Diet Culture People Make Me Feel Like Im Going Crazy. You Want Me To Take An Experimental Pill That Destroys

diet culture people make me feel like i’m going crazy. you want me to take an experimental pill that destroys my appetite?? you want me to remove part of my stomach??? you want me to stop eating bread and rice, two of the staple foods most inherent to humanity????? why exactly? because my stomach is big? because you don’t like the way i look, and you think it’s reasonable to tell me to carve pieces off of myself and try random drugs and ruin my own life so i can look more visually pleasing to you? and you somehow don’t see how absurdly cruel and selfish that is to ask of somebody???? while pretending you care about their HEALTH????????????????? FUCK YOU!!!!

Greens taking meleys' head and showing it off in the city is another one of the examples how they are more hightower than targaryen, how they did more damage to the targaryen legacy than any other despite having the name 'targaryen' attached to their names, because dragons are pride of the house targaryen and a real targaryen would never do this, instead show respect to what made them even if it was from the opposing party. This is symbolic, just another way to say that neither aegon nor aemond belong on the throne and never will.

this man has the only correct opinion about this tv series.

HBO's Continued Insistence on Dumbing Down Westerosi Politics

So there have been countless thinkpieces already on how GOT simplified the feudalist politics of Westeros (by giving a lowborn sellsword lordship over The Reach, by having no consequences for destroying the Sept of Baelor, etc.), but I haven't seen a lot of people talking about that for House of the Dragon.

The worst being that the show presupposes that Rhaenyra is the lawful heir when the books showed there are plenty of lawful arguments why she wouldn't be.

Mind you that I've been enjoying the show a lot so far. This is just to vent out my frustration with the writers' failure to fully engage with the values and protocols of the Middle Age-inspired setting. The show seems uninterested in laws of the Realm in a story ostensibly about politics, save for when they're using it as an excuse to amplify depictions of sex and violence.

Blacks vs Greens wasn't a matter of misunderstanding of who each side thought Viserys wanted on the throne. It was the Targaryens' belief of their absolute authority clashing with the Realm's established traditions. Everyone always knew who Viserys chose as heir. In Fire and Blood, Grand Maester Orwyle said as much when he was parleying with Rhaenyra on behalf of the Greens.

Rhaenyra heard his terms in stony silence, then asked Orwyle if he remembered her father, King Viserys. "Of course, Your Grace," the maester answered. "Perhaps you can tell us who he named as his heir and successor," the queen said, her crown upon her head. "You, Your Grace," Orwyle replied. And Rhaenyra nodded and said, "With your own tongue you admit I am your lawful queen. Why do you serve my half-brother, the pretender?" Munkun tells us that Orwyle gave a long and erudite reply, citing the Andal law and the Great Council of 101. Mushroom claims he stammered and voided his bladder. Whichever is true, his answer did not satisfy Princess Rhaenyra.

(For non-F&B readers: Munkun is the Grand Maester who served Aegon III, the king who came after this civil war. Munkun's book, The Dance of the Dragons, A True Telling, is one of Fire and Blood's source texts. Mushroom is the King Landing court jester from Viserys I to Aegon III's reign. One is a source written with academic rigor but is secondhand at best. The other is a firsthand eyewitness account but is from a literal fool who will take every chance to make things more scandalous and sexual to please the crowd.)

In House of the Dragon, they replaced Orwyle with Otto and Orwyle's discussion of legal precedent with Otto handing Rhaenyra a book page from Alicent. It's quite evident here that the writers, much like Mushroom, thought a discussion on the actual laws of the Realm were negligible in this story about a succession war.

Even Alicent made no pretense that Viserys chose Rhaenyra over her children and I have no idea why the HBO writers decided to make her mistakenly think otherwise. Maybe they thought a queen regent pushing her son to take the throne over another woman made her appear unsympathetic as a character, but if anything, this only makes show!Alicent less politically savvy and more delusional than her book counterpart, fully believing an addled king's vague muttering on his deathbed was sufficient grounds to change heirs last minute.

Book!Alicent following Andal laws instead of her husband's wishes makes sense given her Andal upbringing, her devotion to the Faith of the Seven which enforces said laws, and her desire to protect her children from Rhaenyra given that Rhaenyra has shown she's not above murdering family (see: Laenor).

In the books, there was a long discussion between the former king's council on who should succeed Viserys.

Here are the arguments for Rhaenyra:

Rhaenyra was older than her brothers and had more Targaryen blood

the late king had chosen her as his successor, that he had repeatedly refused to alter the succession despite the pleadings of Queen Alicent and her greens

hundreds of lords and landed knights had done obeisance to the princess in 105 AC, and sworn solemn oaths to defend her rights.

Here are the arguments for Aegon II:

many of the lords who had sworn to defend the succession of Princess Rhaenyra were long dead [...]

Ironrod, the master of laws, cited the Great Council of 101 and the Old King’s choice of Baelon rather than Rhaenys in 92

the hallowed Andal tradition wherein the rights of a trueborn son always came before the rights of a mere daughter

Ser Otto reminded them that Rhaenyra’s husband was none other than Prince Daemon, and “we all know that one’s nature. Make no mistake, should Rhaenyra ever sit the Iron Throne, it will be Lord Flea Bottom who rules us, a king consort as cruel and unforgiving as Maegor ever was [...]”

Should the princess reign [...] Jacaerys Velaryon would rule after her. “Seven save this realm if we seat a bastard on the Iron Throne.”

Once again, the show chose to cut out this long political discussion. Instead, the council had already made up their mind and decided to stage a coup (when in their perspectives from the books, it would definitely not be a coup).

For all their marketing how two sides are equally grey, HotD is actively delegitimizing Aegon II. The strongest argument for him is how his claim follows the laws of the Realm, but the show doesn't care about the laws of the Realm. They didn't even cast a master of laws.

Instead, the show focuses on Viserys's relationship with his daughter and the mysticism of the Targaryen bloodline. In doing so, they emphasize Rhaenyra's strongest arguments for succession — that she's more of a Targaryen than her half-brother and that her father prefered her.

And what for? Because in our modern-day, we don't have male-prefered inheritance and people can only imagine misogyny as the only injustice here? What about the injustice of a monarch exercising absolute control, thinking that his "superior" heritage makes him above the established laws of the native people?

This is not to say Aegon II is unquestionably the heir. Precedence isn't the end-all-be-all of succession.

But this is to say that the show removed the political nuance of why people are questioning in the first place. By glossing over the boring bits of social world-building and historical precedents in favor of salacious scandals and shoehorning a magical prophecy justifying the Targaryens' right to rule, they follow in the steps of the fool Mushroom instead of Fire and Blood as a whole.

today's vetted fundraisers. please please continue sharing and donating in whatever capacity you can. your help is giving life and hope to those in the direst circumstances.

june 27th:

Basel Ayyad and his family of eight, including his sick daughter whose condition is worsening due to lack of treatment (CHF1,120/CHF60,000) - @basel-1995, verified by @/sayruq

Ahmed Al-Nabih and his family of four (€1,108/€30,000) - @ahmedalnabeeh11, #218 on @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi's list

Nesma Ahmed and her family of 12, including several children and her severely injured father ($64,648/$80,000) - @nesmamomen, verified by @/nabulsi

Randa Abubakr's family of six, including two disabled members (€19,440/€35,000) - @rnd8, verified by @/newsfrom-theworld

Muhammed Al-Azayza and family, including a young child with Down syndrome (kr6,161 SEK/kr200,000 SEK) - @hamouda-az, verified by @/sayruq

Ruba Abushaban and family, including her sick father who urgently needs medical treatment (€26,000/€100,000) - @rubashabansblog, verified by @/nabulsi

Wafaa's family of 15, including several children and a newborn (they just lost her young niece) (€18,801/€50,000) - @wafs-posts, verified by @/palipunk

14-year-old Malk Al Zaeem, her three siblings, their parents, and their sick grandfather ($16,521 CAD/$50,000 CAD) - @malkzaeem, @yosofzaeem, verified by @/nabulsi

Momen Alostaz's family of ten, including his chronically ill parents and a newborn (€12,424/€70,000) - @mo98h, verified by @/sayruq

Nedaa and her elderly parents (£3,934/£15,000) - @nedaapales, verified by @/90-ghost

Hadeel Adnan Abu Nasser and her family of 12 (they've lost her father and her brother) (€993/€20,000) - @hadeelgaza, verified by @/90-ghost

Siraj Abudayeh, his wife, and their three children ($668 CAD/$82,000 CAD) - @siraj2024, verified by @/sar-soor

Basma Alghoul, her husband, and their three young children (kr7,001 SEK/kr400,000 SEK) - @basmaalghoul, verified by @/nabulsi

not yet vetted:

Yasmin Albalawi, her five siblings, their chronically ill parents, and five nephews and nieces (€4,999/€50,000) - @yasminalbalawi, more details from @/mangocheesecakes

Mohammed Ismaeel, his two younger sisters, and their parents (€5/€25,000) - @mohammedismaeel

every effort counts, no matter how small it may seem to you. whatever you can contribute is urgently needed and extremely valuable. let's keep putting in all we can for these families.

See also, "We're in a drought; conserve water!" Meanwhile, bottled water companies and golf courses for rich folk empty the aquifers.