#just take it for consideration

[lauraneedstochill]

if I see one more post about Aegon “bullying Aemond his entire life”, I will go fucking ballistic, I swear to g—

scratch that, I will actually go ballistic right now. this is the “Aegon doesn’t deserve such a shitty treatment” club and I’m the self-proclaimed CEO. we are about to do some analyzing and reading so BUCKLE UP.

gonna make one thing clear first — Aemond was bullied when he was a child. no one denies that, no excuses can be made for that. I’d only like to note that there wasn’t only one bully. here’s a quick reminder:

now that we successfully counted to three, let’s look over Aegon’s other horrible crimes relationship with Aemond throughout the years.

📍 the night Aemond lost his eye (S1EP7), Rhaenyra suggests he should be “sharply questioned” (she means tortured) so they can learn who told him that her sons were bastards. Viserys, in his perpetual denial, angrily asks Aemond “who spoke these lies” to which he replies that it was Aegon. it is clear that Aemond does that to deflect suspicion from their mother but his words come as a surprise to Aegon.

he’s in a tough spot — Viserys demands the answers “as their king”, not their father (to signify his authority and pressure them into telling the truth). and Alicent screamed in Aegon’s face and slapped him just a minute ago, so he may be less eager to defend her. he can easily lie and say that he overheard some maids gossiping or that he can’t remember where the rumor came from. instead, it takes Aegon about 5 seconds to back Aemond up.

📍 we didn’t get many scenes with young Aegon and Aemond in general, but here’s a short bit people keep overlooking: when Harwin and Criston start fighting, Aemond and Aegon instantly gravitate toward each other. and moreover, Aegon puts a hand over Aemond’s back (which to me is either a protective or a comforting gesture). what a horrible brother, truly.

📍 next we see them all grown up before dinner in S1EP8. I think it’s safe to assume that if Aegon has been bullying Aemond all these years, Aemond wouldn’t want to spend a second in his company. he’s seated between Helaena and Otto, both of whom are dear to him, so Aemond can stay at the table and chat with them. and YET, not only does Aemond voluntarily talks to Aegon, but their conversation seems friendly (you can barely hear it in the show so here’s the enhanced audio). Aemond makes a joke about Aegon’s drinking habits — Aegon quips back — and then, what a shocker! Aemond starts venting his frustrations to Aegon (“Even when the noose is so tight, they expect us to break bread”). nothing would’ve stopped him from venting to Otto but Aemond stays with Aegon. he wouldn’t have done that if there hadn’t been some level of trust between them. he wouldn’t have done that if he hated Aegon’s guts.

📍 at dinner, when Aegon pisses Jace off and the brunet springs to his feet, Aemond stands up too, which forces Jace to act as if nothing happened and come up with a toast. Aegon watches him with a shit-eating grin on his face. it’s the face that screams “I know you won’t dare to act up in front of my brother and my brother has my back”.

when Aemond makes a toast and calls Rhaenyra’s sons “strong”, Aegon raises a cup to that. he can sit this one out — Aemond has his personal vendetta against the boys, and it would be safer for Aegon not to meddle. but what does he do instead? when Luke gets up from the table (clearly intending to go to Aemond), Aegon instantly stands up, comes up to Luke and not just stops him but slams his face into the table right in front of Rhaenyra without thinking twice. and it doesn’t look like Aegon is just messing with him — no, it looks like he wanted to do that for a while. like Aegon finally got his chance to stand up for his brother too. AND he also stops Baela from joining the fight.

📍 S1EP9 is when we get a glimpse of Aemond’s ambitions: he deems himself better than Aegon, he thinks he deserves to be king. but once he finds Aegon and they get into a fight, it turns out that Aegon knows that Aemond is a better choice. he doesn’t want to fight him, he begs Aemond to let him go. and Aemond can do that — Criston has his back to them, so Aemond could’ve pretended that Aegon managed to break free. and even once they caught Aegon, I have no doubt that Aemond could’ve helped him escape. but it seems that, despite his displeasure, Aemond values his family the most. he can’t betray his mother’s trust, and he knows Aegon is the first in line to the throne. Aemond envies him, yes, he may even hate him because of that. but he values his family the most.

📍 as @florisbaratheons noted, during the coronation scene, when Aegon glances at his family, Aemond looks right at him and gives that tiny nod that says “I may hate this and think I am better for the job as king. But I’ve got your back.” I like that Aemond is the one who keeps eye contact in that scene. He could’ve turned away to signal his dissatisfaction with the situation, there wouldn’t have been any consequences for that. But he didn’t.

📍 what I find interesting about S1EP10 is the beginning of Aemond’s dialogue with Luke. that’s the boy Aemond wished to get back at for years and yet, he starts by saying “Did you think that you could just fly about the realm trying to steal my brother’s throne at no cost?���. Aemond could’ve skipped that part — imagine him saying smth along the lines of “Wait, Lord Strong! Don’t you think you and I have other matters to discuss?” (to which Luke answers that he doesn’t want to fight and the conversation goes on). instead, Aemond makes a point to remind Luke: my brother is the king, and I came here on his behalf. you can argue that Aemond doesn’t do it for Aegon specifically but for his family in general. but Aegon is a part of the family, and S1 Aemond has his priorities straight.

📍 as much as I hate comparing the show and the book (these are two different things and should be viewed as such), I’d like to remind you that Aegon was the only one who stood by Aemond’s side after Luke’s death. I wonder why we didn’t get that scene… I guess it’s because it would be kinda hard to call Aegon “the main bully” after he literally throws Aemond a feast. but we do get to see Aegon supporting his brother: in S2EP1 he welcomes Aemond at the small council meeting despite his mother’s protests (“Aemond is my closest blood and my best sword”). and he trusts Aemond wholeheartedly, that much is obvious.

📍 let’s get to the most controversial part — the brothel scene in S2EP3: some people believe Aegon is being a bully at that moment. those people seem to forget one little detail:

it’s been only a few days after the death of Aegon’s son whose murder was a direct result of Aemond’s ruthless actions. does Aemond ever address it? does he express his condolences? does he mayhaps help to catch the killers, being the skilled fighter that he is? the answer is NO.

I do think Aegon’s joke was cruel (I wrote a whole post about it) but that’s all it ever was — a JOKE. the humiliation comes not from the things he says but from the fact that Aemond is found in a vulnerable position and surrounded by a group of strangers while his brother laughs at him. TGC explained it best:

I also love @notbloodraven’s take on that scene:

Aegon lashing out so cruelly at Aemond seems to be an effort in making Aemond feel as badly as he does and blaming him for Jaehaerys without actually saying the words.

would this be the right way to act? no. but there’s no right way to grieve and to cope with the loss — and HIS SON WAS BEHEADED so maybe take 1% of the sympathy you show your favorite character(s) and cut Aegon some slack.

+ other things worth talking about:

📍 @bietrofastimoff23 analyzed S2EP3 beautifully and I can’t help but mention the scene that happens before Aegon goes to the brothel. it’s the moment when Larys suggests that Alicent and Aemond are plotting against Aegon. he isn’t surprised by the idea that his mother can do that — but the second his brother is mentioned, Aegon’s face falls and he shakes his head no. because there is no way Aemond would ever do that to him. and instead of asking for any proof, he asks Larys “who spreads these lies?” and then commands him to “tend to them.” Aegon can ask him to spy on Aemond, to find any dirt on him, find any weaknesses he can use — he does not.

📍 it turns out to be true — Aemond was plotting behind his brother’s back. which is treason btw (I don’t think Criston intended to keep things from Aegon — he probably believed that Aemond would let Aegon in on their plan). and Aegon does have the power to remind Aemond of his place — he can throw him off the council with a snap of his fingers, he can take offense at Aemond’s attempt to publicly humiliate him (their conversation in High Valyrian — Ewan himself calls it a “public execution”). but that’s not what happens: as TGC phrased it, Aemond’s betrayal “breaks a bit of Aegon’s heart off”. an actual bully would’ve immediately pushed back, but Aegon silently sits down and doesn’t argue, he’s so defeated he can’t utter a word. he has the means to be a bully but he doesn’t contemplate it for a second.

📍 I don’t want to talk about S2EP6 because it makes me sick but I will reiterate one thing: never ONCE Aegon made fun of Aemond’s disability or tried to cause him any physical harm. just want to point that out.

there is no moral to this story, I guess. if you managed to read till the very end, thank you. if you still hate Aegon, that’s your opinion and you are allowed to have one — but please, for the love of god, just stop making shit up. no, Aemond was NOT bullied as an adult, absolutely nothing suggests that he was. Aegon was naive to blindly trust him and it backfired on him, that’s the actual story. and if you are so eager to hold Aegon accountable for his mistakes, maybe it’s time for Aemond to take responsibility for his actions too.

+ some of my favorite critical posts about Aegon and Aemond: x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x.

P.S. I will not argue with anyone so please don’t waste your time — I consider all my arguments solid and that’s enough for me. if you are thinking of sending me anon hate, pls go take a walk instead, it will do you more good. 🌿

[whollyjoly]

look we all want buck in tommys hoodie....

but i raise you a tommy who accidentally grabbed bucks hoodie and walks into harbour only to have lucy laugh so hard she falls out of her chair

[candyscozycorner]

agere community, PLEASE please remember to tag flashing or strobing lights, pulsing gifs, etc. if you don't know if it would effect someone with epilepsy or migraines, tag it anyways just to be safe. these conditions are not jokes, and the resulting effects from seeing these things can be harmful.

if someone asks you to tag something with flashing/pulsing, do it.

this community focuses on acceptance, and epileptic / otherwise photosensitive regressors exist and want to rb agere content too! we want to be able to interact with posts and indulge in our safe space too

[actualalivecreature]

the fact that this has 500 notes, while just casually dropping ‘transandrophobia isn’t serious or real’ is so fucking sad and scary to me. how can you hate your fellow trans folks so much that you flat out deny their oppression exists (which in itself is an example of that oppression).

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

another compilation, this time, of best girl entrapta being treated with love and respect.

[adhd-merlin]

morgana is so funny, she needed gwen out of the way, she literally could have just killed her, instead she went: "first of all I'm going to resurrect her old lover,"

[ganondoodle]

(totk rewritten/botw 2 wip)

yes i am making 'new' arrow types that you craft with material in bulk (essentially like the new types in totk but crafting them instead of having to fuse it for each single one- to be specific, ZELDA crafts them for you bc i think its great to give her more stuff to do, the same will work with weapons and repairing weapons but that i will lock behind quests as i mentioned before, maybe you will select the stuff and then keep playing while she does a lil animation and then throws it back to you when in combat, otherwise you can make multiple at once so it doesnt take too much time- or you approach her and open an extra menu for crafting/repairing)

what are the best effects i should include? :3

[mossspond]

You commission a fursuit. The maker is excited and gives you a deadline plus updates regularly for a few months. You’re excited.

It’s less than a month before the deadline. There hasn’t been an update in weeks and the job was far from finished the last you saw. You follow up and the maker’s run into financial trouble and they felt so bad that they couldnt tell you upfront. They apologize and you negotiate a new deadline.

The new deadline is approaching almost a year later. There hasn’t been any updates. You follow up again. Shipping issues, nothing you can do.

They apologize and negotiate a new deadline.

The new new deadline is approaching, they message you saying they’re cutting off requests to focus on commissions and share a document with the queue for the rest of the year. You’re not even listed despite the negotiated deadline.

They apologize and negotiate a new deadline

Another year passes and there’s still no news. You request a refund. They agree

Six months later you get a message saying they’ll pay you asap.

You shoot back a disbelieving response

They complain that you’re being unfair

[hipsternumbertwo]

Bit City Episode 1 BTS

[teatitty]

You know if you only look at the manga canon Iruka doesn't actually have like. Any friends at all, outside of our own headcanons about Kakashi. He has Naruto, but that's more older brother-younger brother, Mizuki betrayed him and then there's Hiruzen who is.... not so much a friend as he is a pseudo-mentor figure. And then there's Kakashi, who goes out of his way to make friends all over, and is completely open to making new connections

Basically what I'm saying is: Kakashi finding out from Naruto that Iruka doesn't actually hang out with anyone and he's worried about his Not-Brother being alone and working all the time so Kakashi is like "bet I got this" and shows up at Iruka's place to bodily drag him out somewhere ignoring all his questions and protests and that's how Iruka ends up shoved into the jounin friendship circle with no idea why

[The "why" is because Kakashi knows how it feels to self-isolate and ignore your own needs and he likes Iruka and wants to help him somehow and so he casually mentions to Gai that he thinks Iruka might be lonely without Mizuki around anymore and oh nooooo would you look at that, Gai's all teary-eyed and determined to make him feel better now so of course he's gonna end up babbling to Kurenai and Asuma and anyone else in their circle and now Iruka has become the hissing stray that all the elites are trying to coax into their homes with scraps of food and really good books]

[oaksapling]

Lamont Fisher.

'Monte' or 'Fish' to friends and family. One of Brooklyn's friends who cooks at the diner Nicky and Rory work at. He's also their plug. Likes to mess around with different edible recipes because he knows Rory prefers them to smoking. He always lets Rory taste test for him and he might be charging Rory a little less than he charges everyone else but no one has to know that.

[hidingoutbackstage]

Something about Tucker being held to a higher standard than all of the other Reds and Blues in the later seasons. Sure he likes sex and makes “that’s what she said” esque sex jokes, but like, especially during Shisno trilogy, the show seems to really like putting him down or treating his love for sex like a comedic punching bag. Oh, Tucker’s a single dad who genuinely loves and cares about his one alien kid despite how that kid was forced upon him? Well actually he had sex with a TON of women on Chorus by using the fuck temple and now has a ton of kids that he’s reluctant to pay child support for. And speaking of the temple, despite it being said to make everyone on the planet super horny and sex obsessed, Tucker says he didn’t feel any different, because making him hypersexual is funny (why is it funny, RT?). And remember how Tucker’s arc during Chorus had him emotionally dealing with Felix’s betrayal? Well now he falls for the most obvious manipulative lies from Temple, I guess he’s just dumber now. And you remember that funny scene in season 5 where Doc is giving Sister a physical exam, and Tucker obviously really wants to see her naked, but because Doc keeps telling him to not come in, and likely out of respect, he doesn’t, while Red Team is secretly perving on her (which they never fucking get called out for), plus all the funny moments of him trying to flirt with her, and her either being receptive or so fucking weird that it takes him aback? Well Tucker still REALLY wants her, but he’s now a childish asshole who can’t stand the idea of her not wanting to sleep with him, and is now super self centered despite the arc he went through showing how he values others, and the series basically keeps fucking with him and making him miserable and barely ever giving him a moment of relief. And you know how he was mercilessly tortured for M O N T H S during Restoration? Well he doesn’t get to process that trauma, and despite all the growth he’s supposedly gone through throughout the series, his last moment is an offscreen sex joke because Tucker’s the perv, get it? We can’t let him have a fucking break despite literally everyone else being treated comparatively nicer or given some kind of levity. Why specifically Tucker, Rooster Teeth? What has he done that’s so bad to you that you continually treat his character this way despite the fact that he’s truly the best (and should have been main) character in this whole series?

[riosnecktattoo]

Christina Hendricks as Mrs. St. George in The Buccaneers

[bearotonin-international]

oh no not the team late night bear posting once again

[cockroachesunite]

[bluespiritshonour]

Aang gets a lot of hate for not giving up on Katara in The Guru. While I don't like the fact that they never had a plotline dedicated to the concept of love and attachment not being the same thing, I love Aang as a male protagonist for that reason.

The hero sacrificing his family, friends, lovers, children is a trope as old as time. You find it in Indian mythology, Chinese mythology, Greek mythology. It's what leads to the fridged woman trope, the noir detective’s dead wife, Batman's ‘good soldier’ in modern day pop culture.

You'd also notice how it's a singularly male hero trope. The female hero, rare as she is, never even gets put into a position where she has to choose between her loved ones’ safety and the greater good. Almost as if subconsciously the writers can't fathom a woman choosing to sacrifice her family, no, when it's a woman her most important duty suddenly is about others.

Aang, in his quest to be a hero, didn't let go of the girl he loved. And when he did he did it for her safety and was narratively punished because of it. And if it means the end of world, well, what's it to a woman's love?

Except we also see how Aang takes his responsibility seriously too!—or he'd just have stood his ground on not killing Ozai and not have done any energy bending. I don't care it was a deux ex machina. I'm just glad to have a hero who didn't think his morals were more important than actual breathing people (cough, Batman, cough).

Why is it that a villain is considered a good lover because he won't sacrifice you for the world, but the moment the hero does it, it's a bad thing?

If you're going to say “it's because a he's a hero,” well then, being a hero then equals being a man who only sees the world through his man eyes. Where the narrative makes everyone else's pain his man pain while stripping the same characters of their right to have their pain acknowledged.