#but I also 100% blame cat because she made it known to jon that he had no place in winterfell to begin with

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

I think something that often gets overlooked when we talk about what Jon would've done had Ned disclosed RLJ before he joined the Night's Watch is that Jon isn't going to the Wall solely because he's Ned Stark's bastard. He's going to the wall because he's Ned Stark's bastard who has no prospects, or so he thinks.

“I forget nothing,” Jon boasted. The wine was making him bold. He tried to sit very straight, to make himself seem taller. “I want to serve in the Night’s Watch, Uncle.” He had thought on it long and hard, lying abed at night while his brothers slept around him. Robb would someday inherit Winterfell, would command great armies as the Warden of the North. Bran and Rickon would be Robb’s bannermen and rule holdfasts in his name. His sisters Arya and Sansa would marry the heirs of other great houses and go south as mistress of castles of their own. But what place could a bastard hope to earn?

(Jon I, AGOT)

As far as he knew, all his siblings had a future. But not him.

Knowing of his parentage doesn't really change much. Think about it. It's not like he can take to King's Landing, show up in front of Robert and be like, "hey that's my chair you're sitting on!" He'd need to actually press his claim and that's a whole new can of worms: who would believe him? Who would even want to fight for him? Can he even make it? Plus it definitely seems that those involved in the whole ToJ fiasco were determined to keep him and his claim under wraps so Ned is for sure not going to want another war.

The biggest factor that contributes to Jon going to the Wall is that Ned never bothered to let him know that he had options, and that he would be provided a future that was most fitting for his skills and status. It's understandable that Ned's trauma prevented him from speaking too much about Jon's situation, but he also needed to approach the problem more delicately and with a lot more foresight. Ned needed to sit down and actually talk to Jon because his situation out of all the Stark kids' needed the most attention. But he never did. And so Jon had to grow up quick and make the fateful decision on his own.

[janiedean]

hey ignore this if you're done with the cersei discourse but do you think it's sexist that grrm gave jaime the redemption arc and cersei the downfall arc? and do you consider the addition of melara to be a shitty thing because it implies that she was evil along instead of being who she is because of the way the patriarchy affected her and stuff

in order:

do you think it's sexist that grrm gave jaime the redemption arc and cersei the downfall arc? no because grrm has nine different female pov characters all of which are wildly different and c. is the only one with the downfall arc, also there’s shit male chars, shit female chars, nice male chars, nice female chars, if she was the only female char he had then yikes but she’s not so ppl can miss me with that argument if you have a variety of well written female chars then you’re not misogynistic if one is a villain

and do you consider the addition of melara to be a shitty thing because it implies that she was evil along instead of being who she I would like to state that a) if c. has narcissism then the fact that she was like that from the beginning would be coherent with that diagnosis, b) c. is a privileged af rich noblewoman who was in a best position to use/fight the patriarchy and she didn’t so I’m extremely skeptical about ‘the patriarchy ruined her’, c) some people are actually that shitty and the thing is that the patriarchy doesn’t turn you into someone who sees everyone as ‘what they can do for me’ and not ‘they’re people with feelings’ c. has a lot of patriarchy issues which made her worse, but like bro the patriarchy wasn’t who made her sexually molest tyrion (canon), we can argue that some of that is parental abuse but like melara is there to show you exactly that c. is a villain that grrm is not interested in redeeming, the end, and in that context there’s nothing misogynistic abt it because guess what grrm has written a bunch of other female chars that are not like that and that he actually likes writing

addendum 1: all women in asoiaf are victims of the patriarchy, arianne is a victim of the patriarchy in almost a specular way, arianne is not c., do the math

addendum 2: catelyn is also a vitim of the patriarchy in a way extremely similar to c’s except she didn’t marry a king, do you see cat gleefully sending other women to be tortured? nah. some women also have internalized misogyny which c. is way more about thanks

addendum 3: grrm has at least another two chars like c. (royd’s mother in nightflyers and that celise in tuf voyaging) in his body of work I mean they’re... least well developed but they’re about like that. I’ve... met people like c. (including the one who slapped me in the face) which lived in this day and age in the western world so sorry but we’re not in a medieval patriarchal society and I can 100% assure you those ppl weren’t like that bc patriarchy. grrm is most likely at his ripe age still coping abt someone like c. who most likely gave him some trauma back in the seventies. having known some like them, I wholly do not blame him if he doesn’t want to give them the redemption arc. and even if he didn’t, he’s not obligated to give anyone redemption arcs especially when c. is not the only female char he writes.

also, if reading re melara someone thinks ‘ah she exists to make c. look bad’ and not ‘no one deserves to die for a crush’ i think I don’t want particularly engage with them. /shrug

also, add-on: asking ‘is grrm sexist’ in general when he writes all female chars with a different personality, managed to write a mother figure that’s not like the usual drivel, managed to do two gnc women pov that aren’t the same character which today is like... extra rare still, got the ‘growing up as a notstandardattractive girl’ experience way better than any other female writer I know and so on when this entire fandom hates catelyn bc of one shitty thing she did which she had her reasons for and like for all she wished jon would die in her grief for bran sure af didn’t send him to get killed like c. did with all of robert’s bastards and that’s imvho way more sexist than whatever grrm can have written ever is honestly really rich and I’m saying it in general not to you anon but like ‘grrm is sexist’ is a take that I can’t take seriously anymore and it’s been like... almost ten years I’m tired XD