#I've said my peace

[penforthewin]

Black Christmas 2019 was so disappointing. It had NONE of the charm and horror of the original. One of the most horrific things about the og movie is, of course, Billy.

There doesn't seem to be any method to his madness and the closet thing we get to a backstory for him are the obscene and vile phone calls we hear throughout the movie. We can piece together a story about Billy's parents yelling at him for something he did to a baby named Agnes. Agnes was most likely his sister, and with a line like “Agnes, it’s me, Billy. Don’t you tell anyone what we did,” I think it's pretty obvious what went down. But that's only if anything Billy is saying is true

So he's tormenting and mocking these girls throughout the movie- at one point even begging them for help- all while they search for their missing friend. The thing is that she's already dead and has been hidden in the attic the entire time, the final shot of the movie being the camera panning away from her plastic covered face, out through the window and into the yard, revealing that her body was just barely visable from the road. Billy is still alive, nobody even knows that Mrs. Mac is dead, and everyone is left shook as a phone rings and the credits roll.

So, who was the killer? What did he want? Why did he do this? Will he be found and stopped or will he kill again?

Now compare that to a frat house cult with black goo brainwashing college boys because sexism

Villains can make or break a story, and my God, Black Christmas 2019 was broken

#I've said my peace #or piece idk #black christmas 2019 #black christmas 1974 #billy lenz #time to lose followers

[emometalhead]

Anyway if you send death threats to teenagers, you're a piece of sh*t!!

#ideally no one would be sending death threats to strangers on the internet in generally but that is not the reality of the situation #it's just worse to say it to a kid #I've said my peace #ashley rambles

[tockamybeloved]

Out And In

#music queue #if you think it's a joke #that's alright #do what you want to do #I've said my peace #those lyrics #personal

[fernsensei]

and heeere it is! some thoughts on "what if gabriel and v2 met", the comic i've been working on much longer then i would've like to confess! i'm happy with the way it turned out to be and who knows, maybe i'll do a second part once i figure out how to bring this all to the culmination👁👁 hope you'll enjoy reading as much as i've enjoyed drawing!<3

#i want to thank ceo of tumblr personally for letting us post up to 30 images per post #i'd fucking scream if i had to make a second post for ONE (1) image #i could've colour it but i'm shit with colours so. maybe later #it's crazy how i've come from 'I HATE DRAWING THESE BITCHES' to 'i love them so much' in a matter of seconds #phew now i can go draw shitpost again with peace #'fuck it we ball' is my motto now #ultrakill #gabriel ultrakill #v2 ultrakill #gabv2el #<<bc i said so and bold of you to assume this wont turn out to be a homoerotic tragedy #gabriel/v2 #ultrakill fanart #comic #art

[blakbonnet]

it's her world we're just living in it

#actual the real star of this piece is the leather skirt I drew perfectly 😌 #ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd fanart #Edward teach #my art #the proportions are fucked but it's okay I'm learning (said through clenched teeth) #(I've not known peace since I read that fic of Ed in a skirt by petrichorca what can I say)

[marzipanandminutiae]

Hello I was just wondering if you've seen Imani Barbarin talk about not voting (https://x.com/imani_barbarin/status/1747723080917492020?s=46&t=55h0eHrgY7FtQI8ej54maw)? I saw you reblog the post about "not waiting for the morally pure candidate" and I think that's a willful misrepresentation of what Gen Z is feeling

We've not seen Biden address ANY of the things the post claims (climate change is the only one I remember without scrolling back) but we have seen him approve more oil licenses than trump, drop more bombs than trump, support a genocide, abandon disabled people and any Covid mitigations during the second highest surge since the start of the pandemic (with less testing so odds are things r even worse than we can tell), bring back student debt, etc etc

As a Gen Z'r, I genuinely want to understand how y'all can believe "no vote is a vote for fascism" when both candidates are horrendous? Why is the onus on us and not the politicians to do better instead of pointing fingers and saying "at least we're better than Trump" when that is categorically untrue?

I'm sorry if this is too rant-y I'm just so furious and frustrated with my perception of older voters' complacency with being given utter shit instead of organizing for better

I am trying very hard to be reasoned and understanding about this- bearing in mind that we want the same things in the end and I'mnot jazzed for Biden either -when it's extremely, EXTREMELY obvious to me that Trump is worse.

Like.

If he gets elected there might not be another election. The man was theoretically willing to use military force to quell protests if he lost the 2020 election (why he didn't, I don't know; but I'm not willing to give him that chance a second time).

Trump has called himself a dictator, proudly, in the same breath as saying "we're closing the border and we're drilling, drilling, drilling." Biden does NOT remotely have a perfect record on either of those things- he was locked into some construction of the border wall by how the funds had already been allocated by Congress during the Trump administration, but not everything he's done in relation to it, which also pisses me off. As for the oil thing, it's a bit more complicated than it seems on the surface: not as simple as "he doesn't actually care about the environment" even as it's definitely not a good move or in line with his stated climate goals.

As for those climate goals, I found this interesting article that rates key areas of climate action and how they've fared during the Biden administration. It was updated in January, and it is not sycophantically uncritical across the board. But that is LEAGUES more progress than we'd get under a system of "drilling, drilling, drilling" with absolutely no concessions to the climate crisis at all.

His handling of the situation in Palestine...yeah, I struggle with that, too. I know he's been trying to talk their leaders down, to some degree, but it's not nearly enough to me. And I STRONGLY disagree with us selling them weapons. However, Trump's statements on the matter- calling for a ban on Gazan refugees in the US, calling pro-Palestinian protestors "barbarians," and saying he'd revoke the student visa of anyone he deemed "anti-American" -makes me believe that letting him get into power is not something my conscience would allow, vis a vis the fate of the Palestinian people. Because it would be exponentially worse.

I also think the material good that has happened under the Biden administration has been...MASSIVELY under-publicized. Because like. He HAS addressed things. Lots of things, in fact.

this article from last year was too early to include pardoning thousands of people federally convicted of simple marijuana possession (again, not perfect, but still very good), setting new rules to limit methane emissions, capping prices for at least some major insulin producers, partial student loan debt forgiveness (tried to do more, but got hamstrung by Republicans), cancelling oil leases granted by Trump in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (not enough given the leases HE granted, but it's not nothing either), and much more I'm sure I'm overlooking. Because, again, nobody's been talking about it. It sells more news subscriptions to feed readers an endless stream of what Biden is doing wrong- which I am not denying! -leaving people with the dangerous impression that both sides are the same. Republicans would not have done any of this. That's just the truth of the matter.

Look, I would like a better option, too. I would love to actually LIKE a presidential candidate in my lifetime. I'd love one who wouldn't make concessions to the interests of selfish, heartless people with ledgers where their sense of human compassion should be. I just don't see that person coming to power between now and November.

And I'll take someone who is Standard US Politician Slimy but at least makes some improvements (unfortunately, I doubt there's anyone with a chance of winning in less than a year who doesn't support Israel to some degree, since this country have a long history of that) over someone who might actually stage a right-wing military coup, and who would kill me and other marginalized people himself if he thought it would get him more fame and fortune.

Some people say their conscience won't let them vote Biden. I can't tell them what to do. But if he gets the Democratic nomination, my conscience wouldn't let me do anything else.

#long post #US politics #current events #I'm not getting into ask argments about this. I will answer this one in good faith but I've said my peace now

[sergle]

I kinda have the itch to make more floral self portraits again, but it feels more complicated now, with the knowledge that those pieces are the ones that most frequently get stolen. Used as social media content for other ppl’s onlyfans, (poorly) traced for clout, reposted in terf spaces, resold reprinted redrawn repackaged. And that’s without mentioning all the messages I’ve been getting about my body Post-Breast-Reduction-Gofundme. Like, am I still supposed to feel okay about putting my body out there?

#the ones I've already drawn- I've made my peace with them #and to an extent they don't feel like mine anymore #they also were made for a specific purpose and I feel like they accomplished that purpose. to an extent #I was trying to do something very specific for myself by making and posting those #but now I don't know #bc I see how the other ones get treated. and I think abt how people see me #and I'm just not sure #having the self portraits be Seen is the point of making them. but I don't know if having them seen does a net positive #for me or not. #sergle.txt #Part of me making my peace with it is going okay. if other people are going to monetize them then I'll do it too #and so the prints selling- that does serve me bc a bitch needs money. and it's true that people have said nice things about the pieces #but it's the other stuff that sticks in my mind more.

[dirtytransmasc]

I hope we get a scene of Alicent with Aegon's body. If her son is damned to die, if she is damned to spiral into insanity, if she is to lose her life too the grief, let me see her with his body.

let her hold her baby in her arms one more time. let her wipe the blood that poured from his mouth and nose as he died. let her run her fingers over the viscous burns that adorn his skin. let her fix his hair. let her bathe him with a cloth as she had when he was a babe. let her kiss his cheek, his forehead, his hair, his hands. let her lay her head against him, hugging him like she had failed to do for years.

he was her firstborn and yet, her heart was still beating and his was not, she was not yet cold in her grave, no, no her son was cold, her flesh was warm, too warm. he was her baby, her son, the boy she tried so hard to protect, who had loved even when it hurt, who she had stood in front of a dragon for. she loved him, the very bones of him, and now he was dead.

let her lose her mind right there, in that room, still clinging to her body, one that's too cold, too still, too quiet. let her scream out to the gods, damning them, cursing them for taking her eldest son, amongst everything else in her life.

I want her to drive away anyone who tries to take him from her, forcing the silent sisters or whoever would be left to deal with his body at that point. let her curse and spit and claw at anyone who comes too close.

she would stay there for hours, reflecting on her memories of him. maybe she talks to him or hums a lullaby until she finally loses her battle with what remains of her consciousness and sanity, falling still against the table.

she dreams of Aegon, she dreams of the life she wish she could have provided, the life she had tried so hard to give him. a life where he was safe, a life where she had been a better mother, a life where she didn't need to live in and impose fear up on her children. maybe if she had tried hard enough he would still be alive, she'll think as she floats in the space between consciousness and unconsciousness.

she'll wake in plain chambers she only partly recognizes, she'll learn of her sons lackluster and sparsly accompanied burning, she'll learn her son was gone and she was alone. there won't be much of her left to care. she just continues dreaming, dreaming of her dead children and spiraling to madness until her broken heart finally gives out.

[my previous post inspired this, cause all I can think about now is Alicent mourning her son and its gonna put me in an early grave]

#[I know she isn't with him in the book but shhhhhh enoughs already changed let me be delusional] #I don't want to see this happen. my girl need a goddamn break. but if its gonna happen just demolish my heart in one foul swoop #all or nothing #cause if I watch a slow decent into madness I'm going with her #let her break quick and fast for my sake #I haven't read the book (as i've said a trillion times before. I'll get to it eventually) so take this with a grain of salt #I don't think book alicent didn't love her children #I do think the love she held for them and the love show alicent held for them is very different simply due to circumstance #and I don't think show alicent is lasting very long after Aegon's death #i wouldn't be surprised if she died of a broken heart shortly after him #part of me fucking prays for it cause I don't know if I'll be able to cope with her grieving for 2 years #my heart just can't #and she doesn't deserve it #just let her reunite with her children and be at peace #don't make her suffer #let her say goodbye to her baby. give her closure. let her go #I beg #alicent hightower #pro alicent hightower #aegon ii #aegon ii targaryen #aegon targaryen #pro team green #hotd #house of the dragon #its fine. I'm fine. I totally like my emotions.

[heartofspells]

on the etiquette of fandom respect

I'm not sure why I'm doing this, really. We've all seen those other posts that circulate around (or the vast majority of us have, at least from my notice) discussing things like negativity towards creators and proper etiquette when it comes to commenting and bookmarking and sharing another person's work. It always seems to fly in one ear and out the other, yet here I am, preparing to write an essay, mainly because I don't think we should ever stop saying it in the hopes of improvement.

Let's start this with bookmarks on AO3, because it seems like people either forget, they don't know, or possibly they simply do not care. Bookmarks can be seen by creators. Meaning they can see your tags, your bookmark collections, and your bookmark comments. There are numerous creators who enjoy going through the bookmarks on their works to see these things, because it's extra insight into why someone liked or even loved that creation, most times. There are also, in my experience, a lot of people who bookmark works and do not comment, so again, it gives the creator that extra special boost to keep doing what they're doing, to create more.

Leaving personal rating scores for a work, downgrading comments, or, in all honesty, opinions on what you did not like in the work is unkind. No one is coming to attack how you choose to keep track of your bookmarks, but please remember these are PUBLIC unless otherwise chosen by you. You can, however, make private bookmarks that only you can view. Even the creators cannot see these beyond a number of how many bookmarks a work collectively has. If you have a rating system or opinions on a work that could even remotely be construed as unkind, please make your bookmarks private. It's incredibly simple. There is a checkbox to select.

Now onto comments and the etiquette behind it. No one is forcing you to comment. While it is appreciated by all creators, it isn't a requirement. Creators love hearing from everyone who views their work. Comments bolster creators, encourage them to continue creating if they love doing it, which most creators do. But if the only thing you can think to say is something demeaning, criticizing, or has no bearing on the work you just viewed, it's probably better not to say anything at all. If you have questions, ask them. Creators love talking about their works, typically. Most will jump at the chance for a discussion. But this does not give anyone the right to ask accusatory questions that degrade a person's work. Also, leaving a comment about any work that blatantly goes against the very obviously stated tags/warnings, or leaving a comment that is short and brief and really doesn't make any sort of reference to the work itself is rude, plain and simple. Do not do that.

You are not being asked to leave a novel behind in your comment (though that's almost always appreciated to a massive extent). Leave a few kind words about liking or loving the work, because just something as simple as "loved this!" goes a long way as encouragement. If you have the time or something specific, tell the creator about a part you liked. They'll adore you for it. But again, none of it is a requirement. All creators ask for is a bit of common sense and respect from people in exchange for what they've created. Basic rule of thumb: ask yourself if you made something you were proud of and showed it to someone, would you be happy or hurt by the comment you're about to leave?

Lastly, let's discuss credit. It's seen a lot, and pretty much everywhere now. Someone finds artwork or a fic or maybe even a simple quote from a work they enjoy, and they repost it with no credit, not even a title (in regards to fics). No reference back to the creator at all. Stop gatekeeping works that do not belong to you. You do not own those works. They have been shared with you, nothing more. By transferring them or even a piece of them somewhere else without proper credit, you are not only removing someone else's ability to properly view this work without directly asking what it's from (if they ask at all, which most do not), you are taking that potential encouragement away from the creator and making them feel worthless.

These works, whatever they may be, were created for you. You may try to argue that they were shared in a public forum, and the creator should understand that by doing so, they're opening themselves up to potential criticism, theft, and even bullying. And you would be right, creators are fully aware of this. But here's the thing: these works, at least in a fandom setting, are being created for FREE. A person is taking time out of their life to make this wonderful thing, and they are offering it humbly solely for the pleasure of doing it, to bring you pleasure.

And you might even argue that creators are not making these things for you, but for the world. But aren't you part of the world? Did you find and are you reading/viewing/listening to these works? If so, then yes, they were created for you, with you in mind. All creators ask for in return, literally the only thing, is some basic human kindness and decency, because creators are not required to share anymore than you're required to comment or spread their works around.

Some creators have thicker skins than others, but keep going as we have been, and one day, the content you love so much might be gone. It's already beginning to disappear for lesser things. Don't be the reason it continues.

#food for thought #fandom etiquette #comment etiquette #free advise #take it or leave it #i'm sure it'll be left and overlooked or ignored #but at least i've tried and said my peace

[kitconnor]

to sum up what i’m going to say in short: stop gif reposting because oh my god you cannot justify it, excuse it or whatever you’ll try to say to shake it off. 

in the past MONTH ALONE i have encountered THREE REPOSTERS. until this year, i hadn’t encountered ONE.  now as much you thirst over notes and want to popular or whatever, you are damaging a rather integral part of this site !! i don’t know about other creators but i’m personally feeling a little bit disheartened about creating atm bc not even watermarks are stopping reposters anymore. you just act like a bitch whenever you’re confronted.

so, without further adieu, let’s look at who’s trying to destroy gifing right now !

CONSTANTLY-TRAGIC

reposted wednesday gifs of multiple users 

as well as reposting miscellaneous gifs in personal posts.

BLUMENCIA (og callout here)

reposted addams family gifs

reposted wednesday gifs

reposted gifs WITH A WATERMARK

as well as reposting miscellaneous gifs as ‘aesthetics’. this user claims that as long as the gifs are on the internet, the gifs are supposedly “everyone’s”. COMPLETELY missing the point that gifmakers individually create, colour, crop and make their OWN GIFS. 

THAT-BI-MULTIFANDOM-MESS

reposted marvel gifs

reposted x-men gifs

reposted marvel gifs

i’m actually only linking three examples, because that shit goes ON AND ON. that entire blog is a collection of stolen gifs from so many people.

i really don’t care if i sound like a fed-up, annoying gif maker rn because this shit shouldn’t even have to be said. gifmaking is NOT a hard thing to learn ! you don’t HAVE to have photoshop - there’s free alternatives !  if you want to make gifs, cool, fine !! that’s encouraged !! find your resources, ask your local gifmaker and they’ll help you get started !! but this whole business of right-click-save followed by upload-post-claim-i-made-these and then having the AUDACITY to get mad when a gifmaker responds with justified anger is so fucking LOW like we KNOW they aren’t yours !! stop trying to pretend they are !!

so, that’s that. there’s really nothing more to say. just. don’t repost. don’t steal shit. don’t steal art, or edits and especially not gifs. everyone who creates visual content of any kind owns that shit. you don’t have the rights to walk in and take it from them now or ever !!

don’t !! steal !! gifs !!

#important #lucie.txt. #i've said my peace now i hope it shuts all those reposters the FUCK UPPPP fr

[daydreamingoncloud9]

they're so sick for this

#the blue lock merch team really said 'let's mess with the reonagi/nagireo shippers before the breakup episode drops' #well thanks guys 🥹 now my reonagi/nagireo grieving hours has started off with more pain than i would have otherwise been subjected to #i hate it here #i've never known peace since finding out about them #idk why i'm subjecting myself to this pain when seeing it in manga form already tore me to shreds #head in hands #i can't do this anymore #reonagi #nagireo #mikage reo #reo mikage #nagi seishiro #seishiro nagi #blue lock spoilers #The Cloud Talk

[beautifully-lumpy]

words cannot even begin to express how much i adore this man

#caddicarus #he is such an angel oh my god #i hope someone recorded the whole show #i've seen the clip of the proposal that happened!! #and i saw the little clip of jim reading out that crazy hate mail from october LMAO #seems like lots of amazing things happened at this show. #unfortunately i don't live on the east coast where cool shit like this happens! #bro looked SMOKING in that suit holy shit #and it seems like he's picked up the habit of flashing a peace sign in every photo just like me lol #anyWAY i know i said a week ago i was writing a BPJ about TCWOC and it obviously hasnt come out yet... #i keep meaning to sit down and write it but man this school semester has been mentally DRAINING #idk y'all might have to wait a few weeks 😭 #but i will say i adored that blu ray

[bbygirl-aemond]

hey, i love you all so much and the interactions with you guys are genuinely what make creating fan content so much fun for me. that being said, i'm not looking for constructive criticism on stormbreak and have in fact never asked for it. this is all just a silly little thing that i'm doing in my free time anonymously. i'm not trying to grow as a writer by crowdsourcing the editing and development process, i'm just having fun! as we all should be. 😌 plus, i promise the foreshadowing and character arcs will be better if i'm allowed to stick to what i've been planning for since the beginning!

i completely understand that this fic isn't going to be to everyone's tastes. but offering unprompted criticism of the things you don't like isn't really productive in the fanfiction world and won't end up impacting the pre-outlined story if that's your goal. if you're unhappy with something and reading stormbreak becomes unenjoyable for you, by all means please do click away. i promise everyone is happier in our preferred niches and it's completely fine if my niche isn't the right fit for you!

again, much love and please know i still love the comment discourse, there are tons of ways to discuss characters without insulting or criticizing my writing and many of you are very good at navigating this ❤️

#i knowwww the internet is all about having thick skin #and i promise i will shut up about this now that i've said my peace #but these comments aren't genuinely trying to improve my writing since i haven't requested them #they're just people trying to make displeasure known and that's unnecessary! #let's all please just enjoy our little niches and headcanons in peace i promise you don't have to believe something just bc i do #fic: stormbreak #hotd #house of the dragon

[navree]

How can you humanize Maegor , if you will make a show about him?

It depends on how far back you're willing to go in his life, because really up until he takes the crown, you can do quite a bit to humanize him and make him someone people want to engage with, without woobifying him or trying to excuse the truly heinous things he does. Starting backstory onwards, there are lot of ways to do this. There's a lot of room to play with in his childhood and the interpersonal relationships that should be his strongest tethers to humanity, but aren't: his relationship with his brother, his relationship with his mother, and his relationship with his father.

Aenys and Maegor are a relationship that was doomed to fail since birth. For one, while the age gap isn't huge, five years is still pretty significant in terms of differences in development as children, which definitely got in the way of any bonding. For two, they also appear to have largely grown up separately, with Aenys spending most of his time by Aegon's side in King's Landing, and Maegor being raised on Dragonstone with Visenya, before the two essentially switched places with Aegon at Dragonstone and Visenya overseeing the construction of the Red Keep in King's Landing. For three, there's also the external factors, such as their incredibly different personalities and viewpoints on basically everything, as well as the fact that, when Maegor was born, Aenys was only very recently removed from the complete breakdown he had due to his trauma over his mother's sudden death, and likely still wasn't in a state to be trying to forge new bonds with anyone who wasn't Quicksilver (and Aegon, but Aegon's grandfathered in by being his literal dad). So Maegor, who we know wasn't making friends on Dragonstone and just in general was probably really isolated from kids his own age due to it being Dragonstone (not unlike how we see with Shireen Baratheon) also isn't getting any kind of connection from anyone close to his own age throughout his entire childhood.

Really, the only person Maegor is close to in any capacity is his mother, Visenya. She's the parent he grew up with, his primary caregiver and his closest relationship not just in childhood, but likely throughout his entire life. In the nature vs nurture debate on childrearing, she's the one who was providing the nurture. Nearly everything about Maegor, his personality and his view of the world and his personal philosophies and his love map in his brain, among many other things, all of that was shaped by Visenya and her influence on him and her care and devotion for him. And with no one else really around to provide him any sort of companionship that he might have needed, and with his other parent being incredibly distant and barely a parent, Maegor likely latched onto her incredibly strongly. I think, if asked, Maegor would say that, should he be found capable of love, Visenya would be the person he loved the most in his life (I'm of the opinion that his relationship with Tyanna was him trying to find a significant other that most reminded him of his beloved mother, not entirely dissimilar to the way that Henry VIII felt that an ideal wife would be one who was almost identical to Elizabeth of York). And we know that this is something that persisted long after childhood, into his adulthood Visenya was his strongest supporter and Maegor relied on her a lot early in his reign, and was publicly devastated when he learned that she had died. His mother was the only parent he ever really knew as a parent, certainly the family member he loved most, adored even, especially in such sharp distinction with Aegon as a distant father. And speaking of that distant father...

I love Aegon, he's one of my absolute favorite Targs, but he was practically just a parent in name only to his second son. And that's going to do a number on someone, no matter who they are. Maegor's father doesn't much care for his mother, certainly doesn't seem to care for him at all personally, and despite the fact that Maegor is probably far more like Aegon, and a far worthier successor, than Aenys, Aegon still dotes on his eldest while barely spending any time with Maegor. And it's not because of anything Maegor's done, or even anything Aenys has done: it's entirely because of Aenys's mother. Aenys is Aegon's favorite, his precious son, not because of anything Aenys has done to earn that, but simply because he is the son of Aegon's beloved Rhaenys, and that his very existence is a way of having Rhaenys still with him after her disappearance/death. We know that Aegon was forever incredibly affected by what happened to Rhaenys and that he never stopped loving her, given that he openly wept when he held Rhaena and was informed that she was named after her grandmother. Meanwhile, there's Maegor, whose own mother's relationship with his father was never very good (marriage of duty for them vs the Aegon/Rhaenys marriage of desire) and had become incredibly cold and distant by the time that he was born, and you can very easily see how that might ultimately affect a kid. He's watching his mother be completely ignored by his dad just for being the wrong woman, he's dealing with himself being completely ignored and passed over in love and affection just because he's the son of the wrong woman, because his mother isn't the lost ghost that Aegon loved and won't ever be able to stop loving. How much of Maegor's prowess in fighting, not to mention the unchecked aggression he showed during training, was borne of trying to impress his martially skilled father and being upset when it didn't work? How much of his continued presence in tourneys and melées was to show Aegon that he was a much better son than Aenys, that he deserved the love Aegon was freely giving his brother just as much? Was there ever a time when he resented Visenya for being his mother when that was enough to make Aegon uninterested, and did he ever hate himself for blaming the wrong person, or blaming anyone at all? How much did he internalize his own feelings about it as the relationship never got any warmer? How did he feel when Aegon finally noticed him enough to knight him himself, and make him the youngest knight in the realm at that? Did Maegor ever want to talk to him about it once he was a young man, did he ever want to try and forge a stronger relationship on his own merits as an adult, did he ever even try?

There's also the matter of Balerion, which is as much its own relationship as a subset of anything that can be played with as it pertains to Aegon and Maegor. For one, we know that Maegor point blank refused to claim any dragon because he felt that Balerion was the only one worthy of him. And you can take that at face value, but you can also go deeper into it, into the ideas that Maegor might not be consciously aware of. Maybe he wants to try and connect with his father on some level through the dragon bond. Maybe he looks at how Aegon gives Aenys so much, his companionship and his throne and his sword and his love, Hell he even gives Aenys a Valyrian bride (Alyssa Velaryon) but demands that Maegor settle for a simple Westerosi, as if he's lesser than and not the blood of old Valyria. And still he waits to see if maybe Aegon will give him something. Maybe once Aegon is too old for dragonriding, he'll give Maegor Balerion, or at least give Maegor the opportunity to try, to prove himself as Aegon's son, to have that connection. And when Aegon doesn't, when it's still Aenys getting everything Maegor might not even realize he wants, that's just another disappointment for him.

But Maegor does get Balerion anyway, once Aegon dies. He finally gets a connection to Aegon that's his alone, and it's after Aegon is already dead and likely after Maegor was already hardening into the man he would ultimately be remembered as. Not to mention, even on its own, Balerion and Maegor's bond is a good way to show a human element to the man. I've always maintained that, when it comes to Targaryens, the most unconditionally loving and the most openly affection and emotional we should see them should really be with the dragons. With their magic and their Valyrian blood and old world roots and just everything about them, even if you don't subscribe to Targaryen exceptionalism, they are pretty far removed from the place they actually live; culturally and ethnically and socially, they are not Westerosi and certainly in Maegor's time, don't see themselves or are seen by others as Westerosi. The dragons, products of Valyria's heyday, are the closest living beings that Targaryens can relate to, and this is doubly important when it comes to Balerion, who was born during the reign of the Valyrian Freehold, who was alive before the Doom. Balerion is a living cultural heritage, and for someone as isolated as Maegor is (and, as we see in his actions re: his marriages and the Faith, as divorced from Westerosi customs and standards as he is), having that connection is probably the deepest one he'd have, bar maybe his mother, and even then, despite that closeness and love, their mutually cold personalities probably made it hard to be open in any deep affection once Maegor started growing up. Dragons and their riders are practically one being, they feel each other's pains and pleasures and angers and grudges and triumphs, and Maegor having something like that, along with the connection to a father he never really was connected to, adds a human element to the man that he was, despite the fact that he used Balerion to do terrible things.

You can also do a lot with Maegor's actions before his own kingship, specifically the reign of his half-brother Aenys. In spite of their differences and distances, in spite of the shadow of Aegon and the relationships he had with his sisters that affected his relationship with his own sons in turn, Aenys does embrace Maegor with open arms. He gives him Blackfyre, another possession of Aegon's that Maegor must have coveted, and he promises that they'll rule together. They're both adults now, and Aenys seems emotionally sensitive enough to have realized that Maegor probably has some deep rooted issues borne out of things that were set in motion before he was even conceived. And while Visenya might have scoffed at the gestures Aenys made for Maegor, Maegor appears to have taken them really seriously. He personally crushes a rebellion against Aenys in the Vale, and makes huge showings of his loyalty by fighting really hard for his brother against his foes. When Aenys makes him his Hand, Maegor takes that responsibility really seriously and is willing to obey Aenys as his Lord and King, as well as protect him. This seems to have been loyalty that was reciprocated, since it's noted that, when Aenys exiles Maegor for his bigamy, he does it because he felt he had no other option than to be mad at Maegor for what he did, due to the huge public outcry, and even then he still offers Maegor a way out. He only exiles him because Maegor refuses to set Alys aside (another way to humanize Maegor, he takes Alys as a wife despite it being a big taboo for most Westerosi and in spite of her being from a pretty minor noble House, and he refuses to leave her even at the cost of losing his home, he keeps her by his side and he refuses to give her up when there were likely a shitton of better options to deal with his childlessness, to say nothing of women from greater Houses with more potential for him politically, but he CHOSE Alys), since Aenys felt that this was the only choice left to him. And Maegor abides by the exile. Yeah, he takes Blackfyre even though Aenys asked him to leave it, but he still goes into exile, and he stays in exile. Aenys rides Quicksilver and Maegor rides Balerion, the two dragons literally go toe to toe with each other and it's so massively onesided because Quicksilver doesn't stand a chance. If Maegor wanted to, he could have very easily repudiated his exile and decimated Aenys if he tried to enforce it. But Aenys told him to go, so he did, and he stayed gone until Visenya came to fetch him back with the news that Aenys was dead. He respected Aenys's word as king, his sovereign authority as liege lord and as the elder brother, and even if he might not have entirely thought the man worthy of what he had, that does speak to a sort of deference in spite of the complexities of their upbringing, and a willingness to obey Aenys despite everything about their personalities.

So, by the time Maegor comes back from Pentos to usurp the throne, there's a lot that can be used to humanize him and make him a compelling protagonist. A close but somewhat stilted relationship with the only parent to have ever tried with him, an unfulfilled, desperate need for approval and affection from a parent who couldn't give that to him due to circumstances entirely outside his control, a brother he didn't know well in his youth and might not have thought worthy of what he had and certainly been jealous of but that he still respected as king and fought hard to defend and that he deferred to even when he didn't have to, at least one marriage that, in spite of what little it offered him and the clusterfuck it caused, he valued enough that he refused to set aside, and an intense bond with a fearsome dragon that you can make him value more than almost anything or anyone. All of that set up can then be used for an extraordinary fall from grace, to watch the potential and nuance slowly grow darker and darker and darker as Maegor does increasingly horrible things, treats the people in his life increasingly badly, descends further and further into the tyranny and madness that will utlimately kill him. There's bright spots that can be used as well, like the fact that he does have Jaehaerys as his heir and doesn't seem to have had him or Viserys treated that badly, even though they were prisoners, and that he didn't actually set out to kill Aegon the Uncrowned at all until Aegon decided to take back his throne and amass an army. Then, as we've watched Maegor slide further and further down, we can watch with a sinking dread as he annihilates Aegon beneath God's Eye, as he turns on Alys and extinguishes her family, as he has Viserys literally tortured to death to punish Alyssa and Jaehaerys and Alysanne for their escape from Dragonstone. So that, by the time we get to shit like the completion of the Red Keep and the Black Brides, we see that Maegor is incredibly far gone, and we can only watch as all the complexities within him are swept aside by the monster he's become, so foul and loathsome that the eldritch abomination that is the Iron Throne finally kills him to stop the madness.

It's not about woobifying Maegor or excusing him. It's about providing a reason for the audience to look back on who he was as he becomes what he was always going to be, to give explanations for why he does the things that he does (how much of his initial militarism and violence and heavy-handedness, before he went doolally, was borne out of not just his martial prowess as a kid but also watching Aenys's version of ruling not work, for instance), and to get people to understand and feel his initial motivations so that the later stuff also makes sense, and so that you're watching something akin to a doomed fall when he becomes Maegor the Cruel. These are, at least to me, some of the most important and influential ways you can humanize Maegor as a character if you're planning to center him in a proper narrative story, without filing down his edges and keeping him as the kind of person he is. Extrapolate on why he is the way he is, and then show him how he is throughout his lifetime and what he does, along with the how and why of what he does.

#personal #answered #anonymous #maegor targaryen #maegor the cruel #yeah i've got a lot of thoughts about the conquerors and the dragon's peace and the sons of the dragon #anyway remember what i said about rhaenys being the glue that held the family together? #rhaenys's death being the reason that everything starts to fall apart? #rhaenys being the figure that looms large over the early reigns of the targaryens? #rhaenys being the ghost that haunts this entire family and won't ever leave them until all the people that both knew her #and were affected by her are dead? yeah i stand by all of that #it's why i'd want a sons of the dragon show to be preceded by a conquest show #so that the intense shift in dynamics and characters once she's gone makes sense #so that the very essence of the story changes when she dies #but anyway i've got Feelings #@ hbo come on guys!!!!!! #i'm right here i'm willing to work for very little money on this!!!! #(and then once i get y'all raking in cash through my correct opinions about the conquest and the sons of the dragon) #(you let me make the augustus show) #hope some of this makes sense i've been thinking about these characters a lot #so sometimes it's hard to organize it all into a cohesive essay