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They say that great beasts once roamed this world, as big as mountains, yet all that’s left of them is bone and amber. Time undoes even the mightiest of creatures. Just look what it’s done to you.

One day, you will perish. You will lie with the rest of your kind in the dirt. Your dreams forgotten, your horrors effaced. Your bones will turn to sand. And upon that sand a new god will walk, one that will never die. Because this world doesn’t belong to you, or the people who came before. It belongs to someone who is yet to come.

[the-smiling-knight]

Do you think the Rogue Prince ala Daemon Targayen, would make good villain in a story?

He is a good villain in a story. The Dance of the Dragons didn’t exactly produce heroes, but Daemon stands out as a particularly dark figure in the histories.

Look at his closest parallel in the main story. He’s a charismatic, innovative commander. He causes trouble for his older brother and is exiled, so he goes east to become a pirate. He sexually exploits one relative, grooming Rhaenyra from childhood for a sexual relationship that starts before she comes of age, and sends assassins after another. He’s Euron, just lazier - a dragonrider doesn’t need to chase his dreams to fly.

Viserys I’s unorthodox decisions about succession actually make a lot of sense in context of Daemon’s malevolence. Viserys had refused to recognize Daemon as his heir and make him the prince of Dragonstone. Partly he must have been holding out hope for sons, but he also knew that his brother was bad news. Legally, though, that doesn’t really matter. From his ascension until Aemma’s death, when Viserys didn‘t have a son to succeed him, the Great Council’s precedent means that Daemon was his heir. Even if that were ambiguous, Daemon has military resources and the City Watch, so if he has any argument for a claim, there’s nothing stopping him. Wrangling all the lords in line to explicitly acknowledge Rhaenyra as the crown princess put someone between Daemon and the throne.

But if he never remarries and has a backup heir, she’s the only person between Daemon and the throne. Presumably he wants his daughter to outlive him by more than a couple of hours, so remarriage it is. When Aegon was born, he could have disinherited Rhaenyra for the sake of the Great Council’s precedent, but that defeats the purpose of having a spare, because those rules put an uncle before a daughter. His hands are pretty much tied until he has a second son, and by that point he’s been binding the lords to their oaths for years. Changing his mind would be tantamount to admitting that the whole thing was about his brother being a menace, which is going to strain relations with the lords just as it pokes the bear by pissing off both Daemon and Rhaenyra.

In hindsight, sure, Viserys underestimated the existential attachment the Andals had to patriarchy. To his mind, the Great Council was a one-off thing due to a lack of clarity and he had made himself perfectly clear. But in fairness to him, he was, consciously or unconsciously, acting consistently against the much more immediate threat of his brother on the throne. (IMO his big mistake was marrying into the Hightowers, who were strong enough to pose a real threat on behalf of one of their own. He should have found a second wife abroad or from among their Velaryon cousins.)

[the-smiling-knight]

There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man.

@theillusivewoman requested: asoiaf + favourite male character

[the-smiling-knight]

When I asked him what I should do now, he answered that he supposed I should die. To spite him, I resolved to live.

George R. R. Martin, A Clash of Kings (via the-winged-wolf-bran-stark)

[the-smiling-knight]

how do you think the tyrion and dany meeting will go? do you think it will be like the show or a bit different? (sorry if you've gotten this question before!!)

I don’t think it’ll be much like the show at all, to be honest. The circumstances are already radically different. In the show, Tyrion met Dany while the latter was still ensconced as Meereen’s ruler; in the books, she’ll already have had her sojourn with the Dothraki when they first meet. This in turn will change Dany’s mindset during that first encounter. She won’t be the uncertain queen caught between the needs of her people, the grind of politics, the threat of war, and her own personal desires. She’ll be an active conqueror, the Stallion Who Mounts the World, having embraced “fire and blood” at the end of ADWD. 

And book!Tyrion in no way resembles the increasingly stale quip machine of the show. Book!Tyrion is, well…“and the man breaks.” He really hasn’t worked through his demons; it’s true (and great!) that he no longer wants to kill himself, but what he’s choosing to live for is to unleash the Second Sons (who else?) on Casterly Rock to spite Dad’s shade. Moreover, his attitude towards Penny fully showcases the extent of his depression and how it’s affecting his relationship to the outside world. Instead of slowly imploding as he threatened to do at the beginning of ADWD, he’s decided to put his energies toward fulfilling the wish he made at his trial in ASOS: let me be the monster they think I am. 

All of which is to say that while I get the emotional appeal and structural logic of Dany and Tyrion helping each other, in their first meeting, achieve clarity and acceptance and a sense of purpose leading up to endgame…it really doesn’t seem like GRRM’s writing them that way, at least not right now. It looks more to me like they’re poised to encourage each other’s worst instincts, especially when it comes to the “mummer’s dragon.” Not for nothing does GRRM appear to be arranging things so that Tyrion’s the one to inform Dany about Aegon. 

It’s that, coupled with Jon having to both recover from his resurrection and deal with R+L=J, and with Aegon and Euron standing as stubborn obstacles to the final fight, which makes me think the three heads of the dragon won’t turn against the Others until well into ADOS. There’s a lot of character work and story material still to work through here, and I get the feeling that for these three characters specifically, the showdown with the Others will be more of an epiphany concluding that internal struggle than the focus of the struggle. After all, we’ll have Team Stannis and the younger Starklings (especially Bran) to hold fast against the army of the dead in the meantime. I see the dragonriders showing up like the cavalry, having pulled themselves back from the abyss ADWD so exquisitely arranges for them. 

[the-smiling-knight]

This is the most genius thing i’ve seen in years. Thank you happytoast.co.uk 💯

Part 2: http://fishcustardandclintbarton.tumblr.com/post/151342207597/happytoastcouk-has-been-doing-gods-work-again

[the-smiling-knight]

RARE HISTORIC PHOTOS WE MIGHT HAVEN’T YET SEEN

An Exotic Dancer Demonstrates That Her Underwear Was Too Large To Have Exposed Herself, After Undercover Police Officers Arrested Her In Florida

Dorothy Counts – The First Black Girl To Attend An All-White School In The United States – Being Teased And Taunted By Her White Male Peers At Charlotte’s Harry Harding High School, 1957

Austrian Boy Receives New Shoes During WWII

Jewish Prisoners After Being Liberated From A Death Train, 1945

The Graves Of A Catholic Woman And Her Protestant Husband, Holland, 1888

A Lone Man Refusing To Do The Nazi Salute, 1936

Job Hunting In 1930’s

German Soldiers React To Footage Of Concentration Camps, 1945

Residents Of West Berlin Show Children To Their Grandparents Who Reside On The Eastern Side, 1961

Acrobats Balance On Top Of The Empire State Building, 1934

Mafia Boss Joe Masseria Lays Dead On A Brooklyn Restaurant Floor Holding The Ace Of Spades, 1931

Lesbian Couple At Le Monocle, Paris, 1932

The Most Beautiful Suicide – Evelyn Mchale Leapt To Her Death From The Empire State Building, 1947

The Remains Of The Astronaut Vladimir Komarov, A Man Who Fell From Space, 1967

Race Organizers Attempt To Stop Kathrine Switzer From Competing In The Boston Marathon. She Became The First Woman To Finish The Race, 1967

Harold Whittles Hearing Sound For The First Time, 1974

Nikola Tesla Sitting In His Laboratory With His “Magnifying Transmitter” more

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Pat Charles

[the-smiling-knight]

All of Westeros’s Wars as Parties

The Long Night: The Long Night is a party that was so epic that it passed into myth. Everything crazy and amazing that could ever happen at a party happened there. Azor Ahai got so trashed that he was just lighting stuff on fire, the cops were called but couldn’t stop it, and no one quite remembers how it ends. Also, someone built a giant wall out of all the beer cans.

Aegon’s Conquest: Aegon, sick of everyone throwing their own parties and them being dull affairs, decides that there’s going to be one party for everyone to be at. He crashes everyone else’s party, kicks out the Ironborn who took over the Riverlander party, and everyone says yeah fine. Except for Dorne. Aegon keeps trying to wreck their party, but Dorne can party everywhere and anywhere. After some sabotage of each other’s parties, Aegon calls a truce.

The Dance of the Dragons: It’s looking like a cool party, but then two people start some shit and it gets crazy. Everyone starts taking sides and a big fight breaks out. Everything gets trashed and the furniture is replaced with cheaper, crappier stuff.

Daeron’s War of Dornish Conquest: Realizing that Westeros parties are shit now, Daeron crashes the Dornish party and says that now there’s the great party that Aegon wanted. Dorne doesn’t like it and another prank war begins. Eventually Dorne calls the cops on Daeron, which Westeros says is a dick move. Baelor says that Daeron crashing the Dornish party was also a dick move, and now the era of dick moves is over and done with.

The First Blackfyre Rebellions: Daeron II invites the Dornish to the party and says that they can pick the music so that everyone can party together. A bunch of people have beef with the Dornish, so they hang out with Daemon who wants to thrash. Eventually, those guys says Daeron can’t throw parties anymore, Daeron tries to stop Daemon from throwing his own party, someone steps on someone else’s shoe, and there’s another fight.

War of the Ninepenny Kings: Jaehaerys finds out that a bunch of Daemon’s old friends from the next town over are looking to crash the party and spray paint “Daemon rulez” over everything, so Westeros goes and crashes their party, and they roll about twenty deep. Barristan Selmy beats Maelys in arm wrestling and kegstands and everyone is like whoa.

Robert’s Rebellion: Rhaegar starts making moves on Lyanna and Brandon is like “Oh hell no.” Rhaegar sneaks off upstairs and Brandon is like: “That ain’t cool.” Aerys cracks Brandon over the head with a chair, then Rickard, then calls out Robert and Eddard. Jon goes: “Oh no you didn’t” and gets a posse together. There’s some fighting, eventually Rhaegar shows up and he and Robert duke it out. Eddard and Robert get pissed because Tywin jumped on the bandwagon and beat up everyone who was with Rhaegar even though they just with him because he gave them a ride. The hangover from this party lasts for fifteen years

War of the Five Kings: Joffrey is throwing a party, but everyone’s pissed because they don’t think he’s got a right to Robert’s stuff. Stannis knows that Robert’s stuff is his, Renly’s just shitty and wants it all, and Robb is just pissed at everyone so he says he’s throwing his own party. Stannis cuts the power at Renly’s place and his people party with Stannis, but the Tyrells go to the Lannister party and stop Stannis when he tries to crash Joff’s gig. The Greyjoys crash Robb’s party. Tywin calls the cops on Robb in an epic dick move. Euron starts dropping some serious LSD and spikes people’s drinks and now they are rolling balls. And far away, Dany’s been having a crazy party and doesn’t know where she got these three bitching tigers. She wants to crash the Westeros party but stuff keeps piling up, you know?

[the-smiling-knight]

Seeing you got a new follower…

…and noticing that it’s just yet another spam-porn-blog

[the-smiling-knight]

asoiaf meme (minor characters): 3/9 scenes ~ a dance with dragons, epilogue

“I thought the crossbow fitting. You shared so much with Lord Tywin, why not that? Your niece will think the Tyrells had you murdered, mayhaps with the connivance of the Imp. The Tyrells will suspect her. Someone somewhere will find a way to blame the Dornishmen. Doubt, division, and mistrust will eat the very ground beneath your boy king, whilst Aegon raises his banner above Storm’s End and the lords of the realm gather round him.”

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jaime talking about cersei in 6x08 [requested by anon]

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The Hunt for Sansa Stark: Hyle Hunt, Cersei Lannister, Jaime Lannister, Podrick Payne, Ser Shadrich, Randyll Tarly, Brienne of Tarth 

[the-smiling-knight]

Rich people showers

[the-smiling-knight]

I’ve seen a lot of curious people wanting to dive into classical music but don’t know where to start, so I have written out a list of pieces to listen to depending on mood. I’ve only put out a few, but please add more if you want to. hope this helps y’all out. :)

stereotypical delightful classical music:

battalia a 10 in d major (biber)

brandenburg concerto no. 5

brandenburg concerto no. 3

symphony no. 45 - “farewell” (haydn)

if you need to chill:

rondo alla turca

fur elise

anitra’s dance

in the steppes of central asia (borodin) (added by viola-ology)

if you need to sleep:

moonlight sonata

swan lake

corral nocturne

sleep (eric whitacre) (added by thelonecomposer)

if you need to wake up:

morning mood

summer (from the four seasons)

buckaroo holiday (if you’ve played this in orch you might end up screaming instead of waking up joyfully)

if you are feeling very proud:

pomp and circumstance

symphony no. 9 (beethoven; this is where ode to joy came from)

1812 overture

symphony no. 5, finale (tchaikovsky) (added by viola-ology)

american (dvořák)

if you feel really excited:

hoedown (copland)

bacchanale

spring (from the four seasons) (be careful, if you listen to this too much you’ll start hating it)

la gazza ladra

death and the maiden (schubert)

if you are angry and you want to take a baseball bat and start hitting a bush:

dance of the knights (from the romeo and juliet suite by prokofiev)

winter, mvt. 1 (from the four seasons)

symphony no. 10 mvt. 2 (shostakovich)

symphony no. 5 (beethoven)

totentanz (liszt)

quartet no. 8, mvt. 2 (shostakovich) (added by viola-ology)

young person’s guide to the orchestra, fugue (britten) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

symphony no. 5 mvt. 4 (shostakovich) (added by eternal-cadenza)

marche slave (tchaikovsky) (added by eternal-cadenza)

if you want to cry for a really long time:

fantasia based on russian themes (rimsky-korsakov)

adagio for strings (barber)

violin concerto in e minor (mendelssohn)

aase’s death

andante festivo

vocalise (rachmaninoff) (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)

if you want to feel like you’re on an adventure:

an american in paris (gershwin)

if you want chills:

danse macabre

russian easter overture

egmont overture (added by shayshay526)

if you want to study:

eine kleine nachtmusik

bolero (ravel)

serenade for strings (elgar)

scheherazade (rimsky-korsakov) (added by viola-ology)

pines of rome, mvt. 4 (resphigi) (added by viola-ology)

if you really want to dance:

capriccio espagnol (rimsky-korsakov)

blue danube

le cid (massenet) (added by viola-ology)

radetzky march

if you want to start bouncing in your chair:

hopak (mussorgsky)

les toreadors (from carmen suite no.1)

if you’re about to pass out and you need energy:

hungarian dance no. 1

hungarian dance no. 5

if you want to hear suspense within music:

firebird

in the hall of the mountain king

ride of the valkyries

night on bald mountain (mussorgsky) (added by viola-ology)

if you want a jazzy/classical feel:

rhapsody in blue

jazz suite no. 2 (shostakovich) (added by eternal-cadenza)

if you want to feel emotional with no explanation:

introduction and rondo capriccioso

unfinished symphony (schubert)

symphony no. 7, allegretto (beethoven) (added by viola-ology)

canon in d (pachelbel)

if you want to sit back and have a nice cup of tea:

st. paul’s suite

concerto for two violins (vivaldi)

l’arlésienne suite

concierto de aranjuez (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)

pieces that don’t really have a valid explanation:

symphony no. 40 (mozart)

cello suite no. 1 (bach)

polovtsian dances

enigma variations (elgar) (added by viola-ology)

perpetuum mobile

moto perpetuo (paganini)

pieces that just sound really cool:

scherzo tarantelle

dance of the goblins

caprice no. 24 (paganini)

new world symphony, allegro con fuoco (dvorak) (added by viola-ology​)

le tombeau de couperin (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)

carnival of the animals (added by shadowraven45662)

if you feel like listening to concertos all day (I do not recommend doing that):

concerto for two violins (bach)

concerto for two violins (vivaldi)

violin concerto in a minor (vivaldi)

violin concerto (tchaikovsky) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

violin concerto in d minor (sibelius) (added by eternal-cadenza)

cello concerto in c (haydn)

piano concerto, mvt. 1 (pierne) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

harp concerto in E-flat major, mvt. 1 (added by iwillsavemyworld)

and if you really just hate classical music in general:

4′33″ (cage)

a lot of these pieces apply in multiple categories, but I sorted them by which I think they match the most. have fun exploring classical music!

also, thank you to viola-ology, iwillsavemyworld, shayshay526, eternal-cadenza, tropicalmunchakoopas, shadowraven45662, and thelonecomposer for adding on! if you would like to add on your own suggestions, please reblog and add on or message me so I can give you credit for the suggestion!

[the-smiling-knight]

The Known World: destroyed peoples and empires 

Despite being destroyed, each of these fallen peoples and empires still have some impact on today’s world - whether through small amounts of survivors, a surviving distant bloodline, or a societal legacy. 

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We are not worthy.