#a story which gendry fell in love ned stark’s daughter again

[fromstormsend]

Arya Stark & Gendry Waters AU: Atonement

“There goes my mother’s employer’s daughter, he once said to a friend. He had his politics to protect him, and his scientifically based theories of class, and his own rather forced self-certainty. I am what I am. She was like a sister, almost invisible. That long, narrow face, the small mouth—if he had ever thought about her at all, he might have said she was a little horsey in appearance. Now he saw it was a strange beauty—something carved and still about the face, especially around the inclined planes of her cheekbones, with a wild flare to the nostrils, and a full, glistening rosebud mouth.”

“So they wrote about literature, and used characters as codes. At Cambridge, they had passed each other by in the street. All those books, those happy or tragic couples they had never met to discuss! Tristan and Isolde, the Duke Orsino and Olivia (and Malvolio too), Troilus and Criseyde, Mr. Knightley and Emma, Venus and Adonis. Turner and Tallis. Once, in despair, he referred to Prometheus, chained to a rock, his liver devoured daily by a vulture. Sometimes she was patient Griselde. Mention of “a quiet corner in a library” was a code for sexual ecstasy. ”

[hello-nichya-here]

Ok, so what in your opinion is the WORST mistake that the showrunners for Game of Thrones made in terms of content, either it's addition or redaction?

WARNING: Looooooong post ahead

Themes are for eighth-grade book reports

This absurd quote by one of the showrunners explains why exactly the show fell appart. They wanted to make a story... without themes. Anyone with a minimally functioning brain will tell that this is impossible because every story, even the simplest and least complicated story there ever, has a theme. Even a nihilistic story has a theme "Nothing matters". Every. Story. Has. A. Theme.

But Game Of Thrones didn't, at least not after the writers ran out of books to adapt and did their own thing. Everything every character did was no longer to build a narrative, but to essentially act as click-bait. The focus was to make people keep watching, not on making any content that was worth watching.

The first four seasons had it's problems, just like the books had it's problems, but Martin's writting was so brilliant that it managed to stay good even while being handled by absolute clowns. The moment season four ended was the moment the show stopped being an adaptation and became it's own thing - and like I explained before, said thing wasn't a story.

Shock

Both the show and the books had MANY shocking, heart-breaking and downright horrifying scenes: Daenerys being raped by Drogo; Bran being pushed out the window after accidentally seeing the queen fucking her brother; the whole deal with Craster and his daughters; the Dotrakhi destroying Mirri's village and her revenge against them and Daenerys; Ned's death; Melisandre giving birth to a shadow baby that killed Renly; The Red Wedding; Jeoffrey's death; Tyrion killing his father; Theon being tortured by Ramsay...

The difference is there were REASONS behind the shocking scenes Martin created. Even when you look at things like rape and torture scenes and threats of rape/torture - Martin used those scenes to remind us that the world he created is an EXTREMELY dangerous and downright vile place, and that the characters are never truly safe, and that there are WAY worse things than just being killed.

Dumb & Dumber on the other hand, gaves us scenes like an evil, former man of the night's watch evily making an evil speech to his fellow evil men, evily drinking whine from a human skull while nameless women were being raped in the background - but little does he know that Jon Snow, the hero, is about to wreck his shit. It takes something that could realistically happen (and that did happen in the books) and takes it up to eleven because the writers think shock is the same as quality and that the audience is SO STUPID that they need to practically make the actor jump out of the TV, grab us by the shoulders and scream "I'M EVIL! I'M THE BIG BAD! ROOT FOR THE HERO TO KILL ME!"

Pretty much every bad guy became a parody of Jeoffrey, ironically enough because the writers took Jeoffrey too seriously. He was a cruel, sadistic character, who had WAY too much power - but he was also a spoiled baby whose reply to Tyrion bitch-slapping him wasn't a threat, but "I'M TELLING MOM!" Jeoffrey worked because he was only allowed to do his thing whenever smarter, more competent characters like Tyrion and Tywin where not around, meaning his actions, while inhumane, never reached the point of no longer being believable.

The horrible things that happened to the characters no longer felt "right". For instance, Sansa had just been taken to the Eerie by Little Finger, who has a weird complex in which he sees her both as the daughter he never had with Catelyn AND as a replacement for Catelyn, and she was starting to truly be a player instead of a pawn... and then the writers realized "Oh shit, we should have not cut the Jeyne Pool/Fake Arya' plot, that was important" and forced it on Sansa, making Little Finger hand her on a silver plater to Ramsay and turning her into a victim AGAIN, this time to a man that dramatically fights his enemies without a shirt own, practically saying "come at me bro"

Compare this to Ned's beheading, or Catelyn and Rob being betrayed and killed by the Freys. These moments were shocking and downright depressing - but they were earned. The writting was on the wall for anyone to see: Ned was at the mercy of Jeoffrey, and the Starks had given the Freys, who are notoriously disloyal, a reason to resent them. These twists felt completely natural, were the only logical way for the situation the characters were in to play out, AND they had consequences to plot instead of just making the audience gasp and then being forgotten about.

Plot armor

It's kind of ironic and almost tragic that the show that became famous for killing characters later became the worst type of high-stakes series, putting the characters in situations they could NOT survive, not even if a goddamn miracle happened, and having them live anyway. What's even worse is that it happened repeatedly. If I had to see Jon Snow almost die and then survive anyway one more fucking time I was going to lose my mind.

There's no bigger proof that there were just no consequences for the "main" characters anymore than watching the second, third, and fourth episodes of season either. The first sets up that this battle against the night king and his army of undead is likely going to kill the majority of them, if they're lucky... and then in the third we see the plot armor in all of it's "glory", and then in the forth we find out that the Dotrakhi, who had ALL been killed, actually still have half the numbers they had the night before, somehow. Even red-shirts weren't dying anymore.

DORNE

This disaster needed it's own session because HOLY SHIT, it's a miracle/tragedy that everyone didn't go "Fuck it, I'm never watching another episode of this stupid show."

The Dorne plot in the books isn't perfect, but what the show did to it was so fucking bad that I'm pretty sure the writers didn't even read the Dorne chapters in the books, they just looked at a wiki, wrote down the names of a few characters and then did their own shitty thing.

In the books, Doran Martel is a clever, dangerous man, who pretends to be harmless so people will understimate him and step right into his trap. In the show, Doran Martel... died. That's it. I can't remember anything else that happened to him. Add him to the list of "Brilliant characters that became stupid due to shitty writing", I'm sure Tyrion, Varys and Little Finger will love making him company.

The sand-snakes, one of the main driving force of that plot, were all distinct characters in the books, with their personalities, goals, methods and motivations - basically they were created by a writer who knew what he is was doing. In the show they were all the same "character" who could be perfectly described by that horrible, cringy, PAINFUL line one of them (I can't even remember which) said to Bron "You want a good girl, but you need the bad pussy" (Seriously, if that actress ever kills the show-runners as revenge for having to say that, she'll be 100% justifyed in doing so)

And we cannot forget the driving force behind that unwatchable shit show: Ellaria Sand. In the books, the death of Oberyn made her believe that revenge only leads to more blood-shed. In the show, his death enraged to the point of wanting to avenge him and his family, and she did this... by killing his family. If that doesn't explain how insane and stupid this plot-line was, I don't know what will.

Hype = Character assassination

Many shows are based around the conflict between the bad guys and the good guys. Game Of Thrones is not one of these shows. Or at least it wasn't. As they ran out of ideas, the writers started mutilating every single character until they could be label as "Good" or "Bad", regardless of what felt right to the story and to the point that there was nothing left of said characters. Stannis's actor, Stephen Dillane, straight up said that the only thing he got from being on the show was money and that his character's motivations and decisions were nonsense - ironically enough, that kind of brutal honesty means that the writers had THE perfect actor play Stannis, and wasted his fucking time.

Here's a list of the characters that fell victims to this horrible fate: Catelyn Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Jon Snow, Melisandre, Stannis, Jorah, Daenerys (bonus points for being mutilated into being both a generic, shitty "hero" and a generic, shitty "villain") Greyworm, Rhaegar Targaryen, Lyanna Stark...

Pretty much the only character who became more complex in the show than she was in the books was Cersei. While her book self was never just a "Generic Evil Queen", the show version of her was far more sympathetic, which made the stories she was part of interesting. Too bad the writers ran out of ideas of what to do with her after season six and just left her by the window drinking whine until Dany showed up to kill her. Which brings us to...

Why is this happening?

Cersei was seen as a threat in the last two seasons based on nothing but the things she HAD done. Her story just ended the very second season six did, but since she was still alive despite being one of the bad guys she had to die... I guess. She (and by extention Jaime) joined the list of characters that had nothing to do, but were still around: Davos, Theon, Yara, Melisandre, Bron, Sam, Gendry, Bran (the last one being SO unnecessary that he was cut from season five and no one noticed)

To combat that issue, the writers gave characters "motivations" that made no sense. For exemple: Sandor Clegane. His only reason to be in the show was so he could kill his brother. The problem was that Gregor was already dead. He was a walking corpse. There was nothing left of the abusive brother Sandor once knew, meaning he had no reason to fight him, and that, to keep Sandor around, the writers should have come up something new (like the redemption that book fans have been waiting for, and that has a lot of backing evidence). You might as well have had HIM be the one to randomly fly out of nowhere and kill the night king despite having no connection to him.

And since we're talking about the night king... Arya was the one to kill him. Why? Because the writers ruined Jaime's redemption arc, meaning that the only fitting ending for him was to die with Cersei, and so Arya could not kill Cersei despite wanting to, having the ability to do, AND having heard a prophecy that said she'd "Shutting brown eyes, blue eyes, and green eyes forever", the last one being the only one she had not done AND applying to Cersei. But Dumb & Dumber admitted they had no plan for this, so now that they were at the last season, they needed to do something with it, and they retconned it to mean Arya would kill the night king...

But Arya killing him meant Jon had nothing to do, so Dany had to go mad so he could kill her. To "hint" at that, they ignored all the not at all subtle foreshadowing the previous season had of Dany and Jon having a kid, and they even showed her getting jealous that he was technically the true heir... even though that made no sense since they were going to rule together anyway, and even after Dany went full "Mad Queen" she ASKED HIM TO RULE WITH HER. But anyways, he kills her and becomes king...

Except he doesn't actually become king and him being a secret Targaryen has no effect in the plot, because Bran needed to become king so there'd be a reason for him to be alive, because his magical powers turned into a plot-device. A plot-device that wasn't used at any goddamn point. Seriously, the only thing as bad as Bran becoming king was Euron's existence - dude was THE most useless villain ever AND the worst Jeoffrey parody.

A darker story (literally)

I could not end this rant without bitching about this. What is the point of spending an ungodly amount of money on sets, costumes, make-up, special effects... and then using such poor lighting that no one can see what the fucking is going on?

Anyway, this disaster of a series was so absurd it should be used as an exemple of what NOT to do.

[arabian-bloodstream]

Gendrya Hint in Teaser

Because I am obsessed with my precious babies!!!

So a couple more things about the GOT teaser and these are Gendry, Arya/Gendry-centric. At the beginning, a feather fell off of Lyanna’s statue as Jon walked by.

For those who don’t remember, that feather was placed there by Robert Baratheon in the Pilot episode when he and Ned visited Lyanna in the crypt. It was in that same scene that Robert said to Ned:

I have a daughter. You have a daughter. We’ll join our houses.

And that has been a rallying cry for the Arya/Gendry fanbase ever since the Gendrya fanbase was born because, of course, the son he was talking about (Joffrey) was not his, and thus the daughter of Ned’s he was talking about (Sansa) no longer applied in that situation. Robert also brought this up as a way to correct the past in which he, Robert Baratheon, was supposed to marry Ned’s sister, Lyanna Stark. That didn’t happen.

So we have the feather which was a reminder of that very scene between Ned and Robert. This has to do with Robert in general, albeit, subconsciously, and of the Robert/Lyanna marriage that did not happen (again, subconsciously).

Which leads me to the fact that I believe that the Baratheon bloodline/House is coming back into play in the final season with our beloved bastard blacksmith, Gendry. There is a reason that he was brought back--and it was not just for fanservice (pfft!) or as Arya’s (potential--as if! HAH! That is totally happening) love interest.

There is a reason that D&D kept Gendry out of all of Robert’s bastards from the books and decided to merge Edric Storm’s story (with Stannis and the Lord of Light) with his and I believe that it is because Gendry is the most important of Robert’s bastards in GRRM’s endgame.

There is a reason that the Baratheon sigil was a part of the Game of Thrones title card from the beginning and has remained thus all along. The Baratheon House and line is not dead. And Gendry is the reason why. In this teaser that feather was just another reminder of Robert Baratheon and tthe Baratheon place in this story, as well as the Arya/Gendry and Robert/Lyanna parallel. That’s what I think.

[agirlofwinterfell]

the only thing I accept as an ok ending ( after everybody dying and the knight king sitting on the throne ) is Gendry marrying Arya and both becoming badass and equal rulers and both of them will come to dorne at least once a month to drink fine dornish wine ( careful Cersei might still try to give that special bottle of hers ) and one day, one of their sons will marry ari's only daughter and ruler over dorne and end.

The Queen in the North, The King of The South, and the Princess of Dorne. The Royals to have come out of what had started as the War of the Five Kings, ending as the White Walkers were defeated. 

Pretenders and claimers had fallen in the wake of the war. Renly Baratheon, Robb Stark, Joffrey Baratheon-Lannister, Doran Martell, Stannis Baratheon, Tommen Baratheon-Lannister, Cersei Lannister… One by one, royals had fallen, and the end of the war, The Queenmaker, Ned’s Little Girl, and Robert’s Bastard had risen high, claiming thrones for themselves- 

“And then after a long dispute, Mother chose to wed Father over uncle Edric, we know!” Visenya stood tall, sword brandished as she stood atop her sister, leaving Sansa Stark rolling her eyes at her niece, in all her Baratheon glory. 

“Maybe, if you sat at paid attention to the story for once instead of claiming to know it all, you’d know why your mother and father have always allied closely to Princess Arianne.” She retorted, her own daughter not sitting far from her. 

“Only because she’s the most beautiful woman in Westeros, and Mother adores a woman who fights for what’s hers.” Lyanna Baratheon states, sitting upside down, dark hair falling across the grass as Visenya stood above her, their play fighting having decided a victor. 

“Not true!” Sansa’s own little Cat is rolling her eyes, so very done with her cousins arguing over the most beautiful woman in Westeros- Cat would claim it to be either herself, or her mother, with their beautiful red hair, and striking Tully features. 

It was Jon that spoke, little Jon, arguably the sweetest of the lot. “The most beautiful woman in Westeros-” 

“Is Elaena Martell!” All three of his sisters finished for him, laughing, Alarra the loudest of them all. “Face it Brother, you’re in love!” All of eleven, and riling her brother up.

“No!” Jon rebutted, his wide grey eyes as solemn as their mother’s, and skin red in his blush. 

“Alright, be nice!” Sansa was starting to regret distracting Arya’s brood. Jon was only two and ten, it was quite normal for him to fancy himself in love Sansa had thought so of herself at eleven.  “Stop teasing your brother!” 

It would be years before they stopped teasing and even then, they never truly would, for even years later, Jon would still love her from afar.

For Eddard Baratheon, and Joanna Martell, daughter of the Lady Myrcella of Casterly Rock, and her husband Trystane Martell, their betrothal and impending nuptials has spawned this tourney, as well as Ned Baratheon’s name day. 

One by one, knights who fancied themselves good fell, and Visenya had proved to be a sore loser, knocked upon her arse by the Stannis Dayne, pulling her sword out and making to challenge him, but one look from her Queenly mother had Visenya hesitating her vengeance, instead swearing it for later.

 Arya’s eldest, Eddard, had fallen to his sister earlier and sat laid out on the other side of the yard, his cousin Stannis later joining him as he was felled by the years’ mystery knight. Truth be told it was meant to be left amongst Lyanna and Jon who the mystery knight was this tourney, and if won, they were meant to crown young Cat, at least, that was what Lyanna had told Arya. So, there the Royals of the war sat, Arya Stark in the middle of her husband, King Gendry, hand within his own, hand on swelling belly, and Princess Arianne of Dorne, whom Nymeria the Direwolf had taken a liking to. 

“So, which of your children is the mystery knight?” Arianne’s voice is smooth, and Arya merely taps her nose. 

“I don’t know what you mean,” She said, causing laughter from Gendry. 

“Arya Stark remains a liar,” He said, only to laugh harder at her punching his arm.

“I could still take you, Liar, pregnant, or no.” 

“Sure you could”’ He replies, but shakes his head at Arianne over her head, causing the beautiful Dornish woman to snort. 

Falling, falling falling, Alerra was yelling herself hoarse in support of the mystery knight, Cat sitting by with bated breath, and Arianne’s daughter Elaena seeming ready to jump in herself, and perhaps she would, the way her little brother kept tugging at her to move out of the way. The mystery knight only had one opponent left, a younger Mormont girl, who had felled Galladon Lannister most recently. 

Two, three passes, and Arya held her breath, as the Mormont girl- was her name Arya or Aryanna, a girl of eight and ten or six and ten? - fell from her horse finally, and seemed to not move for a moment, before rolling over and joining Prince Eddard and Stannis Dayne in the grass, her horse being lead off as the Mystery Knight was awarded their flower crown, and stared at it for a while, moving the horse easily down the line of girls waiting, pulling off their helmet to reveal Prince Jon, in all the strength of his six and ten years and all the girls (and boys, interested that was, as Myrcella’s second daughter seemed entirely uninterested) seemed to wait, and though he slowed in front of his cousin who seemed to perk at the idea of being crowned, his eyes flickered, and he spurred forward a bit more, stopping before Elaena Martell, her soft brown eyes staring at him, skin dark against the yellow of her gown, as he offered the crown to her, before placing it on her head. Her smile was as bright as Jon’s as he looked up at her, all heart eyes, before his brother was calling for him to move on. 

Elaena Martell was Jon Baratheon’s Queen of Love and Beauty. 

Myrcella Martell was the first to move, standing and clapping loudly, leading the way for others to congratulate her too, even young Cat. 

“I think it is time, that you and I discuss our children’s futures again,” Arianne is the first to say, sharing a glance with Arya. 

“He will do well in Dorne, I know he will.“ It had been decided years ago, Gendry discovered looking between his wife and Arianne, before letting out a noise. All those trips to Dorne over the years, with Visenya even being born there, and they’d neglected to tell him that they’d discussed marriage between their children.

“Bloody highborns, and keeping secrets from me.” The king muttered, even as in the background of celebration, Visenya Baratheon took her chance to secure revenge upon her cousin Stannis Dayne, chasing after him with her sword, the younger running from her telling her that it was not lady like to be doing as such.

All was well though, Gendry hadn’t told the other two that Quentyn and Jon had both been in his Forge, trying to make gifts for courting, only to fail miserably. No, all was well. 

“We have a son, you have a daughter, if they want, we’ll join our houses.” Love, that was Arya’s condition for her children marrying, they must like and get along with each other, to marry for love as Arya had done. In the end, that was what had saved the realm from further war, the love and bonds of fellowship, brotherhood, and all vows of honour - at least, Arya liked to claim as such to their children. The long Winter had passed, and the Dream of Spring had become a reality, Spring was Here.