when male academics constantly refer to men by their surnames and women by their first names
like you’d never go to a lecture expecting shakespeare to be referred to as “william” but it’s not at all uncommon to sit through an entire lecture in which jane austen is referred to constantly as “jane”
it’s such a petty thing but it just really rubs me the wrong way, like it has a real suggestion of respect and admiration/lack thereof
kind of like how during the 2016 election everything was Trump vs Hillary
did y’all, perhaps, forget there was a whole other Clinton in office before and that maybe they used her first name to avoid confusion, lol?
We’ve had two President Roosevelts, no one refers to them as Roosevelt and Franklin. Even newspaper headlines from the times called them simply Roosevelt
We recently had two President Bushes. Bush Sr. was still alive when Bush Jr. was running and in office, and news agencies still referred to him as Bush
America was able to read this headline and hundreds like it and know which Bush it was talking about. When the news mentioned a Bush vs Gore debate we all knew that it wouldn’t be the ex-president debating
There was even a Bush running against Trump in the primaries and no one said Jeb vs Trump
You’re preaching to the choir here. I’ve touched upon that scenario a few times in AU asks but long story short, I agree. I really don’t think we’re meant to take Kevan’s or Cersei’s assertion of how the rebellion would have been prevented or how Rhaegar wouldn’t have needed Lyanna if only he’d married Cersei at face value. For one, their assumption comes from a racist, ableist and supremacist perspective that we’re meant to question. The Lannister worldview is neither healthy nor correct. That’s kinda the whole point.
Looking at Cersei and Rhaegar’s character motivations, I don’t see this working out well for anyone. I find that nice straightforward scenario that Kevan and Cersei posited highly unlikely. As I’ve said before, I have my doubts that Rhaegar’s pursuit of Lyanna was in reaction to Elia’s inability to have a third child for the prophecy; rather I think that Rhaegar’s interest superseded that since he demonstrated a rather clear sign of his designs on Lyanna during the tourney at Harrenhal and before Elia gave birth to Aegon. Too, it’s hard to reconcile the idea that Rhaegar’s gesture during the tourney was somehow divorced from his later disappearance with Lyanna (which is what’s implied in the take on his decision being a result of Elia’s health preventing another pregnancy) to the timeline and the events of the plot. That Rhaegar either didn’t mean to or wasn’t aware that he was declaring a romantic interest in Lyanna in Harrenhal is disputed by Westerosi cultural mores and chivarlic code – and the plot just doesn’t flow right if he had no designs on Lyanna at Harrenhal but for some reason remembered her and was dead-set on having her specifically be the mother of his third child once he learned about Elia’s condition. That’s quite a stretch imo.
And if Rhaegar’s decision isn’t reliant on whether his wife could provide a third child (which definitely wouldn’t be a third in this scenario because Cersei was all of 15 during that tourney), it may be that he still crowns Lyanna at Harrenhal and elopes with her anyway. I can only imagine the flames of rage on Cersei’s face. Damn her crush and damn Rhaegar’s wounded eyes to all of the seven hells! Cersei has coveted power since her childhood and that is a public hit to her political worth in front of everyone that matters in Westeros.
This is grounds for murder, my friend, as the not-so-dearly departed Robert Baratheon would tell you.
Not only would she be furious with Rhaegar, not only would the rose-tainted glasses be shattered forever, her reaction to the real Rhaegar – the melancholic prophecy-minded individual fond of Summerhal and invested in arcane lore about dragons and saviors – would not be kind.
That leaves the rebellion as the one remaining thing that might change for the better as result of these changes. Or not. Maybe, maybe Tywin’s potential involvement in Aerys’ court in this AU could prevent Aerys from murdering the Starks et al in the first place but if Tywin isn’t a part of Aerys’ court (who the hell knows who Aerys is in this au if he signs off on a Cersei-Rhaegar marriage) or if he packs his household and his daughter and returns to Casterly Rock over the rather public insult to Cersei, the rebellion still happens. Then it’s a matter of whether Tywin would join the war or say fuck the Targaryens, or join the war and say fuck the Targaryens…. except of course any grandchildren of his if they exist. If Tywin fights for Aerys, we might see the political landscape turned on its head since the
Lannisters joining the war on the side of the royalists would probably
tip the scales towards the crown and that’s… not good for like, four
kingdoms. Heads, spikes, bye bye half the characters that actually make
up canon. Sorry Lyanna but you’re dying in childbirth and leaving
your child to Cersei Lannister of all people.
Somehow I don’t see Jon surviving his first year in the world. Now, if Tywin cuts a deal with the rebels to join them in exchange of installing a grandchild as king, you have a Lannister-ruled Westeros earlier (not a good outcome under any circumstances), it’s potentially Viserys and Dany who get murdered, and Ned squirrels Jon away in Winterfell. If Tywin sits pretty at Casterly Rock and lets the Targaryens drown which I can easily see happening, especially if Cersei is not yet married to Rhaegar, you get canon only with Elia safe and healthy with whoever she ends up marrying.
So… yeah. Things might be better for the Martells in this scenario but not so for anyone else really.
Only Rhaena and Elaena were not betrothed before their confinement in the maidenvault. Their elder sister Daena was married to her brother Baelor in 160 but he refused to consummate the marriage and had it annulled once he became king.
As to why Rhaena and Elaena were still unpromised, note that Baelor imprisoned his sisters in 161, when Rhaena was 14 and Elaena 11. It’s true that many highborn ladies and indeed princesses were betrothed or even married at those ages (sigh, GRRM) but that doesn’t mean it was in any way unusual for either Rhaena or little Elaena to still be unbetrothed at their age. Elaena was simply too young for her marriage to be of any urgency, whereas Rhaena was very pious and might have expressed an interest in joining the Faith even then (she did wear embroidered depictions of the Faith on her clothes so her interest wasn’t hard to discern anyway, and unlike poor Naerys, she likely had the opportunity to have her wishes respected even then). Furthermore, the political theater in King’s Landing might not have allowed for much space to consider the matters of marriage and betrothals at a time when the crown and its lords were entangled in the Conquest of Dorne in which their losses were astronomical. I really don’t think setting up betrothals was anywhere near the would-be Viserys II’s agenda under these circumstances, and Daeron I barely spent a year, give or take, in King’s Landing before he left again for Dorne to deal with the rebellion and got murdered.
(ETA: @goodqueenaly reminded me that evidently there were plans to betroth one of Daeron I’s sisters. Per TWOIAF, “the Young Dragon intended to wed a sister to the Sealord
of Braavos to seal an alliance with him, with the aim of removing the
pirates that were hindering trade with the newly conquered Dorne.” Those plans never did happen, of course, and Daeron I died soon after for them to make no matter.)
37.385%? Nope, sorry, you can’t be the saviour of the world. 37.386%? Step on up, your dragon awaits!
If you can go up to 40%, you get an extra large dragon. Ooh, you’re 64.46%? You’re just short of the required amount for a bonus new hatchling. You do get a gift saddle though and a chance to enter the lottery for saviordom.
It is not a job. It is not school. It is not a contract. Participation in fandom is voluntary and it is not binding (commissions and paid work aside).
Yes, within fandom you should be bound by some sense of ethics or general decency: don’t steal art and fic, don’t willfully deceive people, don’t be a jerk or a garbage human, and so on and so forth. But everything else? The writing fic and the doing and the participation? It is voluntary.
So if you are writing a fic and you’re seven chapters in and you have eight chapters to go and you’re just tired and you don’t want to do it any more? You can stop. If you’ve been running a blog and writing about every single episode of every new anime show that’s come out and you can’t for three weeks? Don’t. If you told your 5 billion followers you were gonna post a piece of fanart and you’re just sick of it and you don’t want to do it any more? Give it up.
Sure, people will be disappointed and upset and some will complain. But life is disappointing and upsetting sometimes, and it goes on, and no one can sue you for not finishing a fic that they were enjoying the hell out of for free. No one can accuse you of not living up to the terms of your contract when you don’t post that fanart you mentioned three weeks ago. Because fandom is voluntary. It’s something that you participate in because it’s fun or fulfilling or important to you, and when it stops being those things, you should stop, too.
You are not bound by the asks in your inbox. You are not bound by comments on a fic or a piece of art. You are not bound, in fandom, by other people’s disappointments or their expectations.
Fandom is voluntary. Don’t let people pressure you into thinking that it is anything else.
I hate it when people start talking about percentage of Valyrian blood as if that’s the measure of who rides a dragon. Whip up your calculators, everyone. We need to figure out how much Valyrian blood it takes to ride a dragon, be the subject of prophecy or be a savior. Anyone below a certain percentage can not measure.
As the firstborn child of the Prince of Dragonstone, many hailed [Rhaenys] as
next in line for the Iron Throne after her father. When Queen Alysanne
held her in her arms for the first time, she was heard to call the
little girl “our queen to be.”
Though Rhaenys was later passed over for her uncle Baelon, she still possessed a strong claim by First Men-Andal succession laws. The Targaryen succession was a right mess at this point in time, but the principle that a daughter inherits before an uncle had been employed in Wetseros for thousands of years and saw plenty of women succeed to their fathers and grandfather’s seats. In the strictest legal terms of popular inheritance laws, Rhaenys Targaryen was her father Aemon’s heir and should have followed him as Princess of Dragonstone and sat the throne after Jaehaerys. But Jaehaerys named Baelon his heir instead and the Great Council of 101 affirmed his decision. However, the issue of Rhaenys’ inheritance remained a famous point of contention that was not only pushed multiple times by various parties including Rhaenys herself and her Velaryon husband, but was the cause of the infamous Second Quarrel between the Concillator and Good Queen Alysanne. Everyone knew that Rhaenys might have been queen if typical Andal-First Man laws were observed, regardless of whether or not she was ever acknowledged as heir to the Iron Throne.
As for the matter of marriage, note that Rhaenys’ match to Coryls Velaryon appears to have been by her own will. It is reported that Rhaenys “told [Jaehaerys] of her plans to marry, and received the king’s blessing.” It might not be the neat consolidation of Targaryen power that a match with Viserys would have been, or a decisive settling of the matter of succession, but things didn’t appear too dire with Aemon hale and healthy and Rhaenys expected to have a son soon. Indeed, Gyladyn says that while “the succession appeared solid as stone” in the Conciliator’s early reign, the stone only began to crack in 92 AC when Prince Aemon was slain on Tarth. Though Jaehaerys subsequently named Baelon as heir to the Iron Throne, Aemon’s comment to Rhaenys before his departure for Tarth about liking a grandson and Rhaenys’ own objection to the Jaehaerys’ decision being “You would rob my son of his birthright” suggests that it was Rhaenys’ son who was expected to be Aemon’s immediate successor. This is further supported by how Laena Velaryon’s birth is described by Gyldayn.
“The boy in the belly,” the unborn child who had been the subject of so
much debate, proved to be a girl when born in 93 AC. Her mother named
her Laena.
Though Rhaenys’ claim (and even Laena’s) would be raised again, it’s clear that the claim of Rhaenys’ possible son (who Rhaenys was carrying when Jaehaerys named Baelon Prince of Dragonstone, and who turned out to be Laena) was the main source of discussion at the time. That’s why it was mainly Laenor Velaryon’s claim that was considered by the Great Council of 101 (though the claims of his mother Rhaenys and sister Laena were also examined, they weren’t given much credence); with Aemon being Jaehaerys’ first heir and Baelon his second, it was the claims of their heirs that the lords had to decide between. For Aemon, it was his grandson Laenor who was clearly framed as his successor.
Eight months he’s been on this campaign, yet it still hasn’t gotten easier. His whole life he’d been ostensibly training for battle, but no one had expected outright war, and no amount of practice could compare to the reality. No amount of training was adequate preparation for being splattered with gore from friend and foe alike, the bitter bite of a blade, or the feeling of utter failure at the loss of life. He is their leader. He and he alone is the one to blame for each felled man.
Baelor would have the right words to say to him, but Baelor is on a campaign of his own, trying to make Marcher and Dornishman alike set aside their differences to fight a common enemy. Maekar does not envy him that task. They have written to one another on occasion, but only to provide updates, never concerns.
Those, he shares with Dyanna. Not all of them, mind—he knows she is worried enough as it is. In truth, her letters are all that keep him grounded, more often than not. He knows his men trust him, trust his tactics, but they hold no affection for him. He is their general and little else.
To hear of the happenings at home is a welcome reprieve. Dyanna had moved to King’s Landing shortly after his departure; their castle was too lonely, she’d said, their bed too empty. He misses the boys more than he can bear, as well. Daeron had been not quite five when he’d left, had only understood a mite of why his father had to say goodbye. Aerion, barely past his second name day, hadn’t understood at all, had just cried inconsolably as Maekar mounted his horse and put Summerhall at his back.
He is tired. He hadn’t thought that at two-and-twenty that would be a possibility, but lately, all he feels is exhaustion. In two moons’ time they would reach the crownlands and face his bastard half-uncle’s army. He hasn’t heard from Baelor in months, enough to leave a pit of unease in his gut. Maekar’s company has emerged victorious from their battles so far, but he cannot do the same against the wall of troops Daemon will be fielding. Not without the swell of Baelor’s ranks.
The unease persists, despite his best efforts, but never does it consume him, for one reason alone: the prospect of not surviving this war is simply not an option. He could take a wound that would leave him staring the Stranger in the eye, his blood soaking the grass in red, but it wouldn’t matter.
The gods themselves couldn’t keep him from his wife and children—Daemon Blackfyre doesn’t stand a chance.
Sam speaks 