Not a Smut Queen . . . A Smut Khaleesi

Rewatching episode 3, where Hal and Shadia show Thaisha around the Hallowed Round, and had some feelings about this. Like, this has clearly been a long, long conversation between these two. They must have had discussions and arguments about it for many years. Hell, I‘d bet Thaisha was the first person Hal ever told about this dream of his.

And now, after all those talks, they made it to opening night and their daughter is up on stage performing as a revolutionary. Their daughter, who they‘ve raised to honour her people and her history, to follow the Old Path and respect the Fair Folk. Thaisha - who Brennan refers to as high priestess of this ritual - is here to guide the dead down the Path. The play is the ritual and the paints built the bridge, but without a druid of the Old Path, the spirits would have nowhere to go. Thaisha is talking to and calming down the spirits while Hal does the same with his actors. Hal tricked the Creed to make this possible, and Thaisha heads up to confront the luxes to protect the ritual. All the time Hal put in researching, writing, rehearsing, building this space and his theatre company. All the time Thaisha spent travelling, fighting to heal barrowdells, giving rites to the dead and offering blessings to the living. All the time they both spent raising and teaching Shadia, who now works her own magic on the world. They spent so much of their lives apart, doing what they believe in. Sometimes it may have felt like they were on entirely different paths, but all of that helped bring them to this moment. Because they have the exact same calling in life.

And I want to once again say, WE NEED PROPER ADAPTATIONS of #DAWN and #WILDSEED especially, right now.

Because the fears that are being exploited by MAGA are explicitly delved into in both works.

The plot is about an immortal narcissist with the power to take over ANYONE (they kinda stole the premise for the cult horror thriller with Denzel Washington, called FALLEN) who uses enslavement to experiment and tinker with humanity (those who have gifts) even breeding them together to create his "master race." The only other immortal, a shapeshifter (both predate race and so were originally African melanated humans) does her best to keep him reined in, so to speak... He uses enslavement to hide a breeding stock program, where he treats people like expendable bodies...and it's EVERYONE he can get his hands on with ~potential~. So, basically she makes how racism fucks us up accessible in those two books, via sci-fi. HIGHLY recommend. I WISH capable producers would give her work the same treatment Handmaid got. But that's just it... I don't think anyone can handle it with the intelligence and grasp of the themes needed to really do those works justice (see how badly they fucked up KINDRED nobody has the balls to really go there nowadays). Which is a shame and why you should read them instead, if you haven't.

Kurt Russell as Lee Shaw & Mari Yamamoto as Keiko Miura/Randa MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS (2023 - ) Ep. 2.01 "Cause and Effect"