Have you never imagined yourself on the Iron Throne?

About the AO3 "No Guest Comments for a while" warning

If you're not following any of AO3's social media accounts you might be in the dark as to what kind of "spam comments" have engendered this banner at the top of the site:

These spam comments have been posted about a great deal on the AO3 subreddit for the past couple of days. Initially they comprised a bunch of guest (logged out users) bot comments that insulted authors by suggesting they were using AI and not writing their own fics. Some examples, from the subreddit:

But it then escalated to outright graphic porn images and gifs being posted in comments, again by logged out 'Guest' accounts. Obviously, I'm not going to give examples of those, but between these two bot infestations, AO3 has clearly decided to act and has temporarily closed the ability to post comments for users who are not logged in with an AO3 account.

Unfortunately, this means that genuine readers who don't have an AO3 account won't be able to leave comments on fics that they enjoy.

If you are a genuine reader who doesn't yet have an AO3 account, I strongly suggest getting yourself on the waiting list for one. More and more AO3 authors are now locking their fics down to registered users only - either due to these bot comments or concerns about AI scraping their work - which means you're probably missing out on a lot of great stuff.

Hopefully guest commenting will be enabled again at some point soon, but I suggest not waiting until then. Get yourself on that list.

Wait times are going to be longer than usual at the moment, due to the current Wattpad purge [info on Fanlore | Wattpad subreddit thread], but if you're in line, then your invite will come through eventually.

Update: There's now a Megathread about this on the AO3 subreddit.

Our brave Prince.

AEMOND TARGARYEN | S1 FIRST/LAST SHOT

First thing you see after you zoom in is how you die

How you dying 👀

Happy birthday, dear nephew

I am SICK of him!! @kaelatargaryen aren't you SICK of him!!

The state of the fandom is understandably (and rightfully so) shaky right now. I don't want to come into people's messages who are on hiatus, taking a break from hotd, moving on from hotd, or generally not interested in writing/fics/brainstorming. So! I make this post to ask: if you're okay with me coming to you with ideas, idea shares, brainstorming, etc, about fic writing, can you please let me know? 😊 I've got some ideas I kinda wanna bounce around! Thanks!

The Wedding of Rhaenyra and Daemon

I need all the love for this one because I super-focused on it for over half a day without pause. What sleep schedule? I had the unstoppable urge to draw these two menaces. If you want me to make more things like this the endorphin rush of positive feedback will need to be stellar XD. Second bird with this stone is that I actually drew an unprompted man for the HotD series. Can’t be getting too predictable with only pretty ladies.

For this redesign I wanted to reference and build off of Rhaenyra's Heir outfit. So while it's not exactly the same they should feel like they are pulling more from the "ancient Valyerian" (Byzantine-esque) fashion than the styles that Alicent is currently wearing in court. Extra points if you an spot the references to Empress Theodora (again + her Emperor). Oh and because I make the rules in these redesigns: Corlys is Black and Rhaenyra isn't Hollywood sized. I can pull from the books and the show as I please! So I wanted to include her long single plait (styled after a previous Queen) and her generous curves in these post-time jump illustrations.

I am the artist! Do not post without permission & credit! Thank you! Come visit me over on: instagram, tiktok or check out my coloring book available now \ („• ֊ •„) /

https://linktr.ee/ellen.artistic

Gah damn 😍

RHAENYRA TARGARYEN | S1 FIRST/LAST SHOT

Much has already been said about the various ways that Jaehaerys has neglected, demeaned, and abused his daughters, so I'm going to talk about their marriages (particularly for the younger girls).

Daella and Viserra are both matched off to much older men who already have heirs of their own from a first wife - any children of theirs would inherit nothing. Then there's Saera - Jaehaerys considered all of her teenage companions to be promising matches, except they're really not. They are heirs, but Houses Mooton, Connington, and Beesbury aren't particularly impressive. They're not Lords Paramount (Rodrik Arryn - Daella) and they're not even prominent vassals (Theomore Manderly - Viserra).

So, what gives? Why is Jaehaerys organizing such terrible marriages for his daughters?

My theory: he's intentionally organizing bad matches as a means of limiting the number of half-Targaryens who could one day challenge for the Iron Throne.

The formative experience of his childhood was Maegor usurping the Throne, and one of the challenges of his early reign was Rogar Baratheon attempting a coup to crown his niece Rhaella (who may or may not have been Aerea). Queen Rhaena could have pushed her own claim after Maegor died, and Jaehaerys is lucky that she didn't. Then there's Aerea, an angry teenage girl who was upset about losing her position as heir and upset about being stuck on Dragonstone with her mother, who went and claimed Balerion when left unsupervised. Imagine if she'd successfully commanded Balerion to fly to King's Landing to push her claim - that's not a fight Jaehaerys and Alysanne could have won.

Branches of House Targaryen are a threat. Nieces and nephews and cousins with Targaryen blood are a threat. If preventing that threat means marrying all of his girls off to old men and letting their children inherit nothing, then so be it. Aemon and Baelon are the only ones who really matter.

Jaehaerys wanted to give Alyssa to his heir Aemon, but Alysanne insisted she was "for Baelon," so he accepts this one branch while keeping an eye on them. He ensures his sons are close and sets up Baelon as a future Hand of the King for Aemon. Viserys and Daemon don't receive cradle eggs, and neither one of them claims a dragon (or is allowed to claim, if I were to guess) until after their father Baelon becomes heir apparent. When an eventual succession crisis arrives, Jaehaerys settles the issue clearly and publicly through a Great Council.

As for the other possible branches? Even if all of his younger daughters had married, even if all of them had sons, those sons wouldn't be in any position to challenge the Throne. Maybe a half-Targaryen Lord Arryn would be a threat; a third son of House Arryn wouldn't be, nor would a fourth son of House Manderly. A half-Targaryen Lord Mooton or Connington or Beesbury could never muster an army or gather enough support for his claim. If his daughters have daughters? As evidenced by Aemma, they'll have no better prospects than a Targaryen prince as husband.

His daughters have no value as people who deserve happiness. They're either brides for his sons, tools to be used, or obstacles to be removed.

"i'm team black" "i'm team green"

well i am neither because i choose my teams with my pussy and not my moral compass

Will never not be funny

i did not put the lenny face there idk why theres a lenny face option 😭