Asrafarel

Super late to the party here, but I finally finished my @galrabigbang piece for this year! It goes along with @shadow-djinni‘s fic, Lilacs Out of the Dead Land, which you can read here: 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20317303/chapters/48169927

“Let us put it generally: if a regime is immoral, its citizens are free from all obligations to it.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Gulag Archipelago.

[Pictured: Captain Pia Klemp sitting in a chair beside her controls.

@VivianAngrisani on Twitter wrote on 6/8/2019: “Pia Klemp, a German biologist & boat captain faces 20 yrs in prison for rescuing 1,000+ migrants at risk of drowning whilst crossing the Mediterranean. Seeking asylum is a human right. Only 1 in 100 sea captains are female. This woman is a humanitarian, not a criminal. #FreePia”

Hey guys! It’s been some crazy months of conventioning but im back and with a new artbook o/

You can preorder it right here

Hi @asrafarel, definitely an interesting question! Prepare yourself for an essay haha (TIL at end)

At first glance I would say the Lamia and the Argonians are definitely not related in a similar way to the senche-raht and alfiq. Khajiit are pretty unique amongst the races in the major variance in their morphology, with some Khajiit ‘resembling the common house cat, huge bipedal jaguars, [or] being almost indistinguishable from Men or Mer’. This is based on the positions of the two moons when a khajiit is born.

There is lore that suggests Argonian’s also have some physical differences within their species. Potentially ranging from “reptilian to almost human” caused by the Hist sap they ingest as juveniles. The Hist sap also determines an Argonian’s gender as they develop or can change it throughout life, though much of this is unconfirmed. 

More relevant perhaps is the lore surrounding the different Argonian tribes within Black Marsh, such as “The Nagas, the toad-like Paatru, and the winged Sarpa.” The Naga are supposedly an “offshoot of the “Saxhleel [Argonians]”, a tribe of which are described as having pale, almost translucent scales, though accounts vary on their appearance as fish-like, snake-like or frog-like. In the Elder Scrolls Online, they appear as regular Argonians with pale colouring. Interestingly an Argonian takes on the physical appearance of the tribe it is born into, regardless of genetic ancestry, though most tribes are defined more by a difference in culture and skills than appearance.

Like Argonian’s, Lamia are a “species of amphibious beastfolk.” Described as having the torso of a woman and the tail of a snake, in ESO Lamia are almost completely scaled and have very reptilian features, while in Daggerfall they appear entirely human above the waist. Unlike Argonians, they have a primitive culture, are usually hostile, and don’t build dwellings. Despite this they are very intelligent, able to speak Tamrielic, wear jewellery and cast powerful magic. They are exclusively female, and are capable of asexual reproduction, though fables claim they can also interbreed with other mortal races.

Their intelligence and physical traits could mark them as an Argonian tribe or offshoot like the Naga, though even more distant. However, unlike seemingly all Argonian tribes, Lamia have no apparent connection to the Hist - usually a fundamental aspect to being an Argonian and which all tribes (no matter how physically different) worship. Lamia instead venerate “entities known as the Egg Mother and the Great Egg.” They are also native to places outside of Black Marsh.

Additionally, all Argonians, regardless of tribe seem to be bipedal, and follow the same basic skeletal/muscular structure, with differences more so in colour, or surface features - being more reminiscent of snakes, frogs, or lizards respectively, with the possible exception of the Sarpa.

As such I don’t believe Lamia are part of the Argonian race, more likely I think they are simply similar on a surface level, having adapted to similar or the same environments. I hope this answers your question!

Can you please help me. I always try to give advice to everyone who needs it and now I really need your help to save my little guy.

MONTGOMERY: I think we knew all along that this was going to be the character that everyone wanted to become the good guy of the Paladins, and we knew that we weren’t going to let that play out. We would happily tease it and take it down that road, but ultimately, the worst side of him was going to be the thing that got the better of him. DOS SANTOS: We kept saying in the room, because we all come from Avatar: The Last Airbender, “We’re going to get him right to Zuko, and then we’re going to pull it all away.” MONTGOMERY: And then he’s going to go straight Azula.

And adding more salt to the wound - the head writer for Avatar had planned to write a redemption arc for Azula, too, but the powers that be shifted focus to the movie.

So Azula was written with the intent to be redeemed - whereas Lotor was written with the intent to be melted.

I didn’t set out to make this argument in the commentaries I’ve been writing, but it’s a conclusion that becomes clearer the more I rewatch VLD, and this portion of the interview is further evidence of it: The executive producers and writers of Voltron Legendary Defender purposefully engaged in audience manipulation.

They did not write Lotor to be a character. Per their own words here, they wrote him specifically to trick the audience. This explains why Lotor feels so inconsistent throughout the show, why he feels like two completely different characters. They weren’t trying to write him to be a whole, unified character with motivations that directed his actions in the story.

Let’s examine something Lauren Montgomery says:

“I think we knew all along that this was going to be the character that everyone wanted to become the good guy of the Paladins,…”

She acts like the audience arrived at thinking Lotor would be a good guy all on our own and that she, JDS, and the writers had nothing to do with it. But we’re not the ones who named the season four finale “A New Defender.” Up until that episode, there’s nothing really to suggest that Lotor could undergo a character arc that would make him a good guy. She, JDS, and the writers specifically wrote Lotor in a way to suggest it.

She continues:

“…and we knew that we weren’t going to let that play out.”

In other words, every part of the writing that was done to make it seem like they were writing Lotor to be undergoing a character arc of coming through the abuse he suffered from his parents, of fighting for a better universe while mired in the toxicity of the Galra Empire, that was all a lie. They never had any intention of fulfilling the character arc they were writing for Lotor. They used that character arc to make the audience think they were writing one thing so that they could then trick the audience.

Let’s look at what Joaquim Dos Santos says here:

“We kept saying in the room, because we all come from Avatar: The Last Airbender, ‘We’re going to get him right to Zuko, and then we’re going to pull it all away.’”

This tells us that JDS and LM (and I think we could possibly add Tim Hedrick and Josh Hamilton too since JDS says, “in the room,” aka the writers’ room) were actively trying to use people’s knowledge that they had worked on Avatar the Last Airbender as part of their set up for their manipulating the audience with Lotor. Not only is that them being disrespectful of the VLD audience, that’s them being disrespectful of the AtLA audience too.

Zuko and Azula were two completely different characters, whose respective motivations directed their actions. You cannot use Zuko’s character arc to arrive at where Azula is at the end of AtLA. Had there been a fourth season of AtLA, and Azula underwent a redemptive/recovery storyline in it, that arc still would have looked different than Zuko’s. I can’t help but to question JDS’s and LM’s ability to understand character composition.

Voltron is not about you and your desires.

Just because the scenario doesn't play out as you wish it to be and doesn't show you what you want, it doesn't mean that everything is BS.

There is flaw in voltron, but not those you're making up. It's getting so annoying to have all of you constantly bitch about something you don't understand.

You keep on mixing your headcanons with canon and thinking you know the show better than their own creators.

Stop projecting your desires, just accept the story that is told and try to understand what was created.

Nothing is owned to you.

Don’t worry. Most of the money is coming from our own richest «philantropic» industrials who’re looking to substract it from their tax income rather than using it to better the life of their employees.

Also, you’re quite judgy. I suppose you’re coming from a country who’s never done anything wrong and that you’re very informed about france on top of that?

Notre-Dame is a cultural symbol. It’s 800 years old and it’s probably difficult to imagine what it means to most french people (religious or not, it’s beyond religion really) from an outside point of view.

It’s collapse is kinda the symbol of our society crumbling. You may not know it but we’re having quite a societal crisis in france. It’s been going on since november and going up in violence. Notre-Dame fall is like a weirdly timed doom shadow.

also dont come crying at me about how hard life is in france since november when you have NO idea whats it like to live in a real unstable country.

Nowhere i said that lives where less important than a cultural building. Don’t put words i didn’t say in my mouth.

Also, Haïti is a bad example. The corrupt government just hold onto the charity money instead of giving it to their people.

I just said we had not intention on stealing anything from anyone there, but there is troubles in france at the moment (sorry it’s not a war level problem yet, so i suppose it’s not valid from your point of view) and that this event is just like a omen or something of the sort and that’s probably why people are donating. Out of sadness.

I also criticized our rich for giving to diminish their taxes, instead of caring about their employees but i suppose you conveniently avoided that part because you don’t really know the situation here.

Even if our problems aren’t valid to you, we are still struggling. France isn’t a «first rate» country anymore.

Don’t worry. Most of the money is coming from our own richest «philantropic» industrials who’re looking to substract it from their tax income rather than using it to better the life of their employees.

Also, you’re quite judgy. I suppose you’re coming from a country who’s never done anything wrong and that you’re very informed about france on top of that?

Notre-Dame is a cultural symbol. It’s 800 years old and it’s probably difficult to imagine what it means to most french people (religious or not, it’s beyond religion really) from an outside point of view.

It’s collapse is kinda the symbol of our society crumbling. You may not know it but we’re having quite a societal crisis in france. It’s been going on since november and going up in violence. Notre-Dame fall is like a weirdly timed doom shadow.

also dont come crying at me about how hard life is in france since november when you have NO idea whats it like to live in a real unstable country.

Nowhere i said that lives where less important than a cultural building. Don't put words i didn't say in my mouth.

Also, Haïti is a bad example. The corrupt government just hold onto the charity money instead of giving it to their people.

I just said we had not intention on stealing anything from anyone there, but there is troubles in france at the moment (sorry it's not a war level problem yet, so i suppose it's not valid from your point of view) and that this event is just like a omen or something of the sort and that's probably why people are donating. Out of sadness.

I also criticized our rich for giving to diminish their taxes, instead of caring about their employees but i suppose you conveniently avoided that part because you don't really know the situation here.

Even if our problems aren't valid to you, we are still struggling. France isn't a «first rate» country anymore.

Don't worry. Most of the money is coming from our own richest «philantropic» industrials who're looking to substract it from their tax income rather than using it to better the life of their employees.

Also, you're quite judgy. I suppose you're coming from a country who's never done anything wrong and that you're very informed about france on top of that?

Notre-Dame is a cultural symbol. It's 800 years old and it's probably difficult to imagine what it means to most french people (religious or not, it's beyond religion really) from an outside point of view.

It's collapse is kinda the symbol of our society crumbling. You may not know it but we're having quite a societal crisis in france. It's been going on since november and going up in violence. Notre-Dame fall is like a weirdly timed doom shadow.