shivy, honey.

This was supposed to be another quick one that took me a literal month of work, on and off, and over 20 hours of audiobook listened while doing it. There's something to be said about how nowadays I'm more comfortable with working on pieces for longer and just chipping away at work rather than staying up until 4 am to finish something on a rush but like. Anyway, Sansa's POV! Cersei's revenge dress! Murdered husband! Misogyny will come for us all in the end!

bonus: pycelle's dumb face

‘Cersei and Joffrey and the general trauma Sansa suffers leads her down a path of hating herself in the same way Cersei does; hating her naivety, partly wanting to shame others who are still like that as a means to project it outwards and yet she never quite does. And not only is that a triumph of her empathy in the face of her situation but it is also a triumph of belief in herself; still seeing goodness within herself rather than just something to shame and attack the way everyone makes her internalise. If these other people deserve empathy, even when part of her does feel the opposite, if they still deserve empathy, so does she. I think all of this tells us she did have a lot of loving experiences from her parents growing up. That as much as she might feel self-hatred a lot of the time there is still a little voice in there saying ‘no you deserve more, you are more than they say.’ At many points it’s a very faint, faint voice in this story but what’s important is that it is there.’

Oh my god. He gets it. I really think the entire asoiaf fandom should watch this video. I mean, op is a child therapist - of course he has a better grasp of her complexity than half the freaking fandom.

an unbiased, educated, thorough analysis of sansa that also has a stand alone segment for her relationship with jon…oh…let me pour a drink i’m going to devour this

this was such a good watch! it hits on so many of the reasons why sansa will always be my #1 pookie. and here’s a bit of the part on jon:

i love how non-shipper theorists/asoiaf essayists are always like ‘hmmm i think there’s something going on with jon and sansa…i get the feeling grrm is trying to say something here…can’t say what though…’ like jon and sansa’s dynamic stands out so much and their themes are so interwoven that people can’t help but pick up on it even if jonsa is not a blip on their radar. it is very validating to me.

as katniss and peeta become increasingly intertwined in the hunger games, katniss begins to view him as an extension of herself.

like when katniss considers what she is in need of at the feast, she concludes that she needs the life-saving medicine for peeta (thg, 274). because she needs him to live (thg, 297). 

or when katniss begs peeta to live at the end of the games. falling to the ground. desperately trying to reapply the makeshift bandages that he tore off in a last-ditch effort to end the game quickly (thg, 343).

because… he. just. can't. die. she won't let him. 

so, in those last moments with the berries, katniss's survival instinct takes over. only now, it is not enough to simply survive alone. to survive a sole victor.

instead, her survival is contingent on his survival. and she can not let him die. because a part of her would die with him (thg, 343). stuck in the arena. never to be revived. leaving the remnant of girl to survive the hellscape of victory alone.

and so she needs to save him. and in turn save herself.

and so when other people save him in the quell, peeta once again acts as extension of herself. because they also saved her. 

like when finnick odair revives peeta after his heart stops. and even katniss's glares she throws at finnick while sobbing can not hide the truth. 

that by finnick saving peeta, katniss has entered into a debt (cf, 80). a personal one. for saving him. and for saving her.

and this continues throughout the quell. as mags sacrifices herself for peeta (cf, 87). and finnick lets her (cf, 89). or the morphling jumps out as a sacrifice to a rabid monkey, sparing peeta (mj, 96). saving him when katniss couldn't (cf, 88). 

over and over, people sacrifice for peeta in the quell arena (cf, 89). and katniss concludes that their sacrifice results in her indebtedness. one that lasts an eternity. and one that can never be forgotten (mj, 13).

because to katniss, to save peeta is to save her. save her from a life of destruction beyond repair (cf, 100). a life where she has lost the will to live (cf, 110). a life without her dandelion in the spring.

Yall ain’t going to like this take but I’m pretty sure the people getting annoyed with Alicent still *holding love* for Rhaenyra has a lot less to do with *trying to reduce Alicent to her family* and more to do with what’s up with the writers trying to push this agenda of *women all want peace and love and men just want violence and death*.

Sorry but I think women are capable of love and hate equally and I much prefer to see complex women than *good women*.

Sara hess the bane of my existence is BACK

”Our POV is the Targaryens” is the terrible sequel to “It’s Game of Thrones—civilians don’t count!” The reason why GRRM made the leaders of the Black and Greens so unlikable was to focus on the cost the war was having on everyone else (usually more sympathetic). If she’s the one writing the episode of “the Storming of the Dragonpit” (a peasant uprising killing the dragons, the symbol of the monarchy that was starving them), be very afraid.

I really do think one of the most endearing things Katniss did in the books was try to mimic her parents when trying to seem loving. It’s hilarious to think that during the growing back together period before they start getting romantic Katniss does something similar where she tries mixing in Peeta’s way of being affectionate with her own. But Peeta is also transparently romantic even when he’s trying not to be so Peeta is getting a mix of

- Katniss hunting and finding cool stuff in the forest to give him and make him happy. Which comes naturally to her based on the goat with Prim and pine needles for Johanna.

- “oh when I needed comfort Peeta hugging me with his lips against my neck helped and felt really good” and she commences doing that causing the boy to almost have a stroke

Katniss tries the verbal route once in a while but takes a lot of breaks because she comes home with stuff like “you have handsome eyelashes”. (Sending Peeta on another spiral because not even his romantic dreams could come up with such an endearingly Katniss-like compliment so he knows it’s real).

IN DEFENSE OF CATELYN STARK

lyanna stark || elia martell || sansa stark || arya stark || alicent hightower || jaehaera targaryen || cersei lannister || myrcella baratheon || joanna lannister || aemma arryn || catelyn stark || sansa stark (2) || margaery tyrell || rhaena targaryen, daughter of aenys i || arianne martell || aerea targaryen

for @tell-them-the-north-remembers, for this post (analysing ned loves my hair. gosh it took some time to find but i rembered that i had it in my drafts. for when i'd do catelyn. hope you like it)

brienne deserved so much better than her show portrayal, which seems to misunderstand that bri is not interesting simply because she’s a female knight, or because of her appearance, or the cruel things she has suffered as a result of both of these, it is the fact that despite all of these things she is still gentle and idealistic and kindhearted and romantic. brienne reconciles traits that are considered to be antithetical in westerosi society. she does not have to be a beautiful maid to dream of love and enchantment, and she can dream of these things whilst also being an incredibly capable knight. she’s open minded and defies expectations; she does not have to adhere to a strictly ‘masculine’ way of thinking in order to be strong. and then the show had her insult jaime by saying he was ‘acting like a woman’

It would be so sweet, to see him once again.

Targ supremacy is still HBO's capitalistic ruining of GRRM's work die mad about. No the other houses aren't just lame losers HBO cut all their world building to make the Targaryen's look cooler. So, social justice fandom warriors should realize that "Targ Supremacy" is inherently an anti art take at this point.

I've been looking at (ie forced to sit through presentations on) AI material for work, and there's one big thing to keep in mind. AI doesn't actually know what it's doing and never will.

It doesn't know what a dog is, it's using a wide range of data to put together an image or description. It's never going to compare to an artist who actually wants to capture an emotion or convey something. You can tweak a prompt to create what looks like a competent image, but it's never going to be able to intentionally create a picture of a dog like an artist does.

AI doesn't know how to tell a story. A good prompt can make it seem like it can, but it doesn't understand why a story is being told or what the point of the story is. It simply cannot do that and never will be able to do that. It is pulling from a large dataset to create an approximation of one, but there's a huge difference between being able to string together a few plot points in an outline and creating a satisfying story.

You know what I've seen over the last year? AI art... really not making much of a splash. For every 'omg it's so good' image, far more come off obvious and lazy. Companies have been called out and shamed for using AI art, some to the point of pulling it, and professionals who have jumped on the AI train have lost a lot of fans. The AI train is not making headways with anyone who isn't on the grift hype train.

But what's even more telling to me? How much of a dud AI art and fiction has been in fandom. I don't really see AI fanart on tumblr, and it's often banned and downvoted on reddit. No one passes around those AI-generated fics, because they're just not good.

AI isn't what people want in fandom, and it isn't what they want in fiction. No one really wants to engage in artwork that is not created by people, because that's the whole point of making art - saying something about yourselves and others.

Keep writing your stories and making your art, because we all want to see them.

Cersei Lannister

// Vanity by Frank Cadogan Cowper, Thoughts of a stray iii - Dvoyd, Français : Édouard Toudouze, Le Mariage d'Anne de Bretagne, The story of Donkeyskin illustrated by S G Tourrett, I Knew You Once by Hollie Allen, Elaine The Fair by William Ladd Taylor, Kriemhild’s Accusation by Emil Lauffer //

Happy Star Wars day! May the Force be with you! @swsource Star Wars Week: Day 6