Letters from the Muse

Thank you!!!

Oh absolutely!!

Sansa/Dany is my top one. I think that there are so many crumbs that would indicate they'd be fast friends. They both long for home. Dany with the red door and lemon tree. Sansa loves lemon cakes.

Sansa dreams of a gentle, kind, and fair ruler. Dany tried to eradicate slavery. "If I am ever queen, I'll make them love me" : Dany's power and loyalty comes from her people's love for her.

Dany desires true connections and friendships that aren't based in duty. Even Messandei is her employee as well as her friend/daughter. Sansa could be her friend.

They both understand being used as a pawn for politics. They had no say in who they were being married to.

Arya/Dany as well. Arya would love seeing a powerful, successful woman who succeeded in her own right.

Sansa, Arya, and Brienne. Brienne could bridge the gap between the Stark sisters. She has Sansa's idealism and love for songs. She is a decorated knight, powerful. She is a true knight.

Despite what I've heard the show did with Dany and Sansa (I'd stopped watching by then), I think that they could be everything that we wanted Sansa and Margaery to be.

Dany is someone who would understand the kind of pressure that Sansa is under. Before her dragons hatched, she was in a very similar situation to Sansa.

They were both physically abused by a man who was supposed to be her protector, who took any perceived slight as conscious treason against them. Visyerys and Joffrey respectively.

Both of them witnessed their abusers die in a horrible way.

Both of them have a grown man old enough to be their father use them to fulfill fantasies about women they'd lost.

It's well-known that Petyr Baelish uses Sansa as a fantasy of both her being his daughter and her being his lover. Sansa herself notices this. Her mental distinction between her "father" Petyr and her predator Littlefinger breaks my heart. She recalls that Littlefinger never "so much as lifted his little finger" to help her.

It's also well-known that Jorah Mormont lusts after Dany. He tells her that she looks like a younger version of his ex-wife. The one that he blames for his slaving. He was supposed to be her sworn shield and her advisor. He conspired with Robert Baratheon to murder her before he "came to love her." He sexually assaulted her. He tried to push away every other man in her life so she would be reliant on him, much like Sansa is reliant on Littlefinger.

Littlefinger also horribly abused Sansa's best friend, Jeyne Poole, before selling her to Ramsay Bolton. Where he knew full well that she would be abused further. To people that he knew were killing all of Sansa's family and people.

Jorah sees Dany's anti-slavery work and still never renounces his own slaving. When he gets captured and sold into slavery himself, we still don't hear a word of regret. What made Jorah give up wasn't his mistreatment nor his guilt. It was hearing that Dany was married. He really thought that Dany would marry him. He knows full well that as a Queen, as a Khaleesi, Dany has no choice but to marry politically. He knows the marriage is political. He still thought she would marry him.

Imagine, if you will, Sansa and Dany chatting in an orchard, drinking light wine, and eating lemon cakes beneath fruit trees. There's a red door behind them.

i haven't seen anything about this on my dashboard, so i wanted to share. ICE gestapo killed another human being on tuesday. he leaves behind three sons and his wife, who he has spent the last 35 years building a life with

there is a gofundme supported by the league of united latin american citizens set up to help with funeral costs, legal fees, and supporting his family moving forward.

Also, many of her stans (usually anti-Sasuke rabid fans as well), tend to look at her crush as something that does not possess logical sustenance, when they leave aside that Sasuke as a target has little to do with him in itself but with the status that he could provide her within the military and social pyramid of her village (Sasuke is Ino's upgraded idea, get it? her arc is exactly the same one as when she was a child). Not only that, but Sakura is told tirelessly that Sasuke is not capable of making reasonable decisions since he is blinded by "darkness" which means that his constant rejections are not a consequence of a real lack of interest in her on his part, but his refusal to "be happy". If her entire environment believes that Sasuke's decisions are based on a "biological curse" that controls his feelings and decisions, therefore his rejection and violence towards Konoha and his former team are not taken into account, why should she make a decision contrary to that of her group? Why would she decide to "let Sasuke go" if not a single other member of team seven is even willing to consider it? Her pursuit of Sasuke is no different from the actions and attitudes of the rest of her social environment who also refused to "get over" their fantasies about him.

Regarding her characterization, Sakura is an ambitious woman who grew up in a universe that values strength above anything else (they give the title of Hokage to the "strongest" one) and saw that she was surrounded by monsters with a power that she could never dream matching, such thing gave her a level of self-esteem so abysmal she sought validation through the connections she formed through her life: Ino, Sasuke, Tsunade... and constantly wanted to prove to everyone around her that she surpassed every single person that gave her a helping hand because all of her bonds are formed over the premise of "competition" as that's how ambitious she is (that's the system dogma, as well, as allowing and encouraging rivalries is a primary example of this mindset). Sasuke, as I've stated, represents the culmination of her goal: Status and power, through him, she has it all, so in her eyes, why not pursue him?

There's also a nexus regarding beauty and status that Sakura makes, as she considers Ino to be beautiful during their childhood (I guess such an idea hasn't changed later on as she seeks to insult Ino's looks to diminish her relevance and power level during their match and later on when she wants Sai to insult Ino in the same manner he insulted her) and comments on how beautiful Tsunade is (the only one able to help Sasuke when he was put in a coma), so it isn't strange how Sakura cares so much about how desirable other characters consider her, as the two women that she saw as role models were "beautiful" for her -Sasuke is also incredibly beautiful, so beauty=elevated status is a parallel she draws.

Her fandom also draws a parallel between beauty and status, on a much bigger scale than Sakura canonically does, as they make her out to be this beautiful woman everyone desires and starts wars for (Kakashi, Itachi, Madara *enter any Uchiha you can think of here*); this is quite common in real life as well, as capitalism and patriarchy also encourage women to look as beautiful as possible to "reward them" when they fit the standards they seek: I've said so before, but many of her stans hide behind the term "feminists" when their real interest is to prove their self-insert is "desirable," as they make the level of importance of certain characters within Narutoverse be measured based on how beautiful/powerful their husbands/partners are.

Many stans take the beauty of the male they imagined her with as "proof" of how attractive Sakura is because desirability = beauty = power. Even their need to show how "powerful" or "strong" she is (often by providing examples of how "superior" their fav is to other female characters) is more about them being recognized, admired, and desired by the male characters. There's a reason why they make them praise her all the time in their stories or why when a man canonically recognizes Sakura for whatever reason he gets immediately rewarded with a shipping fic (Kakashi!); hell, even why this lack of reward to their praisings makes the Naruto dudebros hate her for her lack of reciprocation. This fits the patriarchal and capitalistic narrative all too well, as for them beauty provides a superior position from others, being that people within a privileged economic position has more resources to "fit the beauty standards" they set themselves, cementing the notion that "the cute ones belong with the cute ones (economic/political status ↑), while the ugly ones belong with the ugly ones." (economic/political status ↓).

We know exactly what these colours stand for because the creator has said so less than 30 fucking years ago!!!

as venezuela is my home country, all of this hits especially close to home. thankfully, my family and loved ones are safe since they were in cities not as severely affected. however, many others have not been as fortunate and are now facing the aftermath of these events.

years of political and economic instability have left many communities with limited resources and infrastructure, making it even more difficult to respond to emergencies like this. there are reports of people who remain missing, and many families are still waiting for news about their loved ones. rescue efforts have been made even more difficult by shortages of equipment, ambulances, and other emergency resources needed to respond to a disaster of this scale.

if you're able to, please consider sharing information, supporting verified relief efforts, or simply helping spread awareness about what is happening.

here’s a link where you can donate if you can

i’ll try to get more help resources to post here!

little girls are hounded with the images of a husband and kids and a wedding with a perfect white dress and a handsome groom in a tux since their first day and we expect children to just not internalize that?? thats a lot to ask of them. and i think it does more good to ask people who are struggling to see themselves with a same sex partner why rather than accuse them of being bisexual "for the trend"

because frankly these days being bisexual isn't trendy. it gets you shunned by the community because you have "straight passing privilege" and shunned by homophobic people because you're just another queer to them. it is a lose-lose because you can't ever be pure enough for either side (which is a whole other issue)

and yeah some bisexual people, maybe especially women, do choose to marry an opposite sex partner. because it's safer in a lot of cases. that does not make them less bisexual or less queer. it just makes them a little less vulnerable to violence and sometimes shoves them deeper into the closet.

At first the pain is so intense you're afraid to even look down. You're in pure survival mode, panicking at the overwhelming pain.

But the people in the room are looking at you funny and telling you to look at your hand. It's fine. There's just a tiny paper cut. Calm down.

But you're screaming in agony. You can feel the blood gushing out. You don't want to look. You're begging them to help you. But they're getting annoyed. They think you're faking it or at best just dramatically overreacting.

Eventually you do look down. You see the paper cut. You understand they were right. But. You still feel the pain. And now, you also feel a wave of shame and embarrassment. Why does it hurt so much? Why couldn't you handle a paper cut?

Did you really overreact?

The pain was real. You could feel it. But the stimulus itself (the paper cut) doesn't usually produce it. Most people don't feel like that when they get a paper cut. But you did.

You were reacting exactly how most people would react to the amount of pain you were in, was it your fault that it took less of a stimulus to put you in that much pain?

Anyway this post is about a lot of things. Rejection sensitive dysphoria, chronic pain, sensory processing issues, all sorts of things can make very small things feel excruciatingly big.

So the next time you think someone is "overreacting" I invite you to try to understand it from their perspective. Their reaction may actually be more measured than it appears.

And I feel like I have to clearly specify here, that I'm not saying you should agree with their perspective. In my metaphor here, instead of getting annoyed and telling them "it's just a paper cut" try engaging with compassion.

"I see you're in a lot of pain, and I want to help you. But all I see is a tiny paper cut. Please help me understand what you need right now."

Marianne Dashwood, living a plot perfect for a tragic death by illness to preserve the beauty of her first attachment and disappointment? Nope, she lives and loves with her whole heart again. Maria Rushworth, the fallen woman who cheated on her husband does not die for her crimes or even fall into poverty or prostitution, her father and Aunt Norris will provide for her. She is punished, but she's protected. Lydia Bennet? Her two sisters will provide for her for the rest of her life. Her husband's debt will not destroy her. Miss Bates? There is an entire community around her no matter what happens and her newly rich niece will provide. No woman is even left as a governess, Miss Taylor is Mrs. Weston, Jane Fairfax becomes Mrs. Churchill instead. Mrs. Smith is pulled out of her indigent state by Anne and Wentworth.

The only woman Jane Austen allows to suffer a terrible fate is off-page and dead long before the novel begins: Eliza Brandon. Eliza Williams, her mother's affair baby, is ruined by Willoughby. Colonel Brandon could easily have washed his hands of her and her affair child, but he doesn't. Eliza Williams is going to be okay. Her child will be okay.

Antagonist women never fall into poverty or die for their crimes, most of them are even in loving marriages. Fanny Dashwood is cruel to her mother and sisters-in-law, one could imagine her falling low in karmic retribution, but no, she's fine. Lady Susan, the delightful anti-heroine, marries a baronet at the end of her novel. No punishment looms on the horizon for her promiscuity and deception. Caroline Bingley has a loving family that will never turn her away and an independent fortune. Mary Crawford has a loving sister. Isabella Thorpe may have lost the big prize, but she has her mother. Never is a woman thrown to abuse or poverty, even when they have attacked other women. The only punishment would come from their own conscience or regret for the goodness they have thrown away.