IzarTN

Hi! I've itching to put together some list of my main tags, all ordered like in my reblogging art sub-blog. So here it is! More than a few years late, but teen me didn't have the foresight to organize their tagging from the start so here we are.

Main non-fandom organizing tags:

my thoughts This one compiles all my original content, from stray passing thoughts to full on meta and delirium on fandom, to me ocassionally commenting and adding stuff on a reblog, etc.

meta This one is about all meta I've reblogged or done ever. Regardless of fandom. Aka most of my content. Here for completionism sake and bc it excludes all other content. Feel free going mad on this tag xD

recs All my recs (or other people's that I've agreed with) on books, music, fanfics, etc.

art A relic of when I didnt have my other blog! Still interesting to browse through. Many years of reblogging pretty stuff.

playlist I don't have many reblogged but I love the ones I have here; a mix of awesome character analysis via great songs.

literature The more specialised stuff about literary genre itself, sometimes mixed with fandom other times not. Some of it is in the tag literary analysis by itself. I should order that one of these days....

fandom About fandom in general and its issues and wank! Also history of fandom stuff ^^

Now the fandom itselves! This is probably not every fandom I've posted about because my interests are wide and sometimes I post about stuff I haven't read/watched myself just because I like the sound of the reasoning (not very academia of me I know); but it should be my mains ones and I'll be adding links to the tags as I discover what I have been doing all these years.

Luckily I have my fanart blog with its fandoms as guide ;P

anime and animation

alien stage, arcane, blue eyed samurai, code geass, link click, mawaru penguindrum, puella magi madoka magica, revolutionary girl utena, trigun

books (not asian bl)

banana fish, bing an ben, bite your fingertips, devil venerable also wants to know, 2ha, given, guardian, joyful reunion, kaze to ki no uta, golden terrace, liu yao, madk, mo dao zu shi y mdzs, mo du, nan chan, qian qiu, qiang jin jiu, tian guan ci fu, tian ya ke, scvsss, steel under silk, yuri on ice, yuwu

comic y webcomic

dc, girl genius, homestuck, tower of god (I've only watched the anime though)

film

dune 2021, disney, mcu, mickey 17, moana, nosferatu, star wars, suzume, tenki no ko, wake up dead man, your name engraved therein

manga

akatsuki no yona, angel sanctuary, berserk, bleach, blue lock, boku no hero academia, bungou stray dogs, cardcaptor sakura, clamp, count cain, dandadan, death note, detective conan, d.gray man, dungeon meshi, from eroica with love, fullmetal alchemist, hetalia, hikaru ga shinda natsu, hikaru no go, horimiya, hunter x hunter, jibaku shonen hanako-kun, jujutsu kaisen, kuroshitsuji, kusuriya no hitorigoto, naruto, pandora hearts, poe no ichizoku, ranma1/2, rg veda, shaman king, showa genroku rakugo shinjuu, soul eater, tokyo babylon, tsubasa reservoir chronicle, vampire knight, vampire library, vanitas no carte, xxxholic, x/1999, yugioh

tv show

alchemy of souls, dark 2017, dead boy detectives, game of thrones, house of the dragon, interview with a vampire, itaewon class, kdrama (in general), kinnporsche, nirvana in fire, perfect match, stranger things, the devil judge, the untamed, wot on prime

video game (I don't play them but I like reading fic and the storylines etc)

sebastian’s worldview is currently being disrupted. as a demon who has lived for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years, he has developed a certain fixed understanding of how the world and humans function. of course, he continues to evolve as a character, but he still operates within a horizon of knowledge he considers unquestionable. he is always the one expected to adapt, to find solutions, to guide others like a shepherd. “sebastian, the plants aren’t blooming,” “sebastian, take care of my nephew,” “sebastian, come up with a way to win the curry contest,” “sebastian, do something so we can investigate your own murder,” “sebastian, don’t leave the young master,” “sebastian, you need to find a way into the school,” “sebastian, what do we do to bring the young master back to himself?” “sebastian, that guy is lying, right?” “sebastian, what are you planning to do now that ciel has lost everything?” “sebastian, who are we?” sebastian, sebastian, sebastian. everyone relies on him—finny, mei-rin, bard, snake, tanaka, agni, soma, lizzy, francis, and above all, ciel. he cannot afford to fail, so even if he himself is shaken, he has to pull himself together and respond appropriately. in moments of crisis, someone has to take control, and that role has always fallen to him.

there was a constant struggle within him between what was being implied (r!ciel's return) and what should have been impossible (his soul had been devoured. people cannot simply return to life as though nothing had happened). he doesn't confront these doubts with ciel, unwilling to entertain the possibility that he might genuinely be considering a scenario that contradicts the very foundations of his existence as a demon. he manifested because the price for crossing over had been paid. if the loss of a soul did not mean a definitive end, then a crucial aspect of the entire system would be lost—the fact that it is precisely overwhelming emotions, born from irreversible loss, that allow someone to summon a demon in the first place.

and yet, everything turns out to be true. what he tried to dismiss as impossible manifests right before his eyes, only to remind him that no one allowed him to speak. we've seen sebastian panic a few times before, usually when he encountered circumstances he hadn't anticipated (and if i remember correctly, they always involved ciel. when his asthma returned during the circus arc. when he started bleeding and sebastian realized ciel was in danger. when he caught the scent of his blood). but he had never looked genuinely shocked. it's one of the very few moments where his instinctive reaction slips past the carefully crafted mask he always maintains. for the first few seconds, he is genuinely stunned that the person standing before them is none other than his master's brother.

however, after a moment he returns to his role, taking the lead on ciel’s behalf, as ciel is too overwhelmed by strong emotions to function properly. but that doesn’t mean that once the dust settles, he won’t have a moment to analyse everything. this is not a matter of reading one or two books, as he usually does. the appearance of a single person disrupts everything he has believed so far. it’s not “what does it matter if your brother is alive, as long as you believe it?” it’s “i had my suspicions since i saw the writing on the wall, but i don’t understand how this is possible—your soul isn’t there, and yet you speak to me as if it still were.” this is a body that looks like his master, speaks like his master, and above all carries memories from a time when he was not yet able to function. it is as if sebastian spent centuries believing that the sun revolves around the earth, only for someone to take him into orbit and show him that the earth revolves around the sun. instead of a hypothesis that can simply be disproven, it is a direct contradiction of reality presented before his eyes. sebastian cannot lie to ciel—but what is a lie, when he himself feels deceived? the presence of r!ciel undermines the very foundation of sebastian as a demon, who has always taken for granted that “humans cannot be brought back to life.”

even if they manage to escape for the moment, sebastian cannot stop wondering how this will affect his relationship with ciel. he doesn't try to comfort him, nor does he attempt to convince him that he wasn't lying. there are no words he could offer that would feel sufficiently sincere. undoubtedly, the thought crosses his mind that ciel might want to break the contract and reunite with his brother—the very person he wished to bring back to life, and now he's standing right in front of him—but he does not try to dissuade him. he allows ciel time to process everything, waiting for his verdict.

only three weeks passed between fleeing the estate and arriving at the hotel. still without a full understanding of the situation, sebastian is once again confronted with something outside his norm. a man appears who supposedly recognizes him, yet sebastian does not remember him at all. it is hard to dismiss this as coincidence, especially since the man knows sebastian is a demon. before, saying “it’s impossible that he was my former contractor” would have been as obvious as daylight—but now, how can he be certain? how can he know this is not yet another case of deception, and that modri is truly his former contractor? how can he be sure he is not being misled again, that the existence of two contractors is somehow possible? regardless of whether he consumed his soul or not—if r!ciel can exist without one, then nothing prevents the possibility that someone he once made a contract with could exist in the same way. how can he trust himself, when he might at any moment be proven wrong?

they are in a place that is likely connected to undertaker, who so far has been responsible for destabilizing the very foundations on which sebastian stands as a demon. it would be no surprise if he approached everything with a degree of distrust, even if he does not show it. he cannot show it—he is not the one meant to speculate. ciel wants answers, and answers he will get, at least ones sebastian believes to be true, even if they may later prove otherwise. this is what sebastian has done from the very beginning—he controls the narrative.

on top of that, sebastian is forced to confront the fact that he was wrong. an identity he believed he had thoroughly verified now stands right before him (and it does not seem that they suspect him of impersonation). if there is anything sebastian could take pride in, it would be his investigative abilities—compiling a list of jack the ripper suspects within minutes, uncovering information about the secret society aurora, extracting the truth from cole’s victims. he has never made mistakes when it comes to gathering information. and yet, here is another situation that shakes that principle. one such incident might be dismissed, pushed aside by the excuse that there are more pressing matters—but when destabilizing elements keep appearing, suggesting that sebastian cannot be so certain of his own knowledge and skills?

the way he carries the narrative solely because it is expected of him, even while he feels the ground slipping beneath him, is genuinely fascinating. ciel pretended to be someone he wasn’t in order to maintain his mask, but sebastian does the same. everyone understands that ciel might feel lost right now, just as they themselves were shaken by the situation, but no one even considers the possibility that the same applies to sebastian. he is, in a sense, a victim of his own narrative—one where he is not allowed to be vulnerable, because everyone closest to him expects him to remain the final pillar they can rely on. sebastian has no one to lean on himself.

I'd like to point out that the Reaper Administration is suffering from some of the same problem. If r!ciel has no soul, but functions as if he has one, this destabilizes the entire underpinning of the human world/dimension. It's a much wider problem than just Sebastian's, though he can be viewed as a microcosm of how things are disintegrating

As Othello explains to Grelle:

Which in many ways composition-wise, balances Ciel's mental chessboard in GWA:

Yes, you've identified a place where things are slipping away from Sebastian. But I think it"s a symptom of a larger problem.

Plus, Yana has noted before that Sebastian has a tendency to brute force his way through things (which is why he was so *happy* in the later part of GWA)

Here’s more or less how it happened: with the Roman conquest, Latin gradually replaced all other languages, but with the Lombard invasion in 568 political unity was broken and the historical Italian region started receiving contributions from further invasions and migrations, and the various regions started speaking their own languages, mostly relatively similar (hence why the Italian government can pretend they are dialects), but in the border areas and in a few enclaves they may have heavier contributions from outside or be outright non-Italian languages. In the 1300s the sheer literary power of Florentine poets such as Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio imposed Florentine dialect of that time as “Italian”, but it was only spoken as a common language by elites when they needed to speak with each other while everyone primarily spoke their own language. Then after Napoleon’s First Campaign of Italy brought the ideals of the French Revolution people started talking of Italian unification, especially after the creation of the “Sister Republics” and a full-on Republic of Italy (with Napoleon as president) and later Kingdom (and guess who was the king?), and while the Congress of Vienna rejected the idea because Italy was “a mere geographical expression” (and in all fairness that’s what it had been for a long time), patriots started working toward an Italian state that covered the entire historical Italy (plus Savoy because it was part of an Italian state. That gave it away to France alongside Nice as payment for help in the Second War of Italian Independence)… And of course the problem of the language came up, as there were 30 or 31 different languages spoken, and while some were reduced in speakers others were big, and the “Italian” used as a common literary language had remained stuck to the 1300s. The language debate was fierce, with the main candidates being MODERN Florentine (because its ancestor was already the common literary language), Romanesco (and that would have been fun, considering the sheer amount of vulgarities), the Neapolitan dialect of Southern Italian (as the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, with capital in Naples, was the biggest and richest state in the Peninsula), and Lombard (as Lombard had a literary might that matched Tuscan, and was the biggest part of the Gallo-Italic language group that was spoken by the most people and covered the most areas)… And then, straight out of Milan, Alessandro Manzoni wrote the novel Fermo e Lucia in Lombard, didn’t like it and rewrote it twice as I Promess Sposi (The Betrothed) using the Florentine dialect, and the sheer popularity of the final 1848 edition abruptly settled the debate in favor of Florentine, with the Kingdom of Sardinia, that was leading the unification effort, promptly switching from “Italian” to the new standard of Italian as its official language and championing it as it expanded and became the Kingdom of Italy. And then starting to suppress the local languages, with amusing results such as the Gulf of the Sea Balls in Sardinia being renamed as the Gulf of Orange Trees because aranzos (Sardinian for “sea balls”) sounds similar to aranci (Italian for “orange trees”) and the official who read Cala'e sos aranzos on an old map and Italianized the name on the new one didn’t speak Sardinian (why do I hear a kangaroo jumping?), and the sheer amount of the slang words for “vagina” around the Boot. As for the official proper Italian name? It’s vagina. Because English took it from French, and both French and Italian got it straight from Latin.

As for the languages of Italy, they are:

Southern Italian dialects: spoken in southern Lazio and southern Marche and almost everywhere on the Peninsula south of it.

Median Italian dialects: spoken in Lazio except Rome and the south, Marche except the south, Umbria, and the extreme west of Abruzzo. May or may not be actually Southern Italian - I’m not a linguist and not from this area and I like my nose whole, so I’m not expressing any opinion.

Extreme Southern Italian dialects: spoken in Salento (the “heel” of the Boot), central and southern Calabria (the “toe”), and Sicily. Also known as Sicilian because that’s where most speakers are.

Venetian: Spoken in Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and areas of Trentino-Alto Adige.

Lombard: Gallo-Italic language spoken in Lombardy, western Trentino, eastern Piedmont, and a couple Cantons in Switzerland. The language of my hometown.

Piedmontese: Gallo-Italic language spoken in Piedmont, southern Aosta Valley, and northern Liguria. Has heavy French influences.

Ligurian: Gallo-Italic language spoken in Liguria, southern Piedmont, areas of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, and Sulcis (in southern Sardinia).

Emilian: Gallo-Italic language spoken in Emilia (western Emilia-Romagna), areas of Lombardy, Tuscany, and Liguria, southern Veneto.

Romagnolo: Gallo-Italic language spoken in Romagna and Romagna Toscana (an area that was linguistically and culturally part of Romagna but politically controlled by Florence from the end of the 14th century to 1923, when Mussolini, a Romaboo even by Italian standards, reassigned most of the area to Romagna so that the Tiber river would be born in his native Forlì province).

Gallo-Picene: Gallo-Italic language spoken in the Piceno area of the Marche (blame the Lombards, they controlled this area until Charlemagne).

Gallo-Italic of Basilicata: Gallo-Italic language spoken in a few comuni in Basilicata (the “sole” of the boot). Nobody’s sure how it happened, as the Lombards did NOT invade this area and linguists hadn’t even noticed until 1931.

Gallo-Italic of Sicily/Sicilian-Lombard Dialects: Gallo-Italic language spoken in a few comuni in Sicily. The linguistic remnant of the Normans expelling a large chunk of Muslim population of Sicily and replacing it with Piedmontese immigrants in a time where everything north of the Po river was called Lombardy.

Sardinian: spoken in Sardinian, and the closest thing we have to actual Latin language in common use. Also the reason why Sardinian students of Latin pronounce it the Roman way and not the Church way like the rest of Italy.

Gallurese: spoken in Gallura, an area of Sardinia. Sassarese: spoken in the Metropolitan City of Sassari, in Sardinia.

Friulan: Reto-Romance language spoken in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and areas of Veneto.

Ladin: Reto-Romance language spoken in Veneto and Trentino.

Tuscan: spoken in Tuscany and Rome. The one actual dialect.

German (including Sudtirolese dialect), Bavarian, Cimbrian, and Mocheno: Germanic languages spoken in Alto Adige (historically part of the County of Tirol), Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Veneto, that is the areas historically controlled or closer to the lands of the House of Habsburg. Also, for some reason, in the Aosta Valley.

Arbërisht: a derivative of Tosk Albanian, it’s spoken in the areas of Southern Italy and Sicily where Albanian refugees escaping from the Ottoman expansion settled in the 15th century.

French: spoken in the Aosta Valley (historically part of the domains of the House of Savoy, itself a more-or-less French noble house that happened to be in the Holy Roman Empire, hence the historical French attempts to conquer both Savoy and Aosta).

French-Provenzal: spoken in the Aosta Valley and eastern Piedmont. Also in Puglia (in Southern Italy. Salento is part of the Puglia region). Can’t blame the Normans, their French was from the north and Provence is in the south.

Occitan: yet another French language, again spoken in the Aosta Valley, areas of Piedmont, and Puglia. Can’t blame the Normans for this either, it’s another southern France language.

Slovenian: spoken in Friuli-Venezia Giulia (historically claimed by Slovenia just as Venice claimed Slovenia. I am NOT going into this more beyond saying that Jugoslavia got about two thirds of Friuli-Venezia Giulia for Slovenia and Croatia after World War II, I don’t know nearly enough).

Alguerese: a CATALAN dialect spoken in the city of Alguero, in Sardinia. The linguistic remnant of Aragonese control over Sardinia (Catalonia being part of the historical Crown of Aragona).

Italiot Greek: spoken in Bovesia (the tip of the “toe” of the Boot) and Salento. Either the last stubborn linguistic remnant of the Ancient Greek colonization of Italy (the “Greater Greece”, as we call it. Conveniently forgetting that this “Greater Greece” included areas of southern France and western Anatolia), or the result of immigration from Greece in the Middle Ages as they were part of the areas controlled the longest by the Roman Empire after the switch to Greek and the arbitrary reclassification to “Byzantine”.

Walser: Alemannic language spoken in Piedmont and Aosta Valley, well away from other Walser speakers in Switzerland and Austria. No idea how it happened.

Molise Slavic: spoken in Molise, in Central Italy. The linguistic remnant of Croatian refugees that escaped the 15th century and settled in Italy, in a much larger area than the current one. Being murdered by the Italian government.

Text of tweet under the cut because it is loooong.

But... Stochastic Parrots.

So this is the statement: Key is intentionally double crossing his father and has been strategizing to do so for the entirety of AHC.

Evidence: Sorry it’s an entire literary analysis essay! Oops!

First of all: you are a genius for coming up with this

Second: If that’s gonna be the case, I wonder how much Rae’s descent into the abyss is going to change Key’s plan. Or how Lia can destroy it with her own.

Also this “wickedly amused glance” Key sends to Marius at one point may be a way of provoking him into a fight. If Marius manages to match and weaken the great god, or at least take some of his attention upon himself, Key will have it easier to kill his father.

And third: this situation with the all seeing and all spying Gods eyes and Key trying to avoid/destroy them reminds me of this

Key never takes any threats towards himself seriously. At the end of the day, he believes in his power and his capacity to endure, but where he does respond to attacks, he does so swiftly and often without announcement or fanfare (e.g. kidnapping Vasilisa, walling up the dead).

If anyone threatens his lady however, he will make a bloody, public example of them (e.g. General Nemeth, that one lord in the meeting, the og Burning Hearts Ball).

Inviting Glacia to his chambers and quietly poisoning her meant that 1) he wanted intel first since Glacia had the truth potion in her, 2) he didn't want his ministers and/ or Rae to know.

The other option, of course, is that Glacia WAS after Rae, but that at this point in the book, Key had twigged that she didn't like the bloody public examples.

“We who follow the Captive Goddess have hated them always" said Vasilisa in chapter 46 during her motivational speech in which she also called to kill gods of Eyam. It seems there is some long ongoing religious conflict between these two nations. So considering how religious Glacia is she could have wanted to please her deity by getting rid of her enemies or she got some direct order from her to do so.

Or she also might be from another world like Rae and Eric. 

I've been thinking more about Emer's reaction to finding out Lia has a sexual history with Forge Strike (and possibly others) and how Lia tries to dismiss Emer's anger as unreasonable slut shaming.

Now, I definitely have some empathy for why Lia defaults to that interpretation, because the issue and expectation of sexual 'purity' is a major theme for Lia, but on the other side of that exchange is Emer for whom a major theme is power, which is something Emer directly calls out.

Lia's deception isn't just that she concealed having a previous parter, it's that she presented herself as ignorant and inexperienced and in doing so she created the illusion that she and Emer were on an equal footing in terms of sexual knowledge when actually she had prior experience but withholding that knowledge from Emer. It's not that she concealed a sexual experience, it's that she lied about the advantage she had over Emer.

One of Lia's themes is her history of powerlessness in a patriarchal system while Emer's is her history of powerlessness in a strict class system (and the same patriarchy).

Emer can't relate 1-1 to Lia's experience as a pretty upper class woman but she does also operate within purity culture and the threat of sexual violence, whereas thus far IMO Lia doesn't outwardly seem nearly as clued into the class power dynamics in play. She stokes revolution against the Emperor, but she will personally benefit greatly from that rather than it being particularly indicative of any principle objection to the class dynamics (when she is envisioning a better future in LLE she wants peace and prosperity for the lower classes, but she specifically notes that will provide a more stable rule, she's not proactively oppressive of the lower classes but nor does she seem all that bothered by being at the top of a class hierarchy). And she seems to be either ignoring or overlook the class dynamics with Emer who is still doing maid duties while they are hiding out in the cauldron while Lia makes plans that will effect both of them but doesn't ask Emer's opinions or give her relevant information before leading her into situations.

In ATLA, Sokka's misogyny was present for 3 episodes in the very beginning of the show, and then used to deliver narrative carthasis in episode 4, in the form of Sokka's 180 turn into feminism. The tension of flexing the rubber band of Sokka's misogyny was brief, and the release of that tension then felt appropriatly sized, because it came so soon in the series. The the rest of the show continued slapping instant karmic punishments to characters who expressed misogynistic beliefs. (Anyone who underestimated Toph, Yue's bethored, the guys who catcalled Katara, etc, etc). The world of ATLA is such, that it bends itself to always prove the misogynist wrong. (of course atla also has it's weak points where it falters with this aim, but the express aim is clearly there) The audience is primed, so that they can ignore the flinch of hearing a misogynist micro (or macro) agression, because they can expect the cathrasis of a karmic punishment to follow.

This works very well in the genre of escapist fantasy adventure. Shows like Succession, or Breaking Bad, or IWTV can present misogynist characters, who never learn or face any consequences, because the cathrasis of those shows comes from watching unpleasant people wallow in their self-inflicted miseries. They are shows about characters you love to hate.

Escapist fantasy adventure as a genre doesn't want to create characters you love to hate. It wants to create characters you love to love.

One Piece is an escapist fantasy adventure. It wants to create characters we love to love. So, it also has to ask the question of: How much can we pull on the rubber-band of discomfort before delivering any kind of cathrasis to the audience. The complaints that animanga One Piece faces, comes from the fact that for a lot of people, the answer is not this much.

Complaints about ATLA liveaction removing Sokka's *Suki teaches him about feminism* moment, and complaints about animanga One Piece having characters dropping misogynistic microagressions casually all over the place, come from the exact same emotion. 'I wanted to see a moment of fantasy-wish-fulfillment where a man changes how he behaves, and I was not delivered that emotional cathrasis.'

This has nothing to do with whether any of the misogyny of the characters makes sense in universe.

Different people will find different character flaws more or less bearable, and it's always a tight-rope you have to walk on. But creators do have a choice in what flaws they expect the audience to find interesting and where the line of so-insufferable-I'm-picking-a-different-show lies. I think for OPLA crew, the choices would have been

Leave it as it is, rubbing that *discomfort without any comfort* button way too roughly for a HUGE chunks of the new audience.

Create an entirely new storyline about Sanji and Zoro facing consequences and *changing their ways*. And I would be willing to bet actual money that the fans of the animanga would have been even more pissed if OPLA had started soloing with the storyline like that.

Just sand down the sexist corners, as the show did. And from these three options, I fully belive they picked the right one by pikcing this.

No I see your point. In a world where the live action had like... 24 episodes per season, I could see the vision of them being able to pull of an actually interesting interrogation of the original text. It would have been risky and ambitious, but had they managed to pull it off gracefully, it might have been more satisfying than completely cutting those parts of the original text out.

It would be very satisfying to see Sanji/Zoro starting off with the attitude that as a gentleman, I won't fight women, and then having to rethink that position in real time as he gets absolutely demolished in a fight. One Piece has a great many heavy hitter women, and the only reason Sanji gets to keep to his "code", is because the universe bends to never put him in a position where he would have to. It would be pretty cool to see that plot-armor ripped off.

But I would be even more interested to see a recontextualisation/interrogation of the whole incorrible flirt/harasser thing Sanji has going on. He was raised in the hyper-patriarchy and then in the all male kitchen with old school chauvinist Zeff. Of course he has never learned to see the world through the eyes of women. There could be an interesting conflict where Sanji-who-thinks-he-is-being-a-harmless-flirt slams against Nami, who spent her entire life appeasing violent men, who sees the kind of "aren't you precious pretty lady" comments as veiled threats, which she has to grin and bear through for her own precarious safety.

There could be an interesting, almost metatextual, commentary about how someone's innocent boyish fun appeas very differently when seen through the female gaze. And how if one actually wants to grow a deep personal friendship with a woman, you have to learn to emphatize with how they experience the world.

HOW DID THIS NOT OCCUR TO ME BEFORE

In the final chapter of Long Live Evil, Rae reflects on her misunderstandings and notes that she missed the significance of Key's name, calling him "the key to the narrative."

WELL IT JUST OCCURRED TO ME THAT THIS WAS AN EXTREMELY CLEVER MISDIRECTION ON THE PART OF THE AUTHOR

@yellowraincoat (sorry for tagging you) noticed in the sample chapters of AHC that the symbol of the Great Goddess is an opening door, and there's a pretty strong theory that the portal lady from the first chapter is actually the Great Goddess.

An opening door.

A key.

Have we done this one already? This fandom is very large and very old. I wouldn't be surprised if someone else has talked about this, however I haven't encountered it yet personally, so I'm typing it up myself.

I think Bran is going to enact The Ultimate Traditional Stark Beheading, that is, breaking the continent of Westeros at the Neck just as it was broken once before at the Arm of Dorne, and let me tell you why!

First off, background context on what exactly took place at the Arm of Dorne in the words of Maester Luwin:

"But some twelve thousand years ago, the First Men appeared from the east, crossing the Broken Arm of Dorne before it was broken. They came with bronze swords and great leathern shields, riding horses. No horse had ever been seen on this side of the narrow sea. No doubt the children were as frightened by the horses as the First Men were by the faces in the trees. As the First Men carved out holdfasts and farms, they cut down the faces and gave them to the fire. Horror-struck, the children went to war. The old songs say that the greenseers used dark magics to make the seas rise and sweep away the land, shattering the Arm, but it was too late to close the door." - AGOT Bran VII

Okay so, the shattering of entire landforms is within the capabilities of the greenseers. I think it's safe to assume that such a feat is not exactly a walk in the park— not only in terms of the magical cost, but in terms of judgement as well. Under what circumstances is it appropriate for a greenseer to split the continent? And where should they make that split geographically, assuming they have any precision at all? Is it possible to give any warning before sweeping the land out from under the feet of the living population? Are there motions of honor and tradition which the greenseer ought to adopt as they do this?

This question of judgement is presented to us in Bran's very first POV chapter. Many people have written about this to various ends before, but it's no accident that Bran's first-ever chapter centers around his initiation into the Stark execution traditions:

"Yet our way is the older way. The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks, and we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die."

As Ned goes on about this, his expectation that Bran will one day perform such a beheading himself is made clear to the reader. It's not a question of if, but when.

"One day, Bran, you will be Robb's bannerman, holding a keep of your own for your brother and your king, and justice will fall to you. When that day comes, you must take no pleasure in the task, but neither must you look away. A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is."

Blah blah blah, we know what happens after this, Bran becomes disabled by his fall and mourns the loss of his future as a warrior, you will never walk again but you will fly, etc etc.

The Three-Eyed Crow (whatever its true identity may be) shows Bran the Heart of Winter and tells him, "now you know why you must live." We understand that Bran is meant to wield his emerging magical abilities in the War For The Dawn; however, the specifics of how this is actually going to work are hazy at best. Bran is not Dany.

Like okay, bear with me for a second— Dany is a dragon rider. If threatened by a deathless, mindless horde of ice zombies, Dany is in a position to punch the problem directly in the face, so to speak. She can meet them in battle firstly, and secondly, the magic at her fingertips (fire) is a perfect counterweight to the Others (ice). Bran does not have access to either of these, and for this reason I expect that Bran's use of his own magic in the confrontation with the Others must necessarily entail, like, continual decision-making. Passing of judgement. Swinging of the sword.

Obviously there's a lot more to be filled-in here, but I just think that Bran's beheading of the entire continent at the Neck (it's literally CALLED the Neck, like that's about as subtle as a foghorn!) could aptly serve as the climax of his magic-arc towards the end of the series.

And he doesn't even have to actually do it, also! It could be equally as interesting if Bran were to agonize over the decision to swing the sword, and ultimately decide not to. For one thing, breaking the Neck would mean obliterating the Reeds' homeland. For another, if Bran owes it to a man to "look into his eyes and hear his final words," then how does this translate in a situation where Bran is not beheading one man but rather an entire landform? Whose eyes should he look into? Whose final words should he hear?

(prev tags @dragonseeds)

yeah, doing it to stop the Others from coming south, like cutting off an infected limb before it spreads to the heart. I am quite stoned right now but very excited as well and I have so many more (7) thoughts about this:

always very striking whenever areas on the map are named after body parts: the Arm of Dorne, the Neck, hmmmm what else?? OH the Greenblood. the HEART of Winter. anyway, the arm versus the neck. Clearly, life and magic on the continent of Westeros has managed to survive the loss of an arm, despite much diminishing. The loss of a head, though? Hmmmmmm.

The North is capped on either side by two fortifications dating back to the age of the First Men— the Wall in the north and Moat Cailin in the south— each of them only defends the North in their respective single direction. stay with me. in ADWD when Theon carries out the disarming of Moat Cailin, he finds his former brethren in a bleak as fuck state, etc etc, I could totally see something similar happening with Bran when he eventually crosses back south of the Wall. Like it would be so so cool for the Bran and Theon connection. And I think that like, given who Bran is in the broader scheme of the war for the dawn, the moment when he crosses back south again is going to have to be a major event in itself. (edit: AND another major event if Bran were pushed so far south as to have to cross Moat Cailin, that's where that thought was going)

Bran's magical abilities are kind of a huge puzzle no matter how you slice it. like, right out of the gate, we know they're for something (zombie apocalypse/climate change/whatever) but as we learn more both about Bran's magical abilities and about The Threat, the more it seems like, idk, like if you were asked to swim across the whole ocean and in order to help you achieve this, you are given a blowtorch and a gun. Like, okay. Those are two very powerful tools. But how the fuck are they supposed to help me swim across the ocean?? (I can see the suggestions being made in the similarities between skinchanging and re-animating the dead; or like, between climate change and becoming one with the trees, that's fine, I do see why Bran has the superpowers that he does. But like lmao.)

Possible issue with this theory: iirc the continent-breaking abilities of the greenseers are only brought up once. like, Bloodraven hasn't mentioned it at all (but he has only been around for a grand total of two chapters thus far, so maybe he just hasn't clicked that far through his powerpoint presentation yet. We gotta get through the whole Shiera-interlude first I'd assume.)

another possible "issue" if we even want to call it that, is the whole justice-angle of the traditional Stark beheading. That wouldn't really apply in the case of shredding your friends' homeland to stop the spread of the Others— i mean i guess you could get all socratic about it like oooohhhhhhh what is "justice"???? Do we not call "justice" that which is done for the "health" of the state????? pfft whatever. also I feel like that question would be better spent with another Stark character like Jon or Arya at this point in the story. (Not that it isn't Bran's "place" to think about justice at all, but I'd need a bit more of a build-up first, you know?)

oh, which side of the split is Bran himself going to be on in the moment, if he were to do this? Safely south of the Neck, or...?

So, on the characters ages in the old world: We're not given anything specific in the books, but there are some hints that the old world people have very very long life spans compared to humans.

Someone needs to teach her about how their household works and someone needs to show her how to read her class schedule and find her classrooms and someone has to teach her how the cafeteria works, how to talk to people, and help her with all of her homework, and like. It's not gonna be Mom or Jonathan.

And on that note, someone has to do laundry so they have clean clothes to wear to school. and someone has to make breakfast (because Jonathan has quietly dropped that duty in favor of morning self-medication). And someone has to load the dishwasher because it's been five days and the kitchen is getting rank.

And now El is sad about her dad, sad about her best friend, sad about her boyfriend, so what else is Will going to do but build a blanket fort in her bedroom to take her mind off of all the grief and let her use all his art supplies?

So he's running a load of laundry at 9 PM and making pop tarts for all of them to eat as they walk out the door (and leaving some on Joyce's desk while she's on the phone and mouthing at her to please please eat them (she doesn't)), and wiping down the kitchen counters while he tries to explain the difference between all the Roman Emperors to El who is almost crying at the kitchen table about it. Meanwhile Mom's passed out on sleeping pills in her room and the basement smells like weed.

(And a letter came from Mike today, but it's for El, and the guys in gym called him a queen because of the way he runs, and a year ago today he got possessed by a smoke monster, but several other major crises have happened since then so really why would anyone besides him be thinking about that and Mom's bedroom door is locked and the basement smells like weed.)

And any time he gets mad about it, mad that he has no one to talk to, mad that he has to be doing all of this, mad that he's the only functional person in this house, he thinks about Jonathan making eggs and bacon on school mornings and then picking up a shift at the movie theater after school when he was Will's age, and then he's just embarrassed about his pop tarts and his whining, and he reminds himself that it's not like he would talk to them about any of that shit even if they were asking, so really it's a good thing no one is. And by this time next year Jonathan will be in college on the East coast anyway, so he might as well start figuring this all out now.