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lagosbratzdoll · 7 months

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On Daenerys, Colonisation and Race Discourse within the ASOIAF Fandom

This has been on my mind for a good long while and honestly, as much as I would like to leave discourse in the pits, it has been bugging me intermittently over the past few weeks.

Far too many of you get on here and call people who like the fictional dragon-riding family, neo-Nazis and that sentiment is so prevalent, that white people feel comfortable telling me a black woman that I am a neo-Nazi for rooting for Daenerys Targaryen. I am upholding neo-Nazi power fantasies for wanting to see a little girl live at the end of a story. I am a neo-Nazi for wanting to see the rape survivor have the family she aches for and children with the man (or men) she loves.

Then, those same people go on spiels about how the systemic erasure of those who sing the song of the earth and other old races is not colonialism. That their removal from their home is not displacement but an agreement between two equal parties. The fact that the only place where those who sing the song of the earth exist in the present timeline is north of the wall, surrounded by the bones of their dead, is not a travesty. That the expulsion of the old races from their home isn't that bad and should not be condemned.

Instead, people argue, completely seriously, that the harm that the First Men and Andals have caused is centuries in the past, so essentially the slate has been wiped clean. The logical leaps that are required to arrive at such a boneheaded conclusion are truly mind-boggling, and those who make such arguments are not good people.

I am unsure how one could read those books and come away with the impression that the old races do not mourn the loss of their home. I am unsure how one could read The Last of the Giants[1] and Ygritte’s reaction to both the song and Jon’s dismissal of the ethnic cleansing of the giants then believe that the old races and the free folk have moved past their displacement.

In Westeros, from the Wall to the broken arm of Dorne, they all speak one language despite the fact they are all different ethnicities and they all landed on the shores at different times. That is not the case in Essos, we have been introduced to at least six languages and in A Dance with Dragons, Tyrion notes that the Valyrian spoken in the Free Cities has evolved into nine distinct dialects, and they are well on their way to becoming different languages.

How would a continent as large and diverse as Westeros maintain its hegemony over the people if not for forced assimilation, discriminatory practices and violence? The brutal repression required to keep one house in power for thousands of years is nothing to sniff at. The suppression required to keep the vast majority of Westeros worshipping one (or seven) gods. The systems in place ensure that language does not grow or evolve amongst the highborns at least.

Centuries before Aegon's Landing the maesters were the definitive educational authority and even now centuries after, nothing has changed. The grey rats still decide who learns what and when they learn it. There's one in every highborn home, all correspondence passes through them, they are the healers and the councillors.

The circular logic gets even more blockheaded when you factor in the fact that Daenerys is far from the only white character in the books. She is not the only character who wishes for home. She is not the only character who draws strength from her ancestors, her bloodline and her magical creatures.

Cersei draws strength from her family’s iconography, and the Stark children (Jon included) all draw strength from their direwolves, their home and their blood. Sansa, Arya and Bran wish to return home and their home was built on the indiscriminate murder and displacement of the indigenous peoples. Their home is built on centuries of rape, murder, exclusionary practices and sexual slavery.

However, if we give the nonsensical argument that time erases crimes air; the Starks, Lannisters and Tullys are warring to settle personal grievances in the present timeline. As a consequence of that war, thousands (a modest guesstimate) of small folk, minor nobles and even some major ones have been raped, tortured, maimed and killed.

Despite all this, no one writes meta after meta about how Sansa and her siblings must surely die for justice to be had for those who sing the song of the earth, the free folk, the giants and all the old races that fled beyond the wall.

People write meta about Cersei and how she must die, but those are typically more misogynistic nature. They typically argue that she must die not for the “crime” of being Lannister, but for the “crime” of being Cersei and “ruining” Jamie.

I would not mind criticisms of Dany and her peace-focused approach to ending slavery because the approach is naïve and she gives the slavers far too much ground. However, she is learning, growing and self-critiquing. At the end of A Dance with Dragons, she has decided to embrace fire and blood, her knight is breaking the false peace which is a necessary step forward.

What I find offensive is people saying that she should have planned better before she abolished slavery. And that the death, violence, and sickness that arises from her quest to eradicate slavery is somehow worse than the death, violence, and sickness that already existed in Slaver’s Bay.

This argument often downplays the horrific conditions and suffering that exist(ed) under the slave system in Slaver's Bay. Such arguments are often in poor taste and prioritise the lives and comforts of the slavers more than the people they have enslaved.

I would not mind criticisms of Dany if people applied that same critique even-handedly. The same people who believe that Jon and Bran have done much to rectify the evil that their ancestors perpetuated believe that Dany has not done anything to right the wrongs of her ethnic kin. They praise them for the non-existent steps that they have taken, but in the same breath, they condemn Dany for not being able to immediately end the plague that is slavery.

It is perfectly alright to not like fictional characters, no law requires you to like certain fictional characters over others. However, what is not right is making broad accusations about those who do, it is beyond the pale. It is disgusting, and annoying, and trivialises real-world issues to score cheap points against fictional characters.

Equating the survival of a teenage survivor to the restoration of a fascist house or neo-Nazi power fantasy when such designations do not exist in the world of ice and fire is strange behaviour. Saying that the teenage survivor will eventually be manipulated and raped (again) before ending up dead on her manipulator's blade is also strange behaviour.

Dismissing the horrors of colonialism, especially when the text shows you that the involved parties are still affected by it, is not normal and often veers into real-world imperialism apologia. While criticism and analysis of characters and their actions are valid and even encouraged, it is essential that we do not resort to sweeping generalisations about other people and that we keep criticisms of characters grounded in the text.

[1]

Ooooooh, I am the last of the giants, my people are gone from the earth.

The last of the great mountain giants, who ruled all the world at my birth

Oh, the smallfolk have stolen my forests, they’ve stolen my rivers and hills.

And they’ve built a great wall through my valleys, and fished all the fish from my rills

In stone halls they burn their great fires, in stone halls they forge their sharp spears.

Whilst I walk alone in the mountains, with no true companion but tears.

They hunt me with dogs in the daylight, they hunt me with torches by night.

For these men who are small can never stand tall, whilst giants still walk in the light.

Oooooooh, I am the LAST of the giants, so learn well the words of my song.

For when I am gone the singing will fade, and the silence shall last long and long.

#I do not like most of y’all.#Do not call people of colour you do not know neonazis to win points against a fictional character.#It is not my fault that most of your faves are boring and do nothing to drive the plot forward #take it up with george rr martin and stop villifying dany and her (mid) family.#The insistence that we must mind fandom etiqutte is tired as hell too especially because people use it as silencing tools.#“Yes I called you a neonazi but you are the real weirdo for finding my post so really it’s on you that you saw that.”#that’s how y’all sound.#If I see another post that equates enjoying dany to being a neonazi #i will make it everybodys problem.#Took a long break from this fandom because the rancid takes were overshadowing the good takes #and i’ve been back less than a year and the takes are even more rancid than before.#hotd opened an evil door that should’ve remained shut.#Cause why the fuck are there criston cole apologists? Why are there aemond and aegon ii apologists? It is a dark world we live in.#put the last giant at the bottom for my homies who have not read the books which if we're speaking real is more than half of y'all #now that i have gotten this out of my system #it is time to get back to demon slayer #daenerys targaryen #asoiaf #asoiaf thoughts #asoiaf nonsense #if you saw the typos in the first version #no you didn't #edited this to add some thoughts I originally put in the tags because I felt it worked better there.

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mal-zoya · 11 months

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me: i’m fine with platonic or unrequited alicole. they have both so much baggage and religious guilt and sexual trauma to probably even consider to be physical. not to mention they both play on their so called “honor” and “be better” than the rest, so this courtly love suits them the best.

fandom: alicent is a lesbian if you say no you suck and criston should die asap.

me: alicole fucks in every room, in every position, in the red keep, daeron is their child, they get married and they never did anything wrong ever in their lives.

#alicole #y'all are annoying as hell #it's been a year i will no longer be nice about it #alicent hightower #criston cole #house of the dragon

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navree · 2 years

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also would bet real and physical money eugene’s “quit being shitty and misogynistic” statement was about the people i’ve already seen giving ariel hell for the hypothetical scenario of potentially trying to work on her marriage, i personally would like to point eugene in the direction of the person who said that this meant that “ariel isn’t a victim” and let him wreak havoc

#personal #the try guys #ok i swear i'm done try guys posting now but i just #that was such a ridiculous load of bullshit i don't even have words #for one couples do attempt reconciliation after infidelity and if ariel wants to try that because this is someone she was MARRIED TO #for TEN YEARS and had been in love with for a lot longer #and might want to see if something can be worked out before ultimately going through with a length and expensive procedure #like divorce (especially with kids and custody involved)#or hell maybe she just wants to wait until the press shit has died down and things are more lowkey before doing this #so that it doesn't all have to happen in the spotlight given that she's got two young kids one of whom is still only a year old #y'all are giving ariel more shit than fucking alex! you know the one who fucked a married guy while she was engaged #(and was even friends with ariel herself because she's got the backbone of overcooked linguini)

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glitchdecay · 17 days

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i saw this scene being uploaded in english the other day and i can't not rewatch the japanese version because, you know, seiyuu brainrot and whatnot. translations (completely my own) under the cut.

Prompto: What're you doing?

Noctis: Nothing, really. Just spacing out.

Prompto: Huh. I see.

[ Leave him alone / Talk about something random / Wait for him to speak ]

Noctis: Hmph—

Prompto: We went through so much today, huh?

Noctis: Everything's so new to us, too.

Prompto: You can say that again. Things have been super hard, but I didn't expect every day to be so much fun. Y'see, everything I see is new to me.

Prompto: I never expected things to turn out this way or to go out on a trip together.

Noctis: Yeah.

Prompto: How long have we known each other again? It's since high school... So five years?

Noctis: But I've known you for longer. Was it since elementary school?

Prompto: Eh? How'd you remember that?

Noctis: 'Course I'd remember. You stared at me so much.

Prompto: Ugh. [nervous laughter] You see, that's because I have my reasons...

Noctis: But you were still like, "Nice to meet ya!" at the high school entrance ceremony.

Prompto: I had to really brace myself to talk to you that time.

Prompto: [sighs] Kinda takes me back.

Noctis: You could've just talked to me, you know.

Prompto: I know it's easy for you to say— You wouldn't understand, Noct.

Prompto: Back then, I—

Prompto: Sorry, man. It really is nothing.

[ Ask him out of concern / You're concerned but you don't force it out of him / You won't get mad so ask him to be honest ]

Noctis: What is up with that? Just say it.

Prompto: [sighs] All right.

Prompto: You see...

Prompto: I used to be unable to reach out to other people.

Prompto: And I... didn't have anyone that I could call a true friend.

Prompto: I was always by myself.

Prompto: So sometimes I end up thinking maybe I'm not worth anything.

[ "You're joking." / "I kinda noticed." / "Didn't expect that." ]

Noctis: You've always gotten hung up on loads of things.

Prompto: Hehe.

Noctis: See? You're getting hung up on something right now.

Noctis: Like, "I'm the only commoner," or "I'm weaker than the others..."

Noctis: "At least I gotta try to make it so everyone feels at ease," so that's what you've been doing, right?

Prompto: Ah—

Noctis: Being considerate of others is pretty cool by itself. It doesn't come easily.

Noctis: The fact that you do that is just like you, and it's a good thing.

Prompto: Huh? You're saying I can just be myself?

Noctis: Yeah. What's wrong with that?

Prompto: Yeah... well... Sorry if I said anything weird.

Noctis: Besides, I'd never let anyone useless hang around me in the first place.

Prompto: Eh? Why are you mad about that?

Prompto: ... Thanks.

Prompto: Oh, man. I feel like a weight's lifted off my shoulders.

Noctis: Heh. What's up with that?

Prompto: Right, I'm gonna keep doing my best with the things I can do.

Noctis: I'd appreciate it.

[ Obtained the "Pop" photo filter effect. ] ※ Yep, you read that right: This photo filter is called "Prompto" in the Japanese version.

#final fantasy xv #noctis lucis caelum #prompto argentum #n plays ffxv #my translations #seiyuu #tatsuhisa suzuki #suzuki tatsuhisa #tetsuya kakihara #kakihara tetsuya #y'all don't understand #i've been a fan of tatsu and kakkii for YEARS #hell it's been about A DECADE since i was introduced to both of them (as tachibana makoto and natsu dragneel respectively)#for them to play best friends in this game is like #a dream come true!!#no offence to ray and robbie and the en teams but i feel like the jp dialogue feels more natural #like two friends actually having a chat instead of two characters in a video game #it's a testament to the approach the jp dialogue team took while recording for the game #psst if you're curious it's part 2 in my ''tatsu talks ffxv'' tag #also i took some liberties while translating in trying to make it sound more ''natural'' to a native english speaker #so it's not 1:1 to the japanese text #i'm mad that this video isn't 1:1 with the en ver video though :\

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alicornze7 · 26 days

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-EMERGENCY INTERRUPTION POST/hj-

idc if it’s 4 days late have this April Fools special!!

this took longer than it should but it’s more of a treat for myself so win-win

I don't actually have an official persona so have this lil’ guy I made in 6th grade instead (he's gonna represent me until I design my actual sona)

Close-ups :

this drawing single-handedly destroyed my workflow

-we will return to our regular posting schedule shortly-

#hazbin hotel reference #Boop #april fools #april fools 2024 #yayy my birth month:D #Actually really surprised how good that joke comic turned out #illustration #artists on tumblr #I FORGOR TO ADD THE TONE INDICATOR THE ANON’S SPEECH BUBBLE NOOOOOO #tumblr boop #boopster #the boopening #Tumblr approved:3 #Art #my sona #my persona #did i miss anything #I prommy I have way more tadc stuff in the works #Don't worry about me being pressured to make content people like rather than what I like btw #Cuz I'm enjoying the hell out of making both my own original and tadc art posts for y'all #For both you and me ^^#Tadc is still consuming my brain and it's what I’m thinking about 24/7 #Man it's been half a year I should get a new hobby.../j #I can promise you the only other hyperfixation that passed the 6 month mark is slime rancherXD #love y'all <3 #sorry to whoever is reading the tags and sitting thru my rambling #i do that a lot

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nehswritesstuffs · 1 year

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So I know that a lot has been said about Sabo being a Replacement Ace, and there have been comparisons between Law and Nami (or Law and Robin (and I even saw Law as just a different flavor of Mihawk once, rawr)), but I would like to propose for the internet’s consideration: Law as a Replacement Ace.

Tall, dark, and handsome? Check.

Super-overpowered Devil Fruit? Check.

Tattoos? Check.

Delightfully allergic to shirts? Check.

Fun hat? Check.

“Why the fck is this adult man putting up with Luffy?” Check.

Secret name? Check.

Shipped with Nami, Zoro, Sanji, and Luffy with varying success rates? Check.

Survived the torching of their home? Check.

Broody little shit who surrounded himself with delightful loonies after leaving home? Check.

Fucked over by the WG? Check. Multiple times? Double-check.

Entire existence very specifically irritates Sengoku? Check.

Offered Warlord status? Check.

Adopted by a Very Tall Man? Check.

After living with a bunch of weirdos who love in their own way I guess? Check.

Adventures with the Straw Hats, featuring Smoker and Tashigi? Check.

An adventure that was a side-quest before toppling a Warlord unjustly ruling a hot-climate kingdom? Check.

Got into a fight with Blackbeard while I was in the middle of writing fic with them as semi-to-major players? CHECK.

In conclusion, these two men from polar opposite Blues share a lot of the same beats and I dig it. Except pls one of you two needs to stay safe and we only have one option left. I mean, there’s so many characters in this series that it’s highly unlikely one won’t start seeing some patterns, but you know... it’s just neat to notice.

Now Luffy just needs to learn what happened in ch.1081 and snap into Friend Protecc Mode.

#Trafalgar Law #Portgas D. Ace #One Piece #allusions to ch.1081 #I remembered today that Ace used to be one of my Unnecessarily Sexy Faves like seventeen years ago #and now Law is one of my Unnecessarily Sexy Faves and that shot of his hat makes me uncomfortable #come on Oda-sensei it's so rare I like inked-up characters like this don't ruin it for me again #(they gross me out it's a long story)#holy shit lemme tell you about the Nami/Ace shipping from circa 2006 #it was fire and reminds me of the Nami/Law shipping from today's time #I've become such a multishipper with this fandom and Law is up there for fandom bicycles #as is Ace in his own way though I personally don't get into that too much #I also can't get behind shipping either Ace or Law with Luffy idk wtf you people are on but no thanks I don't want any #Gol D. Ace #Trafalgar D. Water Law #they go down here bc spoilers and shit #y'all thought DW owned my fandom life oh hells naw astronaut meme it's always been One Piece

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