I think there's something weirdly tragic about Maekar being a good king. Because the man we meet at Ashford would not be a good king. Which suggests that when he does take the Iron Throne, he makes a tremendous effort to play against his character, and do the boring work of keeping the peace and tolerating people that he doesn't like. And it's hard not to read that as Maekar trying to be as like Baelor as he can be, because it should be Baelor on the throne, and it's Maekar's fault that it isn't.
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I personally have an opinion on the magic system in asoiaf and it ties into how I think that anyone could have beoufht the dragons back if they had been in Dany’s exact situation—her being a Targaryen wasn’t a necessary part of the process.
Do I think real magic that ties to blood exists in the world? Yes, but I believe it’s much rarer than people think and I believe that’s because they fall into the same traps the characters fall into. Magic is a very real thing in asoiaf, but I also believe characters in-universe manipulate and shape narratives to prop up and mythologize themselves too.
I’m going to equate it to atla real quick, but during the 100 year war, people thought that only the royal family could manipulate lightning when it turns out the techniques and knowledge to perform lightning bending were just so heavily guarded that it just seemed like only the royal family could do it. I believe the same is true for magic in the game of thrones world.
Got frustrated while trying to theory craft about c!George (a feat akin to Sisyphus pushing the boulder uphill) and I ended up categorizing which characters have which traits associated with their memory issues and unreality/derealization.
This is most certainly an incomplete list, feel free to add on and correct information.
all names mentioned are referring to characters not CCs.
Characters who have memory issues:
Ranboo
Ghostbur
Captain Puffy
Eret
Karl Jacobs
Characters who have canonically hallucinated:
Tommy
Ranboo
Fundy
George
Characters who have notably unusual sleep-patterns (too much or too little)
George
Fundy
Technoblade(? uncertain canonicity)
Characters who have prophetic dreams/visions/other notable events happen during sleep:
George
Fundy
Ranboo(*specifically his prison dream - although it might be more accurate to call it a repressed memory, the framing is remarkably similar to Fundy and George's dreams so it's counted here.)
Karl Jacobs (? uncertain)
Characters who have alternate versions of themselves (alternate persona's and portions of memory OR completely separate entities)
Dream
Ghostbur
Karl Jacobs
Ranboo
Fundy
Philza(? Specifically Redza, who's probably canon, but hasn't had much screen time so he gets a question mark.)
Characters who have been controlled by or bound to a magical/eldritch/uncertain entity
Badboyhalo
Skeppy
Hannah
Ponk
Antfrost
George
Karl Jacobs
Ranboo(? Enderwalk may fall under this category but it's not confirmed.)
Technoblade (? exact relationship with 'The Blood God' is uncertain but worth mentioning here.)
Philza (? uncertain - may be the case if theories about his wife are confirmed.)
Characters who have experienced derealization and/or unreality specifically relating to one or more of the above:
Ranboo
George
Fundy
Karl Jacobs
Skeppy (? uncertain what was going on in his dream sequence/if it was a dream sequence or real)
Characters mentioned above who have worked with or been under Dream's control:
Eret
Ranboo
George
Tommy
Technoblade
Philza
Captain Puffy
Ghostbur(? uncertain whether Alivebur's time working with Dream should be counted for Ghostbur.)
--
Worth noting - Karl basically applies to almost all of these, depending on how you interpret the Inbetween/the Otherside, but a lot of that is unconfirmed.
I also didn't include the Eggpire in the "alternate versions of themselves" category because it felt redundant, and their shift in personality wasn't really the same as the others.
Results: The Dream SMP has an inordinate amount of amnesiacs and people suffering unreality.
As I always say, once is happen stance, twice is coincidence, three is a pattern, over seven and you've got fucking demons or some shit. Fucking, get the water tested or something, jesus christ. A co2 detector at least.
Also, George and Fundy have basically the same symptoms, right up to the creepy ass dream visions that bleed into reality and make them feel helpless and potentially more inclined to help a particularly manipulative individual.
I'd be very interested to hear what Foolish might think of Fundy's dreams, if they might be a god's fault like they're hinted to be in George's case with XD.
The only symptoms they don't share are 1) being bound to an entity, and 2) the fact that Fundy has an alternate version of himself in the self-proclaimed "Future" Fundy, who talks to him through the books. AFAIK George doesn't share that, although if the other characters he meets in his dreams besides XD are all impressions from his mind, that might be a similarity...?
That's all I got. Again, feel free to add corrections, this is something I made off the top of my head in a blind rage about c!George.
so anyway between MD refusing to go into las nevadas because it 'feels dangerous' and quackity appearing in fundy's dream doesn't it kinda feel like something's wrong with las nevadas in a supernatural sense?
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i will make a proper analysis post for this one day but i genuinely think the "fundy's mind" stream is fundy's magnum opus. it does so much in one short stream. it perfectly portrays the fundamentals of fundy's character while also leaving so much to be interpreted and decoded.
like of course half of the metaphors and mysteries put into that episode hinted his involvement w las nevadas. but, and i think this point stands better considering how his story was executed and concluded, i think the stream was such a perfect encapsulation of the cyclical nature of fundy's abandonment and self-worth issues. it is "fundy's mind" after all.
we see glimpses of wilbur, literal monologues of how he feels brushed aside. i think back then, our interpretations of the books were a little too literal— which was not wrong to assume at the time. fundy was having prophetic dreams, of course it was normal to think he could have been a time traveler or something of that sort.
but, in the present day, i feel like if you look into the texts of these books in a more metaphorical sense, it makes a lot more sense. there's definitely a theme about "waking up" in a metaphorical sense, but the dreams flip this phrase on its head in some sort of way, as if dream!fundy was trying to get fundy to look away from the books.
i posit that dream!fundy demands fundy to wake up because it actually shields fundy from the painful truth deeply embedded in his psyche. meanwhile, sleeping actually causes fundy to dig into this truth more as it causes him to stay into this dream world. so when fundy chooses to sleep, he's not shielding himself away— rather, it represents the metaphorical "waking up", beholding truths that he typically shies away from.
but then what is this "truth"?
well, when dream!fundy gives up scaring fundy off, he confesses to an evil someone who will destroy fundy and everything he ever loved. of course, this pertains to quackity, but here's the thing. if dream!fundy wanted to protect fundy, then he would have obviously warned him about quackity without hesitance.
i'd argue that quackity being some big baddie is half the "truth" dream!fundy is trying to warn him about. then what is the other half that's missing? i think it has something to do with the "you're not real" statements.
those seem like a scare tactic at first. if not, it does not feel like it's meant to be the "painful truth" dream!fundy is trying to shield from fundy because he says it multiple times before the actual "truth" is revealed. but i think the reveal actually becomes more impactful if you read it as "there will be an evil person out there, always, that will make you not real."
and i guess to explain— there's, like i said, a cyclical nature to fundy's issues. he follows someone, dedicating himself to the country until it all inevitably becomes futile in the end. it happens with all iterations of l'manberg and las nevadas. i've always stated that fundy is the embodiment of the nations he's apart of, and he dies alongside it whenever it comes down to it.
so when the book mentions, "you are not real", "this place isn't real", and "but he [those who left him, specifically quackity] is", i feel like it's not just talking about quackity and las nevadas. rather, if we think about it, this is literally the formula in which fundy's arcs literally follow. he becomes nothing alongside the dissolvement of a nation, because those he trusted and followed were real threats.
and what i think this dream hints in particular is that, las nevadas would be the last straw. after this, his existence becomes virtually nothing. he is rendered nothing.
which is literally what happens in the end.
fundy's storyline has always been about being sidelined, always forgotten or used as a punchline for a joke. in this case, i feel that the dream isn't just warning him about this, but rather it's literally his destiny to be forgotten. that is the painful truth dream!fundy doesn't want fundt to know. that's why he sounded so defeated by fundy's stubbornness and curiosity by the third book— he does not want fundy to know that it's literally in his fate that he ends up becoming nothing.
and, well, it's true. the last we see of fundy is when he jumped into the l'manberg crater after cutting himself off from wilbur. it's even stated that fundy didn't die to end it all, but rather to "get away from wilbur". at the same time, we see fundy donate schlatt's sword, one of his prized possessions, to the museum.
he literally cuts off one of the most integral, most defining, aspects of his character— his devotion to nationhood and those who embodied it. and after that, we never see him again. when fundy chose to choose things for himself, to separate himself from l'manberg, physically and ideologically, he's gone.
it's as if he's not real.
we never really know if fundy left for the best or the worst, really. but in the narrative of the dsmp, separating himself from l'manberg literally makes him null. that's the truth his dreams were trying to shield himself from.
Old dream smp prison arc animatic i never finished because i fundamentally don't understand the concept of "reasonable workload" (second part in a reblog because even with the gifs it's way too many images for one post)
I believe I have an opinion about the dragons in A Song of Ice and Fire that’s different from most people’s and I want to know if anyone else shares it.
For most of the fandom I get the sense like they (very understandably) feel awe and wonder and very positive emotions. Totally understandable because dragons are cool and it’s cool to think about riding a dragon.
When I see the dragons though, I still feel those emotions but those feelings are laced with a sense of dread and uneasiness. Almost to the point of overshadowing the positive feelings. Seeing the Targaryens ride and command their dragons does fill me with that sense of amazement but at simultaneously it gives me this ominous feeling—because I know how powerful the dragons are, and I know they are not beholden to the whims and morals of man. Maybe it’s because I feel like the dragons contributed to the Targaryens toxic belief of superiority (understandably) which led them to do terrible and destructive things.
This is an image from the Dunk and Egg novels, and it’s right next to a passage where Egg is telling Dunk about his dragons egg.
I feel like for most people this illustration is pretty cool but for me I get mostly an ominous feeling. Where most would get a strong and almost protective vibe I get a heavy and oppressive vibe, like a weight hanging on young Egg’s shoulders though I doubt that’s how he feels. Perhaps it’s because I know what’s in store for the characters and the family.
Really this post is one of many of me trying to explain my complicated feelings about the dragons and their role in the asoiaf universe. I know I am in the minority when it comes to this feeling, and I to be clear this isn’t me trying to convince others to not find the dragon aspect bad. I do want to know if anyone else feels like me in regard to this topic or if I am alone in this experience.
More Dunk and Egg fanart, featuring Dunk, Egg, and Aerion Targaryen from The Hedge Knight! I went a little further with the stained-glass style this time, and I'm happy with how it turned out! Especially Aerion's cloak, which is supposed to be fully black if I remember right; I added in the fiery colours just to help it pop XD
Also, the dragons here aren't actually there - it's meant to symbolize the Targaryens fighting (over Dunk hahaa)! The designs are based on the descriptions of their dragon eggs; Aerion's is gold and silver, and veined with red, while Egg's is white and green, all swirly. And the tree in the back is meant to represent Dunk :'''D
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Figured I should get this thought out before Episode 9 airs and watch it age poorly, but to have a character who hasn’t really had any kind of substantial presence in the narrative as the hook to gain viewer hype for the finale is…well, it’s a choice.
My problem with Ribbit is that they aren’t really a “character” so much as they’re just a reason for why Jax acts the way he does throughout the show. That reason being that she abstracted before the events of the story which pushed Jax to adopt the nihilistic viewpoint that none of them are real people, because to acknowledge that would mean he’d have to a acknowledge he actually lost someone he cared about and that makes him feel weak and vulnerable which he hates yadda yadda yadda you the gist, Jax really isn’t complicated.
Now, on a purely superficial level, this isn’t a bad idea. The funny thing is that Kinger has something similar going on with Queenie to opposite ends, where her abstraction would’ve led to him falling into a deep despair were it not for Ragatha literally popping into his life to make him realize there is a point to living even when you think you have nothing because to have at least someone to care about makes it all worthwhile. Kinger’s approach to his suffering is the antithesis to Jax’s and vice versa.
But while Queenie was at least alluded to as Kinger’s wife as early as episode 3, Ribbit didn’t even get visually referenced until episode 5. Which is the midpoint of the series. And didn’t even get named until episode 7 by Ragatha. Hell, if Goose hadn’t mentioned it on Tumblr, we wouldn’t have actually known Ribbit’s (and Queenie’s) name before episode 7!
(Queenie doesn’t get named at all in the show but that’s a whole separate issue)
The problem is that we were pulled through too many episodes before finally being given this pathos for Jax, in the form of a friend that he lost. A friend that we know literally nothing about outside of a name, but apparently is meant to have some kind of importance for Jax’s development.
My issue is that Goose already had a perfectly good character to use if she wanted the audience to feel some sympathy for Jax (Y’know outside of him also being a prisoner of the Circus)…Kaufmo
For as callously dismissive as Jax was during the pilot about Kaufmo’s abstraction, we do actually get to see a reaction from him that was significantly different from the absolute dick weasel image that he’s been trying so hard on establishing for himself. And this was done in the very next episode. It’s like a single frame, but I’d be hard pressed to find a fan who wasn’t pointing this out when the episode first aired.
Remember, before Ribbit was ever a thought in anyone’s head, a good chunck of the fandom was so convinced that Kaufmo and Jax were the bestest buddies just because of this. So the base was already covered.
Kaufmo may not have been a character, but he did have an obvious impact from the very start. Namely he was our introduction to the concept of abstraction, the ultimate terrible threat that can happen because death in the traditional sense is no longer a consequence for those trapped in the Circus. And for being the thread that gets Pomni to see how although she is stuck living with a bunch of strangers who have their own hangups, she can at least take comfort that they will care about remembering her if the worst were to happen. Her existence has meaning to them.
What’s more, even after his funeral, Kaufmo is still being brought up.
Which only adds to how much more significant his inclusion in the story is compared to Ribbit just by having some onscreen meaning for the main character.
Be honest, if Ribbit was removed from the story completely, what would actually change?
The only thing this image added to Jax’s character was mystery. Who is this person that the biggest asshole seems to feel some type of way for? Why doesn’t anyone talk about them? What makes them so important?
And the truth is, they’re not. Because as much as the story wants us to think about them as someone who made a big impact on Jax, who’s important because he’s the narrative foil to Pomni, the only thing she really contributes is more fuel for Jax’s angst.
Which tbh, he doesn’t really need.
The whole jerk who is a jerk because he’s secretly hurting is a trope that is frankly exhausting even if done well. It’s especially not necessary to write a whole female coded character into a story if the only thing she’s there for is being dead and to make a guy not deal with it well.
Jax being someone who chooses to not view anyone as a person because the idea of consequences scare him and being trapped in a virtual reality makes that easier for him to live with until he can physically no longer ignore that consequences can and do still exist no matter how much he wants to believe in the contrary already makes him an interesting character. But if you still needed someone to act as the physical representation of that pathos, again, Kaufmo is already there.
We know more about him because he’s at least talked about by other people. He told bad jokes and he was generally well liked enough by the others that they were sincerely sad that he abstracted. Granted, it’s not a lot, but it’s something.
Going back to my earlier question, you don’t even need to do a lot to replace Ribbit as the main motivation for Jax’s behavior.
If you changed Ribbit’s door to Kaufmo’s in the intermission scene, it would take away the mystery, but it would further emphasize how that look he gave in episode 2 meant that Kaufmo was more important to Jax than he had originally led on. That he’s someone he actually misses. Him being gone is actually affecting him, which would put a wrench in his whole “nothing matters” facade.
If you changed Jax taking Ragatha’s “not anymore” fumble as her alluding to how Kaufmo was the only person he was on good terms with before he abstracted instead of both him and Ribbit, it would make his outburst at Pomni during their fight much more impactful because it’s the second time we’ve ever seen him get that heated, and we can only assume it’s because he feels some kind of guilt for what happened between him and Kaufmo.
And it would explain why Jax was acting so casual about his friend abstracting and nobody calling him out for it, because at that point, him and Kaufmo probably had some kind of falling out before the whole fake Exit Door situation.
It would also give a little more weight to the line “Are you seriously gonna blame me for something everybody else did, too!?”
Yeah, what he’s saying here isn’t true because literally no one has been seen blaming Jax for what happened to Kaufmo. But, Jax’s paranoid ass definitely would’ve taken Ragatha’s statement as a dig against that. “Not anymore” would be taken as not just “you had a friend, but he abstracted”, but also “you had a friend, but you messed that up too”.
(I want to reiterate that Ragatha was not referring to anyone but herself for that “not anymore”, she’s saying even she isn’t gonna call herself his friend, because she’s sick of his shit. Ok? Ok.)
I’m just saying, it would show that he never stopped taking that personally even after she apologized, because it was just the slightest bit of confirmation of his fears that everyone does blame him for what happened with Kaufmo. He’s all about acting like he doesn’t care about what everyone else thinks about him, when the truth is he cares entirely too much.
The fact that Jax puts so much emphasis on himself being “the funny one” despite having a literal clown in the crew not that long ago could be another form of cope because his behavior clearly escalated from being a nuisance to flat out terrible after what ever drama he had with Kaufmo.
Goose could’ve also easily had Jax get up to run out of the hallway after just seeing Kaufmo’s door. Had Kaufmo’s hands and arms come out of the crack in Jax’s bedroom wall. Had just his face all over Jax’s abstraction trip and in the Polaroid picture. And literally nothing would really change storywise.
Honestly, Ribbit feels like they’re just there for aesthetics purposes. I don’t want to make too many assumptions, but the fact that Pomni was originally supposed to be a frog that Goose eventually scrapped for a jester design makes me think that she liked the idea of having a frog character too much to get rid of it entirely so she wanted to squeeze it in the show somehow.
Again, that’s purely speculation on my part, but it is a detail that is hard to ignore.
Im sure someone is gonna make the argument that Ribbit is necessary because they look like Pomni and that’s why Jax is so inclined to be friends with her but also sacred to get close because she reminds him too much of her and what he lost, and honestly that’s a bunk excuse.
People were already making the connection that jesters and clowns are really similar and awarding Jax with the angst filled theories of how Pomni is replacing Kaufmo and that bothers him. Again, before the idea of Ribbit was ever introduced to the show.
Additionally, the main reason Jax has been inclined to be friends with Pomni is because she’s a blank slate. For as much as Jax scoffs at the idea of friendships, he’s clearly a lonely fucker who needs someone to bounce off of. It’s why he drags Gangle along and starts getting huffy when she starts hanging out with Zooble more during adventures. He can’t stand Ragatha, Kinger can’t focus, Zooble can kick his ass, and now he can’t even push Gangle around as much as he wants, so all that leaves him with is the newbie. Who also happens to let him yap without too much judgement. Of course they were gonna be friends, until he had to fuck that up for himself too. The guy is a self fulfilling prophecy.
Maybe the finale will prove me wrong and Ribbit will be a really interesting and crucial character with a personality. But even if that were the case, the show really has not been doing a good enough job to convince me that they are a character worthy of this much mystery and hype.
And if her only purpose really is to be dead just so we can feel sorry for a character that hasn’t really earned much sympathy from me because on top of burning a lot of good will the most he’s done lately is twiddle his thumbs and drag his feet and put the story in a chokehold because it thinks seeing a character wallow in self misery is interesting somehow, well that’s just not good.
When they're slandering your goat but they're lowkey right. jokes aside(mostly because Ribbit my beloved but at the the same time this is completely necessary and true)This
Iron Lung and Project Hail Mary as "men who persevere against impossible odds and find courage in the depths of despair"
Versus Obsession and Backrooms "men will willingly stay in a literal horror movie situation over confronting their mistakes and taking responsibility for their actions"
Me the first half of The Backrooms: "oh I get it. He's a down on his luck failed architect and even more failed furniture store owner who's trying to better himself. He'll probably be fascinated with the furniture/architecture of the backrooms and start selling the items there for money + notoriety. And eventually he'll go deeper and deeper to get more and more items until he gets trapped and encounters The Horrors. A classic tale of hubris :) "
I’m so entrenched in the Team Green side that I don’t really care for any of the TB side of things at All the minor fighters and characters like Bloody Ben, Black Aly, Sabitha Frey, just don’t really capture my attention. The only real reason I even know those characters off the top of my head is because they’re probably the most popular non Targ characters on TB.
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