odinsblog:

astrodidact:

RECOUNT.

I absolutely positively refuse to believe that 18% of Black women voted for DeSantis, and against Andrew Gillum. Not in THIS timeline.

Democrats gotta learn to automatically demand a recount before conceding. Republicans cheat. Always always always take that into account.

RECOUNT.

SIGNAL BOOST THIS !!!!

wishes-upon-dreams:

The coffee, apples and cafe… a Kirishima/ Kaneki family aesthetic

image

Imagine Touka and Kaneki brewing coffee together in their shop. Ichika and the youngest touken child sitting in the chairs at the table and happily munching on apples, their tiny legs swinging happily back and forth, as they watch their parents get ready to open up the doors of the cafe.

I may have crappy drawing skills, but damn me if i wont draw this

I was so happy to read about your opinion that a woman doesn’t need to eschew traditional gender roles to be a “badass” – that is something that really bothers me in storytelling. Just for fun, in your opinion, what’s the Top 5 or Top 10 ranking of Badass female characters in ASOIAF?

warsofasoiaf:

Thanks, Anon! I’m glad you enjoyed the piece; I very much enjoyed it myself.

Let me share some of my favorite “badass” ladies who were completely rad and powerful despite not being warriors or more obviously, physically “badass”. This is certainly not a comprehensive list, just who I could think of off the top of my head, and it’s not in any particular order.

  1. Lady Johanna Lannister: wife of Jason Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock during the Dance of the Dragons. Her husband was killed in action, and Lady Johanna ruled at the Rock in his absence. The black-supporting Greyjoys sacked Lannisport and made off with Lord Farman’s daughters (and Jason’s favorite mistress and their daughters), but Johanna was not about to leave that lying down. She allied with the admiral of the Reach and sent forces to the Iron Islands in the power struggle following Dalton Greyjoy’s death. Her forces captured, among other prisoners, one of Dalton Greyjoy’s salt sons; Lady Johanna took him, gelded him, and made him her son’s fool, to remind everyone that the Lannisters pay their debts. But she was not merely the vengeful sort: Johanna restored the glory of House Lannister and lent gold to the crown to rebuild the realm after the disastrous civil war which had claimed her husband.
  2. Rhaenys Targaryen: yes, a warrior, but she is as much a queen as a warrior, and as a queen, she had an inherent sense of how to play her position. She understood, for example, the need to patronize singers and bards. In a land without any kind of mass media, where literacy is confined to the wealthy and elites, singers and bards remain one of the only means by which the common people learn about the history and legends of the Seven Kingdoms; by patronizing singers and ensuring their production of paeans to the Targaryen regime, Rhaenys further that the smallfolk would remain firmly behind the nascent Targaryen regime. You can read more about why I love her as a queen here.
  3. Alysanne Blackwood: ok, I’m cheating again, because Alysanne was a warrior who commanded her own archers. But I do like Alysanne, who (along with two other cool ladies, Baela and Rhaena Targaryen) petitioned the One-Day Hand Cregan Stark to pardon Corlys Velaryon. Alysanne used her own hand in marriage to ensure that Corlys – a veteran statesman, the man the realm needed to begin working on peace after the Dance of the Dragons – would not go to the block because of Cregan’s implacable Northern honor – a shrewd move, and one that allowed Alysanne to use a traditional feminine role for a political gain.
  4. Alysanne Targaryen: the one #3 is named after, and my favorite favorite favorite character in all pre-ASOIAF. I can’t even go into all the ways I love how clever Alysanne is. Just read my essay.
  5. Alys Karstark: I once said Alys Karstark was my favorite secondary character. I don’t know if that’s still true – I have a lot of favorites, and my answer changes on any given day – but I do love her. Alys has already lost two of her elder brothers and her betrothed to the War of the Five Kings, and her father to his ostensible liege Robb. She’s smart enough to recognize that Arnolf and Cregan Karstark want her very real claim to Karhold, so on her own she jumps on a horse and rides to the Wall, on the hope that the brother of the man who executed her father (and a politically independent black brother besides) would help her. Jon offers her marriage to the Magnar of Thenn, which she accepts to ensure her safety and which would also provide her a veritable small army if she needs to assert her claim to Karhold in the future. Sigorn a wildling lord more like a god to his people than a ruler – a complete stranger from an alien culture who does not speak her tongue, at least natively. And yet what does Alys say when Jon asks if she’s afraid? “Let him be afraid of me.” 

Those are just a few. Of course we know others, more famous cases – Margaery Tyrell, Olenna Redwyne, Sansa Stark – and this is by no means a complete list. But I think it’s important to recognize that, as much as we think of “badass” meaning fighters like Brienne or the Mormont ladies, it is equally badass to use a lady’s or queen’s position to gain power. 

The Queen Regent (NFriel)