added as I write the story but those are the main ones)

[f1fanficrecs]

Sewis Fic-Recommendations Master List

These are recommendations sent to me by @wandaaring (I will update this as I get more. Thank you for sending these in, I really appreciate it!

Fics with an Explicit Rating

'transmotion' by heroics -- this completed fic is five chapters and 40.8k words. It's an AU where Seb is a football player and Lewis is a fashion designer.

'The Cloud That Settles' by antimonyandthyme -- this fic is 5.5k words. Seb buys an apartment in Monaco and the drivers decorate it. The tags are Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, and Sexual Content.

Fics With a Mature Rating

'Without A Hitch' by m1ckstart -- this is an ongoing fic that is updated regularly. Currently, 23 of the 27 chapters have been posted and the fic currently stands at 168k words. This is an AU fic where Seb is a wedding planner, Jenson is a baker, and Nico and Lewis are a celebrity couple getting married. Tags include mutual pining, emotional infidelity, slow burn, and sexual tension.

'Lucky Thirteen' by Azzy: This is an ongoing fic that is updated regularly. Currently, 2/8 chapters have been posted and the fic stands at ~15k words. It's parent-trap inspired with Lewis being a single dad and Seb runs a karting facility for girls

Fics with a T Rating

'with the certainty of tides' by ambiguouspace -- this is a 5.5k fic that is told with a social media platform centering around Lewis coming out.

'slow show' by ambiguouspace-- this is a 6.2k fics where Lewis gives George relationship advice. More traditionally written with some text conversations.

'rumour has it' by ambiguouspace -- this is a 4.3k fic where Seb is a WAG, nobody knows that so they're all wondering why he's at every race.

'and around me, an ocean of tears gathered for you' by quagswagging -- this is a completed fic with 3.5k words. It's more a platonic Charles/Seb fic but there is some Sewis. Additional tags include hospitals, car accidents, angst, crying, found family and eventual happy ending.

'he's been gone. but now he's back.' by grussell63 -- this is a 4.9k fic that is told in a similar fashion to 'with a certainty of tides' but this premise is that Lewis attends the 2022 ROC without competing and it shows the internet's reaction to that.

Fics with a G Rating

(None recommended so far)

Not Rated Fics:

'seasons (waiting on you)' by empireoffclouds -- this is a 15.4k fic. This fic goes through Seb and Lewis' relationship which includes Seb's telling of Brocedes but it's a Sewis endgame. Tags include: Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending and Hurt/Comfort.

I will add any other recommendations in as I receive them!

[themculibrary]

Steve & Bucky Meeting Masterlist

But I Will Never Forget! (ao3) - debwalsh steve/bucky N/R, 1k

Summary: Have a little baby Steve and Bucky to cleanse your palate.

Steve never liked bullies. Never. Turns out, neither did Bucky Barnes.

Drawing Fire (ao3) - Atsadi G, 1k

Summary: Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes did indeed meet in a schoolyard fight, but it wasn't quite how everyone assumed.

Dumpster Youth (ao3) - nine_thursdays steve/bucky G, 322

Summary: The day Captain America meets Sergeant Barnes...Of course, back when they were young, they were Stevie and Bucky...

In the Beginning... (ao3) - LoveMeSomeRafael steve/bucky E, 251k

Summary: This ambitious project is intended to be a several-part series. Each part will cover an era in Steve and Bucky's lives. (There's an outline, even.) It's meant to be a fairly long story, built around sticking as close to MCU canon as possible. The intention is to create a framework by including canon scenes and dialogue to anchor your place in the MCU movies, while building out the backstory - what happened before, after, and between those scenes. And then to carry the story forward as though Steve's nonsensical decision in Endgame didn't happen (because it didn't - I have spoken) to show Steve and Bucky living happily after after. Tags will be updated as I go. You know the story: you can expect sweetness and fluff, (hopefully) humor, coming of age, romance and sex, pain, adventure, war and horror, Nazis and Hydra, creepy asshole "scientists", and all the usual Avengers suspects. It'll be the story of an inevitable friendship born of mutual admiration when Steve and Bucky are so young they afterwards don't remember ever not being best friends. It will follow that friendship as it deepens through shared history and trauma and grows into the love of a lifetime.

My Thoughts on You (ao3) - hokage35 steve/bucky T, 19k

Summary: “So I guess that leads me to ask, are there any boys you like in your class?” Tony wiggled his eyebrows, breaking the short silence.

Steve blushed profusely.

“Aha,” Tony clapped his hands together. “There are. Come on tell me.”

Proprioception (ao3) - aimmyarrowshigh steve/bucky T, 100

Summary: Proprioception. Steve was always on Bucky's left.

redamancy (ao3) - stevebuckybrainrot steve/bucky M, 73k

Summary: Redamancy {re - da - man - cy}

n. the act of loving someone who loves you; a love returned in full

"Best friends since childhood, Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers were inseparable on both schoolyard and battlefield."

Before the war, before Nazis and aliens and time travel, there was this: scorching summers and bitter winters, sketchbooks and paintbrushes, bruised knuckles and split lips, stolen kisses and lingering looks. There was Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes and a love to last through the ages.

And nothing else mattered.

The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship (ao3) - dottieapple steve/bucky G, 2k

Summary: The new school year is barely under way, and tiny, daydreaming 8-year-old Steve Rogers is already in trouble at school. Little does he know he's about to make a friend 'til the end of the line.

When We Were Young (ao3) - Starlight_Silver G, 1k

Summary: James laughed. “Alright church-boy. Hey, you never told me you Christian name.” “It’s Steven,” the boy said. “Steven Grant Rogers. And you are?” “James Buchanan Barnes, named after the one-and-only President James Buchanan, son of George Neville Barnes, and winner of the all-out St. Katherine’s Schoolyard Marbles Championship.” Steven snorted. “Well, I ain’t never gonna remember all that. How ‘bout Bucky for short?” **** Or: Eleven-year-old Steve and Twelve-year-old Bucky bond in the schoolyard over beating up bullies.

Winifred and Mrs. Rogers (ao3) - gossamerthreads G, 7k

Summary: The first time Steve Rogers and James Barnes meet they burst into the courtyard yelling and hollering, fists and feet kicking up dirt. Steve sank his teeth into James’s upper arm and James howled and punched him in the eye. By the time their mothers pulled them apart the whole neighborhood was leaning out to watch.

James got the switch, Sarah wore out a shoe on Steve’s behind, and both boys swore they’d be mortal enemies for life.

[lightning-writes]

good heart (faulty machine of a man) - 7/30

fic summary: bucky meets someone at therapy

chapter summary: bucky steps forward

word count: 876

tags: brotp: sam x bucky (brotp used loosely), post endgame, pre tfatws, hurt/comfort, slow burn, canon divergent, canon compliant, au

warnings: panic attack mention

a/n: have fun with this lil bucky x rue moment! also, if you're feeling generous, head over to ao3 to drop a kudos or a comment...!

AO3 MASTERLIST X

October 14

Rue is hunched over a box behind the receptionist's desk, bending her knees, getting ready to lift. Without thinking, Bucky strides behind the desk and lifts it, effortlessly, for her.

“James–”

“Bucky.”

“No, James,” she hisses. He sees her trying to remain mad, despite fighting off a smile. Suddenly, her hands are over his eyes. Her fingertips are cold. “There’s confidential information there!”

He actually chuckles. “I’ll keep my eyes shut.”

“How do I know that?” she says exasperated.

“You can trust me.”

“I can trust you?” she echoes. “I trust no one!”

(He wants to tell her that’s a good instinct she has going for her there, but he holds back. What he should be telling her is he’s done a lot of missions with impaired visuals, so moving a box to the desk with closed eyes was nothing.)

“You can trust me,” he insists, making a show of screwing his eyes shut. “Guide me.”

He feels her hesitation, then her hands over his. He feels her gently steer him, her little shuffles as a careful attempt to walk backward in her platform shoes. Again, he could laugh.

When he feels the edge of the table, he sets the box down and, with hands up in surrender, he backs away, eyes still closed. She guides him back around the desk.

(This time, her hands are more confidently on his waist.)

“This,” she gestures to the area around her, “is off limits. Don’t come behind the desk.” She peers over at the closed office doors.

“You could say thank you.” The cheeky retort is out of his mouth before he can stop it.

“What I could do is lose my job due to HIPAA violations!” He doesn’t know what that means, but he sees her battle panic and amusement. “So, thank you, Mr. Super Soldier Man, but I’d be more thankful if you didn’t get my ass fired.”

(She’s funny.)

“They won’t fire you,” he says. She raised a brow. “You’re the best receptionist here.”

“Are you flirting me, James?” she says distractedly, pulling a file from the box and perusing it.

“Oh, am I ‘James’ now?”

“For the foreseeable future.” She looks at him through her lashes, a playful scorn.

(He sees her flush, but she’s being bold. They both are.)

“Raynor mentioned it,” he admits, pushing his hair out of his face. “That time, last week, when she asked you to do a list of things in the middle of my session, and you’d said you already did them.”

(But, he thinks, to answer your question - yes, I am flirting with you.)

////

One of Sam’s texts is a location. He sends Bucky activities to do, things to check out, despite living in Washington D.C.

There’s an old school boxing gym in Bushwick that’ll keep your membership on the DL.

(Bucky has to Google what ‘on the DL’ means.)

Tell them I sent you, they’ll take care of you.

Bucky finds himself in the neighborhood one Tuesday, twenty minutes after the gym has closed, but he sees the lights still on. He knocks, cupping his hands to the glass to see inside. An older man, probably in his sixties, comes to the door with a broom.

“We’re closed,” he starts, but Bucky holds his empty hands up.

“Sam Wilson told me to come,” Bucky rushes. “He told me you’d be willing to let me work out here. I’m James – uh, Bucky Barnes.”

“He said you might stop by.” The man gives him a sly smile, like he knows something about Bucky, but Bucky assumes Sam talked about him.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell him he was right,” Bucky jokes.

The man grins, taking Bucky’s outstretched prosthetic hand. “I’m George. Welcome to Fogwell’s Gym.”

George lends him a pair of boxing gloves and some tape. He tells Bucky, tonight, he’ll stay for an hour, but eventually, he doesn’t mind cutting him a key. He mentions that ‘his friend’ used to work out here from time to time, too. 

(He also gives Bucky his condolences.)

When Bucky tells him he can’t really pay for a membership right now, George claps a hand on his shoulder, gripping at the metal.

“Son, I’d be damned if I let a hero pay me a dime.”

(Bucky remembers these words for years to come.)

Bucky tries the boxing gloves, his muscle memory stronger than his actual memory. Images of him sparring with his dad and teaching his sister a few moves flicker in and out as he uses his teeth to tighten the laces. The glove feels uncomfortable over his prosthetic, but he gives the sandbag a few good natured jabs.

Eventually, he just wraps his right hand in tape and lays into the bag. He hears the support beams strain from his blows, but he’s possessed by something deep. Punch after punch, he feels the tightness in his chest build until he realizes he’s been holding his breath. When George goes to tell him time’s up, he finds Bucky on the ground, gasping for air.

George asks, “Are you okay, son?” and Bucky laughs in wheezes.

(For once, he’s winded because he’s out of shape and not because of a panic attack.)

[nutellaninja0001]

My delusional self thinks that George is doing a full scale rewrite because he loved some things and hated others. I think while Sansa and Jon were always meant to reunite first in the books out of all of the remaining Starks, I think he loved the way the Jonsa reunion, team up and bond went down in the show. The Jon/Sansa reunion and relationship build up was the best damn thing about those last seasons, the best executed thing by the show team too and the romantic subtext had to be intentional. All those lingering and longing looks. Nobody looks at their brother/sister like that unless they’re Targaryens but the last season was too rushed and short.

So in my head he’s re-writing his wrongs and mainly trying to get Sansa from the Vale to the wall asap while Jon is taking his little ice nap.❤️

Hello!

It’s hard to say in the nearly 20 years since the last book was published what George has up his sleeve (if he has any plans to publish at this point) The show’s ending had such a huge backlash from fans I think it wouldn’t be crazy to say maybe that made George rethink some things. But most likely he knows the fans are expecting not just more, but much, much better of a story than what the show gave us. In my opinion, I could see him taking some notes from the series on how Jon and Sansa could possibly reunite in the books that takes some inspiration from the show.

I think it makes sense why Sansa and Jon would be the first to reunite. The poetic irony of the 2 Starks most ready to leave Winterfell at the beginning of the series end up finding each other to devise a plan to take the castle back. I know Sansa is in the Vale right now while Jon is quite literally still dead but depending on how long it takes for Jon to come back, and what effects that will have on him can all go down while Littlefinger transports Sansa from the Vale to the North. A lot of stuff can happen in between that but even if the chemistry between Jon and Sansa’s actors were unintentional, it still does not explain to me the endless hints, looks, dialogue and camera work that the creators decided to go with.

Personally, I think they were told about a romance between the 2 while also the love triangle between Jon, Sansa, and Dany. That was a BIG leap for the creators especially in an already shorter last 2 seasons and I think they more or else chickened out while still giving something to set up endgame. But like I’ve said before, I’ve been rooting for this ship since 2017 and I’m probably not going to stop there 😂

Thanks for the ask!