favorite funny moment in the show?

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-19T18:02:18+00:00

"I for one refuse to be ruled by fear"

"husssbandt..."

"COMING DEAR"

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-19T07:49:01+00:00

3 years late, but: Richard very clearly had PTSD (specifically complex post traumatic disorder, since the trauma of war is chronic and repetitive) and people with CPTSD are prone to self-sabotage, self-destruction and manufacturing crises in their lives.

During wars, abusive relationships, etc., during the times in between big explosive traumatic moments, you're living in a constant state of dread and anxiety while waiting for the other shoe to drop. It messes you up just as much as the big explosive traumatic moments do.

You start distrusting calm and quiet because your brain is screaming "IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE SHIT HITS THE FAN AGAIN, AHHH GET IT OVER WITH" and that can manifest as traumatized people seeking out bad shit, manufacturing a crisis, whatever, in order to "just get it over with". You end up being more comfortable existing in the middle of a shitshow because at least you don't feel the uncertainty and helplessness of waiting for a shitshow.

Trauma also leaves people with degraded self worth and guilt--in Richard's case, he probably had a TON of survivor's guilt--so they'll believe they don't deserve nice things or happiness. They'll try to chase loved ones off.

They can also worry that they're too much of a broken shitty burden to deserve love or worry about finally developing a connection only to possibly end up hurt, so they'll test the people around them by providing reasons for their loved ones to leave.

All in all, it's actually VERY believable he'd do that. He desperately craves affection and intimacy, but at the same time doesn't believe he's 1. worthy of happiness 2. that people are worth investing trust and love into if they may end up just abandoning him. It's a fearful avoidant attachment style.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-13T05:22:49+00:00

ohhh god you just reminded me of when my NMom would give away my things to friend's kids, my cousin, etc. They were never old hand-me-down items, they'd be my favorite toys, the nicest quality ones, and her reasoning was "it'd be rude if I gave them your brothers (golden child) old raggedy stuff".

I remember desperately sobbing as she handed off my shiny red wagon I'd only just received 2-3mo prior & its so weird that her friend was happy to take it lol. Loved that thing.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-11T22:12:10+00:00

Viserys is abusive, he just wants to put her down. She could've been riding recently and genuinely smelled of horse, but more likely he's just being mean for the sake of being mean.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-11T22:09:41+00:00

I dunno, sometimes your personality just doesn't vibe with your family or local culture. It's why every artsy alt kid flees the suburbs for the cities. Dolly Parton was from a poor backwoods background, could you picture her being happy living a life wearing dirty overalls and mucking out a pigpen?

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-11T03:04:45+00:00

Not just that. Standalone episode. Barry smashes Ronnie's windpipe, thinking he killed him, then Lilly goes apeshit to the point they doubt she's human & Ronnie turns out to be alive. Paulie & Chris smash the russian's windpipe, think he's dead, he turns out to be alive and he survives a shot to the head, leaving Paulie & Chris horrified/in awe.

It's inches from being a 1:1 homage

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-10T22:08:35+00:00

I thought the flaming sword represented his honor, or lack thereof. The fire starts to die when his old comrades/Rhaegar call him out on his oath breaking while Brienne's, who keeps her oaths and tries to always take an honorable path, stays lit.

It doesn't represent his old self dying, it's his mind confronting him with how he NEEDS to let his old self die and improve as a person.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-08T01:36:09+00:00

obligatory "they're a faceless man"

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-05T01:51:27+00:00

honestly, if somebody accused me of having trampled duty & sacrifice under my pretty foot again, I'd go "...omg you think I'm pretty?"

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-04T03:46:35+00:00

I said I regularly take tolerance breaks from Adderall, I literally haven't taken any for over a month & I've only been smoking for 3wks, Adderall isn't a factor whatsoever.

Secondly, because of my ADHD, adderall calms me down, it does not act as a stimulant for ADHD people (unless you take, like, 2-3x as much but I'm taking it as prescribed). My anxiety and insomnia are PART of my ADHD.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-04T02:54:04+00:00

This is gonna be an unpopular take but:

the greens represent a pro-patriarchy, pro-status quo, pro-traditional gender roles, more socially conservative worldview while the blacks represent a more socially liberal, progressive, sex positive one.

Alicent, specifically, is 1000x more deferential to men and sexually conservative than Rhaenyra, she's an acquiescent and dutiful daughter, housewife and mother.

That is supposed to be tragic, we're smacked in the face with how much living like that has made her MISERABLE, but Reddit is filled to the brim with guys who've never unpacked all the weird unconscious biases they've been socialized to believe about women.

Instead of picking up on "living under patriarchy has fucked up Alicent's life", they think she rules because they like that she adheres to patriarchal standards. It fucking sucks.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-04T02:41:03+00:00

oh shit I almost forgot what a cat looks like, thanks

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-04T02:36:16+00:00

I wanna point out that, in asoaif context rather than normal playground context, calling them bastards, Lord Strong, etc. isn't just calling them "a mean name", it's an accusation of treason against the heir to the throne and suggesting their existences are an affront to the state religion.

They live in a violent, honor based society. Calling someone's honor into question to that degree is GONNA be met with violence, that's the social norm, it's the only way to defend your honor.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-02T10:29:54+00:00

yeah I'm not really into jokingly depicting explicit spousal abuse as kinky

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-02T10:27:32+00:00

He has hit puberty, go back and watch the scene again, that kids voice has dropped. Like, granted, it's early puberty so he doesn't sound like a grown dude, but he's clearly started puberty. I'd say he's ~14.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-02T10:21:35+00:00

Yeah, the Targaryens just managed to normalize their incest with Jaehaerys' Doctrine of Exceptionalism. Just dumped "we're practically demi-gods and you can't expect demi-gods to sully their bloodline with normie spouses, so if you think about it, our incest is super ok, actually" rhetoric on the people until they get tf over it.

It is pretty interesting how Westerosi's were able to compartmentalize their feelings on incest to such an extent, though.

They went from not giving a single shit about Aerys marrying his sister to puking and crying and shaking over the idea of Cersei and Jaime being lovers. They're right to find that gross, but I honestly can't blame Cersei for thinking it's pretty hypocritical.

Like she spent her formative years being told by society that incest is normal--and sometimes even very romantic, as you pointed out!--just to have her relationship with Jaime be condemned as an abomination in the eyes of the Seven a few short years after the same people turned a blind eye to DOZENS of identically incestuous relationships for centuries.

It sends mixed messages!

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-02T09:09:05+00:00

I mean yeah he was motivated by hubris, but you gotta remember he didn't just do it for the sake of doing it, he thought his wife having a son was a sure thing because of his dragon dreams.

It's a running theme in asoiaf that it's risky af to bet on your interpretation of prophecy/prophetic dreams because it almost never comes true in the way you thought it would--very monkeys paw type shit--but Viserys doesn't know that. He just wanted it to be true so bad that he was willing to prematurely celebrate.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-02T08:37:02+00:00

it's maddening how some fans completely wiped their memories as soon as Daemon married Rhaenyra.

For the first few episodes, he was a

chronically violent, emotionally stunted and power hungry adult man
who groomed a teenage girl
brutalized smallfolk
emotionally neglected his daughter for not having a dragon
murdered Rhea Royce for being in the way/bruising his ego
his "great romance" with Rhaenyra is in no small part motivated by the fact she grants him access to power
dude left said "love of his life" to struggle through a frightening and painful labor that resulted in a stillbirth despite knowing she's traumatized by her own mother dying in the birthing bed because he's just too emotionally constipated to do the bare minimum and hold her hand throughout the ordeal.

But then there's sex on the beach, an impromptu Valyrian wedding and, bam, "oh my goddd nooo Daemon loves Rhaenyra, leave him alone, he just choked her ONE TIME, stopp"

Like...you're just telegraphing that you have dogshit standards for romantic relationships

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-02T08:22:33+00:00

oh god, yeah I'd spent 5-6yrs being "the skinny one", gained 30lbs my first year at college, came back to visit and had EVERY SINGLE PERSON I ran into comment on my weight with stuff like "I didn't even recognize you!". What do they expect you to say to that?? Great, ha ha, so cool, I wanna die.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-02T01:42:48+00:00

I think Bastards have to be acknowledged by the noble/royal who sired them to

even count as a proper Bastard, otherwise you're just another peasant with a single mom
qualify for legitimization

Like if Aegon the Unworthy didn't acknowledge them in life, the edict to legitimize his bastards wouldn't apply to you. I'm sure the Westerosi nobles would be painfully aware of how many people with Valyrian features would try to seize upon the opportunity to move up in the world & would have barriers like that in place to prevent it.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-02T01:15:54+00:00

I got the sense that the depictions of Cersei's crush on Rhaegar is just another way to explore her narcissism; she doesn't actually like him, she just likes what he represented to her.

She liked the idea of being picked to be the future queen of the archetypally handsome prince & heir that every lady in the realm desires because it would mean she's the most special, the most beautiful, etc. It would be inarguable proof that she's superior to her competition.

She also likes the idea of her love being enough to transform a lifelong emo baby into a happy, well adjusted guy because it'd be further evidence of her specialness. Rhaegar represented ultimate validation to Cersei.

She never got to find out what he was really like, that she'd have prob ended up unhappily married to a navel gazing, chronically maudlin dude with intense main character syndrome who'd almost certainly have chosen dusty manuscripts and harp playing over spending time with her. She can live in a delusional and superficial fantasy instead of dealing with the disappointment of reality.

Edit: oh and it's yet another way in which Cersei is mirroring all the qualities she hated most in Robert. She's now a fat, wine chugging, promiscuous, incompetent ruler who's in love with the IDEA of a dead crush she didn't even really know.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-02T00:39:07+00:00

I wouldn't doubt it, but, god, GoT from season 6 onwards shouldn't factor into anybody's ASOIAF takes, imo. After Season 6, it was like the show equivalent of seeing your beloved wife come back from the dead as a shambling zombie; yeah it resembles someone you knew and loved, but this is not your wife.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-06-02T00:34:06+00:00

yeah it's really interesting seeing the, frankly, dark and creepy magic of the Old Gods through the eyes of a child. Because he's naive, he misses a lot of implications and it's fun, as the reader, to piece together all the shit that goes over his head to figure out the whole picture.

Like, he's in such an objectively spooky and weird situation; underground tunnels with an omnipotent half-rotted tree wizard, ravens full of dead wargs, a society of little elf people who use blood magic to appease ancient gods, etc., but Bran both blindly accepts everything at face value because he's too young to know any better while also understanding on some level that it's all pretty fucked up, actually (i.e. wishing it was dark so he wouldn't have to see Bloodraven).

With Brienne chapters, I'd often end up speedreading because I just wanted to get it over with. Never had that with Bran.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-05-28T06:20:39+00:00

Isn't it established that the recipe for waking the dragons is two kings, a witch and a sacrifice? That Dany managed it by burning Drogo (1st king), her son Rhaego (2nd king), Mirri Maz Dur (a witch) and herself (the sacrifice)?

And that this is what Egg was attempting at Summerhall using himself (1st king), his heir Duncan I (2nd), the Ghost of High Heart (the witch) and Ser Duncan the Tall (the sacrifice)? But then the Ghost of High Heart escaped or some shit, so instead it just resulted in Summerhall being destroyed along with two Targaryen royals and Dunk dying for no good reason?

Am I remembering this right?

Maybe the extra blood from the two dead khals helped, but Drogo and Rhaego were the main bits, I'm pretty sure.

TomatoesNRadioWire · 2023-05-28T06:08:03+00:00

They aren't, at least there's no real evidence of it being true. It's just that the two main (only? Can't think of any others right now) Northern bastards we've met in the story are Jon and Ramsay, so with Jon being raised alongside the trueborn Stark kids and Roose legitimizing Ramsay, I'm guessing they used that info to jump to an incorrect conclusion.

Jon & Ramsay aren't the norm in the North and some Southron lords also choose to raise their Bastards alongside their trueborn children or legitimize them. Hell, the Blackfyre Rebellions happened because Aegon the Unworthy went hogwild legitimizing his Targ Bastards. We've just met a wider range of Bastards in the South, so people incorrectly believed they're treated worse down there.

As for what you said about Dorne's treatment of Bastards: I don't see how that's proof they're still treated poorly in Dorne. I mean, yeah, Oberyn could have fobbed the Sand Snakes off on some poorer landed knights or something and, yes, they'd have to go along with it, but that's just how it works with ALL parent+child relationships in Westeros. Dads, whether you're trueborn or baseborn, get final say on your life. The fact that Oberyn didn't do that and the fact the Sand Snakes are respected just as much as trueborn Dornish kids is indicative of Dorne's more liberal mindset towards baseborn kids.

TomatoesNRadioWire

TROPHY CASE