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vigilskept · 7 months ago

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gnashing my teeth thinking about how veilguard talks about the gods only as a joke when they could've gone somewhere truly crazy.... you're so right.

Yeah... you get it. It's just such a missed opportunity!

I don't even mind the jokey tone they use a lot of the time, because we all joke about things we struggle to understand/cope with.

Except Veilguard refuses to let you even try to broach the subject beyond that surface level. In fact, when it does let you engage with it at all, it manages to make things even less nuanced!

I'm just going to talk about Bellara's quest here since it's the most directly linked with the elven gods, and it's already a lot. Fundamentally, her companion quest is asking us two things:

Should elves be blamed for the actions of the Evanuris?

Should they preserve any of their past at all?

The first one is absurd to even begin with. It's not even a good or interesting take on the (very christian!) question: "Are we responsible for the sins of our ancestors?"

The Evanuris are not the ancestors of modern elves. Dalish religion implies that modern elves descend from those who the rebels never freed from slavery to the Evanuris.

This setup is already awful without looking at any of the parallels Bioware has (intentionally) drawn between the elves of Thedas and Jewish/Indigenous people. I have to put the rest of this under the cut because I genuinely don't think it can be shortened without making it sound flippant. In the context of the coding of the elves, the theological/social implications of all of this are so much worse.

TLDR: the indigenous/jewish coding of the elves makes bioware's treatment of elven religion in veilguard thoughtless at best, cruel at worst. they did not have to write themselves into this corner. there was a way of handling this lore reveal without the implication of elven religion (again, jewish/indigenous coded) being obsolete

So, the religion of the Dalish was part of their enslavement. It's the belief they were forced into by the cruel gods they are still devoted to. That's already pretty bad. How could it get worse, you might wonder?

Whether Bioware deviated from their initial inspirations for the elves or not, the implications for these lore reveals in light of those parallels are particularly cruel. Those two core questions in Bellara's quest? Yeah. Those have both been levied against the oppressed groups that Bioware chose to draw inspiration from. Both historically and presently. To justify atrocities against them.

And to be clear, Bioware does not deviate from or subvert the usual indigeous and jewish-coding of the elves in their writing here. If anything, they end up actively endorsing a very significant element of antisemitic and anti-indigenous sentiment.

Indigenous-Coding

Advocates of colonisation have always justified it by arguing they were 'saving' groups of people who were stuck in the past. They had been ‘left in the dark’ through ignorance of Christianity. In the more secular sense, this was framed as Europeans having journeyed through history to reach enlightenment, while the rest of the world was still in an ‘uncivilized’ state.

Christianity and progress had to be brought to these people to save their souls and bring them into the future with everyone else. Their Gods? There were only two possible ways to frame those. Either they were not real at all, or they were evil. Either way, they were obsolete.

In the Americas, these arguments were still used when corralling indigenous children into residential schools or tearing them from communities through the adoption system. Governments pushed the idea that they had to be forced to assimilate because they were 'backward' in their practices and beliefs.

In the settler-colonial state Canada, where Bioware is based, it's still common enough to hear people justify all of this as having been done "for their own good." Even those who admit that the ways colonization was perpetuated were cruel will still try to defend it by telling you, "it was bad, but their ancestors weren't saints either."

Sounding painfully familiar yet? A little uncomfortable in the context of Bellara's questline?

Jewish-Coding

Since the dawn of Christian Church, Jewish people have had a very fraught place in Christian theology. Christianity claims that that the coming of the messiah in the person of Jesus Christ makes the religion of Judaism obsolete. Christians believed the obvious answer to this problem was that Jewish people should convert.

When many did not, they were labeled as ignorant, obstinate, stuck in the past. They were so focused on their history that they couldn't see the truth which had been revealed in the present. There’s a significant legacy of this idea in Christian artwork with depictions of Synagoga blindfolded next to the clear eyed Ecclesia. You still hear echoes of this sentiment in antisemitic language today.

As for the nature of the Jewish God... there is some deviation here. For some Christians, He is God the Father, and He is good. For others — and this idea has been around from early Christianity till now — He is the Creator of the material world, but He is evil.

There are innumerable variations of Christian gnosticism that probably wouldn't be productive to get into on a Dragon Age Blog. What I need to underline here though, is that the idea of the Old Testament God as the devil/the demiurge/fundamentally evil, has been used to justify atrocity towards Jewish people for over a thousand years.

Should elves be blamed then? For the sundering of the Titans? For the Veil? For the Blight? For the evils of this world, created by their Gods?

Implications for Veilguard

Not only is religion in Dragon Age: The Veilguard often devoid of nuance or ignored outright, when the game does engage with it at all, it does so in a way that quite literally draws on these incredibly harmful antisemitic and anti-indigenous sentiments that have been (and still are) used to perpetuate real harm.

To be clear, I don't think the writing here intends to endorse the idea that elves should be blamed for any of what's going on. Bellara's anxieties are being projected onto her people as a whole while she grapples with what this all means for her, I get that. In fact, you could be generous and read some of this as a critique of this particular kind of anti-indigenous/jewish bigotry.

However, I don't think that absolves the writers of any of the implications they've created by confirming that the elven pantheon did exist and was canonically evil.

Elements of Dalish/elven culture might be preserved after all this, but the conclusion the game railroads you into is that their religion is obsolete. Just like Judaism. Just like the many Indigenous religions around the world. Except in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, it’s no longer just the bigotry of outsiders claiming that to be the case. It’s now the objective truth of the setting.

Going forward, the elves of Thedas can keep their culture, but they can’t practice their religion. If they continued to practice, they would be framed the way the Venatori are: evil and stuck in the past. This really can’t be overstated: this is the exact rhetoric that has justified centuries of violence and oppression of Jewish and Indigenous people. This rhetoric is still around and still weaponized.

It’s so cruel to create an in world ‘lineage’ that draws so heavily from their cultures and histories, then validate the rhetoric that has been used to hurt them. At best, it’s thoughtless. But as a company based in a settler-colonial state, this is something they should’ve put thought into, given that they chose to code their elves and Jewish and Indigenous. That was their responsibility, actually.

What gets me about all this is that they actually didn't need to force that conclusion at all. They could have kept the Evanuris as cruel tyrants without demonising the Creators and their worship at the same time.

The Evanuris weren't always Gods. They weren't even always rulers.

In Trespasser, when asked how they became Gods, Solas tells Lavellan that they did so slowly. That it started with a war. That fear bred a desire for simplicity. For right and wrong. For chains of command. That generals became respected elders, then kings, and finally gods.

Veilguard confirms all of this. The addition it makes is that before all this, the first elves were spirits who made their bodies out of the Titans. This all occurred over the course of thousands of years.

None of this needs to be retconned in order to allow for a respectful yet nuanced portrayal of religion!

TLDR pt2: bioware, u could’ve avoided literally ALL of this by making the evanuris part of a priestly class who seized power after the war with the titans. it wouldn’t even have undermined ur lore! u could’ve kept dalish religion alive! u could’ve implied complex political dynamics for your ancient elves without even having to write it! why didn’t you even try?

Trying to Fix This Mess

Say the elves took their bodies from the Titans and settled the lands of Thedas. Say the Titans even allowed this for a time. The dwarves were made from their own bodies after all.

Yet the elves didn't have the same connection with the Titans as the dwarves did. They had no stone-sense, so they couldn't understand the Titans' song.

Generations down the line, some of them took too much from the Titans. More than they were willing to give. That was when the Titans lashed out, making the earth tremble so that all the elves had built crumbled beneath them.

And what if the firstborn among the elves had taken up priesthood to guide the younger ones. They were closer to spirits than the elves that were born into this world, and so the younger ones looked to them for guidance. Maybe they were the ones who were trusted to reach out to the more powerful of the spirits who chosen stay in the Fade, their old kin who preferred to keep their distance from the physical world to preserve the essence of what they were. The spirits of Justice, of Benevolence, of Craft. Those who the elven people paid homage to, and trusted to preserve them in turn.

So when everything seemed to fall apart, the elves turned to their Keepers, their priests, and asked of them what they ought to do. How could they make the earth stop shaking? What would they have to do to be at peace again?

Whatever the spirits themselves may have responded, many of the Keepers (among them the Evanuris) took up arms and chose war. They saw it could be won so they fought, sundering Titans from their dreams and stilling the land.

And yet there was no peace.

Some Keepers sought to hold on to their power as generals, and wanted to wage war on new shores to keep it. Some Keepers thought they had already gone too far, claiming they had acted without the guidance of the spirits who hadn't wanted war.

These Keepers could've caused chaos and endless bloodshed, so the Evanuris formed their alliance to suppress the others. Likely, they thought they were doing so for the benefit of all the elven people. More war meant more death, and it was needless now that the land was still. And even if what they did to the Titans was wrong, it was done and they could not fix it. Better to silence those who meant to stir up fear among the people.

The Evanuris fought until they were the last faction left, naming the few holdouts the Forgotten Ones. They were praised for bringing peace to Elvhenan, and trusting in their guidance their people crowned them as rulers.

Yet some dissent always remained. None of them were infallible. They were no longer spirits, they hadn't been for thousands of years. They were now more accustomed to command than to priesthood after all that war. They had drawn on the power they had stolen from the Titans to gain the advantage over their enemies, and the corruption of the Blight was starting creep in, ever-so-slowly.

Maybe some of the people, unhappy with their rule, started to voice the thought that was expressed by their rival Keepers once more: that the Evanuris had grown distant from the spirits. That Elgar'nan didn't serve Justice anymore. That Mythal had strayed from Benevolence.

So Evanuris took the mantle of godhood for themselves. It was only for peace and stability.

It would be too dangerous if anyone could claim they were deviating from the will of the spirits, so they would claim they were those great spirits. Elgar'nan was Justice, Mythal was Benevolence. They would use their rule only for the benefit of the people, not abuse their power.

And there you go. None of what I've written above can't be neatly incorporated into the existing lore of Veilguard. It leaves the elves of Thedas precisely where they started in Dragon Age: Origins. Distant from their ancient Gods, trying to pick up the pieces of their forgotten past.

#veilguard spoilers #datv spoilers #da4 spoilers #bioware critical #veilguard critical #god. i did not think today was going to be the day i wrote this essay but there it is.#i just could not get into bellara's quest without talking about this #if anyone read this to the end i am kissing u gently on the forehead #there was a way more respectful way to handle elven religion if they were committed to this lore #it genuinely upsets me that i can't find any indication that they even thought to make the effort to try #all u would need is a few extra lines in the codices between the evanuris/solas/felassan #it doesn't even need to be my version here #anything hinting at religious belief/practice among the elvhen before the evanuris claimed godhood would have been enough!!#instead we have evil tyrants = elven religion and that's... it.#and the elves are left with the awful implications of it all with no choice but to simply abandon their religion now #'not their culture tho!' you say. okay. sure. but their religion is de facto obsolete.#that's such a cruel and thoughtless corner to write an indigenous and jewish coded culture into

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silverskye13 · 1 month ago

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In which there is barter.

#the barking writer #redstone and skulk #tanguish #helsknight #hels!martyn #The Hand #martyn(ofthearena)#evil beesuma #evil beezuma #god i need to like. settle on tags for these guys. and stop mispelling things #ahm. yeah. i don't think i had any thoughts to put down here?#i thought maybe i would think of some #but i have not #so here we are #thoughtless #i think my only thought to put here is that i wanted to get to cool stuff this chapter but couldn't because i needed to set it up first #i feel like i robbed myself of something

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wallbeatjournal · 1 year ago

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Are true riverdale fans of the opinion it is a very good and nearly flawless show or does being a true riverdale fan mean being able to mock writing choices

it's long-running serial television plotted a season/half at a time so definitely not even "nearly" flawless.

BUT. i'm not doing combat with the writing team. i'm not actively reading against the text the way i have to in order to enjoy something like supernatural or the 90s robin comics or the fucking sopranos, which are patriarchal christiancore copworld rapeworld white supremacist horrorshows that hate their minority audiences, with like 2 good creatives involved and martyring themselves to fight the good fight on sparse rare installments if you try to approach them sincerely.

riverdale writing staff are like a favorite smart problematic tumblr mutual to me. I don't always like what's on their blog or who they're referencing. but we're in the same community and i'm interested and inspired and i trust their agenda overall, even when i see shit i wouldn't have fucking posted. but bc i'm not being condescended to or actively spited i'm not gonna condescend to or spite them, you know?

i expect rvd to age like twin peaks (another very uneven, highly referential serial juggling a couple of intensely cool metanarratives on top of its core story). and twin peaks fandom mocks twin peaks all the time. twin peaks includes some CLUNKY shit. it's kitsch. it's camp. it has a second season that is largely ASS. james is there. and on top of that it also includes some genuinely offputting-to-me stuff that just bothers me to sit through, even though i feel like i understand and respect what they're going for with it. i just don't want to watch someone sweep the fucking bar for minutes and minutes as entertainment. OK!!?

...so yeah. mock riverdale but in the right spirit. is that an answer? do i sound like i'm chugging the flavoraid koolaid fresh-aid? probably.

#i like the way people mock the flop parts of twin peaks and i enjoy it when people mock the flop parts of riverdale in the same tone #but rvd NOT one of those shows where the fandom is the thing that makes it good by appropriating and rearranging it. like some listed above #riverdale isn't dumb. it's not thoughtless. it's a lowbrow postmodern love letter to trash media and it takes a lot of big risky swings.#and its juggling act does NOT always work in practice. i don't always agree with the tradeoffs it takes to balance like.#the mainline text AND the queer subtext AND the fanfictiony iterative media riffs AND the genre meta AND the actual canonical metaplot #but it really does reward curiosity and close-reading. it's like a little puzzle cube you have to turn over a few times sometimes to solve #i feel judgmental about people who hit 'post' on what's obviously like a very surface level reaction without much thought put into it #ohhh the show challenged you? the show folded continuity over on itself and you can't hang anymore? you didn't get what you expected?#and now you're being dismissive instead of sitting with it? ok. dork.#riverdale #(it's not really that serious. but you asked and i'm feeling so so very earnest about Posting today. love you thanks for asking)#(would love to know what parts you most want to mock. i have my own list. eNdGaMe is at the top of it. jughead's mommy issues era too)

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francisforever2014 · 1 month ago

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gen ai hate has gone so far that we’re glorifying undergrad term papers . we’ve lost the fucking plottttt

#UNDERGRAD TERM PAPERS????? THATS YOUR EXAMPLE FOR A BASTION OF CREATIVITY AND UNIQUE THOUGHT ????? UNDERGRAD TERM PAPERSSSSSSS??????? 😭😭😭😭😭😭#you do realize that people can and are pumping out regurgitated and generally thoughtless term papers on the daily without chat gpt right #bc that's what you're encouraged to do in a lot of college classes #and THATS the problem . not the 18 year old that doesn’t want to spend time doing an assignment #that they know is mindless and that they’ll never think about again after turning in #and even if you’re arguing that they’re still getting something out of writing it themselves . sure .#but they have to SEE that and BELIEVE that. and the truth is that very rarely does higher education make students think that their own view #or perspective or self matters . so of course they’re fine with removing themselves from the equation. they were never taught to value it #in the first place #so why don’t we fix that instead of telling people to love themselves enough to write a fucking term paper like PLSSSSSS 😭

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auguryofjellyfish · 4 months ago

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more thoughts about today so far

okay, so my predictions were completely wrong. i'm never predicting shit again lol. what the hell. though i did start to think it could be hama yesterday.

i wonder if we will still have more episodes today. there's the entire rest of it left...

the moments in the trial that stuck with me:

-when ken was like 'i was in my room, at least it locks' and hiroaki said 'that doesn't really matter that much anymore' and ken said don't. joke about that. dude. if a tone of voice could kill, hiroaki would have been eviscerated right then and there.

-ken was fucking self-harming, spilling his blood to light up his room using luminol. what the fuck? ken, what....how would that work? that's such bullshit, how would that be in any way more effective than glow in the dark stars? you...it wasn't just for the light. right?

-overall everyone being at each other's throats. hama completely losing it on wada, then hiroaki, whooh. reminded me of ken doing that last chapter.

-"tamba. tamba tamba tamba tamba.... oh tamba tamba. you. literally. saw me.

IN THE STAIRRRRRWEEEELLLLLLLL❗❗❗❗❗❗❗❗"

-after i've seen people claiming she didn't, tamba knew what flint and steel was after all LOL

-when ken said 'you don't know how it feels to love someone so much you'd be willing to die just so they could live.' he said it. he actually said it....sigh. i'm sorry, ken. i believe him. if he could, if he had to, if he had gotten the opportunity, he would have. always.

-overall ken carrying the trial and doing the closing argument, that was cool. he really took the the lead here. it was nice to see...i've missed him.

-when hama started praying.

this was gutwrenching. i'm so fucking sorry.

wada crying. mai crying. and i was crying too. i'm very culturally christian, but i'm not a believer. but this is making me want to go to church and pray.

lord, divine fire, have mercy.

he was crying out to god, but in his last moment, he just wanted his mom.

...........hhh.....siiigh.......

ok. i'm gutted. this was....goddamn, von babbitt. jesus christ. great work though. fucking. hell.

fuck kan and yonekura, i hope they rot forever. so painful...he didn't deserve it. he didn't deserve this at all.

hama....

and wada was trying to break through to him, hiroaki had to hold him back...even after hama went off on him, it didn't matter at all. that was his friend. wada's so kind. he's just so kind. he still doesn't really know how to express it to people. he was never shown how, before. but he feels it. he cares, so much, and he loves, loves, loves.

fucking hell, wada...more friends gone. bright souls gone. the school staff is gone. everything's gone...and hiroaki pissed off everyone again.

complete and utter devastation. howling void.

our father, who art in heaven. hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. amen.

rest in peace.

#tetro danganronpa pink #blakewords #lost in sleepless lullaby...#heaven's... dreaming....thoughtless thoughts‚ my friends...#we know we'll be ghosts again.

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uncanny-tranny · 2 years ago

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If you mess with somebody's mobility/life-preserving aid and all you got was yelled at by the disabled person in question, just know you got off easy. Fucking with somebody's aid can easily become a matter of life-or-death, so you have to understand why somebody would "lash out" about that.

#disability #ableism #ableism tw #reminder that fucking with somebody's aid can easily be classified under physical assault (which is what it is)#still fuming about the time my dad talked about how other people would fuck with his CPAP machine since it *has* to be plugged in an outlet #like. do you understand that not having a CPAP machine can easily either severely negatively affect somebody or kill them..#like why would the thought even cross your mind to risk somebody's life or wellbeing like that #but like. it just kind of reminds me that people can be really thoughtless about what they do and cause and effect #like at this point it's self-defense in my eyes and if you're yelled at i don't have sympathy #i will understand if you thought you were being nice but that's where my understanding ends #this is why i like when people have huge patches/stickers on their aids that are like 'DO NOT TOUCH ME' or 'I WILL BITE IF YOU TOUCH ME'#just as examples. but like. yes you shouldn't need to put that there in the first place but it is iconic #it is in-your-face and direct and it reminds everybody around you that it is up to *them* to treat *you* as an equal to abled people #it is bleak though and i hate that people have the need to put them there in the first place #if i ever needed to use more visible or 'obtrusive' aids then i'd absolutely do the same thing though

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howifeltabouthim · 6 months ago

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Her mind, for once, was blessedly free of all thought.

Irina Reyn, from What Happened to Anna K.

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wonho-ssi · 6 months ago

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People who deny a problem with WayV completely catering to the KRN GP/having no Chinese bsides on 'Frequency' are playing willfully ignorant and obtuse. There's no issue in enjoying the music and, in fact, it's a good thing, but the problem arises when there's no acknowledgement as to why they're moving into a 'global group' branding rather than NCT China.

The reason is simply that SM are xenophobic and cannot manage them, and have sabotaged them - knowingly or not - at every turn. 1. Having 127 take their debut song (Regular) so they look like they've debuted with a remix instead of the original. 2. Putting them on a 2 year hiatus for someone who ended up leaving regardless. 3. Refusing to promote them a sufficient amount in either china or Korea during their first few years until they changed sub management. 4. No world tour after 5 years, and their first tour ended after a small amount of shows.

There are others, such as changing up schedules last minute so Winwin can't join or just the general SM plight of overwork and horrid care of artists. But, specifically, they had butchered the chinese market and instead of trying to restore it by taking them to varieties or activities (like they're doing with Wish), they're completely alienating the original audience.

I'm happy they're getting wins and more acknowledgment - duh! They debuted as a Chinese group and, while there's room for growth - it's clearly xenophobia to have only a version of a title track in cn and blame WayV for their 'unpopularity' when we know what the underlying reason for why they think this. The same amount of care from the beginning would have gotten them to this level faster. Yes, there's the relationship between SKorea and China that's shaky, but SM have more than enough money to navigate and make WayV work in both domestic and international markets.

#if i wrote everything i thought this would end up dissertation length #i just think its so thoughtless to shrug off the people who are concerned and upset about the lack of marketing in china and cn bsides #and there are obviously people who are xenophobic and refused to listen to wayv unless its eng or krn music. they pmo so i won't linger #from blaming kun for a delayed cb. saying wayv are unpopular and uploading?? 2yr hiatus. barely any promo since day 1.#its just sick #wayv #nct #dont argue with me cuz idgaf

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all-my-ocs-are-evil · 3 months ago

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Sorry, I can't talk rn. My mind is reeling through thoughts I can't write or talk about bc prophecy logic.

#thoughts of the thoughtless

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patrocles · 1 month ago

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“boys are so much easier to raise than boys” is the scam of the fucking century. do you know how hard it is to raise a boy to be kind and good in a world that’s built against that. after a while you really start seeing that boys arent being raised, but tolerated and it starts when they’re small

#this isnt like an ideological thought experiment #in raising my nephew im met with those quandries every day especially as he gets older and is socializing with other boys #i see things in him thay i know in other houses would be immediately shut down/made fun of/dismissed #little quirks or sensitivities that i think people are so thoughtless in shutting down #the last thing i ever want to do is reinforce shame or gender roles #making him feel bad for what feels natural — shows he likes not being Boy Shows // being emotionally aware // encouraging his compassion #having friendships with girls and making sure he understands compassion and boundaries

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total-drama-brainrot · 1 year ago

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you guys ever hear a new song and frantically conceptualise a whole AU around it, starring your current Main Blorbo? or is that just me?

#having a lot of thoughts for someone who's brain rotted away #also this is me asking everyone to drop their indulgent song aus in the comments/reblogs #i can and will get super hyped over them Don't Think I Won't 😈#please don't ask me about this current au i'm cooking up because i'll either infodump about it in a huge post or just refuse to divulge it #it's a toss-up between my social anxiety and my Need To Scream Everything I'm Thinking. you never know which one's gonna win 😔#thoughtless posting #feel free to ignore

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scream1ngskittl3z · 6 months ago

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Not sure if I’m documenting life or escaping it

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queenvhagar · 7 months ago

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hi I really enjoy reading your thoughts.

one thing that made me Team Green was the fandom. While I can enjoy a TB character I find a lot of their fans to be some of the most "stanniest of stans" and that's just not how I like to experience a character. it doesn't help that the writers of HOTD frame things in a way that encourages these types of people after seeing the kind of blind idolatry Show Daenerys receives...

I actually really love Daenerys as a character (in the books! After a certain point in the show she became a character that made me role my eyes so much), I love thinking about how flawed and doomed she is and how ultimately tragic she is. What sucks is I can't ever find myself interacting with other fans of her because I feel like most of them just use her a self insert ultra fantasy character. I've found some of them to be the most insufferable people alive and you can tell in real life these people are probably the most entitled white women that love all their privileges but outwardly pretend to be both the victim and savior and it sucks being a fan of her ACTUAL character 😭 Like... I feel like her "antis" make her a more interesting character to think about. I feel like her antis understand her better. I love her but I have her fucking tag blocked because I don't want to see all the run off of her biggest fans dumb thoughts about every other character in the story LMAO.

Sorry I'm rambling but I'm just wondering what your thoughts are on daenerys?

I feel very similarly about Daenerys.

She and Targaryens are somewhat of a power fantasy that I feel it's easy to get drawn into. These people are beautiful, and special, and they command the power of a dangerous beast and can use them to soar above the world and destroy their enemies. On the surface, who wouldn't want to be one of them?

But what's it like if you're not them? If you're just one of the others they view as beneath them or moldable to their will? It's easy to forget that this power fantasy exists in the context of its world. What does it mean for others that some people have that kind of power and can and will use it against you? What does the power of dragons do to your psyche, your perception of self and others, the way you relate to others?

This is all heightened with Daenerys. She is so uniquely empowered in having the only three dragons known to man loyal to her, and she acquired those dragons by acting on her dreams. She survived flames no other living person could. In her mind, she is the blood of Old Valyria, the last of her kind, inherently superior and owed her birthright. She is guided by dreams and prophecy that tell her she is destined to retake her throne.

But as GRRM wrote in A Dance With Dragons, specifically in regards to Daenerys:

Prophecy is like a treacherous woman. She takes your member in her mouth, and you moan with the pleasure of it, and think, how sweet, how fine, how good this is... and then her teeth snap shut and your moans turn to screams. That is the nature of prophecy.

Daenerys is wrapped up in the prophecy, as Rhaegar and other Targaryens were before her. The Targaryens believe the prophecies that say they are destined saviors of the world with divine right to rule. Daenerys is constantly thinking of the prophecies of Quaithe and allowing them to guide her actions. And unfortunately, eventually, this will lead her to isolate herself from allies. Particularly her fear of betrayal as prophesied will lead to her paranoia and isolation and reliance on her own mind and decision making. A queen unable to consider others' perspectives will not gain her favor in Westeros.

And when she comes to Westeros eventually, likely to find that a prophesied "mummer's dragon" (whether it's real or not she will believe it), a well-liked young man with a purported stronger claim than hers sitting the throne she is "destined" to claim... Let's just say things are not going to go super well for everyone involved, particularly since she has three weapons of mass destruction at her disposal. Guided by prophecy and her legacy as the last true Targaryen, and her realization at the end of ADWD that she has forgotten herself and needs to embody fire and blood to get what she wants...

She really is a tragic character. She wants these perfect ideals of liberation and peace and home. She believes they can be found in a land she does not know and has never visited. She is guided by faith in herself and her dreams and prophecies that seem to come true. She is conflicted between her desire to protect innocents and seek out peace and her pursuit of her goal of retaking the Iron Throne, a pursuit in which innocents will die and peace will only come after... and after Meereen, she has learned that compromise gets her nowhere, and fire and blood will be the way she achieves her goals. Guided by Quaithe's prophecies to be a dragon and be cautious of others, she will become more isolated from allies and more reliant on fire and blood. Put that all together in Westeros, against other POV characters...

It's sad, but Daenerys IS ultimately fated to fail. And it will make sense, and it will be tragic. It will be better explained and executed than in the show. But it will happen. If there is any Targaryen restoration at the end of this story, it will not be through her.

And I love her character for it all. She is iconic. She is THEE Mother of Dragons. She is a survivor. She is a leader. She has political intelligence. She has the cunning and drive and hard power to play the game of thrones. She is magical. And she makes mistakes. She is quick to anger and slow to forgive. She shows brutality toward her enemies. She relies too much on prophecy.

I love her character, and I can see her flaws and where her story is headed as she heads towards Westeros and other POV characters and attempts to reclaim the throne from others.

#asks #so sorry this was left in drafts for a long time #finally finished rereading the main series and these are my thoughts #dany who disagree just go make ur own post I'm not engaging with thoughtless stans. sry

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