"if You Ship This Thing It's Because You're Too Naïve To Understand That It's Toxic And That You Wouldn't

But he's so much quieter about it than trump!

No but thanks for pointing that out. It makes sense, American left is still far right, but I still didn't really clock it.

Though I still think trump would be worse. Are there third options in America? Or are you voting trump? (are you American?)

alright gang, let's do a fun little thought experiment.

which city would biden have to completely annihilate before you decide not to vote for him?

for the sake of this thought experiment, let's ignore actual real-world alliances between countries. it can be london, or paris, or athens, or barcelona, or rome, or berlin, or even an american city like new york or new orleans or los angeles or honolulu. this is all a hypothetical after all.

really consider it. if you're gonna bother to yap in my notes, at least try to engage with this question in good faith. imagine opening up the news, and you see that a bomb was dropped on this city, and then the bombs never stop. imagine you had a friend there. imagine you'd had a trip planned to meet them and see the sights. imagine every museum, every historical monument, every theatre, every university destroyed. imagine that one day, you lived in a world where this city existed, and the next, it has completely ceased to be. it's effectively been pompeii-ed out of our world entirely. there is no longer a big ben, or a parthenon, or a colosseum, or what have you. there is no longer that foreign musician you loved from this city. there are no longer sweet old grannies to share old family recipes from this part of the world. there is no longer the online friend you wanted to visit. there is no longer your vacation plans.

don't hit me with, "but it's netanyahu doing this," because israel would literally run out of ammunition in weeks without the US. don't hit me with, "but trump!" because that quite literally is not the fucking question.

which city has to completely cease to exist before you even consider that this system isn't ever going to work?

if you are still planning to vote for biden, then either a) biden could drop a nuke on any city on earth and it wouldn't be a dealbreaker for you, or b) in your mind, people and places are divided into ones that are acceptable to destroy and ones that are not. or at least, there are ones that are more acceptable to destroy than others.

come up with your answer and either realize you sound like a fascist and work to change it, or embrace that you are a fascist and stop lying to us about caring about people of color.

☀️Elia Martell and Lyanna Stark🐺

Theory:

Because Dorne (and some of the characters that we met) is often described as a less conservative (when it comes to romantic and/or sexual relationships) compared to the rest of Westeros.

I like to imagine that Elia was aware of and okay with the relationship between Rhaegar and Lyanna. Why?

That being said, I don't believe that she was just this fragile creature that everyone describes her as. But the contrary, she knew and was supportive of it, specially when we think that although not very frequent, it wasn't unusual for Targaryens to marry more than one person.

And Rhaegar being so obsessed with prophecies, I think he would have told his wife, since other people knew about it (remember Rhaegar is already dead at the beginning of the story, everything we know about him comes from other people's perspective of him, and if they knew about his obsession with prophecies) why not his wife?! The woman that he shared his life, and had kids with.

They named their children Rhaenys and Aegon BECAUSE of the prophecy of The Prince/ss That Was Promised and he wanted a third one because the Dragon must have 3 heads, and they both knew she couldn't have kids anymore, or else she would put her life at risk.

So... because of that, I imagine that she knew about it all along.

About the drawing:

🐺 I've always imagined the Starks (and northerners in general, specially those where the blood of the Fist Men are stronger) looking (physically) like indigenous americans

☀️ While the Martells (and dornish people in general) looking like (specially after Pedro Pascal played the role of Oberyn) Latinos/Arabs (this combo its "funny" because a lot of Latin culture is also heavily influenced by Arab culture, but I dont have time to explain this rn LOL)

the sun, the dragon, the wolf

😭

When I grow up I wanna be upper middle class.

dream tiger

when I was younger I didn’t understand why “may you live in interesting times” was considered a curse in ancient greece.

I get it now.

Character idea that I had at some point: A dance teacher who had to give up his own highly promising career as a performer after an injury, and now makes his living giving lessons to children. He comes off as stern, serious, and frighteningly strict, and even some of the parents have a hard time believing that the kids genuinely like him and enjoy the lessons. Which, to be fair, are frightening to watch with no context of what this is about.

The children go through their practices with downright eerie, automation-like, coordinated synchrony, with stern and focused looks on their faces, while the teacher circles them, observing and correcting, brandishing his cane like a weapon and every once in a while dramatically lamenting about how "you little vermin can't do anything right", and occasionally the music stops and the only sounds coming from the studio are of kids running and screaming while their teacher bellows about teaching them a lesson.

This, however, is all just method. He started the first lesson with the children by proposing a game: How about they play flea circus, where he is the cruel evil ringmaster and they are all his poor suffering little fleas. One of the girls starts crying, protesting that she doesn't want to be a flea. Well, how about mice? Mice are cute. The children accept these terms, and ever since they've spent dance lessons playing Evil Circus.

For reasons beyond adult comprehension, children of a certain age really love playing pretend in a setting where everything is Dark And Horrible And The Worst, and Evil Mouse Circus is exactly that. And whenever he picks up that the kids are starting to get too genuinely nervous or agitated, that's when he goes "that's it I'm going to beat all of you" which is their cue to take a break to run around screaming, while he chases them. He won't catch them and isn't even trying to, the kids just need to let the nervous energy out.

It looks horrible to an outside observer, but the kids are having an excellent time playing circus mice.

I LOVE THESE GUYS!!!!!

The green silver lines moth, oh my god, they have SUCH a good colour palette! i encourange anyone to use these guys as an inspiration for art cause they're sooo unique and pretty!!

these guys are tiiiiny at 3.5cm, so you gotta make sure to look out for them if you wanna spot them, especially if you're looking for them while out :P

They live in europe and northern asia, so you goddamn know next season when they fly (june-july) i'll be trying to spot them

and to make it even better, they're not even a pest of anything! just an all around beautiful moth :3 i love them so much!!

From a narrative standpoint, Elia Martell's brutal death has two main consequences:

1. give nuance to Robert's Rebellion.

At first, Robert Baratheon and his allies seem to be in the right. They are supposedly the heroes who raised an army to depose the tyrant and pyromaniac king, as well as “rescue” Lyanna Stark from the “clutches” of Rhaegar. Like in a fairytale, the noble warriors go against the evil dragons.

Yet, as the story progresses, we find that's not the truth. The main warrior, namely Robert, is not noble and good. The supposed main evil dragon, Rhaegar, is not evil — he is actually a tragic figure, just as Lyanna is.

Just as Elia Martell is.

Her death in the sacking of King's Landing is one of the most brutal and unfair of the Rebellion. Thus, as readers, we ask ourselves: was it really worth it? The rebels were supposedly fighting against Aerys II's tyrany and ineptitude to rule, against the unfair and cruel death of innocents like Rickard and Brandon Stark. Yet here it is this woman who is coldly murdered; Robert laughs at the corpses of her children and rewards Tywin Lannister for his loyalty.

The question of “was it really worth it?” is posed by GRRM himself in an interview, when asked about Robert's Rebellion.

To sum it up, he wants his readers to reflect and arrive at their own conclusions. And he does pose the question: was the violence in Robert's Rebellion justified?

Well, one thing is for sure: he gives nuance to this happening. Elia's death, as brutal as it was, serves this purpose.

[Personally, I frown upon the brutalization of Elia and other female characters, but that's not what I'm discussing on this meta.]

2. putting Dorne into play.

Elia was the beloved sister of Doran Martell, the Prince of Dorne, and Oberyn Martell. After her death, they spend years, up until the timeline of the main series, planning their revenge against the Lannisters and their allies. That involves a Targaryen restoration as well (first with Viserys, now with Young Griff and Daenerys).

It is clear, thus, how Elia and what happened to her are the main motivators for Doran and Oberyn Martell. The Lannisters are their enemies and will pay for what happened to Elia and her children. The themes of vengeance and war are explored here, especially through Doran Martell.

He wants to avenge his little sister, yes; but he also hesitates. He knows the costs of war and is wary of it. Innocents always end up paying an unfair price.

In conclusion, Elia's death is not even about Rhaegar and Lyanna and their relationship. There are more layers to it.