#because doing horrible things and holding horrible views and being cruel and thoughtless?

[sanguine-pigeon]

"You misinterpreted me by pointing out that my puppy-hatred was showing! You are the bad guy for saying it's disgusting that I think puppies should be shot for sport! How dare you think I meant what I said????"

seriously the amount of times I have seen some chucklefuck whine and cry that when they said the things they said they OBVIOUSLY meant something totally different and actually it's the people judging them on their words and actions who are the big meanies and the intolerant bullies for taking them at the words they said.

You don't get to say "I think all puppies should be shot for sport" and then piss and moan that people are taking you in bad faith when they say "that's animal cruelty and you're fucked up"

"When I said all puppies should be shot for sport, I OBVIOUSLY meant that dogs suffering from rabies should be humanely euthanized, not that all puppies should be shot for sport. Really it's your fault if you thought that when I said 'all puppies should be shot for sport' that I meant all puppies should be shot for sport, you weirdo. touch grass. you are the bad guy here not me"

[esther-dot]

with respect, why do you think that sansa being kind means she couldn't have looked down on jon or ever been inconsiderate of him? kind people can still be mean or thoughtless sometimes. look at catelyn. she was a kind person, and we saw that many times, especially with brienne, but that didn't prevent her from saying a pretty terrible thing to 14-year-old jon at bran's bed with the express purpose of hurting him. yes, catelyn was tired and upset, and it doesn't make her a bad person. the point here isn't that catelyn is an evil hag. it's that even a usually kind person can be mean, even cruel, sometimes. more specific to sansa, you are right that we have many examples of her being kind, sometimes even to her own detriment, but we also have some examples of her saying and thinking some pretty mean things. i mean no disrespect, but i see this argument a lot. "but sansa is kind. it's canon!" as if that settles the matter and precludes any possibility that she was saying something to be mean. i don't think it's a strong or persuasive argument.

I promised to stop talking about this, so everyone just, uh, avert your eyes?

I was responding to the argument that Sansa was purposefully being horrible, and I said, we don’t know her intent, that how Jon and Arya interpret her words doesn’t tell us that. And, because we are shown over the course of several books, that at times (even to her own consternation), Sansa is kind to people, regrets wishing them harm or wishes them well when she has no reason to, it would be ooc for her to be purposefully cruel without provocation. That compassion is foundational to her character, so if we’re looking to say she did do something specifically to be cruel, we need the trigger that causes that response.

I don’t think I would say the point of the Cat and Jon scene is that Cat was cruel, but I have another ask about that scene, so I will address that in a different post. What that scene gives us though is context (grief, despair, guilt, anger) that explain why Cat would do something out of character (being cruel), and we don’t have anything like that between Sansa and Jon. There's a notable lack of relationship rather than a contentious one into which a moment of direct conflict results in cruelty. So to me, that comparison doesn’t work.

We do see Sansa say a pretty terrible thing to Arya, but in that instance we have the tense relationship as the background, and the death of Lady as the cause of Sansa’s anger with Arya (she holds her responsible). Without such a trauma, when interpreting Sansa, we have to resort to her norm/typical characterization to guess about pre-canon stuff or infer her purpose.

What do we know about little Sansa? She was a lady at three which means it isn’t even a matter of personal virtue, in addition to being compassionate, she also is extremely courteous. That’s emphasized a lot. She keeps a tight reign on herself because she wants to behave in a certain way. Since a toddler she has tried to be decorous. So successfully that as an 11yo confronted with horrible violence for the first time she schools herself to show no reaction. Rather than meant to show us her cruel nature, that scene in which Jeyne is horrified and Sansa composes herself tells us about her extreme self-control, her dedication to behaving perfectly. Personally, I find it tragic that this little girl is so bound up by propriety, but that is what we are being shown.

So, without a specific incident to make her lash out at Jon, and with the understanding of her nature and her intent to always conduct herself just so, to always be courteous, even when faced with new and frightening things, to say Sansa did something just to be mean seems unlikely.

Of course, someone did come up with a reasonable “why would Sansa do this” explanation for her words in AGOT, Arya I and that may be the correct interpretation (link). But, Arya’s view of it and reaction are grounded in her jealousy of Sansa, her reception comes from her preexisting bad feelings, so this is being presented with an anti Sansa bias, and I’m not inclined to treat Arya’s interpretation as accurate for that reason. She’s primed to believe the worst and lash out. So, to me I am not saying “but Sansa is nice which means she can never do anything not nice!” I am saying, but what do we know, and from that, what can we reasonably infer, and just because this character understood it one way doesn’t mean that is how Sansa meant it.

Obviously, people can read the text and our discussion around it any old way they want, but judging by the rude anons I got the other day, there is a lot of anger towards Sansa fans that prompts criticism of Sansa which is why we always have to really focus on the text and make sure that is what we’re responding to rather than other fans. That’s why so many of us go back to her characterization and say, “but what does this tell us?” Maybe that doesn’t change your conclusion, but to me, that’s the fair way to read things.

[ariderofcomets]

Descrying love.

PART II-

The incestous relationship between Cersei and Jaime Lannister has, in my eyes, always been problematic. Setting aside the fact that it involves incest (honestly, some could argue that's reason enough), there are so many other reasons why it could never work out between them, and the progression of the story is leading us to just that. 

First, a note on Cersei Lannister. 

I had begun to dislike Cersei from the very start of the series, but my feelings were fixated after I read A feast for crows. It didn't, of course, marr my enjoyment of her POV chapters. To me, reading some parts of her story involved equal portions of amusement and disbelief. Her internal monologue, laced with malice for almost everyone she encountered, was at times, cringeworthy. Sometimes, I had to pause, put my book aside, and dwell on just how far she went with her delusions and what that meant for her.  

Some might say that her paranoia was justified. Isn't she facing imminent death at the hands of a 'valonqar'? Doesn't she have proof to support the fact that the Tyrells were, in fact, the perpetrators in her son's death? Yes, I will not be the one to deny that. Cersei Lannister is not the first person to do everything in her literal power to thwart a fate that has been prophesized to be unfortunate, to lash out blindly with a club as if to deter her destiny. But it has caused harm to so many innocent people, and that has never bothered her, not in the least. In her fits of rage, she is sometimes callously cruel, even to those she loves (and that list is shorter than her temper). 

By Dance with Dragons, of course, I had begun to pity her, because yes, no matter how horrible a person she was, she deserved none of what the insurgent, radically insane Faith Militant doled out for her (the same Faith Militant, which, in a move that she believed was a stroke of genius, she allowed to be freed from their restrictions), but I am afraid that was all the empathy that I could muster. 

To Cersei, the only person worth protecting in Westeros is herself, and her children. She wants them to bend to her will, because only she knows what's right for them. She may have been trying to protect Tommen, with his best interests at heart, but unarguably, the two do not have the best mother-child relationship. As a matter of fact, Cersei did not have that with any of her children. In Joffrey, she encouraged the streak of blatant brutality, in fact even stating that her son's willfulness was his best quality as it would keep him out of trouble in the treacherous mire that King's Landing was. I have no doubt that she was trying to be a good mother, but I also suspect she was anything but that in Tommen's eyes. 

In her defense, one can also add that she believed that she was shielding her children from the worst effects of the waves of war that crashed around them. In some instances, however, it seemed to me that she was using the protection of her children as an excuse to assuage, or even absolve herself of blame in the face of the hair raising atrocities that she subjected some of her people to (Blue bard and Falyse). Here is what she thinks after she torments the Blue Bard into admitting to a lie that would aid in framing Margaery-

Getting the truth was wearisome work, and she dreaded what must follow. I must be strong. What I must do for Tommen and the realm. It was a pity that Maggy the Frog was dead. Piss on your prophecy, old woman. The little queen may be younger than I, but she has never been more beautiful, and soon she will be dead. 

In this statement, Cersei imputes all that she does to Tommen and the realm, and then, in the very same stream of thought, goes on to dwell over Maggy the Frog and her own motives for wanting Margaery dead. So while Cersei may tell herself all she wants that all of her actions benefit her children alone, they are, in the end, rooted in her own desire to put the stopper on the prophecy that predicts her ousting from power and death. 

Cersei is also a woman who believes that everyone takes her opinions with a pinch of salt because of her gender. Her entire life, she has seen firsthand the yawning black chasm of differentiation that exists between women and men in Westeros. Her father had always sought to sell her like a commodity to men she never wished to marry, even as her twin was allowed to tread the path to glory. This is, of course, the very picture of injustice, one that exists in the entirety of Westeros. All of our fortuitous female characters, from Sansa to Arya to Brienne to Asha have been subjected to this form of discrimination.

But how did Cersei choose to react to this inequity? By believing that she had been cursed by being born into the wrong gender, that women were weak and vapid and soft and could only wield power with the 'charms of their sex' and what was 'between their legs'. She eyes most women with distaste and contempt and distances herself from every frail thing that she has associated with femininity and looks to find 'masculine traits' within her, traits which will help her manage the realm as efficiently as her father. Womanly emotions are viewed as nugatory by her, and even when she is queen, she does not do much to alleviate the condition of women in Westeros, botherations not very different from her own. Instead of shunning the flawed paradigm of women that so many men in Westeros hold, she believes it, and begrudges her fate for having been born a woman.

Okay, so Cersei Lannister may not be my absolute favorite character, but seeing as how everything in her life is in a jumbled disarray, and how she is treading the fine line between suspicion and full blown paranoia, she deserves to be freed from any other exigency that weighs her down, including destructive or toxic relationships in her life, which is what her brother needs too, maybe more than her. Where best to start but with each other?

When one person truly loves another person, they will go out of their way to ensure that they do all they can to ease any suffering the other person may be enduring, even if they have to put aside their own sorrows for the moment or if not that, at least listen to the other person and then relay their own difficulties. Even listening to someone talk about their worries can go a long way in making them feel better. 

Now, when Jaime came back from Riverrun, miamed both physically and mentally, he practically rushed to Cersei, and didn't even wait for her to consent before proceeding to make love to her. He knew that Cersei had lost a son. Albeit a monstrous one, she was still his sister, and he should have been more understanding of the circumstances.

And Cersei? She was repulsed by his stump. Instead of bolstering his already frangible self esteem, she went on to reveal her own intentions and plans to him, hoping to rope him in, all for her own benefit, even going so far as to asking him to quit the Kingsguard (an institution she had once asked him to join for her own purposes). And when he refused? 

Was it your hand they hacked off in Harrenhal, or your manhood? 

You great golden fool. He's lied to you a thousand times, and so have I. 

Oh, an angry cripple. How terrifying. A pity Lord Tywin Lannister never had a son. I could have been the heir he wanted, but I lacked a cock. 

It is clear from their interaction that Cersei was thinking only of herself and of the problems that she would soon encounter, not sparing much thought for her brother's conflict and pain. 

While I do not doubt that Cersei and Jaime loved each other as they grew up together in Casterly Rock, I do know that this love must have begun purely as the love that brothers and sisters share, and in their case, a deeper bond of twinhood. This was warped by their thoughtless experimentations later, and as the years advanced and they continued to attach a sexual relationship to it, they twisted the sinuous connection even further. 

I do not think they were ever in love. Cersei Lannister surely wasn't. Even as a little girl, she had dreamed of marrying Rhaegar, dreamed of soaring into the gaping skies with him upon the scaly back of a majestic dragon. Her love for her brother, which had begun as platonic, was only sexual for sating her own needs. For lack of a better analogy, his role in her life could be likened to a bloodrider. 

I name you ko, and ask your oath, that you should live and die as blood of my blood, riding at my side to keep me safe from harm. 

-An oath asked of a bloodrider

They were the khal's brothers, his shadows, his fiercest friends. "Blood of my blood," Drogo called them, and so it was; they shared a single life.

In my opinion, this is pretty much how Cersei views Jaime. A man who is hers, to protect her, live and die for her and vanquish her enemies. She loved him, and he pleasured her, but she was never in love with him. She believed that he was, wholeheartedly, and that she deserved to use that to her advantage, which was what she did most of their life (Prominent instances that stand out to me- Persuading him to join the Kingsguard and asking him to miam or kill Arya on sight if he found her in Darry). When he began to demonstrate his heedlessness to her wishes, she began to regard him differently- He had changed, and he was a thorn in her side. He was supposed to assist her in whatever she did, and if he couldn't do that, she had to send him away. 

As for Jaime, he had painted an entirely inaccurate picture of the relationship in his mind. In his ideally rose tinted imaginings, he was the Warrior and Cersei was the Maiden. He believed he loved her for her uproarious flames, but he never gazed deep enough to see the crucible of untamed wildfire. She believed she loved him for his undying fierceness, but never quite took the time to see the contrariant idealism and carefully buried trauma shoved away inside. Neither of them knew or understood the other entirely, they 'loved' each other because they had projected the image of who they believed each other to be on to themselves. The curtains were flung from their eyes in the gales of the personal tribulations that they had to face (particularly for Jaime, who was forced to re-evaluate his whole life). 

After discovering that his sister hadn't been as loyal to him as he had to her, and encountering aspects of her that he didn't knew existed, he thinks-

I thought that I was the Warrior and Cersei was the Maid, but all the time she was the Stranger, hiding her true face from my gaze. 

And here is an excerpt from his conversation with Daven which highlights his disillusionment-

"How is Cersei? As beautiful as ever?"

"Radiant." Fickle. "Golden." False as a fool's gold. 

He also dreamed of finding her in bed with Moon Boy and in the very same dream, proceeded to smash her teeth in, which is a very violent form of expression of the dismay in his sub-conscious mind. 

But the one scene that sums his disenchantment up the best is when he throws this letter by Cersei into the fire-

Come at once. Help me. Save me. I need you now as I have never needed you before. I love you. I love you. I love you. Come at once."

When Cersei sends this letter to Jaime, her need is truly dire. Her sending such a letter and Jaime's reaction upon receiving it both reflect exactly what their relationship has come to. 

While Cersei knows that Jaime could not possibly be of any aid to her without his sword hand, she wants him by her side, because isn't that how it has always been? He was meant to protect her. They were meant to die together. He had to come. 

And Jaime? He chose not to go. 

He chooses not to go when the woman he is supposedly in love with needs him the most. 

She has never come to me, he thought, She has always waited, letting me come to her. She gives, but I must ask. 

Could it be attributed to his rage at being betrayed? Possibly. But how long can rage last in the face of truly eternal love, and particularly a loved one in mortal peril? Jaime chose to ignore Cersei's request because he no longer wanted to give up everything for a woman who was, in all probability, only going to require him for that purpose. He was not about to put everything on the line for a woman whose shrouded true face had slowly begun to come into the light. He was a knight of the Kingsguard, entrusted with an important task, and he meant to see it through. He didn't leave, even though he knew it could mean a terrible punishment for Cersei, or even death. 

Jaime had started to discover other priorities in his life, and Cersei had begun to see him for just who he was. Both of them had. How can two completely different people with a set of conflicting beliefs, who don't see eye to eye, and who dream of things that the other could never possibly comprehend, ever summon true love within themselves for each other? Can a woman who has viewed love as a sweet poison ever look beyond to realise what the liberation and wonderment of love truly entails? Love isn't poison. The absence of love is. Can a man who has distorted sibling love and attached a component of lust to it ever see how truly falling in love with someone is like?

I sure hope they can (though in Cersei's case, sadly, it is unlikely) and I also understand that it is implausible so long as they continue to view each other as lovers. 

Theirs isn't a tragic love story. It isn't a love story at all. 

And beautiful, wonderful, Brienne of Tarth deserves her own love story, and I really hope that she finds it with the man she has begun to love. 

Note-Excerpts from the books in italics.

[kimamanitranslatesnovels]

Armoured Girl Monette c2

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Chapter 2: The Unlucky Prince

Alexis Radoll is the First Prince of this country who lived a blessed, easy life anyone would envy up until one year ago. With his dark brown eyes, tall height, and limber hands and legs, he was handsome enough that any woman would let out a soft breath in desire at the sight of him. He was also talented as royalty – he aggressively threw himself into his studies of subjects he needed to know in order to ascend the throne.

He was earnest, hardworking, and easy to get along with. He would treat people equally in good faith while remaining as dignified as you would expect royalty to be. He was an ideal prince – loved by the people, held dear by his retainers. Everyone dreamed of him ascending the throne and talked about how the future of the kingdom was secure.

… Up until one year ago.

Now, for some reason or another, his stable life had made a 180 and was filled with bad luck. No, “filled with bad luck” is putting it too lightly. “Rife with bad luck” would be more like it. After all, it’s just that horrible.

Running a mysterious fever or getting mysterious injuries became an everyday occurrence. When he tries to sleep, something or someone always gets in the way and he ends up unable to rest. It’s taking Alexis everything he has just to get through each day – no matter how talented he is, it’s natural that his concentration would waver and he would start making mistakes.

To make things worse, terrible rumours began to spread – about how he’s using the country’s funds for his personal use, how he’s taking bribes to unfairly promote his subordinates, and so on. The people and his retainers began to flip their view of him. Even though they’re ridiculous rumours with no shred of truth to them, everyone unanimously believes them for some reason.

Eventually, people started saying that he got some random woman pregnant and so he has a bastard child – and even that he was keeping his fiancée’s mouth shut about this through violence.

Why, the rumours grew so out of proportion it’s as if they managed to escape the atmosphere and call over their friends from Planet Bad Luck.  

If it had just been one or two things, Monette would’ve probably just said “Serves you right.” But hearing this much made even Monette do nothing but knit her brows in her helmet.

“You have no leads on where these rumours may be coming from?”

“Yes, not one.”

“That story about a bastard child – could it be because you frequented the red-light district or had some kind of thoughtless love affair in the past?”

“I’ve never done anything like that, absolutely not even once. If you were talking about how I can make women fall for me just by making eye contact it would be a different story, but I have no experience with everything you mentioned.”

“I see, you’re pure then,” shoots Monette, sugar-coating the fact that he’s a virgin, “Do you have any other ideas then?”

“So then…” someone cuts in.

Monette turns her attention towards the new voice. It’s the man who came in with Alexis. He’s taller than Alexis and is sturdily built. He’s blond-haired and has a severe expression. His sharp green eyes give him an intimidating air. From his casual-looking clothing and sword at his hip, he’s probably Alexis’ bodyguard.

“Who are you?” Monette asks him bluntly after staring at him for a bit.

It can’t be helped if she’s a teensy tiny bit rude. They’re the ones that forced themselves in her home – she has no responsibility to be nice to them. Really, they’re all being rather ill-mannered with each other.

“Percival. Percival Galette. I work as the prince’s bodyguard.”

“Mr. Percival. I see. Very well, continue.”

“The way you talk really gets on my nerves.”

“Oh, I’m so very sorry. I’m just a little irritated because I’m being forced to welcome some ill-mannered visitors without any advance notice.”

“Says the lump of iron.”

Percival glares intently at Monette. Monette glares right back.

Of course, Monette’s face is hidden by her helmet, and her helmet is made so even if she can see others, they can’t see her eyes. Glaring is quite literally useless. She’s a lump of iron, just like he says.

After the sturdy man and the lump of iron glare at each other for a while, Alexis, reaching the end of his patience, sighs and tries to stop them.

“Haven’t you had enough…?”

Then his chair collapses.

It collapsed rather dramatically, making a very loud noise as it crashed down.

“Prince Alexis?!”

“Milord, are you alright?!”

Panicked, the two of them run up to Alexis, who’s sitting on the ground on top of the collapsed chair. He waves them away, saying that he’s okay… the very next moment, tea spills over his head. His teacup had been knocked over when the table had tilted thanks to the shock of his chair falling to pieces.

What a beautiful sequence of events.

“Ooh, combo attack,” murmurs Monette in spite of herself.

“Well, one problem’s been dealt with.”

“More importantly, could you fix the bathroom? Hot water stopped coming out of the taps after Prince Alexis used it.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll fix itself once we leave.”

“Get out, you pair of pests!”

Ignoring Monette’s angry yells, Percival and Alexis start talking to each other. At their reaction, Monette doesn’t really feel like yelling at them anymore.

“Maybe you’re cursed?” Monette says half-ironically, unable to resist taking one last jab.

She then decides to get the conversation back on topic… but instead, her eyes widen in her helmet. Alexis and Percival are staring at her. Though she’s wearing iron armour, it doesn’t feel good to be the centre of attention. Sweat beads on her forehead. Dark brown eyes and green eyes. Her heart constricts in pain at their direct gaze – it’s like they’re seeing right through the armour.

“W – What is it?” Monette asks, voice trembling. But since her voice echoes in the armour and can’t be heard well, they probably won’t notice.

“Lady Monette, you just said that Prince Alexis was cursed, did you not?”

“Y – yes, I did. What of it?”

“Who do you think cursed him?”

“Well, I hadn’t thought that far,” says Monette.

Alexis rises forcefully with a clatter, and with that force, takes her hand – to be precise, her armoured gauntlet – in his. Monette’s next words – “I don’t know,” – are swallowed down at Alexis’ actions.

He’s strong… maybe. She unfortunately can’t really tell through the armour. But his serious expression has strength in it.

“Monette, so you really did hold a grudge!”

“Prince Alexis?”

“I’m so sorry about what I did back then. I’ll do anything to make it up to you. So please…”

“So please?”

“Please break this curse!” pleads Alexis, his voice almost a scream.

Monette tilts her head to the side, her armour making a grinding noise.

This is what Alexis Radoll has to say.

I hurt Monette in the past. I hear that she’s cooped up in the old castle, researching the House of Idira’s ancient magic. I’m sure that she still holds a grudge against me and cast this curse on me when she saw her chance! That’s what put me in this sorry state!

This is what Percival Galette has to say.

Unfortunately I didn’t witness their first meeting myself, but I can’t deny that milord’s words were cruel. That’s why I’m sure that Lady Monette cast a curse on Prince Alexis because she held a grudge against him. I’m the only retainer milord has left after his reputation fell to tatters. We need to stop Monette before things get any worse!

This is what Monette Idira has to say.

You’re completely off the mark so please hurry up and go home.

Naturally they wouldn’t be able to carry on a decent conversation in a situation like this. “You cursed me!” - “No I didn’t.” - “Please forgive me.” - “Please don’t break the chair,”… the conversation continued in this fashion, and before anyone knew it, the sun had set.

Monette let out a heavy sigh when she was forced to split half of her weekly food supplies with the two of them for their dinner.

T/N:

One line that was… fun…translating was this:

噂話に尾ビレどころか背ビレ胸ビレまでついて、不運の海をふわふわ泳いで仲間を連れてきたかのようではないか。

Directly translated, it would be something like “The rumours grew not only casual fins, but also dorsal and pectoral fins – as if it began swimming in the sea of bad luck and brought along its friends.”

In Japanese, the phrase 尾ビレが付く (lit. growing fins) roughly means to grow even bigger and more fanciful than the truth. 尾ビレis a type of fin, so the author is making a play on that by saying that the rumours not only grew this type of fin, but also other types of fins, allowing it to swim in the sea of ‘bad luck’ like a fish.

I chose to translate this as “The rumours grew so out of proportion it’s as if they managed to escape the atmosphere and call over their friends from Planet Bad Luck,” because I figured that evoking the imagery that the rumours grew unbelievably big enough that they could contact their ‘friends’ from a fantastical location was similar enough to the original metaphor.

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