#I’m so normal about this book

[frothingbeerbottles]

Who wants to hear my long rant about how Theodore Decker isn’t an unreliable narrator because he wants the audience to take his side but an unreliable narrator that wants you to take anyone else’s? Who wants to hear me talk about how Theo’s chain of events being all mixed up is showing just how much that explosion really affected him at the cusp of his mental development when he was just starting puberty? Who wants to hear me talk about how Theo took comfort in Boris during his hard time and Boris just shielded him from becoming anything like he was because nobody held him while he cried and sobbed endlessly? Who wants to talk about how Theo probably underplayed how much him and Boris actually held each other and cried into each other’s shoulders knowing they were safe? Who wants to hear me scream into the void about how Theo wasn’t being ‘petty’, ‘girly’ or ‘bitchy’ when Boris left him for days on end just alone in the desert with no one to tell and to speak about? Who wants to talk about the fact that Pippa felt the exact same way that Theo felt about her and felt as if he was the only thing she had left of anyone that she lost and was mutually obsessed with him? Who wants to talk about how underplayed and underlined Pippa is in the goldfinch fandom despite her and Theo being two sides of the same page? Nobody?? Okay 😓

#the goldfinch #boris pavlikovsky #theodore decker #pippa blackwell #I’m so normal about this book

[jesenslapetitemort]

Hello, tgf fandom. (shhhh I’m not new here)

#i was young and had a lot to say #well #younger than I am now #I’m so normal about this book #you have no idea #I’m proud of myself #the goldfinch #boris pavlikovsky #tgf #theo decker #theodore decker #boreo #theo x boris #boris x theo #donna tartt #books #annotating #the secret history

[lolli-says-stuff]

JOE WAS THERE. AHHHHHH

#wolfsong #I’m so normal about this book

[phireads]

There’s something so amazing in Dean (Sharks in the Time of Saviors) feeling closer to his ancestors when he leaves his homeland because his ancestors were travellers. It speaks volumes about how culture and humanity is not a place but a spirit, and can never be extinguished.

#mine #phi rambles #books #sharks in the time of saviors #kawai strong washburn #dean flores #I’m so normal about this book

[thatrandomblogsays]

RIP Annabeth, I just know Percy sacrificing himself for you, after knowing you for a week, after telling you that you’ve done more for him this week than his father ever has, is permanently altering the brain chemistry of your avoidant attachment self

#epitome of the quote: there is something really healing about being loved #which is from a book I CANT REMEMBER SO I CANT LOOK IT UP PROPERLY #let me know if you guys know what I’m talking about #i just know Percy’s actions had her on her knees #what is this? unconditional love? #is this why people make friends? #i am lovable? #this is amazing #oh shit my new friend is about to die #I’m so normal about them (I’m lying) #pjo #pjo spoilers #pjo tv show spoilers #pjo series #pjo tv show #percy jackson #annabeth chase #Percy and Annabeth #mine

[crystallizsch]

happy april fools (the only fool is me)

#okay i’m back to normal about this #<- words of someone still not prepared for the sprites and groovy art and still has things to say about the card art #between this and the book 7 update i am just losing it #they are dropping SO MUCH this april #[— #twst #twisted wonderland #twst jp #twst jp spoilers #twst art #jamil viper #★'-my-art #tapis rouge #—]

[magnus-rhymes-with-swagness]

OKAY who wants to hear about why i think nimona challenges amatonormativity? you do! 🫵

one of the main ways this is accomplished is through ballister and ambrosius’s relationship. it’s arguable that it doesn’t necessarily fit the traditional model of romance - not only are they a queer interracial couple, and not only is their relationship ambiguous in the book, but there are certain instances, especially in the movie, that subvert traditional ideas of romance and friendship.

one instance that really stands out to me is when the director asks ambrosius what’s on his mind and he goes on his imagined rant about how arm-chopping isn’t a love language - you know the one. when he mentions ballister, he refers to him as “the man i love, my best friend.” and not just one or the other, but both! the man i love, and my best friend. he places equal emphasis on both the romantic and platonic aspects of the relationship, valuing ballister in both a romantic context and a platonic context without treating either one as more important than the other.

and even moments such as the first “i love you” and the kiss manage to subvert tradition. both of these things are generally seen as a pretty big deal, especially in fiction - if the characters are kissing or saying “i love you,” it’s usually a moment in which everything changes. a line is drawn, dividing the story into after and now. sometimes it’s dramatic and climactic, with fireworks and a swell of music, but even when it isn’t it’s still seen as a turning point of sorts. now it’s official, now it’s real. but this isn’t the case in nimona. both moments are certainly significant - they do a good job of showcasing the character development and where ballister and ambrosius are on their respective journeys, and are certainly important in terms of representation - but neither one follows the path that most fictional romance does.

another way in which nimona challenges amatonormativity would be the emphasis on friendship! in the tavern scene (in the movie) when ambrosius suggests killing nimona, ballister disagrees and says “she’s my friend.” ambrosius replies with “aren’t i more than that?”, implying he’s more important than a friend - thus upholding amatonormative ideas. ballister becomes angry at that and leaves - challenging this idea and prioritizing his platonic relationship with nimona over his romantic one with ambrosius, as nimona is the one he wants to defend.

additionally, a big part of this scene is the way ballister deliberately rejects institute values while ambrosius unintentionally upholds them. and because the story challenges homophobia and transphobia (and other forms of bigotry) through the lens of the institute, it would make sense for it to challenge amatonormativity too! it’s something that’s become incredibly normalized, to the point that lots of people don’t even know it exists, and this is reminiscent of the institute brainwashing, especially when it comes to ambrosius - he’s been manipulated his whole life and probably genuinely doesn’t understand the level to which he’s internalized institute beliefs.

ballister prioritizes nimona many times, actually. when he tells ambrosius she’s “smart, kind, and quite sophisticated,” when he’s overjoyed to see her again at the end, when he refuses to kill her and saves her instead. over and over, he proves how much he cares about her, even when this involves directly going against what ambrosius wants - which, of course, is really what the institute wants. a core tenant of amatonormativity is the false notion that romantic relationships are more important or valuable than other types of relationships, but ballister actively goes against this!

to conclude, as a story that at its core is about identity and challenging societal beliefs, nimona defies expectations and traditional ideas of what it should or shouldn’t be. it’s possible that amatonormativity wasn’t what the creators had in mind, but the story still manages to challenge it with grace and elegance. just like its main character, nimona refuses to conform to what others want it to be.

#nimona #nimona movie #ballister blackheart #ballister boldheart #ambrosius goldenloin #ballister x ambrosius #ambrosius x ballister #nimona netflix #nd stevenson #nimona spoilers #i could go on tbh but i think this is a digestible amount #often when i’m writing a meta i’ll walk around in circles talking into my phone recording my thoughts out loud #and then i’ll play it back and put the most coherent stuff into a list which eventually becomes paragraphs #and the combined recordings for this one are about half an hour in total lol #i’m just. absolutely in love with the whole story. both the book and the movie mean so incredibly much to me #changed my life shaped me as a person etc etc :’) #OH i almost forgot. this analysis is dedicated to the person who sent me aphobic anon hate about it before it even existed lol #i know i said i wouldn’t post anything if people couldn’t be normal but idc actually. seethe with rage! <3 #my words #meta

[blood-and-better-honey]

found this book and this card was inside; needless to say i was crying in half price books

cards reads:

dear jamie, i’m sitting here at paradise cafe watching people and eating my cookie (love,love,love) thinking back when i was your age and all the boy problems. it’s one of those times when you wonder if you will ever find someone normal or thinks like you think. it was a time of growing and learning about yourself and what you want out of life. remember i moved 800 miles away from the (a family name and boys)(heehee) you really grow during these times. someday when you least expect it you will meet someone that you think he’s different >:) . but you need to be happy with you and your wonderful self. you have everything going for you and right now you are wonderful being you. so i don’t want you to think that something is wrong because this is all part of growing up and we all go through it. and in the long run it will make you well-rounded, and for sure to know what you want out of life, relationships, etc. i love you so much, mom

#i’m not fucking okay at all #holy fucking shit like i’m crying i’m crying i’m crying #i’m being so normal about this #queer #queer shit #lgbtq #books #gay #it speaks #actually tagging this one bc i want people to see it #if you need a reminder let this be yours that you are going through life and you will find your person (if you desire a person) and #and it will be wonderful

[fumifooms]

thanks for infecting me with marchil its so so fun to just see them pair themselves up in the background now

especially love how much she picks him up like a cat (and when he has the opportunity to do it to her too he just lugs her around like a sack of oats) gosh i love them they're so funny

YAAAAAA 🎉🎉 I’m so glad to hear it welcome to the sillies corner 🤝

THEY’RE SOOO SO FUNNY

They’re worsties that cannot get enough of each other

#Ask #dungeon meshi manga spoilers #dungeon meshi #marchil #MAKE IT MAKE SENSEEE they’re so ‘see u later bestie!! <3 … Can’t stand their fake ass smh’ #Ppl get on Marcille’s case about teasing him about his age but I think most forget how teasing her is Chil’s mission & calling 24/7 #-sends off an explosion near him- ‘Woah careful there!! Is he okay??!!’ ‘What are you a baby it’s just a lil explosion he’ll be fine’ #Rest of the time: ‘CHIL ARE YOU OKAY OMIGOSH I’M COMING DON’T WORRY’ #He laughs at her so so much. So often. They are united in haterism like ‘thank god we’re normal’ and then realize they are so obnoxious #I’ve been trying to think of funky ship names for them lately. Bc Short Fuse is taken by another ship from another fandom </3 #None feel perfect but… Closed book. Magiclock. Detonation… Implode explode… Bc she makes boom booms and he undoes traps which blow up #Also he bottles his feelings up until he bursts hehe #Anyways. Just a short comp of the sillies #Compilation #Marcille donato #chilchuck tims

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

I already did something a bit like this for Jesper, I didn’t think we’d have to be back here again but here we go:

NINA ZENIK IS NOT JUST COMEDIC RELIEF.

Spoilers for the whole series ahead, also warning for discussing Nina’s trauma (and a bit of Matthias’ as well but not in much detail)

Nina has no recollection of what her life looked like before she taken from her home at about 3 and raised in the military of an abusive government to become a child soldier under a compulsory draft for all Grisha in Ravka. When she was around fourteen Nina and a group of other children also being raised to be child soldiers were abducted by the Darkling and held captive at Keramzin, where we know little of what they underwent. This abusive government had so greatly manipulated Nina that by the time she was rescued and the compulsory draft against her people was lifted, her patriotism had become so intense that she begged (remember she was still a child at this time) to be sent on military missions where she would convince other Grisha to join the army. And on one of these missions, when Nina was sixteen, she was taken captive by Drüskelle; by an order of Witch-hunters purposefully constructed for the destruction of her people. And so terrified of implicating and endangering her compatriots she was, Nina did not cry for help.

Nina was held in a cage beneath the deck of a ship with several other Grisha, presumably for a minimum of two weeks, and treated like an animal. During those two weeks the Grisha on the ship were rarely fed, were rarely given access to clean water (Nina begging Matthias to bring them water ends up being what saved her life), were given nowhere to relieve themselves, underwent theats, violence, and dehumanisation, and travelled that entire time with the knowledge that when they reached their destination they would be put on trial and sentenced to death. Almost upon their arrival to Fjerda, the ship feel victim to a massive storm. If it weren’t for the jagged edge of the cup Matthias had given her that Nina used to cut through her bonds, she would have drowned to death in a cage. As it was, she was one of two survivors from the entire vessel and her singular companion was a Drüskelle. Nina and Matthias had to rely on each other, on someone part of the very thing they each identified as their abuser, not only to swim to shore, but to survive for weeks on end afterwards as they travelled across the ice. And in that time, Nina was able to find something in Matthias that she thought was impossible.

Matthias was like her. Matthias had gone through something so similar, and yet so horrifyingly different to her, and where Nina had come to hate and fear his people out of necessity he had come to hate and fear hers through the death of his family followed by years of manipulation and abuse at the hands of his government as it raised him to become a child soldier. And Nina and Matthias were able to look at each other, at 16 and 17 in the most horrendous hellish experience they could have fathomed, and learn who each other truly were. And they knew it would be harder for Matthias, they knew the things he had done - even though he admitted to himself he had never wanted to do them - were going to be so much harder to accept and to unlearn and to move away from. But they had a chance.

And then Nina, believing she had no other options left when Grisha were threatening to kill Matthias, betrayed him - and in doing so, she knew full well, was forced to betray herself. She fought for his freedom for a year, staying in Kerch when she could have just gone home, endangering her life and getting herself in debt to a gang leader in her attempts to save him, knowing all the while that Matthias would not forgive her and would, she now believed, never have the chance to undo all the hatred that had been forged upon him and learn to be the boy he could have been without the abuse of Jarl Brum. And when she finally managed to help him escape, the first thing he did was try to choke her to death.

Nina, now 17, travelled back not just to the country she was to be killed in and that she was shipwrecked and stranded in, but to the very place where her death sentence would have been held: The Ice Court. She was part of the crew that broke in and out of the most fortified prison in the world, and whilst she was there she learnt the Drüskelle leader, who had killed hundreds of her people and abused Matthias for years on end, whom she believed had drowned on the shipwreck a year ago was not only still alive but had also begun to experiment on her people with an impossibly addictive and life-endangering drug to use them as slaves in his army - in his words “these creatures were made to be weapons”. Only minutes after learning this she believes Matthias has betrayed her and that she will be the next victim of the drug, only for him to attack Jarl Brum, save her life, and vow that he will do everything in his power to learn how to change, and that he will protect her for the rest of their lives.

But upon their escape of the Ice Court, Nina (still seventeen) realised that she and her friends were trapped by the Drüskelle and had no options left but to be taken captive and/or killed (I’m mostly putting the and/or there for Kuwei, I expect the others would’ve been killed where they stood). So Nina turned around and took the drug, unbelievably addictive and life-endangering after a single exposure, so that she would have enough power to save her friends’ lives. She spent the following weeks/months horrendously ill, battled addiction for months on end following it, suffered the fear of her closest friend being kidnapped and knowing she was unable to help, and for long periods of time basically waiting for the drug to kill her. Nina survived, but then she had new problems to contend with. She found that the drug had altered her Grisha power, something not only that she had defined herself by her entire life but also what she had been taught was why she was valued. Nina felt that she was no longer part of the world she grew up in and relied upon, but over time as Matthias unlearned everything he’d been through and began to plan to change a nation’s thinking, Nina learned to accept, use, and love her newfound power.

They had such a chance, they had so much ahead of them, they could have done so much together. And then Matthias was shot and killed by a Drüskelle child soldier (I think he was 14?) who was being manipulated and abused the same way he once was whilst Matthias tried to convince him to change his mind, and then he died in Nina’s arms. Matthias was 18. Nina was 17.

NINA IS IN FOUR BOOKS. WHAT I’VE SAID SO FAR IS ONLY FROM TWO OF THEM.

It has been a long time since I read KoS/RoW and also I’ve been going on for way too long so this is going to be in a nutshell but here we go: Nina was sent on another mission to Fjerda by the Ravkan government, to give her the opportunity to bury Matthias at home and to gather intelligence on the country. She begins to develop feelings for Hanne, a Grisha heartrender hiding their abilities in order to survive, only to discover that Hanne is JARL BRUM’S CHILD. She meets the Drüskelle who killed Matthias and endangers herself on a daily basis living with the Brum family hiding who she really is. And as the situation only gets more and more complicated and the intelligence she’s gathering only starts running deeper and deeper, Nina ends up stuck with the Fjerdan government IN the Ice Court, hiding who she is and her abilities, alongside Hanne doing the same, FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE.

And yet through everything Nina continues to be unbelievably strong, in every sense of the word, she is compassionate and wonderful and brave and yes, she’s quick-witted and flirty and she loves a good joke but that isn’t all she is, that’s a testament to her ability to maintain herself and her core of who she is after going through so much.

PLEASE, I AM BEGGING YOU, STOP REDUCING NINA ZENIK TO COMEDIC RELIEF. NINA IS FUNNY AND FLIRTY AND SHE LOVES JOKES, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN THAT’S ALL SHE IS

#ahem… anyway #I’m so normal about these books #six of crows #grishaverse #crooked kingdom #leigh bardugo #nina zenik #soc nina #nina x matthias #six of crows nina #danielle galligan #matthias x nina #helnik #soc matthias #matthias helvar #helnik supremacy #helnik owns my heart #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #save six of crows #save shadow and bone #save the grishaverse #soc analysis #six of crows analysis #crooked kingdom analysis #shadow and bone #long post

[otaku553]

My brother recently got into Demon Slayer so I wanted to make a kny oc for him since I did it before with both me and my sister and never got around to my brother :)

But I started by refreshing my own design because wow?? It’s been 4 years since I first made my kny insert character and a lot of things are now outdated! Not to mention my art has improved a lot, I hope. More details under the cut!

Meet Ebisu Koharu: youngest of the Ebisu family and physically the weakest. They only barely passed Final Selection by hiding for the entire week and surviving off tips from their older siblings. Nonetheless, they still want to contribute, which is why they hold onto a thick, leather bound book that records every demon they’ve ever met in precise detail, with labeled diagrams and scribbled calculations in the margins of different strengths and weaknesses.

After spending a few years on the job, and properly seeing their data contribute to the successes of other demon slayers, they’ve come a bit more into their own as a competent researcher and fighter, though they still do tend to request paired missions with friends and family to act more as a support role rather than a fighter.

The Ebisu family is one of scholars. The eldest daughter Kaoru is a doctor, and the eldest son Shougen is a chemist. By nature, fighting is not necessarily their strong suit, which is why their family breathing style and techniques are all poison-assisted. Of the three, Koharu is the weakest and most averse to combat— they wield a short half-length blade, with more of a smooth ceremonial hilt and sheath than any practical weapon.

#kny oc #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer #it’s so much fun seeing my brother be so late to the party for kny lmao #I love him but his takes are kind of shit ngl. #his character will be absolutely hilarious to do as well #because you better believe I’m going to lean far into how much he simps for giyu #looking for names is so much more fun when I can read some kana and am not using google translate #I found out that the combination of me and my sister’s names form kanari which i will not stop thinking about for ages #four years of improvement and four years of character development! Better character design and research skills #it’s a lot of fun thinking more about details when designing now #I.e. brushes are wildly impractical tools for writing on the go so koharu’s main choice of stationery is an imported fountain pen that cost #a decent amount of their savings #and they wanted their records to last longer so they also invested in a proper leather bound journal (also imported) rather than #a normal string bound book like their normal daily journal. this is also why the books open in different directions #in the event that their fountain pen breaks they Will Cry but they will also commit the details to memory and write them in with a bruh #with a brush after the battle ends

[teeth-draws]

He’s trying to be cool about it but he shouldn’t have opened that and you should probably get out of there…

#shepherds of haven #red antiqua #like everyone else I’ve been playing bg3 and every time I talk to Gale I want to talk to red instead #also Anders but like out of all of them red is the standout favourite #less… explosive……. yanno #I just threw shoujo flowers and a bunch of textures on this I’m rly happy with his hair and skin #I’m not sure on the composition but I guess it’s a learning curve #this was originally part of a bunch of sketches I did of red and I took it and made it it’s own picture #I just love him ok #the writing in the book says something about how these demons can only be banished with a filthy pash so he has his work cut out for him #and he doesn’t want you to see #impulsivity got the best of him again #mc…… uh. I’m so happy to see you but uh. don’t watch this I’m begging you #guess he’s wearing normal people clothes and I don’t have a reason for why except that I think red wears big jumpers when he’s not in #slutty mage gear #fanart #fantasy #if games #shoh

[dailyjevil]

Day 116 of posting Jevil every day

#posting later than I normally do but it’s still the same day for me so I’m not technically late just later #I got off track reading my new undertale art book that I got for Christmas :p #younger me would’ve killed for this book! I wanted to know EVERYTHING about that game!!!! #wonder what they would think of this account #dailyjevil #deltarune #deltarune jevil #jevil #jevil deltarune

[vamxxpire]

Was trying to think of the reason of the Love Triangle between the boys and Mare and I think I got something down lol.

— Kilorn is the representation of Mare’s life as a Red and of her past, being the reason why she’s so overprotective and constantly wanting to keep him safe. But also not wanting to pursue him romantically because her life as a Red was horrible, and because of how much hatred he harbors for Silvers and that of the unknown (back when he found out she’s a Newblood and didn’t react positively). Her rejecting Kilorn is a milestone for her, refusing to let her hatred and anger of Silvers and of her identity as a Newblood consume her.

— Maven represents War and the present, a person she is afraid of becoming because of the similar circumstances they were both brought into. They were used and turned into people neither of them wanted to be, making Mare afraid that she’s capable of becoming just as bad of a person. Because of war shes made to change, forced to do things she doesn’t like. She pursues him at the start because it’s easy to find comfort in war and anger, especially when it’s painted with rose tinted glasses. But through the series she shows distress in Maven, each time distancing herself from him. In a way, killing Maven signified letting go of the war. That it doesn’t define her.

— Lastly Cal, being Peace and the future. From the very start we see Cal as someone soothing, the person who hears Mare out and offers her the job position in Summerton. Mare is hesitant to seek him out romantically and at times loathes him, but he is also the only other person who understands her. Cal had constantly shown support and compassion to both Silvers, Reds, and Newbloods through the series (showing distaste when Mare kills Silvers, sneaking out at night into red villages to be a better king, etc.) He is a constant warming presence for her, even if she doesn’t seek it. Though Mare sometimes clashes with peace, as getting it is not easy by no means. In order to achieve peace sacrifices have to be made, and you have to let go of war. Seeking Peace in the midst of War can be hard, especially when you’ve faced so much tragedy. Coming to terms to it after war’s over is even harder. But in the end, Peace is what she needs the most to overcome the trauma and grief. It’s the one she stays with by choosing Cal.

#:3 … #my godd I feel sick #was trying to think of ways to apply their dynamics in the fanfic series since I’m switching between cal-maven-mare #but oh my god!!!!!!!!!!! #anyways #im so normal about them. #red queen #red queen victoria aveyard #cal calore #mare barrow #book series #maven calore #kilorn warren

[tomatoland]

I think I would miss you even if we’d never met

Top & Mew are two people who don't know what love is. Mew gets too comfortable in his singleness, while Top is never alone. If they had never met, Mew would still never let anyone into his heart and Top would never know what it would be like to love someone and have someone truly care about him. Their relationship is about being vulnerable enough to let someone in.

I think I would miss you even if we'd never met.

I think I would miss the way you call me on my bullshit and make me want to be a better man.

I think I would miss the way my chin fits on your shoulder and how you keep me grounded.

I think I would miss the way you fit in my arms and how we always fall asleep cuddling.

I think I would miss kissing you and being in your world because you’re my whole world.

I think I would miss eating ice cream with you and sharing new experiences with you.

I think I would miss playing and laughing with you.

I think I would miss holding your hand and seeing your face light up when you see me even if we haven’t been separated for very long.

But most of all, I would just miss you.

Even if we never met, even if— I would miss you somehow. Somehow, something inside me would just know... and miss you.

#the long promised #wedding date quote part 2 #topmew #forcebook #force jiratchapong #book kasidet #ofts #only friends the series #top tanin #mew witsarut #i wrote this forever ago but the gifs took forever #i’m so not normal about them 😭 #the end always makes me cry

[dragonseeds]

what are your thoughts on rhaegar and lyanna?

oh i love them! there’s all this talk of them haunting the narrative and they do, but i’d take it further and say they are the black hole at the center of the story. the choices that they made, starting with lyanna’s decision to defend howland reed and what that meant to both him and rhaegar, who was very likely at his lowest point at harrenhal after the ruination of his careful plans, touched or changed the lives of every character and plot line in the series. the story itself is such a fun mashup of tristan and iseult, lancelot and guinevere, helen and paris, the fall of camelot and all of arthuriana really, the classic trope of the princess in the tower and the dragon and the knight: all of that in one couple and we don’t get to experience any of it with them. we can guess and speculate, but we can never truly know them. we experience their story only through the memories the people who survived the war they ostensibly kicked off, and those memories are all heavily colored by trauma, guilt, nostalgia—alternately faded and sharpened by time. it’s this incredibly fun and brilliant reconstruction of some of the most enduring tragedies in folklore and mythology and i adore it.

hate beyond articulation the way asoiaf.tumblr.edu approaches their relationship and the individual characterizations of both of them, though. just absolutely some of the most insufferably sanctimonious disingenuous decontextualized analysis i’ve ever experienced—much of that coming from people viewing this through a historical lense instead of a thematic one. like, imagine approaching the battle of the trident as “rhaegar is a bad person for fighting for his father who was evil! he lost the moral high ground with that one” as opposed to “rhaegar as a character exists to fail and die; he was the last dragon, carrying the unbearable weight of his family’s legacy and the burden of the prophecy for which they conquered westeros: the end of his life is the end of the targaryen dynasty. he must fail and he must die, so that dany and jon can grow up free of that weight and that power. daenerys gets to redefine what it means to be targaryen on her own terms. she and jon separately and unknowingly do the things that he thought he had to do—the things he was conceived and born to do—but never knew how: they do it because of their circumstances, because of the people that they have grown into, because they believe it is their duty, because they have the power to do it.” also, like, re: interpretations of battle of the trident, is there maybe another battle that occurs later in the series that is exactly the same thematically and contextually? where perhaps a character who was missing for a while shows up on the eve of battle, knowing that the opposition is right and their cause is just but that his family will die if he doesn’t fight with them? anything that adds an extra layer of meaning to what happens, aside from dany’s own connection—which is not as thematically similar but is still incredibly meaningful. like i certainly don’t think there’s any one interpretation of a character or story, but the worst ones are consistently applied to rhaegar.

and then with lyanna in particular, it’s like people cannot stomach her or find her sympathetic as a character unless they’re wallowing in her eternal victimhood. the constant dismissal of the importance of lyanna’s actions and what they meant to rhaegar is pure misogyny, by the way. her choices and her agency, the inherent meaningfulness of the struggle for both of those things in a system that seeks to reduce her to her body and the use men can make of it—all of that is important. the person she was and what that meant to people was important, but from the way i most often see her discussed, it’s like her gendered death is the only thing that matters. it’s okay to lament her because she got crushed by the wheel. if she hadn’t, if she wasn’t a victim to write flagellatory meta about, she would be a hypocrite, someone who needed to learn a lesson—as difficult for some of these people to relate to as dany or rhaenyra apparently are.

like, it’s just wild to me because her kindness to howland reed and her choice to defend him, to disguise herself as the knight of the laughing tree and risk her life and reputation to fight for him—is the answer to and the embodiment of one of the most thematically significant questions in the series. we see it most prominently in dany’s chapters because she asks it directly: why do the gods make kings and queens if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves? that’s what lyanna did, when no one else was doing it: she had more honor than any knight at that tourney or any man sitting on the small council, and it meant something to rhaegar. like what about this is hard to understand? i think he must have idealized her immediately: she must have seemed like something out of a song or a story to him, and rhaegar was a singer, a songwriter, a bard: he knows how stories are supposed to go—how to finish a song, or at least he thought he did.

bran, who also loves stories, says it himself: “and the mystery knight should win the tourney, defeating every challenger, and name the wolf maid the queen of love and beauty.” like obviously bran has some critiques i cut out, but he has the ending right—only the wolf maid was the knight, and she couldn’t have won. in the feudal gender prison, women are rewarded for being beautiful and their worth is derived from that and from what their bodies provide. she should’ve won the whole thing, but the system doesn’t allow that, so rhaegar—in a fit of single-minded capital r romantic hero idiocy—dedicates himself to winning the tourney to honor her in the only way he can: the only way the system allows him to recognize her. it was the worst possible move he could make at that time because of the romantic connotations, but i love him for doing it, as stupid as it was and even though there is no way it didn’t hurt and humiliate elia, or make him look terrible when he desperately needed to make a good impression on the lords of the realm—it’s just such a Moment. being reminded that there’s good in the world—feeling hope in the face of endless abject overwhelming despair—how do you express gratitude for that? the idea that he could only doing it by hurting someone who didn’t deserve it and making himself look like an ass is fucking awesome. i’m genuinely so sorry for people are incapable of enjoying that. could not be me!

but that’s just my interpretation of what happened at harrenhal. like i said, part of why i like them so much is that we truly don’t know. while i love darker relationships in general, the idea that he crowned her at harrenhal because he wanted to impregnate her then does not work for me. it’s a popular theory, but it renders some of the very few contextual clues we are given about what happened meaningless. for one, he didn’t know that elia wouldn’t be able to have more children at that time. this was discovered after she gave birth to aegon, and that is the point at which the question of the third child appears to have become a motivating factor for him. i personally think he left for the riverlands to consult with the ghost of high heart—the one whose prophecy is the reason he was born, the reason is parents were forced to marry, the reason his family burned alive the night he came into the world—and ran into lyanna somewhere near harrenhal. it’s possible he had been in contact with her prior to this (how? without her family knowing? what are the logistics of that?) but i think it’s just as likely it was pure chance. i really like the idea that his crowning her queen of love and beauty caused lyanna’s father to set a date for her wedding to robert or talk of moving it up, maybe even suggest a double wedding at riverrun, which would have almost certainly caused her to balk. either way, high heart is located between harrenhal and riverrun. arya also stops there while she’s kidnapped by the brotherhood without banners on the way to ransom her to her family at riverrun, and they trade songs to the ghost for her dreams and prophecies. i think it’s worth noting because arya’s journey in the riverlands mirrors lyanna’s right down to her “death” as arya stark when she leaves for braavos, paying the ferryman’s fee with the coin jaqen h’ghar gave her—just as jon’s journey at the wall mirrors rhaegar’s in many ways right up until his own death.

i also don’t think rhaegar and lyanna eloped because they were in love—this is implied by lyanna’s famous quote—but that they did come to love each other deeply, which is suggested by the way they died: her roses and him saying her name. notably, rhaegar did not leave the tower of his own volition—someone had to come and get him with news of war, which is hilarious because i think the tower of joy is right in the middle of like three major battles of the rebellion? like quite frankly, if he didn’t love her or care for anything beyond the prophecy and if she didn’t love him despite how badly things went wrong, then where in their story is the heart in conflict with itself?

i do want to clarify that i love the tower entrapment and the power imbalance aspects of their relationship as much as i love (what i interpret as) the genuine respect for each other that grew into love: it’s really the tension of those disparate elements that interests me. a dragon can love the maiden, but he’s only ever a dragon—still liable to hoard her like treasure or burn her up and rip her open trying to be gentle, to protect. that FUCKS, sorry! love is sweet and hopeful, but it’s also at exactly the same time horror, consumption, destruction.

idk it’s myopic to act like the beginning or the ending of their relationship—of their lives—is the summation of it. i think people want their story to be easy when it’s not: a clear case of a villain and his victims where everyone knows who to root for and no one has to think too much about things that are difficult or uncomfortable, questions where there probably isn’t an answer that doesn’t hurt someone. what a sad, tedious way to approach any text, but specifically this one. i’ve sometimes seen it suggested that if their story is romantic then it’s an endorsement or justification of all the “bad” things that happened because of it, and that’s also stupid. grrm as an author is never going to be someone who tells us how to feel about anything: he presents these characters and situations, often as a means of exploring certain facets of the human condition, and each of us has to come up with our own answers and find our own meaning. i don’t think he always knows what he means, or what those answers are, you know? but for me rhaegar and lyanna are one of the most fascinating parts of story, and whatever the truth is—if we ever find out—i can’t imagine a scenario where i don’t love them or find them really interesting and wonderfully sad.

#lyanna stark #rhaegar targaryen #rhaelya #i’d apologize for this being so long but u have got to all be used to me by now #like i couldn’t be succinct at gunpoint #or coherent apparently #and especially not about this like i’m not normal about either of them #also just to clarify because this kind of turned into a rant: none of this applies to people i follow #but like. i sincerely think that 90% of the meta about them (individually + their relationship) is bad lol #and part of that is bc so much of it is based on fanon instead of what is actually in the books #and that frustration really comes through in this post and i regret that but it’s out there now lol #asoiaf