#quollity thoughts

[girddlepatchilles]

I think the worst thing about making Alicent younger for HoTD was that we lost the fact she used to read to Jaehaerys before his death. Like… in canon Alicent was a teenager when she was reading to the Old King and she was known to Jaehaerys’ heir Viserys. His choice to marry Alicent made a lot more sense in the book than it did in the show.

I suspect in show canon, Alicent’s mother was the one doing the reading, so perhaps that’s how Rhaenyra and Alicent ended up first meeting. Babby Rhaenyra bothering grandfather and instead finding a new playmate? Adorable! Maybe Alicent's mother saw how excited her daughter was after she spent an afternoon with Rhaenyra. Queue the ticking time bomb that is the tragedy of Rhaenyra and Alicent's love I mean friendship.

If we look at the book, Alicent was Jaehaerys' companion until his death. We're told in Fire & Blood that Jaehaerys started to mistake her for his daughters towards the end. Towards the end of Alicent's life, we learn that she starts talking about the king. Despite how... Targaryen Jaehaerys is, I do think he and Alicent must have grown close in the short time Alicent was reading to him. I suspect the young Alicent (who was fifteen at the time) may have either developed a crush on Jaehaerys or started romanticising the idea of him. I would not put it past Otto to have tried convincing Alicent to seduce the old king, or perhaps even establish herself as a potential mistress for Viserys. It seems highly likely that Alicent based her expectations for Viserys on her relationship with Jaehaerys... which sort of explains why during her last days she asked to see her children and King Jaehaerys... while saying nothing of her husband.

Basically, the show runners missed a really strong reason for Viserys to inevitably choose Alicent and removed an interesting aspect of Alicent's book characterisation.

[girddlepatchilles]

I honestly think Viserys’ sickness came from the nick (or a previous nick) he got from the Iron Thone. I’m pretty sure his health only really started to go downhill when he cut himself on the Iron Throne. I mean, all those swords on the Iron Throne and everything that has happened to it has probably made that thing a major hazard to anyone who sits on it. One little cut could lead to some serious infection.

What I also find interesting about this is the fact that in Fire & Blood there is a part where a big deal is made about the fact Rhaenyra cut herself on the Iron Throne. According to superstition, being cut by the throne means the person sitting on it is unworthy to rule. Now, the author of the text makes it clear that this is just a silly superstition... but I find it an interesting detail to include in the adaption. Could it be argued that the Iron Throne knew Viserys was not truly the rightful king?

Personally, I think he got an infection from a cut and the maesters were unable to cure it. But I do find the fact that we’re shown two separate in-universe indicators of “true rulership” go against Viserys (being cut by the Iron Throne and the White Hart) quite interesting. Could it be the show putting forward the idea that maybe Targaryen rule should have ended at that point? Doubtful... 

I’d be interested to see if Rhaenyra ends up being cut by the Iron Throne in the show. Maybe we’ll see Aegon II being cut and an infection similar to Viserys’ making all the injuries he’ll get during the war worse. 

[girddlepatchilles]

So I’m responding to this post, but I’m not reblogging because I’m really not interested in Lily coming after me, but I just wanted to gush for a moment.

So, to the point: isekai/portal fantasy/whatever you want to call it, have been around for years and the fact that the genre shows up in many different places is just so damn cool! The theme of a “normal” person going through a portal/doorway/whatever to go into another world shows up in plenty of myths and legends. Many stories about the fair folk talk about mortals being taken away to the fairy realm through portals and the like. In Japan, the story of Urashima Taro involves a young fisherman travelling to the Dragon Palace and staying there for what he perceives as three days before returning to his village. Upon his return he finds out it has been three hundred years! Again, this is a theme that also shows up in stories regarding the fair folk in parts of the UK and Europe, this shit is universal.

The Urashima Taro story is believed to be the forbear of the modern Isekai genre in Japan. Interestingly enough, an animated adaption of the story made in 1918 was one of the earliest anime created. What I also find quite interesting is many modern Isekai don’t seem to include the “when I return so much time has passed” aspect of the original folklore. In fact, it’s fairly common for the protagonist to just remain in the fantasy world and just not leave. Part of this is due to how the protagonist got there (here’s looking at you truck-kun), but from what I have seen, there aren’t that many Isekai where the protagonist goes home in the end.

This, of course, is very different to many of the portal fantasies in English language literature. The first instance of what would become portal fantasy comes to us from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland written in 1865. In it, the titular Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole and into Wonderland, where she experiences a strange world quite unlike our own. Unlike some of the more well known portal fantasy books, Alice’s adventures end when she wakes from a dream. The sequel Through the Looking Glass continues to explore the theme of dreams. Jules Verne would later produce Off on a Comet (Hector Servadac) in 1877, while Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court would come out in 1889. A Connecticut Yankee is also an early example of time travelling appearing in speculative fiction (H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine would come out in 1895). One of the most well known portal fantasies is of course C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia which saw the plucky protagonists being transported to Narnia through wardrobe, painting and various other means. Ironically enough, the final novel in the series The Last Battle involves several of the previous characters being allowed to remain in Narnia because they had died in a train accident on earth (an early example of truck-kun?).

Portal Fantasy and Isekai are both great forms of escapism, especially if it’s the kind of story where the protagonist ends up in a fictional setting they had previously read. I was a big fan of the Narnia books as a kid and another of my favourite books was a series where a group of Aussie kids ended up in Arthurian myth and tried to change how things turned out. I’m pretty sure I got rid of those books at some point, otherwise I’d be tempted to re-read them to see if they hold up. I’m not much into Portal Fantasy or Isekai these days (I read more fluffy romance, domestic fluff, speculative fiction, queer romance and fiction, fantasy, sci fi and gay cooking manga), but I can still see the appeal to a lot of people. I get a little side-eye-y when I see characters use their modern knowledge to “improve the lives” of the people in the fictional world they inhabit, but some authors and show runners have managed to do so in a way that doesn’t seem too bad. If I had to pick an Isekai I’ve seen that I loved, it would probably be The Devil is a Part-Timer! which is an example of a reverse Isekai. (It’s really great, go watch it!)

So... yeah. Just a little gushing from me.

[girddlepatchilles]

You know what I wish there was more of?

Cast commentaries! One of my favourite things about the LOTR Extended Edition DVDs was the fact you could watch it the films while listening to the cast talk about their filming experience and the random shit they got up to. The whole cast was hilarious!

Can you imagine how fun listening to David Tennant and Michael Sheen talk about Good Omens would be? Or what about the Dungeons & Dragons Movie cast???

We've been robbed.