#the wolves deserved better representation

[andreal831]

If you were to rewrite Jackson, would you still implement the love triangle? If so, would you make it more of an unrequited love or would you truly explore Jayley? If not, what type of role would you have him play?

TGW outtake suggestion:

In chapter 30 (I think) it mentioned Elijah never called Hayley for her birthday, and knowing Elijah, he’d probably feel guilty about this. So I’m thinking this could start from the dinner Hayley, Elijah, and astra we’re having together and at the end of the dinner, Elijah pulls astra aside and tells her that he wants to plan this whole day out as a surprise to celebrate her birthday. Then the next day could be them doing all sorts of activities and Elijah giving her some sort of expensive gift or something.

That explanation sucked, basically just Elijah plans a day to celebrate Hayley’s birthday because he feels guilty that he missed it.

If I was the writer from the beginning, I would have gotten rid of any love triangles. I've said it before, I don't like them. They are unnecessarily messy. Especially in a show like TO where the plot is so heavy. It worked better in TVD because the show centered more around the relationships. Most of the enemies were part of the romantic drama. But TO was focused on family and the enemies were typically after power or revenge. There wasn't time for messy relationship drama. I would have preferred for the show to have established relationships that could have been partners/supported each other throughout the show.

I've loved Nathan Parsons since before TO even existed so I was so excited to see him in TO. Fun fact, he was one of my first male crushes. I was then super disappointed to see his character be so underutilized and underdeveloped. I would have introduced him as alpha of the pack without the arranged marriage. I know many cultures have arranged marriages and that is great as long as everyone wants it. Hayley was not comfortable with it and said it multiple times. I hated that the show just kept going down that path and introduced the arranged marriage again in season 2 just under a different name, the "unification." If I was in charge, the women would have much more autonomy in the show.

I would have kept the warring family idea and even had Jackson be warry of Hayley's sudden appearance. This girl who is supposedly the long-lost "princess" of the pack shows up, pregnant by their enemies, and living with the Mikaelsons. Hayley would have had to earn his respect as well as the packs, but once she did, he would teach her the pack's history. I would also make him a better alpha. I don't think I would make him more politically minded because I would have played more into the fact that he has spent his entire adult life as a wolf because of the curse. He would have leaned on Hayley who naturally seemed to know how to make allies with the other factions. Instead of a marriage to fix the rift in the pack, Jackson and Hayley would have created a bond based on mutual respect and love for the pack. They would have introduced the idea of co-alphas without needing it to be romantic or sexual.

I hate when shows can't allow opposite gender individuals to just work together without it being romantic or sexual. I love a good friendship. That is one of my biggest complaints about TVDU. It created such great friendships but instead of developing them, it focused on the romantic drama. The friendships/found families in New Orleans were what was going to save it from war. You have Marcel and Davina, Vincent and Cami, Cami and Marcel, Vincent and Freya, etc. These bonds that transcended the factions was what saved them over and over. But the wolves are left out of that since, after Jackson died Hayley basically forgot about the pack. They could have done it with Eve, but she died to early. It would have been nice to see Jackson forming those bonds with the other factions, starting with Hayley.

I wouldn't do an unrequited love storyline. These always just make me sad. I know it happens in real life but that's why I love fiction, I don't need to add any unnecessary pain that way (I know that's ironic coming from me). If I did explore Jayley, I would have actually shown them developing feelings for each other. Show Hayley being torn between her feelings. And then shown that even if you love someone and try to make it work, for various reasons, it may not. This doesn't mean it was bad or one of the partners was "evil." In real life, relationships don't work out, it doesn't make the relationship any less important or impactful.

I truly do think Jackson deserved better from the writers. This is why *spoilers for my story, The Great War* I had jayley end the way they did. It was on Jackson's terms. I know some people thought it was out of character, and maybe it was for the show, but that's the point. Jackson is supposed to be a strong leader, yet he couldn't stand up for himself in the show. He gave Hayley ultimatums instead of setting boundaries and then just left when it got hard. They needed to have a real conversation. So in my story, when they did have this real conversation, they realized they were never going to get what they wanted out of the relationship. Jackson deserved to be able to set his boundaries and get away from the Mikaelsons. He deserved to have a love that isn't forced or manipulated. It's why I didn't kill him. I hated that so many characters were sacrificed just to push certain ships or push the Mikaelson story forward (RIP Gia).

I have already written an outtake for chapter 30 but I do love this idea. And y'all know I love writing haylijah. I'm not sure when I'll get it done but I will definitely write this!

Thanks for the ask and the suggestion!

[memysoulandi]

Jason Grace, so much potential...

Actually this goes for the entire lost trio. The AMOUNT of TRAUMA these three had and the potential for character development they had too is UNREAL, yet nothing was done. Let us begin my personal beliefs

Leo:

-Delve into his trauma of his remaining family deciding he was the devil at age EIGHT and refusing to take him in-abandonment issues

-Have his constant feelings of invalid-ness and being the unneeded member of the seven be corrected by giving him CLOSE FRIENDS HE PIPER AND JASON NEED TO BE CLOSER AT THE VERY LEAST and conversations when he realizes he is wanted and needed

-Don't have Calypso storyline in there-he didn't need a girlfriend to solve his problems, if you have it, have it as good friends-another member of his support group

-Make him gay and have valgrace or slowburn/implied valgrace(the two of them pining then like kinda tragic as Leo dies)

Piper:

-Have her lesbian storyline occur in HoO where she's a main character-it's an important storyline for her character that deserves a spotlight and time that ToA couldn't give it

-No Jiper! This relationship was toxic and founded on fake memories-if you're going to do it, do it as a part of her LGBTQIA+ journey and Jason's as well

-Don't have her demonize femininity! She can wear dresses! She can wear makeup! She can present more feminine and still be the same character and her hatred of any and all things feminine is not good representation! Make her a feminist, please! Or at least make her less against femininity as a whole.

-No kaleidoscope eyes! Give her brown eyes and also have her rediscovering her culture storyline as a part of HoO too!

Jason:

-Make him a better fighter than Percy. He has been at Camp Jupiter since the age of three and spent a year with wolves before then. He has spent his entire life in a military setting training, he should be a better swordfighter than Percy 'I show up to summer camp at age 12 to 16 and only really use my sword then' Jackson.

-Give him more powers. Or Percy less. Children of the big three should be equal in potential power, not Percy being OP and the others having lightning or shadows powers some of the time. Percy needs less power and Jason, Thalia, Hazel, and Nico need more. Jason should have more power than Percy as he has had longer to train it.

-Give him a personality. His storyline in HoO should be a journey of self-discovery. He has always been another member of an army, with constant pressure on him to be the best at everything and a strong confident leader who doesn't make mistakes as a son of Jupiter. His entire life has been dictated by those around him. For the first time, he is free of that and he needs to be discovering things like how he likes to dress, his style, his sexuality, his likes and dislikes, and his personality. In my opinion he should be kinda shy with a feral edge, side effect of the wolves, who is always trying to people please. When he stops doing this, he becomes significantly happier and a greater use to the team. Plus valgrace;D.

-Also, make him despise Percy at the beginning. He worked his entire life to be an afterthought that nobody looked for when he went missing for months, while Percy was looked for by everyone after only a few days. Percy achieved everything he wanted in a matter of weeks in New Rome and he was happy and had friends and a life. Percy has everything Jason doesn't. They need to have a moment where they are locked together and Percy goes "why do you hate me" and Jason breaks down because "You have everything I want and you don't even have to try!". This would create a better relationship for them and be the turning point for Jason as Percy hears what he has to say and validates him. Also Jason personality.

-Don't kill him off and continue his self-discovery journey in ToA.

-Make him and Thalia have a closer relationship that in the months between TLH and TSoN, it is implied that they spend time together. He should feel safe with her and they needed more interactions as they are SIBLINGs, god damit.

-Make him and Reyna just friends-she wanted to look for him but couldn't 'cause Octavian(the bitch) and someone needed to be Praetor in his absence.

-Also give him history with Octavian-ex-friends or something give me drama.

[honeii-puff]

for grishverse asks, like any one of them, I just kinda want to know, since they’re such good questions, and if you feel like it all of them

shadow | rank all the grishaverse books you’ve read.

I did this one already

bone | have you seen the show? what’s the best part of it?

Also did this one already

siege | if you got to kill off one character, who would it be?

Probably Heleen. Burn the Menagarie down whilst we're at it

storm | share and tag your favorite fan art

Dont have one, i love all the fanarts

ruin | favorite character?

Did this one already, its Inej

rising | what’s the best ship? canon or otherwise.

Kanej. no questions.

six | favorite grishaverse quote?

the "I would have come for you" bit from Kaz. That or "Best way to steal a man's wallet"

crow | which crows are you most and least like?

Most like Inej, Least like Kaz

crooked | if you got to rewrite the first chapter of six of crows, how would you do it?

I'd probably let Anya live longer bc she was cool

kingdom | pick a character and give them a theme song

Jesper - Killer Queen by Queen

king | what’s your favorite idea for a new series in the grishaverse?

Probably something centric on Captian Inej Ghafa

scars | which character deserved better?

MATTHIAS HELVAR

rule | favorite book cover?

The russian version of Six of Crows. its beautiful

wolves | sort all the characters you can into hogwarts houses, (or choose to give them zodiacs, mbtis, alignments, etc—)

im just gonna do the crows

Kaz: Slytherin

Inej: Hufflepuff

Wylan: Slytherin or Ravenclaw

Jesper: Gryffindor

Matthias: Hufflepuff

Nina: Gryffindor

ketterdam | change the ending of one of the books

LET. MATTHIAS. LIVE

os alta | when did you get into the grishaverse? tell us all about it

I'd say about 2021 i read Shadow and Bone and half of Seige and Storm, then dropped it. I watched the show in 2022, read six of crows, saw s2 of SaB, and then read KOS

djerholm | what pair of characters would you kill to see interact with each other?

We need more Kaz and Nikolai interactions.

the unsea | what type of grisha powers would you want to have? or what crow’s skills would you want to steal?

Stealing Inej's grace, I have the balance of a toddler :P

the true sea | rant about whatever grishaverse thing you want to (a hot take, something that bothers you, something you love, etc)

WE. NEED. MORE. RELIGIOUS. REPRESENTATION.

And not in the way "oh we need more religious characters"

no.

I want full in-depth explanations on each religion. On Djel, Gheezenism, the difference between Ravkan, Kaelish, and Suli saints, what they worship in the Southern Colonies, Novyi Zem, and Shu Han, all of it.

Give me it all.

[payidaresque]

Rules: share some unpopular opinions about 5 different fandoms of your choosing. tagged by @burningblake thanks love, your timing is 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 (i mean it). though it won't exaclty be UNPOPULAR opinions since they're mostly on really small fandoms so 💀 anyway, under the cut ✌🏻 And i'm tagging @elena-gilbert @blackfyredaemon @lordjohnwgrey @sylvies-casey @shane-west no pressure <3

Ramo While the show had its strong sides (up til like mid- season 1 and lbr, the main strong side is murat in various suits lmao, mainly black), s2 is not great and the finale is ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE Spartacus I dropped the show after s1 because the actor they replaced Andy Whitfield (may God rest his soul) with, didn't fit the type at all and i couldn't continue. Andy set the bar too high. I have nothing against the actor tho, that's just not his role

Arrow This show is simply stupid for me as a disabled person specifically, because it didn't have the accurate representation of disabled ppl, or at least somewhat BELIVABLE representation. And i'm referring to Felicity gettng paralyzed from the waist down (for like what, 2 episodes?) arch. IT JUST DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT. Even in the show that's kind of scifi-ish. Also, Stephen Amell deserved better. The only character i really liked was Thea, and i dropped it and i don't regret it

Raised by wolves Marcus's not another 'Ragnar'. i actually think Travis Fimmel did a pretty good job, and i think he's a very solid and belivable actor. just watch Dreamland with him and Margot(Robbie). it's worth it. trust me. It's an excelent drama. And Travis can be even better when he truly tries. Also, there could be so much more to the show so fuck HBO for cancelling it Once upon a time s7 was absolutely unnecessary and s6 had the perfect wrap up for the show

[mitigatedchaos]

[anon]

[...] Like transsexualism, antiracism is a deer-horse, a loyalty test. The point is to cull dissidents, not to actually give up any [w]s' wealth or power [...] This isn't to say that the authorities might not lose control of their weapon and have it actually end in [genocide]. But I think they'll prevent that.

I think we're dealing with a kind of emergent ignorance.

Progressives think that if, as a hypothetical, Italians were discovered to be cursed to have bad backs, for some reason everyone would immediately conspire to murder them all. So if we don't know for sure what's causing the higher rate of back injuries to Italians at the Amazon warehouse, we should make sure not to report any information that could be used to make the case that Italians have bad backs.

The problem here is that the next layer of Progressives does the same thing starting with the biased output of the last layer, repeatedly. The last layer are two orders of magnitude off on the numbers, have switched the actors around, etc.

There may be some cynical operators, but the thing they're cynically operating for is probably cash.

A few are able to cut through the layers of bullshit, but they just do step one over again. A net reduction in the bias of the results. (Some of those people say "please stop getting obsessed with this" in increasingly worried tones.)

Progressives seem to have gotten the idea that genocide comes from a belief in "inferiority," so absolutely no one can be allowed to be framed as "inferior," or they'll get murdered.

This may have come from the actions of the Nazis. It might also come from an intuitive sense of the Progressives themselves. E.g. "no one deserves to have a bad back, therefore no one deserves to be Italian, therefore..."

From a more Conservative perspective, if Italians have bad backs, that's their problem. They can just be left to sort that out for themselves.

From a Transhumanist perspective, an Italian with a bad back is just a dude who has had the misfortune not to be provided with an indestructible robot spine yet.

From a more traditionally Liberal perspective, we just propose to measure each person's back strength individually while looking to see if we can develop any back exercises that sort it out.

In order to not be a totalitarian, you must be willing to accept some imperfection.

What makes Progressives worried about genocide is different from what makes me worried about genocide.

As a note, generally, I believe that "genocide" needs to include a component where you are actively killing people, or else so systematically preventing them from doing what they need to survive that you might as well be. This also needs to be at scale. (We can discuss specifics later. For instance, sterilizations may also qualify as a variety of genocide.) So a migration that doesn't involve cutting down the local men from horseback might be an erosion of representation or sovereignty in some way, but it is very probably not a genocide.

I tend to think in terms of, what are the release valves? What are the escape conditions?

First, I think that people don't kill other people just for "being inferior." Does anyone go around shooting everyone that scored less on the SAT than themselves? You have to build a claim. You have to argue that they have collectively harmed you - it works even better if you claim that they're currently collectively harming you and will continue to do so in the future.

Second, this evil should be portrayed as unique - if Italians and Irish and your own guys are all robbing you at the same rate, it can't be solved by genociding the Italians.

Third, the guilt has to be collective - if we must try each and every individual Italian for robbery in a court, what we will find is that most Italians do not commit robbery, and so our attempted genocide will just be messily applying the death penalty to robbery by Italians, which is excessive, but not really the same thing. So we need to argue that all Italians are uniformly inherently robbers, or that all Italians are involved in some kind of conspiracy, or that they're all colluding subconsciously, etc.

Fourth, our claim against the Italians or whatever other group we've trying to get rid of should be unfalsifiable. If we set the condition up that someone can disprove it, someone probably will, because people are willing to spend a lot of resources to not die. To carry this out, we should prohibit any study that might prove the group's innocence, or even cast doubt on their guilt.

As an addendum to the previous: if we actually have to scientifically determine whether all Italians are robbers, not only may it be disproved, but it might take ten or twenty years to really examine properly - long enough for the genocide urge to pass.

Fifth, and this one is important, there can be no valid land claim allowed for the group in question. Even if we conclude that all Italians are inherently robbers, we might still conclude that the answer is to simply separate the Italians from everyone else by either sending them all to Italy (assuming that Italy is legally required to take them and cannot refuse them) or dividing up the country and putting all the Italians in Florida or something.

If there is a valid land claim (to land it's possible to farm), then while it is quite possible that there will be great suffering, it's very unlikely that all the Italians will be wiped out.

Contemporary Progressive race discourse meets all of these criteria. Rather than the Emperor bringing in a deer, calling it a horse, and then throwing out anyone who objects, he has brought in a relatively fearsome-looking wolf, with a mouthful of sharp teeth, and called it a big friendly dog.

If it's working to remove dissidents, it's because a wolf is a legitimately dangerous animal and has no business walking around the imperial court.

But I don't think having this wolf walking around was really planned, except by a small handful of people. (I think a number of them have blinded themselves to the differences between wolves and dogs, but should have had the character to stop and think about it at multiple points along the way.)

To the degree that they realize they're doing this, they're doing so to extract leverage which can be used to demand everything less than the continent.

As for transgenderism, I'm sure many Conservatives feel like Progressives are supporting it to psychologically abuse them, but isn't it a natural corollary to the idea of sexed brain differences, which most Conservatives would believe in? If those exist, there must be some biological mechanism to implement them, which could misfire.

[beccas-books]

Rule of Wolves

Things I liked:

-        I loved that we got to see all of our characters from the entire Grishaverse in this book.  It was amazing to see that these characters are still in each others lives.  And I just liked that we got to check up on everyone.  I’ve been very worried about my Crow children so it was great to see that they were doing great! Alina, Mal, Misha, and Oncat are all doing great, which I love to see! 

-     The representation that Bardugo is putting into her books is amazing.  The plethora of races, cultures, and sexualities is something that I really love.  The inclusion of a transgender character in this story was flawless.  She didn’t rub it in your face, and it was not the sole characteristic of Hanne (Im not sure what their new name is yet so I’ll just refer to them as Hanne for now).  They were a person who had depth and you could really feel they struggle to find themselves.  So when they did it was amazing.  And I love that Bardugo just casually made Nina pansexual.  Like Nina LOVES Hanne no matter what they look like or who they are.  She just loves them for them, and I think it was great.  

-     Y’all know Im a sucker for happy ending, so the fact that Nikolai and Zoya get to be together was everything to me! They got a happy ending, Nina got a happy ending.  Im loving all the love, and it makes me very happy.  

-     Zoya is my new favorite person in the world.  if anyone tries to hurt my beautiful Dragon Queen I will fight you.  I’m so happy that Bardugo chose her to be the character that she would focus on to make a better person.  I know she was kind of rude in the Shadow and Bone series but I love her now.  I can't wait to see what she has in store for herself and the rest of her friends. 

Things I didn't like:

-        This book did the thing that I hate in books.  It killed a character that did not need to die! David didn't need to die.  Im not gonna lie, I cried a lot when this happened.  Real tears falling from my eyes in despair.  His death, in my opinion, did nothing for the story.  The story could have gone on with just the bombing.  The bombing was enough cause for action in my opinion.  

-     I don't care what other people think about the Darkling, but I don't think he deserves redemption.  I don't like that the story was left off as if they were going to “save” him from living in pain for the rest of eternity.  I think he deserves it, and I don't want them to get him out.  I know they are just gonna kill him instead, but he was the WORST.  

Overall:

-      Overall I think the book was a little slow in the beginning.  But I think that can be said about a lot of Bardugos novels.  She likes to build a lot before she gets to the juicy parts.  I wish there wasn't so much build up, but when you get to the good parts you really get through them fast,  I stand by my points about David and the Darkling.  I think those story lines were really not needed.  David didn’t need to die and the Darkling deserves to rot.  Other then that it was a great book.  As usual the cast of characters have a rainbow of differences that make the unique.  They are all special and represent a different kind of human is a great way.  Bardugo does an amazing job of including people from all walks of life and I love it.  I will totally be reading whatever she adds to this universe next.  I love these characters and can't wait to see where she takes them.  

- Rating: 4.5/5

[crancisfrozier]

Listen......inside of me there are two wolves. One is the current 26 year old openly queer me who recognizes the flaws and shortcomings of spn and quite frankly knows she deserves better queer representation. The other is the 15 year old me neck deep in fandom for the first time ever and exploring the unknown of my own sexuality through queer ships without realizing it. The former has been holding back the elation of the latter and I’m just over that shit. Like I recognize how fucking hilarious destiel going canon in THAT way was to people not caught up and like I will prob continue to poke fun tbh, but I’m also going to allow myself to feel the sheer exhilaration of something I’ve shipped for a decade becoming textual along with the THRILLING realization that I can now go back and watch season 4 and up and pinpoint moments where Cas is CANONICALLY in love with Dean. Like bitch the writers/cast/crew don’t get to fucking gaslight us anymore!!!!!! We can say it and it’s TRUE!!!!

[capricornsicle]

Per your pinned post, how about your take on Satomi Ito?

Excellent icon (Supercorp!!) and username, first of all!

Satomi is a fucking BADASS. Lady survived internment camp, government cover-ups, at least 60 years of white boy bullshit, the worst racism the US had to offer against Japanese-American citizens, at least 60 years of werewolfing, and many, many attempts on her life by not-unskilled hunters and other genocide-curious people.

Satomi was one of the most powerful characters in the wolfverse (and, since her death was so weak-sauce and lacking, I’m choosing to believe she still is). She had a massive pack, about two dozen if I recall correctly, and had a habit of adopting orphaned werewolves, like Brett and Lori or Jiang and Tierney, regardless of what they may have done in the past. She was uniquely understanding of the difficulty werewolves had with controlling their violent impulses. In 3b, we learn that Satomi spent her time in the internment camp playing Go almost non-stop so she’d never be tempted towards violence. Massive respect for both boring herself and condemning herself to a life sitting around staring at a board, and for being good at Go, which I’ve always sucked at. She also defeated countless assassins in the deadpool storyline circa s4 without losing control or taking a hit. Seriously, the woman can dodge bullets.

My admiration for Satomi is to the same degree as my outrage at her treatment by J*ff D*vis and the “casual” racism of the show and the writing. She was this incredibly powerful alpha, the oldest known werewolf and the one who taught her pack and her friends how to hide their scent, and introduced the “what three things” mantra that was the only thing able to calm down werewolves without anchors or werewolves who still struggled with their anger. She dodged bullets. She was a known friend and advisor of Talia freaking Hale.

Being killed off by Monroe and her followers in a fight that was more about Jiang and Tierney than anyone else was disrespecting the story that had already been told. I don’t think it was necessary for Satomi to die, she just died because the hunters had to kill a bunch of people for, uh, reasons. Satomi Ito was a mastermind and an incredibly wise woman, not some inexperienced werewolf who’d go to a peace summit with hunters and get shot while her back was turned. She was significantly too clever to get tricked and killed by Gerard, of all people. That we don’t see her death is even more insulting -- killing off all your characters of color is despicable enough, but mentioning that they’re killed off in passing for the purpose of talking about other characters even more so. She wasn’t given a funeral, or a burial, or even any acknowledgement. She was used for “oh no the hunters are so evil and dangerous” and nothing more.

Satomi could (and should) have been an advisor for Scott and his pack. She should have had significantly more scenes, more of her intelligence and cunning should have appeared on-screen than we learned from what other characters who got screentime learned from her, and if she had to die, she should have had an epic ending in which neither plot armor nor miracle could have saved her. She should have died how she lived, choosing non-violence over personal gain and helping other supernaturals realize that having claws and fangs doesn’t make them monsters.

Imagine the following scene:

Satomi arrives at the location for the peace summit between the wolves and the hunters. Gerard and Monroe are there with their hunters, perhaps some of the named ones who didn’t get nearly enough exploration of what sounded like really interesting stories, like Gabe and/or Nolan (also two non-white characters but who’s counting). They talk, and Gerard incites violence. The hunters attack Satomi, who came alone as asked so as not to endanger her pack and in pursuit of genuine, truthful peace. She dodges their bullets and evades their attacks, but refuses to kill them. Eventually she is compelled to strike back, but she stops herself and turns back into human form, making a point of not taking the life of a hunter who wants nothing more than to exterminate her kind, and when she stands back to let the hunter up Gerard slits her throat from behind, or something equally Gerard-y.

That kind of scene would have spurred on the final battle. It would have made very clear to Monroe and to the hunters that Gerard was not “protecting” anyone, just committing genocide. That could have been the moment that divided the hunters and allowed them to be defeated when they were unstoppable in the same situation a few episodes before the final fight. It would have been gut-wrenching and heartbreaking and horrifying, as well her death should have been. It would have said, “werewolves are not monsters, people who want genocide are”. The murder of such an important and powerful werewolf would have inspired a lot in our favorite Scooby Gang, turned neutral characters against the hunters and given the audience a much better sense of how evil Gerard was supposed to be than the “I murder werewolves for sadistic fun” we got. Instead, we got the lazy, half-assed “oh Satomi’s dead” that inspired nothing and just made the audience confused to how tired she had to be to get tricked by a couple of novice hunters.

The treatment of Satomi, as well as other Japanese (or Korean, or Black, or... well, Kali was played by a Black actress, and the various Latinx and/or Native/Indigenous actors/characters [Melissa, Scott, Nolan, Theo, Gabe, Hayden, I could go on] are white-passing to a lot of viewers and/or have little screen time and backstory, you get the idea) characters was another demonstration of how popular media favors white-passing and lighter-skinned characters of color, and Teen Wolf and its creators made no attempts to try and be better. They and darker and non-passing characters are used as motivation for the white main characters’ goals, they are killed off with weak reasoning and death scenes that, if they exist, only incite anger in the treatment of non-white characters in the audience. Those that survive for longer stretches of time are reduced to stereotypes and racist tropes. Satomi plays the wise old Asian. Deaton is reduced to the Magical Negro trope after a season or two. Boyd is stingy and unhelpful to the white mains. Monroe is violent, aggressive, and evil. Morrell is untrustworthy and self-centered (and Deaton’s sister, even though she’s way lighter? okay screenwriters). Even those characters of color who are with the good guys have small roles, meaningless deaths, and never deep and meaningful backstories. Those characters that pass may have some of those. Satomi is a great example of how Teen Wolf’s “casual” racism wasn’t nearly as casual as it appeared. It went deeper, all characters of color were affected by it, those darker and less passing even more so, and it was unfair. You’re not representing someone by giving them one character that looks like them and then whisking them away after a few minutes of screentime. The only meaningful thing said by false representation and racist stereotypes is that you’re just another racist.

TL;DR: I loved Satomi as a wise and powerful character of color, one that lived for a hundred years or more and learned and taught things that saved the characters we knew and loved in the epic final fights. I’m also angry she died so quietly and meaninglessly. I’m angry she was reduced to the role of “wise Asian” and barely got screentime. I’m very angry how representative her treatment is of the treatment of all characters of color on Teen Wolf and in other popular media, and what I’m super angry about is that this fandom and others love to gloss over racism or call it “casual” and pay no attention to the non-white characters in the source material. Characters of color are not there for representation points. They should be there because they’re important to the story and fans who do or don’t look like them can relate to and enjoy them. Satomi deserved better treatment on the show, and she deserves better treatment from the fandom.

[bindi-the-skunk]

Son of Frankenstein chapter 16

This was not how she wanted it to go! This was not how it was supposed to go! She was only trying to figure out a way to connect...now she was getting the talking down of her life as she sat on the floor having lost all her energy from the walk to the house and her game to get inside.

"You're a brainless, soulless, spoiled little rich girl whose ego is bigger than her creation! You were perfectly willing to die just to prove my other half wrong, like, yikes, how thick can you get? And it is only after you learned you spit him out your cunt did you start acting nicer, and even then the insults were an improvement to your meddling ass!" Edward picked and prodded at everything he hoped would hurt as he found the strength to pull away from Robert who slunk back into another seat to watch silently "And Henry said to take a bath once and a while! You smell like unwashed socks and bad choices!"

I didn't say that...

Let me handle this!

Frankenstein got the unpleasant urge to deck the little pest who saw fit to point out every flaw, hissing and writhing like a serpent as he did so, but that would not help anyone and would just prove Hyde right, so she did the next best thing.

She bit back

"Oh, really? And what are you? From what I heard you're a hypocritical, sociopathic brat who does not care for or about anything except doing what is fun at the moment! At least I am attempting to open up to you both! You both are just acting rude and ungra-" Frankenstein started only for Hyde to start laughing, a humorless cackle that would have wound up putting him in Bedlam if anyone on the outside heard it.

"Rude!? RUDE!? Your one to talk about rude! Even Henry has fallen inside our mind from laughing so hard hearing THAT one! You abandoned him! Made the lodgers abandon him! Spat all over his work and he sure as HELL is not going to forgive you so easily because you want to clear YOUR conscience from your sins! I am the physical representation of his darkest desires! I am what I was made to be! You on the other hand are whole! You chose to walk all over his work without any prompting or insult!" Hyde hissed, flecks of saliva flying out like venom at Frankenstein's face.

Victoria Frankenstein's face was a worrying shade of red as she started mumbling in gibberish, her mouth not working under her command to come up with a real scorcher against the gremlin as he toothily grinned like a shark in her face, she hated this.

Henry was loving this!

The split man laughed in a similar way to his counterpart as he watched the show unfolding before him, not caring that Hyde put words into his mouth, not like he could be any deeper into his grave, might as well keep digging, perhaps he would hit the center and burn, everything ending in one swoop...

That look of having been slapped with a wet fish upon Frankenstein's face was priceless! He could tell his rage and sadistic glee was just egging Hyde on to keep going, he did not care, the days of being the one insulted, pushed around, and broken down, was it any surprise he felt a bit vindictive? Now he got to be the one watching from the mirror as things turned to hell for someone else.

Let Hyde have his body!!! It was broken anyway at the moment, he could feel a bit more pain for all Henry cared, the little dressing down and the threat of a beating had only been the tip of what the little monster deserved after unleashing those hallucinations to torment him and stealing the body afterward, having the little rat act as a telephone between him and Frankenstein was just an added bonus.

Come on Hyde, keep going, you know you want to-Robert?

"Both of you stop it! This is not going to fix anything and is just wasting energy which you need to recover from your respective ailments, now I think either ...Mr...H...Edward, needs to sit down and rest but if he is incapable of that task you need to mix up another...potion...and bring Henry back out so he can do it, same with you Miss Frankenstein, it is too late for you to return to the society, so you will be spending the night here along with Creature" Robert said, standing from his seat "I will have a couple of beds prepared and I'm sure you can find some proper bed clothing in the trunk"

"I'm not staying the night here! Not with you!" Frankenstein argued, glad she found her voice again and had some flame left to fight, even if it was not able to be aimed at who she really wanted to punish.

"I'm afraid there is no other way and I'm sure Creature will agree"

"I do" came a voice from the kitchen

"Not you too Creature!"

--

After Creature wrestled Victoria into a nightie and Henry had been set back the way he was, the green man dragged her to the room to no doubt lock her in it for the night to keep their maker out of any more trouble.

Henry went to wheel himself into another bedroom, with no doubt Robert did not want anything to do with him at the moment, and giving the other man space would be the best thing to do but a voice paused him.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to get ready for bed"

The back of the wheelchair was grabbed, then Henry found himself wheeled into Robert and his shared room, and the door was promptly shut and locked making the injured man tense up, he was in for it now!

"Why? Why did you keep this from me? Why didn't you say you were in this deep of trouble? Why create Hyde at all?" Robert had been willing to wait till his lover was better to question him, but after the fight with Frankenstein, seeing him chug that potion...the sense that Henry had unleashed Hyde like an attack dog.

"I did not want to lose you, dark science has always been a....touchy subject, you co-owned the society with me...but to learn what I did to myself to try and cure...well..you remember how bad I was back then..." The split-man sighed, glad that Robert did not seem to be too angry with him, but that could change with one wrong word.

"I do remember...is that why you did it? Was it an attempt to feel better?" Robert asked, now glad he chose to not wait...and to not scream as he felt like doing, but that might be from dealing with three Frankensteins in one day even if Creature was not too bad and he loved Henry to death...

Poor choice of words.

"I just didn't...it just is a blur...I wasn't thinking...I just was so desperate" Henry said, lightly picking at the bandage around his wrist, if he had known all that this would happen back then...what would have been different? Better? Worse? "Now I learn I'm...you know...and everything just seems to be going insane...suppose I also did a little bit earlier...it felt so good...giving her a little bit back of her own medicine"

Robert clutched at his lover's hands "Remember what I told you earlier...it does not matter if you are a Jekyll or a Frankenstein, what matters is that you are Henry, that is who you are to me, doesn't that matter at all?"

"It means the WORLD coming from you, I just feel so lost...your the light in the darkness...my lantern...but I have wolves at my back and the unknown in front of me, I thought if I told you I would lose you and the darkness would suck me in completely...then THIS happens and things have gone even more to hell in a handbasket! And I just can't TAKE it anymore!!!" Henry wailed, tears streaming down his face "I knew I shouldn't have drunk it...not in your home of all places...but I just...I thought she might just shove it down my throat if I didn't! Then I felt...what I thought was happiness at seeing her suffer a little...that I was at least partially getting something that I wanted, but I don't KNOW what I want any more when it comes to her or the society, every one of them hated me after she arrived and only now are being kind because I'm related to HER!!!"

The freckle-faced man wrapped his arms around the other not sure what he could possibly say to make this better, and he had to admit to himself, there was nothing, this was something he could not bandage or sedate, this was something that had built up over years and the past few days of the constant bombardment of news and events finally made Henry burst.

Henry was broken beyond Robert's ability to fix, he knew about bones and sprains, colds and infection, not things that tormented the mind.

And neither Robert nor Victoria could fix him, no matter how much they tried or wanted to.

What are they going to do...

[banjodanger]

X-Men Origins: Wolverine(2009)

I’ve got a lot to talk about, so I’m going to jump right in with a very unpopular opinion. This may SHOCK and OFFEND certain readers, but I’m not one to shy away from speaking my mind. More sensitive readers should beware, however, because I’m not going to shy away from rattling cages and saying what NEEDS to be said!

So, ready yourselves, because...

Origins is not the worst X-Men movie.

There. I said it. PBBBBBBTTTT!

I’m not arguing that this was a good movie, hell, there’s a good argument that this isn’t even a competently made movie. But this movie is also responsible for some of the absolute best movies to come from Fox’s X-Men. First Class and Days of Future Past are two of the absolute best movies of this series, and it’s doubtful the other two Wolverine solo movies would have aimed as high as they did if this movie hadn’t been so widely mocked. If you go back to watch this movie, try to keep in mind eight years later this series would get nominated for a screenwriting Oscar. Whatever your opinion of awards, that’s a hell of a turnaround, considering the story this movie tells is like three separate stories stapled together. Finally, however much this movie misunderstands Deadpool, it was right on in casting Ryan Reynolds and eventually gave us better Deadpool movies than we could have hoped for. It shouldn’t go unnoticed that both of those movies use Origins as a solid foundation for jokes. I’m not going to talk too much about Deadpool in this movie, because I plan to cover it in more detail when I get to the first movie.

But I’m not discussing those movies, I’m discussing Origins, and Origins is not very good. The CGI looks cheap and outdated, not just by the standards of the time it was released but by the standards of five years previous. And the movie makes said terrible CGI hard to ignore because, to quote the philosopher Michelle Branch, it is EVERYWHERE. Most people are quick to bring up Wolverine’s claws effects, and they should because they somehow look worse than any of the three previous movies and it’s the most easily noticeable. I’m not expecting them to have Hugh Jackman actually fighting and jumping around on top of a nuclear vent but it looks like they’re doing it in front of computer wallpaper. That hill outside the Hudson’s farmhouse literally looks like the default Windows XP desktop. I’m surprised Agent Zero isn’t hiding behind the recycle bin. This isn’t to say I don’t expect lots of CGI in my comic book movies,but I expect better when someone is dropping over one hundred million for a guy with metal claws to fight a mute with impossibly long sword fists.

I could ignore all the bargain basement effects if there was a good story, but there isn’t one. There’s about two or three stories and they’re all bad. Gavin Hood wanted to make a throwback sevnties-style revenge movie, completely self-contained and R-rated(Hey, does that sound familiar?), but the producers wanted extra characters they could spin off into their own films. And as much as I want to excoriate them for that, I can only get but so mad. This was a big franchise that was approaching ten years since its first film. They were looking towards the future and that’s what their job was. The problem is that failure to find a common ground comes through on the screen. Some of the strongest scenes are between Logan and Victor, to the detriment that most of the other characters who come off as unnecessary cameos. That boxing scene between Logan and Fred Dukes could be a thirty second phone call without really losing anything.

It’s disappointing, too, because a lot of the performances in this movie aren’t bad. Believe me, I wanted to hate Will.I.Am. I was going to drag him and talk about all the terrible music he made but...he’s not bad in this movie. I’m not going to say he missed his calling by not becoming an actor full-time, but I enjoyed his performance and wish the movie had used him a little bit more.

My humps is still one of the worst goddamned songs ever.

Gambit was great in this movie too. Taylor Kitsch had this bizarre run of putting in good performances in hated movies. After this, he did John Carter then the second season of True Detective. That’s a shocking run of bad luck, and too bad to, because he’s good in all three. We missed out not getting at least one more movie with his take on Gambit, because he gets maybe fifteen minutes of screentime but he manages to be memorable, charismatic and charming.

Helicoptering with a bo staff still isn’t part of his goddamn power set though.

And I’m not going to forget Liev Schrieber, who makes an absolutely compelling villain. The only problem with his character at all is that he puts such a great performance that it stretches belief to imagine this is the guy that becomes a silent henchman in the first movie. There’s simply nothing in his performance to suggest they’re the same person. It would be like if the twist of Phantom Menace was that Darth Vader was originally Jar Jar Binks, or if they hired Nora Ephron to write a Hellraiser prequel. 

Even the Scott Summers we get in this movie is pretty good despite looking like a guy that steals copper wiring out of abandoned gas stations. Although I really question why Gambit watches them run off and I guess just assumes they’re being abducted by a good guy.

That leads me into the whole problem with prequels. Things happen in this movie and characters seem to live simply because earlier movies dictate that we have to see them again. It simply does not make sense for Kayla to leave Stryker alive. She has every reason to kill him, but she doesn’t, because he needs to be the villain in X2. Gambit doesn’t chase after the kids because they didn’t want to have him interact with Professor X. Sabretooth survives because he has to fight Wolverine on top of the Staute of Liberty while making no reference to their apparent relationship as siblings, or any words of any kind. This movie is awkwardly shoehorning itself into the lore established by the previous movies and it results in characters saying and doing things that go against what this movie seems to lead up to. The ending of most of those seventies revenge flicks was a bloody murder. Here, Stryker hurts his feet a little. It’s just not the same thing.

Ok, are you ready for the problematic parts?

Let’s start with Native American representation, because it ends up being a pretty big part of this movie. Lynn Collins’ Wikipedia says she claims Cherokee ancestry, so I’ll give the movie credit on that, but as near as I’ve been able to suss out, the myth she tells does not exist outside of this movie. First off, Wolverines do not howl. At all. They’re not wolves, they’re related to weasels. They’re small, vicious bastards. That information was readily available in 2009, by the way. Furthermore, the information I can find says that the moon in Native American mythology is predominantly gendered as male. Now, that’s not a blanket statement. This was the research I was able to conduct, and mythology, as with a lot of oral traditions, are a pretty mutable thing. Given that I was unable to find any mention of this myth that didn’t quote it from the movie, I feel pretty comfortable calling this myth nonsense.

Hey, what’s your tolerance for fatphobia? Because that’s going to impact how you feel about Blob’s character. Look, from his very first appearance he’s been a fat joke. That’s it. He’s a rude fat guy whose mutant power is being fat, hell, part of his power set is described as a “personal gravity field.” So while I can’t blame the movie entirely for this character being problematic, you’ve got to ask why they chose this character as the one that had to stay true to the comic book. He was in poor taste when he was created, when this movie was made, and now. And I absolutely can blame the movie for making him a fat joke.

At least they didn’t go the Ultimate comics route and straight up show him eating another character. Small blessings.

On a more final note, there’s that very strange character choice in the beginning credits. I know that they want to illustrate early that Wolverine doesn’t view violence the same way Sabretooth does, but why would they choose nazis as the villain in that moment? Even if they weren’t the most enjoyably killable villains in history, the last three movies have made the atrocities of the Holocaust a huge emotional linchpin of a major character. So it comes off as a genuine shock that this movie would use, in its introduction, a moment of sympathy for these very same villains. So you needed to show Wolverine with sympathy? Have a bar fight in France after liberating the country. Have them fight in the Korean war. Maybe Wolverine mourns a kid shot on the front lines. There’s a hundred choices that don’t involve Wolverine getting sad over a bunch of nazis.

So, why don’t I think this is the worst X-Men movie? I’m clearly not calling it a forgotten classic, and I’m not recommending you watch it unless you’re a weird completionist blogging about your arrested development on Tumblr. Sure, there’s some forgotten performances in here that deserve some consideration, but the movie is mostly a mess, a result of too many cooks with diverging visions. There’s a good revenge flick here, but it gets buried and muddled by a desire and knowledge that this movie has to simultaneously explain the past that led to the first movie and set up future installments. It tries to do too much and ends up not doing much of anything. I followed up on some of the people involved in this movie. Obviously Ryan Reynolds had the last laugh, but it still took seven years and a leaked teaser. Hugh Jackman learned from the mistakes in this movie and the rest of the Wolverine movies are pretty great. Gavin Hood, who got this job after being nominated for a foreign language Oscar, directed another big-budget flop with Ender’s Game. However, earlier in 2020 he apparently bought a four million dollar house so I don’t feel bad for him. Also, the flop of Ender’s Game could possibly involve Orson Scott Card being a vocal and unapologetic homophobe. Seriously, what is it with beloved fantasy authors and hate towards LGBT groups? You can conceive of wild, uncharted space and magical realms but the idea that two guys love each other is too far out?

Next in the series, from failure comes success, as we meet Xavier and Erik as frenemies and launch a million slash fictions.

[radedneko]

Top Books of 2020

As for everyone, this was a tough year for me, yet I somehow managed to read 237 books from 35 US states and 35 countries, a new record.  Altogether, I racked up over 55,700 pages, which isn’t bad if you consider the absurd amount of time I spent playing Animal Crossing and the fact that I decided to read The Journey to the West, which is denser than it has any right to be.

You’re going to notice a lot of comfort reads on here; I specifically excluded the nonfiction about race, politics, and sexuality I read from this list, because, honestly, you shouldn’t need me to tell you to read How to be an Antiracist and there are much better reading lists for those subjects than I could make.  Instead, you get my top 11 fiction and popular fiction.  My next post will be graphic novels. 

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune: The rest aren’t in ranked order, but this was hands-down my favorite book of the year.  Chances are, I’ve already recommended it to you no matter what you usually read.  It’s a fantasy with major Diana Wynne Jones vibes, the literal antichrist, and a gentle, gay romance thrown in.  Plus, it’s about overthrowing the system with kindness, so I heartily approve.  I cannot emphasize how much you should read this book.  Klune’s YA superhero book, The Extraordinaries, almost made this list as well, but was narrowly beaten out due to the sheer number of good books I read this year.  

The Empress of Salt & Fortune by Nghi Vo: This novella is so beautifully-written, with world-building that left me wanting Discworld levels of books written in it. The storykeeper concept and oral story/secret-telling device had me hooked; I read the entire thing in a sitting, then immediately read it again to soak in the prose. It also got points for having a nonbinary main character without having any plot points specifically being about this fact.  I’m hyped about the sequel.

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall: I’m a sucker for fairy tales, and even more so for original fairy tales, so it should come as no surprise that I put a book chock-full of them on this list.  The characters were all well-fleshed out and so, so diverse, the prose was amazing, and it was an adventure story as much as it was a romance.  I wasn’t surprised when multiple library review magazines put this on their Top of 2020 lists.  It deserves it.

Mudlark: In search of London's past along the River Thames by Lara Maiklam: This book created a new obsession for me--looking at Mudlark Instagrams.  It also made my history-loving self swoon and reminded me just how many hours I spent digging up my yard as a kid to find cracked pottery and animal bones in the refuge piles from whoever lived in the house 100 years ago (thanks, Mom, for letting me dig random 4-foot-deep holes everywhere).  

Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles: Not a whole ton of YA manages to depict the male teenage voice correctly, and even fewer manage to do so while also tackling important issues.  I can hand this to just about any teen boy and be confident that they’ll love it, but also sneakily give them a lesson in consent, toxic masculinity, sexuality, and the intersection of all of these with religion.  Just as importantly, it’s hilarious.  Giles has yet to have written a book I didn’t love, honestly. 

Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold: I know, I know.  A LRRH retelling made this list. Surprise. But, seriously, the combination of biting modern social commentary, the themes of the old oral versions (the wolves are both literal and metaphorical werewolves, the grandmother’s passing her powers onto the granddaughters), and characters I loved made this easily one of my favorites for the year.  Don’t ask me exactly what I loved about this one; it’ll turn into an hours-long rant. 

Slay by Brittney Morris: This is another one I could hand to just about any kid and be confident they’d love it.  It’s got all the marks of a thriller, combined with social commentary, huge character growth, and a family you root for.  It’s also unabashedly geeky.  I just wish AR didn’t make me massively nauseous. 

Stealing Thunder by Alina Boyden: Adult fantasy is typically behind YA in terms of representation and originality, and yes, often quality, so I was surprised when I loved this one.  A main character who seems like a real person, deep worldbuilding, dragons, a romance that didn’t make me want to murder everyone involved and didn’t feel shoehorned, the author did actual research...I can’t wait for the next in the series. 

The Storm of Life by Amy Rose Capetta: This is the second in a duology, so you’d better read The Brilliant Death first, but this was a wholly satisfying sequel and an amazing book in its own right.  The magic system, the characters, the villains, the dialogue--everything was well-done and I was annoyed every time I had to put the book down to go do something as banal as go to work or sleep. 

Weird Women: Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Writers: 1852-1923, edited by Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger:  Was every story in this anthology mind-blowing?  No.  But there was only one I disliked, and this led me to so many writers I otherwise wouldn’t have heard about that it absolutely deserves a spot on this list.  Some of these tales were eerie to the extreme and all could easily be slotted into a literature class.  “In Nut Bush Farm” haunted my dreams for weeks, and I got to read some of the most original werewolf lore I’ve ever come across.  Plus, who doesn’t want to read really creepy ghost stories written by Louisa May Alcott and Frances Hodges Burnett?

Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez: This book is a true under-the-radar gem.  It needs way more recognition than it’s gotten.   Bolivian-inspired fantasy with characters you feel for, whether good or bad, I loved the magic and the thrills.  Weaving moonlight into tapestries as part of a rebellion? Living moonlight? Tested loyalties, spies, and food descriptions that made my mouth water?  There was nothing about this book I didn’t like.  When the sequel comes out, I’m dropping everything else I’m doing to read it.

[in-tua-deep]

My dude, my buddy, my guy, my gal, my pal. Please yeet more of this daemon AU at me, I'm super interested in this whole idea and would love to hear more, how do all of the daemons interact with each other?? What are the little quirks shared between daemon and human?? Did any of them have a phase where they couldn't stand their daemon?? Did Vanya's owl claw out Leonard's eyes when the truth came out?? How exactly would they find out that Five's daemon didn't settle?? I'm living for this AU now

oh i am SO ready for more daemon au are you kidding here we go starting with some NAMES because all good ocs need names and while the first post was mainly for just saying what animal is what now i can develop it into a full au and no one can stop me

So the kids and their daemons share a name for most of their lives, they’re both just,, one or two and so on. But when they get names they run into the roadblock of “do our daemons get the same names as us??” and realize that their one (1) example of a human/daemon relationship is their dad he his daemon doesn’t share his name so… probably not. But he only ordered Grace to give the human in the relationship a name so it’s up to their what their daemons names will be

I’m thinking Luther probably gave his daemon a space themed name because he’s my good space boy so I’m going to name his daemon Andromeda after the galaxy !! I think she would have wanted a somewhat regal sounding name because she tries really hard to model herself after Reggie’s daemon, who is the very definition of regal. Luther calls her Dromeda or Drom for short occasionally

Diego’s daemon HMMM i’m gonna say Valencia, Val for short because that means brave and I think it would be important to Diego to have a defender of some kind and they both would want so desperately to be brave bless their hearts

oh man i am absolutely naming Allison’s daemon Amraphel which means “one that speaks of secrets” and Allison calls him Raph for short and he’s still lazy and I still love him a whole lot

Klaus’s daemon i’m admittedly a bit stuck on but i’m gonna call them Rowan because it’s a tree that symbolizes life and courage and as some very fearful kids with death powers I think they’d appreciate it. Rowan is nonbinary btw (”are you a girl or a boy” “i’m made of fucking dust why does it matter”)

I named Five’s daemon Pancha because I like it and I feel like naming her Quinque, which is Five in Latin, would be way obvious because if you think Reggie didn’t make these kids learn an archaic dead language because he’s a pretentious ass then you’re probably wrong so yes Pancha it is and when the kids figure out it’s literally the number five in another language they’re going to throw a fit

Ben’s daemon is named Tamaya which means in the center literally just because they’re in the middle of two planes of existence and one is full of monsters and also because i like the name Tama as well so this is really two birds with one stone and no one can stop me

and finally Vanya’s daemon is named Pollux for exactly no reason other than because I say so and it sounds like it could be a name for a daemons from the books which i was trying very hard for the aesthetic with all the names but it’s been so long since i’ve read them oops

ALRIGHT with that over with i can actually yell about them which i’m putting under the cut because this is going to be long as FUCK

so how the daemons interact with each other… I’m probably going to leave out Tamaya for most just bc most of them don’t know that she survived Ben’s death for like,, a really long time in the fic i have half planned in my head

SO i already mentioned Andromeda is kind of a stick in the mud and unimpressed with her siblings shenanigans. She tries really hard to emulate their dad/their dad’s daemon but doesn’t have the control on her temper that she should. She’s blunt and says what she’s thinking, she doesn’t really care about the fact that daemons don’t usually speak to people that aren’t their own and she’ll boss everyone around given the chance tbh

She doesn’t get along with Val at all and there’s a lot of posturing between the two especially after they both settle. Generally she’s dismissive but occasionally she taunts Val with the fact that she settled as something that protects against wolves, and that clearly Val is too wild to ever amount to much. Val hits right back calling her and Luther “Dad’s obedient little dogs” and just generally when you have Luther and Diego going at one another Drom and Val are only half a step behind them

She gets along well with Raph and often carries him around when Allison calls him lazy and refuses to do it. Despite that thought Raph is like,, super muscular and strong and he’s a bigass snake, Drom used to carry him into position during missions and let’s just say they were a solid interrogation team with Drom’s teeth and Raph literally squeezing information out of people when necessary (though he can always rumor people just like Allison, he’s not fond of doing it and calls it cheating because he’s a contrary bastard). He tends to help immobilizing people and their daemons and is used as a restraint a lot until their people with thumbs can come along with rope or something

Andromeda and Rowan do NOT get along, mainly because Rowan is pretty vocal about the fact that their dad fucked them up and has no respect. Some of it also comes from the fact that Andromeda is a little jealous of Rowan’s grace as a cat because their dad’s fox daemon is exceptionally graceful and regal. But generally Andromeda ignores Rowan or growls at him, she’s never physically laid a paw on him outside of sparring until that scene with drunk and depressed Luther though

Andromeda,, also doesn’t really get along with Pancha either. It has a lot to do with the fact that as kids Pancha was constantly shifting where Drom would keep a form and stick to it. She would often tell Pancha that one day she’d settle well lmao jokes on her. Pancha used to frequently insults Drom’s intelligence and has called her a “dumb mutt” before but upon return those insults have been conspicuously absent for ALL the siblings. Five still has a fairly venomous tongue, but Pancha keeps her silence.

Andromeda and Pollux don’t have a relationship, simple as that. She ignores Pollux’s existence, even when the other daemon attempts to interact with her. She basically assumes their father is correct in Vanya’s uselessness and as such doesn’t care all that much about either of them. To be fair Pollux has learned from their childhood and doesn’t interact with Andromeda much either, and even when Vanya attempts to like,, call Luther out Pollux keeps his silence.

Val doesn’t like Andromeda and isn’t afraid to show it, bristling and snarling. Val actually settled first of the two of them (a point of pride), and some part of her is a little hurt that Drom turned into a dog that protects a pack from wolves and took it personally as Luther’s literal soul saying that he didn’t see Diego and her as part of the pack. 

Her and Raph don’t really talk a lot but they have a lot of relatable sibling-eye-contact moments over their family being dumb shits and whenever Andromeda wasn’t available it was Val who would carry Raph so they’re actually closer to one another than their people are. Raph firmly refuses to get between any argument of Drom and Val’s and would 100% rumor them apart when they were all kids because Raph was Sick Of Their Shit™ despite his general distaste for rumoring

Val and Rowan get along pretty well actually, Rowan frequently hops up to ride on her back like they’re the captain of a furry wolf shaped ship and Val allows it even though she thinks they’re a little shit. Rowan used to hide behind Val from Reggie and his daemon and Val might still have a lot of protective pack instincts that she showers on them because they allow it. Val may or may not be 90% of the reason that Diego just sighs and lets Klaus tag along whenever, though Diego and Val often disagree on how to handle the Klaus/Rowan situation since Val wants to kidnap them both and keep them safe in their boiler room while Diego is of the firm belief that Klaus is a big boy now and they aren’t responsible for him. 

Val thought Pancha was a mischievous little shit when they were kids as the other daemon would frequently jump wherever she pleased. Val isn’t surprised when Pancha “settles” as a hare since they’re associated with tricksters and are more solitary and independent and tougher than their rabbit counterparts. She’s super worried about Pancha when she arrived back with Five though, since the other daemon is far more withdrawn and look daemons are representations of someone’s soul they can’t lie - Five can put on a tough act all he likes but Pancha’s behavior is pretty clearly off and she looks at all of them like she’s seeing ghosts. Val is the one to carry Pancha back after the shrapnel incident, swearing because she knew she should have been suspicious that Five was carrying Pancha when she’d always hated being carried when they were kids

Val doesn’t particularly care for Pollux and is actually mildly uneasy around him. There’s just something… off about the other daemon. It raises Val’s hackles even if she doesn’t know why, and she doesn’t figure it out until after the fact that the reason she was wary of Pollux is literally because on some level she recognized the chains on him via the medication and was repulsed even though it wasn’t Pollux’s fault. She’s trying to be better after the fact with him.

I’m making myself so sad about Pollux right now tbh he deserves so much better than what he’s got but moving on

Raph is honestly the chillest daemon with everyone else’s daemon. No one has beef with Raph. Like, they might have beef with Allison, but not with Raph which might be why Allison and Raph are probably the least in sync out of the siblings with their daemon actually outside of Vanya. Raph loves Andromeda who carries him places and doesn’t mind him winding up on her because she’s warm. 

Raph considers Val to be his bitchface pal and they bond over their people being stupid. Honestly Raph just wants to sleep for the most part. But legit though Allison and Raph need an intervention for them never being on the same page I think Raph might resent Allison leaving to become a star and he’s the one that dislikes using their power and constantly advised against using it so he might, on some level, blame Allison for them losing Claire (and Allison wonders if the stereotype against snake daemons played a role and sort of blames him) and honestly their relationship is a fucking mess

Raph and Rowan are chill, they’re bros, they know what they’re about. Raph thinks Rowan’s sense of humor is fucking hilarious and they’re both sleepy bitches (Rowan is a cat they knows what they’re about regarding catnaps) so they napped together a lot when everyone was under the same roof. They’re at an unspoken truce regarding the drug issue because unlike the rest of the family Raph actually listens when Rowan explains about their power being the fucking worst and having to numb it down after Raph offers to rumor them to get clean. But yeah like Allison and Klaus don’t hang out much but Raph and Rowan are bros.

I said Raph gets along with p much everyone but he’s not super close with Pancha simply because she was constantly on the move and shifting every other minute as kids back when everyone was unsettled like she was constantly itching to get out of her own skin. Like, Pancha’s thing is moving and being quick and honestly Raph is a little surprised she didn’t settle as a bird daemon the way she flits about. Raph being lazy, they didn’t see much of one another but he was always up for a conversation when Pancha calmed down enough or exhausted herself. He likes her, he just thinks she’s exhausting. He’s much more concerned for her after she gets back from the apocalypse though.

Raph and Pollux kind of,, also don’t have a big relationship tbh. There’s just something about Pollux that makes Raph uneasy, but he’s a chill dude and is probably one of the closest to Pollux after Pancha. Sometimes when Raph would be going slithering through the house, Pollux would sit upon his back and chill as they both went to whatever destination. Raph does think it’s a little weird that Pollux doesn’t fly considering he’s, you know, a bird, but he doesn’t press the issue (which he regrets, later). But overall he’s not nearly as interested in mending bridges with Vanya as Allison is since there’s still that something that prevents him from fully liking Pollux. But as the plot progresses he warms up to the idea more and more without realizing that the reason he’s warming is because they stopped taking the drugs hmm

Rowan doesn’t get along with Andromeda but they’re pretty chill with everyone else’s daemons. They get surprisingly protective of their siblings and even though Klaus isn’t great in a fight pre-Vietnam, Rowan isn’t afraid to flash their claws when necessary. The biggest reason they got kidnapped is because Hazel’s daemon didn’t come to the firefight in the manor and they weren’t willing to break the taboo on touching a human when it seemed like the primary objective was to take Klaus not to kill him. They ended up regretting it for the torture scene though oof.

Rowan loves Val a whole lot and likes trying to groom her and they 100% climb up on Val’s back when they feel like being lazy. Rowan is a self proclaimed dog person though they often say that there are always exceptions and eye Andromeda but this comes up again with Dave and his australian cattle dog daemon where, when they meet, Rowan blurts out that they’re a dog person and Dave’s daemon snorts in laughter considering that Klaus’s daemon is literally a cat. He is the personification of ‘cat person’ his soul is a cAT.

I already yelled about Rowan and Raph being nap buds, they like Raph because he’s never judged them and just accepts that they know their powers well enough to know what does and doesn’t work

Rowan and Pancha actually get along weirdly well?? Like, Rowan can be off the walls crazy at times as you know cats get that simply zest for life and just go fucking nuts for a while before going back to sleep?? so Rowan is actually one of the few of the siblings daemons who could keep up with her when they were kids and Pancha was the last of them unsettled. There was a minor freak out where they didn’t see Pancha at first when Five popped out of the portal which prompted the whole “does anyone else see little number five” comment bc ghosts don’t have daemons but then Pancha popped up and Rowan was so fuCKING RELIEVED and continuously prodded at Klaus to follow either Diego or Five because they want to hang out with Val and Pancha

The only one of the siblings daemons who knows that Tamaya is still alive. She doesn’t speak almost at all, only rarely talking to Klaus but she talks a little more to Rowan. Tamaya is usually curled up in Klaus’s pockets or general clothing but there have been a few occasions where she rides on Rowan’s shoulders or goes off on her own for a little while (those are the occasions where Ben’s ghost also goes off for a little while, neither Klaus nor Rowan question where they go). Tamaya also occasions hides in Klaus’s room instead of accompanying them places. During the kidnapping she nibbles through Klaus’s restraints and allows him to escape a little more easily since no one expects an unaccompanied daemon, haven’t decided yet how this impacts the whole Patch dying situation

Rowan doesn’t really talk to Pollux and Pollux doesn’t talk to them, though Rowan does care about Pollux. Rowan is the most easygoing with Pollux because honestly being high means that they don’t notice Pollux’s strangeness on the same level as the others and will often direct comments towards the owl daemon. Pollux rarely responds, however.

Pancha time!! I love Pancha she’s a ball of nervous energy and can’t sit still half the time. As a kid she was constantly shifting between animals like she would run across a room and be five different animals in the time it took her to get to the other end, just always restless. She and Five kept each other sane in the apocalypse - I haven’t decided whether Dolores exists in this au and if she does would she get a stuffed animal daemon?? Decisions decisions. She’s changed a LOT from the Pancha that the others remember and is noticeably a lot more quiet and standoffish, but also she fades into the background where as a kid she was constantly bursting to the foreground and demanding attention. She looks at them all like they’re ghosts and will flinch when addressed sometimes even by other daemons. The others can sense there’s something just a little bit off about her but attribute that to the trauma (eventually though it comes out that Pancha is still unsettled and that explains it)

Pancha never got along with Andromeda and they butted heads a lot before Pancha left. Pancha’s a smartass daemon alongside her person so would frequently insult Andromeda’s intelligence or go off plan because she thought of something better and would frequently yell for Andromeda to ‘adapt!’ because that was her biggest criticism. Her fluidly changing from one form to another depending on the situation was her calling card for adapting and Andromeda would always growl that one day Pancha would have to settle and Pancha would shrug it off. As adults they still don’t really see eye to eye though Pancha has noticeably softened towards Andromeda. She doesn’t call the other daemon a dumb mutt anymore and in fact doesn’t insult any of the others at all.

Pancha liked irritating Val when they were kids but still got along reasonably well with her. Now that they’re back, Val is noticeably more protective of her family and Pancha is included with that. There are a couple of moments where Val bores holes into Pancha’s head to try and telepathically ask if the hare is okay that Pancha doesn’t respond to. When Five and Pancha are drunk off their asses, Val is the one who carries Pancha even though Luther is carrying Five. She insisted. She also carried Pancha home after the shrapnel injury and curled around her on the bed absolutely FURIOUS that someone dared to hurt her sibling. Pancha says some things while drunk that break Val’s heart, and Pancha never protests the coddling unlike Five. She doesn’t lean into it, but she doesn’t protest it.

Pancha and Raph aren’t close but Pancha likes the other daemon regardless because he never did pry into her business and showed her how to do cool tricks as a snake after he settled and she didn’t. Raph never made comments about her being the last to settle unlike most of the others (even though Ben and Vanya only ever mentioned it kindly).

Pancha and Rowan are bros though Pancha disapproves of Rowan drugging themself to keep the powers at bay and always expresses that they have faith that Rowan will learn to control them one day. Honestly Rowan finds it kind of nice even if Pancha disapproves because at least she disapproves because she 100% believes in them instead of being disapproving for disapproval’s sake. Pancha expresses that even drugged Rowan is one of the most observant of their siblings. Rowan worries about her after she comes back and keeps trying to convince Klaus to go after Five, but Five has a very venomous tongue and Klaus is delicate no matter how much Rowan figures it’s just a defense mechanism since Pancha doesn’t echo the sentiments. Rowan is worried about Five as well. Rowan is just worried :(

Pancha is the only one in the family who loves Pollux and actively seeks the other daemon out. She knows something isn’t right, but instead of being repulsed finds herself delighted at the mystery and assumes that the ‘wrongness’ is why Pollux doesn’t fly. Before Pancha jumped to the apocalypse, she kept trying to teach Pollux how to fly by shifting into various birds but it never did stick.

Yeah though Pollux is a daemon that really unnerves other daemons because they can tell something is terribly wrong even if they can’t quite put their finger on what. Pollux and Vanya don’t really communicate either and get second place in the “our human/daemon relationship is super messed up” after Allison and Raph. 

Pollux doesn’t really speak. To anyone. Especially after Five and Pancha vanish. He’s just,, not really all the way there to be honest. He goes where Vanya does but does precious little, often standing as still as a statue on his perch until moved again. Sometimes he’ll interact with other daemons but not usually by speaking - he’s sat on Raph’s back or tugged at Andromeda’s fur to get her attention or silently stood in someone’s way but seriously for the most part he’s somewhat catatonic. 

After they go off the meds he starts perking up again and speaks for the first time in years to Leonard/Harold and his skua daemon. He actually does have a personality, but he’s been suppressed for so long that he’s still figuring himself out alongside Vanya tbh 

As the White Violin his colors switch and instead of being brown with white spots as a spotted owl he becomes white with brown spots. He also is constantly flying while they’re using their powers, flapping and keeping himself aloft roughly above Vanya’s head, half suspended by their own power. As they figure out control, they eventually realize that it’s Pollux who can direct their sound based attacks with his wings and if Vanya tries to go alone it’s uncontrolled like the attack on the trucker dudes without the focus of her violin. They have to work together to control Vanya’s powers, and it’s difficult because they genuinely don’t really have much of a relationship or know each other very well since they’ve been sedated since Vanya was like, four years old

this post is already so so long so i’ll cut it off here probably but yeAH there’s probably a scene where Pollux attacks Leonard/Harold’s daemon and claws her eye out and there’s a translated wound on Leonard because that’s how daemons work and then they both get fucked up by Vanya and Pollux’s powers/knife storm thing

(Pollux isn’t as angry as Vanya is, truthfully. He’s just… tired. He’s so tired. Vanya wants to end the world in her fury. Pollux wants to end it just so everything… stops.)

but yes please keep asking me questions about this au i’m living for it i love these dumb idiots and their daemons

(still need to come up names for the background character daemons, there’s a part of my mind whispering don’t you fucking dare name reginald’s daemon regina soul i swear to fuck so that’s a thing - i’ll also take suggestions for background character daemon names as well!! it was hard enough coming up with these losers)

[padawan-historian]

The Female Game: An Analysis of the Stormborn Dragon

SPOILER warning for Season 8, Episode 1-3 and more of a SPOILER WATCH for Season 8, Episode 4 (no plot related details, but . . . a teaspoon of character and tone vibes from the episode).

Now I know we are still wrapping our heads around what we witnessed last night on Game of Thrones. But there was one discussion that caught my attention – Daenerys character development (or lack thereof) and how women are represented on the show:  

i hate that ambition in women is always used as a bad trait.

All her hard work and talk of breaking the wheel for nothing. All this talk of her being different and just and “see you for who you are” for absolutely nothing.

They should rename season 8 to “the tale of how we trashed a character’s development, made her an army of haters, just so we could make Jon Snow a hero: A study on Daenerys Targaryen.”

they really are setting up “Mad Queen” Dany and I’ll be honest, I don’t blame her at this point.

If a man acted that way it would be perfectly fine.

every single woman on game of thrones deserves better.

Ever since Game of Thrones graced the stage seven years ago, a number of fans, critics and activists have voiced concerns about the way the show portrays violence (especially sexual violence) towards female characters. However, those concerns have slowly evolved into larger conversations about the way these heroines are portrayed in comparison to power. Westeros – and most of the known world in the show – are under a patriarchal system. Men have inheritance rights, new wives join their husbands’ families and male children are given precedent over their older sisters and female relations in the line of succession (they call this primogeniture). Attempts at female rule are rare and even more rarely achieved without a healthy dose of fire and blood (search The Princess and the Queen on YouTube for more context and a juicy history lesson!).

Suspicion and hesitancy towards female rule is common in our real world (i.e. 2016 election) and is, unfortunately, not a new phenomenon. Prominent theologian, wrote in his 1558 piece, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women, that, “To promote a woman to beare rule, superioritie, dominion or empire aboue any realme, nation, or citie, is repugnant to nature, contumelie to God, a thing most contrarious to his reueled will and approued ordinance, and finallie it is the subuersion of good order, of all equitie and iustice”(Knox).  Across Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism there exist exclusionary mindsets in regards to women in power dating back to antiquity. However, there are also examples of women overcoming the restrictions and barriers of their societies, such as the prominence and elevation of women within certain patriarchal systems (including Egypt, the Tang Dynasty of China, the Mongolian Empire and beyond) . Even today, within many Native American and West African communities, femaleness is connected to spiritualism – unseen forces are often defined as female, such as goddesses and masked spirits, and are often interpreted by priestesses, prophetesses, healers, fortune tellers, and female shamans. However, the dominant culture that defines our 21st century world is, largely, patriarchal and continues to prosper through the oppression of women – and, to an extent, men. 

Power is power – and there is power in subjugation.

(Sidney Note: The glass ceiling metaphor should be viewed with some context – as should my statement above ^^ While times have changed and we now have female executives, college presidents, directors, governors, ambassadors and presidential candidates there are still inequities that exist. The metaphor implies that women and men have equal access to entry- and mid-level positions (Eagly and Carli). They do not. Rather than a ceiling to break through, women often have to struggle through a labyrinth, a maze filled with dead ends, false leads and towering walls. The labyrinth is even more suffocating for minority and marginalized women.

But back to the Game of Thrones universe . . . While most of the main characters have divided the fan base at some point in time (remember how we used to hate Cersei and then we felt bad and now . . . we kind of hate her again?) the discourse around Daenerys has been relatively consistent. While some see the Dragon Queen as an entitled, power-hungry tyrant slowly turning into the Mad Queen, others view her in a more sympathetic light. Daenerys – like many women – exist within a labyrinth. At the end is the Iron Throne. But the roads, for much of her life, were determined for her. Her (thankfully) deceased brother Viserys sold her in exchange for military support. Even after his golden death, Dany was still trapped in the maze, struggling to navigate the seemingly endless corridors. She has been raped, abandoned, deceived and . . . perhaps, most damning of all, she has been wrong.

Dany has made some questionable choices throughout her reign and while this is nothing new when it comes to GOT characters, what is new is that she is in a position of considerable power. Besides Cersei and, at one time, Grandma Olenna, Daenerys is one of the most powerful women in the series. Her dragons carry the weight of nuclear weapons and, after taking several fiery walks, hatching (or incubating) three ancient creatures an liberating a city from the chains of slavery . . . well, you can see why she thinks her destiny is to sit upon the Iron Throne.

Recently, the discourse about the portrayal of women in cinema has lit a fuse within the feminist movement. While I will say that some people tend to over analyze the actions of every character - relating them back to contemporary issues, it’s no state secret that female characters are often held to a very unhealthy set of standards:

Be strong, but not emasculating.

Be desirable, but not whorish.

Be charming, but not condescending.

Be ambitious, but not too ambitious.

The criticism about her representation in the show I think comes from a place of genuine concern. These fans want her to succeed because, seven hells, this woman has been through A LOT. And while there is a dose of sexism in the discourse, I do think that some of the backlash towards the show and creative team is unwarranted.

Daenerys Stormborn is NOT the protagonist in the traditional sense. She is a principle character who is heavily featured in both the books and Martin’s 5 novels. If you look at the charts below, people (who are more tech savvy than me) created comparison charts to help determine principle characters:

You may not like that Jon is painted as the hero or that Tyrion is featured prominently, but EVERY character has faced failures and loss in this series.

The freedom to lead is not freedom from failure.

No character is entirely good or entirely bad – Dany included. From white savior to female icon, Daenerys has been a polarizing character since season 1. She has made choices that, even when justifiable, were not . . . the most diplomatic solutions. She has a temper. She can be impulsive. But she is also affectionate with her friends. She is nurturing towards her dragons (in the books, her ancestors used whips to direct their dragons). She is also a queen . . . living in a patriarchal system that Aegon Targaryen established almost 300 years prior. She is single handedly trying to undo 300 years of patriarchal feudalism. That’s a pretty ambitious goal!

While Westerosi politics are similar to our own, they do not have cemented democratic institutions. The Night’s Watch is probably the closest example we have of a meritocracy (rule by merit or ability). The majority of the kingdom falls under the rule of one monarch who distributes semiautonomous authority through bonds of vassalage.

Change requires sacrifice . . . and compromise.

When was the last time you saw a high fantasy where, at one point, there were 5 women in positions of power? The closest moment in European history where that was a thing was when Catherine the Great of Russia, Madame de Pompadour, the Mistress of the King of France, and Empress Maria Theresa of the Holy Roman Empire combined their forces to fight against Fredrick II of Prussia during the 7 Years War (Fred was kinda a misogynist and coined the phrase The League of the Three Petticoats to describe the three women). Even in early English history, women who fought for power, like Isabella of France and Margaret of Anjou, were dubbed as she-wolves or reckless, power-hungry queens. Hmmm . . . sound familiar?

Now Dany does have a temper. But so did Robert Baratheon. She can be impulsive. She has a sense of entitlement, as do most monarchs and presidents. She is compassionate, loyal to her friends and nurturing towards her dragons (in the books, her ancestors used whips to direct their dragons). She likes to be in control, but she is also willing to listen to others. But she does get angry and she does have insecurities. She is also a human and – like most humans – she is a bundle of idiosyncrasies, conflicting ideas, blinding anxieties and soaring dreams.

Are there problems with the series? Yes.

Have female (and male) characters been portrayed in ways that are questionable? Yeah.

Would a more socially conscious director craft a different narrative or create a more dynamic story? Maybe.

Are you still gonna watch the next episode this Sunday? Most likely.

If you look for flaws, you will find flaws – because, this story was not created by you. So write your own story, whip up a fanfic or make a headcannon!

And besides, there are plenty of real world issues surrounding women that you can (and should) put your energy towards.

[jedimaesteryoda]

Septon Meribald: Septon to the Poor

Septon Meribald is a character who we see for a short while through Brienne’s POV in A Feast for Crows, and manages to become a popular minor character in both the book and series. Alongside Arya’s journey through the riverlands from ACOK to ASOS, Brienne’s journey highlights the effects of war on the civilian population, and Meribald serves as an important voice for the smallfolk during this arc. Meribald as per Martin’s characterization, wouldn’t be out of place in any medieval fantasy when you first meet him, but is also a three-dimensional character with a past that would make him out of place in that same setting. He is best remembered for his “Broken Men” speech in the chapter we meet him. The speech is eloquent in how it captures some of the grim realities of war, and contains some of Martin’s best prose. However, while I will analyze his speech, I think he deserves a more thorough examination and analysis based on more than just one speech.

Introduction:

"There's a man," Ser Hyle said. "A septon. He came in through my gate the day before you turned up. Meribald, his name is. River-born and river-bred and he's served here all his life. He's departing on the morrow to make his circuit, and he always calls at Saltpans. We should go with him."

- AFFC Brienne V

The donkey carried such a heavy load that Brienne was half afraid its back would break. "Food for the poor and hungry of the riverlands," Septon Meribald told them at the gates of Maidenpool. "Seeds and nuts and dried fruit, oaten porridge, flour, barley bread, three wheels of yellow cheese from the inn by the Fool's Gate, salt cod for me, salt mutton for Dog . . . oh, and salt. Onions, carrots, turnips, two sacks of beans, four of barley, and nine of oranges.”

- AFFC Brienne V

Meribald is introduced as a traveling septon who works and lived in the riverlands his whole life.

Circuit riders, as they were called, were a not uncommon feature in the early United States, especially west of the Appalachians as many settlers pushed westward. With an increase in the US population and many people living in rural areas, the Methodist church had to deal with too few ministers to staff parishes in these small, rural and some of them, new communities. They also had to deal with the fact that permanent, full-time ministers weren’t economical and have enough “work” in a community with a very small congregation. The US Methodist Church dealt with this issue by assigning ministers multiple officiates in an area that formed a “circuit” as the minister was to travel to and attend each parish on a regular basis.

Meribald is a septon in this vein who makes his regular circuit providing religious services to the villages that are too small and poor to have a septry as well as distributing food to the poor. He provides both material and spiritual sustenance to the smallfolk throughout the riverlands.

“The septon could neither read nor write, as he cheerfully confessed along the road, but he knew a hundred different prayers and could recite long passages from The Seven-Pointed Star from memory, which was all that was required in the villages. He had a seamed, windburnt face, a shock of thick grey hair, wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. Though a big man, six feet tall, he had a way of hunching forward as he walked that made him seem much shorter. His hands were large and leathery, with red knuckles and dirt beneath the nails, and he had the biggest feet that Brienne had ever seen, bare and black and hard as horn.”

- AFFC Brienne V

“I have a weakness for the orange, I confess. I got these from a sailor, and I fear they will be the last I'll taste till spring."

- AFFC Brienne V

His unkempt appearance of a windburnt face, leathery hands, dirt-filled nails, and black, hard feet give the picture of a man who has lived a hard life without much of anything in the way of luxury, and if anything, avoids it. He is a down-to-earth man whose only luxury he’ll let himself have is oranges, and he gives most of those away. His feet show that he doesn’t own any shoes, something even most smallfolk wear, and he goes barefoot with a simple wooden staff like the popular Saint Francis of Assisi (more on him later). The dirt in his nails show he doesn’t seem to adhere to the maxim of cleanliness being close to godliness, and with his bare feet, give him a kind of earthiness, being close to the land and its people. Septon Meribald is described as tall, but his posture makes him appear smaller, a physical representation of Meribald’s humble attitude with the way he lowers himself towards the people he interacts with. Generally, they are the smallfolk where a septon like himself would normally enjoy a marginal higher status, and one can see the gentleness he shows towards them. He confesses “cheerfully” his illiteracy, which resulted from a lack of formal education that is usually provided by maesters to the upper classes in castles and the Citadel. That is part of his veneration of simplicity rather than anti-intellectualism with all the passages and prayers he knows he learned by rote like Brutha from Practchett’s Small Gods. His unkempt appearance and illiteracy also give the misleading impression of a man who seems simple, but actually possesses a profound intelligence.

Septon Meribald walking beside them with his quarterstaff, leading a small donkey and a large dog

- AFFC Brienne V

Septon Meribald is always accompanied by two animal companions: a donkey and a dog. The donkey is an animal that features prominently in the Gospels. It was used to carry the pregnant Virgin Mary to the inn where she gives birth to Jesus, and later was used as a mount for Jesus upon entering Jerusalem. Donkeys were (and still are) used as beasts of burden meant for carrying loads on their backs and pulling carts and plows. They also were occasionally used as mounts by those who were too poor to afford horses. They were and still are considered to be the cheapest form of agricultural power after human power. That is opposed to the more expensive stallions, especially coursers and destriers, that are often used for cavalry or war chariots. That Meribald would use a donkey as opposed to a stallion fits perfectly with his veneration of poverty and simplicity as well as his anti-war views which we’ll get into later.

"It must make for a lonely life, septon."

"The Seven are always with me," said Meribald, "and I have my faithful servant, and Dog."

"Does your dog have a name?" asked Podrick Payne.

"He must," said Meribald, "but he is not my dog. Not him."

The dog barked and wagged his tail. He was a huge, shaggy creature, ten stone of dog at least, but friendly.

"Who does he belong to?" asked Podrick.

"Why, to himself, and to the Seven. As to his name, he has not told me what it is. I call him Dog."

- AFFC Brienne V

"Dog keeps me safe upon the roads, even in such trying times as these. Neither wolf nor outlaw dare molest me when Dog is at my side."

- AFFC Brienne V

Meribald is also accompanied by his Canine Companion, a large sheepdog he simply calls “Dog.” Dog isn’t used for hunting, a common leisure activity for aristocrats as well as one of survival for smallfolk, nor is he a regular pet. He appears to just be Meribald’s traveling companion as well as protector. He is described as a big dog that is capable of killing wolves, but is nonetheless friendly. The Starks and their direwolves will make you forget that wolves have a history of usually being portrayed in literature, especially religious texts, as evil with the shepherd protecting his flock from wolves is a common trope in Christianity. Dog fulfills the function of a sheepdog for Meribald, protecting him from wolves and outlaws, and his presence helps to emphasize Meribald acting as a shepherd to the smallfolk wherever he goes. Meribald’s treatment of Dog is unusual compared to other dog owners in both Westeros and real life. He doesn’t do something so simple as name the dog, because the way he sees it, he doesn’t own Dog, and thus, has no right to impose a name on him. Meribald treats Dog, not as a pet, but as belonging “to himself, and to the Seven,” an autonomous creature entitled to the dignity and respect of a living being. People demonstrating their humanity or lack thereof through their treatment of animals and relationship with nature is a trope used throughout fiction. Fantasy is no exception with Tolkien portraying the good races, like elves, as in harmony with nature while portraying the bad races, like orcs, as at odds with nature, exemplified by the eagles and trees (Ents) aiding the good races against the bad. Francis of Assisi even remarked on the connection between man’s relationship with animals and that with his fellow man: "If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men." He wasn’t the only one to observe that. Philosopher Immanuel Kant stated “He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” Meribald’s treatment of Dog makes him stand out in his treatment of all life as deserving of kindness and compassion, including those valued the least by society: the poor and animals.

"The brothers will ferry us over on the morning tide, though I fear what we shall find there. Let us enjoy a good hot meal before we face that. The brothers always have a bone to spare for Dog." Dog barked and wagged his tail.

- AFFC Brienne VI

"And your tides," suggested Meribald. Dog barked agreement.

- AFFC Brienne VI

"I shall make time," said Meribald, "though I hope you have some better sins than the last time I came through." Dog barked. "You see? Even Dog was bored."

- AFFC Brienne VI

"Gladly," said Meribald. Dog barked.

- AFFC Brienne VI

"It is being common-born that is dangerous, when the great lords play their game of thrones," said Septon Meribald. "Isn't that so, Dog?" Dog barked agreement.

- AFFC Brienne VII

"We'll have silver. Else you can sleep in the woods with the dead men." Willow glanced toward the donkey, and the casks and bundles on his back. "Is that food? Where did you get it?"

"Maidenpool," said Meribald. Dog barked.

- AFFC Brienne VII

It helps that the author manages to give Dog an almost human-like quality. There are plenty of scenes where Dog barks right after Meribald says something as if Dog understands what he is saying and expresses agreement with him, and even Meribald acts as if Dog actually does. It manages to emphasize the bond between the two as fellow companions with Dog providing protection and Meribald providing food.

Backstory

Now, we go into Meribald’s personal backstory. We learn from the start that he is a lowborn riverman, the son of a peasant. We learn about his life before becoming a septon, and what likely led him to become one. We’ll start with the earliest, his part of the past he mentions right after he delivers his “Broken Men” speech that explains a large part of his character.

The quiet stretched and stretched, until finally she said, "How old were you when they marched you off to war?"

"Why, no older than your boy," Meribald replied. "Too young for such, in truth, but my brothers were all going, and I would not be left behind. Willam said I could be his squire, though Will was no knight, only a potboy armed with a kitchen knife he'd stolen from the inn. He died upon the Stepstones, and never struck a blow. It was fever did for him, and for my brother Robin. Owen died from a mace that split his head apart, and his friend Jon Pox was hanged for rape."

"The War of the Ninepenny Kings?" asked Hyle Hunt.

"So they called it, though I never saw a king, nor earned a penny. It was a war, though. That it was."

- AFFC Brienne V

Meribald is a veteran of the War of the Ninepenny Kings, and he fought when he was just a boy aged no older than thirteen. It puts his comments to Podrick Payne: "I have never known a boy who did not love the Warrior” in another light. Meribald was probably no exception to the rule. He had his head filled with the songs praising war when he first enlisted to avoid feeling left out, and thought it would be a glorious adventure the way Quentyn Martell did of his journey to Daenerys. This romantic notion is further emphasized by his older brother William saying Meribald could be his squire as if he were a knight, which the protagonist in these kinds of songs usually is. And as is the case in the series, these romantic notions crashed into brutal reality as Meribald lost his three brothers along with a family friend. It is no secret that war can be a traumatizing experience with many veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I once studied alongside a veteran of US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in college who was around my current age. He confessed to suffering from PTSD to the point that when he sat down for lectures he always sat at the end of the seat rows so no one could sneak up on him. Of course, while he was an adult when he fought, Meribald was still a child, even by Westerosi standards. His knowledge of broken men is so detailed, because he was one. His words at the end of the chapter show that the trauma from that experience still haunts him to the present-day. After the war, Meribald couldn’t adjust to life like it was before, and that experience is ultimately what led him to decide to become a septon.

"Going barefoot was my penance. Even holy septons can be sinners, and my flesh was weak as weak could be. I was young and full of sap, and the girls . . . a septon can seem as gallant as a prince if he is the only man you know who has ever been more than a mile from your village. I would recite to them from The Seven-Pointed Star. The Maiden's Book worked best. Oh, I was a wicked man, before I threw away my shoes. It shames me to think of all the maidens I deflowered."

- AFFC Brienne V

We learn that for all his saintly qualities, Meribald is still human. He ashamedly admits that in violation of his vows of celibacy, he abused his position as a septon by going to isolated villages seducing inexperienced, young women while preaching. His war experience likely plays into that early part of his career. People have different ways of dealing with pain as Robert did with womanizing and drinking, and the trauma from the War of the Ninepenny Kings likely played a role in Meribald’s womanizing. His biography doesn’t exactly make him a complete saint, although to be fair, the Church is filled with saints with worse records than Meribald’s. Famed theologian St. Augustine of Hippo had a history of frequenting prostitutes and womanizing including impregnating the daughter of the wealthy Roman family he served. St. Moses the Black was a former highwayman who robbed and likely murdered a number of people. St.Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, was a military man with a history of gambling, womanizing/whoring, and brawling and dueling, especially since he was sensitive to insults. It does make one wonder what standards are used for picking saints.

The reason he doesn’t wear shoes is because he went barefoot as penance for his womanizing ways. The act itself of throwing away his shoes basically symbolized a turning point for him in terms of personal development by turning back on his old ways akin to Jean Valjean of Les Miserables deciding to turn a new leaf after his remorse over stealing from Petit Gervais. Meribald’s backstory shows him to be, not a born saint, but a flawed human being who had to undergo some personal growth to become the man he is today.

Faith and Philosophy

He led his donkey down the slope, beckoning them to follow. "If you would sleep beneath a roof tonight, you must climb off your horses and cross the mud with me. The path of faith, we call it. Only the faithful may cross safely. The wicked are swallowed by the quicksands, or drowned when the tide comes rushing in. None of you are wicked, I hope? Even so, I would be careful where I set my feet. Walk only where I walk, and you shall reach the other side."

The path of faith was a crooked one, Brienne could not help but note. Though the island seemed to rise to the northeast of where they left the shore, Septon Meribald did not make directly for it . . . His footprints filled up with water as soon as he moved on. By the time the ground grew firmer and began to rise beneath the feet, they had walked at least a mile and a half.

- AFFC Brienne VI

Essentially in this scene, with his staff, he is Moses leading his followers through the Red Sea to a literal land of milk and honey: the Quiet Isle. His footprints filling with water is could also be referencing Jesus walking on water. I think this passage can itself be an allegory for the path to spirituality/enlightenment with a priest leading his followers through treacherous terrain to safe haven. As Meribald probably sees it, it isn’t a direct, straight path, but a longer, crooked path as Brienne notes. In Herman Hesse’s most famous novel, Siddhartha, the titular character starts out as a Brahmin’s son wanting to achieve enlightenment, becomes an ascetic, and then becomes a merchant gambling, making love to a courtesan and living a hedonistic lifestyle. He later finds himself having sunk so low he goes to the river to commit suicide, only to reconsider at the last minute. He finds a teacher in the ferryman, and by “listening” to the river, finally achieves the enlightenment in his older years that he started out seeking as a teen. Meribald’s own path to spirituality was similar: a peasant’s son from the riverlands who became a soldier, and later as a result of that, became a broken man and a septon who slept around in spite of his vows of celibacy until he reformed into the man we meet in A Feast for Crows. Given his own story, he knows that people can change, and there can be bumps and turns along the road to faith and personal development.

History shows that everyone approaches faith differently. Interpretation of Scripture can largely depend on the interpreter. As Reza Aslan pointed out, up to the Civil War, people on both sides of the debate over slavery used the Bible to support their arguments, including drawing from the same passages. It can go both ways; people will draw values from Scripture and at the same time, people will often insert their own values into Scripture. To give an example, Meribald is like the last High Septon AKA the High Sparrow in being a barefoot, traveling septon from the riverlands with sympathies towards the smallfolk, but his approach and practices separate him from the more zealous, power hungry High Septon, especially in their attitudes towards armed conflict given Meribald’s experience as a soldier. There are also people who use faith for their own self-aggrandizement from bishops and popes of medieval times all the way to televangelists and megachurch pastors of modern-day.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s magnum opus, Canterbury Tales, alongside some bawdy tales, there was some commentary on the Roman Catholic Church in the subtext. In the first group of pilgrims being made up of aristocrats, one sees the problems of corruption within the Church represented by the Monk who liked to ride, hunt and wear expensive clothes in violation of his vows of poverty, and the corrupt Friar who took bribes for offering absolution, preferred associating with the wealthy over the poor and slept around in violation of his vows of celibacy. Martin is similar with his treatment of the Catholic Church analogue in his series with the Faith of the Seven, and the corruption within the institution is plain to see. The High Septons and Most Devout wear cloth-of-gold and cloth-of-silver along with the High Septon wearing a crown made of crystal and spun gold. The first High Septon we see is given to the vice of gluttony as demonstrated by his obesity when the rest of King’s Landing was starving in A Clash of Kings to the point that Moon Boy jokes about it. Among the Most Devout, Septons Raynard and Ollidor visit brothels in King’s Landing, and Septon Luceon (Frey) served Arbor gold and suckling pig to thirty of the Most Devout in an effort to buy their votes for his campaign to be the next High Septon. The process seen for selecting the next High Septon among the Most Devout mimics actual history when the college of cardinals would elect a new pope with many bribes and deal making behind the scenes to win, or rather buy, cardinals’ votes for the preferred candidates. A number of the Most Devout and the High Septon (the fat one) would fit right in with the Monk and the Friar’s group. However, in one of the last groups consisting of the very poor, one finds the Parson.

But rather would he give, in case of doubt,

Unto those poor parishioners about,

Part of his income, even of his goods.

Enough with little, coloured all his moods.

Wide was his parish, houses far asunder,

But never did he fail, for rain or thunder,

In sickness, or in sin, or any state,

To visit to the farthest, small and great,

Going afoot, and in his hand, a stave.

This fine example to his flock he gave,

That first he wrought and afterwards he taught;

Out of the gospel then that text he caught,

And this figure he added thereunto-

That, if gold rust, what shall poor iron do?

For if the priest be foul, in whom we trust,

What wonder if a layman yield to lust?

And shame it is, if priest take thought for keep,

A shitty shepherd, shepherding clean sheep.

Well ought a priest example good to give,

By his own cleanness, how his flock should live.

. . .

He had no thirst for pomp or reverence,

Nor made himself a special, spiced conscience,

But Christ's own lore, and His apostles' twelve

He taught, but first he followed it himselve.

-Canterbury Tales: General Prologue (Translated for modern audiences)

I glimpse the castles of the great lords only at a distance, but I know the market towns and holdfasts, the villages too small to have a name, the hedges and the hills, the rills where a thirsty man can drink and the caves where he can shelter. And the roads the smallfolk use, the crooked muddy tracks that do not appear on parchment maps, I know them too.

- AFFC Brienne V

While acknowledging the pervasive corruption within the Church, Chaucer wasn’t wholly cynical towards the Church and Christianity. He uses the Parson as an exemplary character, and puts him in the group where Chaucer made each person, although very poor, represent all the Christian virtues. The Parson is a model cleric who lives a simple life of poverty, travels far to reach his parishioners, and shares his income and goods with the poorest of them. The Parson practices what he preaches, setting an example for his parishioners, and serves as a representation of the ideals of Christianity. The clergy closer to the aristocrats tend to be corrupt while the ones closer to the poor tend to be virtuous. Meribald would fit right in with the Parson’s group. His speaking of being far from castles, but visiting the towns, holdfasts and villages demonstrate his association with the smallfolk and poorer members of society while foregoing association with the aristocrats. While he is not opposed to aristocrats as shown by his treatment of Brienne, Hyle and Pod, he prefers to be with smallfolk. His parish is effectively the riverlands within his circuit; he always travels far to attend to people, and gives his food to the poorest parishioners. Meribald is to the Faith in this story as the Parson is to the Church in Chaucer’s: he is a representation of his faith’s ideals of humanity, peace, charity and justice. He provides a direct contrast to the corrupt clerics who run the Faith. As Victor Hugo told his son in response to his opposition towards making a bishop, Myriel, "a prototype of perfection and intelligence" in Les Miserables: “I cannot put the future into the past. My novel takes place in 1815. For the rest, this Catholic priest, this pure and lofty figure of true priesthood, offers the most savage satire on the priesthood today.”

His association with the smallfolk can be seen further in his preference among the Seven.

"I have never known a boy who did not love the Warrior. I am old, though, and being old, I love the Smith. Without his labor, what would the Warrior defend? Every town has a smith, and every castle. They make the plows we need to plant our crops, the nails we use to build our ships, iron shoes to save the hooves of our faithful horses, the bright swords of our lords. No one could doubt the value of a smith, and so we name one of the Seven in his honor, but we might as easily have called him the Farmer or the Fisherman, the Carpenter or the Cobbler. What he works at makes no matter. What matters is, he works. The Father rules, the Warrior fights, the Smith labors, and together they perform all that is rightful for a man. Just as the Smith is one aspect of the godhead, the Cobbler is one aspect of the Smith. It was he who heard my prayer and healed my feet."

- AFFC Brienne V

Meribald’s preference for the Smith is very much in line with Jesus and Isaiah of favoring peaceful, productive labor over war and conflict (swords beaten into plowshares). Meribald’s comments on the Cobbler reveal an understanding of the ideas behind it, and it further emphasizes his association with the common people by preferring the common-oriented Smith over the more aristocrat-oriented Warrior. His statement regarding the Smith, and extending it to other tradesmen, even farmers and fishermen, displays a social consciousness, an acknowledgement that the laborers and craftsmen are the ones who actually add value to society and keep it running as opposed to the generally unproductive warrior caste that rules over Westerosi society. As the smith creates the “bright swords of our lords” suggests, he points out that even the martial aristocrats are wholly dependent on this segment of society that they usually look down on. His own personal experience with war would also make him reluctant to favor the Warrior. He himself knows the negative effects war can have just going by the speech he is best known for.

"More less than more. There are many sorts of outlaws, just as there are many sorts of birds. A sandpiper and a sea eagle both have wings, but they are not the same. The singers love to sing of good men forced to go outside the law to fight some wicked lord, but most outlaws are more like this ravening Hound than they are the lightning lord. They are evil men, driven by greed, soured by malice, despising the gods and caring only for themselves. Broken men are more deserving of our pity, though they may be just as dangerous. Almost all are common-born, simple folk who had never been more than a mile from the house where they were born until the day some lord came round to take them off to war. Poorly shod and poorly clad, they march away beneath his banners, ofttimes with no better arms than a sickle or a sharpened hoe, or a maul they made themselves by lashing a stone to a stick with strips of hide. Brothers march with brothers, sons with fathers, friends with friends. They've heard the songs and stories, so they go off with eager hearts, dreaming of the wonders they will see, of the wealth and glory they will win. War seems a fine adventure, the greatest most of them will ever know.

"Then they get a taste of battle.

"For some, that one taste is enough to break them. Others go on for years, until they lose count of all the battles they have fought in, but even a man who has survived a hundred fights can break in his hundred-and-first. Brothers watch their brothers die, fathers lose their sons, friends see their friends trying to hold their entrails in after they've been gutted by an axe.

"They see the lord who led them there cut down, and some other lord shouts that they are his now. They take a wound, and when that's still half-healed they take another. There is never enough to eat, their shoes fall to pieces from the marching, their clothes are torn and rotting, and half of them are shitting in their breeches from drinking bad water.

"If they want new boots or a warmer cloak or maybe a rusted iron halfhelm, they need to take them from a corpse, and before long they are stealing from the living too, from the smallfolk whose lands they're fighting in, men very like the men they used to be. They slaughter their sheep and steal their chickens, and from there it's just a short step to carrying off their daughters too. And one day they look around and realize all their friends and kin are gone, that they are fighting beside strangers beneath a banner that they hardly recognize. They don't know where they are or how to get back home and the lord they're fighting for does not know their names, yet here he comes, shouting for them to form up, to make a line with their spears and scythes and sharpened hoes, to stand their ground. And the knights come down on them, faceless men clad all in steel, and the iron thunder of their charge seems to fill the world . . .

"And the man breaks.

"He turns and runs, or crawls off afterward over the corpses of the slain, or steals away in the black of night, and he finds someplace to hide. All thought of home is gone by then, and kings and lords and gods mean less to him than a haunch of spoiled meat that will let him live another day, or a skin of bad wine that might drown his fear for a few hours. The broken man lives from day to day, from meal to meal, more beast than man. Lady Brienne is not wrong. In times like these, the traveler must beware of broken men, and fear them . . . but he should pity them as well."

- AFFC Brienne V

This is the speech that earned Meribald his notoriety among the fandom. It is one of the few times where GRRM is very on the nose, and hammers his message into the text explicitly. The speech is a beautiful passage that stands as the biggest denunciation of war in the series, and showcases the anti-war stance of Martin, himself a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. Every battle that the reader has seen firsthand or been informed about is generally through the view of a member of the nobility, including Davos, who while being born one of the smallfolk, is still a nobleman. The lords are first and foremost a warrior caste who have usually trained for battle their whole lives up to that point, and usually go to battle well-armed, armored and mounted. Here, Meribald presents a very thorough, eloquent and articulate view of war through the eyes of the smallfolk who often lack the extensive military training and armaments of the lords, and yet, make up the majority of feudal armies that engage in battle.

In battle, the smallfolk in these feudal levies can take wounds, both physical and mental, from the injuries sustained in battle, the act of killing itself, the terror of the battle and seeing the people they knew die in gruesome fashion. After battle, they strip the dead of necessities like armor, clothes, weapons and any coin the bodies may have on their persons. Due to the poor supplying of feudal armies, if the infantrymen want to eat, they have to resort to foraging, or taking supplies by force from local smallfolk. They also kill the livestock as part of chevauchee, and rape the local women, since law enforcement is notoriously difficult in warzones. Then, after having undergone so much trauma, some men break during battle and desert. Broken men are deserters suffering from PTSD, usually in an unfamiliar land, where their feudal obligations to serve their lords no longer mean anything nor their fear of divine judgement, but everything takes a backseat to survival. They have often retained their weapons or at least some of them, along with the tactic of foraging. The application of these things can usually result in broken men engaging in banditry to survive. Even when the war is over, the effects of it can remain.

"It is being common-born that is dangerous, when the great lords play their game of thrones," said Septon Meribald.

- AFFC Brienne VII

Meribald’s anti-war attitude is drawn not just from his personal experience as a soldier and broken man, but likely witnessing the destruction and suffering among civilians in the War of the Ninepenny Kings and the War of Five Kings. Along his circuit, he likely has seen villages and towns destroyed and people ravaged by the Lannisters, Brave Companions and Starks. His comments on the smallfolk suffering when the lords go to war is comparable to the observation made by Varys: "The High Septon once told me that as we sin, so do we suffer. If that's true, Lord Eddard, tell me … why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?” The smallfolk always bear the greatest costs of war from the broken men to the foraged, and even massacred, smallfolk. With Meribald’s words, we can look at Tyrion’s description of the army defeated by Robb at Oxcross being largely made up of “raw—apprentice boys, miners, fieldhands, fisherfolk, the sweepings of Lannisport,” in a new light, with much of the people killed in battle being poor smallfolk who are there by circumstance.

They can often be the group in battle to suffer the highest casualties and receive the fewest personal gains. The former is especially true given as Gendry points out: "Knights and lordlings, they take each other captive and pay ransoms, but they don't care if the likes of you yield or not." Highborn combatants are worth ransoms or can make useful hostages, creating an incentive to capture rather than kill them while lowborn combatants have no wealth or connections to call upon, and as prisoners-of-war would be just more mouths to feed in an army that crawls on its stomach, leaving little incentive to capture them.Excluding chivalry, with exceptions like Elia Martell, Lord Hewitt’s daughter and Bracken’s daughter, highborn women usually have some protection from rape via their status with anyone knowing her family would have swords to call upon to defend her honor while women among the smallfolk have no such protection with no swords to call upon. The lords can be rewarded with lands and castles for their services and ransoms from captured lords or knights in service while the smallfolk see hardly any of those rewards, except small ones such as the loot they can obtain if they sack someplace, or strip a dead body. If they’re really lucky, and perform some great feat, like saving a lord in battle, they can be richly rewarded with gold, lands, a keep and their sons serving as squires, or essentially be welcomed into the nobility and get a foot through the door into lordship for their families. That was the case with Ser Bartimus and the man-at-arms who saved Ser Harys Swyft in the Battle of the Blackwater. To borrow from the American Civil War, Westerosi wars can be perfectly summed up as a “rich man’s war, but a poor man’s fight.”

We come across examples of both broken men and raided smallfolk in Brienne’s POV with the raid on Saltpans led by Rorge. We see much of it caused by broken men, and an example of a lord neglecting the obligations of his status.

"Back on the road, the septon said, "We would do well to keep a watch tonight, my friends. The villagers say they've seen three broken men skulking round the dunes, west of the old watchtower.”

"Only three?" Ser Hyle smiled. "Three is honey to our swordswench. They're not like to trouble armed men.”

"Unless they're starving," the septon said. "There is food in these marshes, but only for those with the eyes to find it, and these men are strangers here, survivors from some battle. If they should accost us, ser, I beg you, leave them to me."

"What will you do with them?"

"Feed them. Ask them to confess their sins, so that I might forgive them. Invite them to come with us to the Quiet Isle." 

-AFFC Brienne V

"Ser Quincy is an old man," said Septon Meribald gently. "His sons and good-sons are far away or dead, his grandsons are still boys, and he has two daughters. What could he have done, one man against so many?"

- AFFC Brienne VI

It was Hyle Hunt who finally put words to what all of them had realized. "These are the men who raided Saltpans."

"May the Father judge them harshly," said Meribald, who had been a friend to the town's aged septon.

- AFFC Brienne VII

Where everyone else, is faulting Ser Quincy Cox for not defending his town when it was brutally sacked by Rorge, Meribald is the only one that tries to express some understanding towards Cox. He says that Ser Cox was likely afraid for his family as well as himself, and knew he couldn’t have done much against the raiders. This can be partly due to Meribald himself being a veteran, and knowing what it is like to be afraid facing an onslaught. He was also willing to help three broken men who he knew might be dangerous and potentially harm him by giving them food, knowing they might be starving, and an offer to perform services for them and take them to the Quiet Isle for refuge. One of the closest times we’ve ever gotten to Meribald judging and badmouthing someone is his comments regarding the hanged raiders of Saltpans. He doesn’t show pity for the hanged men likely being broken men despite his words in his famous speech, and deviates from “May the Father judge them justly” to “May the Father judge them harshly.” Of course, in this case, his anger is completely and understandably justified. Meribald’s comments regarding Ser Cox when taken with his sympathy towards broken men show him to be a compassionate man who tries to be understanding and avoid judging people too harshly. This can be partly given to him acknowledging his own mistakes in the past, and thus, be less judgmental towards others’ shortcomings as opposed to someone like the inquisitorial High Sparrow

Meribald’s background largely influenced his own approach to life and faith. His experience in the War of the Ninepenny Kings gave him anti-war views, and his past mistakes helped him to acknowledge that people are people and anyone can fall off track. His experience as one of and interactions with the smallfolk as well as the hardships they face explain his smallfolk-centric worldview. We can look at a historical figure in Catholic Church hagiography that likely inspired Meribald’s character.

Meribald’s Real-Life Counterpart

If there is any historical influence for Meribald, it should be obvious for anyone who has even a basic knowledge of Catholic saints: Francis of Assisi. To give a little basic info, he is one of the patron saints of Italy and the environment, the eponym for San Francisco (in a way fitting with the city’s liberal reptuation) as well as Pope Francis and founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscan Order. He is also described as the first to receive the stigmata, or receive wounds/marks on his hands, feet and side corresponding to Christ’s wounds from his crucifixion, and credited with creating the first Nativity scene. Francis is a very popular saint, even in Protestantism with Franciscan orders in the Anglican and Lutheran churches, given he embodies many of the qualities that one would look for in a saint. It is said no one was more dedicated in imitating Christ and carrying out the Christ’s work in Christ’s way than Francis to the point that he is even sometimes described as alter Christus, or literally “another Christ.” It comes as no surprise then, that he was canonized less than two years after his death.

Francis was born Giovanni di Bernardone in 12th century Assisi, the son of a wealthy cloth merchant and a noblewoman from Provence. He was informally called Francesco or “the Frenchman” by his father to honor his business success and enthusiasm for French things. Francis wore lavish clothes, and was known to be one of the biggest party animals in town. Albeit, better born than Meribald, Francis shared the commonality of being a veteran whose war experience caused him to re-evaluate his life. Francis originally wanted to be a knight joining in Assisi’s war against Perugia. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Ponte San Giovanni, and spent a year imprisoned in Collestrada where he suffered a long fever. During the fever, he started to re-evaluate his life. Two years later, his search for victory and glory lead him to leave to fight for Apulia, serving under Count Walter III of Brienne (I kid you not). Apparently, a strange vision made him return home to Assisi. Francis later decided to foreswear his inheritance and become a wandering beggar, and taking Christ’s words literally, stripped himself of the lavish clothes he once liked to wear, and replaced them with a coarse woolen tunic tied with a knotted rope in place of a belt. He traveled from place to place, working to rebuild ruined churches in the countryside of Assisi and Umbria, nursing the sick, including the outcast lepers and giving alms to the poor. He preached brotherly love, peace and penance to the ordinary people in the countryside despite not being an anointed priest. Francis, as Meribald does, celebrated and venerated his poverty, and traveled the countryside preaching and giving aid to the poor. Win Wenders, when talking about the film he made about Pope Francis, described St. Francis as having “an incredible social consciousness, and identified with the outcasts and the poor of his time, and really lived a life of radical solidarity with the poor and outcasts.”

Francis also went so far as to go over enemy lines during the Fifth Crusade to speak with Sultan al-Kamil of Egypt to convert him, or be martyred in the attempt (he failed at both). Francis and Meribald fought wars in their youth only to become men of peace when they grew older in both word and action. There are legends such as Francis healing a leper through prayer. Another being one of his friars scolding three robbers for stealing food and drink from Francis’s monks, and Francis responding by having his friar apologize to them and give them bread and wine. Those three robbers would be moved enough to join Francis’s order. It reminds me of Meribald’s comments regarding what to do if three broken men in the dunes come upon them: "Feed them. Ask them to confess their sins, so that I might forgive them. Invite them to come with us to the Quiet Isle."

Francis is the patron saint of animals and the environment given he displayed kindness and respect towards animals in a way Meribald wouldn’t disapprove of if Dog is anything to go by. He saw nature as a “mirror of God,” and he referred to animals as “brothers and sisters.” His attitude towards animals would have been met with approval from the SPCA and other animal rights organizations with words such as “Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission - to be of service to them whenever they require it.” There are stories and legends of birds gathering to hear him preach, half-frozen bees crawling towards him to be fed and the famous tale of the Wolf of Gubbio.

The story goes that the town of Gubbio was terrorized by a large wolf that preyed originally on its flocks, then also began to feed on the townspeople and finally switched to eating only people. It supposedly could not be harmed by an weapon, devouring anyone who tried to kill it. Francis went up to confront it and chastised the wolf for its actions, with the wolf responding by bowing its head in submission. Francis than made a deal with the wolf: “I promise thee that thou shalt be fed every day by the inhabitants of this land so long as thou shalt live among them; thou shalt no longer suffer hunger, as it is hunger which has made thee do so much evil; but if I obtain all this for thee, thou must promise, on thy side, never again to attack any animal or any human being; dost thou make this promise?" The wolf placed a forepaw in Francis’s outstretched hand in agreement to the oath. Francis then walked with the wolf following him to town to the surprise of the townspeople. The wolf died two years later, and the town was saddened given he had become a symbol of Francis’s sanctity and divine power. The legend says they gave the wolf an honorable burial and later built a church at the site.

Crazy enough, during the renovation of the Church of Saint Francis of Peace in 1872, the same church where the wolf was said to be buried, under a slab near the wall of the church they found the skeleton of a large wolf that was likely several centuries old. They reburied the wolf skeleton inside. My guess is that in real-life, a wolf may have preyed on Gubbio’s flocks, and Francis came up with a simple solution: feed the wolf and it wouldn’t have to feed on their flocks. The description of the Wolf of Gubbio does also bring to mind a certain canine in the series.

“They say the pack is led by a monstrous she-wolf, a stalking shadow grim and grey and huge. They will tell you that she has been known to bring aurochs down all by herself, that no trap nor snare can hold her, that she fears neither steel nor fire, slays any wolf that tries to mount her, and devours no other flesh but man."

- AFFC Brienne V

I wouldn’t be surprised if a similar situation happens with Meribald regarding a seemingly invincible, large wolf terrorizing the riverlands, devouring its flocks and people: Nymeria. Dog wouldn’t be able to protect him from Nymeria if she came upon him, and Meribald, being a man of peace, would deal with her in a way that men of war have tried and failed to do. I’m willing to bet money on it.

Conclusion:

Meribald plays the role of guide for his fellow travelers as well as the reader, and the mouthpiece of the author on war. Being the only one among the group who is one of the smallfolk and not the nobility, he provides a much needed perspective on war through the eyes of 99% of the population. His good-natured, country bumpkin-esque appearance masks an intelligent man with profound insight on war, society and faith. He probably has a worse background prior to joining the Faith and shortly after than most of the Most Devout and High Septons, but he turned out a better man than any of them. He is the closest to a saint we’ve seen in this series, more so than any other septon we’ve encountered. Hopefully, I think we will meet him again in the series, and I look forward to hearing what more insights he has.

[paulisweeabootrash]

First Impression: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

I started writing up this review with the intent of shelving it for this year's end-of-year cleanup (yup, I intend to make that a yearly thing), but the more I watched, the more I felt it deserved a longer writeup.  Especially given how popular and well-received it was, because frankly I don't think it lives up to the hype.  So shapeshift into a more comfortable form as we talk about...

...That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (2018)

Episodes watched: 14.

Platform: Crunchyroll.

The victim of a freak stabbing, a nice but forever-single 37-year-old has his dying thoughts — from wishing he weren’t feeling pain to wishing he could have a shot with many women in his next life — granted as wishes by a mysterious voice.  The voice turns out to be "Great Sage", a sort of... user interface(?) of a fantasy world that functions according to very RPG-like rules.  Generic monsters vs. named human and humanoid heroes, powers that can be acquired and leveled up, that sort of thing.  Those "granted wishes" come in the form of a new body, that of a slime, impervious to many things and able to absorb the abilities of other monsters by engulfing them, which he can apparently use either to literally eat them or to keep them alive “stored” inside him (which sounds... horrifying) — "analyzing" them using the Great Sage and gaining the use of their abilities in either case.  Granted the name Rimuru by Veldora, a godlike dragon he befriends (and then eats in order to carry him around), our slimy protagonist goes out into the world to explore and fix other people's problems.  Monsters, as we soon see in much more detail, typically have no names and minimal organization or skill, and once named, "evolve" into more powerful variants with not only superior strength but also the capacity to use superior magic and technology.  It's an interesting mechanic/premise that really feels like it would be at home in an ancient etiological myth.

It starts off feeling very much like watching a pretty good adaptation of an RPG or maybe point-and-click adventure, as the plot progresses mainly via Rimuru using items and abilities he has incidentally acquired for unrelated reasons to stumble into and complete quests for other characters.  It bounces wildly in tone from fantasy combat to ecchi to adorable wholesome content, and I assume at some point there will be some kind of confrontation with or followup on the human hero who imprisoned Veldora in the first place?  But for the first five episodes, it's mostly "ooh what's this?" followed by a sort of self-imposed quest to create a goblin nation-state from the ground up by naming everyone, taming the dire wolves who are threatening the goblins, and importing technology from the aforementioned named humanoids.  Then it takes an abrupt turn for the serious, laying on us three episodes of backstory about Shizu, a character who I can't really talk about at all without spoilers, but that short arc was engaging and resulted in Rimuru finally being able to take on a humanoid form, which turns out to be a great disguise in future episodes.

Meanwhile, the vague world conquest plans of majin (a term used here to refer to powerful humanoid magic-users) and demon lords having been taking shape in the background, as a vast orc army is steamrolling through every weaker group of monsters it can find.  The next few episodes focus on a group of oni, ahem, ogres (but they’re totally traditional Japanese depictions of oni) who join Rimuru's village after their own is destroyed by the orcs and an underground civilization of lizardpeople who attempt, in a hilariously clumsily and overconfident way, to join forces with Rimuru's followers against the orcs.  The oni are pretty great, especially Rimuru's secretary/bodyguard Shion and scout/diplomat/spy/whatever Souei, as is the unassuming goblin Gobta, who has frequently been the comic relief up to this point but becomes important to the looming conflict.

The lizardpeople/Rimuru-followers alliance is eventually formed and the show tries to make their war against the orcs epic and dramatic, but... here it largely fails.  This arc is full of tedious repetitive exposition about the same characters and tedious repetitive exposition about the same characters and tedious repetitive exposition about the same characters and tedious repetitive exposition about the same characters, as if they expect the audience goes into every episode having forgotten the events of the previous episode and even several recurring characters' names.  Add to this some sudden new abilities getting pulled out of Rimuru's and others' asses, increasingly frequent jarring tone shifts from scene to scene, combat scenes where everyone is stationary and stupid, and cap it all off with a "boss fight" that only gets started after some villainous exposition monologuing worthy of Dragon Ball Z and an exposition dump flashback about the orcs that raises more questions than it answers, and at this point I'm only still watching to find out where the hell it goes from here.  This feels like a bad adaptation of a game now... but maybe a bad adaptation of a good game.  Maybe it would work better, honestly, in RPG format.  It's not like this doesn't have potential as a premise.  But I don't get the hype, because I really don't think it lives up to it.

W/A/S: 4 / 5 / any random number 3–8, depending on episode / !

Weeb: Like I said about Death March, "not weeb so much as geek".  But this is getting a higher weeb score than that because some basic elements (such as, uh, the main character himself) probably come off as really weird if you've never played any of the Dragon Quest (a.k.a. Dragon Warrior) games, which are responsible for the generic low-level slime monster we know today.  Not to mention that this show's versions of orcs, ogres, and demons are more like depictions of those various races in other Japanese media than they are like the Germanic/Anglosphere/Tolkien-influenced fantasy canon.

Ass: Rimuru likes boobs.  He likes to talk about them.  He likes to cuddle up against them.  He checks out everyone.  He's... a sad old virgin.  Expect gag boobs and gratuitous camera angles, but not all the way to anything sexually explicit.

Shit (writing): Again, it really does feel like we're watching Rimuru complete a series of quests or puzzles to advance through the predetermined areas of a game.  Which is probably the point, but that doesn't work quite as well as a storytelling technique when the audience isn't actually figuring out how to complete those quests.  The sudden tone shift for Shizu's three-episode story arc and the weird exposition dumps throughout feel like they're trying to cram a lot of source material into relatively few episodes and it's not going well — which is odd considering that they got a 24-episode season instead of the more typical 13.  And considering that the source material has been going in some form or other for five years prior to the anime (it originated on Shōsetsuka ni Narō, the same self-publishing website responsible for a great deal of the last decade’s epidemic flourishing of isekai, including the above-mentioned Death March and Re:ZERO).

Shit (other): I like the character designs.  And they did a great job in particular making Rimuru expressive despite not... uh... having a face.  But the animation is sometimes embarrassingly bad, especially in action scenes — I swear, there was a fight at like 4fps at one point, the CG orc army is just painful to look at, and the "battles" between the orcs and lizardpeople are mostly just them staring at each other and then occasionally weakly thrusting a spear forward.

Content: Brief surprisingly violent shots, given the often-silly tone of the show.

-----

Stray observations:

- I said Rimuru pulled new abilities out of his ass, but... wait, do slimes have asses?  Can he form a temporary ass, like a comb jelly?

- Rimuru is not only lusting after the various elf and oni women; he is also obviously attracted to Souei, one of the male oni, and this is not played as being surprising or gross or funny in-universe, so, uh... yay bi representation... I guess...

- PS: I continued watching (even though this is frustrating) past the episodes this review covers, and I just want to add that I hate the pegasus knights.  Nobody had the sense to equip them with either ranged weapons or large melee weapons like lances.  They just fly around with swords that wouldn't be able to reach their enemies unless they pull up right alongside them.  This might make sense if they attempted a charge and attacked at point blank, which is the entire point of the distinctive cavalry saber, or maybe they could even dismount to fight on foot, and use the ability to fly for extreme maneuverability getting to a particular point on the battlefield?  Nope.  The closest they come to either of those tactics is to just fly leisurely towards Charybdis's open mouth without even unsheathing their swords in ep. 19.  WTF?  Look, I'm hardly a military expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I think these pegasus knights were dreamed up by someone who has only dimly heard of the concept of cavalry of any kind and hasn't spent more than a few seconds thinking about how you even can use horses in war, let alone bother to look up even a basic overview of how armies actually historically did.

[stshyt]

stained by mud and water, with spots of mildew showing

Plunder. If desired, screws can be used in addition to the tension bracket. Her uncle said it was the only way to save herself. At this point, the episode splits into two distinct storylines, with Scully sitting by her mother's bedside bottines cloutees femme while Mulder hunts the supernatural trash heap. The playoffs have nothing to do with these awards and they never have. Its stiff walls of heavy yellow canvas were badly faded, stained by mud and water, with spots of mildew showing. The boar buried his snout in Barsena’s belly and began rooting out her entrails. With Balon Swann hunting the rogue knight Darkstar down in Dorne, Loras Tyrell gravely wounded on Dragonstone, and Jaime vanished in the riverlands, only four of the White Swords remained in King’s Landing, and Ser Kevan had thrown Osmund Kettleblack (and his brother Osfryd) into the dungeon within hours of Cersei’s confessing that she had taken both men as lovers. The exhibition opens with a reception at the museum on the campus of niagara university on sunday, march 20, 2016 from 2:00 4:00pm with an awards presentation at 3:00pm. The papuci de casa din pasla lack of traffic was also adidas mariposas puzzling, nike air vortex desert sand even in the wee hours of the morning. "There is that drive," he said. Suggested donations are $5 for children and $10 for adults for balloon rides. They add the two viewerships together and claim million viewers biciclete rusesti vechi tuned in! when really it was 30 million the 1st night and only 15 million of them came back for the next night. Think that been the biggest joy and sense of accomplishment in that I learning as I go, and I been fortunate to meet people who helped me along the way. Pic: Clive Mason/Getty Images. However gentle the words, there are always darker motives underneath. It was released in 1985. He loves me. The wolf saved the choicest parts for his brother. To see why the current model doesn work, consider how the business of cricket is organized. Shooting on his shoes. Here and there they wound their way past familiar landmarks: a catalog cercei aur turcia stony hill that looked a bit like a wolf’s head when seen from a certain angle, a half-frozen waterfall, a natural stone arch bearded with grey-green moss. “He’s a willing worker, though getting him to understand what you want is not always easy. I have come through rain and wrack and storm. They had only the afternoon to learn the ways of chattel. Her eyes and smile are still uncommonly beautiful, but there are deep-wrought lines of patient sorrow and weary endurance on her face, which tell that this lovely and noble-hearted woman has been all her life a slave... Access to Fiat engine technology will improve the efficiency of Jeep's fleet, he said. The Around Cape Ann 25K is scheduled for Monday, Sept. Lord Bolton is upon us.” A brute he might have been, but Suggs did not want for courage. “Am I not to m’lord’s taste? I could send Myrtle to you if you want. The spearmen were running too. Process, for graphics they moved from 80nm > 65nm> 55nm in one year, and in six months 45nm.. This scenario is similar to a plant which does not receive enough water. “Drinking from Mance Rayder’s skull may give Mors Umber pleasure, but seeing wildlings cross his lands will not. Before he moved to Adelaide as a Senior Lecturer, he was with the computer vision program at NICTA (National ICT Australia), Canberra Research Laboratory for about six years. For a small case, Corsair packs in many options for cooling, and by keeping the components separated in two chambers, it creates two cooling zones. The nearer I live to the principle of the commandment, “Love thy bokacsizma bakancs neighbor as thyself,” the more enjoyment I have of this life. Though it was the 2005 boys county champion, Blair has new faces in almost every important position. “Just see to Blood. He bonded out within 30 minutes of being booked in. And not published research. 4. One pair of silk, cotton and metal wrapped lotus shoes is just 4 inches long.. The knight wore silver armor, his greaves and gauntlet inlaid with niello to suggest flowing fronds of seaweed. "They told me they're not required to give me a special seat, all they are required to do is provide me with a seat.". Her nostrils flared. That's our cost but the value of what the kids get is so much more," said Berti.Steps taken at the Rockin Walk were a small distance in comparison to how far a new pair of shoes will take some deserving kids' happy feet.Police: California man kills his 2 children, then hangs himselfPolice: California man kills his 2 children, then hangs himselfUpdated: Tuesday, June 20 2017 8:30 AM EDT2017 06 20 12:30:29 GMT(Source: KRON via CNN)A California man killed his two children before taking his own life over Father Day weekend, according to police.A California man killed his two children before taking his own life over Father Day weekend, according to police.Prodigy, half of rap duo Mobb Deep, dead at 42Prodigy, half of rap duo Mobb Deep, dead at 42Updated: Wednesday, June gioco cubo di rubik amazon 21 2017 12:28 AM EDT2017 06 21 04:28:18 GMT. As the NBA expanded its global evro kalkulator activities, it increased not only its own sales but love for the game.. The Caritas service group at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in McAllen raised about $25,000 for the event, which provided sleek running shoes to more than 1,000 children, said Mario Rodriguez, the volunteer facilitator of the group. Sparking my official spring cleaning this year, I am getting my house ready to sell. “Hm! Well, Vanya, adidas mariposas anyway I’m glad your stuff isn’t poetry. Wechsler, "If you breathe through your mouth at night because your nose is stuffed or for anatomical reasons, your lips are even more likely to be parched.". While choking her, he said, "You want to die? You are going to die," the report states. He placed it in front of Tyrion, and Illyrio leaned across the table to remove the lid. If it wasn't for the motherboard LEDs on the system you would be hard pressed to tell it was running when you walk up to it. The diminutive scale of the gateway and the rosy obelisk that stands nearby first in America the toylike dimension of the eclectic period villages at Disneyland or Epcot Center. They have been with me forever. And who would know one better than Slynt? “A turncloak would tell you what you wished to hear and betray you later. The bomber can carry 12 JASSMs attached to its wings, but the Air Force said the internal rotary launchers in the weapons bays could hold an additional eight. Besides spending billions of dollars on marketing, Nike is aggressively introducing new innovative products. People who are even complaining that Pakistan always opt to bat first on winning a toss. In Pure Pulp, the representations are diverse in theme and use paper, certifying the efficiency and pliancy of the material. Below are synthetic benchmark tests with SiSoftware's SANDRA, the System ANalyzer, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant. Determined that level was $1.75 million. When I came home she was delighted. The wolves would not find that easy, though, not without longships of their own. A pair of proper horseshoes, weighing not more than 2 pounds 10 ounces, cost from $30 to $80. “You took me unawares, my lord. Ironie du sort, les coles enseignent ce dans Sex Ed que les parents de dumbfuck avec les annes 1940 mentallities du cerveau vouloir l'admettre.