#Arya and her constant name calling and name changes from the start

[doctorwhomybae]

George RR Martin and his obsession with the concept of characters names and titles, and the importance of calling people by their given name and how it affects their identity…I could write a whole essay

[queenaryastark]

Jon Snow Reread Takeaways

Jon is incredibly ambitious. Like seriously:

“When Jon had been a boy at Winterfell, his hero had been the Young Dragon, the boy king who had conquered Dorne at the age of fourteen. Despite his bastard birth, or perhaps because of it, Jon Snow had dreamed of leading men to glory just as King Daeron had, of growing up to be a conqueror. Now he was a man grown and the Wall was his, yet all he had were doubts. He could not even seem to conquer those.”

He also wants to be a ranger, he wants to be Lord of Winterfell, he wants to be a conqueror, and he’s only able to calm down about being made a steward when Sam explains that this is Mormont’s way of setting Jon on the path to leadership.

Jon also takes a natural leadership role among the recruits and is constantly bringing up his lessons on governing from Ned.

Speaking of his relationship with the other Night’s Watch recruits, Jon has a very interesting character arc with them:

Initially, he starts out disdaining the others as criminals and people of low birth who are beneath him. He also bullies them in the yard while they’re training.

One of his most underrated mentors, Donal Noye, calls him out and breaks down exactly what his problem is. 

Rather than sulk or deny the truth of it, Jon takes in the information and changes his behavior, taking up a teaching role with the other recruits, which earns him their respect and friendship. 

This early change in him works tidily with his eventual rise to a position of power since it shows that he’s able to go from having biases toward others and then grow away from those biases as well as his initial poor behavior. This could be paralleled with another bully in the series who never realizes they are wrong and doesn’t change throughout the story at all. 

His relationship with Sam is pure and good. 

The foreshadowing for Jon to have a second life in Ghost is very well plotted out:

First he kills Orell who then begins his second life in his eagle, a fact that is repeated a zillion times by Ygritte, Tormund, and Varamyr who detail how much Orell hates him. 

Orell even attacks and permanently scars him through his second life in the eagle.

In Varamyr Sixskins prologue chapter in ADWD, he basically gives a tutorial and history lesson on skinchanging that ends with him dying and getting a second life in one of his wolves. He also notes how he had known Jon was a skinchanger when he first saw him and Mance hadn’t allowed him to take Ghost from him, which would have been a “second life worthy of a king“. 

Jon spends a good deal of time struggling against the reality that he’s a skinchanger while also taking comfort in his connection to Ghost.

The direwolf’s name is literally Ghost. Nuff said.

In short, when Jon dies and his last word is Ghost, he’s probably beginning his second life in his wolf and it’s very neatly plotted out turn for him.

Jon has the most mentors of any protagonist I’ve ever seen:

Donal Noye, Jeor Mormont, the Halfhand, Maester Aemon, Ygritte (yes, she is firmly a mentor), Tormond, and maybe Mance Rayder

This works because Jon himself becomes a mentor first in teaching the other recruits and literally mentoring Stannis Baratheon lol, giving him a complete education in Northern politics and military strategy.

Jon only appears in two chapters with Arya (three if you count him watching her in the procession during Robert’s visit), but they have the deepest and most emotionally intense relationship in the series. It doesn’t matter if it becomes romantic as GRRM intended or not. There are too many examples to give bullet points to, but ADWD is the Jonrya bible for a reason. 

Finally, Ned Stark is Jon Snow’s father. It doesn’t matter who is biologically responsible for his creation, the parenting and instruction he received from him is clear in every chapter he has. He’s in a constant state of remembering what his father said and did or wondering what his father would think or imagining his father in different situations. I believe the reveal that he isn’t Ned Stark’s son will be devastating, though not at all in a way that antis want it too. It will more be in losing a part of his identity as Ned’s son, not in who his parents are. 

[myrish-lace-love]

Fight/Flight/Freeze

Jonsa Halloween Day 3 - Tales or The Stranger

Summary:  Sansa Stark always looks forward to Halloween trips to the Wintertown pumpkin patch. This year, though, Joffrey Baratheon forces Sansa to go to the "Fright Fest" haunted house, a new addition to Wintertown's attractions. Sansa is stuck, until Jon Snow helps rescue her from danger. With Jon's help, Sansa remembers everything she loves about the Halloween season. For @jonsa-halloween

***

Sansa had grown up on Halloween tales of Samhain. The Gaelic holiday shared an evening with Halloween, and ushered in the darker half of the year. Her father had told them stories of how the barrier between the living and the dead thinned and shifted that night.

When Sansa’s mother passed away two years ago, Sansa’s father had tried to spin Samhain stories as a source of comfort, as a time when they all might feel closer to her. During the day, Sansa shared in the reminiscing about her mother, and could even bring herself to smile at some of her father’s stories.

Once night fell, that spell was broken, and a new spell descended. Sansa would keep the light on in her bedroom, startling each time the branches scraped against her window. When she closed her eyes, she'd seen her mother's ghost, red-eyed and terrible, shrieking for revenge. She'd woken up in tears each time.

She'd made the terrible mistake of calling Joffrey as she wept last Halloween. She'd imagined he'd be gallant, perhaps even come and rescue her.

Instead, Joffrey had been irritable, He’d hung up almost immediately. Sansa was mortified, but she's told herself at least it'd been quick - a phone call from a needy girlfriend that Joffrey would soon forget.

But the longer Sansa stayed with Joffrey, the more she understood that he coveted and collected moments of weakness. He derived a sick and twisted pleasure from exploiting those moments over and over.

Sansa had been raised to be a good and obedient girl, and for her that extended into being a good and obedient girlfriend, no matter the cost. Joffrey spent the rest of the year telling her grisly ghost stories and transforming movie night with his friends into horror fests.

Sansa had laughed, and tried to waive away her fears as part of just another game she and Joffrey played.

Joffrey's eyes would glint cruelly each time. He may not be able to tell when she was happy, or sad, or needed comforting, but he fed off her fear like a bloodsucking insect.

Sansa had tried to distract Joffrey this Halloween by offering up a trip to her favorite apple orchard, the Wintertown pumpkin patch. She'd expected to be turned down. She'd been excited, in fact, about taking Joffrey's inevitable cancellation and turning it into a trip with Margaery Tyrell. Margaery’s constant quest to get Sansa to break up with Joffrey would simply be a bonus.

Instead, to her surprise, he'd readily agreed.

Read more below or on AO3

Sansa had sighed, but taken it in stride. She'd been looking forward to the trip. The Wintertown pumpkin patch was full of her Halloween favorites - apple cider doughnuts, pumpkin picking, pony rides for the children who'd shout with joy.

Sansa had been one of those little girls once. Each year, until she was too old, she’d ridden a beautiful black pony she'd named Belle. She'd pretended she was an autumn queen and Belle was her loyal mare. Her father and her mother had smiled at her. The picture Robb had snapped of her patting Belle’s mane was tacked to her vanity mirror in her bedroom. Her mother and father had even indulged her in the gift shop, buying her a crown of fabric autumn leaves for her hair.

That was the Halloween Sansa loved - the changing of the seasons, the beauty of the leaves, the crisp fall air, the joy people took in being cozy and warm as the cold crept into town. Wintertown pumpkin patch meant all of those things to Sansa.

Wintertown pumpkin patch had changed with the times, however. The business needed to bring in more revenue, and now it was home to the "most terrifying" haunted house in the state, Fright Fest. Sansa had read the reviews of Fright Fest, hoping to see something like "it's got a few ghosts, but it's safe enough for the kids.”

Instead, patrons described it as "scarring" and "a bad idea for anyone under sixteen." More than one visitor gave the haunted house zero stars. Those reviews claimed that Fright Fest went too far, and "swept you up in the plot of a horror movie that you can't escape."

Joffrey, naturally, had been thrilled.

Now, as they pulled into the Wintertown parking lot, Joffrey was trying Sansa’s last nerve.

He argued with the parking attendant about being forced to park his Lexus in the mud. The apple orchard was in the middle of a field, and all of the spots were in the mud. Sansa fought to keep from rolling her eyes. She gazed up at the orchard’s trees and reveled in the movement of the leaves on the wind.

Joffrey grabbed her wrist, harder than he needed to. She stifled a whimper.

“Quit embarrassing me. Just....stop mooning over trees and let's get this over with.”

Get this over with . Sansa felt a flash of hope. She loved this apple orchard. She’d loved it since she was a child. If she could change Joffrey’s mind about what he wanted to do today...

"You're right about your father’s car, Joffrey," she said, giving him a bright smile. You shouldn’t have to endure getting mud all over the tires.”

She took a deep breath and pulled out another one of the strategies she used to appease him. “The staff here are rude, maybe they don’t deserve our business.” She winced inwardly as she said it. Her parents had brought her up to believe that everyone deserved to be approached with dignity and respect - especially people who weren’t in a position to object to bad treatment.

Joffrey's expression darkened, and Sansa knew she'd been too bold.

“This is my car, not my father's car.  He's practically given it to me, Joffrey snapped. “Besides we can't leave now, Sansa.” A sharp, predatory smile sprung to his lips, "We haven't been to the Fright Fest. And I know how much you've been looking forward to it.”

Sansa trembled. She hated haunted houses. She’d been frightened by them ever since she and her siblings had been children. Robb and Arya and Bran had tricked her into believing a ghost lived in the basement of the Winterfell mansion. They’d apologized, and Sansa had long since forgiven them, but the damage had been done.

Sansa did her best to calm the pounding of her heart as she and Joffrey paid their entry fee. Joffrey hustled her past the hayrides and pumpkin picking patch to the "main attraction" of the Fright Fest house. Sansa shrank back as the gloomy building loomed over her. The speakers blasted awful sounds - keening and wailing of lost souls. Worst of all, the speakers sometimes burst with a shrieking that stopped Sansa in her tracks.

That was it, the exact scream Sansa’s mother had made in Sansa's dream.

“Come on, stop stalling, let's go.” Joffrey practically shoved little kids out of the way to get to the entrance. The building was encrusted with gruesome rubber masks.  Snarling gargoyles covered the facade. Bloody handprints stained the ground, as if the victims had been crawling away after being slashed to pieces--

“Miss, are you all right?”

Sansa blinked, and slowly took in the young man staffing the door. She'd expected him to be dressed in full monster regalia.

Instead he wore farmer's overalls, and a worn blue shirt. He carried a plastic pumpkin full of candy, and his nametag read "Jon."

“Great, you got us stopped by the kiddie chaperone,” Joffrey snarled. He glared at Jon as he pushed Sansa towards the dark, cavernous entrance. “She's fine.”

Jon's eyes flashed. He put his hand on Joffrey's chest. Jon didn’t seem to push him, but Joffrey stopped dead in his tracks as if Jon's arm was made of granite.

“She's hyperventilating.” Jon was speaking to Joffrey, but Jon’s gaze was all for her.

Sansa flushed. “I'm - I'm fine, really l, he's right, I'm too scared for my own good, I'll, I won't cause trouble I promise--”

Jon was right, it was hard for her to breathe, and she trailed off.

Joffrey couldn't muscle his way past Jon. He stepped up the insults instead. “She's twenty two, not six.”

“We had someone faint in here earlier today,” Jon said firmly. “Big strong lad, built like a tank, passed out cold on the floor.”

Some of the cunning slipped back into Joffrey's voice. “Well too bad for that guy, sounds like a loser…”

Jon pulled the two of them aside, allowing other customers to enter. Sansa glanced over to her left and saw Jon's coworker, a slender man with the name Satin on his tag, taking tickets.

“Look mate, this place is designed to trigger the fight/flight/freeze reflex,” Jon said to Joffrey.

The gods had blessed Joffrey with an overabundance of wealth, but intelligence was another matter. "What?"

Jon sighed. “A ghost pops out, you punch someone, you run, or your feet get stuck to the floor.”

Joffrey grinned and tightened his grip on Sansa’s arm. “Oh she'll try to run, I'm sure, but I'll drag her through it. Doesn't she need to learn to face her fears?”

Joffrey might as well have said she's worthless, a child, she disgusts me, and I’ll scare her so badly she'll be ashamed to ever complain about this sort of thing again.

Jon looked Sansa up and down. Usually when guys gave her the once over her skin crawled, but the kindness in his eyes helped her relax.

Jon shook his head. "She doesn't need to face anything, not unless she wants to."

Sansa stood up straighter.

The corner of Jon's mouth quirked. “Besides, she's not going to run. She's a fighter."

“You've got to be kidding me,” Joffrey said.

Jon shrugged. “Had a martial arts instructor come through yesterday. Black belt. Teaches over at Citadel University. Helped me start out in judo."

Sansa gasped. "Brienne?" Brienne was an old friend of the family. Sansa’s father had invited Brienne over for dinner often. Sansa admired how steely Brienne’s demeanor could be, how well she carried herself. I’m nothing like her , Sansa thought.

Jon nodded. “That's her. Clocked Pyp right in the face. She came through during my break. Satin's new at this, he let her in. I never would have. Can’t have our staff getting hurt."

Joffrey scoffed. “You're telling me Sansa Stark, Ned Stark’s sweet eldest daughter, who cries when kittens get hurt on TV, is a fighter?"

“That's exactly what I'm telling you,” Jon said evenly.

He turned back to Sansa. “It's in the eyes,” he said softly. “That look. It's unmistakable.” Jon was speaking directly to her now. Everything else faded away as she got lost in his gaze.

“She's going to fight her way through this,” he murmured. Sansa wasn’t sure they were still talking about the haunted house. “She's going to break loose, the next time she's scared.”

Jon turned back to Joffrey.  “And if you're not careful, the person she punches could be you.” Sansa could have sworn Jon was growling.

When Joffrey spoke again he sounded shaken. "Whatever, just let us in.”

Jon stepped between Joffrey and Sansa. Sansa took a full, deep breath for the first time since she’d entered the park. "Go on, mate, feel free. But she isn't going with you."

“I'm going to find your manager and get you fired,” Joffrey sneered.

Jon smiled and pointed. “Go on ahead. He's over there, by the gift shop. Sandor Clegane. You might even know him.”

The color drained from Joffrey's face. Sandor Clegane had worked security for the  Baratheon family, until he stopped Joffrey from tormenting Tommen's cat. No one talked about it openly, but the small town had been buzzing with the news for weeks. Sandor stood by the door with his arms crossed. He wore a suit of armour that was far too well fitting to be a cheap costume.

“This is ridiculous,” Joffrey muttered. “I'm leaving.” He glared at Sansa. “Find your own way home with your new knight here.” He stormed off.

Sansa recovered shortly after. “I’m...not sure how to thank you,” she said softly to Jon unsteadily. “Thanks for fibbing for me, I really am too scared for my own good. I would have bolted or frozen or…."

The corner of Jon’s mouth twitched. “My gut tends to be right about these things. But now it’s up to you whether you go in or not.”

A portly man with glasses and the nametag "Sam" tapped Jon on the shoulder. "Shift's up Jon." Jon nodded absently at him.

With Joffrey gone, Sansa was at a loss. “Well, thank you again, for your help, I'll just…" She trailed off. She had enough money to get an Uber home - after a year of dating Joffrey she always brought enough money to get home on in case he caused a scene. Best to start calling for a car.

As she fumbled for her phone, her stomach growled.

Jon rubbed the back of his neck. “Hey, I don't mean to impose any more than I have already--”

“Oh no,” Sansa broke in. "You saved me there. I'm very grateful, Jon.” She smiled at him, and this time the smile came naturally.

Jon blushed. “Well, at any rate, would you like to get an apple cider doughnut? My parents used to bring me here as a kid--”

“So did mine.” Sansa could practically taste one now.

“And their doughnuts are the best,” Jon finished.

Jon walked her to the restaurant. They split three doughnuts between the two of them. Sansa licked the sugar off her fingers before she could remember to be ladylike. Jon laughed with her, not at her, and Wintertown pumpkin patch settled back in her mind as a place of comfort and refuge. Joffrey drifted further from her thoughts. Jon helped her pick out a pumpkin in the gift shop.

Jon walked her to her Uber. Before she could overthink things, she asked for his number. Jon flushed and mumbled through it.

**

Once Sansa arrived home, her Siberian husky Lady bounded up to her. Sansa laughed and showed her the brown paper sack with the pumpkin she and Jon had picked out.

After she’d lifted her small, round, perfectly orange pumpkin onto the kitchen table, she noticed another package at the bottom of the bag.

She pulled it out, turning it over in her hands. "Deluxe Pumpkin Carving Kit" was written in gaudy letters, and the plastic packaging was decorated with smiling cats and happy witches. An assortment of carving tools were inside. The kind that could slice through pumpkins, and leave children unscathed.

There was a handwritten note as well.

Dear Sansa,

For the next Halloween scuffle you're in. Or for carving pumpkins. I hope you feel comfortable coming back to Wintertown next season. I'll be manning the restaurant door in case you want to sample some more apple doughnuts. Thanks for making my day.

Have a great Halloween,

Jon

Sansa smiled. She got to work on her pumpkin, carving out a happy witch with a curly hat. She snapped a picture of her handiwork and texted it to Jon.

Jon texted back a pumpkin carved like a smiling cat. There's a big white Siberian husky in the photo with him, curled up on his couch.

Well now I have to send him a picture of Lady, she thought, if only to be polite.

***

Next year on Halloween, Jon made apple cider for the both of them. He didn’t use Wintertown pumpkin patch’s recipe, not exactly, since it was a secret. Sansa sighed in bliss when she took her first sip. She told Jon it was better than the cider at the pumpkin patch. When Jon ducked his head and tried to protest, Sansa kissed the corner of his mouth, and soon they forgot the cider entirely.

[punchholesinthesky]

I didn't know you could just be a boy

I was listening to a podcast today, about a girl who stood up to her parents at the tender age of four and told them that she was a girl and that she'd chosen a name. I'm in awe of this little girl being so damn sure of herself. I got super emotional listening to it and it got me thinking about my own childhood. It was NPR’s radio ambulante, the episode called “yo nena”.

I knew I was different from a young age but I didnt know how.

I just felt it. And probably cause I visited a lot of doctors and i guess most kids don't do that?

I learned that my brain was different but not the details. I had some vague notion of being adhd. I would not learn it until much later by googling different developmental disorders and learning about being neurodivergent and autistic.

I would later on go on to learn I was queer too, and though I had read the word genderqueer once and thought it fit, I hadn't given it much thought.

I was assigned female at birth, and though I have never liked it, I thought I was stuck with it, that I just had to make the best of it.

I remember wishing to be a boy so many times. Identifiying with male characters, creating ocs and alter-egos, acting the male parts (it was an all-girls school, someone had to), and begging mum to let me cut my hair short, and being so happy when people thought I was a boy.

I never liked traditionally female things, never had a barbie, hated dresses (there's still a photo of a tiny grumpy me being forced into a dress one of my grandmas gave me) and my school uniform was trousers 99% of the time. The other 1% was like official acts, maybe the first and last day of school, stuff like that. I hated it, but at an all-girls catholic school I had much biggers issues that complaining about wearing a skirt a few days out of the year. I remember the gym uniform being a problem. Not sure what the problem was. Something about tights maybe?

I never felt like a girl. But it wasn't something I could properly explain so when I tried to talk about it, with my parents or friends what they usually got out of it was the usual self-steem issues of any girl. Mum tried to help by helping me choose new clothes, telling me how good I looked. And trying to get me to be more feminine, teaching me about 'girly stuff',

But that wasn't it. I understand it better now .

See, it's not that I have self-steem issues about my appearance. I know I'm conventionally good

looking. And if I gave 1/10 of a fuck I can be a very hot girl. I have photos of pasts attempts to prove it. But it never felt right. It never felt like me.

I can put on a bikini and I'm young, thin, fit, I'll look good. But that doesn't mean I'll like what I see in the mirror. I don't feel uncomfortable because I think the person in the mirror looks bad but because I don't know who that is.

I feel exposed. Vulnerable. Bikinis are uncomfortable by design, meant to exploit feminine bodies and for someone who's already uncomfortable having one? A bloody nightmare.

And there's a lot of understand. Why the hell am I being punished for the crime of having a female body by being constantly uncomfortable ? Why are clothes so terrible? Why is so hard to find something basic and decent? Why are bras the worst?? On and on and on. questions I never got the answer to. So much confusion about girl stuff that every other girl i knew seemed capable of navigating.

For a long time I blamed it on me being weird (ie, neurodivergent)

Like, all my friends started caring about boys, parties, romance, alcohol and drugs.

I'd always struggle in school and one year I got literally left behind.

I struggled with depression. I tried hard to fit in and be like them. I tried to be normal, followed their strange rituals. I let my hair grow out, i went on dates with boys, I drank too much and made out with strangers. I got into trouble. I wore a dress to my graduation and invited a boy I'd been talking to.

It was one of the few times I wore a dress voluntarily. Another one was a christmas dinner. And a new year's party. I also wore a skirt to dress up as kate bishop. That's about all I recall. I did buy a dress to cosplay clara oswald but never did it.

I wonder, what if I had told my parents I was a boy and I wanted to be treated like one before? How would they have reacted ?

Laughed it off probably. As they did when I pretended to be a boy for a game as I often did.

I can't imagine them taking it seriously, even now.

I don't know when I found out trans people existed, or who was the first one I heard about.

But I do know I thought it meant you like hated your body or yourself and wanted to be totally different.

And that didnt fit me. I had never hated myself. I hated how the world treated me. I hated arbitrary rules based on gender.

My scout group was mixed-gender, but we were divided in troops and these were single-gender and divided by age.

But we all learned the same things. Whether it was building a fire, tracking, or cooking, we got the same lessons. Sometimes we competed and we slept/bathed separately.

In TECHO it was all mixed-gender. Well, except bathing, but often we'd shared the same bathroom. We slept, cooked, and worked together.

And nobody ever looked down on girls as 'the weaker sex'

That was cool.

My actual education was the opposite. Academically, it is better for a school to be all-girls, at least for girls. But socially, not so much.

As a teenager, I hadn't quite forgotten how much I wanted to be a boy as a kid, but idk I thought I had left it behind me. That what I craved was freedom, independence, the benefits of being a boy, not actually being one.

Later I would discover terms like 'internalized misogyny' and think that was the problem. Cause I liked Lucy and Arya, not Susan and Sansa.

Yet here I stand, years later. Having done a lot  of work. Recognising the value of Susan and Sansa. Appreciating Peggy Carter, in a gay and feminist way, and still not wanting to be a girl.

It just doesn't fit me. It's not a rejection.

I'm a feminist. I think women are great.

I understand there are many ways to be one.

That I don't have to be feminine to be one.

And yet, it just doesn't feel right.

After I learned of what 'gender dysphoria' was I though, 'oh I can't be trans I don't have that'

And then, I learned about 'gender euphoria'

And that finally opened my eyes

Trying to be a girl always felt like an ill-fitting costume, no matter how hard I tried. Like I was playing a part and didn't know my lines.

I remember cutting my hair short, like kstew, and going WOW upon seeing my reflection.. I looked more like myself than I had in ages.

I bought different clothes. Boy's clothes. I'm too small for men's clothes but I can fit just fine in clothes meant for 12 years old boys.

I cut my hair, put on new clothes, bought tight sport bras, and when I looked in the mirror, I wasn't sure who the person staring back was but I really liked how he looked.

My parents, for ages, tried to get me to 'dress nicer' to 'act like a lady' and so on. I cared enough to shower and put on clean clothes. I bought a lot of nerdy shirts which I at least liked. Did some experiments. Occasionally I'd make an effort but otherwise I was pretty basic. Loose-fitting jeans and hoodies.

Family kept gifting me nicer girly things I'd wear once and often ignored later.

It wasn't till I gave myself permission to truly dress how I wanted, and yes to shop in the boy's/men's section that I started to actually care about how I looked and putting more effort in.

I never thought I could be a boy, because I didn't know that was a thing you could do.

if I had been like that little girl and said 'i'm a boy' I think they'd havebeen at a total loss.

would they have asked my shrink? What would he have said?? It felt as though they were always on my case to be more lady-like but I know that's unfair. They were generally pretty okay with me being a tomboy, at least until puberty. And even then it was never that huge a thing. More of a constant annoying issue. There were many more pressing ones.

It's 2019, and I bet most parents would still be at a loss. There's not exactly a lot of rep or info.

I'm a lot happier with how I look now, but I still haven't found the right words to explain myself to my parents. I know I have to eventually, I want to stop hiding, to be visible, to change my name.

[moon-ruled-rising]

as the rain hides the stars | xi

Read the full story on ao3...

xi: clinging to the wild things that raised us

We can build a tree house in the pine trees,

we can keep our secrets buried underneath.

Wildflowers crush between your fingers,

clinging to the wild things that raised us.

-Zella Day, “Compass”

On the day they left King’s Landing, Jon was up early, as was his habit. Sansa and Robb were still asleep, and he didn’t want to wake them, but he was restless. He would have gone for a run but he didn’t know the area nor did he want to take the chance of running into another interested courtier. It seemed that no one at the Southern court knew how to mind their own business.

The three days spent in the glittering court of the Red Palace felt like an ongoing interview, constant questions and feigned interest with no end in sight. Jon never liked the spotlight, a trait he inherited from his father no doubt, but in his life that much attention was never a good thing. If his name was in headlines, it was usually a criticism of his behavior. Even though Jon tried as hard as he could to never step over the line, the line continued to move. Creeping closer and closer until he would have no room left to go.

Most of the time his slip ups went under the radar but when he first came home from his time on The Wall, he wasn’t so lucky. He was fueled with anger and resentment for his position and wanted nothing more than to take it on someone other than himself.

And then there was the inevitable engagement. All the scrutiny and harsh words would increase ten fold. Even if it did end well and his people were saved, they would never forgive him for marrying someone with a rap sheet like hers. They were both doomed. 

As he readied himself for a day of travel, he received a text from Sansa. A link to a blog dedicated to posting pictures of royalty from all over the world doing mundane things. However, the most recent posts were just photos of Jon and Daenerys from the Dragon Pit club from two nights ago. They boasted captions calling the two ‘cozy’ and speculating at a deeper connection. From the angle the photos were taken, Jon could see where it looked like that but he knew the actual conversation was anything but. 

It wasn’t long before they were taxiing down the runway in a Targaryen owned jet. Rhaegar insisted they take it, although the Starks were fine with commercial travel.

The compact interior of the private plane reinforced the cramped feeling that already followed Jon. But as the jet soared over the grey-blue waters of The Bite, he felt his jumbled and off-balanced state from the past couple of days slip away. Even as the constant reminder of his eminent fate sat right across from him he felt more comfortable knowing he would be home soon.

Across the plane from him, the Princess Daenerys still had a pair of dark, oversized sunglasses perched on her nose. They hadn’t moved since she said goodbye to her friend at King’s Landing. Despite her smiles and waves, Jon knew she would rather be anywhere but there. Her security officer sat with her, the two carrying out a conversation in hushed tones.

When they landed in White Harbor, Jon breathed in relief. There were no paparazzi this time. No flashing bulbs, no raucous cries from nosey reporters. They slid through the airport with ease, unbothered despite being the most important family in the North returning from a very important trip.

White Harbor was the North's closest thing to a city but it was still small compared to the great beasts of the South. There were no high rises to be found, all the buildings favoring the old styles and keeping the city’s charm in place.

The mayor of White Harbor greeted them at the town hall along with Lord and Lady Manderly and the rest of the Stark entourage. Queen Catelyn, Bran and Arya, and Talisa. Although, Talisa would have to watch the proceedings from the crowd as she had no official standing with the royal family.

As soon as Jon was in eye sight of Arya, she bolted for him, enveloping him in a hug with all the force of a bear. After Robb, Arya was his closest sibling. Their bond was partly driven by the fact that they looked more Stark than Tully. They both had their father’s dark hair and grey eyes, Sansa and Robb took after Catelyn with auburn curls and blue eyes.

“I was only gone three days,” Jon laughed, returning her ferocious squeeze

“It felt like forever. Especially with mom babysitting us.”

Bran came second, his usual few steps behind. 

Talisa and Robb were already arm and arm. Jon’s heart arched. He would never have a chance at the affection he witnessed between them, not that there had ever been much of a chance anyway.

He’d gone so far as to deny himself a love life to avoid a scandal. He and Ygritte were brief. A quick, private affair near the end of their high school careers but they both knew it could never be anything serious. Any future contender for Queen Consort had to be from noble blood. And Ygritte, with all her charm and wild beauty, was anything but. Her father was a political upstart who made something of himself but there was no land or title to go with it. 

It was much easier with no baggage from past exes and no possible tell-all articles. But where he fell short in romantic entanglements, he made up for in physical confrontations. 

  Daenerys smiled through the introductions, playing perfect princess before disappearing into the restroom to change.

“Why is she here?” Bran asked, once she was out of ear shot. 

“She’s helping us finalize a treaty,” Ned answered, looking between his other children who were in the know. 

His message was clear, ‘Don’t tell them’.

“What do we need the treaty for?” Arya questioned.

“That is a topic for the next family meeting.”

Ned whispered something to Catelyn and the two walked away. Jon watched them wander down the hall to another seating area.

“Is anyone going to tell us what’s really happening?” Arya folded her arms over her chest and glared at her older siblings.

“We have a right to know, “ Bran seconded.

“Jon’s engaged,” blurted Sansa. 

“You’re what?” Arya gasped.

“That was fast,” Bran responded at the same time as his twin. 

Jon gave Sansa an ‘are you kidding me’ look and she mouthed sorry in return.

“It was dad’s idea and I’m sure Catelyn knows but it’s supposed to be a secret. The public can’t know until we’re ready to tell them. We aren’t even engaged yet, the documents haven’t been signed.”

“Ned mentioned a treaty and Jon came back engaged. What happened down there?” Talisa chimed in. 

“I think I’m going to side with my dad and say that’s a topic for the next family meeting.” Robb looped Talisa’s arm with his and led her away from the little gathering. 

Arya and Bran were already glued to their phones again, their hushed voices gushing over the newest app they’d discovered. Out of all the Starks, they were the most tech savvy. They drove the press secretary mad with their under the radar social media accounts with outrageous names. Although they always covered up their faces in the photos. 

“You know, you should really try to talk to her,” Sansa prompted, not looking up from the magazine she’d returned to flipping through.

Jon didn’t need any elaboration.

“I have nothing to say to her.”

“She’s not as bad as you think.”

Jon gave his sister an incredulous look.  

“And you’re both going through the same life changing event.”

“Just the other day you were wholly against her.”

“And? People’s opinions can change.”

“Sansa-” he started.

“I love your outfit, Your Royal Highness,” Sansa smiled as Daenerys came out of the restroom.

“Oh, thank you.” the princess looked up from the notecards in her hand and returned Sansa’s smile.

For a moment she didn’t look so venomous. 

“And please, call me Dany. All my friends do.” 

Sansa grinned, shooting a look at Jon before turning back to her magazine. Dany, as Jon figured she wanted to be called, smoothed down the back of her black skirt as she sat. Her usual warrior-esque braids were simplified into two twists holding her soft, white-gold waves out of her face.

Sansa and Dany might be on good terms now but she had yet to make a good impression on Robb and the twins. 

Sansa flipped another page of her magazine, the crisp sound sharp in the silence of the room. Jon watched her as her eyes darted from the page to him and to the Princess beside her. He could see the gears turning in her head. 

“You know what, I’m going to take a look at the crowds. Arya, Bran, wanna come with?”

Jon went to call out after her but she was already halfway down the hall, Arya and Bran trudging along with disinterest.

“Play nice!” she called over her shoulder.

He groaned and Dany chuckled.

“She’s a handful, that one.”

“You’re telling me,” she sighed.

He considered what Sansa said and swallowed his pride. What could it hurt? 

“ Dany-”

“Don’t call me that,” she muttered, not looking up from her notecards.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Only my friends call me Dany and as far as I’m concerned, Your Highness-” she looked up in a sharp gesture, “we are not friends. Acquaintances, maybe, but certainly not friends.”

It could hurt a lot, apparently.

She stood, as if to leave, when the royal family’s press intern rounded the corner and announced that it was time to begin the event. 

The Starks were old fashioned and kept a press secretary. It was an outdated station, the only responsibility being to send official statements to all news outlets. Their current secretary had asked for an intern to help with an official social media presence to keep the threat of paparazzi at bay. It worked as far as Jon was concerned. 

They were led from the town hall to the small stage set up outside. A canopy overhead meant to shade them from the sun or, more likely, the rain as the thick clouds crowding the sky looked dark. The Stark sigil of a grey wolf on a white and green background was displayed on banners, floating lazily on the breeze. 

Jon held out his hand to assist Daenerys up the steps. She was wearing a pair of precarious heels and he knew that stairs were a challenge for any woman in them. He’d watched Sansa parade around in them, and Arya wobble behind in a valiant attempt, for years.

Daenerys allowed her hand to hover over his to avoid being labeled as rude or too bold by the audience. The people were watching and someone was bound to notice if she blew off his chivalrous offer.

The mayor started his short introduction speech, followed by a few words from Lord Manderly. As usual they were politically perfect and manufactured. Just like the Princess’ words would be too. 

When Lord Manderly announced their visitor's name, there followed a polite applause. She approached the podium with grace and a smile, a forced one Jon was sure. 

“Thank you, Lord Manderly, for the warm welcome. Speaking of warmth, I always thought the North was cold and snowy but she’s proved me wrong. The weather is beautiful and so is the landscape. I’ve only been here a short time and what I’ve managed to see through airplane and car windows has taken my breath away.”

Jon wondered if her statement was true, or something generic used by the Royal Family for all foreign visits. But the way she delivered it was so impressive Jon could just as easily be convinced they were her own thoughts.

“I come before you today, not in any diplomatic capacity, but as a guest of the Starks. And as a woman who wishes to nurture a much friendlier connection between our two lands, who for so long have acted distant and foreign to each other despite being neighbors.”

She continued on but Jon’s mind wandered, her words fading into the background. There were news cameras at the front of all the people, capturing everything from all possible angles. Reporters stood by them, anxiously accepting the Princess’ words about her excitement to see the North and her hope for a stronger friendship between the two nations. He wondered if the people watching in their homes were reacting the same way. 

A Targaryen hadn’t been in the North since the 13th century. That Targaryen was one of the hundreds of Aegon Targaryens that conquered the south, a name so lucky they recycled it. Despite being the King who refused to bend the knee, one never saw many people named Torrhen. 

The closest he'd encountered was his friend Tormund Giantsbane. A member of the Free Folk settled in the Gift who spent so much time around Castle Black he was as much a Brother as anyone else. He refused to join them because of the bad blood between the Free Folk and Night's Watch, considered it a betrayal of Wildling ideals. Jon tried to convince him to join Ygritte at The Smoking Log, but he refused. Winterfell was too far south for him.

At the end of all the formalities, the royal family set out to mingle with the citizens of White Harbor.  Jon set out on his own, shaking hands and greeting the people gathered there, a security officer not far behind. For the first time in days, his smile wasn’t forced. Something about having his feet on the ground and moving through crowds was natural to him. 

Shaking hands with people and talking with them reminded Jon of the responsibility he held. A King should be seen by his people and the people by their King, he recalled Ned saying once. His father was always dropping pieces of advice into their regular conversations, he thought it was the best way to share them.

Daenerys was a few feet away also smiling and being on her best behavior. Jon couldn’t help but take interest in the way she bent down and hugged the children that were there. He knew she was an aunt but not every aunt was a good aunt. He’d met Catelyn’s sister, Lysa Arryn, on a few occasions and she scared him, even as a grown man. 

He shook another hand before his security officer was ushering him toward the fleet of cars that would take them to Winterfell. Unfortunately, he had to share a car with Her Royal Highness. While her mood appeared to have mellowed, she was able to turn dangerous in a second. 

Once out of the city, Jon realized how much he’d missed the countryside. The beautiful green revealed after the morning frost melted away. The White Knife, the impressive river that flowed from the Lonely Hills to the Bite, followed them for most of the journey, adding to the beauty of the scene that surrounded them.

He’d never been so happy to see that particular shade of green, except once when he returned from The Wall. It was the one positive thing he could focus on as he was dragged away from the one thing that gave him a tangible sense of purpose. 

It wasn’t long until they were approaching the gates of Winterfell. The Wolfswood rose up to the West, impressive with its sentinels taller than the castle walls. Jon chanced a look at the Princess as she gazed out the window, trying to catch a glimpse of her first impressions of the castle. Although she tried to hide it, he saw the glimmer in her eye as they passed under the south gate. 

They climbed out of the cars, Jon tried not to give the princess a hard time. She was looking around, all of the disinterest in her gone. Something shoved his shoulder and he turned around to find Sansa, who was motioning toward their guest. Offer her a tour, you dolt, her eyes screamed. But Jon wasn’t ready to make nice yet. And a tour of his home, just the two of them, was much closer than he ever planned on getting to her for a long while.

Sansa shoved his shoulder again but Ned called Jon’s name and he thanked the Gods he avoided that bullet.

“We have the Council meeting to get to,” Ned reminded him.

Upon second thought, an inconvenient tour with the one person he couldn’t stand seemed like the much better option.

“I was about to give our new guest a tour of the castle,” Jon offered, hoping he sounded convincing. “That’s quite alright, I can handle it. You don’t need to keep the great lords waiting,” Catelyn stated, detaching herself from Ned’s side.

Jon took a deep breath. 

As he imagined, the small council was not pleased with the fact that they’d brought home a foreign princess. He stood at his father’s side as the Lords bickered, their voices amplified by the stone walls. By the end of it all, Jon would be rubbing his temples the way his father was.

“As I’ve said before gentlemen, I have considered all options and this treaty is the only one that works. Both now and in the future,” Ned defended.

“It’s ludacris!” Karstark bellowed.

“A betrayal to our values,” shouted Umber.

They'd even managed to make Lord Umber mad, and the Umbers were the strongest supporters of the Starks. 

The Lords of the North weren’t ‘yes men’ by any means. They were direct and staunch and not afraid to be honest with their king. The only time they feared him was when he was in a wrathful mood. And Jon had only seen his father that way once, when he announced his wish for the legitimization.

Jon remembered sitting outside the great room with Robb, their ears pressed to the heavy wooden door as they did for every council meeting. However, they weren’t prepared for the news they were about to hear.

“I want to make a motion to legitimize my son Jon, so he will succeed me to the throne.”

The room erupted into shouts, in much the same manner Jon experienced now, as Jon and Robb pulled their ears away from the door to stare at each other with agape mouths and wide eyes. At only ten years old they understood the implications. Both of their lives were about to change.

Jon found Roose Bolton situated in a far corner, his face was always hard to read but his expression at this latest news was plain. Exasperation. The voices around them continued but Jon stared at Bolton. There was something else behind his usually stoic face and Jon wanted to find out what it was.

The room quieted and Jon realized his father was speaking to him. 

“Jon?”

“Yes?”

“Your thoughts on the treaty?”

Jon had been looking for an opportunity to reveal his true feelings on the matter but looking at his father he knew what he needed to do.

“I’m not fond of the marriage aspect of it. The Princess is … difficult and has a lot against her. But my personal life doesn’t come before the needs of our country and I stand by my father’s decision. If he believes this will protect our people, then I believe it too.”

“Has the princess agreed to this arrangement?” Lord Bolton spoke up.

“She has asked for more time to make her decision,” Ned reported.

“How much time?”

“A month, at most. Even if she takes all that long, we’ll still have plenty of time to import goods and build shelters.”

“And what if she says no? Her country has nothing to gain from this except our assimilation.”

Their voices rose again at the thought of a bent knee. Jon let his eyes wander the room of red-faced lords. He’d said his piece, there was nothing to do but wait.

The sound of a fist connecting with the long wooden table silenced everyone in the room and brought Jon’s attention back.

“We are not assimilating with the south. We keep our freedom and our ways but more importantly we keep our people alive. Without them, the North is nothing. This meeting is adjourned.”

The Northern lords filed out, grumbling about the news. The secretary followed behind, arranging the notes from the meeting turned screaming match. 

Ned sat back down, letting out a strong cough as he did. 

“They’ll understand once everything is set,” Jon assured his father.

“I know but I doubt I’ll be able to stand their complaining while we wait,” Ned joked but his laughter turned into a cough followed by another.

“Are you alright?” Jon asked as he handed his father the water glass from the table.

“I’ll be fine,” he assured his son, “Just adjusting to the change in air. You know what I always say-”

“Starks never fare well in the South,” they stated together.

Now more than ever, that statement rang true.

[thebluelemontree]

At what moment do you consider Sandor fell in love with Sansa? (or care for romantically, if you don't think he fell in love). Do you think he realizes he feels something other than lust for her or is he still oblivious to his feelings? I thought about this a few days ago and its been bothering me for some time...

Yes, he knows it’s more than just lust, but it’s complicated.  Let me start with the physical attraction part.  I don’t think there is any evidence before their encounter on the serpentine steps that Sandor is physically attracted to Sansa.  That’s the moment that he blurts out in his drunken, uninhibited state that he’s just noticed she has a more womanly figure; however, he quickly reminds himself that no, she’s still a little bird no matter what she looks like.  Before that, he’s only ever treated her like the kid she is, whether he’s arguing with her or trying to protect her.  For a man with as many issues as Sandor has, physical attraction is the easiest feeling to understand and identify.  That doesn’t make it something he’s comfortable with.  He definitely feels guilt and embarrassment over it, and even tries to suppress it.  The milk is already spilled though.  His physical attraction is now enmeshed with his desire to maintain intimacy and to protect her.  Caring for a kindred spirit now becomes more amorous, which can be the natural progression of things when two people have chemistry.  Something flips a switch, and they suddenly look different than they did before.  

Sandor isn’t oblivious to his feelings.  What he has are a lot of emotions that are muddled together and in direct conflict with one another, causing him great consternation; furthermore, his prior experience with love of any kind is scant to none.  He was betrayed by his father at a young age and lived under constant terror from his brother.  His only other example of familial “love” is the Lannisters. :P  He’s been conditioned to think of himself as a dog that should only be content with what his masters see fit to give him.  He has a major facial disfigurement that elicits disgust and fear within a prejudiced society.  He’s abrasive and emotionally immature, which alienates him more from others.  He’s never been treated like a human being with feelings until Sansa, at least as far as we can see.  Just having one genuine human connection with someone that took his side and didn’t betray his secret is enough to make this the most important relationship in Sandor’s life, and despite everything against that, he wants to keep it going.    

But what is this relationship?  Both have trouble putting a name to this thing between them.  Sansa is too young, still going about her maturation at her own pace, and not close to being ready to make room romantically for someone like Sandor.  For Sandor’s part, there’s added struggles.  There’s the issue of class disparity.  She outranks him by a country mile, and she’s the betrothed of the king, something that I think overshadows them in their society more than the age issue.  Even though there are a mutual interest and secret allyship, they would not call this a friendship.  Even the chaste intimacy they have is already crossing boundaries of familiarity.  They’re always dancing around it by calling each other anything but their first names.  This is simply not a thing that is done, but in each other, they find the needed space to air what they really think and feel.  He’s also caught between her and being Lannister servant, the consequences of which will tear him apart.  

On an interpersonal level, she frustrates him with her continued insistence on the ideals of the songs being worth sticking to no matter how sideways the world goes.  Her demonstrating that idealism in practice forces him to examine his own worldview and inspires gradual changes in him, but also makes him want to double down on his cynicism and prove her wrong.  Then there’s also anger at himself for caring about another person at all.  Anger at her for making him feel all these strange and complicated things.  Anger and self-loathing for that part of him that wants more from her.  Anger and self-loathing for not being a better man and protector for her due to his PTSD, his alcohol abuse, his fear and weaknesses, and his inability to express himself in a healthy way.    

From a reader’s perspective, Sandor demonstrates the building blocks of romantic love before he can even understand what is driving his actions.  He definitely possesses qualities like passion, fidelity, commitment, and a willingness to be vulnerable with her (albeit grudgingly).  The relationship is meaningful enough for him to be willing to make sacrifices and take risks for her.  He’ll lie to his masters and put himself in harm’s way to protect her.  I think that it is fair to say that Sandor is definitely in love with Sansa by the time of the Blackwater if we’re strictly going by those signs; however, offering to protect her and kill anyone that tries to hurt her is as close as Sandor can come to articulating what his feelings are.  He misguidedly expresses what he would do for her in violent and negative terms:  lying, dying, and killing.  It’s the language he is accustomed to and understands best at that point.  His emotional immaturity and neediness also have him sometimes being too harsh, impatient, judgemental, and demanding.  So, is it really love if Sandor himself doesn’t have good tools for processing his feelings, realizing them as love, and expressing himself in more positive and agreeable ways?  Well, that’s up to you.  I would say it’s definitely not a healthy love, one that is conducive to a romance that would be good for both of them, not until he’s able to do those things.      

Let me get back to the moment that he not only learned Sansa was wed to Tyrion but also that she fled and disappeared.  His whole Riverlands journey was centered around his mistake at the Blackwater and him finding a means of getting back in good standing with Sansa.  Arya was supposed to be his golden ticket for that until his options started dwindling down.  

“Not for long,” said Polliver. “He’s under siege. Old Frey’s going to hang Edmure Tully unless he yields the castle. The only real fighting’s around Raventree. Blackwoods and Brackens. The Brackens are ours now.”

The Hound poured a cup of wine for Arya and another for himself, and drank it down while staring at the hearthfire. “The little bird flew away, did she? Well, bloody good for her. She shit on the Imp’s head and flew off.”

“They’ll find her,” said Polliver. “If it takes half the gold in Casterly Rock.”

“A pretty girl, I hear,” said the Tickler. “Honey sweet.” He smacked his lips and smiled.

“And courteous,“ the Hound agreed. “A proper little lady. Not like her bloody sister.”        

He can’t even focus on what Polliver and the Tickler are saying.  He’s brooding over another cup of wine and gazing into the fire.  While he’s happy she finally escaped, she’s gone, and he’s lost hope of seeing her again.  The Sansa-shaped hole in his life has caused him to admire qualities about her that once annoyed him to no end.  It’s at his death scene that he expresses how personally responsible he feels for botching his own rescue attempt and abandoning her to (in his eyes) a more horrific fate.  The feeling that their separation is now permanent and that he is powerless to do anything about it obliterates the last of Sandor’s pretense and denial.  He’s honestly facing how his ego, anger, fear, selfishness, and violence had a destructive effect on the relationship he valued most in the world.  It put the person he loved in harm’s way.  Sandor can now truly understand what love isn’t and how it all went wrong.  It’s the first step.  

So I don’t think George was content to let it lie at Sandor simply demonstrating the components of love for the reader’s benefit.  It was important enough that the character was put through a crucible in the Riverlands to further process those feelings.  And since the Elder Brother is keenly aware of who the auburn-haired maid of three-and-ten is, Sansa was definitely a hot topic of conversation.  Maybe (and I think it’s highly likely personally) we’ll next see a rehabilitated Sandor that is better equipped to understand and articulate his emotions, to express himself in healthier, more mature ways, and to express love through selfless and kinder actions.                                                                  

[tomakeitbeautifultolive]

Hi, first of all I really admire how much effort you put in your posts and answers as well as your insight and eye for details. I really could use your help, all the hate Dany gets lately is so tiring and imho unjust. Now even a friend of mine that always loved her started hating on her and I think she just doesn't understand Dany. Do you have some sort of character analysis on your blog or know where I could find one? Thank you in advance.

Wow, thank you! And anon, I could not agree more. Upsettingly, I’m having the same issue with a friend IRL too, having been told “Dany’s always been a brat”.

Regrettably, I haven’t really done much in the way of Dany metas… I’d say I have better luck picking up steam when I get asks, particularly since it gives me a sense of direction (and the influx of asks is a very new thing). Oh, I did write a little meta on her parallels between ancient Mother Goddess Danu!

While the vitriol for our queen is absolutely uncalled for… I have a theory that the way she is framed is actually intentional.

Jon Snow is probably something of a red herring. At least in the way that it’s presumed this story is really all about him ascending to power and coming into his throne. The prince that was promised. Azor Ahai. Rightful heir. All of it.

(That’s not to say he’s unimportant)

But his female counterpart/mirror, inarguably the most powerful character in the series, isn’t taken very seriously by casual fans, her enemies, the Westerosi, etc (she’s referred to as Daenela by some smallfolk, which oddly sounds a whole lot like the name the antis use to disrespect her character - Danielle).

And despite the fact that she and Jon share such similar story arcs (such as getting swept up into a foreign culture and having to adapt to survive) she is often interpreted as mad or verging on evil, even though Jon has shown the same capacity for ruthlessness. In fact, watch their beheading scenes again - Daenerys is trying to make a statement about law and justice, and Jon? He seems more driven by personal vengeance. But they made Janos look so bad that by the time he was begging for mercy, we were rooting for Jon.

Another difference in how they’re perceived is that Jon gets much more compassion when it comes to his childhood. Unlike Daenerys, he was still surrounded by family and had a stable place to call home. Meanwhile, Daenerys ran from city to city with a verbally and physically abusive older brother, and one of their caretakers, Illyrio, had to vigorously fuck a whore so as not to rape Daenerys, basically. I mean gods, what a brat!

In the books, it’s easier to realize Dany isn’t a villain because you get access to her thoughts and intentions. But the show? All we have is Emilia’s face to try to convey things to the audience. And if they don’t match the words she’s saying, it’s completely lost on them. Now, if you’re someone who ignores her past - then yes, in season 8, it probably looks like she’s power hungry, when in reality - her one security, Jon, is slipping away - so she’s reverting back to the one constant she’s had for years. The quest for the throne.

And excuse my language here, but this bitch is really bringing all of her resources up to the north - for nothing but her love for Jon Snow - and no one cares. She’s about to save them from certain death - hell, not just death - but eternal servitude to this creepy ice demon. And they’re bitching about how much food her armies are going to eat. You know, the ones there to die for their ungrateful asses? Anon, I gotta tell you… it’s really hard for me to even wrap my head around the audience response to Dany - or that somehow, it’s okay for Sam to be upset that his monster of a father was killed, but not Dany.

People who are already predisposed to dislike her can’t see the loneliness and vulnerability there, they can’t see she’s feeling lost, perhaps even regretful. They’re fooled by her queenly mask of indifference. The one that disappears when she is alone:

This is another good example. During the war council scene, Sam blatantly shades Dany by saying this:

“That’s what death is, isn’t it? Forgetting. Being forgotten.”

When the words “being forgotten” are said, Daenerys looks at Jon:

Considering the way Jon is ignoring her, it’s amazing that Dany is still there to fight his war. Just another reason none of them deserve her help. Without Jon she has no reason to be there. While everyone is upset that Dany is going to ‘go mad’ and ‘kill Jon’ - he’s been avoiding even looking at her for who knows how long in GoT time, and yet she stays.

And all the antis can say is that she’s “power hungry”. They so much as hear her say the word ‘throne’ and somehow see madness there, ignoring all subtleties of her emotional state. Yet, if Jon were to do a 180 and declare himself king - everyone would root for him, I’m sure of it. If the throne suddenly became a priority for Jon Snow, people would be popping open wine bottles in celebration. No one would call him entitled. No one would say he’s power hungry. No. I bet he’d ‘deserve it’.

It’s important to remember that not only is Daenerys one of GRRM’s favorite characters, he also identifies with her story:

“I came from greatness - like Dany! And I will take back what is mine with Fire and Blood!”

Further, the man’s a feminist (regardless of how he labels himself, now - more or less afraid to step on anyone’s toes by using the term as a man).

I can’t remember who pointed this out, but it’s hysterical to me, now, because in retrospect, it’s almost like he predicted her antis:

“If even half the stories coming back from Slaver’s Bay are true, this child is a monster. They say that she is bloodthirsty, that those who speak against her are impaled on spikes to die lingering deaths. They say she is a sorceress who feeds her dragons on the flesh of newborn babes, an oathbreaker who mocks the gods, breaks truces, threatens envoys, and turns on those who have served her loyally. They say her lust cannot be sated, that she mates with men, women, eunuchs, even dogs and children, and woe betide the lover who fails to satisfy her. She gives her body to men to take their souls in thrall.”

I think GRRM knew exactly what he was doing. Despite the fact he is a man, he’s lived through much uglier times for women, and he’s been aware of the female struggle for a long time. This is his legacy. A female hero with a storyline more powerful than any man in the series, who finds herself in precarious situations and has to make difficult decisions, sometimes exercising ruthlessness to assert her power and dominance.

She’s complicated, she’s unique, we haven’t quite seen the likes of a fictional woman quite like Daenerys.

She will be analyzed and discussed for decades to come - and there may come a point in the future that Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen might be viewed through the same lens. One in which critiques of Jon’s actions might be as harsh as the ones we see of Dany’s now, or that the ones for Dany become as lenient as the ones of Jon, now.

It might be too optimistic of me to think that even D&D know what they’re doing, here - framing Daenerys in a way that is not as easily interpreted by those who are predisposed to misogyny, all in an effort to expose it. And that upon rewatch, the culmination of her hero’s journey becomes clear as day for anyone willing to set aside their preconceived notions and finally see her for what she is.

                            A hero. A savior. A legend.

“That character, as a whole, is all about transformation and change. I feel like she is the divine feminine spirit. She’s there to change things rapidly. I have no doubt that a thousand years from this point, people will worship Daenerys Targaryen. That’ll be a holy name. This is the Mhysa. This is the woman that came and brought back dragons to the world and saved all the slaves.”—IdeasOfIceAndFire

For your final request. I wish I were more organized, anon, but here are the top blogs that come to mind when it comes to incredible Daenerys positivity. These bloggers post amazing metas and analyses, shut down antis left and right, and just generally spread the true word about our queen:

@rainhadaenerys @mhysaofdragons @oadara @khaleesirin @secretlyatargaryen @iheartdandelions @tatticstudio55 @winelover1989

I do have a small list of metas I’ve managed to gather on short notice:

Daenerys Targaryen: Master Post

Meta on the contention of Dany’s arc in feminist analysis

Dany III in ADWD again transitions to Jon & Tyrion

Why saying that Daenerys is nothing without her dragons is offensive

Daenerys - Books vs Show - Sexism and Bad Writing in the show

Daenerys Targaryen and “Madness”

A Dance with Dragons, or: Daenerys Targaryen Cares about Feeding her People

Daenerys doesn’t need to be a villain to be interesting

Arya Stark and Daenerys Targaryen Parallels

Daenerys as an anti-Cinderella?

I’m also a big fan of YouTube for GoT/ASOIAF content, and the few pro-Dany YouTubers who really seem to “get it” are GrayArea (this video, in particular, is amazing despite the misleading title), Lucifer Means Lightbringer and IdeasofIceandFire.

[vanimeldes]

your top 10 ASOIAF characters and why?

Mmmok, anon, because I like talking about my favourite characters. I will list the POV ones, but below cut, for safety

1. DAENERYS TARGARYEN - needless to say, the image of G0T/AS0IAF. I fell in love with her innocence and inner resilience and willingness to learn as much as she could since her first chapter. Her arc (so far) is - or was meant to be, whatever - so inspiring, and in a series focused on elements of low fantasy, her character encapsulates almost everything I love in a high fantasy: epicness, mysterious magic, legends, dragons, prophecies, but also her own character, her heroic arc, caused by an utterly selfless goal. I might sound totally generic, but I want her to live happily ever after and be in a position of power, because she understands the grief of lowborn and has a huge potential of learning from her past mistakes and improve their lives. After a life full of loss, abuse, and fears, she managed to become a revolutionary figure and a ruler whose reputation spanns across half a continent, she struggles to find a way between dealing with bad people who really deserve the worst punishments and being compassionate and merciful - because she is compassionate and merciful. My queen, and the reason why this series is popular, sorry not sorry. 

2. TYRION LANNISTER - misogynisic to a fault and horrible in many places, but GRRM called him a good villain and I have always regarded him as such or as morally questionable at best. GRRM has his issues, but he KNOWS how to write complex characters. It`s impossible (at least for me) not to be fascinated by his twisted perspective on the world around him and his traumas and his tiny attempts to be good and nice. His constant conflict between what he stands for, what he wants to represent as a Lannister and what he actually wants is stellar.

3. JAIME LANNISTER - similarly to Tyrion, he actually starts off as more antagonistic, but once you get into his head, it`s impossible (at least for me) not to root for him and understand some of the reasons behind his deeds. He is a tragic character in many ways: he is not honourable enough (although he wants to be) and yet he`s neither Lannister enough (although he wants that too). I still loved him since page one, I loved how Brienne changed him and how he changed him because of her. Whether he dies killing Cersei/embracing Cersei or gets to live with Brienne forever (aaah pls GRRM make it happen), I will be satisfied.

4. CERSEI LANNISTER - bruh, she`s just fascinating. She`s tragic too because she really embodies everything that is fucked up in the Westerosi patriarchal society. She internalized the misogny of the society and, as a consequence, when she wants to keep her power, she lacks the proper imagination to come up with other options than sex and murder. Her thoughts regarding women and womanhood are horrifying, but so is the abuse and trauma she suffered for most of her life. I hate the statement that she is stupid. Yes, she lacks patience. Yes, she is not as political savy as she thinks she is, she is very rash in her decisions, but she is cunning and ambitious. And whether you like her or not, you all must admit she is brave, proud and a real fighter, like that lion of her House`s banners. Lannisters (& Targaryens) are the reason why I can`t hate this series. 

5. DAVOS SEAWORTH - I never expect to fall in love with him, but he is such an unique character. He starts off as illiterate, but tough and strong. Per GRRM, he was created to provide insight into Stannis` storyline, but I just love how he got a personality of his own. His loyalty, his inner intelligence, his sincerity, his resilience make it impossible for him not to root for and pray for him. 

6. EDDARD STARK - lol, he`s Ned. He WASN`T stupid, nor a POOR HONOURABLE FOOL. I think that even if honour was ultimately his doom, he still managed to keep his humanity and goodness. His POV chapters only showed me a really intelligent and observant man, tormented by what he thought it was a betrayal: rather the conflict between keeping his sister`s secret and raising her son and what was seen as a betrayal through his beloved wife`s eyes. He might have failed in some ways because he hadn`t prepared his children for the tough world they were living in BUT he loved his children and wife more than anything, as much as he loved his sister, he never held grudge against all the Targaryens, even though his father and brother died horribly in Aerys` hands. He genuinely wanted to be a good man, despite all the hardships that would have pushed another over the edge. I can`t not appreciate that. 

7. BRAN STARK - the other character that, IMO, encapsulates the classic high fantasy. Of course, GRRM put a twist when he had Bran falling over the window and breaking his legs, as well as because he wrote him as not yet prepared to used his magic skills properly. But his storyline is full of magic and mystery, but told through the eyes of an innocent 7 yr old child, who suffered enough loss and fear and grief for a whole life. Again, it`s impossible not to root for him. I really want him to end up as King in the North, rather than the next tree-man, because he actually has ruling experience and is also kind and receptive. 

8. ARYA STARK - reading Arya`s AGOT chapters felt like reading a book about me when I was of her age. I have to admit, in the later books, some of her chapters are too long, and too boring, but I totally get their point: through her eyes, we see the horrors of war, the poverty, the trauma of a child who suddenly found herself alone in a very dangerous world. And she survives on her own, even though she has to kill those who threat her security and life, but we know that she never enjoys killing people, we know that she kill them out of necessity. She is also smart (when she names Jaquen the third kill), observant, resourceful, tough and brave (I meaaan, serving as Roose Bolton`s cupbearer?). How she survives in the House of Black and White? How quick she is to learn a foreign language? And, most important, how she gives no shits if the people she meets are noble or lowborn and how she befriends everyone? Her relationship with her father and her respect towards feminity, even though she is a gender non-conforming girl? You rock, girl!

9. BRIENNE TARTH - I accused GRRM of misogyny many times, but I reckon that Brienne is a response to the very misogynistic society he created, the society where „there`s no creature as unfortunate as an ugly woman”, by giving her a storyline, a character that is utterly honourable, kind, gentle. While she suffered because she couldn`t fit the gender role she was supposed to fulfill, she never held grudge against the values of feminity - on the contrary, she holds them in great regard! And, why not, as „ugly” and „manlike” she is, she got to make „Westeors` most desirable knight” admire and respect her, which, IMO, is a win!

10. ARIANNE MARTELL - such a pleasant surprise. My smart, hot-tempered, sexually adventurous, but brave and capable Princess. If GRRM kills her, I will erase him from my memory. I just love how she defies all the stereotypes inflicted upon most of the women in these books, I just love her ambition and hot temper, but also her relationship with her cousins and friends. I like that, while she uses sex to get Ser Arys do her bidding, we still see that she is very clever and resourceful. 

Notable mentions of POV characters: ASHA!!!! MELISANDRE!!! and Jon

My favourite non-POV characters:  THE LANN DAD, TYWIN MOTHERFUCKING Lannister; Margaery Tyrell, Brynden Blackfish Tully; Edmure Tully, Val the Wildling; Loras Tyrell; Garlan Tyrell; Olenna Tyrell

[ghostladyofwinterfell]

Phases of the Moon

A Jonsa Buffy The Vampire Slayer AU/inspiration

Summary: For some reason unbeknown to Sansa, the old gods had chosen her to be the next girl to have the power to stop the Wights and the Long Night. 

But they shouldn’t have. Not this Stark girl at least. 

No, Sansa just wanted to be on the cheer squad and get into a good college far from the North. This hadn’t come into the equation. 

But neither had Robb’s best friend Jon, whose absentee father had shown up out of blue just shy of his eighteenth birthday and taken off with him. Now he was back and changed. He had come back wrong. 

Chapter One: Changes

It shouldn't be Sansa. He had said that she was the chosen one, the man who was to be her watcher. She was the who would stand alone against the forces of darkness, to keep the long night at bay.

Yer right. They had clearly gotten it wrong somewhere. For she was not who anybody would have picked for this. She was the pampered princess, lips glossed, short skirt smoothed down and not a single curled hair out of place.

She certainly shouldn't be the only one in this generation that was for sure.  Mankind was doomed. 

She was not a fighter. If it had to have been a Stark girl, then it should have been Arya. She feels guilty about how many times she had prayed before going to bed, which was somewhere around three in the morning now, for wanting it to be Arya. 

Let it be her. Not this Stark. Let her be the chosen one and not me. You have it all wrong. 

Sansa was only just seventeen, graveyard patrols, musty books on white walkers, grass stained jeans and hidden scratch marks should not be her life right now.

But then again, Arya was only fourteen years old and Sansa felt the shame burn in her every time she sent a whispered prayer to the old gods in her mind. Let it be her.

Arya was a fighter though, she told herself to provide some comfort. Just looking at her Sansa could tell she was a down in the mud, claws out, snarl on her face, fight to her last breath kind of girl.

Not like her, whose first instinct when she was told she had the power now to kill this creature had wanted to run. She took one look at its vacant ice eyes, to its chomping teeth that kept trying to sink into the flesh of her arm, to its grasping hands that wanted to rip her skin open and had thought about throwing this watcher into its jaws so she could run.

Even now, after doing this for a whole moons turn she had still not taken to it. She felt the power in her, but it felt disjointed, she was not connected to it. Maybe it knew she wasn't worthy.

Davos Seathworth, her watcher, was a firm but gentle man. He reminded her of her father, he was a just man but he also a realist. He said he understood how she must be feeling, she scoff in reply, how in the seven hells could he.

Every time he spoke of her new found powers and that she should be grateful of this gift she wanted to hit him. That would be wrong though, he was quiet old, ten years younger and she might have been tempted. But she likes to picture it though, like now as he babbles on about the origins of the long night and the many mystical mumbo jumbo forces connecting the Wights together to act as one entity, she wanted to sock him in the face.

The way she saw it was that her being the chosen one wasn't a gift, it was an early death.

She who was so full of life before and now she was just a shadow barely keeping it together. Nearly dying on weekly bases, flunking in school and seeing her friends was not something to celebrate and send thanks to the old gods for choosing her.

It was Friday, the last day of school before Christmas break and Davos was getting her prepared for a Wight hunt. For some reason once the dead were laid to rest in the dirt, they rose again to roam as mindless animals.

It was five-thirty and she was still at school in the library, she didn't even know this place existed until she had to report here to meet Davos. What a trainwreck her life was now.

Sansa had already managed to cram in a school day, a quick cheer practice on the field, all before she had head to the library and started her assignments set for the holidays.

The sun was just starting to set early now in fall just before six, when they were finishing their training session, she was about to duck out before she mentioned it.

"I need another weapon", she mumbled quietly hoping he wouldn't hear, but he did. He always did. His head shot around to her from where he was packing away exercise equipment and she cursed at him in her mind, for an old guy his hearing was exceptionally good.

And now five minutes later she was watching a currently red in the face Davos as he armed her with another dragon glass knife and kept repeating the importance of stowing away weapons safely and effectively. Its not her fault she had accidently misplaced her previous one somewhere, she was sure she would find it again.  

"Uh-huh, thanks D. Definitely gonna take on board all those things about taking care of things. Bye." She made a break for it as soon as the black dagger was in her palm.

Just as the door was swinging shut she heard him mumble under his breath. "Gods, the world is in trouble."

Her senses had kicked into overdrive when it all happened. Her enhanced slayer hearing had helped her eavesdrop on many gossiping groups.

Sometimes she wished she couldn't hear everything. Davos could say what he liked she snivelled to herself. He wasn't the one who risked his life.

At the end of the night she bet he climbed into his cosy bed and slept like a baby. He was safe, all he did was tell her which cemetery had any recent burials in the city and sent her on her way. He didn't have to try at not falling behind in school, or keeping up with studying and homework, staying committed to cheer practice and make time for friends and family. He just had to watch.

And then there was him. Somebody who had grown up beside her her whole life, but who she had kept at a distant. Robbs best friend. Aryas hero. Bran and Rickons idol.

He never used to mean anything to her, the lack of any kind of relationship compared to her other Stark siblings had been a constant in her, she guessed even that had changed to.  

Just like her position in the cheerleading team that Arya still scoffed at whenever she said she was going. They were going to drop her soon she was sure of it, she should have been taking over as captain in her senior year.

I mean sure her body had gotten stronger, she could now move it in ways she couldn't before, but she was distracted, turning up late and forgetting routines.  

But back to one of the other thorns in her side. Jon bloody snow.

All she knew was,  in the summer at the end of his senior year of high school, around about the same time this whole destiny crap had happened to her,  his absentee father had shown up out the blue.

Jon had disappeared with him the day before his eighteenth birthday and Robb had been devastated that all their summer plans were ruined. It was as he called it there last hurrah before they went off to college.

Robb was just being dramatic of course, because they were both going to Castle College together up North, that was not even a two hour drive from Winterfell.

Jon had started the semester late and he returned back to Winterfell with Robb a few days ago ready for Christmas, and he had come back changed.

He had gotten taller, had a dark and troubled glint in his eyes now, but the main thing that had caught her attention was the muscles that now wrapped around his body. The other night when she had seen him she had stared a little too hard at his arms and how his t-shirt stretched around them too tightly. And he was, in shock to Sansa as she didn't think it could be possible, even more brooding.

She often daydreamed about that physique and those that penetrating  stare being aimed at her in the middle of calculus class. It wasn't like she was needed to know any of this stuff anymore.  

Whenever he was in the house hanging around with Robb during  the past couple of days, the hairs on the back of her neck would rise and she knew he had walked into the room.

She should have know that it wasn't because she had finally noticed he was now hot and on her radar.

She had arrived home just in time for tea. Which as Stark tradition demands had to be eaten at the family dining table with no phones.

She felt like even in her home she was trying to play catch up, listening to all her siblings stories over their starter on how their days were and trying to give noises as her reply and ask appropriate questions at the end.

She feigned how excited she was at breaking up from school. She tried to pretend to be her old self, who had loved having lazy mornings and meeting friends for coffee and shopping as her only schedule. They would spend hours in the mall wandering aimlessly with not a care in the world.

Now she would have to play catch up on school work she was too tired to pay attention to in class, practice her cheer routines so she wouldn't be to far behind, train more with Davos who demanded more of her time now there was no school and still meet with friends for trips to the mall.

The air shifted when the door opened. Robb and Jon joining them for the main course after just getting back from a movie. At least Robb had thankfully dominated all the conversation to discuss the film, college, football and girls.

Her mind was either on her patrol tonight or how the stubble Jon had grown out suited that sharp jaw of his. She didn't know which thought worried her more.

They were getting to the end of their meal when she knew she had to make her excuses.

"Can I go over to Beth's tonight for a sleepover, so we can practice our new cheer routine?" She tried to make sure her voice was sugary sweet.

Arya laughs cruelly before butting in. Doesn't she know Sansa doesn't care for her opinion. "Its not the routine you all need help with, its the spelling. How hard is it to shout out names?"

That utter horse face, she seethed.

Robb and Jon both chuckle. She feels herself get embarrassed, her face heating up. She never used to be bothered with what Jon thought of her.

Her father, ever the mediator steps in. "You've been spending a lot of nights studying late or having sleepovers at friends lately, is everything okay".

That's funny, Sansa didn't think he even noticed. He of course had gone to several of her cheer performances, but she knew deep down he thought it was silly.

"I've always gone to sleepovers." And it was true. She was a social butterfly like her mother, people were drawn to her and she sometimes craved a crowd of people who hung on her every word. Or at least she used to.

"Not this many". Great her mum and dad were doing that back up thing again, were they ganged up on you.

Great, she was probably going to have to try to quietly sneak out. It was much easier to head straight out after dinner when the sun had set. Otherwise she would have to get her pyjamas on, get under the covers and snuggled down before her mother and father popped their head round the door to say goodnight.

She often nearly dozed off she was that comfy and tired. She often nearly started crying when she had to get of her silk pj's and back into clothes.

Her mother must take pity on her desperate expression and gives a curt agreement that she can go, but she is to be back in the morning early for family breakfast at 10.

She happily nods in reply before dashing off upstairs to fill a bag with what she calls a slayer survival kit. Extra thick jumper and socks, drinks, snacks, magazines and her dagger.

Jon's gaze follows her from the room and she has to try really hard to keep her head focused on getting up the stairs.

She might have taken a little longer to climb the stairs so Jon could get a good look at her long longs, even if she was in a rush to hit two separate cemeteries tonight for the two different burial sites.

She sighs heavily for the sixth time this hour alone. She checks her phone again, 1 o'clock. 1 o'clock in the bloody morning and this stupid corpse hasn't risen up yet. The other body at the grave site nearer the centre of town had risen at 10 sharp.

Obviously some Wights were more concerned with time management than others.

"Hurry up." She says tartly down at the freshly planted grave as though she can command it to rise. Doesn't it know she has better things to do like sleep and dream of a certain boy.

She rises from her squatted position, shoving the magazine she had read from front to back thoroughly two time already back in her bag.

She begins her warm up again, stretching her muscles repeatedly every fifteen minutes to keep herself ready, to help her remain awake and to warm her frozen limbs back up.

Tonight sucked. She left home at seven, instead of heading out she could have suggested a film night and slyly made sure her seat on the sofa was next to Jon's.

Well it was no use pouting over now.

She felt a nervous thrum in her chest. That same sort of hair raising, stomach sinking feeling that was usually an alarm bell sounding from within. Danger. She reached in her bag for the dragon glass because this Wight was sure to rise now.

The light smattering of snow on the ground made everything in here eerily silent. 

As if it absorbed all the noise into it. It wasn't thick enough were it would crunch beneath her boots. Which is why she didn't hear the impact of foot falls behind her. 

It confused her at first, why was the ground coming up to meet her face, it clicked a second later when she felt its ice blocks for arms weighing her down. Its foul and cold breath gave a weird sensation in her ear, as though when it snarled, outpoured snowflakes right into the shell of it and into her head making it heavy.

She hit the floor hard, harder with its body on top of her and an exasperated sound falls from her lips as her weapon tumbles a few feet in front of her. Her arms were trapped. All she could do was try to buck its body off of her as it tried to attack at her neck.

She dislodged it enough that she could use the strength in her thighs to launch it away with her feet. She threw it hard enough to hear a crack as it landed up against a tombstone.

She turned around crawling towards her weapon, but the thing had righted itself and grabbed a hold of her ankle pulling her away.

She cries out as if the world is truly against her as a hand breaks through the soil of the grave and out into the world.

Two of them in one cemetery, she had only ever gone one on one before. She felt a slight betrayal, Davos had only said two would rise tonight but at different sites. She had already taken care of the first one across town.  

The other rose in the same amount of time it took for her to nearly grab at the dagger. They were freakishly fast for dead folk.

Kicking out her feet at the first so it couldn't grab hold of her leg again and pinning it up against the gravestone, leaves her a small chance to deal with the second as it launches itself at her.  She quickly finds purchase gripping a hold of its neck, her muscles begin to feel as though they are on fire at holding back the sheer strength the Wights posses.

But her other arm is free to grab her dagger. Which might be trickier than she first thought as it was still a little out of reach and she couldn't drag herself closer as the snow around them melts in the scuffle and makes the ground slippy.

She feels a tingle in her gut, a tell tale sign of alert for her and see's a shadow approaching them in her peripheral.

Oh gods, its another one. Three of them, I'll surely die.

All three would surround and pin her down, taking turns to bite chunks of her flesh.

Would she turn into one of these things after. Would her family have to go to the morgue to see her mangled, chewed up body. Gods, her family. Her mum, her dad.

Her heart pounded quickly but this thing approached slowly, crouching down just in front of her. What the hell.

Her heart is in her throat as she peels her eyes away from the monsters to stare into blue eyes. Not the ice blue of Wights but a deep, chocolate brown. Jon bloody Snows brown eyes, as they smirk down at her.

"Do you need some help sweet girl?"

Her eyebrows furrowed, was this a trick. Was Jon a bad guy all this time and she didn't know it. Her mind flashed to all the times he had come into a room and she had that feeling in her gut. She was sure it was a nervous flutter because of her huge crush.

She was so stupid. Her senses had been warning her this whole time and she was too distracted by him to realise.  

It was surprising how good he obviously was at hiding this dark part of himself, he was someone who Sansa thought could be read like a book.

But he made no move to kill her though. And she really didn't know how long she could keep these two at bay. Was he really waiting for her to give an answer.

"Erm. Yes... please?".

He smiled down at her, she was courteous even as she was trying to keep deaths jaws pried open to stop it from swallowing her.

He rises up, finally stepping out of the shadows and into the light of moon. He looked less scary bathed in the moons glow.

Maybe he just happened to be in the neighbourhood? Even though he was sleeping at her house and it was 1 o'clock in the morning.

She tried to read his face but it remained blank, she truly didn't know what he was going to do. She had spent years around this man and in this moment she felt like she didn't know him.

He used his foot to nudge the dagger closer to her free arm, she sent a quick prayer to the gods.

Before she could even look to grab it, Wight number two had slipped from her grasp.

She grabs the weapon and tackles it to the floor, as she goes to slam the dagger in its chest a body flies through the air beside her.

The Wight she has a hold of shrieks as it breaks down, as if it was entirely made of ice, she then turns to face the one beside her.

The one that's probably killed Jon. It was all her fault, she was sure if Arya was the slayer she could take on five whole Wights at once. She wanted to lay down at cry. He was dead.

Only, it was brown eyes not blue eyes she looked upon beside her.

"Oh- you're not dead". Well done Sansa, great deduction there. He probably already thinks you're some dumb cheerleader.

His lips quip up in a half smile, but before she can say anything to him again they both turn to the Wight that's screeching a  few graves away. It almost sounded as if it was in pain, and she reprimands herself for being sloppy in forgetting about the thing for even a second.

How did it even get a few gravestones over? She recalls it, a body being flung in the air. She thought it was Jon's though, what with the Wights inhuman strength.

"How did you throw it off that far?" She's swallows nervously, back to being worried about him.

He merely shrugs. She was sure he used to talk more than this, even if it was rarely to her.

She cautiously approaches the Wight, looking as though it was writhing on the ground. She brings her dagger up ready to embed it in its chest, it was grasping at a bite mark on its own neck, screeching out before it turned to ice flakes blowing in the wind.

Why did it have a bite mark on its neck? How did it die without being killed by dragonglass? What was Jon doing here?

She held the pointy end of the dagger towards him. He knew something. Nobody who had just witnessed all this would be okay right now. He clearly knew Wights existed. He wasn't afraid. Sansa even thinks he just killed that one somehow.

She knew that there were other bad things in the world. Other monsters. And maybe he was one. How else could he have thrown that Wight so far.

Was she going to have to kill Robbs best friend?

"What. Are. You". There was no time for niceties, she had too many questions swirling around in her mind.

"I could ask you the same thing. What's Robbs little sister doing in a cemetery fighting monsters in the middle of the night". He takes a step closer to her then, she feels the heat coming off him in waves. Did he always run this hot? Was he sick?

He takes another step towards her approaching her as though she were a skittish doe. She wants to take one back because they're nearly touching, she feels the ghost of his touch brush her arms.

He's too close, he'll muddle her head up because all she know see's is him, all she hears is his heart beating fast, too fast. His scent floods all around her and she can only focus on him.

He puts a finger to her chin and tilts her head up to the sky.

He leans down and whispers in her ear, "Its almost a full moon".

Was that a fact or a warning. She didn't know, he was hard to understand. Boys were hard to understand at the best of times.

She stares at the moon, she never notices its phases, why would she ever need to bother. Looking at it now she could see it was almost there. On the cusp of being round and full.

She looks to him as he takes a step back, his pupils are wide as they gaze up at the sky.

He cuts down to her quick and sharp. The he grins. A wide one showing off pointed teeth that gleam in reflection of the light.

And she just knows again, that her whole world has shifted for a second time in her life, everything she knew would change once more.

[aegon]

Do you think that there’s a connection between Jamie and Cersei being twins and having a relationship and Arya and Jon being the only ones to look alike in their family and being super close? I ship Jonerys but I feel like in the books Jon and Arya are way too close for it not to mean or add up to anything?? Martins original idea was for them to end up together too

Anon, you’re after my own heart. 

Jon x Arya parallels with Jaime x Cersei both on a relationship and an individual character level is one of my favourites to discuss and is so underappreciated. 

And I’m always here to rant about what I think Jon and Arya are all about! I have so many, many thoughts about how important their relationship is to their respective narratives. 

Buckle in, mate, I’m about to rant to hell. All my bottled up emotions over my faves, here we fucking go: 

To start off with, I 1000% think there’s an important connection between both relationships. Jaime and Jon have incredibly specific parallels, as do Arya and Cersei. Like a century ago, I talked about the idea of balance in the series and that for every action, there’s a kind of reaction, so to speak. For me, the counterbalance to Jaime x Cersei is Jon x Arya.

Jon and Jaime parallels (keeping this short as it’s been discussed by others): 

Swore vows to organisations created to protect with their lives and remain celibate. 

Lord Commanders of their respective organisations. 

Where Jaime was the youngest Kingsguard in history, Jon became one of the youngest Lord Commanders. 

Break their vows twice each (one being celibacy). 

Mother died in childbirth. 

Mained/disfigured sword hands. Jon’s hand is burnt while Jaime’s is completely removed. 

Nicknames designed to mock, re: Lord Snow / Kingslayer. 

Jon refuses Winterfell while Jaime refuses Casterly Rock. 

King foreshadowing in both their chapters. 

Arya and Cersei parallels: 

As children, both dressed in breeches and showed interest in training with swords. 

Resent the patriarchal standards set on women and vocally refuse to follow what’s expected of them. 

Identify and draw strength from the sigil of their respective houses. 

Hold to their grudges. They never forget the ones that hurt their house or their family. 

Have had their heads shaved by/for religious organisations, but where Cersei had hers forcibly removed and lost her agency, Arya gained hers by doing it willingly.

Both their ambitions are rooted in gaining a position of influence not often afforded to their gender. Arya asks if she can be a king’s conciliator, build castles and be a High Septon. While Cersei did become Queen, it was taking control over the small council and ruling in her own right that she really wanted, instead of being dictated around by men or the pretty wife birthing children. 

Daddy’s little girls that look up to their fathers and attempt to emulate them after their deaths. 

Difficulty with one sibling while being incredibly close to another.

Both are told they will marry a king, but misleadingly, not the ones in power at the time. Maggy tells Cersei she will wed the king, but this was long before Robert’s Rebellion and Aerys was in power while Rhaegar was still a prince, so the witch wouldn’t have made sense at the time. Ned tells Arya she’ll marry a king, but it’s Sansa that’s betrothed to the crown prince, so again, it shouldn’t make sense. In both cases, the choice of words is particular but telling. 

Another fascinating anti-parallel is their opposite developments in temperament. Arya and Cersei as children are incredibly similar: willful, ambitious, quick to anger. But as the series progresses, through the FM, Arya learns to be humble, to control her emotions, to be patient and listen. Cersei, however, dissolves into anger, impatience, and pride. 

These are mostly off the top of my head, but moving on to specific relationship parallels: 

Jon x Arya / Jaime x Cersei: 

Jaime and Cersei are twins, with classic Lannister features. Arya and Jon are the only children that look like Starks, and look like one another. 

Obviously, they’re incredibly close and neither ever stops thinking of the other. 

Jon and Jaime have both broken their vows for their sisters. Jaime breaks his for Cersei when he beds her and fathers her children, and Jon breaks his for Arya when he tries riding to Winterfell to save her (!!!)

This is more of an anti-parallel. Jon and Jaime both receive letters about their sister’s needing their help. Jon gets the Pink Letter of Ramsay demanding fArya’s return, and Jaime receives one from Cersei begging him to rescue her. The letter is the catalyst that drives Jon to break his vows, whereas Jaime burns the letter Cersei sends as he grows apart from her. Poetry. 

Jon and Jaime compare the women they’re attracted to with their sisters. Jon sees Arya in Ygritte and Jaime thinks of Cersei with Brienne. Oh, and Arya thinks of Jon with Gendry, oof. 

Another anti-parallel that’s less obvious: Arya thinks of Jon as being the only one that would want her after her traumatising experiences escaping King’s Landing and wouldn’t care about who she’d become now. Jaime barely makes it back to King’s Landing, back to Cersei, and she finds his disfigurement and the changes to his personality after his own traumatic experiences unappealing and starts keeping her distance. 

There might be more but admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve read Jaime and Cersei’s chapters but there we have it. 

To answer the first part of your ask - yes, there’s clearly a connection between these two relationships. I like to think of them as two sides of the same coin - but where Jaime and Cersei have all the toxicity you’ll never find with Jon and Arya. Essentially, they’re anti-parallels of each other, evidenced by Jaime and Cersei growing apart where Jon and Arya still very much love and miss each other. So where Jaime and Cersei are doomed to end tragically and aggressively, Jon and Arya’s bond is strong enough to stand the test of time and circumstance. 

Jaime x Cersei is not the relationship to aspire to, but to demonstrate what happens when the individuals and the nature of the relationship is twisted to something corrupt. Cersei and Jaime essentially see one another as an extension of themselves, whereas Jon and Arya are one another’s source of support, but still very much their own people. Healthy af, yo. 

So what does this mean for Jon and Arya? 

From a writer’s perspective, having a character constantly bring up another and how much they love them and miss them and would do anything to be with them seems to be a pretty big red flag that they will, in fact, do anything for them. 

It’s why I never understand those that say Arya and Jon’s relationship can be substituted with other characters. 

In my opinion, there’s definitely something happening in the future that needs the reader to understand how much these two mean to each other. It’ll culminate in a climax that’s basically going to drive them from that point onwards and be a turning point in their narratives. 

In Jon’s situation, we’ve seen the start of such a climax. His constant mentioning of Arya and agonising over her in ADWD comes to a head when he’s stabbed for trying to to save her. Such a moment wouldn’t have had the same impact for anyone else but Arya, because their relationship is the only one convincing enough. In the midst of knowing an army of the dead is coming and the drama with Stannis and the freefolk, Jon can’t stop thinking about Arya. We’ve literally had it hammered into our skulls that he’d do anything for her. 

Surprise, surprise - he does. 

And in that moment, as we’ve seen from the show, Jon Snow stops being Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch and starts his journey towards becoming the King in the North. Because of how much he loves Arya. 

I very much believe the Battle of the Bastards will happen, but differently than in the show. The North is currently rallying behind Arya’s name and when Jon’s brought back to life, he’s still going to be out of his mind with worry for her. And he won’t have any vows holding him back from bringing her home (home being by his side because Jon calls himself Arya’s home and I just want to remind everyone of that, thanks). Fuck me, I’m excited. He’s 10000% gonna go to war for her and I am HERE FOR IT. 

In this case, Arya being Jon’s favourite person and GRRM making sure she’s brought up in almost all of his POV chapters pays off. 

For Arya, we’ve yet to see it happen, but I’m predicting that it’s the news of Jon’s death that’s going to force her to leave Braavos. We know that she gets news from the Wall from Eastwatch, and she’s struggling to truly become No One as the FM want because of how deep her connection to her family and identity runs. Jon is never far from her thoughts and plays a very important role in who Arya Stark really is. 

When disguised as Blind Beth or any of her other identities, she still thinks about Jon. When she finds a deserter of the Night’s Watch, despite the fact that she’s not supposed to be Arya anymore, she still doles out justice for breaking his vows.

So, even though she’s a thousand miles away, Jon and the Night’s Watch are still very present in her narrative.  

And we know how much Arya loves Jon. Damn, do we know. 

I do believe the news of Jon’s murder is going to spread. And when it reaches Braavos, and finally Arya, it’s going to absolutely shatter her. Arya, like Cersei, does not forgive and forget easily. She’ll never be able to return to her training after hearing about her favourite person’s death, and she’ll be on the first boat out. Probably to go enact some justice. 

The foreshadowing is present in this little nugget in AFFC, when Arya is listening to the NW deserter sing: 

He is a man of the Night's Watch, she thought, as he sang about some stupid lady throwing herself off some stupid tower because her stupid prince was dead. The lady should go kill the ones who killed her prince. 

Which I think is exactly what Arya is going to try and do. She won’t, of course, lots of shit still has to happen before they reunite, but she’s definitely going to try. Fucking p o e t r y. 

But the point is, it’ll be her love for Jon that draws Arya back to her true self and sets her on course to reclaiming her identity and returning home. To make it convincing, it makes complete sense to have Arya think of Jon as the only one that ever accepted her for who she was, that loved her unconditionally, that would want her despite all the horrific acts she was forced to commit to survive. He’s the one she’ll willingly and without doubt break her vows to the FM for.  

Love is the death of duty. 

Jon and Arya’s love for each other could very well be the death of their respective duties to their organisation and vows, and be the catalyst they each need to propel their narratives towards the climax of the story, re: the War of the Dawn, and beyond. 

This is why I never understand those that think they’re interchangeable with other characters. They simply aren’t? Everything I’ve mentioned can only ever be applied to Jon and Arya. No other relationship has been so deeply developed, nor as intrinsically integrated into their POVs. Literally everything I’ve said is only applicable because they never shut up about each other. 

I don’t think this contradicts Jonerys tbh, but I think it’s an important reminder that Jon and Arya’s relationship is very much as vital to the story as Jon and Dany’s. There’s a reason I ship them as an OT3, and I’m in love with Arya and Dany’s parallels as well. Arya and Daenerys are and will always be the two most important women in Jon Snow’s life, and in turn, he’s just as important in theirs. 

I tried answering this as objectively as I could, and I hope this was what you were looking for! 

Thank you so much for a brilliant ask!! 

[indybobcat]

My Alternate GoT Ending

Scene: Drogon has just destroyed the Iron Throne--

    Jon moves toward Daenerys to pick her up and remove her from the throne room. This is one step too far for Drogon who snarls at Jon. When Jon reaches toward her Drogon has had enough. The dragon opens his mouth and releases a focused stream of fire toward Jon's outstretched arm. The leather armor singes from Jon's flesh, but he does not recoil from the flame. There is no pain, and Jon's arm shows no signs of being burnt.

    Drogon stops his attack and exhales sharply, confused by what he has just seen. Drogon picks up his mother and flies away from the Red Keep taking a moment to look back at Jon Snow before fading from sight.

Scene: Picking up where Tyrion has suggested the people present at his trial appoint a new king. Instead of chosing Bran, they chose Jon--

    "Jon Snow."

    What was to be a trial for Tyrion Lannister was becoming a coronation.

    "Jon."

    With each vote Grey Worm's blood rose a few degrees.

    "Jon Snow, the King in the North," Sansa stated emphatically.

    With more than half those present having voted for the traitor, Grey Worm could take no more. He grabs Tyrion by his restraints and drags him back to his cell, throwing him inside. Grey Worm moves on to Jon's cell. He throws the door open and grabs Jon by the hair, pulling him to his feet. "Follow me...your friends have named you...'king.'" Jon is confused but follows, interested to find out what has happened and eager to stretch his legs. Soon after Grey Worm takes Jon's sword and throws it to him.

    "Grey Worm," Jon implored, "I'm sorry. You weren't there. Dany lost her way...you saw it at King's Landing. What she did to the innocent people..."

    "Innocent? Our queen believed no subject of House Lannister is innocent."

    "She was wrong, Grey Worm. She..."

    They reach the door leading to the court assembled outside and Grey Worm spins on Jon, ending the conversation abruptly.

    "Your patrons await," says Grey Worm, motioning for the guards to open the door.

    As Jon steps out Grey Worm takes a spear from the guard closest to him and turns it on the former prisoner. Jon, alerted to this action by his siblings' widening eyes, removes Longclaw from its sheath in a blur and counters Grey Worm's initial attack, splitting the spear in two. "Will you do what so many did for Dany, Grey Worm? Will you bend the knee, or must your blood flow mingled with the blood of the innocent thousands she slaughtered?" Arya moves to take her brother's side, as does Sam, but Jon calls them both off. Grey Worm stands resolute, glaring at Jon as he has for the last year. "This is a long time coming," Jon says, "and I tire of this one's sneers. Are you any good with a proper weapon?" Jon motions to Edmure for his sword, which Edmure reluctantly provides.

    Grey Worm feels the weapon's weight, familiarizes himself with it, and gathers his senses. Jon, weary from weeks spent underfed and shackled, does likewise. Grey Worm makes the first move, a weak feint that Jon counters quickly, but this was to be Grey Worm's only weak move. The sound of steel clashing rings through the empty halls of the castle, the blows being traded taking them further and further inside.

    Grey Worm proves to be a fierce adversary and in an empty fade manages to land a boot to Jon's chest, knocking him to the ground. "Despite having fought beside you numerous times, I find myself impressed with your skill, Grey Worm," Jon said. "All those years spent in constant combat have left us both scarred and I count you as a brother. Dany's death doesn't have to be meaningless..." Grey Worm has heard enough and charges Jon, but the move is fruitless. Jon spins away, swinging Longclaw and striking Grey Worm at the base of his skull with the flat of the blade. Grey Worm falls through a door and down a few steps. At the bottom of those steps is a field filled with the whole of Daenerys' armies, their training interrupted at the sight of their leader tumbling.

    Jon steps through the door. The Unsullied spring to readiness, eager to aid Grey Worm as the Dothraki let out a war cry. As they start up the stairs a piercing shriek splits the sky, the wind from Drogon's wings pushing everyone away from Jon Snow.

    Jon raises Longclaw to the sky. "MY NAME IS AEGON TARGARYEN!"

    Jon shouts above the crowd, the wings, the shrieking hoards, and the mumbled words from the group that had voted him king, a vote rendered meaningless by his birthright. Tyrion has been freed by them and looks on in admiration.

    "Though I was raised as and count myself a member of House Stark, my true lineage is first born son of Rhaegar Targaryen, true heir to the Iron Throne, and Lyanna Stark. My mother not being the victim of kidnapping but the lawful spouse of my father, I am the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms." Jon looks toward Tyrion and resumes, "Our queen knew this, as did her Hand." The murmurs from the crowd slowly dwindle as Drogon shuffles atop the crumbling walls. Jon's voice becomes firm as he continues, "But I am here to tell you that I do not want any throne that man can hand to me." The masses are now silent. Grey Worm rolls to face Jon, shaking the haze from behind his eyes. He, too, is listening.

    "We have fought and shed blood for a world that we thought fantasy. Many of you were once enslaved and dreamed of this world while shackled and whipped. Others had a chance to live in this world beyond the borders of Westeros. I was first shown this world by the man I knew as a father. But above all, the one who taught us a world without shackles and chains could exist was a woman we all came to admire and follow: Daenerys Targaryen.

    "Despite the good she had done, our beloved queen lost her way, and wanted to forcibly take the rest of the world through war and 'break chains' by conquering everyone, making them bend the knee. Her world was to be one without mercy and mercy is the antithesis of enslavement. My brothers, if you believe in a world of mercy, a world truly free of shackles, then take what we have learned and spread it throughout the world. Set out to make peace in the name of our queen, free the enslaved, and let mercy rule, not men.

    "I am done playing the game of thrones. Absolute power corrupts and kings and queens easily become tyrants, but I will not see myself among their number." Jon thrusts Longclaw into the ground and helps Grey Worm to his feet. "From here on out let us govern together and spread mercy to those underfoot. Let us set out to truly change the world: not through fear and war, but through mercy and peace. And let us do so in the memory of the true Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the First of Her Name..."

    The men looked around at each other, nodding in agreement.

    "...Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, the Mother of Dragons..."

    The Unsullied began pounding their spears to the ground, the Dothraki raising their swords high.

    "...The Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains!" Drogon lets out a roar and steps down the building and stairs until he is just behind Jon.

***

    The men and women originally assembled to be Tyrian's jury went on to form a council to govern the lands under their control. They established the Truce of All Kingdoms: an alliance free of slavery that worked together in the best interest of all houses. Leaders are chosen regularly from among each house, territory, or group. They split the army Daenerys had raised to spread throughout the rest of the world and act as goodwill ambassadors to bring others into the fold. If they came upon a people unwilling to join their cause they bought the freedom of anyone enslaved and moved on, but did not wage war.

    Sansa led one group north and returned home to Winterfell. Through her governance, she brought about a prosperity unseen since her father Eddard was Lord of Winterfell. She spread this benevolence north of the wall, and brought many clans into the Truce of All Kingdoms. Ser Davos Seaworth led another group east and across the seas providing wisdom and countenance to all he met. Brienne of Tarth led a third group south via horse and ship. Arya took charge of the final group and headed west, past where all known maps end. She expanded the known world and reported all findings to Samwell Tarly for proper chronicling. Jon traveled the world with Drogon, going where needed and to spread the mercy of the Truce. Bran uses his gifts to oversee where Jon is most needed, and helps to guide the rest toward their goal of peace.

    Each year the Starks, Jon included, met back at Winterfell to summarize their enterprises in the world they had helped to create, plan a better future for all those in it, and remember those no longer with them whose sacrifices had made this all possible. The pack survives.

[cchellacat]

Game of Thrones Finale

Here be spoilers for the last season of GoT.  Turn back now or forever hold you peace.  Trust me, I am not holding my peace, I feel like going to war and breaking a bloody wheel over the back of D&D’s heads.

I knew going in, this wasn’t the ending I had been hoping for, or even expecting for nine years.  After the penultimate episode the writing was clearly on the wall, so I watched this final chapter, ready for crushing disappointment and grief. D&D did not let me down. 

They completed their character assassination of Daenerys with all the clumsy, lazy, pretension and dreadfully written dialogue as one might have come to expect, if they had been paying attention since the start of the season. 

When left to flounder in the seas of uncertainty without the masterfully crafted scaffolding of GRRM’s books to hold them afloat, the writers sunk the whole thing gleefully. I’m absolutely certain they took great pleasure in destroying every logical expectation.

This constant need to justify their own twisted ending and eradicate certain characters development and arcs, left me feeling bewildered and horrified.  The beautiful woven foreshadowing that had been building since season one seemed to be cast aside at the last and replaced with some Frankenstein monster, cobbled together from a need to be “different”  to “surprise”, to be “edgy”  and “subversive”.  

This isn’t how good writing is done.  You don’t change the track of a story just because it’s deemed predictable or because fans guessed the ending. 

The onus then, is on the writer, to follow through and complete the story while still making it enjoyable and intriguing.  It isn’t to upturn the apple-cart and refill with limes.  It’s to take the damn apples and make pie.  Make it interesting, draw the audience in, there is nothing wrong with giving the audience what they want. There is nothing wrong with delivering a satisfying and sensible conclusion.  There is nothing wrong with giving the main character/s a happy ending.

Their fear of cliche, lead them straight into trope hell.  The “face heel turn” of Daenerys from Liberator and Mother to Tyrant and Murderer was sloppy, poorly written and did not have a justifiable history to back it up. 

Do not even get me started on how they killed her.  JFC.  Could they have been anymore obvious about how that was gong to go down?  Talk about cliche. 

Murdered by the man she loves, who loves her and who is also her only family.  We’ll talk later about what they did to poor Jon.  Just for reminders sake though, here she is, held in the arms of the man she loves as he promises her she will always be his queen, kisses her and stabs her right in the heart.  **blood boiling**

Turing Sansa into Littlefinger 2.0 made my inner rage monster scream.  Her transformation from  the “The High Queen”  to “The Chess-master” makes me think the North isn’t in any better hands than it would have been with Littlefinger in charge.  How convenient that none of her siblings will be nearby to notice.  Bran in the south, Jon in the True North and for some inexplicable reason, the girl who spent eight season finding her way home, decides to go gallivanting off into the west on some LotR, knock off elf quest. 

Arya’s end is as unsatisfying as every other one.   She spent years growing stronger, learning to kill, striving to be No-one.  Her whole character arc was about her coming to terms with her loss and recognising that no matter how far she ran, she would always be Arya Stark. 

Then is was her journey home, learning that she could go back, that even changed by war and blood, family meant everything.  Her clarion call, that the “lone wolf dies but the pack survives” has been with her every step.  It’s the message her father taught her, one she held too.  Why on earth would she leave her pack behind? 

What even was the point of having her and Gendry meet again and come together if she was just going to walk away?  I’m not saying a character has to be defined by a romantic relationship, but why bother giving the fans a few crumbs just to spit on it an episode later?  This is clearly baiting of the worst kind.  I’d rather they met as friends and parted as friends than the shit show of having Gendry propose, only for her turn him down.  I mean, she could have learned another lesson with the Hound, that defining your life by revenge and forgetting to live only ends in death.  Her returning to Gendry after that would have made sense.  It would have made sense for her to go build a pack of her own.  But no, that would be too easy.  What shall we do with Arya?  Lets put her on a bus!

He did love her.  Jon was crazy about Dany.  She was crazy about him.  This is the man who puts family first, who lives by his honour.  He is his Uncle Ned come again.  Ned, who lived and died by his oaths.  The only time he broke them was to protect his sisters son, to protect Jon, his family. 

This is why they had to destroy Daenery’s character so completely.  They had to make her the worst villain imaginable to make it look even remotely plausible that Jon would;

1. Break his oath of fealty

2. Murder his own blood.

3. Betray the love of his life.

They had to preserve Jon’s good name, oh yes, because Jon wouldn’t kill her for power or because she lost her temper and disagreed with him.  No.  They destroyed both Jon and Dany with this plot. 

Jon is now Queen Slayer and Kin Slayer and he has broken his word, his oaths of loyalty, his unspoken oaths of love and protection, which she rightly expected from him as her blood and her lover and has been reduced to a shadow of the man he was meant to be, the king he could have been. 

He is cursed by the gods in the eyes of most Westerosi, or he would be if they knew the truth.  After all, look at how the nobility treated Jaimie after he killed the Mad King.  It didn’t matter to them that the King was evil, no, what mattered was that he broke his oath.

Oath breakers are anathema in Westeros. 

So much for a Targaryen Restoration.  Goodbye Iron Throne.  The whole point of Jon’s character was just erased.  Did he defeat some great evil?  No.  Did he overcome war and death and end triumphant on the throne as the last dragon?  No.  There was no point in bringing him back after his death in season six.  Anyone could have went to bargain with Dany and the outcome would have been the same.  Ugh!

Jaime and Brienne.  The love story/redemption arc I was so invested in.  One hand gives and the other takes away.  In the end it seems that Jaime learned nothing, according to the writers that is.  I call bullshit.  Jaime had redeemed himself.  If he had to die, it should have bee while killing Cersei.  The foreshadowing of him being Cersei’s death has been around for years. Cersi didn’t love Jaime, she loved controlling him.  Cersei loved no one but herself.  That was the lesson Jaime was meant to learn.  Thanks so much for taking away eight season of character development and self realisation.

Tyrion got shafted too.  His speech near the end, it was a load of cow dung.  In the end they left Tyrion to be Westeros’ own comic relief.  The Small Council was a bloody farce.  All that scene did was reinforce my belief that nothing in Westeros has really changed.  It doesn’t matter what title you give someone, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Give it ten years and Bron will be the power in Westeros in all but name. 

Now who have I forgotten?  Ah yes.  My Special Mention.

Sandor went out the way he meant to, bringing an end to his brother.  But not before the writers gave him a brief moment with Sansa.  There you go Sansan fans, he called her little bird!  Now shut up and let us kill him in a fiery fall of doom. 

Death by fire, the worst death they could give this man.  He wasn’t a good man, it’s arguable that none of the characters were good people.  However, Sandor Clegane suffered more than most.  He spent his life, angry and bitter, seeking revenge for himself and his sister and father.  I think, if they had to kill him, they could have given the man a better exit than him tossing both himself and his brother into the flames.  It was cruel to make that the only way out, the only triumph he could claim.  I think Sandor should have lived.  He deserved to find a life of peace after all the fighting he did.   It is not poetic or clever to kill a character off with the object of their own fear.  It’s not clever when they do it to a villain, it’s doubly unfair to do it to a hero.  He was a hero by the end.  Sandor deserved better.

Now look, I‘m not saying that in a show like this, that everybody should live or necessarily get the end they deserve, but, they went too far in the name of shock value, leaving no one happy, well, virtually no one. I guess the rabid Sansa fans who loathed Dany are feeling pretty good about now. 

(Yes, okay that was mean, but I got sick of seeing it in my timeline and unfollowed a few people.) 

I was always very much of the belief that Sansa and Dany had more in common than would drive them apart.  I didn’t expect an easy friendship or alliance, but I did expect them to find common ground and be able to build a relationship over time.  Strong women supporting each other is what we need more of on TV.  Not this misogynistic desire to see two strong women fight over a man, which is essentially what they reduced Sansa and Dany too with poor Jon caught in the middle.  

In conclusion...

I feel as though the writers went into season eight with a clear idea of where they had been building and then someone get a bee in their bonnet and posed the question, “Who is the least likely to end up ruling Westeros?”

The answer of course is Bran.  Bran the Broken, how fucking ignorant is that?  How about Bran the Burdened or Bran the Broker or Bran the Benevolent, if you’ve really got such a hard on for alliteration?

So now Bran, who is so disconnected from feeling that he can’t love anyone, sits the Iron Throne and is somehow meant to be a good ruler. 

All that’s needed to achieve this happy ending for the writers?

Goodbye Character development and epic love stories, hello smear campaign, death, destruction and the end of one of my favourite canon ships to ever sail.

Rest in Peace Jonarys.  I believed in you. 

[obsidianarchives]

Game of Thrones Recap: S8E4 - "The Last of the Starks"

Didn’t we almost have it all? At the moment I’m not sure I’m talking about the episode, this season, or (if you really want to get spicy) the first four seasons of the series, but this show started off SO WELL and then devolved into an unfounded attack on everything I love and believe in. We’re back to split locations this week so let’s get into it, and trust we’ll be discussing that ending. TW: There is brief discussion about the use of rape as a narrative tactic in the “Winterfell” section.

Winterfell

The episode picks up right where we left off last week as the survivors of the Great War bid farewell to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for loss. As much as I’ve never seen it for either of them, Daenerys’s sadness over Jorah — her first friend and a man (for all his MANY faults) who was a constant throughout her adult life — and Sansa tearfully placing a Stark pin on Theon’s corpse were touching and earned conclusions of their character journeys. But there’s still no country for slave traders and child murderers so, bye!

Leading the ceremony, Jon puts some bass in his voice, does his best Captain America impression, and delivers the most impassioned and leaderly speech we’ve heard from him yet as he modifies the Night’s Watch farewell to begin lighting the pyres of fallen heroes outside the castle. Ramin Djawadi put his foot all the way in the score on this scene as we see just how much the fight took out of the survivors. All of our main characters are bruised and bloody, poor Ghost lost an ear, and Rhaegal has holes in his wings and is still too weak to fly without a bit of a hook. Everyone needs a drink.

And what an after party it is! Gendry suffers through awkward dinner conversations with his girlfriend’s father (we’ll get there) the Hound while he awaits Arya who’s a no-show at the feast. Daenerys sees him and takes the opportunity to note that he’s the unknown bastard son of a King. For a moment, I thought she was trying to make a point to Jon about the validity or lack thereof about his claim to the throne, but she instead legitimizes Gendry and proclaims him Lord of the Baratheon’s old seat of Storm’s End. By raising up the former blacksmith she not only installs a Lord Paramount of the Stormlands forever loyal to her, creating allies she desperately needs, she also buries another potential claimant against her crown.

For some reason Sansa is confused and disgusted by this and Tyrion clocks it but says nothing. As the drinking continues, Dany realizes how isolated she truly is as she listens to Jon be toasted by Tormund, a Kobe stan during a LeBron James championship parade. Instead of being a proud aunt towards her baby dragon riding nephew, Queen Daenerys sees how little she is loved by the Westorosi, an awakening that began with her witnessing Lord Royce and Theon’s admiration for Sansa earlier this season. Lurking dramatically behind her and observing all of this is, of course, Varys because he stays in the mess.

Ser Brienne, Podrick, and the Lannister brothers are playing Tyrion’s drinking game where they guess facts about each other, which is fun until the lord imp surmises that the newest knight from Tarth is a virgin. Brienne leaves in anger and shame while Jaime follows after her, leaving Tormund to finally realize where he stands as the third wheel, crying to the Hound. After Clegane chases him off into the arms of a willing Northern girl, Sansa and the Hound share their first conversation since season two and the Battle of Blackwater. When he acknowledges that the “little bird” has grown and changed as much as Arya, she tells him that without the horrors she’s had to endure she wouldn’t be the person she is today. There’s been a great deal of frustration with that line, as the notion that rape can be a tool to make a woman stronger, or that she owes her growth to the men in her life, is demonstrably false. I didn’t initially read the scene that way simply because the theme of terrible things and regrets forming people into who they are has been a repeated one this season (with Jaime, Bran, Theon, etc.), but it is a mark of poor and male-centric writing to not recognize the difference between intentional actions the male characters chose themselves and cruelty done to a character against their will that they’ve had to survive. But this wouldn’t be the last time the writers failed to understand context.

Gendry finally finds Arya in the castle working on her archery instead of reveling in the feast (Big Introvert Energy) and tells her that not only is he the son of a King, he’s now a proper lord himself. Kissing her, he gets down on one knee and tells her it doesn’t mean a thing without her by his side and proposes. Maisie Williams sells the scene with just her eyes, as she kisses Gendry back onto his feet, but has to let him down gently that being a lady is just not her. It calls back to what she constantly told Ned in season one, and the realization she had in her reunion with Nymeria last season.

Jaime channels his inner Drake and brings a flagon of wine to Brienne thee Stallion’s room, reminding her that she hasn’t finished the game. Brienne keeps her room nice and hot, so the Kingslayer starts to take off all his clothes, while probing her interest in Tormund. Always one to keep her guard up, Brienne finally realizes what’s about to happen and helps him take his shirt off as she joins him in disrobing and they finally consummate the years-long dance around and to each other’s hearts.

Daenerys and Jon finally have a heart to heart where Rhaegar’s son reiterates that he has no desire for the throne and is pledged to her. She then begs him to not tell anyone else (specifically Sansa and Arya) and to swear Samwell and Bran to secrecy lest the truth of a rival with a stronger claim gets out and threatens her position. So of course, Jon does the opposite and, forcing Sansa and Arya to promise to keep the secret in the family, has Bran divulge that he’s actually Aegon Targaryen. The scene cuts to black before we get to see their reactions to the news, but hold that thought.

With the demise of the Night King (who we’ll have to wait on the books which shall never be written to learn more about) and his army of the dead, Daenerys finally begins drawing up battle plans to take King’s Landing. As is her wont, the Dragon Queen wants ALL of the smoke and is ready to take Cersei out, whatever it takes. Ever the idealistic pacifist, Tyrion urges the long game of a siege to turn the people against her by starving the Lannisters out. Jon, who at this point doesn’t want to be in the middle of any other squabbles, concedes the feasibility of the plan but then in comes the maester of checking people in public, Lady Sansa. She councils a bit of patience on Dany’s part since her troops are dead tired from fighting zombies, one of her dragons is flying with a limp, and she really has no plan other than “I want the throne.” Admittedly, I’ve been #SansaHive for a while now, but the show seems intent on driving this division between the two matriarchs for no other reason than to manufacture tension and rush towards this narrative that Dany is the Mad Queen that has not been justified. Trying to get back in her good graces (or her bed), Jon however pulls rank and reminds the room that the North is pledged to Daenerys and will follow her to whatever end.

Ser Bronn finally arrives in Winterfell and displays the level-headed pragmatism that I’ve said more than once will put him on the Iron Throne. Rather than outright killing the Lannister men as Cersei wanted, he negotiates. While we finally discover the Queen offered him Riverrun and presumably reign of the Riverlands, Tyrion counters with Highgarden and the seat of the Reach. Less out of an affinity for the brothers and more because he’s seen what dragons can do to an army, he accepts the side he thinks is more likely to win, but promises his bill will come due once the war is over. Another thing this episode has done is remind us just how many Great Houses have fallen in Westeros. Daenerys mentions the support of a new, unnamed Prince in Dorne, and Edmure Tully is possibly still alive in a dungeon somewhere or hiding in oblivion with young Robin Arryn, but almost all of the ruling southern houses have been wiped out.

On the road from Winterfell, the Hound is riding south alone until he’s joined by Arya, and it seems they both have unfinished business back in the capital. If they’re pump faking us and we don’t get Cleganebowl, somebody has to square up. For now, the best buddy duo is back on the road again and neither have plans on coming back alive. Sansa, on the other hand, almost immediately tells Tyrion the ONE thing she promised not to and confides Jon’s secret identity. That’s how we know he wasn’t Ned’s son. Eddard managed to take decades of hate from his own wife to protect his nephew, Jon couldn’t even last a damn week.

The goodbyes continue as Tormund finally takes the wildlings back home to the REAL north to settle down and repopulate now that the threat of the White Walkers is gone. The show, choosing to emphasize his embrace of his Targaryen roots (and that he’s probably going to die soon) has Jon send Ghost north of the Wall as well, since a direwolf has no place in the South and would be happier. This is where the disrespect began and we should have seen the okey doke coming. The relationship between Jon and Ghost is one the show has always underplayed but my man would never! He didn’t even give his beloved companion a goodbye hug, simply looking on as Ghost whines for his friend. We also find out Gilly is pregnant with Sam’s baby for real this time, and if it’s a boy they’ll name him Jon. Yeah, he’s definitely going to die.

Hearing what went down at Dragonstone, Jaime, after knocking the sheen off of Brienne’s starry sapphire again for good measure, leaves in the middle of the night bound for King’s Landing. She runs out in her housecoat and slippers begging an ain’t shit man to come back into her life after just 24 hours; men are a curse. Jaime reads through the litany of things he’s done in the name of his love for Cersei and insists he’s not the good man Brienne thinks he is. It seems clear he’s going back to try to stop her this time (and possibly fulfill the prediction of the valonqar), but he doesn’t tell that to his new boo, who very uncharacteristically breaks down in tears.

Dragonstone

With her fleet preparing to invade King’s Landing and take back the throne, Daenerys and crew set sail to her birthplace on Dragonstone. Tyrion couldn’t even wait to make it to shore and immediately tells the news of Jon’s true parentage to the Benita Buttrell of Westeros in Varys, but he ain't one to gossip, so you ain't heard it from him. As the ships drop anchor in the port however, Drogon and Rhaegal are attacked by Euron Greyjoy’s suspiciously sneaky Iron Fleet now outfitted with improved Scorpions which catch Rhaegal unaware, killing yet another dragon. Gotta pour one out for the homie as we’re now down to one and I am inconsolable. Daenerys in a rage is tempted to fly Drogon straight on to light them all up, but facing another round of fire is forced to flee. Euron being the trash panda he is then targets the ships themselves, sinking most of them and forcing the Unsullied to swim to shore. A distraught Grey Worm is left to panic as he screams for Missandei, who was not among those who washed up on the beach.

On the verge of losing everything, Daenerys is understandably tired of being checked by her advisors and is finally ready to burn the Red Keep to the ground if she can sit on the ashes. In a private conversation, Tyrion keeps trying to push the obvious solution that Jon and Dany, who are in love as it is, should just get married, solving all their problems. As infuriating as it may be that the simplest answer is the one that will never happen, even he realizes the futility of hoping for logic to win out. Varys stops short of admitting he’s putting a hit out on Dany, but the Spider, going back to his defense of the realm, is obviously ready to move on to a new leader and leaves Tyrion to drink.

King’s Landing

Meanwhile, back in the capital Cersei has been opening the Red Keep to the common folk in an attempt to call Dany’s bluff that she wouldn’t burn the city with so many people inside the castle walls. Congratulating walking STD Euron on his successful mission Cersei tells him she’s carrying his child (as Qyburn confirms), and hides her disgust as Greyjoy is overwhelmed with new daddy glee.

The writers then lose the plot entirely as they cut to Missandei, back in shackles, Cersei’s prisoner as the queen remarks “so much for the breaker of chains.” We’ll get to it soon but it goes without saying that seeing a Black woman, the ONLY Black woman on the show, placed back into bondage when her story arc has been one of rising above her enslavement is reprehensible. That said, this is a show about reprehensible people doing reprehensible things. It hurts no less, but what used to elevate the series was that these actions were grounded in an internal logic and narrative fullness that resonated with character motivation and agency for both sides. This was simply done for shock value, both in-universe for Daenerys and out of it for the viewers.

Outside the Red Keep, the walls of which we see have also been outfitted with Scorpions, the two Hands of the Queen meet to discuss terms, and when it’s clear that Cersei will not be surrendering, Tyrion tries to speak directly to his sister and beg for her better nature to avoid bloodshed, insisting that she’s not a monster. WHAT WOMAN DOES HE THINK HE’S BEEN DEALING WITH FOR ALL THIS TIME? Of course that nonsense doesn’t work and Tyrion’s inability to recognize that villainy is possible even under the guise of white womanhood is what should get him killed. Instead it’s Missandei who is caught in the crosshairs of the 53% as she utters her last words, “Dracarys,” before being beheaded by the Mountain.

My personal affinity for Missandei should be well known, so you can imagine how I reacted to seeing this mess. To clarify, it's not just that she died that was so galling. If you read the episode two review we called that happening, and I’d assume most of you weren’t shocked either, even though it doesn’t hurt any less. It’s the how and why that was so poorly handled that added insult to injury of the pain that's inherent when you have so few people of color in the cast in general, but Black women specifically. Had she had the agency to choose her own end and her death come as the result of her story arc, so be it. This is a show of terrors and loved characters die everyday, B. Had she died in the crypts of Winterfell fighting for her life and the Queen she believed in, and Daenerys and Grey Worm had gotten to mourn her the way they gave tired, rockface Jorah his final respects it would have been better. Had her Dracarys command gotten Drogon to start the roast of the city? We outchea! But for it to be simply the impetus to justify razing King’s Landing, and as a pawn in a war of aggression between two white women while she’s placed back in bondage, was a perfect storm of disrespect, to the character and the audience. We've established for seven seasons that that city is a rathole, filled with people we haven't seen in years. I don't care about Dany burning the castle to the ground, but NOW? I need Thanos to show up because I want nothing left but ashes. For a blog whose motto is MORE Black Girls MORE Dragons, this episode was always going to be particularly painful, but the fact that there was no greater narrative purpose for it makes it even worse.

[bitchfromtheseventhhell]

@insomniarama got the ask below and she punted it my way:

i’m guessing from context clues your ask is about the show.  i’m gonna hit you with book stuff so sorry if that’s to the side of your question (i’m not actually sorry this was super fun to write).

part of what’s fun about this ask is that it’s not just about the old gods, while also being entirely about the old gods.  there’s a lot of religious intermixing going on, but there’s that constant undercurrent of the old gods of the north in arya’s heart and experience.

Arya went to her knees. She wasn't sure how she should begin. She clasped her hands together. Help me, you old gods, she prayed silently. Help me get those men out of the dungeon so we can kill Ser Amory, and bring me home to Winterfell. Make me a water dancer and a wolf and not afraid again, ever.

Was that enough? Maybe she should pray aloud if she wanted the old gods to hear. Maybe she should pray longer. Sometimes her father had prayed a long time, she remembered. But the old gods had never helped him. Remembering that made her angry. "You should have saved him," she scolded the tree. "He prayed to you all the time. I don't care if you help me or not. I don't think you could even if you wanted to." 

"Gods are not mocked, girl."

The voice startled her. She leapt to her feet and drew her wooden sword. Jaqen H'ghar stood so still in the darkness that he seemed one of the trees. "A man comes to hear a name. One and two and then comes three. A man would have done." (Arya IX, ACOK)

this passage captures so much with so little and it’s honestly incredible.  you have:

arya, frightened, praying to the old gods

arya, a little girl, who doesn’t know if she’s praying the right way--complicated further by the fact that this religion is one that is not an organized religion. just you and the gods, and the person who taught her about that religion in her multifaith household was her father.

her father, who the old gods couldn’t save.

her father, who died on the steps of a sept.

this couples interestingly with her mother, who observed the faith of the seven in her multifaith household--who was the reason her household was multifaith--dying and being resurrected by a prayer to the lord of light.

which will likely matter tremendously in arya’s coming arc in twow/ados

and, when she berates the gods

someone 

who has devoted himself to one god (the many faced god) 

who arya will, in turn, one day begin “learning” from/about

and whose temple has a weirwood face in it

while pretending to devote himself to another god (the lord of light) 

the faith that will resurrect her mother in the next book (and also jon snow in twow lbr here)

comes and tells her that “the gods are not mocked.”

like holy damn right there that’s a lot of religious connections all in one short passage.

add into that arya doesn’t refer to her repeated “weese, dunsen, chiswyck, raff the sweetling, the tickler, the hound, ser gregor, ser amory, ser meryn, king joffrey, queen cersei,” as her nightly prayer on multiple occasions.  

add in the following level:

She slashed at birch leaves till the splintery point of the broken broomstick was green and sticky. "Ser Gregor," she breathed. "Dunsen, Polliver, Raff the Sweetling." She spun and leapt and balanced on the balls of her feet, darting this way and that, knocking pinecones flying. "The Tickler," she called out one time, "the Hound," the next. "Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, Queen Cersei." The bole of an oak loomed before her, and she lunged to drive her point through it, grunting "Joffrey, Joffrey, Joffrey." Her arms and legs were dappled by sunlight and the shadows of leaves. A sheen of sweat covered her skin by the time she paused. The heel of her right foot was bloody where she'd skinned it, so she stood one-legged before the heart tree and raised her sword in salute. "Valar morghulis," she told the old gods of the north. She liked how the words sounded when she said them.  (Arya X, ACOK)

this nightly prayer--and even that valar morghulis--is a dedication to the old gods.  arya’s nightly list, after all, is a call for justice, and for what’s right, so her dedicating it to the gods of her father makes sense.  but i think that’s something that frequently gets lost in arya’s list: that it’s not just the wrongs she’s seen, it’s an act of dedication to fixing the wrongs of the world.  it is, in its own way, a holy act--not because killing is holy--but because arya has dedicated that prayer to the old gods of the north by connecting them to that “valar morghulis.”  

i think that’s part of the issue: as i mentioned, the faith of the old gods of the north is not one that’s organized in the sense that it doesn’t have prayer books and religious leaders.  it’s just got practice and those practices, it’s implied from bran’s visions in adwd which definitely involved human sacrifice, have changed and likely will continue to change over time.  it is, as we learn in adwd, a religion that’s based on greensight and providing greenseers with knowledge, which is why there’s an emphasis on praying before the heart tree: you’re providing your thoughts and information to the “gods” that they might take that information and, potentially, guide the world to resolve (or exacerbate) the issue.  however, because of what we know, greenseers aren’t gods, they’re men, which means that, fundamentally, the religion--as all religions are to an extent--is as much about an individual’s beliefs and practices as it is about what the religion was established to do in the first place and that’s where things get interesting for arya.  

it’s clear that the old gods mean a lot to arya, especially in her early books.  she thinks of them far more than she thinks of the seven, despite having been raised by a septa (though given her relationship with septa mordane, this doesn’t surprise me at all) and that she was raised by a mother who observed the seven and actively felt uncomfortable in the godswood of winterfell.  she certainly believes in them enough to hold them accountable for their failures, specifically their failure to save her father from joffrey and ser ilyn.  

and, given what happens to her father and at the red wedding, and--as far as she knows--to bran and rickon at theon’s hands, it shakes her faith:

The old gods are dead, she told herself, with Mother and Father and Robb and Bran and Rickon, all dead. A long time ago, she remembered her father saying that when the cold winds blow the lone wolf dies and the pack survives. He had it all backwards. Arya, the lone wolf, still lived, but the wolves of the pack had been taken and slain and skinned. (Arya I, AFFC)

but here’s the thing--arya doesn’t let things go.  not ever.  she holds onto pain from her first chapter in the whole series, and she holds onto memories of injustices and refuses to allow others to try and sway her memory.  so yeah, she can tell herself that she thinks that the old gods are dead, she can even hold them accountable for their failures to protect her family and those whom she loves.  she can even believe, as the passage above implies, that they died along with the rest of her family, but in the very next chapter, you have: 

Polliver had stolen the sword from her when the Mountain's men took her captive, but when she and the Hound walked into the inn at the crossroads, there it was. The gods wanted me to have it. Not the Seven, nor Him of Many Faces, but her father's gods, the old gods of the north. The Many-Faced God can have the rest, she thought, but he can't have this. (Arya II, AFFC)

like ok--she may think the old gods might be dead, but that entire passage is about her soldiering on, her feeling extreme pain at being the “lone wolf” and being “packless.”  and the thing about the first passage is that it’s fundamentally false: the old gods aren’t dead (such as they were ever alive), and nor too are bran, or rickon, or sansa, or jon.  she is not the lone wolf: she’s just off on her own and is going to be reunited with her pack.  her isolation shakes her faith, sure, but so much of what’s happened to her generally has shaken her tremendously--the red wedding is an easy example of that.  but i read the first passage as disillusionment with what she thought the old gods should be doing, not with what the old gods might still do for her; it’s also disillusionment with what the old gods might have done for those she loves, which she sees as what they’ve done for her--but i don’t think that that’s all of what they have done for her.  after all, she doesn’t throw away needle.  needle is jon snow’s smile--something the old gods wanted her to have.  

and, on top of that, in twow, we have this:

Except in dreams. She took a breath to quiet the howling in her heart, trying to remember more of what she’d dreamt, but most of it had gone already. There had been blood in it, though, and a full moon overhead, and a tree that watched her as she ran. (mercy, twow)

those wolf dreams she has starting in asos, the dreams where she’s warging into nymeria from afar--if you have a fairly passive religion that’s based on whether or not greenseers are watching you and taking the knowledge you give them and implementing it--to have a tree be watching her wolf is a major religious deal in her faith.  it’s not only about whether or not she has faith in the gods--it’s about whether the gods have chosen her--and they have.  that much is clear from acok, if not earlier:

"But there is no pack," she whispered to the weirwood. Bran and Rickon were dead, the Lannisters had Sansa, Jon had gone to the Wall. "I'm not even me now, I'm Nan."

"You are Arya of Winterfell, daughter of the north. You told me you could be strong. You have the wolf blood in you."

"The wolf blood." Arya remembered now. "I'll be as strong as Robb. I said I would." She took a deep breath, then lifted the broomstick in both hands and brought it down across her knee. It broke with a loud crack, and she threw the pieces aside. I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth. (Arya X, ACOK)

the old gods are literally whispering to her in this scene, telling her to be strong, reminding her she has the wolf blood.  it’s important: they’re speaking to her here.  and she hears them.  and she acts.

so all this is to say that religion in arya’s story is complicated, but that there is this constant pulsing undercurrent of this old faith in the north--both in how she acts, how she thinks, how things matter to her, and in what they expect of her in the future and what they’re keeping an eye on her for.

[winterfellchild]

When did you start shipping jonsa and why? And what would you like to see regarding their relationship in season 7?

When did I start shippingjonsa?

Iwrote a long reply when I first saw this message because I wanted tosay why I liked Jon and Sansa separately longbefore I started to like them as a couple but this is already tooolong so I’ll talk just about Jonsa.

Well, that’s a toughquestion because I’m not sure exactly when I started, it justhappened during season 6… I think the better answer is that withoutknowing that I was doing it Jonsa was already a thing in my mind.

BeforeI start just let me say that I already said why Jonsa is so specialfor me here so maybe I’m going to repeat myself a little but bearwith me I want to say something more :)

Let me start with saying that Iwas not shipping anyone before Jonsa, I had some couples I liked/like( Jamie/Brienne, Arya/Gendry, Robb/Talisa, Sam/Gilly) but shippingsomeone seemed too much so even if I’m a hopeless romantic thatmost of the times always find someone to ship in everything I see GoTwas the exception and it was alright for me.

Butsomething changed when I saw Jon and Sansa hug in 6x04, that is themost poignant and satisfying scene in all 6 seasons… for me nothingcan beat that hug:

Jon’sface show that he can’t believe what he is seeing, and that’s a lotfor someone who just died and came back to life;

Sansathrowing herself in Jon arms is heartbreaking because she just runaway from a monster who raped her for months.

Bothof them touched the bottom during season 5 and I was ready for moresh*t to happen because it’s GoT and there is always a new bottom totouch for my favourites, especiallyif they are Starks.

Iadmit it, I was ready for more angst but not for an happy moment.

Ithink I started to ship Jonsa in that moment, but I’m telling thetruth when I say I was not consciously doing it… I was justobsessed with the hug and by the time episode 6x05 was airing I hadwatched the hug scene so many times that I lost count ( and evenafter 6x05 I can’t say how many times I keep rewatching that scene).

Anywayafter the hug I liked the idea of them together but I didn’tconsciously add a romantic meaning to that idea… I was just sohappy to see Jon smile so much.

Ithink his smiles are worth more than a thousand words because seeingJon Snow smiling so much is out of character. I know he smiled beforebut when I thought of Jon Snow before Sansa got back in his life Ithought of him brooding alone on the Wall now I think of him smilingat Sansa… it’s a 100% improvement.

Anothermoment that got me deeper in this ship is when Sansa gave Jon thecloak, not because cloaks exchange is a clear reference to marriagein Westeros ( at that time I was not thinking so much about it) butbecause it has the Stark sigil and Jon was not allowed to wear hisHouse sigil before because he is a bastard so all he can wear is asigil with colors reversed. I know there are no colors on that sigilbut I don’t think Jon ever wore the direwolf sigil before so that wasanother meaningful moment.

Andof course “I like the wolf bit” is so cute and not platonic at all, but really when I seethe Stark sigil or I hear one of the Stark saying “I’m a Stark”that has such a powerful emotional impact on me that I go a littleout of my mind everytime and I don’t see much else.

Thestory told us many times that a name is not just a name in Westerosand that there is power in a name and I’m totally irrational for theStark name and consequently the Stark sigil.

Thatsaid in ep 6x10 when Sansa said “you’re to me” I was laughinglike a crazy person while almost crying becauseit was too much… after 6 seasons finally a Stark said it loud andclear. That’s what Jon wanted all his life, that’s so important forhim… she really couldn’t have given him something more important.

Ididn’t expect more from that scene but the forehead kiss was thecherry on top of an already worthwhile scene.

Andit’s not just because Jon kissed Sansa on the forehead ( who know,maybe a cheek would have been less visually striking) but it’s theway he did it, with his eyes closed he gave her a not so shortkiss… like he was savoring that kiss.

Withthat kiss I finally reached a boiling point, I was shipping Jon andSansa… the chemistry was too hot ( do I really need to talk aboutall the fighting and screaming that happened? Some of it bycandlelight? Or Jon’s heart eyes? Jon stared at Sansa fondly everytimethey were on screen like he was tring so hard to understand her and for me he felt fascination and wonder at her most of the times he looked at her) and the meaningful scenes are too many toignore, the season was done but I wanted more of Jon and Sansa.

Forthese reasons season 6 was a slow but constant path towards Jonsa forme.

Iwas never worried about the fact that they are cousins, I read toomany historical novels to ignore the fact that cousins marriage wasnormal in that setting and I know a think or two about Europeanhistory to know that cousins marriage is not just fictional material.

Thestory has a precise setting so I find it boring to read the samecomments over and over again from people who ignore that setting.

Forexample Pride and Prejudice ( I know that’s a love story and ASOIAFis not, there is no need to tell me that, but I’m talking about apossible romance here set in the an historical period so it’s a goodexample) was published in 1813 ( ASOIAF is based on centuries beforethat so there were even less moral restrictions on marriages) andcritics commonly regard Pride and Prejudice as an autobiographicalnovel so what it’s said in that book is a realistic example of  theenglish society in the past and guess what? There are two cousinsmarriages ideas in that book and one of them is between two cousinslike Jon and Sansa with the same degree of relationship.

Ican use thousand more examples but really if fans choose to ignorethat even the Wars of the Roses, G. R. R. Martin drew heavily fromthe War of the Roses ( the honorable Northagainst the cunning South),ended with a cousins marriage there is not much hope to stop the annoyingsame comments to be posted over and over again and in truth I don’tneed to convince anyone, to quote the Three-Eyed Raven :

“Thepast is already written. The ink is dry.”

thehistory is not something anyone can change, but if fans are happyignoring it who am I to say what they should do?

Ijust think it’s so ironic that some fans call Jon and Sansa grosswhen they don’t share much DNA and have many historical examplesbecause they ship a pairing that share almost the same amount of DNAthat real siblings share… the world is full of inconsistencies.

Anyway I’m going off topicandthis is already a long post and there is another question that I needto answer.

Whatwould I like to see regarding their relationship in season 7?

Adeclaration of never ending love, a marriage, children, by the end ofseason 8 Jon and Sansa old in Winterfell surrounded by their verylarge family… ok, I know that’s too much but a shipper can dream.

Talkingseriously I would like to see more heart eyes from Jon and him slowlybut constantly realizing that he is doing not so well in showing hisbrotherly love and his actions and stares are not platonic at all.

Iknow that he won’t be in Winterfell much so I hope that after chokingLittlefinger because of Sansa he will broodoverhis relationship with Sansa all the way to Dragonstone.

Afterhe will arrive to Dragonstone he can start to broodover why he spared Theon life because of Sansa.

Andof course before leaving Dragonstone I want him to brood over why hesaid to Tyrion that Sansa is not his wife ( I think it’s inevitableto talk about Sansa and Tyrion marriage, it’s the elephant in theroom, an obvious problem that maybe they will not want to talk aboutbut it’s important to talk about it for the North).

Yes,I’m petty since I want Jon to brood all the time but really he needsto brood a little since he will leave her after he promised toprotect her and since they won’t be together I just hope he will thinkabout her a lot.

Ifhe will want to smile again he can go back to Winterfell anytime…of course he can’t since there is a great war to fight so he willbrood over Sansa for season 7.

Asfor Sansa in Winterfell she will busy to protect his crown fromLittlefinger.

Iknow she will be resolute on this because she is not going to giveany trust to anyone that is not family anymore.

Ithink that Jon’s decision to leave Winterfell in her hands will havean huge impacton her because it’s a real proof that he trust her and that she ishis equal… before anything  romantic I think Sansa need to restoreher faith in men.

It’sreally a necessary step towards becoming ready to love someone forreal for the first time in her life.

Inmy opinion Sansa will just start to think about a possible romanticrelationship between them only after Bran will tell them about Jon’strue parentage, maybe near the end of the season, but not beforebecause she has not much experience in love and the only times shetrusted her heart her father died, that’s a big scar in her heart soeven if she will have some feelings about Jon she won’t acknowledgethem before she will be ready to love him freely.

Ithink if it will happen D&D will put another Ned/Cat 2.0 parallelon how Sansa will start her relationship with Jon:

“Lovedidn’t just happen to us. We built it slowly, stone by stone, overthe years.”

Isee Sansa more pragmatic even over matters of the heart and Jon moreimpulsive.

Andthat’s also the reason why I think we saw more heart eyes from Jon inseason 6 than from Sansa and that there will be not much progress inseason 7, if something will happen it will happen in season 8 whenJon will have a clearer mind after some time away from Sansa andSansa will have a more open mind for love after some necessaryhealing of her heart.

Ialso believe everything that happens in the show is essential and agood reason why D&D put Sansa in Winterfell cutting her Valestoryline can be because they needed time to build Jon and Sansarelationship… if it’s going to happen it won’t be an easy love story so they need solid ground before starting to write about it.

[dachi-chan25]

Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 4 Recap Pt. 3

WARNING: SPOIIIILERS; not a D@€n€r¥$ fan; a hopeless Jonsa shipper.

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Before I go on about Theon/Jon reunion. I’ll retake my point on J0n€r¥$ (this is only my opinion and humble analysis, I have been wrong a lot of times so really if you ship them or read this scenes differently is cool!), like I said I see attraction from D’s side but not from Jon, their interactions on and out of the cave were pretty telling, inside the cave they made progress but again what D wanted was more important than anything else and they ended at odds with each other again. Then when she asks (more like demands) for his advise, he is giving a step forward, but again what she wants is more important. And if D&D were setting a enemies-friends-lovers epic romance things would be different, it is common for this trope having other people interceding for the two sides to see they are not really so different (aka Tyrion,Dadvos,Missandei) that makes them less reluctant to interact with each other, but their interactions in themselves always end on a bad note focusing entirely on what D wants instad of bringing them closer so the audience starts to see them as a Team there is no hope,longing or understanding common to this trope (and listen I know this trope real well, I live for this) at the end of their interactions just plain frustration and annoyance.

Which leads me to the conclusion that Targcest is setting up Targbowl, D is not gonna accept Jon is a Targ, because before her atraction or sympathy for Jon is the thing she wants, and it is already being shown.

6.- Theon an co. arrive, and Jon stares him down immediately, Theon is like oh Jon didn’t know you were here, and Jon doesn’t answer, until Theon asks about Sansa ( we know that is the name that makes Jon do things) and again Jon grabs him by the collar. Now as much as I Love Theon, he did a lot of awful shit to the Starks and no one would blame Jon for wanting to punch him or even scream at him about it, he does none of those things though he says what Theon did for Sansa was the only reason why Jon doesn’t kill him, and wow just wait the fuck up, this thing can’t be brushed off as a coincidence, Jon is clearly being set up against Sansa’s past suitors (and yes Theon was one of them because he had always hoped he would marry him to Sansa so he could be aun official Stark) and judging them on their treatment of Sansa, not only that but the fact that this 2 episodes they’ve been apart Jon and Sansa have mentioned one another, that’s not an accident, I’m pretty sure they will have some kind of romance.

Dadvos gets a close-up after this scene, and I don’t know what to make of it, maybe he is starting to see something there as well as LF, I mean he didn’t see the crypt scene and with Tyrion Jon had his back to him so he didn’t catches his expression, but he did saw him beating up Ramsey and stepping at the sight of Sansa, now again he stops himself from beating up the guy who betrayed his brother and set WF on fire for Sansa… Anyone would be wierded out, or maybe he is just waiting for his moment to speak, he does ask about Theon’s sister, he says she was captured and he came to ask for the Queen’s help to rescue her. Jon says the Queen is not here and he seems annoyed.

7.- Back with Lannister/Tarly convo, Randyll is a disgusting human being suggesting they flogg the soldiers so they go faster, and he is like no bitch my man fought well how about we just ask them to go faster????

Randyll goes to ask them, and Dickon stays with Bronn and Jaime, Bronn is all of us laughing at Tarly junior’s name, Jaime asks if HG was his first battle and what he thought about it, Dickon says it was his first and that it was glorious, but being a greenboy his face gave him away, Jaime is like no really what did you thought about it?, Dickon says he didn’t really want to kill all those people he knew and grew up with, and Bronn makes a joke about shit.

Seems intresting to me they are giving us another reminder of soldiers being human beings, and giving Dickon a bit more depth (he is pretty likable actually, he is kinda adorable) for what is next.

Bron uses his spidey-senses and is like did y'all hear that? And oh boy do we hear it, sounds like a goddamned storm, but it’s really the Dothrakis.

Soldiers take positions, and it really doesn’t look well for the L-T army, they are clearly outnumbered and this remind me a lot to the BoB (I think this is 100% intentional) were the Dothrakis and D are the Boltons.

So yeah the soldiers are ready, nervous but ready when D enters riding ine of her FUCKING monsters, the soldiers, Jaime, Bronn and Dickon (me too) get scared af, and even more when D fires her first Dracarys burning an entire section of the army, it’s horrifying to watch honestly, this battle is not fair in any form or way, actually it could be more accurate to call it massacre.

Now we now every single scene on GoT has a purpose and my mind immediately went to ep 1 and the kind and cool group of soldiers Arya met, and I understood why they decided to cast someone as popular as Ed Sheeran as a Lannister soldiers of all things, to humanize them, mind you their dialogue (that guy who wanted to met her daughter and their general jolly but resigned attitude) was enough to make you think how unfair it is for them to fight other people’s wars, now is no secret Arya is a fan favorite and by being kind to her D&D made them likable when they were really preparing us for this all along, preparing us to see this Poor man dying an awfull death and wonder if Ed Sheeran’s character is among them, or the dude that wanted a pretty daughter to take care of him when he was old but now he would probably never meet her, the dude that offered Arya the first bote of the food and so on) I’m a terribly sensitive person and I cried, because it was awful, monstrous.

Chaos breaks in, everything is burning, and suddenly I realized the carts and barrels full of food were also burning.

Are you FUCKING kidding me???? D is supposedly doing this shit to get food for her people but she just burnt all the food, oh boy she may win this battle but keeps on losing the war, Cersei lost food and man, but so did D, and who needs it most really?

Jaime tells Bronn to go fire the Scorpion (aka the massive crossbow Qyburn made) is no secret I was dissapointed by Jaime’s constant justification of Cersei’s bs, but when I think on it, well he does Love Cersei and it’s hard to think as a monster of someone you are in love with even if this is true, but I think this battle will help Jaime wake the fuck up (maybe when/if he meets Brienne again he’ll finally leave Cersei for good, and I say this not only as a shipper but because Brienne is literally Jaime’s honor), he was heroic in this battle raiding fearlessly through the fieles of fire. Also Dickon was pretty great and saved Jaime once.

Bronn also steps out as the anti-hero he is, honestly one can’t help but cheer for him as he is looking for Drogon so he can’t pierce the monster’s skull. And he ultimately does hurt the gigant lizard, just not enough as to prevent it from burning down the Scorpion (gosh I do hope Maester Qyburn has more of those).

Tyrion arrived with other Dothrakis to watch the scene on oh, his face says everything, this is not what he wanted at all, some random dothraki says his people doesn’t know how to fight and I can’t help but think back on Dickon’s words, he knows some of this soldiers hell! some of them might have even fought alongside him on Blackwater, he sees the food is gone and suddenly there is Jaime, the only sibling who was ever kind to him, the one who saved his life, and really kudos to Peter D. For his acting on this scene.

Things take a turn for worse when Jaime changes at an indefence D Targ trying to take the gigant ass arrow out of the gigant ass wing of her gigant ass lizard with a spear on hand, at this moment Jaime is not thinking, cuz this is not a smart thing to do at all, he is probs remembering Aerys and his burn them all, and he wants to kill the responsible of this horror (not that I blame him, honestly I always thought D was going to die, because of her vision at the house of the undying, but this is the first time I’ve actually wanted her to die which shows the good Job they are doing at making her the villian, like dude she looked like a Villian against the Lannisters!!!!) one thinks he is gonna do it when Drogon gets between Jaime and D, and is ready to roast some golden ass, when outta nowhere Bronn saves him, they are both sinking on a lake and the episode ends.

That’s it til next week (may the gods help me)