Pinned
Reblogged
~Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen; First of Her Name, Rightful Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms~
FINALLY FINISHED THIS WIP!!! School and family stuff was beating my ass, so I had to put a massive pause on this one, but it's finally done T_T I just had to rep my RIGHTFUL queen Rhae-Rhae, I love her to infinity and beyond!!! I rrly do need to draw her more tho... anyways, I think I'm going to draw more asoiaf portraits and make it a little series. idk who I should draw next tho, maybe Daenerys? Or another character from the dance? I'm open to request lmao
i actually don’t want to read or hear about some personal grievance you have against lucerys velaryon and his apparent satan incarnate giggle over a pig or his morally depraved bullying of his (much) older uncle at 6 if your response to aegon raping his children’s nursemaids is “i don’t care if a prince rapes maids in the medieval ages where princes raped maids and no one cared” which isn’t even true to begin with. the cognitive dissonance you need to jump through this many hoops is batshit crazy.
Reblogged atopcat
#king and queen of being done
Reblogged rainhadaenerys
Every time someone says Dany is the antithesis of all her ancestors I just fully disagree. She embodies the best of them while not having the traits of the worst of them. I think people say this cause there is this general notion of “Targaryen bad” but we have examples of Targaryens who are good, kind, compassionate.
We also have examples of them being ruthless, just, and fierce. We have dreamers, we have targs who cared about the small folk. We have targs who wanted to make Westeros a better place. Not every single Targaryen is some fire wielding, evil monster who only causes death & destruction. It’s a disservice to them and Dany to act like they were.
The way people talk about the Targaryen family as if they are some fully evil, family with no nuance is so baffling to me. We have so many examples in fire & blood or Dunk and Egg that they are quite literally just people. They are not closer to gods than men, that’s just propaganda that people believe. It makes sense why in story characters believe that but why do the actual fans reading it believe that? Anyway sorry for the rant but this has been on my mind for some time now.
Just wanna clarify something real quick. Obviously Dany is different compared to her ancestors from Old Valyria since she is using her dragons to end slavery while they used dragons to subjugate people. My main point is that I’m sick of this “house targaryen bad” in the sense that they’re this evil house and every other house is good.
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Dany looked at the horizon with despair. They had lost a third of their number, and still the waste stretched before them, bleak and red and endless. The comet mocks my hopes, she thought, lifting her eyes to where it scored the sky. Have I crossed half the world and seen the birth of dragons only to die with them in this hard hot desert? She would not believe it.
Freya Allan as 14-year-old book!Daenerys Targaryen
Reblogged lizzie-queenofmeigas
People are truly so afraid of liking ugly characters. you see it all the time with Arya specifically, but also targs who all have to be The Prettiest. Rhaenyra femininity discourse comes to mind (and of course there's a lot to say there about equating beauty with femininity / gender conforming but that's a whole other thing). Arya is definitely the most egregious example though. Like, so many of her fans feel compelled to find whatever evidence they can (or can make up) that Actually she's extremely pretty or will be extremely pretty or pretty by the north standards or pretty by our real world standards or whatever, and I truly think that they just can't conceive of liking a character who's not pretty, or worse, ugly. Some of it is equating beauty with goodness (which is wild, especially when it comes to asoiaf as and its themes as a series) and some of it is just... they can't like a character who's ugly. I don't know if it's a self insert thing, a patriarchal thing, a misogyny / internalized misogyny thing or what. So when you say Arya is not pretty, or 'worse', ugly, they take it as an insult to her worth in-story and to her worth as a character, as if not being pretty means she's not written well
Disney fairytale mindset fr
Much comes from cultural conditioning in how storytelling in fairytales and folklore have been presented. In old stories, especially those that feature morality and ethics, so often the "good" characters are beautiful, while the "evil" ones are ugly. Some scholars theorize that it was because beauty was considered a marker of good health and therefore virtue, whereas scarring, deformities, etc. would be indicators of depraved behaviors or habits. Humans unfortunately have had a long history of unconsciously assuming positive traits (intelligence, kindness, generosity, talent) of people with high levels of personal attractiveness (PA), while also assuming negative traits (low intelligence, laziness, aggression, cruelty) to those with lower PA, without any evidence of the individual's personality, traits, thoughts, beliefs, habits. Literally just assuming things based on how they look without any interaction. A number of sociological and psychological studies have been conducted on this subject. Plenty of academic books and journals have been written about the topic. This unfortunately goes back way further than Disney, though they, and literally all other media sources (TV, movies, even the music industry) have perpetuated this idea. (Seriously, compare actors in TV shows from the 70's and early 80's to today. Even bands from the 60's - 80's. Video really did kill the radio star.) Old folk and fairy tales, even myths have very similar themes: the hero is always attractive - this detail signals to the audience that they are also in possession of other heroic traits (strength, virtue, goodness, they make an excellent sourdough). Villains, in contrast, at least in the standard stories up until about 15-20 or so years ago, were generally ugly, signaling their negative traits. The "attractive villain" was usually used as a twist to throw off the audience's suspicions, but has become more common now.
Villains nowadays are...mixed. Sometimes they're gorgeous, especially when the plot twist is to convert/redeem them later, have a seductive betrayal subplot, or to establish them as a sympathetic villain. However, usually when the story is going to establish them as a villain that needs to be straight up eliminated and not otherwise befriended, they are cast or described as unattractive, plain, fat, or weak-looking, reaffirming the cultural beliefs that virtue is linked to PA. (Though tbh, you're seeing more attractive villains largely because it's currently marketable.)
How does this relate to OP's assertion? It supports it. Martin's choice to write both Arya and Brienne as physically plain at best was a deliberate choice. Their positive personality traits in written text elevate the characters in your expected heroic light. They are plain, but they are not evil, or weak. Instead they possess the same traits one expects of a hero, but without the culturally expected markers of beauty that we are so used to seeing. This creates a disconnect because we are so conditioned to expect our protags to be attractive on top of everything else, that it's difficult to mentally picture them as anything but.
It's an internalized prejudice for sure, but one that has been reinforced so many times through most every story, book, movie, TV, anime, etc. that we consume that it's difficult to shift the mental paradigm. It's not an excuse, but it's an explanation.
Oh look, an entire 'analysis' based on false and racist, sexist fanon interpolated from characters who bully Arya as ugly because she looks different to them that will now get reblogged by the casual fans with the wrong canon that Arya is 'ugly'. This is how fanon gets formed and widespread.
In old stories, especially those that feature morality and ethics, so often the "good" characters are beautiful, while the "evil" ones are ugly.
This is especially funny because this is a fandom where a canonically selfish, classist, patriarchal, pro-status quo bully like Sansa is seen as 'good', the champion of the poor, the most compassionate character with the most empathy, the 'embodiment of hope for the future' because she is classically beautiful, fits into Eurocentric beauty standards and represents white female fragility and the canonically white Arya is headcanoned as poc because they see her as ugly, violent, impulsive, stupid, tribal, barbaric, savage, uncouth, unicivilized and unfit to have a family and love.
What you are writing here is the exact opposite of what is happening. Where, it is not the author, but the fandom that is headcanoning a canonically pretty, white girl as ugly and poc because they see her as violent and uncouth.
Where a nine year old, skinny little girl is masculinized, her femininity stripped and she is always headcanoned as bigger and being an executioner and body guard for her older, bigger sister in popular fanart. Notice also that both characters are white, but Arya is always drawn in darker shades. Again, this goes back to that concept of white female fragility which is rooted in white supremacy where a woc cannot be envisioned as vulnerable or worth protecting.
And the most mind boggling fact is that Arya is white!! But because the racist/sexist fandom want to project all their white femininity onto Sansa, this means for them, Arya has to be masculine, ugly, violent and poc.
Just looking through OP's tags for example, this is some art of how they envision Sansa in their mind:
This is one of the Arya fanart they reblogged:
Notice the difference between the so called beautiful and ugly characters for the OP? I did look back a bit of on tags could not find any art of dark skinned Sansa by herself like the Arya art above.
Like this is stuff one sees in the fandom:
Another blogger who thinks Arya is ugly and Sansa is beautiful reblogs art like this of both characters - remember both characters are canonically white in the books...
Notice the difference?
Humans unfortunately have had a long history of unconsciously assuming positive traits (intelligence, kindness, generosity, talent) of people with high levels of personal attractiveness (PA), while also assuming negative traits (low intelligence, laziness, aggression, cruelty) to those with lower PA, without any evidence of the individual's personality, traits, thoughts, beliefs, habits.
The way this applies exactly to the racism and sexism of this fandom and how they treat the characters of Sansa and Arya is amazing and and that's what's funny about your entire post. Like, this gets to the heart of all this and yet it's the complete opposite of what you are implying.
This is why despite Arya being more intelligent that Sansa, more political then Sansa, more compassionate than Sansa, having more empathy than Sansa, being the victim of bullying from her sister Sansa, despite standing up for the powerless, despite all this, the character of Arya is constantly put down as a sociopath, violent, impulsive and stupid, while Sansa is seen as the compassionate Mother Theresa, the smart politician, the only girl who can be 'Lady of Winterfell' because she's the right kind of woman.
And this is why Arya is contantly headcanoned as ugly - despite the text making it clear that she is not!! There are several characters who call Arya pretty. Are they wrong? Are the bullies right?
You mention Brienne. This is a canonically 'ugly' character who is the embodiment of GOOD. She is exactly what you are talking about. The author goes into great detail about how ugly she is. NOTE: HE DOES NOT DO THIS WITH ARYA BECAUSE ARYA IS NOT CANONICALLY UGLY. The author even has a romance arc with Brienne who is ugly on the outside and beautiful on the inside and Jaime who is beautiful on the outside and ugly on the inside, his take on beauty and the beast. This is his inversion of the traditional fairy tale tropes.
But why is Arya being grouped into this, when she has an entirely different exploration - The Ugly Duckling - of looking different, about being non-conforming, of not fitting in amongst the Tully looking Starks as opposed to the Stark looking Starks.
'LYANNA WAS BEAUTIFUL' 'SO ARE YOU'
This is right there in the text!! Again, why is this being ignored in favor of what two bullies are mocking a little girl for? Are bullies right?
How does this relate to OP's assertion? It supports it. Martin's choice to write both Arya and Brienne as physically plain at best was a deliberate choice.
Except this nine year old is not old enough or taken care of her appearance enough for us to know whether she is plain or not. We know this of the 17 year old Brienne - and the themes you mentioned are explicitly explored with her in terms of good and evil being connected to a character's looks.
And Tyriongirl should know as a Tyrion girl that if Martin wants the readers to know a character is ugly he will make that damn clear by mentioning every other page how ugly the character is which he does with Tyrion. Never with Arya.
This creates a disconnect because we are so conditioned to expect our protags to be attractive on top of everything else, that it's difficult to mentally picture them as anything but.
EXACTLY! Conditioning on top of the racism and sexism, means that white tradfems who see Sansa as the embodiment of white femininity expect Arya to be ugly, brown, primitive and violent.
And this is what is happening and this is why there is a backlash everytime there are posts like this primarily from Sansa fans about how Arya is ugly and how that should be accepted for ugly representation when Arya is canonically not ugly and there is already an amazing, great character in Brienne for ugly representation.
But the the 'ugly' discourse has never been about representation or even Arya as a character. It's always Sansa fans digging this up because they need Sansa to be special and unique and feminine and blue eyed and beautiful and romantic and lady like and they don't want Arya to encroach on all that ever.
Here's a question. Why is Jon never at the center of ugly discourse given he is older, supposedly plain looking and has the Stark look just like Arya. He and Arya look so much alike. Sansa who thinks Arya is ugly also calls out Jon Snow for his looks and her classism is on display when she thinks they are both ugly because they are bastards.
Where are all the 'Why is Jon drawn so handsome when he is ugly in the books' arguments and discourse? Why are you not writing your 'fairy tale' analysis for Jon Snow and good and bad and beautiful and ugly?
I will give you a clue - because it's never about ugly representation and instead a desire by Sansa fans who need Arya to be ugly because the bully should always be right.
It's an internalized prejudice for sure, but one that has been reinforced so many times through most every story, book, movie, TV, anime, etc. that we consume that it's difficult to shift the mental paradigm. It's not an excuse, but it's an explanation.
It's definitely an internalized prejudice for sure, one full of misogyny and racism. And posts like this that disingenuously interpret what is actually happening does not help at all in challenging these age old stereotypes of beauty, race and sex.
Reblogged rainhadaenerys
Dany in Meereen
Reblogged queenslayeroflies
“I have my own kingdom here.”
asoiaf characters / saera targaryen
the ninthborn child and fifthborn daughter of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen and Queen Alysanne Targaryen.
There’s Driftmark discourse happening again and I am going to add my two cents in on the book version of events because I think the show, very obviously, had an agenda against the Velaryon boys (and the Dragon Twins 😒) in order to give Ryan Condal’s self-insert more ‘sympathetic’ moments.
The events happen as such: they are NOT at Driftmark for Laena’s funeral, instead they are there for Laenor’s. Baela and Rhaena are not involved. Aemond sneaks off to claim Vhagar. Joffrey spots him and attempts to stop him. Aemond shoves him into dragon shit and proceeds to claim Vhagar. The fight between the queen and princess’ boys commences.
Joffrey ran to get his brother’s help. Jacaerys and Lucerys came back with him, all three bearing wooden swords. They fell on Aemond with a “fury,” but Aemond was older and bigger than all three combined and fought back. He managed to disarm three year old Joff, break five year old Luke’s nose, and smash the wooden sword he’d taken against the back of six year old Jace’s head. All three boys scrambled to get away from him, as he had thoroughly beaten them. There is absolutely no mention of Aemond receiving injuries from this part of the encounter, despite describing what he did to the Velaryon boys and his being ‘outnumbered’ by apparent ‘equal’ opponents.
Aemond felt ‘big’ and ‘mighty’ after claiming Vhagar and successfully beating up his ‘bastard’ nephews and began to gloat at them. (which, remember, this isn’t the night of their estranged aunt’s funeral, it’s the night of their father’s funeral.) The only boy old enough to understand the insults being levied at them was Jace, who proceeded to fly at Aemond and very quickly began being beaten “savagely.” Once again Aemond, the much older and bigger boy, had BEATEN all three of his nephews. He didn’t stop, instead continuing to attack Jace. Luke grabbed his own dagger (meaning he’d had it the entire fight and not used it), came to the rescue of his brother, and slashed at Aemond’s face in an attempt to get him to stop.
What this obviously indicates is that, whether you think the Velaryon boys were valid or impetuous in their going after Aemond, Aemond won. All three boys were on the ground. The ONLY reason the (rather one-sided) fight continued is because he decided to start mocking them. The only one that went back in was Jace, and Aemond beat him AGAIN. We’re not told that he stopped beating him “savagely” at any point. It cuts directly to Luke grabbing the knife he’d had the whole night and slashing (most likely wildly) at his face. The book verbatim says he “came to the rescue of his brother.” Luke is not some maliciously evil child who deliberately tried to maim his older uncle for life, he was a desperate kid trying to stop his brother from being hit repeatedly with no end in sight.
Even in the show it’s hard to take that viewpoint seriously. Sure, the boys are slightly older, and the Dragon Twins are involved, but Aemond is the one who tells Rhaena (a child he’s never met on the night of her mother’s funeral) that a pig would suit her to ride. He gains the upper hand against all four of them. He tells Jace and Luke, “You will die screaming in flames just as your father did,” and to all of them, “I’ll feed you to my dragon.” Mind you, at least three of these kids are actively grieving, Baela and Rhaena over Laena, and Jace over Harwin. There is nothing sane about this encounter.
You cannot cherry pick the scene and dialogue to your heart’s content just to victimize Aemond and villainize the Velaryon boys (Because of blood status, mayhaps? Tricky tricky). Did Aemond deserve to lose his eye? No. Did Luke intentionally try to take his eye? No. Was it an accident that could have very well been prevented if any fucking adult was near even one of those kids? Yes. The Velaryon boys are not “monstrous.” They certainly don’t grow up to commit atrocities left and right- oh, wait! We know precisely who goes on to do exactly that. Figures.
#fire and blood#house of the dragon#hotd critical#jacaerys velaryon#lucerys velaryon#joffrey velaryon#team black#pro team black#anti aemond targaryen#anti aemond stans#anti team green#anti team green stans#idk man some of y’all are freaks#‘b-b-but BASTARDS!!!’ who gives a fuck westerosi peasant number 84767383773
Reblogged queenslayeroflies
"aegon ii they will never make me hate you"
Pretty privilege definitely exists lol
Let's see what his crimes are, (no order) a mix between book and show:
- Rapist
- He was 21 when he decided he wanted to castrate a 10 year old
- In the show he was the mastermind and primary bully of Aemond
- Also in the show he was the one who sent 13 year old Aemond to be raped
- Both in the show and in the book he spread rumours about the Velaryon boys legitimacy
- He was 20 when he almost got into a fight with a 12 year old because said kid asked Helaena to dance
- When Viserys died he was allegedly found at a rat pit, where kids fought (the maester only says that he was found at a revel, while mushroom is the one who says where the revel was and what it was)
- Allegedly he was found being satisfied by a girl (mushroom says she was a young girl while septon Eustace says she was well-kept and was the daughter of a wealthy trader, doesn't mention anything about her age)
- Threw a grand feast when Aemond returned after killing Lucerys (the small folk were starving)
- Had ALL rat-catchers hung
- Fought a 14 year old who had a dragon the size of a warhorse when his dragon was huge and heavy (and still lost, lol)
- Killed a maester because he had the audacity to offer him milk of the poppy after Aegon shattered his legs trying to fight a 14 year old
- Had statues made of his brothers (once again, THE SMALL FOLK WERE STARVING)
But you guys are right, he cared so much for the small folk and was such a good king and such a good person 😍
Don’t forget, he didn’t just KILL the Maester! He strung him up and let him strangle till near death three times before cutting him down and stringing up back up again. He then let his dragon eat the bottom half of his body while the Maester was still alive and conscious, leaving the top half for Rhaenyra to find because she had cared about the old man.
Lest we forget this gruesome little public light show:
On the last day of the year, two hundred forty-one “barefoot lambs,” the Shepherd’s most fervid and devoted followers, were covered with pitch and chained to poles along the broad cobbled thoroughfare that ran eastward from Cobbler’s Square up to the Dragonpit. As the city’s septs rang their bells to signal the end of the old year and the coming of the new, King Aegon II proceeded along the street (thereafter known as Shepherd’s Way, rather than Hill Street as before) in his litter, whilst his knights rode to either side, setting their torches to the captive lambs to light his way. Thus did His Grace continue up the hill to the very top, where the Shepherd himself was bound amongst the heads of the five dragons. Supported by two of his Kingsguard, King Aegon rose from his cushions, tottered to the pole where the prophet had been chained, and set him aflame with his own hand.