asongoftinandfoil

[asongoftinandfoil]

There’s something so tragic about Cersei hating Robert (rightfully so) but becoming him all the same.

She hates ruling but loves the power it gives her over others. She drinks heavily. Abuses those around her. She fantasizes about a life with Rhaegar a man she never knew and never loved in the same way that Robert obsessed over Lyanna. She becomes someone that even Tommen (her son whom she loves dearly) fears. It mirrors the ways in which Robert abused Joffrey, but she hurts Tommen emotionally as opposed to physically.

All her life she wanted to be Jaime but instead she becomes the man she despised.

[asongoftinandfoil]

the lady x sworn shield dynamic can take on many iterations, including as lovers (cersei/jaime), brother-sister (loras/margaery), mistress-attack dog (sansa/sandor, alicent/criston cole), or parent-child (catelyn/brienne), and often it's multiple at the same time, but first and foremost it must always be weird about it.

[asongoftinandfoil]

i say this as a catelyn enjoyer, catelyn's hatred of jon is not particularly rational in the sense that it doesn't hinge on jon's own personal character. like some of it is borne out of wider prejudice regarding bastards (socially stigmatised as treacherous and grasping of their trueborn siblings' rights) of course, but the thing that hurts her most is what jon's presence in the household symbolically represents. and it's not the infidelity, it's the perpetual reminder of the disenfranchised position of women in their society and how little agency she truly has in her marriage and in the wider social sphere. the thing about catelyn's character is that she might be the conforming lady archetype, but she's also written to be very much aware of how disadvantaged women are in westeros.

"I might have been able to trade the Kingslayer for Father, but . . ." ". . . but not for the girls?" Her voice was icy quiet. "Girls are not important enough, are they?" Catelyn I, ACOK Is this my punishment for opposing him about Jon Snow? Or for being a woman, and worse, a mother? Catelyn V, ASOS “Father,” she said, “Father, I know what you did.” She was no longer an innocent bride with a head full of dreams. She was a widow, a traitor, a grieving mother, and wise, wise in the ways of the world. “You made him take her,” she whispered. “Lysa was the price Jon Arryn had to pay for the swords and spears of House Tully.” Catelyn I, ASOS Brienne looked at her with those blue and beautiful eyes. “As ladies die in childbed. No one sings songs about them.” “Children are a battle of a different sort.” Catelyn started across the yard. “A battle without banners or warhorns, but no less fierce. Catelyn VI, ACOK

^ these are not the words of someone who's content with her lot in life or has made perfect peace with the rules of westeros's feudal patriarchy. brienne and catelyn are both acknowledging the thankless role women are made to play. "no longer an innocent bride" / "wise in the ways of the world" has a certain misery to it, considering the topic at hand is hoster's abominable treatment of lysa for transgressing social norms. even a sentiment such as - "Pity filled Catelyn's heart. Is there any creature on earth as unfortunate as an ugly woman?", is not coming from a place of scorn or thoughtlessness, but from knowing too well how cruelly their world treats women, how brienne's appearance would affect her marriage prospects.

“Our duty.” Catelyn’s face was drawn as she started across the yard. I have always done my duty, she thought. [...] I gave Brandon my favor to wear, and never comforted Petyr once after he was wounded, nor bid him farewell when Father sent him off. And when Brandon was murdered and Father told me I must wed his brother, I did so gladly, though I never saw Ned’s face until our wedding day. I gave my maidenhood to this solemn stranger and sent him off to his war and his king and the woman who bore him his bastard, because I always did my duty. Catelyn VI, ACOK

there's such clear resignation here, this is not how you talk if you're proud to have done your duty, if you feel you were actually rewarded for having done it. and duty here means meeting the unforgiving expectations of westeros's feudal patriarchy. if sansa's chapters are about growing out of that conditioning by realising that there is no reward to be found here, then catelyn's chapters are about showing the personal cost of having lived your entire life internalising those ideals. her house words being 'family, duty, honor' is a very deliberate character choice.

so it's not just that ned cheated on her, but that he unanimously made the decision to install jon at their home and catelyn's feelings were allowed no say in the matter, that it happened even before she was able to step foot in winterfell with robb is another blow. she had just been exchanged as goods from one (dead) brother to another and she was supposed to be okay with all this, like the most natural thing in the world because her house words were drilled into her since childhood. but we know she wasn't. she stamped down that resentment out of duty, because he's her lord husband and she was to obey him, but that pain and the alienation for having done her duty was going somewhere. openly resenting her husband or her father is not a socially allowed option, so all that resentment gets unfairly taken out on jon, someone she has authority over. and i think identifying the major cause of that hatred as her frustrations with westoros's patriarchal ideals is important because that means knowing the truth of jon's parentage wouldn't have changed anything. that ned kept such a thing from her and again, unanimously made the decision to commit treason without consulting catelyn, is once again simply telling her that she has no control in this marriage, that her judgement is both unasked for and not valued.

[asongoftinandfoil]

sometimes when you guys discuss who is the REAL younger more beautiful queen you sound exactly like cersei. it's no one and it's everyone. it's the idea of a younger more beautiful queen simply existing. cersei thinks it's sansa, then thinks it's margaery, and it is. because cersei's crazy paranoid brain has done the work for her. the ymbq as a figment of her imagination has actually cast her down and taken all she holds dear.

[asongoftinandfoil]

What If Oberyn is stay alive

[asongoftinandfoil]

finally rereading asoiaf and it’s mind-boggling to me when people complain about it being grimdark because… it’s so unreservedly and unabashedly about love. in all its forms.

there’s so much love in just the first chapters. catelyn’s love for bran that drives her to catch a knife with her bare hands, ned’s love for lyanna years and years after her death, arya and jon, even those little bonding moments between jon and tyrion. “the things i do for love.” like there is horrific cruelty and unimaginable suffering but the love is so apparent when it ruptures through. it makes me crazy.

[asongoftinandfoil]

Renly is like if Cersei and Robert had a child (handsome, well dressed, delusions of grandeur)

[asongoftinandfoil]

𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐓 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐄𝐍

costume details. pentoshi clothes with white shirt and black pants. 1x06.

[asongoftinandfoil]

𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓 𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐇 as 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐄𝐍

At the War of the Stepstones. Daemon dragging the Crab King's body. House of the Dragon 1.03.

[asongoftinandfoil]

which asoiaf character do you think has bitten the most people

Gotta be the guy who’s called Biter on account of the fact that he bites people a lot and filed his teeth into points. So he’d be better at biting. I think that guy probably does have the all time record for biting.

[asongoftinandfoil]

One of my fave minor character in A Dance With Dragons is the guy who’s misogynist to Asha while trying to kill her and then apologizes to her for being sexist. He doesn't apologize for trying to kill her.

Which first of all. Finally someone telling Asha "my condolences about misogyny" I feel like she needed to hear that

Second of all. "I'm sorry for calling you a cunt" is basically Judith Butler levels of feminism for Westerosi men. Stannis was running that crew like the navy

[asongoftinandfoil]

what’s the best ASOIAF book?

[asongoftinandfoil]

Stannis: Why did my brothers, The Party Kings, inspire so much love and loyalty while I, Guy Who Let’s A Witch Set People on Fire-

[asongoftinandfoil]

Glennon Doyle, Untamed. Elizabeth Kate Russell, My Dark Vanessa. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God. filmnoirsbian, How To Draw A Circle. Ethel Cain, Sun Bleached Flies. Louise Glück, October. Aeschylus, The Oresteia.

[asongoftinandfoil]

[asongoftinandfoil]

so funny btw that like the one time jaime tries to connect with his kids its him telling his 9 year old son about how epic and useful dissociation is and his son is just like hell yeah i do that shit all the time and jaime thinks of it as a succesfull moment. like man okay

[asongoftinandfoil]

𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐘𝐄𝐍

outfit details 1x10.