One Thing About Asoiaf Is That It Frequently Invites You To Have Sympathy For Characters Who've Carried

one thing about asoiaf is that it frequently invites you to have sympathy for characters who've carried out varying degrees of morally repulsive acts (most apparent with pov characters such as theon, cersei, tyrion, and jaime but also sandor, joffrey, and even viserys). and most of these characters have received some equivalent of, what may look like 'narrative comeuppance' : theon flayed by ramsay, cersei made to perform her walk of atonement, tyrion sold as a slave, jaime losing his hand, joffrey's painful, drawn out death etc. except the scenes really aren't framed like that since the series doesn't seem to buy into that idea. all these incidents are not just deserts but moments of horrible injustice against these characters. and that's a little series thesis statement in itself, no neat category of monsters whose misdeeds can be addressed by a single moment of karmic justice but people like you and me who hurt others and have been hurt and continue on living. it's saying, here's this person who is capable of great cruelty influenced and motivated by their experiences with the world, but will you also hold understanding and sympathy in your heart for when the world is cruel to them in return? given what most fandom discourse looks like... the answer to that question is unfortunately a resounding no for a lot of readers.

You know the “Dad, How Do I?” YouTube channel? Yeah, that, but with Red Hood, and they’re unlisted videos that Crime Alley residents share with each other.

It started with goons stealthily taking videos of Red Hood ranting about shitty drug quality that they upload under the title “Boss on drug quality control,” primarily for other goons so that anyone can tell if the supplies have been cut with something and don’t need to waste time asking Hood.

Then videos from civilians start popping up too, featuring Red Hood lecturing street kids titled things like “RH on staying warm in winter” and “RH on how not to get mugged.”

Memorably, there’s a video titled “RH on classic literature (y’all did RH go to college???? Is our crime lord a lit major???)” where Red Hood imparts upon some kids the importance of reading. After a very positive reception, the uploader goes back to Red Hood, asks about a book they’re reading for school, and gets a whole lecture on themes and whatnot. It does numbers and becomes a series, and this time Hood knows the camera exists (he’s always known they exist, he just couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge them) and actually talks to it.

(Jason will do anything to help these children, whether it’s giving them a leg up in school, giving the street kids who aren’t in school some semblance of an education, or teaching them how to shank someone trying to traffic them.)

Red Hood never uploads any videos himself, but it doesn’t matter. Crime Alley crowd sourced its own version of Khan academy and it’s better for it.

You ever think about how some dc characters have superpowers but like, on a meta level?

Like, many vigilantes but especially Bruce with all the hardcore beatings he does, or Tim with the "blowing up bases after having sent them a warning to evacuate" should have killed someone on accident but they didn't. Because the narrative didn't want them to, because this is a Batman or Red Robin comics so you have to suspend your disbelief and accept that these consequences didn't happen, and by doing so you give them the power to inflict lethal harm and yet not kill, and it's the power that you, the reader, give Batman by virtue of being Batman.

Like, Jason is immortal on a meta level, not because he died and came back but because he keeps getting into especially deadly situations and getting out without an explanation and the comics just expect you to accept that yes, the exploding meteorite is deadly enough to apparently (squints eyes) kill Selina but Jason survived it virtually unscratched despite not being enhanced and because we are expected to accept that, we are expected to accept Jason could survive about anything, because he is the character that he is in a comic. Thinking of how the panel of Jason dying came out and half of the community on tumblr was rolling their eyes like it's okay, he'll come back, and they were right. (There was an explanation for that one but still they said "oh no this character can't perma die that's just who he is" and it was right. To be fair not many dc characters are granted the honour of a perma death these days)

There are probably so many examples that I'm not thinking of right now and to be clear this isn't a critique or anything, I just think it's very funny that in a universe that calls their supers "meta humans", the humans that don't have superpowers are granted impossible abilities through suspension of disbelief and the ability of the reader to take in account the role of the narrative in their interpretation of the character's actions and their consequences. It's ironic, and it's punny, and I really really hope it's a least a little on purpose.

repeat it with me :

ROMANCE-AVERSE AND ROMANCE-REPULSED AROMANTICS ARE NOT BAD PEOPLE BECAUSE OF THEIR AVERSION/REPULSION!

ROMANCE-INDIFFERENT AROMANTICS ARE NOT OBLIGATED TO CARE ABOUT ROMANCE!

ROMANCE-FAVOURABLE AND ROMANCE-AMBIVALENT AROMANTICS ARE NOT LESS AROMANTIC FOR ENJOYING ROMANCE IN SOME WAYS!

FEMALE AROMANTICS ARE NOT 'QUIRKY' PICK-MES OR OLD MAIDS!

MALE AROMANTICS ARE NOT INCELS OR MISOGYNISTS!

NON-BINARY AROMANTICS ARE VALID AND SHOULD BE SUPORTED AND ARE NOT FADDISH!

ALLOSEXUAL AROMANTICS ARE NOT WHORES OR PROSTITUTES FOR HAVING SEXUAL ATTRACTION AND NOT ROMANTIC ATTRACTION!

ASEXUAL AROMANTICS ARE NOT INCOMPLETE OR MISSING SOMETHING!

AROMANTICS DON'T OWE YOU A RELATIONSHIP!

AROMANTICS DON'T OWE YOU LOVE OF ANY KIND!

You know what, props to Jon Snow for being the greatest wedding planner of all time. My boy managed to arrange a wedding that broke like every social norm in the north, between groups that have warred for MILLENIA!! and officiated by a foreign religion! Crazy that no one died like there wasn’t wasn’t even a lil scuffle. Some people can’t even get through a wedding without murdering their guest which btw indicates a lack of skill on the planner’s side I'm afraid. After the events of the past year, his services are desperately needed because how were people getting anything done before him??