Branwen, Daughter of Llyr

if christopher nolan was really the visionary and ground-breaking director everyone claims he is he would have cast ben affleck as penelope

a very simple test i have for art these days is “does this text believe that men and women are two separate distinct types of being, does it buy into what for me is the most evil lie ever invented, which is that there are two types of human being called a man and a woman who are somehow fundamentally different - whether this is attributed to biology or the social does not really matter, it is all the same lie by different routes, one simply suggests the patriarchal lie is so powerfully true that its coercions and violences can be totally and inflexibly successful at ‘making’ these myths called men and women, a defeat i refuse to admit.” of course, most art fails. almost all art maybe. fine. there’s interest in plumbing the contours and depth and effects of the lie. but what i really can’t stand is the also common thing of the art buying into the lie and selling it to me as somehow a feminist achievement, this rather stale conviction idea that women are fundamentally different from men, perhaps just better, more moral or more peaceful or whatever of the standard run of supposed consolations for being a different kind of less human thing is supposed to be, which is still to buy into the core lie that is the basis of all patriarchal subjugation - the victorians really had that one down! - but repackaged to me as for women. and this is of course the sin of HOTD i can never really get over and which for me is a very very serious political disagreement that gets at my deepest held principles and not a frivolous fandom grievance. and it is depressing to me to be confronted constantly how unpopular a belief this is when it feels like it should be the one basic principle of any supposed radical or progressive project.

Something about the bastardization of the story time and time again proves that nobody in power really cares about the people who would resonate with King’s Carrie White. A girl so ugly and repulsive she’s been removed from her own story. The societal need for women and girls to be constantly perceived as attractive is what fuels a fair amount of her torment in the book, but that person isn’t even allowed to exist on the screen. We cannot empathize with her; it isn’t allowed. It’s fascinating to me.

Rhaenyra telling Alyn that Viserys' miniature of old valyria was a reminder of the delicate nature of the monarchy. Girl no he just wanted to play Warhammer in someones basement

[ID: excerpt from an article reading: One of my favorite stories, which should drive anyone who has every played in a band crazy-- there’s this bassoon player who has sat next to the same clarinet player since 1988. She’s convinced he plays half a note4 flat on every note he’s every played. He denies this. /]