#I'll post some art as recompense

[horizon-verizon]

re: Laena and Daemon’s treatment of her. 

I think the fandom tends to shift the blame for Laena, Baela and Rhaena being neglected onto Daemon instead of the writers/showrunners. 

In their quest to make him as irredeemable as possible, the writers severed him from his positive relationships with non-Rhaenyra people. This negatively impacted his relationship with his Black wife and Black daughters.

The writers are quite possibly racist and anti-Black. We see it in the treatment of Mysaria, Laena, Baela and Rhaena.

However, the blame does not rest solely on them, the fandom is also racist, and they enjoy their fantasies about Laena and how she’s a Black seductress/Jezebel, who could not steal him away from his great white love.

They constantly champion the Driftmark scene where Daemon ignores his bruised, bleeding daughters and only moves when he sees Rhaenyra might be in danger, as a sign that Rhaenyra is the only woman he will ever love. 

Response to this post.

I agree. I'll say something else about a thing I said: about HotD making the Velaryons/their scions Black and even though I do think canon!Daemon had a more passionate regard for canon!Rhaenyra is more than the canon! Laena, it is very true that many white or non-Black ASoIaF fans tend to disregard the dragon twins from just their names and shift it onto Jaehaerys and Jaehaera OR full out calling them "monkeys" and delighting in fantasies of their mistreatment or abuse. Ironic because it still has a different flavor to the fantasies of Rhaenyra's sons dying horrible painful deaths.

Then you may have art leaving them out of what was called "family" portrait as if the twins are not blood-related to Rhaenyra as her first cousins and to-be wives of her sons, and would-be mothers to her grandkids. Stepchildren who she raised alongside Daemon and helped develop into the young girls and women they eventually become, thus are her kids.

And to leave it at how the canon relationship may "support" the idea that LaenaxDaemon was an inferior relationship to Daemyra can effectively encourage racism against show!Laena. Because we already 1) face people mixing canon and show lore, cherry-picking facts, etc., 2) some events and how they went down aren't messed up too much in the show, HotD, and the original stories still yield a collective significance, and meaning to viewers of both book readers and show-only watchers. We're never going to get out of this rut until every person is as dedicated to reading the stories as much as a book reader, pondering for hours about characterizations and implications of some monarchial declarations and actions in the world.

*EDIT (forgot to add this)* Yeah show!Laena is black/PoC unlike canon, but I think that it is not her becoming black and then continuing with the Velaryon-suffering already in the original story (thus making as if there was racism when it is supposedly just the writers overlooking the optics once race is changed). We shouldn't pretend that the show!Velaryons have the exact same treatment or events happen to them in the same ways as in canon.

The writers did make some changes regarding how the Velaryones acted and the events surrounding them:

Laena gets that self-immolating treatment (a common wife-riddance social tool in some cultures' literature and actual history) when dragon riders actually don't die often in fire nor is that even a desired death by anyone in canon. It's simply a flashier way to go and to provoke watchers while giving more pain to an already dying, lonely woman (as she wasn't surrounded by loved ones like in canon, and in Driftmark her childhood and ancestral home).

Laenor got punched up by a Kingsuard while becoming the next Prince Consort of a ruling Queen, and yet doesn't recompense through Criston's exile or death.

Laenor loses his lover to a nonsensically-allowed outburst of rage from Colon in the midst of his engagement feast. In canon, Choler kills Joffrey in what could be reasonably excused, at least, during a melee, where anyone could get killed in a competitive fury. Thus Cholera escaped death and punishment that way.

And then some scenes they should have included. One is Laena bonding with Vhagar in her preteens, which would have provided its own significance being contrasted against Aemond's bonding moment with Vhagar. We get a clue that she used sailing rope to climb onto the dragon's back, but we do not see scenes of her getting to this point using her wits. We do not know how she avoided her caretakers to visit Vhagar or maybe how Rhaenys guided her into approaching Vhagar and teaching her commands or such. (We do not know how she processed possibly being married to a 30+ man, how the Velaryons broached that with her, either, and with Aemma's unnecessarily violent birth scene that centers Viserys' emotions more, this part especially reveals the writers' lack of concern for female character's development as they should writing a woman's story.) Laena's bonding with Vhagar contextualizes and makes real the visible mourning the show makes Vhagar have AND works to show why & how she came to be so loved by Rhaenyra and Daemon on her own merit.

Removing Laena from their lives or subduing that bond really just reduces the emotionality of all three characters, the bonds they had with each other, remove the reason why Rhaenyra announced that her sons would marry Laena's daughters and makes it seem more about politics than a blend of that and genuine love (thus a loss in complexity that is pretty inherent to these characters' family lives)

Which is very much a change. A downgrade and misunderstanding of the canon. The Dance was a war incited by many moments where the respective sides grew more and more suspicious of each other from domestic issues and misogyny-- "small" events of pointed insults or court-group censure, hidden meetings for plots, etc. and then there would be what we had with Laena, Rhaenyra, and Daemon where the life they had for a short while nonetheless created a stronger base not just for rhaenyra but all her kids. why wouldn't we want to see how the blacks/rhaenyra and Daemon's "blended" family operate and how each kid developed over the years to anticipate how they would act during the war itself? (Esp for the non-book readers coming into this story for the first time). *END OF EDIT*

#asoiaf asks to me #asoiaf race #fandom racism #hotd characterization #hotd racism #fandom critical #hotd critical

[galactic-pirates]

Yet Another Ask Meme: 4, 18, 36

Thanks for the ask!! :) :)

4) Do you have any OCs? Do you have a story for them? Oh sure lots. One's I'll admit to? Actually this is me and I have no shame about it so also many haha. I don't generally write OC's. They get such a bad rap that I save those particular imaginings for the stories I tell myself when I can't sleep, rather than ones I type up and post.

However, there is one exception that I just could not resist. I gave Jenkins a boyfriend in my and the Sins of Atlantis fic. Mordred. I don't know why maybe I just didn't like him having been lonely for two thousand years. I tried not to write it but I had such feelings about it. I... ok one day there will be (hopefully) a novel series written by me as a Camelot retelling. I have over 50k written towards it already (none of which was in that fanfic). I know, I know, Camelot has been done to death but hey there's a reason the Arthurian myth has been around for hundreds of years, it captures the imagination. If I want to write my take on Arthur's heroic death, and the uncrowned King Mordred and the Knight who would have ruled by his side, if Galahad's father hadn't broken the kingdom, then why not?

Admitting to sources of inspiration is probably not wise but I find OC's aren't a bad starting point for creating original works. Mind you the same can be said for fanfic "what if" as well. So long as pretty much everything about it changes in some form before the final version - well inspiration has to come from somewhere.

18) First, second, or third person? Third, always and forever. I have attempted to write first in exercises but it's not how I naturally think. From day one when I started writing it was always in third. I mostly only read third too. I will read first as I don't discriminate when I pick books up. However, I think I'm probably more likely to DNF a book written in first. I think I'm less forgiving or less used to it's foibles I don't know.

36) How do you come up with fic titles? What's the one you're most proud of? Answered here

(in recompense for not answering have another one. I was tempted to ask "Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn't." for you but oh merlin so so many and how to choose which to ramble about? I'd be here all week...)

20) Do you work on a single project or many at the same time? How does that work for you? Back in the day I used to have several WIP's going at once. Even then that wasn't the wisest as I got discouraged by what felt like slow progress (as my progress was split across projects rather than concentrated).

These days I have less spoons and I'm not really even mentally capable of doing more than one thing in a day. I would love to be able to write and draw in the same day but I can't seem to make it happen.

Anyway, I find I can't swap and change at all really now. So I focus on projects one at a time. For example I'm doing the Librarians gift exchange and I've had the assignment for weeks and weeks but I only started it last Monday. I spent March focusing on my novel and I regret all my life choices for that because an exchange deserves a quality product that takes ages to make (because I've had weeks to work on it) and I'm terrified it won't be done in time for the deadline. But I had to choose and I started drafting in January so the novel kinda came first. Anyway, I haven't touched the draft since I finished it, and I won't until the art is done.

It really is sad I can't balance better :/

#I answer things #sam talks writing

[ren-recompense]

hi!

not sure if i'll end up consistently interacting with anyone here, but in case i do, here's my intro post.

hello! my name is aren. i'm chill with nicknames, and my pronouns are they/them. possibly testing out he/him too, so feel free to use whichever you like

i'm an artist (@ren-recompense-art) and have been known to write fanfiction occasionally, though not very often anymore because of ✨school✨. i've played violin for ten years and it's one of my favorite things, along with aikido (4th kyu) and music in general. favorite musicians include the arctic monkeys, hozier, and modest mouse.

i love climbing things (typically trees and public structures on which it is generally disapproved of to climb on) and my favorite school subjects are english and math (i'm in calculus right now, which is actually quite fun).

it feels like i'm just writing a biography right now, but i'm enjoying myself, and if you've read this far then hopefully you are too.

my fandoms include mcyt (mostly dsmp creators but i don't follow lore anymore), six of crows (to an extent shadow and bone as well, but the crows have my heart), arcane, harry potter (the marauders, and ofc nothing to do with jkr), good omens, percy jackson, heartstopper, young royals, wings of fire, and the song of achilles.

i welcome asks! i'm not very good at getting conversations started, but i'd love to talk to some people here.

i don't know what you're meant to typically post here, so it may just be my thoughts and occasionally, some art. also all the reblogs, though i'll try to keep from spamming my nonexistent followers' dashboards.

<3!

i don't really like the idea or the vibe of having a DNI, but it seems necessary to keep my blog clean. so without further ado, here are the things that i do not support here:

homophobia, transphobia, TERFs, racists, anti-abortion, aphobia, biphobia (etc). to be honest, just respect one another and i'll be happy.

#get to know me #pinned post #aren's originalities

[main-to-arywizm]

I would have never chosen a graphic design course if I had known that it would make me a court IT specialist in my family

#the fact that I can navigate the mess that photoshop is doesn't mean I can fix your computer's battery mum #Ilthe ffact that I can write html doesn't mean that I can just magically get a domain for free #ahhhh sorry I'm frustrated #because i'm an idiot #I can't even use excel #scratch that #my only skill with computers lies in cheating my way through web and graphic design classes #I STILL TYPE WITH TWO FINGERS #sorry #i'll shut up now #i swear #I'll post some art as recompense

[possiblytracker]

important notice (commissions)

got hit very hard very recently with the realisation that i have been very irresponsible about some things this past... year! it has been around a year since i have consistently worked on my owed things. i have been feeling increasingly burnt out and guilty for a very very long time and need to actually address it like an adult since it's only fair. anyway if you've commissioned me in the past year or so and haven't heard anything since this post is for you

first off cutting straight to the point: this is basically me admitting defeat. i'm over halfway through a 3 year STEM degree that's currently sucking the life out of me and my ability to cope with the lengthy assignments I keep getting set has been steadily dropping. i have not been medicated for my ADHD properly for the past nearly two years due to circumstances outside of my control and I am failing or nearly failing 2, almost 3, out of six classes this year. on top of this, I have been drifting away pretty consistently from larger communities i used to be a part of- one of which i took a lot of commissions and trades from in 2021, then got a repetitive strain injury in my hand, dropped the ball, and never managed to pick it back up. this is in addition to comms taken from others outside of it in the meantime, either for semi-emergency reasons or just because

i can't stress enough that I do want to give people what is owed, i have never had the intention of sweeping it under the rug or just taking the goods and running, it's been at the back of my mind this entire time- but at the current time i do not think I am able to do serious art, it's eating me up inside that I can't, and i need to take accountability for it and recompense people somehow so i can stop stewing in guilt near-constantly

therefore I am more than happy to:

give back any designs that I never completed my side of the trade for, for you to resell or retrade or whatever you like, even if partial payment was made

refund you - my financial situation is tight right now but by late april I will have received a student finance payment that will allow me to give out refunds

financially compensate you even if you didn't pay me in money, e.g. design trades, within reason

keep you on the list of owed art anyway, and you will get your stuff eventually, but it may be a good while longer until I am situated and non-stressed enough to deliver - midsummer at the earliest

as above, but since it's been an entire year for some of this, if you want to change what you wanted me to draw (within the same price bracket ofc) because of shifting interests you can ask about that as well

reply to this post, message me here on tumblr, or on discord possiblytracker#0479, and we can work something out. I'm a little busy this week with end of term assignments but i promise i'll get back to you as soon as i am able to, i won't be ignoring anything. i'll look into setting up some sort of public and viewable record of what gets worked out from this for the sake of transparency as well. if anyone doesn't get in contact i'll automatically keep their art payment on the list anyway, i don't intend on dropping anything just bc this post got missed or something

in related news, I will be closing all public channels for commissioning me for artwork until further notice - probably until after I'm done with university as a whole in 2023. i may still take commissions from friends or mutuals on a case by case basis when my backlog is empty, so feel free to ask me about it in private, but I won't be formally opening anything at this time, as from experience I just can't handle it like I used to when i first started out and it's very irresponsible of me to keep taking up people's money and time without delivering. I'm barely drawing at all beyond silly sketches these days let alone churning out commissions-grade pieces I'm happy with, so I'm going to try and remove the stressor and the big source of guilt to focus on myself and hopefully some day soon make art enjoyable for me again. my ko-fi will remain open for donations but the commissions tab will be removed soon.

thanks for understanding. i really hope my actions in continually putting stuff aside this past year haven't left a sour taste in anybody's mouth, though I'd understand if they did. I sincerely apologise for this and hopefully i get to make up for it to as many people as possible

---

lastly, tagging some people i know i owe things to-

@thatsamolez @fayooweh @butterbeanchu @angeloshadows

I know there are some others but can't remember @s off the very top of my head, so if anyone else reading this does feel free to share this post around, i'd really appreciate it- same if i owe you stuff and forgot you. i'd be really grateful if as many people as possible got in touch. may reblog and tag more people later when i get back home to my notes

EDIT: i now have a record of what's being done here

#no this is NOT april fools i only realised the date after writing this gdhvjdf #yes i am Crawling in intense anxiety posting this but its either this or stay anxious forever. i will do my best #will be leaving this pinned for a little while until the majority of things get sorted out #this doesnt really apply to comms personally requested from close friends in the past month or 2 though its not like ive done those either; #though im still willing to compensate for those too if necessary just hmu #would like to extend a thank you to maple for the awke up call. ik it wasnt the purpose of your message but it made me think abt this #and to waka for poking me about this every so often i really did appreciate it and i'm sorry i never managed to properly follow through #god knows attempts were made and i shouldve done this several months ago #once it first became apparent it wasnt working #hope this is a good enough solution that people will be ok with