#IF THE GODS HATE VALYRIANS WHY DO THEY STAY WINNING

[eclipsecrowned]

laerion sees seahorses on the leatherbound of f*re&bl00d and just 'VELARY0N MENTIONED.'

[thecountesstribe]

HOTD Ep 2x7 Spoilers and review.

So this was one of my favorite episodes this season and also one of the coolest imo.

Seasmoke being protective of Addam and looking proud he terrorized Addam into being his rider was too funny. I love that dragon 😂. Come through Addam the Loyal, all Rhaenyra had to say was she's queen and he immediately acknowledged her and bent the knee, I loved that. He's really about to become my other favorite boy.

Corlys being shook and acting like he doesn't know Addam, like sir if you don't tell the truth already. He's never gonna beat the deadbeat allegations. Although when he told him “Well done” I did whoop a little. I would've kicked his ass had I been Addam though.

Oscar Tully! That's it. That's the fuckin post. He gagged Daemon and stood on business. I love to see young kids bullying arrogant adults, he reminded me of the OG lil boss Lyanna Mormont. That's my lil nephew now.

Daemon didn't take the crown. We saw him hallucinating again, this time with the sick version of Viserys and Viserys holding the crown which he didn't take. I mean anybody with a brain could summarize that he never wanted the crown, we didn't need to spend so much time in his delusions in Harrenhal to tell us that. We certainly didn't need a scene of him feasting on his mom to tell us that, yuck. For all his faults he really was about his family. He went about it the wrong way but that's Daemon for you. His stupid self destructive ass.

We had an unnecessary scene of Alicent running about the woods after leaving King's Landing. Chile anyways. Larys is totally protecting Aegon now and he's essentially crippled atp. I fear for Baela's storyline.

Rhaena is looking for Sheepstealer. Her and Jeyne are still tussling but they waited until the final 2 episodes to give her something, Baela had no lines besides looking pretty and staring at Jace. I fuckin hate it here. Could we bully HBO AND THE WRITERS SOME MORE. WTF!!

Vermithor and SilverWing looked so cool. What did that old bum feed Vermithor though? He's big asf. SilverWing just might be the coolest looking dragon. I can't rank them anymore cause I like them all 😭. Literally my favorite thing about the episode. Like the directors cooked. The dragons are funny asf 😂😭😭😭. There were a lot of parentage reveals, I don't believe for a second Saera sired that ugly man but anyways. RhaeRhae led those people to their deaths. Rhaenyra deadass gave this big ass pep talk, she reminded me of Erwin before he led the scouts out on what would be their suicide mission except she didn't stay to see the outcome or participate in it. Vermithor saw an opportunity for a buffet and took it, Hugh claimed him. Fuckin cinema. Still gonna hate his bitchass but I can't lie that was badass. SilverWing was bullying Ulf. Why do people I hate always win sometimes?! Ulf literally failed upwards. Can't be mad at it. I mean if I was a dragon I would've done the same shit. How dare mediocre specimens come before me who is essentially the next best thing after the Gods!

We got Rhaenyra speaking High Valyrian. She had her dragon squad quit on her though and gave her a warning (foreshadowing). Her also being able to calm Vermithor, that's the Dragon Queen of her era y'all. We saw a little movement with her and her protective spoiled cat Syrax too 😍.

Not people hating on Jace now. Listen that argument has been brewing since season 1. He just finally let it out of his brooding body. I don't think many people understand the implications that argument meant. He sounded classist and maybe he was, highly doubt he is but he's being realistic and in the future he was proven right (unless they scrap the book canon). Rhaenyra paralleled Viserys in that entire scene. She really is her father's child in some ways. She did to Jace what Viserys essentially did to her. The one thing that could've upheld his ascension to the throne was him having a dragon and she essentially gave a free pass to anybody to do the same, the same thing was done to Rhaenyra when Viserys decided to marry Alicent and sire more children when he knew damn well that if he had a son, her claim to the throne would've been compromised. Jace knows he's a “bastard”, a legitimate one but a “bastard” ntl (I'm not calling him a bastard in a derogatory sense either, he isn't. Laenor claimed them as his sons and that's the end of it to me) , it shouldn't matter considering the throne is not passing from his father's side but his mother's. Sure his last name would've changed the minute he was named heir and ascended as stated by Viserys but what weight does that hold now? They briefly touched on it when he spoke to Baela about his fathers but he had always been insecure about his parentage. No he didn't call his mother a whore, he's been fighting that battle all his life, she just made it worse. In the dire situation they're in, the sacrifice had to be made but I could understand why he's angry and hurt over it again. She literally just made him illegitimate in the eyes of the realm. His anger is valid. Was his tone harsh yes, try dealing with the whispers and the jeers and everything else for the past 16 years of your entire life and seeing the same proof of what everybody else sees everyday and tell me that you wouldn't hold some kind of resentment towards it. I liked how Rhaenyra was patient with him though, just wished it wasn't as rushed as the scene felt.

The last shot of the episode was fuckin brilliant. Aemond turning his bitchass around knowing he can't handle that kinda pressure. Also Vhagar and Aemond's bond may not be as strong as it should be. She clearly does not listen to him sometimes. He's still responsible for Lucerys death IDC what y'all got to say. The episode got a 4/5 stars from me just for the dragons. I'm here for Jace, Baela, Addam and the Dragons!

Until next week guys for the finale. We're going to see Tessarion and Sheepstealer next week. I'm so excited.

[jackoshadows]

I agree with the OP that D&D don't understand the significance of names and labels and themes and the importance of monikers and they never really cared for Jon Snow as a character. They just put stuff in there because it came from GRRM with no care for why it's there in the first place.

Like they took Jon's entire book plot - even taking word by word from Jon's speech to the Freefolk asking them to fight for him - and gave it to show Sansa because they wanted Sophie Turner to be front and center in season 6 and pushed forth this badly written idea that it's Sansa who won the battle of the bastards and it's Sansa who is smart and Jon should have listened to Sansa etc.

And then they randomly had the Northern lords/ladies make Jon Snow KITN when the show did not have Robb's decree and Ned Stark's legitimate daughter Sansa - who on the show is magically unmarried to Tyrion - was sitting beside him and is credited with winning the battle with a vale army.

Why? No reason except KITN Jon came from GRRM and D&D just dumped that in there after taking Jon's journey from LC to KITN in the books and giving it to Sansa who was only in the North because they replaced the character playing 'fake Arya' with Sansa . This then made GOT fans hate on Jon Snow because Sansa did everything and she was the legitimate heir and it was just sexism that he got the post over Sansa because it was she who motivated him to fight and won the battle and he should have listened to her etc

It's the same with Jon Snow's resurrection - what was the point of Jon Snow being resurrected? He ended up doing absolutely nothing in the fight against the Others except scream at a dragon. Show Jon Snow would have been better off as a character had he stayed dead instead of being used as a prop to support other characters. What was the point of Jon Snow's mystery parentage? Just there to make Dany paranoid while Jon walks around saying 'I don't want it'.

And the show then splits KITN/Lord of Winterfell - when in the books as per Robb's last will and decree, Jon Snow is legitimized as Jon Stark, KITN and Lord of Winterfell. In essence the show absurdly makes Jon a king without lands or castles while Sansa - who was married to Ramsay Bolton and is therefore Lady Bolton - is made Lady of Winterfell.

D&D stripped GRRM's world of all it's rules, laws, symbolism and themes to just hand off plots to their faves. We had Sansa breaking oaths sworn in front of the Godswood on the show and being rewarded and made queen!! In the books, as we have seen with other characters breaking oaths, she's not winning anything and would end up dead! The Old Gods don't play around!

Coming to the White Wolf moniker, it most probably did come from GRRM because it's connected to Jon's bastardy!

The Stark sigil is a grey direwolf on a white background while for a Stark bastard it would be the reverse - a white direwolf on a grey background.

"Bastards do not have the right to use the arms of the highborn families from which they descend. Recognized bastards who take arms (noble born, knighted, etc.) often, but not always, take the coat of arms of their fathers with the colors reversed." - Awoiaf

There is no description of a personal coat of arms in the books, but George R. R. Martin told the company Valyrian Steel, who made replicas of Jon's sword, to use the reversed Stark colors on the plaque that goes with the sword. - Awoiaf

It would be the very opposite of Robb Stark. In GRRM's world white and black does not stand for good or evil as he has explained with the white wearing Kingsguard and the black wearing crows of the NW.

Jon Snow/Stark therefore possibly being called the 'White Wolf' in the world of the books is not a reference to his morality or his direwolf. It's a reference to his bastardy just as much as the black bastard of the Wall is.

[PS: This is also why I think that Arya Stark will be endgame Wardeness of the North/Lady of Winterfell with her Grey Direwolf being the house Stark Sigil and all the hints/clues with Nymeria named after a queen and leading her own wolfpack]

The show of course does not care about these details. Winterfell on the show still had a Grey Direwolf banner despite KITN bastard Jon Snow - possibly because they didn't know or care or maybe because they made Sansa Lady of Winterfell. They took away Jon's white Direwolf who went missing except turn up at the last episode of the show.

So Jon had no white direwolf banner and no white direwolf and yet the lords randomly called him the 'White Wolf' on the show lol. Why? Because GRRM must have mentioned it to D&D in one of their pre-season 4 conversations and they just dumped that in there because they thought it was cool.

That's how the entirety of GOT was written - D&D just putting stuff in there because it's cool. Remember that entire absurd wight hunt episode in season 7? Dany losing a dragon and Gendry running back to get help etc? That episode was written because D&D thought it would be cool to have some magnificent seven team up going up against ice zombies....yeah.

‘the black bastard of the wall’ moniker is the exact opposite of the ‘white wolf’ moniker and this perfectly highlights the irreconcilable differences between book Jon and show Jon

[vieverdeen]

Thoughts on 8x03. I need to vent.

WARNING: this contains dark! Dany, crumbs of Jonsa i guess, anti sanarion, anti jonerys, anti daenerys, anti tyrion, anti d&d, basically anti everything, and lots and lots and lots of complaining. LOTS. And bitching. I hated 8x03. If you liked it, I suggest you keep scrolling. Please keep scrolling. I don't want any heat, dont want to offend anybody, I just so BADLY need to vent.

Also, i post in the Jonsa tag, because that's my main fandom and where i feel safe.

ALSO SPOILERS!

This episode was an epitome of disappointment. I can't even. All this bragging how it was going to beat BotB and Hardhome, even freakin HELMS DEEP (the audacity) and ZERO payoff. I'll try to be as brief as possible(I probably won't be).

1. Whover was the mastermid behind this battleplan should hang. What the actual fuck. What the f*ck was the deal with stationing all The Unsullied and Dothraki OUTSIDE?! I mean i get it - there's limited space at Winterfell, and those are huge armies. But later, when it all goes to hell with the Dothraki and so on, and Dadvos screams "man the walls!" there are so few people actually inside, that could man the walls! I mean, the defenders should form a freaking wall themselves, to push down as many wights as possible! And they weren't even in position, on the battlements!

2. The charge was fucking idiotic. I really don't get it - was it a rash decision of the Dothraki, inspired by Mel lighting their arakhs, that they were like "yeah, why not, let's roll", without any order? Or was it an ACTUAL plan for them to charge the AotD, without anybody knowing Mel would show up and do what she did, with regular weapons, not even Valyrian steel or dragon glass?! I mean, did they WANT to give the NK more meat for his army? THE STUPIDITY

3. What was the deal with Arya during the battle? All of the sudden she's inside the castle, terrified, walks into the library and hides from one(!) wight - seeing as in the beginning she wasn't aware there were more. The whole library scene was exhausting to watch, and not because of the suspence, but again, because of the stupidity of it. It felt out of nowhere and pointless. And damn, I remember all of the speculation when the trailer came out- why is Arya so terrified, what is she running from? Is it Rickon or whatnot? Nope. No surprises here. Just regular whights, just like the ones she was going all assasin-mode on a minute ago.

3. Jon, Daenerice and their lizards. I mean, could they have been any more useless?! Dani burns some wights in the beginning and thats it. The most frustrating part was, that they haven't even once used the goddamn dragons to fry Viserion. Not once! There was some hands-on dragon combat but that was it. At various moments I wanted the NK to win, seriously. When they flew above the clouds and Viserion disappeared, i half expected the nephew and his aunt to sing "A whole new world" together and fly away. Wouldn't have made a difference.

4. I will give them one thing, the part with Dany falling off of Drogon and him abandoning her was satisfying. Shame that Jorah ex Machina was soo predicrable (glad it wasn't Jon though). Also, I will say, that Jorahs death was the one scene I actually liked, it brought me back to season 1 and I felt for Daenerys for a moment.

5. The crypts. I mean, the way Tyrion has been made by the show to be the Most Moral Man in the Universe, with his magical, genius mind has become unbearable. I wanted to smack him, seriously. Of course YOU should be out there Tyrion, YOU might notice something others won't. Sansa put him in his place, but I would prefer it if she remaind cold towards him, like in the first episode, just beacuse the amount of sanarion being pushed down our throats was making me gag. Saying they would never have worked because of Dani? Sansa love, you dont have to be polite. It would never have worked because Sansa did not love him, wasn't attracted to him, was forced to marry him as a child, because he's a father-killing, whore-mongering alcoholic. I was SO scared they would actually kiss in that scene when they were hiding. I was about to puke. Seriously, Sophie has an amazing chemistry with nearly everyone and clearly it was visible in this scene, but for the love of God I could not bear it.

6. Missandei and her "if it werent for the Dragon Queen we'd all be dead". I need someone to step up ASAP and make it clear that if it werent for Dani and her dumbass advisors the NK WOULDNT HAVE A F*CKING DRAGON!!! And the Wall still would be standing! Why don't these things matter? Like at all?? Why?! D&D just dont give a fuck.

7. Bran. The Three-Eyed Raven. All those seasons, the impossible journey, the sacrifice of Hodor, Jojen, Meera, Summer, all the 8-year build up for the AotD to end like... this. No resolution, no answers, no explanation. And Bran does nothing. It was so underwhelming. Every single fanfic I've read was better than this. He just warged into some ravens and went for a flight. Coolcoolcool.

8. The final scene, with the music and everything was, much like the rest of the episode, exhausting. The pacing was all over the place, either too slow or too fast. It sure was nice of the NK to give Theon and Bran some extra time so they could look at each other meaningfully, with Bran taking his sweet time to assure Theon that his character arc has been completed and he's most welcome to die for him now. The NK was actually a big softie on the inside, truly. Applies also for the never-ending look he exchanged with Bran before actually trying to kill him.

Till the last moment I was hoping that Bran would pull something out. That he couldn't have been THIS useless. Anything, I would have even taken time travel, anything. But GoT has stopped shocking and surprising a looong time ago, and we got Arya instead. I guess she's so awesome now, kinda like a supernatural being, that the only sign of her coming is a light breeze moving one's hair. I don't quite get when did she actually learn to fly/jump so high, maybe at some point in Braavos, between washing dead bodies and fighting with sticks? (okay, here's a rabbit hole to avoid - Aryas plot since sason 6, when suddenly she becomes a worrior able to best Brienne in combat). I would really like Arya killing the NK, if it was done and executed better, with a decent build-up and all of that. Not like this. It was so fucking easy it hurt.

9. Jon was useless. Useless I tell you. Dani being useless was sorta satisfying, as I'm anti dany, but Jon has been obsessed with the AotD and the NK for too many seasons now. I guess I should be thankful that at no point the line "i thought i lost you" has been uttered.

10. When the episode ended, me and my sister were like, "damn, dani has actually lost all her armies. game over for her." I mean she lost all of the Dothraki, almost all of the Unsullied? But God, did we underestimate Dumb&Dumber's dumbness! OF COURSE in the promo Dani still has an army and is ready to go to war with Cersei. OF COURSE. Fuck logic, fuck the facts, fuck the plot. Things havent been making any sense for a while now, so why bother at the end?

11. One more thing about Ghost - i love this boy with all my heart, and that's why it pisses me off so much that after SEASONS of neglecting him and favouring the lizards, the writers bring him back for some meaningless cameos, without Jon interacting with him ONCE. The discrespect! Seriously, at this point Ghost should just switch owners. Jon better stay with his pet reptalian.

Sidenote: I won't even go into no Jonsa goodbye scene. No goodbye-scene for Jon with any of the Starks. Coolcoolcool.

There is more, I'm sure, but I cant remember and I'm too tired. I dont even know what I expected. Maybe because the 2 first episodes were decent I was hoping for something remotely good. But D&D reminded me that no one can dissapoint like they can.

[7deadlycinderellas]

If the summer of our lives could just come again, ch11

AO3 link

 On the Kingsroad

Just as she feared, Sansa is black and blue at the end of each day’s riding. They’re not even going very fast, but every time she climbs out of the saddle she feels like it’s become part of her.

When they stop to eat in the evening, Ned mentions,

“I’m surprised you chose to ride.”

“I didn’t last time,” Sansa admits, “And I feel like I missed out, like there’s so much of Westeros I haven’t really seen. Every other time we’ve traveled, it’s been under duress, so I couldn’t appreciate it.”

Traveling at peace, she’s grown to appreciate the landscape. Everything is green, at its peak of growth, not yet touched by the winds of autumn, though they are on the cusp of it.

There’s a special sort of pain that comes to linger in Sansa’s gut caused by traveling alone with her father.

Once, when watching him speak to some of the men, she feels a sob crawl it’s way out of her throat.

When Ned looks at her, alarmed, her words spill out.

“The last thing I said to you before...you died thinking I hated you.”

Ned freezes, and then hugs her. He tries to assure her,

“There comes a point where as a parent, you accept that your children won’t stay little and perfectly adoring of you forever. I know you don’t hate me, and whatever it was over I’m sure I wouldn’t have held it against you.”

Sansa sniffs.

“Gods, I must have been an awful child to deal with.”

Ned laughs.

“You had your moments, all of you did. Some days we would have you swooning, Robb grandstanding, Jon sulking in the corner, Arya yelling and running away from the septa and Bran climbing something he shouldn’t all in one day. Rickon could do all of those in a single day himself, save maybe the swooning.”

When they pass through the Neck, it begins to rain lightly. The chill it brings puts Sansa’s mind back into her worst place. When they’re huddled under the covers of the tents one night, Sansa finally asks.

“The Boltons are really gone?”

Ned looks at her gently. None of them had been forthcoming about how Sansa, in particular, seemed so threatened by the Boltons. And after what he had seen at the Dreadfort, he feels he really doesn’t need to know.

“I swung the sword myself.”

Sansa lets out a breath, and leans forward to hug her knees.

“You should make sure to keep an eye on Ice,” she says, changing the subject rapidly, “Valyrian steel works on white walkers as well.”

“Not too many of those left in Westeros,” Ned comments. Sansa doesn’t tell him what became of it after his death.

“The recipe for making more was found,” Sansa admits, “and Gendry knows how to do it, but it requires dragon’s fire.”

Dragons. It should shock Ned more than it does.  

He stares off into the woods a lot that night. Dragons on his mind.

When they finally reach King’s Landing, the smell assaults them both like a slap. Sansa steels herself, and walks to her place with dignity.

The keep is as it was, huge and full of historical lore, but also intimidating and sitting atop a city crawling with unrest.

The king too, is as he was. Fat, drunk and thoughtless. Thankfully he doesn’t give Sansa much notice. She looks out of the corner of her eye at him on occasion, seeing the resemblance to her good brother in what seems a near mockery. Sansa watches as he drinks and hunts his way throughout his days, laying all of his work on her Father and the council. Why did he even want to be king at all? Sansa thought, he fought a whole war, so many people died for it. What did any of this mean to him?

Cersei and Joffrey are much as they were too. Joffrey doesn’t pay her any mind, and Cersei only takes a moment to hold her chin in her fingers, nails sharpened to a point, and ask her if she had reconsidered the idea of marrying her eldest son.

“Oh, no, “ Sansa assures her, “Joffrey is a prince, and I belong in the north. I simply did not wish my father to have to make this journey alone. “

After that, Sansa tries hard to steer clear of her. If she can escape the queen’s notice, it will be easier to escape her wrath. It’s much easier than cutting and running every time she spies Lord Baelish on the premises. She feels her stomach tighten every time, and Lady follows her when she walks the halls alone.

Tommen and Myrcella both have changed some in the last not quite a year since she’s seen them, having grown taller and more into themselves. Sansa hadn’t paid Myrcella much attention before, being so blinded by the attentions of her older brother, but she now finds the girl a bright-eyed and willing companion.

“None of the servants have daughters my age, and Mother likely wouldn’t let me play with them anyway. Joffrey won’t let me join him and Tommen in anything they get up to either.”

Sansa looks at Myrcella, the girl having gotten close to hitting a growth spurt and already becoming lovely. Sansa reaches in her mind for any memory she has of what became of her once she’d been sent away to Dorne. All she remembers is that it hadn’t ended well.

But for now, she thinks the both of them could use a friend.’

“Do you know how to play cyvasse?” Sansa asks, recalling one of Gendry’s suggestions of past times.  

Myrcella’s eyes light up.

“My uncle Tyrion has been teaching me, I’m sure he could teach you too!”

It’s strange to admit that Sansa has found herself avoiding Tyrion too. He’s back to the man she first met, and while she isn’t repulsed by him like she had been, she has to admit her feelings are mixed.

He doesn’t mention anything about what she told him before he left Winterfell, or of the letter, but she can feel him watching her, like he wants to ask but can’t find the words. She knows the feeling.

Myrcella convinces him one day after breakfast. They sit at a table in one of the gardens, over the board. After describing the movements of each of the pieces, Tyrion sits back to watch the two of them.

“Remember, the goal for all the pieces is to protect the king from being killed.”

Sansa picks up one piece, the dragon, examining it. The set they’re using is made of up of ivory and jade, lovely craftsmanship.

“Strange how the whole game is about protecting the king,” she comments, “But he’s not even the most powerful piece on the board.”

There’s so much reality to her comment, she thinks as Myrcella nods, and they begin to play.

She watches the board, and their hands moving the pieces around the board, fighting for the death of an imaginary monarch. What did all of that even mean to them?

She sighs, play stupid games, she thinks, win stupid prizes.

 At Winterfell

Gendry has been getting into the rhythm of the days at Winterfell. He eats in the Great Hall with all the others, then he works. It’s usually in the afternoon, after the bulk of the rest of the work is done, when him, and usually Meera, and sometimes one or two of the others, will continue on the stockpile of dragonglass weapons.

The other girl didn’t pay him too much attention. She would chatter sometimes, idly, while they were working, but she seemed to focus on her work. The chip and whittle method she uses is time consuming, but her work always comes out well.

One day, she surprises him by asking if he could make her some metal fish hooks.

“I asked Arya if she wanted to go fishing with me in the Wolfwood in a few days,” she explains.

It is odd, Gendry thinks, seeing them together. The morning that they choose to leave, Arya asks him if he wants to come with them.

“That’s alright,” he says, never having really been a fan of nature. There’s something else too.

“It’s nice seeing you with friends. Not sure if you ever had those, aside from us. And let’s be honest, Hot Pie wasn’t so much a friend as he was dead weight that occasionally produced delicious food.”

Arya leaves him off with just a hug, and he adds,

“Be careful out there though.”

Meera had pulled down the pair of ash branches the day before and whittled them down. They were strapped to her back when she unsteadily joined Arya on their horse and left Winterfell through the hunter’s gate.

Arya feels Meera shifting uncomfortably in front of her.

“Still not quite steady?” she asks.

Meera shakes her head, tight lipped.

“I’m used to stepping carefully, for marshes and quicksand and unstable ground. It feels like I’m not quite in control up here.”

Arya pats the dappled gelding on the rump.

“You will eventually get used to it. Horses aren’t the smartest of beasts, but they’re very predictable.”

It’s a short ride though, the stream isn’t far from the keep. It’s fairly deep, but not too wide. As children, the Starks used to dare each other to try and jump over it. Only Robb was ever brave enough to try, and he got soaked for his bravery.

“What’s out right now?” Arya asks her, while she’s digging in the bank for worms for bait.

“Trout mostly.”

When they bait their lines, and throw them out, Arya sits back against the tree they’ve parked by.

“Did you really grow up doing this all the time?”

Meera nods.

“If you were trying to get a bunch at once, to salt or something, it was usually easier to cast a net. Rod fishing was mostly for relaxing on nicer days, and bringing back something to fry just for dinner that day.”

Arya sits back and looks at the sky. It is a nice day, clear and sunny if awfully cold. The leaves on the trees are starting to turn towards golden towards autumn.

“I wish I could have done that,” Arya muses, “Growing up here, everything I wanted to do I was told wasn’t for ladies. If my mother had had her way I would have never even gone outside.”

“There were perks,” Meera agrees, “It’s very different in the Neck, a lot more goes into ensuring our day-to-day survival. There were girls like you’re sister there too, girls who hated hunting and swimming and the like. Girls who probably thought I was insane to still do those things even though I was highborn and likely could have elected to never.”

That is something Arya has come to understand; that there are girls like her everywhere, and girls like Sansa everywhere. She does kind of wish she’d known Meera the first time around, when she was younger. It might have helped to know there were other girls like her at all, that she wasn’t some kind of freak.

They’ve caught three trout that Meera has gutted and strung up when the sun is high in the sky.

“I’m going to go down stream to bury the guts,” she stands and tells Arya, taking the bucket to dump.

When she’s done and goes to return, she feels the hairs on her arms stand up. She’s not sure why, but when she approaches, she, quietly as possible, climbs a nearby tree to get a look.

There’s three of them, she realizes, two men and a woman, dressed in shabby skins and furs. One of them has a knife on Arya, who through some miracle, just looks bored.

Meera clutches the knife she’d used to gut the fish in one hand. She can’t get the drop on three of them, she knows that. She loosens the grip, and reaches out, finding a cluster of acorns, pulling them loose and throwing them across the clearing.

The distraction works, when the man with the knife nods to the woman to check it out, Arya reaches out to grab the knife.

It’s a quick move, and from the yell the man lets out, Meera guesses Arya must have broken at least one of his fingers to get it. She flails out and slashes at him violently, cutting his face deeply before the other man grabs her from behind.

Meera eyes the end of the branch she’s on. It’s just a bit too far, if she could just get a little bit closer, she might be able to jump on top of one of them…

It’s not an issue. Less than five seconds after the other man grabs Arya, there’s a rustling and a fierce howl before the wolf bursts into the clearing and leaps atop the man holding Arya back, and takes a deep bite out of the side of his face.

Meera jumps down carefully into the fray, while she watches Arya, suddenly free, tackle the man she had slashed, who is still clutching his face. In one swift movement, she slashes his throat with his own knife.

Arya is breathing heavily, and when Meera hits the ground and pulls her own knife. There’s still the woman to deal with.

Though with the wolf, it’s muzzle covered in blood, standing beside the two corpses, she’s frozen, seemingly with no desire to try and fight it.

The woman drops her knife, and Meera goes to grab it. She gets a good look at her then, and stops short.

“Osha?”

If Osha is at all disturbed by her calling her by name, it doesn’t show.

“Do what you will with me,” she says, “Just don’t let that thing kill me.”

Meera looks over at Arya, who’s got her hands on both sides of the wolf’s snout, and has her forehead pressed against its own.

“That thing has a name,” Arya insists, “And it’s Nymeria.”

Nymeria was huge, Meera thought, bigger even than Summer had been full grown. She’d heard tell that Arya’s wolf was wilder than others, but it was apparently no less loyal.

“What do we do with her?” she asks Arya, nodding in Osha’s direction.

Arya points to the where they’d tied the horse.

“I have rope in the pack. Tie her hands and we’ll bring her back to Winterfell.”

Meera does what she says, pulling Osha’s hands, which are still raised in surrender, to tie them behind her.

Arya has paused, and is looking at the two corpses.

“We’ll have to come back and burn them,” she comments, taking out her knife again, “but first…”

She takes the knife to the one who’s face she slashed. Meera watches in horror as Arya cuts the man’s face from his skull in one piece.

Osha curses loudly, and starts muttering about witches. Meera understands.

“What on earth are you-”

Not even looking up, Arya quietly asks,

“Have you ever heard of the Faceless men?”

Meera’s stomach goes cold. There had been muttering about how Arya had spent her years missing before, but...

“You’re not-”

Arya laughs.

“Not officially, but they did teach me a thing or two. A wildling face could prove very useful, even if it’s all cut and scarred.“

Once she’s done, she takes the rope Meera’s holding and pulls Osha back towards the horse.

“You’ll walk.”

 At the Wall

It had been, truly, for Jon to keep up his training at the Wall under the knowledge that his siblings had dropped upon him. The most effective route, he had discovered, was simply to try and forget he had learned any of it at all.

Sometimes this was harder than other times.

It’s hard enough when he’s getting mocked by the others, for his birth (which he now wants to throw back in their faces) or the burgeoning friendship he’s developed with Sam.

The worst is whenever he overhears some of the senior night’s watchmen speak of the intelligence they’ve gathered from over the wall. The wildling villages being abandoned, the burning of some keep that Jon has never heard of, the movements of a group of wildlings that they cannot assign a motive to. These are when the words of his siblings echo in his head.

He wishes uncle Benjen had stayed at Castle Black, just so he could see a familiar face.

But then they find the bodies of the other two rangers, and the corpses rise, and attack Lord Commander Mormont, just like the younger Stark’s had said they would.

Jon, in the moment, does not think. His training and instinct take over. When Mormont presents him with the sword, Longclaw, afterwards, he finds that he tries not to accept it.

When the older man pushes it on him anyway, he wonders about the certainty of what else they had told him.

And so, one night, he seeks out Maester Aemon.

After the older man offers him a chair, Jon cuts to the chase.

“You never talk about yourself, where did you grow up? And why the Night’s Watch?”

Aemon chuckles, and comments,

“First real brush with danger making you question your life choices? Well, if there’s nothing else that could…”

The old man tells him of his youth, growing up in King’s Landing.

“I knew wealth, and women. I could have even been king…”

Jon’s stomach seizes.

“You- your…” his mind reaches out into his history lessons, guessing at the man’s age. “You’re Aemon Targaryan.”

The old man chuckles. The rest of the words he tells Jon are a mess. Jon doesn’t even have the presence of mind to ask him about the Others like he had intended.

When he wanders back to the barracks, he realizes, that if the old Maester is in fact who he told him, then Jon is his blood family, who may be the only family the old man knows he has left.

 Over the Wall

Henneh was the one they had sent out to blend in. She hadn’t bled yet, and would have been the old man’s next wife. Young enough to not be considered a viable threat.

Gilly clutches the baby and waits for her to return. She finally does at sunset.

“Is it true?” they ask her when she does.

Henneh nods.

“It’s true, the rumors. Mance Rayder is seeking the Horn of Winter, he wants to use it to bargain with the crows, to threaten to bring down the whole wall.”

“We can’t allow that,” a raspy voice interrupts. The woman who spoke it was old, though no larger than Henneh. Her skin was still gray and the leaves growing from her head were beginning to droop. She had told them that her name was Rowan, and she was the last remaining of the Children of the Forest. She had come to them one night, whispering the stories of the deaths of the rest of her people, and how she was trying to put into motion a plan that might save the rest of the realm.

“My magic can keep the illusion on the cave as long as we need, it’s small magic. But if the Wall comes down our plans with shatter. “

“Do you even have enough magic left for the plan?”

Rowan smiles.

“Most of its long gone. Opening the rift back here took a lot out of me, but it was necessary. Very little magic is involved in the plan we made, but we will need help. We must get to Castle Black before Mance Rayder, and before he can even think to bring down the wall.”

All of the women nod.

Before they leave that night, Gilly rocks her baby to sleep, wondering what they will call this little group after the fact.

[tinywriter2018]

Winter Has Come

Winter Has Come

History repeats itself in the oddest of ways.  

Word Count: 1928

The Stark Family and the Targaryen family were not exactly friends, yet they were not exactly enemies.  Their paths have crossed in the passed, but each time, they had departed on somewhat bitter terms, yet either family couldn’t bear to harm the other, unless a few cuts and bruises didn’t count as severe harm.  Since the rise of the White Walkers, the world has been plundered into an internal snow.  The Starks have endured for thousands of years in the middle of it all, but with the newest wave, they have been forced south.  

The second wave was not something they had expected.  They had found themselves at the Targaryen’s door, asking for shelter, if only until the next wave hits.  Rhaegar Targaryen, being the gentleman he was, offered their family and the few men they had a place to stay for the time being.  But no one was sure how long they had until the White Walkers came further south.  

The sun was soon to set, in another hour or two.  Jon pulled out his pocket watch, wondering when he was to be relieved of duty.  Walking the wall was fun, but knew he had been out here much longer than he normal was.  “Aegon.”  he hissed under his breath.  

“Last time I saw him, he was running off with a maid somewhere.”  A female voice startled him.  Turning he saw the oldest Stark girl, dressed in a gentleman’s clothes, holding what looked like rifle.  Her hair was pulled back into a low ponytail, the red locks fraying at the ends.  Even in men’s clothes she still was gorgeous.  

“When did you get here?”  

“A couple of minutes ago.  I was walking the southern border, Arya just relieved me of my own duty.  Thought I would come and look at the river.”   The castle was located next to a river, for an easy escape.  The White walkers couldn’t swim, and they stayed away from the water, only ever getting a foot close to the edge.  

“I almost didn’t recognize you in your attire.  It's odd to see you out of a dress.”  He joked, but she didn’t laugh.

“Desperate times call for Desperate measures Targaryen.”  She looked out at the sun lands, her blue eyes casting a gaze that he wished she looked at him like that.  One of wonder and beauty.  He didn’t know what to say, afraid of upsetting her next.  Sansa broke the silence.

“My mother told me the story of the last time everyone united to defeat the white walkers.  They thought they had gotten them all, so they stayed dormant for thousands of years.”

“Everyone knows the story.”

“Do you know who conquered them?”  

“Um...Some stark?”  Sansa smiled, shaking her head.

“Your not fully wrong.  The story goes that only with a targaryen and a stark could the white walkers be defeated.  He in battle and she with the people.  He fought them, while she protected what truly mattered.  Life.  They say his name is Aegon.”

“Like my brother.”  Jon looked out at the river and the green trees.  

“But he grew up as Jon, under the Starks banner.”  She smiled, his eyes finding hers.  “He married the Stark, the Stark girl who saved the people.”  She turned about to leave him to go back inside.  

“What was her name?”  He called to her.  She turned around continued to walk away.  

“Sansa.  Queen of the North.”  Giving one last sly smile, she quickly walked away leaving Jon to ponder on the consequence.    

Sansa was cutting her meat, a deer that Robb had caught earlier on the hunt.  The Smaller the pieces, the more she feels full, at least that’s what she taught herself.  The deer slices where little compared to the food she used to eat as a child.  But she was a lucky one, she had meat on the table.  She even had a table.  

Sansa was sitting in between Jon and her brother Rickon. Sansa was often in charge of Rickon, at least when it came to meals.  Though the boy had grown up a lot since the winter had come, he still needed more growing up when it came to table manners.  A boy of 8, he was a still a handful at times.  

“Use a knife.”  She whispered to him.  Rickon put the fork down, with the whole piece of meat on it, before reaching over and grabbing a knife.  

“You look different tonight M’lady.”  She heard Jon whisper from her right, his eyes glancing over her dress.  She turned to him, giving a small smile.  

“Which do you prefer?”  she flirted back, or at least tried to.  

“Which do you want me to?”  He smiled, taking a sip of wine.

“Neither.”  Jon choked a little on his wine, his cheeks turning a slight pink.  He looked over to see his Father’s disapproval at his behavior flash for a second on his face before returning his attention to everyone else.  

“I hate to bring it up, so soon after you arrived, but my staff needs to know.  How long do you plan on staying with us Ned?”  Elia Martell gives her husband her own disapproving looks, while she cuts her meat. Rhaegar is quick to avoid making eye contact with his wife.  

“Not long.  We only need a few more days, while he hunt for some Dragonglass and Valyrian Steel in the old battle grounds.  We will be out as soon as we can manage.”  Catelynn gives him a look, making him remember to be curtseys.  “Our family is in your debt for the hospitality you have shown us.  I don’t know if we would have found shelter anywhere else from the coming winter.”  

“Do you believe you could return home, to the North?”  Elia Martell asked.  Ned shook his head, a sadness swept over him.

“I’m afraid, the north is lost of us, until we can find a way to defeat the Winter once more.”  Ned took a sip of his own wine, before returning to his meal.  

“If I had dragons, we could win this war in a matter of days.”

“You couldn’t control them long enough to win a war.  Dragons are strong, and you can’t even beat a girl in dueling.”  Ayra retorted back to him.  Aegon glared over the table at the smirking girl.  Sansa rolled her eyes, wishing this dinner would end.    

Sansa sat by the old God Tree in the cutdown Godswoods.  Her hand resting softly on the white stump that used to hold a face.  The starks had been with the Targaryen’s going on a two months now.  Every time they bring up leaving, Elia finds a way for them to stay.  The starks are better hunters than they are, food is more plentiful since they had arrived.  Sansa wishes they wouldn’t drag out leaving anymore, she soon won’t be able to part with Jon.  

Jon quickly sits beside her, his chin resting on her shoulder.  

“What are you thinking?”  He whispers.  She places a hand over his, their fingers intertwining.  

“Leaving.  I don’t believe I could part from you and ever be the same again.”  She holds back her tears.  He walks around to kneel in front of her.

“Don’t think like that anymore.”  He wipes a tear from her cheek.  

“I can’t help it.  Father is getting more anxious every day, and you know who the Starks and Targaryens are.”

“But we aren’t like that.  This generation could be different.  Like during the first winter war.  You said it yourself.  Stark and Targaryen working together wins.”  

“They haven’t since then.”

“Well, we could change that.”  He stood up with her, embracing her.  His lips on hers, while she smiled into his embrace.  “I want to Marry you Sansa Stark.  I don’t want to part from you again.”  She smiled up at him, shaking her head yes.   Before she could say anything back, she noticed white snowflakes falling into his hair.  Jon’s own horror showed as they fell around them.  Sansa looked towards the trees.  

“Jon!”  She yelled in horror as a blue eyed decomposed deer limped into the clearing.  One it’s back hooves was missing, his face half gone.  Jon quickly unsheathed his sword, hacking the thing’s neck clean off, before stabbing the skull into nothing.  He grabbed her hand, both running as fast as they could back to the castle, to alert the others.  

Winter had Come.     

Sansa was quickly packing her things in the room she shared with Arya and her mother.  She was holding back her tears, while Arya was silent for once.  Quickly she hurried and put on her own riding clothes, knowing that they would be riding by dusk.  

“Why do we have to go again?  Why can’t we stay and fight?”  Arya asked.  

“You know exactly why.”  Catelyn reminded her daughter.  The starks tried to fight once, they lost their Uncle Benjen and almost lost Bran in the fight.  Thousand of their followers were lost as well.

“I think this is a terrible Idea.”  Elia said from the door.  She was in her own riding clothes, looking at the girls.  Her daughter behind her.  “We finally came together, we need to stick together.”   She walked into the room, gripping Catelyn in a hug.  

“Yes, well the men are not to smart sometimes.”  

“They think numbers will be to large.”  Sansa put out, whipping her eyes before anyone caught sight.  

“Sometimes large numbers are a good thing.”  Arya spoke up, fastening her belt.

“Before we split up we must talk about it!”  Catelyn spoke to both in front of the family.  Everyone was in the stables, ready to leave at any time.  The snow had begun to stick, the White Walkers not far off.  

“I will not hear anymore.  Rhaegar is heading towards Dorne, while we are headed to Essos.”

“Westeros is our home Ned!”  Catelyn seethed at him.

“We are only stopping to pick up my family that is left before joining you in Essos.  Gaining numbers before coming back.” Elia mentioned.  She gripped Catelyn's hand.

“But that is all the while meaning to stay together. Once we make it to Essos who knows how long it will be if we meet again.”  Catelyn gripped Elia’s hand tighter.  

“On what agreement?” Rhaegar looked at both of them.  “Our families have not gotten along in the past why should it be any different now?”  He reasoned back.

“How about a marriage agreement?”  Sansa spoke up.  She took a step forward from where all the kids were together.  Jon reached out grabbing her hand.  Sansa smiled back at him.  

“You promised didn’t you.”  He smiled back at her, stepping forward with her.  

“I wish to marry her father.”  He spoke.  

“Sansa-” Ned began but she cut him off.

“The Targaryens and the Starks have not gotten along since the first Winter’s war.  But during it, it was a Stark and a Targaryen working together that ended it.”  

“A marriage is something that shouldn’t be-”

“It’s not father.  I already asked Sansa to marry me and she agreed.”

“We don’t have to do it know.  We can wait till Dorne, a journey south together.  Would you agree to that?”  Sansa gripped Jon’s arm.  He held her close, her tears starting to come once more.  “Apart isn’t always the best answer.”  Jon put out.  

Ned looked at Rhaegar both of them nodding.

“If you still wish to marry, we will ride as far as Dorne.”  Ned agreed.  

“But we must hurry.  The snow is getting worse.”

Masterlist

[trinuviel]

The Long Night - Myth and Mystery

About 8.000 years before Aegon’s Conquest, a period of darkness fell upon the know world - and lasted, according to legends, for years. This event is called the Long Night and it was a global phenomenon that left its marks in legends all across the known world.

In the novels, a second Long Night seems to be in the making. However, the purpose of this post is not to speculate about how this second Long Night will be averted but rather to take a look at the different legends about the first Long Night - as well as to speculate about what caused it in the first place and if there’s a connection to the strange seasonal patterns in Westeros and beyond.

THE LONG NIGHT IN LEGEND

Essos 

The Far East

In the far east of the known world, they tells stories of a warrior with a burning sword fighting back the darkness with an army of the virtuous. Who did they fight? According to legend, it may have been the Lion of the Night, one of the gods of the Great Empire of the Dawn - or if not then god, then is his demonic minions.

In the annals of the Further East, it was the Blood Betrayal, as his usurpation is named, that ushered in the age of darkness called the Long Night. Despairing of the evil that had been unleashed on earth, the Maiden-Made-of-Light turned her back upon the world, and the Lion of Night came forth in all his wroth to punish the wickedness of men. How long the darkness endured no man can say, but all agree that it was only when a great warrior — known variously as Hyrkoon the Hero, Azor Ahai, Yin Tar, Neferion, and Eldric Shadowchaser — arose to give courage to the race of men and lead the virtuous into battle with his blazing sword Lightbringer that the darkness was put to rout, and light and love returned once more to the world. (TWoIaF, The Bones and Beyond: Yi-Ti) 

(Hyrkoon the Hero. Art by Jordi Gonzales Escamilla)

Azor Ahai, Hyrkoon the Hero, Yin Tar, Neferion, and Eldric Shadowchaser. Whether all of these names refer to the same person is unknown but what is important is the fact that these stories are all variations on a common theme: The Hero with the Magic Sword, which is a common trope in fantasy fiction.

Asshai

Among all these stories of the warrior with the burning swords, the story of Azor Ahai and Lightbringer is of special importance since it has become co-opted by the cult of R’hllor.

It is also written that there are annals in Asshai of such a darkness, and of a hero who fought against it with a red sword. His deeds are said to have been performed before the rise of Valyria, in the earliest age when Old Ghis was first forming its empire. This legend has spread west from Asshai, and the followers of R'hllor claim that this hero was named Azor Ahai, and prophesy his return. (TWoIaF, Ancient History: The Long Night)

The story of Azor Ahai hails from Asshai and it has spread throughout Essos through the followers of R’hllor who regard AA as a kind of messiah and thus prophesy his rebirth. 

Yi-Ti

However, not all the legends of the Long Night feature martial heroes with magical swords. Such as this story from Yi-Ti:

In the Jade Compendium, Colloquo Votar recounts a curious legend from Yi Ti, which states that the sun hid its face from the earth for a lifetime, ashamed at something none could discover, and that disaster was averted only by the deeds of a woman with a monkey's tail. (TWoIaF, Ancient History: The Long Night)

There’s no mention of war in here and it is also unusual that the hero in this tale is a woman but it doesn’t elaborate on what deeds she performed to bring back the light of the sun. The monkey tail is also an interesting detail as it reminds me of the trickster monkey god of Chinese legend. Could the woman with the monkey’s tail be a kind of trickster figure?

The Rhoynar

Not all of the legends about the Long Night feature warriors or battles. The descendants of the Rhoynar tell a very different story.

Lomas Longstrider, in his Wonders Made by Man, recounts meeting descendants of the Rhoynar in the ruins of the festival city of Chroyane who have tales of a darkness that made the Rhoyne dwindle and disappear, her waters frozen as far south as the joining of the Selhoru. According to these tales, the return of the sun came only when a hero convinced Mother Rhoyne's many children — lesser gods such as the Crab King and the Old Man of the River — to put aside their bickering and join together to sing a secret song that brought back the day. (TWoIaF, Ancient History: the Long Night)

Here, the hero is not a warrior or a trickster but a negotiator of a kind who seeks out all the lesser gods and convinces them to join forces to bring back daylight through a secret song. Why a song? Though not much is known about them, the book does mention a certain kind of magic users called spellsingers. Could it be that the story is talking about a powerful spell?

Westeros

The Long Night and the Others

The legends of the Long Night vary according to culture and nationality but the legends in Westeros differ in two ways: 1) the world doesn’t just go dark for a generation but the darkness also brings an almost endless winter, and 2) humankind is faced by an implacable supernatural enemy - the Others.

"Oh, my sweet summer child," Old Nan said quietly, "what do you know of fear? Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods." "You mean the Others," Bran said querulously. 

"The Others," Old Nan agreed. "Thousands and thousands of years ago, a winter fell that was cold and hard and endless beyond all memory of man. There came a night that lasted a generation, and kings shivered and died in their castles even as the swineherds in their hovels. Women smothered their children rather than see them starve, and cried, and felt their tears freeze on their cheeks." Her voice and her needles fell silent, and she glanced up at Bran with pale, filmy eyes and asked, "So, child. This is the sort of story you like?" 

Old Nan nodded. "In that darkness, the Others came for the first time," she said as her needles went click click click. "They were cold things, dead things, that hated iron and fire and the touch of the sun, and every creature with hot blood in its veins. They swept over holdfasts and cities and kingdoms, felled heroes and armies by the score, riding their pale dead horses and leading hosts of the slain. All the swords of men could not stay their advance, and even maidens and suckling babes found no pity in them. They hunted the maids through frozen forests, and fed their dead servants on the flesh of human children."  (AGoT, Bran IV)

While the Others have become legend, the events of the novels tell us that they are indeed frightfully real. However, they do seem to be a threat that is specific to Westeros. They do not appear in the Essosi tales of the Long Night whereas the Westerosi stories tell about a relentless march that drove the First Men south.

The Others are a threat that is specific to Westeros as they don’t appear in the myths from Essos. The show reveals that it was the Children of the Forest that created the Others as a weapon against the First Men.

The origins of the Others is such a HUGE plot point that I think that we can safely assume that this will be the case in the books as well - but perhaps in a different manner. On r/eddit the poster u/Lucifer_Lightbringer argues that the Others were indeed created by the Children of the Forest and that they are, in some way, related to the weirwood trees - the Others are also called the White Walkers of the Woods and there are tales of the CotF making warriors of the tree suring the war with the First Men 12.000 years before Aegon’s Conquest (AC). The poster presents some intriguing textual evidence for this theory. The creation of the Others as a weapon also forms a nice symmetry with how the Valyrians weaponized the dragons - as the dragons are Fire made Flesh, so are the Others Ice made Flesh as I have argued elsewhere. The magical incarnations of Ice and Fire were both weapons.

If the Children of the Forest did indeed create the Others, then these icy creatures are much older than the Long Night. The war between the The CotF and the First Men took place between 12.000 and 10.000 years before AC. The war ended with the Pact on the Isle of Faces more that 10.000 years before AC.

In the show, the remaining CotF tell Bran that they lost control with their creation, which is a classic tale of hubris - a magical, prehistoric version of Frankenstein’s monster. 

The Long Night happened 8.000 or 6.000 years before AC, which would mean that the Others had been dormant for millenia. Whatever caused the Long Night, it woke the Others and strenghtened them.

The Last Hero

The legends of the North tell of an unnamed hero who seek out the Children of the Forest for advice on how to defeat the Others.

(The Last Hero. Art by Roman Papsuev) 

So as cold and death filled the earth, the last hero determined to seek out the children, in the hopes that their ancient magics could win back what the armies of men had lost. He set out into the dead lands with a sword, a horse, a dog, and a dozen companions. For years he searched, until he despaired of ever finding the children of the forest in their secret cities. One by one his friends died, and his horse, and finally even his dog, and his sword froze so hard the blade snapped when he tried to use it. And the Others smelled the hot blood in him, and came silent on his trail, stalking him with packs of pale white spiders big as hounds—" (AGoT, Bran IV)

All Bran could think of was Old Nan's story of the Others and the last hero, hounded through the white woods by dead men and spiders big as hounds. He was afraid for a moment, until he remembered how that story ended. "The children will help him," he blurted, "the children of the forest!" (AGoT, Bran IV)

The stories do not reveal the identity of the Last Hero but I’ve argued elsewhere that it is possible to make a case for Bran the Builder, the legendary founder of House Stark, as the Last Hero. Bran the builder is also credited with the building of the Wall and the formation of the Night’s Watch.

The Battle for the Dawn

The legends of the North also tell of a great battle that routed the Others and marked the end of the Long Night.

How the Long Night came to an end is a matter of legend, as all such matters of the distant past have become. In the North, they tell of a last hero who sought out the intercession of the children of the forest, his companions abandoning him or dying one by one as they faced ravenous giants, cold servants, and the Others themselves. Alone he finally reached the children, despite the efforts of the white walkers, and all the tales agree this was a turning point. Thanks to the children, the first men of the Night's Watch banded together and were able to fight—and win—the Battle for the Dawn: the last battle that broke the endless winter and sent the Others fleeing to the icy north. Now, six thousand years later (or eight thousand as True History puts forward), the Wall made to defend the realms of men is still manned by the sworn brothers of the Night's Watch, and neither the Others nor the children have been seen in many centuries. (TWoIaF, Ancient History: The Long Night)

In this Battle for the Dawn, the very first members of the Night’s Watch rode out to meet the Others in battle and they prevailed - as told in the song The Night That Ended. Other legends seem to imply that the Children of the Forest also participated in the defeat of the Others, which would indicate that they did indeed loose control of their creation and therefore joined forces with their old enemy. However, the Others were only driven back (to the Lands of Always Winter) - now they have awoken to threaten humankind with eternal winter and death once again.

The Legends - similarities and differences.

All of these legends about the Long Night are different from each other but they all have one common denominator: a hero that sets out to put things right. However, that is where the commonalities end. The stories from the Far East of Essos feature a warrior hero with a magic sword and the stories are cast in a moralistic light - humankind is punished by the gods for their wickedness and the Chosen One with the Magic Sword is a leader of the virtuous only. I find that last detail somewhat ominous but it also explains why one of the variants of this tale (Azor Ahai) has been adopted by religious fanatics like the cult of R’hllor.

The story from Yi-Ti is vague but fascinating because here the hero is a woman who is also a possible trickster. The legend from the Rhoynar cast the hero as a negotiator who intercedes with the gods and convinces them to work together. That last bit is important.

The story of the Last Hero is interesting because this hero is both a warrior and a negotiator who intercedes with a magical race (the Children of the Forest). If the Last Hero is indeed Bran the Builder, then he was not only a warrior and negotiator that unified people under a common cause - he was also a builder, someone who both destroys (through war) was but also creates (through architecture).

THE MYSTERY

While different cultures in both Westeros and Essos have old legends about the Long Night, almost none of them mention what brought it on. The cause of the Long Night remains shrouded in mystery. However, a clue may have been left in the companion book The World of Ice and Fire - because the legends of the Far East of Essos claim that it was the Bloodstone Emperor and his usurpation of his sister the Amethyst Empress that brought on the Long Night.

When the daughter of the Opal Emperor succeeded him as the Amethyst Empress, her envious younger brother cast her down and slew her, proclaiming himself the Bloodstone Emperor and beginning a reign of terror. He practiced dark arts, torture, and necromancy, enslaved his people, took a tiger-woman for his bride, feasted on human flesh, and cast down the true gods to worship a black stone that had fallen from the sky. (Many scholars count the Bloodstone Emperor as the first High Priest of the sinister Church of Starry Wisdom, which persists to this day in many port cities throughout the known world). In the annals of the Further East, it was the Blood Betrayal, as his usurpation is named, that ushered in the age of darkness called the Long Night. Despairing of the evil that had been unleashed on earth, the Maiden-Made-of-Light turned her back upon the world, and the Lion of Night came forth in all his wroth to punish the wickedness of men. (TWoIaF, The Bones and Beyond: Yi-Ti)

The Bloodstone Emperor was the last ruler of the Great Empire of the Dawn. I have previously argued that Asshai could have been a central city in the lost empire. Asshai and its environs are the most magically polluted places in the known world. The land is completely sterile and its inhabitants are dependent on the import of food and fresh water - animals die in the city and no children are born.

(Asshai by the Shadow. Art by René Aigner)

I’d argue that the pollution of Asshai was caused by a cataclysm that was magical in nature - and that particular catastrophe was the cause of the Long Night. The stories tell of a black stone fallen from the sky and that could perhaps be one cause though that wouldn’t explain the magical aspect of the pollution. If the Bloodstone Emperor did indeed cause the Long Night then it would be because he meddled magically with nature on a level that has never been seen before or after (with the possible exception of the Doom of Valyria)

THE LONG NIGHT AND THE SEASONAL IMBALANCE

One curious aspect of the world of Ice and Fire is the uneven length of the seasons, where each season lasts several years. The novels offer no explanation on this strange phenomena but the companion book give us a tantalizing hint that this seasonal imbalance is not natural.

Though the Citadel has long sought to learn the manner by which it may predict the length and change of seasons, all efforts have been confounded. Septon Barth appeared to argue, in a fragmentary treatise, that the inconstancy of the seasons was a matter of magical art rather than trustworthy knowledge. Maester Nicol's The Measure of the Days—otherwise a laudable work containing much of use—seems influenced by this argument. Based upon his work on the movement of stars in the firmament, Nicol argues unconvincingly that the seasons might once have been of a regular length, determined solely by the way in which the globe faces the sun in its heavenly course. The notion behind it seems true enough—that the lengthening and shortening of days, if more regular, would have led to more regular seasons—but he could find no evidence that such was ever the case, beyond the most ancient of tales. (TWoIaF, Ancient History: The Long Night)

It is always worth paying attention to what Septon Barth has said about things historical and magical (x) - so when Barth has argued that the season imbalance was due to magic, it is worth to take it seriously, especially since GRRM himself has said that the answer to the mystery of the season will be a magical one (x). 

However, I’ll go a step farther and say that it was the Long Night that messed up the seasons in Westeros (and Essos). The quote above appears in a sidebar in the companion book - and it is worth paying attention to these sidebars as they are written by GRRM himself while his co-authors were responsible for the main text (x). Furthermore, this particular sidebar about the inconstant seasons is placed in the section about the Long Night! So there are Doylist reasons for believing that it was the Long Night that changed the seasonal patterns in this universe.

[survivor-rotuma]

Ep. 5: “Our tribemates had to die for MYSANDRE to rise.” - Lysandre

Felix

I'm kind of glad Raul is gone. To me, he was the biggest liability in all the alliances I had with him. It is just a shame to see someone I made an alliance with early in this game get eliminated like that. However, now that means Marie will continue to be a target for Cassie at merge, and I can still work with Lysandre. They are a valuable asset to me. I would not want to bring them to the end, but I would love to take them as far as I could to ensure my own safety. Right now, if it is a final 3 scenario, I want to take Flint and Joey since they seem the least active and the most trustworthy. Plus, they don't seem to have games at the moment, but I'll have to keep an eye on that as we go along. Final 2 scenario for me is definitely with Joey though at his point in the game. 

Boris

"Sorry for my lack of confessionals lately. Just literally nothing is happening. My tribe basically died completely as far as activity goes and I'm just sitting pretty until merge anyways so!

Yeah go me woo"

Felix

"I don't want to summarize. So take this chat log instead. 

TLDR: Joey confirms to me that we're ride or dies which makes my FTC plans more possible. He wants Sumi to win the challenge and for either Mea or us to go to tribal. I want us to go to tribal because, well, I don't trust Charlie to remain loyal to us.

What do you think about all that's happened?

Joey, 8:10 PM: i think we're the only ones who have never been to tribal

8:10 PM: Yeah I think so!

Joey, 8:10 PM: what's the tribe that's not mea

8:10 PM: Sumi

Joey, 8:10 PM: yeah i think at merge it's gonna be based on tribal lines

8:11 PM: Mea will defintely be the people in the middle. We need to reel them in if we want to stay the majority based on tribal lines

Joey, 8:11 PM: exactly that's why i'm wondering if losing the next challenge would be bad for us

8:13 PM: Yeah someone will have to lose it. If Sumi loses then they have 4 against our 5. But that means Mea will want to work with them more since we'd be a threat due to our size. Though if we lose, then we have to convince Mea on the same principles to vote out a person from Sumi. It's kind of a tricky situation to be in. But hen if Mea goes to tribal again, then that'd just be one person to convince but then it'd be deadlocked

I think this might be the most important immunity pre-merge

Joey, 8:14 PM: i agree like honestly best case scenario is Mea loses again lol but i think if sumi loses we could be in trouble obviously i'm loyal to the four but above all you're my ride or die man

8:15 PM: Are you suggesting that you throw the challenge? Tsk tsk how unsportmanlike lol. But I wouldn't mind it. The worst that happens is that we vote out Charlie

Joey, 8:15 PM: i hate throwing challenges lmao but i think it depends on the challenge i think regardless of what happens we want sumi to win make them the threats

8:16 PM: I think so too. Whatever direction you take this in, I'll follow. And you're my ride or die too! I've bonded with you the most out of everyone here and think you're awesome!

I'll trust your instincts on how to tackle this immunity. Good luck either way!

Joey, 8:17 PM: haha i appreciate it man!! we'll definitely touch base and see what happens "

Felix

This eraser will definitely help out at merge, especially those early votes. I think I'll use it the second merge starts just to make sure we have the numbers to kick out someone from Sumi. It sucks that I didn't get one of those big advantages tho

Flint

That auction was cut throat, woof! 

Marie

"Hi, I’m Spencer from Cagayan you might of heard of me as the most unlucky survivor player ev-

NO BITCH MOVE OUTTA THE WAY ITS ME MARIE. O k, so my tribe is already down to 2 people. And now our chances are even worse?????????? Wow I have horrible intuition "

Cassie

Well that auction was a bit of a bust for me personally, but as for our five person unit it wasn't too bad. After I brought in a ten percent overall disadvantage for the next immunity, Joey scored big with that advantages. Plus Felix as well. I still believe in the Tuai power!

Joey

So I had a chat with Felix earlier today about the game. At this point I've coasted very easily through pre-merge since i have yet to attend a tribal council, but as the individual game approaches, it's time to go from a direct UTR/MOTR to a CPM legend! Obviously, Sumi and Tuai are pretty evenly placed going into the merge, but personally I think we're the bigger threat. We've never lost a challenge nor attended tribal together, so it's a lot easier for us to band together with numbers and I think the other tribes are smart enough to see that. So, I was throwing around the idea of potentially throwing the next challenge and booting Charlie so that we would go into merge with a numbers disadvantage to Sumi and have a lot of swaying power for the Mea duo. However, with my challenge advantage as well as Felix's vote eraser, we have a lot of opportunities opening up that we can hopefully capitalize on!

Flint

Turns out my machete advantage from the auction holds no power. So now I have to decide, tell people that I didn’t receive an advantage or lie about it and create a fake advantage to gain favor in the game. I’m a terrible liar but I think I should create some lie to help gain insight from others

Bradley

I am truly a mess and Jay deserves better. Been dealing with life changing stuff and its been keeping me away from checking in the game. I got a strike and its my first one ever and i feel so bad. Gunna try harder but still dealing with stiff so we’ll see.

Lysandre

"Oh boi I hope your'e ready for a thicc confessional. So I survived last round miraculously! Marie didn't vote me out lmaooo. 

The reward challenge is here!! And the reward is an Auction!! I'm heading into the auction trying to snag something so that I can at least boost ability to navigate in the game. Some notable things from the auction: Joey gets a 15% advantage in the challenge, Felix gets to negate a vote, Marie gets a 10% disadvantage in the challenge hjefwkbvkaevbkj.fe bdka and Boris gets to pick someone from any tribe for a movie night. 

I SNAGGED AN EXTRA VOTE at the AUCTION AND HOW I DID IT WAS ICONIC. So me and like 5 people bid on the same item and it got randomized 3 times and I picked spot number 4 to be the winner. The person in spot number 4 was none other than LYSANDRE. AHA!! 

Now the speculation begins. Charlie bought a mask and I believe that the mask holds the ability for her to see the votes for one round. I have no idea what Apollo has but it may be an exile pass or like a clue to merge idol?? I think the first tho. Also who the hell knows what Brianna has. I believe Flint bought the power to give someone a disadvantage.

OMG BORIS PICKED ME FOR THE MOVIE. This is literally the best outcome I can think of. During the short time that I was on another tribe I really clicked well with Boris and I liked him a bunch. I really want him to be my ride or die moving forward into the game. I'd love to hear who he's close with and could pull me in with. I also want to gain a lot of his trust by willing off my extra vote to him since I have my idol. the only way I would do that is if I tell him about my having an idol . 

JAY RELEASED THE CHALLENGE AND IM IN SUCH A CRISIS. It's Duolingo which is really oof. What makes it Biig OOOOF is the fact that we are learning the language of Game of Thrones or something. Do I look Like Arya or something???? So in order to drag me AND Marie into the merge I'm going to have to speak like the Valyrian, eat like the Valyrian, become the Valyrian, experience Valyrian. "

Lysandre

Marie is kind of a liability. She publicly announces things that shouldn't be announced and she now knows about my extra vote even tho its obvi. She was cute until she started anti returnee propoganda dbkvka l  but I probably will keep her around unless we lose and battle.

Marie

Lys and I have a fire lit under our asses, but maybe that’s what we need to get our tribe of two to win

Bryan 

I. Hate. Duolingo. So much. I hate being one of the two people participating. And I hate that Bradley is never online and is probably gonna barely contribute so it all rests to me. That sounds rude. If Bradley does end up contributing I will make an apology confession. 

Felix

With recent news that we are losing majorly in this challenge, it seems Tuai might have to go to tribal for the first time in this game. The vote would obviously go towards Charlie, but what if she has an idol? I have an idol, but is that the only idol on the island? Things get crazier and crazier everyday but I am hopeful that things turn out alright. I really do hope she gets eliminated if we go to tribal, then we can make it to merge

Lysandre

People call me Lys now. I guess Lys is short for Lysol because I stay cleaning these bitches 

Charlie 

"I have a feeling I might be voted out this round, I think it has to do with how im performing in challenges

Boris

"that auction... whew!! So many hidden powers that's def gonna fuck me up in the future. And all I got was a pair of $400 movie tickets. The most EXPENSIVE movie i've ever seen, and it's gonna be a documentary about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lmao. 

I chose Lysandre for the movie night bc? They're my fave from our fake swap tribe and even though they probably don't have a lot of juicy tea to spill because they're on Mea, I might as well start trying to build a strong relationship to prepare for merge"

Boris

also I was kinda worried about Brianna and Bradley having to compete in this next challenge for us because they sat out last time but so far it looks okay? Brianna seems to be doing #that and Tuai is trudging behind, which is perFECT because it'd give Sumi a numbers advantage in the merge. so yeah! come thru!

Apollo

2 things. Thank god I don’t have to compete in the duolingo challenge and I am so lucky to have received the extra vote. With a super idol and a vote steal and who knows what else out there, any extra advantage that’s out there? From now on? I’ll take it. I have the time to complete the challenge but not the patience nor the desire to. The gag is if Brianna or Bradley don’t put up enough effort and we lose? They don’t know that it’s their asses on the line. If we lost I think Brianna should go since she’s more of a threat than Bradley could ever be. Bradley will end up being loyal to us if we lose. It’s convoluted but if we lose my plan is. Convince Brianna and Bradley to vote for Zest. Convince Brianna that’s zest is voting for her. Convince Brianna that Zest has an idol and to vote Bradley in case Zest isn’t lying. Actually vote Brianna along with Borris and Zest. Brianna leaves in a 3-1-1 vote. Bradley would be shook and thankful that we saved him and we’d tell him afterwards that Brianna wanted him out. Then we’re a strong foursome with a goat in Bradley. Would I like to execute this plan? Yes, absolutely. But winning immunity would be just as satisfying. 

Cassie

Waiting on results for this challenge has left me feeling quite nervous. Both Charlie and Joey have their reasons for not being able to catch up as much and it makes me more nervous. I don’t like feeling this way.

Marie

OH MY GOD WE MIGHT NOT GO TO TRIBAL, but then again those might be my famous last words

Lysandre

"So this duolingo challenge is agonizing but I'm giving it all I have so that me and Marie can rock this thing. She wants us to get 1st place because she thinks that the last two tribes will both be going to tribal council. I would agree with her and I'm aiming for first. 

Also can't wait for my movie night with Boris to begin!! I know its going to be good and I plan on solidifying something with him!"

Brianna 

2nd place. But we still have to go to tribal. Ugh. Um. Kind of don’t know what’s gonna happen. Probably gonna be zest or Bradley. 

Felix

Charlie is gone. Or she will be. There's no way the Tuai Quad LLC will vote for each other. Unless we are snakes in the grass. Also, this double tribal council is iconic. Now the stakes are even going into merge. Let's see how this goes

Cassie

Well damn. I had a feeling we wouldn’t make it without a tribal, at least as a whole tribe. It seemed as though the disadvantage didn’t matter too much though as we were below Sumi anyways. Tonight should be the easy vote, I hope.

Marie

THE TRIBE OF TWO LIVES ON!

Felix

"Flint does not trust Joey which is understandable. I mean he doesn't trust Charlie either, but he hasn't talked to either extensively. Joey seems to not have a social game which proves that he is the perfect goat to bring to FTC (at least in this stage in the game). I have no doubt that Charlie will go since Cassie has already cast her vote, and Joey will vote Charlie since he's the other one on the chopping block. I will also vote Charlie. That 3-2 if Flint goes against us. But that most likely will not happen. 

Cassie is so smug. She already cast her vote for Charlie. She cannot fathom us betraying her. She thinks she is in charge of this tribe which might be true. But she's got me so close that she can't see the snakes in her garden. It's infested honey! Flint already has doubts about the alliance, and I'm already plotting your downfall. Her garden of snakes will be the end of her!"

Lysandre

"Wow I can't believe that me and Marie are in the lead for this challenge!!

And my movie night with Boris was a huge success from it I learned that he has half of a super idol and he found an advantage that allowed him to see how many alliances a person was in and he chose Felix and revealed it was 2 alliances he was in. I first had to share my extra vote with him and we were solid.  We started watching Knock Down The House documentary on Netflix and so Alexandria Ocasio Cortez or AOC for short was the icon that we bonded over. Since I had already seen the documentary I had just opened my duolingo in another tab and continued that lmao I refuse to lose!! Towards the end when AOC won I decided to really really solidify things with Boris by telling him about my idol. LITTLE DID I KNOW Boris the Brute had an idol as well!! From that point we decided to really work together and share our collective power. 

Other notable events during movie night include an exposing Felix party as well as Briana possibly having the other part to the idol. Oh and Me and Boris also decided to name our alliance after AOC. Thats our final 2.. the AOC FINAL 2!!"

Lysandre

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Me and Marie WON!!! Mea WINS and we get to avoid fire making!!! Also Marie was right! The losing TWO tribes went to tribal. SO WE DID THAT by getting first place. Our tribemates had to die for MYSANDRE to rise. 

Now that we won I can't help but hope that Boris survives. He needs to up his social game or else he's in trouble. Apparently his social game is ok at best because Apollo didnt tell him what his advantage was and yet Boris claims they are close so what is the truth. 

Meanwhile me and Marie are discussing the game and our potential future at a merge and a strategy that may work for us. Lets go Mysandre and Lysoris!!

Flint

Ugh this is a tough loss and I’m so torn on what to do. I’ve heard both Joey and Charlie’s names being thrown out as an option. I was close with Joey at the beginning but we’ve seem to have drifted apart. Charlie did better in the challenge so that could also factor into my vote. With all the auction items on the table and talk of a potential merge this could be an interesting tribal. 

Apollo

Imagine, me, finally getting the opportunity to play with Zib Zab. Imagine, me, thinking she was Karen in the beginning of the game. I think Boris is my mom. And if she’s not, And she is Karen, well, she’s doing a great job of being incognito

Marie

It’s so weird not planning for tribal, I’m so proud of lys and myself

Colin

"Last nights movie date has me SHOOK. Im so glad I picked Lysandre, we built such a strong connection in the limited time we were allowed to spend together, and I think despite us barely having time to connect I can consider them my biggest ally, even across tribal lines, so I hope we can both make it to merge in one piece!! 

Lysandre gave me so much info last night; Felix is playing hard asf, there WERE alliances made on one world and the fake swap that I wasnt included in, and both Lysandre and I have our tribe's idols. 

Knowing all of this is a game changer, I have to adapt my strategy to how everyone else is playing and hope it works out in my favor. "

Boris

ALSO this double tribal is ugly at. Bradley did the absolute bare minimum to not get a strike but we all see how poorly hes performing. Ugh I want him gone so badly so that we can have a strong tribe going into merge. Apollo and Zest are giving me a little push back, insisting Brianna is more of a threat but i don't care!! We got way bigger threats to worry about when merge hits!! We need to make it through as a stronger tribe, not a weaker one

Felix

Welp, she's gone. I wonder how things will go for Sumi. I'm just excited to make it to the merge!

Flint 

The last tribal went off as hoped with no idols or funny business played. I feel bad for voting Charlie out but I can’t play with my heart and need to toughen up to make it far in this game. 

Lysandre

It feels so good to not have a tribal or fire to worry about?? I am really relieved lol. It looks like Charlie left and thats ok because I didn't even know the person. I just hope Boris doesn't die lmao. I hope he uses his idol this round though.

Apollo

"https://media1.tenor.com/images/224ee4a75a647fa6154d57dfada003ac/tenor.gif?itemid=13920223

I suppose I’ll be a passenger for now. Brianna is going to stay and Bradley will be leaving if all goes according to plan. I’ll let Borris take control so that he becomes a bigger target than I come the merge. I love Borris but I guess I would cut him if it was a f2. I’m going to try and use this time to try and get Zest to be my f2 partner."

[geekade]

Game of Spoilers 704: The Spoils of War

This episode. This one. This is why I hate Netflix. Because binge watching on Netflix has ruined me when episodes that good leave me with that big a cliff hanger. I can’t be dealing with this “one episode at a time” bullshit. Fuck!

Part of me just wants to stop writing and say, “Just go watch the thing again.” But, alas, I do my duty.

Okay, so let’s start with the enormous dragon in the room; that “battle” at the end. That was not so much a battle as a complete slaughter. Even without Drogon, that would have been a slaughter. The Westerosi army had nothing to stand up to the screaming Dothraki horde in full charge, firing arrows while standing on the backs of galloping horses. The only difference on this battlefield the dragon made was the number of dead (a lot more Lannisters, a lot fewer Dothraki). Bronn's semi-successful scorpion attack continues to have me believing that one of the dragons will not survive the series.

However, Jaime’s idiot charge at the end proves a few things:

While this series (and the books) set itself apart by killing off major good guys every once in a while, they also often fall into the rules of the genre. Jaime should really be dead. But, somehow, Bronn survives, sees Jaime, and has the speed and agility to knock him off his horse at just the right moment before they both get burned. That was kind of groan-inducing.

Tyrion is still super conflicted about his brother. It’s actually much like the conversation Jaime was having with Samwell’s older brother. They are on opposing sides, but only because their queens oppose each other. Otherwise, they would be friends as they used to be. Tyrion doesn’t think Jaime deserves to die. Then again, as Clint Eastwood said in Unforgiven, “Deserves got nothin’ to do with it.”

My personal prediction still holds. Jaime has to survive his swim in the river so that he can tell Cersei what the Queen of Thorns said. That will help push her over the edge, and then he will have to kill her to save Westeros, though it will probably make him want to kill himself as well. The Kingslayer will become the Queenslayer.

Back on Dragonstone, we see that Jon has been staring at Daenerys’s “good heart.” I know, Jon. Many of us have since season 1. That could portend a more complete union of the North and South than has been discussed out loud, though many of my friends seem to think this should happen. But, more importantly, Jon says something to her that she has really needed to hear. Tyrion has said it in other ways, but she doesn’t seem to hear him as well as we should want. Jon tells her that, if she uses her dragons to melt castles and destroy cities, she won’t be any different than the terrible rulers who came before her. And he’s right (obviously). He then has that conversation with Missandei, where she says that Daenerys would simply let her go if she wanted to. Is that conversation included to show Jon that Daenerys really is a different kind of ruler, or to foreshadow that Missandei will leave? I think it’s a third reason. See, I don’t believe Missandei. I think that her statement, and the incredulity of Jon and Davos, is meant to foreshadow a situation where Missandei wants to leave, and Daenerys forces her to stay. I’m thinking it will involve Greyworm as well, but I think Daenerys will have to turn toward the dark side in this battle. Power tends to have a corrupting influence after all.

I was kind of disappointed at the whole cave painting scene, to be honest. It was pretty cheesy. In an episode that had so many wonderful conversations - and a battle - jammed into it, this one fell terribly short. It was a ham-fisted attempt to connect this battle to the millennia preceding it, to reenforce the through-line from the Children of the Forest to this timeline of Westerns in their fight against the White Walkers. But Bran’s visions already did that last season. It seemed unnecessary. Much more important in that cave was the sexual tension that started to build between them. Put two people that hot in a room together, there’s bound to be some sexual tension.

Now, let’s talk about Arya’s homecoming. They went to the Gross Pointe Blank joke again. Arya: “I have a list of people I’m going to kill.” Sansa: “You’re really funny. That was a great joke.” But the rest of the scenes show Sansa exactly what Arya has become. Bran knows about Arya’s list. He also gives her a Valyrian steel dagger. This is MASSIVELY IMPORTANT, because Valyrian steel can kill White Walkers. So, ARYA CAN KILL WHITE WALKERS NOW! (and there was much rejoicing) Arya also pretty much kicks Brienne’s ass with her little sword. I think I’ve always thought that Arya and Brienne are kind of similar, but seeing them together really drove that home. They should really hit it off. In fact, that could be a neat little buddy comedy, minus the comedy, and plus a whole lot of bloodshed.

Can Arya kill Littlefinger now? Please? That’s what I want to see. Cause that guy is - as I keep saying - a gigantic asshole. Yuge. I don’t believe he’s on Arya’s list, but he damn well should be. Maybe he’ll make it on there after Sansa tells her what he’s done. Or not. It’s complicated. But he will do something to be a giant asshole soon, and I hope she’s around to put a knife in his throat.

So, right now, here’s what we have. The Unsullied hold Casterly Rock, but have no food. Cersei holds King’s Landing, but, since all of that grain got burned in fiery, napalm-like dragon vomit, she no longer has enough food to support the population for long, and a significant portion of her army is lost. Daenerys essentially controls Highgarden and the reach, because she’s killed all the soldiers, but lacks the food to support her army, having burned it all up in fiery, napalm-like dragon vomit. And, her favorite dragon is injured. Jon is preparing to fight the White Walkers, but he’s still on Dragonstone, refusing to bend the knee (which I don’t blame him for), so the North is preparing for a fight they cannot win, training with useless weapons and hoping that Jon returns with weapons they can use. And now, Cersei has basically gotten the Iron Bank to support her idea to bring in a foreign mercenary army to support her cause.

My God, are a lot of people going to die before the end of this show.