#always grrm

[ashamaxxing]

mom come pick me up they’re defending the divine right of kings on asoiaf twitter again

[amaltheas-garden]

when u point out Dany having the power of god x3 to destroy any city she doesn't like might be a bad thing and probably won't be rewarded by the narrative

targies: noooo it will be fine because Dany would NEVER do that she's just too fundamentally GOOD to ever be corrupted by unlimited power 🙃 source: trust me bro

apparently the theme of asoiaf is absolute power is good, actually, we just need to make sure the *right* people have it 😇

[wishesofeternity]

The thing about HotD is that it while it absolutely minimizes the agency and ambition of both Rhaenyra and Alicent, this is specifically used to glorify Rhaenyra and frame her as righteous while condemning Alicent and framing her lacking. That's the key difference in both their textual portrayals that has directly led to 90% of the fandom hailing Rhaenyra as the second coming of Christ while spewing the most hateful vitriol at Alicent just for existing. But y'all are not prepared for that conversation.

[joekeerys]

me remembering that helaena is aegon’s wife and his haunted queen and mother to his children and defends him against those who have hurt him and nothing can take that away from me because grrm made it so

[amber-laughs]

“They’re dogs and he’s a wolf,” said Jon. “They know he’s not their kind.”

Lord Ramsay laughed. "You're not a man, Reek. You're just my creature. You'll have your wine, though. Walder, see to it. And fear not, I won't return you to the dungeons, you have my word as a Bolton. We'll make a dog of you instead. Meat every day, and I'll even leave you teeth enough to eat it. A Dance with Dragons - Reek II

"I see what you are, Snow. Half a wolf and half a wildling, baseborn get of a traitor and a whore. You would deliver a highborn maid to the bed of some stinking savage. Did you sample her yourself first? A Dance with Dragons - Jon X

When Little Walder pulled him up and Big Walder waved the torch at him to herd him from the cell, he went along as docile as a dog. If he'd had a tail, he would have tucked it down between his legs. A Dance with Dragons - Reek I

"Aye. All that, and more. You are a warg too, they say, a skinchanger who walks at night as a wolf." King Stannis had a hard smile. "How much of it is true?" A Storm of Swords - Jon XI

That night, besides the collar, there was a ragged blanket too, and half a chicken. Reek had to fight the dogs for the meat, but it was the best meal he'd had since Winterfell. A Dance with Dragons - Reek II

 The smells are stronger in my wolf dreams, he reflected, and food tastes richer too. Ghost is more alive than I am. He left the empty cup upon the forge. A Dance with Dragons - Jon II

The other man had been a good rider, but Reek was uneasy on horseback. It had been so long. He was no rider. He was not even a man. He was Lord Ramsay's creature, lower than a dog, a worm in human skin. A Dance with Dragons - Reek II

“The Weeper’s red rheumy eyes gave Jon another look. “Aye? Well, he has a wolfish cast to him, now as I look close.” A Storm of Swords - Jon I

"Reek," he said. "Your Reek." "Do this little thing for me, and you can be my dog and eat meat every day," Lord Ramsay promised.  A Dance with Dragons - Reek II

The taste of hot blood filled Jon's mouth, and he knew that Ghost had killed that night. No, he thought. I am a man, not a wolf. He rubbed his mouth with the back of a gloved hand and spat. A Dance with Dragons - Jon II

Damon Dance-for-Me sat greasing up his whip. "Reek," he called. He tapped the whip against his calf as a man might do to summon his dog. "You are starting to stink again, Reek." A Dance with Dragons - A Ghost in Winterfell

"The beast," he gasped. "Look! The beast that tore the life from Halfhand. A warg walks among us, brothers. A WARG! This . . . this creature is not fit to lead us! This beastling is not fit to live!" A Storm of Swords - Jon XII

"You would have done better to slit his throat," said the lord in mail. "A dog who turns against his master is fit for naught but skinning." "Oh, he's been skinned, here and there," said Ramsay. A Dance with Dragons - Reek I

[daenerystargaryensgirlfriend]

Daenerys book differences

{only the firsts three seasons}

In S1, we mostly see how badly Daenerys was treated by Viserys and then how, with Drogo's help, she proceeded to go against him and then become the mother of dragons. In the first book, we actually see how she herself started to outshine him; she started to grow as a leader and started to create her own circle of people. To give an example, there's this scene when she orders the khalasar to stay behind ("you're learning to talk like a queen," "not a queen, a khaleesi"), and Viserys gets mad at her (as usual). In the show, it's a man from the Khalasar who humiliates him and takes away his horse (Rakharo, if I remember correctly). In the book, it's Daenerys; she's the one who humiliates him using her dothraki knowledge. This shows not only that she was starting to defy her brother but also her leadership's growth.

Still in S1, in the last episode, there's the speech where she says, "And I swear to you, that all those that will harm you will die screaming." There's a similar speech in the book, but she says that all the men who raped a little girl will die screaming.

In s2, when she sends people away and she sees how her people are not doing well, she looks frightened, and she needs Jorah to tell her that "she needs to be their strength" (completely erasing her leadership moment). In the book, however, she already knows that she needs to be their strength and that she can show no weakness or fear.

Still in s2, when they arrive to Qarth, she just starts screaming in one of the seven that she will burn down cities and whatever ("we will lay waste on armys and burn cities to the ground"). Also when they enter and they don't agree to take her to Westeros, she gets mad again and looks childish. In the books, however, the seven let her stay in Qarth out of curiosity, and she's also the one to explain to Xaro how business works, showing her intelligence.

In S3, she wonders whether to buy the unsullied or not. In the book, she affirms that she wants people to follow her because they believe in her and not because they've been bought. Does that sound familiar to you? of course, because they gave that whole speech to Ser Barriston, again taking away her intelligence.

Also, with the second sons it's not Daario that guides her like it happens in the show. In the book, Daenerys is the one who plans the attack against Yunkai, giving them different information to trick them and getting the second sons drunk. Again, her intelligence and leadership were given to her male advisors.

[swallowtail-ageha]

"And what about all these orcs? By the end of the war, Sauron is gone but all of the orcs aren’t gone – they’re in the mountains. Did Aragorn pursue a policy of systematic genocide and kill them? Even the little baby orcs, in their little orc cradles? The war that Tolkien wrote about was a war for the fate of civilization and the future of humanity, and that’s become the template. I’m not sure that it’s a good template, though. The Tolkien model led generations of fantasy writers to produce these endless series of dark lords and their evil minions who are all very ugly and wear black clothes. But the vast majority of wars throughout history are not like that."

People often parade the "what was aragorn's tax policy" as a famous grrm quote, but often ignore this one which follows, which is way more interesting and reflects better the priorities of George as a writer. And it's even more interesting how the man himself proceeded to answer to this question with Elden Ring, specifically with Marika's backstory and her subsequent genocide of the Hornsent.

Marika herself seems to be the character that's hero whose journey has long ended, the little girl whose village got razed and came back for vengeance against the evil, demonic looking overlords who killed her family and stuck them in jars. But, this time, we are shown full on her vengeance, she did pursue a policy of genocide, she had pacific churches that had nothing to do with the jarring of shamans, cause old women to be imprisoned and battered t best (and at worse SA'd if you intepret the Grandam's lines in that way), and have baby hornsent in their little hornsent cradles (as the Hornsent dialogue that plays if you don't summon him for Messmer says). We are fully shown the length that the hero's "rightful vengeance" and "reconciliation of the land", and by lord above if it isn't an awful, brutal one

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

“What do you think a knight is for, girl? You think it's all taking favors from ladies and looking fine in gold plate? Knights are for killing. I killed my first man at twelve. I've lost count of how many I've killed since then. High lords with old names, fat rich men dressed in velvet, knights puffed up like bladders with their honors, yes, and women and children too—they're all meat, and I'm the butcher.” —A Clash of Kings, Sansa IV

Sandor Clegane, by Justin Sweet, for the A Song of Ice and Fire 2024 Calendar

[eggslamwich]

People equating every story beat in elden ring that makes them feel icky as “grrm writing” prove they have never read a single grrm book in their lives

[blasphemousclaw]

I feel like a lot of elden ring theories that suggest a character was being controlled and had no agency or ability to make their own decisions don’t really click for me because I find them really narratively uninteresting… like for example, if we take the situation with Radagon leaving Rennala, the idea that Radagon was dragged away from her kicking and screaming and only served the Greater Will because he was forced to feels like a much less complex story than if Radagon loved Rennala, but agreed to follow the Greater Will’s commands without complaint because he genuinely believed it was his duty… characters making really difficult and painful decisions that have tangible consequences for both the narrative as a whole and their relationships with others are like the heart of a great story! that’s where the tragedy, the drama, the heartbreak is!! I think we should judge theories not just based on if they’re possible or if they have potential evidence, but also if they make a compelling story and fit the characters

[vhagar-balerion-meraxes]

And there are larger and more toxic butterflies to come, if HOUSE OF THE DRAGON goes ahead with some of the changes being contemplated for seasons 3 and 4…

Is there any point to watching the rest of this show? I dread to think what more idiotic changes those two hacks are contemplating.

GRRM’s Blog Post

[ladystoneboobs]

no of fence to jon snow fans who for some reason care about his exact age, but these discussions just annoy me no end. not only bc there's no way any weirwood flashbacks bran has to rhaegar/lyanna will come with time/datestamps, but also bc there's always comments like this:

SEVERAL turns of the moon (ie, months)?! have these people never seen a human baby before or just have no concept of their ages? even if we take into account travel time from the toj to wf, meaning jon was not a newborn too fresh out the oven when catelyn and robb arrived, there's still a difference between a newborn and a 3mo and an even bigger difference between those infants and an older baby 5-7mo. there's very good reasons these lines were cut. whatever birthdates can be worked out internally for jon and robb from when they're first mentioned as 15 and 16 don't matter in the end, bc grrm doesn't care about a consistent timeline and the actual text of catelyn's pov and ned's convo with robert about cheating on her should outweigh any guesstimates about jon's official nameday wrt robb's. catelyn may not have cared for jon, but she would sure as hell have noticed his nameday if it came before robb's and made him ned's firstborn. if jon's birthday canonically came before robb's then either ned's cover story would not involve adultery (not impossible for him to sire a bastard before his wedding), or he'd just give jon a new nameday along with his new name to fit the adultery lie. it makes no sense for him to lie about one and not the other, undermining the big lie with a little public clue of his story not adding up. whatever else she was as a stepmother, cat wasn't stupid and a bastard who was actually the eldest son being raised alongside her trueborn heir could be an even bigger insult than whether he was born of adultery or not.

BUT, the unknowability of jon's true birthday is not the only reason this annoys me, it's bc this is all based on the assumption that jon must be older since rhaegar/lyanna ran off together before ned married cat, as if both boys must have been conceived asap as robb canonically was when his parents consummated their marriage. and that's not how human reproduction works! even if you don't understand how fast babies grow in the first year, you should know that people who get pregnant do so through ovulation cycles and a lucky sperm finding an egg and all that, not just immediately getting knocked up as soon as one has p-in-v sex for the first time. not unless you only know mean girls sex ed where if you have sex you will get pregnant and die. (even tho lyanna did die, there's plenty of canon examples where pregnancy did not lead straight to death. also examples of people who did not get pregnant right away and even some who are/were sexually active and childless without always having moon tea on hand.) we can't know how long lyanna was having sex before that sperm+egg match happened or even how long she was with rhaegar before losing her technical virginity. if they were married, doesn't it make sense to think they didn't consummate their relationship until the wedding night either? that's the only leverage there is to ensure a status as wife rather than just mistress.

and while i just said grrm doesn't care about exact timelines and a lot is still foggy surrounding the rebellion and esp rhaegar, there is one timemarker wrt robert's rebellion he voluntarily threw in, time and time again: that stannis was besieged at storm's end for almost a whole year. that siege, which mind you, did not match the duration of the entire war. it only started after robert won his battles at gulltown and summerhall, returned to storm's end, and then went out and lost the battle of ashford, leaving his homeland open to the reachermen. the same siege which only ended when ned made a detour there after the sack of king's landing, before going to the toj. even if lyanna may not have given birth that exact day ned found her, she could only be waiting in that bloody bed for weeks at the most, not months. so if rhaegar knocked her up the very same night he carried her off and jon was still a newborn when ned found her after the siege of storm's end had ended, wouldn't that mean lyanna was pregnant for well over a year? that's not how human pregnancy works either! so, maybe that's proof that jon and robb, whichever order they were actually born in, were actually very close in age as babies, much closer than if they were both conceived asap.

and really, jon's actual birthdate does not matter imho, when he was raised not just as the bastard to robb's trueborn heir, but with robb also known by catelyn and the world as ned's firstborn (which he was, in any case, as jon was ned's nephew by birth). what difference could a birthdate before robb's make (even were there some means of discovery) after ned, cat, and robb are all dead? if one is looking only at his birth parents then he's only a firstborn child on lyanna's side, but definitely a second son on rhaegar's side. maybe he was always meant to be a second son with a not much older half-brother! even if the aegon fka young griff is not in fact rhaegar's son, he'll still be known as aegon vi targaryen, meaning jon will never be known as any father's elder son. if i may reference mean girls again, it's not going to happen.

[melrosing]

How do you think Tommen and Myrcella will die?

wouldn’t be surprised if the sand snakes are responsible for Myrcella’s death, think their rebellion against Doran’s passivity is foreshadowed pretty clearly. maybe revelations wrt Gregor will be sufficient motive?

as for Tommen, I tend to think Cersei will be indirectly responsible for his death. he’ll be the last to go and the one she’s determined not to lose, but that determination will end up killing him. if I had to guess…. he’s going down w the wildfire. likeno way an eight year old is hopping out the window per the show, so I think somehow Cersei is distracted from Tommen’s exact whereabouts when she enacts the wildfire plot to take out the Tyrells (or else he escapes her confines and goes to Margaery), and he burns w the rest of them

it occurred to me on the last reread that this passage feels like a really grim bit of foreshadowing

Green flames leapt into the sky and whirled around each other. Tommen shied away, till Margaery took his hand and said “Look, the flames are dancing. Just as we did, my love.”

“They are.” His voice was filled with wonder. “Mother, look, they’re dancing.”

“I see them.”

[…]

The wildfire was cleansing her, burning away all her rage and fear, filling her with resolve.

CERSEI III, AFFC

by foreshadowing I mostly just mean the placement of the characters in this scene: here’s Cersei learning the appeal of wildfire, embracing her inner Aerys etc, letting it burn away all sense and reason. and then there’s the Tyrells all standing around, not knowing the significance of this just yet, and Tommen cowering at first but then being drawn a little closer by Margaery, and they both just decide ‘oh, the flames are pretty’. whereas obviously the reader know what wildfire is capable of. I think it would be more obvious if we had actual visuals of this scene where the green is bouncing off the faces of the Tyrells and Tommen lol.

and ofc it’s a given that all of AFFC and ADWD is Cersei telling herself ‘it’s all for Tommen’ when ofc it’s not, it’s for her, she loves Tommen on some level but subconsciously places herself first every time. she beats him down whilst telling herself she’s lifting him up, she draws him closer into an embrace that’s suffocating etc etc, it’s standard self-fulfilling prophecy stuff she’s gonna kill that kid bc that is the ultimate irony

[guayabana]

elden ring attracting so much attention from audiences that usually wouldn't touch a fromsoft game has been so annoying when it comes to discussions about its story.

like maybe ironic considering grrm was involved in the writing this time, but the response to elden ring & specifically SOTE feels very similar to what happened with game of thrones, where the story is pretty explicitly about the dangers & violence & cruelty inherent in certain systems of power, and 95% of the audience response is to look at that & be like "wow i hope my fave character gets to be the good ruler who fixes everything because they're so cool & nice :D"

[maxanor]

the way la*nyra did not exist on the f&b wiki until 2 months ago yet targ stans act like the show is erasing crucial queer history by "not showing their relationship" and "replacing it with rhaenicent" there's really nothing you can do but laugh

[belle-keys]

Freddie Fox as Gwayne Hightower in Season 2 of "House of the Dragon" on MAX.