Dont--rain-on-my-parade - Nell With Double L - Tumblr Blog

POV characters: AFFC

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[agot]

[acok]

[asos]

me sitting down to discuss asoiaf with targaryen criticals, sansa understanders, theon enthusiasts, elia lovers, rhaegar haters, cersei scholars, stannisdavos girls and infertile conqueror truthers

one egregious thing the game of thrones show misses out on is that the stark kids are CONSTANTLY thinking abt each other!! there isn’t like a single POV chapter from any of them where they don’t long for their siblings!! Jon wants to have a son and name him Robb!! Bran wants to be a bird so him and his siblings can live in a nest together!! Sansa prays for her siblings every night and makes the Winterfell castle and then gets upset bc there’s no one to throw snow at!! Needle IS Jon!! Arya’s list is her own prayer for her siblings, she doesn’t care that Joffrey is dead bc Robb is too!! Every single one of them believes that their big brother will come to save them!! there’s sm love and tenderness there and GOT missed out on lots of it bc it tries too hard for the grimdark angle without realising that the center of the stark’s story is their love for each other. anyways.

i agree with your last post wayyyy too much. i can’t do jon snow haters or people who say that dany had every right to burn down kings landing because they k!lled her best friend. okay??? what about the thousands of innocents. she had a whole army, she could have just gone for cersei or been an actual leader and not taken revenge on her own ‘people’. like??? also if you support jamie lannister being a king slayer and k!lling aerys to save thousands of lives (which ill assume most of the fandom does) then jon did the exact same thing. yes they both ‘betrayed’ people they served but it saved thousands of lives.

my only argument in dany’s defense is she should have never gone ‘mad’. the writers should have never made her get on dragon back and burn down an entire city, but since she did, then she has got to GO.

The thing is, is that the burning of Kings Landing has been a LONG existing prediction by book readers of what Dany will do once she reaches Westeros. It has been theorized for YEARS before Benioff and Weiss were likely ever told about the books planned ending beats.

But, it won't be because she's mad. It will be a calculated move on purpose, no madness, just self righteous justification that because they didn't want her as Queen, they should die.

In the show, Dany has posed this multiple times. Dany in the show over the years does NOT hesitate to say she wants to burn cities to the ground, make her enemies die screaming, and has routinely posed situations where her options are literally bend the knee or die.

For example, this is a snippet of dialouge from season 8 after she burned Kings Landing and one million people with it.

Jon: "What about everyone else? All the other people who think they know what's good." Dany: "They don't get to choose."

This sounds extremely like something Dany says to Jorah in season 4 when he informs her that the masters have disregarded her laws almost as soon as she left Yunkai.

Dany: "He will tell the masters what has happened in Meereen. He will explain the choice they have before them. They can live in my new world or they can die in their old one."

This is the exact same scenario. You either live in Dany's world exactly as she dictates it, or you die.

There is no actual choice she is giving the masters, it is her way or death. Exactly like she plans to do to the rest of Westeros. Season 8 was not out of character.

Jorah says in this very scene that it is tempting to always see your opposition as evil, but that by always treating those who oppose you as such, it is the good and innocent who will get caught in the crossfire, and she says that she has no interest in entertaining what other people think is good and evil, she does as she sees fit.

One Barristan dies, she leads whats left of the leaders of noble houses to where her dragons are locked away, and lets one burn a man alive with abosutely no proof these men had anything to do with it as a threat that she will do the same to them. Again, with no proof that the masters or noble houses of Mereen have ANY relation to the Sons of the Harpy.

Upon a rewatch, one will find Dany says a LOT of very concerning things that foreshadow whats to come. This is going to happen, this was always going to happen. Dany was not going to burn the Red Keep, because thats the castle her family built with the throne her family created. Its the symbol of everything she wants and thinks she's entitled too.

But the people? These people who in the show and likely books, will not see kindly to this foreign occupier who uses her dragons to scare people into submission and will not yeild their Queen or King to her? Well, they are in her way. They refuse to join her new world, so they die in their old one. She doesn't need the people of one city to take the throne as long as theres still a throne to sit upon.

Dany routinely sees evil in her enemies with no grey area. Jon, otherwise is a man who looked his enemy in the eye (lord commander of the nights watch who betrayed them as a spy up against the wildlings he spied on and defeated in battle), and said (paraphrasing) "We don't have to be friends, but you, your children, and your children's children all deserve to survive. Let me protect you."

When everyone hated him for it. But he did it because it was the right thing to do. Jon has always given men at their worst chances at redemption. Thats what the Nights Watch is, so many of them were criminals, murderers, rapists, but Jon lets them prove they are better then their worst parts and only punishes with due justice when they commit the re offending behavior. Jon doesn't kill Karl Tanner in a brutal way beacuse he likes it, he only killed him like that when his back was turned, because Karl was about to kill the innocent girl who helped Jon by stabbing Karl in the back when he had Jon pinned.

Dany has no right to burn down Kings Landing, there is no excuse for it. But she will not beacuse she is forced too, or by accident, or through madness. No, it will be a calculated, purposeful decision that she will choose to do this, because thats how she has chosen to commit every atrocity she's ever done, which when you tally it up, is shocking and disturbingly high.

It was a massacre of extreme proportions that she was proud of. Wheras Jon felt extreme guilt for not saving every free folk when the army of the dead massacred Hardhome, when that was completely out of his control or power, and when he still in fact, saved over 5000 lives of what was supposed to be his greatest enemy.

The completely unbelievable joke of a romance aside, the Jon we know would not have hesitated to kill her. That is one million lives she murdered in the most brutal fashion because she didn't get what she wanted.

But we know why Jon would want to kill her for it, beacuse she answered the very question he posed in season five in the most terrifying way possible.

Jon: "Isn't their survival more important than your pride?"

Dany said no, and massacred the very same people Jon has been trying to save for years. I was being factious when I said Jon should've killed her harder, but it's still true. Dany in the show became exactly what the books are leading up to. But people were tricked through the framing that beacuse Dany thinks shes the world's main character, that she's always in the right, when she very often isn't.

It was always coming, and it was never out of character, beacuse Dany was always this way. At the burning of Kings Landing, she finally just allowed herself to be honest about it.

Jon was right to kill her for committing the exact mass slaughter that Jaime killed Aerys II for being about to commit.

The Targaryeans are fire and blood, and they paid the price for it.

They’re so chaotic and fun together and I need more

Posted by Steven Payne to Facebook group British Medieval History:

People in the Middle Ages valued sweet smelling breath and bodies, seeing them as desirable, so there is a great deal of evidence from the period of tooth pastes, powders and deodorants. Contrary to the typical Hollywood depiction of medieval peasants with blackened and rotting teeth, the average person had teeth which were in fairly good condition, mainly due to the rarity of sugar in the diet. Most medieval people could not afford sugar and those who could used it sparingly. Archaeological data shows that only 20% of teeth had signs of decay, as opposed to 90% in the early twentieth century. The main dental problem for medieval people was not decay but wear, due to a high content of grit in the main staple, bread. For deodorants, soap was available for the wealthy, but a variety of herbs and other preparations were also used. Soapwort is a plant native to Europe and Asia which, when soaked in water, produces an effective liquid soap. Mint, cloves and thyme were also extensively used by simply rubbing into the skin, and alum (hydrated potassium aluminium sulphate) was an effective deodorant. I am trying to keep to 14th century technology on my pilgrimage to Canterbury, which gives me various options when looking at hygiene. In the middle ages people generally cleaned their teeth by rubbing them and their gums with a rough linen cloth, or the chewed end of a stick. There are various recipes for pastes and powders that could be put on the cloth to help clean the teeth, but I have chosen simple salt to whiten them and to aid fresh breath. I will also be using the stick method, and will be taking along a supply of liquorice root sticks for that purpose. I also have a few blocks of alum, which when rubbed into wet skin has a deodorising effect. Alum, like beeswax, was used extensively in the middle ages for a variety of purposes, also being useful: * in the purification of drinking water as a flocculant * as a styptic to stop bleeding from minor cuts * as a pickling agent to help keep pickles crisp * as a flame retardant * as an ingredient in modelling clay * as an ingredient in cosmetics and skin whiteners * as an ingredient in some brands of toothpaste The photograph shows my wash kit including home made olive oil soap, salt for the teeth, a block of deodorising alum, cloves, a boxwood comb made for me by Peter Crossman of Crossman Crafts and some liquorice root sticks, all on a woollen ‘towel’. Note that the cloves are kept in a ventilated box….this is because insects hate the smell of cloves and so a perforated box will keep them out of my kit and food bag when I am sleeping rough. TIP: If you steep some cloves to obtain the oil and put the liquid around the doors and windows of your house, it keeps spiders and insects out.

I spoke about this on twitter, so I will speak about it here as well. I've had issues with making Rhaena and Baela (and Laena) black because I felt that the show very much underutilized them as characters and essentially made the plot devices for Daemon and Rhaenyra without giving them agency outside of those two. In general, their presences are heavily reduced to make them building blocks for the whit characters.

So this issue with Nettles’s arc being given to Rhaena is even more unsettling because these two are both Black women, who deserve their own separate narratives. This thing where they make characters Black only to reduce their plot importance is already insulting enough, but ruining storylines for two Black women is just lazy and disrespectful.

Rhaena deserves her own narrative. She deserves to be the last Targ woman who was able to hatch a dragon egg before Daenerys, her connection to Daenerys is supposed to be prophetical, so let it be. Let her have her own character and her own arc. They are both the mother of dragons, so let's not suddenly forget that. And having a Black woman as the predecessor to that title is important.

Nettles deserves to exist. Don’t erase a Black woman’s whole existence just to lazily slap it on another one who has an established arc. It's important to showcase a non-targ able to actually ride a dragon and tame one and to also show her importance to the Dance. She is a player even if she doesn't have Valaryian blood in her. And she is Black! That is important too.

Black characters shouldn’t be interchangeable, and making a character Black shouldn’t come at the expense of completely ruining the plot or taking away their agency in a narrative sense. 

I spoke about this on twitter, so I will speak about it here as well. I've had issues with making Rhaena and Baela (and Laena) black because I felt that the show very much underutilized them as characters and essentially made the plot devices for Daemon and Rhaenyra without giving them agency outside of those two. In general, their presences are heavily reduced to make them building blocks for the whit characters.

So this issue with Nettles’s arc being given to Rhaena is even more unsettling because these two are both Black women, who deserve their own separate narratives. This thing where they make characters Black only to reduce their plot importance is already insulting enough, but ruining storylines for two Black women is just lazy and disrespectful.

Rhaena deserves her own narrative. She deserves to be the last Targ woman who was able to hatch a dragon egg before Daenerys, her connection to Daenerys is supposed to be prophetical, so let it be. Let her have her own character and her own arc. They are both the mother of dragons, so let's not suddenly forget that. And having a Black woman as the predecessor to that title is important.

Nettles deserves to exist. Don’t erase a Black woman’s whole existence just to lazily slap it on another one who has an established arc. It's important to showcase a non-targ able to actually ride a dragon and tame one and to also show her importance to the Dance. She is a player even if she doesn't have Valaryian blood in her. And she is Black! That is important too.

Black characters shouldn’t be interchangeable, and making a character Black shouldn’t come at the expense of completely ruining the plot or taking away their agency in a narrative sense. 

Rhaenyra’s genuinely an unlikable character when you really get to the root of it. Not because she’s coddled, arrogant and entitled, but because aside from that she’s so…boring. She has no unique traits or qualities that make her really stand out, we don’t really know her true motives or intentions behind anything outside of just being short sited and mistakenly believing her position as heir will be enough to shield her from consequences and her complacency fueled by arrogance.

Plus we don’t really know the reasons behind wanting to rule outside of “i will be queen because daddy says so”. Why does she want to be queen? What kind of ruler does she intend to be? What legacy did she wish to leave behind? Entitlement aside, without these things being made clear, it’s impossible to really root for her when you don’t know what they intend to do or stand for as a ruler.

Part of the problem is that we’re often told that she would complain about her duties but we are never shown her actually doing so or told why she does it either, which is a major issue with hotd as a whole. Too much telling but not enough showing to add context to situations, especially when the context was present in the source material.

In comparison, we are shown glimpses of what lead to alicent being how she was in later years which made me gravitate to her more though i have some grievances with her character, i don’t find her boring because we at least have some understanding of her character. Meanwhile rhaenyra just gives the impression of “I’m technically the protagonist so you’re supposed to like me” which…is honestly not something i can blame on her as a character entirely but on bad writing.

"if you're team green you're team underdog"

yep. always have been. always will be.

One thing I find interesting about team black vs team green is that whenever team green talks about how Blood and Cheese was wrong, team black blows up their comments saying “an eye for an eye and a son for a son.” But the thing is… team black never was an eye for an eye. That’s the whole point. They never give back what they take. Had Rhaenyra or Viserys tried to make amends with Aemond over what Lucereys did to him, had Lucereys apologized and actually stopped mocking Aemond, things may have ended differently. If team black is so strong about a son for a son then they should understand Alicent’s demand that Lucereys eye be put out as well. As someone who is team neutral it feels like team black proves time and time again that they believe they are entitled to everything and are shocked when their actions have consequences.

BRUH THE HATE WITHIN HOTD NEEDS TO STOP!

Look, I know this will prob get me hate. But, can't we both agree on the following regardless of who's team we are on :

not giving giving death threats / hate / etc. to actors and other members of the fandom!

both Team Green and Team Black have done bad things in the Dance of the Dragons

innocent people got hurt in the conflict

and it was the biggest and most stupidest fight for a throne made of swords!

Bruh, I just want us to all simp over hot Targs in peace!

Plus, the actor ( of whatever character you hate ) does not deserve this. Look what ya'll did to poor Jack Gleeson who played Joffrey Baratheon. He got SOOOOOO much hate that he completely dropped of the public eye for a few years.

PRAISE THE ACTOR FOR DOING A GOOD JOB IN MAKING THESE HATEABLE CHARACTER'S SO HATEABLE!

I am a graphic designer by education and profession. Looking for modifications and manipulations in graphics is my hobby. You can see the most in graphics when they are properly exposed. For example, using the exposure tool in Photoshop. I set the sliders to: first one: + 13.65, second one: +0.0096, third one: +1.65 and this is what my eyes saw.

Each application has its own way of encoding images and text. Here, apparently, when writing text, the application created transparent rectangular frames under each text, which you can clearly see below.

But I noticed something strange in some screenshots. Text without such borders. Text I think was added in a graphics program. There are only pixels around it.

Here, in turn, I noticed a different relationship. When the text comes from the original screenshot, the pixels around the text surround the text so that it floats on long letters like "d,t,l,b,k". However, somehow magically in others, the pixels around them are perfectly even and take the shape of a rectangle.

These screenshots come from the wonderful houseoftheassholes.

Now let's look at the couple of screenshots Em published. You can clearly see after I overexposed the area that she blurred in the program to obscure the data. Apart from that? Clean screenshot in very good quality. Eveything looks the same.

In graphics, nothing happens without a reason. The applications are created automatically and operate on the basis of numbers and calculations. They don't make mistakes, it's impossible for one text to be displayed one way and another another.

I haven't checked all the screenshots because I don't have the strength to do it anymore. I just felt that as a graphic designer I owed it to everyone to check it out.

No one told me to do this or asked me to do it. This is my personal opinion on my personal blog. I leave it to you to decide what you think about it.

You should post the full screenshots, in light of everything that has happened. Not to start drama, but people should know who not to continue having a relationship with on here and block. The community feels so unsafe now that we know anyone you are talking to could be laughing at you on discord or doxxing you on social media. I only come to tumblr for the hotd fandom and it just seems to get worse here every month.

Hello, anon.

I was going to let this lie, truly I was. I was reached out to by the person behind the comments made approximately half an hour after posting, an exchange in which I was gaslighted and levied with implied threats in a style I am very much familiar with from this person. I did, however, state that I would not escalate matters without provocation. Learning about past events, while upsetting, is not a new provocation.

That has changed upon learning that my good friend Ange, @ewanmitchellcrumbs, has been receiving screenshots of specific things these users have been saying in a group chat with originally six members, now five, via burner accounts. Presumably, this is the efforts of one/two members trying to deflect from what Ange has learned about @rafeism's doxxing efforts by suggesting it was another member in the group responsible. And in the last hour, burner accounts have been attempting to share very obviously doctored screenshots attempting to assign mean-spirited comments about other writers in the community to Ange. I believe this is the work of one or both of the original two people I called out in this post, and I strongly suspect that my answering this ask will invite continued instances of this behaviour or even a direct public post incorporating edited screenshots to defame us and divert from accountability. And finally, I was informed via anon that a lawyer would come after me on the basis of lies and misrepresentation, which is a direct threat and something I will not abide.

I said I was going to expose it all if I learned of any fresh fuckery. And alas, I have. This was asked for, and now my hands are tied.

My original post was about Bel, otherwise known as @succnfuccubus or @valeskafics, and Fae, @eyelinerandcigarettes or @barbiedragon, both of whom have been historically prominent figures in the House of the Dragon fanfiction community on Tumblr.

In July of last year, Bel made a commentary post criticising fanfiction writers who did not write anal intercourse with an appropriate amount of attention paid to preparation. This was perceived to be an attack against another fanfiction writer with whom she had noted enmity at the time, @arcielee, who had written a fanfiction work that arguably did or did not meet this criteria. I do not know and cannot claim expertise on this, as @arcielee and I have mutually blocked each other some time ago. What I do know is that several of @arcielee's mutuals observed the possibility that Bel's post was about this fic; the user Cal, @bucknastysbabe or @bnb-atnite, despite having had absolutely no prior connection to Bel, decided to call her out in a public post for it. Ange, with no context other than thinking a mutual of hers (Bel) had been targeted by this user, defended Bel, believing at the time that the post was not aimed at this writer or at any specific writer she was aware of.

This prompted Cal to divert her attention from Bel and turn it toward Ange, claiming that she had been told by "dozens of people" that Ange was quote-unquote toxic and abusive, claiming to have screenshots of this though she never shared proof, and essentially spending a good several hours (the specificity of which I can no longer recall, though it was certainly over the span of 24+ hours) responding to asks that 'came forward' with incredibly inappropriate commentary about Ange's personal life and friendships under the guise of "exposing her", without however actually committing to concrete proof beyond this. I will note that several of these posts discussed the nature of Ange's marriage to her husband and outright stated that Ange was parasocially fixated on Ewan Mitchell, without proof of this. I was a peripheral target of this, though it was clear the issue was with Ange specifically. This seemed to be the efforts of a few isolated users with personal grudges against her, masquerading as anonymous users to create the perception that this toxicity was widespread. I still do not know what prompted this explosive behaviour, and have absolutely no interest in hearing from this user directly to find out.

All in all, this served to bring Bel, Ange and I together, and we created a group chat on Discord on the 26th of July 2023 so that we could discuss the effects of this effort.

Fae was added a day later, as a close friend of Bel's and an ongoing mutual of both mine and Ange. Fae had previously had a conflict with another user named Shruie over her perception that Shruie had borrowed elements of her story writing to create her own works. Shruie received hate over this, which Fae had previously stated to me was not her work. Shruie went to Cal's blog, submitted an ask publicly slandering her and us by association, and thus it was decided that Fae would join the group too.

This group originally revolved around venting over the ongoing effects of Cal's decision to publicly slander us, and the fallout of this. We received a few hate anons and several people unfollowed or distanced themselves from us all because of it, and we were all understandably angry and upset about this. This anger is justified, and I absolutely still maintain that.

However, I and others in the writing community learned that Shruie had received a number of anons with racist connotations, specifically that she had been called a 'paki' and sent rat emojis. I still am not aware of the culprit behind the 'paki' anon, but Bel herself admitted to sending the rat emojis to Shruie:

I would like to note that Fae reacted to this with the react.

I did not call this out. I should have. But given that Bel was capable of this, the idea of addressing her behaviour directly made me nervous, and so I ignored this revelation and tried to cling to the hope that if I concentrated on building closer friendships with these two women, the hate Cal was levying would die down. Eventually, it did.

However, the vitriol these two women would participate in over the course of the months we identified as 'friends' was nothing short of ugly. They did not want to speak about writing-related topics at all; the entirety of their conversation revolved around making inappropriate and at times downright nasty comments about other writers in the community, many of whom I was completely unaware of. A great deal of the time, I would ask who someone was, as I did not know them at all. Other times, I would 'lol' at a comment to further the conversation along, and I will admit to also participating in some unkind venting about people I feel had been unfair to myself or to Ange. I have already reached out to these people specifically and apologised for this behaviour, as it does not reflect who I am as a person.

Further complicating things, Bel shared the private details of a user whom we had all blocked due to her association with Cal, including the sharing of her full legal name and her private social media account. I have screenshotted this and redacted heavily as evidence it exists, but I do not wish for this information to be known public. I have already initiated conversations privately with this person to provide them evidence.

I need to be clear. This is a crime. The ONLY fortunate thing about this matter is that this information was shared specifically to Ange, Fae and I, and Ange nor I are the type of person to have acted upon the sharing of this information. To this user, I am sorry I did not reach out before now. I am sorry that I allowed our previous longstanding enmity to fuel my inaction. To this user, I promise that my knowledge of your real name or social media presence will not be revealed to anyone. I have not shared this information in any way whatsoever, though you are already aware I have spoken to a close friend of yours and asked them to pass the bare facts forward to you.

Even worse, Bel has also shared this person's image and mocked her physical appearance, which again I have a redacted screenshot of:

During the months in which I was friends with Bel and Fae, I was influenced to believe in several untruths. First of all, Ange and I were informed by Bel that a user we shall call E had deliberately chosen to speed-write a fanfiction work about Ettore in order to post it before Ange could finish her Ettore series as a means to 'drown out' her update. This fact had originally made Ange upset enough to complain without naming E directly in my public Discord server, something which spurred E to receive numerous hate anons and spark the conflict that I currently believe eventually spiralled into Cal's decision to publicly slander us. I requested evidence of this from Bel while I was writing a public post about it, so I could attach evidence. I should have known that her inability to provide it was a problem.

I was influenced to believe that another user, @targaryen-dynasty, had created her server as a means to spread inappropriate rumours about me and Ange to her mutuals. I created a falsified Discord account and joined her server to see if this fact was true; when I failed to find evidence of this after a period of time, I exited the server. I have already apologised to Laura for this, and freely admit it was stupid of me to do so. She has not engaged in inappropriate commentary about me on her server and I am happy to publicly share this. We have mended bridges, and moved on. I have also apologised to Sam, @randomdragonfires, for being unkind about her in response to Fae's upset that she had written a Daemon fanfiction work. There are many people I have been unkind about that I earnestly wish I had not been, and I have done my best to apologise for these things.

What I have not done is engage in the following.

I have a number of screenshots wherein these two women admit to sending anonymous hate messages to various users. I have reached out to who I can to provide them unredacted versions, but I will be redacting names for privacy reasons. These are throughout and as I have a photo limit, I cannot provide every single one. Here is an example:

I wish to also share the further evidence I have of racial escalations from these two women against a writer of German heritage. I have reached out to this user to share directly, but will redact the name for privacy reasons.

There are numerous instances of further hate to many, many writers. To those of you who suspect you may have had comments made about you, I invite you to reach out to me in private if you wish to know exactly what has been said. To those of you who I have already informed, I am deeply sorry I allowed myself to be silent.

Over the course of this 'friendship', I began to pull away from the internet. I barely interacted online, even with Ange, who is one of my absolute best friends on here. I did not write at all. I couldn't. I was paranoid, anxious, full of anger and fear. I was ruined. Fandom was ruined. These women ruined me. I watched on from a distance as Ange began to grow distant with Fae and Bel in the group chat, as it had been MONTHS and they were still behaving in the exact same angry, bitter way they had when they first joined the group chat. Ange grew increasingly frustrated because Bel had commenced a pattern of using Ange's content to heavily inspire her own.

It all came to a head when Bel learned that her 'enemies', Jo and Karina, had unblocked E and @arcielee and mended bridges. She decided to do the same, and in doing so apparently informed E that Ange was at fault for any and all conflict that had occurred, and I presume any and all hate anons that had been sent to E. Ange learned this because E reached out to her and sent a barrage of furious messages telling her that Bel had 'told her the truth', which Ange was completely bewildered by. Here is the exchange that effectively ended the group chat:

You will note that Bel's story is different here. I do not have screenshots verifying what Bel specifically told Ange the conversation was about, as it was a private conversation. If Ange wishes to add to this and bring this conversation up specifically, she is invited to do so.

Not long after this, seeing little point, I ejected Fae from the group and decided to leave it for the time being. You see, after learning this last fact as above, I had a very unfortunate suspicion that things were going to turn sour for us. I was right, and boy am I glad I have the evidence to dismantle the lies that have been told about us.

For a time, we existed in limbo. Bel and Fae and Ange and I had a series of lukewarm interactions that were largely brief in nature. I think we all knew that the friendship was about to come to an end. 

Then, Ange reblogged an opinion post about her dislike of the bimbo trope being used for Michael Gavey fics, believing many examples of this to be an incorrect and wildly offensive representation of what writers thought was the ‘bimbo’ trope. This prompted Cal to go on another rampage, ugly and public, and one I will not post screenshots of because let’s face it, everyone is aware that it occurred. I do have them, though. I can provide them if anyone insists. She spent further time calling Ange out for being ‘toxic’, eventually having it die down when her posts failed to gain much attention. I did hit out at a few of her mutuals who tried to claim for some reason that Ange was a racist (?) because she expressed worry about Ewan attending a Con, and hoped his fans wouldn’t behave inappropriately to him. I digress. Irrelevant. The result of this all was that Bel, without warning or notice, reached out to Cal to ‘make amends’, despite having gone through all the above. Despite the fact that she was supposedly friends with Ange, who had had her marriage, her life mocked and insulted by this woman. Over what? A perception that Ange was insulting her for her love of the bimbo trope. 

Ange told Bel directly that she wasn’t a fan of it but that she didn’t care either way that Bel wrote it if it made her happy, and Bel told her this was fine. Bel choosing to befriend Cal was something Ange and I felt was a massive, massive betrayal. We blocked Bel, and we moved on.

This was one of my final interactions with Fae:

I ended up blocking Fae because I learned she unfollowed me, and I presumed it was because of her friendship with Bel. I knew what Fae was like, didn’t want her to have access to my anon inbox, and so I blocked. For a very brief time, things were somewhat approaching peaceful. Until I started learning that people I barely associated with were being targeted. I learned that @marthawrites had been blocked by Chris and from her, that Bel/Fae/Cal/Chris had made reference to a quote-unquote “frightening degree of hatred” for me and Ange. From her, I also learned that Bel evidently had a burner she used to “camp out” on my blog and make screenshots of everything I said so she could mock it in her group chat. She did the same to Ange. I received a number of strange or unkind anons during this period, and so I can only speculate as to the person involved. I also learned that Bel has a habit of calling me “pedo” or “Pedo Em”, which I can only assume has something to do with the fact that my main character in my fanfiction is 17 when she is married. In A Song of Ice and Fire, this is tame.

I was deeply upset to learn this, and I made a vague-post. Within hours, I received the anon from this post, prompting me to respond in the manner I did. See, me being called a pedo is not a widely-circulated insult from my knowledge. It had to have been Bel to send it. Interestingly enough, she reached out to me not even an hour after my post went up, claiming she’d been sent a screenshot of it. I don’t believe this. Here is the exchange:

What surprised me most was when a formerly incredibly staunch friend of Cal and Chris, and Bel and Fae by association, reached out to me via a different account before completely deactivating. She grew tired of the relentless hatred circulated in the group chat she previously shared with them, and left. This prompted the entire group to block her, only after Chris called her names and Cal had what was described to me as an “absolutely psychotic” rant at her. She is struggling. She was very close friends with them, and despite having engaged peripherally in the commentary they have circulated against me and Ange for a while, I cannot hold it in my heart to be angry with her for believing lies her friends have told her. She has told me that they would repeatedly mock me and Ange, constantly trash-talked about us for months, make claims of all manner of insane things, and yet never provide a SINGLE instance of proof for this.

I would like to now provide clarification for some of the specific rumours that this former mutual informed me have been spread around about me and Ange.

Ange and I are racists who told Bel off for wanting to write Bollywood HOTD fanfiction. This is categorically untrue: see this screenshot for proof that this was never mentioned.

Ange and I bullied Fae whenever she mentioned getting her treatments for her condition (which, by the way, she has discussed online and is therefore ALSO not doxxing). See the screenshots for proof that Fae has never once mentioned it. There are specific phrases that can be searched for also, but because she has not been specific about her illness online I will not disclose the nature of this.

I have made nasty comments about Chris’s child. See the screenshot below for evidence that it is in fact Bel who called the child “a little fucker”, among other things.

Ange and I have doxxed people. See…… all the above as proof we have not. This was likely a pre-emptive deflection, and I am disappointed but not surprised by it.

That I have sent hate anons to the group, which they claimed was verifiable through their 'hacker' mutual. However, the former mutual of theirs that reached out to me has sought professional feedback about this claim, and it has been concluded that the so-called hacker was "right-clicking on page analytics" in a manner that cannot possibly reveal the identity of the anon-er. Furthermore, I didn't. They have been blocked by me.

I am responsible for @emilykaldwen blocking Cal and others. See this exchange wherein Nat informs me she already had Cal blocked. As for the accusations of a block list, this is categorically untrue. I have no screenshots to share because there are no screenshots at all. Because I did not do this.

I don’t know at this stage what else has been said. If anyone has anything further they’d want clarification for, I’m sure I could find evidence to disprove it. There are further statements that are wholly untrue that, as I do not believe they have been disclosed by any party in public, I will not share here.

None of this should have happened. None of this should have happened. How DARE you all. You have spent FAR too long abusing this fandom for your own sick, selfish amusement, and I am done. Nothing that has ever happened here was begun by either myself or Ange, and the fact that even NOW you are all attempting to redirect the blame on us or even on each OTHER is truly, truly shameful. I have owned up to the part I have played. I have apologised to the people who I have hurt, whether they had known I did it or not. That alone makes me better than you will ever be, because even now, you fail to take accountability for the full scope of what you have done. You have minimised, redirected, falsified and manipulated everyone because you do not know how to admit you were wrong without taking whatever opportunity you can to get 'the last dig' in.

What was the purpose, ladies? What is possibly going on in your life that being so angry, so hateful filled you with so much joy? Now, you’ve gone past the point of no return. You cannot come back from this. You cannot deflect from this. I’m sure you’re going to try to, maybe even to come up with “evidence” that none of this is true. You’ll lie, you’ll scramble, and you will not apologise, I’m sure. You should. Do you understand how far past the line you have crossed? Do you understand that we are actual, real people? This isn’t a game where you’re making sport out of upsetting a bunch of pixels. Ange is a journalist. I am a teacher. We are adults with full time jobs and full time lives and full time human experiences, and you have done your absolute level best to destroy us. I don’t understand why. I don’t understand how you could do this to another person. I don’t know what to do to make you stop. Do I need to deactivate? What do I need to do? You have terrified me beyond belief. I am so, so afraid of you. Does that make you happy?

I’m just speechless.

And to those of you still—STILL—clinging to supporting these women… You’re either stupid or just as horrible. The fact that people on "all sides" of this fandom have reached out to me and cleared the air should be telling enough, but I cannot change what you refuse to accept. I really don’t know what your problem is with us. With me. We’ve been holed up doing nothing for months, and that STILL wasn’t enough for you. This isn’t a game. This isn’t something you can win. This is real life, and you are making people suffer. For fucking fanfiction.

I am open to letting bygones be bygones if you genuinely didn’t know any of the above information. However, to the four of you—Bel, Fae, Chris, Cal—I do not wish you kindness. I do not wish you empathy. I do not wish for anything at all but for you to leave us alone, finally. You have burned just about every bridge possible, and the only people at fault are you. If you attempt to ‘reconcile’, your burners will be reported. If you attempt to further slander us, your posts will be reported. We are in the process of figuring out what legal recourse there is, because this has gone beyond ‘mean’ and straight to cyberstalking and criminal offence. I want you to take a good, long think about why on earth you ever thought any of this behaviour was okay. And then, I want you to stop. Stop. No one’s safety is worth your ego on Tumblr.com.

To everyone else. Please don’t get involved. Do not send any anons, any messages, any vitriol to these women. Let them reflect in peace and silence. Or let them bang at the walls of the prison of their own making. Let them lie to themselves as much as they wish.

I don’t know what to do anymore. But if anyone does have a similar story to tell about these women, please reblog this and share it. It'd be nice to know I'm not alone.

No, but if we stop to think about it, indeed the set up for the dance is so weak, specially when George had a better set up right then and there that he solved with the council of 101: Rhaenys vs Viserys. The daughter of the eldest son and heir vs the son of the second son. This should have been the configuration of the dance.

Then he had the second best set up: Rhaenyra vs Daemon. The daughter of the king vs the brother of the king.

He screwed over both scenarios and went with the worst one, one that would never really make much sense, especially when you consider the reasons why Rhaenyra was chosen as an heir (to avoid Daemon ascending to the throne). Not only Viserys fixed this problem by marrying again and having not only one, but three sons… Rhaenyra went to marry Daemon. Like, there’s no realistic scenario where she wouldn’t have been disinherited right then and there, or where the realm wouldn’t rally behind Aegon instead of her, especially when she fucked off to Dragonstone instead of trying to assert herself as heir and future queen in KL.

George just made really bad choices overall, that’s why the dance feels kind of weird and some plot points are very forced to fit into the narrative instead of feeling like natural consequences of what was happening.

Ryan Condal:

GRRM:

HBO: Anyways here’s a trailer for Team Black, Here’s a trailer for Team Green, also buy our Team Merch, they come in Green & Black obviii and don’t forget to use the Team Hashtags to tell us which side you’re on, also we made cute team filters 🫶😝

Look I don't think people are fully getting why Alicent is so hung up on the bastard thing (too be fair the show isn't explaining it very well.)

Alicent is already terrified from her fathers warning that after Visery's dies Rhaenyra may feel the need to kill her step-siblings to secure her line.

Now add in the fact that Rhaenyra's kids are very obviously bastards that she is trying and failing to pass of as legitimately born and Jace as her heir. The prospect of an obvious bastard as a future king on top of a woman as the next ruling queen could further incline the Lords of Westeros to side with Team Green beyond Aegon being male.

This will no doubt cause Rhaenyra to feel extra threatened and more likely to feel the need to secure her throne and line through killing her step-siblings.

All this to say Viserys needs to get his head out of his ass and start seeing the long term situation brewing for his family.

Alicent is definitely not by any means a saint and definitely has done some messed up shit, but she is recieving far too much hate in comparison to the male characters (*cough* Daemon) who have acted faaar worse then her.

Photos of Sebastian Stan as Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes. Photo credit from Weibo at the top of this post. Please don’t remove their watermark and give credit if you share.

Hey there, tumblr!

I'm looking for a specific fic. Pairing: aemond x reader. Setting Hunger Games AU.

Plot: Reader is from District 12, Aemond is from District 2. Daemon is a Reader's mentor who gave has given her a mockingjay pin which helps Aemond to recognise her and they form partnership.

SPOILERS! In the end the only survivors are Aemond, Alys, and Reader. In the final fight Aemond and Reader overpower Alys. Since they cannot stay both alive due to the gamemakers' conditions, Aemond and Reader almost commit suicide but are stoped by the gamemakers.

Has anybody seen it here? I lost access to my previous account with all the subscriptions and cannot recover it...

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

Foreshadowing Ideas

• Character themes/motifs. I’ve heard of one writer who tries to give each character their own theme for similes, metaphors, descriptions, etc so there’s like a theme to the way they’re portrayed. You could use that to foreshadow notable secrets about the character that will later be revealed, or if at any point they’re disguised then you can use that to tip off the reader that they have the same motifs and so might be related/the same person

• Tiny details hidden in lists. Say the MC was trying to work out the identity of a bad guy, who we know was wearing a red shirt on the day of a big bad event. A few chapters later, MC is checking around their best friend’s room to find them, with the place its usual mess with discarded takeaway boxes, the bed unmade, a red shirt left on the floor that could use a good sweep. The red shirt might not click with all the readers, but those who register it upon their first read will eat it up

• Inconsistent behavioural patterns. Once we have a good idea of what a character is like, having them act out of character can set off alarm bells and make us question what’s occurred to make them act this way. Let the other characters register it too, if it’s reasonable that they would, but let them ultimately brush it off quite quickly to keep it subtle. Or just call it right out, whichever you prefer

• Unreliable narrators. Let one character say one thing and a second character say another, even if they both ultimately agree on the same thing but get one or two small details wrong. Ideally do this two or three times in order for the reader to know it’s not just a mistake in the plot but an intentional inconsistency, but even if it’s only done once and it’s taken as a mistake it’ll still slot together like puzzle pieces in the end and they’ll be kicking themself for dismissing it

• In-universe red herrings. If you’re going to add red herrings as foreshadowing, it’s helpful if the red herring aligns with the intentions of someone person aware of the upcoming plot twist who’s trying to control the narrative. Say the plot twist was the reveal of a mysterious character’s identity to be the best friend of the MC, the best friend might have deliberately thrown the MC off their scent by planting suspicions in the MC’s mind that a different character was the mysterious character’s identity all along. This is less about foreshadowing the actual reveal, of course, but rereads will be a punch to the gut when everyone realises that all this misinformation and red herring business came from someone trying to cover their own ass rather than coming from misunderstandings or multiple other random sources

Gooooooshh!!! I love how shrewd the siblings are. One of the best portrayals of Nie Huaisang as well!!

Proposal - Nie Huaisang

Pairing: Nie Huaisang x f!reader

Word Count: 1669 words

Warnings/tags: none i think, the events leading up to the wedding, fluff

Notes: (C/N)-your clan's name, (Y/N)-your name

A/N: I planned this to be a one-shot but I got carried away, so the actual action *wink wink* will happen in the next chapter.

I did some completely unnecessary research for this (my adhd ass basically got distracted) but nothing specific. My cultural knowledge is from the show so I'm sorry for any possible mistakes regarding culture. This is my first time writing The Untamed. Also English is not my first language.

You met Nie Huaisang at one of the cultivation meetings Jin Guangyao held in Carp Tower. You were a member of one of the smaller clans, so you didn't attend such gatherings in general. That one time your older brother insisted for you to come, as there were some issues to be discussed which might need your expertise as a healer.

During the many battles of the Sunshot Campaign, you actively participated in the healing of wounded soldiers, so many members from the bigger clans also knew you. So it was no wonder they were all pleasantly surprised to see you there at the meeting. After the greetings and toasts you were free to mingle, and almost everyone greeted you with a pleasant smile and grateful eyes. You also greeted them politely, asking about their family and health.

After a while you noticed that Zewu-jun were looking at you, wanting to invite you over to where he was standing with his brother Lan Wangji, Jin Guangyao and another finely dressed young man. As you walked over Lianfang-zun excused himself to greet the other guests. You turned to the remaining three men with a smile, and they bowed to you in return.

"(C/N)(Y/N). It's so nice to see you. What brings you here?" Lan Xichen asked with a small smile on his lips.

"Apparently, Lianfang-zun requires my help with something. And I took the chance to reunite with old acquaintances."

Lan Wangji stared at you in his usual way, not showing any of his emotions. You also wanted to ask what brought him here, but with a curt nod to you and his brother he also excused himself. Finally, you turned to the man now standing next to Lan Xichen. You had an attention to detail, so only a quick glance was enough for you to notice his handsome face and elegant clothing however, you didn't remember meeting him before.

"It's nice to meet you, Master...," you trailed off somewhat nervously as you didn't know how to address him.

He appeared lost in thought for a moment as he seemed to ever so slightly jump at your words. Still, he quickly schooled his expression into a calm and dignified look, but you could still see his nervousness underneath.

"I am Nie Huaisang. Pleased to meet you Lady (C/N)," he said as he bowed to you again, holding his fan in his hands.

As you realized your previous mistake, you were quick to return his bow.

"Ahh, please excuse my rudeness Clan Leader Nie."

He didn't seem offended at all as he glanced at you with a small smile, which appeared to be sad to you. You knew the story of his ascension to clan leader, after all his brother's death was still a widely discussed topic between cultivators. You also heard the various mean stories about Nie Huaisang himself, in which cultivators often referred to him as the Head Shaker or Good-For-Nothing. Stealing another glance at the man, he didn't seem quite as incompetent to you as these stories described him. He might not carry a sword and appear generally nervous, but you could also see the intelligence in his eyes. Right when you wanted to ask him about the situation in Qinghe, your brother called out to you to return to your tables. You exchanged bows with the two men again and returned to where your clan was sitting. However, you didn't seem to think about anything else that day but the handsome and mysterious Clan Leader Nie.

In the upcoming weeks you had the chance to meet with Nie Huaisang many more times, at political meetings and at night hunts too. You were not one to attend often, but as time went by you became more and more interested in the leader of the Nie Clan. As far as men go, he was the first one with whom you could always stir up meaningful conversations about various topics, not just politics or war. As someone who were always interested in music and arts, you found it exceptionally refreshing to listen to him talk about his passions, especially painting and his favourite fans. Looking at him, it always made you happy to see him quite relaxed during your conversations. After a while he even became bolder and started to show you his beautiful smile and laugh and you had to realize, that you, at the same time, started to fall in love with him.

Your brother always had a watchful eye on you two and he always let you know when he thought you spent enough time in the company of the clan leader. You understood his reasoning of course, so you always rejoined your family after a short conversation with Nie Huaisang.

After a few such meetings though, you started receiving gifts from him. At first you didn't know from whom they came from, but one time a messenger, who delivered some letters to your brother, handed you a neatly packaged hand-painted folding fan. It was the most beautiful thing you have ever seen, and you instantly knew who it was from. As you carefully traced the intricately painted lines on the fan with your fingertips your heart was beating so hard you felt it might jump out of your chest at any moment.

The next week your brother informed you that Clan Leader Nie requested a lunch with him and that you should also attend. Despite his reputation, everyone in your home made sure the preparation for the lunch were going smoothly. Everyone seemed excited to host such a high-ranking cultivator in your home. To say that you were nervous when the day finally arrived was an understatement. Actually, you thought you were never this nervous before.

During the lunch you were actually becoming calmer until your brother finally steered the conversation toward the actual meaning of the whole thing.

"Clan Leader Nie, may I ask the reason of your visit?" Your brother inquired after you exhausted all the general conversation topics.

Nie Huaisang seemed rather nervous too during the whole lunch, but looking at him now you were worried he might actually faint. Good thing you are a healer, you thought. For a few moments he sat there completely silent and almost motionless. Only his hands fiddling with his closed fan revealed his emotions. He looked up at your brother and opened his fan to hide behind it. The longer he spoke the quicker his hand moved the elegant accessory, and it seemed his face got redder by the minute.

"Clan Leader (C/N), as you probably noticed, we became quite well-acquainted with your sister. I would like to believe we became rather close even in the past few weeks. And you didn't seem opposed by my advances either. What I mean by all this is that...," he trailed off, even his ears were bright red by now. He appeared to be steeling himself for his next words. Finally he reluctantly lowered his fan and looked at you with frightened but hopeful eyes. God, you just wanted to hug him at that moment. But you couldn't, so you mustered your most encouraging smile and nodded at him. You were certain your cheeks were also red at that point. Nie Huaisang looked straight into your brother's eyes and said:

"I would like to ask for your permission to take your sister as my wife."

When he finally said it, it seemed like a huge stone was lifted off of his shoulders. His posture became more relaxed, but the fan opened again, only at his chest though, not covering his face. Now it was your turn to nervously glance at your brother. His face didn't show anger or disgust, only deep contemplation, which was a good sign, you thought.

"Clan Leader Nie, I am honored you think so highly of my sister. I have to say however, your bad reputation is not something I can ignore..."

"Gege!" You exclaimed, looking at your brother shocked and scared. Thinking back, you never thought your brother believed all those mean rumors about Nie Huaisang because he was just as good at reading people as you were.

"Meimei, let me finish," your brother said not even looking at you, a slight warning in his voice.

"Clan Leader Nie, as you said, I never opposed your relations with my sister. You seem to me an honorable man, and you never behaved inappropriately around her. But you have to understand, my sister's future depends on me. That's why I brought up your reputation. They say you are incompetent, but that's not what I see. I think you are very good at this whole political game. All I ask of you is to take care of my sister and don't let her reputation be ruined."

As he finished speaking you instantly turned to Nie Huaisang, who seemed to freeze, only his eyes turned impossibly big. His mind probably stuck to the same thought as yours, because that meant your brother actually agreed, right?

With his next sentence, he confirmed your suspicions: "I accept your proposal. If my sister agrees, she is yours."

You could only nod your head furiously as Nie Huaisang stood up and bowed deeply to your brother in thanks.

"Clan Leader (C/N), I assure you, your sister's happiness will always be my top priority. I will take care of her until my last day," Nie Huaisang said, his voice shaky.

As he straightened up, you could see his eyes glistening with unshed tears and you couldn't hold yourself back anymore. You basically jumped up, walked around the table and grabbed his shaking hands.

"I would love to be yours, Nie Huaisang," you said squeezing his hands.

He looked at you with that self-assured half smile you loved so much, and which he showed so rarely these days, but it always signaled some kind of mischief.

You didn't notice your brother looking at you two with a fond look on his face.

To be continued

One day I'll stop re-starting my blog whenever I forget a password.... BUT OBVIOUSLY NOT TODAY