It's Really Weird How A Lot Of People In The Got/hotd Fandom Don't Seem To Accept How Grey Grrm's Characters

It's really weird how a lot of people in the got/hotd fandom don't seem to accept how grey grrm's characters are? Idk maybe I'm just on the wrong side of tumblr/tiktok, but...several things can be true at once.

Cersei Lannister can be an abuser, a killer, AND A VICTIM. She can love her children AND have deeply unhealthy relationships with them. Alicent Hightower can resent her children, have unhealthy relationships with them, have no idea how to parent them, and still love them. Rhaenyra can be the rightful heir to the iron throne with good intentions, and still seemingly have no idea how to rule. Viserys can make Rhaenyra his heir and talk about how much he loves Aemma and be a sh*t dad and partner. Sansa Stark can be mean to Arya and also a child whose behavior is reinforced by a guardian (the septa, who she is told to obey and learn from). Joffrey Baratheon can be a sadist who had to die for the good of the realm, and still a child. Robert can be funny and Ned's friend, and a terrible father and husband. Ned and Catelyn can be some of the best parents on either show, love each other and their kids, do everything for each other and their kids, and still have failed to prepare their children for the world they live in. The whole POINT of grrm's characters is that they're not good or evil, they're not black or white, their cruelty has a reason and they are all functioning within an inherently unjust society, and doing the best they can.

I just started watching BBC’s Merlin after watching a few tiktok edits of it and my main takeaway is that camelot needs better security.

Also, my bisexual ass is thriving.

I hate modern media.

Like don't get me wrong, there's plenty of good stuff out there, but for the most part it feels like so little heart goes into most books/movies/shows?

Like--the PJO show, don't get me wrong, it was good...but it was, at least to me, just kind of...fine? Nostalgia can only go so far.

Casting-wise, it was perfect, and it does seem like it was made by people who genuinely love and care about the source material, but who had to rush their story because they just didn't have the time. They had 8 episodes. Each of those episodes was like 35-45 minutes long, but not only is that pretty long for a single episode, if each of those episodes pretty much just covers one part of the story...that's still not a lot??

House of the Dragon? 10 episodes. No matter how long those 10 episodes are, they're trying to show us how a whole ass war got started in 10 FREAKING EPISODES. How Alicent and Rhaenyra's friendship broke down. Both of their relationships with their spouses and children. They still didn't fully explore Rhaenyra and Harwin's relationship. Does Rhaenyra have any more complicated feelings about her father for his role in the deterioration of her friendship with Alicent? Plus all the time skips...we don't have time to sit with these characters and their relationships and get to know them. Not like we did in GOT (at least the first like 4 seasons).

Not to mention waiting like 2 years between each season. Like, one of my favourite shows ever is Arcane because I like to suffer, and between season 1 and 2 there are 3 years (season 2 comes out November of this year). Watchers may not be happy to wait that long, but we expect good quality for that wait because Arcane is insanely good in all aspects--animation, character arcs, world building, nuance, commentary, music, action, etc., etc., etc. A lot of other shows, not just the two I've mentioned above, just don't feel as worth the wait. I still think they're enjoyable, and I think the writers do want to make good work, but that's hard to do with 8-10 episodes. And Arcane has only 9 episodes, and all of them are long, sure, but I feel like since there are so many moving parts and characters and subplots to the subplots, it can a) keep viewers engaged that long, and b) can easily fill up that much time well with clear priorities and a tightly woven story.

Avatar: The Last Airbender, a masterpiece show in my (and many other people's) opinion, had 20 episode seasons, each episode around 20-25 minutes. That's a reasonable amount of time to focus on one adventure or aspect of the adventure. Prioritize what to focus on, and it slays. But you can't keep giving writers 8 episodes, a shit ton of material, and then expect 100% quality every time.

reblog if you’ve read fanfictions that are more professional, better written than some actual novels. I’m trying to see something

In honor of House of the Dragon season 2 coming out this year, we can criticize women in this universe without calling them "whores," c*nts," or "b*tches." It is a thing that is possible. I don't trust your opinion if you call alicent "alic*nt," Rhaenyra the "whore of dragonstone," or whatever the fuck other nicknames people have. Christ.

I recently saw a post about how the "I will have you without armor" scene was absolutely awful because "it's Inej disrespecting Kaz's trauma" and "being insensitive" and blah, blah, blah.

First of all: INEJ HAS HER OWN FUCKING TRAUMA, and just because hers isn't as obvious as Kaz's, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. She's a sixteen-year-old traumatized girl who doesn't need to settle for whatever treatment a guy gives her just because he's also young and he's also traumatized.

Like, Kaz straight-up tells Inej that she's replaceable. He calls her an investment, which is not romantic if you think about how Inej has been treated as a piece of property since she was first captured by slavers. I'm not saying he's an abusive piece of crap, but by this point in the story he's not treating her all that great.

And people talk about Inej disrespecting Kaz's trauma AS IF SHE EVEN KNOWS ABOUT IT. We know about Kaz's trauma; Inej doesn't. She doesn't know the Jordie-being-used-as-a-float thing. She. Doesn't. Know. Hell, she doesn't even know Kaz's real name.

And now she has a new dream and a new purpose, to hunt down slavers. Why would she stay, knowing that Kaz is, at the moment, unwilling to open up to her in the way that he would need to in order for them to have a relationship? Like...it's right on the page.