#this is what happens when you marry a colonizer

[lila-rae]

Im trying to explain to my husband why billionaires are unethical and I’m like 5 minutes away from divorce

#this is what happens when you marry a colonizer #why are men like this

[adriennebarnes]

Hips Don’t Lie

Pairing: Henry Cavill x Hispanic/Latina! Reader

Summary: There is an after party after the premiere of “the ministry of ungentlemanly warfare” and Henry meets his co star, Eiza Gonzalez’s friend, Y/N.

Warning: spelling and grammar errors, non translated Spanish’s because I get lazy.

A/N: this is my first ever real person fanfic so I hope you like it.

Henry was on the red carpet answering a few questions until it was time to head into the theater with everyone to see his new movie. As he was walking in, he saw Eiza Gonzalez, his costar.

“Eiza, how are you?” Henry said, greeting her.

“Henry, que guapo te ves! I’m definitely not used to your clean shaven look. There’s a party after the premiere, are you going?” Eiza asked.

“I’m not sure, I think I’m going to my hotel after this, spend time with the bear.” Henry said and Eiza giggled.

“You should come! I want you to meet my friend, she came back from her European tour la few days ago, I think you guys would hit it off.” Eiza said.

“Are you really trying to play Cupid?” Henry said,

“I just want you guys to meet, I never said anything about wanting you two to date. But if you happen to fall in love with her, don’t forget to mention me in your wedding toast.” Eiza said.

“Are all Mexicans this delusional or just you?” Henry asked, eiza stared at him. “You’re right, I shouldn’t have said that, sorry.”

“Don’t worry my colonizer friend, it’s fine. And it’s probably just me.” Eiza said.

“How come you get to make jokes about my race but I can’t?” Henry asked.

“You are a straight white man, I rest my case, now let’s get inside, I’m pretty sure we have to make a speech before the movie starts, which I find totally stupid.” Eiza said,

The premiere was over and he went to his hotel room. He thought about how it’s been a while since he dated anyone and decided to call eiza.

“Bueno?” Eiza answered the phone.

“Hey eiza, where is the party?” Henry asked.

“Yes, you’re coming, it’s at xxxx” Eiza said.

“I’ll be right there.” Henry replied and hung up the phone. Henry changed out of his suit to something more casual but still presentable and said goodbye to his dog before asking his driver to take him to where the after party was. When he gets there, he was greeted by Eiza in a fitted dress.

“Yes, you’re here! Great decision, Y/N is probably at the bar, mingle while I go find her. Oh my god, Diego! Compa, como has estado, no te ha visto en…” Eiza greeted her friends walking away from Henry. Henry saw Chris drinking at the bar and decided to walk towards him.

“Henry, buddy, how have you been?” Chris asked, hugging him.

“I’ve been great, how’s married life treating you?” Henry asked.

“Really well, I’m very happy to be back in Boston but I can’t lie, I do miss these parties.” Chris admitted. They kept talking and when they played a Daddy Yankee song, Henry heard a voice screaming.

“AAHH!! Es mi canción! Joel, cuida mi bolsa!” the Woman said, downing a shot of tequila before heading to the dance floor. Henry thought it was Eiza but it was someone else. However, when the woman started dancing, Henry couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

“Hey man, who are you looking at?” Chris asked but he just followed Henry’s line of sight and spotted the woman that was basically demanding the attention of everyone else with her dancing, that’s when Eiza approached the two mean at the bar.

“Whoo, go Y/N! That’s my bestie!” Eiza cheered her on.

“What, that’s Y/N?” Henry asked,

“Yeah, that’s her. I mean, i knew she could dance because I’ve seen her concerts when she performs at the forum, but I never knew she could dance like this.” Eiza said.

“I think your friend is making Hnery want to learn Spanish, he hasn’t taken his eyes off her since she started dancing.” Chris said and Henry hit his chest, still not looking away from the woman dancing.

“Perfect! I’ll get her when the song is over so you can meet her.” Eiza said, clearly excited that henry is interested in her friend. When the song finished, Eiza made her way to Y/N. “Y/N! Como has estado? Que me cuentas de la gira?”

“La gira fue espectacular, todos los fans cantando mis canciones, llevándome flores, estoy súper agradecida. How was the premiere? I wish I could have gone but I wasn’t invited.” Y/N said,

“Sorry! I forgot when your tour ended. Anyway, I have someone I want you to meet.” Eiza walked Y/N over to when’re Henry and Chris were. “Y/N, this is Henry Cavill. Henry, this is Y/N L/N. Chris, come dance with me.” Eiza said, pulling Chris with her, leaving Henry and Y/N alone by the bar.

“Hi.” Henry said bashfully.

“Hey.” Y/N said, fiddling with her fingers.

“I saw you dance, you were amazing, by the way, you seemed really into it.” Henry commented.

“Well i grew up listening to Shakira so you could say my hips don’t lie.” Y/N said and both of them ended up laughing. “Oh my god, I can’t believe I made that joke, que tonta soy, eh.”l

“No no, it’s okay, I laughed, right?” Henry said, making Y/N feel more comfortable.

“But seriously, my mom would put me in these dance classes, well, her friend who taught dance classes would give me free lessons.” Y/N said. “Do you dance?”

“No but I took lessons when I was filming Argyle.” Henry said.

“I haven’t seen Argyle but I really want to see this movie. Like yeah, my bestie is in it, but I really like your look in this movie.” Y/N said.

“Really? You like the messy hair and the full beard?” Henry asked.

“Yeah, your curls show off more than in your other movie, Night Hunter.” Y/N commented.

“So you’re a fan of my movies?” Henry asked.

“Am I a fan of the movies or just the attractive British actor starring in them?” Y/N asked, getting closer to Henry.

“I say you’re a fan of me.” Henry said.

“Bingo! Hope Im not being too forward.” Y/N said

“Not at all.” Henry said. They started playing Propuesta Indecente by Romeo Santos.

“Well, time to put your dancing skills to use, do you think you can dance bachata?” Y/N asked, taking Henry’s hand and led him on the dance floor.

“Only if you show me how.” Henry said.

“Of course, just follow my lead.” Y/N said.

They danced every bachata song that was played, and when they weren’t dancing, they were just talking.

Eiza sips her drink, observing them.

“They would be a cute couple.” Eiza commented to Chris.

“Yeah, he seems happy enough.” Chris said.

“Could I get your number?” Henry asked.

“Of course, give me your phone.” Y/N said. Henry handed her his phone and Y/N gave it back. “I’m gonna head out but I’ll be waiting for your call. Hasta luego, guapo.” Y/N kissed Henry’s cheek and left the party with Eiza. Chris then approached Henry who was holding his cheek where she kissed him.

“What are you thinking about?” Chris asked.

“How much a Spanish tutor costs.” Henry commented.

“Alright, buddy, let’s get back to the hotel.” Chris said, leading Henry to the exit.

The End

Taglist: @warriormirkwood @shellyshellshell

#hispanic reader #latina #hispanic #henry cavill x reader #henry cavill #ministry of ungentlemanly warfare #eiza gonzalez

[leroibobo]

some notes on specifically "middle eastern" (mashriqi + iran, caucuses, and turkey) jewish communities/history:

something to keep in mind: judaism isn't "universalist" like christianity or islam - it's easier to marry into it than to convert on your own. conversions historically happened, but not in the same way they did for european and caucasian christians/non-arab muslims.

that being said, a majority of middle eastern jews descend from jewish population who remained in palestine or immigrated/were forced (as is the case with "kurdish" jews) from palestine to other areas and mixed with locals/others who came later (which at some point stopped). pretty much everywhere in the middle east and north africa (me/na) has/had a jewish population like this.

with european jews (as in all of them), the "mixing" was almost entirely during roman times with romans/greeks, and much less later if they left modern-day greece/italy.

(none of this means jewish people are or aren't "indigenous" to palestine, because that's not what that word means.)

like with every other jewish diaspora, middle eastern jewish cultures were heavily influenced by wherever they ended up. on a surface level you can see this in things like food and music.

after the expulsion of jews from spain and portugal, sephardim moved to several places around the world; many across me/na, mostly to the latter. most of the ones who ended up in the former went to present-day egypt, palestine, lebanon, syria, and turkey. a minority ended up in iraq (such as the sassoons' ancestors). like with all formerly-ottoman territories, there was some degree of back and forth between countries and continents.

some sephardim intermarried with local communities, some didn't. some still spoke ladino, some didn't. there was sometimes a wealth gap between musta'arabim and sephardim, and/or they mostly didn't even live in the same places, like in palestine and tunisia. it really depends on the area you're looking at.

regardless, almost all the jewish populations in the area went through "sephardic blending" - a blending of local and sephardic customs - to varying degrees. it's sort of like the cultural blending that came with spanish/portugese colonization in central and south america (except without the colonization).

how they were treated also really depends where/when you're looking. some were consistently dealt a raw hand (like "kurdish" and yemenite jews) while some managed to do fairly well, all things considered (like baghdadi and georgian jews). most where somewhere in between. the big difference between me/na + some balkan and non-byzantine european treatment of jews is due to geography - attitudes in law regarding jews in those areas tended to fall into different patterns.

long story short: most european governments didn't consider anyone who wasn't "christian" a citizen (sometimes even if they'd converted, like roma; it was a cultural/ethnic thing as well), and persecuted them accordingly; justifying this using "race science" when religion became less important there after the enlightenment.

most me/na and the byzantine governments considered jews (and later, christians) citizens, but allowed them certain legal/social opportunities while limiting/banning/imposing others. the extent of both depend on where/when you're looking but it was never universally "equal".

in specifically turkey, egypt, palestine, and the caucuses, there were also ashkenazi communities, who came mainly because living as a jew in non-ottoman europe at the time sucked more than in those places. ottoman territories in the balkans were also a common destination for this sort of migration.

in the case of palestine, there were often religious motivations to go as well, as there were for some other jews who immigrated. several hasidic dynasites more or less came in their entirety, such as the lithuanian/polish/hungarian ones which precede today's neutrei karta.

ashkenazi migration didn't really happen until jewish emancipation in europe for obvious reasons. it also predates zionism - an initially secular movement based on contemporaneous european nationalist ideologies - by some centuries.

most ashkenazi jews today reside in the us, while most sephardic or "mizrahi" jews are in occupied palestine. there, the latter outnumber the former. you're more likely to find certain groups (like "kurds" and yemenites) in occupied palestine than others (like persians and algerians) - usually ones without a western power that backed them from reactionary antisemitic persecution and/or who came from poorer communities. (and no, this doesn't "justify" the occupation).

(not to say there were none who immigrated willingly/"wanted" to go, or that none/all are zionist/anti-zionist. (ben-gvir is of "kuridsh" descent, for example.) i'm not here to parse motivations.)

this, along with a history of racism/chauvinism from the largely-ashkenazi "left", are why many mizrahim vote farther "right".

(in some places, significant numbers of the jewish community stayed, like turkey, tunisia, and iran. in some others, there's evidence of double/single-digit and sometimes crypto-jewish communities.)

worldwide, the former outnumber the latter. this is thought to be because of either a medieval ashkenazi population boom due to decreased population density (not talking about the "khazar theory", which has been proven to be bullshit, btw) or a later, general european one in the 18th/19th centuries due to increased quality of life.

the term "mizrahi" ("oriental", though it doesn't have the same connotation as in english) in its current form comes from the zionist movement in the 1940s/50s to describe me/na jewish settlers/refugees.

(i personally don't find it useful outside of israeli jewish socio-politics and use it on my blog only because it's a term everyone's familiar with.)

about specifically palestinian jews:

the israeli term for palestinian jews is "old yishuv". yishuv means settlement. this is in contrast to the "new yishuv", or settlers from the initial zionist settlement period in 1881-1948. these terms are usually used in the sense of describing historical groups of people (similar to how you would describe "south yemenis" or "czechoslovaks").

palestinian jews were absorbed into the israeli jewish population and have "settler privilege" on account of their being jewish. descendants make up something like 8% of the israeli jewish population and a handful (including, bafflingly, netanyahu and smoltrich) are in the current government.

they usually got to keep their property unless it was in an "arab area". there's none living in gaza/the west bank right now unless they're settlers.

their individual views on zionism vary as much as any general population's views vary on anything.

(my "palestinian jews" series isn't intended to posit that they all think the same way i do, but to show a side of history not many people know about. any "bias" only comes from the fact that i have a "bias" too. this is a tumblr blog, not an encyclopedia.)

during the initial zionist settlement period, there were palestinian/"old yishuv" jews who were both for zionism and against it. the former have been a part of the occupation and its government for pretty much its entire history.

some immigrated abroad before 1948 and may refer to themselves as "syrian jews". ("syria" was the name given to syria/lebanon/palestine/some parts of iraq during ottoman times. many lebanese and palestinian christians emigrated at around the same time and may refer to themselves as "syrian" for this reason too.)

ones who stayed or immigrated after for whatever reason mostly refer to themselves as "israeli".

in israeli jewish society, "palestinian" usually implies muslims and christians who are considered "arab" under israeli law. you may get differing degrees of revulsion/understanding of what exactly "palestine"/"palestinians" means but the apartheid means that palestinian =/= jewish.

because of this, usage of "palestinian" as a self-descriptor varies. your likelihood of finding someone descendent from/with ancestry from the "old yishuv" calling themselves a "palestinian jew" in the same way an israeli jew with ancestry in morocco would call themselves a "moroccan jew" is low.

(i use it on here because i'm assuming everyone knows what i mean.)

samaritans aren't 'jewish', they're their own thing, though they count as jewish under israeli law.

#jewish #mizrahi #palestinian jews #info #my posts #repost with more info #sorry if this isn't the best time to post it (?) then again this is my blog and i'm not indebted to anyone so (shrugs) #i've been seeing a lot of misinfo too so

[asifyoudidntknow]

All Time Favs

I began reading fanfic in my teens during the original run of the show. There were lonnng breaks from it, but coming back to the fandom in 2017 reignited my interest. I now keep a spreadsheet as well as a "to read" list. I already have almost 600 logged (not including 5 years), so I wanted to share my top favorites. Divided into my 4 favorite genres (AU, casefic, angst + romance, and smut + romance) and in no particular order...

*Alternate Universe*

I used to wonder why someone would choose to read AU. Then I read one of these and was completely blown away.

Katherine of Ireland by Jenna Tooms (gossamer)

Katherine, princess of Ireland is married to Walter, king of Angora. When Walter is killed during battle, Katherine is taken by the enemy, FitzJames. William is FitzJames right hand. When FitzJames orders her to be beaten (even after discovering her pregnancy) William devises a plan to save her, heal her and get her back to Ireland. Will William always be seen as the enemy or will Katherine come to see him for who he truly is?

By the dim and flaring lamps by @sunflowerseedsandscience (ao3)

Civil war AU’s are my jam and this was one of the first ones I read.  When Mulder discovers (disguised boy) Scully bathing in a waterfall by darkness and realizes what he is dealing with will remain etched in my brain forever.

In darkness by DKSculder (ao3)

What if Scully was married to Daniel?  What if Daniel was a serial killer?  What if Mulder was a VCU agent still?   This is an unfinished work, but the idea is unlike any other I’ve come across.

Blinded by the white light by DashaK (ao3)

Need I say more?  When Mulder and Scully find each other after colonization, will they remember each other and will they act on it?

The second side of light by @scapegrace74-blog (ao3)

Oregon Trail.  Mulder is leading scully and Melissa across the trail when Melissa dies.  They end up getting very close to one another on the journey.

Paracelsus by profuckslove (ao3)

Another amazing civil war AU.  When Mulder goes looking for his lost son and comes across a pregnant scully what will happen to them?

Hiareth by profuckslove (gossamer)

Wales 1215.  Scully escapes the king by marrying Mulder, the prince of wales.  Marriage leads to love and fighting off dangerous men.

Paracosm by @softnow (ao3)

This is an unfinished work.  College AU.  Mulder has a crush on the library girl, will she return his advances?

A companion unobtrusive by @slippinmickeys (ao3)

A college AU where scully is looking for a roommate and Mulder is looking for a room.  Melissa introduces them and the rest is history.

Qui Si by Trixie (gossamer)

After accepting an offer from a gypsy to go back to a life with Samantha in it, Mulder, a child psychologist, helps Scully, a PhD, get over her past.

You he did not fail by extraordinarily_ordinary (ao3)

Scully abruptly leaves TXF after surviving cancer and moves to LA to start anew.  She is dating when Mulder is assigned as a profiler to a case she is working and they have to deal with things left undealt with.

Five years and a lifetime by @monikafilefan (ao3)

Mulder is a Peds psychiatrist. Scully is a Peds neurologist. They meet at a conference and have a one night stand.  What happens when they come to work together 5 years later and Scully is a single mom?

Amish country by lolabeegood (gossamer)

Mulder and Scully go undercover in Amish country trying to catch a serial rapist while navigating very traditional values and roles.

You and me by lolabeegood (gossamer)

Mulder leaves his wealthy parents to serve under Scully’s father in the military.  In order for her to stay safe, fed, and clothed she needs to marry.

The mountain man by aka Jake (gossamer)

Scully is sent from nyc (where she was becoming a doctor) to Montana at her father’s wishes.  He wants her to marry a lieutenant under his command and not practice medicine, but she becomes intrigued with a local mountain man.

The countess/the earl by @slippinmickeys (ao3)

When scully is to be married to an old duke in order to save her family from financial ruin, a strange, alluring earl steps in to save her.

*Case*

There is nothing quite like a casefic. It's classic x-files and I am here for it. Writers in this fandom are so talented with their abilities to create a fic that rivals/trumps actual episodes.

Perchitor by @aloysiavirgata (ao3)

A little girl goes missing in the mountains with the superstition of Jenny Greenteeth to blame.  Mulder and Scully investigate while navigating a new physical relationship.

Omens by @lepus-arcticus (ao3)

I read this one as a WIP and was anxiously checking for an update every night.  There were several lines in this fic that made me gasp.  Cancer arc angst. Give me it alllll.

XII by fragilevixen (ao3)

A killer that romanticizes every victim.  His next target?  Guess who.  *coughSCULLYcough*

Hearts desire by malibusunset (ao3)

While in a small town scully runs into an old BF and starts wondering why she doesn’t prioritize her dating.  She decides to go for it.  The author makes me like Scully’s old flame.  That says something.  When the MSR convo finally does come, I thought I’d die from the slow burn.

Resurgam by opheila_interrupted (ao3)

One of the most xfiles like cases I have ever read.  Remains unsolved at the end and has our agents investigating ghosts near Mulder’s hometown while dealing with their own (Emily & Teena).

Universal invariants/laws of motion by @syntax6

Scully is engaged to Ethan throughout the first season while her and Mulder’s relationship is deepening and then consummated right before she is abducted.  How do two guys in love handle Scully’s abduction and what happens when she is returned?  

All the way home/head over heels by @syntax6

Mulder is pulled into a past unsolved VCU case of a killer with a shoe fetish while navigating a new physical relationship with scully.  When scully is targeted, Mulder has to gamble with his personal feelings while working to find the killer.

Queens gambit by Suzanne Schramm (gossamer)

Under Kersh, Mulder and Scully are assigned to a VCU case Mulder worked in Utah in 89’.  The killer was put to death and then revenge began.  Local mines and children involved.

*angst + romance*

This is my crux. Angst in any way, shape, or form. Add in some slow burn/ust and finally the rst *chefs kiss* particularly fond of Ethan fics and cancer arc.

Contact high by penumbra (gossamer)

Still feeling the residual effects of the spores post field trip, our agents try out Mulder’s new waterbed.

Early on by @sunflowerseedsandscience (ao3)

10 vignettes set during season 1.  Our baby agents are becoming close, but Ethan is still around.  How does scully navigate her relationship with Ethan while working with Mulder?

Center Mass by @kateyes224 (ao3)

Another Ethan fic set in season 1.  Mulder and Scully make an effort to get to know one another… in more ways than one.  And when Mulder gets aroused at Scully’s marksmanship it’s all over for me. 

One blue line by sarie_fairy (ao3)

IVF arc.  Scully is defeated by a negative pregnancy test.  When Mulder tries to comfort her, she suggests having sex.  I just remember wondering if I was reading or actually doing the act myself considering how detailed it was.

Salt by anjou (gossamer)

I remember reading this and being like WTF is happening to only have it all make sense at the end leaving me speechless.

Triptych by @iconicscullyoutfits (ao3)

My favorite FTF, post bee, how the f*ck did they get out of anarctica fic.

Snowbound by malibusunset (gossamer)

After missing their flight and being snowed in their rental on the side of the road, discussions lead to their relationship.  Once they’re recused they are put up in an inn with 1 room.  Dun, dun, dunnnn.

The ache by @storybycorey (ao3)

1999 Mulder has a visit with 2015 Mulder to urge him to get help with his depression and not lose scully.

Love bites by living_underground (ao3)

A review of vampirism cases throughout the years.  Hickeys from Ed.  Love bites from Mulder.

Goshen by bonetree (ao3)

Mulder and Scully are in a car accident where their car can’t be seen.  Major injuries lead to near death experiences and visions of Emily.

All that our senses can perceive by wonderland (ao3)

Mulder’s POV looking over Scully’s transformation from girl to woman and how all of his senses perceive her.

Caught in the Act I by parrotfish (gossamer)

Although the whole series is amazing, the first part is my favorite.  I love when scully lays into the review panel about being sexist.

The things she carries by @edierone (ao3)

One of my favorite cancer arc fics.  When Mulder confronts Scully 3 years later on the porch I literally stopped breathing.

Red valerian series by dashakay (ao3)

Scully looks to skinner for comfort during a grueling case, starting a 6 month affair.  Will scully ever love him or will the buried truth prevail?

Sex and Loathing by malibusunset (ao3)

Scully takes a drunk Mulder home after Roche.  He makes a move and they have terrible sex.  After 2 years of poking at each other they face things head on after Mulder almost dies in PBV.

Snakebitten by @onpaperfirst (ao3)

Set throughout season 5.  My favorite season. Say no more.

Five years and one night by Shalimar (gossamer)

When Scully transfers to LA and Mulder finds more babies like Emily, can they work together again to get to the bottom of this conspiracy?

The letter by Shalimar (gossamer)

Post TFWID, scully goes searching for more clues to her and Mulder’s past lives when she comes across a letter in a local Apison museum she sent to Mulder.

*smut + romance*

It's hard to have just smut when it comes to MSR, am I right? these two idiots are so in love that my smut category must also be romantic.

Undercover swing by 2momsmakearight (ao3)

What if Mulder and Scully go undercover as a married couple interested in swinging?  Can they both keep their jealously in check?  

Be kind, rewind by OnlyTheInevitable (ao3)

To help catch a suspect, skinner requests our agents watch porn together.  While watching, conversation leads to critiques about the performance and comments about personal preferences.

Girl 77 by mojo

A stripper is found dead with Mulder’s card on her.  She looks exactly like Scully.  Scully notices and confronts Mulder about it.

Dropped call series by @phillippadgettwrites (ao3)

Phone sex, but make it “not them”

December 31, 1984 by @phillippadgettwrites (ao3)

When Mulder saves an unimpressed scully from some jerk on NYE, they end up at her apartment having a one night stand.

Damsels by @sisterspooky1013 (ao3)

Scully is sent undercover as a stripper to find a missing woman.  Mulder is kept in the dark regarding her case, but pieces together where she is and what she’s doing and sets out to find her.

The Shirt by Audrey Roget (gossamer)

Skinner reconciles with Sharon leading to a vow renewal celebration. Skinner asks mulder and Scully to stand with him as his best agents. After slow dancing together, mulder bolts out of the celebration before scully catches the bridal bouquet and he crosses a line. When they end up in an accident while driving in a storm, things come to a head in an Elvis inspired motel suite out in the middle of nowhere PA.

#txf fanfic #msr fanfic #fic recs #fic rec list #fanfic recs #au #case fic #angst #romance #smut #msr

[starlight-bread-blog]

Katara made it very clear that she never ever wants to see Yon Rah again and most of the Zutara fandom supports that decision of hers.

So I guess the possible downside of Katara choosing to marry Zuko means sharing Zuko's burden of reforming and rehabilitating depraved war criminals like Yon Rha and all those who are even worse than him.

Then there's this whole thing with Aaron Ehasz imagining Zuko being Azula's Iroh and she reforms in that way along with my and a few other's ideas of Aang showing her how open and master her own chakras. Speaking of Iroh, does anyone remember his ruthless and brutal 600-day siege anymore? There's no way he'd avoid dropping bodies that whole time.

Looks like Katara will ironically be taking Aang's advice about forgiveness after all but I don't think it'll be necessary for Katara to look for Yon Rah again and say so.

What do you think?

Tw: War crimes, genocide and nazism.

Disclaimer: I don't know what actually happened post canon. I tried to look on internet forums and it seems as the topic wasn't addressed in the comics. For this answer, I'm going under this assumption.

Sorry for not getting to this sooner, life got busy and I didn't want to give some half assed answer to such a delicate topic. There's a lot to comment on so I'll break this down step by step.

"Katara choosing to marry Zuko means sharing Zuko's burden of reforming and rehabilitating depraved war criminals"...

The fire nation commited atrocious war crimes, leaving them with with many war criminals. War crimes are more than punishable. If it were real life, neither Katara or Zuko would have to reform and rehabilitate any of them.

An example of this would be the Nuremberg trials after WW2. Even recently, in 2022, Irmgard Furchner (an 98 year old women) faced a trial for being a secretary of a concentration camp (to put it lightly, she was very much a murderer). No one is getting away with their actions.

I read the relevant section from a Red Cross's document titled "Analysis of the punishments applicable to international crimes (war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide) in domestic law and practice". (The section being "States’ obligations under IHL to prosecute and punish international crimes").

I found something interesting. (ID in alt text).

*Grave breaches are more serious, vile violations of humananitarian law. Everything above applies to "genocide and crimes against humanity".

If Katara were in a position of power in the Fire Nation, not only would she not have to reform anyone, she also might get to help with the trials for them.

"Then there's this whole thing with Aaron Ehasz imagining Zuko being Azula's Iroh"

I don't know about his plans for Aang's other ideas, so I can't comment on them. What I did find was a short thread of his. And after reading it, I maintain that – like most ideas – his vision can work with sensitive execution.

Azula was still very much a 14 year old victim of grooming when the series took place. Her brother can help her through her redemption under one condition – the desire to be better should come from her.

He shouldn't sit through any mistreatment whatsoever. He'll guide her through a path he already went through, but she has to walk with him. Azula needs to be safe for Zuko. Only then, redemption would be possible.

"does anyone remember [Iroh's] ruthless and brutal 600-day siege anymore?"

The difference between Iroh and Yon Rah is what they're up to now. In the present Yon Rah is just some guy living with his mother. Meanwhile Iroh took back Ba Sing Se from Fire Nation colonizers.

Yon Rah isn't out here fixing his mistakes, he just got off scot-free. On the other hand, Iroh is a changed man and took action to correct his past on the same scale.

At the end of the day redemtion isn't Aang's idea. It's one of the major themes of Atla. It wants to show that people can change and grow. So it does. Zuko changes, Mai changes, Ty Lee changes, and Iroh is their future.

He tried to conquer Ba Sing Se, and now he took it back from conquerors. He was the worst of them all, and now he's unrecognizable. He's warm, wise and sweet. There's a meaning to it.

That doesn't mean that war criminals in the current day, scums who made no affort, will get away with their crimes. That doesn't mean Katara would have to go through the mental torture of reforming her colonizers.

That is it! I hope I didn't come off as aggressive, I didn't mean to. Thank you for the ask, sorry for taking me forever to write this, and have a lovely day!

#zutara #zutara meta #zukoxkatara #zuko x katara #kataraxzuko #katara x zuko #anti kataang #anti maiko #ambassador katara #anti anti zutara #pro zutara #tw nazism #tw war crimes #tw colonialism #tw nazis #tw genocide #uncle iroh #iroh #azula #the southern raiders #aaron ehasz #zutarian #zutara was robbed #zutara analysis #zutara nation #asks #asks open

[feysandarcheron]

Spoilers for the HOFAS bonus chapter with Bryce Nesta and Azriel and some vague HOFAS spoilers. Basically analyzing the songs’ meanings and going crazy over elriel

Omg the fact that all the elements of the Stone Mother story connect to the plot. (The second and last bullet points in this section have vague HOFAS spoilers)

Grieving mother. They all just got done talking about their mothers. Ember being separated from and grieving for Bryce. The Archeron mother would roll in her grave to see Nesta now and she treated Feyre terribly. Feyre being a perfect mother. The potential for Nesta to be a mother. Azriel’s mother being “anything but terrible”. And of course The Mother is like god in acotar.

Separated and fighting children. *HOFAS spoilers* Helen and Silene separated forever after a battle. Also reminds me of the 7 courts of Prythian that were separated after Theia’s rule.

Separated Man and Woman. He goes up to the sky and she stays on a mountain, which reminds me of The Embrace statue from Crescent City which is Solas and Cthona, the sun and the mountains. Also, she turns to stone on the mountain, which stone reminds me of the prison and of course the significance of the 3 mountains, and what could be beneath them.

Theme of the story is peace over violence. CC is fighting for a better world, and in ACOTAR they are trying to keep the fragile peace in place after the war.

There is also a poem called Stone Mother about indigenous lands stolen by colonialism and climate change. The Asteri are described as colonizers, and *vague spoilers for HOFAS* also Helen and Silene did something to impact the land in ACOTAR and Midgard. Also water is a big point in the Stone Mother, and *more vague spoilers for HOFAS* something happened with the water in Midgard.

So it’s just crazy people think the part about how Woman came to be with Man won’t also have a connection to the plot 😭

Good Man is lonely and wants company. Azriel being alone all this time and emo

Woman wants to be with Man but is married to Bear… an ugly beast if you will !

Bear gets into a fight with Woman and she kills him. Potential for blood duel.

She searches for Man and when she finds him she hides and just watches him, but he sees her foot prints. Reminds me of how shy Elain is and how Azriel is the only one who sees her and vice versa.

Woman reveals herself and Man sees she’s afraid so he speaks to her kindly, which reminds me of ACOWAR elriel

He offers her FOOD !! Mates hello

She accepts the food and each night sleeps closer to him until they eventually get married, which reminds me of how elriel have just been continuously building slowly with each book

PLUS the only other song mentioned is from a CC ballet called the Glass Coffin which is a Brothers Grimm version of Sleeping Beauty (!!!) (The third and last bullet points have vague HOFAS spoilers)

A man uses magic on a woman he wants to marry (a fake bond??), waking her with enchanting music (lightsinger connection !?)

The magic pins her to the bed so she can’t move, and she doesn’t like his magic, so she rejects his proposal by remaining silent. Reminds me of Elain with Lucien.

In anger he puts a spell on her and traps her in a coffin and enchanted her land to make it all barren. *vague HOFAS spoilers* barren land turning fertile again comes up in HOFAS, both Midgard and ACOTAR.

Another man finds the coffin and frees her, they get married, and the land turns fertile again (*vague HOFAS spoilers* again something like this with the land happens in HOFAS), which reminds me of Azriel potentially freeing Elain from the spell of a fake bond, and I think we will also see something like this with land in acotar 5.

Anyways slay elriel foreshadowing. I will edit this to fill in the HOFAS spoilers parts once the book comes out!

#hofas spoilers #Elriel #pro elriel #hofas

[blackcatsnstrawberries]

Post HOFAS Thoughts

Obviously everything below here is a spoiler, so read at your own risk.

This isn't going to be in any particular order, just as things pop into my head.

What I liked

How Bryce and the ACOTAR characters weren't buddy-buddy at all. It's was more realistic that both groups would be super hesitant of the other

Nesta's characterization- wonderful, stunning, powerful. This is the Nesta that ACOSF deserved and didn't get.

Bryce and Nesta's reluctant friendship, I loved that these two misunderstood women were able to create even just a minimum bond

Az and Nesta asking about the cell phone, amazing (BC)

Understanding the death mask and it's abilities more.

The information dump about Theia- I did not like how much of it there was to process BUT I loved how the characters saw the evil the Fae had brought with their colonization and did not try to bury that.

Bryce stealing TT, Az wasn't giving that up and it would be out of character for him to do so (unless he was giving it to his mate (🌷)

I kind of liked the Sassy Asteri (Verperous?)

Ruhn cracking jokes about two angels and a Fae walking into a dungeon- hilarious

Lidia's arc was interesting seeing as she has murdered and tortured people before she defected, but SJM was able to give her a redemption arc where people aren't forgiving her for that past, but seeing her for trying to make amends in the present/future. That is a hard arc to pull off.

Lidia nuzzling Ruhn before running off my god my heart

Hypaxia dumping Celestina (good), getting thrown out of her coven (bad) and THEN becoming the head of the HOFAS? Yas Queen! Slay!

Hunt working through his PTSD and Bryce giving him tough love about it, either you're with us or you're not. I know it's harsh but with what was going on it was realistic.

Ithan becoming prime

Sabine dying and being thrown into a sewer. TBH the sewers deserve better.

Hypaxia in general. No one in this series would be anywhere without her. I said what I said.

Tharion stepping up to marry Sathia (was that her name) More on this f*cker later

This one is weird: the torture chamber. SJM made that as messy as possible. She did not have to mention the poop and pee on the floor (these things happen during torture, but it's not exactly sexy for 3 characters to be rolling in it) so props to her I guess? Told you it's a weird one

Bryce and Ruhn taking down Fae Kings and making Avellen a Fae paradise WITH PEGASUS!!!!

The Princes of the Pit. I want them to have their own series omg.

LIDIA TORCHING POLLUX AND EVERYONE

Did I mentioned wanting more of the Princes of the Pit?

Bryce killing and Asteri by hand. Again, slay Queen.

Sahar coming in at the end and helping Hunt save Bryce

JESIBA! My girl sacrificing herself for her assistant (I laughed while crying)

Nesta and Ember's relationship

Bryce dismantling the Fae monarchy.

Ruhm calling Rhys something along the lines of "that High Lord dude." Yes. Excellent. More people need to do this.

Bryce and Hunt being endgame. Forever. Full stop.

What I didn't like

Bryce seemed to lose a few brain cells in this book...like opening the sarcophagus of an Asteri is dumb...

Bryce hearing Azriel when he was following her and Nesta- Cassian even said in ACOSF that unless Az wanted to be heard, you don't hear him.

Az using his power to try and bind the Asteri- bb no. They absorb that, did you also lose brain cells since ACOSF?

THARION YOU DUMB MF. This man pissed me off so much with all his bad choices one after another since the end of HOSAB.

Sigrid? Like...what was the point of her? Literally it was WE HAVE A NEW FENDYR ALPHA! Oh no I accidentally decapitated her....like what?

Ariadne was there and then not and then there. Ok?

Pollux.

Ithan's b plot, which I understand why it was there, really slowed down the pacing.

All the middle fingers? Why was everyone just flipping everyone else off all the time?

Also lines like this showed up a few times, "it could have been minutes, years really." When something was happening...like what?

I love me spicy scenes, they were awkwardly placed in this story.

RUHN AND LIDIA JUST LIKE NOT CARING THAT DEC AND FLYNN WERE MISSING?

What I think will happen next

SJM said we're getting more CC books, I am thinking they are going to focus more on other potential couples now that Bryce and Hunt's story has seemingly ended. And I swear if Bryce is pregnant in the next one...

I think a big all out war is coming (in ACOTAR) against the Asteri/Daglan somehow, and all characters from all three world with go to Prythian for a battle

Lidia is absolutely a decedent of Aelin and Rowan so that has to play out somehow.

Lidia's kids are going to become important- I am wondering about their bio dad because it's said he was a shifter, and this is me being all conspiracy theory but: What if their bio dad was a descendent of Fenrys? They are twins, one with fair hair (Fenrys) one with dark hair (Connall) and we don't know their abilities yet...it's a reach but I am calling it

Monarchy systems of government suck, democracy all the way, but uh here's to hoping SJM writes one in that works better than what most democratic countries have (looking at you USA)

The emo like Reaper that Hypaxia used to compare samples to, I am curious if he is going to turn into someone/something in later books. Just the whole scene seemed like he would become important later on. I don't know it's just a feeling.

As I have more time to process and marinate with this book I'll probably add more. In the end I'd give HOFAS a 3.5/5 it got bogged down quite a bit with exposition, characters just making dumb choice after dumb choice, and plot lines seemingly leading to nowhere. Bryce and Hunt remained a really strong FMC/MMC lead, my fav of all the series, the side characters were mostly interesting and kept everything going (looking at you Ithan) but all and all, I enjoyed the book!

#house of flame and shadow #hofas spoilers #hofas theory #crescent city #crescent city 3 #bryce quinlan #hunt athalar #ruhn danaan #lidia cervos #nesta archeron #azriel shadowsinger #acotar #sjm universe #sjm multiverse #sjm crossover #jesiba roga #ithan holstrom #tharion ketos #hypaxia enador #tristan and declan

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV Trailer (me losing my freaking marbles - YOLO) Pt1

I'm just going frame by frame thru AMC'S BEAUTIFUL new IWTV trailer. But I had to split this into 2 parts cuz Tumblr won't let me post 30+ pics.

We've already seen Lestat's Theatre portrait on fire (burn, bish!) but the TRANSITION they made here is DISGUSTING--they know what they're doing!

Lou goes from thinking about setting the Theatre on fire (nervously/uncomfortably rubbing his chin, my poor baby), to another scene of him chainsmoking and staring sadly off into the void. I'm assuming it's the 1970s interview, cuz we see Afro!Lou in the same shirt when he effs up BB!Daniel a few minutes later.

AND they said Louis's "stronger, and harder, too," during ANOTHER closeup of Louis chainsmoking. Pyromaniac du Lac LIVES.

Then we get that INTERESTING exchange with Loumand about Oldmaniel:

Armand does NOT like this interview, no ma'am! What are you tryna hide?! 🧐

The fandom legit already MADE THIS JOKE too! XD

The parallels with Loumand enjoying watching movies together (NO CLAUDIA 👀)--and Loustat enjoying opera & movies together.

Loumand as a happy old married couple--I mean it, Rolin: what TF happened between the 1970s interview, the year 2000, and 2022, to make Louis' mental state get SO DANG BAD!?

Armand seems to be implying that 1970s SanFran wasn't where he failed Louis, but 1940s Paris when he burns the Theatre--but I'm seriously wondering if something else went down, cuz LOOK AT MY BABY. BLOOD TEARS. I cannot.

This hollow, fake smile Claudia gives when Loumand walks into the room; wearing makeup & an adult hairstyle tryna look grown--I wonder if this is the same night she joins the Theatre?

Lou & Claudia--he just gives her The Eyebrows, not saying anything (but Armand looks WAY too smug ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)); and we know Armand AND Claudia can EASILY read his mind way better than he can read either of theirs.

Louis calls her "a spark in the dark," right before they cut to the bombs falling all over WWII Europe with flames everywhere--including all over her face--foreshadowing her ashes to ashes, dust to dust. ("Rigged to burn," Louis said in S01E03.)

Did they get hit by bombs, or fall into mine fields?! Jfc. (OR maybe they were sleeping underground, in the earth, and woke up in a battlefield--GOD.) And this must be the same scene where Lou eats the heart--we see Claud throwing limbs around--are they scavenging bombed up corpses?

And the flame in the photographs Louis takes, which she's been tearing down--figuratively in the other teaser, and literally here.

Claudia finna GO OFF! (I HAD to make this one a gif, to see her wrath in MOTION 🤌)

EAT that racist French White, Claudia, PLEASE. Colonizer Capital--Paris SUCKS!

LOUIS DE POINTE DU LAC, ladies and gentlemen. U_U

You're one of a kind, sweetie--that's why the whole Theatre was tripping, cuz Lestat's "coven" in NOLA didn't look ANYTHING like how all other vampire covens worked. Lestat & Louis & Claudia were a FAMILY. They lived like humans--or as close to human as possible. Plus they were painfully weak, with none of the Dark Gifts. They weren't living like monsters--at least not on the surface....

In the other teaser I thought this dirty heifer who attacked Louis was a revenant, but if she's in the Theatre then this must be Alessandra or Eleni (which means a Rhoshamandes name drop!? 👀💀)? Please random dude please be Benedict. 🙏 I need more TVC cameos!

I'm wondering if this was part of a performance when Madeleine & Claudia were part of the Theatre, not during the Trial? OR this is AMC's recreation of the film version with the naked lady--"so we can eat people."

Armand finna GO OFF! But WHERE TF are his FANGS!? That's my ONE major gripe with this show--I'm so sick of seeing these stupid acrylics everywhere but no FANGS.

Then the trailer immediately tells me to STFU, LOL. XD

Lelio Rising. Lelio Falling. (Ooooo--the Tower Scene should be SPICY)

Then they use the "script" line to transition to The Trial, when Armand forced Lestat to be scripted! 😭 DIABOLICAL! And I LOVE this frame--it's giving me Oppenheimer when he was walking through the stands as everyone applauded him for dropping the bomb & he was PTSDing. (I had to make a separate post just for this brainworm.)

So Dan's finished the interview and this is his editor. (OR, even spicier, this dude's from the Talamasca, and Daniel's broken the NDA & fled the penthouse?) But chile, ain't nobody scared of LDPDL. 🙄 Daniel should be well aware by now that Louis snapped in the 1970s, sure, but he's not the REAL threat in that house, Mr. Mediocre Star to a 500 Year Old Vampire. Unless they're talking about LESTAT? 👀💀 WHERE TFC IS HE IN 2022?!

What in CHRIST'S NAME is coming out of his effing NECK? 😱 It was SQUEALING, like a KOCHON.

Louis slinging blood at the Sea of Galilee Armand stole for him, LOLOLOL.

Louis effing Daniel up--"you were disrespectful!" I wonder if BB!Dan crying was when Armand was busy stalking him when he was drunk AF & dying of alcohol poisoning.

I LOVE THIS. Louis is the center of it all--"It's you and me. Me, and you." 😭💔 Said over and over--Louis and Lestat, Claudia, Armand, and Daniel (and even Santiago U_U).

#interview with the vampire #louis de pointe du lac #pyromaniac du lac #louis de pointe du black #justice for claudia #loustat #loumand #must see tv #SCREAMING #screaming crying throwing up #the hype is real

[anjelicawrites]

The winner takes it all

Chapter II (previous)

Paring: Aemond Targaryen x reader

Synopsis: inspired by the Æthelflæd and Erik's storyline in The Last Kingdom. Might be spoilerish if you haven't seen it (go watch it!!!), even though I've just stolen the inspiration and went on with the story my way.

Warnings: Canon compliant violence, attempted rape, reader’s husband being a piece of shit, family annihilation.

A/N: reader is AFAB, they/them pronouns are used (they are called “lady” and “daughter of the North”). The only descriptor is that they have long hair

A/N 1: this is an AU. Look at me taking the canon story of Westeros and yell “Parkhour!” as I jump out of the window clutching it in my hands.

18+ only, tank you!

As the only offspring, and heir, of your Lord father, you had to study history, had to learn from the trials and mistakes of your ancestors, and one idea had always remained in your brain: the once free people of the Seven Kingdoms should have annihilate the first Targaryens the moment they set foot to Dragonstone, to stay. The looming danger of their dragons should have been enough to act, yet the once kings did nothing, waiting while Old Valyria was destroyed, while curious stories of disappearing babies kept sprouting everywhere, as white haired children appeared on that cursed place, while the Valyrians started inserting in each and every city and village, like a disease.

Nothing seemed to be the right reason for the kings to unite against the common enemy, and when Aegon I and his sister wives invaded, it was too late to act. Like tiles, every Kingdom fell under Targaryen dominion and their demented dream to recreate their lost home.

The North stood up once, against the peaceful colonization of Valyrian families and then with weapons and with the long, cold winters that nobody seemed able to withstand, but you children of the North. Your people did it, despite not having a ruling House, the power divided between the Starks, your House and your Lord husband’s: in spite of a marked destiny, the newborn Kingdom of North Valyria had to sign a peace treaty with the North, effectively stopping any more conquering attempt. For how long, though?

It is no secret that New Valyria wants to annex the North, the Targaryen trying many times to marry into one of the Northerner Houses, failing; you know there had been talks of you marrying the second son, promptly curbed by your Lord father, who made you decide between Cregan Stark and the man who became your husband.

When king Viserys had remarried and started a second bloodline of sons, you were young, but you still remembered the sheer panic you could breathe in your household, the frantic discussions about the time when those children would be old enough to want a piece of land of their own.

It was common knowledge that the king favored his firstborn daughter Rhaenyra, to the point that he had made her heir to the throne, despite having a brother who could ascend, if anything ever happened to him. Only an idiot wouldn't consider his children from Alicent Hightower, Aegon II, Helaena and Aemond, nothing if not spares, in the case anything happened to her. He didn't do a thing when Prince Aemond lost an eye to his nephew and all the Houses of the North whispered in fear of what those young men would do, when of age.

It was a statement that Prince Aegon II and Princess Helaena were married and produced heirs, the bonding of Prince Aemond with the powerful Vhagar was an even stronger statement, followed as it was by the terrible and cruel stories about him.

Yet, everyone was surprised when the spare Princes decided to overthrow Rhaenyra, annihilating her and all of her offsprings from her two marriages and Prince Aegon II was crowned king. “Kinslayers - everyone whispered - if they didn't have pity for their own blood, what would stop them from dishonoring the peace treaty with the North?”

What’s stopping them, now? You asked yourself many many times, looking at your Lord husband and his idiotic dream to become the King in the North. Can’t he see that a civil war will weaken us, against our cumbersome neighbor? We never had a ruling House and now shouldn’t be the time to try and seize power! What will stop those young men from taking what they surely believe it’s theirs? Nothing did, and that's why you find yourself prisoner.

                                                              ***

Your life has taught you fear can be a never ending feeling, but boredom is almost worse than that. At home, at least, you had to organize the life of the palace, help the women prepare for the oncoming winter or summer, settle issues between the ladies at court; yes, you were always under the judging stare of your husband, always ready to remind you of your mistakes and uselessness, but at least your days were full, here in your cell the only thing you can do is stare at the brick wall and pace like a caged animal.

You know what the brothers are doing, taking their sweet time before sending an envoy to your husband, assuming that the longer the wait, the mellower he’ll be. You are not so sure about that: if your father were still alive, this would have worked with him, his love for you bigger than any political strategy. When it comes to your husband you wouldn’t bet a copper coin that he’d put your life above this war. Granted, he has to consider all the families connected to your House by a bond of loyalty: through marriage they have become his subject, but you know that many noblemen hold no trust for your husband, nor love and him not trying to rescue you would be ill considered, something that the one who wants to become King in the North can’t risk. If there is going to be a North to govern, you think with sadness.

For what little you had managed to see, the brothers are ruthless and burn with a fire impossible to quench, their army is already huge, with your ransom they’ll be able to buy more mercenaries, even from Essos, and they have two dragons. You know your people are strong, although you are aware of your numbers: how will the North protect its freedom, when it’s already dwarfed the way it is? You are happy both your mother and father are dead, they will not have to see the capitulation of their home.

You start pacing again, your brain incapable of coming up with a plan of escape. You know this castle, the brothers have chosen wisely a fortress no one could escape from. What unnerves you is that there’s always a great number of people around, even if you managed to leave your room, would you have the chance to disappear?

The door opens with a bang and you stay still, rooted on the spot as the brute with mismatched eyes enters, tray in hand. He stares at the uneaten food and spits on the ground

“Nothing is good enough for you, right?”

“What I find pleasing is not of your concern. You might leave and take the tray with you, I am not hungry” you say, staring at him with disdain

“You are not hungry, eh? - he advances angrily, hand on his belt - I’ll make sure you’ll be after I am done with you, whore!”.

He launches at you and you retreat to dash on the right, your hand going for the bucket at the foot of the bed. You hand curls around the handle; with a swift move you pull it over your head and down again, to start hitting the brute with it, savagely, on the face, deaf to the sound of his bones breaking, possessed by a rage that was a long time coming, until he falls on your bed and you snatch his small sword, ready to gut him with a primal scream.

Strong arms curl around your frame, forcing your body up in the air, away from your enemy and you scream your rage trying to wriggle out of the impossibly strong hold while guards pour in, taking the injured man with them

“Nobody moves” comes from behind you and you realize that’s Prince Aemond the one keeping you still.

You can see the men freeze on the spot, eyes on your captor and you. Even your attacker stares at the one eyed prince with fear in his swollen eyes

“They are not to be touched, have I made myself clear? They are worth every damned hair on their head” he says coldly and his men silently agree.

After they leave, Aemond deposits your feet on the ground. Delicately, but with a steely hand around your wrist, he forces you to surrender your stolen weapon. You stare at him pissed and he looks equally angry

“It won’t happen again” he says, lilac eye cold and you can’t stop staring

“It wouldn’t be the first time” you confess.

His only eye hardens even more and both his hands curl into tight fist

“Which one of my men?”

“No, none of them - you try to say calmly under his scrutinizing gaze - it happened before you kidnapped me”.

If it’s possible, his whole posture becomes even more tight, a flash of anger on his face he can barely hide.

“I have forgotten how good it feels when you can fight back”.

Unexpectedly this wins you a smile, not bright enough to see his teeth, but his feature softens with it, his eye a fraction warmer.

“My men tell me you refuse to eat”

“How am I supposed to feel hunger, when all I can see are those brick walls? I wish to bathe and to breathe some fresh air, that’s what I desire, not food”.

Prince Aemond stares at you, taking your form in as if he is evaluating something, a soft hmm escaping his shapely lips. You do look like you need a bath even though you managed to wash most of the grime off you.

“Will you eat if I manage to fulfill your wishes?” he says

“Will you?” you are incredulous

“On my honor” he says

“Then I will” and you try not to sound giddy but you feel a small smile on your lips.

Against all your expectations, Prince Aemond takes your hand and kisses it gently, like a nobleman in court would, before stiffly leaving you with your food.

You cradle your hand against your breasts, feeling a warmness that should have no space in your circumstances. It’s only after you have polished the plate, that you realize that Prince Aemond wasn’t wearing those tight braids and his hair were down his shoulders like waves of silk. What are you supposed to do with this information?

Everythig taglist: @hightowhxre

Aemond taglist: @phantoms-main-blog

#aemond targaryen x reader #aemond targaryen x y/n #aemond targaryen #the winner takes it all

[spearsndragons]

i hate it when asoiaf fans try to deny the racism against dornish people in canon.

“race is a social construct!” YES! “race doesn’t exist in the asoiaf world like it does in reality…” uhhh say that to alleras when leo tyrell described his mom as “a monkey from the summer isles.” how people stereotype dornishmen as small and dark with beady eyes. how tyrion complained of how dornish smelled. it’s been established canonically how most westerosi characters viewed non-white people and foreigners.

sure, some of dornish are white and white-passing, but that doesn’t erase the fact that they are mostly brown and black people??? just like how africa, middle east, asia, latin america and many oppressed regions are? GRRM has written MANY, MANY times how much the rest of westeros “other”s them. we’ve seen them reduce dorne as a land of sex and hedonism, which parallels to how the western world viewed (and many still view) asia and the middle east. they see them as “less civilized.”

when myriah martell became daeron’s wife, the kingdoms were quick to shit on her because she brought dornish people to her court. when elia married rhaegar, people thought she was unworthy to marry the beloved, handsome, white prince because of her health and her dornishness.

don’t get me started on the whole “elia would have been okay being cheated on! dornish are okay with extramarital affairs and bastards!” like do you guys not hear yourself??? this hyper-sexualization is literally a classic racist trope.

and i’m certain grrm intended to write it this way to show that racism, in fact, exists in westerosi life and dominates in their politics, just as in real life. he’s even said before he considered giving targaryens dark skin: “I’d had dark-skinned dragonlords invade and conquer and dominate a largely white Westeros.” so him making dorne, a largely non-white population, being the only one to resist conquest and the only kingdom to join westeros on their own terms, is very much intended.

too many fucking fans reduce our arguments to us “pulling the race card.” well guess what? BECAUSE IT MATTERS. just as racism is embedded in our society, everything about how this fandom and characters view dorne go back to race and racism. just because you can’t admit to yourself that you’re upholding white supremacy ideals doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

YOU CANNOT DENY THAT RACE AND CULTURE ARE IMPORTANT ELEMENTS IN ASOIAF.

DORNE BEST KINGDOM! MARTELL BEST HOUSE! IDC IDC! WHO ELSE IN WESTEROS SAID FUCK YOU TO THEIR COLONIZERS AND LIVED TO TELL THE TALE?

(i can say more on the matter but i will just get more heated and end up writing a 10 page essay. when i tell you the law student in me comes alive when i have to defend dorne-)

#spearsndragons #what happens when a law student has real world case studies to do? #she makes a case study on fictional worlds instead #dorne #house martell #rhoynar

[cinamun]

unrelated but, how’s sean doing?

Actually fam? I'm glad you asked because I'm sick of this shit....

WHY DOES HE LOOK SO PROUD OF HIMSELF!!???

I was trying to figure out when I moved him out of his lot because I FUCKING DIDN'T!! Just to find out he's in CR with Sienna while I was trying to slow burn ship his ass with Mercy!

I guess these sims really do have a mind of their own, do what the fuck they want and live their best simulated lives when the game shuts down.

I had NOTHING to do with this. THEY GOT A WHOLE BABY????

I don't know how this happens but its exactly why Morty left Bella with a baby and married Nancy Colonizer Landgraab before I figured out how to turn Neighborhood Stories off....

#this nigga here.... #story stuff #so much for saving Mercy

[silence-between-seconds]

OK NOW YOUR TURN

pls pls ramble abt any niche interest you have

HELLO THANK YOU

*invokes inner history nerd* so. listen here colonizer and listen good. i will subject you to my random knowledge cuz due to youtube, undiagnosed neurodivergency and most importantly- bad jokes. i have a vari-tea of niche interests but the first thing that came to my mind was my knowledge of the history of how Indians became one of The Top Consumers of Tea.

how did this wonder-drug make its way into our masala covered hearts? what led to the fact that everyday at 4pm the word at the tip of most indians' tongues is "chai"?this is my thesis as a pro desi tea obsessed freak.

This story, like most in our history, starts with the arrival of the British. i would like to insert this picture i found in a video that i laughed at for a solid five minutes:

anyway

technically tea was invented in china, and for a very long time it was exclusively grown there. it was a very high class commodi-tea. it was considered so precious that in 1662 when king charles the second married the Portuguese princess catherine of braganza: her dowry was a chest of tea and THE ENTIRE ISLAND OF MUMBAI (then, bombay) for an annual lease of 10 pounds. let me make that clearer. THE PLACE WHERE A 1BHK HOUSE IS SO EXPENSIVE MOST PPL CANT AFFORD WAS EQUIVALENT TO THIS:

needless to say the brits was so freaking addicted man. they wanted this. so bad.

By the 18th centuary there was a war between the english and the dutch and the brit resources were down the toilet so they couldnt afford to spend all that silver on the trade of tea leaves with china. and china was uninterested in anything the white boys were offering.

UNTIL they discovered something china wanted.

✨Drugs✨

the white boys wanted that tea. and they would do anything. so they started growing opium in india (by that time they had colonized us bruh. they came into our backyard and were like "bro we're such good friends pretty please let me use ur backyard" "ok what do you want to do w it?" "i wanna grow drugs bro" "....ok" "you'll work for me no bro?" "why would i do that" "bro its ur backyard bro" "what-" *england pulls out slavery* "SHUT UP AND DO IT") (dont come at me lmao this is a very rough simplification of what happened)(imma get blocked for this?)

anyway, brits grew opium and smuggled it to china in return for TEA. FOR TEA. 40.

now after the charter act of 1833 (idk what that is exactly but basically brits lost its trade monopoly with china and so now china said we should see other people and it was an open relationship and britian got very pissed but they signed the act anyway i think)

to deal with this they established the Tea Committee (this isnt the first government board specifically for tea. there were plen-tea of others like the Tea Board Of India) which dealt w the extraction of techniques, tea seads and resources from the chinese. this was highly unsuccessful and china was not impressed. this is an example of british desperation they'll do anything at this point. (took everything in me to not insert pictures of how they treated indian farmers. it was *inhales, lets go of anger for my ancestors treatment* bad)

but in the end this qoute i found (undoubtedly by a white man) "fortune favours the white men" came tru and they got their way.

oh you thought i was done? haha babygurl i am not

in 1843 robert fortune, who was a scottish horticulturist, went on a solo trip to china to study (read as: steal) tea plantations. no actually apparently he did study cuz he published a book(i forgot the name).(yes. HIS NAME WAS ROB. FORTUNE. talk about being born for a job)

lemme insert a quick meme here:

(they actually hired him on the spot and gave the amazed man 500 pounds per annum and sent him off to china)

he was to perform what we call The Great British Tea Heist the brits had found their vigilan-tea

my guy was committed to his role and shaved his head and pretended to be a monk and after 3 months wrote a letter to his company saying "bro i got the goodssss"

lmao no this it what the letter said- "l have much pleasure in informing you," he wrote, "that I have procured a large supply of seeds and young plants which l trust will get safely to India."

NOW they finally had the greens and started planting it in india. over the years indian tea topped the market in britian as the best tea. mostly cuz the white boyz HYPED it up. they even started doing diss tracks for chinese tea. this is something read right out of an advertisment- "indian teas are more wholesome, purer, cheaper and better than chinese teas in every single way". white boyz started saying stuff like they got out of a toxic realtionship with china and a healthy one with india (but they were the toxic ones)

now brits tried to globalize indian tea to get the moneyyy~ from indians.

their first experiment with (another) government body for tea- Indian Tea Association began on the indian railways. these railways were the ancestor of the IRC-tea-C. basically they started making tea on the railway platforms. this started the trend of tea being the signature experience on every indian train journey, from the first class to economy, everyone was having it (cuz trains were introduced and quickly became popular in use). train tea was said to be better than the quality of tea in 5 star hotels. and this converted us from a nation of tea-totalers to teach addcits.

now i just have one thing to say in the end. HOW did the quality decline so badly my desi brothers and sisters? nowadays the tea on trains is basically water but brown. milk is a lie.

anyway. on the end we got it right. we took tea from the chinese and brits and we added milk and we added sugar and we got:

✨chai✨

you have reached the end. congrats.

#siri goes insane #asks #history #of tea #tea #chai #desiblr #most of these jokes were made by other people #pls dont come at me if you have heard them b4 #it is not my responsibili-tea #great britian #what were you doing #what goes on #lmao

[nocontextlestat]

please speak on marius🙏🙏🙏🙏

I just want to say firstly that English is not my first language and when I get upset, I mess up how I express myself in this language. Just know that my anger is not directed at you.

TRIGGER WARNING//pedophilia, rape, racism, marius

I’m drinking an energy drink as I’m writing this. Because I’m pissed and triggered due to having to talk about that abomination. I don’t like talking about him and I don’t understand why people are asking my, a Lestat account’s opinion on that dumbass.

Marius de Romanus is the notorious pedophile of the Vampire Chronicles. He asked for Pandora’s (back then, known as Lydia) father’s “permission” to marry her when she was only 10. He had a harem of underage boys in his house. He groomed and beat/whipped and raped at least one of those children. And that one child was Armand. He “rescued”/bought this traumatized, emotionally and mentally vulnerable child and made a “child bride” out of him. He also sent Armand to various brothels to “learn sexual activities”. Armand wasn’t even 17 then (that was when he was turned). Also, when Armand was kidnapped by the Children of Satan and was forced to join their cult, even after Marius recovered from their attack, he didn’t go and rescue Armand even though he knew what happened to him. He used Armand for years from the age of 12/13 till 17 and then completely abandoned him. Armand never recovered from that. Lastly, Marius went against the vampire rules (like Lestat) and turned a 13 year old child named Benji and a 20 year old Sybelle, who were basically Armand’s children, into vampires without asking Armand, which caused him misery in return. Marius is one of the reasons Armand is such a traumatized character.

He’s also a racist piece of shit who thinks the western civilization is superior. He is a colonizer through and through. As someone here also mentioned, when he talked to Lestat about Those Who Must Be Kept, Marius brushed off Akasha’s genocidal tendencies as “taming savages”. He only went against Akasha when he realized she had never loved him back.

There are so many ugly details about this character and if I remember correctly, him and Magnus are the only VC characters I refuse to dismiss as characters, saying that “they’re all gothic characters”. I can handle gothic, gore-y, fucked up stuff but I cannot and will not get used to pedophilic characters because it’s highly triggering to me. I repeat, ME. This is MY opinion.

I don’t care that “it was normal for grown ass men to marry/fuck literal children during Marius’ time”. It is fucked up. Even in the books other characters make fun of Marius for having a harem of underage boys. It’s not like everyone accepted his behavior as it is in the books either.

I know I’m open to questions about VC in general but I don’t want to talk about Marius any longer, because if I do, this post is what happens.

[bbygirl-aemond]

i don't think baela and rhaena really apply. they're going to be married to jace and luke so they'll still have everything they would otherwise.

(i'm using this ask as an excuse to rant about the showrunners making house velaryon black given what happens to them and also about how baela and rhaena's situation is still very unfair)

i think making house velaryon black is another decision the showrunners didn't think through properly. i think it was entirely for the diversity aspect, since they'd shot themselves in the foot by making all of the houses in game of thrones white and had very rightfully received criticism for doing so. the velaryons are one of the only houses that aren't depicted in game of thrones, so were one of the only options for doing this. i was even pretty happy at first, because the velaryons are a very powerful and ancient house, and the only house aside from the targaryens to ever wield dragons.

but i do think it casts some aspects of team black in a more unfortunate light. here's where baela and rhaena come in. let me make it clear, i understand that after her sons are born rhaenyra has no choice but to present them as legitimate out of very warranted fear for their safety. so i'm not saying that rhaenyra has malevolently done this, nor that after the boys' birth she had any real choice, but...

the optics of setting aside two black women's rightful inheritance in order to uplift white men is not exactly great. it's certainly not groundbreaking. especially when you consider that black characters have such little power overall- driftmark is really the only thing black nobles have to their name in westeros. and now they are being expected to pass it along to white men. the fact that future generations will be mixed doesn't make it much better- in fact i honestly think it's worse. the white targaryens aren't just colonizing one generation out of hundreds that rules driftmark; they're colonizing the entire subsequent velaryon bloodline. you know, the same house whose black members are vocally unhappy with this colonization- that is, until the colonizers kill them or cut out their tongues (hello, vaemond + silent five). i just think it makes the velaryons' anger at the whole situation seem a little more... legitimate? at least through modern eyes, it's not just that the boys are born out of wedlock (though obviously, hello misogyny and conservatism, that's a big part of it). it's also that the boys, by virtue of being out of wedlock, straight up do not possess any of the black heritage that makes house velaryon unique. (if they'd made harwin black as well, i think it could have solved this issue btw)

and i know that baela and rhaena are being married to jace and luke, but i need y'all to understand that this is not the same as them holding their power by their own right. every single bit of wealth, power, or property that these girls will ever have, save for their dragons, will not actually belong to them. it will all legally belong to their husbands. any decision-making power they have, anything they buy or do, will only ever be because their husbands are permitting them. their agency and their strength will be entirely contingent on the white men in their lives. jace and luke have inherent titles and power- they are princes by birth. baela and rhaena aren't princesses, or even ladies. the only political title they will ever hold will be as a consort- as an extension of the more powerful white man they are married to.

i very much don't think that jace and luke have any intention of curtailing these girls' power. but that doesn't change the fact that it won't truly be theirs. it's also unrealistic to expect that couples will go their entire lives without ever once disagreeing on something. the moment they do, the power imbalance will become clear. additionally, the show has set a precedent of those in power within the targaryen family in particular unintentionally harming others with ignorance of how their power allows them to steamroll over others' agency. viserys does not recognize the power he has over alicent due to his position, and she suffers for it. rhaenyra does not recognize the power she has over criston due to her position, and he suffers for it. a lack of intentional abuse does not preclude these boys from accidentally imposing their will on others.

a good real-world comparison for baela and rhaena's situation would be that of a stay-at-home mom who has staked her entire life on her husband's goodwill. she has no degree and no job. she has no money or property. her house and everything inside it belongs to her husband, not her. and even if her husband never leaves her, even if in some false universe with no conflict he never even disagrees with her, it does not change the fact that her livelihood is forever dependent on his permission. this is a power imbalance that must, by virtue of its significance, seep its way into their relationship. it's why relationships between a boss and employee are illegal in the united states- because it's understood that this power imbalance absolutely does have a compromising affect on the less powerful person's consent and agency.

anyways, like i said, i don't have good answers here for how this situation might be resolved, and i don't think that this move condemns rhaenyra as some intentional thief of black women's inheritance. she was choosing between baela and rhaena's agency and her children's lives, after all. but i know that making baela and rhaena black, and jace and luke white, makes the unfairness of baela and rhaena being sidelined as a result of powerful white people's actions sting even more. like yay, more black women whose entire life is dependent on a white man's goodwill and whose plot relevance is solely tied to their ability to benefit said white men's reputations. it's just not revolutionary in the way the showrunners seem to think it is. it's old, and it's tired, and i'm tired of it.

i really hope they'll do more with baela and rhaena's storylines and find some way to give them power in their own right, but i'm afraid it will never trump the agency that has already been taken from them and gifted to white men. and, given the way most of the girls' dialogue has been cut so far in favor of other characters... i'm not optimistic.

#ask #asks #answered #baela targaryen #rhaena targaryen #baela #rhaena #jacaerys velaryon #jacaerys strong #jace velaryon #jace strong #lucerys velaryon #lucerys strong #luke velaryon #luke strong #house velaryon #house targaryen #hotd #house of the dragon #show

[vanderwoodlings]

I really am fucking obsessed with 2.07 tho. Like

S: When it's just the three of us, it's fine, but anytime she gets a new guy, she stepfords out and lets him make all the decisions.

E: I don't think that's what's happening.

S: Remember when we had to move to Chamonix because German Klaus wanted to ski all year round?

E: That wasn't so bad.

S: But what about Paolo—the raw food diet? Family colonics? Or Sameer? I know I enjoyed our—

E: I see what you mean.

See that. That would’ve been enough—Serena didn’t spend her entire childhood in the Upper East Side. That tiny fragment alone is fascinating! But the overall point that Lily repeatedly changes herself for men and that affects her parenting style, meaning that Serena and Eric’s home life was even more unstable than previously thought? That’s something to chew on. But wait—there’s more:

B: Oh, your mother. Remember how she always used to just jet off to Mustique or Ibiza without warning while you and Eric were still in school?

S: Eleanor always knew when we showed up with our overnight bags. Lily had a new boyfriend. We tried alternating between you and the archibalds so you guys never knew how bad it really was.

B: We knew.

Like, this is in-text neglect. This is “Lily was in no way ready or able to be a parent” level stuff. (And then you think about the Scott of it all and you have to wonder if Serena was in any way planned or if Lily just couldn’t do that again. You have to wonder.)

And there’s the idea of Blair and Nate and the first time that they ever really added how much time Eric and Serena had been spending at their houses, and the idea of these tiny kids doing their best to make it okay as much as possible, and Serena is trying really hard to parent Eric and make it seem as okay as possible, but Eric is entirely aware even if he can’t say anything because that would make Serena’s life hard, and so everyone’s lying to everyone else and they’re all trying very hard not to talk about how not okay it is.

Someone write the fic.

Still, we continue:

S: I remember this one time, um, when I was eleven. Eric and I wanted a white christmas. Luckily, mom's husband was a raging cokehead, so he left blow everywhere.

L: Oh my god.

E: It wasn't everywhere—just on the smooth, shiny surfaces.

S: Was that, um, German Klaus with a "k," or was it Danish Claus with a "c"? I can't ever remember which ones she actually married or which she just decided were more important than her children.

Like, wow. And you wonder why your kids have issues.

(And I focus a lot on how Lily is bringing unsafe people into her kids’ lives, but she’s also bringing them into her life. Just makes me wanna grab the gossip girl writers by the lapels and shake them until all the explorations of trauma fall out.)

L: Eric, my darling, you are always honest with me. It isn't true, is it?

E: I know Serena’s timing sucked, but she did pretty much raise me all those years. You just weren't here, you know?

L: I wasn't that bad.

E: Our ringtone for you was "Since U Been Gone.” Vanya the doorman used to sign our permission slips from school.

When I put that last bit into i won’t cross these streets, I got several comments re: ow. Because it is, in fact, painful.

But it’s also canon, and it’s one of the multitude of anecdotes that Eric and Serena give us about the pre-series era in this episode—like, the “Since U Been Gone” thing? That’s a whole dark joke coping mechanism shared between them, which means that Eric and Serena chose it together. Maybe it was as simple as Eric getting his first phone and being excited to give reverting custom ringtones, or maybe one of them straight up had a breakdown and the joke was part of a way to calm down. It’s not just saying Lily wasn’t there, it’s giving us all the little parts of what that meant—in anecdotes, in Serena’s stress response focusing so much on Protect Eric, in Eric talking Serena down at the start of the episode and coolly backing her up when she finally loses it

It’s a fucking gift that just keeps giving

#serena van der woodsen #eric van der woodsen #lily rhodes #the van der woodsens #blairenate #child neglect / #drugs / #original nonsense #this is a meta tag #not my deepest analysis but it’s thinking thoughts nonetheless

[k-rising]

Pick a card: who were you in your past life?

DISCLAIMER: readings are used as a guide, but the decisions you want to make for yourself are YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. this is a general reading, so take what resonates with you. this is for entertainment purposes only.

‼️ TW: sensitive topics - d**th, s**c*d*, sl*v*ry, w*r and m*rd*rs.

☞ choose a pile that draws your attention the most.

☞ you can choose more than one option, but I recommend that you stick with the first one you chose.

☞ readings do not have an expiration date.

⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚

𝓟𝓲𝓵𝓮 𝟏ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ𝓟𝓲𝓵𝓮 𝟐ㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ𝓟𝓲𝓵𝓮 𝟑

⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚

𝓟𝓲𝓵𝓮 𝟏

in your past life you were a sl*ve. your people fought against the colonizers, but sadly, you lost the w*r. it was a very violent w*r, but you were not part of the conflict. you were a bystander. after the conflict you began to serve the settlers.

your job was to work on the land. you and the other sl*ves made a orchard in a large field. the settlers overworked you and punished you if you made a mistake. i'm seeing a lot of horses and, I don't know why, but I heard "jam", so you may have contributed to the making of this product. I also visualized a dark purple for some reason... it may be the color of the jam or it may be something else. when you started to work you were very bad at it, but then you started to work hard and became the leader of the sl*ves. what's more, I feel that since you did your job so well, one of the settlers had you as something like his "spy" to keep an eye on the other sl*ves. however, despite all that, you were not feeling comfortable with what you were doing, so you started devising a plan to escape together with your people. I feel that, before escaping, you had a confrontation with one of the settlers and that didn't end very well...

finally you decided to put your plan into action and you were able to escape with some of your companions, leaving behind all those who didn't make it. however, the settlers started looking for you everywhere and your people were always running away from them. I feel that in one of those escapades something happened to your left leg. when they finally found you, you decided to take your own life.

⸻

𝓟𝓲𝓵𝓮 𝟐

in your past life you were royalty, you were the son of the king and queen. you were an adventurous, enthusiastic, curious and hard-working person. you may have participated in many w*rs or conflicts defending your kingdom; you had a very good reputation. I also feel like you were like the black sheep of the family. when the time came to crown you as king, everyone was happy. the people saw your family as a perfect family and your family may have been very large. you managed to get married and had 3 beautiful children. however, you were not confident enough to have such an important position, so you decided to rebel against royalty and start letting your people know that this ideal family image was all a farce. you also planned to leave your position as king, but it was very difficult for you to achieve this, since you had to face many obstacles. some of you managed to do so through lies, like faking your d**th, and some of you couldn't.

as revenge or as a form of manipulation so that you don't leave the throne, the crown m*rd*r*d your wife. the person who k*ll*d her was a man close to you with a lot of power. the d**th of your wife left you devastated and that fact gave you even more reasons to stop being part of the royalty, so you decided to k*ll yourself.

⸻

𝓟𝓲𝓵𝓮 𝟑

in your past life you were a sailor and were forced to go to w*r. you had to work with the enemy side for a long time, until you decided to stop working with them. you tried not to act suspicious as you took your time putting together your plan to escape, but it seems they manipulated you in such a way that you had no choice but to stay with them. it seems that your economic level was not good enough and they promised you that if you continued working for them, you could earn a lot of money. there were also many obstacles that made it almost impossible to escape. your greatest concern and priority were your 3 children. i'm seeing that you probably had blue eyes and beautiful long wavy hair.

at the end of the w*r, all the money they had promised you never came. it was very difficult for you to get your family out of poverty and the crisis after the w*r was so great that, unfortunately, you d**d of hunger.

⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑜 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔! 　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

#pac #pac reading #tarot #tarot reading #pick a pile #pick a pile reading #pick a card #pick a card reading #tarot past life #pac past life #pick a card past life #pick a pile past life